Ladies and gentlemen, it's 7 o'clock.
Evelyn, roll call, please.
>> Trusty Welsh
>> here.
>> Trusty Lee is absent. Trusty King
>> here.
>> Vice President Marcus
>> here.
>> President Weekly,
>> present. Benitos.
Welcome everyone to the public session
for the February 4th, 2026 meeting of
the Redwood City School Board. Our
interpreter will now give instructions
for how to access translation. Fore!
Foreign! Foreign!
Just so all participants are aware, at
the direction of the board, this meeting
is being recorded and will be shared
with the public. We generally try to
post our meeting videos on YouTube about
a day or two after. The board encourages
all members of the public to participate
and to provide comment on issues of
concern regardless of whether they are
on the agenda. If you are here in
person, please fill out a speaker card.
You don't have to give your legal name,
but if you would like us to follow up
with you, please consider adding your
contact information. If you are online
with Zoom, you can just raise your hand
and we will call on you based on your
Zoom name. If you're speaking on a topic
on the agenda, you'll be called at the
time that that meet that item is being
considered. If it's not on the agenda,
we will call on you in the public
comment portion near the beginning of
our meeting. To be fair to all speakers,
comment is limited to 3 minutes. three
minutes unless otherwise noted. You'll
see a countdown clock on the front of
the podium. So, the next item is a
report out from closed session. The
board met in close session to consider
the approval of the comprehensive school
safety plans, the internal non-public
ones for the 2025 2026 school year
pursuant to ED code 32281.
And these details are exempt from public
disclosure to maintain the tactical
integrity of our security protocols and
to ensure the safety of our 6,500
students and our staff. The board
approved the comprehensive school safety
plans for the 2025 2026 school year. The
motion to approve the uh comprehensive
school safety plans were made by um
trustee Wells. They were seconded by
trustee Inguin King and it passed 4N.
Welcome everybody.
At today's meeting, we're going to be
discussing a couple important items. Um,
so we may get an update on Measure S,
our school facility bond fund, updates
on HVAC, that's to provide heating and
cooling for students and staff. We'll
get a report on professional development
for our middle school teachers on how to
help our students further advance their
reading skills, and a discussion and
potential final decision on our budget
cuts. As a reminder, if you'd like to
see something on the agenda for us to
discuss, you'll need to get that request
to the board president, that's me, and
the superintendent, that's Dr. Baker at
least 10 days in advance of the board
meeting. Dr. Baker and I will confer and
decide on when or if to place it on the
agenda. And of course, you are feel feel
free to write in your thoughts at any
time to any of us. Feel free to write to
us in Spanish. AI has gotten very good
at translation. And we are going to I
don't think we have a student with us
today unfortunately to lead the pledge
of allegiance. Um so we'll we'll skip
that for for next meeting. Next up is
changes to the agenda.
Does anyone
Yes.
>> So I would like to uh pull agenda item
10.1 approval of the revised measure S
implementation plan. The partial
implementation is being pulled from
tonight's agenda to allow additional
time for review and refinement. Staff
intends to bring the item back at a
future meeting after further project
alignment, phasing, and sequencing in
line with the current enrollment
projections, funding considerations, and
the incoming superintendent's transition
into the district. In addition to
aligning with enrollment and funding,
the board and staff recognize the
importance of further community
involvement to ensure that the use of
these bond funds reflects the priorities
and the needs of our students, families,
and staff. We are committed to providing
opportunities for public input as we
refine the phasing and sequencing of
these projects.
>> All right. Are there any other changes
that people would like to propose to the
agenda?
Would someone like to move that we
approve the agenda yanking 10.1?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All those in favor?
>> I
>> I passes unanimously. Okay, the agenda
has been approved. So now we are going
to move to public comment. Uh we're
going to now hear public comment on
items that are not on the agenda. So
first up, uh may I summon to the podium
Emily Dunn?
Oh, got to press the button. on the
right.
>> There we go.
>> All right, off to a great start. Um, hi,
my name is Emily Dunn. I have emailed
with some of you. Um, I thought it might
be a good idea to come in person also.
Um, I'm speaking on behalf of about 10
um, current and prospective families at
Orion Elementary. Um, I have a current
student in the Orion parent co-op
program and a weight listed um, incoming
TK co-op student for next year. Um, I'm
here to draw attention to the large TK
weight list uh for the co-op program
this year. Um, and ask that the district
consider adding a third uh TK co-op
class since there is about a full um
class worth of students on the wait list
is my understanding. Um, first I want to
say that anecdotally, just anecdot um of
the various families that I have spoken
to who are on the wait list uh none are
considering attending TK at a
neighborhood school uh as an
alternative. they are all planning to
stay in a current preschool or private
school. Um, and if this is generally the
case, then it seems that the lack of
space at Orion is uh just discouraging
families from doing TK, and that seems
like, um, a bad outcome for students and
for the district and just kind of for
everybody.
Um, I did review a board meeting from
last May, uh, where the long-term growth
plan for Orion was discussed. I know I
noticed that it seemed to me classroom
space seemed to be the biggest challenge
and um that's what I've I've heard also.
Uh there were in that meeting there were
various possibilities discussed for
opening up more classroom space. Um it
does seem like not all of those have
been taken advantage of. Um maybe most
relevantly the option of moving the CDC
preschool um offampus to a different uh
Redwood City location. um that I don't
believe has been uh executed yet and
would open up an additional TK eligible
classroom space with a bathroom.
Um I did see in those notes there was a
concern that relocating the preschool
could uh kind of damage the feeder
pipeline into the Orion co-op program.
Um but uh it seems there is very large
and growing demand for the co-op
program. So it seems to me that would be
um less of a concern than perhaps it
seemed last year.
Uh the other theme of Orion uh growth
that um I growth and health of the the
campus that I wanted to draw attention
to um seems to be that attrition to
Northstar is a huge challenge. Um I will
freely admit I am part of the problem.
My my older son will be going to
Northstar um next year. Uh it um it
seems to me that as long as Northstar
exists, the lower grade class size at
Orion has to be bolstered to keep the
upper the upper grades at a healthy
size. Um, and just speaking for my own
family, um, we have chosen Northstar for
our older child next year. Uh, not
because of the academics. It was
because, um, we felt that the the small
upper grades at Orion would not be the
best environment for him. Um, and that
it might li kind of limit his social
emotional development opportunities. So,
I think it should be seen as a very high
priority to bolster the lower grades at
at Orion to um, keep the upper grades at
healthy sizes.
Um, so that's about all I have to say. I
wanted to to just draw attention to um
that this this large weight list does
exist. Um it seemed to me that last year
there was a desire to u support program
demand when it comes in to make kind of
database decisions. Um and so I wanted
to draw attention to this and uh I hope
the district um is able to thoroughly
explore options.
>> Awesome.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Appreciate it.
>> All right. And do we have any online
comments? Um
>> I think
we
>> Yes, we we we we have uh labor
>> there. There's another one. Okay, that's
ah right here. Yes. Thank you. Uh I
would like to call to the stand Rosala
Rodriguez.
Thank you, Evelyn.
superintend
Dr. Baker
Rodriguez
Mr. Nelson
Fore!
Foreign! Foreign!
located.
Mr. Nelson
much. Gracias.
Gracias.
Um good evening uh good evening
school board and superintendent Baker.
My name is Rosalva Rodriguez and I have
two students in McKenley. I am here
today to ask to keep the uh the
coordinator the student services
coordinator Mr. Nelson for the next
school year. Mr. Non is not only the
coordinator for student services, he's
also he's also willing to listen and to
help all of the students and everything
that they need, giving them um giving
them advice and a lot of support. He's
always willing to help all of the
students that need their um their his
support. And in some uh situations I
have seen that he even pulled uh money
out of his own pocket to buy something
for the students, something to eat
because they will tell them that they
were hungry. Uh he always helps to
organize school events and and he and
for that reason all of the students love
him and they respect him because they
know that whenever they need something
they always know that Mr. Mr. Nelson is
always going to be there for them. Mr.
Nelson is an excellent person and
without a doubt he has earned the love
from all of the students and also from
the parents as well. Uh that is the
reason why for me and for many parents
uh in Mckenley school it would be a
great loss uh if if a person so
important for us and for the student uh
and for all of the school uh it's it's
laid off. So, thank you very much for
listening to all of our concerns and we
hope that you guys take the right
decision. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much.
All right. And
next up, we like hearing from our labor
union reps. And when the audience with
us today, we have Maria. Please come to
the stand.
