Ladies and gentlemen, it's back and uh
with that, Evelyn, roll call, please.
>> Trusty Welsh
>> here.
>> Trusty Lee
>> here.
>> Trusty King
>> here.
>> Vice President Marcus
>> here.
>> President Weekley,
>> present. Benito. Welcome everyone to the
public session for the January 14th,
2026 meeting of the Redwood City School
Board. Our interpreter will now give
instructions for how to access
translation.
Reboot city.
Gracias.
>> Just so all participants are aware, at
the direction of the board, this meeting
is being recorded and will be shared
with the public. We generally try to
post our meeting videos on YouTube about
a day or two after. The board encourages
all members of the public to participate
and to provide comment on issues of
concern regardless of whether or not
they're on the agenda. If you are here
in person, please fill out a speaker
card in the back of the room. You don't
have to give your legal name, but if
you'd like us to follow up with you,
please consider adding contact
information. If you're online with Zoom,
you can just raise your hand and we'll
call on you based on your Zoom name. If
you're speaking on a topic on the
agenda, you'll be called at the time
that that item is being considered. If
it's not on the agenda, we will call on
you in the public comment portion near
the beginning of our meeting. To be fair
to all speakers, comment is limited to
three minutes unless otherwise noted.
You'll see a countdown clock at the
front of the podium. The next item is a
report out from closed session. The
board met in close session regarding the
real property negotiation for 750
Broadford Street. There is no reportable
action.
Welcome everybody. We have an exciting
meeting today. One of the most important
duties that a school board can discharge
is the selection of the superintendent.
And I'm excited to let you know that
we'll be discussing potentially
ratifying a new superintendent's
contract today on the agenda. Action
item 12.3 might be easy to miss if you
are just skimming an agenda, but it's
one of the most consequential things
that we're going to do this decade.
Other than that, we have a lot of first
reading of policies to go over. We were
going to do a school accountability
report card uh today, but the staff
needed a little bit more time. So,
that's going to be on the docket for the
February 4th meeting, just so people
know. So today's meeting is going to be
a little bit shorter and February 4th
might be a long one. For folks curious
about what we are planning on talking
about when, make sure to check out the
attachment on agenda item 16, which is
the 25 to 26 schedule of board agenda
items. As a reminder, if you'd like to
see something on the agenda for us to
discuss, you'll need to get that request
to the board president, that's me, and
the superintendent at least 10 days in
advance of the board meeting. Dr. Baker
and I will confer and decide when or if
to place it on the agenda. And of
course, you are free to write in your
thoughts at any time to all of us. Feel
free to write to us in Spanish. AI has
gotten very good at translation. And now
for our studentled pledge of allegiance.
Okay.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Right. Next up, we are going to be
looking for changes to the agenda. Uh, I
would like to propose we pull 12.1 and
12.2. Staff has asked for additional
time for review. And I'd also Oh,
>> yeah. Now, I'll say that while we're
dealing with the action items, maybe we
could move 12.3 uh earlier into the
agenda. Um, I was going to propose right
after public comment and just before
number 10, the discussion items if that
works for everyone else.
>> Okay.
>> Thumbs up. Any other proposed changes to
the agenda other than those? All right.
Would anyone like to move we approve the
agenda with those modifications? Yeah,
I'll move to approve the amended agenda.
>> Thank you.
>> I'll second.
>> All those in favor? I.
>> All right. Passes unanimously. Great.
Um, so now we have public comment. Um,
and
I have one speaker card here.
All right. And just as an FYI, was it
while it wasn't included in this week's
agenda explicitly, I'd like to emphasize
an encouragement to hear from our labor
union representatives during this public
comment period. You'll see that
explicitly annotated in future meetings.
Um, with that in mind, I'd like to call
to the stand Maria Stockton.
>> There
person. Thank you. Maria Stockton, uh,
president of Redwood City Chapter 5,
CSEA, the classified, uh, union. Um,
last week, uh, the board members
approved on your consent item, uh, the
classified senority list, and I went to
work to print it out for myself so I
would have it only to find that actually
half of the list was there. The list of
employees by position was there, but not
the list of employees by name. So if you
knew a classified and you wanted to find
them, you would have a difficult time in
finding them that. So what you're
finding is the list you got in your
board packet last week plus the list by
names. So I was looking at that and then
I was thinking, you know what, all the
board members know classified. And then
I thought, no, you know, that's a big
assumption and we all know what
assumption does. So I'm giving you this
list with a challenge. I would like you
to consider of choosing one classified
employee at every site that you watch
over and go there and meet that person
and talk with them for a little while. I
know you're busy and you go to sites and
talk to administrators and teachers, but
I want you to get to know the people you
also represent in this district and I
want them to get to know you. And I
already heard from one uh at one board
meeting, David, thank you very much. you
went to a site and they classified and
they were just ecstatic that you took
the time to get to know them. So, thank
you. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much, Maria. Appreciate
that. Um, any online public comment?
Uh, seeing any at this time?
>> No online.
>> All right. Great. So, that ends the
public comment period. And with that,
now we are moving on to 12.3. Yep. And
this is the big one. We are proposing
approving a contract to hire our
district's next superintendent, Dr.
Christian Rubulkaba.
Dr. Baker let us all know at the
beginning of the school year that he was
going to be retiring. I was dreading
this day given the ex extensive
experience Dr. Baker has had with the
district and the relationships,
knowledge, and passion he has for the
district and its kids. This man
certainly has earned his retirement. We
hope it's delightful. Let's take a brief
moment to honor his service.
Now, these are some big shoes to fill.
We wanted to find somebody extremely
wellqualified, who had impeccable
pedigree, had worked in the classroom as
a teacher, had history as an
administrator with equivalent scope,
someone who could speak the languages of
our community fluently, which shown that
they could drive academic achievement in
districts with our demograph with our
demographics. And through this and
though that we thought this was a reach,
someone already familiar with Redwood
City who could likely hit the ground
running. We wanted someone who could
communicate well, build bridges of trust
with all kinds of people, and who was
enthusiastic about ensuring great
academic outcomes for our students.
Knowing me, I was also personally
crossing my fingers to find somebody
passionate about datadriven
transformation.
We retained the services of leadership
associates to help us run this search
and spent countless hours with their
team crafting the listing, getting a
broad pipeline of applicants, and coming
up with a tough but fair set of rubrics
to evaluate our candidates. Leadership
Associates sat down with all parts of
the community to hear what folks were
hoping to find in a new superintendent.
We had folks from all over the country
apply. We had a thick binder of all
these applicants and their incredible
work. It was tough to narrow it down to
just four finalists, any one of whom
would have been a fine pick. Leadership
Associates did extensive background
checks and research on each finalist,
ensuring that we could make an eyes wide
openen choice. We spent a whole day in
multi-hour back-to-back interviews,
grilling each candidate. At the end of
that day, we were uniformly impressed
with the combination of rigor and
enthusiasm of our best candidate. I
can't wait for you to meet Dr. Christian
Rubala.
and David Lee, uh, my fellow trustee,
David Lee, who was our negotiator, uh,
will now read the terms of the contract
into the record.
>> Uh, thank you, Preston Weekly. Uh so
before we entertain a motion to ratify
the contract, I am required by
government code section 54953
uh sub paragraph C3 to orally report a
summary of the recommended compensation.
Uh the recommendation is to ratify a
contract for the superintendent term
beginning in the 2026 to 27 school year
with the following financial terms. One,
annual salary of 285,000 with up to 3%
per year increases based on performance
review. two, uh there will be 20 paid
days of transition taken between March
1st and June 30th of this year, uh where
Dr. R will be paid his daily rate. Uh
and we added this to ensure a seamless
transition by offering overlap with Dr.
Baker.
Three, we'll allow Dr. R to cash out up
to 15 days of unused vacation per year.
