we're gonna go ahead and get started um
Evelyn can we have a roll call
please trusty Marquez here trusty
Weekley present trusty mavo I'm present
too vice president Wells here president
Lawson here um okay we have a report out
on closed session from April 17th this
item was not on the agenda however Ed
code 35491
D allows the board to meet at any time
to discuss issues related to
negotiations the board met this evening
to discuss ongoing negoti negotiations
with rcta and provideed direction to
staff
um Uno
qu Uno numo
par don't think we have anybody in the
room that needs Spanish
translation um if you wish to speak to
the board on a subject listed on the
agenda you'll be called on at the time
the hi I skipped a paragraph the public
is encouraged to speak to the board on
issues of concern whether or not the
issue is on the agenda to address the
board please complete a speaker's card
available at the entrance to the room
and you can hand it to Evelyn um or if
you are online you can F out a a Google
doc that's attached it's on the agenda I
think
right um
okay do we have any changes to the
agenda then we need a motion to approve
I'll move to approve the agenda seconded
thank you um all those in favor I I Alan
do we have any oral
communication no oral communication
thank you so that brings us to um Bond
program action item 6.1 measure s
program
update uh good evening uh tonight uh we
have Eric velt from velt Construction
Services who uh has prepared a
presentation on the status of major s
where we're at uh where we've been where
we're at and where we're going uh as
well to talk about uh briefly key
analytics as our bond tracking software
program uh moving forward so with that I
will turn it over to Eric and I'm going
to share my
screen there we go thank you uh good
evening board good evening uh staff
superintendent and public I thank you
for the introduction Rick um I
appreciate that so we're going to run
through the side deck here and we'll
talk a little bit about exactly what
Rick was talking about so Rick if you
can go to the next
slide um the agenda tonight is we're
going to look and I'm going to talk a
little bit about the team that you're
going to see here here at uh Redwood um
what progress we've made since we've
last meet the bond Financial uh system
that we'll be talking about with which
is Keystone and then the education
educating our community Through The
Master planning process and the next
steps we can go to the next slide
please awesome so my name as I stated
and has Rick introduced me is Eric velt
I'm the vice president of velt
Construction Services um our firm has
been in business for over
27 years now doing construction
management almost exclusively for K12
school districts in the state of
California um so we're very excited to
be a part of the bond program um you
will see Kelly jurgenson Jennifer Gibb
Ben cerr and
Andy Angie um as the key members of the
team as we get more construction
projects going the team will e and flow
and increase with staff so th those are
the folks from our team that you will
see on a regular basis Rick if you can
go to the next slide
so since we've last met we put in some
uh some work with Rick and his team and
other members of the district um we had
our a kickoff meeting for the bond where
we discussed procedures processes and
plans for how we're going to kick the
bond off and get projects moving um
we're having bi-weekly meetings um where
we're reviewing with the team mainly uh
Martin and Rick at this point And
discussing all of these items as well um
additionally uh we reviewed the finan
fincial
system which we'll be presenting tonight
as well and we talked about quick start
projects um we are currently walking all
the sites in your District looking at
Energy Efficiency projects related to
lighting with Martin and his team um as
potentially one of the quick start
projects we've also issued an RFP um we
received over 23 uh responses to that
RFP uh from architectural firms around
the state and um we've narrowed that
down and at the next board meeting you
will see the pool for those Architects
uh coming to coming in front of you for
approval we also have had a procedures
workshop with Rick and his team where
we've talked about different Bond
procedures to make sure that we stay on
track and make sure that we stay uh in
line with current laws and regul
regulations related to the bond program
and prop
39 and then we've done uh campus uh site
reviews with Martin and his team where
we've reviewed the good work that been
done with T already and what the status
of the current campuses are and then
we've also had the pleasure of attending
our First Citizens Bond oversight
committee meeting um where we met with
the committee there and discuss
processes going forward for measure s
and um spoke with all the staff that
attend that meeting as well next
slide so I'm going to talk a little bit
about the financial system and process
which um is part of this item as well um
the first thing I'll say is that the uh
the selection of the financial software
um that we are presenting to the board
for approval tonight is Keystone systems
um that Financial software is a it's a
robust piece of software that manages
Bond programs um that that helps manage
the financial side of bond programs also
the document control and workflow
systems um so not only will this manage
the finance and and the key thing one of
the key things about key analytics um
which is the product that Keystone makes
that they do extremely well is their
integration with your existing Financial
Software System so your financial
Software System um Financial 2000 right
now it does not necessarily provide all
the information that you need in a
construction or a bond program
environment so what this system does is
it integrates that with that and it
pulls the information from that and
translate it translates it into this
multi-year Bond program and allows us to
see that track provide different
reporting mechanisms and also the
biggest thing is it's a risk reduction
um for the team and for the district
because making this automated reduces
risk of double input data entry all
those things that happen when you work
off spreadsheets that are tough when you
have a bond of this size if you were to
if you were to do something manually
like that you would have issues the
other thing that comes up with the
software is it also has some great
workflow uh workflow pieces where we can
can put in different documents do
approvals through the software it will
house all the documents for your bond
program so when audit time comes around
we'll have them all easily accessible
for the auditor um also when we go for
State funding money um and we need to
submit financials and backgrounds for
all of those projects it'll also house
all that information we'll also be able
to do cash flow projections to know when
the next sale of bonds is going to be
required and when we as a team are going
to start initiating that
process um that those were the key
factors in the selection of Keystone um
they have there's several different
softwares out there that that do this
Keystone is one of the only ones that
has the automated process that doesn't
require the double input that was one of
the big selling points to uh to the
group that reviewed the different
options um that risk reduction piece is
is really huge for the group um they
also do a at the end of each month they
do Recon ilation process too and that
that's another key piece yes that that
does reduce risk to do do it automated
but there's also errors sometimes in
data when it transfers from program to
program so Keystone they go through it
manually their firm does line item by
line item and confirms that the data
transferred over com properly and
completely so that's really a really
important piece for compliance related
to the Audits and our state funding
submissions when that time comes
um so the next piece is we're going to
we're going to talk about where we're
going so really a lot of the talk over
the next month is going to be about
Community engagement um we're bringing
the firm the the uh the firms for the
architecture pool to you at the next
board meeting for approval from that
pool we'll be also selecting a architect
to perform the master plan um update
your uh your district has not had a
Master Plan update in over five years
and we recommend that you do that at
that that interval um because things
change with your facilities things
change with not only your facilities but
it also things change with education and
things change with laws um and
regulations so when those laws and
regulations come sometimes your master
plan process needs sometimes your
facilities needs to morph with those
laws and
regulations sometimes the changes in
your facilities require different
facilities projects so part of that this
is going to be a huge effort over the ne
the coming months to get out and engage
the community engage the staff make sure
that everybody's voice is heard so we
can develop a facilities master plan
that is helpful to the district um in in
uh e executing their educational process
um that because that that that's what
we're looking at you go to the next
slide
Rick these are some of the examples of
what we've done at other districts and
you can see engagement with staff there
you can see updated websites talking
about the projects that were performing
at other districts you can see the group
meetings that we're holding where we're
doing presentations on it and that is
actually a master planning process where
we engaged uh Community public staff
students even to get input from all of
those staff members and what we really
like to like to do here is we like to
let Data Drive the decisions we can go
out and we can get this information from
staff we can go get it from
administrators we can go get it from
anybody in the community and then we'll
have data to help provide
decision-making processes for the
facilities commit for the facilities
committee and the
board um and also we're we're going to
will you will see some consistent
messaging and some active out Outreach
so what that means is we want to stay on
task as a team and make sure that that
messaging for the master plan is
consistent throughout the entire uh the
entire district one of the things that
always causes problems is school X
School y they hear different things in
their meeting then we got then we create
some kind of panic and some differ of
opinions we want to make sure
everybody's hearing the same thing and
that's why in that previous side when
you saw those different communication
tools that we're going to use we're
going to Blitz people with communication
we're going to let people know what
we're doing where we're at at all times
be available to talk through this
process with our architectural
Partners next slide
rck again these are just some examples
of the the community engagement you'll
see even when we get into the
construction process we'll also be
engaging with the community you'll see
in the bottom left and in the upper
right those are some examples of some
implementation plans and what an
implementation plan is undoubtedly when
we do the master plan there will be more
needs in the district than there will be
money available in the bond that's that
every school district in the state of
California has that problem but we will
then take the master plan and develop
what's called an implementation plan and
we will use the implementation plan to
prioritize
the projects in the master plan to the
funding that is available with the bond
measure go the next slide Rick thank you
so next steps um like I said tonight
we're asking for approval of the
financial system for the bond program
and there's also without diving too deep
into an agenda item that you guys have
had in front of you but there were some
pretty significant discounts of about
$40,000 that we were able to work work
with the team and negotiate
throughout the life of this software
package so we were asking for approval
of that tonight and that will allow us
to start the foundation for the
financial recordkeeping for the bond
program at the May 8th board meeting we
will bring forward the pool of
Architects and we will also bring
forward the proposal for the master plan
um for The Architects to um uh perform
the master plan and alongside with our
team um we're also working with the
citizens Bond oversight committee one of
the items that they asked us in the
first meeting that we attended was to
bring some best P best practices from
other districts that we work in forward
to the team so we will be doing that and
then we're going to do some summer uh
summer we've got the summer that's going
to come up it's going to be big so we
will be doing Master planning all
through the summer and then engaging
that Comm engaging the community that
way and before the summer because we'll
get a little bit in prior to the summer
ending and then we'll also be executing
any quick started projects that the
board approves as we continue working
with Martin and
Rick next
slide so with that I know I gave a lot
of questions in a short amount of time
but I was trying to be concise for you
um and if you have any questions please
feel
free thanks Eric for coming tonight and
also for you're you and your team being
at the bond oversight committee uh
meeting that was really really
informative there um
so yeah just on the accounting program
since that's the one that we're the
financial System since that's the one
we're actually looking to approve Rick
you were involved in the selection
process for this can you just like how
how is it an upgrade from accountability
and maybe what's the um how does it
compare in cost and functionality I
guess yeah yeah cost uh roughly probably
the same over the period of time uh
maybe a little less expensive uh
compared to the last couple of contracts
with accountability uh really and Eric
touched on it there's a lot of Double
Entry between accountability and then
our own system where our financial
system now will continue to be the
authority uh funneling data into uh key
analytics for um slicing and dicing and
being able to provide uh accurate uh
information for what we'll need on the
district and and bond program side as
well as what goes to the cboc and to uh
the Board of Trustees
uh another thing uh with accountability
is it was uh for lack of a better ter it
was very archaic it was an old system
built on uh Excel 97 I believe and then
just on top on top on top on top uh and
it wasn't fully integrated with other
platforms um Dr Baker can certainly
attest to getting emails with uh you
know five to 40 attachments for
Signature because there was no automated
process
um and the reason why I know he got
those because I got them as well um and
having to go through that where we can
uh facilitate a different way of doing
business in order to streamline process
and procedure uh and key analytics uh
will allow us to do that uh right now uh
it doesn't talk as well as we would like
it to with financial
2000 um the others certainly didn't talk
at all with it uh the county as you may
or may not know sicilly you probably
know is moving to um Escape or the
Frontline Erp Solution on July 1 125
where this product will integrate even
more with that uh in a more automated
fashion than we can do now so we're
really looking at this as a key tracking
component of the bond program but also
trying to alleviate some of the strain
on different departments within the
district who have had to manually enter
uh and reconcile through uh the other
system yeah that's really helpful um
just to have that frame of reference of
like is this a fair contract price and
things like that is great cool great
thanks I'm really looking forward Eric
