I ask the members who are leaving the chamber to please do so quickly and quietly, and the final item of business is a member's business debate. I ask the members who are leaving the chamber to please do so quickly and quietly. Thank you very much, because we are in session. The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 11664, in the name of Collette Stevenson on protecting FCDO jobs in East Kilbride. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I would ask those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request-to-speak buttons, and I call on Collette Stevenson to open the debate around seven minutes. I am grateful to have the opportunity to lead this debate on the need to protect civil service jobs in East Kilbride. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, or FCDO, has had a presence at Abercrombie House for over four decades. Currently, there are around 1,000 people working there, and that has increased in recent years, and I very much welcome that. However, a few weeks ago, the Tory Government announced that the FCDO would believe in Abercrombie House. That is a hammer blow to East Kilbride, and it could, according to the UK Government's own figures, cost the town's economy £30 million. I am grateful to SNP, Greens and Labour colleagues for supporting my motion. It is sad that no members of the Conservative Party have done so, including those who live in and represent East Kilbride. I have raised the matter in the chamber before, and the Tories try to diminish it. What I am doing is standing up for East Kilbride in the face of Tory plans to remove 1,000 jobs from my constituency. Let me set out the context. Firstly, the UK Government's declaration on government reform commits to relocating jobs in areas of activity across Government to places including East Kilbride, so the Tories are even breaking their own policy commitments. After the announcement of the closure of the FCDO base at Abercrombie House, many people, including Tory politicians, said that it is no big deal since HMRC will be moving in, but HMRC has been based in East Kilbride for decades. Those are not new jobs for the town, and staff at HMRC have faced their own challenges with the Tories. In 2014, the UK Government announced that HMRC would be leaving East Kilbride and other towns across Scotland to move into regional centres. That led quite rightly to a huge backlash. Indeed, Conservatives MSP Graham Simpson called this move misguided. The PCS trade union launched its stay in East Kilbride campaign, backed by East Kilbride news and local politicians on a cross-party basis. Following the hard-fought campaign, we managed to keep HMRC in the town, so beggars believe that the UK Government will instead cut 1,000 jobs from East Kilbride by removing the FCDO. After its return, HMRC recognised that keeping a presence in East Kilbride made the best sense. I hope that today's debate, as well as all the concerns from staff which I will come on to next, will help the FCDO to make sense too. A big issue with the UK Government's announcement was the lack of respect shown to the workforce. I understand that there was no prior consultation with staff about the potential move, and reports suggest that trade unions were given just one hour's notice about the announcement. Local staff are upset about the decision, with one employee telling the press that they could not get any lower morale than there is at Abercrombie House just now, and saying that people are at rock bottom. I have spoken with FCDO staff who are worried about their future, and I have heard stories of people who have left jobs in Glasgow to work closer to home, and some who have even moved from HMRC, given the threats of it moving out of the town. The UK Government should have given the experiences of their staff some thought before seemingly rushing into this decision. Several servants were not the only ones caught off guard with the announcement, though. My understanding is that the FCDO has been in discussions with South Lanarkshire Council about a new site in the town, so the decision to abandon Eastgo Bride altogether left the council astounded. The whole thing seems to be ill thought through. The HMRC saga showed that politicians of different parties can and must work together when it comes to standing up for the areas that they represent. I have had productive conversations with the Labour leader of South Lanarkshire Council, Social Fagan, Labour MSPs Monica Lennon and Mark Griffin supported my notion. Conservative politicians, on the other hand, seemed to have lost their voice. After the department headed by the unelected Lord David Cameron made its decision, I wrote to Graham Simpson MSP and the other unelected Tory, Lisa Cameron MP, to ask if they stood by their previous remarks that FCDO must stay in Eastgo Bride. I also wrote to Alistair Dick, Secretary of State for Scotland, seeking assurances. I have received nothing back from any of them. I hope that Tory politicians have been able to reflect over the Christmas break. They must recognise the concerns not just from me, not just from the council, but from the local staff who carry out the Government's work. To sum up, the Tory UK Government's plans to close down the foreign commonwealth and development office in Eastgo Bride is a betrayal of the town. That has already caused unnecessary stress for many employees, and it could lead to millions of pounds of damage to the Eastgo Bride economy. With that debate, I hope to bring more attention to the reckless decision and to give a voice to the staff who feel as if they have been overlooked in this process. The UK Government must engage meaningfully with the workforce, trade unions and all interested local representatives. It must ensure that an impact assessment is carried out in terms of the workforce and of the potential harm to Eastgo Bride's economy. In my view, the UK Government must scrap the plans immediately and avoid a further broken promise to the people of Eastgo Bride. I pay tribute to my colleague Collette Stevenson for bringing this important motion. As she has set out the detrimental impacts of those proposals on her constituency, it would clearly be significant. We all support her in her efforts and the wider efforts from trade unions and others to get the UK Government to reconsider that decision. The reason that I want to speak today was to emphasise something more, which is the wider beneficial impact that the workers in the Eastgo Bride, the civil servants, the diligent, capable, focused and highly motivated people in that office have made not just in terms of Scotland's reputation as a good global citizen, not just in terms of diplomacy and building a more internationalist world and outlook, but also the lives that have been saved, the people that have been helped, and the significant contribution that has been made to supporting highly well-thought-of international organisations, whether that is the United Nations or the World Food programme or others. That is because the office in question today, when it was previously highly occupied by different staff members, as well as its current status as FCDO, has played a huge role in the last quarter of a century in making a global difference. For example, leading the world in tackling the Ebola crisis and in recent years in the last decade providing aid to the people of Syria and responding to other humanitarian crises elsewhere. The decision in 2020 by the current UK Government to end the Department for International Development was a mistake and I fear that there is another mistake being made here because, as colleagues will know, I served as a Scottish Government minister between 2018 and last year, 2023. Between 2018 and 2020 I had the great privilege of being responsible for Europe migration and international development and I can say that the number of staff that I met not just within the Scottish Government but within other organisations who began their careers in East Kilbride was a high amount. Indeed, when I worked in other roles in other departments, civil servants had begun their careers in East Kilbride. That shows the impact both in terms of the direct work that comes out of Abercrombie House and the impact that that makes on an international scale, but also in terms of the quality of civil servants and the beginning of civil servants careers, as well as all those who have worked at the office for some time, the impact that they make when they go on elsewhere in the civil service. East Kilbride is a strategically important workplace and that workplace will have a network within itself, it will have a culture and all of that would be detrimentally affected by dissipating and relocating the workforce. This place is important for East Kilbride, it is important for Scotland more widely, it is important for our civil service and it is important for the impact that it has made internationally. I think that it is important that we all and the other politicians consider those wider effects, as well as the mistake that would be made in terms of negatively impacting the people of East Kilbride if that decision is not reversed and the mistake by the UK Government is seen to happen. I will start by congratulating Collette Stevenson for securing this debate. She has mentioned me a few times and I will come on to that. I was speaking at a school that visited the Parliament earlier and I was telling the pupils how I first got involved in politics when I was at school a long time ago and while I was at school in 1980 a report came out. It was the Brandt report headed by Villy Brandt and that was all about international development and we learned about the north south divide. The message in that report was how it is important for developed nations to help less developed nations and that would benefit us all. I read that report, all of it. I supported that message and my views have not changed since. I have been a supporter of international development for more than 40 years. I have always felt a sense of pride that the UK's international development programme has been delivered from the town that I have represented as a councillor and MSP since 2007. If I have a frustration it is that DFID and now the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office reaches out to the world but does not reach out to its Scottish home very well. It has not really, to my mind, sold what a great story that has very well. Now in 2015, I think it was 2015, not 2014, the HMRC threatened to leave East Kilbride and go to Glasgow, so a similar situation. As we have heard