First item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda.

Do I have a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved.

Second.

So I have a motion by Trustee Varner and a second by Trustee Ramirez.

At this time, I will call for public comment.

This is public comment on the adoption of the agenda only.

Is there any public comment?

Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move.

All in favor, please say aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes unanimously.

We'll go ahead and move on to.

Where is the mic?

Item number two.

Which is flag salute.

Do we have a flag?

There's one that's just for the back.

There's one out there.

Yeah, there's one.

Okay, we'll just face to the back.

There's one outside, and if you'll please uh stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Moving on to agenda item number three.

This is the superintendent's report.

Superintendent Fuelin.

Thank you, President Well, not much to report this evening.

There are seven days of school left, but who's counting?

Um just a lot of great things going on, lots of celebrations at the schools, and looking forward to wrapping up a great year.

That's all.

Great, thank you.

And at this time we'll move on to agenda item number four, which is board reports and board member comments.

We do not, and in um fairness of time, our board reports will not be shared with you this evening.

We'll share them with you on June 9th because we want to get to the reason why you're all here.

So we'll go ahead and close agenda item number four.

Moving on to agenda item number five.

Do we have any association reports?

Seeing none.

All right, we will move on to agenda item number six, which is the presentation of the 2025 26 distinguished students awards for all Carson City School District schools, including Carson Montessori Charter School, and this is presented by our superintendent AJ Fueling.

Good evening.

Welcome everyone.

We have uh two rather special recognitions going on this evening.

Um for the first one, we have uh some students here.

Um maybe a few weeks ago, uh, parents, guardians.

You you may have received a call from what you thought was um some kind of scam, some kind of um confused person uh letting you know that your child was being recognized as a distinguished student at a school board meeting.

There's not a whole lot more information other than that.

Um the history of the and I'll tell you if you're here, it is legitimate.

I I assure you.

Um the history of this back, I believe it was in 2016.

Uh, one of our school school board members at the time, um, just made a comment that you know we we are regularly recognizing students that are um you know have amazing academics.

Uh we're recognizing students that are participating in some of the great uh offerings that we have, the clubs, activities that are successful in competitions.

Uh we're recognizing kids for athletics.

But what about those kids that are just great kids?

They are great citizens of their school.

They are helpful.

Maybe they're a great leader, although not in maybe a formal way, like through a club or an organization.

And so it what it really just came down to is we want to recognize kids that are awesome, that maybe just don't aren't in some of those other groups that are otherwise getting recognized.

And so if that's the call you got about your student being a distinguished student to be recognized this evening, that's exactly why they're here.

Um has recognized them as being awesome.

And I think that's great.

But there's so many things that they are doing on a daily basis in their school and how they interact with other kids, how maybe they're helping out their teacher, maybe how they're helping out their school, just doing some great things around the school, and it's a really nice opportunity to be able to recognize them for that.

So we have two kids from each campus that we are going to ask to come up here so that we can recognize them.

And kids, if that's you, and I I hope you know if that's why you're here.

Um, when I call your name, if you could please make your way to the front here, and then go through this little hallway, and there's a door.

I'll I'll come and meet you so you're not scared.

Um, but if you could kind of make your way up here on the stage, so we can give you a little something as a recognition of how great you are, and then we're gonna take a little picture, and then we'll send you back off that way and kind of come around and out the other side.

I don't believe any children have ever been lost here, so hopefully that part will be okay.

Oh, should I have them actually stay up here?

Okay, so a little rewind.

Um, after you come up here and we uh get you the recognition, we're actually gonna have you stand and stay up here so that we can get a larger group photo of everyone.

Forgot about that, thanks, Dan.

Students, any questions?

All right.

So the first, oh, President Waltz is joining me.

Sorry.

You can help me?

Okay, um, our first student is from Borderwick, Mila Camper.

So, Mila, Mila, before I give this to you, was walking back around and up here, was that scary in any way?

That went okay.

So, all the other students, they shouldn't be worried about it, it's not complicated.

No.

Okay, great.

All right, so Mila, we have this for you, and we have this for you.

Thank you.

All right, so why don't we have you maybe if you want to just stand on the button, we'll just be finding up.

Okay, next from Borderwick, we have Vincent Alata.

Did you know?

I'll just give them a card you can do that.

Okay, next from Empire Elementary School, we have Emma Aguilar.

And next from Empire, we have Julian Plasencia.

And we move to Fremont Elementary School.

We have Angelina Ruiz.

And also from Fremont Elementary, we have Hudson Roser.

Moving on to Fritch Elementary School.

We have Laura Lee King.

Okay.

We'll be sure to get that to her.

Um, next from Fritch, we have Jackson Poliso.

Okay, moving to Mark Twain Elementary School.

We have Antonio Moreno Castro.

Okay, it looks like Antonio did not make it this evening.

We will get that to him.

And then we have Luce Angel Finesse.

Okay, from Seeliger Elementary School, we have Brooke Gordon.

And also from Carsimanessori, we have Indigo McDougall.

Okay, moving up.

Going to Carson Middle School.

We have Karen Andrade.

Next from Carson Middle School, we have Yamir Lugo.

No Ymir.

We will move on to Eagle Valley Middle School.

Tonight we have Xander Montez.

Okay.

Um from Carson High School Main Campus, we have Ashley of no.

My mistake.

I got ahead of myself.

From Eagle Valley Middle School, we have Riley Bass.

Okay.

Hopefully I haven't spoiled the surprise for Carson High School by announcing that first name.

From Carson High, we have Ashley Avila Galarza.

And also from Carson High School, Caden Coleman.

I've known Caden a long time.

If you've ever come to a Carson High Baseball game and you've seen a pitcher that throws that really weird angle where it looks like their hands gonna scrape the ground because they're coming so far under, that that's Caden.

Next from Carson High Silver Campus, we have Vanessa Tran.

Okay, so students.

And for those of you, great job.

Like it's amazing.

You are getting recognized for being amazing human beings.

That's not a normal recognition, maybe that always goes out there.

So thank you for all you do, how you act in school, how you help out in school.

For those of you who are raising these kids, nice job.

Thank you.

So if I could, we could take a little pause here.

And Mr.

Davis, I'm thinking you probably want to arrange for a picture in some way, and then families, if you want to kind of gather around whatever you want to do, but Dan, I'll let you kind of guide this.

Kind of enjoying this.

Anyone want to get last minute, last minute photos here?

Quick, we got one.

Okay.

Okay.

We good.

Hello, about Dr.

Molden.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And congratulations to all the students.

Do we have any board comments on this agenda item?

No.

Alright, we're gonna go ahead and move back then to my understanding.

We do have our um high school representative here.

Is Cooper fueling here?

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Um, all right.

So for those of you following along, we're gonna move back to agenda item number four, which is our high school um activities report.

Go ahead.

Uh, good evening, members of the board and everyone in attendance.

Uh, thank you all for being here tonight.

I apologize for my tardiness.

Um, but uh just a few things tonight, not much.

Uh school is finishing up.

Uh, just as I mentioned, at the last meeting on June 2nd, uh, at 930 a.m., I believe.

Uh, the high school or I guess elementary school uh graduation walk uh will be happening at all the elementary schools around the district.

Uh you guys are all invited to attend, all uh staff and admin and board members.

Uh so that will be when the uh class of uh twenty twenty six will be going back to their elementary schools one last time to walk around.

Uh and then aside from that, not much else, just finishing up the school years, pushing through finals uh and not much else.

And this is my last uh meeting as your uh school board representative for uh the student body at Carson High School, but now I will turn it over to the 2026-2027 uh student body school board representative Ruby Bertrand.

Hello, my name's Ruby Bertrand.

I'm gonna be the 2026-2027 school board representative, and I'm so incredibly excited for this opportunity.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

And I believe uh Cooper, could you please join us on the stage?

Yeah.

Actually, and Ruby, can you just stand up so everyone can see you?

The TVs are okay.

And yeah, uh Mr.

Mr.

Fueling, if you could make your way up on stage, please.

And while he's making his way on stage, uh we are very fortunate to have somebody volunteer from the high school to um do the board report.

So we're excited to hear from you next year as well.

And we wish you the best of the end of this year.

So thank you.

And then uh Cooper.

Uh Mr.

Fueling, it's uh it's a great name.

Great last name.

Is that German?

German, I believe so.

German name.

Yeah, it's not not very common.

No.

Um so the uh the the trustees, the board of trustees uh would like to thank you for all of your work this year and spending many evenings, sometimes waiting a little bit, sometimes waiting a long time, to uh inform the board what's going on up at Carson High School.

So, as a token of their appreciation, this is for you.

And uh we wish you the best as you move on to other things.

All right, thank you, sir.

And we'll go ahead and start down with Trustee Ramirez.

Do you have a comment?

Hold on.

Cooper, you did a magnificent job keeping us updated as to what's going on in the high school.

Um, so congratulations.

You have um develop public speaking skills, and I think that's that's gonna take you far.

So congratulations to keep up the good work.

Thank you.

I wasn't prepared.

I'm sorry.

Um, but thank you.

Um it's it's great to just see you uh mature and move on and uh see you around the community as I do.

And uh I wish the best for you very much.

Keep getting buffed too, all right.

Great job, Cooper.

I've always been super impressed by you.

You get up here, you're so calm, you're put together, you hardly even have notes with you.

Just remember all of this stuff, and uh those are some skills that are gonna take you far.

So good luck in the next chapter of your life.

Uh next chapter of your life is just senior year, right?

You're not going anywhere.

So if you're tapping out of this, are you still involved in student council for next year?

What are you doing?

Senior class president.

Nice work.

Thank you for volunteering to step up and lead like that.

Uh, I know you'll be an asset to your peers.

I appreciate everything you've been to the board.

Yeah, I wanted to thank you for all the information you provided.

You're always clear with what you wanted to say, like someone mentioned, you did without notes most of the time, which uh I don't know how you did it, but anyway, and I want to thank you for spending Tuesday nights with us twice a month and uh just really appreciate everything you've done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Cooper.

Um, you are impressive.

Uh I think many have said as well that how you were able to get up there and give us all the reports off of retention was amazing to me.

We're all taking notes up here, and you're just uh doing what you do.

So can thank you so much, the time that you've given us and good luck next year, and um we'll miss you.

Thanks.

All right, we'll go ahead and close agenda item number four and move on to agenda item number seven.

This is the introduction of twenty twenty five twenty twenty six Carson City School District retirees and employees who are leaving the district after 10 or more years of service this is discussion um item and this will be presented by Superintendent Fueling.

Thank you President Walt this evening um like we do each school year around this time we recognize some people who have been in our district for quite a while um and in some cases it's been over a decade in some cases more than two in some cases more than three I don't think we have any more than four this year but we have um and so it's a it's a really nice opportunity for um the the board to for you to get recognized by the board um for all those years of service to the district to this community to our children and supporting them as they move through in their years and on to better things in total for all the people being recognized this evening we have seven hundred and thirty five years of total experience with the district that's a long time I just want to to be clear on that but um I hope that all that time um has been filled with a lot of laughs and a lot of success and some you've met some great colleagues along the way um it's always hard to to maybe step away from some of those things but uh just know that that time has been greatly appreciated all 735 of the 735 years.

So with that we will be asking those of you stepping away to come up here and be recognized for your time with the district.

When we are all done Dan do we're not keeping everyone up here for this one right okay so as you come up we will have a little something for you and then you're welcome to make your way off the stage.

And I think our our trustees likely will have a few things to say once we've recognized everyone.

When you come up here you're welcome to say a few words many of you have had some incredible experiences here and maybe would like to to share a little bit about that and that that is very much welcome so we will kick things off with um Carson High School.

So is Kathy Achian here.

Number our first recognition I just want to say it's um bittersweet.

Working at Carson High School has been amazing.

Wonderful friendships, and um I'll take with me a lot of great memories.

Thank you.

Next this evening we have Mr.

Brian Branch from Carson High School.

Thank you so much.

Next we have Jose Gomez.

Also from Carson High School, we have Christy McComber.

