I think we can start with the roll call.
>> Trusty Lee
>> here.
>> Trusty King
>> here.
>> Trusty Marquez
>> here.
>> Vice President Weekly
>> present.
>> President Wells
>> here. All right. Uh good evening and
welcome to the December 10th, 2025 uh
meeting of the Redwood City School
Board.
interpret
numeromada
al dea. All right, thank you for joining
us tonight. Uh we're all partners in
education and the board encourages
everyone to participate and provide
comments um on issues of concern
regardless of whether they're on the
agenda. Uh to speak uh please complete a
speaker card and hand it to Evelyn. Um
you can find them at the entrance to the
room. If you're attending on Zoom uh
please complete a speaker card online uh
by following the link in the agenda or
just raise your Zoom hand when the item
comes up. Uh if you're addressing a
subject on the agenda, you'll be called
at the time that the item is being
considered. And if the issue is not on
the agenda, you'll be called shortly
during the oral communications agenda
item. And then to be fair to all
speakers, we limit public comments to
three minutes per person per topic
unless otherwise noted.
All right, we are on to changes to the
agenda. Does anyone have any changes
they would like to propose?
>> Trusty Marquez.
>> Um, I'd like to pull item 8.3. 8.3 and
that was our
uh that was measure U for Taft, right?
8.3.
>> Okay. Um any other changes to the
agenda?
All right. Can I get a motion to approve
the agenda as amended?
>> Hello.
>> Seconded.
>> All in favor?
>> I
>> I. Great. Um we are on to the public
comment section. I see none submitted
online um none on Zoom and we have no
speakers cards. So we will move on to
our next item
uh which is going to be our first of two
school and community reports. This is
6.1. It's the presentation on um Redwood
City TK program.
>> Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah. And then your microphone has a
little on button. It kind of looks like
a person with like little circles coming
out of their mouth.
>> There we go.
>> Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Great.
>> I'd like to introduce Jennifer Marcato.
>> Good evening
>> from Adilante Spanish immersion and I'm
Ann Berafa. I am currently coordinating
well facilitating the TK program for the
district. Um good evening everybody.
Tonight I'm honored and quite proud to
present the transitional TK program in
the road city school district. And then
I guess I'm running this. Hold on.
Sorry. On. And
Anna, you said it worked.
>> Press arrow.
>> I'm going to try and do this fast, too.
Well, I'll read the next slide while
we're waiting. So this presentation will
focus on our program's growth, cohesion,
and continuing success.
Great. Next slide.
This slide illuminates our rapid growth
over the past several years. Going from
six TKs four years ago to 19 this year.
Going from six to 19 TK classrooms in
four short years has been a challenge,
as you can imagine.
But we have been up for the challenge.
Oh, next slide. That's my turn here.
Maybe you could do the slides. Oh, I Oh,
I have the wrong way. Sorry.
There we go. So, this is just a little
visual of what we start out with at the
beginning of the year. Um, we literally
have to build furniture and um unpack
boxes when teachers have moved or moved
from a grade level down to TK. And this,
of course, is for every classroom, not
just TK. And we can go to the next
slide.
>> Sure.
>> And then Oh, yeah. You gotta point it at
Anna's.
>> Oh,
>> yeah. Um Whoops. Back one. Sorry. There
we go.
Tricky. Okay. So, yes, in a few short
days in August when we're preparing to
have the students come. This is what
transpires in the classroom. So, I think
it's just amazing.
So, here is where we stand today. It's
our current status. As I said, the
district currently has 19 TKs, two of
which are specialized learning centers,
one at Henry Ford and one at Roosevelt.
And um we serve approximately 360 four
and 5-year-olds. Next slide.
So the overarching goals for TK um in a
nutshell, we want to create a joyful,
culturally affirming and languagerich
classrooms. Um, we believe that when we
align instruction with how children
learn best, everyone benefits students,
teachers, and the district as a whole.
What makes our TK program exemplary?
Transitional kindergarten is not
kindergarten light. It is the first year
of a two-year learning continuum
designed specifically for four-year-olds
and grounded in developmentally
appropriate practice. Our program
emphasizes play-based learning. We can
go to next slide. Sorry. Play-based
learning, language development and
social emotional growth, early literacy
and numeracy embedded in exploration and
strong classroom routines that build
independence and confidence.
So, the play-based program is not just
play. Overall, the state recommends 75%
of the day should be uninterrupted play,
but in sections, of course, not all at
once. Um, but the play is broken up into
three categories. child um
self-determined play, adult child
collaborative play and adult planned
directed play.
So we have developed a well-rounded TK
program that encompasses all areas and
modalities of learning which is the
balance program you see here.
Since the new standards came out only a
couple of years ago, we are still in the
process of adapting and integrating them
into our curriculum. This has been
difficult or I'm sorry it hasn't been
difficult as we had already been using
the prek learning foundations along with
the kindergarten standards to find what
fits best in our classrooms as our
students have gone from a little bit
older to now younger students as they
start
for handwriting and letter formation. We
use learning without tears
or our literacy program which includes
oral language phonics etc. We use the
seeds of learn of seeds of language
program
and for phmic awareness we use heard
along it's the beginning stages of the
heerty that our kinder and above use.
We also implement integrated unit which
incorporates science and social studies
standards in addition to the language
and arts language arts and math
standards.
For math, we have chosen to use the San
Francisco Unified School District TK
math portal, which is a fully fleshed
out um program that has specific units
that are for TK. Um, we have not found
anything that is in alignment with the
district adopted curriculum yet as
they're still developing TK because it's
such a new program.
>> And additionally, at many sites, pardon,
>> thank you. I'm so glad you're here. At
many of our sites, we also offer um
library visits, gardening,
u maker space, and other outdoor
activities. We're trying more and more
to incorporate outdoor centers to get
the children outside and and moving in
the fresh air as much as possible.
So across the district, our teachers
provide a consistent program, yet each
brings her own creative interests and
passions to the classroom.
We have created a TK mustd do form that
is for the TK teacher by the TK teachers
for the TK teachers that um illuminates
what we expect in the classroom across
the district. The next slide is an
example of what we would want to see in
a developmentally appropriate learning
environment. It should at minimal um
have a large group area, small group
area where the teacher can pull small
groups for instruction. It doesn't have
to be a rainbow table. It can be any
setting. It can be on the floor. Um, a
dramatic play area, blocks and building
area, a library or quiet space, a calm
down corner. Um, and then science and
math exploration and blocks and whatnot.
So, finding qualified teachers has been
a challenge. Not only do we um do we do
sorry not only does the need sorry not
only do the teachers need to have a joy
for teaching this age group they also
have to have a California teaching
credential and 24 early childhood
education units which equals out to
about a year a year and a half of of
educa extra education.
Fortunately, we've had some innovative
staffing solutions that the board has
helped us um pioneer along with HR and
Anna. Um and these are that we can hire
teachers who have 12 units of experience
as long as they have adequate
in-classroom experience with children
for four to five years old.
Um, we have also used the early
education training devel trainers
development grant from the county to
help some of our teachers that we um uh
scalped, I guess, for a lack of better
word from prek. Um, we had several
teachers come up into our our program
and we're helping them get their
credential and in turn they've made a
commitment to the district to stay here
for a certain length of time.
So meet our team. Our TK program has
been built thoughtfully and
intentionally through the dedication of
the 19 in 19 teachers and more than 20
instructional assistants who together
form the backbone of our TK classrooms
across the district.
Their commitment, creativity, and deep
understanding of early childhood
development make this program what it is
today.
So where the teachers are the backbone,
our PLC's are the heart of the success
of our program. We meet at least monthly
either in person or online to discuss
pedagogy, data and do planning together.
We attend various conferences and
external PD opportunities and we bring
that information back to one another and
share and it helps us also to create
teacher leaders which Jennifer is one
of.
So in doing this we've created teacher
oh I just that teacher leaders who um
often run the PLC's and the trainings
for us. So moving on to data. Next
slide.
Thank you. So we believe that data is a
flashlight not a hammer and we feel like
it should never be a gotcha. It should
always be the light that illuminates the
path to student growth and acceleration.
The following slides show the academic
growth for TK that we've been garnering
for quite a while. But what I want to
point out is that it doesn't show the
soft skills that that TK students learn
in the classroom such as
self-regulation,
um social emotional um lessons and those
kind of things that are hard to display
on a graph.
So here we have capital letters. You can
just see from the the bars that they
come in with a lot less than what they
leave with at the end of the school
year. And we have only a couple years of
of data on um on this. And
unfortunately, we didn't have the data
from our fall. Um this these numbers
here show our beginning of the year and
we also now have fall data. So those the
green has increased and the red has
decreased in almost all the slides. So
the next one is lowercase letters. You
can see each year we've had increases
and you might see I'm just going to
notice a decrease from 2023 to 2024. And
I just want to point out that the
children are getting younger and younger
each of these years that they come.
Okay.
And then of course we have sounds right.
So, um, point I want to just point
especially to 2024 25 where 89% of our
students were at grade level or above in
knowing the amount of sounds that
they're supposed to know at the end of
TK. I know, right? Um, TK to be at grade
level, they need to know 15 letters and
sounds approximately, give or take. And,
um, most of our students who are in the
green know almost all of their letters
and sounds. So they have a a very big
head start and many many of them are
beginning reading. Even now I have we
have readers in some of the classrooms.
Um uh math we they are expected by the
end of the year to count to 30 without
interruptions. Um and this also has
we've seen growth
and um also onetoone correspondence
which is a little bit more difficult for
for students but they are also
increasing in that
and recognizing numbers
and recognizing shapes.
Okay. So, as you can see, we've
accomplished a great deal in the last
four years. Our challenges have been
many, but we have we feel like we have
overcome them, and we are continuing to
assess other challenges that that keep
arising, such as hiring, you know, new
and qualified teachers as our program
grows. Um, I want to point out that I I
know TK is um expensive, but I want to
point out that it is an investment.
Smaller class sizes, instructional
assistance, materials, and training all
carry a cost. However, TK is not a
short-term expense. It is a long-term
investment in the district's success.
Decades of research confirm what we see
every day, that students who attend
highquality early learning programs
enter kindergarten more confident. They
require fewer academic behavior
behavioral interventions. Yes.
um show stronger literacy and math
foundations and finally experience
greater long-term academic success.
So we do have some ongoing needs on the
next slide.
Um ongoing needs will be of course
training for teachers, new teachers as
they come so that they can catch up with
the programs that that our current
teachers are are doing. And we're
finding that having in-house teachers
such as Jennifer and many of our other
teachers who I also I know are out
there. So I want to say hi to everybody.
Um are helping us with this so that we
don't have to have the expense of
trainers coming in. Um we need to train
our instructional assistants um not only
in the toileting which is becoming an
increasingly um added duty to our our
plates but also we want to train them in
many of the strategies that the teachers
are learning because they are the second
teacher in the classroom. Um for
facilities we are looking we're in
pretty good shape. There are a few
places where we could use some more
developmentally appropriate heights of
sinks. As you can see, there's a step
stool there, and knock on wood, nobody's
fallen, but it would be nice to have
something a little bit more permanent
and stable. Um, there is going to be a
need for new rest mats. We've had these
rest mats for 5 years now, and they are
starting to to fall apart. Um, and uh
there are a couple other things that
Martin is fully aware of. Um, and the
funding, we've been very fortunate to
have a UPK grant from the from the
state, but that is now at the end of its
funding cycle. And so now it is going to
be on the the um district and the school
sites to carry this through. So um we've
done our best to order materials, um
furniture, and all the things that we
need to carry us through for hopefully
the unforeseen future. Um
and yeah.
