e
$65,000 um the there was action taken a
motion to approve the settlement an
agreement was made by trusty Marquez and
second in by trusty Lee and the vote was
unanimous in favor uh on the other two
items 3.2 and 3.3 the board um received
information and gave
guidance okay welcome uh good evening
it's the as said before the March 12
2025 meeting of the Redwood City School
District governing board uh b
v
interpret Al
deala all right again welcome um all
members of the public our our partners
in education and the board encourages
you to participate and provide comments
of on issues of concern regardless of
whether they are on the agenda uh to
speak I see that many of you already
know this but I'm going to say it
anyways fill out a speaker card you can
find him in the back of the room if
you're here in person or there's an
online sheet if you're online in Zoom uh
and you can do that if you fill out a
card just be sure to bring them up to
Evelyn and hand it to her and if you're
addressing a subject that's listed on
the agenda um we'll call you at the time
that the item is being considered um but
if the issue is not on the agenda we'll
call you up shortly just during the oral
Communications part and then to be fair
to all speakers we're going to limit
public comments to 3 minutes per person
per topic unless otherwise
noted okay on to the agenda um do we
have any changes to the
agenda okay is there a motion to approve
the agenda I move we approve the
agenda all right all in favor
I okay then we will move on to oral
communication I'm going to look through
the speakers card uh this is this is one
that filled out online as well onl
okay
uh Ryan okay
and okay great then I'm going to start
with uh Noah
Gasper hold on um yeah that here we go
there's a button to turn the microphone
on and then Rick do you do the time I
ph's got it okay great and then so you
have three minutes there's a timer in
front that you should be able to see
from the
screen hi I'm Noah I'm a parent of a
child who's going to be attending Orion
TK starting next year very excited about
that but I'm concerned about the after
care situation on campus uh there are
two approved on campus Aftercare
providers play care uh play Thrive and
um Catalyst and play Thrive right now
does have classroom space as I
understand it for TK so there's a chance
that none of the TK students will get
into play Thrive and Catalyst only
starts for children at four years and 9
months old my daughter will be just over
four years when she starts so she won't
be eligible for that so there will be
potentially no on campus after care
options for her don't know what the
right solution is to this but would love
to get the board's help in finding some
options for her whether classroom space
for play Thrive or some change that
allows Catalyst to operate uh Young ages
or some other solution altogether thank
you very
much thank you Noah for bringing this up
um Dr Baker did you have I think that's
the only one for this one oh no I'm
sorry you're right there are two sorry
sorry um the next uh speaker would be hi
Chingy this one oh okay okay good
evening School B members I'm a parent of
a child entering TK at Orion alternative
this fall and I want to express my deep
concern about the lack of after care
options for TK students like many
Working Families we rely on full daycare
uh to meet our professional
responsibilities without oncampus after
care we are forced to consider Private
Preschool options despite wanting to
participate in Redwood City's public
school system this issue
disproportionately impacts Working
Families many of us cannot simply adjust
our work schedules and transport four
year
offsite for care creates safety and
logistical challenges especially for the
youngest school students in the district
my child will have just turned four
needs the consistency and security of
staying on campus Universal TK was
designed to expand access to Early
Education but without reliable after
care it unintentionally excludes
families who need full day uh full day
coverage a TK spot without Aftercare is
not a real option for many of us I urge
the board to open additional classrooms
at the district facilities to
accommodate all students and to arrange
for the necessary janitorial services to
support this expansion additionally
after care services including Heritage
schools and private Aftercare must be
extended to include children who are
four years and above in alignment with
universal TK this would ensure a
seamless accessible Aftercare option for
All Families I strongly encourage you to
prioritize these site specific Solutions
whether through District facilities
Partnerships with local providers or
expanded oncampus programs the district
must act now to ensure Universal TK is
truly accessible to All Families thank
you all right thank you hi Ching for
raising this as well uh then Dr Baker I
know you wanted to respond yes we've
received a lot of information a lot of
emails in regard to this issue and Miss
chin has been working on it quite
diligently and has responded to some of
the emails so tonight I'd like to have
chance to respond also also because I've
been on those emails so as the board is
well aware of that we are fully
committed to supporting the Orion
alternative expanded after school
program across the
district these programs are an extension
of the school day providing students
with enrichment academic support
structured activities and not just
supervision the principal is already
working closely with the Department of
Maintenance operations and
transportation to explore additional
opportunities there are some challenges
that we continue to work through Orion's
enrollment continues to grow and the
campus soon could be nearing
capacity finding dedicated areas for
after school programs while maintaining
high quality learning spaces during the
school day is a
challenge many of our after school
program partners are struggling to hire
enough qualified employees to expand
offerings programs serving younger
students such as TK require additional
Staffing due to specific licensing and
ratio requirements
opening and maintaining additional
spaces for after school program depends
on custodial Staffing our custodial team
operates under a Union contract which
sets limits on work hours and
responsibilities these are contractual
obligations and the district must follow
we remain committed to finding solutions
that balance program expansion with the
operational realities of our facilities
Staffing and contractual obligations we
have been meeting with Catalyst and play
Thrive both our private entities that
are at the Orion site and if everything
works as well as we think it will and
I'm looking up Martin because the
Martin's our director of Maintenance
operation Transportation there is one
more meeting that is going to occur
tomorrow uh with that being said we hope
to have a response by Monday morning on
the additional classroom spaces for play
Thrive and Catalyst and also looking at
renegotiating contracts because that's
going to have an additional cost on the
district for the additional co uh
custodial staff so we it's not that we
have not been working on it it's not
that Mrs that Miss chin has not been
aware of it as I said previously she has
responded to these emails and I would
like to respond tonight thank
you and then we do have one more speaker
for oral communication Michelle stroby
and I just occurred to me as I was uh
reading through this that you might be
talking about um TK as well no sorry
about that I I didn't see TK in the
subject but then I'm like oh maybe it is
all right thanks okay but if you could
turn the
microphone thank you good evening thank
you so much for having me thank you so
much for the update Dr Baker I
appreciate that and um in that I will
not read my prepared note um I do want
to thank everybody here on the board my
name is Michelle stroby I'm a parent of
a um kindergartener who will attend
Orion next year also hear about the
after care Sol situation that we
understand is very um difficult right
now for many parents especially working
parents thank you for the note we
definitely know that you guys are
working so hard as well as principal
Winnie I know it's really difficult
education right now is very tumultuous
public education is very tumultuous
there's a lot of different funding
situations that we understand so thank
you for the update thank you for working
really hard and I do want to let you
know that you know we parents are here
um I know this is a much higher level um
situation than we but we are here we
would like to support in any way we can
um and thank you for continuing to work
on this we do want to make sure that we
have the space available so that the
spots are um able to be filled for the
TK and the kindergart parents so or the
children I'm sorry so thank you for
everything that you
do all right thank you michelan to to
all three speakers for your
involvement uh let's jump to the next
one which is uh information okay so this
is 9.1 we're going to have a discussion
of partial
taxes oh so we going Jeremy Hower I'm
gonna ask you to come to the podium
Jeremy is going to give us an overview
of the possibility of a parcel tax
whether we have a really great group of
citizens that are working on a citizen
initiative that would be one way to go
with the parcel tax and then there's
also another manner in which the
district would handle the parcel tax so
at this point in time Jeremy's going to
give us a little overview of what each
of those could look like and then also
some more information regarding polling
too so Jeremy take it away thank you Dr
Baker and thank you members of the board
for having me my name is Jeremy Hower
I'm a partner with Team Civics I have
some slides to go along with this
presentation I don't know if th those
are in front of you all
currently I cannot see them so um we're
gonna if I click this will they move
them forward no let me um um hold on
hold on I'm
gonna it's it's my you they were sent to
me no it's not I I
I yeah yeah let me get it to you real
quick
W have to download
it did you send to him don't read oh
hold on
thank you David
beautiful and if I click this I assume
it'll move forward or I can also hit you
with the next slide if that's
easier he's gonna he will do it yeah I
think next slide and he'll let's do it
the old fashioned way I love it well
let's go to the next slide
then thanks for bearing with me again
Jeremy Hower I'm a partner with Team
Civics um we are a Communications and
consulting firm that specializes
specifically in working with school
districts and other public agencies and
exploring the feasibility of uh funding
measures um we've had the pleasure of
working right here in rwood city school
district for many many years I think my
first measure with you all was measure T
in 2015 a bond measure uh to help bring
some beautiful facilities to your
campuses most recently you've worked
with my business partner Joy kummer on
some successful measures and wanted to
spend some time tonight talking to you
all about partial taxes 101 and kind of
understanding your options
available to you um as you look to bring
more Revenue into your
schools next slide
please
Perfect there we
go so tonight's presentation is really
about the district sponsored process for
placing a parcel tax measure on the
ballot but I do understand that there
has been a group of concerned citizens
and parents in your community who've
been organizing around potentially
placing a Citizens initiative parcel tax
on the which I think is a really great
thing to be doing um and so I thought I
would spend a few minutes just speaking
about the differences between the two
processes for placing a measure on the
ballot and then really focus our
conversation on what you as a district
specifically can do because I think
you'll find pretty quickly that your
options are limited if the citizens
initiative process is to move forward so
the biggest difference between the two
approaches uh to place into measure on
the ballot are really with the voter
approval needed for Success so assistens