I've worked for the Carson City School District since nineteen ninety-nine, and um had a lot of amazing experiences, and I've also worked from all grade levels from kindergarten all the way up to high school in many different capacities, and Carson City is the best place to live, work, and hopefully retire.

Okay, next from Carson High School, we have Andy Sonomaker.

I spent enough time up here talking to crowds, but uh it's been an absolute pleasure working in uh for the Carson City School District.

Um working with uh all the amazing faculty.

Uh I met some really awesome faculty at Carson Middle School when I was there.

Um I just want to uh shout out to the awesome kiddos that I've gotten to work with.

That's been the absolute uh joy of my career is working with the students.

So thank you all very much.

Next from Carson High School.

Uh I think my daughter's favorite science teacher ever.

Mr.

Scott Vickery.

I don't I don't have much to say.

I'll keep it short.

I just want to say thank you, man.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

I started in ninety nine.

Uh huh.

The day my dad retired, they said they wouldn't let two victories teach here at the same time.

So uh he taught here for fourteen years, so it's almost uh half century of victories come to a close right here.

So thank you guys.

I do believe Mr.

Sonomaker had a faster time up here than you did.

So maybe we can work on that in retirement.

Moving on to Carson Middle School.

Um first we have uh uh a teacher who could not uh make it here this evening, but has been with us for eighteen years, Mr.

Mark Bacon.

If I could just get a round of applause for him.

So I've been with the Carson City School District for twenty six years, and I've loved every minute of it, and I'm sure that's all the kids and all the staff that I've worked with.

Thank you.

Thirty four years total.

You know, you've been teaching a while when a rotation switched and you're doing a tennis the first time, and you say, Hey, do you have a brother named Justin?

And the kid goes, That's my dad.

You know you've been around a while, and that happens.

So uh my wife Jackie's here, and uh she moved here with me in nineteen ninety seven, and we live in a tent, and today we have a beautiful home.

We raised two kids, several dogs, a cat, we traveled around the world, all the states, and I was fortunate enough to coach for twenty five years, several sports.

And I can tell you what else uh teaching's done for me in this district.

I was just out of school for six months with an illness, and uh, I have to say thank you to Dan Sadler and Amy Robinson and Jeremy Lewis for allowing me to heal up and give back.

And you also know you've been teaching a long time when you missed six months, and you still have over a hundred sick days.

So that's pretty good.

So, and I our insurance is good enough, everybody.

I owe zero, and I probably had a million dollar bill.

So I want to thank everybody for that, and uh good luck to everybody continuing on.

Um, you know, before you know it, you'll be up here if you're not coming up tonight.

So thank you all for a great twenty-nine years.

Okay, also from Carson Middle School is Shelby Tuttle.

Um, thirty years in the district, Carson City School District is the best district.

Um, every day is is truly an adventure when you're in an education.

Uh, can't wait to see what my next adventure is.

And uh working with staff, amazing, Mr.

Sonomaker.

I agree.

The joy comes from the kids.

Like that.

Every day is a joy with working with all of the kids that we get to work with.

So thank you for a great thirty years.

Moving on to Eagle Valley Middle School, we have Helen Bilheimer.

So Lupe, they don't tell you there's a big light when you get up here.

It's been great working here.

I moved here from Virginia.

And um at new teacher training, three different people told us say Nevada.

And I was happy I already knew how to say that.

So it's been a great experience.

Thank you.

And from Eagle Valley Middle School, Maria Lupe Schofield.

I started with the school district back in nineteen ninety-five as an ESL para pro for eight years at CMS, and then I moved on to Carson High as a math teacher for ten years, and I'm finishing up at Eagle Valley as a school counselor, so it's been great.

Yeah, it's really hard.

Okay.

From Borderwick Bray Elementary School, uh Christine Estrada.

I've been with the school like twenty-two years because I started out just doing part-time work.

Um, but I worked as a um reading tutor for nine years, and I've been in kindergarten, I believe, twelve, and I wouldn't be able to do it without my partner in crime and Ulrich.

Um, but I'm known as Miss Chrissy, and I'll miss that.

The kids always call me Miss Chrissy.

Thank you.

And I think we're calling up the partner in crime then, and Ulrich.

I'm sorry, they can't see me anyway.

Um, yes, I'm the partner in crime, and my other partner in crime for the last twenty years has been our eighteen has been Michelle Cassiopa.

We worked together all this time, and it's been a great, a great time.

Thank you.

From Empire Elementary School, we have Gail Omohundro.

Well, I accepted a uh substitute teaching position at Empire in the fall of two thousand six, and I've considered it my home away from home ever since intermittently for a season.

Um, and I'm just really grateful for the opportunity and the privilege to have been a part of this district.

So thank you.

Yes.

Been waiting a long time for this.

So for those who know me, you may know that I like data.

And so I counted up some stuff.

In the words of the song from Rent, five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.

How do you measure a year?

Well, in the Carson City School District, I have not measured my time here in minutes because that would be completely insane.

Instead, I have measured it actually in days, and that is eight thousand six hundred days.

I walked into this school district as a wide-eyed five-year-old, and today, forty-five forty-eight years later, I stand before you spending all but two years of my adult life in the halls and the walls of our school district.

I have been a bulldog, a solo twice, a senator, a Mustang, an eagle, and now finally and forever, a Fremont Falcon, that I am blessed to work with the most seriously amazing people on the planet.

Tonight for me is really about appreciation and appreciation throughout all my life and the support that I've been given.

I think too often we forget to say thank you.

So I want to use this opportunity to say thank you.

I wouldn't be here without my first teachers, my mom and dad.

Thank you for not laughing at an eight-year-old me who said, I'm going to be a teacher.

You embrace the dream wholeheartedly and let me do my thing.

To my sister, Shannon, who has exemplified how to live an adventure into retirement, and who is my absolute biggest cheerleader.

To my children, Jaden and Shay, and their dad, Kincaid, for sharing me with all the other children that I had the blessing to come in contact with.

You don't walk this path very long without having so many models of inspiration.

And to my teachers in Carson City School District, who saw my potential before I could see it in myself.

My kindergarten teacher, Diane Toby, third grade Jeannie Mayer, fourth grade, Marcy Richie, Bonnie Parnell for sixth grade, Roy Waltemeyer, Mary Cockworth, Jessica Daniels, Terry Johnston, Kathy Adams, Ruth Appistery, and to the district staff who allowed me at the age of 13 to serve on my first curriculum adoption team for the family life curriculum.

I literally have lived this school district.

Thank you for curating my spark and letting my passion grow.

Thank you to all my dear friends and colleagues who challenge me to be my best and to show up every day.

The late Terry Snelling, Amanda Cox, Susan Squires, Christy Lennox, and to my partners who have allowed me the grace to grow.

Mark Bacon, Dan Sadler, Shalise Cirkshanks, Carrie Pryor, Cheryl Raketa, and Jeff Herzl.

I have learned so much about myself and about my leadership through our partnerships.

And to my love Ron, thank you for loving a woman whose profession you do not understand.

Thank you for not blinking an eye when I dress and leave the house as a pineapple on a Tuesday, a princess on a Wednesday, and spending my entire weekend preparing for a potato bar extravaganza.

When I stepped into administration 13 years ago, I adopted a motto of find a way.

In this profession, I say it daily because the alternative is to find an excuse.

When you are in the business of nurturing souls and building futures for kids, excuses don't move the needle.

Finding a way is the only option.

And it warms me to my core to see this institutionalized at Fremont.

And because every child deserves an educator who looks at the challenge and says, Let me find a way for you.

And I see that daily at Fremont.

This has never been just a job.

It is a passion, a calling, and truly my life's geography.

I've been truly blessed by this path and by every person who has walked it with me.

And as I sign off for the day 8,601, I leave you with the same charge when the road is hard and the stakes are high for not only our kids, but for yourselves, find a way.

Thank you, Carson City School District for a lifetime of memories.

Okay, from Fritch Elementary School, Jim Phillips.

They put up with me, which is great.

And thank you, Carson City School District.

Also from Fritch Elementary School, Irene Waltz.

Well, Mr.

Brown asked me to run, but my students know I don't run anywhere, so I'd like to thank everybody for coming, especially my husband.

Sorry.

Anybody who who knows me from church knows that I'm a crier.

We truly do have a very blessed community.

And I thank you for sending the very best kids to us every day.

Also, thank you to my wonderful colleagues.

You're the best.

And you'll be missed.

Take care.

Okay.

From Mark Twain Elementary School, we have Sydney Abbott.

Hi.

Um I started in Mark Twain, two thousand and nine.

Um it's been a wonderful, my had a wonderful time there.

Um seven more days, and I'm off to new adventures.

So thank you so much.

And also from Mark Twain Elementary School, Kim Collier.

Moving on to Sealager Elementary School, we have Kim Kahn.

And then from Sealager Elementary, we have Bonnie Madeiros.

So it really means a lot to me.

But being at Seelinger for most of my career has been amazing.

Um my daughter went through Seelinger.

I've worked there for 20 some years, and then now my granddaughters are gonna go through Sealinger, so it really is a family, and I'm just gonna really miss my everyday there, my seeing my students who bring me joy, and um it's just been a pleasure.

So thank you.

Next, through Student Support Services, we have Carolyn Aikins.

And from transportation, Sheree Fletcher.

I need my sunglasses.

I've been at the Carson City School District for twenty-eight years.

All of that has been with the transportation department.

Started out as a bus driver and worked my way up in the last 11 years has been the bus boss, the big bird bus boss.

So I'm out.

Thank you.

It's been great.

Thank you, everybody.

And uh our last person here for the evening, our chief human resources officer, otherwise known as a churro.

Mr.

Dan Sadler.

Thank you.

Uh just a quick thank you, Mr.

Fueling for uh putting up with my sense of humor and for believing in me uh in this role.

Well, the people here who are retiring, uh, you're an inspiration.

I've I've enjoyed working with all of you that I know over the years.

Um I'm not retiring, I'm gonna keep working, but uh my time here in Carson City School District has been tremendous.

Oh AJ, you're supposed to be doing interpretive miming as I speak.

No, okay.

Um just want to say we've got a tremendous school board here.

We've got great staff in this district and uh awesome students, and want to thank you all for the opportunity to uh work here.

So thank you very much.

So we're gonna ask everyone uh to come back up here and try to show off an impressive feat of strength like Mr.

Sadler just did and throw me around here on the stage.

I'm sure he's gonna regret that later.

Mr.

Sadler uh is actually moving on.

He's gonna be the next superintendent for Story County School District, so very excited for him.

Um moves on to that role.

All right.

If you will, uh we'll go ahead and start with Trusty Varner for comments.

This is good night, uh, but it is bittersweet for me.

I'm excited for everyone who's retiring or moving on to a new adventure or new job.

Uh, but it's sad also because we're gonna miss you.

You spent a lot of your majority of your life with us, and uh want to know that we truly appreciate all the work that you've done for the district.

So wish you the best of luck in the future, whatever your future holds, and we'll miss you and stop by every once in a while.

Thank you.

Just you Peterson.

Uh AJ mentioned the 735 combined years of experience that is retiring and leaving the district.

Um, and uh, Dr.

Ward, I can't math all this out, but I like I think if we could count the number of children that have been touched in those 735 years, it would be incredible.

So thank you all of you for giving so much of yourself to ensure that all the youth of Carson City have a solid foundation and uh a sturdy education and know that there's people in their lives that care about them and uh want them to feel welcome and safe and at home when they're at school.

So thank you all for what you've done.

A lot of years, a lot of years between all of you, and it's amazing.

And um, just echoing what Michelle said, a lot of lives touched, and you've all done amazing things, and you're going on to do more amazing things.

And so congratulations and good luck.

Enjoy your retirement.

I'd like to comment too on the 735 years uh as I was I heard that.

Um I just want to say thank you uh for all of you for like the love that you have shown kids, um, peers and your colleagues, uh, mentorship that you've done for each of them to the new people coming in and just the the care that has been expressed over those 735 years.

Um just know that you have absolutely touched lives, and uh it will not be forgotten, I promise.

I echo what my colleagues mentioned, and I also want to just say thank you for educator educating our future leaders.