It's all red. Okay. Good evening
everybody. Uh I'm call I'm talking to
the board but we have the district
listening which is good because I need
them to hear. So I want to ask the board
why why are you meeting here? You're all
working. You have things to do. You have
the virtual meetings. So why not just do
plain virtual? It's easier having
virtual meetings for the flexibility for
all of you and what you have to do for
the increased pe population that comes
to your meetings and for the enhancement
of getting things done quickly. But for
some meetings you need to have face to
face. We have uh experienc the technical
difficulties of having online has been a
problem. We have effective communication
where would you know me as you know me
if I was online only? No, right. It
takes me coming here. So, uh it's the
face-to-face interactions, the more
natural form of meeting, getting
information, building bonds, and feeling
that you're working together on uh
difficult issues. Easy ones can be
online, but difficult issues need to be
in person. I need to see your reactions,
your face, your movements. You need to
see mine. And unfortunately, when we
want a meeting, it has been always
virtual. It's always been online. We
have asked over and over to have
in-person meetings. When it comes to
things such as legal things, which we
are facing now,
all of us can be here in this meeting
except two people. One is paid by the
district. They can fly in. The other
person lives away from this district.
and we're holding up everything because
we're having them virtually for those
people. We would like to build stronger
bonds with this district like we had in
the past instead of feeling so
disconnected with the district employees
or district management. So, we would
like the board and the district to turn
around and start promoting face-to-face
meetings when the unions come to the
district with issues, not always
virtual. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comment.
All right, and I think that's it for
public comment. Do we have anyone
online? I'm not seeing any hands up.
Okay, great. Thank you so much. So, with
that, um, we have yanked 10.1. So, we're
going to be moving on to 10.2. We're
going to be hearing about resolution 16
concerning leaseback for HVAC at
Clifford, Orion, and Kennedy.
>> Good evening, board. Uh tonight joining
uh the discussion it is Martin
Cervantes, director of our bond program
and Nick Olsen, our bond program manager
representing Bmark Construction Services
tonight. I'll hand it over to them to
talk about phase two of our HVAC
project.
>> Good evening Dr. Baker, board members
and community members. Um, we are here
tonight uh for the adoption of
resolution number 16 for the lease
eastback agreement with block
construction for the HB projects for
phase two at Clifford Orion School and
Kennedy Middle School. Um, just to give
you an update, phase one is wrapping up
for Adilante, Selby,
Taft, Roosevelt,
and
Hoover.
Yeah,
>> thank you, Martin. Good evening, members
of the board, Dr. Baker, uh staff, and
community. Uh I just wanted to review
some history and process uh before we
get to the recommendation here. Uh on
September 10th, 2025,
uh the board approved uh QKA for the
architects for phase 2. Uh those plans
have been submitted to DSA. They were
submitted in December and we are
currently under DSA review. Uh, as far
as the RFPQ, request for proposals and
qualifications for pre-construction
services, uh, that was issued on
December 10th, 2025.
We did have, uh, mandatory job walks for
all interested contractors in December
and January.
Um, we ended up receiving four proposals
on January 21st, uh, all very
competitive. Uh just as in phase one uh
the bond team uh scored all those
proposals on the basis of technical
expertise
uh price point management and staffing
approach history of meeting project
schedules and claims and litigation
history. Uh after the scoring it was
determined that block construction was
the best value um and received the
highest score of the four proposals.
Um, so the plan if if that's uh approved
tonight would be to come back in May
with a GMP just like we did um for phase
one um and a uh revision uh addendum to
uh this lease lease back contract. Uh
just a reminder of the financial impact.
So, this contract is for $29,595
for the pre-construction services, but
it also includes a $3 million allowance
for early procurement. Um, a little bit
of change in strategy from phase one
where the district early procured the
equipment, but in this case, we're going
to do it through the contract and have
the contractor uh order those. Um so the
recommendation tonight is to approve the
resolution 16 uh for the lease lease
back contract for pre-construction
services to block construction.
All right. Do folks have questions?
Thank you. I I just have one question.
We used block for phase one also, right?
Was everything was good there? like we
have any improvements for the next phase
or
>> um block did great. Uh phase one went
very smoothly. There's always list of
lessons learned.
Um but we're comfortable with them. They
did a great job on phase one.
>> Thank you.
So, I think there was like a a quick nit
about uh Sanonteo County Times being
mentioned, but that publication ceased
10 years ago. So, I uh wonder if that
was uh meant to be a different
publication that was mentioned in
resolution 16.
>> Um we published with them. They
and it we have a receipt for
publication.
>> Okay.
>> Okay. They're they're part of the Bay
Area News Group. So,
>> I was I mean I I did I I had asked that
question because I still can't find any
evidence of it in existence except that
that phone number is actually Bay Area
News Group which is what had consumed it
um in there. So, it does kind of all tie
in to the Bay Area News Group, but I
kept thinking like there's one
publication here in Sano that I Yeah.
>> Yeah. Well, Wikipedia said it ceased
publication 10 years ago
>> in I think it Yeah. Like 2019 or
something. Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Okay. But that phone number goes
to the Bay Area News Group, which is the
the where um Sano County Times had been,
you know, 20 years ago, I think, was
pulled into the Bay Are
>> and now it's it's the Mercury News.
>> Yeah. Their legal ads number is Yeah,
exactly.
>> Okay. Cool. Cool. Um, and just uh one
other bit is I I know CBOC doesn't
legally need to see this stuff until
it's like finalized and for for
approvals, but I'm just wondering if
there's more that we could do to
proactively circulate this um these
kinds of proposals with CBOC just to
make sure that we're bringing them along
for the ride.
>> Uh
oh, I was just going to say uh as part
of the CBLC meetings, we do give project
updates. See? Okay. Awesome. Thank you.
All right. Any other questions or No.
Okay. Would someone like to make a
motion?
>> I'll move that we uh approve this item.
>> Second.
>> All those in favor? I.
>> All right. Passes unanimously.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> You're welcome.
>> All right. Next, we're going to approve
all the bond program consent items in
one go. This is to avoid long
discussions about matters involving the
bond program. That should be relatively
straightforward. Would someone like to
move that we approve the bond program
consent items?
>> Second.
>> All those in favor?
>> I. All right. Passes unanimously. All
right. We're on to 12.1. We'll now hear
about professional development that
we've been doing for our middle school
teachers around reading and writing.
So tonight we have uh Sarah Cullum and
Kathy James who'll be presenting um our
presentation today about
every child reading writing. It's our
new it's something we've been doing in
the district for a long time but it's an
updated version um that we have been
participating in. So
>> So good evening. I'm Sarah Cullum and
I'm one of the middle school coaches
with a focus on literacy in ELA classes
and humanities.
>> And I'm also a middle school coach uh
Kathy James and I have a focus in
literacy and technology.
So, in August 2025,
Redwood City School District trained a
cohort of our middle school English
language arts teachers and in some
modules from the CSU expository reading
and writing curriculum program and we've
been implementing those modules since
the beginning of the year in conjunction
with our adopted curriculum amplifier.
Next slide, please.
So the expository reading and writing um
curriculum comes from the expository
reading and writing course offered to
high school students for a throughg
credit in high school. It's one of the
options high schools can elect to
implement and it is based upon career uh
success in secondary education and with
a college and career focus.
The program itself dates back to 2004.
So it's a longstanding program. And it
was brought in to emphasize the college
reading skills, the rhetorical approach
to what we now in middle school with our
common core standards are calling the
argumentative writing, reading and
writing approach. And most recently,
in fact, we're one of the first cohorts
to be doing this. They implemented
modules for middle school specifically
for the needs of sixth through 8th grade
students. And what was different about
these mo these modules is they have
complex grade level text. They are
completely focused on grade level
standards, but they include very
explicit embedded pathways for students
who need additional EL support. And they
have two levels of support that they
offer with a particular focus on
targeting long-term English language
learners.
So we first met ERWC
when the state transitioned to the
common core standards around 2011 2012
and the project offered teachers it was
one of the few entities that put out
samples for teachers of what these new
standards might look like in a lesson
series. Th those lesson series were very
brief. They were just a touch point at
that time. And the curriculum was then
later developed extensively both for
grades uh 9 through 12 and most recently
with a race to the top grant for grades
6 through 8. Thank you.
So widespread program California and
we're told by the program now beyond
into other states um as well.
And one of the uh things that really
stood out to us was the demand for these
materials came from teachers, from our
English language arts teachers, the ones
who'd been around for that original 2012
introduction.
Uh and con sort of consistently
throughout the years, they've asked are
they going to produce any new modules?
Are they going to update? What's
happening with the CSU project? So, when
Kathy and I announced that uh the new
materials were available, they were
going to be previewed in June 2025,
possible training in the summer of 2025.