initiative if properly qualified for the
ballot requires 50% plus one to be
approved and
enacted a district sponsored partial tax
if you were to place it on the measure
by an act of your board uh would need
2third support in order to be
approved now the biggest differences
between these two measures are really
what you as a district can and cannot do
and by definition uh a citizen's
initiative parcel tax is of and by the
citizens
what that means is that you as a
district cannot be involved whatsoever
you cannot use public resources to fund
polling you cannot use public resources
to retain legal councel and actually
write the initiative itself you cannot
be involved in the planning and you
cannot communicate about the funding
need that a parcel tax through this
initiative process would aim to
address now conversely through the more
traditional District sponsored route you
as a district can and should be involved
in all of those steps in the process you
can and should conduct polling to
understand the feasibility of a measure
if it were on the ballot today would
two-thirds of Voters support it you can
uh retain legal counsel and consultants
in order to write the actual resolution
itself and qualify it for the ballot and
you can provide information to your
constituents about the funding needs in
your schools and how paral tax might
address those needs now you cannot
advocate for the passage for or against
a measure but you can lay out the facts
for them and help them understand what's
at stake in your
election and then lastly the taxing
agency itself is different between these
two processes now the citizens
initiative process is actually not
available to school districts so if
citizens were to qualify a measure for
the ballot they would have to do it
through the city of Redwood City and not
through your District now that pre
presents an interesting challenge
because as I'm sure you're all aware
your boundaries do not align with your
city's boundaries
uh and that would really cut two
ways first there would be about 20% of
the city of Redwood City who could vote
for your measure would be taxed by your
measure but would not receive its
benefits because they would be in the
Belmont Redwood sh Shores School
District the other side of that there'd
be about a third of your constituents
who are outside of City Limits who could
not vote on the measure would not be
taxed under the measure but would still
receive the benefits because they are
within your District now again through
the district sponsored process much more
straightforward you are the agency
placing the measure on the ballot you
are the taxing agency you would collect
the tax and it would be applied
uniformally to all of your taxpayers
within your District boundaries let's go
to the next slide
please so a few key features just to
kind of set the stage for what we're
talking about as I mentioned when the
district is the agency placing to
measure on the ballot uh it requ requ
Ires 2third voter approval in order to
be passed um you can actually place it
on any ballot not just the regularly
scheduled elections that will be
occurring next year in June and November
um You can call on Election specifically
within your District boundaries to vote
yes or no on a partial tax uh partial
taxes have a lot of flexibility of use
most commonly we see them used for staff
salaries teachers uh academic programs
really as close to the classroom as it
can be um unlike a bond measure you can
actually offer exemptions for a parcel
tax specifically to seniors over the age
of 65 and individuals with this ability
to receive SSI or
SSDI uh and then you do have the option
to include citizens oversight and other
accountability Provisions in your
measure to help the public feel better
about their investment that they're
making in in the schools next slide
please now with a parcel tax you also
have structural flexibility with how we
can build and craft a measure um under
state law a partial tax must be applied
uniformly to every parcel in your
District so that means that every parcel
pays the same rate but the rate itself
can take a few different forms now most
traditionally I'd say about 95% of
districts in the state of California who
have partial taxes have that first flat
per parcel rate where every single
parcel in the district pays the same
exact rate for you all it's 85 bucks
currently um you could pick any number
and that would be applied uniformally
whether you're in a 1,000 square foot
single family home or a 15,000 foot
Warehouse recently there's been a trend
in the Bay Area and we've been working
with a lot of districts to do this to
explore parcel tax measures that are
based on the square footage of buildings
on a parcel right so the underlying
square footage rate is the same for
every parcel but the overall tax Bur is
different obviously if you are in a
single family home you're going to be
paying significantly less than that
warehouse that I mentioned previously
than an apartment building Etc because
the tax is based on the square footage
of your building specifically not your
lot
size and then third there's a bit of a
hybrid approach that starts with an
underlying square footage rate and then
puts a cap on the rate that anyone
parcel could pay this is popular in a
lot of districts like yours with very
large commercial entities who without a
cap could be paying significantly High
rates we've worked uh in Alam Unified
School District recently as well as
Mountain View wisman and Burling game
School District to uh pursue measures of
this approach where there's an
underlying tax rate but there is a cap
on the amount that anyone parcel could
pay within that flexibility of the
measure you also can include uh annual
adjustments so that your tax rate can
keep Pace with
um you can tie those adjustments
directly to a consumer price index you
can pick a percentage or you can do a
combination where you tie it to an index
and then have it not to exceed of a
certain
percentage and then lastly you can
include a sunset I.E if this measure is
enacted it will be in place for eight
years or you can have it approved until
ended by by voters which in effect would
be in
perpetuity next slide please
now zero in specifically on square
footage parcel taxes and why I think it
would be a unique opportunity for your
District um first and foremost uh the
number one benefit without question is
that we see significantly lower tax
burdens on single family homeowners
right under a flat rate if you again
you're in a 1500 SQ foot home and you're
paying 100
bucks the 200 unit apartment complex
three doors down is also paying that
same flat rate right but under a square
footage model you can more equitably
distribute the tax burden throughout
your entire community that also means
you can likely generate significantly
more Revenue than you would under a flat
rate model right if you're realizing
more revenue from those larger
properties that's all benefit and upside
for your District to help you again Pay
Teachers support academic programs and
make sure you're providing the best
education you can to your students and I
also do think the possibility of a cap
on that rate uh is really beneficial if
you have a larger business Community who
might be tax sensitive and a little tax
averse of paying a you know six-digit uh
tax bill every year you can Implement a
rate onto that uh tax rate or a cap onto
that tax rate so that you're not putting
an undue burden on those larger property
types next slide
please so this slide kind of outlines
our vision for the district sponsored
partiel tax approach um we've developed
it over many years and hundreds of
successful elections we've implemented
it right here in your community many
times on many successful measures and it
really comes down to four key
Milestones three of which are marked in
blue and they're marked in blue because
they can and should be funded by the
district now the first step and really
the step that we're talking about
tonight is the the ability assessment we
would never recommend placing a measure
on the ballot if we thought it could not
be successful right so before we expend
significant resources writing the
measure itself communicating about the
need and preparing for the ballot we
want to understand at a very basic level
is this measure going to be feasible yes
or no and then also understand a little
bit more about why your voters might be
supportive yes or no now assuming we do
get positive news from that poll uh we
would proceed to the following steps in
the process the next step would be
awareness building about why you're
pursuing a measure again as a district
you cannot advocate for the passage of
the measure but you can provide factual
information about your budget realities
about how a parcel tax might address
those realities why you're deciding to
structure it the way that you are and
really solicit feedback from your
community as you begin preparing a
measure for the ballot and then the
third third and final step to be
undertaken by the district is the the
actual preparation of the measure itself
in order to qualify for the ballot we
would need to bring a resolution back to
you all as a board calling an election
and actually including this language of
the measure itself uh and there are
different deadlines to qualify for
ballots depending on what uh election
you wind up choosing we would obviously
undertake that entire process before our
measures on the
ballot now at that point there's a bit
of a passing to the Baton because as
I've said many times s the district
cannot advocate for the measure but we
know a partiel tax and taxes in general
require robust advocacy campaigns in
over order to get over the finish line
so all that work of knocking on doors
putting up lawn signs collecting
endorsements sending Direct Mail all of
that would have to be privately
coordinated and fundraised in that final
step the independent campaign uh and
when you all are deciding to place a
measure on the ballot I think a big
part of your Calculus is to look around
the room and say is there a group of
parents who's willing to take this on
and and get this measure over the finish
line and based on what I've heard I do
think that group would likely manifest
itself if you decided to move forward in
this process next slide
please so I wanted to share a few of the
upcoming election dates that are
available to you as a district
specifically to call an election um
you'll see two dates on here that should
look hopefully familiar it's June 2nd
and November 3rd of next year those are
the gubernatorial primary and general
elections next year although you'll see
some other dates up here as well of the
special elections that you can call and
you'll see the requisite filing date by
which you would need to submit a
resolution to the county in order to
qualify for that pallot you'll also see
a line here under the June 2nd election
that line indicates any election that
you could seek and if you were
successful your partial tax could show
up on the tax roles starting in the 2026
2027 fiscal year I.E you could start
collecting incre increased revenue on
July 1 of
2026 I've bolded the June 2nd Primary
because from my perspective that seems
like a good Target election uh you would
have until March 6th of next year in
order to qualify for the ballot a lot of
work to be done as you've seen before
that date uh but I think it gives you
enough time and flexibility to prepare
and also again get that Revenue in so on
July 1 you can start realizing the
increase should you be
successful next slide
please so again I I walked through that
four-step process but really tonight
what I want to talk about and I want to
focus our time on is the first phase
feasibility right because until we
commit to anything further down the road
to placing a measure on the ballot to
picking an election we first have to
know what is feasible and so the basic
goal of a feasibility study is to get
the tough questions answered upfront
right and those tough tough questions
take a lot of different fir forms first
and foremost is this feasible if this me