Okay. So um on behalf of the Reb City TK
program, I would like to thank first of
all the district leadership which is you
all, Dr. Baker, um, former assistant
superintendent Liz Wolf, who also who
started the this foresight of knowing
that the TK what was coming down the
pike from the state and Anna Herrera,
who has helped lead the way the last
couple years with this and and she knows
to the heart what it takes for this TK
program to thrive and I really
appreciate her support and help in this.
Um, I'd like to thank facilities Martin
and his crew who I know you guys are
tired of hearing from me, but they have
been very attentive to the needs of our
classrooms and understand that for
four-year-olds, we have to be very
diligent about safety issues. Um, and
then of course I'd like to thank Wendy
and her crew in HR for helping us fill
these positions and for helping us get
subs when we need it because it's it's
been a little bit more challenging than
we expected, especially with 19. We
currently have a roving instructional
assistant, Yiddell, who goes from sight
to sight as needed. But over the last
couple months, we've had a lot of people
out ill and um we've had to use um the
resources that the district has through
the swing subs. Um and then finally, I
would like to thank our amazing teachers
because well, I'm just constantly
amazed. I go into their classroom and
I'm just blown away at at their energy,
what they do, what they create, and
their resourcefulness, their camaraderie
with one another, how they help each
other.
their compassion and the dedication that
they bring to their craft. So, thank you
all.
>> Well, and we also want to thank Ann
who's been leading this team uh for the
last couple of years. We know her team.
>> Um
>> thank you.
>> We'll see if she continues with us this
year. We're hoping and I know she's also
looking forward to retirement.
>> 34 years.
>> I know. So we are we appreciate all your
work and just I don't want to say that
it is a lot of RTK is hats off to you
for all your dedication.
>> Thank you.
>> Appreciate that.
>> In 34 years I have to say I've done a
lot of different positions and I've
enjoyed all of them but I think this has
been the most rewarding for me to see a
program blossom and grow and to work
with amazing teachers that I I wouldn't
have had the chance to. So thank you for
the opportunity.
>> Yeah, thank you Annie and Jen for Yeah.
thanks for presenting um all about the
TK program. I know that reviewing the
slides over the weekend was a lot of fun
just because there's you can see the joy
that's in there um and the deep links
had a lot of information in there.
Before we jump into board discussion, we
do have one public comment on this. So,
I'm going to call Augustine Espin to uh
come up and make your comments. As a
reminder, you'll have about three
minutes. Um yeah, sit down.
>> Yeah.
>> Yep. Come on up. The the microphone's
on.
Okay. Good evening, dear board members.
Some of you already know me. My name is
uh Agugustina Espino. I'm a parent. I
have my kid uh my daughter over there,
Kennedy. And then I noticed that that
today we're going to be talking about
TK.
So, I meet with some of the parents of
the River City School District. And then
this is really nice. We want to
encourage the district to continue this
program. And then if he's possible to
expand the outreach to our Latino
community by
advertising on uh local clinic if it's
possible,
put it signs on the libraries and
possible on the bus stops of the of the
city because a lot of the uh families
use the that transportation so that they
can see what what it is and so that they
can better understand because a lot of
uh our community don't some not all but
some don't fully understand the how
important it is to start early enough.
So we need to to expose them to to tell
them that it's a benefit to to start
early and then uh
I uh I really want to do that to
flourish and see the
gap I've been talking about a lot about
the gap is not an easy task.
is is require a lot of commitment
everyone and then so I I I care about
that and that's why I'm here over here
asking you guys to please look at uh if
it's possible to do that outreach and
then see if we can uh change this train
to close the that gap education gap. Um
I went last Friday to Hoover which is a
heavily uh Hispanic school and I talked
to some parents and then
they had the same dream that when I came
over here to this country that they when
we came in this country we think like
hey you are the US and everything should
be fine and everything's going to be
flourish and then I learned a little
late that that we need to advocate and
so that's why I was talking to some of
the parents but uh they seems like it
they everything is fine. I talked to
them and say hey how is your kids doing
all the parents that I talked there were
not many but the ones that I taught the
kids were fantastic they say and then I
wondering if they are like in the case
of my sister that she don't even know
how to look the the report card where
how my nephew is doing. So, but
hopefully with the TK, hopefully we can
uh uh be able to change that trend and
then I definitely want to encourage to
see if we can all work together and make
a difference. Thank you.
>> Thanks, Augustine. You you raised some
good points and I actually want to just
follow up with Dr. Baker. Do we do
advertisement for TK? Like what kind of
outreach are we doing to let people know
about it?
>> So, there's outreach at the school sites
at school sites specifically. But um
what Augustine is talking about we used
to do previously for preschool. We we
could start that again. And we also used
to do
>> Canal channel what um 14. It was
probably 14. We used to add we they used
to take the advert advertisements for us
for free. So we can check and see if
they can do that again. But we did this
previously with the preschool and
there's no reason why we can't go back.
And the libraries, we did at the
libraries, we did it at the clinics. We
also did it at um the dentist's office
and so forth and we also put it out um
at the hospitals so we on their bulletin
board so we can continue not continue
but we could start again
>> and do that.
>> Yeah. I mean it's it's interesting. I
mean, I I understand it's an expensive
program. Ann touched on it, but like but
I think Anna and Augustine are both
talking about how it's kind of like a
literacy math preventative, like it's
stopping ensuring that there's no crisis
later on when they run into a problem
and sort of getting them off on the
right foot. So it does seem like a good
investment
>> because I think if you were to talk to
the kindergarten teachers now that these
students are coming to kindergarten like
they have expressed to myself they are
doing so much better than those students
who have not had TK or preK. It's just a
a whole change.
>> Yeah, I bet.
>> And in and what they're expecting. And
as you said, you have some kids right
now that are starting to read. That's
fantastic. And so yeah, it's we can do
that. We can we can definitely start
doing that again. It's not for
ourselves. It's not that expensive to
do. We just go around and we put them up
put you know those
>> pin cushes and go.
>> Yeah,
>> they're there and no one ever says
anything. And also some of the
restaurants used to take them also for
us
>> especially the ones on Middlefield Road.
>> Okay, I'm going to turn to the board um
and let the if anyone wants to start
with discussion, comments or or
questions for for Ann and Jen.
I see I see David Lee looking anxious to
jump in. So, I'm uh I'm gonna call on
him so that we don't do that. Let's
stare at everybody for a minute before
we decide who's going to start.
>> That is just my face, but that's fine.
>> Um uh I'll I've already put these
questions out there, so none should be
surprises, but first and foremost, I
think thank you for the presentation and
obviously for the work. It says it every
time, but um it's really helpful. I'll
be very candid. The the whole TK realm
is outside of my wheelhouse completely.
Um, so like seeing the picture, seeing
what it takes, like the before and after
is really really helpful. Um, and I know
we touched a little bit on the funding
piece and I I I think it's worth also
stating that I my understanding is that
as a basic aid district like we are
disadvantaged compared to others like we
it is effectively an unfunded mandate.
So we are
>> I'm just in incredibly impressed by the
work that we do given that we are not
currently supported by the state in the
same way that others are, right?
>> Um,
>> so just put that out there.
>> Yeah. uh the the two I guess two points,
one kind of comment and then one kind of
question or set of questions. Uh the one
comment is just on the slide that you
put up there and the commentary that
went with it which is that data is a
flashlight not a hammer and I just
>> very much fully endorse it. I love that
idea, right? Like
>> data doesn't tell us anything by itself.
We have to understand it, read it,
interpret it and that's going to lead to
the next step. But seeing the numbers is
not um
>> it's not enough by itself, right?
>> So I really appreciated the
>> the context and the takeaways that you
brought on the slides. And this isn't a
comment to you, but I think in general,
especially as I think we move toward
presentations where we're trying to
condense things and make it super
efficient, it might I I think it'd be
helpful to uh try to get like the
takeaways from the district on the
slides of what that like what did you
see from the data,
>> right? What's the story
>> exactly? I think part of that honestly
is just because to again to be
completely honest like this is not my
wheelhouse. Like I don't I don't know.
I'm not an expert on what the the the
numbers are telling me. Um and I'm not
there in the day-to-day, but what I
really care about is what is what are
the the people who are on the ground?
What are they taking away from it? And
like what does that mean for next steps?
Um so I I got that loud and clear from
the the voice over. Uh but I I'll just
put it out there.
>> Thank you. Um the questions are more
focused on the the challenges and the
maintenance piece.
>> And this goes back to the the budget. Um
I think it's not a secret that uh we're
in tight budget circumstances. Um but I
think it's also hopefully not a secret
that TK is the first point where we can
start addressing things so that in first
like third grade literacy doesn't happen
in third grade, right? It's everything
leads up to it. Um, and so to me, and I
think I won't speak for everyone else,
but obviously very important, love to
make sure that we're a robust program
and would love to make sure that we're
offering it equitably to all the
communities. Like we should be targeted.
>> Y
>> um, with that said, I I know there's
discussion of a parcel tax effort that
has been at prior board meetings. Uh,
unhealthily, I've I've been on the
internet and seeing just different uh,
questions that pop up about the parcel
tax and the effectiveness. I just um
specifically within the realm of TK and
it doesn't have to be right now. I think
a question that's going to come up is
what is the amount of money and what is
it going toward?
>> To make sure that we're being more
effective and even just based on the
presentation, I know you have ideas. I
know that the district has ideas.
>> If we could just make sure that we get
those down somewhere so that once we
>> Absolutely. I just want that there's a
sense I get that there are members of
the public who don't they don't have
full confidence yet
>> that all the the money is going toward
all the stuff that is you know closing
the achievement gap and all that
>> and like that's just not true like
>> we know what we need to spend but anyway
>> they need the flashlight
>> exactly and so I I'll ask the question
openly now which is like
>> what are the things um and like what
does that look like in terms of of money
because that's what we think the the
funds are going to go to. But I've also
obviously very much put you on the spot.
So it doesn't have to be an exhaustive
list, but even a sample and then
something else just to think about as we
go forward of like that. I think that
would be helpful.
>> Um Okay. Yeah, Anna has some
>> I was going to say um I mean we have
invested a lot of money. We have been
very we have been we have received money
to really fund all of the materials in
classrooms. Um which is a large amount.
Um I think that grant that we had was
over 400,000. I don't even know that's
just when I started. So it must have
been greater.
>> We had like 600,000.
They started
>> but they kept increasing ultimately it
was about 600.
>> So just in materials alone that have
gone to TK and these classrooms you're
looking at 600,000
>> plus no for entirely.
>> Okay. So because building a classroom
we've never built just one classroom. we
have to build four classrooms every time
we've done it. And so when we're
ordering materials, we're ordering
everything at the same. Um, so that is
just in like furniture and uh making
sure we have appropriate size tables,
making sure we have the chairs, making
sure that we have the appropriate size
bookshelves. So all of that investment
really goes to what we're we we've been
able to support. Martin has uh
facilities has actually been able to
support us on some of those furniturees
as well and so have our grants in our
district. Um I mean each classroom
requires an adult a teacher and an aid.