to uh working with Van pal and seeing
the community engagement and sort of the
facility master plan being Revisited and
and getting these construction projects
underway
thanks hello Eric thank you for being
here how you doing um yeah thanks for
the additional information on key
analytics and I would say also I mean
you sort of said this but it's worth
saying again it sounds like there'll be
a lot of cost savings just from our
staff right and then they can be using
that time on higher priority items so
that's awesome because you know looking
for those wins um I did have a question
have have Eric have you used the key
analytics or the you were calling it
Keystone and you're calling it key and
it's
keyan yeah okay the name Chang
you actually used the system yes ma'am
we're using it I believe we're in 28
districts right now and I believe we're
using it in nine of our 28 districts so
we we and members of the actual team
that are working at Redwood uh do have
experience with the software and we uh
it's it's one of the top ones that we
like to use in around for exactly the
reasons that Rick and I said great great
thank you and then um my other kind of
comments are around the facility master
plan it sounds s like a great process
it's kind of similar to what we
did I was trying to remember what year
that was was it 2013
2014 because we did a we did a very big
facility but it even sounds like you
have more Community involvement which is
great I really feel like particularly
the neighbors around our school sites
they have a lot to say about what's
going on there so I think it is
important to get the community input not
just the parents and students and staff
which is also really important so that's
great anyway I really like the way you
talked about and I agree I think it's
time to fully update it because we kind
of did a minor update five years ago we
certainly did you know a look at it
prior to going forward with the bond but
it's time to sort of do more details
particularly with all the new you know
everything going on so absolutely so
that'll be money well spent I think and
time will spent I did have a question
just about do you have an completion
time frame you have a start time frame I
think in the or working through the
summer but so uh when we come to you
with the uh proposal from the architect
it's one of the things we work hand in
hand with the architect in okay so I I I
hesitate to give you an exact date right
here um until we've been able to work
with them and chat with them and put
together a schedule but we will
definitely bring that with the item that
we bring for their selection at the next
board item Bo board meeting excuse me
great and then my only other comment is
on quick start projects I'm curious if
um you know a couple of our schools got
some outdoor classrooms right towards
the end because we had the reserve money
and then of course some of our schools
got the bigger nice outdoor
amphitheaters and other things through
the LA last spa measure so I only bring
that up if there's opportunities for
some of these smaller outdoor classrooms
that may be good right for quick starts
because I the big issue of course is the
uh California DSA D yeah DSA yeah DSA um
and so you know anything that's physical
that's just going to take a longer time
we know that so because you have to get
all these approvals so anyway I just
bring that up I don't know if there's
some things like you know whether it's
the foundation for the gardens or the
outdoor classrooms or things like that
okay we will take a look at those thank
you ma' yeah sure a little bit of a
random question but I noticed that the
contract is with c financial investment
Incorporated uh which is DBA key
analytics and I could find precious
little online about c financial
investment Incorporated um could you
tell me a little bit more about the
entity that's behind key
analytics I cannot I mean I can tell you
that I've worked with key analytics and
Keystone the product for for a while but
the c financial cor I did know that they
that was their their name but I do not
know too much more about them I I I
could not give you any any great
information about them Rick can yeah I
was gonna say Rick Rick probably can
yeah and just so I I have worked with
key analytics
previously uh although some of the some
of the stuff they have now was not
available when I worked with them
especially the document management and
the automation so that's new uh that I'm
eager to use with them uh c financial is
California Financial Services uh that
does uh a lot of bond
consultation uh and Municipal M
Municipal work and they're based out of
Northern California it's part of the
reason why I ask is just like if I I
could imagine if we get like halfway
through this program and then the vendor
evaporates in a puff of smoke like that
could leave us in a very awkward
position so do we have any like
assurances are there escrow procedures
like if they go if they were to go under
that we have some way of going forward
and just don't end up holding the bag in
terms of just the financial software
yeah that's right uh no I think uh I
think California Financial Services uh I
think they've been around since the late
70s yeah um and certainly uh knowing the
company I know them somewhat not uh
extensively uh I don't think they'd
leave us hanging
if they they they've been around this is
not like some random it's not a random
okay great I was just curious because I
was looking at the corporate entity I
could find so little so appreciate that
thank
you cilia did you have any comments or
questions I don't have any questions
just a comment um same as Mike and and
Alysa mentioned um communication is a
big thing so I do really uh feel
confident that you guys are do you know
starting with the right foot so I really
appreciate it so looking forward to
doing business with you thank you man
thank you for being here Eric um I think
I mean we talking about the software
alone it's
thank you for the information on it it
sounds like it's the same price or
cheaper it's modernized it's timesaving
for the staff so it's like a no-brainer
um and I appreciate the the work on that
um regarding the facilities Master Plan
Eric you were talking about some of the
things that have changed over time and
you talked about laws and whatnot you
didn't mention climate um and I that's a
huge one from when the facilities master
plan was done in 2014 I wasn't on the
board at the time but I was a parent and
I did go to those meetings and I know
safety was number one every parent said
we want Gates around our schools we want
locks on the doors that lock from the
inside that was the whole Focus climate
wasn't really talked about at all and I
know that that's a huge issue now for
parents and so that's going to come up a
lot absolutely especially in this region
um we've we had there was this uh this
saying warm safe and dry that's that's
the first thing that we want it's now
changed to cool warm safe and dry
because of the times that we live in
right now so I absolutely agree with
with you and and that we'll make sure
that that's part of the discussion
whenever we meet yeah um go ahead you
know just real quick on that I don't
know if you want to speak to it because
I know it's something that parents and
students and teachers well all our staff
have gotten to us about cooling because
you know we are going to come up to the
hotter time frame and I think we had
hoped to do some more quick start around
that but I think in talking to you it
may not happen as quickly as we want so
I don't know if you want to speak to
that because I'm sure the public will be
interested particularly the people in
the classrooms because come May we're
going to be hearing from everybody and
and we had hoped to maybe have done
something by now but I know it was more
complicated than we thought it it
definitely is and you touched a little
bit on it with the DSA portion yeah
adding cooling to class rooms into
buildings throughout your district is
going to require DSA approval and that
that is a process so that is a process
that um that's kind of what prevents you
from doing that really quickly and and
getting that out in front but like I
said it's this isn't the end of the
Quick Start discussion the master plan I
I told you I didn't have a hard time
frame but it's going to take months but
as we discuss it there's going to be
these ideas that cultivate their way to
the top of the list and it's just like
there's going to be ideas like cooling
that are going to be like that's
definitely going to be a part of this
Bond program let's start designing it
let's start getting ready to get into
DSA and let's start moving moving it
forward so those type of ideas that
they're definitely going to cultivate to
the top of that process and I I think
it's going to be I think it'll it'll be
good and we'll be able to rolled out as
fast as possible um to get to get that
out okay sorry it was just on the same
idea um that was all I had so okay yeah
thank you for bringing that up
good thank you Eric um my question as
you move forward with the Architects um
you know all school districts I I should
say 3K well now it's TK through 8th
grade we're all worri not worried but
we're working with with preschool kids
now absolutely and it's a mandate and
many of our class and we are increasing
in TK and I do not we do not have
classrooms with bathrooms so I'm sure
you're going to hear a lot about that um
as far as with our staff they have been
saying aren't we supposed to be in a
classroom with the bathroom yeah
eventually yes but right now we're not
able to do that so we're getting you to
a close proximity um to a bathroom so
just keep that in your mind because I
know you're going to hear about it ABS
absolutely and when I when I mentioned
laws and regulations that was the one
that was in my head was the that TK
mandate so um and it's not you're you're
not in a different position than all 29
of the other school districts that we
work in it's a major part of everybody's
master plan it's a major discussion
that's happening on all levels 2K AC
solar batteries and I'm happy absolutely
you got
it if there's no other comments or
questions this is an action item
so we would need a motion to
approve I move to
approve I'll second all those in favor I
I thank you Eric thank you very much for
being here thank you very much the
work on to item 7.1 special education
study report presentation
very good come on up an Miss anginette
petzer we're fortunate to have angenette
Pelzer with us tonight and you know she
has now she used to be the director of
Salpa for the Sano County of education
for many years and then she left us uh
for better bigger and better things and
uh different things okay different
things microphone's off if you can press
the button on the okay and she is going
to present us with a study that she
did in during the fall early fall I
would say during the early fall and so
andette thank you so much again for
coming this evening and also preparing
the study and meeting with us uh after
you had meetings with special ed of
course with our cabinet and us moving
forward now with our next steps so thank
you Dr Baker I'm really happy to be here
I I got a invitation to join as a
panelist and I was like I'm going in
person I hope that's
okay so I'm glad to be here in person
it's an honor to be here with you today
nice to see you all hello trustees um
thank you for having me uh today I'm
here representing uh myself and my
colleague lenet Hodson we were here to
do the special education study with um
your staff as Dr Baker noted and uh we
really really enjoyed being here not
only because I had been to many so many
of your schools before for the pandemic
um but also because it is just lovely to
to see the great work continuing and so
so many of the initiatives that you had
started when I was here and was aware of
what you're doing and how they they're
continuing and starting to show results
so um thank you for the invit uh
invitation and introduction I am Anette
pelleter and I'm working at school
Services of California now and uh we
were invited to come to the district to
do a special education study uh first um
Mr Ed Edson contacted us and and talked
with us about that and then we quickly
spoke with um cabinet members and with
your Special Education team about what
were your goals and what were your areas
of of interest for that special
education
study and like all leas you all have
been faced with the fiscal challenges of
operating high quality special education
programs along with the people
challenges of operating highquality
special education programs and for many
of us those are going hand inand it's
been very challenging to find staff to
keep staff um and uh the costs of hiring
um staff outside of employees contracted
and service providers has become
necessary across the state and it's
quite costly so uh we were here to um
look with your with your team at where
they're headed where they want to be and
what might be some of the
recommendations along that Journey
in terms of uh the scope and methodology
we gathered uh more data than I think
your District realized that they could
generate about um their program and uh
costs and expenditures and activities
and people um and then we also looked at
Statewide comparative data to a uh group
of districts that were like yours um so
basic Aid districts uh with similar up
similar um enrollment so I'm sorry I
said up similar unduplicated pupil
population percentage um and Sim similar
enrollment size um so that we could have
comparable closer to comparing Apples to
Apples and then we also engaged um in
both site visits and interviews with a
broad variety of Interest holders from
um the staff on sites in the classrooms
with your students um to members of your
septar so your special education parent
teacher um group for for uh for the
district so we're really happy to have
so much um excellent
input we organize our report um in these
five areas uh sort of looking at um
organization and Effectiveness and how
all aspects of the district um
leadership and culture lead into how
your special education department
leaders can support the program and then
we also look at uh revenues and
expenditures because that's usually one
of the drivers for why we're here and
then we look at Cost drivers for special
education expenditure because often here
is where we find that our work is not
just solely focused on special ed
because of the systemic nature of our
educational programs that means we need
to look at pre-referral early
intervention uh your best teaching
that's going on in your in your
classrooms implementation of the
curriculum that you've selected your
multi-tiered system of support um and
all the way through the variety of
supports and resources that could be
available to students as they exit
special education so we ended up not
just looking at special ed but also what
happens before how students are referred
um and also what other resources are
available on campuses and then we look
at um opportunities for alignment as
well because we're all doing so much
work we no longer can be doing all those
Works in isolation we need to really be
having our lcap Drive um our and our
lcap and and which is also your
strategic plan sort of drive all of the
work and or monitoring that must occur
for a district and then we look at
special education Staffing as
well um so for us I'm just gonna tilt
this way a little bit because my I've
got my glasses on and this is like a
weird
angle um so for us we really um took a
look at your lcap and all of the
different compliance monitoring that you
have been participants in to see where
those opportunities for alignment exist
or where they're already in um evidence
