okay it's 7 o'clock so we're going to go
ahead and get started welcome
everybody um there are seats open in the
front for those of you standing in the
back um there's a few open seats you see
Jude um Evelyn can we have a roll call
please trusty Marquez here trusty
Weekley right here trusty
makoy
presid vice president well here
president Lawson here uh welcome to the
June 5th meeting as we wrap up the
school
year un
num par contra
person
interpr Al
de uh the public is encouraged to speak
to the board on issues of concern
whether or not the issue is on the
agenda to address the board please
complete a speaker card available at the
entrance to the room and you can hand it
to Evelyn up at the Das um public
comments are limited to three minutes
each unless otherwise noted
um if you wish to speak to the board on
a subject listed on the agenda you'll be
called on at the time that the item is
being considered by the board if the
item is not on the agenda you'll be
called on during oral
communication with that said Do we have
any changes to the
agenda so we need a motion to approve
the agenda please I move we approve the
agenda second all those in favor I thank
you um oral communication last time I
looked we didn't have any ofone no okay
no oral communication tonight so that
brings us to 6.1 recognition of our
International
staff thank you well spring is the time
for celebrations and this past month we
recognized all of our staff through
various staff appreciations events and
so forth at the school sites and around
our district but tonight we would like
to especially recognize our staff who
joined us from other countries so I'm so
thrilled to see so many people here in
the audience and we have a few online as
well this is such a wonderful treat for
those in our audience who may not be
aware over the past several years the
United States and certainly the Bay Area
have experienced an educator shortage
ranging from teachers to parent
Educators and this is due to multiple
factors such as decline in enrollment in
in teacher preparation programs and
other High Cost of Living and so forth
at the same time our board adopted goals
on equity and as it relates to Human
Resources the goals were perfectly timed
to propel us to reach even farther and
wider across our nation and
internationally to recruit a diverse and
experienced Workforce in Human Resources
we took these goals very seriously as we
know the impact of how a solid
productive caring and experienced
Workforce affects our student growth
academically socially and
emotionally we set out to find Solutions
and we began by forming relationships
with Wen and Mai from Nexus Ed Solutions
Hannah Gilman from geov visions and
legia avenita who may be on the call
tonight as well they assisted us with
opening up the recruitment doors to
other countries we've had a
long-standing relationship with Spain
and have' recruited many Spanish
bilingual teachers from Spain over the
years and recently added Mexico we began
we began the recruitment process by
partnering with these global companies
to recruit from other countries and I'm
proud that we've met our goals closing
the educator Gap in these hardto fill
positions by adding diversity to our
workplace as well our students has
benefited from the experienced middle
school special education and bilingual
teachers the par Educators who stepped
right in to fill these difficult
positions or hardto fill positions
excuse me in these areas so moving from
another country and settling into
Redwood City is quite a transition we
have 62 total RCS staff out of
approximately
560 that fall Within These ranges of of
staff that have arrived this year only
from other countries and those include
Colombia Mexico the Philippines Spain
China Zimbabwe South Africa and the
Dominican Republic the district office
and site staff has also welcomed and
embraced our new team members in the
fall by hosting dinners driving staff to
sightseeing Adventures or the grocery
stores and assisting our employees in
obtaining special items to add function
and Beauty to their new homes Ann Barry
Offa Sarah colum Kathy James from our
staff development team went above and
beyond aside from their exemplary
contributions of coaching and mentoring
so thank you the special ed Department
led by director Ma mahen and associate
director Jude noise and bernardet Garcia
who interviewed hosted monthly and
weekly trainings to assist in the
adaptation of Hosting of of Hosting
indiv idual education plan meetings and
IEP writing nuances within our new
databases working with students within
the curriculum and other professional
development and so it was truly a group
effort in welcoming and supporting our
new staff I also want to thank the
teachers at the schools and the staff
development team at large the
administrators and staff who really
embraced our new challenge and really
welcomed with open arms our staff uh
this was relatively new and bringing a
lot of people together and and the the
various adaptations and transitions that
come with with that move so the
trainings and impromptu assistance have
been so appreciated so all of you out
there and and virtually in our audience
um I really appreciate how you have
fostered such good relationships with
our students through your actions tone
of voice encouraging words the
contributions in the areas of teaching
and the work of our par Educators the
one-on-one supports with our students
have been so invaluable
we've been thrilled with the humility
the belief in our students and the work
ethic of our International staff and so
while we might say goodbye to just a few
we will say also hello to a few new
staff members in August so we want to
take this formal opportunity to thank
you all of our International staff for
risking in moving to an unknown country
and leaving your homes and families for
this new adventure to work with our
students and help further their success
I can see the dedication and in your
eyes and when you smile every day
especially when you come into HR and say
hello I have such good memories so um I
know Dr Baker wanted to say a few words
and we'd love to take a group picture
and then we have a special cake outside
for you to conclude our
celebration well good evening to all of
you and thank you for being here this
evening um I know when the first
International te teachers came in early
I guess it was in August right in the
last part of July um there was a huge
meeting in this boardroom and I recall
um mentioning to those that were here
that growing up as a military brat
because my dad was a Jag officer uh I
lived in Asia as a child for a while and
his last tour Duty was in the
Philippines when I was in Middle School
I was just starting middle school and so
we were there for four years
and
what um an adjustment that was for our
family it always was was an adjustment
when one is moving but especially to
another country with another culture
another language um so I really embraced
everything that Wendy and her staff did
to get you to be here and work here in
the Redwood City School District I'm so
pleased that you came we were so
energized to see you all in here smiling
and I was thinking oh my God they're
going to be crying but no you weren't
you were happy and thrilled and ready to
go um with such energy and such
enthusiasm and wanting to make a
difference in the students in Redwood
City the students in Redwood City are
you know definitely the heart of the
school district they come first and we
know you think in that manner just as we
do so for all that you have done while
you have while you continue while you
are here and while you continue to be
here I want to thank you thank you so
much for having the courage to get on
that plane come across many many miles
over the ocean um and to be here with us
and to experience a different manner of
how you live an and Kathy and Sarah
thank you so much for all your
hospitality that you did to ingratiate
and and make sure that they were taken
care of and um being involved in
different types of holidays and
different types of traditions that we do
here that are not done in their country
so I thank all three of you so much for
that and mave and Jude and and bernardet
thank you for all your handholding that
you did um through this process and
really made it successful you know um we
are definitely in a teacher shortage
here in this country um and that's one
thing that we hear about all the time
whether it's on social media whether
it's on the news whether I'm reading
something that's coming from the state
how the states within the other states
within the United States are having to
work in different manners to attract
teachers from other countries other
states to come and work in their
districts and I applaud you thank you so
much for being here and I hope for those
of you that are continuing to be with us
that you will you know stop by say hello
we're we're always available if you ever
need anything you know you either pick
up the phone you're really good people
are good at texting people are good at
emailing whatever we answer to any of
the different types of devices that one
may use to communicate so with that
being said thank you so much
again anyone on the board want to have
any
words
yeah great I I'll just reiterate a
little bit and say thank you so much to
the international staff and it's just
it's the positivity that you bring to
our district it's really enhances the
students education um you know
transitioning to a new country as we've
already said into Redwood City it's
really it takes a big leap to be able to
do that and so just thank you and I
commend you for you know for taking on
that challenge and handling it with such
Grace um you know the I hope that uh
your journey here and it kind of sounds
like it from you hearing how the um
staff here was supporting it was filled
with like the warmth and Grace that you
deserve uh and I'm glad you hear that
many are coming to continue on next year