Um you truly gave your heart and your pat your energy to them, and so we are very, very, very grateful for all you did for our students.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much.

Um I've known some of you for 30 plus years.

Um you were there when I started, so I see you out there.

I wish you the best of luck.

Um, and I wish you happiness with uh I see some of you, and it's you will be missed.

Um what you brought to Carson City School District.

This is a is a phenomenal school district, uh, but it is a great school district due to the fact for the staff and all the employees that we have.

You make it what it is, and you have brought so much joy into the to the lives of the students, the families, and so I wish you the best of luck and happiness and congratulations.

Um I hope to see some of you back, I mean, all of you back.

I mean, it's a time, whether or not because we're always in need of substitutes, just just saying.

So, but no, um, congratulations.

All right, we'll go ahead and close agenda item number seven, and at this time, we're gonna go ahead and take a five-minute break.

Um, and so we will see you back in five minutes.

For allowing us to get a five-minute break.

We'll go ahead and continue with the school board meeting with agenda item number eight.

This is for public comment.

Renee, did we have um public comment submitted online?

Yes, President Walt.

Uh public comment uh was received from Evan Yeomans, Landon Martin, and Brenna Bao.

Uh, copies were provided to the board members and will be included in the permanent record.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

I'd also like to uh comment that we did receive um a written uh letter that was distributed to all of the board members and to our clerk, superintendent, and to our attorney.

You have that um with you right now.

Okay, so that has been received and submitted.

At this time, we will call for public comment.

You will have three minutes.

Um the board will not respond to the public comment.

We'll go ahead and start with um, and I am going to apologize with your names, but I believe it's Zoe.

And if you would please, uh, yes, no applause, thank you.

Um, yes, and that is Madison Hagar.

So if you would, if you'll come down to the table, make sure that the microphone that you see a green light from red to green, and again, you'll have three minutes.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Madison Hager.

I'm a senior at Carson High School, and I'm here along with my teammates who are all part of Carson High's cross-country team and long distance track team.

We've come this evening to express our shared concerns with the current head cross-country coach.

We have taken this issue to various Carson High School administrators, including the athletic director, vice principal, and principal.

We expressed our concerns about the head coach in a letter signed by twenty members of the cross country and long distance track team.

Tegan Barrowman submitted the letter, and we'll speak more about it this evening.

But in summary, when we presented the letter and our concerns, the administrators failed to act or advocate for us to help resolve the conflict.

Members of the long-distance track team have even tried speaking to our coach individually about their concerns, but she continually dismisses them and refuses to listen to athletes' input.

We realize that there are two sides to every story, and that a change in leadership can often be hard.

But we have experienced numerous incidents and reoccurring situations in which we feel the coach's behavior has not been appropriate or mature for someone in a leadership position.

I wrote on the cross-country team for the past four years and have been in this building multiple times along with my team to be recognized by the board for both our athletic and academic achievements.

This team is absolutely abundant with some of the most hardworking, kind, and dedicated kids you will ever meet.

And while I won't personally be attending or running with Carson High next year, it doesn't feel fair to leave my teammates in an unstable and generally negative team environment as a result of the head coach.

Throughout my time running with Carson High, cross country has given me some of my best friends as well as once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I will forever hold close to me.

So to see my teammates, both old and new, considering quitting due to our coach's neglect, has been incredibly hard.

Every kid who decides to join the cross-country team should be entitled to all of the positive experiences that the sport provided to me.

But with the new coaching direction our team has taken, many of them will miss out on those opportunities altogether.

It has been very hard to see my once incredibly passionate teammates lose their love for the sport because of the hostile environment the team has become.

And while I only experienced a small handful of personal incidents during the cross-country season, I'm now going to pass this off to the athletes who experienced neglect firsthand throughout the duration of this past track season.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Uh Zoe.

Hello, my name is Zoe Thielen, and I'm a freshman distance runner on the Carson High School cross-country and track teams.

I'm speaking today on behalf of the team regarding concerns about the cross-country and track distance head coach Russ Munyan.

Specifically, his lack of coaching prior to races, as well as how he speaks to athletes after their races, often criticizing and making insensitive comments.

This behavior has had a significant impact on the athlete's mentality and has created an overall negative environment on the team.

For example, prior to races, we received little to no guidance on our pre-race warmups, race tactics, and event timing.

As a team, we were left to figure out and plan all these things on our own.

As for his behavior following races, let me share a personal experience.

After my 3200 meter race at the Dublin Distance Fiesta this past track season, Coach Bunyan initially told me, good job, but then immediately criticized my racing strategy and questioned whether I'd paid attention to him yelling at me during my race.

He specifically asked me if I had heard him saying, This looks easy for you, go faster.

I told him that I had heard him and that I explained that my goal was to recover my racing mindset after a recent injury and that I was happy with the race and had had fun.

He proceeded to ask what fun meant to me, and that for him, fun meant winning.

I then began to tell him what my definition of fun was, and he interrupted me saying, Well, is this fun and motioned to our conversation?

I said it wasn't, respectfully asked him if I could be excused to go cool down for my race, but he insisted I wait and continued critique of my performance.

He ended by mentioning that I got a personal record, even though he was unaware I had not achieved one, evidence that he's not conscious of the team's progress and improve and improvements.

There have been several other instances in which the head coach congratulated athletes on PRs that they did not earn and seemed unaware of the athletes' levels in current times.

I am also not the only athlete who has experienced the head coach's criticism and inconsiderate comments after their races, including how bad their pacing was and saying things such as, I know why you're slow now.

Furthermore, I experienced his dismissive behavior a second time, where he again gave me negative feedback following my race.

Only when other coaches made him aware of the effect this is his negative words had on me, did he then attempt to explain his comments by a private message to me late at night, which I found inappropriate.

These are only a fraction of the interactions I have had with the head coach since August, where I have felt uncomfortable, unsupported, and unsafe with him as my coach.

Due to this past year, I am unwilling to run for Carson High School under Coach Munyan.

This truly breaks my heart as I am very passionate about this sport.

Hope to run in college, and I love my teammates, along with the incredible experiences that the Steam has given me so far.

Unfortunately, I know that multiple of us feel the same way and are left with no other choice but to discontinue running under the under the current head coach.

Thank you for listening, and I hope you will take these concerns into consideration.

Thank you, Adam Plain.

Thank you.

My name is Adam Plain.

I'm a parent of a Carson High School distance athlete.

I'm reading a statement written by my wife, Renee Plain, who is unable to attend today because the 26-27 cross-country team meeting was scheduled at this exact same time.

Good evening, members of the school board.

I want to begin by saying this is not about students resisting change or disliking a new coach.

Athletics naturally evolves, and coaching styles differ.

What concerns many families is the growing pattern of organizational failures, athlete stress, safety concerns, and the feeling among students that their concerns were not taken seriously when they attempted to advocate for themselves appropriately.

These athletes did exactly what we hope young athlete young adults learned to do.

They organized respectfully, documented concerns thoughtfully, followed the proper chain of command, and requested meetings with administration.

They advocated not just for themselves, but for the future of their program and the younger athletes who will follow them.

From their perspective, they felt unheard.

As a parent, that is deeply concerning.

I have watched student athletes who were once excited and confident become discouraged and anxious about the future of a program they care deeply about, with some even leaving partway through the season.

I have heard concerns regarding training practices, communication, supervision, organization at meets, and overall athlete support.

When athletes are worried about whether they will receive proper preparation, miss events because of disorganization, or face increased risk of injury, those concerns deserve serious attention.

These are not isolated complaints from one upset student.

Twenty distance athletes signed a detailed letter outlining shared concerns and experiences.

That alone should warrant meaningful review.

I also want to acknowledge how difficult it is for students to stand here publicly tonight.

Many are speaking because they genuinely care about their teammates, their sport, and their school.

As parents, we are not asking for perfection.

We are asking for accountability, athlete safety, proper leadership, and a thorough investigation into the concerns being raised.

More importantly, we are asking that these students not be dismissed simply because they had the courage to speak up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Brianna Nunes.

Hello, my name is Brianna Nunez.

I'm a senior at Carson High School and have been a member of the cross-country and chat team for the past four years.

I'm speaking today to express my concerns regarding the head coaching position.

Writing this has been very difficult because it forced because it forced me to relive experiences that made me lose the love for sport that meant so much to me.

Running has brought me some of my closest friends, a passion that brings me joy and many of my best memories.

For me to quit track before regional says a lot about how deeply this situation affected my well-being.

Coaching was not the only reason, but it was a major factor.

The biggest issue with the head, my my biggest issue with the head coach is that he does not listen to his athletes, struggles to communicate without becoming defensive or hostile, and often lacks support for his athletes.

During this past cross-country season, it felt that the underclassmen were pushed as upperclassmen were pushed aside and overlooked while the underclassmen were prioritized.

As a senior dealing with an injury, I rarely received meaningful feedback or support from the head coach, only short and dismissive comments.

Thankfully, I had Coach Thielen and Coach Hager by my side throughout the season.

They were the ones who supported me and listened to me while I struggled with my ankle injury.

There were countless times I went to them because this injury took a toll on both my mental and physical health.

Running is a passion, is my passion, is something I deeply care about.

Without their support, track season became unbearable because I felt I had no support from my coach.

During track season, there were multiple times I discussed concerns with the head coach regarding the training plan due to the lack of organization, research, and acknowledgement of the athlete's abilities.

After expressing these concerns calmly, the coach chose to approach the head track coaches to complain about me questioning his coaching rather than having a direct conversation with me first.

He could have simply answered my question, but instead he would respond with comments such as noted or I'll keep that in mind without ever actually addressing my concerns.

I was later approached by the track head coaches regarding some of the issues that had occurred, and I tried to have a calm and respectful conversation about my concerns with the training plan.

However, while I was speaking, the distance coach repeatedly interrupted me and became defensive, as though I was personally attacking him.

Even the head track coach acknowledged that I handled the situation respectfully and understood where I was coming from, as my concerns were never intended as a personal attack.

Unfortunately, the distance track coach took that took it that way.

The conversation ultimately went nowhere because he never truly listened to my concerns or accepted feedback.

He made it seem as though I didn't understand what I was talking about, even though I had been a runner for many years and had done my own research.

I was not giving feedback simply to argue.

I genuinely cared about improving the situation for both myself and the team.

As the season continued, the coach became increasingly hostile after our conversation and completely disregarded anything I said.

Going to practice began to feel like a chore.

I grew tired of constantly arguing and feeling ignored, and eventually I stopped expressing my concerns because it seemed pointless.

I am sharing my experience because future athletes deserve better.

They should not feel unsupported or pushed to point to the point of quitting the sport they love.

I hope you take this take my concerns into consideration moving forward and when making decisions for next year.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Via Miller.

And next after VIA will be Nate Freed.

Or yeah, Vaya Minor.

Looks like Miller.

Hello, my name is Veya Minor, and I'm a senior at Carson High School.

I have run high school tracking cross-country for the past four years.

Coaches can be demanding, challenging, and strict while still creating a healthy environment for athletes.

Unfortunately, the current coaching situation for cross-country and distance running at Carson High is not healthy, supportive, or state.

I want to share my experiences with the head coach because what is happening to athletes on this team needs to needs to change.

The biggest issue is the head coach's refusal to listen to athletes and adapt to training in ways that protect our health and help us succeed.

A coach's responsibility is not just to push athletes but to understand, communicate, and train them safely.

Instead, many of us felt ignored and dismissed.

One example involved a workout where athletes had to complete strength stations and run backwards in between each station.

I completed every strength station and all the required mileage, but I modified one portion to protect my knees.

I explained this directly to the distance coach.

Rather than speaking with me or working with me on a safe alternative, he told the other coaches that I'd skipped the workout and encouraged other athletes to do the same.

As a result, I was suspended from the meet that week despite having no disciplinary issues in the four year of high school track.

Punishing an athlete for making a reasonable adjustment to avoid injury is not affecting coaching.

It is harmful.

There were many other situations where athletes' concerns about training were ignored.

We were often told what workouts were not, we were often not told what workouts were coming.

And when athletes asked in advance so we could prepare mentally and physically.