They signed up on mass. I did not have
to use any persuasive techniques to get
them to sign up. They heard about the
program and instantly replied. Thank
you.
So these are the uh titles of the
modules that are offered across the
grade levels. Some are novel based and
some are article-based and very closely
mirror the assessment um component of
the ESPback which is the performance
task which is where students are
presented with four to five different
sourcesformational text sources. they
have to complete research reading uh and
writing activities and then they have to
do a com um an essay a full write. So
these modules help support that process
and our teachers um are currently
working on either their second or their
third. It varies a little bit by site
and they're interspersing them between
our existing amplify units.
Next slide.
So the ERWC principles what resonates
with teachers in particular is the touch
point with the research search base uh
the connection with the high school and
the college uh pathway the built-in
flexibility that it gives them to
introduce um some more current relevant
topics to middle school students and the
strong alignment with the California ELA
ELD framework and standards.
At the heart of the program is a process
um the recursive literacy process where
reading and writing are connected. And
so they are constantly moving through
texts,
reading to learn, reading to perform a
deeper analysis, reading to form their
own opinions, and then to express and
communicate those opinions.
And this very closely mirrors the CLRP
K5 um ARC as well. So there's a a nice
connection there. It's just a little
more built out because the 6 through 12
literacy standards are slightly
different with that emphasis on
argumentation.
So, when Sarah and I found out that they
were coming out with these new units, we
were super excited because we had been
being asked by teachers about um things
that they could bring into the
curriculum that would bring a little bit
more cultural relevancy and something a
little bit more contemporary to kind of
refresh what they were doing. They are
still using Amplify for their ELA
curriculum and they are still doing a
lot of their favorite units out of
there, but Amplify cannot change their
California curriculum until there's a
whole new adoption. So that we don't get
kind of updates and and new current
material being brought in for that. So
we knew that this was satisfying
something that teachers had been asking
for. So, as soon as we knew about it,
Sarah and I signed up to go to the first
training that they offered, which was up
in Winters, and we got certified in the
new curriculum. We loved what we saw. We
knew it was going to be uh popular with
our teachers and with our students, and
so we volunteered to be the host site
for the Sanonteo County training. So, we
worked with the county office as well as
uh ERWC to host that. And like Sarah
said, all of our teachers signed up for
it. We because we were hosting it, we
were able to align it with our two
contractual PD days and so we just had
to bring the teachers in for two
additional days for them to do the 4-day
training and get certified in the
curriculum. And so once they were
certified that gave them access to the
online curriculum and they were able to
then think about at their sites where
does it belong, how would it best be
implemented uh and where you know did
they want to begin with the units. Many
of them started with the the opening
unit um because those units had builtin
um pieces around getting to know your
students and community building that the
teachers um usually like to do at the
beginning of the year anyway. So it was
a good match for us. Plus they had just
gone through the training. So that was
um it's it was we had a nice
introduction to it and we've had a
positive
um responses since.
as an example of kind of the relevancy.
One of the authors that the sixth grade
study is Gary Sto who is a contemporary
California author. So something that we
don't always get in our national
curriculum and who speaks with a
California voice that is identifiable
with with our student community. And in
fact, part of the writing arc is that,
you know, we're encouraging students to
write for authentic audiences. And in
this case, they wrote letters to Gary
Sto and he wrote back to them.
In addition to the training that we did
in August, the um professors from Cal
State came back January 5th to meet with
our teachers again. That gave teachers
an opportunity to process out the things
that were going well, the things that
they were having challenges. they were
able to ask questions and kind of go a
little bit deeper into their unit
planning uh for the next unit that they
wanted to um embark on. And so they that
was a nice touch point in that feedback
and planning session. Um let me go to
the next slide if you um we they kind of
brainstormed what their successes were.
So you can see uh some of those here. It
was a very positive response overall.
And then they did talk uh bring up some
of the challenges that they were facing
and had some time to talk to the
trainers about some of those issues and
and think about next steps for those.
So you can you can
the you can see some of the challenges
that they that they brought up here.
Some of the challenges are ones that we
see frequently with new curriculum like
it just takes longer to plan for new
units that you haven't done before.
Next. So, we we've shared with you on
the slides some of the testimonies from
some of the teachers. We continue to
hear uh positive feedback from the
teachers who have tried uh units. Some
sites are using them uh in different
ways. And so, like we're getting we're
kind of tracking like where are they
bringing them in? Where do they see that
they're fitting well? Um, and then we've
had some teachers express their desire
to start bringing some of the strategies
that they learned from ERWC and put them
into their Amplify curriculum. Um, and
especially in in the strategies that are
designed to provide that universal
support and give access to more of our
students.
You can kind of click through the
feedback slides if you want.
So, at this point, we're really pleased
with our start um in how things are
going with ERWC. We plan to continue to
uh work with them. They have already
offered some online uh free PD uh
followup that some of our teachers have
taken advantage of and um we have a good
working relationship with the trainers
from there. So, one thing that we kind
of need to be thinking about as we look
ahead is that because you have to be
certified with the 4-day training to use
the curriculum when we have new hires,
we'll need to make sure that that
happens. But because it's grant funded,
all of that training or the the fees for
the trainers are taken care of by the
grant.
And we would really like to thank our
trainers because we were fortunate
enough to have trainers who were also
authors um of the modules and including
the professor who was back in 2004 at
the heart of the high school initiative
and for Dr. Pak who um was so generous
with the funding and providing the trade
books for the modules for our
classrooms.
>> Any questions?
Thanks so much, board.
>> Thanks for bringing ERWC to our middle
school students. Um, it sounds like a
great ramp to get up get them up and
ready into high school and sort of
thinking about like, you know, how to
like use writing as think for thinking,
right? And not just for writing. Um, I
like that the teachers are seeing the
high engagement. Um, and it's really
awesome that the text is, uh, you know,
including contemporary authors and like
relevant material for the students. I
think that that really contributes in um
and thanks for the challenges slide too
seeing absenteeism already there as like
a problem for continuity. It's just a
reminder like all the absenteeism work
that we're focused on how instructional
improvement and and our work towards
trying to decrease absenteeism. They
really have to go together, right?
Otherwise, we could have the best
program in the world and it's just not
going to be effective if the students
aren't there to build it in. Um so yeah,
I'm I'm really encouraged by the early
you know the early feedback. I'm sure
you are too. Um, you know, and, uh,
hopefully, you know, as we go forward, I
know it's an early implementation, but
if we continue with it over the course
of the, you know, the next couple years,
we can move beyond just the, hey, it's
engaging, people are liking it, and
maybe start being able to track some,
you know, meaningful differences in some
academic indicators somewhere along the
lines. But, um, that's for a future
date. So, thank you.
>> Hi. Um, I'm just a couple things. I I
know PD is so important and so it sounds
like there's continuous free PD for the
current cohort and then there's grant
funding for X amount of time for new
teachers coming in
>> the initial cohort um and the materials
to teach the units the trade books were
provided um free of charge uh the
district paid the two days of stipen
that were not part of the contract for
the teachers uh present uh we January
5th we did not have to pay a fee for the
presenters to come back again. They are
at the end of the funding cycle uh the
federal funding cycle. There are we're
in communication with them and working
with them to see um what they might also
be able to uh help us with.
>> So and they are they are seeking
additional funding. So we don't really
know what the situation looks like for
next year. Although in talking with them
they have expressed that they are
working on some online training um so
maybe some asynchronous training that
could be available in the future as we
need to bring in new teach new teachers.
So there isn't really like a clear sense
of how um that's going to look but
>> they're very vested in keeping the
training going. So, so the grant is from
CSU. So, the the university has the
grant that created all of this.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> But it is um this has been the county is
also offering this training to all its
teachers across the county.
>> We've just been the first to be on the
bandwagon and get trained in the county
and be part of that initiative. And so,
we were very fortunate. Uh I mean, we
haven't really have to pay for any of
this, but all the other applicants in
the county have to pay. Yeah.
Um, and the other only other thing I was
wanting to kind of just hear a little
bit more of, I I believe you guys said
in the beginning that this has been
especially helpful for English language
learners. Um, is it the content or just
the way it's being taught or?
>> It's the lesson design. Uh, what the
project did differently this time was
not only do they have the standard ELA
lesson, but they have specific pathways
for integrated and designated. So, two
different levels of support for English
language development,
but all of it is part of the core lesson
and can be used in slightly different
ways. So, it has flexibility for schools
with their schedules. But what makes
them different is that very clear
articulated needs pathway with options
for teachers to select to specifically
address learning needs.