um that's that's absolutely so again
just thank you for taking the leap and
joining us on our mission to educate and
Inspire um I know that your presence
here has made a significant difference
and so we're grateful for everything
that you've
done um yeah I want to just say uh thank
you as well I won't repeat everything
everyone said but I I hope that your
experiences is that one of the things we
value in our district is cultural
awareness and
appreciation and we want our students to
appreciate uh differences appreciate
similarities appreciate other cultures
and we're so grateful that we were able
to add to our um grouping of staff that
had come from other countries right
because we do have a lot of immigrants
in Redwood City and we very much value
that and thank you so much I did get to
meet and and uh go out with some of some
of you in some fun ways which was which
was great so I did get to um to know a
few of you as well and I I do want to
really say thank you very much again to
our staff who really um helped welcome
all of you and support you so thank
you did you want to oh no I are we are
we breaking is I
so due to the uh large number of guests
in our room which is lovely I think we
would love to take a picture on the
stairs if you wouldn't mind and then we
have our fun cake outside and they're
cutting it madly so that we can enjoy
have a sweet treat and uh enjoy the
evening there's a
gent did you want to come up and say
something yeah can you come up and um
just turn the microphone on with the
button on the right the little
person there you go go perfect um uh
good
evening right um in our culture in
Zimbabwe since we are living uh we need
to say
goodbye so I hope you can afford US this
chance to say goodbye to your team Miss
SW Kelly I think um when you first met
me uh it was in August and we had
accomodation crisis yes but um I just
want to thank you so much um especially
to an and your family uh I think you
taught us um what is called kindness and
um that was a big
lesson uh you're talking about cultural
diversity is something that I will take
back to Zimbabwe it was very touching uh
and she represented the American people
very well and I just want to thank you
for that um then secondly um I just want
to thank the district for the Mandate
that you gave us and I'm sure we
executed it perfectly and with a lot of
professionalism um trust me Wendy
Zimbabwe is are hardworking people and I
have no grain of doubt that what you
asked us to do we did it well and I just
want to thank you for the experience uh
it was my first time to meet you
know students with autism
and I want to tell you this I learned a
lot I learned a lot and I actually had I
discovered that I had passion uh which I
never knew I had in Zimbabwe so it was
really a good experience for me and um
and I also gained Spanish along the
way yes I did um and I want to thank my
colleagues uh for the job well done uh
it wasn't easy but we're able to adopt
you know like I told them if you fail to
adopt you're going to be extinct so we
did adopt to the new culture because
there are certain things that we met you
know it's so difficult in Zimbabwe we
spank you know discipline but here it's
it's an nogo area you
know so so because for me it was
something it was an experience because I
was in the disciplinary committee and I
was very tough with students you know
but there here you are where we have
something which is new to you but um you
know that learning C uh and also being
humble because back home we are teachers
okay yeah we are though we are par
Educators but we teachers I've been
teaching for the past 20 years and you
know so when you get into the classroom
you got like you adopting and seeing how
you go about it it was a lovely
experience and you know uh for Redwood
City I think my heart you always be a
special place in my heart yeah
so so I I just want to say um
iot and the author is unknown he said
what is the meaning of life uh to which
he replied you know life has no meaning
but it is a chance to give meaning a and
your team when Kelly
thank you for giving us a chance to have
meaning I thank
you well it was our pleasure just to
greet and get to know all of you and we
thank you again for the year and for
coming tonight it was such an honor to
see all of you here in person and we
will go out into the foyer and continue
celebrating thank you
probably about 10 15
minutes um so for those that are online
in this meeting we're going to take a
break for about 10 or 15 minutes um and
we will come
back okay thank you um for that break
that was nice with the cake I hope
everyone online grabbed their own cake
also um we
we are moving on to 7.1 uh connect
Community Charter School
presentation that's before all right
there we go with the K come
still okay um you want to come s up uh
so thank you for having us tonight and I
see I there's people I've known a long
time in this room and people I've just
met and I've been trying to watch as
many board meetings as I could this year
and I really have enjoyed all the school
pre presentations and just like as a
school leader as a longtime resident of
Redwood City and a parent of a student
who went K8 through the district you
know I just am so impressed and
appreciative of all the initiatives that
are are happening in our schools um and
so I wanted to come and talk a little
bit about what we've been focusing on at
connect this year I told some of you I'm
very nervous I could talk about connect
all the time but I'm nervous right here
um and we had field day today was really
hot outside so we're all like it was
okay so it's been it's been a a warm day
um anyway I have three staff members who
are participating tonight I have amand
Deon here who is our art teacher and
also works on literacy and elld I have
online how this do do you sh do you pipe
them in but they should be there
Dominique burrito who is our seventh
grade teacher and Adam Center who is our
two three teacher so they're all going
to share this presentation with me and
I'm glad they're here um so starting off
I wanted to tell you just um a little
bit about some of the academics we've
been working on this year and just talk
about a few of them not everything and
we've really been focusing on creating a
more robust and also well-rounded
academic experience for our students at
connect as you may know pbl is one of
the Project based learning or inquiry
based learning is one of the core
elements of our Charter so we've been
really working this year to embrace our
the pbl and try to improve it and start
working really towards attaining that
gold standard pbl level and part of this
has been increasing or improving the
academic elements of pbl right so making
sure it's not just projects but that
students are doing a lot of learning
through the pbl so we've seen some units
this year that are interdisciplinary for
example our 45 team did a unit on a
fourth and fifth grade team did a unit
that involved reading a novel about an
animal I think it's a gorilla and then
in science studying habitats and doing
some research about animals and then
they traveled to the zoo as a kind of a
culminating event but also part of their
research and then their project was to
create a zoo enclosure and they had to
present their research and say why it
would be a better zoo enclosure for that
animal so we're really trying to make
sure we're incorporating literacy into
our pbl as well as you know we have a
lot of English Learners so that's
speaking part
presentation and we have seen really
high engagement this year with pbl and
one of the things that I hadn't really
thought about but really
notice this year is that our English
Learners are also very engaged because
you know instead of just reading or
writing worksheets they're able to
participate and we have so many
Spanish-speaking students bilingual
students and bilingual teaching
assistants that they can engage we have
materials in Spanish and so um we're
we've really um I've really enjoyed
seeing that this year um the other part
of pbl that has been uh Focus this year
is that Community engagement piece so
for example our eth our middle school
did a unit on um natural disasters and
disaster preparedness and they were able
to get the fire department to come in
and teach them how to use a fire
extinguisher and so we're really trying
to pursue these Community um connections
and next year we want to continue
working on authenticity bringing in real
world problems and creating more
opportunities to engage with the public
and that presentation element so we're
going to keep going with the pbl and
hopefully move towards that gold
standard
pbl um another big Focus this year has
been literacy I'm sure um everybody's uh
in involved with the science of reading
right now and you know our students like
so many students have been struggling
with reading especially post pandemic
and we've been asking ourselves you know
how can we move our students towards
being um work reading at grade level so
Amanda is one of our literacy
Specialists and we have another literacy
specialist they've been pushing into
classrooms helping teach the teachers
also more strategies for instructing
readers exploring science of reading
curriculum we have not adopted a new
curriculum yet so we've been trying to
figure out where to go with that doing
some U professional
development and then literacy
Specialists work with small groups to
give that individual instruction so we
have really seen a lot of growth in
reading our kids still have growth to
make but what I've noticed is a love of
reading and a culture of reading that is
starting to grow when I walk into a room
and it's reading time even our littlest
ones they're actually reading I think
there was a lot of page turning before
and now I see kids reading they're
asking for books they're moving along on
the Continuum of of more difficult
reading so you know in our assessments
we're seeing that growth as well so it's
very exciting and I saw one day two