There was little structure and consistency to the training schedule, making it difficult for our bodies to recover properly or adapt in healthy ways.

Good training is built on planning and progression.

Instead, workouts often felt random and unorganized.

Another example happened during the week of an important meet.

Coach Munion wanted us to run Hill workouts for the first time all season, only days before competition.

Competitive runners understand that introducing a new demanding workout immediately before a major race can leave athletes exhausted and sore instead of prepared.

It took multiple advanced athletes several minutes to persuade him before he finally adjusted the workout.

Athletes should not have to fight their coach in order to train safely and effectively.

A head coach should know better.

I also need to address the personal discomfort many of the female athletes experienced around the distance coach.

He often inserted himself into the girls' spaces and conversations at meets in ways that felt inappropriate and uncomfortable.

Athletes deserve to feel safe, respected, and comfortable around their coaches at all times.

Many of us did not feel that way.

Running has always has always been one of the most positive parts of my life, but this season made me dread a sport I once loved.

I'm speaking today because future athletes deserve better.

They deserve a coach who prioritizes athletes' safety, listens to concerns, uses responsible training methods, and creates an environment built on trust and respect.

Based on my experiences and the experience of many others on this team, I do not believe the current head coach should continue coaching the Carson High distance program.

Thank you for listening to my concerns.

Thank you.

Ms.

President.

Yes.

Just as a reminder for the board and all the members of the public, you guys do have policy or regulation for other 601, which provides that in addressing the board, the public shall not uh levy charges or allegations against an individual employee, but those charges should go through uh the superintendent in writing.

Uh and under the open meeting law as well.

They uh there is a prohibition against any personal attacks.

So I I don't think the public comment needs to be stopped, but I think the board and the public should be aware that there is a a complaint procedure that should be going through the superintendent.

All right, thank you.

Um yes, and if we could with a public comment refrain from uh using individual names, please just discuss um, sure certain issues or certain situations, um, would be greatly appreciated.

We will continue with public comment and then um super the our superintendent is taking notes and will reach out um to you.

So we're gonna go with Nate Freed and then Darren Plain.

Hello, my name is Nate Freed, and I have been a varsity runner for all four years in my high school career.

Most people see running as a punishment, a burden to any sport or workout.

Yeah, for me, running has given me the chance now to worry about the world and find a way to break free.

Knowing I could rely on running helped me not only in the physical aspects but the mental too.

This cross-country and track season was difficult to conform to a new system due to the inadequate coaching that was present throughout the year.

The cross country coach for the first three years of my running career stepped down to take a new test step in life.

He was amazing, and I certainly understand that every coach has a different style of leadership.

This year, a new coach took over the position.

Getting a new coach already comes with awkwardness, but the head coach made it especially hard to create athlete to coach bonds.

Coach never took the first steps getting to know his team.

He went straight to believing he owned the team, and anything the team had to say was met with a comment that was interpreted as either I know best or just get it done.

Coach not only didn't get to know his team, he just completely shut us out.

Many athletes felt they had no voice on the team and kept quiet since they knew he wouldn't help.

Many times throughout the cross country season, the assistant coaches would have to step in to talk coach down, whether it was for the daily run ideas or to help prevent injuries.

Coach never took action for his team and always had to get it his way.

Not only did these actions carry over from cross country to track, we had no assistant coaches to help shield us.

He would create workouts that cause more harm than help.

An example of this was workout in the mud.

Coach made us do a speed workout on the soccer field in the surrounding area.

There was mud that was easily seen, and of course, the grass was wet and slick.

The team captains voiced our concerns regarding the conditions present.

He wouldn't listen.

A couple of runners rolled their ankles due to this.

To add more, coach started to make comments to athletes after races brought down the morale and identity as a runner, including a conversation after an important race where he deliberately told me you can't go this slow.

The feedback was consistently negative and never provided input on how to improve our performance.

Lastly, coach would disappear and therefore not provide leadership for his distant runners during both practices and meets.

Thank you.

Darren Plain, then uh Rylan Milford.

I just like to start by saying hello.

Uh my name is Darren Plain.

As I'm sure you can guess, I'm here for the same reason as all my fellow athletes behind me.

Um I'd like to start by sharing a personal matter that took place at uh one of our meets, the double and distance fiesta in California.

Um I'll start about halfway through the first day of the race, uh, when the head coach had to leave the meet uh to go to the hotel we booked, uh, because he not he did not book the hotel rooms for the appropriate uh amount of nights.

Uh by the time he had returned later in the evening after the issue was resolved, and uh I was gone warming up for my next race, which was less than an hour out from starting.

Uh he had insisted that all the athletes present on our team had to go back to the hotel to check in, regardless of the fact that several athletes, such as myself, still had events to run, uh, with some approaching rather quickly.

By the time I had brought I had been brought back to the hotel with uh the parent volunteer present, the head coach had become completely unreachable to everyone, with calls and messages being sent without responses.

Uh when we had found him, uh, the first heat of my event was already on the verge of starting.

About first about 15 minutes later, we'd arrived at the meet, and heat two of my event had started and was underway.

Uh, mind you, I was the third heat of this event.

I had time only to run to our team tent, grab my racing shoes, and do only a few stretches before runners were called up to the starting line for the heat uh for heat three.

This left me vastly underprepared for my race with the risk of injury increased.

I feel that this left me in a state where I could have performed much better, but instead I was left at a disadvantage that could have been easily avoidable.

Uh I would like to just close my statement by thanking you all, and I'm sure more personal issues with this will come up.

Thank you.

Ryland Milford and then Teagan uh Bowerman.

Good evening.

My name is Rylan Hilford, and I'm a freshman athlete on the cross-country and track team.

I'm here today to speak on behalf of the team for multiple significant concerns regarding the head coach.

One major concern is a lack of transparency and consistency in moving athletes between junior varsity and varsity.

The lack of explanation or individualized support when athletes are shifted between teams makes it challenging to know what's expected and to be ready for a competition.

Especially when made right before even the day of the meet.

For instance, some have been told that strong JB performances would earn them a varsity spot the next day, only to have that opportunity to night.

This has happened numerous times to multiple people.

Personal example I experienced happened at the Douglas Big George Invitational.

The coach could take four athletes per event, and there was space for me, but he stated that there wasn't.

I won both my races at the Douglas Little George Invitational the day before, expecting to be allowed to race the following day, regardless of spots.

However, when I confronted the coach about it, he stated, No, I never said that.

You must have misunderstood me.

Followed by, You've had a tough day.

I don't want you racing tomorrow anyways.

Only about two athletes ended up racing in each event at the Big George Inventational.

This left spots unfilled, expectations unclear, and athletes unhappy.

The coach has stated, My only measure is the clock and the tape, but it seems to be anything but that as he's judged us with bias, promoting athletes who are older or who he believes has more potential, regardless of times.

This inconsistency leaves athletes frustrated and unsure of where they stand.

These experiences reinforce the lack of consistency and support that many athletes have felt from him.

That I believe a coach should be able to exhibit.

Furthermore, I believe that the head coach often gives the females extra attention in offers that are not extended to the males, such as only watching us during workout, excessively critiquing us more than the guys, and offering to carry staff or give massages.

This unwarranted attention has made many girls uncomfortable and is not acceptable from a high school coach who athletes should always feel safe around.

I also feel it's important to mention a personal experience that made me uncomfortable.

On the first day of cross-country practice, I mentioned I was sore, and the head coach asked if I had a massage gun at home, and I said I did not.

He insisted several times that I use his.

Even after I declined, he kept me after practice, went to his car, and had me use his despite my repeated refusals.

This situation made me feel uneasy and crossed a personal boundary.

I've heard from multiple female athletes stating that they feel uncomfortable and or unsafe around Coach Finney.

And that is a concern that should not be taken lightly.

Additionally, training plans are not sufficiently individualized, which is a key part of coach's job, because his solution is to use AI to structure our workouts.

Athletes of different backgrounds and needs receive nearly identical workouts, increasing the risk of over-training, utter training, leading to injury.

These issues have contributed to a sense of disconnect and frustration within the team.

I'd like to make it clear that if meaningful changes are not made to address these concerns, I will remove myself from the sport as I'm not willing to run under this coach.

That is not intended to be a threat, but a fact.

I love these sports, but I can't go another year underneath the same unacceptable circumstances.

We hope you will consider our perspective and help establish meaningful improvements in communication, feedback, and training practices.

At the end of the day, athletes deserve a coach that is as invested in our growth as we are.

We hope our concerns are considered with more care than our workouts have been designed with.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good evening, President and members of the board.

My name is Steegan Barman.

I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the members of the Carson High School Varsity and Junior Varsity Cross Country and Distance Track Teams.

Throughout this meeting, you've heard our concerns regarding the athlete treatment, communication, training structure, organization, and overall environment within our program.

These concerns were not raised casually or emotionally.

Athletes and families attempted to follow the appropriate process by bringing a detailed evidence-based grievance directly to school administration.

However, many students left those discussions feeling that the core issues were minimized rather than meaningly addressed.

We were told that some level of dissatisfac dissatisfaction was expected because coaching transitions can be challenging, and because some athletes were disappointed with hiring decisions.

While we understand that change comes naturally comes with adjustment, reducing the concerns presented tonight to discomfort and change ignores the broader pattern that many athletes have experienced throughout this season.

We were told that upperclassmen leaving the sport following a coach transition is normal and that dissatisfied athletes are free to join outside running clubs instead.

Respectfully, we do not believe student athletes should feel pushed away from the from their school program in order to find support, communication, or a healthy training environment.

High school athletics should encourage student growth, retention, mentorship, and trust, not create conditions where athletes feel they need to quit entirely.

Administration has also defended the current program by referencing performance statistics and reviews of training structure.

While athletic performance matters, numbers alone do not fully represent the health of the program.

Athlete well-being, professionalism, communication, organization, and trust between coaches and students are equally important measures of success.

One incident that reflects this, these concerns occurred when athletes strategically conserved energy during a meet after already qualified for later competition.

Despite despite this, criticism was directed towards the athletes' performance without understanding the qualification situation.

A parent later intervened over after overhearing negative comments being made about athletes to an athletic trainer.

Moments like these contribute to the growing disconnect between athletes and program leadership.

The concerns presented tonight are not isolated complaints from few individuals.

They reflect a broader decline in moral and confidence within the distance program.

Athletes have transferred events, left the program, or considered quitting entirely because they no longer feel properly supported within the current environment.

At the same time, many athletes have continued participating because of the guidance and stability uh provided by assistant coach Tara Thielen, whose support and communication have helped many students remain involved in the sport.

We are not here tonight asking for perfection, nor are we here out of personal hostility.

We are here because we care deeply about the future of Carson High Cross Country Distance Track and the experience of athletes.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Do we have any additional public comment?

Or more.

Please state your name for the record.

I did not get a slip.

Hello, my name is Sean Thornton for the record.

I ran on Carson High School cross-country for four years as a varsity athlete and on Carson High School track for three years as a varsity athlete.

In the most recent cross-country season, I was a captain of the team, and I experienced the head coach's training.

During the time that I was there, I noticed consistently that the training that he created did not follow best practices for the sport, either following a path of being very high injury or just being suboptimal for training runners to actually be fast.

As a result, I was not willing to spend an entire next season training suboptimally, and I quit the program.

And it's it makes me sad to see other runners considering the same path.

So I hope that you take these concerns into consideration.

You think about them deeply.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next.

My name is Hannah Budd, and I'm a senior runner at Carson High School.

In part because of my experiences in cross-country under this year's head coach, I decided it would be more harmful to my physical and mental health to continue to run track than it would be to quit, even if it meant I miss my friends and spent months running and training on my own.

I'd like to highlight what I experienced during cross-country that affected my decision not to be coached by this coach for track.

Primarily the first time I met him, he was excessively focused on his goals for our times, performances, and points, many of which were unreasonable.

I was rarely if ever asked about my personal goals, feelings, circumstances, and even injuries.

I believe coaches should help athletes achieve their goals and reached their highest potential.

We do not run to fulfill a coach's expectations or make them look good.

