Good evening everybody. It's six o'clock
and before we have roll call, uh we do
have a notification of remote
participation. Uh Mike.
>> Yeah, thanks David. Uh pursuant to
Assembly Bill 2449, I'm participating
remotely due to just CODs. Uh
specifically due to caregiving need for
a family member, I confirm that no
individuals 18 years of age or older are
present with me. And during the meeting,
I'll participate from a non-public
location and my remote address will not
be disclosed.
>> Thank you very much. And with that now
noted, Evelyn, roll call, please.
>> Trusty Wells
>> here.
>> Trusty Lee
>> here.
>> Trusty King
>> here.
>> Vice President Marquez
>> here.
>> President Weekly
>> present. All right, I've got everybody
on deck. So, welcome everybody. Uh today
is a special meeting where we are going
to be reviewing and approving resolution
number 21 calling an election. Um so uh
with that it's really just focused on
that one item. Uh we're not allowed to
discuss other stuff. Do people have any
changes they would like to propose to
this agenda?
Seeing none, I'd like to call for an
approval of the agenda.
>> I move to approve the agenda.
>> Second.
>> All those in favor? Hi.
>> Oh, we have to do roll call.
>> Oh, yes. Let's take votes now for the
approval of the agenda.
>> Trusty Wells.
>> I.
>> Trusty Lee.
>> I.
>> Trusty King.
>> I.
>> Vice President Marcus.
>> I.
>> President Weekly.
>> I. The motion carries. Very good. Um, I
think I did see a public comment card
come in. Okay.
Wonderful.
All right. First up in person, I would
like to call Jessica to the stand,
please. You have three minutes to talk.
>> All right. Um, I am Jessica. I'm the
parent of two kids in the district. Um,
so I've had firsthand experience with
the need for funding from the parcel tax
that you're going to be talking about
tonight. Um, all of our surrounding
school districts have higher parcel
taxes than Redwood City School District,
some by an order of magnitude. Um, and
so our district genuinely has less money
than all of our surrounding districts in
the Bay Area. This parcel tax, if it
were to be voted in by our community,
would rightsize the RCSD budget as
compared to other districts. Um, I've
also been a part of the iterative
process to write the actual language for
the parcel tax. We've had multiple
meetings between parents from um schools
and throughout the district uh and the
district staff developing a joint
community vision um and working to
address concerns from a broad range of
um community members. And I've been
really impressed with how responsive the
district has been to those concerns from
community members and the ability to
incorporate those into the actual
language of the bill. So, um I'm just
here saying that I support the um
measure and uh thank you for considering
it for the students of the district.
>> Wonderful. Um, do we have any other
speaker? Yes, Evelyn indicates.
All right. Uh, El Cole Carr, um, you've
put in a comment card and now is your
time to speak. If you can unmute
yourself.
>> Hi. Uh, thank you for um, hearing me. I
I just want to echo Jessica's remarks
and encourage the board to put this
partial tax on the June ballot. Um if it
does pass, it would just greatly benefit
all of the Redwood City Schools and um
just be very very very valuable to um to
all of the children and the families
that um RCSD supports. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. Do we have other
online comment?
>> Uh, no more comment.
>> All right. Okay. I think that's it. And
so with that, I think that ends our
public comment. And so now we move on to
number six, a public hearing regarding
proposed educational parcel tax. Um, so
we've got a presentation here. And no,
uh, we've got an attachment here.
Yeah. All right. So there's the notice
as attachment. Um, is there anything
that we need to do with this item other
than to note it
>> after this?
>> Right. After this, the action item. Yep.
Okay. Well, noted the public hearing and
now we're on to 7.1, which is the
adoption of resolution number 21. So, I
think this is the point where we talk as
a board about the proposed resolution.
Well, um first of all, I want to say
thank you to everyone that has been
involved in this um endeavor with moving
forward with um a partial tax. Um it is
very important as um Jessica stated um
it's sad to know that some districts are
less fortunate than others and I think
it's just unfortunate and that's just
the way the funding works. Um I
look forward to this parcel tax. Um it
will benefit our district. Um one thing
to point out is obviously for all the
senior citizens they would be exempt
from this. Um I do know that a lot of
people may find um
you know the
another addition to their property tax.
But again, this is an exemption for um a
lot of the senior citizens. If they want
to opt out, um they could
just not opt out and then continue to um
support the um school district if they
wish. So, um at this point, those those
are my only comments.
>> Thank you. Others
>> um I I wanted to just say thank you for
some of the clarifications that were
added recently. Um I do think they
highlight all the feedback from the
community and also from the district on
how we really want to kind of use this
money. So um really the focus is
retaining teachers um and then also
distributing to the schools with an
equity lens I think um is the right way
to spend the money and clearly we do
need it. So
>> thank you others.