little TK students they grabbed a
chapter book that was sitting outside
our office they're both open it and
they're telling this whole story in
Spanish and they're turning the pages
and just seeing that engagement and them
wanting to learn I think has been the
just so fantastic this year so our just
today we've decided on um I think on
what we want to purchase for science of
reading curriculum and some professional
development we're such a small school
it's hard to send people there the to
the trainings um but we're doing part of
the training the trainer model so having
a couple of experts and then they'll
train our staff so we're excited where
we're going with
literacy um and then the third thing I
wanted to tell you about is we've also
been um going through through Universal
Design for Learning training working
with some the county office and some
trainers there um and they've been
coming to staff meetings next year we'll
continue that with some coaching and
some more workshops and you know again
just really trying to have some
conversations about what are the
barriers that are getting in the way of
our students learning and how can we
address those barriers how can we start
lesson planning from the ground up to
meet the needs of our students
instead of you know having the lesson
and then putting Band-Aids try to make
sure PE students are connecting with it
so those are some um big areas a lot of
reflection about you know what are we
doing well and and we talk about those
in our professional learning communities
what are we doing well where are our
areas of growth and so I'm excited about
what we're doing and um I will pass it
along to Amanda to talk more
specifically about what we're doing to
support our English learners okay hello
my name is Amanda Von I just want to
give you a little background about
myself um this will be my third year
coming up at connect I have taught in a
lot of schools here in Redwood City um
uh as an art teacher I was at voy Cloud
for a couple of years um John Gil before
was oyan and North Star so I have a lot
of experience in different schools in
the school district and I'm so so so
impressed by what I see at connect
Community Charter um for one thing it's
a very small school and also that it's
committed to its newcomers so we have a
large percentage of the school I believe
out of 150 kids I believe we have 20
newcomers and so when you consider that
these students are often coming um to
the country and um engaging in um a
really really rich environment not
having even been in the country
sometimes for a few days and they're
already at our school and the
environment at this school is so well
suited for them because they are
encountering other students often that
they know already or family members and
they're just so welcomed and I've seen
them Blossom I've seen kids from last
year coming as newcomers this year
full-on sentences
conversations um friends connections so
the way that it serves newcomer students
at this school is so important um for
their development because they have that
silent period when they first come in we
all know about the silent period of
newcomers where they first come in
they're not saying anything but there's
a lot that's going on their thinking and
their development in that time so this
school um Services kids um in lots of
different ways through ELD instruction
first of all I think that there's
assessments that go on very quickly
getting those initial assessments when
they come in getting them understanding
exactly how much education they have in
their countries that they're coming from
um how much formal education they've had
and also how much exposure they have to
English language and then giving them
some direct instruction on that based on
their level so if they're a 1 2 three or
four right so there's designated time
that's broken down for each grade level
or actually in groups of grade levels um
depending on their actual language
abilities across grade levels and
there's directed time for that and so
when you when you consider that there's
a challenge you have to give them direct
um instruction on speaking engaging with
other students um feeling that sense of
um ability or connection or giving them
the tools to give that initial con
connection based on those levels um so
we give them a lot of support around
that I believe that one of the best
things that I can see about at connect
is not only myself and the two other
literacy Specialists that help with
various different levels of ELD is the
three um AIDS classroom AIDs that we
have that are bilingual that are working
with them in small groups the middle
schoolers kindergarteners all every
single grade level I see it every day
all day small groups oneon-one um they
do what it takes to reach the students
they um work I mean I think the
important designation is that we work
with with students based on their levels
one two three and four on their ELD
levels but also inside the classroom to
helping them to engage with the content
that's happening as it's happening and
making them making sure that they have
what they need to engage as actual
lesson is going on um so you're hitting
them on both sides I think that um one
of the things that I'm most excited
about at connect is that there's no
student that is getting missed we have
150 kids we know these kids really well
and the staff um there's multiple staff
members that are connecting with the
kids throughout the day to make sure
they get what they need in terms of
their social emotional learning but also
in terms of their language support so
there's a difference between ELD which
is where you're really helping them have
that content and um
you know language speaking abilities and
vocabulary building than just reading
instruction so they're getting help in
both areas another thing I really want
to say is aside from the staff we have a
lot of literacy coaching and spe special
um training that's given to the staff um
we have the par Educators but also the
use of Technology we use a lot of
technology to help our newcomers and
students with different levels of
English language speaking abilities for
example an iPad that will translate text
immediately we have math books that are
written for them in Spanish um a lot of
support um and we use technology um and
I think that's important and we
encourage the students to use technology
to help themselves and um and I think
that's done on an individual basis and
like I said it's a small school so I'm
feeling so blessed because I've seen a
lot of schools in this district and I
think that the newcomers particularly
and all English langu Learners are
getting a really great experience at
connect so I just want to say
that yeah and then we are for next year
we're going to be using the elll
elevation platform to support our
English Learners and our staff so that's
where we're going with our professional
development and our especially to
support our again the need for the right
curriculum right for our ELD and um also
for our integrated
ELD all right and so I have Dominique
online who's going to talk about some of
the enrichment opportunities at
connect hi uh good evening everybody my
name's Dominique uh last name is burrito
kind of like the food spelled a little
bit
differently um so uh this is my third
year teaching I taught two years prior
at High School Fremont High School uh in
Sunnyvale um and this is my first year
at connect so um it's been very exciting
going from high school to Middle School
school because there's so many more
opportunities and programs that we can
do with the middle school that you're
not able to do as well at the high
school so this has been really cool um
this year we've gone on a ton of field
trips especially revolving around
environmental science um we went on a
field trip uh to a park nearby where
they ended up talking to the students
about uh fire safety and how there's
good and bad fire for environmental
science how it can help um the area and
uh exciting news tomorrow we are going
actually up to Big Basin to finish to
like kind of wrap up that environmental
science chapter where they're actually
going to see what happens when a fire
goes through a forest and the regrowth
of it um and another exciting part of
that is we are the third school to come
back to Big Basin um since the fire so
we're like in the top and we kind of got
squeezed in there because of one of our
prior field trips to Angel Island
um we were very uh short staffed as far
as chaperon because one of our teachers
got covid the day of and so we went off
on this field trip and our kids are such
little Troopers they pulled through and
they were recognized actually by the
interpretive Ranger to the point where
he started talking to the other Park
Rangers about connect and how uh
empowered and intelligent and
hardworking our students
that that's they contacted me um at Big
Bas and they're like oh we heard about
you guys do you guys want to come up um
and I was like heck yes this is such an
amazing opportunity so um so we've been
going on some really cool field trips
and one of the things that really helps
is our new newcomers because it's not
always about necessarily the content but
getting a chance to build that Community
with the students because they're so new
and it's scary and they're in a new
place and but it helps build bonds and
friends um so we've seen some good
friendships come out of these field
trips um let's see some other things
that uh we ended up for since I'm mostly
focusing on Middle School um we had
because 8th grade revolves around
government and democracy we ended up
having um East Side paloalto mayor
Antonio Lopez come in and talk with the
students about how they can get involved
in government and and politics if they
are interested in it and what they can
do within their local community to be a
part of it and then we also had Paul
banra who's another person he actually
ran against mayor Antonio Lopez um and