and we know that you have um you know
the the these Mission and core values um
language as a deeply embedded part of
what your staff um believe and what you
as a board support and what we really
really wanted to start with as a as an
acknowledgement or a kudos to the
district is you really are farther along
in many ways in many components of those
various aspects of insuring Equitable
access to educational opportunities in
in really a commitment to your
multi-tier systems of support you have
made um efforts to make those
commitments to social emotional learning
and Behavioral Health within your
systems for all students which includes
your students with disabilities um and
we it was really clear to us that
everyone even as everyone said Co has
put us behind there are some things we
need to redo some things we might need
to re-engage with or because of Staff
we've lost we need to um have a have a
ramp up with new staff um even though we
had all of those things there still was
evidence that that the that your
students are receiving high quality
instruction and that there are lots of
initiatives underway uh in many ways we
were sort of worried that the special ed
te might not have enough hands to keep
all those balls in the air because
there's a lot of things going on and the
um amount of of systemic focus and
agreement that we focus on students
first we do what needs to be done we are
here to make sure that they get those
supplemental supports and services was
was a was a constant theme um and one of
the things that we heard over and over
was oh we're so busy there's so much to
do like I'm having to prioritize and
sometimes things get left behind but we
never heard anybody say we can't do this
it can't be done and so that was um
really uh lovely to be here
um in terms of special education program
strengths I I it's a light bulb so it's
yellow it's kind of hard to read but um
in that light bulb are words that your
parents your staff your principes um
people within your system used to
describe your special education program
so the the system itself is reflecting
and grateful for those within the
special education department and the uh
implementers of that program
that they are coming to that with so
many positive qualities there was many
strengths and assets um noted you you
have veteran staff who are really
committed to being supports to others
you have a tremendous amount of
collegiality and um people who love
working together um and there was really
just a lot of
um uh e excellence and um and uh
thankfulness for the the skills of your
leaders um that people were like you
know we know that they at the time we
were here some of them were very new um
and um there was just a lot of of
noticing that people were here being in
trying their best working with us coming
to our sites getting to know our
students um so that's really great we
also noticed that many of the sites have
very strong inclusive practices in their
system um and that they have many of the
sites where you have history we have
people who been around they say you know
I know where to get what I want and how
to get and I know who to contact and so
um your system has really strong
foundations so a little bit backwards to
the district data um a as we get into
areas where we um did some analysis and
and things we found um your District as
you know has been experiencing some
declining enrollment over the past 11
years and it's hasn't been precipitous
but it's definitely impacted you um in
terms of the number of students you have
um and um what is uh interesting about
that is your enrollment with students
with disabilities count has also
actually inched down during that time
not as dramatic of a decrease as your
enrollment but in many places where
we're going we are seeing the number of
students with disabilities count rise as
your enrollment declin I can't do it
from here but we're seeing the
enrollment Decline and a rise in
students with disabilities and so um
there are many things that there are um
positives about your referrals and your
assessments that mean that your your
staff are ensuring that they're only
making eligible those students who
really truly need to be eligible for
special education and you have resources
available to support Learners who need
additional things outside of special ed
and that's one of the main things we're
often looking
for um as you can see here your percent
of enrollment um is higher than the
Statewide average and for 2122 that was
13.44% was the average percentage of
enrollment um were students with
disabilities and your district has been
outpacing that average um since 1718 but
again as you can see your percentage
actually has declined some from 1920 and
it's you know it's not um it's not
growing exponentially so it's something
we want to Monitor and keep an eye on
but it it is um doesn't seem to be out
of control in terms of comparative to
other
districts so here is uh for I'm not
going to read all these words but we
start these we have on these
presentations sort of the standard of
what we're looking for when we're
looking in each um area of of study and
assessment and so for organizational
Effectiveness we're really looking for
all those things that must be true so
the program can do their job and do
their job well and that is the
curriculum and materials and supplies
um and it's the staff members themselves
and support at the site it's also the
support from the Department um to and
the program leaders but it also includes
the support they get from the other
members of your departments your HR
department's partnership your um the
business services Transportation Ed um
curriculum and instruction ed services
all of those components must be
available and within your and and
everyone has to be kind of pointed in
the same direction to really implement
um what we call a culture of inclusion
and so these are the things that we're
we're really looking
for and so when we um looked into and
interviewed so many people within your
system we did find that there's a lot of
um student focused student centered um
work going on there were are a lot of
new staff this year especially you had
um you know you achieved what many
districts were jealous of you were fully
staffed um but many of them were new to
the country or new to California and so
therefore had some learning to do about
IEPs or the safe system or your um you
know requirements for um educating but
in terms of you know filling vacancies
you had many many many of your vacancies
filled quite early um so th those are
both opportunities and challenges I
think way better than having tons of
classrooms with with 20-day Subs right
we don't want substitutes you had
consistent Educators um so what we noted
really was that um with so many new
people and you had new leadership that
people were saying I'm not really sure
where where to get information about
what I'm supposed to do policies and
procedures were things that people said
they they wish they knew where to find
them sooner and with more clarity um
there also was um although there have
been efforts to increase communication
many people by the when we were here
were sort of like I still haven't heard
what I'm supposed to be doing so people
were clamoring for some of that
communication that I know your Special
Education team um had put into place and
had planned um everyone at the time we
were here and I believe up until the
time we wrote the report um everyone was
saying that there was just so many
behavioral um and Behavioral Health and
social emotional needs not just within
special education but within your system
and in special education they were
especially um at at a crisis level so
those were the the things that people
really were asking for um they noted
that that there was so much work being
done to give them curriculum to give
them resources to give them strategies
and that they really just needed time um
for
implementation um so what we recommended
was um you know you had had a a set of
District policies in the in that were in
the process of being updated and just
really making sure that people know
where to get them and that they're
implemented um consistently especially
around getting individualized behavioral
support at the time we were here you you
were in a little bit of a crisis
situation with new new Educators
students coming back to school a really
consistent repetitive demand for new
AIDS but they were asking HR to generate
people we need more more staff in the
classroom but it it um it it does seem
that there needs to really be a really
clear policy and practice around that
and then making sure that everyone has
good training we want everybody to be
able to support the behavioral needs of
students not just an aid or a
contractor um again in in the area of
Revenue and expenditure we really are
sort of um looking big picture about how
um lcff has changed the landscape in in
in education the way special education
is being funded has shifted in the last
five years uh you are a you know a basic
Aid District so you have you know your
your level of funding but you still
receive special education funding based
on your total funded Ada Your Average
daily attendance and so um th those
revenues have increased but have not
kept pace with costs and so how do we
make sure that you are being the most um
efficient effective and fiscally
responsible and ensuring you have a
sustainable program and so when we
looked at your revenue and expenditure
we see that you were the second highest
in program Revenue um in with your
comparable group um so you can see here
that we um use some Regional districts
and some a little bit farther away we
also did all elementary districts in the
state just so that you could see there
that's the all Elementary District um
line and so overall your um Revenue
which is that um that blue dark blue bar
is this is was the second in the comp
second highest in the comparable group
um but then your contribution was also
the second highest and so that we
believe is likely due to the fact that
your contracted cost ended up being so
high if you had been able to function at
the budgeted amount of staff and had
employees instead of contractors then
you your contribution would likely have
been lower contractors are much more
costly than employees um and your HR
department just like many others was
just not able to find some of those
critical positions as employees
psychologist a speech Specialists
Behavior AIDS um so and those those are
costs that um increased your
contribution
in terms of expenditure um you can see
here that you know comparatively you're
right around the Statewide average for
certificated salaries um spending you're
a little bit higher um than the
comparative district and the Statewide
average for classified salaries you have
more AIDS than many of the other
comparable districts um there definitely
is something we worked with um this the
leadership team on a a perception of I
need more adults in my room um even
though maybe all those adults aren't
getting the results that we want for our
students and so um we we we talked with
the team about some ways to really think
about mitigating that that sense of
scarcity or demand even when there's
five people in that room um so um you
know what we noted is that um you like
everyone else spend the majority of your
money on people um in your District you
are spending a lot of of money on people
who are not your employees Services is
contracted service providers um and so
it's much higher than um your
comparative group and the Statewide
average um and it it is something that
um definitely needs uh close attention
and hopefully building capacity of your
employees so that you don't rely on um
on contractors and one of the things
that appears to be happening is your
parents and maybe even your site
principles and your and your classroom
teachers are like well I need a I need
an aid who's trained and so then you're
paying
6070 for an aid who's trained but what
we're realizing is that training is not
worth 70 or 60 60 or $70 and you could
do that training and so I've seen uh
mave and the team talking about how we
can train the people that we that we
hire so that we can be that Excellence
so that when a par parent says I need a
trained Aid with my child you can say
everyone in your classroom has that
specialty training and we believe that
that will help reduce that feeling of um
that feeling and
demand um in terms of outcomes um as we
see you are spending more at the time we
were here though it didn't feel like it
was out of control and that there were
not extra people
everywhere every person that you have
was was busy working with students and
so it just really felt like it was a
little bit of a of a pivot point for you
and then again as you put some plans
into place you hopefully we'll be able
to reduce some of that demand and
release some of those contractors and
return to having um excellent employees
with enough training to fill that need
um we um know that HR and the dep and
the department have a lot of meetings to
Monitor and and figure out where all
those people are um and so we want to
encourage that to continue and also with
the business department um as most new
leaders we don't get a lot of training
before we become special education
leaders about budget and so um it's a
great idea for your team to sort of
understand and learn not just how much
things cost and where Revenue comes from
but also understand every aspect of that
process knowing that as a board if you
approve a $500,000 amount of spending
for a vendor doesn't mean that if I am
spending $300,000 that I have approval
for $100,000 worth of positions right
that's an approval so we have to have to
come keep coming back but we need to
make sure those positions are also
appropriately um threaded through the
process uh every step of the way um so
making sure that that um communication
is really tight and we recommend regular
meetings for that um because it's really
easy to lose track of time and not not
make that time and then all of a sudden
three months has gone by and and um some
things have happened at the program side
that other departments don't know about
so we recommend that to be really
regular regular
practice and then um we know it's really
challenging to recommend but um we
really appreciate the work that you you
seem to be doing and looking at how do
we keep the people we're training so if
we're going to invest in them and train
them then we might need to be ensuring
that we make our jobs attractive by
having the right kind of pay and the
right kind of benefits um and that can
be a little costly but we think that if
you if when we know when we do the math
and we see that big huge Services column
if we invest some of that in our people
maybe pay them a little bit more but
then we keep them and they're highly
trained that that will be a really good
trade-off for
you um in terms of cost drivers again
our standards of Investigation what we
find is that if you don't have really
good pre-referral intervention and
pre-referral prevention then you end up
with everyone who has something unique
in special education and that is not um
costeffective way to work and not every
child who has a need is a student with
disability so um I know that your system
has been very sensitive to the um issues
of ensuring that um you know English
multilanguage Learners English Learners
are are carefully assessed that um you
know you have a high in some areas high
percentage of poverty and that we're
making sure that we're not um
identifying educational experience or
poverty as as a disability that we're
making sure we're providing those
interventions across our system um and
you know you do have components of an
mtss and um what we what we believe for