So they do as part of their training go
through uh a resource that they provide
to us called the high impact strategies
toolkit and in that they've put together
kind of the the best strategies that
have research base behind them in terms
of making things more accessible um for
students. And so those high impact
strategies are we woven into the those
um units, but then they're also
available to them just as a kind of a
menu of strategies. And that's where
we're starting to see some of those
strategies get used in their amplify
units or other instruction as well.
>> And one of our presenters, Dr. Rob Chen,
she has been with the project since
2004, its inception. And so she's really
been curating those strategies and that
toolkit of resources for teachers.
>> And to add on to that, I think one of
the benefits of this curriculum is the
using the frameworks that we have
because they didn't exist back in 2004
when they first did it. So now that
California has the ELD framework which
is aligned with the LA that's where some
of the stronger and most of the new
curriculum as you'll be see we start to
adopt is probably going to have that
main focus of integration of the EL
framework um that didn't exist before uh
in our prior any any of our prior ELA
adoptions.
>> Sounds like it was a good idea to jump
on this bandwagon earlier. Thank you.
And I don't really have questions
obviously. Thank you guys for the
presentation. Um thank you for being
excited about learning and then you know
coming back and teaching to the Redwood
City School kids. Um obviously
um like Mike mentioned the critical
thinking and engagement with the text.
Obviously that's very important um
especially when we talk about the EL
students that need a little bit more
reinforcement. Um, I appreciate um the
fact that you guys volunteer to do this
training with the county. Um, and I look
forward to just more great news about
this um program. So, thank you so much.
>> High five. Uh, I'm I'm pretty stoked
because the piloting proven
interventions to integrate them into our
practices is exactly what our district
should be about. Uh when I poked a
little bit this I was able to find uh an
EW erwc paper fong at all in 2015 that
shows that this intervention is
efficacious. It's been rolled out in
other districts. It works. It's
engaging. It's exciting. Really cool to
be able to get notes back from like
living authors. And I think just the the
overall take that writing is thinking.
It's not just about I have this idea
that's fully formed in my head and now I
have to do the mechanical work to get it
out. the process of getting it out
itself is a critical part of cognition.
It's so great to see that encapsulated
in this curriculum. So, just high five.
I'm stoked.
>> Thank you.
>> I was really pleased to see the Latino
authors, which is really great for our
kids. So, good choice. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you.
Right.
And with that, we're on to 13.1. Uh, now
we'll hear the superintendent's final
recommendations around budget reductions
for the coming school year. This is a
big item. The process has been in place
for months with many large community
meetings. Dr. Baker.
>> Very good. Thank you. Welcome everyone,
especially our teachers and our parents
and staff that are listening in online
this evening. Um, so do you want to go
to the next slide, please? Thanks, Rick.
So tonight's agenda um we'll review why
this work continues to be really
necessary in our district especially
without an ongoing stable funding
source. We'll review the process that we
used and and started last fall and
helped us to get to this evening where
we are today. We did quite a few
meetings as you will see in the in the
future slides. And not only were these
meetings in English, but they were also
in Spanish and heavily assisted attended
by our Spanish community. Many of them
were here tonight, but they left. They
made me.
We'll review the final recommendations
including two of which the committee did
uh did not agree with me. On to the next
one.
So why is this work necessary? We were
in the pandemic. We had great funding.
The funding went away. And so we had to
come up with something entirely
different to move forward and still
maintain some of the items that we put
into place when we had the great wealth
from uh the federal government. And also
enrollment continues to
for a long time decline. As we come as
we become a smaller organization, we
need to adjust our services and programs
accordingly.
Redwood City is community funded, but
revenue is not increasing fast enough to
keep pace with operational costs,
student services, employee compensation,
and budget reductions have become an
annual necessity
when you're when we're talking about
community funded. And I always joke with
my um colleagues
that um we are a poor community funded.
We're not like some of our neighbors
that are next to us. And I was at a
chamber meeting where they had
superintendents give updates on their
fundings and what's happening. And um
one very wealthy district was there and
two of us little small poor funding
districts, community funded districts
were there. And so we kind of joked with
one another with the uh chamber
indicating that we were the poor ones.
We're lucky that we're not bas you know
falling in and out but we're still very
um uned I say less a lot less than uh
the neighbor that was there. Next slide
please.
So the structural challenge that we have
in the year 20 by the year 20334
there should be about a thousand less
students in the Redwood City School
District. The demographer who um Rick
employed to do this work for us has
given that information and this
information was shared with the
committee that work with myself and
administrators. We need to adjust the
services we provide to the number of
students as we become a smaller
organization.
District is still operating programs and
services designed for a large student
population.
This requires intentional long range
planning and not just shortterm fixes.
So what you will see coming before you
is our items to move forward to meet the
needs of our students. But at the same
time the number of students that we do
have not the number of students that we
used to have.
So what is the strategic resource
alignment?
Aligning staff services and operations
with a smaller organization. We want to
achieve long-term financial
sustainability.
And we want to protect student learning
and well-being. Not simply, it's not
simply about cost cutting um but it's
about responsible planning. Next slide.
So here's the process. Very fortunate
that we had many parents, we had staff,
and we had administrators
uh on the committee. There was a
community survey that was sent out that
the committee looked at along with a lot
of other data that they requested from
meetings that we um had. The first
meeting was regarding an orientation. It
looked at our finances and our staffing.
And then our second meeting looked at
values, priorities, priorities, data,
and then community input.
The third meeting which was November
18th were the trade-offs and the
preliminary scenarios.
We had additional engagement which were
with these same aspects that I just
mentioned at our Bayside schools. That's
Hoover, Garfield and Taft. And they were
well
join they were well um joined with all
of us at that time and we the
participation was more than what I've
seen in the past. Parents came in the
mornings. They preferred to have their
meetings in the mornings. And then we
also had Elac and we had DAC. Uh Mrs.
Rea, Mrs. Herrera and Mrs.
A were both at those meetings um with
myself where we gave the same
information to those groups and they
were able to participate in what should
occur next. We also have a
superintendent advisory committee where
we also gave the information to them and
shared um information regarding the data
that was reviewed by the committee.
So let's move into the recommendation.
And this is recommendation number one
and then we can get into a discussion
after this. So recommendation number one
um I'm recommending a restructuring of
the district office to better align our
organization with long-term
sustainability.
These recommendations focus on
streamlining
central operations.
Specifically, this proposal reduces
certificated management, classified
management, and classified support staff
at the district office level, resulting
in a reduction of 3.75
management full-time equivalents and one
classified full-time equivalent.
This restructuring reflects the reality
that the district is operating with
systems and staffing levels designed for
a larger organization.
As enrollment declines and the pandemic
funding has ended, we are resizing the
district office. The reductions include
the reclassification of the deputy
superintendent to assistant
superintendent,
the elimination of the director of
student services, the elimination of the
coordinator of community schools, the
elimination of the coordinator of
student services,
reduction of administrative coverage at
MIT,
reduction of administrative support for
IEP meetings
to continue only at the prek through
five schools. And I'll go into that bit
more as we as we um share a spreadsheet
with you. The elimination of a
confidential administrative assistant
and the elimination of a testing
specialist.
In addition to these eliminations and
reductions, the proposal includes
reduction in special education
contracted services when students no
longer require those services and have
exit or have exited the district.
Required services for students will
continue to be provided.
The proposal also includes streamlining
other districtwide services and
operational areas to reduce ongoing
costs while maintaining in essential
functions.
It is important to note that the
committee did not agree with the
reduction of IEP
administrative support. Based on
feedback from the board study session,
the final committee meeting, I met with
school principles to review the roles of
guest teachers and substitute
administrative support for
individualized education program
meetings. As a result of these
discussions, preK through fifth grade
schools will continue to receive
administrative support for IEP meetings,
recognizing that these six each have
only one administrator, the principal,
where the others do have an assistant
principal with them at the school site.
Taken together, these actions generate a
approximately $3.5 million in ongoing
savings, which is critical, which is a
critical component of addressing the
district's strate structural budget
shortfall.
I want to be really clear that these
recommendations were shaped by committee
input that these recommendations were
shaped
they were repeating myself but the bo
but input but board feedback uh with
board feedback and careful review of
operational needs and that individual
personal conversations are handled
privately and respectively
as required. So, as we go through with
these reductions, we will definitely I
mean by we, it's
it is Miss Wendy Kelly over here that
will have these private conversations
with people about the reductions and
also about the alternatives that people
will have because when we go through the
spreadsheet, you will see that there are
some roles that are eliminated but at
that time there are other functions that
one could go to that some could go to
not all but some could. All right. And
we'll go through those in a bit. Next
slide.