Four, health benefits offered include
medical, vision, and dental. Um, for the
superintendent independents equal to
those provided to management employees.
Uh, and if the plan is of if the plan
cost is lower than the district's
contribution limit, the difference may
be paid as compensation.
Five, uh, retirement. The district will
provide an annuity contract contribution
of $1,000 per month as well as the
standard employer contribution to STERS
consistent with our current
superintendent contract. Six allowances
and reimbursements uh include a
transportation allowance of up to $400
per month and an expense reimbursement
of up to $600 per month. And seven for
professional development. The district
will cover membership dues for two
professional organizations and two
service clubs along with travel for two
major conferences per year uh with the
intention of um sharing and bringing
back knowledge that is in support of the
district's practice and up to $7,000 for
a mentor or executive coach during the
first year of the contract. That
concludes the summary of compensation.
>> To discuss this item, would any board
member like to move that we ratify the
contract and then second?
>> I'll move that we ratify the contract.
>> All right. And with that, we are now in
discussion. Did anyone have any comments
that they would like to make about the
ratification of this contract?
I mean I can definitely start with some
comments. Um you know first I I also
want to thank you for all the words that
you brought up uh started the item with
uh President Weekly. Um I also just
wanted to take just a second to honor
Dr. Baker because it's 40 years of
service um to Redwood City School
District as a teacher, kindergarten
teacher, no less a principal, district
leader, superintendent. It's really
extraordinary. Um I'm super happy for
you. um sad for our community because
it's a loss, you know, and I'm grateful
for your study leadership. Uh the
relationships you've built and the
alignment that you've been working on
for the last, you know, however many,
you know, 10 years as a superintendent.
Um we, you know, we still have a lot of
important work to do left this year. So,
we're going to do honoring, you know,
I've said this before, we'll do this all
at the end of the year because we need
to stay focused on on, you know, on on
all the work that needs to happen this
year. Um, and so at the same time
though, I'm really excited about the
opportunity um, that's coming up in our
next chapter. Um, and I'm also excited
about it. You touched on a little bit
about the process of how we got there,
but I think I think it was a good
process. I think we really did listen to
a lot of the community. There were 13
stakeholder um, engagements across
different groups. Um, and with all the
groups had different experiences and
different needs. Um, and yeah, you know,
there were some consistent themes that
came across. People ask for a leader
who's bilingual, equity centered, um
visible, a strong communicator, and and
by the way, in the interview, we got a
communication packet from Dr. Lubakabo,
which was great. Um and uh you know, it
was they just want someone that listens
to more than just the loudest voice. Um
the thing that also mattered to me was
that that feedback wasn't just generic.
It wasn't like it was all the same.
There was really some unique interesting
pieces that came out. Um, families at
the community forum explicitly said that
they want a superintendent who can speak
with us without an interpreter. Um,
classified staff asked to be seen. I
think Maria was even echoing that again
today. Um, and so, you know, they want
to have an open door leader who's
present with employees and in the
community. Um, you know, students ask
for communication in more languages.
It's just such a powerful reminder about
access and belonging. um and principles
emphasize the ability to create a shared
vision and experience with immersion and
multilingual education. And so when I
look at Dr. Rubulkaba, I see a leader
who reflects those priorities in a real
way. You know, it's through your lived
experiences and your professional
experiences, your bilingual leadership,
your your deep work in community schools
um and you know, your whole child
supports. And so I'm really hopeful that
um you know, you'll be able to he'll be
able to pick up uh from where Dr. Baker
has brought us so far. um and you know
continue building alignment around a
focused number of shared goals and
outcomes that that show our impact um
especially for our multilingual learners
and can communicate that progress in a
way that families and staff can really
truly see and feel. Uh so tonight I'm
going to be proud to support this uh
ratifying the employment agreement. Um
thank you for reading the terms um into
the into the public record as as you
needed to. Uh they seem really
appropriate um for my reading for the
area, for the role, for the
responsibilities. Uh, and so I will be
with this motion um be very excited to
welcome Dr. Ruba to Redwood City School
District.
>> Thank you.
>> As quick point of order, I have received
two comment cards on this matter. With
the board's permission, I'd like to
reopen public comment. Yeah. All right.
And with that, I'd like to call Jennifer
Blanco to the stand to discuss this
item.
>> Good evening everyone.
Um so um hello fellow former uh
colleagues. Um I am Jennifer Blanco. I'm
former trustee for the San Bruno Park
School District for about 20 years plus.
Um but um I'm standing here before you
all today as a county commissioner on
the juvenile justice and delinquency
prevention commission with my chair
Johanna Rasmson who will speak after me.
But first of all I'd like to first speak
a little bit on Dr. John Baker. Um Dr.
Baker and I got really close with along
with Cecilia Marquez when in 2024 we got
all of the Latino superintendents here
in our county which are not many but now
Christian here now we've got three um um
coming this year and so
um
we were able to work together on the
Latino Leaders Coalition of the Bay Area
that we started and um and we did a um
Latino Heritage Month fourpart speaker
series and for for our inaugural um uh
keynote speaker was La Seenora Sylvia
Mendes where I don't know if you all
familiar with the Mendes versus
Westminster case back in the 50s where
she was an 8-year-old little girl and
her family and other um farm workers got
together and they um filed a
discrimination suit against the Mendes
I'm sorry the Westminster school
district which then in turn turned at
the time with the governor at the time
um decided to after the law cases there
was two of them because they appealed
after down in Los Angeles County and
then it came up to San Francisco. The
governor at the time then decided with
hearing the story in that plight of the
families from Westminster school
district that that's the reason why all
of our school districts in California
became desegregated which by the way
with um uh former justice um Thood
Marshall who was with the NAACP at the
time uh got involved with the Mendes
versus Westminster school district which
a lot of people don't know the story
also is that
third good Marshall used the Mendes
versus Westminster school district to
make his argument before the US Supreme
Court. And then here we have the board
of um the Brown versus Board of
Education which made all of our schools
in our country disegregated. Dr. Baker
and I had the honor and the pleasure of
moderating that conversation with La
Seenora Sylvia Mendes. And so I don't
know about you, Dr. Baker, but I will
always treasure that experience. Um,
being able to speak with Senora Mendes
and I appreciate having you sit there
alongside me with that experience. So,
we're we're we're conjoined at the hip
for that. So, um, congratulations on
your 40 years of serving our community
here in Redwood City. Um, I just want to
say I think I'm up my time. Um, I just
want to make I just want to briefly also
speak a little bit about Christian. I've
known him for about four years and we
got really close close just recently. We
the commission alongside with CSM and
Project Change. We just finished
planning um and having a very successful
countywide conference, delinquency
prevention focus conference called
Prevention and Action Schools,
Communities and Youth Voices. and your
board president attended um as well.
Christian was on our planning committee.
So, I don't know if Christian mentioned
the work that he was doing um in
partnership with the commission with the
JJDPC,
but just in case, we have a true leader
here that's about to join your board
here. And so, I can't speak any more
highly about Christian. I know he had an
amazing leader, Superintendent Diego
AOA, who is my brother from another
mother. But um I'm so excited for Riwood
City um following Dr. Baker's um work.
So um I look forward to all the great
work that Riwood City School District is
about to embark on. And we look forward
with now knowing that that Christian is
a um a partner of the Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention Commission.
So we're looking forward to continue
that partnership with Redwood City
School District. Thank you for the extra
time. I apologize. I had a lot to say.
Thank you so much. Congratulations.
>> Next up is
>> M. Thank you so much. I'll be brief. So,
I just wanted to um come and thank Dr.