you is that as you continually ensure
that you're implementing monitoring
progress and really making sure that
you're doing the right thing for the
groups of children you're serving that
you will probably see more and more um
positive impact there uh one of the
things things again to highlight that
you have already invested in Reading
specialist literally literacy support uh
curriculum across the board for students
with literacy challenges and ongoing PD
to be sure to reinforce the importance
of Universal Design for Learning and um
and uh things related to challenges for
students with reading difficulties and
those are all excellent uh building
blocks that sometimes are our
recommendation and so you're already
there um poising you to continue to get
good good um
outcomes we also know that you have um
some uh some behavioral supports built
into your lcap that um are still being a
little overwhelmed by the needs of your
system and that's on the special ed side
and the General Ed side and so again in
the in the concept of looking at that
big high Services bar and thinking about
how can we bring those Services into our
district and be available for the
support of our all students instead of
just being a special ed cost is the
direction that we think would be really
really helpful so um you can read the
recommendations here but the the the two
that I'll highlight are really thinking
about how to um Implement um something
that the department has already started
working with HR and business about is to
think about how do we hire and retain
more staff who have behavioral
specialization um since everyone says
that they need that and then making sure
that um the curriculum you've purchased
and the training you provided are being
implemented across the board not just
special ed for general education as
well oops went one too far um in terms
of comparative analysis for Staffing um
these are the Staffing numbers you had
um in the data set that we use which is
um which is a a fall earlier than the
year we were here um but it um this is
these are the numbers of Specialists
that you had supporting your program
and really um our thoughts were given
the needs of your program at the time we
were here this did not feel overstaffed
some of these are driven by case load
speech Specialists have a mandated case
load um but in terms of the
psychologists and behavior technicians
it seemed as if most of them were being
very well utilized what we would be
interested to see is possibly again
bringing those inhouse rather than
having them be contractors and then in
terms of your department staff you were
undergoing some changes with the
Department leadership and so you had
currently four people that really um
were department leaders for the and then
one Behavior program specialist and um
really we would say that the one thing
we did did note is that because you had
some vacancies at the time we really
look forward to what it will look like
when you have those vacancies filled
because the staff were like we need this
back we need Rob can't do this himself
so so Rob never said anything like that
but there your team is what is stretched
then um and at the time we were here I
think there were three vacancies um so
um I know that there um are are were
plans to you know to to backfill some of
those
positions in terms of your teaching
staff um when we looked at your FTE
compared to the number of students with
disabilities um and we looked at your
class size um averages um they were
reasonable and within the average for
the comparable group um and believe it
or not even though it does seem like you
have a lot of peras when we compared to
some of the other districts you were
with you were within you were not the
highest um and so you know within the
average range for those um classroom
instructional staff um where you had
many more was behavioral contractors
again that's something that your system
has really been clamoring for um and so
we definitely would would um continue to
highlight that as as a need for your
system and then the the last thing I'll
say about about um things we heard was
that every single person we talked to
said the onboarding process needs to be
more coordinated that they sometimes get
um some information from here
information from there but there's no
like and then but then if I come on
board two two weeks later my onboarding
experience could be different and if I'm
a contractor my onboarding experience
could be a lot different and if I you
know so um some consistency of Staff who
are going to be with your children
understanding here's our standard here's
where you get information here's what we
expect of you here's what you should
expect of us to to a site every um site
principal and every teacher we talked to
who did get an extra Aid whether it was
an employee or a contracted um person
said I would prefer to have them be an
observer for a whole week to get some
training to work with the behaviorist
specialist to work with a psychologist
to maybe go see someone who's really
good at their job before they just come
here and get dropped in which I know is
not the message that they were um
reporting when they asked for those AIDS
but when we ask them to really reflect
on that the power of capacity and
trained skills Rose to the surface is
something they would
prioritize um I did look at about I
would say maybe 40 IEPs um I looked at a
couple extra ones because I followed a
couple of rabbit holes for how students
got some of those instructional
assistance and so I didn't do all of the
compliance items for every IEP I did but
what I did find was that the IEPs are
largely um looking really great timely
complete um develop to ensure meaningful
educational benefit goals tied to grade
instructional um standards lots of
evidence of Parental engagement and
parent input uh all the right people and
all the right places um the one thing
that we didn't really see is there's not
really anybody whose job it is to make
make sure of all that stuff except for
one of your classified um administrative
support staff and so we would like to
encourage the staff to sort of inch that
closer to the IEP table and instead of
having it be the secretary who's
checking for data entry and finalizing
those documents have the sites do it
give it a a a run through before they
say it's finished have the psychologist
check some things while they're at the
table um make sure that um the the
classroom teachers are are checking for
um standard or common compliance
challenges um and then the other thing
that we really recommended was at the
time we were here which was early in the
year um there still was a lot of
inconsistency in the use of something
called service tracker which tracks the
delivery of your services so students
have goals and then there's a number of
minutes that need to be met and then the
teachers need to go in and say I
delivered those minutes I was with them
for these these this time period um and
that is going to be really critically
important in two weeks because um the
state of California has started
monitoring uh Service delivery um
minutes and so we did share these
recommendations a little earlier so they
could make sure that they were really
talking to staff about the importance of
that because that monitoring window
opens I think it's on May
1st um so really you have a lot of
strengths there's a lot of um things
underway a a lot of things that have
show a lot of promise or that are really
consistent with the kinds of
recommendations we normally would make
for a special education program those
are all excellent excellent things um
and you also have a department that's
still a little bit in transition and a a
department that's working with an mtss
that's still um under you know growth
and and implementation and so we what we
really hope for you is that as you move
forward and have your implementation and
improve communication and improve um
skills and capacity of staff that all of
the outcomes that you're hoping for uh
better programs better communication
lower Services costs that all of those
things will really um come come into
being um at the same time so that's
that's what we
found I'd be happy to answer any
questions if you have any and I'm also
going to stay for the second next report
great information thank you very much
I'll open it up for questions or
comments I mean did we I'll leave it up
to you but do we want to hear Maven
Jude's presentation first because I
think that they actually if I read the
slides right you're addressing a lot of
the recommendations that are in there so
it's up to everybody else
question yeah okay I'm happy to stay
around and I agree the the the
presentation they've put together really
addresses so many of the recommendations
we made so I'll just wait
here
thanks okay thanks Anette um good
evening I'm Dr Ma mhal and I'm the
director of special education services
in the school district and I have with
me this evening my colleague hi I'm Jude
noise associate director of special
education so um thank you for the
opportunity to present to um the board
trustees this evening and to
superintendent Dr Baker um we're really
really pleased to be here and we feel
it's a privilege um and fairly unusual
for a department to have an opportunity
in the course of work to pause and take
stock and we're incredibly grateful to
Anjanette and the Cal California school
Services team for their work and um for
the specific recommendations that um
they've made our presentation today is
focused on providing some proposed next
steps based on the
recommendations let's see oh how do I
get the sorry I'm waiting for the
presentation yeah I start I preempted
the
presentation okay go ahead
Jude thank you Ma good evening president
Lawson members of the board
superintendent Dr Baker and members of
the community my name is Jude noise and
I serve as the associate director of
special education I'm very grateful for
this opportunity to work with you all
and with Anjanette and mave um and I'm
excited to talk tonight about um our
findings and our support of this
study the study recommendation areas are
vital for aligning to our mission um and
promoting continuous Improvement for
tonight's presentation we have organized
all the recomend recommendation areas
into four key areas for clarity um to
clearly demonstrate our planned
initiatives and
objectives please refer to the legend
there on the bottom corner um and you'll
see the classification recommendations
of shortterm is one year longterm up to
three years um and the green check mark
indicates recommendations that are
implemented or ready to be implemented
and there is a circular Arrow signifies
improvements as they as there are many
items that will be part of a continuous
cycle of
improvement so this section of the study
recommendation is a focus on policies
and
procedures um here you can see our
department has a special education
manual that is active and continually
updated it serves as an internal
document for the Arts Redwood City
School District staff staff and
administrators um for all our internal
red city employees um and the manual
serves as a direct outcome of the recent
study recommendation um and it's fully
operational and we'll be happy to share
it with
you in the area of Behavioral support
that was mentioned um a few times in
anette's
presentation um we are refining our
practices and policies to better Define
eligibility criteria and create
effective goals for students this effort
is aimed at supporting their Journey um
toward Independence and
self-determination specifically we have
developed a fading goal which is a
strategy that's designed to increase
students dependence on adults and to
increase their self-determination as
that is a a need for their growth and
continued in um development as young
people in our
world the final bullet point is in
regards to the transportation plan we
have have a developed comprehensive
Transportation plan that includes clear
guidelines for eligibility and detailed
policies and procedures uh for this
service we plan to have this completed
for your review on June 1st
2024 in the next area we have
communication we are committed to
ongoing communication that's something I
think our department does really well
we're good communicators um and that
updates the policies and procedures that
are consistently conveyed and discussed
among all staff members and
administrators additionally we recently
organized an internal transition fair
that was very exciting and um it was
great to see teachers connected and
communicating and talking about the
things they love um when they work with
students and so we pulled them together
at Hoover School um to meet and discuss
students that are going to be in
transition from preschool to elementary
elementary to middle and so on so so
forth and it really gave them an
opportunity to talk to each other about
the kids and get some really good
information about preparing the
transition for these students um it was
super successful and based on the
feedback that after we met with them
they really appreciated that opportunity
um to have that time to work with each
other um and it helps us proactively
plan for students as they move
forward additionally um we worked with
our special education PTA um we
appreciate that so much as they inform
us as much as we inform them and we help
guide each other through their
children's process because you know we
share the love of their kids as much as
we love them um our some of our special
ed teachers in Redwood City had the
opportunity to provide a learning
session for our families um with a focus
on the process of
transitions um from like again preschool
to elementary elementary to middle and
middle to high school um our teachers
did an amazing job presed slideshows and
were able to really discuss the
transition process and get feedback from
the parents around you know some of the
things they didn't know and and answer
some of their questions um the
partnership with septar has been crucial
um in refining and enhancing our
transition strategies with their
feedback while also providing um
valuable insights and support to
families who are navigating some of
these very difficult transitions um from
especially from middle school to high
school um it's a whole world of
difference we're not a high school
district so that's diving into a big
unknown so that's been really
helpful all right so in this area of
recommendation we have a focus on IEP
compliance as well as formalized and
collaborative budget
planning we are focused on strengthening
our internal capacity um to ensure
consistent regular monitoring for
compliance um we recognize that I
compliance is is an area of growth for
us so service tracking was mentioned
earlier by an Janette and that's sort of
my my uh my area of work particularly in
in doing this um I conduct quarterly
reviews aligning with the state
requirements that measure our
performance and the state provides a
list of students to us so they want to
pull data from to ensure that we're
providing the services that are in the
IEP um so what I'm doing is I'm going
through sa which is our database looking
at the deliver able services to make
sure that students are getting the
services inputed into the service
tractor tracker so that they're
compliant and we're ensuring that
they're getting the services and so I
monitor that work with the teachers and
help them you know get the time to do
that work and answer their questions
because it is new for a lot of our
teachers um in this area um we we as we
pursue long-term planning and
sustainable change in our Department Ma
and I engage in weekly meetings with the
human resources department our weekly
meeting with Wendy and Patricia our comp
our collaboration is geared toward