So, recommendation number two. Um, you
will see here that uh
this is the second part of the
recommendation that focuses on
school-based reductions. The first part
was total district. These are
school-based reductions and they align
the with staffing with current and
future enrollment levels. When we were
looking at the data, what the committee
asked for is that they wanted to see by
school,
by classroom, and by grade level how
many teachers and how many students
that were being
um instructed in those classrooms. And
so they had that that that data. Uh
these adjustments recognize that our
schools are serving fewer students
overall
and staffing must reflect that reality
in order to remain financially
sustainable.
Most importantly, these reductions occur
through attrition, meaning positions are
reduced as vacancies arise due to
retirements or staff departures. Our
intent is to minimize
this disruption to current employees
whenever possible.
So the proposed reductions include a
reduction of one site administrator
which is currently vacant.
TK through 8th grade teacher positions
aligned with declining enrollment and
the closure of underenrolled classes and
adjustments to guest teacher funding.
And these changes are guided by
enrollment data and contractual
requirements that they reflect the
difficult but necessary work of aligning
class structures with the number of
students we serve. In this section, the
committee nor in this in this section,
the committee nor did the committee
agree with the reduction of the guest
teacher,
which is an initiative which we launched
during the pandemic. In total, these
school-based adjustments generate
approximately $2.9 million in projected
savings, which are essential to closing
the district's structural budget gap. I
recognize that changes at school sites
are deeply felt.
These recommendations were shaped by
extensive input from principles, staff,
and the strategic resource alignment
committee.
As we go through this next sheet, which
what's which Rick is going to put up on
the screen soon, I want to remind you um
there needs to be a review. If this is
approved, there needs to be a review
like in the following school year, maybe
at first interim, at second interim. How
is this working at the school sites? The
pluses and the minuses. How is it
working here at the district? The pluses
and the minuses and looking at the
equity piece as we look at everything
through an equity lens. Is it having
some ramifications? Is it not having? So
I remind you as we move into the next
year and I'll remind Dr. Rupala that um
to look at that you know first interim
second and as you're preparing the
budget for the following school year
after that.
So with that Rick if you would please um
put the spreadsheet on the I know it's
going to be small. I didn't have it
printed.
Thank you.
That's just
>> uh good evening members of the board and
the community. So I'll go briefly over
the structure of the spreadsheet
uh that we use as Dr. Baker mentioned as
we presented to the community uh as well
as the committees uh as we talked to
them about uh the needs uh that are
reflected uh for reductions based on uh
declining enrollment the size of our
schools uh and then the restructuring
that Dr. Baker spoke about at the
district office. So on the spreadsheet
uh we have a couple of columns 2526
which is our current year 2627 which is
next year which the uh the majority of
the work that we're doing tonight is
geared towards uh as we recall from
first in we had identified uh
approximately 5.25 25 million that need
to be reduced in 42627
uh and $3.5 million in 2728
uh for showing fiscal solveny to the
county office of the state of California
as a school district. Uh so if we look
at this, it's broken up into I believe
six different categories. uh
certificated administration, classified
administration, certificated personnel,
classified personnel
uh and other as five different
categories. Uh with as I mentioned the
majority of reductions coming in the 26
27 fiscal year uh and noting that these
reductions uh with the exception of a
couple of the savings that we're getting
from this year uh are ongoing
reductions. Right? So when we uh if
action is taken on these tonight for
2627
uh they will move forward to 2728 as
well uh thus making the budget stronger
uh in the outy years uh and as we
prepare very soon uh as we start budget
development for 2627
uh which then brings in uh a new outyear
of 2829.
So, uh, this is really the work that's
setting, uh, setting the table, if you
will, are the foundation for next year's
budget. Uh, so through here, uh, all of
the line items in the gray highlighted
area, uh, are the positions or programs
that Dr. Baker referred to, uh, starting
with certificate administration,
uh, the cost savings in each of those
areas, uh, and the impact of FTEES, uh,
in each of those areas. Uh on some of
these uh you'll see uh I'm not picking
on this one for any other reason, but
for illustration is administrator
coverage at MIT. There's no FTE
associated with that because we don't
actually have a full-time employee or
equivalent working in that position.
We're um either time carding some of
these positions uh or uh temporary
hiring hiring them. They're not full
employees by definition. Uh so there's
not a reduction of an FTE but there is a
cost savings by not providing those
services. Uh and that's true in
certificate as well as
uh I think one in classified or one of
the line items in classified uh similar
to the guest teachers right we're not
laying off an employee if we do reduce
this uh we're simply uh reducing our
expenditure for providing that service.
So going through there uh as Dr.
mentioned individually 3.5 and 2.9
between site and district. Cumulatively
for 2627 it's about $6 million
uh with about 300,000 in anticipated
savings this year which will likely go
up as we go through the fiscal year. Uh
so right now we're looking at about 6.3
million in savings uh that we with
approval tonight in whole part uh will
be uh integrated into the second interim
report uh that we'll be back here
talking about about a month and a half
the second board meeting in March uh
where we'll be able to visually see the
impact of those reductions
uh with uh at this point you know zero
on the unidentified fiscal stabilization
measure
uh for this year or for next year and
for the uh second out year going
forward. Uh you can see that these
savings do carry forward uh noting uh
nominal increases based on uh the same
assumptions we make when we're doing
budgets uh primarily stepping and column
uh that show a little greater savings in
the second out year. uh all leading to
where we'll be more fiscally sound uh
going into the second interim and then
uh budget creation and adoption in June.
So that I'm happy to answer any
questions or
we do have public comment. So do you
think this should be a good time for
public comment? Yes. All right. Great.
So I'd like to call to the stand Leanne
Thompson.
Good evening um board members, Dr.
Baker, family, staff, and guests both
here and online. My name is Leanne
Thompson. I have two kids at Clifford
and I'm currently the PTO president
there. Um I wanted to comment this
evening's um I know that we're voting on
this. So I want to begin by thanking Dr.
Baker and the committee for spending the
time to to go through this. I know that
it was a lot of work, the thoughtful
discussion,
um, and these budget challenges. Nothing
about this is easy. I want to recognize
that. Tonight, I want to focus
specifically on several concerns within
the school-based reduction section of
this proposal. We know that um,
declining enrollment across the district
is known and it's an ongoing issue. And
at Clifford, it has resulted in smaller
than traditional class sizes. This year,
we have a split third and fourth grade
class, which one of my kids is in. Um
and um while combining classes may
appear to be a practical response to
lower enrollment, I strongly believe
that it is not the best approach for
students or teachers. As a parent and as
someone who's closely observed my
daughter's classroom this year, I have
seen firsthand the toll that split
classes can take um on both students and
the teacher. Mrs. Overby is one of the
finest teachers that I have known and
her classes thriving because of her
tireless efforts. However, the workload
required to teach multi-grade curricula
simultaneously is just not sustainable.
Um, that challenge becomes even greater
when we talk about classrooms with
students that have vastly different
needs. Taking, for example, combining a
kindergarten and a first grade class. A
kindergartener who's never attended any
school before with another
kindergartener who has never spoken
English before and a first grader who is
reading vastly above their grade level.
Expecting one teacher to effectively
meet all of those needs while also
supporting the average learner places an
unreasonable strain on even the
strongest educator.
This board frequently emphasizes test
scores and um educational quality.
Budget reductions um just can't come at
the expense of our students learning,
especially in those lower grades. When
parents are surveyed, small class sizes
and high-quality teachers consistently
rise to the top of their priorities. and
combining classes risks undermining both
of those things. My second concern is
related to IEP administration support.
While I can only speak to Clifford, we
um serve a significant population of
students with disabilities that requires
hundreds of meetings every year. These
meetings are essential and every child
deserves the access to the services they
need. However, they also pull teachers
out of classrooms and consume a
tremendous amount of administrative
time. When all the coordination and
attendance responsibilities fall um
solely on the principles or we're lucky
enough to have a vice principal, it
still leaves little opportunity for
meaningful instructional leadership. Our
school leaders, if they're tied up in
meetings all day, they can't adequately
address the broader school needs. Equity
between schools does not mean identical
staffing models. A true equity means
ensuring all schools have what they
need.
>> Thank you.
Next from Stephen J.