if this election were held today would
we reach 2/3 yes or no but within that
what tax rate it would be feasible
within your community is a square
footage rate possible do we need a
sunset do we need a cons living
adjustment we can use a feasibility
study to help you better prepare and
really go into this process with eyes
wide open so that you can understand
what your your community is willing to
support in terms of a measure uh within
that feasibility study we also can ask
them about priorities of funding so I'm
sure you all have ideas on how to spend
partial tax funding I think it's
important to make sure that your ideas
align with your community right we also
can understand if your community is
aware of your funding needs and if any
controversy exists or any headwinds are
out there that we need to know about and
I think what's also really important is
that a poll gives us an understanding of
the greater context in which it is
occurring right elections do not occur
in a vacuum they
occur amidst a backdrop of a greater
political landscape I think we all know
if we are tuned into the news recently
there's been a lot of of talk about
government and public education and how
money for those services are perceived I
think it's really important that we get
data back in the current environment to
understand how those National
conversations might affect your chances
locally next slide
please so why am I up here today
advocating to start this process now and
not a year from now two years from now 6
months from now I think first and
foremost um a lot has changed in your
community in the state in the nation
since you all conducted polling
previously your last poll was conducted
in May of last year I know it doesn't
feel like that was that long ago but I
think we all could recognize that the
national landscape which we live in
today was a lot different uh then than
it is now um your previous Point did not
look at a square footage based parcel
tax option as I mentioned the has become
increasingly popular in the Bay Area we
saw a lot of success with it in the fall
and I do think your District would be a
good uh use case for it um and I think
it may seem like that you have time but
those election opportunities in 2025 and
2026 are going to come up quickly uh and
again if you are able to be successful
in one of those elections you could
realize that increased revenue from a
parcel tax in time for that fiscal year
next year which I know would be a big
Boon for your
District uh and with that I think that
was my last slide I'm happy to answer
any questions that you all might
have thank you Jeremy for the
presentation really appreciate it we
actually do have a couple of public
speakers uh maybe we could take those
and then we can bring you back up to
have a participate in the discussion and
questions um so the first one is in
person it's Carlo kavali
hello everyone um thank you for
introducing me I'm car vavali I'm a
horrible speaker so please forgive my my
presentation my comment here but uh uh
I'm a parent of two children in the red
City School District I've been one of
the proponents of the citizen initiative
and they' been trying to gather
community support for for adding this
partial tax uh we heard at this meeting
about problems with after care we heard
about trying to gather trying to cover
additional cost for custodia staff
every year we struggle with teacher
shortages uh our cast scores are not
improving we barely need more support
for our teachers our classrooms and our
kids and instead of getting more funding
this year we had incredible budget cuts
and we know that more are coming uh we
had to make some very hard choices like
been at multiple meetings where we were
discussing what to cut what not to cut
and the pain that would cause in the
community uh finding more funding I
think is an urgent matter it is not
something that we can wait on and uh we
know we have seen that square footage
based initiatives uh where citizens and
businesses pay based on the sides of
their property and it's not a flat tax
that everyone pays regardless of having
a tiny apartment or like a big huge
mansion like square footage allows like
different families to pay to contribute
differently based on what they own based
on what they're capable of
contributing doesn't initiatives have
been incredibly successful in in the bay
uh and multiple districts have done this
at the past elections and were able to
raise a significant amount of money so
uh the sooner we know this is a viable
option in Redwood City I think the
better it is like it gives us the option
to to pick in which election to to to
put the parcel tax it gives us the
option like as Jeremy was mentioning
there there's even the option of a
calling an extra uh vote for a ballot
it's it's on the table it's it's
probably not that it was thing to do but
but but again the sooner we notice is a
viable option the better it is
um if you guys uh I think that's it for
me uh thank you Carlo and thank you for
your
advocacy um our next speaker is online
uh it's Jessica shade
all right Jessica yep there you go hi
everyone I'm one of the parents working
on the citizens initiative with Carlo um
and as Jeremy said uh we are not working
with the district uh the citizens
initiative is totally separate and we're
really just doing this because our kids
need the funding um you know we've all
experienced the cuts the district has
had to make and we know that more cuts
are coming in the future and honestly we
aren't particular about how a parcel tax
gets done if there's clearly over
two-thirds support the district route is
a much more straightforward way to get a
um parcel PX on the ballot but if the
district does a poll and it still
doesn't show a decent margin over that
two3 support that it needs then we're
still going to proceed with the citizens
initiative despite all the challenges
that Jeremy mentioned um we know those
issues we're working on creative ways to
address them um also I know there are
lot
of incoming TK and K parents in the room
we'd love for you to get involved you
can if you're there in person you can
just grab Carlo or you you can email me
my email is j s a d Gmail that's J
SS h a d
gmail.com um but long story short we're
supportive of any way that we can get a
parcel PX um for our students regardless
of whether it is a district initiative
or a Citizens initiative we just know
this is critically important
thanks thank you Jessica for your also
for your advocacy here on other issues
around the district um and our last
speaker is Adena Olsen also on
Zoom hi can you guys hear me we can yes
my name is Adena Olsen I Am a parent of
two kids at
Orion and um I'm also working with
Jessica and Carlo on the citizens
initiative so really I'm just here to
Echo what has already been said um which
is
we we just really are hoping to get some
funding additional funding for our
Public Schools I know that um I as a
parent have a tker and a first grader
have I've been on the PTO and I've seen
exactly what the cuts mean for our
school and it just it does cause a lot
of stress on our our parents and our
families and um you know we just want
our kids to have funding
so either way uh whether it's a parcel
tax that comes from the citizens
initiative and I am here to help make
that happen as best as I can or if it's
through the district initiative which it
sounds like and I don't know all the ins
and outs of this but it sounds like that
um would be an easier path to go down um
either way like you know we're just
advocating to get that funding um but if
there is a path through the district
that would be great uh anyways that's
all I have to say so thank you so much
thank you Aden appreciate your comments
um okay so tonight is just information
um and a discussion among the board um
of our Direction and then we have Jeremy
here for any questions yeah and then if
we were to actually decide that
something it would come at a future
board meeting where we would have a vote
on it so it's really just a discussion
and information um does anyone have
questions for Jeremy or comments that
they'd like to
make I've got one question for my own
understanding if it becomes a District L
initiative or District L parcel tax
could we still get outside funding to
support some of these initial costs or
is this cost coming from The District
budget from a legal perspective I think
it's really important that these are
completely two separate processes it's
either the District track or the
citizens track and if the district were
to move forward that doesn't mean the
citizens couldn't keep organizing
because again by definition they have to
be separate so there's really no
communication there other than you know
they're more than welcome to voice their
support for the district proposal so I
would say during the initial steps no
however uh if the district were to place
a measure on the ballot it would likely
require a pretty robust independent
Campaign which would require private
dollars private resources private
volunteers all of
that so if we were to Mo can just
interject a bit so Jeremy if we were to
move forward with the polling then that
would be a district expense correct so
if that does that help yeah
okay and we would publicly report out on
the results of that polling so that
would be made available to the other
exactly exactly so one concern I would
have is like 2026 is pretty far away I
feel like we just started uh 2025 right
um and you mentioned that a lot has
changed since we did the last poll a
year ago the same is likely to be true
that a lot is going to change in the
next you know 12 13 14 months hopefully
we don't go to war with Canada um so you
I'm wondering about timing for a poll
right I I love the chart of dates and
especially the the underlining there of
like going out for the primaries in 2026
that seems like a good one with a clear
date and so like a work back plan um
when is the right time to run a poll
that would give us guidance that we
would have time to put everything
together to be on the primary ballot for
2026 is it really March 202 because that
feels way too early it probably would be
too early but there are a lot of steps
in the process even before a poll is
live right I think the earliest we could
probably get a poll in the field if we
started tomorrow would be May um so and
again with a square footage measure
there's a lot more work that has to go
in on the front end before you even put
your pole on the field right because you
know a flat rate's a pretty easy math
equation right 85 bucks times number of
parcels gets you your Revenue square
footage there's a lot of different
variables that work into it and that
process on the front end to decide okay
what's our underlying rate going to be
are we going to have a cap are we not
that process takes some time so I think
even if we were to start tomorrow the
earliest you'd probably get a poll in
the field would be May um so I'm always
of the mindset that you should keep your
options open and you know give yourself
the time so you can use it um but I
definitely think that a poll in May of
this year would be beneficial for a
measure early next year including a
primary any other questions or
comments could you remind me um whenever
if we do go out for a polling do we have
the numbers up front before people start
voting whether they choose you know
option one or two or three yeah so the
way that we structure a poll um is we
try to replicate an election environment
as best we can and so the key question
that we ask in the poll is a sample 75w
ballot question and in that ballot
question we would include a tax rate
duration Revenue raised all of those
details as well as the use of funds and
over the course of the poll we actually
ask would you vote Yes or No in this
three different times the first time is
pretty much right up front so we can get
a read of without any information Pro or
con if the election were held today what
does it look like then we provide a
little bit more information to the
listener we tell them you know 10
different uses of funds for example we
tell them potential positive arguments