he talked about uh the prison systems
and you know uh how all the Pol
political stuff that he ended up getting
involved with to try and make changes
and he's actually from the community so
it's bringing in that connection exactly
what our name sake is so it's been
really really amazing um getting to do
have all these opportunities that I feel
like you don't usually get to have at
another
school thank you Dominique um yeah so
enrichment of our like she was they'
both said we are a small school so it's
it's difficult to have a lot of
programming but we really do try to have
more offerings for our students we have
a middle school elective program it's
just two days a week and we have Amanda
who teaches art we have a music team
teacher we do a a sports
elective um we have K5 art students have
art and music once a
week um we do cross AG buddies that's
been that's always a lot of fun to watch
the older kids especially with the
younger ones we this we've started
launching into some Athletics we have a
volleyball team this year and like they
said lots of field trips and sleep away
camps so we are always trying to build
an experiences for our students I do
think it helps with creating Community
but also with language
development okay we can go on to the
next slide mental health so mental
health andal is the area I'm really
particularly proud of at
connect we uh as you I know I've heard
other schools speak about right post
pandemic there have been a lot of mental
health challenges with anxiety with
depression it was hard for students to
transition back to school so we have
been working on creating a comprehensive
School counseling program we have a
full-time school counselor well probably
is going to become 50% because our needs
actually have decreased a little bit but
and then a full-time school-based
therapist through the organization
Cassie and they work really well
together to kind of triage so the Cassie
therapist takes the students with more
severe needs the school counselor deals
with the more daytoday stressors maybe
the conflict also helps with attendance
and more of the the
day-to-day sort of level tier one or
tier two things that come up as part of
our school counseling program we created
a referral system and anybody can refer
a student to speak to either the
counselor or therapist so a parent a
teacher a staff member another student
and what that is allowed us to do is to
be really proactive so instead of
waiting for a problem to occur and like
oh no call The Counselor we've been able
to really keep an eye and say oh you
know it looks like Amanda's having a
hard day let's refer her over to talk to
one of these people and we have really
noticed an improvement in mental health
I mean kids are in class more they're
not out of class we see that they're
happier you know we have when visitors
come to our campus they're like your
kids are so nice nice they're they seem
so happy and so I feel like it's been
really a successful program and students
are self-referring which I really think
is key right people they'll come to the
office and say you know is it okay if I
go talk to Miss Gabby and like
definitely so they fill out the referral
form and then you know she'll come and
get them when when it's time um parents
call and they also fill out the referral
form so that's been really key into
making to make making sure that students
are getting the help they need and then
both our counselor and our therapist are
out around campus they're at supervision
they're walking around they're doing
presentations in classes they're doing
small groups our school-based therapist
actually ran a girls leadership group
and then they just went and did a
presentation to all the classes about
body positivity so we're also trying to
engage students in that role of
educating each other um so I'm really
proud of that I think unfortunately
mental health at connect is doing really
well um we take a restorative P
restorative approach to problems when
they do arise of course sometimes you
have to have consequences but we really
do try to work with students when
there's been an issue on that counseling
piece like you've made a mistake
something has happened all right maybe
we have to have a consequence but then
let's follow up with the counselor so
that we can figure out how to move
forward and not keep repeating those
mistakes um a second part of our mental
health andal approach is our social
emotional learning curriculum this is
another Cornerstone of our Charter and
something else we've really focused on
this year we had professional
development with a coach who teach who
has a curriculum related to the six
seconds program I if you're familiar
with it and so all of our teachers have
been trained there's grade level
curriculum we start the day with
AAL class meeting time so every teacher
is supposed to be teaching theseal
lessons and then incorporating it
throughout the day and we feel like then
that creates a Common Language right
students are hearing the lessons from
year to year from teacher to teacher and
we are all
approaching um social emotional learning
in a similar way uh as part of that we
have also coaching so we have a staff
member who serves as coach who meets
with teachers to work on the social
emotional learning lessons to observe
them um to meet the the coach we have
the professional coach is remote so they
meet together on zoom and I think that's
also really made um a big difference for
our school and then lastly we brought
back a recognition program this year it
was called the wolf packs so um students
at our monthly assembly get a
certificate for this is really bad but I
can never remember the acronym
persistence attitude community and
kindness and so that's been nice to have
these assemblies once a month invite
families in again try and trying to
build that bridge to community so I'm
really proud of where we've come with
our mental health NCL
program and that is all of that we can
go to the next slide student voice I
mentioned a little bit about this but we
have started some lunchtime clubs this
year that's been fun and while we don't
we don't have a big enough school really
to have a like a official student
council we try and create opportunities
for students to engage with projects of
their own choosing so for example
getting um Mr bocanegra to speak that
was the doing of some Middle School
eighth grade boys who heard about him
and they said we want to get him so they
wrote him an email he responded and then
they arranged the visit we have another
group
who uh of course there's always
complaints about cafeteria food right
but they've been writing to the district
about their concerns and trying to
arrange a talk about the food and
learning more about the
food um what else the we did have a
student advisory Council it kind of
fizzled because the students they were a
little fractured of what they wanted to
do but we that some small things student
advisory Council for example wanted to
be able to eat outside so they went
through all the steps of well who do we
get permission for to from how do we you
know how do we get supervision out there
so trying to make trying to get students
uh give students a chance to solve the
problems they're interested in solving
as they come up um and that's same with
individual passion
projects and that's our girl leadership
group when they did their body
positivity
talk okay next
slide events all right we have a lot of
events at connect and I think Adam is
online to talk about our
events good evening my name is Adam
Center I'm a new teacher at connect
Community Charter School this year I was
a outdoor educator and outdoor edit for
10 years in Pescadero um so it's really
refreshing coming to the classroom and
bring some of that passion there uh I'm
going to go through we had a project
presentation tonight about two weeks ago
when all the students were able to bring
their hard work to the parents and to
the community and we had the open campus
it was a very beautiful thing um it was
really nice to see the literal
connecting of communities
um that evening and other events uh on
down the the Arts projects Mrs vaugh has
been a champ of the Arts for the
students helping them getting uh
confidence and recognition um she's
really put her heart and soul into that
and uh the kids have it's been very
obvious with the eagerness for the kids
to uh elect go to Art um in their free
time during the day um one of my passion
projects is our permaculture um and our
gardening and our garden boxes a couple
weeks ago we were able to have a volun
day some parents came in to really rock
students came in really rock and they
helped us majorly to complete some
projects build community and just kind
of like celebrate togetherness in terms
of having a common goal to beautify our
garden and just make the space more
green um my goodness is our community
connected with the families we have it's
as a new teacher to the school I wasn't
quite sure what to expect but we have
whole families from TK to e8th grade in
the school and seeing their camaraderie
and pride in each other in our school
day is is really
nice uh today we had exceptionally hot
field day where we had 150 kids on the
field in jump houses and Bucket Brigade
races and on
the wall and just kind of an end of the
year celebration and it was amazing and
not one injury not one complaint and uh
it was it was beautiful and it should be
something everybody could experience
uh another thing we did this morning
which is really impressive is our
monthly
assembly where our tkk class put on a
play for the whole school ordinarily if
we all get together as a school it's a
pretty chatty Bunch but we really
stepped up our kids stepped up and gave
the TK and K kids like a silent crowd
when they were doing The Three Little
Pigs it was really nice to like see them
pay effect uh of attention to the kids
it was it was beautiful um yeah the the
connect events are really special and
it's some so out to me as a new teacher