>> Hi, I'm Steve Yik. I'm a Orion parent of
a first grader and incoming TKER and
also the chair of the schoolside
council. I'm speaking on behalf of
myself and the PTO leadership. Laurianne
is one of the co-presidents who's here
tonight. Uh I just first of all just
want to thank you all for your time and
all the considerations you've had on
these issues. Uh just to kind of recap,
I attended and spoke at the last meeting
last month. It seemed like there was a
lot of public comment about the guest
teacher and how important that is to the
classroom to the school sites. Uh I
understand the district is facing budget
short calls and declining enrollment. Uh
the school sites on took a pretty big
hit last year. I know Orion took a
$270,000 hit to to our budget, which was
pretty pretty large. Um and I know that
Dr. Baker has stated that he wants to
keep the cuts as far as away as possible
from the classroom. Uh however, I think
that cutting the guest teacher directly
affects the classroom. Uh at our school,
I know the kids direct, they know this
guest teacher, they're there all the
time, so that's going to affect the
classroom. Uh having that same person
there who can fill in and is known cuts
down on disruption in everyday classroom
activities when we have meetings and
trainings. Uh at Orion, we have this
unique challenge that we have a Mandarin
program as well, and that this guest
teacher also speaks Mandarin, which
finding substitutes for Mandarin is very
difficult. um if cut it would we're
something we're gonna have to pay for
anyways. So at our site we're gonna
likely have to take away from something
else classroom related. So even if we
think it's not a classroom related cut
it it may end up being so. Um despite
declining enrollment districtwide,
Orion's enrollment is actually
increasing. Uh I have wonder if we have
a future plan for expansion. Uh looking
for a clear road map for long-term
sustainable expansion with the
appropriate on-site resources i.e.
adults or transparency about the
program's capacity coupled with
commitment to maintain current
enrollment in the face of parent
pressure. We currently have one
principal and a half-time MTSS TOSA, one
full and one part-time office staff for
nearly 600 students. It's just not
enough. Principal is working hours day
and night. I've regularly get emails
from her at 9:00 on a Friday and uh
that's not sustainable.
This also leads to risks regards to
student safety and the ability to
respond to dynamic shifts and needs with
that arise in the classrooms on any
given day. The addition of more students
last year with an addition of an MITK
class and this year with a potential add
of an MI kinder class to meet parent
demand has not reduced the removal of
supervised adults. We lost our VP last
year and potentially guest teacher this
year from a growing campus. I have some
questions that I hope that or I urge the
board to ask of the district. If we want
to keep cuts as far as possible the
classroom, have we truly exhausted every
other possibility for cuts at the
district level? Are any currently filled
positions at the district level actually
being limited or they're just currently
vacant positions not being backfilled?
Mountain View School District is facing
cuts and have some interesting ideas.
They're switching from every day every
night custodial services to uh every
other night. I know we're already light
on custodial services, but perhaps
that's something we can do. They're also
freezing district leadership salary
increases um with the potential $5,000
$100,000 in savings.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Thank you very much.
>> I do see a hand up online from Tina
Mercer.
>> Tina, you have the floor.
>> Hi, good evening Dr. Baker, president
weekly trustees and community members.
I'm the principal of Roosevelt
Elementary School and I was actually a
part of the strategic resource alignment
committee. I appreciated being a part of
this group and hearing from parents,
staff, fellow principles, and district
and board members. Budget cuts are
always challenging and I'd like to thank
the other members of the committee for
their thoughtful and considered input.
I've been in the district for I think
this is my 23rd year, so I've seen a few
rounds of this as these types of things
do happen through California. Um it's
not specific to Redwood City School
District.
I'd like to actually take a moment to
thank Dr. Baker for keeping the majority
of the cuts away from the school sites.
The district is definitely shouldering
the heavy the heaviest load. I would
like to speak specifically to the two
areas that will impact schools.
With regards to keeping guest teachers,
I appreciate that we are able to keep a
halftime guest teacher at each site. It
has been a luxury to have a full-time
guest teacher for the last few years.
Um, and I do know that a number of the
schools will be able to contribute site
funds to keep a guest teacher full-time
as they need.
Um, I also want to thank you for
recommending that the preschool through
preK through fifth grade schools
continue to receive the support of
administrative subs for special
education meetings. This will allow our
elementary school principles um who do
not have assistant principles to
continue being instructional leaders and
supporting our students and teachers in
a variety of ways.
Um, I know that for me personally um it
probably is going to save about 250
hours give or take um in terms of being
in meetings. So that gives me plenty of
time to be in classrooms and to be
working with students and teachers
directly. So in closing, thank you again
for being so transparent and listening
to the Redwood City School District
community and making recommendations
that will minimize the impact on
students, understanding that while there
will always be some impacts, even with
the district cuts on students, it does
definitely minimize it. So thank you.
>> Thank you so much.
>> I'm not seeing any other hands online.
Evelyn, do we have any other comment
cards online?
No more comment cards online.
>> Okay, great. So, I think that ends
public comment. Now, we can move things
to board discussion.
>> Just one clarifying question. Um, from
the earlier the public comments, which I
think was actually a comment on this
item instead. Uh, there was concern
about the um student services
coordinator at MIT, but that's not that
is not part of these proposals yet. I
guess it is because that was a two-year
grant.
>> That was the two-year grant.
>> That was a two-year grant.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Okay. So, here we are at the end of the
road for figuring out how to square the
budget.
I do have a clarifying question. um
obviously read the uh background and
looked at the
reduction recommendation, but tonight
part of the presentation says
recommendation one and two. So, are we
being asked?
>> No.
>> No, they're both opposing doing both.
>> Doing both.
>> Okay. I just want Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Just wanted to make sure that was
my clarification question. Great. Thank
you.
Oh, sorry. Could you remind us how are
you running? Do you do you want to do
the motion and then discussion? Start
talking like is that what you're looking
>> like it seems like it's that time. So,
yeah, let let's move to bring the item
under discussion.
>> Okay. I am going to move that we move to
the discussion the approval of the
strategic resource alignment final.
>> Can I get a second?
>> I'll second.
>> All right. Okay. So, we're not voting
until we've had a chance to discuss. So,
here is the discussion.
So, we've got a recommendation from the
overall committee. We've got a slight
delta in that from the superintendent,
and I would just love to know uh how my
peers are thinking about how you all
want to move forward here.
>> I mean, I I really appreciate the just
the months of community engagement that
has gone on here um and the effort. I
know that there are sitebased cuts here
um and and we're always going to feel
them at the sites, but there really was
a really big effort to keep the
reductions as for the most part as far
away from students as possible. Um and
even to rely on attrition where we can.
Um you know, I appreciated that you
listened to the feedback that you got
from the committee from our study
session uh and sort of incorporated that
in a couple ways. There was the um uh
you know obviously thinking about how
IEPs affect particularly where there's
just the single administrator there um
that was one and then we had talked at
the study session about some sort of
monitoring framework or some way to
understand that um and being able
talking about putting that in and and I
I I I don't know what the right cadence
is to sort of check in on this next year
to make sure that we you know did as
little harm as possible. I'm not going
to say that there's no harm, but we had
it little little negative impact and if
we need to adjust it. Um, I thought
first interm or second interterm made a
lot of sense because that's when we're
doing the budget and kind of looked at
it. It felt like that would be a good
good check-in for that. So, um, thanks
for taking all of that feedback and and
putting that in. Um, you know, and with
that that would, you know, having those
things. Um I I was really in the
committee meeting when you first came
with these proposals. I was actually
really kind of surprised at how much was
able to come from, you know, at the
district side. I I know that where for
special education, we're just adjusting
that budget to what we have right now.
And there's always that chance that, you
know, in the future there might be
something that comes along that has to
adjust that going forward. But I think
that's where we, you know, as a as a
board, we should be thinking about
building up reserves and not necessarily
alloc pre-allocating money for expenses
that we don't have. Um, it's not time to
build up the reserve yet, but, uh, this
will start to put us in that situation.
Um, and I know from being in the
committee, we, you know, specifically
are not talking about some of the really
big levers, um, around, you know, that
that could could change things in the
future, um, you know, around like school
configuration or supplemental uh,
revenue. We're really trying to deal
with the budget that we have right now
and how to set it up for next year. Um I
think our incoming superintendent will
appreciate the work that's gone on here
for sure. Uh so I I'm I'm prepared to
support the proposal uh tonight. Um
having gone through that whole process
and seeing the the feedback, the
incorporation, and really genuinely
listening. I I know it's not perfect.
Um, and I know that there are some
places that have real concerns about
about what's going to hit their site,
but I don't think that we can find um I
I think that this is about as good as it
can get. Um, and does a lot to keep, you
know, keep
focus on the students so that we can
continue to um, you know, achieve uh,
our goal of having happy, healthy
students that are thriving um, you know,
in the Redwood City School District.
Um, I agree with a lot of things that
Mike said and I I do think for sure we
need to be following up to see what the
impact is, especially I know Dr. Baker
you mentioned especially for the guest
teacher a lot of the school sites can
potentially fund it from multiple pools
that they have but at what cost right it
will come at a cost. Um, I think it
would be good for the community and also
for us to just kind of know what those
tradeoffs are and things are fluid. So
maybe, you know, as numbers come in and
other things are happening, we might be
able to kind of make changes as they
come.