So you're talking about two two salaries
there that you have to maintain. Um
because the teachers the aids we have a
ratio 20 to1. So we I mean tw 20 to2
adults. So we have to maintain that
ratio. So we're looking at salaries
right? So you're looking at two
salaries. Once the ch the the classrooms
are have all the materials, it's really
what we have to maintain. Like for
example, the mats that we have where
children rest and take a take a you know
uh not sleep. Some of them do fall
asleep, but it's a resting time. Those
do have to replace because they only
have a certain year span, right? So we
have to look at um purchasing new ones.
And
>> how expensive are mats?
>> You know what? It depends.
>> About $500 per classroom
>> for new mats. Yeah. So, we're talking
about, you know, our class, our older
classrooms versus our newer classrooms,
right? So, um, and we do know that we've
been looking and I talked a lot about
like those mats like do we invest in
Lakes Shore, which are a little bit more
expensive, but they also do we have a
little bit more of a guarantee. So, you
have to balance it out.
>> Um, so I think when you look about what
the cost is, you're really looking at
that and training. So Ann had we have
been very fortunate. Our county has had
a lot of training for prek uh in the
district. So we've been able to send our
teachers to some of those trainings and
has attended multiple training. The
teachers have attended. We've been able
to invest in certain trainings that are
more appropriate for our staff. Um and I
think um you know when we look at
ongoing if we continue to have teachers
who leave we just have to continue
onboarding people. So there just, you
know, costs that we would add to any
district, any PD.
>> So So if you don't mind me clarifying
your question, are you looking at what
it costs per classroom to run it? Is
that your question?
>> I that could be one way to think in like
the big picture in my head is I want to
be able to go down the street and say
when someone comes to me and says we're
not using we don't this district doesn't
need more money, period. I want to be
able to say that's that's actually not
correct. Okay? because here's what we're
doing and here's what we can't do
anymore because we're losing a grant and
here's what it's going to take.
>> Right. Okay. I can help with that list.
>> Wonderful.
>> Thank you and thank you Jennifer. Um I
actually want to personally thank you.
My my son was in one of those six 2022
TK classrooms.
>> Wonderful.
>> So shout out to Galash.
Um, but I uh, you know, following up to
Augustine's comment about out the
outreach, the other thing I've actually
heard from some principles and parents
are, um, they just don't even know what
putting their child into a classroom
looks like, right?
>> And so, they were looking for even more
of just a video online or a tour or like
knowing that there's a bathroom like a
bathroom in the room, right? Like what
does looking a cable look like? I don't
know if we can even
>> actually we are right now working on
that. We've been asked by the county
because they're familiar with our
classrooms and know what great
classrooms we have that they've asked if
they can actually film a little video
just for that purpose.
>> Great.
>> So I got approval from Jorge and John
and and so I'm grateful.
>> So yeah, so that's coming.
>> Okay, that's great. Um yeah, I think
that will encourage more parents. We
also do um orientations in the spring.
Usually in May or June they do TK and K
orientations. So parents who have
already registered will be invited to
those. So where we have slide decks and
then those get sent out so you can see
what each classroom is different. So we
can't just have necessarily a generic
one. Um so it depends upon the sites.
>> Perfect. Yeah, I I agree with every all
the comments today. the more kids we can
get into TK, I think will just be great
for the district. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
>> Um, so thank you guys for the
presentation. Um, and of course, um, I
want to just say thank you to everyone
that has at one point, um, engaged and
stepped up to teaching TK, including
those preschool teachers that moved up.
And obviously thankful to the district
for allowing that to happen and working
with those teachers to work on their
teaching credential because I think
that's great. Um you know um building
our own and making sure that those
students thrive in the future. Um I
think it's very important that we build
the strong foundation uh like you've
mentioned. Um obviously this is to get
them ready not just for primary school,
middle school but beyond. So, um, my
daughter is a kindergarten teacher and
has said it makes such a big difference
of those kids coming in from TK,
>> um, with TK experience. Um, and I do
want to say, um, I'm going to give a
shout out to Miss Marcato cuz my
daughter, who is Karina, um, she took
her under her wing many years ago when
she was a sub and she didn't have, I
think, like a TK partner cuz she was
from another school and she really
showed her all the, um, you know,
>> the ropes. Yes, the ropes. And so
beautiful
>> the pandemic.
>> During the pandemic, of course. Yeah.
So, um I do want to tell you thank you.
Um because you know, sometimes you guys
don't realize how much of a difference
you guys are making, um until somebody
actually, you know, makes a known. So, I
do want to thank you. So, and just like
you, you know, I' I've said this before.
Um one of the things that I do admire
about the Reboot City School District is
everyone um they work with grace. um
very happy doing their jobs and um
always helping um at their school sites.
So I I do really appreciate that. And of
course this goes out to uh the pair of
professionals that work with the
teachers as well because obviously they
do do a lot. So
>> yes, all the workers at the sites, the
custodians, the cafeteria workers, all
everybody. We couldn't do it without
them, the office staff.
>> Yes.
>> So thank you.
>> Thanks so much. Looks like the program
is doing really well. It's been growing
explosively and the staff who've been
rising to the challenge. Um getting to
see some of those deltas is great and it
te's up well with the broader research
about the impact of TK on kids who go
through it.
>> Um and it feels like that's uh going to
kind of shift us to a new regime where
we were we're having to scramble, right,
to go and build like all of the new
classrooms every year and and and
accommodate that interest. um and as
well as the expansion of the program to
younger and younger ages. But that
part's not going to continue, right?
We're not going to be having
two-year-olds in in TK or anything like
that. Right. Uh this is it.
>> Right. So So, so tonight drawing the
line,
>> right? So So we're drawing the line.
Exactly. Exactly. So, and and that means
that like a couple things are going to
change, right? Um as the program goes
from growth mode and like let's keep up
with this surge in demand as is, uh the
TK definition expands. Um, two, you you
heard Augustine's comment and it seemed
like there was a lot of nods and grunts
around the table to like active outreach
to go and and have the program be more
equitably adopted would be would be
really good. And then on a more macro
basis going and dealing with declining
enrollment, right? And so, uh, h how do
we factor that in that we don't
overshoot, uh, because, well, the last
couple years we've been doing four new
classrooms a year and so, um, whoops. uh
we we we don't want to o overshoot uh
what what's ultimately going to be a
declining slope,
>> right? Absolutely. And and we definitely
have been keeping that in mind as well
and and knowing that that population
will will eb and flow and you know that
the teachers are very qualified. They
can they can work in other grade levels
if if needed. We don't want that. We
want to maintain what we have because we
worked hard for it. But um yeah, that's
always a possibility. We just have to
roll with what comes.
>> That's awesome. On the teachers, we have
flexibility there. On the classrooms, it
seems like that the demands of a TK
classroom even versus a kindergarten
classroom involve a bit of material
expenditure there
>> a little bit, but I think we're kind of
plateauing on that because we've been I
mean some consumables of course, you
know, our little learning without tears
workbooks and those kind of things.
Sure. But and then you know some
materials have to be replaced over the
years. But you know teachers we know
they invest a lot of money in their own
classrooms and um a lot of what we see
in there is are items that teachers have
purchased themselves. Um, so you know,
depending on who's in the classroom and
I I we'll always have more expenses, but
I I feel like the big nut of expenses
has been taken care of unless we add
five more, which we're not going to,
right?
Unless we need to at our other sites.
So, if if there's things that we need to
do as a board to support this program,
um like bless the purchase of $500 mats
that have served their purpose for five
years, um if there's things like uh
helping to nudge outreach to the
community, it sounds like we we've got
some some muscle tissue that we had
worked on with uh prek that maybe could
now be revisited for TK. That that
sounds fabulous. I don't know what kind
of uh cheerleading we can give as a
board to formally say like yes, you
know, we we think that's a really good
idea. Uh I tried reaching out to Samr
after Augustine and I had a discussion
to see like are they willing to go and
post things for us on bus stops. Um
>> so yeah, I mean let's it's a
collaboration. You built a great program
and I I'd love for it to be uh in in as
many hands as possible.
>> Me too. Thank you. We'll work on that.
>> Thanks Ann. I'm so glad you poured 34
years into this program. You know, it's
like all that experience to be able to
deliver it. Yeah. I mean, just watch
seeing this presentation and looking at
the slides, it just sort of really
illustrates what what living the
district's mission of, you know, being
joyful and rigorous and inclusive and
nurturing uh program and putting that
together. So, thank you uh to you, the
TK teachers, the TK aids, um you know,
the facilities, HR, uh the district
leadership here uh with us. It's just,
you know, it's it's uh obviously it's
compliant and it follows the state
guidelines, but it's really student
centered, you know, and so much more
than that. Um, and it just really like
first step to advancing our LCAP goals,
you know, for social emotional support
and, you know, academic learning. Uh,
you can just see how it's really tied
in. It's really it's NTSS really at the
earliest earliest stack,
>> right? Absolutely. Um, I look forward,
you know, I know I bet in a future year,
we're going to see, you know, how these
TK cohorts are doing and being able to
track them through first, second, third
grade and and go in. We already have the
initial evidence of how much more
prepared they are coming into
kindergarten, but I think, you know,
it'll be neat to see and track them over
the next couple years how long work is.
>> I know Anna and and Jenny are working on
that a way to to do that. That's out of
my wheelhouse.
>> Totally. Yeah. You you're doing
something excellent. Don't don't worry
about it.
>> Again, thanks. Yeah, Dr.
>> Thank you.
>> First of all, Ann, you've come a long
way. Do you remember back when,
>> right? We go way back.
>> Way back.
>> Um, so thank you so much for everything
that you've done and put your heart and
soul into this program. I knew you were
the right person to have when you took
the responsibility to move it to where
it is today. Um because when the mandate
came down, we were all kind of like
wondering what are we going to do?
>> Especially when we found out that
because we were um community funded, we
our our dollars were going to be a lot
less. Um with that said, I also want to
extend uh a grateful hand
to Jennifer Mazo,
born and raised Redwood City Hoover
School when I was the principal. and she
was like this.
>> Yes, he was my principal.
>> Um I was circle great to see her in the
classroom when she became a teacher. Uh
matter of fact, when I became
superintendent, I think went to your
classroom. That's where I got my picture
taken. Um at Taft at at Taft. So, thank
you so much for sticking with Redwood
City and and being part of this
adventure. um you're reaping the wonders
that have you've put together yourself
along with an here and um I was
notified, you know, that the county
wants to do the video and I said, "Well,
make sure that you give credit where
credit is due because there was a lot of
hard work that went into this." What you
didn't show up there, I didn't see your
husband putting together some of the
furniture.
>> Well, I I was told I'm limited to
slides. I have pictures of my son and
his girlfriend putting furniture
together, my husband.
>> So, it was a team effort for sure.
Family affair,
>> right? But you've done an outstanding
job and thank you so much.
>> Really appreciate it along with the
teachers that are in the program along
with the instructor.
>> And Jennifer, I have to just give
another shout out to Jennifer. She is
our long longest longevity TK teacher. Y
she was teaching TK before we even
started this trajectory. Um she was one
of the original four at at Taft. Yep.
And then she was moved to Adilante.
Right. Yeah. Exactly.
>> So thank God she she and Heidi and a few
others who have been around from the
beginning have really helped me um
helped me help them um do it do their
jobs in my job. So
>> great job. Kudos.
>> Thank you.
>> Awesome.
>> Thank you.
And then can I say something here?
>> Yes. One more thing.
>> Um since we're still on this topic, um I
just want to um give a big shout out as
well to Augustine and Miss Patty. She is
part of the superintendent advisory
committee. Uh the Spanish, she's a
mother from Hoover and she's here
representing TK because she has a TK
here. And of course, Augustine, excuse
me.