this year it's been really exceptional
to have the epitome of what I like to
see as like a tight-knit
community
um that's pretty much all I have aside
from
our openness to the parents to come in
and chat with the teachers and staff and
the kids come and go every day like it's
to me somewhat alternative to what I'm
used to in the public schools
um it's just a it's a beautiful openness
to the school and the kids really have a
legacy there and they and they really
show and it really shows it really shows
it's it's it's a beautiful space and our
community it's it's even harder to find
it really
is I think that's
thank you
Adam so there you have it there's been a
lot going on it's been great school year
I can't believe it's June um and we're
out next week but it it's been a really
great year I think we built a
foundation for things to come right it's
been Rocky coming back from the pandemic
this is just my third year so being new
it's taken me a while to get my feet on
the ground but I feel like right now
we're well suited to just keep growing
and improving next year so I'm very
excited and thank you for letting me
come this evening if you have questions
or comments thank you very much for your
presentation um I'll open up to my
colleagues um thank you so much for uh
coming here and giving a presentation
it's really nice to hear from you and um
I see you on the well sometimes you're
in the audience but I see you on the
zoom almost every meeting and I really
appreciate how you really want to be a
part of the district and that that
recognition that your kids are living in
our community as well and your kids are
our kids so anyway just thank you very
much and I know we've had a few
conversations over the years and I I
just want to say I really appreciate the
um effort to get the students out on
field trips and uh the environmental Ed
kind of outdoor um Ed hands-on
experience that you're offering the
students I really do feel like that's
really valuable and it's great that
you're taking them off site and then
also it was nice to hear from you Adam
about uh some of the gardening and
things happening on site and then of
course I'm I'm always about enrichment
for um particularly for students who
don't necessarily get that in other
Arenas really school is the place that
they get the enrichment and and um get
to have those experiences they they
don't necessarily have in their their
home life so uh thank you for doing that
and um really look forward to seeing
some of the academic data as I know
we're all coming back from the pandemic
and some of it is a little wonky still
because of course we're you know we're
starting with some baseline that we got
last year I think and comparing it to
this year and moving forward so maybe at
the next presentation uh we could get
more of that data as well but for
tonight I really appreciate sort of that
that bigger picture of all the amazing
things that you're providing your
students so thank
you yeah I think it's great to have you
here um I I think we are all looking to
serve the students of Redwood City and I
think that getting to crib notes about
where our approaches may be similar
where approaches may be different and
what's working and what's not working
can let us together be smarter about uh
the right approach to use for students
so um I mean I think that's really where
I Orient in terms of the relationship
that the district can have with connect
so especially with teachers who have
been in the district and are with
connect you're uniquely well poised to
tell us uh where is connect making
different choices for the district than
the district has made and then where
does that seem to be working out um so I
I would love to have a a data driven
approach where we can learn about these
differences I know that you're exploring
uh you mentioned couple different
curriculum choices we had put a lot of
effort into curriculum selection there
and then getting to share notes on that
in terms of seeing what's working and
what's not would be would be wonderful
uh we spend a lot of effort on new
newcomers and trying to have a welcoming
and effective approach there so learning
about how connect is using technology
such as you mentioned Google translate
uh to go and and make accommodations for
newcomers is is especially interesting
to me uh I feel like we've seen even in
the last month the state-of-the-art in
live language translation uh evolved
very significantly with the release of
gbd 40 uh now their new voice mode is
going to be enabled in the next like
literally week or two so like this is
some of this technology uh enhancement
and opportunity are happening live in
front of us um and so it' be great to
share notes on that uh as we explore
different Technologies so I'm looking
forward to that ongoing partnership uh
with you
um one question uh Dominique you you
mentioned that uh you you had taught in
high school and then came to uh teach
middle school and said that there were
certain things that you could do in high
school that you uh Middle School that
you can't do in high school and I would
love to just hear uh a bit from you on
that if
possible hey okay so um I feel like the
just build like building the
relationships um going on field trips
there's so much more that you can do
whereas High School you're kind of just
rapidly turning over classes and you're
rapidly just putting out information
where you can actually with connect with
it so so small and being um a middle
school I can see where the kids are
struggling and help them with skills
before they're heading off into high
school where it's very rapid fire I'm
I'm currently teaching like I think it's
550 56 kids right now whereas at the
high school I had 160 by
myself um and so it it's just a very
different environment I always wanted to
go on field trip trips with my students
um and because there's some really
unique stuff in San Jose um with history
park um they have the
Vietnamese uh uh Museum in history park
and the Portuguese Museum now always
wanted to go off to these museums or off
to colleges or there's so many different
opportunities but there was never any
funding or real interest in it either
whereas I feel like with middle school
we can still have that flexibility and
be able to take kids out for these
experiences that they wouldn't normally
get cool very cool thank
you so I I would just like to to know
from folks whether you feel comfortable
sharing now or in an email later um some
of the perceived differences in approach
that the district has versus the
approach that connect is using and
advice on like if you could wave a magic
wand and and improve the district based
on the findings that you have from
connect um what would your advice be and
then conversely what can we do for you
as as we've looked at a whole bunch of
different curricula can we share some of
the research that we did and what went
into the curricula that we decided to go
with versus not um I I should think and
hope that we'd be open to to sharing
that yeah so um thank you for coming
thank you for your partnership um and
looking forward to learning more with
you well and I just to respond to that
in listening to the different board
meetings as I'm hearing other schools
I'm like oh that's a great idea that's a
great idea and I've reached out to
different people at the district to say
oh I heard you talk about this can you
help me so I I think there is an
opportunity for partnership and I don't
pretend tend to say what you could do
better but we could talk about what we
think is working and love to hear the
suggests I I think the more that we
share and work together just the better
it is for kids so I'm to build some
bridges thank
you um thank you of course for the
presentation um and thank you to Amanda
and the other literacy specialist
because you know of course you guys are
dealing with the kids obviously the
teachers are too um but you guys are
obviously giving them a lot of oneon-one
and doing the PD with the teachers as
well so one of the things that obviously
that I was very interesting to to hear
was how many newcomers and you did say
approximately 20 from the 150 which is
good and you know from the presentation
you guys are making the connection with
the family so I think that's that's
great um I'm just curious
um I was you guys are a small school but
when teachers or students have an issue
and they want to talk to like the
director of student services who do you
guys go to I mean are you one man show
or is there
other I do all the
jobs I do um I I do and I'm also working
on building a team so for examp I was
telling you if we've had a full-time
counselor we're going to shift that he's
going to this new person I'm getting is
going to be 50% but he's going to pick
up some admin duties um special ed the
dire of special education also is
starting to pick up some duties because
I can't do everything right um so it's
been about building systems when I
started to connect it was everyone
coming in Miss Haley Miss Haley Miss
Haley I can't do everything um so it's
been about building systems and I really
believe in shared leadership and so I
really think about problem solving in
terms of how can I Empower other people
to either problem solve independently or
take on a a leadership role and you know
that's been successful so far and I and
I think that that speaks to why I didn't
have a staff is happy too because I try
to give them responsibilities as well
okay thank you I if that answers your
question yes thanks um and of course
thank you to Dominique and Adam for your
um the information that you provided um
and I just went blank because I know I
had something else to say
um I'll maybe if I remember I'll tell
you guys so I'll go ahead and let Mike
speak but thank you and also we would
like to be bigger I mean I know it's
great to be small but you know we're all
fighting for student not fighting we're
all we're all looking for students um we
happen to be small right now but you