>> Right. That's true.
>> So hopefully we we can kind of monitor
this pretty closely. Um, but yeah,
generally, you know, I think it was a a
well designed process and we got the
feedback and I agree with Mike. It was
better than I was kind of expecting.
Um, we're in a tough situation and I
think this is what we got to do.
Um, definitely
um, I support the recommendation, but I
want to say I do not take this lightly.
Um, I do want to say thanks to um, every
member of the committee for the amount
of time, hours, and effort that they put
in. um our parents um and in particular
to our communication department Jorge
and Michelle Redmund um including
Katherine Rivera and her team and I I
mean I want to say I guess everyone um
for all the effort they put in um but
the reason why I want to emphasize Jorge
and Michelle and Katherine and her team
um as Dr. Baker um said this earlier. Um
I have witnessed being part of the um
superintendent advisory committee going
to the Bay sites and actually getting
our parents to actually speak up because
as we all know unfortunately um a lot of
our Latino parents don't perhaps have
the courage to speak up and sometimes
they think that their voice doesn't
matter but I have noticed that and you
you have too um they have been present
and I want them to be aware that we are
here to support them and to listen to
them cuz we hear them, we see them. Um,
and again, it's it's hard to make these
decisions. Um, again, I don't take it
lightly. Um, I do support it and I just
want to say um again, thank you to
everyone. um you know it's it's a tough
decisions that a board has to make when
um we are we find ourselves in a
situation um and situation that we are
in. So um
that's it for me.
>> Yeah. I mean, it's it's tough because on
the one hand, it's it's a spreadsheet
with some numbers, right? And it's like
columns and values and it's real
people's lives under each one of those
things and real impact to them, their
families, the school sites, etc. Um,
also really appreciate the focus on uh
trying to keep the classrooms as
untouched as possible. It's tough to
make cuts like this and it's been a very
thoughtful process where we've engaged
all different parts of the community uh
over months and months and months. So I
I feel like the uh output product there
really does represent a lot of uh
attempts to squeeze a rock to get uh as
much u budget down as we can. Now I what
I want to make sure that we have a a bit
of discussion on as as a board here, you
know, is that um is the gap between what
the committee recommended and the
superintendent's recommendation. And
just when we say we're we're agreeing
with this that we've had at least a
moment to go and and talk over some of
those differences. Um because I I feel
like after this big multimonth process
to go and and hash out what the
different options were, the community
was more or less aligned with uh
district recommendations with just you
know those two gaps, you know, the the
IEP sub coverage uh and and around guest
teachers, right? Um, so
I I feel like with the uh IEP uh sub
coverage that is something that a little
bit more dynamically we might be able to
dial up dial down. Um, is is that about
right? So we
>> you're talking about dialing up and
dialing down. What does that look like?
um adding additional contracted hours if
we if we did it's not a thing that we
would need to do like a year in advance
because
>> you can do it at any time
>> right and that's what I mean by dial it
up dial it down so we we we could decide
hey um we're not getting enough coverage
we need more and then bring in more
coverage coverage responsibly to that
provided that we had the budget right so
that doesn't that on that one I feel
like that doesn't put us in a box to go
and approve prove this because provided
we're checking in, we could say, "Okay,
we we do need more of that." Um, what
I'm a little less clear is is that as
true for the guest teacher side of
things because that doesn't feel like
it's quite as dynamically dial it up,
dial it down kind of a thing. At this
point in time, what we did, um, and
Wendy really, uh, spearheaded this for
me with the guest teachers that we
wanted to maintain since we had the
pandemic, was to,
um, look for those people who may be
interested in going into the teaching
profession, seeking them out, those who
are subs, and going and saying, "If you
do this for us and you're at a certain
school site, right every day for the 180
days we'll put benefits on top of that.
Um so we have a subbudget which does
exist uh in the HR department. So
depending on
and I'm not going to speak for every
school but there are some schools that
are able to absorb the other half but if
there is a school that schools that for
some difficulty
can't because they're just totally
strapped. they don't have the PTAs, they
don't have the PTO's, whatever.
>> Um,
>> we could look that at them individually
and see what we could how we could piece
something together. And when you're
talking about dialing up, you could call
it kind of dial up on a day-to-day basis
if
>> as a sub
>> as a sub.
>> Yeah. Got it.
>> Because we do have a sub budget. But the
the the carrot for these people so that
we would have continuity as was
mentioned previously was the benefits
the benefit part of the package because
substitutes do not get benefits
>> right
>> so even the part even if they remained
let's say the school doesn't
>> is not able to partially fund or we are
not partially funding if they remain a
halftime guest teacher are they still
getting benefits or
>> so depending on how the configuration
would go. We could split them so two
schools would share one person
>> and they would get full benefits.
>> That would be one option. Um, in the
past, we've only offered benefits for
full-time work because the idea is that
the substitute is committing to work at
that school every single day and as a as
a compensation for that commitment, that
full-time benefit was in place. But that
could be an interesting conversation to
have where we split it or look at it a
little bit differently.
because I I can think of two instances
where we have guest teachers where we've
heard from the community that their
removal would cause a meaningful impact.
We heard about Mr. Nelson at MIT.
>> He's the guest teacher.
>> Sorry. So that's separate. That's
>> right. Right. Right. Right.
>> Coordinator.
>> Yes. He's the he's the coordinator. Um
but we heard um we did hear about the uh
Mandarin guest Mandarin being guest
teacher at Right. Um, do we have other
inputs from the community about um,
specific cases where there's guest
teachers where we're pretty sure that
we're going to have to drop budget for
them where we've heard from the
community that that will cause an impact
to the classroom. So, I just want to
make sure we're attendant to the
community here.
Okay,
Mike, how do you think about this when
when we've heard from the community
about g guest teachers and the impact
that that will have on the classroom if
look there's no denial, right? has been
and in some ways has been kind of a
luxury. Like when these guest teachers
were first put in as part of the
response to the COVID pandemic, it was
there were no subs. I mean, it was there
to serve a specific purpose around like
there were literally no subs. These
folks from the district I was still site
one there, but everybody that was
working here at the district office was
actually going out to school sites and
subbing.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and so it was really put in as a
mitigation to solve that. It's awesome
to see how it's expanded out into, you
know, so much more and it's kind of
blossoming into that, but that's not
really where the um the initial intent
of it came. Um, and so it's a it's a
nice luxury and I understand that it's
um, you know, the challenge that it is
particularly if you're dealing with
needing special skills at a site for a
program to match um, and that challenge
is there. But of all the things that
could happen at the site, to me, I think
that dropping from full-time to halftime
is probably the least impactful of the
the changes that could happen there. Um,
so yeah, I do expect that people are
gonna say are gonna feel it and they're
going to see that it's missed. Um, but
is it insurmountable? I don't think so.
No.
>> Okay.
>> You mind if I add? Um, I do have to say
one of the big benefits of the guest
teacher is the relationship that's
formed at the site. The predictability,
the consistency, un knowing parents,
knowing kids, knowing staff,
understanding routines, schedules, all
the things that make up um the
experience at the site. That being said,
and I agree with you, certain situations
require Spanish bilingual or Mandarin or
certain nuances, but I also am very
proud to say that our substitute pool
through all this hard work has increased
dramatically.
So the back in the day, even just a few
years ago, I might add, that was not the
case. We were scrambling for subs. We've
increased our sub rates. were still
pretty high in the in the county, but in
general it was a struggle and we don't
have that problem anymore. So, that's a
good thing. Um the I I don't get any
phone calls from principles about
concerns that a sub hasn't shown or what
have you. However, the benefit of having
someone fully understand the school, the
routines, all those things, principal
could just count on that um in a
moment's notice to to help or to
understand or to work with students that
they've built relationships for has been
a great perk in this situation. Um and
to your point, I just want to point out
that our guest teachers were phenomenal.
They were the learning hub people that
came on campus,
>> right,
>> from the beginning. and some of those
individuals are still with us. Um, some
actually went into credential programs
through Alder that we sponsor. So, it's
been a really rewarding experience. I've
heard great feedback from the guest
teachers themselves in their
introduction into education. Um, but I I
do think in these hard budget times, the
ultimate goal for me has always been
ensuring there is personnel in the
classroom that is worthy for our
children to assist with absences. So
that that dynamic has changed um quite a
bit. So anyway, I just wanted to note
that without the guest teacher, there's
still hope and promise of having that
need fulfilled um in certain situations
for sure to keep that learning
consistent.