enhancing and hiring and um recruiting
and training teachers or special
education teachers and a key focus of
this is to transition away from
contractors and to build capacity of
Redwood City staff it's really important
part so I'm I'm pleased to report a
significant progress in this area
actually among the 12 school
psychologist that we have only one is a
contractor of the rest ofor District
employees which is great additionally in
the 2223 school year um we had six
contracted teachers and by the start of
the 23 24 we had five and then as we
approach 2425 I am so excited to tell
you that we are in a position to be
fully filled by District employees which
is
amazing um our commitment to enhancing
quality IEPs continues to be the central
Focus um of our ongoing professional
development and may we speak a little
bit to this in a little
bit you go M yeah thank you okay see
multi multi-tiered systems of support
and um was a little surprising to see
the focus on this in the um special ed
study report because one would think
that it might be more focused on um
specialed alone an mtss is typically a
function of the General Ed side of the
house however it does relate to our work
very very greatly and reminds us that
all of our students are general
education students first although some
of them receive special education
services so building a robust mtss
system really supports success for all
of our students so that's one of the
really strong connections between the
mtss work in the district and special
education services
um the second part is when we have a
robust mtss system children get what
they need in general education and are
not needing to go to special education
to get additional Services I want to
emphasize that this doesn't imply a
reduction in Services it really um
supports providing children what they
need um earlier and in a more efficient
manner so and there's a very very strong
connection and tie between mtss general
education and special education I'm
really pleased to report that Jude and I
and special ed leaders participate in
all of the Mt mtss leadership work
including extensive training on udl
practices this year and thank assistant
superintendent
Herrera um two other ways that we'd like
to suggest um where we can partnership
more closely in this work and in this
area and follow up on the
recommendations are with regard to um
tracking um and identifying um how we
can best serve our students across the
tiers before they get referred so we
feel we're in a strong position to do a
deep dive on data at each site we
propose to do this at the beginning of
next school year over the summer
probably in preparation for next school
year so that we can identify if there
are any Trends or areas for Focus so
we're seeing the resultss but what we're
hoping to is we can get to the I feel
like I'm cutting in and out am I cutting
in and out no thank you thank you
Crystal Clear um so that we can get to
some of those pre-referral
um uh challenges so I'll give a specific
example and this is not this is just not
related to any school in our district
but it's very common for young children
who are English Learners to be referred
to be evaluated
uh to determine if they're eligible for
speech language impairment um category
of
disability um we know that dual language
Learners have a different language
progression than English only Learners
so if we saw that in our data we'd be
able to ask our speech language
pathologist to provide some professional
development to the staff all staff are
doing their best to support students so
maybe a knowledge deficit would result
in over referral that's what we're
hoping oping to um unpack a little bit
with looking at the data more closely a
second way we hope we can support mtss
is with the SST process at sites so I
want to pause and acknowledge that the
sites are expert on their mtss um
process and on the SST process we have
mtss tosis as each site um Michelle
Griffith um in collaboration with Erica
ing from the county office have done
tremendous work in this area this year
what we're thinking about is if you
think of children moving um through the
mtss process towards assessment that we
can look at that from the special
education side of the house and from our
lens to give some feedback about um
criteria that we' like to see met to um
uh increase um efficiency and increase
um consistency consistency across sites
um we see our instructional leaders at
each it principles and our school
psychologists as being really key in
this work and I have again another
specific example so if a child is
missing a substantial amount of school
and anything close to 5 to 10% that
would kind of be a um indicator that
learning challenges may be a result of
missed opportunity rather than a
suspected disability so just making sure
that this information is really widely
distributed and understood as a norm
when we look at children moving through
our
system okay here's my very very favorite
infective instructional programs so we
know that the goal of special education
services is to support students to make
progress on IEP goals and to receive
educational benefit and this aligns with
the goal of all of the work in the
district we want to support Student
Success um social emotionally
behaviorally and academically um across
their educational career at Redwood City
School District so um we have been
working on two areas this year anet
refer to this and part of this has been
um uh really supported or pointed out by
um uh Wendy Kelly um our Deputy
superintendent in terms of what are we
doing to build a more robust onboarding
system for our power educators so we do
have some stuff in place what we're
learning is it's not consistently in
place and so it's an area for continuous
Improvement and the second area is for
our teachers and having what we see we
we get teachers um from uh they're all
in different places um but we know that
there's a core kit of skills a core kit
of tools that we want to ensure
everybody has before they walk into one
of our classrooms so that's what the
second bullet point really relates to
again this will be an area for
continuous Improvement because as we
build internal um skill sets this core
kit will also
increase so um in the long term Jude had
said we're looking at kind of a
three-year plan for our par Educators we
identify we know that we do want to
focus on building capacity for positive
behavior interventions and supports we
do want to come up with a more longterm
term plan but we want a little bit of
time to develop that we want to get
feedback from our par Educators because
they can also really provide a lot of
guidance in this area and we just didn't
have that ready for this evening for our
teachers we have conducted surveys over
the last couple of years and we feel we
have a um a a better understanding of
what is needed in terms of a three-year
plan for
instruction um for professional
development so this year our Focus was
on the science of reading um we
implemented sips read 180 and Linda
moodbell strategies we propose um that
next year we would focus on math
instruction we're always going to have a
secondary Focus or maybe several
secondary focuses and based on the uh
results from the study and we believe
that IP compliance is going to always be
an ongoing um area that we need to keep
continually focusing on and then um we
talk about um typically a spiral focus
and this is very popular term in
California about the last 10 years so we
want to continue our spiral Focus
returning to the science of reading um
this is uh the three-year plan um I
would say is tentative right now because
we want to be aware of changing um
priorities as we move through it but um
we're feeling pretty confident and that
this is the direction we want to head a
kind of balance of academics but an
increasing focus on um inclusive
practices Jude will speak a little bit
later to that we know that's very
important to our family community our
our families and um we heard from
Anjanette that our principles and many
of our School site staff are also
committed to
that you know I I realized that I I
forgot one thing um I had been talking
to Dr Baker about this earlier just so
the board and the public and everybody
understands a little bit more about
professional development and special
education we're serving over 1,000
students well over 1,000 students across
11 grade levels because um we have K8 we
also have TK and prek right now and
we're serving a real diversity of
learner
profiles um we have 50 teachers um 175
our Educators we have a team of school
psychologists speech language
Pathologists occupational therapists and
other uh adaptive physical
Educators um these teams work
collaboratively across multiple
environments so it could be general
education A specialized Learning Center
resource Learning Center therapeutic
Learning Center a prek inclusion
classroom so um this complicates the
puzzle that is professional development
we're really confident that we're going
to be able to do do it but I felt it
important to share um that this is a
very Dynamic big big task um and and I
feel very excited about what we're going
to
do um two final points that Anette also
highlighted um a little bit also
relating to this shifting from um what
we might think of of services to
district and building capacity building
capacity so so all of our professional
development is around building capacity
we have spent the last uh year um
articulating our Mental Health Services
for students with IPS so these are
called educationally related Mental
Health Services we acknowledge that the
district especially since Co has made a
huge commitment to supporting students
um social and emotional well-being and
returning to the mtss system all of our
students with IEPs have access to the
school counselors right the school
counselors are serving everybody not
just um General Ed only students for
students who qualify for IR Services
through their IEP these services are um
maybe a little I don't want to say more
specialized um but more integrated into
the IEP and really necessary for the
child to make progress on their IEP
goals we have different tiers and we
feel many of them are successful however
the highest level of services which
includes individual group and family
counseling is currently provided by uh
contractors and we would love to bring
that back inh housee and build our
internal capacity so we are working on a
proposal for that to give to you um we
anticipate um not a change in the
quality of services but more ownership
um of our services and um maybe a little
bit more flexibility in what that looks
like when we have inter internal service
providers um in terms of the inhouse
behavioral support part of me feels this
is the biggest theme of the evening I'm
not sure if that was intentional um I
want to pause and say all of our
teachers and Par educators are doing
amazing work with complicated students
we're incredibly grateful um many of our
students are present with levels of
disregulation that really impede their
ability to access instruction sometimes
and interrupt the instruction of others
so we do um identify the need agree with
the need recommended in the report um to
build internal capacity in this area we
have a board-certified behavior analyst
in our special education department um
who who's a phenomenal resource we'd
like to leverage her skills to direct
and support building internal capacity
and eventually our vision is a an
itinerant team of EMP power Educators
who can really support
Behavior crises um I would note here
that a primary role often of a par
educator supporting a child with
behavioral challenges is to implement a
behavior intervention plan so what
you'll notice with our slideshow here
there's many overlapping themes and if
we think of the earlier referral process
for Behavior Support and the emphasis
that we feel we've been missing on
Fading that support increasing
Independence increasing pro-social
behaviors we feel that having a team a
more dedicated focused team will be able
to accomplish that and eventually um
reduce um the need for some of these
Services again it's not a reduction in
Services it's a measure of efficiency
and student
agency okay I think we're on to just
about our last slide
thank you ma um so culture of inclusion
which is another um one of our
recommendation areas of growth this is a
long-term goal and as we all know in
education education evolves over time
always and so it will always be an
ongoing progress um towards you know the
best best outcomes um but in we are
reinforcing a collective um
responsibility for all of our students
and it's not that that students theirs
and those students belong there it's
these students are all of our students
um and to build capacity which involves
a collective responsibility all of us
are accountable for the success of all
of our
students so this work really requires a
belief and mindset shift um and as a
former inclusion teacher I taught for
two years in fourth and fifth grade
legit co- teing in a general education
classroom with students who would have
otherwise been in a special day class
segregated um so I have experience as an
inclusion teacher and a principal of a
school here in Redwood City that
championed inclusion
practices so I've witnessed firsthand
positive outcomes and impact that
inclusion has on our students um and I
actually did a cycle of inquiry at San
Francisco State and with the district
around the data around um the success of
that
implementation so this is not just a
shift for special ed but it's really a
shift for the district um it's an Lea
wide mind shift um of incl to change to
towards inclusive practices inclusion is
not just about doing the right thing but
it's it's effective and benefits all
students good teaching goes beyond the
classroom um and it doesn't mean
separate programs or separate classrooms
and this movement is ongoing and vital
on a personal note I am a parent of a
child with a disability he's 26 years
old right now um and so I bring a
personal perspective to this table um
and to really be able to understand
those strategies and understand the
importance of inclusive education with
my um personal experience having a child
with a
disability um in the other area we have
technical skills which is a three-year
plan um we are concentrating ating on
advancing professional development as ma
was referencing earlier specifically in
promoting inclusive practices this
effort corresponds with reports
observations and many of our principles
right now and staff already Embrace um
inclusive practices and are already
they're really trying many of them are
already attempting to do some of this
work right now um so we're really in a
good place to refine this practice and
get bigger bigger work done um so if you
think about a student um just a random
student who's a fourth grader who reads
at a first grade level and they're in a
general education classroom you know
what would what would English language
arts look like for that student how what
do we need to do instructionally ped
pedagogically and systematically to make
sure that the student is able to make
progress and access the general
education curriculum um but providing
the training and skills and technical
skills and the strategies to the
teachers will really help effectively
equip them you know to meet these
students needs so again we are committed
to ensuring that our practices meet the
required monitoring criteria and by
aligning our efforts across these
various Dimensions we are dedicated to
fostering an educational environment
where every student drives and that
directly aligns with the district's
vision and
[Music]
Mission can I say on inclusion 12 just
very quickly I want to highlight that we