earlier there was a campaign launched. It was called Stay in UK. I got involved in that. All parties got involved in that. We worked with the trade unions, I have not heard from the trade unions yet on this one, but that decision, I do not know whether it was a result of that campaign or something else, but it was reversed in January 2022. Of course anyone who represents the town must have been delighted by that as I was. The announcement by the FCDO at the end of last year that they were going to move out of Abercrombie House and go to Glasgow came as a shock. It certainly did come as a shock to me. I cannot stand here and say I was delighted about that. Of course I am not delighted. I would rather they stay in East Kilbride. It is a result of the lease and ending on the current HMRC building at Queensway House. That lease is ending, HMRC, yes, I certainly will. If a provider gets more time, thank you. I have been waiting all day to hear that story to start because we did the same school chat this morning. I did promise there would be a story. I would say to Graham Simpson that the PCS union that he refers to did comment in December that their members were given just an hour's notice of the decision before it announced on 7 December. It has been the Christmas period. People have had time off working, including trade union officials, so we might hear more this week. Does he recognise that giving an hour's notice for a plan that really is not a plan because there is no named location in Glasgow for the move? Does he not recognise that that is a really ropey plan and rather than have a go at trade unions for not saying more, we should be putting this back to the UK Tory Government for them to give a proper coherent explanation? I will be able to give Mr Simpson a good minute back for that. I am grateful for the intervention. The point that I was merely making is that I have not heard from the PCS. We did hear from the PCS during the campaign to get HMRC to stay in East Kilbride, so there may be good reasons why they have not been in touch, but I would encourage them to get in touch with everyone. That is what they should be doing. I will have to be much briefer than the previous intervention. I congratulate my colleague Collette on her passion for her constituency and for the jobs there, shared by her predecessor Linda Fabiani. I was also a regional MSP at that time when I was involved with the PCS union and met them about those closures. However, Mr Simpson, do you not recognise that that was around about 2014? Those jobs, both HMRC and the different jobs at that time, were held up as a jewel in the crown of why we should be staying in the union and a benefit of the union. It would be a tragedy if they became added to the long list of promises broken at the time of the referendum. That is an unfortunate intervention from Claire Adamson, because she shows precious little knowledge of what is actually going on here. There are no job losses suggested. In fact, there are going to be more jobs. The plan is not to get rid of jobs merely to move the jobs to Glasgow. Claire Adamson seems to be unaware of that. No, I am not going to take any more interventions unless I get loads more time. Mr Simpson, I appreciate that the member has been generous, but I think we are now at five minutes and six minutes, so I will give you an extra minute and a half. I think we need to respect the time. You are being extremely generous. The only contact from within the constituency that I have had, unfortunately, is the letter previously referred to from Collette Stevenson, which was frankly a stunt. I do not respond to stunts if Collette Stevenson and I am hearing lots of muttering from Mr Stewart actually. If Collette Stevenson at any point wants to know what I think about anything, all she needs to do is pop along to my office, which is on the same corridor as she is in. I do not respond to stunts like that, which is why I have not responded to her letter. She could have just come and spoken to me as she has done on many other occasions. Fortunately, I have spoken to the town's Conservative MP Lisa Cameron, who has not indulged in such antics. We have both been in discussions. Members should do me the courtesy of listening. Yes, Members, could we please allow the member who has the floor, Mr Simpson, to conclude his remarks? Thank you very much. We have both been in discussions with the FCDO. I have spoken personally to Minister Andrew Mitchell. We will work, and I am quite happy to work with Collette Stevenson if she wants to do it properly. We will work to do all we can to see if there is anything that can be done for staff locally. The key thing here is that staff, if they are to move, have to be treated properly. I have been involved in an office move myself. There are issues like parking, extra costs for transport, childcare. Can you work from home? Mr Simpson, please bring your remarks to a close. I will bring my remarks to a close, but at the end of the day, more people are going to be employed, but we have to work with the staff, and that is why I encourage them to get in touch. If they want to get in touch with myself, I would be delighted to hear from them. I think that there is more to go on this. Thank you. I now call Monica Lennon to be followed by Julian Mackay. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and happy new year to you and colleagues in the chamber, and, like others, I am grateful to Collette Stevenson for securing this debate. It feels like a debate, so I am grateful to Graham Simpson for taking some interventions. I will not repeat some of the things that have been said, because Ben Macpherson's thoughtful remarks have paid tribute to the workforce over many decades and made us realise that, yes, there are local impacts and local factors, but there is also a big global dimension to this, and we should remember the important internationalist values in work. I will remind colleagues that I am a member of the PCS Scottish Parliament group, and that is on my voluntary register of interests. Many of us recognise that there are important stakeholders including the trade unions, but do not wait to be approached, Mr Simpson. You can pick up the phone to workers as well. I am a central Scotland MSP, so I represent East Kilbride. I live next door in Blantyre. That is a big deal for us locally, and it is a real pity that we do not have unity, we do not have all the elected members locally. I suspect that Graham Simpson probably does feel this one, and we are in a different situation, but we find ourselves in an election year and perhaps people feel they cannot say what they really think. People are concerned about the UK Tory Government's announcement to close the foreign commonwealth and international development offices at Abercrombie House and to move those highly regarded civil service jobs out of East Kilbride, and that is the key thing that I want to focus on tonight, because it is a hard pill to swallow. The UK Tory Government did promise more FCDO jobs in East Kilbride, but instead they are moving them out of the town. At a time when the council and others are working really hard to think about the future of East Kilbride regeneration and to give people hope and confidence. As we have heard, Abercrombie House was first established in 1981, which happened to be the year that I was born. At that time, the expansion of the overseas development administration provided a massive boost to the area, giving East Kilbride residents access to stable and secure employment. At a time when communities across the central belt were suffering due to de-industrialisation and that chyrism. Before his days playing for the Scotland football team, Alan McCloist worked at Abercrombie House part-time while playing for St Johnston FC as one of the first 350 employees back then at the start of the 80s. In his words, he said, it was a massive boost for East Kilbride when that building opened. Abercrombie House is a central feature of the UK's economic and social life. Since he has been mentioned, I will mention him again. Councilor Joe Fagan, who is the leader of South Lancer Council, has said, quote, I am frankly astounded by the announcement on the FCDO, both the decision itself and the way it has been made. Those staff have been working and, in many cases, living in East Kilbride for decades and are important contributors to our local community and economy. The FCDO announcement has been made out of the blue, suggesting not just a failure of communication but also a lack of coherence in the decision-making process. The reasons given for the decision are also weak to say the least end, quote. I know that there are some people who work there who perhaps live in Glasgow and feel that this might not be too big a deal, too much of a move, but for others who live beyond East Kilbride and striving, for example, or in Stonehouse, they are worried about the commute, people with care and responsibilities. There are so many unknowns. Again, that one-hours notice before us went public, just before Christmas, does not sit easy with me. A few of those points have been made already, but I would say, as we come to the close, that there is time to unite and to put East Kilbride first, to put those jobs first, and to go back with questions to the Secretary of State for Scotland and other UK ministers who have got a plan that does not really add up. There is still time for Mr Simpson and for Lisa Cameron to get behind the community and to get behind the workers, because if we can speak with one voice, that will be much stronger. I will bring my speech to a close, and I thank all colleagues for their support and collect Stevenson for bringing it to the chamber. I thank collect Stevenson for bringing forward this debate on the relocation of the FCDO office out of East Kilbride. The decision, made abruptly by the UK Government, has far reached in consequences for FCDO workers, their families and, as we have already heard, the wider community in East Kilbride. Abercrombie House employs upwards of 1,000 staff members and is estimated to generate £30 million to the local economy. Its contribution to the social and economic fabric of the town, I do not think that we can understate it. The decision, made with no prior consultation, is deeply concerning, and the dedicated workers at Abercrombie House have been instrumental to the constituency, and this relocation not only impacts the hardworking staff but also creates a massive shortfall for local services, stores and the business community, triggering a chain reaction that adversely