Expanding on injuries, I did not feel comfortable bringing my injuries to this head coach because I felt he did not know how to help me handle them, and I had watched him put push other athletes to do routines or stretches or workouts that they didn't feel comfortable with when they told them about their injuries.

Head coaches should be familiar with common running injuries, aware of every runner, and capable of helping them heal, but injuries on our team often went overlooked and unhealed.

Furthermore, it was not this head coach who truly coached me during cross-country.

It was the two assistant coaches.

They were the ones directing the workouts, scheduling the away meets, coordinating with parents, dealing with injuries and supporting athletes.

They often served as a buffer between the head coach and the upset athletes.

He was officially the head coach, but it was the other coaches who are fulfilling those roles and responsibilities.

Finally, I would like to share how I saw track impact my friends from an outside perspective.

I watched every day for weeks as something they love turned into something they dreaded.

I watched them struggle and yell and wonder and cry.

I listened to their infuriating stories of injustice and their feelings of being afraid and trapped.

I watched it grow harder for them to eat, to sleep, to run.

Sorry, to get up in the morning.

I watched them quit with broken hearts and ran without any heart left to give.

This coach was not the sole cause of this decline, but he was the common factor.

Something needs to change.

He will not settle for another response like you know how kids get, or it's his first year given time to adjust, or if you don't like it, you can quit.

I've watched the physical and mental toll this toxic situation has taken on my friends who chose to stay, and I will not quit.

We have lived this, we have worked, we have struggled, we have cried, we have fought, we have run anyways.

It is time for us to be heard, really heard.

We're asking you to stand in our shoes and tell us how many more miles you think you could run.

Infuriated by unfairness and exhausted by something you used to love.

This will no longer affect me, but I will not stand for it affecting these athletes that I love.

And those in the future who deserve a chance to love the sport too.

I believe in bringing not just a problem but a solution.

One possible solution I propose is to have this coach be the high jump coach for track.

This way he's still doing what he loves and coaching kids.

For the head distance coach for track and cross-country, I suggest hiring Tara Thielen.

She has worked with these kids and she's well adjusted, experienced in sports medicine, competent and well loved by this team.

I'm not sure what will work.

I only know this current situation won't.

I can see that this is a good man, but I can also see that he's not a good coach for our team.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

And like we've said, we cannot see up here, out there.

So I cannot see if there is additional public comment.

Okay.

Hello.

Good evening, superintendent and members of the school board.

My name is Nick Chalmers, and I'm a parent in this district.

I'm here tonight to voice urgent safety and equity concerns regarding the coaching practices within our cross-country and long-distance track programs.

First, the student safety is being compromised, and the head coach has utilized dangerous training practices that risk physical injury to our student athletes using irrational AI-generated training plans and inadequate pre-race warm-ups due to insufficient race day preparation.

On several occasions, student athletes and parents had to educate the coach on the rules.

The second, and uh the coach exhibits deeply unfair behavior that divides the team.

Athletes are treated differently based on their on personal favoritism.

Certain runners are given preferential treatment, and others are publicly humiliated.

And select few are outright ignored.

This toxic environment damages the mental health of these kids and strips away the value of high school sports.

I'm standing up for these students because some have experienced retaliation when they have tried to speak up for themselves.

The coach regularly exhibits aggressive behavior, parents and students who um routine ask routine questions or express concerns have been met with hostility and intimidation.

The athletic department will tell you that these kids are the problem, that they have followed up on everything and all of their concerns.

They have not, they will say that they are making changes, that he has good coaching, a good coaching record at other schools, that he can do a good job if given the chance.

They've been a coach for over 10 years, and I can tell you he can't.

We have already lost several good athletes, unnecessarily because of this coach.

These kids deserve better, they are good kids, great athletes, and they need your help.

The district has has a duty to care for the and protect the children from both physical harm and emotional abuse.

I'm requesting that the board initiate an immediate independent investigation into the program's culture and safety compliance.

Our children deserve to have to run an environment that builds them up, not one that puts them in danger.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there additional public comment?

Please state your name for the record.

Good evening.

I appreciate all of your time, all of your commitment to be here, representing the school district, representing the school, representing the students, and uh we have your representation in order to provide a very neutral and independent voice and uh approach to any concerns.

As you can see, uh my name is John Borrowman.

Um I am a parent of one of the runners, and I have been involved with a lot of the athletes that are in on this team uh through many years of uh coaching through different sports, and to see uh these athletes grow up to be incredible human beings, uh, and the fact that they're here uh trying to represent their concerns in a very fair and objective way, I appreciate it.

Uh, most of their comments are coming from personal experience.

Uh, I know that my son has also tried to escalate some of his concerns, and it's interesting when he and whenever he engages in the conversation, it always starts with uh the administration being very defensive.

Uh specifically, the administration starting with, well, you realize this coach came into a very hostile environment.

And so, therefore, anything goes, right?

This coach can do anything because it's unfair, he's disadvantaged, he's put into a very hostile situation where the athletes are so aggressive towards him.

All right, let's set that aside.

When this coach failed to make a two-night hotel reservation at Dublin, was that because the students were being hostile?

When the coach pulled athletes off the field, preventing them from warming up for their race, was that because the students were hostile?

When other athletes, including my son, was first in their event on the JV day and eligible to run on the varsity day, but the coach was not aware that he even got first place, or that he was even eligible to run the next day.

Was that because the students were hostile?

When the coach did not advertise for the uh the camp, the running camp over the summer, he did not advertise with each of the middle schools in each of their middle school tournaments, their meets, and so they only have one announcement going out, and so therefore there's a big lack of awareness of this running camp that they use for fundraising.

Is that because the students were hostile?

When the coach treats the female athletes with the same training program as the male athletes, is that because the students are hostile?

And when we go and present to the administration and they say, well, you guys are hostile and we need to give them deference.

I would say we need to be more sophisticated.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

All right.

Seeing no more public comment, we'll go ahead and oops.

If y'all could maybe come a little closer so we can well, I can't see, but maybe just so we're ready.

Hi, Cassandra Davis for the record.

Um, I'm a parent of one of the athletes that's on the cross-country and the track team.

Um, cross-country and track have been wildly different watching the sports unfold.

Uh cross-country had gone without a hitch, mainly because I thought that Coach Seelen and Coach Hager were running it.

They were head coaches.

I had seen Coach Munyan there, um, wasn't really sure what his role was in uh cross country.

So fast forward to track season where it has been nothing short of a disaster.

I've spent the entire seasoning season not knowing what my child was running, as she was pulled from events last minute, added to other events last minute with no explanation.

She has been discouraged and compared to her other peers on her team, telling her how she will that she would be lucky maybe her senior year to be as good as another athlete.

That despite that she has continued to make improvements in PR race after race after race, it was never good enough.

When her athletes wanted to join and do relay races, the coach would then say in front of her with the other two, maybe you should pick somebody else if you want to win.

Coaches are supposed to build up our students and our athletes.

They're supposed to provide safe trainings for them to hear them, to look out for them.

The coach that you have running is completely short of that.

I don't know if you guys remember, but in November 17th, we were here at a board meeting with the varsity girls cross-country team recognizing them for their performance over the season.

During this meeting, which is recorded and can be found on the website, 30 minutes in, the co head coach spoke and praised Coach Hager and Coach Thielen, stating that it was truly an effort that got the team to the state in place second.

He recommended, he commended both coaches, saying that this could not have been done without them.

And I think that's probably the most accurate accurate statement he has made, and it holds a lot of weight.

I can clearly see that Coach Hager and Coach Thielen carried the other coach through the cross-country season.

Both coaches have extensive knowledge in youth and adolescent athletic development, experience in designing individual workouts, and for have a further understanding of progressive training principles, all of which the current head coach lacks.

Without the support, without their support, is it clear that he does not have the experience or the knowledge needed to be head coach?

With the upcoming cross-country season approaching, I truly hope the district will open its eyes and do what's best for your athletes.

Just because they're students doesn't mean they should be dismissed.

If something does not change, then I will be forcing to pull my daughter from the program and find alternative programs where she can be supported with a coach that has proper training and that understands what these kids need.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Seeing no additional public comment, we'll go ahead and close agenda item number eight.

Or before we do that, um, I will ask our superintendent if he could please contact uh Carson High School to look into this matter.

Thank you.

Alright, closing agenda item number eight.

Moving on to agenda item number nine.

This is the presentation of the board preparation timeline and introduction of the topics for the public hearing on the budget for fiscal year 2026-2027, including brief discussion.

This is discussion only, and this is presented by Mr.

Spencer Winward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Members of the board.

Really quickly, the presentation I've got up there will be for the next three board items.

So uh this one just a quick overview of the uh budget preparation timeline and what tonight's role is in that, which is number item number nine, and then uh after that we'll go to revised capital plan discussion and the budget presentation.

So, see if I'm in range with the clicker here.

Does anyone have a bionic finger they could use wrapped in middle?

It appears like it is.

Oh no, I thought red was on apparently when I turned it.

I think we're good now.

Yep, we're good.

Alrighty, so here's just a quick overview of of again where we're at in this budget cycle.

Again, uh, you know, more so this year than others.

We there's been budget planning ongoing since uh the get-go all through the year.

We've been looking forward looking ahead to uh about budget planning, making sure that we have as much data and the most accurate data as possible.

And we receive uh excuse me, projections from taxation in middle of February, and then after that, as you recall uh our meeting that in early April, we went over the tentative budget, which is the first iteration of the budget we'll be reviewing later tonight, and that was provided taxation uh by the NRS deadline of April 15th, and then from that time to now we just kind of fine-tune and tweak the budget.

If we get any updated information, we we include that in there, and we've made those changes.

Um, per statute, we have advertised this public hearing tonight and in uh publication on the 16th and 20th of May, and that brings us to this evening where we are in the midst of this budget hearing, all righty.

And then after this, uh what we discussed and approved tonight uh will be presented to taxation by June 8th, and then not really applicable this year, but in a legislative year, if there are changes, we can open up the budget for 30 days after the session.

Uh again, not applicable this year, but just a reminder that that happens every other year on a legislative year.

And then as we continue by December 31st, we can amend our budget based off of uh updates to data we have then.

We know what our enrollments are, we know exactly a little bit more to what our uh salary and benefit costs are, and can make adjustments as needed prior to December 31st.

Um items that uh that may be of interest for this and future budget cycles is our gradual decrease in enrollment uh continues to affect our funding for the PCFP funding, it's largely a factor of the amount per pupil that the state determines and uh the number of pupils that we have.

Uh currently state economic outlook is flat, um, uh which would mean that we we would not really anticipate future increases to funding that coupled with decrease in enrollment means that in future budget cycles we'll likely be dealing with less revenue.

All right, um other things that are of interest for this budget is our our capital projects for FY27.

We are doing a lot of preparation right now for the summer construction season that's uh about to start in a couple weeks.

That's always difficult where that spans the end of one fiscal year and the beginning of the other and affects our budgeting somewhat because we kind of have to do uh uh balance that budget authority where we need to and where we kind of think the actual cost will end up and plan for some of those costs to be in both fiscal years for those major projects, and then CIP revisions are also of interest to this.

We'll discuss those in the next budget item or board item.

And then again, once that's all those projects are kind of done and uh towards the end of the summer, we get a good idea of where they've ended, if there's anything that was found once the projects were underway and can update our CIP in conjunction with the December budget.

And that's what I've got for item number nine.

Any questions regarding this?

Um I will let the board I do have a few, but I'll go ahead and start with Trustee Ramirez.

Do you have any questions on agenda item number nine?

No.

Trusty friend, okay.

Um, you know, I've said it uh before and I'll say it again.

Um, is there any way we can get the budget moved up?

Um, uh meeting beforehand.

So I know next year it may not be a problem because our fourth meeting our second meeting in May does not fall right after Memorial Day weekend.

But you know, last year it did and this year it did.

And I just feel as though getting our final budget, you know, the questions that I sent you, I had a hard time push pressing send just because I know that it was a holiday yesterday, and it just doesn't give us much time to um take a look at it, you know, to compare if there was any differences between the tentative budget and the final budget, and then to be able to ask you the questions regarding the um capital improvement agenda item and the final budget.