do do have a wonderful Inclusive
Preschool program in partnership with
our Child Development Centers and that
the district is a recipient of the
special no the asip
uh supporting inclusive practices um so
this is uh under the offices of CDE the
district has been awarded a $25,000
Grant um to support the implementation
of inclusive practices and we've been
recognized by the Sip for uh for our
work so far
thank you for bringing that up um I
specifically oversee preschool in
general um in my department and I have
been a part of planning meetings and you
know the tough times and the great times
and we're really in a nice space where
you know everybody in the inclusion
preschools are really excited about you
know learning more and doing more of
this work so it's been really
exciting so let me switch the slides
okay go ahead thank
you we're stuck on
inclusion there we go all right so in
closing here's a recap of the four areas
of recommendation that we discussed this
evening um but most specifically we want
to sincerely thank our teachers our
students our families our
administrators um our community
and everybody that works um with our
students um in any way um we want to
thank you so much for supporting our our
work and collaboration and um sincerely
appreciate you know the work I sincerely
appreciate your support and the work me
moving forward so thank you so much
appreciate
it yeah that that it
questions yeah our
friend that's very
nice thank you guys um I really don't
have questions um more you know an
overall comment of course just like the
report said I applaud you guys the
entire department and obviously the
entire District um I want to say you
know thank you to um the district for
reaching out to doing this study because
obviously we are moving the needle right
and so the entire um special a
department from the leadership support
staff teachers and of course a pair of
professionals that work day in and day
out with our students um we do see um
even on the report that we have
hardworking and dedicated uh Department
staff and so just like May Ma just said
she's very excited notice she do say
other words so um I I just want to say
I'm I'm just really um honored to be uh
part of the RIT City School District
because again I've said it many times
you guys work wear so many hats are and
always so um enthusias itic about moving
forward and helping our students so I
really really appreciate it so um those
are my only comments um again I know
just like every other District special
ed is always you know
um you really have to work with the
students moving them forward and I think
again little by little but the needle is
moving and so that that's what matters
the progress so I really want to thank
you guys thank you
thanks so much obviously lots of work
represented here both by a third party
coming in to go and take a look at and
effectively audit our program and then a
chance for the program to respond and I
think just even having this kind of
level of dialogue is helpful for us to
see like what's working what's not
working how are we refining our plans um
which I think is terrific um on the on
the report really appreciated having the
comparable districts in particular um I
made a note of what those comparable
districts are like if a fair amount of
research was done is to like this is the
but to which we' be we should be holding
ourselves the pelaton in which we exist
there may be other areas than just
special ed where we want to go and see
like how are we stacking up against
these in which ways are our practices
different so highlighting for instance
that Services was wildly different than
our peers really helpful to go and like
Focus the discussion look what are we
going to go and do there and then
produce the action items that we're
seeing coming out of the district um so
just like I I really enjoyed that you
know everyone knows I'm sort of the data
driven
guy here and just if that's a lens we
can bring to other discussions that
we're having of like where are we off
AIS from some of these pure districts
the specific districts that were
identified here super interesting to
look at so thank you I really
appreciated that um overall I'm here we
we got a third-party review very
detailed like audit audits are lots of
fun everyone knows U around the
compliance uh of our program it sounds
like basically our program is compliant
uh with lots and lots of hard work by
all the people who are in the department
which is awesome modulo is spending way
way way too much on contractors but
that's addressed and we're focusing on
moving that towards employees awesome
but what I'm struggling with still after
that is kind of what what Jude said the
PLL quotes all of us are accountable for
the success of our students right and
how are we measuring Student Success and
having them Thrive merely H versus I I
say merely that's way too glip having a
program that's compliant now I want to
acknowledge the incredible amount of
effort that it takes to have a program
this be compliant um it's great that we
have a compliant program is it a good
program um are we serving our students
none of the numbers that I saw here
maybe I miss them I not wearing my
proper glasses tonight but I really had
a benchmark for us to look at in terms
of uh thriving academic attainment
graduation from special ed into General
Ed um and I really would love to to see
us take a look at that to evaluate the
success of our programs and then what
are some of the things that we're going
to be trying to go and drive that up so
that we know that these programs are
doing a good job serving these students
and that we're continuing to iterate on
that to to better serve these students
that's a lot of me talking so I just
love the response I'm sure may may have
something to say as well but um I think
what we hope to see is the outcome of
these efforts in a measurable way we
haven't really done that deep dive yet
but I think may have had mentioned
earlier that we plan to um look at what
those measurable outcomes are to
determine if those students are making
success and thriving um that's one area
so that'll be part of the June
presentation is like setting the yard
stick for what success looks like we
could develop a baseline around those
and then monitor as we go I mean I think
it's helpful to have some Metric to use
to discuss our work and determine
progress or not um and I think that it's
important for us to do that work the
other the other is that we our district
per does surveys of students um that's
another measure to look at of how our
students with disabilities may be
feeling and and sensing of their own
identities as students and how that may
be evolving and changing with more
inclusive practices um and you know
surveying the staff around those so we
have to decide what the specific work
we're going to be doing and what we'll
be measuring and what we hope to see of
those outcomes I think that we need to
set a precedent for it for sure awesome
I I'd be very eager to see that and my
hope would be things like seeing regular
Ford academic progress being able to
Mainline these students into a classroom
successfully reduce referrals reduce
referrals absolutely yeah so those all
seem like nice yard sticks I'd love to
see those so if that if that becomes
part of the June presentation I'll be
very happy I'll let me yeah so the
metrics that we're going to use to
measure were included in the slideshow
um like all students um in the district
we do use the state standardized
assessments many of the metrics will be
reported as part of the lcap goals um so
that's where really the the um where we
see that the lcap um is is developed to
support all of our students including
students with IEPs so for example some
of the metrics that we referenced I
didn't actually reference them they were
they were on the presentation would be
reclassification of English language
Learners to fluent English
proficiency um would be um elcap goal
number three we're committed to all of
our students making one year's academic
progress every year in LA and math so
when we measure those goals we have a
subset always for students with
disabilities so my preference would
probably be to not create a new metric
but maybe take a snapshot of our current
metrics I think that's probably what
you're asking for because we we didn't
have that in the report this evening yep
um I thought of um anyhow that that's
all I'll say but we agree um that we
have to have a measurement um besides um
uh oh I know the other measurement will
be the number of referrals to special
education um so that's a really really
big metric in terms of measuring a
sister systems efficacy fantastic thank
you um I I noticed one of the one of the
themes also in the report uh featured
the secular growth rate of sped
referrals now obviously this would be
partially mitigated as the thesis here
with with better teacher education and
the like which is great um but but it
seems like there's more than that going
on um so we can mitigate it somewhat but
we're seeing this sort of like overall
rise like across the state it's not
particular to our district um and part
of our job is to take a Long View so
like what is the district becoming how
do we do a good job serving our students
not just this year next year you know
Rick with the three-year budget plans
but like 10 years 20 years down the line
um do we see the the face of special ed
changing do we see these dotted line
numbers continuing to the point where
maybe we have 20% of our students in in
special ed like what's driving this
where do we think things are going gon
to ask Anette to comment on that okay
thanks I got the easy question um um so
I would say that um in the educational
field I think we're of two minds we do
unfortunately sort of if you want to
prognosticate and sort of look at trend
lines do see Statewide the percentage of
students with disabilities um students
identified with disabilities as as
increasing um there are districts that
I'm working with that are up to 25% rate
um and um if we don't shift our practice
in education then we are going to keep
getting more of what we've been getting
and right now what we're getting is a a
upward trend
of parents especially and especially
right now in this um don't I hate to say
post-pandemic but as we move through
pandemic um you know existance um that
so many of the children that we have
right now that are um needing
service are needing service for things
that may not necessarily be disability
specific so it does appear that many of
the things that are in this report that
your team has identified for um
addressing um things that are part of
your lcap for service of all students
are the things that could again like I
said we're up two minds could prevent
that continuous Strat aeric rise if we
focus on science of reading and have
better earlier literacy programming
focus on quality instruction and you
know for all students using your
curriculum with Fidelity and monitoring
implementation using the data you you
were talking about metrics and data
every single one of the new programs
your team is rolled out has a
benchmarking and then progress
monitoring component it's a major part
of mtss and where we see systems
preventing that stratospheric rise they
are having systematic consistent
continuous Improvement conversations
about what the data is telling them and
when the data is telling them that
they're not doing the right thing they
change what they're doing and that
really is the big difference is that if
we just say well we bought all this
curriculum and we trained everybody and
then we it's open I like I see there's
some books open like if we just assume
it's happening then we might not get the
results we want but if we continually
reinforce and reinvest in making sure
that we're implementing that and
that accountability all people and
accountable for all students then our
assumption is that you will also see um
if not a continuing flattened pattern
but possibly uh A A reduced
identification for Disabilities because
you will be serving students earlier in
pre-referral intervention more of the
services for all students will be part
of your lcap rather than just in special
education and so you'll be effectively
meeting your students needs
without having to also meet all the
compliance
requirements thank
you all right um thank you so much for
um having the survey I know that you had
conversations with others um and I'm I'm
proud that our district is one that's
willing to take a hard look at what
we're doing and to not get defensive
about it and just to say that we're all
about continuous learning and we want to
do a better job right so I really
appreciate the openness from our staff
um you know our leadership and all of
the staff to really you know taking a
good look at that and really uh coming
up with the plan I mean the a lot of the
plan you already had but kind of
refining it some I would imagine from
the study and and Janette it was great
to see you again always um I love that
you know you supported us through the
county work that you did and then took a
little Hiatus from looking at us and
really truly kind of a third party with
probably a little more internal
knowledge of kind of where we had been
and where we are now and where we want
to go right so I just I I appreciate it
the the positive kind of criticism the
positive nature of what we're looking at
and um I'm really happy to see that
we're talking about the service of all
students and the better consistent job
we do there helps all students including
our special ed and then maybe even just
helps with some of the needs of the
special ed in the program right if we're
doing a better job with mtss and
onboarding and you know just classroom
management um all the mental health and
behavioral stuff we're doing so anyway
it was great to kind of see the
reinforcement of what we've been talking
about as a board and I think the
prioritization that we've made as a
district um in many of these areas is
really helping and we just need to
continue to do um you know more of it
and and deepen our work particularly in
some of the mtss and other areas and I
just wanted to give a special shout out
because I see a number of our septar
leaders and parents in the audience um
virtually thank you so much for being
here and just you know thank you for the
collaboration that we have with septar I
mean I don't you you can't really see um
Ma and Jude and Anette but they were all
giving a nice wave um of thank you and
really we you know we couldn't do the
work without our parents um as well and
our students and then I just want to say
thank you so much to our leadership
really appreciate all the work that
you're doing you guys are a great um uh
collaborative leadership team and um and
then thank you to all the staff who both
in General Ed and and special ed who are
working hard every day for our
kids thank you yeah thanks I'm I'm
really glad that the um that this report
was requested this this audit and the
look for it um it really demonstrates a
commitment as you said to continuous
learning um and I really appreciated the
followup um and the ownership of the
recommendations that Jude and ma that
you presented here both with these are
the completed items or these are the
dates by which we expect to have a plan
in place um it just shows a real
ownership of you know of that
Improvement of trying to put it in there
that I thought you know I think we can
all strive for those kind of things um
in our lives um I fully on board with
supporting the inclusive um inclusive
behaviors and really expanding that here
I think that's a really really important
direction that educ has been going not
you know for quite some time now um and