Baker. I know over the years I've been a
35-y year resident three years uh three
children in the school district and I
know many times I've reached out and it
hasn't been pleasant, but you've always
been there to listen and um I'm
appreciative of that. I'm also extremely
excited that we have Christian coming on
board. When I heard this news, I
couldn't have been more happy, more
thrilled for our community and I just
want to say thank you for choosing us.
We are appreciative of you. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> And I believe we have no further public
comment. And so with that, I'd like to
return things to board remarks and
discussion concerning this item.
Um, I echoed every I would echo
everything that um, Mike said, but I'd
also like to just thank Mike for
shephering us through the process as
board president at the time and thank
you Evelyn for organizing everything for
us so that everything went smoothly and
welcome Dr. R.
Um definitely congratulations Christian
for choosing Redwood City. Um I look
forward we look forward to working with
you. Um definitely you have some really
big shoes to fill. Um I have always
appreciated Dr. Baker for being himself.
Um I've known him for over 20 years and
different before he even became the
superintendent. And what I appreciate
about him is that he remained himself
all throughout this time. So, um, I look
forward to working with you. Um, Mike
said it just perfectly. I don't want to
add any more words, but, um, again, just
look forward to working with you, um,
and working with the excellent team
because as you might have already heard,
um, we do have a great cabinet and we as
a board get along really well and so we
do look forward to, um, all the
adventures that we would, you know, move
forward with. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. Any further remarks
from the board?
>> Sure.
>> I I'll just be very brief because
everyone's already said all all the good
stuff, but one I'll one other thing to
just note is it I think it's public
knowledge. We have not gone through this
process before. So, this is new to us.
And so, it was um I'm sure the process
there are things I'm sure could have
been even stronger, but I feel like we
we did a strong process and we we I
think we got the right result, which is
the most important. But one one other
thing is just to add on to all the the
stuff a lot of it was also Dr. Baker
participating and helping like all the
community input that we got was um to
help shape what we what we think the
community needs in a new superintendent
was driven by his efforts and I think
that speaks to the general community
that we have in Redwood City of this
continuing desire to um to make make
schools better for our whole community.
And so I've only known Dr. Baker for a
relatively short period, but it's really
obvious to me even through all your
times that it's always in the back of
his head of how do I make the right
decision for everyone for all of our
students. Um, and I um it's a hard it's
a hard job as you know. Um, but I just
uh I feel very confident. I'm super
excited that that's going to continue
with our our incoming superintendent.
Um, just super optimistic about um and
it's not a replacement. that's changing
and putting in all the ideas and
continuing all the momentum that's
already been created. So, I'm really
looking forward to that.
Have our remarks concluded.
All those in favor of ratifying the
contract with the superintendent
I. None opposed. The motion passes.
And with that, I would like to invite
our incoming superintendent, Dr.
Christian Rubalaba to the stand to
deliver some remarks.
>> Wow, this is I'm absolutely excited. Um,
so board of trustees, cabinet, Dr.
Baker, uh, and community, I am super
thrilled, uh, to be, uh, part of the
change process in this transition. Um I
couldn't be more thankful for the
support and you know the guidance that I
will be receiving from Dr. Baker. Um
we're going to ensure that this is not
only seamless but just kind of organic
and normal, right? So that the kids
continue to grow and learn. Um I'm just
super excited uh to be here. Um behind
me you can see plainly uh a lot of my
supporters. Um, and they're here because
we've together come to support our
students back in Sato. And I'm just so
thrilled that I get to come here um and
meet the children of Redwood City. Uh,
so I'm going to kind of talk to every
stakeholder group um because I think I
have a message that's kind of a little
bit different for each one. for our
students of Redwood City. I cannot wait
if you're listening at this board
meeting or if you're going to listen to
it, you know, when the YouTube video
comes up, I can't wait to get into your
classrooms from kinder all the way
through 8th grade, TK all the way
through 8ighth grade. I can't wait to
see you at recess, at lunch. Um, I've
just I know and I've heard so many
amazing things through your board
members about just how brilliant and
beautiful you each all are. And I'm
just, you know, I can't wait to to get
in there and get to know each of you by
name. Um to our teachers. Um you are the
lifeblood of our schools. Um and I can't
again I cannot wait to get into your
classrooms as well, meet you all, um uh
in in person, in small groups,
one-on-one, and forge those wonderful
relationships with each and every one of
you. Uh because you guide our children
every every single day. And I know
having been a teacher myself, the hard
passionate work that it takes to plan a
lesson, to execute, to go back to make
it better, right, the next day. Um, and
it takes a lot of heart and a lot of
passion. And so I'm super thankful for
all of what you've done, right, for for
the children of Redwood City School
District, to our classified members, and
I met um already Andrea. Um, you are
often do a lot of thankless work, right?
and I want to get to know you and meet
you and and get to know you as well by
name. Um my father was a janitor when I
was growing up. And so I treat, you
know, our janitors, our our our
servicemen and women, our bus drivers no
different than I treat the leaders that
you see behind me. Um I treat them with
dignity and with love and respect
because we all work together to serve
our kids. Um to our families, I again
cannot wait to get out there PTA
meetings, events, social events, you
know, meet and greets with Dr. Rubakaba.
Um you know, I'm here to forge uh
relationships with all of you uh as as
the families of Redwood City School
District because together, right, we're
we're going to make this uh an amazing
transition. We're going to work together
uh to take Redwood City into the future.
Um and it's going to take a village,
right?
Latinos,
thanks.
Eastlantes
City.
Dr.
So
again,
thank you everyone.
I'd like to invite Dr. Baker, our
retiring superintendent, to make some
remarks as well.
So, I'm going to read this so I don't
forget it. Every time I go off quue, as
tells me, don't do that. You left them
there.
All right. Welcome, Kristen, to the
Rapid City School District. This is
truly a special district and it has been
my professional home for my entire
career.
>> As you know, I started as a kindergarten
teacher and took a step in that journey
and with this community. It means a
great deal to see the district move
forward with such a thoughtful
leadership.
As you join the district, you'll quickly
see what makes Redwood City School
District quite unique.
We have an incredibly engaged and
supportive parent community that deeply
cares about their children and their
schools. Our teachers are veteran,
skilled, and deeply committed to their
craft. Our staff and our administrators
work tirelessly every day to support the
students and their families throughout
all their needs.
We do a lot with very little, but we
always have each other.
We roll up our sleeves for our students,
our families, and our neighborhoods.
That sense of teamwork, heart, and
shared responsibilities is what carries
this district forward.
Redwood City School District is a
diverse community, and that diversity is
one of the greatest strengths of this
district. I know you value listening,
partnership, and being present, and that
will matter here.
This district will support you,
challenge you, and stand beside you. You
are stepping into a community that cares
deeply and will make all the difference.
I also want to thank the board of
trustees. You truly listened to the
community. You asked what people wanted
in their next superintendent and you
took that seriously.
That matters and the community noticed.
Congratulations
on stepping into this position. We'll be
seeing a lot of each other,
so we'll make this transition really
easy.
>> And with that, we will now be moving to
our discussion items. So, for
discussion, we've got a big batch of
first readings on the dock. And by the
way, if you are here to discuss policy,
please stay. If you were here to guy
high five our new superintendent, it
would not be rude to excuse yourself.
>> Yeah,
>> policy is really exciting, folks.
We're trying to
>> All right.
>> I'll just we'll take a moment to let the
>> 100 second recess.
But that was proceed
>> less glamorous but also very important.
We are going to go top policies now for
discussion. We've got a big batch of
first readings on the docket. Uh to give
a quick primer to what's going on here.
The way that the district's policy is
formally says that we have a policy
committee. Thank you. Policy committee
that puts in a huge amount of work. Um
thank you David Jennifer especially
Wendy who captains a bunch of this work.