>> And come
>> and come to Yes. come to the meetings.
And um and of course Augustine thank you
for your comment because this is why we
ask that you parents come here because
when we hear from you there's change
right if we don't know what is happening
or there's ideas out there um sometimes
we think we are doing the right thing
and we are but there's more ideas that
could come up and so I really appreciate
it so thank you for your input.
Well said. Thank you for adding that in
and and I Augustine of course for being
here. Um let's move on to our next uh
community school report. This is the
review of the California dashboard
report.
>> All right. Thank you all. Uh I will
begin. Jenny I know is online so um we
decided I will be doing most of the
talking tonight. Um so tonight we are
presenting the newly released Cal
California dashboard data for RCSD based
on our state assessments that were
administered in May. The dashboard
serves as key guide for ALCAP each year,
helping us identify which schools
require additional support in English
language arts and math, as well as
determining which student subgroups and
target interventions we need to add. Um,
this separation directly informs our
annual planning, including the
development of our LCAP and the
professional development priorities for
this upcoming school year. RCSD is
currently identified for differentiated
assistance in partnership with the
county office of education for our
students with disabilities subgroups in
two areas of chronic absenteeism and
math which are both red indicators. So
this is some of the guiding work that
will lead us today. Um so we're going to
quickly just go over a snapshot of how
we see it for the audience of Rodri
City. Um so when we look at our
performance standards um the the c the
oh sorry the indicators are on color
wheels from the state they show us our
wide measures in chronic absenteeism
suspensions e progress and academics
both in ELA and math as well as we have
science indicators um we also have
indicators um in our school districts we
receive one out of the five colors so as
you can see where our indicators are in
yellow for chronic absenteeism green for
suspension English learner project uh
progress we're are in yellow and ELA and
math were both in yellow um so those are
great those are just our indicators and
then we also have our local indicators
um which are on the next steps which
says standards met these are local
indicators that measure our progress
which we track locally usually these are
local indicators that show um we are how
we have met we do a survey at the end of
the year with our LCAP um to show us if
we have met our district our measure our
requirements for these um these areas.
So for our RC just just so that you know
and when we think about last year's data
and the LA the year prior for 2324
um we were in the indic for chronic
absenteeism we were in yellow the year
before um as well in suspensions and e
we were in the green so we for our
English learner progress we've moved
down from green to yellow and both for
our academic and data language arts we
were in the orange so the year before so
just so you guys have context where
we've moved
um in terms many of our slides just show
how we compare to the state. So what
this slide just shows that we declined
by 8 0.8 and we are in the yellow
similar to the state. Um and I forgot to
start say just letting the audience know
that we've condensed the slides down. Um
so we're only showing some specific
slides that we will show tonight but the
full slide deck is on on on the website.
Um, and for our target AC absenteeism
indicator, we have four subgroups that
we need to look at. That is our
African-Americans, which have been uh
for the last several years, we've had
them on our target um radar to really
support. And we have our ALESS this
year. We have Pacific Islanders, which
we had two years in a row now. And now
we've add our students with disabilities
as well. So, this is one of the
indicators as to why we are um looking
at our students with disabilities this
next year.
In terms of our uh just as a summary of
all of the data that we have compiled,
we are looking at some uh declining in
of chronic absenteem. It is a challenge
and has been a challenge in the last
couple of years. Um again, when we look
at our data, we're looking at tracking
over time, right? Our Pacific Islanders
has been a subgroup that's been in the
red for two consecutive years in ter in
this area. um we are working is one of
our smaller groups but it is in red um
our African-American students our elasen
students again all of these have been in
red for several years so we continue to
have to monitor we are making strides
with some of them um but it takes a lot
of work to put um uh to address chronic
absenteeism we believe we really need to
make a mind a shift in how we address it
so much with parents as well as with all
of our staff um and so we have seen a
significant ificant increase in chronic
absentism with we had sorry we had one
school with significant increase in
chronic absentism but we had six show
decline. So we want to make sure that we
keep that at the forefront we didn't
make as much as we wanted to but we are
making progress. Um this graph again
it's just showing us over time where
were we at when we look at 2019 when we
were pandemic we're at 8.7 we are you
know when you look at this graph you're
looking at we had a decrease so we're
slowly starting to make an impact um in
this area.
So we know that you guys want to know
how does this relate to our alcap. So we
did not meet our goal in our ccap
because we wanted to be at 15.4 we met
we only decreased by.9. We're at 17.5 in
this area, but we have a lot in place
from our ALCAP that we continue. We have
attendance teams that meet regularly. We
have our TOSAs. We have lots of outreach
to families, home visits that we're
doing. Um, we now this year we've
created an alternative education for
some of our most chronic students that
have 50% or below that had met that
target already since October.
um we are we have this alternative
program and even in the alternative
program which is an online in-person we
are still seeing chronic absenteeism. So
we are working with families um to help
address this. These are are some of our
middle school students um and we do have
a lot of supports at foresight. So
there's a lot of work that's going into
this area but it's also a challenging
area because we have to address many
different barriers. Um, one of some of
the things that we're seeing and
especially with our teenagers is some of
them really don't want to come to
school. And so we're really trying to
giving them encouragement and supports.
Um, in our alternative program, we have
two, we have a teacher as well as a
mental health support system that is
meeting with families regularly as well
and students. So the program just
started and so children of course like
all students are taking time um to trust
and so we really need to identify these
students for some mental health support
as well. So we're now in that process of
doing that as the program continues
but it is an area of challenge for us.
So although we have not met our goal we
did do a little bit and we continue to
work on it this year. Um in terms of
suspensions again we are when we look at
our how we compare to the state we have
made 1.4 declining and and this is an
area where we have had great success. So
we want to make sure we keep that
success up. Again no students in the red
right so we always look at where do we
have students to focus on. So in summary
for our suspensions um we have want to
focus in that we had nine of our schools
who reduced suspensions last year. Um
and we did meet our elk up goal for this
one. So we really want to highlight that
our our we are doing a lot of work in
terms of suspensions
um over time. You can see that we've
never had it. I'm glad we've never been
very high but we are surpassing at 1.1
and 225 when looking at 2019. So we are
doing well in this area.
Um again we meeting with our we did meet
our goal for our alcap on this one but
we are continuing to work with our PBIS
and alternatives to suspensions. This is
an area that we continue to have
suspensions. We're just not having them
in the numbers that we had in the past.
So we're still working with how do we
create alternatives to suspensions at
all the school sites especially the
middle schools. Okay.
Um in terms of our air English learner
progress again we're looking at we have
maintained this progress um in the area
although we did reclassify lots of
students there's different criteria for
different purposes um so for our
long-term English learners this is an
area again seven year students who have
been in the country for seven years um
we had a 8.1 increase of students who
are fed and so that's a wonderful
progress that we've had especially as
they go into high school. Um, and so
again, this is an area that we are very
proud of
and a lot of work that went into that
last year. Um, and just in summary from
our data, we look, we really want to
make sure that although we maintain we
made great progress with our long-term
English learners, um, we want to make
sure that uh, we continue this progress
and report um, and work that we've been
doing in the last several years. Um we
want to recognize that we did have seven
schools who increase number of students
moving up one level on the LP. So we
have our LPAC which is our our
assessment our diagnostic but the LP is
where you have students moving from
level to level and so we want to
highlight that we did have students
moving from levels um on the overall. So
the the state uses a different metric to
how do we move one one area to another
from students to make sure we're
reclassifying.
Another um great strength of ours that
we had for the first time 9.4% of our
students with disabilities actually made
some growth in alternative. So the some
of the students that have to take an
alternative test for depending on
different areas of need for uh for um
for their disability. So um we we again
we take that win and that growth and we
are on track to meet our ELC cap goal
with number two with 2.9. So we are
making progress on all of these goals.
Um but we have a lot of work to do. Um
so again just looking at where we are
from the pandemic. We had the increase
right? We're at 48.1. We we gave over
last year in the two years prior. our
highest represented 22 when we first
came back out of the pandemic.
Um, but this is just shows our that this
is the first time if you look at it in
the last three years that for our
students with disabilities, we've made
some good growth there. So, hats off to
our SLC teachers and ESLC teachers
who've been working with these students.
Um, and so we are on our goal two for
ELPAC. I think earlier I said we were on
track, but we are not on track. Sorry
that was my mis um um misstep but we
wanted to be at 45% with our students.
We are only made it up to 41 but we are
ch taking that 2.9 and continue to move
and work. We have been working with our
target schools which have been in
working with Dr. Sagulan for the last
two years. Um lots of progress being
made there with demonstration lessons
planning and moving forward. Um we also
this year have incorporated more assess
we have assessments three times a year
now that we did not do last year. So
monitor our English progress with our
language power and we now added summit
for middle school students and one of
the things that we are making sure is
that all students have EL courses which
is a mandate um and we're holding to
that. So, uh, Miss Rivera, our multi our
multilingual director, is very
consistent at visiting classrooms
throughout the year, uh, throughout the
weeks. She has a schedule where she's at
sites and she is monitoring, making sure
this is happening.
Um, so we're going to move into the
academic area of ELA. So, again, looking
comparatively at the state level, again,
we're matching state we're in yellow,
but we did make some growth 11.1 points.
Although it's small, it's still a win.
It's better than when we were at before.
Um so some of our key findings just from
um the data is that we our priority
schools schools that were in double
digits um it had increases. Again I want
to remind you that our priority schools
two years ago were all in red. We are no
longer in red. We have to take that. We
have one site with one area. So, I just
want to remind us that the work is been
a lot of work, but we have moved these
out of the red. Um, and I'm very proud
of all the work that the teachers and
the students have all put into this
because it takes a lot to get them out.
So, um, Hoover, Garfield, Roosevelt,
McKinley, which were been a lot of our
work, a lot of good work went in and
they have made some gains. We want to
keep that momentum going. Um, and so
again, Taft, Clifford, and Henford also
made, but they were in more in the
single digits gains, but still we'll
take that. It's better than not having
anything at all. And then we also had
Alan, Kennedy, and Orion make some move
as well. Um, so we want to just remind
us that the work is hard, but we are
making growth, steady growth. Um, so for
our ALCAP goal, we are not on track. Um,
we missed it. Um, we have a lot of
growth to have to do this next year. if
we want to make our goal for next year
which is 15.3% that means we have to
have an 8.8% increase this year. Um so
we're working hard this year we have put
a lot of actions into our LCAP all based
on reading uh reading uh comprehension
both in for all our third through fifth
graders as well as our sixth through 8th
grade. So our focus is reading
comprehension which is an area that we
need. Um we focused in on phonics uh two
years ago and now it's reading uh the
comprehension piece. Um we continue with
our PLC focuses not only in writing we
reading some sites have math um we and
again we are making sure that our we
have assessments built into that now
that we did not have before. So we have
more regular assessments being done so
that teachers could use it to guide
their practice and guide student work
and small group instruction and reading.
Um in math again we're very comparable
to the state. Um we had 8.6 points where
we made some growth
very small. Um but we've also had a lot
of change in curriculum and so going
into that was with our two years with
our new curriculum. Um again when we
think about our priority schools um that
we've been working on they had
doubledigit gains which is Ros Garfield,
Rose McKinley and Henry Ford last year.
We also had Taft Hoover and Clifford
make some gains. Um overall almost all
our schools made some gains and we're
really proud to see that that has made
some progress. It didn't made our goal
but it's okay. We take it. It's slow and
steady wins the race versus going fast.