Um, you know, in all honesty, I I felt really bad sending you those emails last night because I felt you had one day, you know, to to look those up and and answer them.

Um, and then yet I don't have time to read your responses, you know, later on that day because it's the day of the meeting as well.

I don't know, I'm not this is just please look into it to see whether or not there might be a possibility that we move the budget meetings up a meeting.

So we would it wouldn't be the last, the second meeting in May.

Maybe it would be the uh the first meeting in May on that end, just to give us some chance to get, you know, a little bit more feedback to where if we have to bring it back, we would bring it back the second meeting in May before it has to go to the department of taxation.

Just a thought.

That is something to consider.

We also, I mean, this time of year things are kind of happening fast, and you know, information that we had two weeks ago wasn't the most up to date.

So we do like it the second meeting of May, just for that reason, we know a little bit more if there's been uh gonna be additional resignations or anything that's gonna affect our salary and benefit costs.

Um, and again, you know, largely this has not changed a lot from the the budget that we see in April, particularly on a non-legislative year, you know, the the known knowns are um greater in a non-legislative year.

But that's something we can look at in the future on if it's you know, if our meeting falls right after holiday, if it would make sense to to advance that uh given that and other factors.

Is there a grace period um when you submit the final budget to the department of taxation?

Is there a grace period before you can um ask for an amendment or an augmentation?

I'm not sure I'm not following your question about.

What my question is is say that if we submit the final budget, and because if it is a legislative session, you know, um we look at it and you say that we have 30 days after that, but after that, is there like if we submit it the 8th of June and then we look relook at it and go, nope, that's not what we like.

Is there like 15 days before you can ask for an amendment or is there a no?

I don't I don't believe so.

I I think the um I don't know, I've never I've never had that one come up before actually.

We we could we could ask it it's generally the it's not until December that we do that amended budget because that's where we're updating fund balance numbers and all of those sorts of things.

Um I don't know that we've ever done an augmentation to the budget between May and December.

We've done them after December, like leading in toward the end of the school year, but not at that time, but we could look into it.

Well, then just another question is how many amendments can you?

I mean, you could put in another amendment before December, right?

Or augment the budget.

Or we just never had the need.

Yeah, we've never had the need.

And it and it's really one of the the front I mean, truly one of the frustrating things for us is that we're we're even this budget, we're building a budget right now.

Um, but until we get into next year, there's some realities that we we just don't know.

And so I think you know, may it really isn't maybe until no October, November when we really have a feel for what enrollment looks like.

We now know our final kind of staffing for the year that that timing kind of lends itself to really doing that first update in December when we do the amended budget.

All right thank you yeah is there any sorry one other thing as I recall I I'm trying to remember the exact deadlines I think that the the first meeting in May might be too soon based off the statutory guidelines of where we have to have that public hearing it's gotta be I think after the the second Monday or third Monday in May.

So the first meeting actually might be too early I can review the statutes and get back to you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Anyone else all right thank you very much do you have anything else to add?

Not for budget or for board meeting number nine.

All right we'll go ahead and close agenda item number nine move on to agenda item number 10 discussion of possible action to approve the revised capital improvement plan for the Carson City School District for fiscal years 2027 to 2031.

Wow this is for possible action and this is brought to us by uh Spencer Woodward Winward sorry uh AJ Fueling and Mark Johnson.

Alrighty thank you madam president uh as I know to have Mr Johnson here with me to answer all the difficult questions um as needed again the capital improvement plan is uh this is the the plan that guides the spending of our capital projects funds both our bond funds fund 400 and our capital projects which is fund 360 uh those are the two funds that are are used to maintain our facilities um inputs that go into this is the facilities master plan committee which also by name is the bond oversight committee depending on where we're at in our bonding cycle right now we call that the bond oversight committee it meets uh generally quarterly uh at least to review projects and there's those committee members does include a board member uh several of our school principals like to attend that and members of the public to provide input um and and that's a great way for us to discuss and look at facilities and get input from lots of different stakeholders that goes into this we also manage a facilities master plan document that um has everything on it from gets input from um uh what do you just call the roofing survey we did for from various surveys that we have done to to assess the uh pavement uh assessments roofing assessments HVAC assessments where we redo over the five years 10 years on the assessment of those mechanical equipment and our asphalt and roofs yeah so those assessments uh where we get professional opinions on hey what would it take to get another five years out of a certain parking lot or roof or this is gonna have to be replaced sooner or later all of those inputs go into the facilities master plan document as well as so those types of items it is even gets wish list type items if a principal says hey I I would like such and such an item in my school it's considered there and all items kind of get weighed on there and and kind of sift through to what is the most important and the most uh timely to get done and those sift through into our capital improvement plan document I mean if you'll notice on our on our CI plan CIP plan there is a uh projects to be decided um amount for eight million this year and that's kind of to get us through this summer project where we have larger doc plan or larger construction projects that are already budgeted for FY26 but as we know they're those are going to go into FY27 and a lot of times in those larger things is as projects get going we might discover there's some items that need to be done while the walls are opened up if you will so some of that TBD is kind of to see if there's anything that comes ahead that we weren't aware of through our CIP planning.

And then also as we're reviewing the end of summer and and our facility master plan document to see uh what what uh projects would be slated for the FY27 28 summer projects so um and again, the CIP document is it's not set in stone.

We write it on there and it's we can't change it as needs arise, as the uh facilities needs arise, or as the direction of the district changes, this can be amended based off of projects that may take precedence over others just due to the severity of something might may have happened or something we've discovered uh that the lifespan of a of a certain project isn't gonna last as long as we thought it would.

So this document can be amended uh several times throughout our budget cycle.

Any questions about specific projects on there or anything about the CIP document itself?

We'll go ahead and start with Trusty Varner.

Uh yes, uh just so the board knows I I do sit on this committee, and uh I think I missed the last meeting as out of state.

But I'm wondering um I don't remember discussion in fiscal year 28 of the tech center restroom remodel for two million dollars.

Is that an accurate figure?

Is that for uh Carson High School?

No, it says uh the well, yeah, it'd be cars, but it's a tech center.

Yes.

Uh the we put that down there.

I got an estimate like a year ago, and we put that down there for the general use bathrooms in the tech center.

We wanted to change those over to general use bathrooms, and is it gonna cost two billion dollars?

Yes, and then I guess the other item is in fiscal year 2030, and like I said, I apologize to miss the last meeting.

Some of this may have been discussed.

We have 30 million dollars kind of earmarked for an auditorium.

Yeah, that's for the performing arts and and that's a that's a placeholder for that, and like Spencer and AJ want to jump in on that.

That's a placeholder for performing arts center.

So we would anticipate having a Jesse Barner.

I I'm I'm sorry to interrupt you.

So if you recall back, um, I think it was about three years ago, um, one of the conversations that came up through um the capital improvement plan.

Sorry, I couldn't think of that for a second.

Um there there was a lot of talk about looking at doing some kind of auditorium, some kind of performing arts center.

And and I'm saying this too because some of the board members weren't weren't around at that time.

And and one of the the just desires of the board was to start looking into what that might look like so we could start getting some costs.

I would I always say that I I Carson High School is probably the largest high school in the country that doesn't have an auditorium.

Um, and so this is something that we had um really started looking into then about two years ago starting a committee, um, and we've actually now gotten to a point with the help of um some architects to figure out what the costs might really be.

And at this point, we are planning um a presentation to the board, um, just to to have a so you can see some of that and just have an open discussion because there's some can real concerns about funding, which you can see with that price tag right there.

Um, and there's varying price tags, but the um this this is not um uh a commitment to do anything like that, but we we wanted to start representing somehow some way that um this is potentially out there.

I don't know if that answers all your questions.

It doesn't.

I support the concept, I really do.

I was just wondering, the bonding if we'd have bonding capacity, that would be and and um so when we do that presentation to the board again, August, September, sometime, um, what we will come to that meeting with and and potentially even invite um our our bond advisor Marty Johnson who helps us with all of our issuances over the years um to kind of give a sense of what what is possible, what is available, what might we need help with.

The the concern with this is I I believe that um we would have to max out our bonding capacity to do one project, which is a little concerning to me because we have many other facilities, but at least we could have a sense of um what the landscape looks like and then the board um can really weigh in on how comfortable they feel to you know to what extent trying to do a project like that.

Um, but that that's kind of where we are.

Thank you.

Trusty Peterson.

Um I apologize if I missed uh an explanation on this, but under all the schools, they've got like I I heard on the big expenditures, the projects TBD, that eight million is like as things come up, but um under each site having their tenant improvements um in various amounts.

Are those whose discretion is that spending at and how are those different amounts assigned?

Well, for tenant improvements, uh the discretion I have to go to Spencer or uh director of operations, tenant improvements.

My definition of it's we perform various tenant improvements and maintenance, which includes but not limited to classroom refresh, replacement of doors and hardware, abatement uh for lead or asbestos painting, like a classroom or an office, plumbing repairs, carpeting, ceiling tiles, concrete replacement repairs, lighting, electrical, uh adding signage replacement, repair of windows, add added carpentry, small tenant improvements means like adding a wall projects, various improvements, repairs as required and needed.

Uh though those come under any type of little small project that might happen at a school site.

A principal could ask for it, a superintendent could be popping me in the back saying, Hey, we need to get this taken care of at this school site.

It could be any kind of small project, could be a maintenance project that comes up.

I mean, we have stuff that breaks at a school, and so that comes under um, you know, how we gonna pay for this?

Tenant improvement.

It's been a real blessing to be able to get something done, or we have the funding to get in a window breaks in a school.

How are we gonna pay for it?

Tenant improvement.

This door's been broken for a year.

How can we replace that hardware or get a new door?

Tenant improvement, you know, this office looks horrible.

How are we gonna fix it?

Hey, good luck with that.

No, tenant improvement, this carpet looks horrible.

Tenant improvement.

It's been a real great thing.

AJ started that with us about three years ago.

And AJ, if you want to add to that, you can.

Yeah, thanks, Mark, and thank you for the question, Trusty Peterson.

I I think what's important with that is so um every about five years we go through a facilities master planning process and and have a facilities master plan document that a document that uh Mr.

Johnson actually puts together getting lots of input from all of our building principals or uh whoever is kind of the the top dog at various sites we have to get feedback on the facilities within that.

There's actually quite a bit of detail, and so when those number those tenant improvement numbers come out, they come out because of there's a lot of little projects that are kind of listed within there.

And I think what what Mark is describing is that oftentimes you know, we we may have money uh, you know, a hundred thousand dollars set if I set aside for Sealagre elementary school, and we know that there are you know, maybe there's four little projects that have been identified at Sealager to just kind of major maintenance and just upkeep of the building, but then something may come up that ends up taking a bit of a priority over some of those other things, and they can be pushed off a bit.

So it it gives there is um intent to take care of various projects, and I think Mark over the years has done a good job, and especially using um third-party consulting to come in and do ratings on our facilities and and where our needs are, um, but certainly with some flexibility.

If if there is something that comes up that just really ends up being a higher priority than maybe um maybe we had planned on replacing carpet in uh four rooms, but then there was a situation, a plumbing situation or something that we really had to take care of for, for example, in Carson High School, as we've done a lot of this work, we've um found that there is uh a sewer line that runs right under the middle of Senator Square because that used to be a street, and so when that was all enclosed, nobody thought, you know, if we have problems with that sewer line, that's gonna be a real issue.

And so we've actually had to dig up the floor of Senator Square in certain parts as we've done some of these projects because we've realized that there's there's pieces of it that were just failing and so kind of unexpected but we've taken care of those things but it was not a part of um the original tenant improvement plan for Carson High School.

Yeah we list all I I like I'll sit down with that master plan I go here's what Borderwick wanted and I'll list five of them and so I come back to the master plan and I go AJ where are all those he just added them all on tenant improvements for me so I was able to do those unless we couldn't do them and something else came up.

Thank you.

Trustee Roberts Justice Ramirez.