they might hear over the course of a
campaign and then we ask them again okay
now that you've heard the uses of funds
and some positive arguments if the
election were held today would you vote
yes or no on this same 75 or B question
and then we do the opposite and we ask
potential negative arguments obviously
in the course of a campaign there can be
pros and there can be cons we want to
test the cons as well we test a few
different negative arguments and then we
ask one final time all right now that
you've heard the pros you've heard the
cons if the election were held today
would you vote Yes right and that gives
us a pretty holistic view of your
ceiling your floor and what voters would
would support on the natural
questions comments anyone
else did you need any anything else from
us um can you can you put that slide up
with the dates the timelines on it
um after reviewing the slides that
Jeremy sent and the conversations that
I've had with
Jeremy and us doing the budget
reductions that we had to do for this
school year and then we budget
reductions last
year and when I saw this timeline I kind
of like oh my gosh but um I really would
like to see what what the what the
community is thinking right now and if
it goes in that flavor of that we have
their support we have the citizens
initiative that those people have been
working very very diligently and
thoughtfully really wanting to get
dollars for our district I would really
want to get the poll and and if it's
favorable I would want to go June
2 I you know it took me a long time to
come to this decision believe me um back
and forth back and forth do you know
what that's going to mean yes I know
what it's going to mean I've been there
and done that before
um but we I I think we owe it to our to
our students to our teachers to our
staff if the polling is in a positive
nature
we should do the go out in June 2D so
last year when we ran this what was the
uh cost to run the polling what was was
the total out of pocket for us was it
45,000 45 to something that all right
and tells two three months process was
sort of what I was hearing here and when
we when we did it last time uh last year
the number came back was it was
6162 something like that and you know
it's 66.6 to go and pass but we want
some comfortable margins so do you say
go green light would be like 68 69 what
are we looking at for the cut point
there as a general rule of thumb yes but
you also get so many other contextual
Clues from the poll that I wouldn't want
to give you a hard yes or no based on
the number Alone um I do think if you're
in the ballpark that's also helpful data
too right because what we're not going
to be able to do in a poll is give them
five different options and tell them to
pick their favorite right right because
that doesn't that's not what the voting
process is like it's not I get to pick
one of five measures right so we kind of
have to pick one based on our gut and
our experience and go for it but if the
data comes back and we see in the poll
that there's actually a lot of support
in the community but we just ask for too
much that's a helpful data point right
and that would probably elongate the
process because we would need to do some
community outreach and engagement and
get a better understanding as to why
that tax sensitivity exists did and
understand if there was a path forward
at maybe a lower dollar amount right so
to answer your question I would say 68
would be great I've been with districts
where we were at 65 and I recommended
they go forward I've been with districts
where we were at 70 and I recommend they
not right there's a lot of other
contextual clues in that poll that I
think kind of helped tell the whole
story and we can't really know that
until we ask
yeah in the other situations where run
this process um when they have gone to
the ballot have you historically seen
like opposition organized opposition
campaigns rarely although we have
um I will say that a really important
part of this process if you are to go
forward with a square footage based
measure is Outreach and openness with
the business Community right I think
that is by far the biggest likelihood of
a source of of opposition and they don't
need to be so I think um you know when
we worked in Alam in 2016 we actually
saw opposition from the state Charter
School Association uh and they teamed up
with local businesses to oppose us we
were successful um wouldn't recommend
going into battle with that those Stakes
we you know were able to overcome but I
do think it's really important that on
the front end the district do its work
to you know engage with the business
Community with parents with everybody
again not to convince them to vote Yes
or to vote no but to get a better
understanding um about their their views
of the district their views of a
potential measure and how you can be a
good partner to them and then so last
year we went through phase one of this
is that right the feasibility and that
was 45 I'm sure amounts will change but
what are what are the rest of the parts
of the process at least for the district
fund portion look like in terms of
magnitude the the poll is definitely the
biggest upfront cost for right because
you're paying for the services we I
should have clarified our not holsters
we would partner with Brian Godby of
Godby research who's done your polling
for two decades um there would there
would be uh Consulting expenses that are
not near that magnitude and then if we
decided to send direct mail
informational Communications to voters
there would be that expense but that's
all up for discussion and would be a
decision that we would make together we
wouldn't obviously unilaterally sensibly
out without approval
I feel like a good point was made that
um there's more acceptance of per square
foot measures than there are of just
like flat paral measures which makes an
awful lot of sense for me to me um I'm
just curious why why didn't we pull for
that last
year I I was not involved with the
district process at that time but I do
believe that it was a lot less invogue I
know it was a lot less invogue with
districts than it was than it is today
um you know we had a multiple distri on
the ballot in November who gave it a
shot but they started their process in
early
2023 um so I think again I was not
involved in that process but it's my
understanding that it was not as uh it
wasn't considered because it wasn't as
common of a practice we've now seen a
lot of Bay Area districts take the leap
and be successful with it and so so we
kind of played it a little conservative
because we weren't sure how it would go
and we maybe played it too conservative
and now we see that we we should have
gotone that tag okay yeah thanks
all right great um so to sort of wrap up
this item I just wanted to get kind of a
sense of like obviously not making any
decision tonight anything there but is
there appetite for a future agenda item
to discuss going forward on feasibility
study I think if we would have to take
an action item to do it feels like good
data to have yeah it's just where people
at with a dollar per square foot partial
tax yeah and the other piece is that we
have a group of parents that I I'm
assuming with would get even larger if
we were to put it on the bell and say
that say it came back with a rating that
you know it's great you need to move
forward with it because there's a lot of
work that you need to have a good solid
group of community to really help you
support this and get it across the
Finish Line yeah and I mean this is an
important issue right I mean injecting
Revenue back into the schools I mean
we're hearing the need from it we heard
it from our parent speakers tonight we
hear it just you know from budget
renewal process that we went through we
hear it from our community and at our
schools um and we see the urgency for
really needing to get this there um you
know the the onetime funds from the
covid-19 pandemic really showed us what
what could be done for student services
when you're more fully funded um and you
know now that those are gone uh we do
have to find other ways to be able to
bring that Revenue back and I do think
that this is a a good Avenue for us to
be
pursuing okay so if I could bring
something back probably right after
spring break I'll work with Jeremy to
see what that would look like and also
ask Jessica and Carlo to be involved
with that also to assist me in that
manner and then we'll bring it back for
a full discussion uh further and then at
that time it would be an action item to
go forward or not go forward with the
polling that sounds good great Perfect
all right let's uh you thank you Jeremy
I appreciate the content um all right
let's move on to 10.1 which is the
approval of the HVAC equipment purchase
um from dalan and carrier for this
summer uh good evening uh tonight
joining us is Nicholson from VPS our
bond program manager and Martin savantes
our director of Maintenance operations
and transport maintenance operations and
Transportation uh who will give me a
brief presentation uh and information on
the procurement of HVAC units for our
four School sites for our summer
2026 uh major s Bond project so with
that I'll hand it over to to yeah thanks
for that introduction Rick
um uh good evening board
cabinet um I was going to do an
introduction but Rick did it great for
me so we'll just jump right in uh if you
could go two slides in for
me uh so I wanted to start with just a
quick review of the scope of this
project both for the board and the
community so the first round of schools
for this summer are four schools
adalante Selby Hoover Roosevelt and
Taft um so the item tonight is to
purchase the equipment for the HVAC
upgrades for those
schools uh currently most of your units
are heat and vent only so part of the
scope of this project is to replace
those aging units that you could see in
the photos here they're mostly closet
furnace units for the
classrooms um and add air conditioning
to those units with upgraded
controls uh so if you could go to the
next slide for me
please um and then you might ask why do
we want to purchase the equipment now
and if we're not installing till the
Summers so for a couple reasons the
first being schedule if we want to stay
on schedule for a summer install a lot
of this equipment has 8 to 10 week lead
times so we would like to place that
order this month to stay on schedule for
the summer install uh the second reason
is cost we've already been notified by
one of the manufacturers that have been
proposed for this equipment dyen that
they are going to do their usual price
increase
for any orders placed after March 27th
of 8 to 10% and that does not include
any possible tariff increase so this is
just their usual price increase that
they do regularly so there could be a
possible increase in cost if some of the
tariffs that have been talked about go
through so we would like to place this
this month if the board approves tonight
so next slide please so this is just a
summary of the equipment um for approval
tonight uh I know the question was asked
about why to
manufacturers so I'll start with carrier
carrier is the district's preferred
manufacturer due to ease of
Maintenance uh the maintenance staff
here is familiar it's easier to get
parts from
carrier uh so for the package units
which is is where the heating
ventilation and air conditioning are all
in one unit we tried to stay with what
the district's familiar with and the
standard um but for the dyin units as
like you saw in the image earlier most
of the classrooms are closet furnace
units so the mechanical engineer had to
specify what we call split units where
the heating furnace is replaced in the
closet and a separate dener unit is
placed on a rooftop or on the ground
somewhere else you got most homes are
built this way um and with the
California's recent code change for
refrigerant Dyan was the only
manufacturer that had split units that
were ready for design and install for
this summer so that's why we went with
dken um and we're proposing using uh
piggyback contracts that I know the
district has used in the past actually