affects East Kilbride as a whole. East Kilbride was once touted as an example of UK Government investments outside large cities. That decision starkly contradicts the commitments made by both the foreign secretary and the cabinet secretary of levelling up as recently as 2021. The reasoning provided for the move, I believe, is weak and ill-founded. Mr Simpson said earlier that there would be no job losses in the FCDO, but I believe that that misses the key point—that those are jobs lost to East Kilbride. That decision is not a mere bureaucratic shift for those working at Abercrombie House. People's livelihoods are neither expendable or easily transferable. The relocation of the office forces workers to deal with the choice of working further from home, changing their job around the most extreme circumstances, potentially having to give up their job. Not all workers have access to a car, and moving to and from where they live by car or by train represents another cost to workers during a cost of living crisis, potentially extra childcare costs, longer travel and therefore longer working days. For those who work flexibly due to caring responsibilities, disability or other personal circumstances now have a real dilemma. Shifting those jobs outside of East Kilbride unfairly burdens workers and it is disrespectful to them to assume that those dedicated workers can seamlessly transition to an office in Glasgow. A worker wishing to remain anonymous is quoted as saying, "...it's going to take 40 minutes each way into town and back, which as to your working day. There will be childcare costs involved in that. There will be train and bus fares. Although the FCDOs say that they will cover them for three years, that's not good enough and nobody wants to move." Leveling up has been touted as a pivotal element in the UK Government's pledge to reduce regional disparities and promote local economies. The closure of the FCDO office in East Kilbride directly contradicts those commitments. It sends an alarming message about the UK Government's dedication to regional development and calls into question the promises that it has made to Scotland until very recently. The same UK Government that claimed to be investing over £2.4 billion in Scotland to empower local communities to drive innovation and enhance economic opportunities is now undermining its own commitment to addressing geographic inequalities. Moving valuable jobs away from communities, particularly at the expense of the people of East Kilbride, contradicts the very principles that the Government says it supports. It raises questions about the sincerity of its efforts to promote opportunities in all regions. It is as recently as 2021 that the UK Government made a commitment to sending an additional 500 workers to the facility and now we have this decision instead. We should join together and strongly advocate for the preservation of the jobs, expertise and valuable contributions that are made by the workers at Abercrombie House. I reiterate my disappointment and frustration with the UK Government's abrupt decision to relocate the FCD office out of East Kilbride. The repercussions are keenly felt within the community and cast out on the UK Government's commitments to levelling up. I urge the UK Government to reconsider and reverse this ill-advised decision, emphasising the need for a renewed commitment to the workers of Abercrombie House and East Kilbride. I pay tribute to all the members who have made powerful contributions to the debate today, and to Collette Stevenson, the member for East Kilbride. No-one can fail to be impressed by her passionate advocacy for her constituents in East Kilbride and the strength of feeling that she has expressed over the issue that she has brought to the chamber today. Of course, the strength of feeling was also clear from many other members who spoke in the debate as well. I should perhaps just say at the beginning of my remarks that I was raised in Clarkston, neighbouring community at East Kilbride, and I remember as a youngster finding it quite unusual but also refreshing that there were hundreds of jobs just up the road working on international development. On behalf of the UK Government, of course, this was prior to devolution as well. I am aware of the presence of those jobs and the impact that they have had on East Kilbride over many decades, and I remember that well from where I was growing up. As others have said, just to look at the history of the jobs there in the UK Government's department, on Monday 23 November 1981 Lord Carrington, the then foreign secretary, officially opened Abercrombie House in East Kilbride. It began life with around 350 staff, and at the time it was built as part of an expansion of the overseas development administration, which was part of the foreign office, to create jobs in East Kilbride. It went on to be the joint headquarters of the Department for International Development, known as DFID, before the merger of the FCO and DFID. More recently, in November 2021, the FCDO warmly celebrated the 40th anniversary of Abercrombie House, and the UK Government used that opportunity to reaffirm and cement the relationship with its staff and East Kilbride. Indeed, the foreign secretary at the time, herself, Liz Truss, is quoted as saying that our 1,000 staff in Scotland can proudly celebrate 40 years of Abercrombie House, having been at the forefront of making the UK a world-leading diplomatic and development superpower. Liz Truss went on to reinforce that and said, and I quote, that she was looking forward to building on Abercrombie House's impressive history, giving a bold commitment to, and I quote again, redeploy a further 500 jobs to the joint HQ by 2025. She stated that this was part of the UK Government's levelling up agenda, so that is why I fully understand and support the dedicated civil service staff at Abercrombie House today and accept and appreciate why they are so perplexed by the announcement. Only two years later, from what I was stating earlier on in terms of those quotes, the UK Government has bruneged on that commitment to the staff and the town, reversing that decision to build on their impressive history and moving all of their jobs in the entire department now out of Abercrombie House, according to the plans, and out of East Colbride. As many members have echoed, towns are much more than simply buildings and spaces, they represent the communities, and for many civil servants, Abercrombie House is the beating heart of that community of East Colbride. Also on learning about the 40th anniversary celebrations, as Monica Lennon did, I also noted that the famous son of East Colbride was one of the very first employees of Abercrombie House, and of course that is Scotland's former footballer and the commentator Allie McOist. At the 40th anniversary, he paid tribute by saying, and I quote, it's amazing to think that 26 of the people I worked with, with them, when Abercrombie House first opened, are still there. He noted that that was a massive boost for East Colbride at the time, and that he still remembered his first day and how proud his parents were that he got the ODA job, to quote him. Of course he's not wrong, it is an embedded important part of the fabric of the town of East Colbride and presents high quality employment opportunities for local people, as many members have said, as well as having a very significant positive impact for local businesses and the economy. Again, as others have said, and of course there is that point that the FCDO itself stated that, again, has been made, that it generates an estimated £30 million per annum for the local economy in East Colbride in a wider region. Again, this is not just about numbers or roles or just simply locations, it's about people, and today we are all thinking about those who have been dedicating their work in lives to the delivery of mainly overseas development assistance to those around the world in greatest need. Directly from East Colbride to the last four decades, Ben MacPherson eloquently paid tribute to the work carried out there, helping people around the world, as Monica Lennon and Gillian Mackay did in terms of the contribution of the staff who work there and their wider work that they carry out. So the town can be rightly proud of its role and the impact in the lives of some of the world's poorest and most marginal people. Of course, as a Government we place a great deal of importance on Scotland being a good global citizen and central to our own commitment to raising Scotland's international profile and providing that assistance as our international development fund, which supports and empowers our partners in Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan to the tune of £15 million per annum. So the staff there do certainly carry out vital work, and I very much fully sympathise with those affected by the unexpected news. The decision that was made by the UK Government to relocate the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to a new location in Glasgow was not a decision that the Scottish Government was aware of. As Governments, it is important to say that we should be working with our colleagues and trade unions to reach fair and reasonable decisions that respect the legitimate interests of workers. Of course, at times that may mean difficult decisions as well, but the principle of no surprises is an important one. Given the level of surprise and subsequent discontent in the news, I would join others in the chamber today, as the Scottish Government would do more widely, to urge the UK Government to follow the Scottish Government's more progressive approach and engage fully in meaningful conversation with both the staff affected as well as the local community. In the meantime, as I conclude my remarks, the Scottish Government continues to support East Kilbride. We have committed £500 million over 20 years to the Glasgow City Region Deal, the First Deal in Scotland and the largest Scottish Government investment commitment across the wider deals programme. £106 million of that investment has been allocated to economic infrastructure activity located in South Lanarkshire as part of that city region deal. In closing, I want to extend my thanks to the committee's workforce at the FDCO in East Kilbride and encourage the UK Government to work with them closely and the local community to ensure that any decisions that are made take full account of the views of the workforce, the local community and the impact of the local economy. 42 years of service for the people of East Kilbride must be respected.


