{"date":"2026-10-28","type":"Regular","videoId":"kqPgOxvtdpc","audioDuration":8218,"speakers":{"A":{"name":"David Weekly","role":"President"},"B":{"name":"Evelyn Sanchez","role":"Executive Assistant to Superintendent / Board Secretary (roll call, procedural)"},"C":{"name":"Mike Wells","role":"Trustee"},"D":{"name":"David Li","role":"Trustee"},"E":{"name":"Cecilia I. Márquez","role":"Vice President"},"F":{"name":"David Weekly","role":"President (also used for Pledge/other voices)"},"G":{"name":"Jennifer Ng Kwing King","role":"Clerk"},"H":{"name":"Unidentified speaker / Hoover students & staff","role":"Public/Students (Pledge of Allegiance, audience)"},"I":{"name":"Mike Wells","role":"Trustee"},"J":{"name":"David Li","role":"Trustee"},"K":{"name":"Christian Rubalcaba","role":"Superintendent"}},"utterances":[{"start":3949,"end":12120,"speaker":"A","text":"All right, it's 7 o'clock. I'm calling the October 28th, 2026 regular meeting of the Redwood City School District Board of Trustees to order. Roll call, please."},{"start":12120,"end":13484,"speaker":"B","text":"Trustee Wells."},{"start":13484,"end":14720,"speaker":"C","text":"Here. Trustee Lee."},{"start":14720,"end":15202,"speaker":"D","text":"Here."},{"start":15202,"end":18236,"speaker":"B","text":"Trustee King is absent. Vice President Marcus."},{"start":18236,"end":18589,"speaker":"E","text":"Here."},{"start":18589,"end":19552,"speaker":"C","text":"President Weekly."},{"start":19552,"end":20227,"speaker":"F","text":"Present."},{"start":20804,"end":30019,"speaker":"A","text":"Bienvenidos a todos. Welcome everyone to the public session for the October 28th, 2026 meeting of the Redwood City School Board. Our interpreter will now give instructions for how to access translation."},{"start":32296,"end":58145,"speaker":"E","text":"Hello. Buenas tardes. Si necesitan interpretación español, se está ofreciendo esta noche interpretación español. Si están en persona, les puedo proveer un receptor allá atrás de la sala. Y si están en Zoom, también pueden seleccionar en su pantalla el icono de globo mundial que aparece en los tres puntitos de interpretación. Ahí pueden seleccionar el idioma español y se va a poder escuchar esta reunión en español en Zoom. Gracias."},{"start":59061,"end":118490,"speaker":"A","text":"Muchas gracias. Just so all participants are aware, at the direction of the board, this meeting is being recorded and will be shared with members of the public. We generally try to post our meeting videos on YouTube about a day or 2 after. Tonight we'll be hearing about how we teach English to our English learners, which are about a quarter of our students, and seeing what progress we're making against our LCAP goals. We'll also get an update on how staffing costs have been changing, which should provide useful input to discussions about budget. I was surprised to see that Census Day enrollment came in at nearly 6,400 students, which is a chunk higher than expected. TKs of about 180 students. We'll be diving into those numbers too. The board encourages all members of the public to participate and provide comment on issues of concern, regardless of whether or not they're on the agenda. If you're here in person, please fill out a speaker card. You don't have to give your legal name, but if you'd like for 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 that is 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."},{"start":118490,"end":118530,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you."},{"start":120763,"end":139627,"speaker":"A","text":"To be fair to all speakers, comment is limited to 3 minutes unless otherwise noted. You'll see a countdown clock at the front of the podium. As a reminder, anytime a public comment is on an item not on the agenda, the board will be unable to take action or comment on the matter. If you're here to speak on staffing, we'll comment— take your comment at item 9.1. And now, do we have a Pledge of Allegiance?"},{"start":140173,"end":140365,"speaker":"G","text":"Woohoo!"},{"start":140895,"end":141650,"speaker":"A","text":"Pledge of Allegiance."},{"start":141650,"end":141810,"speaker":"H","text":"Hoover."},{"start":141810,"end":142516,"speaker":"I","text":"Hoover."},{"start":143865,"end":146851,"speaker":"A","text":"I guess I should have guessed from the shirts. Not very subtle."},{"start":150393,"end":151619,"speaker":"H","text":"Oh yeah."},{"start":151619,"end":157716,"speaker":"A","text":"Can we switch cameras around? Cameras."},{"start":178878,"end":192067,"speaker":"F","text":"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."},{"start":192067,"end":213911,"speaker":"A","text":"Woohoo! Oh, that was wonderful. Thank you, Hoover team. And now for any changes to the agenda. Okay, seeing none, would somebody like to move we approve the agenda?"},{"start":213911,"end":215454,"speaker":"I","text":"I'll make a motion to approve the agenda."},{"start":215454,"end":216429,"speaker":"J","text":"I'll second."},{"start":216429,"end":220226,"speaker":"A","text":"All those in favor? Oh, we have to do roll call because we have an absence. Yes?"},{"start":220517,"end":220743,"speaker":"K","text":"No?"},{"start":221147,"end":221308,"speaker":"I","text":"No."},{"start":221712,"end":223489,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, just right, sir."},{"start":223893,"end":224086,"speaker":"I","text":"Thank you."},{"start":224290,"end":236974,"speaker":"A","text":"Just double-checking. All right, uh, we have an approved agenda. We'll move on to public comment. I have one card in front of me right here, and this is for Maria Elena Callejas."},{"start":250397,"end":438580,"speaker":"H","text":"Buenas noches, miembros de la mesa directiva y representantes del distrito. Mi nombre es María Elena Callejas y soy madre de una estudiante de Kennedy Middle School. Estoy aquí para expresar mi profunda preocupación por la seguridad de mi hija y de todos los estudiantes de esta escuela. Mi hija se ha visto involucrada en repetidos incidentes de agresión física a pesar de haber comunicado mis preocupaciones a la escuela y que se implementara un plan de seguridad. Las agresiones continuaron. Recientemente, un estudiante tomó a mi hija del cabello y la tiró al suelo, lo que lo que requirió la intervención de personal escolar para separarlas. Posteriormente ocurrió otro incidente. Esto demuestra que las medidas implementadas no han sido suficientes para prevenir nuevas agresiones ni para garantizar la seguridad de mi hija. Sin embargo, Mi preocupación va más allá de lo que le ha sucedido a mi hija. Tengo entendido que en esta escuela ocurren peleas con frecuencia, incluso diariamente. Esto plantea una pregunta muy seria: ¿Qué está pasando con la seguridad de nuestros estudiantes? Y ¿qué está haciendo el distrito para prevenir la violencia dentro de las escuelas? Los padres, nosotros los padres, enviamos a nuestros hijos a la escuela confiando en que estarán protegidos, que podrán aprender y que regresen Regresarán a casa sanos y salvos. No deberíamos tener que vivir con el temor de que nuestros hijos sean golpeados, intimidados o involucrados en una pelea durante la jornada escolar. La violencia no debe ser normalizada ni considerarse simplemente parte de la adolescencia. Cada incidente representa una oportunidad para identificar qué está fallando y qué medidas tomar antes de que alguien resulte gravemente herido. Por eso solicito que el distrito revise seriamente las condiciones de seguridad en Kennedy Middle School, investigue los incidentes recurrentes y evalúe si existe suficiente supervisión por parte del personal escolar, especialmente en las áreas y momentos donde ocurren estas situaciones. También solicito que se establezcan medidas concretas de prevención, protocolos claros de actuación y mecanismos para verificar que los planes de seguridad realmente funcionan. No estoy aquí para buscar conflictos con la escuela ni para señalar a una persona en particular. Estoy aquí porque considero que la seguridad de nuestros hijos debe ser una prioridad absoluta. Nuestros hijos tienen derecho a estudiar en un ambiente seguro, libre de violencia y miedo. Como padres merecemos tener la confianza de que el distrito está tomando las medidas necesarias para protegerlos. Espero que mis palabras no se queden solamente en esta reunión y que se traduzcan en acciones concretas. Porque la seguridad de nuestros hijos no puede esperar hasta que ocurra una tragedia. Muchas gracias por escucharme."},{"start":439960,"end":446024,"speaker":"A","text":"Muchas gracias. May I have translation now, please?"},{"start":446930,"end":447205,"speaker":"F","text":"Yes."},{"start":447738,"end":518599,"speaker":"E","text":"So we're having technical issues with the interpretation online, but I will read mom's comment. She said, \"Good evening, members of the board and district members. My name is Elena Callejas. I am a mom from.\" Kennedy Middle School, and I am here to express my deep concern about the safety for my daughter and all of the students of the school. My daughter has been involved in multiple incidents of physical aggression, and I've already communicated my concerns to the school and, uh, implementing a plan for safety, and the aggressions continued. Recently, a student took my daughter from the hair and she threw it to the floor, what, uh, and what needed an intervention from the school staff to separate them. And after that, another incident happened. This shows that the, that the measures that they implemented haven't been— they haven't been enough to prevent new aggressions and to guarantee her safety. However, my concern goes more than what already happened to my daughter. I have, I have understood that this school has multiple fights frequently and even daily."},{"start":518599,"end":518807,"speaker":"F","text":"Thank you."},{"start":519256,"end":548596,"speaker":"E","text":"This has a very important question and serious question. What is happening with the safety of our students, and what is doing the district to prevent violence inside of our schools? As parents, we send our kids to school trusting that they are going to be protected and that they are going to be able to learn and that they're going to come back home safe and sound. And we shouldn't be living with the fear that our kids are going to be hit or intimidated, or they're going to be in a fight during the school— during the school day."},{"start":548596,"end":548917,"speaker":"C","text":"Thank you."},{"start":549495,"end":633440,"speaker":"E","text":"Violence cannot be normalized, or they cannot be just considered just simply part of the adolescence. Each incident represents the opportunity to identify what is going on and take measures before somebody, uh, somebody is hurt. And this is why I'm asking the district to review, uh, the conditions and safety in Kennedy Middle School and to investigate the incidents and to evaluate if there's enough supervision. Uh, from the school staff, especially in the areas and moments where we have the situations. I'm also asking to establish, uh, measures for prevention and protocols to act and, uh, and also to verify the plans, the safety plans, that they really work. And I am not here to look for conflicts for the school or to, uh, to pick on a person in particular. I am here because I think that the safety of our children have to be a very, uh, Priority. Our children have the right to study in a very safe environment, free of violence and fear. And as parents, we deserve to have— or to trust that the district is taking the, uh, the measures to protect them. Hopefully my words are not just going to be in this meeting, and, and they can be trans— or they can be made into actions, because the safety of our children cannot wait. Until a tragedy occurs. Thank you very much."},{"start":633440,"end":653529,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you so much for the comment. I believe staff is following up on the issue. Um, not seeing other comments. There is one on Zoom. Okay, let's— thank you for catching that. Let's take a look over here, and we have Jennifer Ryan that has her hands up. Jennifer, you have the floor and 3 minutes."},{"start":653529,"end":664685,"speaker":"F","text":"Hi and good evening. I'm so sorry I can't be there in person. I'm not sure if you can see me, but I'm Jennifer Ryan. I'm the mom of a 4-year-old who just started TK at Roy Cloud."},{"start":664685,"end":665774,"speaker":"A","text":"Not hearing Jennifer."},{"start":665774,"end":670834,"speaker":"F","text":"Oh, I have unmuted. Can you hear me now?"},{"start":670834,"end":674431,"speaker":"A","text":"Is this an IT issue? Can we, can we get Jennifer?"},{"start":674431,"end":678151,"speaker":"F","text":"I have unmuted. My audio is working."},{"start":678151,"end":682502,"speaker":"A","text":"Jennifer, just so you know, we can't hear you yet. It does look like you're speaking, but we cannot hear you in the room."},{"start":682502,"end":690404,"speaker":"F","text":"Okay. Okay. I will keep saying testing, testing, testing. Oh, testing, testing."},{"start":690404,"end":693642,"speaker":"A","text":"All right, we are hearing you through Rick's laptop."},{"start":693642,"end":694764,"speaker":"F","text":"Okay."},{"start":694764,"end":696448,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, we can hear you."},{"start":696448,"end":884227,"speaker":"F","text":"Great. Okay. Hi, um, good evening. I'm so sorry I can't be there in person, and I hope you can all hear me loudly enough. I'll try to speak very loudly. Um, hi, I'm Jennifer Ryan. I'm the mom of a 4-year-old who just started TK at Roy Cloud. First, thank you to the board for everything you do for our school district and community. This is my first board meeting, and I really appreciate the opportunity Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Baker, for the opportunity to give public comments. So, as similar to the last parent who spoke, I'm here as a concerned parent, but my concern is specifically about the use of videos to teach our youngest students in TK classrooms and the lack of standards or guidelines at the school or district level. I just learned at my October parent-teacher meeting, my first, that my son's TK class watches at least 20 to 30 minutes of videos a day. And maybe even more, including YouTube videos such as Danny Go up to 3 times a day, as well as YouTube video content to learn numbers, letters, how to draw, sign language, and probably even more that I'm not aware of. The teacher also rewards the kids by letting them watch the cartoon show Bluey. So what prompted me to ask the teacher about screen time at this meeting? Well, I— when I asked my son what his favorite thing about TK was, he said We get to watch movies. So I just want to be clear that I'm not opposed to all technology, but I am concerned when videos become a substitute for direct teaching and interactive learning, especially for 4-year-olds. My understanding is that there are no district-wide guidelines about the use of technology or instructional videos in TK classrooms, and that is why I'm here. Get her, get her, get her. I noticed that today's consent agenda item number 21 includes a policy on the selection and evaluation of instructional materials It's Policy 6161.1, and that establishes guidelines for selecting and evaluating instructional materials, including technology-based materials for K through 8. It does not include TK. And I saw that California has some guidance for TK through the California State TK Learning Foundations called the PTKLF, and it emphasizes that young children develop skills that set the foundation for success in school and life. And, you know, my personal opinion, and I'm not an educator, but our children have a lifetime of screens ahead of them, and it seems to be critical that we have developmentally appropriate guidelines for TK instructional materials, screen time, and the use of videos. So I've talked with the teacher and the principal about my concerns. The principal says she has spoken with the district TK lead, but I'm really not sure where that leads. And I recognize that I don't yet understand how the board considers new policies or how changes like this could happen. But my hope is that we could start a conversation about developing guidelines. And I feel like it would not only support the learning of our littlest students, but it would also support the TK teachers as well. I want to believe it's possible, but I don't know what it will take. Thank you for your time and consideration. I think my 3 minutes are up."},{"start":884227,"end":933918,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, yes, yes. Thank you so much. That was a little exciting. Jennifer, appreciate your comment. We are— we will look to follow up with you with staff and possibly Policy Committee. So appreciate your comment there. All right, do we have any further comments online? Not seeing any other hands raised, not seeing any cards. So I think that's it for public comment. In terms of union comment, do we have any comment from the unions? Hi, thank you for being here. Appreciate you. All right, great. So with that, we're gonna move on to the bond program consent items. As a reminder for members of the public, consent items are the ones where we approve a group of items in one go that are considered unlikely to be objectionable or need discussion. Somebody like to move that we approve the bond program consent items?"},{"start":933918,"end":936568,"speaker":"D","text":"I'll second."},{"start":937998,"end":939063,"speaker":"A","text":"All those in favor? Aye."},{"start":939870,"end":940161,"speaker":"D","text":"Very well."},{"start":941081,"end":962857,"speaker":"A","text":"Next up is Bond Program Action Items. There are no Bond Program Action Items. Next up are the School and Community Reports. We have 8.1, Integrated and Designated English Language Development, Katherine Rivera and her team. We have 15 minutes for the presentation and about 20 for the board discussion. Oh, yes, free phone."