We get updates from the California
School Board Association, which we call
CSBA, that represent best practice in a
district being fully compliant with all
the myriad laws and regulations to which
we are beholden. For a lot of them, we
don't have a whole lot of choice about
the language to include, but in some
cases, we do. Wendy and team have
thoughtfully caught them up with an
annotation system that lets us focus not
on just the red lines or changes from
existing policy, but highlights
explicitly those areas where Redwood
City School District has made a
meaningful choice differing from the
exact language given to us by CSBA. That
way, we don't spend a lot of time
debating things that can't really be any
other way. We super appreciate this
innovation. All policies go through a
first reading where the proposed changes
emerge from the policy committee to be
discussed as a whole board for the first
time. Policy committee then takes the
board's feedback and as needed amends
the policies to come back for a second
reading in a later meeting. This means
that the second readings are usually in
the consent section where we
automatically approve them since they
already have our input. It's after the
second reading that a policy when a
policy is approved that the policy
becomes official. So the path is policy
committee then the first reading is a
discussion and then second reading is
consent and then it's official. If you
would like to see a policy changed,
amended, added whatever a good first
protocol would be for you to send a note
with any context you can provide to
policy committee. Naturally you can also
make a public comment and policy
committee may decide to take it up. So
with that um who wants to uh captain
going through these who because normally
it would be like Wendy who would take
point. So should we have somebody from
policy committee take point on these?
Okay. So the the first one is going to
be uh bylaw 9324 minutes and recordings.
Um I'm opening up the floor for
discussion on this policy item.
>> Uh and I'll make a better point. I don't
think we need to have someone shepherd
us through unless we have a specific
question. We can just sort of direct it
back there. Um I did want to say that I
appreciated the change that I don't know
if it was staff that initiated or the
policy committee to um just
automatically exclude student directory
information from the minutes. That made
a lot of sense to me. Yeah, Dave David
put that in team effort.
>> Yeah. So that was a good one. Otherwise
um you know I think it and I noticed
that you actually took to heart the
policy now around announcing the meeting
being recorded at the beginning. So
that's something we want to remember to
keep that in there. But otherwise, looks
good to me.
>> One other point just on that specific
piece. We did actually um confirm with
legal that there was no requirement of
the existing language. So I think we're
all on the same page if let's not
include if we don't have to.
>> Cool. Any other comments? Feel good
about taking a pause.
Okay, moving on to the next one. Um,
board policy and administrative
regulation 1330, use of school
facilities.
>> Yep. Um, so just just so folks uh in the
public know that uh I was concerned
whether or not this change would uh make
it more difficult for the community to
use our facilities. And the answer is
no. It's just restating the Civic Center
Act uh authority that allows staff to
approve facility use. So, yep. Any other
comments or
Okay. All right. Any other comments on
that one? Going. Going. Done. All right.
Next one. We have board policy 3510
green school operations.
Board members have thoughts on this one.
I had some concerns that this was going
to create a whole bunch of additional
paperwork, overhead, uh regulatory
friction and um the answer is basically
no. This is guidance, not a mandate. And
this is mostly encapsulating things that
we are already doing. So this does not
actually represent in and of itself an
immediately actionable course
correction. So
cool. Any other thoughts, comments?
3, two, one. All right, moving on to
board policy and administrative
regulation 3511, energy and water
management.
Um, and I think you might have had the
same question as well around like when
we have these policies that have like a
regular report thing. Um, you know, like
who's somehow we should be figuring out
when those should come in. Um, I don't
think we need a dedicated item just to
do these kind of reports. Like this one
would probably make sense for it to show
up on like a facilities update. they
could do, you know, from the facilities
team if they do a three-year update
could just include the report in there.
But somehow we should be tracking
things. And I don't know if that was
going back to the policy committee to
make sure that got there or how that was
happening.
>> We're speaking the same language, which
is great. Um, one of the things that
Wendy and Jolene have been great about
um is keeping a separate we have a
there's spreadsheets. Um I think totally
and we talked about the same issue of
like there's a lot of requirements. What
we don't want to do is overburden the
district with like reporting on
everything all the time.
>> Yeah.
>> So, step one, I think where we're at is
let's we're cataloging whenever these
things pop up. We have a section of
like, okay, we know that this is
something that we have to check on and
when I think once we get through, we're
obviously going through a bunch of um
policies right now. The end goal is we
will have that list and I think the goal
is really to find the right way to
streamline it. So it's not there's going
to be things where there the answer is
there's no update because things are
working fine. And so we got to just
figure out the way to do that quickly
and efficiently rather than doing like
let's not make presentations when we
don't need to. The update might be 10
seconds of like we are required by board
policy such and such to do an update and
the update is there's nothing to say
I'll see you in three years on this
topic. Right? Um so it it doesn't
necessarily need to be like a 45minut
lunch. Um my main concern was just to
make sure that we track these things.
And so my suggestion for this was uh we
already published the uh governance
calendar for the school year, right? And
that we basically could tack on a footer
to that to to to mention, oh, and by the
way, we're going to just bullet point
bullet point bullet point. We're going
to need to have the following three
reports sometime in the 2627 school year
and we'll need the following five
reports sometime in the 2728 school
year. They don't need to be scheduled.
Just like heads up, they're coming up
and that way we don't forget them and
whoops, I guess we agreed we would
report out on this and then we never do.
Just
>> we also I mean to that point and also
some of the policies say they have to be
revisited at a certain time point and I
wasn't sure how we were tracking that. I
think Wendy was saying there was a tool
or I can't this is I need to recall and
get back to Wendy but I thought we had
some kind of tracking tool that was
keeping us
>> I'm not familiar with such a tool that
comes from gamut every three months that
indicates that indicates uh thank
>> that indicates you know these policies
not to come need to come up to date or
need to be
>> review it only covers policies not the
reporting portion
>> right okay so I mean it could be as
simple as just a very simple Google
sheet, right? That says like when right
>> that's the tool. Okay.
>> So, I think the the that's the concept.
It's still in process, but we're all
trying to work toward that.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Um when can we expect an update on
the process?
>> I we have not discussed it as policy
committee. Off the top of my head
though, I do think, you know, March is
going to be a big time for policy
updates. So, it's probably not going to
make sense to come up with anything
before then because we're going to have
to revisit those. Um, so I think that's
the next milestone to check in on on
what the process is.
>> All right. So, after March is what I
heard. All right. So, I
>> should we have a live should we have a
working document now as we're going
through all of these policies to start
adding?
>> Oh, we do. Okay, that's in the
>> that's our spreadsheet, but the actual
reporting
like what the out like in this case,
right, we need to have like every three
years a report on water management like
we don't have that running of like what
we what we've actually done.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm sorry. So
>> yes, I think you are right that Wendy
mentioned that there is some internal
tracking on on this, but I can't
remember exactly.
>> Follow you guys, but since we're going
through it now, we might as well catch
them now and just start the list going.
>> Agreed.
Okay, so I will remand that to policy
committee and expect to hear back uh
sometime in Aprilish, right? I'll add a
I'll add a tickler. So policy committee,
remember that. Okay. Um, great. Any
other comments on this item in
particular on 3511 on water?
Hearing none, we're gonna move on to
3511 decimal one integrated waste
management.
Anyone have any thoughts on integrated
waste management?
>> Looks good. Including organic waste
makes sense as part of it. Um and I
think it's already current practice um
throughout the county. So,
>> sounds good. Thank you.
Any other comment?
Nope. Okay. So, moving on. Uh, board
policy 3514, environmental safety.
>> Yeah. The only thing I was just
wondering about was whether um, you
know, it says that you have to operate
basically HVAC during business hours,
but it was clarified that um because it
wasn't I wasn't sure if like temperate
conditions like if it's nice out, you
don't have to run it. Government test.
Yeah.