Happy Monday everybody. Hopefully have I enjoyed their weekend. Good to see you back Good to see you more good to see you Brian Chuck Mark how way good to see you Jean Bonnie everybody. All right. Well, listen, I Hate to be right. I really really hate to be right But did I tell you how does it look like what's going on the market today everybody? What are you guys seeing? Who'd you guys find? Can slow let me tell you something You know, this has been going on for years. I've been doing this for 25 years. They still say it Why do you even keep the stock market open? It is just I I've seen days before Christmas after Christmas Thanksgiving 4th of July look this day is I mean there is absolutely Nada, you're right Lita I mean, there's really nothing really going out there other than shorting maybe some ETFs here I mean we're looking at this UGA easy, but I told you this was gonna happen and You know, the kids are off from school not only today, but tomorrow also So it all you you have to work your schedule around it, but it is Absolutely dreadful out there that that is a good thing because you know what this is what you learned like hey, honey You like when you're planning a vacation you be like, oh, I know the perfect day that I can only go that will not Effect work and like what do you mean? I thought you could do the same in the world Yeah, but you know what there are certain days that I really like to go away and things I don't want to go away I don't want to go away on the most volatile times of the mark I want to go when it's on this, you know on a day like you said it today, so you know being russia shana and You know in all this the big Jewish holiday I told you it's a very big Jewish community here in New York and a lot of them do work on Wall Street and Not only that, but it's kids all from school. They took off on Friday Friday was kind of slow too and then going into today you see what to expect and I didn't tell you it was a triple it was a it was a Triple a triple whammy not only that, but it is the last day of the pay period So with the last day of the pay period which is today, which we would say why would last pay pay period Be on a Friday on a Monday wouldn't you say Friday because today is the 30th And it's the last day of the month so there's a lot of things that are coming to be a perfect storm So this is great though I really really happy that you guys were able to experience it now Does that mean that the market didn't all went up and things are dead? No We always find something that moves, you know, maybe we'll find maybe who you don't mean stocks But if you miss those two, you know listen, it's okay Don't trade don't throw good money after bad money because honestly these are days like days I find out in the past that I just ring up ticket charges and then you think yourself into a little bit of hole and everything else You should be here. You should observe You should have a good time and talk to each other educate watch your classes.  I will be away next week at at at our traders for a cause I just found out the Nigerian brothers good friends of mine They're gonna be there too presenting hopefully some of you guys are gonna be coming joining me I know some of you sent me an email again becoming so that'd be great, but if you guys could still make it, you know Make the opportunity. It's a great great event But anyway other than that, that's what that's what basically you do That's what you're trained for to do these events to learn and to wake up in the morning and just make your days pay So what do we got going on? I mean listen as of Friday I mean there were a couple of stocks the market did drop steadily steadily, you know, you had the TV IX that did move up You know on Friday had a little bit of a pop right there You'd see it right there. I brought the long-term chart there But um Uber just you know one thing I want to talk about that Uber trade the Uber just breaking all-time lows that is not a good sign at all and You know, let me tell you I own the stock and you know, it's funny. I was talking about this stock We had this conversation last week, you know regarding about You know, why would anybody want to sell a stock sell Uber when everybody's projecting to go to 80? And you know, I'm like well if you own the stock at $2 and you Steve Bayo's You know and all of a sudden, you know your stocks at 40. Why not sell it? You know, you got to remember a lot of these Insiders can't sell the stock for like minimum 30 days or something like that or the three months There's a restriction on it on the private placement. So, you know, listen, I was a huge fan on it Let me tell you I lost I lost not a lot I lost a little money on Uber because I was a very very big fan. I was looking forward to this company go public I thought the stock would be you have to see what happened with Lift but sure enough, thank God we got out of that thing.  Everybody talks about the winners Nobody talks about the losers and just kind of stressing this out regarding about this position It's like you want people right now or still hoping it'll go back to 44. What happens if it goes to 13, right?  Oh I train myself. Okay. Well, how's that working out for you?   Remember, that's why we that's what's Cybertrain University's motto When I did teach you how to teach you how to win we teach how to we won't teach you how to make money We teach you how to stop losing it. So anyway a couple of stocks Herald just brought up the AMD. I mean Yeah, I mean look at that. I mean did that really go down that much?  I want to took a huge hit and it's still breaking new lows and it's so funny We they were just talking about this the other day.  There are a couple of stocks that are moving We know about the m&k. Let me go through the watch list. I don't know what happened m&k had a I'm looking here There's been a huge iceberg order Hovering right around here. You could see it At a buck 70 it hit a buck 70 in pre-marker on eight o'clock You could see that guy sitting out there for 52,000 shares and it started backing off So I thought I thought the stock would probably be decent after we've been trading it for a while But um, no mercy on this thing april 24 down to two bucks You know, so we'll keep an eye on this one. It's been fun What else we got listen to ets the only things that are really moving Got a nice short going on this uga z But we all know about how to trade ets a lot of volume gotta be a little careful on those oil Another one another etf taking a little bit of a hit right here And I think the only one we've been really been showing this morning of any Significancy of a of a stock has basically been bed, bath and beyond. That's about it A bb pass 52 week lows found out was during pre-market session been My god, no mercy on that one blackberry, right? Wow, look at that one I guess it uh, did it break all time lows? It looks like it did right Yeah Not looking too good for blackberry You know what happens when you break an all-time low so so so ken abeem ben You you're right, but you're wrong. It wasn't 52 weeks. It's all-time lows and we all know when the stock breaks all-time lows You know where the next support level is everybody when you break an all-time low I was never a fan of 52 week highs and lows as much as some people pertain, but that's right mark zero exactly zero People like ah, it's it's listen. You know what? That's what goes down to a dollar But remember when you and and let me kind of let me give you a little tip of the day Let me give you a little education on this. Okay before we start getting ready to trade Do you know why when you break you know why everyone makes a big deal about When a stock breaks an all-time high and an all-time low, you know what the big concern is about that Does anybody remember that from class? Why is everyone a freaking out when it breaks an all-time low? Does anybody know Well on a ceiling right there's no roof. There is no support and the reason for that remember what makes support levels Where make support levels and resistance is buyers And sellers so now you're in uncharted territories So when you're in uncharted territories that means nobody No, there's no program trading. There's nothing no one owns it at that price. There'll be no one coming for your rescue Okay, you're just you're you're there by yourself. So whatever the day is going to Predict or pertain that's it. You're done So the big issue is when you break through that low, you're there by yourself There's no one there in history has owned this stock that will come to your rescue and you're screwed That's why people like and that's what causes a chain reaction Which makes these things just like breaking all-time highs you're in uncharted territories. Nobody owned at these prices People are sure it may they got to cover wherever it is So something one of the big things we always enjoy Uh, one last one a stock will just check with bonnie He wants me to check out this, uh rg and x trade so Uh, I spelt it wrong Rg and x So rg and x is up about six percent 700 shares bonnie Not what we're looking at at all Total waste of time. All right All right guys. So anyway, good luck today Um, to all my uh, jewish friends out there. I wish you all um, happy uh, russia shana And uh, in the meantime guys, let's be uh, just be very careful today last day to pay period holiday and also Uh, you know now it's a monday. So everything you got the a little triple witching right there They'd be very careful But if we see something say something and by the way for all the new members that are joining us today Listen, this is great. I'm glad you get to see, you know, you don't have to force something that's out there but um, make sure you talk to education advisors look listen and learn and uh, you know, like I said, we'll we'll You got you got a whole week to get to enjoy what the what to expect what a slow day is versus what a great day is All right, good luck everyone happy trading


Los Angeles is now the latest city to be placed under martial law. All residents are required to report to... Again, maybe stepping away from the last of us for a minute and let's talk about the real world and vaccine development. How do we decide which basket we put our eggs in? Maybe I think an answer to decide stuff. Where do we spend the money, I suppose? What sort of thoughts go into that? So, I mean, the most obvious starting point would think, where's the biggest burden of disease at the moment? Something like, say, smallpox was an amazing target to go for vaccination in an eradication campaign because it was killing a million or put more people a year at a time. They're aware that because of... there weren't any sort of non-human reservoirs for it. So, if you could eliminate it in human beings, you get rid of it from the world altogether. So, the fact that it was killing a lot of people, also it was a good target because it was possible to eradicate it altogether. That made it a superb target. In other sorts of cases, you can have something with a very high rate of deaths coming from it, something I'd say malaria, where it looks like a good target on paper, but there's a question of, well, if it's going to be carried by mosquitoes, if it's going to be stagnant water, whether mosquitoes can breed, is it really going to be possible to eradicate it as the Gates Foundation is? It kind of touts us as a possibility, but they haven't fully committed to it. Certainly, if you could do it, it would be fantastic. It looks like, well, it would be an amazing thing to do, and certainly the health benefits would be extraordinary. So, that's almost like the big ticket stuff, but going down the list, effectively what you want to know is, how deadly is the disease, how effective will the vaccine be, how long will it last? It's not complicated to do, but you can do mathematical modelling, effectively to ask the health question, well, how expensive is it to save a life through vaccinating people for this disease compared to anything else that we can do? And in terms of expense, I think that's an important one. I think smallpox is a good example, because the vaccine was relatively inexpensive. They managed to get the cost right down, and also you could tell if someone was infected or not. It was very clear from looking at them, whereas this case, it's not so clear in the first instance. It's a very important thing for these things. Again, certainly to roll out vaccines to countries that really, I mean, we call them low- and middle-income countries. What's the magic number, do you think, for the cost of a vaccine for it to be used and useful for everyone? Less than a dollar? Sorry, I'm not sure about that. No, okay, alright. I think a lot of it depends on who's going to be paying for it, so that something like, say, the polio vaccination campaign has been supported by the Rotary Club for ages, and people, they've been fundraising for this for many, many years. There's a global alliance for vaccines. Other people where they've received big donations, whether from governments or from private foundations. And at that point, it doesn't quite matter so much about what the cost is per vaccine. If the country where the vaccine is going to be deployed is not necessarily paying for it. So at a certain point, it has to be, well, it has to be cost-effective enough that somebody's willing to stump up the money. Ultimately, sadly, it comes down to cash. I'd really like my rifle back now. No, you have your pistol. I hope you know how to use that thing.