So, and we want to just point out that
our English learners, which is our
target, also made some gains. All right.
So, we're we have a lot of work to do
with our English learners to close that
gap, but we are moving towards it. Um,
and we are maintaining versus um
slipping back.
So, when we think about our maintaining
in math, we've had a lot. Math has been
an area and not just in our district but
across the state um where um it it
continues to be a struggle for all of us
as to how we're making progress. Um but
we continue to work on for our case um
at our professional development coming
up in um January. We continue to work on
our math centers and we had some
training with our teachers um using the
apps to make sure they're do using the
apps to support fluency and because that
is the biggest issue that teachers say
that kids don't memorize their facts. So
we're really working on making sure that
we have built in um into the math time
that fluency practice. Um we are looking
at math planning sessions as well
working with some of our coaches and as
you all know our 68 just started their
first year of implementation of the new
adoption. Um and this year also all
grade levels we are having them
administer chapter tests more
consistently on a consistent basis to
analyze and work towards um where we are
where students are to help support them.
So the all of those assessments were not
in place before. So this year we are
moving forward with that.
So, in closing, I know that we have not
met our goals. Um, but we are making
steady progress, and I want to make sure
that we celebrate our staff and our
students for the work that they've
accomplished as as it's a lot of work.
Um, I know our teachers put a lot of
time and effort into everything we do,
as well as our principles, our coaches
who are cons consistently out there
supporting our staff. Um, and so we are
making progress even though it's not
showing clearly how you want to see it
on the data.
>> Thanks Anna for the presentation. Um,
and also for condensing it down, tying
everything to the ELCAT. It really like
um, it really synthesized everything
that we saw from the raw data into a
presentation I thought personally I
found really really engaging um, to
follow. So I appreciate that. Um, shall
we switch to board? I don't think we
have any public comments, so uh we can
jump right into board comments
discussion.
Um
>> yeah, Jen. Yeah, go ahead.
>> More of a tangent.
>> Yeah, go ahead.
>> Thank you, Anna, for the for the
presentation. Um looking at this
information and seeing Taft on there a
few times, it just reminded me of the
pilot program that we're running there.
Um could you just um remind me kind of
what that program is t like what the
pilot is programming at t at taft and if
we're gonna kind of see a followup and
kind of how this ties to start from it
there.
>> Yeah. So the TAF um pilot that we're
having is really structured planning
time um for great the third fourth and
fifth grade teachers. Uh so they pretty
much have the one afternoon um free for
them to actually sit and plan. So they
have at least a 2hour and a half chunk.
After lunch they are in the classroom
planning till the end of the day. Um so
we have our Bronna is our coach there.
So she meets with them regularly. Um and
so we're we bring in the coaches with
math and um our ELA and to really work
with them on the benchmark. They are
also piloting our new the benchmark. And
so a lot of the focus has been bringing
in the benchmark um reading
comprehension focus
bringing in the CRLP practices that we
have into the benchmark and planning for
those steps that we're doing. So we're
combining CRLP with benchmark training
and impacting working with the teachers
for planning instruction around reading
comprehension is one of the big areas.
Um and Taft uh PLC work is all around
reading comprehension for their school
site. So it sort of ties very easily
into some of the TAF goals this year.
>> And I assume and I assume this is all
just kind of integrated with the EL work
or is that going to be separate or is
that
>> it's pro it's a little bit of everything
because it's looking at where kids are
in staff has a high population of
English learners. So they're really
embedded in all of the work for them.
Okay.
>> And so yeah, we are working on compiling
some information on how that's going as
well. Other
questions, comments?
Cecilia. Yeah. Um, thank you for the
presentation and of course, thank you to
everyone that is putting um all their
effort, especially the teachers to, you
know, like you said, it's it's it's
hard, but we will get there. Um and then
I just thought since um Ann's um
slide on data is a flashlight um I just
thought well the flashlight is pointing
into the right direction and although at
the the end of the road may be far we
will get there with the bright light.
Um, I just want to see us, you know,
with a positive. Um, we we need to be
positive and yes, we're said it before,
moving the needle. Maybe it's moving
slow, but it is moving. So, um, I also
want to say thank you to all the ELPAC
proctors. Um, I know that it's a lot of
work that they put into it. um and
everybody that manages to arrange all
the testing because I know it's a lot of
work throughout the year at different
times of the year. Um and again, um the
ELPAC, I'm sorry, the English learners
have maintained and are moving in the
right direction. Um, and I think
we are moving forward, maybe not as fast
as we want to, but Redwood City teachers
and staff do put in a lot of work. And
so um, just like you said, we we do want
to thank them because um, it's not an
easy task, but again, they're doing it
every single day. So, I just want to say
thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Thanks, Cecilia. Uh David or David, do
you have questions, comments? David, go
ahead. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So, I I love getting to go and
look at the data and the data behind
this presentation. Thank you for
condensing, but similarly, thank you for
the raw data as well, because it's great
to see. And and when you go through
that, it becomes clear that there's some
data points that are extremely strong.
You know, I was really impressed by the
rate of improvement of ELA in Roosevelt
and MIT in particular. Those were really
strong numbers. We saw uh some good
movement from Garfield and Hoover as
well. Um and
anytime we're trying things and we have
a big needle to move, some of the things
that we try are going to work out and
some aren't, right? And it's not a
judgment call of like good teachers and
bad teachers or like good ideas and bad
ideas, but it's just it's it's about our
district being in a learning process
itself. And so it would be great to see
can we take some of those things that
seemingly have worked really well for
ELA development at Roosevelt and MIT and
make sure that those are rolled out more
broadly across the other schools in the
district. Like um it I I I would love
just a little more color about how we're
doing how that how we're finding the
wins and and copy pasting them as
quickly as we can across the district.
>> And Dr. Baker and I have talked about
this. We have to invest in providing
coaches and planning time because that's
really what's making the difference.
>> Okay.
>> Dedicated planning time to what we want
to do. Um so that teachers and having
coaches that really help support the
endeavor.
>> Yeah. It it it does help move the
needle. Right now we don't have coaches
at each of the sites. And um on our
target sites, we have had a lot of a lot
of movement into those target sites. And
so we are seeing a lot of that work and
it's also dedicated planning time built
in throughout the day. So they have
release time to plan and work on what
needs to be done um to help. So that is
a a key issue that needs we need to
continue um across and we know that
teachers keep asking we want more
planning time. planning time. It's
really it need to be dedicated planning
time without interruptions. And so we
have been fortunate at our school sites
um to have guest teachers this year.
Some of our school sites we've we've
added two guest teachers to some of our
high priority sites. Um and so that
really helps with the planning because
they're not worried about am I going to
get a sub, am I going to get this? They
have two dedicated people who can help
relieve, you know, take over a classroom
so teachers can plan. So that has been
one of the things that I think that has
been very beneficial and having that
dedicated time for some of our staff.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. And we've had that at Roosevelt
had two guest features last year. U
McKenley has it this year. Hoover has it
this year as well. Um Garfield had it
last year as well.
>> Got it. Thank you. Um anytime we we have
a goal and we if we do hit it, it's very
easy like yay, we did awesome, right?
Like and that's fine. But um when we
when we miss a goal um I I I think it
can be helpful to ask like well were we
being overly optimistic. Were did we
just make these numbers up or did we
have specific interventions in mind that
we thought credibly could move the
needle that much and then we tried them
and some of them worked but actually
some of them didn't. Um, and then that's
a learning moment or just like what
what's behind um the miss because I I
think in particular I look at the math
slide, right, where we made no motion at
all and it's like oh that really stings,
right? And this got to sting for
everyone, right? Um and and I wonder
like what did we try that that didn't
work out the degree to which we expected
that it would work out and then how are
we going to change course to to credibly
start moving the needle in the right
direction? Well, and just because you're
bringing up math, I mean, math, this is
our second year. This we finished our
second year with our new program. I
think this year
I am. And so, I do think that with the
math new curriculum, the teachers were
still learning in their second year. I
think this year as we are looking and
being in classrooms and observing
teachers there's definitely some more
growth that has happened this last year
between the years as they become more
proficient as to what are the needs in
the classroom how they're using
assessments to really guide that
instruction. Um so I think this year as
as they solidify teachers solidify their
learning and we provide them
opportunities to plan especially in the
in the K2 where we are providing them
time for planning with centers looking
at fluency to build it because as we all
know just thinking about TK if we build
that foundation when they're younger
with that fluency they get better when
they're in the upper grades and so we
really need to build that fluency to
help with the math. So I think it's
starting in kinder TK that are coming in
and then building those skills with the
critical thinking. Um so I think with
with math we have a long way to go is
one of our areas that's not our
strongest. We haven't we've really
invested a lot more time in reading in
the last couple of years. Not enough in
math.
>> Um
>> just to be clear I I agree with the
stack prioritization. Literary literacy
comes first then math then everything
else. Right. So that's I mean so that
I'm going to be honest that's where our
focus was and has been and a lot of the
reading math today has a lot of reading
components. So we that's why our focus
is so much on the reading comprehension.
Um but there are areas in math that we
still have to tighten up with our staff
and planning.
>> That all makes sense and thank you so
much. Um what I struggle with a little
bit is like um we're we're the degree to
which we are not seeing forward progress
because uh it's kind of year two for
this this new curriculum, right? And is
it I guess if I could sort of imagine um
haha uh pun intended around the the the
impact of a new curriculum David the the
impact of a new curriculum roll out over
time. It sort of sounds like implicitly
the the first year or two is is almost a
backslide as the teachers have to
scramble to figure out how to teach the
new curriculum and then like what I'm
curious about is like what's the shape
of the payoff curve, right? Like do we
see like year three is where it really
comes to life and we start seeing some
nice forward motion and please for the
love of God trustees do not change the
math curriculum again and like year four
you're going to torpedo you know the
teachers being in the sweet spot of like
finally having nailed the the the way to
teach Imagine Math. I mean, it is a
different way of teaching and the ma
imagine math. Not only is it a a
different way of teaching, it's a
different way for our teachers to change
and learn how we're we're we have to
change our thinking as a teacher in math
to this critical way of opening it up to
more open-ended, right? And that's a
struggle for a lot of staff. We want to
give them the algorithm because we know
the algorithm works but it's not getting
them the back end of what was needed for
algebra and for the courses that are
ahead. So we have to really back. So it
is it is it does take time to teach. I
think one of the things that um we've
added this year that we didn't do last
year. Last year we attempted and I say
attempted okay because
>> we attempted to add three times where
they had to assess students.
Unfortunately, it wasn't in the We were
hoping they would be on pacing guide,
right? But if they're not on the pacing
guide, they miss they Oh, well, we have
we're doing the assessment, but because
you're telling us, not because that's
where we're at.
>> So, this So, last year we had three
assessments built in. We missed the mark
where being online for many of the
sites. Some sites were, it was a hit or
miss. This year they're a little bit
more aligned because everyone's doing
the assessments and having common time
for that and principles are monitoring
those assessments with their staff.
>> Sure.
>> So that is a change that we did not have
in place at all and assessments do guide
instruction if we're looking at them
consistently. Right.
>> Sure. Are we expecting to see growth in
math based on our current plans and
based on teachers now entering into
third year of IM and having that
experience under their belt?
>> I would say yes, we are. I think we're
on I mean we've all been in classrooms
and looking at what kids are doing um
and sharing some of those mathematical
thinking practice that we're asking. We
are seeing some changes in even in
students.