>> Yeah. You don't have to. So that was I
tried to read it from the, you know, I
said, "Oh, you can follow the law
exemptions and stuff, but it still
wasn't clear, but it sounds like
>> mandated that no matter what the
weather, we have to run the AC on full.
Oh my god." So it doesn't have to be
that.
>> Okay, good. And and just for any members
of the public, if at any point it seems
like a policy is madness and doesn't
make sense, like come come raise it.
Like we're generally trying to do
reasonable things here. Okay, great.
Thank you, Mike. Okay. Um, next up we
have are are we on 3515 campus security?
Yep.
Okay. Thoughts on this one?
I had a couple but want to let other
people go too.
Okay. Um, my main comment was like the
policy as written u seemed fine but also
didn't get into any of the technologies
that have come up in policy discussions
in other arenas. So things like the use
of face trackers, gate trackers, gunshot
detection, automated license plate
readers, like people have strong
feelings about a bunch of these kinds of
things. And the policy is written
doesn't really cover any of that, like
whether we're okay with doing those
things or not okay with doing those
things. And so uh I I don't have any
objection to the policy as written. But
it also feels in some ways incomplete
like we haven't given the district full
guidance on what is our take on some of
these technologies and it it may need uh
it it may merit some discussion. You
know I know that there's a lot of
communities that have had strong
feelings on both sides about things like
license plate readers you know flock and
the like.
thoughts is that like is it is it a fair
thing to have a discussion about or not
saying we need to have an extended
discussion tonight but just feels like
maybe there's another layer of the onion
to get into here.
>> I think my general view to policy is um
not to overprescribe uh but really to
just set the general tone of what we're
trying to achieve. Um and speaking at
least for myself like I I just don't
know the ins and outs of all the things
that are happening that the districts
and uh the district and the schools are
doing. Um, so I'm a little bit wary of
putting in too much proactively. Um, but
I'm very open. I think you you're asking
um this at the beginning like when when
an issue arises that we need to address
in policy like happy to visit like I'd
love to know when we have to make those
decisions. Um, but I don't know if um I
don't know if we need to get too ahead
um and be overprescriptive in the first
instance.
>> That's fine. But then I want it to be
clear to staff that the board is
explicitly not setting a direction
implicitly in this that we are either
for or against some of these more
specific technologies. And if the
district did want to countenance
supporting or rejecting the use of
license plate readers or face detection
software or gate recognition software
that that would need to be something
that the board would would want to
discuss. So the policy is written is not
saying yes let's do that. It's not
saying no, we can never do that. It's
saying we we're going to need a
discussion about those things. Is that
fair?
>> That's how I intended.
>> Great. Great. So, I just I want to make
sure that the intent that because
sometimes I hear things like, well, the
board really wanted to do X and it's
like, no, that was wrong. So, it's like
I want to make sure that the record is
clear about the board's intent here is
to provide this level of direction and
there's a lot of things that aren't
covered and those are things that are
future conversations for the board.
Cool. Yeah. All right.
Any other thoughts on 3515?
No. Okay. Next one is drones. I had a
lot of thoughts on this one. Uh other
other people have thoughts on drones.
>> Um I do think that this one is a little
bit unclear on how broad it's trying to
reach. I think you had a bunch of
questions in there as well. Um, I know
that this was just CSBA's language. And
so what I wanted to ask the policy
committee is do they when they provide
an update, do they provide a vehicle for
us to be able to ask them questions
about it? Um, because it does it's not
clear. This one is not clear if it is
trying to regulate airspace or not,
which is over. I think that's probably
an overreach for the policy. And so I
just was wondering what was their
perspective? How were they interpreting
it when they read it? um and try and use
the CSBA one instead of trying to use
our own like legal hours or or
something. But to me, it feels like it
needs a little bit more guidance on what
was happening there.
>> I don't know if there's a specific
vehicle provided typically that said
because we've had some because I've I've
raised concerns in the past with some um
policy samples and federal compliance
issues. I know Katherine Rivera and um
and Wendy are very familiar with some of
the folks at CSBA um with questions that
may or may not be it's not a formal
vehicle but if if we have specific
questions to follow up on like I think
the policy committee is happy to take
those up.
>> Yeah. So I do know in Simbi which is a
platform that it's uses the um board
policy and ars if you have any questions
you can actually submit it through that
same um platform. Yeah
>> to one of their CSBA attorneys and then
they could get back to the
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. It might be nice cuz like it would
be it would be pretty clear that you
know the policy could cover what happens
on district grounds, what district staff
and students do, what district sponsored
events are allowed to do, but like it's
the you know the it's the part where
it's not totally clear about like if
something just comes over and they're
not on the land like how does it
regulate? It might be nice to get some
clarity on what they were thinking about
that how that was in and whether the
language really is an overreach or or or
not. But that's all.
Sorry, just for my own understanding,
would this get pulled back and rebrought
up for a first reading, Ben?
>> Yeah. Um, so some of my thoughts on
this, I'm an FAA licensed commercial
pilot. I'm also separately a part 107
commercial drone pilot um RPIC and um I
I I cannot support the way that this is
written. Um, it it includes an implicit
jurisdiction of the airspace over the
school, which is a the FAA has unique
and unique jurisdiction over the
navigable airspace of the United States.
And that's been shot down in case law
like time and time again. Um, it also
appears to make it incredibly difficult
if like a a STEM teacher wanted to take
a toy plastic drone and just like have
it hover for a moment in a classroom to
show what was possible. Um, it would
create an enormous administrative burden
over just doing a simple harmless demo
flight like that with an ultra light
drone. Uh, the FAA considers drones
under 0.55 pounds to be extremely
unlikely to harm people and therefore
the regulations, it's actually not
regulated under part 107. Um, the policy
as written doesn't talk about weight
limits at all. Uh, which means that like
a full commercial drone license would be
needed for any size and weight of
aircraft. Uh, which is which is kind of
ridiculous, right? Right. And I think it
would prohibit a lot of the kinds of fun
STEM explorations that we do want to
support. Um so there's a number of
different parts of this policy that I'm
just I'm not supportive of.
>> It does actually. It says it's less than
55 pounds. So I don't know if that
changes the
>> No, it does not because part 107 covers
um from 0.55 lbs to 55 lbs. And so
explicitly below 0.55 pounds. Uh the FA
says like you're you're not going to
mess anything up. and more than 55 lbs
says like you actually need a part 333
waiver or section 333 waiver cuz like
that's like big stuff, right? Um so
yeah, I mean I I I would not support the
policy as written. Um so I want to
remand this to policy committee. Um
that's my take.
I think Jen and I or I I I hear the the
questions.
Yeah, we can we can consider it through
the policy. I think that's fine to bring
it back. It seems like there are
specific
questions. I don't know if I have the
expertise to be honest. Um perhaps the
SBA does, but I I do wonder if there are
specific issues that you see with the
policy that you do want to be addressed
aside from the the broad question of
whether or not there's Yeah,
>> probably the the two really big ones for
me are jurisdictional control, right? So
the the district has absolute
jurisdiction over the interior airspace
of that exists in the district. So like
what happens in a building, 100% the
district's jurisdiction. The moment that
you talk about like overflight of a
school, it's it's the FAA's
jurisdiction. Like the the the district
doesn't own the airspace. The district
can't regulate and litigate what happens
in the airspace. You can litigate a
takeoff. You can litigate a landing. You
can litigate what kind of operation. So,
if the remote pilot in command is
sitting on school grounds, like that's
subject to school jurisdiction. All
those things are subject to school
jurisdiction. But the the school
district cannot have jurisdiction over
the airspace. So, that's like serious
issue one. And that will get shot down
in court, right? um because there's long
string of case law that show that that's
really clear. So I don't want us to be
embracing policies that have been shown
unlawful u by case law, right? Um and I
think that the other one is just making
it really clear that for very light
drones that they that are less than 0.55
pounds which are FAA category 1 drones u
especially if they have prop guards that
we are not trying to constrain STEM
teachers from from showing their kids
what's possible, right? because these
are not drones that are going to harm
people. They're not drones that are
going to harm property. And it having
burdensome administrative paperwork that
they have to fill out or requiring the
STEM teacher to get their part 107
license seems a little absurd to me for
like for casual kind of toy drone
flights like that. And I I don't want to
burden uh the teachers in the district
wi with that when it's like it doesn't
actually represent potential meaningful
harm.