},{"start":965968,"end":1079674,"speaker":"B","text":"All right, thank you. I'm gonna just, um, quickly make a little bit of room on the podium so that I can share my screen. Okay, can everybody see that one? All right, all right. Good evening. Uh, good evening, trustees, uh, Superintendent Dr. Bacalma, my colleagues from the cabinet, and guests That are online and in person. I feel like we lost a crowd in here, but that's okay. This is, this is an important topic that we'll continue to revisit throughout the year in time come. So I'm Katherine Rivera. I'm the Multilingual English Learner Director as well as Director of Categorical Programs, and I'm here to talk about one of my favorite topics as a professional in the Redwood City School District, the integrated and designated ELD and our instructional coaching this year. I'm going to multitask up here. So just for the flow of tonight, um, in this presentation, we're going to just take a look at, uh, frame why we're doing this work and why it's so important. And as it relates to our LCAP Goal 2, we want to talk a little bit about our instructional programming and integrated and designated English language development, hear a little bit from, in teachers' words, some of the, the information they've shared along with what we're doing in monitoring and assessing the work of our students and our work with our families, and then the impact this work is having ultimately for our English learner students. So this information you may have seen before. So this is our English learners as of the end of last school year. We did just do a new census, and so we'll have some updated information, I believe, next week when my colleague Assistant Superintendent Anna Herrera is sharing new information."},{"start":1079674,"end":1079979,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you."},{"start":1080397,"end":1222435,"speaker":"B","text":"about the California Dashboard. But in the Redwood City School District, over time we've seen for several years our English learner population is around hovering around 30%. So a large percent of our students are in the language status of English learners. You can see by site different numbers by site over the years. And while we have seen a decline in the number of students overall in enrollment, in the district and across the sites, the impact of our English learners and their performance is actually more intensified as we look at their, their progress. There's a smaller group of students, so the, the progress they are making is that much more important. So framing why this matter— this work matters so much, to give context, we have a partner in our district for many decades, the Gardner Center, and they have been working with us Through this Stanford Sequoia Collaborative and looking at outcomes for our Redwood City School District students. So these are our graduates who are now in the Sequoia Union High School District and how they're doing once they're in high school. So this is a group of students that currently they're now in 11th grade, but this research and data was done on their students as they ended 9th grade. And this is just one slice of data. showing how they were doing, but we're looking at students in their English courses and passing, or their eligibility and passing students at classes that are A to G courses. So A to G courses are the courses that students need in order to be eligible for a 4-year college, so for our state systems, private systems, and UCs. And so you can see The dramatic difference when students are reclassified fluent English proficient in the early years when they've been with us, and since their, their primary grades, significantly the, the, the, the outcomes for the students are much greater in terms of access and equity in terms of the college courses that they are able to master. So that's why we do that. This is one of the reasons why they do the work, but eligibility."},{"start":1222435,"end":1222707,"speaker":"F","text":"Thank you."},{"start":1223239,"end":2187084,"speaker":"B","text":"access equity for our students. So there's a sense of urgency in our students reclassifying. Just our recap of our LCAP goals. This is our LCAP goal through the end of 2027, 3 parts to it: students making annual progress, students reclassifying, and then reducing the number and the percent of students who are long-term English learners. So students who have been in our schooling system for more than 6 years who are English language learner status. So where we are in our ELPAC goals— so we saw this in June and it hasn't changed yet, which is we're not at our goal yet of the percent of students who are making 1-year growth on the— 1-level growth, sorry, on their ELPAC scores. But notably, we are seeing a higher percent of students making progress, and progress is measured as the English language performance indicator, the LP score, for all these terms. And that means that students are maybe not moving from a 2 to a 3, but they'll move from a low 2 to a high 2. Same thing with a 3. So they're, they're making progress. Students reclassified. So second part of our LCAP Goal 2 is just by sites looking at the percent of students who are reclassifying to English fluent proficient. So 253 students just recently participated in our ceremony earlier this month, then recognizing our students, their families for their support, and then all of the teaching staff that helps students move towards this amazing— it's a very powerful recognition for the students and all of their efforts that they put forth into reach that criteria of reclassifying. Long-term English learners. So the third part of our LCAP goal is reducing the long-term English learners, and here is where we could See more notable and remarkable growth. And thanks to our teachers, all of the support staff, our administrators, and to the parents and to the students for really reducing the number of students who have been classified as long-term English learners, because we just saw that our own students ultimately are going to have more equitable access when— once they are No longer long-term English learners. So just a, just another little graphic of showing where we are in terms of English learners and our EL/TAL rates and reclassification. Okay, so reclassification criteria. I wanted to bring this up because we are not always looking at apples to apples, which we are going to be looking at apples to apples in our reclassification rate, but we have not necessarily over the years. It has changed over the years of how we've looked at students reclassified? How are our reclassification numbers? And that is because reclassification is not necessarily always— the ELPAC scores are not necessarily always eligible at the end of the school year. The state has done an excellent job the last 2 years of releasing that data in May, and which allows us to really put forth a great effort to get our students reclassified before they leave the, the school year, which was the first time we ever did that, just this last year. But previously, there was a moving target. Students— if we received the state data over the summer, we were not able to reclassify the students at the end of that school year. We'd made a great effort to especially get those 8th graders over the summer before they went to high school. And we also have our local criteria, which we were applying multiple times a year, but maybe a student could reclassify when they met the criteria in September, and then we reclassify a few more maybe in the spring and a few more in the summer. So we were reclassifying throughout the year in past years, and that is a common practice. Not— we're, we're not unique. Many other school districts were doing the same thing. And additionally, dually identified students— those are students with IEPs who have been identified, students with individual learning plans and English learners, dually identified students. The previous years, this— there was more input from individual teams to determine if a student was meeting the criteria as English proficient. But last year, that criteria did change, and the state was very clear that they must score a 4, that individual teams were not making those decisions. The decision was criteria 4 was the driving decision to be considered to reclassify. So that was last year. So unfortunately Unfortunately, a number of students who teachers really felt students, duly identified students, were truly demonstrating English proficiency compared to monolingual English-only peers, were not meeting the criteria due to changed criteria. But now, with new legislation just signed on September 30th, AB 2555, we do have a bit more clear direction from the state. All students, English learners in the state, have only one criteria, and that is ELPAC 4 instead of 4 different criteria. So students are eligible on the summative ELPAC to reclassify, and that is the only criteria. Alternative ELPAC, the criteria is 3. And so that will be new this coming school year. Good news is our practice in the Redwood City School District last year, we don't have any catch-up to play. We did reclassify every student who met the criteria for And the— all the other criteria as well did reclassify. So we're not, we're not having to do any backtracking here in the Redwood City School District. We are— we do have good hope that the state is responding to our educators and, uh, and making partnerships with legislation, and that the dually identified students will be able to have additional criterion besides ELPAC 4. to be considered by their individual teams. That criteria is not yet developed, and that is something in the near future that we're looking forward to seeing so that our dually identified students and their teams who know them best can make those decisions for students to show and demonstrate English proficiency. So 2 parts to English language development in, in the state of California is integrated ELD, which happens throughout all the, all a whole school day. So in all content areas, all teachers of English learners are teachers of content and English language development. And then designated ELD, which is a protected part of the student's day, and students are with the teacher and their group of peers that are in a similar proficiency level for this targeted language development. So our ELD journey, I'm just going back 3 years, although I've been in the district many years. I'm going to talk about the last 3 years and starting in this year. We started in 2023-24, a bumpy start with a new ELD supplemental curriculum, LanguagePower, and it was rolled out not for want of a bumpy rollout. It was just access to resources, time within the school calendar to be able to do district-wide professional development. We really didn't get started until after school had started in the fall, and teachers had a new curriculum that was unfamiliar with no training behind them. So that was the first year. Year 2, we really upped our professional development. All teachers in the district who are ELD teachers were then trained, and we launched into integrated ELD. That, that— what was our Second initiative targeting our high-priority sites at that time, how it was schools that were in assisted targeted assistance or comprehensive assistance, and targeted in supporting schools through cycled instruction of integrated ELD. Last year we brought on some more schools and refined our practices and really moved into supporting our instructional leaders and coaches, and now year 4. So just a little map of the number of days and the different activities supporting integrated and designated ELD. So professional learning plan for targeted sites. So you can see that the number of days and the years of— for the sites that we're supporting. Notably not on here, although has participated in the past, is Garfield. So Garfield did participate a couple of years ago, but they are not currently in part of the integrated instructional coaching for ELD. So the elements of a coaching cycle is planning, so bringing our teachers together. We've done it across sites, we've done it a few different ways so that teachers could practice from across sites and learn from each other, but bringing our teachers together and our instructional coaches and planning and looking at the ELD standards, the content standards, and planning lessons. Our instructional partner, our instructional partner Kimberly Sagilan from Comir Minds, has supported our efforts. Would she demo lessons in the classroom, be part of the coaching and feedback cycle, and then debriefing and teachers together looking at what was working in the classrooms? And so really learning and sharing from each, from each other. In addition, we have our administrators who are part of this process and walking and observing the lessons because there are administrators, our learners as well, and really learning at what they're looking for in the classrooms. In an October teacher survey, we— the teachers that responded to the survey, 100% saw growth, so different levels of growth But what they really are seeing in the classrooms is what they're doing during these coaching cycles, and then applying between coaching cycles is allowing more access for our students. That's done through sentence frames to focus on vocabulary, looking for textual evidence, graphic organizers. And so it's really building the tools and the toolbox so that teachers have them accessible, but really doing a deep dive as they're planning in their curriculum. One 7th grade team did notably report that they saw more of their 7th graders reclassified, which is the end goal for our students. But a little bit of teacher words, just some of their, their reflections. I won't read them to you, but everybody can read the teachers and what they're sharing is some of the tools that are supportive, and some of them are recognizing their site coaches, our instructional coaches, are becoming critical partners in this work in terms of supporting the teachers, but also thinking, reflecting, and planning together. So teacher feedback is important because then it allows us to know what's the right direction, what's the right fit for our teachers. Is, is this supportive? Is this helpful? Are you seeing the results? And they're definitely sharing, like, there's still lots of room to grow. They'd like to see more emphasis on writing and student engagement in writing. And really, the way to make student writing engaging is really connecting it to the students, helping our students feel like they can take risks with writing and not— and become more independent writers. We do know that sentence frames are great, scaffolding is great, graphic organizers are great, but at one point student needs to take the risk. and put that pencil or the keyboard and get those words on paper and be okay that it's not going to be perfect, but that it has to have some agency and come from them. And so that's definitely something that the teachers are asking and noticing, and strategies and skills and how to, how to get that for the students. And then something that teachers definitely have wanted and have asked for is, hey, observing more integrated and designated ELD teachers, just building their, their own skill set and seeing what other people— what are other people doing out there that's working? And dedicated planning time. You may have heard that from some of my colleagues. You may hear that from teachers, but this takes time. This work to be so intentional to determine what it is that my kids in front of me need is not going to happen through a textbook or a curriculum guide. It is going to be a thoughtful process in which teachers are looking at where their students are, knowing their students, And then designing the lesson around what their students really need. And that planning sometimes is taking half a day for just one lesson because it can become bumpy and cumbersome as these skills are developing. Ultimately, that those skills are reapplied over time so that lessons do not take so much time. Designated ELD. So we talked about integrated ELD and the integrated ELD coaching cycle. Designated ELD is been very intentional this year across the district. So we've done some beginning when teachers first came back, designated ELD, and for new teachers, as well as a refresh for teachers who've been with us. But we've also intentionally been going to sites to do some designated ELD professional development with school sites and grade levels at a time. And we have developed some ELPAC-aligned resources. So this is new this year, found in our teachers' website. It's the ELPAC Playbook. It takes what is our current curriculum, Language Power, which is very thematic-based, based on different language proficiencies across grade-level spans, so themes that the kids are working on, but then brings in activities that could either be done once a week or a little bit every day depending upon a school schedule. And students are practicing ELPAC Task-type activities that match the curriculum. So if they're doing something about sports teams or weather or animals or colors, then that's the unit that they're already used to. They're familiar with that language, but now we're good. The class is going to practice. Okay, let's talk about a sequence of events because that's ELPAC task type now, but we're going to talk about a sequence of events as it relates to the story that they just read. during ELD. So it's an intentional tool to get the kids familiar with how the questions are asked. It is test prep, test prep 101, but also aligning to the, the curriculum that they're, they're experiencing throughout the week. Administrators. So the work we really started last year with our administrators, not that our administrators haven't been doing ELD and focusing on ELD and English learners, But we were really intentional last year in saying that we need to take a step back and look at what we're doing as a system and make this a system-wide effort. And first and foremost, focus on our instructional leaders so that they know what good instruction looks like when they're looking at integrated and designated ELD, and so that they can provide that feedback to their, their teachers and colleagues on site."