The piece that is still lacking and this
is I know we're
having to work within a budget um is the
coaching piece and it's very important.
I was just looking at my notes from AEC
uh that I have here at the different um
>> sessions that I went to and the schools
that have made the most progress and I'm
looking at it uh this come on get out of
here uh a school at district in Long
Beach um was not only in the language
arts which they spoke a lot about but it
was the coaching and the math also
especially when you're getting a new
curriculum
>> and um and And the the piece with this
school district, it's taken them to move
that needle to where they want it to be.
It's taken them six years, but it was
consistent. They the board did not did
not
>> move in any fashion against of putting
the PD and the coaches in the classroom.
Now, it meant that the board and the
superintendent had to agree that you
were not going to deviate from that from
some thing that you hear somewhere. No,
you're going to stick with for a good
they agreed to a five-year period, but
now it's been six.
The scores are they're there, but they
have the coaching, they have the
planning time,
>> and it's there and they're monitoring
it. So, what I'm hearing is the payoff
curve is on the order of six years and
involves consistent coaching and we can
have the patience if we feel like we're
on the right track here.
>> We have one coach. It sounds like we are
deficient this.
>> So I mean we have one coach, one coach.
So that is deficient.
>> Yeah.
>> Sorry. Where's the coach? Um where's
>> Oh, we have we have a K5 coach and then
we have one we have one K5 coach and one
middle school coach. But I think about
our biggest Yeah.
>> Yeah. To support all the schools.
>> Okay.
I I think I suspect that David Weekley
and I are thinking on the same lines. I
think one thing is totally heard on the
new curriculum piece. Um but and this is
why it's really helpful to see
disagregated data. Everyone's going
through the new curriculum, but we are
still seeing uneven changes in
achievement.
>> And and again, this is not a good or
bad. It's like I think that should
inform well what happened at the sites
that did have a lot of improvement that
we can replicate elsewhere. And I think
that I fear we're not like as a board
aren't getting enough detail into that
insight to understand and have the
confidence that okay we can we can stay
the course. Um but so that's one point
but to Dr. Baker your point and I think
to what uh Trusty Weekly said earlier in
my view I first of all I do think goals
are important. I'll say more about that
later, but if we're not hitting our
goals consistently, I think one of at
least one of three things has to be
true. Either one, the goals are
unrealistic, and that could be because
they're just moonshots. It could be
because we don't have enough resources.
It could be a bunch of reasons, but if
they're not if they're not realistic,
that's one reason. A second reason is
that our strategies we came in with and
they were informed and they were wrong
or not completely right. Or the third
possibility is our execution of those
strategies is not going right. And
again, not a blame, but like we just got
to figure that out. And I'm I'm afraid
that if we consistently cue to goals
that we're not meeting, then the meaning
of those goals becomes less and less,
right? Because people have to feel like
they have a chance at success. And if
we're not if we're not getting that
consistently, that that's my fear.
I mean, I understand, but we had a 4%
increase. That is not a lot. That was
our goal. And when we looked at the data
to create LCAP goals, it we had never
been achieving anything. I mean, we had
not been achieving for our English
learners, not even 1%. So 4% was like,
let's look at what we can maybe a little
bit achievable. We're not achieving it.
You're right. We're not. We are on we're
maintaining. We're looking forward. We
have a lot of changes, but we can't be
changing every single year what we're
doing because it takes time to
implement. Um, and our teachers are
working as hard. We're providing
professional development, but it takes
time and and and I know our English
learners need need the supports. There
is not one of us or here on this cabinet
that does not agree that we need to we
need to support our English learners.
And that's what our goal was because
that's who we're failing. Um, as an
English learner coming up in this in
this in this uh in the United States, I
understand I understand the struggles,
right? And that's why we have been
putting so much emphasis on our teachers
and the professional development on the
English road map on the English
framework for them to understand what it
takes.
You can't change practice without having
professional development and coaching to
help support it. So yes, we are working
towards that. We don't have enough
coaches, not in the math, not in and not
we don't have enough coaches. We know
that. And I came into this position. I
said, Dr. Baker, we need coaches at the
sites.
I was a coach here in Redwood City
for seven years. So I understand what
coaching takes. I understand what the
movement does, but the program that I
was coaching, it took us five years to
make Hoover change. It took again five
years with a lot of work, coaching,
modeling, professional development. It's
not going to be over. It's not going to
be from one day to the next. So, if you
guys want me to invest in coaching and
math, then we have to look at our LCAP
and see what we need to change and take
out so that we can support that. And I'm
I'm happy to do that.
>> That that is exactly what I'm asking. To
to be clear, I'm not discounting the
difficulty that making these monumental
changes requires. I'm totally bought
into that. And I'm totally bought into
the notion that it takes time because
the same way that we just talked about
in TK that you don't get literacy in
third grade just in third grade. I
understand all of that. That all takes
time. But again, that to me that goes
back to the question of did we did we
set a bar in the first year
that was unrealistic given the resources
that we currently have. And if the
answer is yes, like that that's okay. We
should revisit that. And if the answer
is we still believe firmly in these
goals, but we need to dedicate resources
that really support that, that's also
okay. But I think we just need to have
that discussion pretty transparently.
>> But and then that's fine. I just don't
think we have an ALCAP that's a
three-year plan, right? And we're trying
we didn't achieve the goals in the last
plan at all. And so we those were
percentages that we had to meet. We
didn't meet them either. So, you know,
when I looked at numbers and we could
have done overall and I said no, our
English learners is where the work needs
to go to and that's the work that we've
been moving forward was has been a lot
of that. Um, but we also have have to
figure out, you know, I don't think it's
unachievable. I think we're gaining
momentum. Uh, and I do hope that this
year we gain a lot more momentum and all
the work that we've done with the math,
um, with the teachers and the planning
and the PLC's, all the work that we're
trying to do to get the move the needle.
Um, I don't think that we should be
looking at and changing any goals
because we have to maintain what we're
doing and be consistent. Um, and this is
what the teachers are asking for. The
teachers are asking for, please don't
bring in one more new thing. Please let
us just maintain and be better at the
craft that we're trying to do with the
changes we're trying to do. And that
really is honoring the teachers that
we're making a lot of changes and we can
be changing every single year. So,
right. So, I know that it's hard. I know
it's hard work and I'm willing to invest
in making sure we have coaches at our
sites. Um, but we only have our LC cup
with so much money, right, that I can
invest in. And in times we're trying to
reduce staffing. It's also an issue of
how do we impact what we're trying to do
with our with our goals to help move
them forward when we only have so much
money for so much work. We were we have
invested we're resting in tutoring at
all of our sites. Some are math tutoring
and mo most of our sites have math
tutoring at our target sites. We've seen
strides there. Um, but we don't offer it
to all our students that are not on
campus. We have online tutor. I mean, we
have teacher tutoring. I mean, we're
investing money in tutoring. We're
investing PIPO, but we do definitely
need more math coaches if we want to
make some more strides.
So again, I'm not suggesting
well really I'm not trying to suggest
anything in terms of LCAP other than
just what are we are we thinking about
this strategically and consciously and
even when I when I say if we revisit the
LCAP I'm not suggesting difference in
practice I'm saying is 17% still the
right number or is 15 what is some other
number more appropriate
I I just want to make sure that we are
having wins that that is actually
appropriately reflected with our
expectations.
Putting that aside, the second piece,
this goes back to the same conversation
or the comment that I made earlier with
TK, which is I'm really really concerned
about the funding issue that we have.
Like we we don't have enough funding,
period. But we it is our duty to
convince the public why we need more
money. And so when the answer is we have
these goals and they're ambitious and
we're going to do the best that we can,
but it's going to make it that much more
feasible if we have X amount because
that allows us to get coaching, Y amount
because that allows us to send, you
know, whatever else that tutoring that's
going to be more powerful. And it's
again, we don't have to put this out in
the public meeting right now, but like
that is that is what I'm hungry for that
information so that I can be the
advocate for our district for the rest
of the public. So, look, I know that
this is this is getting into an
uncomfortable conversation, but I think
I think it's necessary and I do think
all of us are on the same page of like
it is a necessary conversation because
we don't have the time to lose. like
every single year is another generation
of students that we could be passing by.
And so I know you all know that. I I
know that. But we need to make sure that
the public also understands that and
that we're being conscientious and that
we're being strategic about every single
dollar that we're spending. Every single
minute that we're spending is going
towards the right stuff. So again, I
understand it's an uncomfortable piece,
but that is where all this is coming
from.
Thank you.
>> Any other any other questions or
comments from trustees?
Uh no. Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Anna. Um
really uh I hear from you loud and clear
the importance impact of coaching and um
you know and planning time. Um it's you
know it's one of the things that we we
we kind of talk about it you know it's
like we we recognize the importance of
it. to hear about what they're doing,
but this one, this conversation, you
really kind of like shine a light on it.
Um, and I know like even the guest
teachers just how much impact that is.
It's not really just a convenience. It's
it's really, you know, critical to um
both teacher well-being, but also like
to to how students are achieving. So,
that was uh that was really informative
and also um
you you really reinforced the urgency
around LCAP goal 2. um you know there's
been great gains like we can see that in
the data there's been great gains around
goal 2 uh and I think we should be
definitely celebrating it but thank you
for just you know reinforcing that
urgency there I I really appreciate that
it it remains very real um and I know I
know that you put it in there um it
really like any kind of gain that
happens here really takes you know
instructional effort across the district
um it's not an accident uh you know so
what we do see for ELA and and maybe not
for math at um but what we what we have
seen and where we have seen it um you
know it's been real work in classrooms
it's been the PLC's um and it's been the
site leadership uh and you know I don't
want to lose sight of that I want to
make sure that we're we're doing that um
one thing that I did want to point out
about the dashboard like it's important
for us to look at it this has been a
healthy conversation about last year but
I think as a governance side we should
be thinking about does our in-ear
metrics were we surprised this by
anything that the dashboard showed us um
or did we already know it um but by our
in-ear metrics because really like our
in-ear monitoring is what we're using to
make adjustments during the year. I
don't think that we were surprised by
anything on the dashboard. I think we
already knew it. I feel like we've had a
lot of these conversations before based
upon the the data from the past, but is
that right? Did it you correct?
>> Yeah. Okay. So,
>> it was nothing that was a surprise. No.
>> Yeah. Yeah. and that we we have the the
right things in place to be able to to
see it as it's happening. So that's
great to hear. Um
so uh yeah, great. Um well, thank you
for the presentation, for going through
it, um providing all the raw data so
that we could dig into it. Um and I'm
looking forward to the progress as we
make through it this year.
It's hard to hear um that and I'm just
going to put it out there um the board
feels that we're not going in the
direction that you had thought we were
going to go in. And as much as we work
very hard with our staff and with um
staff including teachers, instructional
assistants, the principles um and
bringing in the new curriculum and
hoping not hoping but making sure that
it's being taught consistently on a
regular basis to fidelity and getting
the training that's needed to move that
needle. There has been and you see in
the English language arts there has been
there has been some growth. The math is
another story. This is the end of year
two and we're still moving but and I
know there are budget issues that are
coming that you know we're facing.
You're at those meetings. You see what's
happening. So, um, as a board,
you're going to have to say, "Okay,
maybe we have to get into some other
kind of funding and talk to Rick and
take the heat where the heat's going to
come from. I won't be here to experience
it, but you may have to do that." And
the next superintendent may have to be
in this seat saying, "We have to do this
because this is what is needed."