>> Okay. I think so. Part one is like legal
question. we in your view there'd be no
reason at all to cover uh airspace.
>> Yep.
>> Period. So let's get back.
>> The second piece
>> is ultimately a value and policy
question of to what extent do do schools
and teachers and the district and the
board feel it's appropriate to have kind
of any diminous exception for these
things. Um again I don't have the
expertise on that. I I think that's
something for sure that the policy
committee wants like I would love to get
the schools the practitioners input. Um
but I don't know if the board has other
input as well before going in.
>> No, for me it was just the on or over.
Um so that that was the question for
CSBA like what did they mean by when
they were saying over as opposed to
takeoff, landing or operating from
district property. And for the airspace
one I think you know should it be
instead of the over part would it be
like a response protocol for over
flight? Um, so that you know, we have
like a policy in place of like if you're
getting harassed by a drone, like what
is the response protocol for that to be
able to report it or something like
that. Um, if it's not something that we
can actually regulate, we can still
report it to, I don't know, the FAA or
whatever.
>> Yeah.
>> So, I I I have no idea. I would, you
know, we'd have to get the legal
opinion, but that's why I was saying
maybe we can ask CSBA some of these
questions like what were they intending?
How are they seeing this thing in
practice?
>> Okay.
Sorry to create a kind of brewhaha there
like a
>> no policy is important
that I don't that gives me a few other
thoughts.
>> I think just for clarity that we have
the paragraph about saying the
superintendent or design may grant
permission for those use cases that you
said. Bless you. You're you're trying to
frame it that we want to encourage or
allow it without having the permission
or
>> that I I think it's up to us to decide
what sort of interior flights over which
we have jurisdiction are are
sufficiently safe that there really
shouldn't be burden in terms of needing
permission needing to go and have uh
insurance you know a million dollars of
crash insurance coverage part 107
lensure for a meaningfully sized drone,
like one that is uh regulated under Part
107, somewhere between 0.55 pounds and
55 pounds, like yeah, um totally like
reasonable to like if if you want a 30
lb drone flying around your
multi-purpose room over a bunch of
children, like yeah, you want to have
insurance for that, right? And so like
that part makes sense, right? But it's
just like trying to But that's actually
that that's sort of an absurd situation
because I I don't think anyone would
actually propose flying a 30 lb drone
inside a multi-purpose room over a bunch
of children. You know, I think that the
the reality of where the surface area
contact is likely to be between the
drones and the in between drones in the
district is going to be short casual
flights with ultra light drones less
than 0.55 pounds with prop guards that
are extremely unlikely to injure any
children. Right. and and they're fun.
They're engaging. It's something that's
like it's a wonderful tool in a STEM
classroom to be able to go and use these
drones. And so I just I don't want any
friction for
teachers who want to engage their kids
in this way where where there's no
meaningful risk.
>> I think I
>> I've said my piece.
>> I I understand the concept. I think
it'll be it'll be good to hear. I don't
know. Yeah. I don't know. I truly not
questioning I don't know whether or not
there are rationals for some sort of
protocol in place. Um but let's let's
get the information. Cool. Thank you.
All right. And with that, moving on to
3515 decimal 7 firearms on school
grounds. Any comments?
Hearing none. Moving on to 3523
electronic signatures. Any comments?
We're in the 21st century. Very good.
Okay. Uh, next one. 3580 district
records.
I had some minor comments on this
and I'll just note that it had I mean we
just approved last week the student
records one that had the same reporting
requirement for it. Um, and I can't
remember that's typical that we'll
repeat language across policies. It's
probably nicer just because it's there.
You don't have to think about it as
opposed to cross referencing. But this
is the cyber attack um reporting
language that's
>> from past.
>> No, no, no. The um
>> another policy,
>> the district records and the student
records has the same reporting
requirement for um so it's like
literally the same language.
>> Yeah. Um my my suggestion on this was to
consider I in including regularly making
backups of district records and then
also validating that those backups do
indeed work um as effective insurance
against a uh ransomware attack. Right?
Because this is and this is not u an
academic kind of theoretical concern.
It's pretty regular that organizations
get attacked, their data gets wiped. And
if they don't have a rigorous disaster
recovery strategy in place with not just
regular backups, but have actually
tested those backups as often as not
folks thought they were backing up
stuff, the emergency happens, they go to
recover from the backups, they actually
haven't practiced a recovery in years,
and whoops, actually almost none of the
data is there, right? And now you're in
really serious trouble because you've
you've lost those records. Um, I think
this is like it's a material concern.
Um, so just I I want to make sure that
we are as a board giving direction to
the district that it's something that
we're hoping the district can pretty
regularly do is not just backup data,
but also be validating those backups
with some frequency. The hope is not to
have this be overly burdensome, but I
think it's important that we know that
our backups work.
>> Rick, how often is the data backed up
when it comes to student records and
other records within the district? Do
you know?
full backup.
We have we have set backups for our
servers
but not for data.
is the student records is on the Google
Drive but there is no
talking about record digital
>> right those records that are digitalized
and those records that move on from us
to the high school district and then for
any student back 20 30 40 years that
comes back and wants X record
right from my understanding at this
point in time it's we make a copy of it
from the the digit one and give it to
them but other than that
we we don't we don't
>> I did a dra up on a separate hard drive
so we have hard drive the data in the
Google drive and then uh the physical we
still have
>> and how often do we validate those
backups
validation. What is the pro of the
validation?
>> There's a couple different ways to do
it, but um just you could have any
process of just pick picking a
particular file and trying to restore it
and seeing if it comes back uh corrupted
or not. Just doing doing point in time
checks. There's a couple different ways
to go and validate a backup.
>> Successful restoration.
>> Successful restoration. the involvement
department who manage the the records
when there are there is our request
uh they are in charge of providing it so
they're the ones that review the data
and provide it to the parent who needs
it
>> this policy is also this is about
district records not student records
because the district has lots of data
that it stores from payroll to like HR
reports whatever and it's just I I think
it's important that we make sure that
the district isn't going to be victim to
a ransomware ware attack where some
hacker breaks in via zero day, deletes
all of our data, and then we're just
dead in the water because we have no
idea like what our payroll is. We have
no idea what our HR file is.
>> Budget.
>> We have no idea what our budget is.
>> Yeah. And and a lot of those records are
not stored on prem, right? So they're in
a different system uh in the cloud now,
especially our financial records. And
this policy also talks about two
records, right? Paper records and
electronic records, right? So we have to
differentiate that in here as well. Um
although makes reference to electronic
records are electronically stored. Um
but our student information and our
financial records are now cloud-based
where we're not making backups of those
on a any frequency because they are
backed up by our um SLAs's with those
entities with ERP.
>> Are they configured on the cloud such
that they cannot be deleted remotely?
believe remotely by us or
>> a hacker posing as you. Yes. If I were
to compromise your account, you know,
could I direct Google to delete all of
the district's records from Google
servers?
>> Not for those two systems.
>> Okay.
>> If there was files stored in a Google
Drive account here, it could.
>> Yeah.