},{"start":2187084,"end":2187373,"speaker":"J","text":"Thank you."},{"start":2188244,"end":2577075,"speaker":"B","text":"So we started with the EL Roadmap to align and frame our work. The EL Roadmap has 4 principles, but we have been going, really focusing on Principle 2, on rigorous instruction. And so this is year 2 of looking at English learner instruction and practices through the lens of the framework of the English Learner Roadmap. So building capacity has been our goal, is having instructional leaders as well as our instructional coaches participating in instructional walkthroughs, aligning their practices to see what instruction looks like across our district and, and across our grade levels. So our administrators during the school day are visiting school sites and debriefing what they're looking at in the classrooms and then practicing what feedback based on the English Learner Roadmap principles will look like for their teachers. Something that we started last year and continue is mini observations with walkthroughs, and then teachers— and then administrators are giving our teachers feedback on what they're seeing. And then new this year is our continued to build capacity, because again, we want this to be a long-term plan, not a flyby, one, one-and-done PD. Is new ELD lead teachers at some of our sites and building capacity across the district and at their own sites. Assessments. We talked a little bit about assessments last June. Our assessments, you know, was a— we tried and we got a lot of great feedback that it wasn't a great tool that we were using last year, so we pivoted to what we believe is a better system of assessments Better, meaning that more accessible for students, ease— use of ease for the teachers, and ultimately giving us the data that the teachers need to determine what are the next steps as students make progress towards improving one level or progress on their ELPAC score. So we have pivoted, and we have our first baseline data from the fall, and our teachers will be administering and students will be taking the second assessment in early December. So we'll be able to see some assessment results. Kids will be able to see it. Students will be able— middle school, middle school students will be able to see their own growth, as well as teachers looking at where the students are and where they need to go. Notably also, ELPAC oftentimes excludes teachers from giving the assessment, right? Teachers are just like— it happens to kids and teachers are in the room monitoring, like as a proctor. They administer and read the instructions, but really then it's off. Students are taking it on their own. Um, having teachers score ELPAC writing, ELPAC-like writing early in the year, teachers are a much more active part of it. They can see what the task types are, what the students are able to perform. So it's really connecting the assessment and student performance. Family engagement. So we have introduced a few new things this year to bring in our most important partners, which are our families. We introduced the ELPAC score report that does go out electronically. It has for years. I know as a parent I got a lot of stuff electronically that I probably missed and never saw. It's probably unopened in my inbox still. So we really try— we're trying to close the, that communication gap So we had score reports, teachers had score reports at the parent-teacher conferences. And so it's much more meaningful and much more powerful when the educator and the parent are able to talk about the same information in person, in real time. And we just recently had Parent Institute for Quality Education, or the PK graduation, last week, and bringing in our families as partners. And we're looking forward to involving 4 more schools in the springtime. And then our schools, not just community schools, but schools as communities, are holding cafecitos, working with community schools to bring in our parents to really go more in depth about our ELPAC results and what it means to be a member of ELAC and how to interpret ELPAC results and how parents can support at home. So all of this work, the impact, alignment across all of our sites and across our district, and what rigorous Integrated and Designated ELD looks like, and connecting content, our rich, rigorous content, to language, with ultimate goal of fewer long-term English learners. English learners, great. That means that we have multilingual students. We want to have a rich representation of multiple, multiple languages in our communities. And so being an English learner We don't want that to be a stigma. We know by, uh, by categorizing students, it has become stigmatized. But to be an English learner is a good thing because that means that you are multiple languages in your home. And so that's good because our kids are bringing this rich fabric of language that they have all these connections that they can make. Long-term English learner, we know, is what we are wanting to reduce because of of what that means for our students and their outcomes to access later in their adult adolescence. Just ends. Student voices, and then I won't read them to you, but I want to give a big shout out to some administrators who helped collect across the district our student voices. Just recognition that they are proud of themselves, as they should be, for reaching this milestone, in addition to A couple of the students recognizing their own bilingualism and wanting to maintain that, as well as looking at themselves in these rigorous careers. And so, big shout out to our students for their successes, and we look forward to supporting more students to reach that threshold. And I am happy to take any questions about Our instructional practices."},{"start":2577878,"end":2578748,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you so much, Katherine."},{"start":2581915,"end":2582172,"speaker":"G","text":"Questions?"},{"start":2582172,"end":2622668,"speaker":"I","text":"Sorry, thanks, Katherine, for the presentation. I love the closing picture of the reclassification ceremony with so many students there at the Hoover Gym. That was— that's an incredible thing to see. Before I just jump into comments, I just wanted to like maybe get a little color around the designated ELD time. Yeah. And sort of Um, like, how are the, how are the, how are the groups formed? Is it based upon like what they're doing in those couple of weeks? Like, basically, if you're like level 2 on ELPAC, might you be in a more advanced Designated ELD grouping, or maybe not even getting Designated ELD because you're just a bad tester? Or does, does that happen? I'm just wondering how flexible that grouping is."},{"start":2622668,"end":2713209,"speaker":"B","text":"Good question. Uh, some flexibility, but not 100% flexibility. So the initial grouping starts usually at the end of the year, over the summer, in August. Where administrators will do initial groupings based on ELPAC scores. So depending upon the number of students, the number of staff that they have to support English language development, and the range. So we don't want any more than 2 ELPAC-level proficiencies within one group. So, and so administrators look at the scores, and then we have emergent. Is To novice, to, you know, low intermediate, high intermediate, and so no more than 2 levels in any one group. So students, everybody who is an English learner, it has to have designated ELD. So, so that is the law. They must have designated ELD. There's a little exception that parents can opt out. That, that is something that parents can choose. We do know that That, um, there are several kids who've expressed to me, why am I even in this class? Like, I don't speak another language, or maybe my mom did at one time. So kids know, like, I'm fluent in English, I don't, I don't need this class. I was just having this conversation with kids at Kennedy, like, I don't, I don't need this class, I speak English, I'm fluent in English. And so having this conversation of, yes, you are fluent in English and we're going to improve your writing."},{"start":2713979,"end":2737820,"speaker":"I","text":"Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because there's multiple domains, right, that they have to be able to get good at. Uh, and that makes sense. And so then how closely aligned is the— what they're doing in designated ELD with what, like, the non-designated ELD groupings are doing at that time? Because I'm assuming it's all during when language is grouped together into different groups. Is it, like, aligned to the same kind of curricular material or themes or something?"},{"start":2737820,"end":2787902,"speaker":"B","text":"So it's— it's— every site is different. Sites with higher numbers of English learners Um, we'll be able to switch so that we— they regroup. So for example, let me give you like a 1st grade example. Um, a 1st grade example, and you have maybe 3 teachers or even 2 or 3 teachers. If you're ELPAC level 1 or 2, depending upon the, the number of students, some of those students will go to 1 teacher. So the 1s and 2s go to 1 teacher, and the 2s and the high 2s and 3s will go to a different teacher. And then students who are not English learners go to a different teacher, and they're not doing ELD at all. They could be right— they could be writing, working on, um, enrichment from Benchmark. They could— usually it's something around writing. They could be doing book reports. So it's more, uh, it's not English language development."},{"start":2787902,"end":2803956,"speaker":"I","text":"Cool. Um, and then on the— just on that, which— there's 4 schools that were mentioned on the slides about who was getting coaching, and then you talked about Garfield had gotten coaching before, but is it now? Like, are, are none of the other schools getting coaching, or are they getting some? Like, how is that working?"},{"start":2803956,"end":2837938,"speaker":"B","text":"Good question. So, uh, the cycles of coaching with the integrated coaching, um, it's just those 4 sites mentioned. So it's MIT, Roosevelt, Hoover, and Clifford. And Garfield had had it a couple years ago. We chose not to— not that we don't want to go back to Clifford, but they were, they were working on a new, not an adoption, but Using an implementation of the new benchmark curriculum. And so that was Taft as well. So Taft and Garfield both participated in the new benchmark."},{"start":2837938,"end":2846354,"speaker":"A","text":"Can I build on your question? Yeah, like, I was curious about, like, for instance, Kennedy, which had a lot of ELDs and then was sort of notable for not being in that list."},{"start":2846354,"end":2877985,"speaker":"B","text":"Yes. Yeah, yeah. Not that we want to touch everybody, right, to build capacity, but we chose— Kennedy has been definitely on our minds as a site, but we knew with the whole new administrative staff, um, that we chose not to go to Kennedy, um, because it requires a very large commitment of, uh, instructional leader time to be in the planning sessions and to be, um, as part of the observation."},{"start":2877985,"end":2879301,"speaker":"A","text":"Maybe in like a year or 2."},{"start":2879301,"end":2880745,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah, yeah, it's, it's—"},{"start":2880745,"end":2882205,"speaker":"A","text":"This was the wrong school year to start it."},{"start":2882205,"end":2882478,"speaker":"B","text":"Yes."},{"start":2882478,"end":2885157,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, thank you. That, that helps a lot. 100%."},{"start":2885382,"end":2886425,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah, they were originally on our list."},{"start":2886842,"end":2887340,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, thank you."},{"start":2887340,"end":2888158,"speaker":"E","text":"Cool."},{"start":2888270,"end":2936298,"speaker":"I","text":"Well, it's awesome. I love how it's so focused on modeling and coaching and sort of taking some of our existing curriculum and practices and sort of adding, building out on it to help them pass the test and stuff like that instead of bringing in something else. I think that there's a really strong— I could see how years of repetition, you know, and just keep repping over it year after year, it's just getting stronger and stronger as it goes along. It was neat to see the things about the journal prompts because I'm pretty sure we've seen something similar, at least in almost every classroom that's been doing English language, not just ELD time in their classes. And the kids really interact with each other where they're like, they start with a prompt and then they're talking to their partners, and it's kind of fun to see all that happening. And I loved your closing comment, or it's almost your closing comment, about how EL is a good thing."},{"start":2936298,"end":2936907,"speaker":"H","text":"Yeah."},{"start":2936907,"end":2971634,"speaker":"I","text":"It's bringing a rich culture. These kids are going to be bilingual, and it's so neat. Um, I also think it's, it's helpful. It helps the district be able to align resources and be able to come in and help, help kids be able to become English learners. But sometimes I feel like, man, we subject them to a testing regime that is like a burden, and I wish that there was a stronger balance for that. I know that's statewide, not just here, but, but, you know, I look at that sometimes and I'm like, man, some of the kids that are, that are fluent But they're not— they're just not test, you know, getting the test right and getting that in there."},{"start":2971634,"end":2971973,"speaker":"B","text":"Yep."},{"start":2971973,"end":2977068,"speaker":"I","text":"Um, yeah, I don't know what to do about it, but it's one of those things that sort of nags at me a little bit."},{"start":2977068,"end":2977440,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah."},{"start":2977440,"end":2979483,"speaker":"I","text":"But thank you so much for the presentation."},{"start":2979483,"end":2979775,"speaker":"G","text":"Thank you."},{"start":2979775,"end":3027740,"speaker":"J","text":"Um, thank you for the presentation. I don't really have questions. I'll just— some general thoughts and comments. One is really appreciate it. Uh, as always, every time you're up here, I feel like I always learn a lot, which is great. But this in particular obviously has been a big focus for the district for the past several years. I think the timeline is super helpful, right? Just to get a better sense of like, when did we really start diving in and knowing that there's gonna be bugs and kinks to work out? But it's really neat to see how that has ironed out over time and how we're moving toward a progression of even stronger instruction and coaching. So that's great to see. I think the one thing, and I mentioned this in a question before, was just There's, there's still a number of students that aren't showing progress, um, uh, on ELP. Is that—"},{"start":3027740,"end":3028911,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah."},{"start":3028911,"end":3077233,"speaker":"J","text":"Um, which is, which is unfortunate. It's also not a Redwood City-specific thing. I think it's in line with the state average and many others, um, which is maybe a statement just more broadly. Um, but just knowing the timeline piece and all the other pieces that have been really thoughtfully, um, put together and executed, right from the parent-family engagement through the coaching, through the Deployment of both integrated— all the things there give me really a lot of hope that we're going to see the fruits of all that labor come, you know, and just have to have a little bit of patience, but knowing that we're doing the right thing. So just thank you, really appreciate it. This is, again, learned a lot. Hopefully this is a great resource for others who have similar questions. But yeah, really appreciate it, the presentation, but also obviously the underlying work."},{"start":3077233,"end":3077377,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":3081538,"end":3156446,"speaker":"G","text":"And again, thank you. I heard this presentation twice because I heard it at DELAC. Um, so again, I don't really have many questions other than, you know, thank you all the teachers, everyone that is involved with, um, our English learners. Um, and then again, just to touch base on, uh, Mike, and it is very frustrating, right, to know that our kids that are learning English have to take this other tests in order for them to like prove themselves. Yeah. Um, so I unfortunately is not a Redwood City thing. It's, you know, that's just the way it goes. And so, but I think again we are moving along, and hopefully with this new law where it's not going to be as difficult perhaps, and we're able to do this, um, test prepping for the students. Um, and I know during, um, DELAC we engage with some of the parents, or the parents engage with And actually understood what is going on. And so I was really pleased to have a big group and for them to know what is actually happening. I mean, you explained it very well. And so again, I think it's just, you know, one day at a time. And, you know, hopefully we'll get a bigger reclassification just like we did this last year. So that was amazing. Thank you."},{"start":3156495,"end":3175886,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you. Catherine, thanks so much. I did not get to hear it twice, so it's my first time getting the run-through. So thank you so much for giving it all the different times you gave it. I noticed in the presentation there was this moment where you were like, pencil, keyboard, you know, in terms of the writing. And I just wanted to like double-click a little bit on that."},{"start":3175886,"end":3176351,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah."},{"start":3176351,"end":3212644,"speaker":"A","text":"There was obviously a comment in public comment talking about screen exposure, and I think there's a lot of folks in the district, a lot of parents who are curious about where it makes sense to be on pencil and paper, where it makes sense to be on keyboard. So I was just wondering I'm wondering, do you have a take on what best practices are for what's going to help students get to writing comfortably, writing academic language, to really unlock that? Is it going to be keyboards? Is it going to be pencil and paper? Like, what are best practices showing? What are we doing? And are we like 50/50 split like that? Or like, what is our, what is our take?"},{"start":3212644,"end":3285492,"speaker":"B","text":"In terms of English language development, which is probably, you know, a lot of our monolingual students are learning academic language as well. So I don't want to say like, you're right, because when we're teaching math, it's very— it's a very academic language, all of our academic language. So all of our learners are learning academic language. In the early grades, K-2, the ELPAC assessment is one-on-one and it's pencil-paper. So students get a booklet and they show their work through putting pencil to paper. So for our district assessment, our K hasn't taken it yet. We're gonna do kindergarten starting November. Grades 1 to— grades 1 did it pencil paper. We gave teachers the option of doing paper or online for grade 2. Teacher feedback was, what are we doing giving second graders this online ELPAC-like assessment at the beginning of second grade? This needs to be on paper. So I think a lot of teachers just immediately pivot or, or saw that, saw the options and went, no way, I'm not doing that, and just went to paper right away."},{"start":3285492,"end":3287385,"speaker":"A","text":"Guidance, or we just like, whatever you think is best?"},{"start":3287385,"end":3355879,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah, we— it's because it has to be scored. So the caveat is they then have to go back and enter all the data and to enter, enter what students had written. Um, so, um, most teachers, yes, they, they had an option, and I'd say like 90% chose paper version. And there was a small percent who did the electronic version and then realized, oh yeah, forget it, I'm going back and I'm going to do the paper version. This second one, we're saying every, every, every first and second grader is going to do it on paper. So it's replicating the assessment that we're giving the students already in grades— for grades 1-2 is the pencil paper, and the more— in the smaller group are one-on-one. Grades 3-5. We need to, because they're going to be assessed on a computer-based assessment, and I don't see the state changing that, we really need to teach our students how to master that and have the ability to, um, have stamina to be able to maybe have practiced. And so we, we're teaching note-taking."},{"start":3355879,"end":3362521,"speaker":"A","text":"The state made the right call on Um, I know I don't—"},{"start":3362521,"end":3363069,"speaker":"B","text":"it doesn't matter."},{"start":3363231,"end":3364538,"speaker":"A","text":"I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah."},{"start":3364845,"end":3366136,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay, okay. Thank you."},{"start":3366314,"end":3375886,"speaker":"A","text":"I appreciate, I appreciate the nudge to keep it on track. Um, but so we have to pass the assessment. It's not up to us that the state mandates it has to be online."},{"start":3375886,"end":3406611,"speaker":"B","text":"So what we do though is make sure students understand, hey, this is— remember those note-taking skills? This we were practicing in class. During class, note-taking skills. During ELD, note-taking skills. Do a graphic organizer during class. Do those during integrated EL during class. You can do that as you're coming up to the test. The challenge is stamina, to be honest, because students, many students will have done it on paper and be like, whew, done with that. Oh wait, now I have to type that all in."},{"start":3406611,"end":3407607,"speaker":"F","text":"Yeah."},{"start":3407607,"end":3435623,"speaker":"B","text":"And that was just notes. And now I have to actually type it into a coherent sentence. And that does, And that's not going to happen just, you know, 3 weeks of test prep before a test. It's building in that skill set before it happens. And so, um, what— do I agree that it's okay with the kid to do this to our students? Um, that's a different conversation, but that is the reality our students are facing, and that's the bar they're held to."},{"start":3435623,"end":3445995,"speaker":"A","text":"What further things do you think would help us unlock this kind of, uh, Writing from, from students? Because just like it sounded like that was kind of a frequent—"},{"start":3445995,"end":3528906,"speaker":"B","text":"Every day. Yeah, um, every day it becomes part of that, the culture of the class and of the school, that this is what we do. So one, they have to be able to read. Yes, to be able to write about a topic if that's— they're going to go hand in hand, right? So they do, they do need to have reading comprehension. In order to be able to then write about what they just read. So that those two go hand in hand. But the culture of being able to write also, and that— and I don't know if it's post-COVID or it could be, you know, students who are— our students are much more on screens than compared to when I started my teaching career. And being able to have frequent writing opportunities and not feel afraid that somebody's going I've never seen a teacher go wrong, wrong, wrong, right? Our teachers are overwhelmingly like rejoicing at small wins. So our teachers are super supportive. Um, I— it is, I think, the, the, the— for many reasons that I cannot name them, um, students do not write as much as they used to and do not feel comfortable writing. Do not feel— some, many do. I don't want to say this is all kids. This is just what I'm seeing in classrooms, the not feeling comfortable writing."},{"start":3528906,"end":3540849,"speaker":"A","text":"Beyond what was covered in the presentation, are there, are there any new experiments we'd like to try to see if we could elicit some more of that writing, to make it a regular thing, to make it part of students' culture to, to write?"},{"start":3540849,"end":3576548,"speaker":"B","text":"Um, well, I, I don't know if it's, uh, I think it's the practice. Like, so that's why I think sentence frames are so important. I use sentence frames. If, if there was a sentence frame in front of me, Or not. I would use that sentence frame and a sentence starter. Somebody called them Mad Libs, and I would do that as a way for, for comfort, and it's like it lowers the filter to just get started. And we would do that in conversation also. And if you do that enough times and it becomes a regular, then you can start to slowly take away those scaffolds. And that's—"},{"start":3576548,"end":3582892,"speaker":"A","text":"Is there more that we could do as a district to provide teachers with these kind of scaffolds to make it—"},{"start":3582892,"end":3583709,"speaker":"B","text":"Time for planning."},{"start":3584207,"end":3589574,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, are there things that we should be looking at to give more time for planning and enable that?"},{"start":3589574,"end":3590522,"speaker":"B","text":"That, that's a—"},{"start":3590715,"end":3591181,"speaker":"D","text":"that's—"},{"start":3591213,"end":3629012,"speaker":"B","text":"I think we, um, so this is, this is, this is, this is me. This— I'm not speaking for the district. I think we, we— I, I'm one of them. My department's guilty. Here's an assessment and I need you to score the writing. And so we do give our teachers a lot of extras that perhaps that we're not And we say, okay, do this during your prep period. It's true, they could do that during their prep period, but planning takes thought. It's an art. It is the part of teaching that is the hardest. It's the creative part. And so you need a flow state to really be a time to do that."},{"start":3629012,"end":3638199,"speaker":"A","text":"It'd be great if we could offload some of these things that are maybe lower value and less flow state, but they could dedicate that time to planning, to scaffolding."},{"start":3638616,"end":3638777,"speaker":"J","text":"Yes."},{"start":3638777,"end":3639130,"speaker":"G","text":"Yeah."},{"start":3639130,"end":3665447,"speaker":"B","text":"Like the parent, the conferences, I gave them an extra task because they were now, they were going to create ELD goals. Absolutely necessary student agency. They needed to know their own goals and they needed to know their own scores or where they're going next. But it was one more thing that teachers were planning for goal-setting conferences. And so, you know, there's a give and take with every single one. And, and so when we're asking teachers to do this one more thing, what have we asked them to not do?"},{"start":3665752,"end":3669020,"speaker":"A","text":"And so What can we offload from them to make—"},{"start":3669020,"end":3669920,"speaker":"B","text":"from them? Yeah."},{"start":3669920,"end":3673990,"speaker":"A","text":"And for the highest priority stuff, because this kind of stuff feels like instruction."},{"start":3674380,"end":3686160,"speaker":"B","text":"It's the learning. It's what— it's student learning. And that is the most important. And a lot of what I'm saying is because teachers are great at giving feedback, right? This is what we need. And I'm sure you guys hear it as well."},{"start":3686160,"end":3686740,"speaker":"J","text":"But I love it."},{"start":3686740,"end":3687340,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah, I love it."},{"start":3687340,"end":3696648,"speaker":"A","text":"I love it. And just, I hope they continue to give feedback, and I hope you continue to give feedback as well upward to the board of like, what can we do to support you best? And all this stuff."},{"start":3696728,"end":3701507,"speaker":"B","text":"And I know, and I know our administrators work hard to, to provide them planning time. And so it's—"},{"start":3701507,"end":3709013,"speaker":"A","text":"I hope you heard the snapping during the PK mention. I think it's just like fantastic what you're doing there to engage the families and engage the community."},{"start":3709013,"end":3720287,"speaker":"B","text":"So I thought that was a great turnout, and thanks to, um, for everybody for showing up, and Dr. Rubalcaba for making sure that we had the resources to be able to bring on so many schools."},{"start":3721185,"end":3721425,"speaker":"I","text":"Fantastic."},{"start":3722003,"end":3722965,"speaker":"A","text":"Dr. Arroyo, do you want to give—"},{"start":3722965,"end":3909209,"speaker":"K","text":"Yeah, no, uh, thank you so much, Katherine. Uh, job well done. Um, and you just showcased all the hard work that goes into this and all the rigor that goes into this. Um, I also want to say, you know, kind of back to your question about like, you know, what might be some correct ways to use technology here, right, as we're engaging as a community around this topic, um, for our English language learners Yeah. There's, you know, it's hard to kind of land on a specific kind of platform or app, but overall what I know, what we found, right, for language learners is platforms that allow students to engage in digital storytelling, both as creators and as readers of digital storytelling. You know, there's Flipgrid, right? There's Adobe Spark, and CDE actually provides a list of some of the vetted programs that are kind of recommended from the experts at the state level. Um, but with that, I also think that a lot of this idea of integrated ELD, which I know as we walk classrooms— I mean, we have like endless kind of group texts among us in cabinet because we're always sharing best practices and things that we see in classrooms— One of the great things that happens when We see a classroom-rich and integrated ELD is the celebration of culture. Right? It's not just language in isolation, in isolation, but it's actually, you know, celebrating the children and the kids in the classroom, you know, their cultural heritage, right? Be that whether it's Mexican or Salvadoran, you know, it can also be, you know, Eastern European country, right? A kiddo who's learning English. Um, and I think the opportunity that integrated ELD provides is that rich cultural immersion, right, where kids feel seen and valued, right, as, as learn— as language learners, not as we're forcing English upon you, right? So there's got to be that nice balance of like, we, uh, we value the culture that you come from, um, and we're going to use that as the platform upon which we're going to build English skills so that you can be successful in, in American society. Um, and, and I think that's, you know, with our walkthroughs— I know you've done a lot of great work with the ELD walkthroughs, you know, to guide our administrators to develop that lens. It's a, it's a critical but complex lens, right, to look at a classroom and see beyond, oh, you know, just like a, a language, you know, sentence starter, which is always great because you can get complex with it. It's not just one sentence. You can make You know, a compound sentence, you can make it a rich sentence, right? But to go beyond that as well and look at, you know, how is culture represented in this classroom, right? How is it celebrated? How do kids feel like they have a sense of belonging? So, and I know these are a lot of the conversations that we have, right, within Education Services and as a cabinet. So, um, and goes without saying, PK was amazing, and so was their E-Class ceremony."},{"start":3909209,"end":3909739,"speaker":"J","text":"Yeah."},{"start":3909739,"end":3920243,"speaker":"K","text":"Just the, you know, that kind of brought everything full circle. Celebrating families and, and having kiddos and families lock arms with our district team. So thank you so much, Katherine."},{"start":3920613,"end":3920838,"speaker":"J","text":"Nice job."},{"start":3920838,"end":3937634,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Captain. All right, and with that, that ends our school and community reports. We are on to discussion items. 9.1, Human Resources and Staffing Levels Update from Wendy and Rick."},{"start":3940755,"end":4180098,"speaker":"C","text":"Thank you. Well, it was such a treat to be able to partner with my colleague Rick Edson, our CBO, on this feat. And behind the scenes, a lot of people don't see this, but HR and business are constantly working together. And so this was a fun task, and I appreciate the opportunity to, to discuss this tonight. It's really interesting when people ask me, how do you staff? How does this all work? And I said, it really starts with program. And you just heard this tonight, right? This is our designated ELD and our work with our multilingual learners. And we say, what do the kids need first? And we dream. And then we say, how do we get there appropriately in a financial sense as well? And how does that work within our district? And so when people are seeking staff, when we do our annual reviews that are ongoing in nature, similar to Rick's presentation of his multi-year report and cycle of budgets. It's the same way with HR, and we work hand in hand with that in order to be ready for the first day of school with students with the programs and interests that the board and the sites want and are welcoming back. So tonight will be a fun night to reflect over the years of what we've done so far and, and really kind of do a little bit of a deeper dive. There's a few little definitions in here. FTE is something we throw around very casually— full-time equivalency. Thank you. So if you have a 1.0 FTE, it's a person that works full-time, 100%. If you have a 50%, it's 0.5 FTE. So just a little, but a little definition before we continue on. My clicker— yes, that may be working. That may not be working. We'll see. Or there's the manual way. Oh, thank you. So as I mentioned, um, we're excited about this partnership. I'm going to do some quick discussions on the general overview of human resources, but I know the real crux and the meat of tonight's presentation is looking at the data for the FTE, full-time equivalencies, along with the financial pieces that go with But really, it's important for us to realize we do have 3 differentiated groups in our district, which consists of our, our certificated staff, those that hold a credential, our classified staff, and our management staff that are comprised of classified and certificated management. So as we go along, and as years ago we developed our equity goals in human resources. We really are looking at the ways that we bring people to the district, the ways we keep people in our district and their experiences, and how we're meeting the needs of the programmatic requests of the sites. And please know, programmatic decisions are made through LCAP, through Ed Services, through our community schools, all the different departments, and then at the school site level through potentially PTOs and other grant sources and things that the site are trying to meet in order to meet their goals in the SPSA. Okay, the Site Plan for Student Achievement. So in human resources, some of these are very visible in the world and some of these are not very visible that people may see. But really, the recruitment and hiring process really starts with ensuring that we are reaching out to various employee groups. Really nowadays through social media is our biggest hit. EdJoin is also an important piece for credentialed staff, and then working through the interview process and so forth with our panels in order to make that experience non-discriminatory, equitable, and so forth. And then as we onboard people, making sure that they are—"},{"start":4180098,"end":4184954,"speaker":"A","text":"On social media, we're like posting on Facebook and people are like, cool, I want to work here. Just—"},{"start":4184954,"end":4213208,"speaker":"C","text":"Interestingly enough, our top sites are Google Jobs and LinkedIn by a mile. And then we have, and we have the data that shows all of that. It's really been sort of fascinating. Our current platform, TeamTaylor, synthesizes all of that data and where people are coming from, or word of mouth. That's another lead contender. Not social media, but the neighbor or the employee that's referring another employee, which of course is always the highest compliment. Well, that's good."