at the last board meeting uh an Omnia
contract was approved for the portable
AC units um that will start getting
delivered as early as next week actually
um and then carrier uses a similar
piggyback contract uh
Cass um so next
slide I think so tonight is the
recommendation of the approval to cure
the hbac equipment for both Dyan and
carrier um to stay on schedule for
summer install um and the last slide is
just
questions all right thank you for the
presentation um let's move on to
questions well it's cold and rainy out
there so people might think that we've
forgotten about hot summer days but the
board does not forget so I am glad that
we are moving forward with this to take
proactive action and making sure that we
are taking steps towards making sure
that every single one of our classrooms
ultimately ends up with a proper HVAC
although it's going to take us several
steps to get there this tonight seems
like a very useful step in that
direction I happen to look up some of
the equipment pricing on my own and the
prices that we got bid out seem to be uh
reasonable per that so great to hear
that portable units arriving next
week any other
comments no okay well thanks again I
want thanks vpcs our facilities and
finance teams for um putting this
together uh we this is an action item so
we need a
motion I move we approve the acquisition
of these hbac units is there a second
second all right all in favor I I
outstanding looking forward to the
construction work this summer awesome
thank you thank
you time for the Mustangs uh let's move
on to 11.1 the Henry board School
presentation for the 2024 25 school
year okay so tonight we have I'm missov
and Miss Sanchez who will be presenting
the board
presentation oh I'm you need to turn
your microphone on yeah there's the yeah
perfect all right good evening um Board
of Trustees and cabinet members before I
get started I just want to acknowledge
this all the teachers that are here
tonight um this is just um speaks for
itself the kind of staff that I I work
with um just amazingly dedicated um
they're working weekends they work
nights they go to their student games
they volunteer for our events there's
just an incredible stuff so thank you
for being
here um all right we'll get
started sorry oh
yeah all right
okay so last year um as you can see we
were in t atsi status for a couple of
things our chronic absentismo
that for most except for our English
language Learners and I'll address the
plan for that later um and our English
language learner progress we exited that
we actually were red clearly and we
wanted to get to Yellow but we actually
got to Green so it was
exciting um and we entered for ELA math
with students with disabilities
so elap goal one we all know
this um our suspensions are at 0% so
we've we've met that goal which is
great um chronic absenteeism is probably
the biggest challenge facing Henry Ford
collectively we probably spent about two
full days a week um working on
attendance and as you can see it hasn't
been much of a dip um there's a whole
slide on this I'll get more into it
later but it's the
data and you can see our you know we
went down a little but not much and
definitely disruption in our um unhoused
families and socially economically
disadvantaged
[Music]
oh point at charge you
I'm okay
this sking that one okay well our
suspension rate is zero okay okay
chronically absent so we have tried you
know everything under the sun that we
could think of attendance War
um
incentives you know letters to parents
phone calls engagement meetings
ssts um and eventually we we looked at
the data we took all of our chronically
absent students so there's about hundred
20% of our kids are missing a month or
more of school which how a kids a grade
level if they're not in school right
that much so we put the addresses into
Google Maps and track them and found
that most of them are living one to two
miles away um in the Haw neighborhood
which school was closed you know and we
have ha students so we held a meet your
neighbor night and we seated we invited
all the families and we seated them by
their neighbor with people that with are
within walking distance we even had a
couple families that live in the same
apartment uh we held it over in the YMCA
by the hos neighborhood free dinner
raffle we invited all 100 families
we didn't have the greatest turnout but
what came out of the conversations we
had with the families was transportation
is the issue um a lot of them have to
walk to school and a mile to two miles
is too far if if it's raining or if one
child is sick they have to stay home if
they're sick so transportation is really
a big big issue um we kind of are going
into the solution but luckily I just
found out today that we are going to be
there's a bus that we've been trying to
get to use it is for our overflow
students that stops at Haw it's a big
bus and it only carries about 10 kids so
we just got permission exciting Anna was
working with um transportation so thank
you and Dr bger everybody uh we're going
to be able to invite our families to use
that bus if they need it so I think that
will make a huge difference
I did your part see you were talk about
this gosh I did her part I was
nervous um here's more coming okay so
social emotional learning um
is we've spent a lot of time and um
professional development around building
relationships um using asset based
language um schoolwide implementation of
PBIS for example our referrals now we're
looking at the um antecedent what's
causing the behavior instead of just
consequences um everyone on staff
attended Handle With Care this first
part of it which is really if you're a
parent I recommend it it's all about
your own triggers so that you can stay
calm when your students are deregulated
um so that's been really
helpful we have an amazing counselors
and they push into the class docl
lessons and our parents once a month
push in and do project
Cornerstone um you know the teachers at
Henry Ford are all tent veteran teachers
strong classroom management but they've
really gotten to the point where they're
building these relationships with the
children so last year it was about 50%
of our referrals were from the classroom
50% were from the yard and we're down to
about 10% from the classroom now it's
very rare to have a student sent to the
office during instructional time
so that's been really exciting um and
that's kind of freed us up to focus on
the problem area which is our
yard um the behaviors are all minor
behaviors but you a lot of impulse
control issues so we newly you can't
really see it but we mapped out the yard
so there's a station and one ball per
game our PE teachers are spending time
teaching the kids the rules what to do
if you don't agree R
Shambo um and trying to have more
engaging activities like um we have
these little scooter things just more
for them to do out there to keep them
busy our counselor has a lunch
Club um what don't you talk about the
new well we're also strategically
placing our yard Duty staff um we were
looking um at our whole yard and
realizing where most of the behaviors
are occurring and making sure that we're
monitoring that area um and then we've
been moving into tier 2 for PBIS um and
noticing um looking at trends of
students who are you know repeatedly
having um to be retaught behaviors for
the yard or rules for the yard and so
right now we are um trying out an idea
of structured recess um which is where
the students will go um participate in a
small group um with a staff member um
where they're going to be they're going
to think about or talk about the harm
that was done and what they did like
thinking outside of just themselves but
how did that affect our whole Community
um and then ractice the behavior and
then they're going to have fun but not
more fun than being at recess of course
um they're going to play a game where
they have to follow rules with a person
and then they'll return back to the yard
again and practice those skills if
they're not successful then we'll repeat
and we've tried it um we just started
trying it and we're seeing positive
results so far
far
okay all right so our lcap goal okay and
so we're looking at our reclassification
rate um as you can see our
reclassification rate was we didn't meet
our goal however we did meet our goal
with our students um moving from the red
to the green and we reflected upon this
and we realize that it just takes a few
years for students to move from one
level to another um it could be that we
have um many students that are at the
emergent level of language acquisition
and knowing that our students have moved
to the green it makes us very hopeful
and um we're anticipating that we're
going to have more students
reclassifying so that's the same slide
is the same information the long-term
English
Learners okay so you can see um our
growth we went from
26.6% of our students moving up one
level and up to the
52.3%
right okay you start this okay so this
year we really prioritized um grouping
and holding designated ELD every day um
we use site fund so that our newcomer
teachers there full-time so she's
working with all the newcomer students
while the teachers are holding ELD which
also helps bring down class size uh we
had a smart goal schoolwide that 75% of
our students would increase at least one
level on the speaking portion of the
test um there's it's just one te
question for example there's picture of
a kid playing soccer and you say what is
he doing they say they're playing soccer
and you ask them why and they're like
what do you what do you think you know
are you crazy so like they didn't know
how to answer it so just teaching them
to look for you know information in the
picture to answer and I mean we didn't
go up once where we went away on that so
that really was
helpful um teachers are also dedicating
at least one day a week during ELD to do
test prep not teaching how to take the
test so much as familiarizing them with
the formatting um things like dictation
we don't really do dictation but that's
on the test um making deductions for
multiple qu multiple choice questions
these kind of skills and we did that
last year as well which we is one of the
reasons we think we saw such so much
growth just working on that and we've
also uh do a lot of integrated ELD um
our teachers really know their students
they know who their newcomers are they
know who their la long terms language
Learners are they're
Littles um they provide
structures um sentence frames turn and
talks um academic vocabulary and so
there's a lot of support happening
throughout the day in addition to um our
integrated or designated eeld yes at the
beginning I'd like to add to Jennifer's
idea and the beginning of the school
year as a staff um we were reflecting
upon our data from the previous school
year for our English language Learners
and we all decided that we wanted to um
ensure that all of our teachers are
using sentence frames with turn and
talks in the classroom and Jennifer and
I have noticed that consistently
happening in the classroom um but it's
also really important to highlight that
our teachers are doing so much more than
that um we notice a variety of
integrated ELD strategies such as close
reading
strategies um using colors um using um
visuals vocabulary they're really doing
a great job of preeing vocabulary before
their lessons um and some of these
strategies came to us well some of the
strategies the teachers already knew and
some of the strategies came to us
through our recent PD with TCM um which
I'd like to talk about
later all right goal three is the you
know our Ela and
math um you can see we maintained this
year we didn't necessarily go up but we
did
maintain um we're definitely seeing a
discrepancy with our English language
Learners compared to our other
students
um this slide kind of shows you that
they're holding steady in middle school
so what they're getting is work is is is
working they're not losing in Middle
School
um this is a fall test so it's hard to
compare but kind of my takeaway is that
they're losing ground over the summer I