know ideally we would not be so so small
right how many middle schoolers do you
have about 58 I think right now okay
yeah so
the biggest chunk of our students is in
four or five right now but we have
between 16 and 20 at each grade and then
remind me because I went to visit you
what two years ago I think but do you
have one grade level or do you
have yes so we do lots of mixed age
classes we have tkk one two two three
two four fs and then six S8 I think
there sort of a hybrid of self-contained
and specialized so like Dominique
teaches social studies in science and
pbl and
ELD uh so it's more like that sixth
grade model maybe across the middle
school great thank
you yeah I didn't have any questions or
so I'll just say thanks haly and Randa
for coming here and Adam and Dominique
for being online appreciated you taking
some time this evening and presenting
connect I was just going to ask you
about the mixed stage classes so you
just answered my question thank you for
that um but yeah I appreciate everyone
being here and and Adam and Dominique
also um Dominique I think I met you
right when I was that Dominique that I
met yeah when I visited for the project
presentations yeah um and so anyway
thank you very much for your
presentation I appreciate your time
thank you for having us um Dr Baker did
you have anything just thank you so much
Haley and we've met and then continue to
have our meetings as year progresses
next year yes okay thank you everybody
and Dominique if you want to connect
over doing a cemetery field trip email
me we can plan it ahead of time this
time you're always looking to get that's
why we got connected because I was
talking to Haley about the cemeter I
don't know how that came up I would love
to do that and I want to do a research
report with the kids on a person and
have them do like a pbl where they give
a presentation about the person's life
and their experiences and who they are
and it it just I don't know it brings
some life back into those people um when
they say it's like you di twice it's the
first times when you die and the second
times when you're forgotten so like
let's not forget these people they lived
adventurous lives to the cemetery
so all right thank you
everyone
um you're free to stay you're free to go
you don't have to hang out for aort
meeting
but that's youque and
Adam really quick uh David you had said
something about like working with other
schools and stuff like that and
information um so during one of the
green conference that I think uh the
district held we went to it and we ended
up reaching out with Woodside High
School and they have a green
technologies program and so we're
talking about kind of overlapping with
our schools at this uh like start
working on a little bit next year maybe
implement it the year after but so the
kids can start working on green
technologies and having an understanding
of it and then transfer into their
Academy over on Woods side would be like
the dream so we are trying to like reach
out and try different models and work
with different schools um and hopefully
like working with all of our students
because that's a blooming um New Field
and it'd be great for our kids to get
their foot in the door so super cool
thank
you great thanks everyone
uh we are on item 8.1 discussion of the
board meeting calendar for
2425 we all have it in front of
us there is a calendar in front of
everyone and I know um David and I had
emailed not spoken emailed in regard to
uh a DAT December 18th December 18th and
we checked with County uh Council today
because you know you have to do your
reorganization within a time period with
that new legislative um mandate that
passed what several years ago and so um
I was talking to Evelyn as Evelyn put
this together uh several weeks ago
now
Rick for the first interim we normally
Ty bring that to the board twice we have
in the past you just need it once yeah
okay so we just need it once so David um
you cannot be here on the 18th that's
correct correct I I depart that morning
right you depart that morning so if we
did the 11th would that accommodate
everyone but we have to do according to
the law we have to do it right after the
13th so we can change this so we can do
either a Monday or Tuesday board meeting
so everyone is
here is that for the board rotation
that's for the board rotation and it's a
and it's also
just gon actually pull
the you read what it
is do you want me you want me I can pull
up her
email yeah so it's um Ed code 517 says
that the term of a newly elected trusty
begins on the second Friday in December
following the
election uh but the outgoing trustee
continues to discharge their duties as a
trustee until their successor takes the
oath of office
um the outgoing trustee metaphorically
passes the Baton to the successor
trustee at the first meeting the
district holds on or after December
13th it's late yeah it's late this year
it's late this year and then her is that
the last sentence that she puts
on yeah so Ed quote 35 14 says the
annual organizational meeting shall be
held on a day within a 15-day period
that commences with the second Friday in
December following the regular election
so we would have to hold a meeting
either that Monday or that Tuesday okay
so the
16
right it's
okay
so just what's best for
people I'm fine with either 16 16 17 so
that means that even if you're outgoing
you would be at that meeting yes doing
the change right the metaphorical baton
sadly not a real one are you fine with
the first inter room on this on on the
16th or
17th okay would Tuesday work better just
for posting purposes for which posting
posting probably would be so why don't
we try let's go for the 17th 17th okay
thanks everybody sorry for the uh
Shuffle
there so be the
17th 17th will be our one and only board
meeting uh one and norly board meeting
for
December 11 December 11th calendar do
you are we going to need the 11th
probably not I what concerns me is the
first interim so if we
don't I mean we could leave we could
leave the 11th as you know we've done
this before as needed kind of thing um
just so we all put in our calendar and
Cas only
because yeah I don't know yeah and
there's there's a couple topics that
we've talked about is having like be
interesting to like do a review in
advances in pedagogy and some of these
other topics that are important but not
urgent and just having having a meeting
that does not have a preset agenda of
other things that would fill it might be
we might have measure T Step at that
point as well right that maybe that's an
opportunity that's an opportunity yeah
because the survey will have gone out
and all of that business what's that s
measure s I'm right measure s oh my gosh
that's so funny yeah okay I was talking
anyway
right and then there was also
um oh we'll talk to PR board
should bring oh okay you you had
mentioned possibly a a study session on
AI and stuff like
that
can so are we holding the 11th the 11 11
and for the 17th we definitely need one
right yeah we definitely need it we
def okay
um I guess that's it for discussion
thank you um we're on consent
items I'll move to approve thank you
seconded all those in favor I I
I uh 10.1 adoption of resolution number
11 year end budget
transfers good evening this is a
standard resolution at this time of the
year uh to move uh assigned or
unassigned fund balances uh to cover uh
expenditures potentially at the end of
the fiscal years we close the
books any
questions do we have a motion to approve
so moved seconded all those in favor I I
thank you 10.2 approval of prop 28
expend expenditure
plan so this is the new expenditure plan
for this current uh coming up school
year
2425 um so we asking that you approve um
The Proposition 28 and I thank you Mike
for uh sending your questions I'll get
back to you I'm still working with
Rick's department on
that that's good I think you did have
just say what kind of questions
yeah and one I think you you did answer
so I had asked just you know how likely
was it that the estimated funding was
GNA remain the same right because we did
have that kind of yeah we kind of had
that surprise um last year and I I from
what I hear and correct me if I'm wrong
is that we're basing it on the LA the
last set of funding as opposed to
whatever the previous model is so we we
expect it to sort of be stable but who
who really knows right
um all I can say is back in the Great
Recession those of us who were here
remember the state gave us a lot of
money and then they took it back in the
middle of the school year after we had
already spent a lot of it spent a lot so
yeah so I think we have to go I mean you
have to go in with the plan but have a
backup right um anyway but but I guess
we'll be we'll be expending the money
and then may have to backfill it some
way I mean it's really yeah they say
they're gonna give it to us at this
point yeah
yeah I think I think too this was a it
was something that was put in by the
voters it was yeah right and that
there's strings to it where it will get
a little funky where it might Shi uh I I
won't even say significantly but it will
be significant because it's only a
million
is if something uh goes ay with lcff
funding and prop 98 guarantee right
where it may lower by uh tens of
thousands of dollars but I don't think
it's something that we'll be talking
about looking for three or 400,000 if
something changes because of the tie to
uh prop
98 and then the other two questions were
the things that were in the board memo
about what um the expectation around uh
um that there's an annual board approv
report in the manner determined by the
superintendent um and also that where
the website has where the funds are
spent and Anna sent me the link to the
post that probably or yeah that sort of
described prop 28 funding which I had
seen that part but then underneath it it
has here's how it was spent too so I
actually think both of those were
probably covered by that link but uh but
anyways those were the questions that I