No additional questions I was also going to ask on the auditorium I guess people have been asking me how we can justify you know considering bringing another uh facility if our enrollment is going down so but thank you um trustee wardner for addressing it all right um yes thank you and then um you answered my questions in my email so I I appreciate your time all right this is an action item so at this time I would look for a motion I'll I'll make a motion I move that the Carson City School District Board of Trustees approve the revised capital improvement plan and the opening balance fund 300 capital projects for fiscal years 2027 to 2031.

Do I have a second second all right so I have a motion by Trustee Varner second by trustee Peterson is there public comment seeing none please uh all in favor please say aye aye opposed motion passes unanimously thank you very much thank you yes thank you thank you for your time uh closing agenda item number 10 moving on to agenda item number 11 this is discussion and possible action on the final budget including adjustments to the tenant budget for the Carson City School District for fiscal year 2026-2027 including adoption of the resolution approving the final budget and transmit a letter this is for possible action and this is also presented by Spencer Winwood.

Thank you madam present members of the board um to start off with we just have a graph here that shows our expenditures by funding just kind of give you an idea of the size of each fund and its relation to what we do as you can see the general fund I think uh my eyes are are betraying me but I believe that says 61% uh of all our spending is the general fund that that's why we spend the bulk of what we talk about is the general fund because it is by far the largest it's for the board has the most uh exertion over and and a lot of our other funds uh very much so mimic what the general fund does as well um others of note the bond fund you can see is seven percent that one fluctuates a lot from year to year depending on the size of our of our major projects we have going on uh for example I believe last year this time that was 11% because we had a little bit uh larger summertime projects budgeted in uh debt service is uh eight percent or six percent I apologize my eyes are not what they used to be spent it's winward would you like a copy of the project sure if you'd be so kind yep hopefully a copy and the restaurant lighting here will be a good combination so yeah not much better but um and again special education is about 11% of of the expenditures and again all of these funds for the most part are are the bulk of what we do is student facing uh any questions regarding the fund breakdown.

If not, I'll go ahead and uh move on here to kind of the the bottom line of the general fund uh in a nutshell.

So our total revenue is 80 point one million uh for reference, I believe that's 700,000 less in revenue than what we had in our budget this time last year.

General fund expenditures is 84 million uh you can see that that is deficit spending.

Our budgeted expenditures are larger than revenue.

That's pretty traditional for the way we budget and conservative TAC that we have been following.

For reference, that 84 million is 1.4 million less than our final budget last year.

That leaves our deficit, our taxation deficit is what we like to call it at 3.9 million.

That's found on page two of the budget on the ending fund balance explanation.

We subtract our contingency from that to get our structural deficit because we do have a million dollars budgeted for just in case.

We haven't used that for several numbers of years, but it's there for just in case.

Makes our projected deficit 2.9 million, about 100,000 less than the tentative budget that we presented in April.

Main difference for that is we've had some more resignations.

Typically, those who who resign are on the higher end of our salary schedule.

And as we adjust that down to kind of an average cost, there are some salary and benefit savings because it's not very common that we have a 25 to 30 year employee retire, resign and replace them with someone of the same age.

They might have zero experience to five years experience, 10 years experience, and so the costs are typically less, and that represents that small reduction in our projected deficit.

Any questions regarding this?

And again, I think I feel like given that the uh direction that the board has given us, I feel that 2.9 million deficit is kind of in the range of where you wanted us to be, and also um sorry, look at a question, President Walt.

Well, because it really wasn't too, it's not gonna be 2.9.

It would actually be 3.0.

3.9 is if we spend all a million of our contingency.

Oh.

So 2.9 is what it would be if we didn't spend any contingency, which we have not used that for as long as I've been here and several years before then.

Okay.

All right, thank you for the clarification.

This next slide actually will kind of give a little bit of insight to to where our budgets, our deficits have been budgeted to our actual.

I just looked at the last three years.

I didn't include this year because it's still in progress.

Uh, but FY23, our budgeted deficit was 4.4 million, and our ending fund balance was actually a surplus of 2.3 million, 6.7 different million difference.

FY24, our budget deficit was 4.2 million.

Um our addition ending fund balance was just shy of 500,000 for a 4.7 million difference, and then FY25, our budget deficit was 2.1 million, and this would be our final budgets.

These numbers come right out of our audit comparing the final budget to actual spending, and our addition ending fund balance was just over a half million.

So FY23, 24, I clearly that I think there's some COVID monies in there that have affected that to skew it out of what I would consider normal.

FY25, I think is fairly normal, with the exception of our vacancy savings has been dwindling as we've filled our positions more so.

However, that shows you that we budget, you know, given that conservative tax that we use in our budgeting, we typically have that budgeted deficit, but that doesn't mean that we're gonna spend all of it.

Um this year, our our budgeted deficit was a little bit higher because we had that that planned spend down, and uh it's a little bit too early to tell uh where exactly will land with that.

Um this next slide just shows a quick graph that shows the breakdown of where we spend our our money, and this is general fund again.

This is pretty indicative of our other funds might be slightly different because we have some that are 100% salary and benefits, we have others that are no salary and benefits because it's a very targeted fund.

But this gives a good representation of our spending, and all told salary and benefits is 88% of our spending.

That's one percent higher than last year.

Last year we were 87%.

Um again, our people are our best, our best asset, our best investment, and this shows we continue to take care of them.

Also shows we're we're not skewing, we're not uh trying to shift costs to contractors or to supplies or spending money in ways that are abnormal, where that salary and benefits has actually gone up a little bit as a percentage of our expenditures.

Um, looking at the funds uh from the tentative budget to now, uh, the all funds, well, all funds basically that typically the general fund and the special education fund have had some slight updates to the salary and benefit and costs uh based off of our enrollments.

General fund, again, we had that slight um change in our deficit reduction of our deficit by about 100,000.

Again, that's directly from salary and benefit uh reduction in cost due to resignations.

No changes in our transfers from our general fund to our other funds.

This shows our general fund expenditures by program.

So if you can see regular and support services make up the bulk of that spending, uh cold curricular extracurricular is about one percent, that's a really kind of a small percent overall.

However, sometimes we get some higher community focus on those types of items.

Um alternative ed is about three percent, and that also includes English psychological language education.

Um, vocational tech and technicals about 4%.

And again, one of the larger items here is a fund transfers of general fund to cover special education costs.

And that looks kind of large.

Keep in mind that the state does give us some general fund money that is intended to be spent on special education.

That's approximately approximately 6.7 million.

We do end up transferring more than that.

Um other funds are uh two funds 206, 207, 208, which is our our PFC PCFP funds, pupil centered funding plan, and that's our English learning, gifted and talented education and net risk.

Those budgets are unchanged from the tender budget.

And our funding for this year is the exact same as it was last year.

Funding for that is typically uh calculated off an October 1st data, so October 1st of this year is what will set our funding for next year, is how that's calculated by the state.

Adult education funds, which is our adult education, prison education, um, no changes of that, and and every dollar we have available has been budgeted, which is typical.

Our state grant funds, these are managed through e-page and they're self-augmenting, so they've changed through the year based off of new data that we get.

If there's new funding that's made available to us, we're able to augment those budgets without doing a full budget augmentation like we would in December.

And so as we get more data on those, those will change and are managed through e-page through the state.

No change in this budget from the tentative budget for for our state grants.

Uh, special education funds, nominal changes to our benefits and salaries.

Um, I did keep our our uh budgeted transfer that are the same, even though there's a little bit of cost savings in there, just because that might change as we know as we go a little bit, and it's it's safer to keep that.

That just because we have budgeted that transfer out doesn't mean we have to transfer the whole amount.

Our local grants, 270, no changes.

That one also can be self-augmented if there are um unforeseen revenue sources that come throughout the year, and our federal grants 280 are unchanged from our our tentative to our final budget.

These are also managed through ePage and can change as we get more data.

A lot of what we have now is based off of the best information we have, and as summer rolls through in the beginning of next year, we have more data available to us for those.

Our nutrition fund, there's no changes to our budget from our tentative to our final budget.

We've estimated our revenues of flat.

We could have changed those a couple things.

We do know is we have three schools that will not be CEP next year, and we are uh proposing a meal price increase.

Uh so the schools that are going from CEP based off of our Carson Middle School information this year.

Uh, our number of meals served did go down when CEP designation went away, and we would anticipate something similar for the three schools that are changing.

Sorry, Spencer, what's CEP?

I'm sorry, CEP is community elegy provision, and that is a method that uh that we have available to us where we can take any students that directly certify for another federal benefit like SNAP, TAMF, Medicaid.

Uh there might be a couple others I'm not naming.

If they if they are eligible for one of those, are the automatically are eligible for free and re for free lunch.

So depending on the percentage of those, if there's enough of them at a specific school, and the schools can be pooled together, we can join two or three schools to whatever's the most advantageous for the district, then we can say every one of those schools eats for free.

So for example, if we had a school that was at 65% CEP elevation eligible, then we get 65% of the funding for that, but everyone eats for free.

So as that percentage reduces, and it can go down to I believe the threshold now for for the federal level is 33 or 25%.

I can't remember what it just changed to.

We could still make it a CEP school, however, it is not anywhere near fiscally responsible to operate a food service program on 33% of funding.

That means that everyone could eat for free, but we are making up the difference for the rest of those.

So the schools that a lot of this data runs on a four-year cycle, and some of these have been using data that's from kind of the COVID era.

And so as that's rotated out, and we update those numbers, they've gone from kind of the high or mid-60s to below 50, and it doesn't make sense financially to continue those CEP programs.

An important thing to remember is any student is still available to apply for free or reduced lunch, and if they are if their income falls on the guidelines, they still do receive that.

It just means it's not automatically done.

So those those three elementary schools, it'll be different.

We're expecting probably some reduced meals served, and uh we are um proposing a meal price increase.

So we'll get a little bit more into that over the next couple of slides.

Um this here just shows kind of a quick graph of our elementary, middle, and high school costs.

The blue bar represents the average cost of one lunch and one breakfast per day.

And this is kind of a to give a benchmark.

We know that a lunch costs more than a breakfast, but on average, each meal costs is four dollars and forty cents to prepare, or four dollars and twenty cents.

So it's eight dollars and forty cents to prepare two meals for a student per day.

That includes our food costs, our direct labor costs, and our overhead costs.

The red bar equals the the amount of reimbursement we get from federal sources for a free meal.

So you can see that's just over $7.

So even on a meal that uh we're getting all the money that we can from feds for a student who qualifies for free lunch, we're subsidizing that because it costs more for us to produce it than it does for the feds to give us.

And that you could be a lot of theories behind that.

We're doing the best we can to reduce our costs.

Our food costs are phenomenal as far as food waste is pretty minimal.

Our per plate costs is managed very well by Chartwells, our food services partner.

Um, they get a lot of bulk pricing that's not wouldn't be available to us otherwise, it keeps that food cost down.

Uh but despite all of that, it still costs about $4.20 to prepare a meal, including food, labor, the paper plate that's served on everything.

Um, so you'll notice that blue bar is the same for elementary, middle, and high school, and the red bars are same for elementary, middle, and high.

The green bar, this is the amount that we would get for uh a full pay student if they were to pay our current rate of a breakfast and a lunch.

And as you can see, our elementary cost is slightly lower, and our middle schools is slightly lower, and our high school, which has the highest prices, brings in the most money, but that's also where we serve the least mills.

So, just looking at really quickly at the difference from the green bar to the blue bar, that's why we we are proposing increasing prices to bring that a little bit more into balance.

Uh, per mandate, we do have to increase our lunch prices by 10 cents because of where our numbers fall.

The department of agriculture would require us to do at least that much.

We're proposing a slightly higher increase because as we look at the difference of what we're bringing in per meal on a full pay meal versus the federal reimbursements, we're just trying to equalize that a little bit without also making it too.

We want to keep in mind the cost of families as well.

So if you look at this, here's a some prices of local uh northern Nevada school districts.

Uh, what I have in the Carson column is our proposed amount.

This is what we would be changing to.

I also provided each of you a handout that shows our current prices and the uh gray squares on the right, the upper one shows our current prices, the lower one is the proposed prices, the proposed prices match this.