the concept of like sort of Shifting the
practice uh moving things into tier one
and so I guess what I was wondering is
where do we as the board look for those
kind of plans coming in it doesn't seem
like it's special education should be
the one talking about what are these
general education things are we looking
for those in the in like the LC cap is
that the right right place for us to see
it like what's the place that we should
be poking at to say hey are we building
out inclusive practices in there are we
doing the the right thing to help
um you know make make all education
universally accessible for students no
matter what they're um learning
diversions might
be you want to give some guidance I have
some ideas to good good and well I guess
what I'll say is in in most of the
places you're you you do have a a
cabinet level leadership team that
includes um you know the leadership for
Educational Services instructional
practices curriculum and instruction um
and and so those those team members
together often are um you know aligning
with your lcap and as your strategic
initiatives around what they're going to
focus on and so sometimes it does
require a mave to um really just say
don't forget that one of our one of our
one of our new goals is to make sure
that we're also saying you know
including students with disabilities at
every turn um it's not that your team is
not in the mindset of including them but
explicitly calling that out makes it
really clear to all of your interest
holders in your community and your in
your general education staff um and you
know every district is faced with the
broad variety of things that need to be
done every year and so you know as they
said like this year we're focusing on
science of reading and next year we're
going to focus on math but we're still
gonna it's going to be a secondary focus
and that same is true for your District
you know last year you were really
invested in the issues um related to
multilanguage Learners right so you have
you have things that are on your fire
hose of activities um and I think that
it just will be your teams through these
meetings and and collaboration really
realizing that that they just have to
explicitly say that it's really
important for us to prioritize um you
know students with disabilities and see
them as general education Learners first
and how we add a service rather than a
place where they go or a person that
they receive that
from just a second note I I find it a
very honorable seat in the lcap um with
Ma and so we're both double teamed in
that lcap meeting and we definitely
share our feedback recommendations and
to collaborate with General Ed and
parents and really ensure that we are
keeping that language active and you
know really intentional around our plans
and thoughts and ideas and and seeing if
those things can happen and then when we
meet again as elcap we review our
progress again and looking for those
measures to report out on and
change if we need to Pivot some way
so thank you I just say finally um
nothing really happens in our department
in isolation on unlike other systems
where I worked so for example even when
we um we we we meet with Anna constantly
and we talk to her constantly about all
our professional development um our um
likewise human resources and increasing
connections with um fiscal services so
we have a pretty integrated team as
compared to other systems I've worked in
and um Dr Baker is
specifically um I feel um pays attention
to our diverse Learners and how they're
doing and checks in on a very personal
level about how things are going how can
our organization support the work so
that everybody can increase their
efficacy and their success so um maybe
as part of our lcap work we can take a
closer look at the language but
certainly the um systems are in place
and a lot of the intentions are in place
um to to respond to your question and
maybe were're just looking at more some
some more explicit
language got it thanks thanks for the
answer um Jude you mentioned two things
that I just wanted to get a little bit
more details about one was you you
mentioned the transition Fair um and was
that kids in Redwood City moving from
one grade to the next I'm asking this
because at the septar meeting last night
one of the parents had asked I think it
was a parent asked a question about how
does um knowledge about their child
transition from one grade to the next um
or was this really transition like into
the school district or out like what
maybe a little more details about the
transition Fair yeah of course so the
intention behind it was to get teachers
together to talk about students who may
be moving from site or to program um and
you know bringing that knowledge about
those students just in preparation for a
transition meeting so after know
teachers plan and and there's a lot of
background work going on around
transition there's like eight
spreadsheets and tons of meetings um but
in the end what is happening is
hopefully the teachers have had a chance
to um really talk about a student and
their needs what triggers them what do
they love like what do they need to
learn um getting this those organic
conversations going and so then that
teacher knows the student that they're
getting um and then in the meeting you
know there's this opportunity to say
like I I learned that your student
really loves butterfly and so I really
want to make sure that I highlight that
in my classroom so they feel welcome
like just small things like that really
I think um make a parent feel you know
safer and comfortable that they know
that their student has already been
discussed and like there's like if
they're coming and they're going to be
your fun little kiddo in your class next
year and um I think the teachers really
love to get that feedback too from their
current teacher like what do they need
what worked what didn't work what have
you tried like to really understand
where the student has come from and so
the transition meeting is that important
time where parents meet with all of the
different groups from both sides and um
just discuss the student and set up a
good plan for them starting so it was
just teachers and there were some
service providers there as well School
psychologists um and they all met at
tables and moved around and it was they
loved it they really appreciated the
time in order to do that a really
important work hope that answers your
question yeah I know it sounds super
valuable and like students go through
lots of transition I could imagine that
being applicable in a bunch of different
situations um the other one that you
mentioned were fading strategies um and
I remember that the report was talking
about how um the district should be
focusing I think fading strategies and
exiting strategies are the yeah synonyms
there is that right um and that part of
it was the um capacity that you know
everyone was just so busy that nobody
could actually at least that's the way I
kind of interpreted from the report and
I wasn't sure if that was right so how
is that going to develop what are you
looking at that cu I think it's it's
great to get people back out you know
all the kids into the least restrictive
environment possible so um children
generally or students generally have
dedicated support um to um so that a
behavior intervention if they have
support for Behavior so that a behavior
intervention plan can be implemented and
the purpose of a behavior intervention
plan is generally three-fold one is to
reduce challenging behaviors and the
second is to increase increase
replacement behaviors pro-social
behaviors appropriate behaviors and the
third is to increase student
Independence and student agency around
getting what they need because the
function of the behavior is going to be
some level of
communication so we have um we we have
our Behavior plans in place we have our
referral processes to get additional
support what we need to focus more on is
fading the support this requires a level
of skill in terms of understanding how
Behavior works and managing and tracking
data that we feel and we get from some
outside service providers but not
completely we want to build that um
internal capacity because the true
measure of success in implementation of
a behavior plan is the increase of
Independence and the decrease of adult
dependence so that's really what we're
looking at at a micro level and then um
we we can measure it for individual
students that's a very detailed
measurement and then we can also measure
it in terms of our staff having a more
flexible Dynamic Staffing model so that
services are there when they're needed
and then they're faded when they're not
needed just I just want to say just a
personal note um I had a student that
was so dependent on an adult that they
wouldn't pick up their own pencil like
and that's just a legitimately true
story um and that concerned me to no end
um that's so unfair to that child to not
be given the opportunity to take risks
to you know extend who they are out in
the world as their own as as their own
person um and so that sticks with me
forever is ensuring that students um
really want to be independent and they
have self-determination about what they
want to know and what they want to do
when they grow up and and they want to
be a learner it's so important in their
development so just yeah thanks for
sharing that that makes it really much
more concrete um I really appreciate
that um the last thing and B I I know
you just talked about this but I'm just
going to ask for clarity again um in the
report it talked about the multilanguage
Learners um and maybe that many
districts areer many districts over
identify or over refer uh and that
Redwood City School District was also
doing the same sort of thing I think you
said that uh that's being looked at and
sort of a plan is being put in place I
wasn't sure is what's what's kind of the
state of that in the action item because
I didn't really get that out of the
report what was happening there yeah I
used that as an example for how we can
use data that to um change practice and
pre-referral practice so I can't um
speak to specifics across a site or a
grade level but that's our intention
that um over the summer we'll do the
Deep data dive we'll meet with
principles and site leadership teams to
discuss patterns that we see so that we
can make sure um we're we're giving
sites what they need um to to kind of
understand where children are so that we
can reduce our referrals and increase
our efficiency in general
education and here's where my historical
knowledge is going to come into
play when I was the selfa leader here we
had um there's 33 districts in sateo
county and we had 23 of them um
suffering from this challenge um we had
a lot of children who were multilanguage
Learners being referred and identified
for special education and um so we
undertook a a two-year training cycle
for every single speech pathologist in
the county to um both um increase their
own knowledge about language acquisition
and differentiating language um
difference from a disability really high
quality assessment practices also um
consultation and supporting the general
Educators to make sure that those
students can use their language skills
and this county has a very robust um
English language development cohort at
the County office that works with your
local people as well and um after that
training series across our entire County
the number of English language Learners
who were overidentified drop
dramatically um and so um I'm still
close with the selfa leader the
numberers in inching up again and so
they've been talking about re-engaging
with that because what's different so
many people so many people who have now
joined us who did not get that training
so many teachers who were not part of
the consultation um so it is the kind of
data where you can see a challenge
identify a solution implement it and
then Monitor and actually see a
difference and I believe that you'll see
that that impact again with many of your
other programs as well it's just you're
so early in the implementation cycle
that the impact data is is um still
Brewing great thanks um that's that's
great great to hear the um past
experience and looking forward to seeing
that kind of repeated really appreciate
the report I'm really grateful that this
was done and and the engagement with it
and staying here late and ing our
questions I I super appreciate it I I
live in Freemont it's not that
far um I thank you very much everyone
for both of your presentations I really
appreciate the way um you presented
together um both the audit and then the
this is what we're going to do moving
forward and Dr Baker thank you for
supporting that the survey the audit I
think that's really important to do I
know leis already mentioned this but I
just want to acknowledge there's a lot
of um special ed staff and parents um
that are attending via Zoom so thank you
for being here and the support from
septar as
well basically everything I took notes
on and had questions on has already been
talked about so I'm going to just kind
of briefly run through all this I did um
have one question on the special
education manual I I know you said it
but I missed what the answer was that's
available just for special ed or does
that go to General Ed staff as well so
it's just for all internal red City
staff so it'll be it's it's it'll be a
live Google handbook um that it will be
in the administrator's handbook and then
also shared with teachers and pair
professionals it'll be like an
all-inclusive manual that's available to
all staff thank you
um super excited I I love the fading
goal um I think that's really important
um I love the uh transition fair that
you had um I think
it's so important for the student to be
handed off L to the next to the next um
teacher
because their current teacher has
learned so much about them right what
does and what doesn't
work don't have the next teacher have to
start over um as a parent I know what
that is like and it is so difficult to
have feel like you're having the same
conversation again like why isn't why
why am I not being heard why are you not
learning about my student how come this
information didn't get passed on and my
student having to start over trying to
advocate for themselves um but being set
back because they didn't get handed off
properly so I I love that thank you
um I yes we had a running theme of
building internal capacity and I I love
that you guys are focusing on that um
especially the counseling services to
become internal um I know we were really
excited when we had those the the family
counseling and the individual counseling
come via contract because we didn't have
it right um but if we can build the
capacity within our district I think
that um would be
huge
um okay I can do this without crying
problems um Jude you and I have had
hours and hours of conversation just
around the culture of
inclusion um MTS
supports um you know I too have a
student with a disability and um I think
that if those had been in place at the
beginning of his journey things would
have been very very different and I know
that you know that Jude yes um it was
and still continues to be very difficult
um but if
if those supports had been in place
early on um you know his early years uh
in
education we wouldn't have gone
through seven School placements I know
um in a matter of nine years you know um
and so
personally I am so supportive of um
building that culture of inclusion in
this District um it's it is like you
said an uh Lea mind shift um not just in
I but as a
whole um and I just applaud the work
that you guys are working on and are
looking forward to doing um I think it
will positively impact our students
going forward so thank you thank you