And when Rick gets to the first interim,
he can maybe talk about that a bit. But
if things may remain like they are and
there's no parcel tax because of what
you're saying, David, that you're
reading in social media and you know how
this this district is. I know how this
district is, how this city is. I've been
here for 40 plus years, own properties
in this district, know what these
families are thinking and what they
think about those of us of color.
So, we're going to have to take some
hard make some hard choices because
without the support monetarily,
this is not going to change.
No matter what Anna does and her team
does, if we don't get other
I'm going to say experts with those um
the coaches and the staff development we
have, we're going to be here again next
year and the year after that.
So, it's it's sad that you're that
you're feeling the way that or
expressing what you're expressing
and we're doing what we can do what we
what we have at this point in time.
Now, parcel tax, I know we're going to
be talking about that, but there's no
guarantee. There is no guarantee. I know
this city too well, and so does Cecilia
because we probably the ones that have
been that are at this table that have
been in this district for so many years.
So, with that being said, um I want to
thank Anna for what she's done with the
little that she's had in trying to move
the needle.
Can you take a break? Yeah, let's take a
break. Um, we'll uh reconvene in 10
minutes. 10 minutes. Thanks.
>> All right, let's uh reconvene as our
10-minute break timer ends up. Um, we're
on to our discussion items. So, uh,
let's start with 7.1. This is the first
reading in discussion of the board
policy and AR0510.
This is the school accountability report
card. Uh, it's an update to an existing
policy. There's a new AR for it. Does
anyone have um unless Wendy, did you
want to do preamble or introduction
here? Does anybody have questions or
comments about this one that they'd like
to to discuss here?
Yeah. No, it looked fine to me. Um
no, I give a long pause, remember? Yeah.
Yeah. So, um okay, 7.2. We can move on.
Um this is the first reading discussion
for board policy 1100. This is
communication with the public.
So on this one there's the mention of a
uh comm's policy. It's it was mentioned
by Jorge that that's given to the board
every two to three years. I just would
love to know where on the cycle we are
like um like do we should we expect to
see that in a year two years just like
um that was my only question
>> right Jorge is available for specific
questions.
Um, do you mind adding him, Carlos?
Thank you.
>> Remember we had one? I can't remember
when the last one was. I do I distinctly
remember it, but Yeah. Right. Exactly.
>> You don't do the We don't do this audit
that um and he's asked to do the audit,
but it's $40,000 and I'm not spending
$40,000 on
>> Yeah.
>> It's an outside person, outside entity.
Seoia just had theirs done, but your
money's a bit different.
>> And they tell you, you know, you know.
>> Sorry. What's the $40,000 audit?
>> It's an audit on your communication.
>> Oh, so I I was thinking was like Jorge
would get up and spend like five 10
minutes saying like, "This is our plan
for how we're going to communicate about
the district."
>> Right. And he he does a survey. He does
a survey to staff. He does a survey to
parents. and he the last time he did it
I think was a couple years ago two or
three years ago but he's online now so
Jorge do you hear can you hear us
>> yes
>> all right can you ask
>> can you hear me
>> yes we can loud and clear
>> yes uh I think trustee weekly is
referring to uh updating the board of
trustees on the communications plan and
um trustee wells mentioned that the last
presentation which I believe is was in
2020 24 or 2023 when we launched the
redesign of the district and school
logos that that that presentation focus
on that.
>> Okay. Yeah. I was just curious like what
what our cadence of report out is for
communications plan. It sounds like
maybe in another year or two we'll
>> but the policy I believe says annually
now doesn't it?
>> Or
doesn't it say that? I have to go pull
it up again from the last time I read
it.
>> Yeah. Um it is one of the highlighted
things. Well, do we think it's so
appropriate to the discussion? Do we
think annually is a good report out here
uh frequency
for the evaluation of the district
communications plan? I mean, we're
agreeing here to make it policy that we
annually review the comm's plan and
>> make the recommendation.
>> Trusty Lee had requested that anytime it
says periodically, it should be replaced
with annually for all policies. So
that's why it is as such um
>> as a as a default I
>> right
>> yeah yeah so I think my yes my push is
let's not use the word periodically
which doesn't tell us anything and let's
put something in there but to your point
let's make sure it's the right one like
let's not do annually if
>> sounds like in this case it would be
overly burdensome
>> it would be so I would suggest we use
different language than annually
>> yeah sorry is it is it trianually then
right now or what is the current
practice
Yeah, I believe it is triannually, isn't
it?
>> It's two to three years. Every two to
three years is what has been the
practice.
>> Okay. Um, would staff be comfortable
with a policy of every three years we do
a comm. Does that sound sane? More sane
than annual.
>> That sounds sane.
>> Okay.
>> Right. Uh, can I
amend the policy to trianually? One,
meaning once every three years, not
three times a year.
>> Right. Right.
acceptable. Sounds good. Okay, great.
Um, thank you for bringing that up.
>> Yeah, thanks Jorge for hopping on and
answering.
Uh, shall we move on to 7.3? Okay. Uh,
so this is the first reading in
discussion of BP and AR 1340. This is
access to district records. Um, looks
like a minor update to the existing
policy
um by moving stuff to uh that would be
more appropriate in the regulation.
Okay. Shall we move on to 7.4?
All right. Um 7.4 Four is board policy
1112 media relations.
Was there any reason behind the changing
of media representatives to news media
representatives? That just that Oh,
there was Okay.
A question.
Jorge, do you want to speak to the
change
>> difference between media and news media?
I mean, v bloggers and bloggers are not
included, but people with press
credentials are.
>> Uh, yes, correct. So, the intention was
to make it very clear that we're talking
about professional journalists who the
school district interacts with for um uh
media coverage.
>> Is news media the right term then versus
like credential? There's like is is it
clear what the term means? Because like
if if somebody comes in here and tries
to like is is turned down by the policy
and then there ends up being a ruckus
about like the definition of news media
versus media is like are are we covered
appropriately in our definitions here?
Like there's a thing like like show me
your credentials, right? So like there
are formal credentiing that you can get
for like if you're a member of the media
as a journalist that you basically can't
get if you're just a random blogger. And
it sounds like that is the distinction
we are trying to make. So I'm just
wondering if there words we can use to
make it clear like that that's what we
mean.
>> Well, let's defer to Jorge because he
had strong opinions about this and was a
former journalist. So
>> look at that.
>> I know he would be the expert. So Jorge,
do you mind jumping back on?
>> Yes. So, so yes, so news media would be
the the accurate term for professional
journalist who do identify themselves
when they contact you for uh coverage of
the school district.
>> Okay. Well, if that's the official term,
then that's the official term.
>> Yeah. Thanks for thanks for clarifying
it. Um
shall we move on to the next one? I say
we do 75 and 76. we can discuss them
together. Um they're both it's different
classific you know employee
classifications it's 4235 and 4335 but
it's both soliciting and selling and uh
the wording is verbatim the same.
There's a good question that popped up
from David Weekly, Trusty Weekly, uh,
regarding, you know, what would occur
if, let's say, a teacher was writing a
book and wanted to sell it. And this
board policy would allude that the
teacher couldn't use district resources
or district sources of directory
information or so forth to do that. I
don't think that's so much of an issue,
at least not something I'm aware of
currently. This is different than, for
example, teachers tutoring after school
in their own classroom and potentially
could solicit like, oh, I'm a tutor for
math, you know, I'm available. There's a
different policy for that. Uh, and
actually the previous the majority of
the previous board, Cecilia was still
on, I think, and perhaps Mike at the
time, looked at that policy and and made
allocations for teachers to be able to
do that. So, since your inquiry that
popped into my mind, but I think that's
the only one I can think of um where
that might be a little uh but this
appears to me of more of a product uh
the way I read it.
Just so folks are clear, I just wanted
to make sure that we didn't about
accidentally prohibit something that was
happening today that we actually like
happening like if a teacher was part of
a author illustrator fair or something
like that.
>> Yeah. Okay.
Good clarification. Um and this of
course is covering the rest of the
classified staff and the um anyone not
in certificate or classified. We already
had the other policy. Um okay, let's
move on to 7.7. Um this is the first
reading discussion of the BPN 5113.12.
Uh this is district school attendance
review board.
And then I did have one question like
does this I was trying to read the the
feedback that I got but does this change
how we operate our SARS or are we is
there any material change to how we
operate the SARS by adopting this policy
or is it just bringing into line like
our existing practice?
>> So we've been participating in the SAR
process for quite some time. However, we
didn't have the board policy to support
it.
>> This is just
>> so the lion share would be what we're
currently doing.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Move on to 7.8. Okay. 7.8 is the first
reading discussion of BP and AR 5125 and
this is about student records.
>> So, there was a a question about this
one. I just wanted to bring up um
regarding the
uh duty for the district to notify the
California Cyber Integration Center,
>> right,
>> if even a single account is compromised.
This was Trusty Weekly's question. Uh
the the language says that more than if
more than 500 people are impacted. Um
you know, we we need to report, but the
board policy committee actually struck
that 500 figure out. uh and my memory
was it so correct me if I'm wrong board
policy committee because we go through
so many we have a meeting tomorrow too I
might add is that um we know that when
one student account is compromised we of
course notify the student and family um
and the concern was that this would be a
problem right for the the people
affected so where it gets the n goes up
to 500 500 is the notification
um for families the attorney etc so that
range range was um we knew notifications
had to occur and the desire was that we
wanted to reduce that number from 500 to
a lower number which was really any. So
that's my memory. Does anyone have
another opinion on that?
So that paragraph cites ED code 35266
and it's from that ED code 35266 that we
get the number 500 and the mandatory
reporting to California Cyber Security
Integr Integration Center. I I don't
think there's anything in there if we
were to keep the language uh that
impacts more than 500 students or
personnel. That paragraph is just
talking about when we need to notify the
California Cyber Security Integration
Center. And so, uh, we we can let
parents and students and so forth know
about any sort of scope of attack that's
impacted them, their families, their
students. Um, but striking the uh
restriction would mean technically that
the policy would require us uh to go
above and beyond ED code 35266 and and
report anything at all. Um, so I don't
want to create lots of administrative
burden for for staff. Um, and and the ED
code says 500. So, I would be tempted to
just say 500 there.
>> I don't I thought I believe this was a
staff recommendation.
>> I don't
>> uh and I I think it was I thought we had
discussed the same question.
>> Um, but I I'm looking through the notes
and I do not know where it came from.
>> But I share the same like
>> I'm trying to defend staff here. It's
like I don't want you guys carrying out
lots of extra paperwork here.
>> Yeah. If we're saying if it's going to
be overly burdensome to report every
single one, we should know that now and
not do that if we don't have to.
>> Rick, do you have an opinion?
>> I know your department oversee the
department.
>> Yeah, I would uh prefer that it was left
in the 500 stands for notifying the
>> attorney general and the uh the state on
that. I mean, we could have a simple
thing where a password was passed around
campus when 10 students access the same
account. We're not going to notify,
>> right?
>> I feel pretty strongly that we should
keep the 500 number in.
>> Okay.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Great. And uh I don't know who confirmed
this for me, but thank you to whoever
confirmed that our vendors already have
language in their contracts to be
compliant with the the um AB, you know,
801. So that's great to hear about that.
>> Yeah, all of our our biggest vendors,
I'll just pick on one, Power School,
right, that's
>> fully outlined,
>> although we have some issues there. Um,
>> but uh there and uh all the other uh
contracts uh as I was thinking about
this today uh that we've gone through
recently all have uh data destruction
and ownership rights retained to the
school district. a really detailed cyber
notification policy that was rigorously
implemented because they got very badly
hacked.