},{"start":4213208,"end":4214809,"speaker":"B","text":"Don't school social."},{"start":4215969,"end":4357752,"speaker":"C","text":"That's a good point. So anyway, so as we bring people on, ensuring that our handoff to the programs and the departments are seamless and so forth for that employee, and their training begins either through the required HR typical training platforms to the specific job embedded trainings and so forth. So with that, then once somebody is onboarded, it's really exciting to work with them. To hear their highs and their lows in life, to support them through the various aspects that we have through our union agreements, for example, leaves, maternity leaves, um, and other types of, you know, employee assistance. We also are bringing in people through credential programs. We have relationships with about 20 different universities. I know you approved the MOU, so I appreciate that as a pipeline as well to bring teachers in. And those have increased quite a bit over the years for our education teachers and our teachers with bilingual authorizations to teach in our bilingual settings. So that actually has improved quite a bit, and I think the outreach has a lot to do with it through these various means. And then, as you know, union negotiations— we'll be celebrating, we closed CSEA's negotiations just recently, and that will be coming to the board very soon. And so our union negotiations and the ways that we support our employees through those contracts and through those means During those negotiations is a way that we continue to support our workforce. As you know, we have board policy, which is 0415, and administrative regulations. And I— we took out a summary of some of the key pieces that we focus on in my department, but also district-wide, because it's not just the 5 people that work in HR. It's really the sites, the departments that aid, of course, in this hiring process, and then once again support, onboard, and train our employees as we go along. And tonight we are really focusing on— really, this last bullet is the allocation of the district's human resources. So how are people being placed? Why are they being placed in the positions in which they are, and where? And while I still think there's some work to do, we can look at least tonight at the staffing levels and the data that have supported the previous decisions."},{"start":4357752,"end":4358137,"speaker":"H","text":"Thank you, Ms."},{"start":4358446,"end":4427393,"speaker":"C","text":"As we think about the future. And I can't forget our substitutes. They are a very important part we've had of our work. As you know, when Katherine needs to pull a training, we have now quite a bit of a rich resource of substitutes, either through our in-house substitutes day to day, but also through our guest teachers, which is a program that was started years ago. The district currently provides 50% allocation for a school site. Which means that we have a substitute that is allocated to one school site every single day that students are present, and that helps with these trainings, absences, etc. And then we have a very strong relationship, as you've heard in the past, with Swing, which financially, dollar for dollar, is the same cost when we add up all of our indirect costs. But it really allows for a large number of people to be deployed. to fill these substitute roles. So that has been a really great increase over the years. So with that, I'm going to turn this over to Rick for a little bit more nuts and bolts and look forward to our discussion."},{"start":4428380,"end":4428622,"speaker":"E","text":"There you go."},{"start":4428622,"end":4576206,"speaker":"D","text":"Thanks, Wendy. Moving forward, so when we embarked on this presentation, we took a lot of input from board members and from other conversations. Uh, and really, as a team, worked on how can we develop this into really a broad stroke, right? And to get the conversation started, uh, about our staffing with the changes that have occurred over the, uh, past couple of years, uh, not only with available resources in terms of money, uh, but just needs in the district with, uh, our enrollment, uh, not just in any particular grade but across the district. And also the build-out, uh, or the full implementation of TK, right? So that has played a role in this as well. Uh, a few slides ago, Wendy already went through this with our 3 groups of employees in the district: certificated, classified, and management. I'll spare another definition of that. Uh, but when we go through this, we're going to start looking at full-time equivalency, and, and the definition given earlier is absolutely correct. I just want to add to But that does not represent headcount, right? And so, uh, an easy one, uh, you know, CNS has about 30 FTE, but they have about 42 employees, right? So, uh, there's more employees and actual people than represented on these slides, but if everyone were a full-time employee, that's what this would equal. So, uh, just to give that additional coverage. The other thing is the majority of these slides, with the exception of one that will come up towards the end of the presentation, we are focused on Fund 01, our general operating fund. That is the fund that we speak about several times a year in detail through first interim, second interim, adopted budget, unaudited actuals, and it is the fund that pays for the majority of everything that happens in this district. It is also the one that we have to certify on at first and second interim reports and show fiscal solvency for the current and 2 out years. Thus, the multi-year projection that Wendy also mentioned earlier comes into play. And lucky for this group, we'll be revisiting that process in December with the first interim report for school year '26-'27."},{"start":4576206,"end":4576495,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you."},{"start":4577491,"end":4673574,"speaker":"D","text":"So on this slide, uh, and all of the slides, as we look at historical data, we went back to the 2023-24 school year. Uh, we didn't randomly choose that year. Uh, that was a year where we were almost out of COVID but still had some COVID funding, uh, until we fully expended our COVID funding. Uh, none of our funding for Redwood City School District expired. We did not give money back from COVID We used Uh, from inception, right, uh, before I was here, starting in 2020 when money started coming in. Uh, so this is after COVID when things were getting back to normal-ish, uh, through our current year, uh, and the impact of losing those funds through our FTE counts as well as right-sizing the district, if you will, or the start of right-sizing the district, uh, for the amount of program services and students that take up our resources on a daily basis. And that's not negative, but the cost of doing business as a school district. So on here you can see our 3 groups that are represented. Here is RCTA, which is our certificated employees, CSEA, our classified employees, and our administrators, both certificated and classified. And over the course of that 4-year period, Uh, you know, we've gone down nearly 10%, uh, in FTE count, uh, equaling approximately 85.5 fewer employees during that time period. So that's the work that started, um, really started— it was 2 years ago, right?"},{"start":4673574,"end":4673927,"speaker":"H","text":"Yeah."},{"start":4673927,"end":5395912,"speaker":"D","text":"2 years ago, uh, with one of the budget committee meetings, uh, where we looked at what do we do now that these funds have been fully expended. Followed by the following year is what do we do now when we still have to find reductions due to, uh, the amount of revenue that we received, uh, the unlimited wants, and really focusing on needs at the school sites. Uh, and at both of those, uh, time periods, not only was it input from district office folks, uh, but it was also getting input from community members, uh, as well as school Sites on the needs, because we all know that site needs vary, uh, from site to site across the district. So with that, over the course of this 4-year period, with '26-'27 being the budget year that we're currently in, uh, we're approximately 85.5 fewer FTE. So when we go to this slide, this is still Fund 01 only. Uh, this breaks it down into Further breaks it down into still bigger general areas, including certificated teachers, pupil support, classified support, classified instructional support, uh, office clerical, and other classified, where you can see over that 4-year period, uh, what FTE did for each of those groups. Uh, and I will mention, uh, that this is all coming from our budget development documents and aligned with our numbers for all 4 years through the unaudited actuals portion of the fiscal year, with the exception of '26-'27. That's just budget year and what we approved at adopted budget. On this slide, this is our management FTE count for the same period of years, '23-'24 through '26-'27, where we can see a reduction of approximately Uh, 8 FTE. Uh, for example, that includes, uh, the vice principals, uh, and some other positions that were eliminated during that time period of reductions in each of those 2 years. Uh, but showing that across the board there have been reductions, uh, in both certificated, classified, and management. So we talk about enrollment and we talk about declining enrollment, and this slide has Thank you. So this slide has broken out enrollment over those 4 years. Note 26-27 is our preliminary census date data, has not been certified yet, but that was the data collected on the first Wednesday in October. And from this, for K-8 enrollment, you can see we've declined about 2%, which isn't overly high. And really, with the TK enrollment and the full-year implementation, And as President Weekly mentioned in his, uh, explanation of what was going to occur tonight, uh, we're actually, you know, 90 students up at this point. Uh, certification of that number may be within 1 or 2 either way, right? So it's not going to change drastically, uh, but it shows that right now we're holding pretty steady and actually 90 kids up this year, uh, and through this work Uh, you know, we're still reducing and right-sizing the district, uh, and we'll talk about some financial figures in a moment. But here you can see this year we have 412 TK students, uh, and 6,399 total, right? So, uh, we are staying steady, uh, through these 4 years. When we look at personnel expenditures This is directly from our SACS Form 01, with the exception of the budget year. That's from the budget adoption, uh, in June. Uh, I'll note on here that RCTA, RCAA, and CSEA settlements are not included in these figures. Uh, we're actually doing our RCTA and RCAA settlement work this month for the October paycheck on Friday. Uh, and then as Wendy noted CSEA's tentative agreement will be coming back to the board in November for inclusion into the first interim report. So in future conversations about these topics, that will be included at that point. But because we don't have final, final numbers at this point, I didn't want to speculate with just a, here's a 3% raise on these numbers, because other things have changed along the way as well, even since July 1st. So on here we can see Uh, the cost of certificated non-administration, certificate administration classified, non-management classified management, and employee benefits. Uh, and I think one of the, the big things that sticks out on this screen to me, uh, it is about $10 million difference with 85 fewer employees over that time period. Uh, and $7 million of it, give or take— I actually didn't make a note of is directly attributable to employee benefits, which is health and welfare. Uh, with skyrocketing costs there, uh, are— that's something that is harder to control but something that we need to look at over the course of time. Uh, and it's huge, and we're not the only district dealing with this, right? It's, it's every district in San Mateo County, uh, and it's every district in the state of California as All of us know that the healthcare has increased at a rate faster than any other inflation rate that is driving increased costs across the board for everybody, right? So, uh, everyone's feeling that, including us as an employer. Uh, and when we look at this, uh, you know, if we take certificated, non-administration, our costs are relatively flat, right? Uh, Small uptick with the settlements that have occurred over those 4 years, uh, but they're nowhere in line with the amount of money that has been increased for health and welfare benefits. Uh, moving forward, I included this slide for Fund 12 and Fund 13 only because Fund 01 isn't our only fund that holds employees, and we're talking about that tonight. But still, the focus of the presentation is on Fund 01. Uh, from the presentation that was uploaded on Friday night, I did add some approximate FTE for these, uh, both of these funds so we can see the growth there. There was a little bit of discrepancy on Fund 13 with, uh, the reports that we're having to pull from our prior system, uh, where I think the 27.5 is off by a couple of numbers because I think we've only added 1 or 2 true positions in that over the last couple of years, including Richie's position when we went from our food management company into wholly in-house CNS services, including cooking and that type of thing. So that those FTEs, as I put approximate at the top of the screen, Fund 12 is pretty close to accurate as we believe going through the numbers even today of the increase there of employees over that time period. So when we look at personnel cost trends, their staffing general fund FT has decreased over the 4 years that we're highlighting while the instructional operations needs continue to vary and the cost of some of those needs are increasing. Uh, salary and benefits include salaries and employee benefits when we combine them together. Uh, changes reflect compensation benefits, staffing mix, and other factors, not FTE alone, much to what Wendy mentioned and what we've heard even with Catherine earlier tonight. Programmatic needs dictate, uh, employee need as well, right? So we have to look at the needs of the district, uh, and weigh that against the cost of doing And the benefit that will do it, and while providing not only needed benefits but some that are legally required that we have to do to operate the district. So this slide is merely just to show from a school site perspective, right? Instruction, administration, student support, and campus operations, the 4 main buckets of any school site. That once again goes back to program and need, right? And so we look at this with— internally, we look at this with the principal and other site members as we determine this moving forward on an annual basis. So as we're starting to wrap up this portion of it, I think this is a really clear slide. And with some feedback that I received, there's another slide that puts this into a visual graph, Thank you. I'll let you go to the next graphic after this. But, you know, we're showing that total enrollment is actually up. TK enrollment is significantly up because of full-year implementation. K-8 enrollment is marginally down by about 2%. Our budgeted FTE is down by approximately 85.5%. So through this whole process, we're finding ways to provide the needed services while reducing headcount in order to ensure solvency of our budget. And so, and one in bold, once again, salary and benefits have gone up by about $10 million, with $7 million of that to health and welfare costs. So through this time period with the 2, I'll say, tougher years of going through the process, going through the reductions, we were able to make significant impact that one shows fiscal solvency for Redwood City, uh, while also being able to provide services. Now, that doesn't mean we're providing every service at this point that we need to, but we're on the path of our evaluation criteria and how we are able to do that on an annual basis. So through all this, I think, uh, we can still get stronger. Uh, there's still work to be done. But I think we're demonstrating as a district that we can make the difficult choices that aren't always popular but are necessary while still providing programs and services and protecting the overall health of the budget. So on here, this is a visual representation of this with skyrocketing benefit costs on the upper bar, salaries although up a little bit, but you know, Pretty flat along with enrollment, right? There's a little delta in between those 2, and then budgeted FTE is a big drop-off in comparison from the base year that's marked at 100% on the left-hand column. So on here, benefits increased by 18.5%, staffing decreased by 9.8%. So when we do this— and I'm not going to read these slides to you, um, but really, uh, if we go back to the presentation that Dr. Rubalcaba, uh, presented 2 or 3 meetings ago, uh, looking at capacity of our schools, right? This is just the next step in that process, or a stepping stone if you will, really, to start that discussion both internally with the board, amongst the board As we go down that timeline. I didn't put the timeline that Dr. Rubalcaba put in that presentation, but they go hand in hand, right? They're not mutually exclusive. One drives the other. And so as we start looking at this, we really wanted to bring this forward to start that conversation. We don't have solutions or answers in this presentation. It's merely informational for this night."