So if if there so I don't want to get
too into the weeds with like this is not
meant to be a live audit of the IT
systems but rather we're trying to set
policy and the hope here is that um to
give policy guidance to the district
that all of our critical records whether
they're student records or district
records that we have a backup of them
that is a separate copy or it's
preserved in such a way that it cannot
be deleted. Um and that we validate that
those attestations are correct. So that
if not even if when we get hacked and
somebody tries to you know hold us up
for ransom that even if they go ahead
and as you as the super user admin for
the whole district they try their best
to wipe everything that we are not dead
in the water that we're able to recover.
Yeah.
Awesome. policy team. Is there a way
that we should encapsulate that request
in this policy in other policies? Is
this the right discussion to be having
about this item? I'm not trying to
derail things. I just
>> I think this is the right form to
discuss. This seems like the right
policy to capture what it is exactly
want to confirm. Um
>> but I don't have sample language, but it
sounds like this. Yeah, sounds like
there's we're proposing some language
that is relatively broad enough to
ensure that in the worst case scenario,
we have some semblance of some backup
that can that is separate from the
traditional systems that we're using to
ensure that we're not starting from zero
if we lose all the data.
>> A disaster recovery plan of sorts,
right?
>> So from a policy language perspective,
we can figure out what that looks like.
But the second part is I think just I
think what I heard is this is not overly
burdensome.
>> Yeah. the conceptually for the district
to to adhere to. Yeah, I think we can
take it back.
>> Okay.
>> It would be interesting to see what
other districts are doing with this
policy because we're all using the
cloud. We're all using electronics.
I have not heard any of my colleagues
talk about this in the sense at this
point in time. Would we want to detail
this out in the AR also or
>> definitely
>> doesn't go AR
>> doesn't go into that detail
>> because the ARS gives you the specifics
what you need to do.
So best practice in industry is to do a
full disaster recovery um trial, right?
Uh but once a year and and go in and do
a full backup restore and validate that
your backups come back as you thought
and that they're working as intended. Is
that appropriate for school district? I
don't know. I like but just with some
cadence to make sure that we we are
backing up all of our data. we're not at
risk of an attacker and if an attacker
did come in and delete everything they
possibly could as a super user in the
district that we wouldn't be dead in the
water. Rick, I wonder what Smigg would
say in regard to this
>> because we would go directly to them if
this were take if this were to take
place
60 cemeter
which we
are definitely one of their clients.
Okay. All right. So we we might get some
there there there might be an
exploration from policy committee in
combination with it to see what kind of
language might make sense here. Is is
that what I'm hearing?
>> Yes, I think so.
>> Okay. Any other comments by the board?
Okay. Uh next up is 7150 site selection
and development
comments here.
Hearing
none, turn your mics on. Uh, next up is
7210 facilities financing.
Any comments here?
Hearing none. All right. Good job
everyone. That was all of our policies
to go and review. And thank you again to
policy committee. I know that this stuff
is really involved. Um, thank you for
all your work preparing this and for the
vigorous discussion on the policies. So
cool.
All right. And with that, um, we are now
on to the consent items. Um, as a
reminder to the public, these are things
that we approve all in one go that are
generally presumed to not need detailed
discussion. Does anyone want to move
that we approve the consent items?
>> So,
I'll second.
>> All those in favor?
>> I.
>> All right. Passes unanimously. Great.
Okay. And we have nothing left in our
action item section because one and two
were pulled and we uh joyously took care
of number three already at the top of
the meeting with a lot of flowers. Okay.
And that brings us to 13 board and
superintendent reports. Yeah.
>> Yeah. I attended the um along with
President Weekly many staff members,
principles um and community members the
road city school district strategic
resource alignment advisory committee
meeting number four. uh which we saw
last night. Um Dr. Baker presented the
pretty much the spreadsheet that we saw
in our study session with a little bit
more detail in there about um what all
the um how those things were going to
kind of take shape uh to the committee.
Kind of ran through the details. Rick
was uh there presenting through all the
details um and then went back and got
the committee's feedback about which
ones they were going to recommend to the
superintendent, which ones they wanted
to recommend with changes. I'll let the
superintendent digest that information.
and he'll bring it back to the board
sometime in February, I think. Right.
February 4th for our approval.
>> Anyone else?
>> Uh I did a Roy Cloud visit the other
week which was great. Um Parody is
happening so that was didn't get to see
all the full instruction but still got
to see around the campus and drop in a
couple classrooms which is great. few
things that I noted that I thought were
super helpful. One was um I asked about
just the the change obviously we've made
changes to the I Ready um or the
district has made changes to the timing
and frequency of I Ready administration
um at least from um admit sounds like
there's a positive change that allows um
allows to get that midpoint data of
allowing us to figure out like you know
what are things that we can focus on um
and reducing some of the the the testing
toward the end of the year. So that was
good. Another interesting thing that I
heard which is great uh was that there's
proactive collaboration um at least
between Brightcloud and I think SEOA on
um that transition between 8th grade and
9th grade. I think it's called the ELA
articulation uh which is it's just a
great idea like we're obviously trying
to prepare our students for high school.
So it's great to hear that they're doing
that. Um I I don't know if there's
districtwide stuff, but it's just great
to hear that that is happening in
general of, you know, we're trying to
work together to make that a seamless
transition. Um the one thing that did um
come up as a question and I I feel like
it's hyper or maybe it's a very
technical issue, but I did one of the
classrooms I got to drop in on uh there
was uh I think a brand new student that
day and I guess there's it seems like
technologically there might be an issue
or lag time between setting up their
accounts the f the first day. Uh, so I
think the student um had to share
Chromebook with their neighbor as um not
super ideal. It sounds like and frankly
what I witnessed sound like was an
opportunity to get to know your
neighbor, but just I I don't know if
there's further explanation. Would be
great if you know new students coming in
the middle of the year could just be up
and running as quickly as possible. But
just to flag that that was something
popped up.
>> No update from
Um I attended the Rwood City together
along with Dr. Baker and I was actually
trying to see look up through my notes.
I know um they're over their um I just
went blank
their fundraising. So that was really
great. Um obviously City Together is an
organization that works with Riverwood
City and North Fair Oaks. Um talked
about all the events that they've done.
um the promotes which is a group of
youth that helps out to provide
resources to our community.
>> Nice.
>> Um
>> do you remember I I don't remember what
else. I mean there there's definitely a
lot of information. Um we also did
breakout section sessions where we um
you got to choose what you wanted to do.
And one of the things that I was very
interested in was um they talked about
their newsletter and reaching out more
than like 3,000 residents, but I was
just wondering
how many more can you get to rather than
just making a beautiful newsletter? How
are you going to reach out more people
so that they know what resources are
providing? So, we kind of brainstorm
about that. And again, there was
different different um breakout
sessions. Um and then maybe Dr. Baker
could add a little bit more information
to that.
>> Sweet. Thank you so much. Um I also was
at that uh meeting. I think that's going
to be the last of the sequence and
hopefully the last of that flavor for a
while because the game plan is that this
is going to be the new normal going
forward. Um but that was uh that was
good. I had coffee at Phil's downtown
this morning with Amy Coup from the
Sequoia board and that was it was a
wonderful meeting. Uh it was great to
get to connect with uh some of my peers
there. Um so they have a public
dashboard uh called school litics to
show how actually Redwood City School
District graduates are doing in the
Sequoia district and you can slice and
dice that data lots of different ways.