Yeah, I'll briefly just say I really
appreciate I think Jessica mentioned
this and Al mentioned this. Obviously
we've talked a lot about this and the
importance of this. Um obviously finance
is important piece of how we educate our
children. Um and there's part that are
absolute part that are relative and I
think it's really important for us to um
take proactive measures um to to ensure
that we have um the fiscal stability to
continue on the trajectory that we've
demonstrated um over the last couple of
years.
uh we're making great progress and I
think it's it's really important for us
to ensure that we have stable funding to
do that. So generally I'm really
supportive. Um I will also just say that
I again I think in the same way that
Jessica mentioned that very appreciative
of the district being responsive. I I
think it's worth calling out that the
community has really been um super
engaged and I think that's really
helpful at demonstrating that this is an
initiative that is um I think important
for the entire uh education community of
Redwood City. And I'm just very glad
that we have an engaged community that's
all marching toward the same direction
um in service of our kids.
>> Well said. Thank you, Mike.
>> Yeah, I'll uh I'll add in my thanks as
well to you know everyone who helped
bring the measure to this point. You
know that staff, council, team civics,
Jessica who spoke tonight and really all
the community members who have organized
in support of strong Redwood City
Schools and of course their taxpayers
who continue to invest in public
education here. Um, for me the important
thing is to really keep the focus on the
need. Uh, it's about what our students
need. It's about what our educators and
staff need in order to do their work
well and, you know, really what it takes
to sustain the kind of schools our
community wants for for its children.
And Jessica mentioned it, but I really
appreciate the community feedback that
helped improve the language between the
first and the second reading. Um, you
know, that's exactly the kind of like
public engagement, public forum. That's
why we do first and second readings at
public meetings. Uh it's great to see
that sort of civic engagement going on.
Um and having it all kind of work
together. I think it would work really
well. Um you know, and just for example,
I think it matters when we, you know,
take education jargon and explain it in
plain English. You know, because even if
a term like unduplicated pupil is
technically defined in the law, it
doesn't mean that it's clear, respectful
language for families and community
members. Um you know, and they they
might be asking when we're asking them
to understand uh and support this
measure. Um, so I just again you really
appreciate the engagement from the
public and how the district listened and
how it got folded back in. It's really
really again what the public process is
all about. Um, and and and finally I do
want to express my sincere gratitude
advance to the taxpayers of Redwood City
School District. The community has
repeatedly shown that it values strong
public schools and I really don't take
that support for granted. Um, grateful
for the support our schools have
received in the past and I also think
it's important to be honest that the
needs in this district remain real. Our
responsibility tonight is really to make
sure that we're putting forward
something clear, accountable, and
genuinely responsive to those needs. And
I think I think we've done a good job of
doing that. So, I I'm very much in
support of passing the resolution
tonight.
>> Thank you so much, Mike. Yeah. Um I'd
like to thank you Rick and Dr. Baker for
coming up with a formula that really
helps distribute it. It's such a complex
thing to figure out how to get right.
You know, you want to make sure every
school site gets something, but you also
want to have an equity lens on things.
And just that balance of care of taking
into account the number of pupils, the
unduplicated unduplicated pupil count,
and the the school site itself was was I
think very very well done and
respectful. The feedback that we got
from the community where people were
looking for a sense of concretenness
like what is this going to do for a
given school site? And I think what all
of us in this room realize, but many
people outside this room may not
realize, is that these funds are for the
general fund that can be used to fund
salaries, that can be used to fund
teachers and aids that are actually in
the classroom. Um, not just buildings
and the like that we've funded
previously with with our bond measures.
And so th this is really critical for
delivering education because ultimately
it's the human beings who are in the
classroom that deliver an education to
our students and that is our primary
mission as a as a school district. I I
really want to thank uh Jessica and
Carlo who didn't speak tonight but is in
the audience. Um as the intrepid leaders
of our parent volunteer group, I also
want to thank the parent volunteers who
are here with us online or watching this
recording. I know how hard you've been
working to listen to the needs of the
community, to be out there among your
peers and the other parents in the
district talking with them, hearing
their concerns, helping to navigate
that. That's a huge amount of work that
uh that you've done to understand this
measure and try and get it passed. And I
just want you to know that it's not
thankless. Like this is how a measure
like this gets passed. So, thank you so
much for that work and and thank you
also for speaking up, El. Um, yeah. So,
I'm I'm enthusiastic about educating our
students and finding mechanisms of
action to support the education of our
students. That's why I'm here. It's why
all of us are here. And this is uh this
is a way that we get the resources to do
that.
Are there any other things that the
board would like to discuss concerning
this resolution?
No. Okay. Well, would somebody like to
make a motion to approve the resolution?
>> I'll make a motion to approve the
resolution.
>> I'll second.
>> And now we will go do a vote.
>> Trusty Wells
>> I.
>> Trusty Lee
>> I.
>> Trusty King
>> I.
>> Vice President Marcus
>> I.
>> President Weekley
>> I. The motion carries unanimously. Very
well. Um I think that takes us to the
end of our agenda. Uh 12 minutes after
13 minutes after beginning. Uh would
somebody like to
>> I'll move to
>> I'll second.
>> Um taking votes now.
>> Busty Wells
>> I.
>> Busy Lee
>> I.
>> Vice President Marcus I.
>> President Weekly I.
>> The motion carries and with that I bid
you a good night.