},{"start":5395912,"end":5396169,"speaker":"C","text":"Thank you."},{"start":5396747,"end":5436928,"speaker":"D","text":"Uh, and then, uh, either through the work that we've done this with the team upstairs and at the school sites, along with board member input, uh, then the next step or the next iteration where we'll probably see those 2 merged more than separate, right? And so that was the whole goal of this presentation, was to start those conversations. And so with that, uh, we're happy to answer any questions. Or get any feedback on what you think would be appropriate on the next step on this along, or with thinking about the capacity study and the impact of that as we move forward."},{"start":5436928,"end":5454313,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you so much, both of you, for the joint presentation, the CBO and HR hand in hand, helping walk us through the future. Fellow trustees, questions for HR and our business office?"},{"start":5454313,"end":5528707,"speaker":"J","text":"Start. Not really questions, just comments. One, as always, thank you for putting this together. I thought it was really helpful and informative. I know that this is one of the— I think one of the items that we highlighted as a priority item, as a topic for discussion during our board offsite earlier this fall/summer. So really Really helpful for me. I think that last, the visual slide, really kind of paints a picture of what I was hoping to better understand. And I know that there's been a lot of discussions previously through the Strategic Resource Alignment Committee where I think some folks really got a deep dive. I wasn't on it, so I didn't. So it's like kind of a little bit new for me, but really helpful to see what the narrative is. And my takeaway at least is also, I think there's a narrative out there. Across the state where there's declining enrollment, and there's a hesitation from districts to kind of do anything about it. Just hope it goes away, and like you let the staff stay as they are, because that's a comfortable thing to do. And I think that there's, without visibility into like what we're actually doing, I think that there's some narratives or whispers that go around the community that says that we must be doing the same thing. And I think my takeaway from the chart is like, that's not true."},{"start":5529637,"end":5529749,"speaker":"B","text":"Yeah."},{"start":5529749,"end":5617330,"speaker":"J","text":"We've been really thoughtful about looking at what our own enrollment trends are, what our staffing needs are, and it being flat and still seeing actual decline in FTEs telling me we're actually being thoughtful about being even leaner. And obviously there's financial reasons for that, but like there's a lot of thoughtful decision-making that's going in there. But the bigger point is like, yes, we are seeing increasing costs. But we have to ask ourselves why that is, and the answer is not the kind of the narrative of we're not being thoughtful. Instead, it's we have increasing costs, and we all feel that like outside of the school environment. We, we know that the cost of living is increasing. We can also see— thank you for disaggregating the benefits— like, this is a huge, huge portion that's just going up in direct contrast to the overall FTE, which kind of just exacerbates the issue. So No, no solutions, at least not immediately, but it brings clarity for me and hopefully for others, that for the crowd, but for the public, honestly, just I think it's helpful to have something as a point, something to point to, just to just show like, look, we are thoughtful about this. Here's what's going on, and like, let's kind of, let's work through this together. So really, really appreciate that this is the first iteration of it, and we'll, I think we'll have to see how things— I don't have any initial takes on And again, thank you. Um, and I just want to say, I, I also don't have really questions, but more of a comment. But agreed that, um, they do go hand in hand, and we'll have to figure it out kind of as, as a broader community. So thank you both."},{"start":5617330,"end":5718985,"speaker":"G","text":"And again, thank you. Um, and I just want to say, I, I also don't have really questions, but more of a comment. And I've mentioned this before, and it's almost like, thank you, thank you, thank you to all staff for working here so gracefully after, um, You know, budget cuts and, you know, it's— they're, they're hard. I mean, for us too. And I understand, like, as an employee, you're like, what is happening? But we're doing this for, you know, the entire district. And so, um, they're hard, um, topics to talk about. But I also feel that Redwood City has been very transparent and have always been kind of ahead of the game, right? Planning. And so, um, as we could see from the conversations we've had and the budget cuts that we've had, We're, you know, in good— in a good space right now. And it's very unfortunate because, again, it's not just in Redwood City, but is it statewide or nationwide? Perhaps, right? So I just want to say that I'm really looking forward to the conversations. I really don't know what is going to happen, right? But Just knowing that we are in a district where, again, everyone works extra hard. I mean, Wendy mentioned she has 5 people in HR. Um, there's other districts that have a lot more people in HR, and, you know, it's, it's very unfortunate, right, how the funding works. And, um, but again, I think we keep our head up and, you know, thinking about our English learners and the resources that we're providing. And again, it's not just for the English learners, it's for everyone."},{"start":5718985,"end":5719225,"speaker":"F","text":"Thank you."},{"start":5719306,"end":5757062,"speaker":"G","text":"One in the district. Um, we need to be thoughtful and see what is going to be the best thing for all of our students to succeed and thrive in the district. So again, even with the open enrollment— I'm sorry, with the declining enrollment, but yet at the same time, because of the TK classrooms, we're getting more students. Um, it's It's great to see that. And again, our staff just continues to be happy and come to work to Redwood City. So I'm really pleased for that. So thank you."},{"start":5757062,"end":5797282,"speaker":"I","text":"Yep, thank you for the presentation. It was nice to see sort of the longitudinal view of the trends for the last couple of years, both across the financing and the staffing, but also how HR is thinking about recruiting and staffing in there and the positions for it. There will probably be other ways. I don't have suggestions tonight about the other ways that we want to cut the data and put it together. But probably as we, you know, we look at it, maybe something around like spending on programs and not necessarily by position or bargaining unit is probably the first one that comes to mind. But I don't have anything really clear to suggest. So thanks. And I know we'll be doing this again. Thanks."},{"start":5797282,"end":5875109,"speaker":"A","text":"Amen to that. Yeah, I think in terms of the ways to slice it, I guess My hope would be that we could have something sufficiently detailed that we could reason as a board about our distribution of investments well matched to our goals, right? So are we likely to achieve our goals based on where we're investing our most valuable resources, our human resources, right? And tonight's presentation obviously was high enough level that it's not going to allow us to answer that question, but it is a springboard for then allowing us to open The discussion to what could the next thing look like. So I guess my hope— and board, you know, give me some grunts if like you feel like this represents where you're coming from as well. So it'd be nice to have some of those conversations to see what is the degree to which our human resources investments are aligned with our goals, and how is our distribution of investment in program different than similar districts. So that's not to say they're wrong, right? We may want to make bold calls that are different than what other districts want to do. So I think being off-axis from our peers It doesn't mean it's a bug that needs to be fixed, but I feel like it could provoke discussion about where do we want to be intentional about where we, where we focus our time and efforts."},{"start":5875109,"end":5904340,"speaker":"J","text":"Yeah, I'm on board with that. I would say, Nadia, I mean, I know this was obviously focused on staffing. I think broader, I love the idea of really having clarity around overall how does our budget match with our priorities. I think some people say that budgets set priorities. I personally disagree with that. I understand. I think that strategic visions set priorities. Budgets reflect whether or not you're executing."},{"start":5904340,"end":5905130,"speaker":"E","text":"Yes."},{"start":5905130,"end":5918630,"speaker":"J","text":"And I think that's the matching that we need to do. It's— I think we got to figure out the best way to do that. But to all of, I think, our points, I don't have a super clear way other than kind of that's maybe how we should— I support the idea of us thinking through that lens. Yeah."},{"start":5918630,"end":5983875,"speaker":"A","text":"So it probably means it's going to need to be iterative, right? You know, there's not just like some, oh, just do presentation X, and then we'll have perfect clarity and can give You perfect clarity, and then we'll all be clear and everything will be happy. It's going to take a bunch of going back and forth and a bunch of these discussions. So cool. So I want to echo what a fellow trustee said. Like, we made some pretty meaningful staffing cuts, about 10%, even when enrollment turned out to not be very much down. So I think getting ahead of efficiency improvements was pretty impressive, all the work that went into that. Healthcare costs are eating us alive. And like, that's really brutal to see. And I sort of feel like If we keep on this trajectory, soon we'll have 5 people who work for the district who have fantastic healthcare coverage, and that's probably not gonna do a great job educating students. So there may be some changes that we need to make there to change the slope of what's there. I would love to hear what other districts are going through here, because definitely we are not the only organization in the United States experiencing increased healthcare costs and what that's doing to our budgets."},{"start":5983875,"end":5984035,"speaker":"J","text":"Thank you."},{"start":5984276,"end":6068012,"speaker":"A","text":"So how are other people getting creative? What are bad ideas that sort of sounded good we definitely should not do that are bear traps? And what are things that are maybe effective? I would love to hear some more ideas on that topic in particular. It's important but not urgent, but just like, yeah. And then I think there's another point that's really important for long term, which is that I was expecting student enrollment to decline by a lot more than what I saw, even exempting TK, right? So there's some bump-ups in TK, but even if you just cut out TK, We had been over the last 10, 20 years seeing about a 4% a year secular decline, and excluding TK was about half a percent over the last 3 years, right? And so that, that is like a change in slope, and that implies different things about like, well, what's the district gonna look like in 10 years, 20 years? Because like the difference between like a 4% slope and a half a percent slope is like very different. Very meaningful in terms of, you know, how many school sites are you going to need to be able to service that well, for instance. So that feeds into other discussions that we're having about long-range planning. So just like, it makes me wonder if that at some point— and this can be the spring, right— that but at some point we should have a little bit of a discussion based on what— based on how it's looking like things are going. What do we think the district's going to look like in 10 to 20 years? And then a work-back plan of what we need to be doing today to prepare for that."},{"start":6068012,"end":6068269,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":6068350,"end":6069150,"speaker":"A","text":"Prepare for that."},{"start":6069150,"end":6092590,"speaker":"I","text":"Let me just ask a quick question. Do you know when our last demographer survey was? Because I, I don't have the numbers, but I'm sort of thinking if we looked at the 2019 enrollment numbers and we charted out to here, we'd see a different percentage trend from that. I think there was a big corrective time in like the 2019-2021. Yeah, they probably accelerated attrition there, and we'll probably get back to a steeper curve than we're on right now."},{"start":6092590,"end":6093210,"speaker":"A","text":"Interesting."},{"start":6093210,"end":6096370,"speaker":"I","text":"You know, going forward. But I don't know, I just— again, I'll just ask that one question."},{"start":6096370,"end":6104524,"speaker":"D","text":"Do you know when our demographer Last we did was, I think, 3 years ago, uh, 20— maybe '23, '24."},{"start":6104524,"end":6105102,"speaker":"J","text":"Okay."},{"start":6105953,"end":6108329,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, I guess one of the big things— cool."},{"start":6108442,"end":6124161,"speaker":"I","text":"Yeah, I, I, I think in 2019 we were at like 7,500, 8,000 students, somewhere around there, and then it was precipitous, right? And then now it's sort of— TK has been sort of elevating it, but now once that TK becomes a cohort moving forward, we'll see a different That's fair."},{"start":6124402,"end":6134678,"speaker":"A","text":"I think it was just an extra big surprise to me this fall, because like I was expecting immigration to mean that we got a lot fewer newcomers, and it was more flat than I would have guessed."},{"start":6135417,"end":6135625,"speaker":"G","text":"Cool."},{"start":6135963,"end":6139929,"speaker":"A","text":"Awesome. That's all I got right now. Any comments from you, Dr.?"},{"start":6139929,"end":6176547,"speaker":"K","text":"Yeah, no, thank you both. I know we've been engaging in quite a number of conversations as we were planning this out. But just to echo what President Weekly mentioned, Trustee Lee, Mike Wells, I mean, I think you've all hit it on the mark there. But I think it's that realization that as a district, right, we've been diligent about reducing staff as we've lowered enrollment and/or, right, and also preparing for dips, which I think is the fiscally responsible thing to do to ensure that we are protecting and maximizing on our resources."},{"start":6176547,"end":6176675,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah."},{"start":6177077,"end":6264861,"speaker":"K","text":"for student programming and achievement. And as you can see, and this will be presented on at the next board meeting, there we've seen a lot— we're seeing a lot of green in the California dashboard, right? And I think that's— we cannot, you know, fail to make that connection to a lot of the right-sizing that we have been focused on and that you have all been focused on as a board to ensure that we're not Making sacrifices in educational programming and instructional supports and all of those things that really make an impact in student achievement. Um, and finally, I mean, you, you said it, uh, uh, President Weekly, uh, employee healthcare benefits are skyrocketing, right? And, and, you know, it's just not fair for, you know, the narrative that you mentioned, uh, Trustee Lee, uh, to be out there about, you know, Blaming other things, right, for our, you know, our fiscal challenges, right? We cannot be blaming it on, you know, pay settlements with staff, right? Uh, uh, it's clear from this presentation that, um, what's really, um, at play here are the rising, skyrocketing rising costs of healthcare benefits. And, and that's something, again, we're all confronting it up and down the peninsula, up and down the state of California. And so, you know, I just wanted that to go on record because that is extremely important. And so again, thank you both for that."},{"start":6264861,"end":6267223,"speaker":"E","text":"Sweet."},{"start":6269524,"end":6311587,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay. And with that, we are now done with 9.1, which takes us to the end of our discussion items. We're on to consent. As a reminder for members of the public who are potentially attending their first school board member meeting, this is where we can approve a large number of items all in one go. Without having to deliberate and discuss each item. As a reminder, just because something is in our consent agenda does not mean it isn't important. It just means that we may have already reviewed it or that it's unobjectionable, and we'd like to focus our limited time together on substantive matters requiring presentation and discourse. Any board member at the change of the agenda segment on the meeting can request that an item be pulled from consent to discuss. Would somebody like to move that we approve the consent items?"},{"start":6311587,"end":6311748,"speaker":"F","text":"So moved."},{"start":6316838,"end":6322095,"speaker":"J","text":"No, no, I don't know if you did. Um, there's more a question of whether or not at this point we can pull any— anything."},{"start":6322095,"end":6329121,"speaker":"A","text":"Uh, normally that would— point of procedure."},{"start":6329121,"end":6332484,"speaker":"I","text":"I thought you could at the beginning of the consent agenda."},{"start":6332484,"end":6337974,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, but I don't know for sure. All right, yeah, so it's before approval. So talk to me."