ask are there any other questions or
comments
okay do we have a motion to
approve I'll move to
approve there second second all those in
favor hi hi 10.3 approval of updated
rcta contract language and tenative
agreement I'd like to thank the district
team and the rcta negotiations team for
a
productive uh negotiations session it
last it was efficient and productive
which is lovely uh and we were able to
really better the work environment and
work on Recruitment and Retention
efforts and update contract language so
these items are here for you tonight to
hopefully approve uh and uh in doing so
employees will begin receiving these
benefits for rcta specifically starting
on July 1st onward for 2425 which will
close negotiations for 2425 with
rcta questions or comments
actually I just I just want to make a
comment that I really do appreciate um
the you know the district team certainly
that worked on it and of course brought
information to us all along the way us
being the board members of course and I
I also just want to really thank rcta
for um I think coming in with a very
positive you know attitude really
working with us um coming up with
solutions that worked for the union and
all of our teachers as well as uh the
District given our resources so I I'm
I'm really happy with the result of it
it was great to give everybody a raise
which they deserve and then also um you
know modify some of the language in some
of the other areas as well so um I think
it was a really uh good collective
bargaining um work this year so thank
you can I I guess with that I'll make a
motion and I agree with your statements
thank you and I'll second the motion as
well thank all those in favor hi hi hi
thank you very much
um 10.4 approval of the sypsa school
plans for student achievement so as you
guys know there's second turnaround with
our syas and um a little bit different I
hope than the first time reading um so I
know we have not approved our new um
alcap goals so that we have the one more
year on the current goals for the year
and then we'll update them but the
metrics are all the same for both of
those years so we're made sure that the
metrics was in there um so I know all of
the principles worked really hard and
trying to get these done as you know as
our second go around this year um but we
will not be you know it'll go NE next
year we'll go again in the spring versus
spring to Spring and we'll do all those
updates so we're asking you to please
approve tonight's sips of plans so we
can move forward next
year any questions or comments I mean
I'm just going to say like this is this
is the part that I find most frustrating
because there's literally hundreds and
hundreds of pages of data right that
we're just going to rubber oh sure it
sounds fine right and not have like a
rigorous discussion about student
achievement even though there was a lot
of thought that went into these a lot of
planning that went went into these I
would like to see us have a venue as a
board to talk substantively about the
material in these zipes that were
thoughtfully prepared um
because again there's so much material
in here and this is the core of what we
do is is make plans for student
achievement right it's it's what uh it's
what a board does um so it seems like
tonight we don't really have the the
right form the right timing the right
agenda to kind of dig into each of these
zpes to go talk about the data for each
School what's being done what more could
be done uh when different actions can be
taken but I just I I I I I I don't want
to let that go right I want to make sure
that we do have time to engage so let me
make a suggestion and this is always a
time crunch and state puts the the dates
on there for us so what we could do is
when we come back in the fall we come
back in the fall we can start our
reports with this you know uh knowing
that and the principles will be notified
that we'll start in this fashion and
then as we finish then we're going to
come back again and see where we are now
after the next dipstick all right so if
we can go my suggestion is to do that
it's it's a timing issue and and like
Anna and I were speaking um if we could
bring this forward like like beginning
of may end of April it would give us
even though it would be crunch time for
all of us to read and have a couple or
two or three of these for several board
meetings until the end we could do it
but for right now because of the
constraint we're on on with the with the
dates I propose that when we come back
starting in August we know right away
that we're going to
start read not reading but we're going
to meet with the principles and dig deep
into these reports and then this is the
time to ask your questions yeah I I I'd
like to do that because again like I I
appreciate the timing I understand the
form so tonight's not going to be a
great chance to do it if we if we can
commit to having having time to to dig
in and talk about this this is such the
meat of of of our job I'd like to make
sure we do it right and then it's a time
for you to take uh when we do them
either two or three at each meeting or
two then you have your questions and you
we have the question you'll have your
questions I'll get them out to the
principles and the principls will be
here and ready to answer thank you it's
not like something that's on the spot
either like we got you right yeah thanks
for here
Matt you know um you know when I was
reviewing them and of course you know we
got all of them on Friday so it's not a
deep dive like you said but um you know
I really appreciated the thought that
went in there and the relationship to
the lcap goals and you know I feel like
every year we're sort of getting better
at it um and what was striking to me are
some of the similarities that that the
schools are doing and then some of the
unique things um and then I really
appreciated the student voice that I saw
there and highlighting those and I
really hope that we're taking that
seriously and it certainly seemed like
we are because you know students can
tell us how we're doing um so I really
appreciated that uh and and just a lot
of good information in there so one of
the things that I was thinking about is
in addition to what I think David was
just requesting is for me I mean what I
see is these site plans are going to be
used by the site by the principal by the
site Council by the teachers by
everybody at the site and it's a very
much site related document um I think
think it would be interesting to hear
from them either mid year or whenever
the timing's right because you're right
there's always this timing crunch when
it seems right for for you as staff to
sort of give that perspective of okay
like here's the plan we had here's what
we heard and what we kind of put into it
we looked at the data you know we got
Soft Data hard data whatever and then
here's how we're doing um that would be
helpful because we we get these plans
and we see all these activities but then
sometimes we don't really hear well how
did they go and what working and what's
not working and some of that is talked
about in the sipsas but I mean I know
that they work with the site councils
and the elac and and all of that's
happening so although I appreciate that
we need to dive deep what I what I know
is happening is I think as a School site
they're Al you know they're diving deep
so if we could get some Reflection from
that that would be helpful and also for
those of you who are really interested
in that component which I know you are
which is great there may be
opportunities where you could go to a
site council meeting where they really
are digging in deeper to that because I
I remember way back when when I was on a
site counsil I mean we were looking at
the data for the School site and really
trying to identify what were the needs
and now at the sipsas I think it's a
whole another level so anyway there may
be opportunities again just how we go
out for a literacy night or a science
night maybe there's that key meeting at
the school sites where they are digging
deep that if we got invitations as a
board member we could go attend those
because I think it's going to be hard to
to dig maybe as deep as some people
might like like at a board meeting um
with that said we need to do it but you
know what I mean like that's happening
at another level at the school site so
just a
thought and I do want to say thank you
to the I I assume it's the principles
who are doing the the bulk of the work
and Gathering data and stuff and I know
it's a ton of work so thank you very
much for all of that yeah I agree thanks
it's clear that a lot of work went into
this um to come with these really you
know a lot of detail plans um and
aligning it with the district's elcap
goals I know there was district office
support principles um site councils were
involved uh really appreciate all that
effort um you know excited to see the
implementation of mtss uh I know that's
our top tap goal and so it's neat to see
all of that in there um you know it's
interesting to see the the regular use
of diagnostic assessments um and I think
that's going to be important for us to
be able to monitor I'm gonna have a
question about that in a minute um that
uh I want I want us to be able to think
about um you know all the discussion
around designated integrated ELD and how
that's working and the coaching the
professional development for our
teachers um you know and of course the
family and Community engagement um but
the thing I was wondering was the same
thing I think that we're all kind of
wondering like how do we how do we
action you know how do we actionized
this and make sure that we're making
progress and understand what's moving
and how things are going along um and so
I had one thought on it and then a
question um on the in terms of the
monitoring the effectiveness um one of
the things so we had tried this not last
year but the year before with having
starting off the sipser reports with