Okay, we're now going to play around with this online calculator that uses the KIA identity to project future CO2 emissions, and this identity, as we now know, uses the fact that CO2 emissions are going to be a product of various terms that contribute to emissions growth, population, GDP per person, relative economic growth, energy intensity, the amount of energy we can get for a given amount of money, and carbon efficiency, how efficient we are at producing energy in a non-carbon intensive manner. So the idea is that population, we can use demographic projections that, for example, have global population leveling out somewhere around 11 billion later this century. Projections of relative, that is per capita economic growth that as the world becomes more industrialized, as developing nations develop more industrial economies that we're likely to see an increase in relative economic expansion per person. Energy intensity in principle should decrease over time as we develop more efficient means of obtaining energy. We will decrease the cost in dollars for a given watt of power. And finally, carbon efficiency. As we switch over to less carbon intensive sources of energy, we will decrease over time the amount of carbon that we emit for each unit of power, say a terawatt of power. So we can calculate CO2 emissions trajectories as a product of these various terms. Now let's use the default values that are set in the calculator and do the calculation. And here we go. This red curve is the projected future carbon emissions given the values that we've chosen for the various terms. And the blue pluses here show historical values of carbon emissions. And so we can sort of see how our projection ties into the past historical trends. We can use a carbon cycle model that involves some assumptions about both the oceans and the terrestrial biosphere that calculates the changes in CO2 concentrations over time given this carbon emission scenario. And the red curve is what we're projecting for future CO2. By 2100, we reach about 700 parts per million. And you can compare that trajectory to various stabilization scenarios. The green curve shows what CO2 concentrations would be if we were to stabilize CO2 concentrations at 350 parts per million. The blue is 450 parts per million. And so on. The yellow is 750 parts per million, eventually CO2 concentration stabilizes at 750 parts per million in that stabilization scenario. So we can see how our projected emissions are comparing with various stabilization scenarios. And if we take this as sort of business as usual, these various assumptions about population GDP, energy intensity, and carbon efficiency, then we see that, in fact, will be well over the 750 stabilization scenario will already be at 700 parts per million at 2100 with CO2 continuing to rise. We can calculate accordingly the amount of carbon-free energy we would need given the assumptions of population, energy intensity. We can calculate how much carbon-free energy we would need to produce to meet our energy demands if we are to keep CO2 to the specified level. And so we see the amount of carbon-free energy that would be required in the various CO2 stabilization scenarios. And the red curve is the amount of carbon-free energy that we would need to produce.


Joining us for tonight's Your Health segment is Dr. Shelby Steward, Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine and Thoracic Surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. Doctor, thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. This is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. It's the deadliest of cancers and the numbers are just huge. Yeah, absolutely. And they continue to climb. So Lung Cancer is one of the largest killers of people due to cancer deaths that we have to date. And we all think of it in the context of smoking and we think that smoking is declining, but the number of cancers isn't. So there's a bit of a lag time. Because people smoke 10 years ago. Right. So most lung cancers are due to smoking. About 80% of our patients that have lung cancer do have a history of smoking. So certainly there is a definite connection. And although we have found that men in particular are decreasing their amounts of smoking, women are actually increasing their amount of smoking. Did not know that. Yeah. How about secondhand smoke? Oh, secondhand smoke is also a major risk factor to lung cancer. In fact, about 7,000 people die a year due to secondhand smoke. So these are people that are never smokers that have had either family members or people where they work that smoke on a daily basis around them that get lung cancer that we believe is due to their secondhand smoke exposure. And nonsmokers can get lung cancer. Absolutely. So the second most common cause of lung cancer is radon. Radon is a gas that is found naturally in our soil and it doesn't have a smell, it doesn't have a taste, and could be found in our households. But most of our homes we get tested for radon. But it still is the second most common cause for lung cancer, especially in nonsmokers. Okay. As a surgeon who operates on a lot of people with lung cancer, you'd rather see it early. Absolutely. How much of a difference does that make? So stage for stage, it makes a big difference in your survival. So if you, so lung cancer is given a stage when you receive your diagnosis, stage one being the earliest stage, stage four being the most advanced, meaning it has moved outside of the lung and into other tissues and organs. Patients that have stage one lung cancer are likely to have a five year survival of about 75 to 80%, meaning so in five years from now, if you are diagnosed with a stage one lung cancer, with treatment you're likely, most likely to be alive in five years and potentially cancer-free. However, once you start moving into stage two, stage three, that number drops significantly. Just from stage one to stage two, you drop from having a close to 80% survival to closer to just a 50% survival. So certainly finding lung cancer early makes a big difference in your survival. When you see one of those people, I don't know that necessarily requires surgery, I guess it does. How did they, how did it get caught? How was it discovered at stage one? So some people just find them incidentally. I have several patients that have come because they are getting a knee repair or a knee surgery and they get a chest x-ray and lo and behold they find a nodule on their chest x-ray or they're getting studies for some other reason. That's probably the most common way that people are found to have early stage lung cancer. And certainly now we have lung cancer screening which has made a big difference in identifying patients earlier. Who should be screened and how are people screened? So recently we found that there was a benefit to doing low-dose CT scans. So if you are between the ages of 55 and 80 years old, you have what we call a 30-pack year smoking history. So what that means is, so the amount of packs that you smoke per day times the number of years.   So 30-pack year smoking history ages between 55 and 80 and you have smoked within the last 15 years. So even if you quit 14 years ago, you still qualify because you're within that 15-year window to get lung cancer screening. And it's kind of similar to our mammograms, our colonoscopies, they're paid for by your insurance and they do decrease the lung cancer deaths because we hope to find more lung cancers early. You want to see everybody who smokes quit right now. Absolutely. And what happens? Because when we talk about it in the terms of the length of history and the how many packs a day, it seems like stopping today if somebody's a long-term smoker isn't going to pay a lot of dividends. It does because beyond just lung cancer, you have other health problems that are caused by smoking. Heart problems, COPD, and frequent lung infections and things like that. So even beyond your cancer risk, you do have benefits to stopping smoking. And it does decrease your risk of getting lung cancer if you stop. I've seen ads.  I mean, the way cigarettes are, it was a few packs, got you the scanning.  Right. We always worry about the risk of radiation, which is why for lung cancer screening, it's a low-dose CT. So the amount of radiation that you get for a low-dose CT versus a regular diagnostic CT, so if we are looking for something that we know may be there, the low-dose CT has 15 times less radiation than a normal, or five times less radiation than a normal CT scan. So less radiation for the low-dose CT scan, certainly there is radiation and radiation does have a risk. We believe that the benefit as compared to the risk is significant, especially in this group, right? So if you're in that high-risk group, you certainly will get a benefit from your CT scan beyond the risk of radiation from the screening. Let's take a phone call. White Comico County. This is Donna. Donna, thank you for calling. Go ahead. Yeah. Hi, doctor.  She had an oncologist at Fox Chates, which she was associated with Temple University, and she had brain surgery, gammon-knife surgery, and then she was put on a patruta. Her tumor, that was two years ago, doctor, her tumor is going from 3.7 to 0.7, and she has just started driving again like four months ago. Yeah. Thanks very much for the phone call. Best of luck. Yeah, that is one of the wonderful things that have happened in the last about five to ten years are the new medications that we have for lung cancer, and the hope is that we can make stage 4 lung cancer like a chronic disease, as opposed to what we used to say was a death sentence. So absolutely, these new medications, these immunomodulators where we use our own immune system to fight off the cancer, these targeted therapies that target the specific markers within the lung cancer tumors, they're amazing. And there are lots of stories where patients have these, you know, what we think are going to be terrible, terrible, I'm going to die tomorrow type of lung cancers, and that's not really the case all the time. And as certainly there are specific groups of people that are able to take these medications. But if you are in that group, it makes a significant difference. Let's get a phone call from Prince George's County. This is Jack. Jack, thanks for calling. Go ahead. Yes, good evening. For years and years, I was involved in going to conferences and things where there's lots and lots of smoking. I've never smoked myself. What is my risk? Good question. You wouldn't remember this, but airplanes just have a smoking section. Yeah. Hospitals. You can barely see through it. Sure. Surgeons, we're operating and smoking in the operating room. Crazy. I mean, yeah. So yeah, secondhand smoke is a real thing, but it's very hard to quantify what your risk is based upon the amount of, because you can't really say, does one person sitting next to you equal five people sitting two feet away from you? We don't know that information yet. We do know that secondhand smoke does increase your risk of lung cancer, but to what amount, we aren't really sure. Had an email question, a viewer wants to know about vaping. So as an alternative, maybe allegedly as a way to stop or recreationally, more and more people you see inhaling stuff. It's a common question, even with my own patients that are trying to stop smoking and move to vaping as an attempt to stop smoking. I think the jury is still out on vaping. Certainly what I tell my patients is your body wasn't meant to inhale anything but air. But certainly if vaping is a bridge to keep you from smoking these carcinogenic cigarettes, then okay, maybe the lesser of two evils, but I do ask my patients that once they stop smoking and they move to vaping to try to decrease the vaping and hopefully go to nothing. Dr. Shelby Stewart, University of Maryland Medical Center, thank you for your time. Your health segments are a co-production of Maryland Public Television and the University of Maryland Medical System.