Um that seemed pretty neat. I didn't
know about that uh prior to this
morning's coffee. Um so I spent a little
bit of time playing around in that uh
school litics dashboard. Um and
apparently uh some of their dis feeder
districts or one of their feeder
districts obviously um have asked their
data people to come and present to the
feeder district about how that
district's children are doing at
Sequoia. Uh this is a something that
they would h be happy to do apparently
for Redwood City School District. we
just need to ask if that is data that we
are interested in seeing. Um that seemed
interesting. Um so I think picking maybe
a meeting day when we don't have you
know four or five hours of other things
uh piled up for that day could be
interesting to go and learn a little bit
about the onward journey and also ways
that we could better improve the
articulation meetings for instance to
have that smooth handoff. Um, we talked
a little bit about uh school district
unification. Um, and I think the
conclusion for now is that the
practicalities of that are a bit out of
reach. Um, it that even though it kind
of pencils out that in the most ideal of
all possible worlds, it would probably
make good sense for us to be uh a
unified district, it's probably not
going to happen. And so what what can we
do given that? uh can we act like a
virtually unified district and kind of
come together as one team to make these
story arcs, these uh narratives about
children joining us in TK and kinder all
the way through uh high school, right?
And what are some things that we can do
to invest in those pathways and helping
to make sure that those those pathways
are smooth and articulation meetings is
a part of that, but there's a there's a
couple other parts as well. Um
there may be even some options that uh
could be explored between the districts
like splitting a part-time teacher for
specialty classes. We talked about whole
grade acceleration as a very
cost-effective uh gate option um and
building out pathways for English math
and uh she actually brought up music. So
we're thoughtful about student journeys.
Um the music was a little interesting
because like there aren't any uh intro
to orchestra effectively classes. So you
have to sort of show up at the district
already proficient in an instrument and
if like you kind of missed that boat
then you you can end up left behind
which is sort of interesting. Um yeah it
was a very good meeting. Dr. Bigger
I've been to several of the items that
were just mentioned but the other piece
uh Cecilia that we heard about was that
regarding the cancer center that's being
built uh was at Stanford over on
Broadway. Is is it Broadway? I think
it's Broadway as you move
>> further down. Um they talked about this
cancer research center where it's
research number one and the horrible to
say but these new types of cancers that
are coming forward and the knowledge on
how to help those patients who get that
type of cancer where the researchers
will be there. The patients will be
there in the hospital getting their
treatments at the same time while the
researcher researchers are reacting to
see how they are
how they are furthering themselves along
to becoming better with the new drugs
and so forth that the researchers are
trying to come up with.
>> It has not come to fruition at this
point in time. They're thinking it's
going to be number one the research
center then a clinic and then a hospital
all for um for cancer and it's going to
definitely because it's in that area the
Fair Oaks area
wants to cater to that clientele plus
others. So, it's something I think that
will probably be known to this area
within the next few years. I would
imagine they're in the process now of
doing uh different types of community
meetings and gathering with community
members to make them aware that this is
going to be in place and how you can
become involved in the near future. So
that was a big piece that took a lot of
the presentation that uh after we did
that group work they they spoke quite a
bit and one of the uh Lucy Wixs is um
she was one of our parents uh from one
of our school sites and she is the the
vice president of what's going on in
that area and she's the one that also
helped me bring Stanford here during co
especially when I was worried about the
counseling and anything to get that off
the ground. So Lucy, it was great to see
her and and learn about her kids who are
now in college and so forth and and see
where she is in her career in their life
at this point in time. And so it's
interesting. It's really built up. I can
remember years ago when that was
nothing. Do you remember it down there?
It was like, you know,
>> right? I don't know what of a company.
>> Yeah, it was Ampex. Ampex or S. It was
all these like bungalows from what I
remember.
But now it's my gosh, it's thriving.
Stanford University. The gardener center
is there part-time also. So, but it's
it's new and it's coming and and with
what's happening in the nation and
research being stopped at certain
places, it's it's definitely not
in a halt moment here. So, that's good
to know. So, I thought it was very
interesting and and they said they would
keep Redwood City together appraised as
it moves along because now their next
step is to um they've been meeting with
the with the city council to get all
their ducks in a row so they can get
everything they need to break ground and
open it up.
That was quite interesting that portion.
The rest the rest of the meeting was
interesting also, but that was very
fascinating to learn what's happening.
Screw cancer. I'm glad that we've got
some awesome research teams uh standing
up here.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. Uh with that, we're on to
information. Um Rick, I'm going to try
and explain this and you can yell at me
if I got it wrong. Uh so quick perimeter
on this one. A reasonable question is
what does the district do with its cash
on hand? The answer is that the county
manages the cash for us for better for
worse when nobody's trading stocks or
doing anything very exotic with the
money. So, right now we're earning a bit
shy of 4%. Uh, kind of what you would
expect from a savings account. A lot of
CDs and treasury notes in there. Uh,
it's not clear that we have a lot of
options to do more exciting things with
the cash on hand or that that would be a
particularly good idea. Um, we wouldn't
want to miss payroll because the market
was having a bad day um like this week.
Um, Rick, did I get that about right?
Thank you. Anything else want to say on
this item?
Not with district funds.
Okay. All right. Uh, correspondence.
I have a really sad one. I'm just going
to put this out there. Um,
my wife's very good friend and one of
her fellow actors from South Bay Musical
Theater uh was killed in Gilroy uh
crossing the street right after dropping
her daughter off at elementary school uh
along with uh along with her husband.
The two of them were together just got
done dropping their child off at
elementary school and a truck uh did not
stop and um they both now have passed
and they've orphaned their daughter. Um,
so, uh,
twins, thank you. Thank you for that.
Um, so yeah, so my my my wife acted on
on stage with, uh, with with her, and I
think that was, um, a bit of a reminder
for us of how close to home safe routes
to school really is. That, uh, my two
boys cross Jefferson every morning uh,
and every afternoon coming home from
school, and stuff like this scares the
crap out of me. Um, so just if there are
things that we can do to further
emphasize and accelerate safe routes to
school to make sure that things like
that don't happen in this community and
that we do everything we can to
encourage uh and make it safe and
desirable for children to walk to
school, to bike to school, to scooter to
school, uh, and to not have to drive to
school and to have those sidewalks be
and crosswalks be properly protected. I
I think it would be great. So just
wanted to share that.
All right. Uh, other business?
Nope.
Okay. Um, and just a note for the
public, the uh, schedule of agenda items
is there. People often miss that, but if
you want to know what's the board going
to talk about when, um, that's a great
resource. Look at the PDF that's
attached to item 16 right there. Okay.
Uh, that brings us to reflection. How'd
it go?
Don't all speak at once.
Thumbs up. Good meeting. Want to high
five the new superintendent.
>> I think today's maybe a bit of an
exception, but I I do think we need to
be consistent with time limits of the
speakers when they come up. Uh it's hard
to make exceptions and I know this was a
tough because I like I loved all the
things that were said, but it begs the
question of
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> When do we make them? Yeah.
>> Yep.
That's very good feedback. I will three
minutes
appreciate that. Any other feedback?
>> No, otherwise I thought it was good
discussion. Um, it was a lot of fun to
welcome Dr. Ruboca in. Um, so that was
that was a fun event. Um, and yeah, I
mean I think you know there's some good
discussion in the policy. So I think we
sent our policy committee to work. So
that's good.
>> Thank you policy committee. We
appreciate you.
Oh boy.
I mean, I thought I was it was a good
meeting, too. Um I did think of um the
time. Yeah.
>> Because obviously we have to be fair
with it.
>> We we got we got to be fair. Yeah. Yeah.
So
>> um and again, as far as the discussion
goes with the board policies, um I
thought it was great. It's just
unfortunate that Wendy's not here, but
you guys will be able to give her the
information. Um, but yeah, thank you.
>> Cool.
Duly noted, no matter how heartfelt or
sweet the remarks are, I got to cut
people off at three minutes. Um, so I
got to I got to learn to step up to that
and wield that gabble a little bit more
firmly. Okay. Um,
Evelyn, do we have got any changes
coming up? We good on the calendar?
>> No changes.
>> Sounds good. All right. I think that
takes us to the end of our meeting.
Would anyone like to move we adjourn?
>> So move.
>> A second.
>> All those in favor?
>> I. The motion passes.