know summer school is only for it's a
money thing but our students really do
that summer slide is is a real
thing um I added this slide because I'm
very excited to show this for the last
four years you know you've heard me talk
about win win win well that is why you
see all the Green in our phonics so this
our third through fifth grade students
pretty much every student is on grade
level now in third through fifth grade
in reading and their high as in decoding
I'm talking right um and high frequency
words and any student that's not has
been identified and is either receiving
RSP Services newcomer
intervention or um and also reading
intervention throughout the day and
because of this our upper grade teachers
don't have to teach reading anymore
they're able to teach the content and as
all we as we all know if a student is
focusing on decoding they can't focus on
comprehension so we're seeing some
phenomenal growth on our last I ready um
and it's I think a lot of that has to do
with
this math we also held study considering
we had a new new program um this year
teachers are a lot more comfortable with
it so they're moving through the program
faster the students know the routines
the center's already made so it's it's a
lot easy say easier but it is a little
little easier this
year and again you see the discrepancy
with our English language learners but
as we know math these days is heavy in
language this is going into Middle
School you can see there's a big drop I
don't know if it was the new program um
but we're very confident that now that
the kids are going to have consistency
from school to school and across the
grade levels that we're going to see we
not going to see a
decline and again the summer
slide so this year um
we've done a lot of work around plc's
individually but also schoolwide goals
one of them was a language Target for
every lesson and we're at 100% And you
know if you're done an instructional
site visit they can test to that when
you go in a classroom there is a a
language Target or a learning Target and
we've been focusing a lot on tier one
practices um as I've mentioned we have
very highly dedicated teachers who engag
or staff meeting they take the PD back
and try it they are following the
cohesion model that Anna's put in place
um our grade levels all planned together
the classrooms you go to and they're
doing the same thing with their own
style but they're all pacing and
planning together they reach out to
Resource teachers if they need support
or a counselor it really it really is a
team
effort and one of our changes is we've
really started to focus on our they're
the yellow kids kids are just one year
below grade level so our resource
teacher is using youly which is recently
adopted it's a tier one K2 program and
you can be used for intervention for
three through five so she's working with
first through sixth grade students and
since school started she has bumped up
103 kids to grade level in six to eight
weeks so she has nine groups a day with
three or four kids pulls them fills in
those holes assesses them moves them
back in so we're we're very excited
about that it's working very very
well okay all right I'd like to share
one of the most impactful efforts that
we have done this year I believe is our
integrated ELD coaching um Anna Herrera
and Katherine Rivera coordinated
training for all of the coaches which I
was fortunate enough to be um one of the
instructional coaches at Henry Ford um I
just can't express enough how much I
learned from this um studying and um
practicing the TCM strategies created a
schoolwide focus on best practices of
integrated ELD um Henry Ford upper grade
teachers had the opportunity to plan a
series of lessons and watch each other
teach using Benchmark um this has really
created a culture of openness and
excitement around lesson design I love
how the teachers they share with me
strategies and um that they are trying
and they welcome me into their room to
observe um and I just want to
acknowledge that for a teacher to open
up their teaching practice it takes a
lot of vulnerability and Trust um and
before the board um I'd like to thank
the Henry Ford staff for their passion
and their dedication for our students
they truly are a dedicated staff um and
teacher practices should not be
isolating but shared reflect upon and
celebrated and I'm glad that we do that
here at Henry
Ford all right and just to end I just
wanted to acknowledge a few things that
I feel like I really appreciate this
year the instructional site visits
having the district come in and give us
feedback just the conversations that are
happening has been it's it's helped me
grow immensely as a professional um
having a guest teacher to release the
teachers for planning or whatever it is
has been wonderful and in addition to
our staff the families at Henry Ford um
I've worked at a few sites and they
truly value diversity and care about
everyone's child U whether it's
volunteering or whatever it is kid need
something they do it so I just also want
to acknowledge how wonderful the
families are Henry for
yes that are
listening and we at the end that was
that the last slide okay perfect um
thank you Jennifer and Jennifer for the
presentation
Jennifer I promise I would never refer
to two people with the same name as the
plural so making sure that I stay true
to that promise um and thank you to your
staff that's here uh I see many of you
out there uh and I see uh many online so
appreciate the coming here and support
um I'm gonna turn it to the board to see
if you to The Davids to respond to the
J and with that I'll ask trusty weekly
to maybe kick us off with some questions
and
comments so thanks so much I I really
appreciate the U the data here I I had
asked a number of questions over email
that got uh that got responded to I
really like the U meet your neighbor
night just like the focused approach to
seeing like who is it that's not showing
up what are we going to do to get these
kids to come everything from do we need
a bigger bus um just I I I think that
that really those kinds of approaches
are what yield fruit and so just I I
want to commend you and the staff for
for going it and and digging into that
so I like the little bit about uh
helping to teach adults how to
self-regulate when dealing with a kid
who's poorly regulated because that can
be indeed uh very frustrating so thanks
so much for your
work um thank you for the presentation
thank you of course to all the teachers
that are always here I believe you and I
forget maybe Clifford or there was
another school where they do bring a lot
of their staff um I appreciate that um
and of course you know late night and
that you guys are very
appreciated um and so same as uh David I
do want to say I appreciate the meet
your neighbor night because it feels
like you met them instead of expecting
them to come to you know us when of
course like they said transportation is
problem so I do appreciate that and I
just want to you know say thank you for
all the work that you guys have done um
again to move the needle forward thank
you I guess the Jennifer talking to the
Jennifers um thank you for presenting it
was great information um a popular name
um I just had a couple couple comments
and I I do like that you guys were able
to really dig in to figure out the
problem we were able to solve something
for you guys with the transportation um
or there any other kind of things along
those lines that you were looking for in
terms of support or
help well we were really trying to we
realized we needed to understand the
problem before we can move forward so we
really took a lot of time to really um
pay attention to what the families were
telling us when we were making our phone
calls um and when we plotted on the map
we just wanted to confirm that that is
exactly that was the problem that we
were thinking it was
Transportation um we were giving the
families bus passes but our amilies are
not comfortable putting their children
on a Sam Trans Bus they're Elementary
School students and so we didn't find
that to be um a solution for us um you
know we can keep on calling and we can
say to explain the importance of
attendance
but when our we realize our parents
understand the importance of attendance
they know that it's important they're
just they just need help getting their
children to
school and I had a um maybe more for my
own information but um I was looking at
I was wondering about the I ready and
the cast math targets maybe this is more
of an ononna question I was wondering
why there was such a big difference in
the Target is that
normal yeah so when we do the sipsas um
the they get their their disagre and
then all administrators can choose what
their targets are going to be usually
they stay within about
5% um and so last year uh Jennifer Miss
k um when we were looking at the data
she was looking at some of the targets
so she did have some high targets she
wanted to achieve yeah so they get to
set them according to what they're
seeing what's happening at their site so
they get to put those targets
individually I usually do 10% yeah and
then yeah and totally understand about
the summer slide but and what we're
doing already right now are we kind of
looking like we're g to kind of be
closer yeah it's you'll see a big
difference when the scores come out I
think districtwide but definitely at our
site thank you so
much um I'm gonna do that thing that I
find knowing sometimes but I'm just
going to repeat a lot of the stuff that
everyone has already said uh to start
which is really really appreciate all
the work and then getting all the seeing
the staff come here and the support it's
just really helpful to get a sense of
like everything that's going on there um
so thank thank you for that also same
thing love the targeted approach to the
problem solving on chronic absenteeism I
think I asked a question when I saw the
slides of there's a lot that you guys
are doing here um what I would hate is
for just the constantly being like
throwing everything at the wall and
never getting a sense and just that's
not sustainable and I'd love to hear the
explanation of just like yes we did that
and then we were really databased and
thinking about how we do this and you
went to the the family so just really
thank you for doing that thank you for
like solving that problem thank you for
asking for the resource and thank you to
an and the staff for like really
addressing it um obviously it's like a
fundamental piece of we need kids in
school to teach them so thank you all
for that then I do have a bunch of
questions no not a bunch I have some
questions and honestly they're more just
about me understanding some of the
pieces I am still learning lots of the
the environment so I think some of this
will be probably a mixture of Anna and
and Jennifer and Jennifer um but I'll
start with the um The Chronic absente
ISM I just want to make sure I'm
understanding what I saw in the slides
which I think one of the slides looked
like we uh as of February this year
we're at 23 and a half percent
is is that right yeah and then Anna's
data said 20 so I think she may have had
more current data I made this slide a
while ago so we take we just sort of
took a dips of February 14th which is
actually a month ago possibly so so we
take dip sticks as we're going and one
of the things that we keep finding in um
the data with all School sites we found
a big dip December and January and even
February and then we're going back up
again so as we're looking at our monthly
data we keep seeing these abs and flows
but really going up but the when you're
looking at the 23 23.5 on that it is
from that February 14th at that moment
in time because it's in real time okay
maybe I'm I might and then go ahe I'm
trying to think the I'm looking at the
slides right now I think maybe I'm just
misunder misunderstanding how it's
calculated I thought last time when we
when we talked about LC cap basically if
you're chronically absent you you can't
unwind it as of now correct that's the
chronic ABS the one that's on here
though one of the things that we have is
we have students who are chronically