},{"start":6337974,"end":6355467,"speaker":"J","text":"I propose that we, um, pull 10.21. I'm curious about some of the input from public comment, and I think, okay, deserves maybe further scrutiny before approving something."},{"start":6355467,"end":6358225,"speaker":"A","text":"Was this meant to be a first reading?"},{"start":6359144,"end":6359306,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":6359549,"end":6365266,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah. Oh, sorry, we won't litigate the issue. But yeah, so we will pull that then."},{"start":6366500,"end":6372280,"speaker":"J","text":"Actually, that— I am curious about that. Is this— would this— is this being proposed as a first reading, or this is just an approve?"},{"start":6372280,"end":6373350,"speaker":"A","text":"It doesn't say."},{"start":6373350,"end":6375120,"speaker":"J","text":"This is just an approve. Yeah, so let's—"},{"start":6375120,"end":6375520,"speaker":"D","text":"all right."},{"start":6375520,"end":6382820,"speaker":"J","text":"Yeah, so I'd, I'd happy to, to move for, um, approval of the consent agenda subject to 21 being pulled."},{"start":6382820,"end":6388680,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay. Um, if possible, generally it would be great to change of agenda, but I guess we could—"},{"start":6388680,"end":6389960,"speaker":"J","text":"because— yeah, okay."},{"start":6389960,"end":6391260,"speaker":"A","text":"All right."},{"start":6391260,"end":6393600,"speaker":"I","text":"Um, and are we going to discuss 10.21 separately?"},{"start":6393892,"end":6395687,"speaker":"A","text":"Is that—"},{"start":6395975,"end":6397033,"speaker":"I","text":"are you just saying take it out?"},{"start":6397033,"end":6399262,"speaker":"J","text":"Just take it out. And then, yeah, I think—"},{"start":6399262,"end":6402820,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, remand it to Policy Committee. Okay."},{"start":6403413,"end":6403574,"speaker":"G","text":"Okay."},{"start":6403686,"end":6410371,"speaker":"A","text":"So are people— would somebody like to move that we approve the consent agenda excepting item 21?"},{"start":6410371,"end":6411220,"speaker":"J","text":"I did that."},{"start":6411220,"end":6415901,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes. Okay. Would someone second? All those in favor?"},{"start":6416558,"end":6416654,"speaker":"E","text":"Aye."},{"start":6417456,"end":6417696,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay."},{"start":6418097,"end":6418995,"speaker":"A","text":"Well, that was exciting."},{"start":6419219,"end":6419508,"speaker":"I","text":"Thank you."},{"start":6419508,"end":6425679,"speaker":"A","text":"That was exciting. You get Robert's Rules of Order. Can I do that?"},{"start":6427461,"end":6427638,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":6428585,"end":6441606,"speaker":"A","text":"All right. So, uh, we are now on to action items. We have a couple of action items where we'll need to approve and vote on each of these. 11.1, Resolution 12, bank signatures for Premier One Credit Union accounts."},{"start":6441606,"end":6465376,"speaker":"D","text":"Uh, good evening. As Jocelyn Morales is sitting here tonight getting ready to take over, uh, at board meetings as well as help out, uh, with Dr. Rubalcaba, Uh, we need her to also be able to make transactions for us. Uh, so this is a standard resolution granting her the authority to do that on behalf of the district and the role that she will be in."},{"start":6465376,"end":6470020,"speaker":"I","text":"Looks straightforward and perfunctory. Um, I'll make a motion to approve."},{"start":6470020,"end":6471250,"speaker":"J","text":"I'll second."},{"start":6471250,"end":6482310,"speaker":"A","text":"All those in favor? Aye. Resolution carries. 11.2, Resolution Number 13, Education Code Options for Teaching Assignments 26-27, Teacher Roy Cloud, grades 6 to 8."},{"start":6483265,"end":6495978,"speaker":"C","text":"Thank you. Due to a master scheduling change, um, we needed to bring this resolution to the board for consideration. We're a very seasoned teacher that, um, due to credentialing needed to have this waiver be considered."},{"start":6495978,"end":6504440,"speaker":"A","text":"Any questions, fellow trustees? Somebody like to move that we approve the resolution?"},{"start":6504440,"end":6511404,"speaker":"J","text":"I move for the Second."},{"start":6511404,"end":6518115,"speaker":"A","text":"All those in favor? Aye. Resolution carries. Very good. On to board and superintendent reports."},{"start":6518115,"end":6632125,"speaker":"I","text":"I could start. Um, went to the— attended our first open house, the community open houses. I, I was at the Clifford site, um, which was hosted by Catherine, if she's still here, and, and of course Kristy Jackson, the Nice. Below, very Clifford. Um, you know, I want to thank Jennifer Sanchez. We all kind of went out in different tour groups, and she was the one that led my group, uh, tour through the classroom. So it was a lot of fun to see the classrooms. Um, lots of— it was, it was like engagement time when we were there. So it was just a lot of collaboration and kids talking with each other. So it was a lot of fun. Um, it was also neat, there were, you know, pretty good community representation there. We had Councilmember Padilla was there. She's also a parent at Clifford. Um, so we actually walked into her classroom, which was kind of neat because she knew all the students that were in there. Um, San Mateo County Board of Education Trustee Patricia Love was, uh, that came and attended and walked around. We were talking about how neat it is to be able to come when she's not looking for, uh, Kent Awards or, you know, the whatever the ones, um, be able to do that. And then a lot of the partners were there, um, so it was neat to see the partners. Um, and then of course the DK graduation ceremony, we kind of talked about that. That was a really fun Thank you, Katherine, for all that you've done there. Also really wanted to acknowledge our principals that were there. Nick, Kristy, Jen, David, and Lupe, they all got up and, you know, and said we're part of this, part of the presentation there. County Supervisor Gossett came and gave a, you know, was part of the presentation. She handed out certificates at the end and made some remarks during the ceremony. You know, Former Mayor Ron Gonzalez and the Silicon Valley Hispanic Foundation was there. There were parent speakers from some of the graduates. Seeing all the parents graduate, they were all really excited. Some of them even brought their kids up, which I thought was a great touch. Love to see when they were all there. And then, of course, you know, our partners at PK for putting together this program and, you know, giving our parents this kind of education."},{"start":6632125,"end":6633969,"speaker":"A","text":"Sweet. Thank you, Mike."},{"start":6637514,"end":7137301,"speaker":"J","text":"I have kind of a list. First was Policy Committee. We had, as you guys see, the fruits of that labor. One interesting thing is just that one of the topics that Policy Committee kind of went over with staff was the policy regarding AI usage. I thought it's been really, really thoughtfully developed among the staff, and it's great to hear a lot of the conversation. I know also, though, that we have— as today we've heard, but we've heard in the past— I think there's interest among families to really understand and engage in the process of thinking about the technology use within the school district. So while I think the— again, I think the staff did a really, really thoughtful job of putting together policy, I do wonder whether or not it would be helpful to I know there's been discussion about some sort of tech advisory committee, but might be helpful to get input there. So just some thoughts there. After Policy Committee, also attended the Superintendent's Advisory Committee. Great, there's some new membership. I think this is the first time that I got to hear from Jorge the thesis behind the Superintendent Advisory Committee, which is great for obviously all the new members who are parents, staff, existing staff but new to the committee. But also great for me to hear kind of what the idea is, which is just like, let's take in information, let's share it out with the community, let's also get your input so that just like an opportunity to have the give and take so that we can hear all the different voices, kind of a continuation of, or another format of, the listening and learning mindset that Dr. Rubalcaba has kind of put out there. So it was great. Some of the actual things that we talked about were the formative assessments that obviously we've all talked about at the board meeting, and then the enrollment facility capacity piece. The formative assessments piece, to Trustee Wells's point earlier, I think there was a really robust discussion. Maybe felt like an interrogation for some, but there are really strong thoughts just about like the We saw the chart of all the assessments that are given out, and obviously, and I mentioned that not every student is taking every assessment all the time, but it's still a big list, and I think that people have a visceral reaction to that. And so it was good to— it was good for, I think, parents to have the questions. It was great to have the teachers on to kind of give their own perspective on what that's like and what the challenges are. My takeaway, me personally, just hearing the discussion was there's a balance between getting value out of the assessments because that's what's going to inform where we need to go, where we are, against like the time that that takes away from instruction and also kind of the mental toll it can take on students. And I won't speak for teachers, and I'm sure they all have their own opinions, but I think what I heard was it's not a clear answer and it's not a clear situation of like we're doing too many assessments. It's like, yeah, this is hard. But I— we also need the information that we're getting. So everyone's grappling with the same challenges that we all grapple with as well. But again, I think the Superintendent Advisory Committee the last 2 times have been really, really engaging for all the participants, which I think is a great sign for how we're getting folks involved. I'll mention the PK graduation only because I missed it. I'm so Yeah. So disappointed. I'll say, Katherine, because you're still here, I really, I really did want to go. I was trying to. I unfortunately, I had to take my daughter to the ER unexpectedly, so I was just, you know, got priorities. But I've heard there might be one in the spring, and so I've got my eye on it. It was great to see all the pictures. I'm glad that was— that went well, but I'm sorry to have missed it. Then I had a few different site visits. The first one was with the Hoover Huskies and And I'll, you know, broad picture. I went Hoover, Clifford today, actually, and then I went to North Star through one of the other community open houses. And just broadly speaking, it's such a pleasure to get to go to each of them because there's— you really get a sense of like the different flavors and cultures that each of the schools have. And I think we've all— We all know this, but like each individual school feels really, really strongly about their culture and like their community. Which is fantastic. Um, I would love for that to get broadened. It's like, not only do I love my school, but I love the other schools in the district. But one step at a time. It's always great. Hoover, um, is one of the— I, I just— one of the schools that I just really enjoy visiting in particular because it's so clear, um, the cohesion among the staff and the students. There's just a lot of like joy, and I don't know how to quantify that other than like there's a lot of smiling faces And just going around with Lupe and others, and Johnny and Karam, just like, there's a lot of joy and engagement. But also among those 3 schools in particular, I think there's— it's a really interesting cross-section kind of our district as a whole, where Hoover, we have high need in certain areas. North Star, obviously, we have like— it is intended as the accelerated path, and so that's a different population. And then Clifford is a large school that we have kind of a mix of all these different things. So it was good to see those different pieces. Speaking to Hoover, though, I'll just say my takeaways were— or what I heard was— We serve— Hoover serves a specific population. And if we think about the hierarchy of needs and like what we need to have to deliver our product, which is high quality of education, it starts kind of with the fundamentals Of you need to have a safe and secure environment, then you need to have like the behavioral stability and mental health supports, and then you can, with those as prerequisites, you can get to the academics. And the first 3 parts have just been more challenging, particularly recently. A lot of families kind of in transition, and that just means there's a lot higher need in those pieces. And that's just something to grapple with because you can't do everything all the time. And that's— yeah, I think the Hoover staff, what I saw, was just a great job in prioritizing what they need to prioritize in the baseline while still not forgetting that the academics are also key. And so one of the things that Lupe mentioned was the philosophy of going slow so you can go fast, which I think makes a bunch of sense. And so while we don't see some of the Well, we're not going to see some of the progress on the California dashboard on overall performance indicators. It's actually an intentional choice because there's all these fundamental pieces that really need to be hammered in and strengthened so that you don't get the patchwork of things trying to get the high test scores without really getting there. And so I, again, philosophically, that makes sense to me, and I think it'd be— we've got to figure out a way to really show that. It's a great narrative, but we also have to figure out what's the right data that shows that that's what we're doing. But I thought that was really— it was a good visit for me to see that and hear kind of what the thinking and the progress is that's going to Hoover. North Star, separate, different, slightly different context, because also a community open house, but love the idea of it. I think to Trustee Wells's point, we had some folks that were coming outside of the direct parent family environment, which I think is kind of the point of it. Like, yes, we are a school. Yes, we serve directly a specific set of folks. But we're not just for those folks. But we are also part of a broader community, and like, it's great to get that engagement. So I thought that was just a fantastic, fantastic idea. Great trip for me, demystified for me specifically for North Star some of the, like, what is North Star? What is the idea of compacted curriculum? And like, what is the theory and philosophy that they have there? So it was really important, or it was helpful for me to kind of get a better sense of them, what they're trying to get to, and then actually see it in action with just Just like tons of engagement and a lot of thoughtful, like among the students, among the teachers, just a lot of thoughtful discussion and engagement. So that was really interesting for me, and I got to see my nephew, which is also fun. And then Clifford this morning was also, also great."},{"start":7137301,"end":7139185,"speaker":"B","text":"Great."},{"start":7139185,"end":7192490,"speaker":"J","text":"As I've already said, great community feel. Seems like Jennifer Sanchez, who's new on the admin, is doing a great job in helping maintain and strengthen the community connections in the upper grades. Which has kind of been a little bit of a need recently, which is fantastic. Got to see a lot of classrooms, early grades, upper grades, and STEAM. Again, lots of engagement, lots, lots of good stuff. There's obviously a range of like teaching experiences and growth areas and stuff like that. But it was great to hear Principal Jackson's thoughts on— this is always the thing whenever I go to the site visit, you can— it's like they're ready of like Like, here's what I'm thinking about, like, where the coaching can be. Here's some great strengths. And so, like, that's great, because, like, I don't know how to do all that stuff, but it's great to hear that the folks that are doing it know how to do it really well. So that was, that was really nice. All right, that was a lot, but that was, that was all the stuff that I went through."},{"start":7192490,"end":7194380,"speaker":"A","text":"You've been busy."},{"start":7194380,"end":7200860,"speaker":"J","text":"To be fair, the last board meeting, I was like, I got nothing. So it's an averaging if we just—"},{"start":7200860,"end":7201210,"speaker":"A","text":"yeah."},{"start":7203888,"end":7258129,"speaker":"G","text":"Okay, so, um, again, as I mentioned earlier, I went to DELAC, which was very well attended. And in that evening, um, they chose their president and vice president. So, um, the president of DELAC is Maricruz from Garfield and vice president Lizbeth from Hoover School. And so that was really nice because she was like, I don't know if I want to do it. I'm like, do it, you could do it, right? And so it was great. And obviously The presentation that Michelle— I mean Michelle— that Katherine showed was part of that, and parents getting engaged among themselves at the table. And so that was really great. Visited Kennedy Middle School and Clifford. Hats off to the principals again, the teachers and the staff that works there. I saw a lot of happy faces."},{"start":7258230,"end":7258406,"speaker":"B","text":"this."},{"start":7258904,"end":7263900,"speaker":"G","text":"It's always really nice to see when you're walking around and the kids are actually coming up to the principal."},{"start":7263900,"end":7264526,"speaker":"I","text":"Oh yeah, yeah."