ansferring 27.5 million 19, 20, 28.1 and 2021 28.7 and our routine restricted maintenance 6.2 million 6.3 million and 2021 at 6.4 one of that in our fiscal outlook we're also bracing for and throughout the state other districts for 2021 we have a mandatory 3% routine restricted maintenance match and this was actually in place back in I would say 0708 and it was flexed and what I mean by that is in the state of California it was mandatory for districts to have that 3% match for state funds that restriction was taken off because when we went through the recession districts were able to use that 3% and transfer it into the general fund to help offset layoffs and so that was undertaken and the state is re-implementing that 3% match and so that comes into effect in 2021 and explain to me a little bit more just so I can understand it I could understand what you were saying about what happened in the recession but moving forward you're saying that we so the state required a 3% match so if they gave you 3% 3% and that was in 0809 that restriction was taken away and the reason is because of the recession I understand that they had to give districts the opportunity to give flexibility and that point in time a budget cuts throughout the state districts were faced with certain fiscal challenges so they were able to use that money to build up their general fund so now for 2021 is re-implemented so school districts now have to put in 3% of the routine restrictive maintenance for 2021 we see that coming down the road so I just wanted to mention that as well the other component is Diamond Tech and early childhood education and I know Kathy and the team and our fiscal team are working hard for a grant for getting that all put together so we're working as a team to look at other funding sources to build that up in our services our variance report like they handed off to Helen in your board packets there is a detailed variance report but I wanted to touch on a few things at the first interim we had in the carryovers that we had in all of our federal state and local grants so our revenue and expenditures increased based on that we had very minor changes in our state and local grants for expenditures we now have a lot of the people a lot of the vacancies that we had at the beginning of the school year are now filled and as the vacancies are filled employees in there and so we have budgeted a certain amount well they may come in higher or lower than that so those adjustments are made and then for benefits we have a rate that we budget for and depending on if they are single or have a family we'll make the difference there I mentioned the state and federal capital out they increased for prior year because of the remaining one time funds that were set aside for science labs and restroom upgrades our percent variance is about 1.36% and the best practices statewide is about 2-3% so I feel real positive about all the what we've done in our budgets so far this year oops they do so next steps the first in term is approved we will send it to the COE and they will review it and they will either certify us as positive you know agree with our certification a positive certification or come out with another certification in all the years I've been here they've agreed with our certifications we'll continue to review our 18-19 budget to make sure that we have all the correct expenditures in there we'll work with the HR department all the departments and sites on position control my staff has had quarterly meetings with school sites and department heads and we're going to continue to do those we do those 3-4 times a year and we're going to start reviewing their 19-20 budgets coming up probably in January for every March time frame because we'll be doing staffing meetings to start prepping up for the next year's budget and one of the other things that we've done in partnership with WestEd is we've developed a more formal budget protocol reviewed so when we meet with our principals and directors we have an outline in the format that we can review to see how they're doing on their budgets and their department, their school site they need more assistance and guidance and so we have that built in and we are rolling that out after we return to the principal so we continue to work on internal efficiencies looking at our enrollment like Joe said earlier we have certified our enrollment for 18-19 and we had to show a loss of 172 students we continue to look at our ADA efficiencies that we can do in that increasing that ADA can bump us up a million dollars if we can get it up a half a percent to one percent to help with our special ed costs we've set up a task force that we're meeting and looking at their expenses to see what we can possibly reduce or is there things that can be changed there one of the things how to become more efficient so one of the things that Helen and our director of purchasing Richard Katie Pallard transportation and Bill Edd it was a fun day we had surplus vehicles so our Bill Edd program is no longer needed these vehicles and one of the ideas from the task force was why don't we use our own district vehicles to transport our special edd students because we outsource taxi services to transport and so we're in the process of developing that so we have the vehicles now we're working on the drivers but that is something thinking out of the box and how we can become more of an internal efficient and as also as Joe said our audit report will be presented to you in January February timeframe we met with the auditors yesterday and we have no findings this year and the report should be available finalized by Saturday it has to be uploaded to the feds by Saturday and then the next step after that will be in March will present our second interim report to you and give you a snapshot of where we are at that time so at this time we ask that staff recommends that we get an approval of a positive 18-19 first interim yep so okay so I'm just going to move that we have a motion to approve motion and then do it after now I'll still build each one and make a comment thank you while she's bringing that up our variance is used to run 3-5% before Joe and Helen started working on this over a year ago and super job but it's a tight budget now what I'm going to do for you tonight is what you usually do in business or when you do reviews like this it's called sensitivity analysis or what ifs and so I'm going to step you through what happens when we go through a different series of reviews for our employees what the impact would be on the budget so you'll indulge me I'm going to look at a 2% raise a 4% raise and a 7% raise done in next year's budget in the following year because you can't do it this year we're already committed so with that in mind let's take a look at what the impacts of a 2% does it adds 5.4 million it reduces the ending balance to 8.7 and this is an important factor that most of you have never had to deal with it takes us down to 8 days of cash so if the state misses on sending us a check we may not be able to pay our teachers or our vendors so a 2% raise would actually be rejected by the county office of education not by the administration but by the county office of education this happened last year during negotiation so let's take a look at the impact of a 4% raise it adds 10.8 million reduces the ending balance to 3.3 million it takes us down to 3 days of cash and these guys would go crazy because you don't want to be there and it absolutely would be rejected and if there's a 7% raise it adds 19 million and costs reduces the ending balance to we owe money 4.8 million absolutely no cash on hand and would be rejected by the COE if we might even be taken over by the state so there are alternatives there can be trade off between wages and health benefits which can help young and old employees as a for instance young employees are young and healthy and they're bulletproof they really have higher wages and have higher deduction higher co-pay on their health insurance and get a subsequent increase in pay older people are worried about their retirement retirement's based on wages so if we increase their wages by giving them a lower health plan then they've got 20 years of collecting more money because they have a higher retirement pay so I believe we need to consider alternatives that give employees options right now the employees don't have any options it's fixed and concrete it's monolithic so thank you for your time can I clarify anything that I go over anybody's head and I need to explain some of this thank you okay so now we can go back and have a motion and this is a really important item to support I would say so we can get you know everything paid for here so anybody have a motion make a motion to approve I'll second all those in favor hi is there any opposition aye okay it has been approved and there's an abstention okay um um the resolution on the report and we need to again on the use of developer fees good evening President you know you can just everybody can just call me Karen too hard my last name is too hard just say Karen I can say it, Osmond's been okay well I mean a lot of people have President Karen after Rodriguez board members members of the community and my colleagues I'm Helen Belanze director of finance and I have with me Victor Sandoval the director of maintenance operations and facilities tonight we bring forward the accounting for the developer fees for the 17-18 school year which shows the amount received and how the funds were used this is a requirement by the state to approve no later than 180 days after the end of the fiscal year so we're just a little background on the justification of developer fees since a lot of you are new I wanted to kind of give you an overview so there's a justification study done in the spring that brings the study shows the new rates can be charged and it's usually a increase a COLA increase on our current rates and so there are two levels of fees level one is a new residential and new commercial and level two is on new residential and the difference between one and two and the residential and I wanted to make sure this is clear it's based on the need for construction of new facilities and new facilities and modernization of existing facilities and also the capacity and impact of development on school and school enrollment fees are collected the fees that are collected can be used on new classrooms multi-purpose rooms, playgrounds drop off areas, gyms restrooms, etc some of our projects that we've done the most recent one being a new classroom at McQuitty and then we've also done some at MSD Aptos Junior Lakeview Middle School and we also put a portable in at transportation so that's a quick overview of what will come to you again in the spring to be approved so the accounting for the developer fees this shows that we received a little over a million dollars in developer fees and what we've spent that on has been building portables that historically we've paid the rent on building the portables at the site and I'm pleased to say that since 1516 we've decreased 10 portables at our sites and we've put in more what do you call it stationary things so the other thing is that we do pay for installation and removal of portables 116 was mainly used for the removal of portables at McQuitty so we do have a balance of 227 million and this will be used for the ongoing rent of the portables that we continue to have which is approximately 50 and then we'll be using it looking to use it for other projects to supplement our major L at this point and other projects that we have in the district you do have in the board document a detail about the expenditures so at this point do you have any questions or any speakers or any speakers okay so we're going