I think it would just also be good to
for us to see where this funding is
going to come from from each of the
school sites just to understand the
trade-off we they are making for funding
the full guest teacher. We can get that
information at some point.
Well, you'll probably be seeing it
especially um me what what principles
have been telling me is that they're
using their uh measure U dollars and
then there are some principles that also
have there are some that have the
federal dollars too that can be utilized
in that fashion.
So, it's going to be from different
buckets,
but we I can, you know, find that out
from from them.
So, I feel like I'm hearing from my
peers here that um the sentiment is to
accept the superintendent's
recommendations as presented. Is that
correct?
>> Yeah, I think I and I said this before.
I think that you ran a very very
thoughtful process that listened to
feedback and adjusted in places. Were
all of the adjustments made that
everybody had asked for? No. And I
realize that it's a difficult situation
to be in, but I think that a lot of it
was listened to um you know, from from
community, but also from staff, from
talking with the principles, from going,
you know, and really engaging with the
sites. Um so yeah, I'm I'm supportive of
the superintendent's recommendations.
>> Thank you, Jen. Any other words?
>> I think Wendy also brought something up
um about having high quality instructors
in the classroom. We're going to have
future conversations about having to
spend money on retention for our current
teachers, too. So, it's going to be a
further discussion about how we want to
kind of spend the money. And I think
this is the right thing for now to get
us some some breathing room for future
discussions about our budget.
>> Got it. All right.
Well, um,
let's take a vote on approving the
superintendent's recommendation as
presented. All those in favor?
>> I
Okay,
thank you. And it'll be, you know, for
the next few months definitely bringing
you back more information of where
principles are at what with with what
they're doing. And it's not to say that
you know I am not out there looking for
some grants. So now remember grant money
it's temporary.
>> All right. Um I think we don't have any
discussion items under 14. So we're
moving on to consent items 15. Uh these
are general consent items for members of
the public. This is again where we
approve things that are unlikely to need
discussion. As a reminder, any member of
the board can propose we pull an item
from consent to discuss if they have a
concern or need clarification. A lot of
what you see here today are second
readings of policies, which means that
the board has already had a chance to
weigh in and give feedback. Would
someone like to move that we approve the
consent agenda?
>> So, I'll second.
>> All those in favor?
>> I.
>> All right.
Okay. Next up, our board and
superintendent reports 16.
Who would like to go first?
>> I don't have I don't have anything to
report about this.
>> I um I met with um Robin from RCF. She's
working on a project for them. Um it
just made me realize how little I know
of RCF and it sounds like they're going
to be coming
>> in the near term to give a presentation.
Um so looking forward to see how we can
support their their um goals and
initiatives this year.
>> Awesome. I've also chatted with RCA. So
cool. Um yeah, I've also personally
begun reaching out to the PTO groups um
and parent leaders just to, you know, do
a little listening tour with them and
I'll report back my findings.
Cool. Right. Any other superintendent?
Uh the only thing to report is I was at
the chamber meeting today and the as as
I said previously there were um four of
the superintendent that uh we feed into
the Sequoia High School district. The
superintendent from Sequoia and the
three of us that the children feed in.
And we did learn that um
that vehicle license fee we're going to
have to start talking about it with the
board. So, that's a future item that may
impact us down the road,
especially those of us who are community
funded. Um, and then the other piece I
learned is there's $59 million
coming from the state to assist with
special ed.
So, we heard that from um Joan Denton
that she's, you know, uh Becker's uh
assistant. So, she was there talking
about that. So, good to know. So we
we're figuring how many districts in the
state and is it according to population
or how are they going to divide that? So
that that would be helpful, very
helpful. Other than that, um that's it.
>> All right. And so now we're on to
information. Um so just so members of
the public are aware, Redwood City
School District includes several charter
schools, Connect Kip, and Rocket Ship.
While the district doesn't operate these
schools directly, they serve students in
our area and are funded by taxpayers.
So, we have an oversight role to make
sure that they're being run well.
There's a lot of public schools and
charter there's a lot that public
schools and charters can learn from each
other in terms of what practices we're
finding effective for helping students.
And while public charter relationships
can sometimes be awkward, I have really
appreciated the collegial spirit of
sharing partnership and inquiry from
charters in our district. We'll be
reviewing interim financials for all
three today and audit reports for KIP
and Rocket Ship.
Rick, are you
okay?
>> All right,
>> this is presented as information.
>> Okay, great. So, just members of the
public, if you are interested in the
first interim financials and the audit
reports for uh Kip and Rocket Ship, is
there an audit report pending for
connect?
>> We just received there's a request of an
extension that we granted and it came in
last week, but will be coming to the
board in March.
>> Okay. Well, nothing to discuss, but
there's pages and pages of uh details
and audits there. So, all right.
All right. Next up is correspondence.
Anyone on the board receive interesting
correspondence?
No. Okay. Um,
other business
suggested items for future agendas.
>> Yes. Yes. Yes.
>> We need to hold um a a special board
meeting on the 25th of February. It's a
Wednesday. Mhm.
>> The reason for this board meeting is for
us to
move forward with the approval of a
parcel tax
discussion and also a sharing of
information.
At next week's board meeting, you will
be receiving a draft of language for the
ballot and draft for the resolution.
And then we would like to share with our
community and the public what the um
if the parcel tax were to pass the
amounts of dollars that our schools
would be receiving on an individual
basis.
So next week we will present that and
then the not the following because
that's president's week but the week
after is bringing back approval to move
forward with the parcel tax to approve
the ballot language and to approve the
resolution.
So I need a meeting on the 25th. It's a
special if you want we can start at 6
because it's a special meeting. I just
need to let the public know in far in
advance.
>> What would be most convenient for staff?
>> Six o'clock would be great.
>> Yeah, I'm okay with having a meeting at
6 p.m. on Wednesday the 25th. Other Yep.
Jen, does that work? Okay. I think
you've got blessing from the board to
have it be at 6 p.m.
>> Perfect.
>> Yeah. Anything else? Other business
suggested items for future agenda? No.
And just as a reminder to members of the
public, if you're curious what we're
going to be talking about when, this is
an attachment item for item number 19,
you can see a PDF there and a full
repertoire of all of our stuff we're
talking about through the school year.
All right, next up is meeting
reflection.
How'd that go?
Well,
I I I I got I got cheddar in a prior
meeting for like you really have to cut
folks off at three minutes and I'm
trying to hold myself accountable for
that.
Thank you, Tread.
I guess I want to say I appreciate the
fact that today you didn't perhaps just
like called on us and you just kind of
freely had
us just flowing and saying whatever we
wanted to say when we wanted to say it.
And not to say that when you do that you
like for example put people on a on a
spot. It just feels different. So I
appreciate that. So thank you
I don't have anything specific. I think
it ran smoothly. Um, particularly
considering the topics that were here.
So, yeah.
>> Awesome.
>> Okay, great. Um, I did notice the uh we
had some issues with the the clock not
counting up at one point. Um, but it's
fine. Um, I want to make sure the we had
a we had a group of like Hispanic moms
in the corner who all left. Um, were
they accommodated? Was that like a
technical issue or like
>> No, no, I think they I think one was a
driver and she had to go, so she was
taking everything.
>> Yeah.
>> Got it. Got it. Got it. I just wanted to
make sure we they felt welcome and we're
getting all the supports they need.
>> Okay, cool. Um,
and just have we um have we done Zoom
slide control so that folks can I I'll
circle up with you guys after the
meeting because like it's possible to
give multiple presenters the ability to
advance slides. It's really cool trick.
Okay. All right.
>> I don't know that trick.
>> All right. And we'll figure a whole
music later. Okay. Uh, next up is a
meeting calendar. Um, I unfortunately
I'm really sorry board. I can't make
next week. Um I have a uh unavoidable
work conflict. So um vice president will
be standing in and hopefully either
David Lee will be back in or nobody else
will be missing that also because we
need to have Gorum. Um
everybody else planning on being here
next Wednesday. Sweet. Okay. Do we know
if Trusty Le will be back in action or
a little a little sleepy? Okay.
Hopefully we don't put anything too
heavy on him next week. Okay. Again, my
my sincere apologies that that didn't
work. Okay. Any other calendar changes?
Um I think yeah, we've got the closed
meeting that we just had, but any other
calendar changes than that or
>> just the February 25th that Dr. Baker
just brought up.
>> February 25th at 6 PM. That's right.
Cool. Okay. And that brings us to the
end of our meeting. Would somebody like
to move that we adjourn?
I move that we adjourn.
>> Second.
>> All those in favor? I
>> I the motion carries. Good evening
everyone.