},{"start":7264526,"end":7359089,"speaker":"G","text":"Because, you know, usually the principal sometimes is like the principal, but, you know, they're very like, hey, Mr. or Miss, right? So that was, that was really nice to see. Um, of course, lots of engagement. And the Clifford one was another of the community, um, open houses. Um, so it was great to See or hear from the community people that are actually not parents, um, to actually be like very, um, enthusiastic about like, you guys are doing such a wonderful, you know, things with, uh, with your students, with our community members. So that was really nice. Um, and then of course, definitely the cherry on top was the PK graduation, which was very well attended. Um, We did talk about it. It was a little long, probably because there was a lot of people were like, okay, but it was an excellent— so look forward to it for next time. I mean, it was wonderful. And again, when you talk about Lupe, it was like her enthusiasm when she was talking to the parents is like, you see, you could do it. So it was just very nice to just have everybody there and, you know, to know that If they set their minds to it, they're able to, you know, get through those sessions and help their students. We had some parent speakers, and they were very thankful for the opportunity to actually learn how to speak to their kids and be more— basically advocate for the student as well. So it was really nice. And that's it."},{"start":7359089,"end":7396905,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay. I went to community open house at Taft, was super impressed by the quality of instruction as we went and toured through a bunch of them. And in particular, there was one example of direct instruction in phonics for a younger classroom that just blew my mind. It was like, oh my God, this is so canonical. Um, yeah, the, the kids in the district are gonna do great if they're receiving this kind of instruction. So it was like, uh, it was, it was really great to see how, uh, David Cameron is just crushing it over there, and his, his teachers are doing a, doing a great job. And, uh, connect with some of the other folks in the community there as well. Yeah, reports for you all."},{"start":7396905,"end":7529714,"speaker":"K","text":"I mean, you all basically said everything, um, but, you know, PK graduation, again, looking forward to spring. It's going to be wonderful. Parents were really enthusiastic about— and just, it was so great to see them on the stage sharing all their wisdom, inspiring the other families who were in attendance. Major shoutouts to our 3 principals who hosted our open community houses. Principal— principals Chrissy Jackson, David Camarena, Aaron Caicos, if you're listening, great job, team. And I also— we— you forgot to mention, Trustee Márquez, we went to the 37th Annual Hispanic Ball, Foundation Ball, which has the connection to our PK. Because we were in community. We were invited by Ron Gonzalez, who's the CEO of the foundation, and they helped fund a good portion of the PK workshops. But we were there with, uh, Mireya, some other folks from across the district, other partners. But it was just really inspirational, uh, to see, um, because right here in our district we get to see kids up to 8th grade, but up here we got to see them all the way up to middle medical school, right? Who were kind of championing the work of, um, you know, the workshops and the empowerment that, uh, the foundation has provided to different schools in the community. So that was super— I know we were like in tears at one point. We're like, oh my God, this is super inspirational. And so it just kind of like, you know, it closed the loop on us on wanting to continue this partnership, um, with Ron Gonzalez and his team and the folks in PK because there's a collaboration Between the PK as an organization and the foundation, right, the Hispanic Foundation. So yeah, we look forward to attending again next year. Maybe bring a larger group because we, we enjoyed it, right? We talked about that. Yeah, we're totally excited for that. And before I end my report, I'm just gonna say I'm gonna have so much fun this Friday because I had a kinder class choose my Halloween costume. I will not reveal until you see the pictures, but it, but it's going to be very, very fun, and I just can't wait to get out there to the different sites. So happy Halloween, everyone."},{"start":7529714,"end":7552194,"speaker":"A","text":"Now you have me wondering. I'm, I'm gonna be sleepless tonight. Like, okay, onwards to information. All right, um, 13.1, Quarterly Williams Report, uh, no complaints filed July through September. 13.2, We've got the San Mateo County Investment Fund pool earned 4.017%."},{"start":7552355,"end":7552452,"speaker":"I","text":"4%."},{"start":7552516,"end":7586046,"speaker":"A","text":"Hey, hey, it's starting to be a little better. That's nice. All right, on to correspondence. Any notable correspondence people want to share? Not seeing anything. Moving on to other business. So we had talked about like maybe a possibility of in the spring taking a look at like 10, 20-year kind of longer time horizon stuff. Possibly taking a look at, you know, when does it make sense to revisit a demographer study? Like, how often do we do that? If anything changed there."},{"start":7588899,"end":7589125,"speaker":"G","text":"Okay."},{"start":7589286,"end":7589512,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah."},{"start":7589593,"end":7603821,"speaker":"A","text":"And then I also heard some, some appetite to continue building on tonight's presentation in terms of slicing our budget and deployment of human resources kind of by, by goal or by project area. Seeing some nods and ayes."},{"start":7607575,"end":7612273,"speaker":"I","text":"That'll kind of come with the whatever process Dr. Rubalcaba is going to be leading us through."},{"start":7612273,"end":7624676,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet. Anything else people want to suggest for future items? Nope. All right, moving on to reflection. How'd it go?"},{"start":7624676,"end":7629930,"speaker":"B","text":"I'll start."},{"start":7630076,"end":7642331,"speaker":"G","text":"I mean, I think it It went great, other than I guess maybe, you know, wondering if pulling the item was the right timing or not. But, you know, it was."},{"start":7642331,"end":7643325,"speaker":"H","text":"Yeah."},{"start":7643325,"end":7684431,"speaker":"G","text":"But yeah, I mean, I think it— I love the presentation. I do want to say I didn't say that when I was— when you guys were talking, but it's like, this is why we are here, right? Like, I love the collaboration that you guys have. And so again, thank you. Thank you. Of course, thank you, Katherine, for your presentation as well. But it's very wonderful to hear because I think a lot of the times, and it is very unfortunate when not a lot of parents come to the meetings, you know, I know some of them can be very boring maybe, but there's certain topics that I believe that parents should be involved in so that they actually get the bigger picture rather than actually hearing the rumors or the miscommunication. So thank you."},{"start":7684431,"end":7685733,"speaker":"A","text":"Sweet."},{"start":7685733,"end":7719532,"speaker":"I","text":"Not much else to add beyond that. Thanks for the presentations. I thought that they all— they were really informative tonight, and it's good. And maybe to build on Cecilia's thought, it's like maybe we should build an index list to the videos so that we can say, oh, you should see this part, and just be able to send a link right to the beginning of that part of the presentation so that they don't have to go A little bit to that point, I've been thinking a little bit and just, I don't—"},{"start":7719548,"end":7743400,"speaker":"J","text":"do we capture or summarize kind of like what I feel like there's a hesitation or there's like a barrier to community engagement in like the board meetings because yes, they are kind of boring, but also they're like, they're long and a little bit obscure in the way that things are titled. Like, do we Have we considered? Have we ever done in the past something like a quick summary? Like here's the takeaways that you should know, and like maybe we can do. Maybe I can do this informally, but I was curious."},{"start":7743630,"end":7745740,"speaker":"A","text":"RCSD.info has a version of this."},{"start":7745740,"end":7746180,"speaker":"J","text":"I already know."},{"start":7746180,"end":7748340,"speaker":"A","text":"You are welcome to apply knowing whether you like it or not."},{"start":7748340,"end":7751960,"speaker":"J","text":"I have not heard about RCSD.info at least in the last couple of meetings."},{"start":7752520,"end":7767978,"speaker":"A","text":"Well, I just I didn't want to be obnoxious, but I've been keeping it up. You click on meetings and like you'll see a summary in both. Plain English and plain Spanish about you know what what was discussed, and there's the transcript which is also translated. You can click to go to different parts of the meeting."},{"start":7768813,"end":7775877,"speaker":"J","text":"Is it? I mean, yeah. Anyway, something to think about just if we if we want to as a district institutionalize something like that of not trying to create work."},{"start":7776134,"end":7792572,"speaker":"K","text":"No, but Dr. Jorge Quintana, our director of communications, does often send out summaries of presentations like major presentations with. Recaps, just like bullet points that don't take that long to absorb. But yeah, I think that's great."},{"start":7792572,"end":7796825,"speaker":"J","text":"That's perfect. And I'm sorry, Jorge, for—"},{"start":7796905,"end":7815168,"speaker":"A","text":"can we turn this 45-minute discussion into like a 90-second YouTube Short, right? Maybe AI, right? Something, something AI, right? So my reflections, Mike, thank you for the nudge that my getting angry at state policy was maybe not constructive."},{"start":7815924,"end":7818828,"speaker":"I","text":"Advocate for it by all means. Like you can advocate for it."},{"start":7836644,"end":7836664,"speaker":"H","text":"Yeah."},{"start":7836664,"end":7868383,"speaker":"A","text":"Oh, Evelyn, you're right. I had my mic off. Thank you. So it's principals before you all do the Pledge of Allegiance. Feel free to you know say a couple. Cheerleading words about how awesome your school is. Like, that's totally fair game. Um, I'm not sure why the translation was so awkward tonight. Like, that was a little frustrating because, like, the whole point of why we set up all these systems was to make people feel very welcomed as first-class citizens to share in Spanish. And just when, when we have experiences like tonight, it, it doesn't really hold up like that. So, like, ideally we'd work some of those kinks out."},{"start":7868672,"end":7872312,"speaker":"D","text":"President Weekly, I did verify that translation was working on the Zoom."},{"start":7872456,"end":7872745,"speaker":"A","text":"Awesome."},{"start":7873001,"end":7875752,"speaker":"D","text":"It was the speakers in here that weren't Got it."},{"start":7876252,"end":7919229,"speaker":"A","text":"So I don't know if it makes sense to just a couple of minutes before the real meeting do a dry run just to make sure that we've got that debugged. But yeah, cool. Awesome. And then just as a matter of process, we happen to close the loop on this today, but when we have people on Zoom who raise their hand, if we do want to follow up with them, because I've been lazy and just said raise your hand versus filling out Evelyn's thoughtful form that includes, hey, what's actually your contact info, that ends up dropping. The ability to necessarily close the loop with them. So I got to think about whether I want to— what the right thing to do there is, just to make sure that if people do raise their hand on Zoom to make a comment, that we do have some way of following up with them."},{"start":7919229,"end":7925254,"speaker":"B","text":"I just want to add that we can't make them fill the form, right? We can definitely—"},{"start":7925254,"end":7926692,"speaker":"A","text":"yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah."},{"start":7926741,"end":7930655,"speaker":"B","text":"Just making like an announcement, if you want us to follow up, send us an email or something."},{"start":7930655,"end":7947343,"speaker":"A","text":"If you want us to follow up, send us an email. That's a good Yep, yep, yep. We don't have like a board@ alias, do we? Should we, or just should we have people look us up, or should we— any thoughts on having like a board@rcsd.k8.net info alias that goes to all of us on the board?"},{"start":7947343,"end":7959470,"speaker":"J","text":"I like the idea. I think we, we as a board should make sure that we're disciplined about like not responding. Um, yeah, but, but yeah, for convenience of the public, I think it's a good idea."},{"start":7959470,"end":7971280,"speaker":"A","text":"Just that way I can announce to people, if you want us to follow up with you, um, Email us and we will see, and the president will be responsible for responding to you. Does that make sense?"},{"start":7971280,"end":7978457,"speaker":"G","text":"But would it make more sense to actually email— I don't know, and I don't want to put this on maybe Evelyn or Dr. Rubalcaba, but—"},{"start":7978457,"end":8005850,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm not meaning to cut you off, so yeah, I would be very cautious of a board that was a distribution group to all 5 of you, uh, for the Brown Act requirements. Well, if we had a general email Sure. Uh, and, you know, Evelyn's gonna take a little break, so it'll all go to Jocelyn. But, but something like that, that maybe even 2 or 3 people in the office monitor and then can do that."},{"start":8005850,"end":8023050,"speaker":"A","text":"Maybe I'm overthinking it. I could just like say, while I'm president, I could say, hey, if you want me to follow up with you, uh, email me dweekly@rcsd.ca, and then future presidents will announce their own email address, and that creates an That's okay."},{"start":8023388,"end":8035195,"speaker":"G","text":"So what I was gonna say, and that, that's exactly— thank you, Rick. Um, because of the Brown Act, um, and I just lost my train of thought. Um, oh my God."},{"start":8035195,"end":8036726,"speaker":"J","text":"It's okay."},{"start":8036726,"end":8069653,"speaker":"G","text":"Um, I swear. Um, it will be better for them to email a staff member, and the reason why is a lot of the times I feel we as board members Really need to leave the cabinet members perhaps to get back to them. A lot of the time there's like curriculum information that we probably— at least I know I would not feel comfortable answering. But again, if you feel like the president, you want to— I mean, at the end of the day, you may have to, you know, get back to somebody else."},{"start":8069653,"end":8074859,"speaker":"A","text":"And I think it's fair that like probably the first thing I'd do for most things would be I'd forward it to Dr. R."},{"start":8077792,"end":8078276,"speaker":"B","text":"Right?"},{"start":8078276,"end":8085995,"speaker":"K","text":"And then on this side, then I work with that, with Jocelyn, and then we triage it to the nice, you know, to the person."},{"start":8085995,"end":8102199,"speaker":"A","text":"Just if there's some email address that I, I would love direction from staff. If there's some email address that's easy for me to yell at the beginning of the meeting, like email this address if you'd like a follow-up, and it goes to Dr. R. Like, I'm I'm totally fine with that as an outcome."},{"start":8102199,"end":8109848,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah, I mean, it could be an alias on a current email account of feedback@rcsd.org, as an example, or something that's easy to—"},{"start":8110153,"end":8113681,"speaker":"A","text":"yeah, okay, great. Okay, awesome. Awesome."},{"start":8114082,"end":8114178,"speaker":"G","text":"Cool."},{"start":8114643,"end":8123736,"speaker":"A","text":"That's all I got for feedback. Any feedback from you? All right, cool. All right, calendar. November 4th, 7 PM is regular, day after the election."},{"start":8123784,"end":8123944,"speaker":"F","text":"Woo-hoo!"},{"start":8124970,"end":8143460,"speaker":"A","text":"And we'll also get dashboard results. November 18th, 7 PM regular, and then we get into December 9th, 7 PM regular. It's just a reminder, I'm gonna be missing both of the December meetings, so I will vanish into a puff of smoke and I'll be back in January. Cool. Anything else to note on the calendar section?"},{"start":8144252,"end":8144349,"speaker":"G","text":"Nope."},{"start":8144736,"end":8146255,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, we're on to adjournment."},{"start":8146255,"end":8197404,"speaker":"G","text":"I would like to make a motion to adjourn, and before I do that, I do want to say I don't know if you guys have heard, but Dolores Huerta passed away today. And so I actually was just thinking, as Dolores Huerta— Yeah. And so I was thinking as you were speaking, um, and again, it's not— I always have to be careful— is I'm not just referring to like I'm only here for the EL students, for everyone, um, with everything, with enrollment, with our English learners, just overall District-wide, I want to remind ourselves that sí se puede, just like she said it, because we could do it, right? So we have to be very positive about it. And so I just want to end this meeting with that note for us to be positive and just think that we could do it. So thank you."},{"start":8197549,"end":8202347,"speaker":"J","text":"Well said, and I'll second."},{"start":8203023,"end":8203586,"speaker":"A","text":"All those in favor?"},{"start":8204133,"end":8204182,"speaker":"H","text":"Aye."},{"start":8204793,"end":8207739,"speaker":"A","text":"Meeting's over. It is 9:19 PM. Thank you, everybody."}]}