to approve this motion I make a motion to approve resolution 181919 the report on the use of developer fees and thank you I thought it was a very good presentation second that motion all those in favor aye so this one I don't think we need to do anything but vote on it because we already did this last time so at the previous board several members requested a brief data from PCCS that wasn't provided it's only three slides for the other one for the other renewal there were no follow-up questions and so there's no need for discussion on the second but we would request that you allow Drew to speak to the data that was requested previously and not provided so if I may before we move on with this item we are at 10.02 and we still have to go back to closed session and come back and report on those action items so I would like to make a motion that this time to extend the meeting to let's say midnight to be safe second all those in favor aye good evening good evening Dr. Rodriguez and members of the board of trustees as they mentioned earlier my name is Drew Singleton I'm the interim principal at PCCS we did the presentation last month and there was a couple of things they had questions on so I'm just coming to show you some of that information that they requested the first was about our SBAC data we basically that got all messed up sorry in 2014-15 28% met the standards in English language arts 27% met the standards in 15-16 16-17-29 and in 17-18-35% met the standards I'll just I'll show you both and then in 14-15 for math that's lower than that 15% met 14% in 15-16 15% in 16-17 and in 17-18-16% met the standards it stays pretty consistent throughout that part of the reason for the data looking like that is because for our school the SBAC is not really a very good measure for the progress of the students that we get we have a very transient population they come and they go we have a very small sample size very small testing size of students and a lot of the times we get students that come into us for instance when the 11th graders take it we'll get a student that comes into us at the beginning of 11th grade so even if those numbers were high it wouldn't really be a good indicator of what we're doing just because the kids are coming in and coming out so frequently that it's kind of hard to track how they're actually doing we are actually working that's the conversation we're having right now is coming up with a way where we can actually get data that we can track how the students are doing in our school from the time they come to us and then from the time that they're actually with us so that we can get some accurate data on how they're actually doing how our teachers are doing so we can speak to it and get some accurate data that we can look at to see whether or not things are working or not and right now we just don't have that system in place so we're looking into that one of the other things I asked about was our I had mentioned 50-year grads so we're not counted into our graduation totals and so they asked to see what those were so that's just an indication of how many 50-year graduates we had in the following years 2014 we had five in 2015-6, 2016-10 in 2018 with three and with two 50-year grads so that's those were the two pieces that had been requested now I would like to request that Board of Trustees approves our charter renewal for the next five years I have one question if I may certainly so when you say I met standard what does that mean on the S-Bag that they met 15% of your students met at least once years growth? not one years growth just met the standard of their ability to read in that level got it basically passed the test as opposed to not I would like to make a motion to renew Pacific Coast Charter Schools charter renewal second somebody hello how does that data that you showed us compare to like the rest of the district do you know it's pretty low yeah it's fairly low okay so you have some room to improve right yeah absolutely so I do have one comment if I may so one of the things that I mentioned earlier was that I wanted to be more inclusive of our dependent charter schools and part of what I want to see happen if at all possible is to be inclusive of their scores so when our S-Bag scores come in I also want to see those scores along with with ours to see how we are doing as a district entirely and if we can offer support then by all means do that and so with that is there a person second all those in favor aye 7-0 thank you very much diamond technology institute charter renewal the motion we're not doing any we're just we talked about it last board meeting I'll make a motion to approve diamond text charter renewal and I'll second that motion you're done an excellent work turning that score around and I can only imagine the progress that we're going to see in coming years you've done a great job all those in favor aye second reading revision to board policy administrative regulations and the procedures that's you thank you President Karen Osmondson board trustees Dr. Rodriguez this is a second reading now submitted as an action item of the revisions to the board policy and administrative regulations for uniform complaint procedures this is critical as a board adoptive uniform system of complaint processes required by the law to enable our staff, students parents and community members to voice their concerns have their issues investigated towards a timely and appropriate resolution the revisions reflect the new California school boards associations recommended policy updates and the revisions ensure compliance with education code and state and federal laws the main modifications as highlighted and read in your materials include an expanded list of programs that are now covered bullying, unlawful discrimination retaliation, foster youth and homeless it's an action item so any devotion speakers a motion make a motion to approve okay thank you a second I'll second that motion all those in favor aye the next one is an interesting one actually it's let's see I've been looking at it is the member of understanding specific elementary community action board of Santa Cruz County and the Wattsville Aptos Santa Cruz Adult Education good evening congratulations everybody exciting times are ahead this is our memorandum of understanding we are expanding our Santa Cruz component and going up to Davenport so this is the MOU that you have before you we've been asked to expand in areas because we're in the county so this is the entire county so this is going up north in the northern part even further Davenport is a small little community and they have a need there so we are on our way up classes there actually in Davenport right in the community center there in the community center you have classes but when you say community action board we have them too our local community action board Maria Elena we work with her and the component up there and the whole thing it's just more partnerships and an opportunity to expand mainly ESL classes up in Davenport in the community action board I know they work up there already so that's why you're collaborating with them all right so a motion are there any speakers I would like to make a motion let me support but do we have any speakers no speakers I do have a question if I may so what would be the cost of the district if any to PVUSD there's no cost because it comes out of the Santa Cruz budget to expand north Nancy hi what portion does community action board hold in this MOU I was confused about that so what do you want me to do read it here we have worked with community action board on numerous projects and they were the ones that said we need some help up there so we're funding a piece of this they're just supportive and they're there and it's one of the things we wanted to see happen so we're going north okay great we're taking a teacher we're not even hiring another teacher we're taking another teacher where their numbers were kind of low and moving them up there okay great I'm in support of this thank you for expansion okay so do we have a person second now any motion for first okay motion all those in favor hi do we have a second Danny would you stick in it no I think motion okay I'll in favor again hi okay thank you so this is the hall for nominations of this delegate assembly for CSBA so excellent so we so we went ahead and we tabled this item so that the new board could be present for the nominations of this we have the ability to nominate a member to the delegate assembly for our area if you look at the attachments you'll see that word region which is the San Benino Santa Cruz counties there is going to be one opening George Wiley whose term expires in 2019 is the one who would be replaced and so we have the ability if people would like to nominate someone from this board or someone else the only concession if it's someone else that's not present is we had to have prior consent in order to nominate them and we do the one pager it's just a pretty simple one pager but the one pager does have to be sent in prior to January 7th and they don't allow any late submissions according to the documentation so you're saying that it can be one of these seven governing board members here my understanding is yes you can nominate someone from this board to do the petition meaning that you fill out application to then be nominated for a delegate assembly I would say that maybe we asked if there's anyone here that's interested in that anybody here want to be on the delegate assembly so what happens how many meetings do they go to in your email about that so it says in here that they meet twice a year and the meeting is typically in Sacramento is my understanding generally yes do you know that it's spring fall summer winter I do not but we can while there's additional conversation we can search it really quick so the delegate assembly the delegate assembly is different than like say the conferences or are they held concurrently I now have them for you they did just have one so they did just have one on the 28th and their next one it does not state when the next one is I can continue to search at this point but they did just have one right at the CSBA conference and this is for one year period of time or I'm sorry I didn't catch that it should be a two year term two year term so does this board have to approve it or does anybody who's interested in running can nominate themselves it looks like we can just fill out the forms and send a lot in no it specifically states that it does have to be board approved which is why we're bringing it back it says if nominating board action required action for the fact that we're going to perhaps nominate someone and then you're saying it has to be done by January 7th that's what it says yes we don't have another meeting before January 7th we can't nominate someone that's not here that's not interested that is accurate so we're kind of getting in a position where at this point it would probably be ideal for one someone of us 7 to volunteer for this for the next two to be the you know if we want to have a representative from PBUSD at the delegate assembly then yes and what it's May 19th and 20th is the next did you find it too if so one of us said we'd do it and then let's say something happened and you know we're not sure of the dates and they couldn't make it could someone else go in their place I don't believe so I believe it has to be May 19th and 20th is the next meeting 2019 yes we just found out so it sounds like they're fallen right so then and the following one would likely be CSBA and they do things like what do they do exactly okay so the delegate assembly works with local district county offices and board of directors to support interests of school districts and county offices of education