absent and we have those that are
trending and those that are it's yellow
it's like yellow red and red so we have
three categories okay and so any of
those categories you have the chronic
right and then you have those that are
trending that could move into okay
chronic so those are always moving
depending on if they continue to
increase how many days of our absent so
is the I think chronic absences are
fluid because it's 10% so you might have
five absences at 50 days right but then
10 more days go by now you're no longer
in that category is a percentage it's
not 10 ah okay okay so 23% of us is
about 100 kids okay super helpful and I
forgot to mention of that 25% of the
students are special students big chunck
too which is all other okay yeah and
that's something we've been working with
districtwide um about how do we address
our special education students who we
are finding that are very chronically
absent because we have a number of them
it's across the district some sites more
than others but we've been I know um
we've been trying to really work with
our attendance teams are working also
bringing in our special education
department to work together on how do we
help support our special education is
some of them are really Sly
PRS okay
um next topic the school the loved all
the stuff positive behavior
interventions do I know in the lcap we
have um a metric kind of measuring that
through certain student surveys um is do
we have any sense do we collect data on
that at the school site level on any
sort of regular basis or how's
that well our counselor does surveys a
couple times a year and in the past
we've had the um Panorama and then we've
taken our lower scores that were lower
and the council and I would work
together to dig deeper we do track all
of our referrals and sort them by
location date all that too as well I
guess my ultimate question is all the
stuff that we're doing on the front like
do we do we see that there's Improvement
that it's being effective definitely yes
anecdotic more than anything okay
reduction in referrals I think speaks
for itself and we're in the process of
completing the California healthy kids
survey so we're hoping to have that data
soon as well and that will be um each
School site will get their disaggregated
data to add it into the into their
subses do is that taken all at the same
time across schools it's we have an open
window so we have um this year we this
is our first year we're doing it where
we are doing it from fourth through 8th
grade fourth fifth and sixth we have to
have parents opt in seventh and eighth
grade they can opt out so it's a kind of
a really h a system so one of the things
that we did this year but Henry Ford had
a really good turnout because they did
at the beginning of the year with
permission slips um and so we have we
can only um do the the survey with the
parent who the students who have
permission and so we may have a little
bit L lower turnout next year we're
putting it into the renewal package
every year so we're now putting it in as
part of that system so that we're not
trying to hand out um permission slips
and get people to sign so we're putting
it as part of the registration Ral
process next turn okay two more two more
questions that that's it I promise and
both technical uh one of them is ltels
and definitions that we're using I think
we were talk I was talking to Dr Baker
about this um my understanding was that
the definition used on the dashboard is
seven years okay I assume then that what
we're seeing here as the numbers are not
the dashboard definition no they're they
at risk kids so their kids we must
monitor um there's for example a third
grader means that they have been in
school four years so they're on that
cusp if we can't catch them up and wait
till middle school they will become that
LEL by sixth grade um that's why we now
are starting to track that a little bit
more even in our sipsas because we all
have to know who they are what levels
they are we have to really identify
those students so that we're not in the
Middle School having those High numbers
so it's really digging deeper now and
looking at those kids and identif them
and figuring out who are they how can we
support them in integrated um during the
integrated time of our lessons what do
we need to do for those students so that
we are making sure they're making
progress so those students the one thing
with the Alpac um that is the hardest
part for our students who are third
graders is that at third grade each
grade each Kinder first and second grade
the CH the test changes and then third
fourth and fifth grade it's the same
test and then in middle school it's the
same so they do get it does get harder
so when Miss kof was talking about the
preparation and test prep that they do
once a week it really is to help those
students understand what's being asked
to them so I think we're hope very
hopeful that all teachers are doing
these practices now that they will
prepare them we're not doing it at the
crunch time like the test is coming and
now we practice with them we should be
doing it along the way so we can
actually build those skills along the
way so that's one of the things we need
to start monitoring and the state has
been a big focus on our alons no that
makes a bunch of sense and is great like
yes let's prepare guys there's more I
just saw I was like wait a minute
something is a little okay that that's
super helpful um and then the last
question and I don't this might be a
longer discussion I am trying to make
sure that I'm
understanding on our lcap and I guess on
sips as well when we talk about our I
ready goal uh part of me when I read it
thinks that it's worse we we're aiming
to measure the growth
within a year so like B diagnostic to
Spring summative is is that what we I
ready to I already yeah exactly from the
beginning to the end of the year yeah is
that what we are is that what
the that's what we're measuring okay
that's what we're Our Hope and measuring
for the year to year so one of the
things with I ready one of the things
with I ready um because from year to
year it changes grade level standards so
we can only that's why we show fall to
spring so that we can see whether we've
grown or not um so when we look at our I
ready like what we're looking at right
now what we have to F we've seen a lot
of good growth what we have to figure
out did we meet our 4% looking at the
overall and then the school sites have
will look at their own percentages to
see how they as a dis as a school also
disaggregated their data in their subs
so it is 4% as a total and I ready
highly correlates with the cast well
heard mixs well we it has in the past
last year was an anomaly we're hoping
this year it will
match sorry just to clarify when we say
4 per growth what is the growth so if we
look at our if we look at our total I
ready as a district we would look at our
percentage and then move that 4%
percentage of on grade level on grade
level what we what we give is on grade
level okay
4% from the beginning of the year as in
the diagnostic correct we look at the
beginning of the year to the end of the
year okay I I see okay yeah because you
can't do spring to Spring yep okay
perfect I was just I cast we can do
spring to Spring but we can't we can't
do cohort to cohort I should say right
okay I I was looking at this the slide
that we've seen all the time of like the
F fall diagnostic year one year two year
three but that's not really what we are
measuring in our metric okay perfect all
right that is all thank thank you you're
welcome very much thank you thank you
ladies thank you thank you Henry Ford
staff thanks have a good night I
have one just just real Qui skip M there
yeah that's all right um the one thing I
just wanted to ask it's because we have
the um first of all the format changed
was good great for this presentation I
really liked having the cicles in the
presentation there so thanks for adding
that I'm sure that you added that the
district um but like are I think we
asked this already but are you are you
seeing do you feel like you're on target
for with the data that you're seeing now
um because we you know you have all
sorts of like you know assessments that
are going on in school all the time yeah
I mean we we've gotten 25 new students
this year so there's always you know
outliers but in general we're really are
seeing a lot of growth with our students
awesome great um that's great uh and
also like what a what a case study for
like really targeted interventions that
win um I did you say three years ago it
started I can't remember when you put
this is year four this is year four um
it's just it's a real lesson of like
yeah focus on you know part of the
instruction and it'll really make a
difference like the phonics and the site
words is just I mean it's remarkable
what it's been able to do there and it's
a real reminder of like hey change in
programs and interventions take time
right it doesn't come in year one often
it doesn't come in year two it might
take a little bit of time time but we're
going to see if it's the right
intervention if it's the right program
um we'll be able to see that kind of
growth and that was really impressive to
see there unless of course it's youly I
don't know how it did that in six weeks
but that sounded amazing maybe we were
using sound Partners in phonics for
reading no not not the phonic but that
reading intervention that you had said
too that is also yeah okay great
um the person yeah that's what I imagine
exactly it is indeed yeah yeah so thank
you so much um must Community really
appreciate the work that you're doing uh
and uh love the presentation and then Dr
Baker thank you well thank you staff
members all staff members who came this
evening from Henry Ford thank you so
much Jennifer and Jennifer great
presentation but one thing and Jennifer
uh Sanchez and I spoke about this
earlier today um the recess and the
assistance in recess of that's a
different way of thinking it and how you
flipped that um and really looked at it
differently where yeah there's a little
bit of
um how would I say this misbehavior in a
manner and which needs to be taken care
of but you've taken a spin instead of
you know you're going to do this you're
gonna do that no we're going to go and
we're going to have and I think it's one
of the pe+ people that you told me that
works on this or is it your guest
teacher now our guest teacher guest
teacher and Osa and your TOA works on it
where they're at a game say it's four
square but during that time where
they're playing Four Square they're
talking talking to the students about
what you know they have done and how you
can think about that differently and
what would you do next time and you keep
playing that game and then you let them
go have have fun have recess and then if
it happens again they're back what a
different way of disciplining not taking
away recess I know positive but this is
a great way to look at it in a whole
different manner yes and what I really
love is um the student look you know Joy
is part of our you know our vision our
mission statement and um both students
that um the both groups the student
smiling the student is feeling um not
feeling like they're being um punished
in any disciplin they know that it is
like we're growing them and that we have
this
expectation um like for example today I
I actually did this with two students
who who used a curse
word and it was a rainy day uh rainy day
recess it's not just the first time this
was like you know this the reason they
were with me and um it was just so
positive and these two students who
normally have conflicts were learning to
get along because we were when we got to
the game part I had them comp give a
compliment to the other person every
time it was their after it was their
turn and soon they were just naturally
giving each other compliments and
they're like that was actually really
fun so yeah so thank you that that's
great I really I really um
I want to end with one great anecdote a
first grader was trying to teach his
friend how to get over fear of heights