Janet I cherish our times together that
we've had in conversation I was actually
just thinking about your son today while
I was driving
a thank you you
number one Anette thank you so much for
coming and doing the study thank you for
having appreciate it um when I had
talked to Rick and he had some
experience with school Services I said
School services and then we talked to
school services and said and she oh I
know her yes we're gonna go with school
services but thank you so much it was
very much um detailed it showed what we
have been doing where we definitely have
a positive impact and where some things
need to move forward and do them better
and smarter I want to thank Ma and Jude
for moving forward with this study and
having the short-term and the long-term
goals that's something that this
district has needed in for a while the
pieces in regard to the fading of
services is definitely something that we
have talked about a lot and may have
you've embraced and you have had
experience with that and to see that
moving forward will be wonderful the
piece about the whole mind shift has got
to take place in this District as we all
know um we all have gone through the
mtss training and we continue to go
through the MTS training uh right now
continuing on um but it's a true mind
shift that we have to somehow embed that
that these kids belong to all of us uh
they deserve the best education that we
can provide them and we are there to
support but at the same time we want
them to progress and move on the other
piece that's really outstanding in this
report is about the Dual Lane our dual
Lang which Learners which I know for
years has been a piece where why is it
that I see so many Latino kids receiving
speech has nothing to do with a a speech
impediment they need to be time in the
this country they need to be listening
to English they need to be taught the
right way and manner speaking English
has nothing to do with the second
language the first language that they're
coming to this country with so I'm glad
that we so glad that we're going to put
in place something to really look at
that so kudos to all of you and I'm so
looking forward to us moving forward in
this direction
yeah thank you very much for having me
and thank you for for being a champion
of equity and inclusion your teams can't
do it without your leadership making
that possible and your support um you
know all the support they get from the
rest of the um cabinet leaders so that's
really critically important and it
doesn't exist everywhere um and so um so
you're fortunate to have this team so
thank you very
much thank you for the opportunity thank
you everybody good
night um okay I just want to I want to
recognize that we're after 9: um I think
we're how do we feel do we need a break
we want
to go grab that bottle of water yeah
should be correct yeah I think so too
but I just wanted to check yeah good
idea um where are we so we are on uh
8.1 discussion on graduation
promotion my assignments work for
me I just wanted to make sure that I
could actually get from point A to point
B is was in back tobs yeah some
sometimes they don't work and I know I I
am not able to do June 7th um I actually
have a wedding that I good friends are
getting married that afternoon so is
there one s there is there's it's just
it's a eighth grade
Roosevelt actually and there's there's
there's also an Orion one that Janet has
oh I was I'm happy about to say I can
take that one for you but no I can't no
and I'm happy to take another one if uh
but like on June 11th or you know I can
swap if
somebody so and I'm bumped because I
love going to Roosevelt well I like to
go going to them all but for some reason
I've gone to Roosevelts a number of
times I think I've switched with
others so you you're gone that whole day
on the 7th just in the afternoon I think
the wedding starts um yeah four or
something I think I can do June 7th 5m
yeah I could pick that up okay that'd be
great yeah sure okay so that's uh Dave
did is that Ros
yeah does anybody want to give me one of
theirs do they David do you have too
many oh no you have two and you only
have three and I have two
so rest work for everybody yep mine work
cilia are you good okay okay great
that's why I needed to agendize it
because I told Evelyn I can't make that
okay great all right thank you David all
right it feels like a real family
community well Roosevelt is special too
because it's their last eth grade class
oh that's a good point yeah oh yeah
can't be to pleas my friends
are you need to go to the wedding you
need to go to the
wedding okay um we're all get on that
yeah okay we can move on to consent I'll
make a motion to
approve seconded all those in favor I
thank you uh 10.1 adoption of resolution
number 10 resolution to approve
standards for local CER ification of
universal TK
teachers thank you um similar to other
waivers that we've brought to the board
this is an opportunity uh as we move
into the last year actually uh there was
a essentially a 10-year window to change
into credentialing components so forth
regarding TK new credentials that came
to be so in working with assistant
superintendent Anor Herrera uh we
discussed the opportunity if needed in
the
future uh for recruitment purposes and
really retainment purposes to allow for
uh another option many districts have
done this around the county which is how
I got the idea to be honest uh to allow
for uh those that still hold appropriate
credentials to serve onee working with
third and three and four yearold
children and 12 units of trly uh Early
Childhood Ed
ucation uh which would be different than
as as a waiver the current practice
which must be in place by August 1 2025
we still have one more year uh in which
all of our TK teachers need to have 24
units um or the equivalent which usually
can run about two years so here's a good
example I have a Kinder teacher that may
have some TK age kids from the past in
their
experience uh like a TK Kinder combo for
example but actually after 2025 would
not be eligible to teach TK so that
would be a good example of a waiver that
might come and so then HR would have the
authority after should this resolution
be approved to allow that to occur so
it'd be a case-by casee basis I'm not
sure how often I'd even use it but if we
need it in our back pocket it would be
helpful y any questions on this
one thank you it is an action item so
I'll make a motion to approve
it I'll second thank you all those in
favor great on to uh reports from board
members and
superintendent uh I attended the septar
meeting last night where they had a
presentation from uh the county office
on uh udl uh super inform really good um
and then the l cap was on Monday um and
I will say uh Sarah presented like this
great student voice component it was
super it was awesome to hear about it
and like all the I mean the kids were
there was meetings at each site um I
think at each site might have been
definitely in person I think they might
have done a virtual one then too and
then they did an all district meeting
where the sites got to like nominate
some some kids that would came in it it
was just lots of good information that
came out of it it wasn't all about pizza
which was good um so I'm sorry was that
was that elcap elcap yeah student
student voice yeah student voice is a
requirement forood which program yeah
yeah s Sarah was the one who presented
on it but I want to acknowledge Whitney
was Whitney aen was definitely involved
in the putting that whole program
together
awesome I was at the same lcap
me yeah the lcap committee is a good one
right I mean I've always enjoyed being
on it because you learn a lot about
what's going on um I I was wondering do
you know on the the udl was that um is
there a PowerPoint available or did they
record that because I couldn't make it
last night but I believe yes I believe
yes there was definitely a PowerPoint um
and I believe they recorded it as well
session okay all right I'll just follow
up with them on that so thank you so uh
let's see my couple reports are that I
did attend uh the C SBA board meeting
which was March 23rd and 24th up in
Sacramento and we had a lot on the
budget on legislative advocacy because
we're getting ready for a whole another
legislative session um there's a lot of
good stuff on there for schools um
there's also going to be some bills that
we'll be needing to Advocate against I'm
sure um but there's some really good
ones including um you know our own Diane
papen is running um a couple of things
that'll be good for education so that's
great and then I also had a csba uh
Pacer meeting I meet with uh Rita who's
our um public affairs person for csba
and we just talk a lot about again
legislative issues and other things so I
meet with her about every other well
about every month I guess that's
it and the only thing I have to report
is um I attended the rity together
Community impact and celebration at
sequa mu so that was really nice um lots
of people it was a full house and so
awesome um it was great as always I mean
this was my second time going actually
but um it's really you know great to see
there yeah everyone there that's it um
the only thing I did was um some of us
attended the uh memorial service for
Lupe tours at Garfield and it was really
really nice um and I think they had
three student speakers they all did a
wonderful job um and the pastor from the
local church announced that they would
be donating $225,000 to Garfield next
school
year so and I brought uh the program
forever I'll cap already did
that also went to the memorial for Loop
bit um the other thing I attended was um
rcef and Rick did a great report to them
regarding our budget uh so that we can
work more collaboratively together and
how they can support yes our basite well
actually the three basite schools but
now we have another two priority and
also the rest of the school districts so
there is
a is it a Wine Walk coming up anyway I'm
going to send you all the information
regarding it I'm going to ask a lot of
my colleagues to join me on that evening
as we support uh this event it's going
to give um it's going to be here in
Redwood City and you start out you pay
and I need to find out more about it
because they didn't have the cost but
the cost is when you sign up for uh this
Wine Walk at different restaurants in
Redwood City and portions of the profits
go to RCF so I'm going to put it in the
communic out to all of our parents all
of our staff members and I believe it's
on is it thank you may 15th I think it
is May yeah yeah so uh it'll be in the
communic I get I did get all the
information from the group and Sarah
sent me the um
the what I want to say the little piece
that they put together that's very
prominent it's I forget I think it was
I'm not sure who made that I think Anna
H at Lea her last name hich
yeah she she made the flyer that's gonna
that's going out so I'm not going to
send it to our own Community but I'm G
give it to my colleagues the
superintendent too
to yeah so that was it was a good
meeting I think the library Foundation
did something similar to that before or
just a restaurant walk around yeah um
that's
fun let's see 12.1 contract update
information and credit card summary any
questions
uh 12.2 quarterly Williams
report no
complaints uh 13.1
correspondence emails from commanding
members who are unhappy just a couple oh
your mic's not on it's
okay I got a pretty cool email from
Megan O'Reilly Green who pointed out uh
a couple different things one was some
data that their team had gathered about
uh the number of families who had moved
to Redwood City uh for the programs that
we have here which is pretty awesome um
also there was a speech competition at
which a number of different Redwood City
uh children uh pupils uh placed pretty
well actually so that was pretty cool to
see our award-winning students kicking
some butt so bunch of them uh from
Kennedy Middle
uh 141 possible other business suggested
items for
future we actually do have a speaker
card on this so I don't know if you guys
have anything to input okay um so we
have Mike s's got his hand raised um hi
Mike you have three
minutes yeah hi can you hear
me hello yeah go ahead B clear awesome
yeah thank you members of the uh City uh
School District Board of Trustees for
your service to the educational needs of
students in Redwood City I rise tonight
to ask the uh School District board
immediate to immediately agendize
removing the name Henry Ford from said
name School per your website the mission
of the Redwood City School District is
quote to create a safe and supportive
inspirational and rigorous joyful and
inclusive environment for all Learners
this is a laudable mission and I'm sure
that the board administrators and
Educators attempt to incorporate these
goals into the daily curriculum we
cannot simply teach our kidss these
principles however we need to walk the
talk and incorporate these principles
into our daily actions sadly we're
failing in this Respect by naming one of
the district schools after an individual
who without question advocated for a
world that was the opposite of inclusive
safe and as supportive for Jewish
Americans I hope that you had a chance
to read Mark Simon's excellent oped in
the April 4th edition of our local
newspaper the Sano darly Journal Mr
Simon criticizes the school district for
naming the school after a known
anti-semite and maintaining the name for
70 years he recounts several well
documented and anti-semitic actions
taken by Henry Ford by blaming Jewish
Bankers for World War I calling Jews
quote evil and Publishing articles based
on the protocols of the Elders of Zion a
fabricated text reporting to detail a
Jewish plot for global domination Ford's
anti-Semitism was so well known at the
time that even Adolf Hitler praised
Ford's quote anti-jewish policy I'm
disappointed that the district and board
have taken actions to change the
school's name a year ago I reached out
to then board president Cecilia Marquez
asking whether the district considered
changing the school's name to one that
better aligns with its values Miss
Marquez responded with a copy of policy
7310 and recommended that I reach out to
the board to the school principal while
the policy might push the burden onto
the school I had hoped that the board or
its president elected by the people of
Redwood City would have shown some
interest in no longer naming one of its
schools after a Nazi collaboration
in his article Mark Simon details a
similar quote blowoff and unwillingness
of the board to initiate action to cease
naming one of its elect elementary
schools after one of the most famous Jew
haters in American history why the
inaction if our elected officials and
educational leaders aren't willing to
speak up against the rising tide of
anti-Semitism in our area who will a
Redwood City teenager recently spoke to
the city council about the anti-Semitism
that she's faced mayor Jeff G recently
addressed anti-semitic Zoom bombings at
City Council meetings and surveys
suggest that 61% of area Jews feel less
safe in recent months and 36% of
personally experienced anti-Semitism the
school district and Board of Trustees
silence and inaction to date on this
issue are akin to complicity with those
who attack others who are empowered by
the belief that no one will stick their
necks out for them I hope that you'll
think about the Jewish members of your
communities and immediately remove the
anti-semite and Nazi collaborator Henry
Ford's name from the school thank you
thank you
Mike
um were there any
other items to
add uh 15.1 changes to the board meeting
calendar no no changes okay that brings
us to the end of our meeting we have a
motion to adjourn I move we
adjourn second thank you all those in
favor I thank you you