throughout the state so they do advocacy work I have a question yeah so if a nomination is submitted it's still not guaranteed that you're going to be part of the delegate assembly right there yes so the person would need to and I could support them would need to support the biographical sketch form which is a fairly simple form but it does explicitly state no late submissions accepted and there are just three questions but why are you interested in becoming a delegate describe your skills and experiences that you would bring describe your activities involvement on your local board community CSBA and what are the biggest challenges facing governing boards and how can CSBA have the three questions that you would have to answer but as you say you would help and what were the dates again so we only have the May 19th the May 19th and 20th and then the likelihood it would be at the next before the next ESBA conference it was a few days before the prior conference that's just what we said in San Diego and then probably in 2020 it's probably around May again it would be in San Francisco instead of San Diego alright so I think I'm interested there you go that's great so I'd like to nominate you Maria I think you know really you're very well qualified to be a delegate I know the other delegates from our area and I heard somebody say something about replacing George Wiley who's not replaceable he's irreplaceable he's amazing and both George and Tracy sorry not Tracy Deborah Tracy are very very bright and they bring back lots of information and then disseminate it at the school board association meeting which then I disseminate to you guys so I think you'd be great at it I do too I'd like to second that for Maria alright so we're gonna vote for Maria now okay so all those motion by Cam in a second and all those in favor for Maria hi I think it's gonna be good okay so we're not doing the report and discussion items so consent and the consent so the consent items has a lot of great stuff on it let's see I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda does anybody have anything they would like to pull and have me amend my motion there's a lot of great stuff on there I don't now I would like to second that motion alright we have a first and second we'll call vote there's a lot of really great stuff on that I could even talk about because there's really important stuff on there but you know we can talk about it maybe another time so I'm gonna just call for a motion and pass it so we have a first and second okay this call for a motion vote motion vote all those in favor so is there any comments for closed session other colleagues any comments on closed session from the public that are out here so as we're gonna close the meeting and go into closed session we'll come back to report but I don't know if you guys want to stay for the closed session probably not probably not he's not here we have quorum you have to bring this back in you have to reopen I'm reopening the closed session okay so we're reporting out closed session so we're reporting out so expulsion expulsion I move to approve the district recommendation for employee discipline against 18-19- 005 pvhs full expulsion full expulsion for the remainder of the 2018-2019 school year with placement at another school outside the district with the exception of new school on a strict behavior contract I guess you can see it all those second all those in favor hi where's Danny go so what party is he doing well if he doesn't do it do you want to do it yeah for right now I think he was going to read over some stuff okay so I move to approve the certificate of personnel report as presented by the district administration with the addition of one admin appointment and two separations from service second all those in favor hi all those opposed okay so are we done I move to approve the classified personnel report as presented by the district administration with the addition of one new hire provisionary and seven leaves of absence second all those in favor hi so we're done and what how Danny is going to have something okay the forgoing separation settlement agreement for classified employee 3400 was approved at a regular called meeting of the governing board of the parro valley and find school district on the 12th of December 18th by the following vote seven eyes zero nose zero absent zero the governing board is also pleased to announce two administrative appointments it was Mr. Andrew singleton Mr. Singleton will serve students of PBSD as a principal for Pacific Coast Charter School Mr. Singleton began his teaching career at PBSD in 2001 as a health teacher at Aptos high school for one year he continued his teaching career in Arizona promoting to assistant director and administration in 2003 and to principal in 2005 Mr. Singleton returned to our district in 2014 to serve as principal where he was promoted as culture of academic and personal excellence Mr. Singleton received his degree from San Jose State in biological surfaces he also has a master's from the University of Phoenix in secondary education and a master's from Northern University in educational leadership and the second one was Mr. Burr Guthrie adult education coordinator Mr. Guthrie worked as a teacher and department chair for Watsonville Aptos about Ed starting in 2000 Mr. Guthrie continued his career by promoting to assistant director of to mouth based adult and community education in 2005 Mr. Guthrie was an administrator for the Oakland adult and career education for four years starting in 2006 in 2010 Mr. Guthrie became the principal of Berkeley adult school and most recently the program coordinator for the Campbell adult and community education a position which he has held for three years Mr. Guthrie brings extensive experience back to PVSD and we look forward to his vast expertise in adult ed Mr. Guthrie has a degree in business administration from Fort Lewis College and a master's from San Jose State in educational leadership Thank you Okay so we are done okay so we are done and our next meeting not until yeah Michelle oh you're on it right yeah oh we have to do the claim for damages oh we have to do that one too so under item 3.7 the board approved to decline okay a claim for damages for Deanna Moreno versus PVSD with a 7-0 vote 6-0-1 yes 6-0-1 one abstention now we're done okay meeting adjourned until January holy moly


My name is Noor Al-Samarai. I am a 24-year-old Iraqi-American woman, and I am testifying in the Tribunal for the Iraq War. In thinking about what to say in this testimony is very difficult for me to think about where to begin or what to share exactly. The impact on the war on myself, on my immediate family living in the United States, as well as my family members who are in Baghdad or who are scattered elsewhere around the world, it's very difficult to think of something that can sum up the impact that it's had because it's been huge and there are so many memories that are associated with it. Some things are so small, like the fact that as a result of ongoing war, I've never had the opportunity to visit or meet my grandparents, all of whom died in a state of war before I was born. There's, I guess one good place to start is 9-11. Like many Americans, I have a very strong memory of that day, although perhaps for slightly different reasons. I was 9 years old and my mom was taking me to school that day. Before she let me out of the car, she held me back and she said, Don't tell anyone you're Iraqi. At the time I couldn't understand why she would say this. I was always raised to have a lot of pride in my heritage and the place that my parents were from. I was taught that we were from Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers, the cradle of civilization, the home of poetry and the first laws of Hammurabi, Gilgamesh, the land of giants. And so of course, it's a very headstrong child, as well as a very optimistic one. I didn't pay her any heed and if somebody asked me, as they did, I indeed told them that I was of Iraqi origin. This came back, this came back to me later because I guess a year later I must have been around 10 at the time. I wanted to play volleyball with some boys. Me and my friend went. We thought it would be easier to get in on the game if we went together. But they allowed her to play. However, for me they called me a terrorist and two boys proceeded to come kick me until I fell to the ground where they continued to kick me. I didn't get very badly hurt, aside from the bruises which was an ankle. Nothing that you think was such a big deal as a kid, maybe. And of course at the time, although they had called me a terrorist, I was a really bookish kid and thought that the reason why it happened was just because I'm weird and like to read more than I liked to play games a lot on time. But now, given the most recent presidential campaign and the inelike of President-elect Trump, as hate crimes have been on the rise, it's very difficult to look back on that memory in the same light. As reports of children hurting other children, adults, as well as children have been on the rise recently, I can't help but think about what a travesty it is that our foreign policy, our propaganda, the way that we speak about Iraq as well as the wider Arab and Muslim worlds has been such a virus infecting even our children who should be the most loving and positive of us all. It is a testament to the fact that we live in a violent military police state and it's something that we cannot and should not accept. Now to think about what it means to be an Iraqi is very difficult. I mean, you look at Iraq and it is completely different from the Iraq that I was raised to believe that I came from. Now more than half of Iraqis live outside of the country. Our propaganda, our media tells us that Iraq is a place devoid of culture, devoid of humanity. And that has become a self-fulfilling prophecy as we Americans, I'm American too, I can't help but feel somehow implicit in everything that has happened in Iraq during this occupation, as young as I was. So as our military has cleared the map of Iraq and changed it forever in many ways, environmentally, culturally, it has changed irreparably. And until, I think until every other origin views themselves as complicit in what has happened, in the genocide that has happened there, it's impossible for Iraq to recover.


And you need headphones in order to work because they're playing two different frequencies in each ear. And supposedly when they meet in the middle, they create a third frequency. They create a differential. And that differential is the frequency that affects your brain. Now, I listen to binaural beats. I never really had a really deep experience or profound experience with it, but I definitely had repetitive and very deep profound experiences using our frequencies. So binaural beats work very differently from how our frequencies work. Our frequencies work on actually four dimensions. And we have, if you can hear us from some of the sounds, we have many frequencies in our frequency. So let me play that BPC right now. I'm talking about, it's pretty fun, right? This one. So you can hear there's actually many layers of frequencies happening and there's purpose for each one of them. Is it plant music? Yeah, it may sound like plant music. Interesting, right? If you listen to plant music, it sounds kind of like this. So you can feel near solar plexus.  We appreciate you. Thank you. What was I saying? So if you're into music, you can hear there's many different layers of sounds happening. There's a rhythm. There's things high and then there's something in the middle and there's a low track as well. So in one of these tracks, we have over 5,000 different frequencies happening and we're listening to this.