with the data in there but the problem
was it was kind of like a point in time
right at that time and there was no way
for us to know and we were seeing data
from September or December or something
like that um and I think what we're
interested in a couple things that
you've mentioned before Dr Baker is
cohorts yeah um where what are the
cohorts of the students that are doing
that um I think for data that is
supposed to progress upward over the
course of the year um the growth not the
actual level but the actual the growth
and being able to look at that and data
that we want to see declining um where
are we on the previous year's Trend
meaning absenteeism suspensions things
like that like being able to see the um
the velocity as opposed to just the
point in time I think is going to be
super helpful so as we're thinking about
how we want those presentations to come
together um I think the the rate of
change is kind of kind of what I'd be
really interested in there I'm really
torn about the data part though because
I just I really struggle with like are
we over diagnostic our kids um I mean
that even came back in the feedback of
like well maybe we should do reading and
math separate for I ready forget which
plan or student was in there but one of
them was saying like separate these IES
out um you know their kids are asking
for non um non all the en yeah they're
asking for enrichment they're looking
for Hands-On group activities I mean we
see that repeated over and over again
and yet we're seeing plans of making
sure there's 45 minutes of I ready
lessons inside of these Sipes at some of
our sites like I don't know how we
balance that in the diagnostic our need
for data to really understand how we're
doing um where I worry maybe we're I and
I I'm mentioning this because we've had
this discussion before I've heard your
thoughts on it as well so I don't think
I'm saying anything new here but I'll be
really interested to see how we balance
that out so that we're we're not over
diagnostic the kids we're making sure
that we're getting value out of each one
um and that you know maybe if we have to
go to something where we are getting a
lot of value and using that for um for
reporting I'm gonna throw this out there
it's not like we have to but like if the
basic fonic skills test is super
valuable for being able to help us group
our kids maybe we should use that as
reporting instead of having to have
another diagnostic for don't take that
as like an action I just use that as as
an example of what I meant by maybe we
can find the ones that are useful and be
able to develop that um the other thing
in there is that there's a lot of reli
professional development I love the fact
that we have a lot of professional
development here um but what I couldn't
totally tell and I'm sure you're working
on all that like do we are we giving you
know given the importance of it do we
have like adequate time and resources
for you know particularly if it's going
to be for the classroom teachers for
them to get the time to be able to do
the professional development like I
don't know what steps are coming in
there but we want to make sure that
there's a lot of awesome things in here
right we have new curriculum and
everything like that we just got to make
sure that we're building that capacity
to be able ble to to to take that all on
again it's hard to tell from you know
trying to read Friday to today all of
the plans um and what's put in on there
but but those are kind of the things
that I want to make sure that that's
part of the monitoring too like are we
are we making sure that we're giving
enough space for the capacity that
people are able to build that in um we
already look at Family engagement so I
think that's great um and the last thing
I'll say is that there's a focus on
equity in on all of these and that's
awesome um you know I think that that's
what we want in the district um and we
can see it that's what the lcap is
geared to be it's an equity document um
and we can see that in there and it's
really you know it's essential that you
know we have Equity at all our schools
and providing necessary resources to
support the you know the unique needs of
each student um so let's just make sure
that we continue to prioritize that you
know in our plans and discussions so
thanks um thank you Mike that was oh
that was great um I the last two years
have been on the site Council for Woods
head high school so I feel like I have a
like
a A New Perspective on the sipsa coming
together um I you know this is my ninth
year on the board and we always get
these like nice neat clean documents and
I know that it's a lot of work I know
there's a lot of hands and eyes that go
into the the sips of it um just
participating in that process myself I I
feel like I have a new appreciation
for and I'm going to use this word but
it's not in a negative way for the
messiness of it because there's so much
going on you're here you're there you're
talking to these people and then it
comes to us and it's all nice nice and
neatly put together um so yeah that was
a neat process for me to go through um
as a parent at the high school um I
appreciate all of the work that that
you've put in that all the principles
have put in and everybody that's um
worked on these documents
so wasn't there El Le I'm this questions
for you wasn't there some talk about you
know when we're talking documents
report yes yeah well yeah so what you're
mentioning is there is legislation right
now that um csba is advocating for that
would require the state of California
the Department of Education to review
all the reporting that they ask of the
school districts and report on that and
and what that means is like what are
they asking of us how are they using
those reports and really to help I think
them decide okay we're just over
reported and then you know csba had that
nice glossy thing of like all all the
different reports so I would guess that
the sipsas are you know the lcap and the
sipsas will still stay there I think
they're looking at all the accounting
stuff we do um so but hopefully some of
that would get streamlined right
particularly I mean the lcap people are
that's driving people crazy I mean the
CES I feel like you've gotten it down to
most of they were all about 40 I don't
know about 4 we worked hard at really
trying to um one of the things that came
down from the county was if it doesn't
have a metric don't put it in so we're
really working on that and it's hard
because you know we have PTO budgets
that to provide so really trying to make
put hone in We Had A needs assessment
that was something that was new and so
Katherine and I have been really working
hard with all of them we met with every
single principal and really went over
like these are the things that we want
to see this is what we need to do so
we're trying to F tune as well making
sure there's a metrics because we also
want them when they're presenting to
their school site councils that they're
along the way presenting how they're
doing as well because that's the metrics
they need to be showcasing and so we
want to make sure that that's front and
center so you can't you don't want to
have too many metrics but you want to
have enough in there that's going to
move the needle and so that's one of the
things we're working on we're still
fine-tuning it I think we fine-tuned a
lot and and looking at it and after
going through Federal program monitoring
we're really much more clear about what
needs to be in there yeah so Catherine
has been really essential because she
went when we went through the FED
program aing me we really have to have
certain things in there and so really
working at
fine-tuning less is be better with you
know quality so that's some of the
things we're working on to fine-tune
some some we still have a lot more fine
tune but we're on the way yeah for next
year so we will come back to you um
first meeting in the fall to let you
know what this report is going to look
like I I am a bit concerned about if
we're over testing myself and I know
we've been talking about this for our
kids um because there are some of our
students who have said they're they're
tired of it you know and we looked at a
schedule and I can see where you're just
GNA say let me just get it out of the
way and get it done and whatever happens
happens and that's not what the test is
for the test is to find out how well you
are doing and what are we doing that
you're not getting what you need to
progress so um several conversations
I've brought it up to the gardener
Center to help us with it uh with Amy
gerstein we were on a call today for
about an hour and a half she's going to
pull in some of her team to help me with
it you know so
um I talked about the over testing I
talked about you know looking at good
data what's good data to look at to see
if students are progressing and how
often should you utilize that data and
how often should you give the the test
you know because I'm thinking every six
weeks and she's not too sure with the
every six week comment so I said show me
research to where it says I shouldn't be
doing this every six weeks who's out
there doing something entirely different
where it's less and they're getting the
information they need because that's
what I was taught many years ago um so
she's goes let me do the research let me
get my team together and then I'll come
back to you with what you may want to
share share with the board and and
principles and see if you want to move
forward in this manner so we're we're
talking about it
now yeah and then maybe on the school
reports you all can think about what the
timing is on that because it did feel
like this year maybe some of them came
too early like because I don't think all
the data was there I I mean we didn't
use data this year if you recall we oh I
guess you're right we we did have the
data what's
that we didn't okay maybe I'm thinking
of uh two years ago then some years
Blended