As you see, we are aren't uh changing breakfast at all.

We're keeping that the same, and we're proposing to a 50 cent increase for lunches for elementary and middle and a 25 cent increase for lunch at the high school level.

Uh, if you look at what our proposed pipe prices are compared to current year prices for Churchill, Douglas, Elko, and Washo, uh, we're very much in line with what they are.

Especially if you look at the districts that are very similar to us in size.

I didn't include any data from counties that are able to be 100% CEP designated like Lion.

Uh, none other schools there, they all have free lunch, so they don't really have a per meal price to compare with.

And there's a handful of districts that are able to do that in the states.

That's largely based off the demographics of their populations that are different than ours.

Um, I do know I don't have data on what uh the the proposed prices.

A couple of the districts said they are they are weighing increase in their prices.

Um said they were thinking a 10 to 15 cent raise, but they didn't have anything set in stone at the time.

I was able to get this data.

Um so comparing this in particular with Elko, which is very similar to us in both demographics and and uh student population size.

Our our lunches are right in line and slightly lower than what elco has.

Any questions up to this point?

I do.

Um within the final budget, is the proposed price increase for lunch built into what we're going to be voting on.

It is.

Keep in mind our revenue for the tenative budget is the same as this because we anticipate a slight increase in revenue, but we also know that we have some schools that will be losing that CP designation, and we're anticipating a loss in revenue from that.

So we've kept it flat based off of kind of those two balancing each other out.

Uh as we get a couple months in the school year, we'll have a better idea of how those are trending on if we're if our revenues high, estimated high or low, and would be making adjustments in our December budget for that.

So the answer to that is yes, but no, because we didn't actually change our revenue based off that because we kind of have two mitigating factors that wash each other out.

Um moving on to the next slide here.

So this shows uh and the graphic up there is exactly what's on the lower box of your handout, what our proposed prices would be for FY27.

And this is the the data we've generally present every year that we've offered an increase or not had an increase.

So this slide kind of looks the same as previous years, and again, we're we could raise all meals, we're kind of keeping breakfast the same, um, but bringing our lunches, which again, all our data is kind of assuming each meal is four dollars and twenty cents each to generate, but we know lunch typically costs a little bit more, that's why we are focusing our our increases on lunch prices.

So, really quick to um just for the public is not it is knowledge as well.

We don't look at generating revenue from the nutrition fund.

Right now, we just kind of look at we hope to have a break-even, right?

I would I would do backflips and cartwheels if we broke even.

Thank you.

Because the more that you speak, you say revenue, revenue, revenue.

I think it could be a perception that oh, we're making money, you know, by increasing this, we're gonna be making money, and now it's going to be a revenue generating fund, which that isn't the case at all, because like you said, you would be doing cartwheels if we ever broke even.

Yeah, and a way to think of that is um, you know, we have to transfer money from the general fund in this next budgeted year to cover that.

That's money that can also be used in the classroom.

Uh, you know, both are good things, right?

Making sure our kids are proper nutrition and making sure that we keep our classroom as funded as best as possible.

So why we're raising this is to to hopefully minimize the amount of money that we have to transfer from the general fund.

It's you know, in no way, shape, or form do I anticipate this would get us to a breakeven point.

We're just trying to reduce that that transfer amount, which for this budget that transfer from general funded nutrition is estimated at $600,000.

Thank you for the clarification.

All right.

Um other funds in the budget.

Kind of moving on.

We talked a lot about fund 290.

You know, that's the past couple years we haven't had to have that transfer, and that's why there's a little bit more information this year.

Um, our capital project funds and bond funds, fund 3360.

We've kind of talked about it pretty good length with uh the CIP and our budget matches the amounts on our CIEP that we discussed in the last budgeted item or last board media item excuse me, and our debt service fund, which is um, you know, essentially the money to pay the mortgage, if you will, that's um property taxes that are collected to cover our debt servicing costs.

Uh it's in very good condition, and there's no changes from our tentative to our final budget for that fund.

Any questions up to that point about any of the funds that we've discussed?

I think we'll wait until every head that I can see.

I'm getting a no, but there's a couple of I can't see, so yeah, we'll wait.

We'll, if you'll continue and then we'll wait.

All righty.

So items to keep in mind for our December amended budget.

And again, that's that's kind of the natural cycle.

By December, we have a pretty good idea of what our enrollment is.

We know what our staffing is.

That's a really great time to make any adjustments we need to to our budget, and by statute, that's the last chance that we have to do it without doing another um special budget hearing.

Um, so any changes to enrollment if it happens to come in higher, lower than what we've estimated.

And again, we we generally estimate pretty conservatively in that because it we don't want to estimate too high enrollment, it makes budgeting easier, but then if the students don't materialize, the dollars don't materialize and it hurts slightly later down the road.

Um, so but any any enrollment changes uh could affect that.

Um our actual staff costs and we have a pretty good idea of what it's gonna look like at that point in the year versus what we have estimated now.

Um, our nutrition fund, we could see some swings one way or the other, or we could have hit the nail right on the head and there might not be much change.

Uh but that's something definitely to consider for our December budget and any other fund analysis as we go throughout the year and anything that would potentially change that that comes up.

Those are those are items that we'll take into consideration as we move from this phase of the budget cycle to the amendment phase, which happened takes place the end of December.

Any questions or comments regarding the budget?

Before we go on to questions, would you explain uh to the board?

You um before the meeting, you gave us a revised page five.

Um can you address the changes that were made to what we received in our packet to the changes that you uh made.

Yes, my apologies.

So page five, the data that the data that's really important on page five is uh our enrollment data.

And so the way our budget document is set up, the ten of the budget has one page and the final budget has another page of that's exactly the same by mistake as I was proofing that I looked at the tentative page and it all looked the same.

There is no change in our budget from the tentative enrollment projections to the final.

It in the uh copy that was submitted in the budget packet, it does did have some old data on the final budget.

So I gave you a correction for page five that shows the same data that was on the tentative uh budget for enrollment, and that is the amount that all of our revenues are generated off of is that uh weighted enrollment amount that's in the bottom of section E on that page, and the um I provide that to you.

The copy that will go to taxation will include that page.

There are a couple other typographical and date errors that will be corrected in the copy given to taxation, but no other material changes.

Thank you.

We'll go ahead and start with Trustee Ramirez.

Do you have any questions?

I do, thank you.

On page number six, I noticed that um there was an entry for student activities fund.

Um, can you please explain that?

I compared these um uh final budget with the version that you gave us in April, and that's one of the differences that I noticed.

And again, that would be for student activities fund.

Sorry, let me get to page six here really quickly.

Page number six.

So there was in the in the April budget, there was a calculation error that was pulling the beginning fund balance into that.

Technically, our current year of in this current the FY26 budget, we have budgeted to spend all of our student fund amounts, taking the ending fund balance of that down to zero.

We know in our life that really won't be the case, but it should match what we have based off of our current budget, which the ending budgeted fund balance, which is also used as our estimate is zero.

So that amount was removed out of the final budget.

And the tentative it did include uh an estimated amount for that.

Um, but it's taken back to match what our this year's budget is, which the beginning the ending fund balance as budgeted for student activity funds is zero, and so now the final budget matches that making the beginning balance also zero to match this current year's ending fund balance.

Does that make sense to you?

Thank you.

Just your I don't really have a question.

Um what I wanted to say is that I appreciate uh your efforts and uh superintendent fueling's effort in bringing the budget into line with what it was requested by the board.

I know it was not an easy process.

I know it was very difficult, and a lot of people were affected by the uh reductions that had to be made.

So um I think the process has been as transparent as we could make it for the public.

We've had a lot of meetings um about the budget, and a lot of questions have been raised, and you guys are always able to answer them either before the board meeting or during the board meeting.

So I just kind of wanted to thank you guys again.

It's not perfect, but it's uh the best we could do, I think, at this time.

So thank you.

Thank you.

If I may mention one thing, I totally forgot to start out with this.

One difference from the tentative to the final budget is uh taxation requested that we remove funds that have no activity in them, so meaning we had no balance in the in the two fiscal years ago in this fiscal year or in next fiscal year.

So I did remove the new Nevada plan fund, uh, the class size reduction fund, the teacher school supply reimbursement fund, and the alternative compensation fund.

Those had no activity in them, so they are not presented in the final budget.

Those still do remain viable funds, and should we have a budgeting need, we they they are still in existence and they could show up back on our budget if there were any budgeted uh activity in there.

We don't anticipate that in the in the near future for that.

So if you notice your page numbers, you know, for example, the CIP used to be pages 6061, now it's pages 51 and 52, because those zero dollar and activity funds have been omitted per taxations request.

All right.

Um I just want to say thank you and um thank you for addressing um the questions that I had today, um, within your email as well, and uh the time, you know, that you've put into it, and I appreciate um how timely you are in addressing the concerns and the questions um that the board you know gives to you.

So I know you know, kind of diverts your day probably a little bit.

So I appreciate that in the time and the thoroughness.

And I do want to say thank you to AJ or Superintendent Fueling and yourself as well, um, for bringing, I know it's been tough.

The decisions haven't been easy, but um we did ask for 2.9 and you were able to do that.

So I appreciate that, and we hope next year.

Even better.

Yes, go.

So again, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, seeing no um additional questions.

I'll go ahead and this is an action item, so I'll go ahead and take a motion to approve the budget.

I'll make it.

I move that the Carson City School District Board of Trustees adopt the final budget for fiscal year 2026 to 2027 by approving the resolution and transmittable letter and further instruct the chief financial and operations officer to file the necessary documents to comply with NRS chapter 35 354.

Do I have a second?

I'll second that.

Alright, so we have a motion by Trustee Roberts, a second by Trustee Clapham.

Public comment.

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, we'll close agenda item number 11 and go to agenda item number 12.

This is approval of the consent agenda.

This is for possible action.

Have you all had time to review the consent agenda?

Do you have any questions?

I do have a motion to approve.

Motion that the Carson City School District Board of Trustees approve the consent agenda as submitted.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Motion by Trustee Peterson, seconded by Trustee Varner.

Public comment.

Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes unanimously.

We'll go ahead and close agenda item number 12.

Move on to agenda item number 13.

This is for informational items for discussion only.

Did you all have a moment to look at it?

Any questions, clarifications, comments?

All right, seeing none, we'll close agenda item number 13.

Move on to agenda item uh number 14.

This is request for future agenda topics.

Does anybody?

All right, I have a few.

Sorry.

Alright, so as I had mentioned at the beginning of uh becoming president, I said I wanted to start looking at our policies and start updating them.

And we see that we do have some that are uh in need of update.

So I would like to start with then um we'll if we could we'll move start with policy section number one zero one one, which are objectives, and so I ask our superintendent how would we go about doing that?

So would we like and I'll I guess I'll ask legal counsel as well.

Do we bring what's written to a board meeting first, or can we review it now, knowing that it's going to be coming into and then bring the proposed changes?

Uh if individually and if you guys have uh changes you'd want to see, you can email them to uh Mr.

Sadler or Mr.

Fueling.

Um, it'll have to any policy that is actually changed will have to come for two readings.

But if you have something in mind beforehand as uh staff starts to look at it, you can you can reach out to them individually.

Okay, and if you could then too also CC me on the communication, just so we're all looking at it at the same.

So um, yeah, so uh policy section number zero one zero zero.

I believe there's six different policies within there, and it's on the objectives.

The last time I think that's some of them have been looked at was 2005.

Um, yeah.

So we'll be looking at that.

If you'll do some, and uh then we can discuss those and bring those changes.

Okay, the other one I had is if we could possibly get an update on the land acquisition that we acquired.

Yeah, I don't know that we all knew that.

Okay, number 0100, and it's on the objectives.

Yeah, so we have already done the bylaws, and so we're moving on to the next one on the objectives.

Okay, all right.

Anything else?

Okay, but before we adjourn, I just have to announce Go Knights go.

They swept it in four.

They won tonight to one.

So they are on to the Stanley Cup.

I'm sure that's at our jurisdiction.

Sorry, and uh at this point, we will go ahead and adjourn.

Thank you all.