so he had him go to the top of the play
structure and
jump yes so I think he's more
afraid well thank you both so much and
the staff thanks again you everybody and
now we can appla thank
you okay let's keep things moving
um we're into the discussion items we'll
start with 12.1 this is the first
reading and discussion of board policy
in AR 3280 this one's for sale of lease
of District owned real
property um thank you we have a few um
of these four policies tonight as our
board policy committee is meeting and
reviewing these in advance and then
bringing um it to the board of course
thank you so much for the questions in
advance about these various policies I
know Rick is more of the expert in this
area and so we were wondering if there
were any questions we could answer
regarding this first
reading do anybody have questions that
they wanted to discuss or didn't get
answered I didn't I didn't personally
have any questions on this
policy sounds good okay let's move on to
12.2 which is first reading and
discussion of VP 3540 and this one's
Transportation yes this one as well and
thank you for at for vial Duron being
here tonight our transportation manager
and of course uh Martin cantes our our
director of Maintenance operation and
transportation and Rick also worked of
course on this um board policy review
along with the board policy committee um
I know there were a couple questions
about timelines and
other um information that were asked so
I I wanted to know if there was any
other clarifying questions regarding
Transportation any questions no and I
don't see any um I'll just say I you
know again like the first one it's you
know we're always trying to make these
things up to date and um with with legal
and but I lik in this one and I know it
didn't change the um just the way it
prioritizes transportation services for
really our most vulnerable services so
it's nice to see that stuff in our
policies um okay let's move on to 12.3
this one's first reading and discussion
BP and AR
51131 chronic absence and treny yes so
this is an update and I I do want to
point out and and one of the trustees
did inquire about this um it references
this uh recovery plan that Antonio Perez
our director of student services is
currently working on in fact attending a
very important meeting this week so that
plan is coming that will go in effect on
July 1 uh but so I don't have anything
specific to share on that however many
of the strategies have at least been
considered or worked on so far so he's
hoping to gain some new ideas about what
this can look like moving forward after
July 1 any other questions that we can
answer I don't have questions but I do
want to say that what I appreciated
about this readings this time around
maybe you guys didn't notice it but I
know that you're not pointed out is the
fact that we're adding the color because
in the past is just so I appreciate that
so thank you well kudos to David Lee
that um that brought that as a as a new
Twist on our board policy review so it's
great yeah thank you it's nice to see
that the differences in such a bold
fashion yeah and thank you um the the
one question I had on this that I did
just want to share and air was that the
board policy is really stresses early
intervention um you know wraparound
Services um you know Community
collaboration but the the regulation
really looked like it it read like it
was more punitive so thank you for
clarifying that that's not punitive that
that's actually there to help support
the student particularly if they need
some of the legal services yes and in
the past it has been more punitive and
we're moving away from that um in years
past so part of this additional new
change I think will be new and exciting
moving forward in that regard we'll have
more changes that are more
positive I'll just no one minor thing
that I requested that I hopefully will
um be in the second reading is just a
change in the last paragraph to clarify
that the board will receive at least
annually reports on these things which I
think we already do but it's more just
to codify that but just pointing that
out yeah thank you it's going to move
from the term periodically review to at
least annually because it is reflected
in the sipsas the lcap districtwide and
then of course the board reports like we
saw tonight but yes that change will be
coming actually at second reading so
thank you for mentioning that yeah
thanks that's a good change to put in
there we do hear it almost every other
board meeeting with the board with the
school report so but it's good to have
it in the policy um okay with nothing
else then we can move on to the consent
agenda um we're going to improve all
with one motion can I get a motion to
approve the consent
agenda I move we approve the consent
agenda and a second second all in favor
I
great um next up is our action items and
so this is 14.1 it's adoption of Imagine
Learning illustrative math and
curriculum for grades 6 through eight
so um we know that Kendall's also on the
line if you guys have any further
questions but we are asking for adoption
I know there was a question um about
what we're seeing with our data um we
know um that this year we have had a lot
of
consistency much more in our math and we
are seeing that we are very hopeful that
our math scores are going to go up with
this consistency and so we know that the
middle school this is a change um just
in curriculum but some of the practices
are still the same as what they were
doing in the past so we're hoping that
we won't have as such a big of a slide
as we have in the elementary because
it's a change of way we were really
teaching in the primary
years we're hoping that you guys will
adopt this so that we can move forward
and get moving forward for next
year and as a reminder we had a
presentation on this 45 days ago
somewhere around there um and it's been
on public uh Public Access here at the
district for people to review yeah
literally right back
there so does anyone have questions um
since the last time we discussed this
and it seems like we were very
thoughtful in piloting a couple
different curriculums selected this one
uh the roll out for Kinder through biif
has gone pretty well and this is an
extension of that so it just seems like
a pretty natural thing to do to
me anyone else comments yeah I agree
it's nice to have the extend of the same
curriculum through room K through you
school um so this is an action item uh
so if there's a motion to approve
it I move we approve this curriculum and
a second second are all in favor I
I okay we're on to 15.1 um board and
superintendent reports who would like to
start
uh coup things since our last meeting
had the superintendent advisory
committee which was very helpful talked
about some of the workforce how seeing
considerations that we've already uh had
the privilege of hearing about but it
was good to get that to a wider audience
and then also talked about the
importance and benefits of the SEO
health district so that's very helpful
for me personally and hopefully for
others on the committee and then I also
went to a site visit at Hoover which was
great um frankly learned quite a bit
both about the student population the
staff population and even just the setup
of the school itself um which is it was
I think it's very good to see it's great
that we get a lot of Engagement in
person from certain schools here um I
think it was a good reminder for me that
there are other schools that aren't
always present right that also have
needs and it did strike me when I was
speaking to Lupe that there's a I think
she Prides herself it seems or maybe the
Community Pride itself on being a um
self sustaining you see a problem you
take care of a kind of people or that
mindset which is always helpful but also
I think for me uh it's always a good
reminder of you know it's good to know
that these are other issues that are
popping up because that impacts how we
how I view the the distress as a whole
um so overall was a very good visit for
me bennifer
Cecilia so I didn't attend the English
uh superintendent advisory but I did
attend the Spanish one at Hoover and we
had actually a really big turnout um and
then we also had um Richie and Maria
abundes um to talk to our parents about
some of the stuff that our children or
the students get like the bread and I
didn't get any of the oh it was bagels
and so it has less sugar than other um
items that we used to purchase before so
there's a lot more of the um oh my God I
just lost my turn of thought
the nutrients are definitely different
there's a lot less carbs in the types of
like um the bagels that they the kids
eat now it has a lot less sugar a lot
less carbs than what we were giving
previously and then he had a
demonstration not a demonstration he had
a plate full of different types of
fruits that the kids are getting that
are seasonal yeah and like one of the
parents was actually saying oh I'm
actually very um grateful that they were
offering avocado and kid Lov avocado so
you know that that was great so that was
it for
me yeah I don't even to report either
the only thing that's different for
myself is uh today uh Jorge and I met
with um the Faith and Action Group it's
a Latino group that has been uh meeting
with different uh immigrants throughout
the county and they wanted information
on what we have done so far and I gave
them um the information on the dates and
participation rates that we had they
would like to do uh another one with uh
ourselves um in regard to the other
pieces of support that are available at
this point in time so the availability
of if um someone is here and they're
here uh illegally but are not going to
work and they need assistance with rent
and so forth they're having outlet for
that if there's an if they are needing
some um legal assistance there are now
additional attorneys that are available
to assist so Jorge and Michelle uh
Michelle Ron Michelle Griffith indri and
myself will meet to determine uh when we
will have this meeting that last weding
that last week of March again all done
in Spanish um we showed them what we had
presented and some of the information we
presented was more than what they had so
we're going to combine our information
and we'll probably do one in person at
Hoover and then I'll do one online um
because if you I I don't know cilia you
know this but we had a request from
parents at in person not too sure I want
to attend that but I'll be more aable to
coming to online and that's where we had
close to 200 parents online so and they
agreed also so it was really good to me
meet this group they have met um with a
couple of our school sites uh but I want
to make sure that that this group is
also aware of our community school
coordinators which we talked a lot about
during our meeting and so um I'm that's
why I'm having Michelle uh Griffith come
into play with this group also when we
set these meetings up because I want her
community school coordinators to be
there
that's it for me all right sounds good
um so then we're moving on to
correspondence um I think you already
responded to the speakers about the
emails that we got for TK um other
correspondents
that share that made
me about it okay um so then it's other
business and suggested items for the
future
agenda hearing none all right uh board
meeting
I just had a question for you you
brought it up at the last boarding I
don't know if you and Dr Baker had a
time to discuss this you had requested a
closed session for the governance team
performance self- evaluation right for
uh I think the last board meeting in
June I was winging it but yeah that's
what I it cannot be a closed session it
has to be during open session so do you
have an idea of when you want to have
that um let me look at the calendar and
I'll get back I can bring it to the next
meeting we can talk about it then okay
okay thanks
sound okay great and then uh that
changes yeah so there were no other
changes that was it okay then we're at
adjournment uh can I get a motion to
adjourn and move we adjourn
second second all right all in favor
by all right thanks thanks everyone