>> Yeah.
>> Cool. Um that ends our discussion items.
Uh we can move on to approval of the
consent. We're going to these are
considered routine. We'll pass them in
one motion. Um we did remove 8.3 to a
later date. Uh so this is the consent
agenda without 8.3. Can I get a motion
to approve? I move we approve the
consent agenda minus 8.3.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I.
>> Okay. Then we're on to our action items.
Um and this is the uh 9.1. This is the
adoption of the annual organizational
meeting date set for December 17, 2025.
That would be next week. Um just so
everyone knows this is, you know, an
annual requirement that we have to
announce it within I forget the exact
times of it, but this is the time that
we do it. So, um, if everyone's in
favor, if there's anything to discuss, I
don't think there's anything to present
beyond what's in the memo. Um, any
questions or comments? Um, otherwise, I
will entertain a motion to approve.
>> Seconded.
>> All in favor? I. Excellent. Um, and now
we're going to move on to discussing and
selecting a taxpayer organization
representative for the Citizens Bond
Oversight Committee.
>> Rick. Yeah, good evening. Uh, tonight uh
we are bringing forward uh two
applicants uh Mr. Anthony Hanny and Mr.
Alan Hansen who both applied to be
members of the citizens bond oversight
committee which uh has oversight over
measure S and measure T. Uh they're both
uh have applied for uh the vacancy of
the taxpayer organization
representative.
uh we did uh invite both of them uh for
the meeting tonight. I don't see any
online and nor in the audience
uh uh if they wanted to be part of this
process. Uh I'd also like to note that
>> Ellen Hansen is joining the Zoom.
>> Oh, has he joined?
>> He in he's in the process of joining. He
should be on in the next few seconds.
>> Uh so they're here if there's any
questions. Uh Mr. Hansen's here if there
will be any questions from the board of
those. I'll also note uh that there are
other open positions uh on the oversight
committee uh and after one is selected
tonight uh the one that is not selected
we will inquire if they'd like to fill
another role uh and if they do then
we'll bring that back on consent uh next
week for formal board approval. So, uh,
tonight we are looking for the
representative for the taxpayer
organization that has been vacant since
last summer, uh, when the previous, uh,
person filling that role, uh, resigned
to move out of state. So, uh, with that,
I'll turn it over to the board if
there's any questions I can answer or,
uh, beyond what's in the board packet.
>> Thanks, Rick. I just have one question
for my own understanding. So, um,
Anthony Hy specifically said that he was
part of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer
Association. And then, um, Allan, it
just says bonafide taxpayer
organization. Is that
we have any specifics in that or that's
just a
>> that's how he is.
>> Okay.
Uh any any questions,
David?
>> So the we have an open seat for the uh
taxpayer rep. Uh we have and because
there's a total of nine seats now that
that we have.
>> So there's seven. Um the law requires
that we
>> the law requires seven. I believe that
we bumped it up to the CBOC to nine.
>> I think the bylaws allow Yeah, the
bylaws. Rick, do you remember
>> in 21 it was increased to nine.
>> So, so we have nine potential seats. Uh,
and we have open seats.
One of them is at large, one of them is
for taxpayer rep. Um, do we have another
business organization
>> and a business organization? All right.
And then the other six seats are are
filled in present.
>> That's the lay of the land. Okay. Great.
I think the easiest way to think about
it just if you're looking at it is that
it's has to be at least seven people and
then there's five categories. Yeah.
>> And those seven have to fill those five
categories and there's nothing in the
statute that says one person can't fill
multiple categories. Um so
>> Oh, interesting.
>> Yeah. Um
I'm sharing useful information. I see
that I got some of it. Um
uh yeah and I mean as you point out I
think that that's that's the thing is
that the um the oversight committee is
not meeting the numerical requirement
nor is it meeting the categorical
requirement. This is an attempt to close
on close in on both. And it sounds like
if we wanted to we could if Allen's
interested in or if whoever's not
selected is interested in it they could
end up coming in for another position.
Right. We'll only look for this one seat
category is how how we're running the
items. Yeah. Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> And consider it.
>> And then the other the other one uh
unless there's information we don't have
uh it would be the other at large
>> seat. Right. Okay.
>> Um neither uh signified or or marked
that they fit the business organization
role. And just for reference, a business
organization isn't being employed by a
business. It's being part of the chamber
or uh building trades or something like
that.
Okay.
>> Any any questions or comments?
>> What's the the meta question I have is
like what's the right way for us to have
this discussion? Are we we're trying to
figure out uh so the possible outcomes
are we we don't want either candidate.
um we want one of the candidates to be
taxpayer rep but we don't want the other
candidate or we want one of the uh
candidates to be the taxpayer rep and
want to appoint the other at large in
the consent calendar at the next
meeting. Are those the three flavors of
outcome for the Okay. So I would
recommend that what we do is trustees
take a moment if they would like to
advocate for a person and say why they
are going to support a candidate or not
um that they go ahead and make those
comments but then we move to a motion
and we you know we do this as our normal
procedure which is we make motions
second and then vote on them and if it
passes it passes if it doesn't then you
know we can always amend it if someone
decides that they're not happy with the
motion they'd rather support somebody
else or or not vote for it. Um and that
would be kind of the way that we can get
through this.
>> Great. So we've got the form factor of
the three possible outputs. We've got
the mechanism of action per
deliberation.
>> So are there comments about um any of
the candidates before?
>> I just have one more question about just
so at a minimum this person has to be an
active member in a taxpayer association
for the next three years. Is that the
minimum requirement for this role or
Okay.
>> And an adult
I think right I think that's the only
other requirement though like I don't
think they have to be is there a
residency require I don't even think
there's a residency requirement.
>> No and they can't be an employee cont.
>> They can't be an employee of the school
district. So yeah
>> I don't believe there's a residency
requirement. Um the the statute's silent
on on that. the statute is silent, but
the bylaws um and I don't have them
pulled up in front of me, but I believe
the bylaws of the CBOC is either reside
in or work in the boundaries of the
school district.
>> I don't think that's an issue for either
of these candidates here.
>> They're both Redwood City residents.
>> So, they've been fully qualified on all
of So, they're both two fully qualified
candidates in front of us. Okay, good.
>> And I'll uh I will say one thing. I
believe Alan Hansen is on the um
strategic alignment committee as well.
So is already engaged uh and has already
shown engagement with the district. Um
you know is is I believe here online
tonight um and has shown sort of
>> H is now.
>> Okay, great. And so has um you know I've
at least for the out of the two
candidates it's one person that I've
seen being engaged with the district
engaging um already and and being active
in it. Yeah.
Do we want to let Allan say a few words
is or or not? It's your meeting.
>> Um do do trust would trustees like to
hear or do you feel like we could move
on to a motion now?
>> It'd be good to hear if you have
something to say.
>> Alan, would you like to make a twominut
comment um to the trustees?
>> Uh yes. Uh can you hear me please?
>> We can. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry to pick
but thank you. Uh, thank you for
allowing me to speak for a very brief
time. I'm um a longtime resident. Uh, my
son's attended the school district. Um,
I am a active licensed CPA and I'm I
think one of my biggest strengths is
that I'm wellversed in communicating
accounting issues and challenges to
non-accountants.
So, I welcome this opportunity to
participate in this um on this
committee. So, thank you for your
consideration.
>> All right. Thank you, Alan. Appreciate
it. Um, to be fair to our candidates, I
don't think the other person's online,
right? Okay. So, perfect. Um,
are there more comments or shall we move
to making a motion?
>> Oh, yeah. I'm I'm just as a meta point,
I'm very glad that we have candidates
who are qualified applying for this role
so that we can go and fill it. Uh, I've
been messaging with Allan. He seems very
interested, very engaged. seems to have
very strong professional qualifications.
>> Is that a motion? Um I would like I
would like it to Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
>> Have Alan Hansen as the taxpayer
representative on the CBOC.
>> Okay, perfect. We have a motion. Is
there a second? Okay.
>> Um all in favor?
>> I
>> I Any opposed or abstained? Sounds like
it was unanimous.
>> Congratulations, Ellen.
>> Thank you. We'll see you at the next
CBSC meeting. And Rick, you'll follow up
with um the other
>> we'll follow up uh with Mr. Hanny to see
if he would like to fill the other
position. If so, we'll bring it back for
approval on consent. Okay. Next week.
>> Outstanding. Thank you. Um break, we're
on to board and superintendent reports.
Um I asked Evelyn to extend the time uh
this one because I know we've just
attended the annual educators conference
and so I figured that there would be
more information that trustees wanted to
share. Um, and so who would like to
start with their uh board and
superintendent report?
Yes, I'm we'll start with the board.
Technically,
>> I can go
>> um I attended a few different sessions.
Um
the the first one I attended was on
policy. The a couple things that kind of
came up in my mind um when I was
listening to that regarding our own
district is I wasn't sure if parents and
community members can find our policies
very easily on our website. I am not
able to.
Um, so just just as more of a community
engagement knowing I mean I've had
parents ask me especially like with im
immigration and things like what's our
district policy and I've sent them the
policy myself but I don't I actually
can't point to them directly where
they're supposed to look. Um, and then
the other thing that they brought up was
actually tracking efficacy of our
policies.
We we review them, we talk about them.
Um, I think David made a good comment
one time about tying them to some of our
agenda items or kind of reminding people
what's the associated policy. Um, but
just thinking about also once we roll
out the policy, how do we actually track
efficacy of any major changes to the
policy? I know we we did a good job
rolling out the the cell phone one and
we've heard good anecdotal information
from that, but I don't know if that
there are things we want to track when
we roll out some major changes.
Um, and then I attended two school
finance sessions and I walked away being
very thankful for Rick
and still realize I have a long learning
um path on school finances. Um, and then
the last session I attended was math.
Um, similar to uh what Dr. Baker took
away, I think from the ELA session, they
also had a 5-year runway for their
little math experiment. Um, and a couple
things that they that kind of really
focused on why it worked was they had um
data
cheerleaders
on camp at every school site. So, I
don't I mean, it was just something that
I thought would be interesting. It was
just they kind of empowered one teacher
at every school site to kind of be the
data advocate um and just either gave
them a little bit more training or they
themselves kind of were interested in
that space um just so that everybody on
campus had a point person who they could
go to if they had questions on how to
look at data or if they were interested
in data
>> and I know that's our NPSS tooss they
fill that role at the at the school
sites so it's sort of like the data
>> it's like a data tossa
>> okay yeah Yeah, I'll have to tas do some
of the data. I just
>> Okay.
>> Um and then the other thing was um
actually they kept harping on or um
focusing on community engagement. So
something like um you know all our
little wins they were very they
broadcasted it a lot to the community.
Um and so I think that's something we
probably could also do a little better.
>> Those are
>> Thanks Jen. Good learnings. Thanks for
sharing. Uh, anyone next?
David Lee, go ahead.
>> Uh, and we're going through everything,
right? Not just AEC.
>> Everything. Yeah, totally. This is the
regular report, but I figured AEC will
take up a good amount.
>> Yes. Um,
outside of AEC, I'll put last. Uh, I was
able to go to Clifford uh for coffee
with the principal, which was great. A
lot of um a lot of engagement from
parents um across the board. So, so well
attended. got to meet the new vice
principal um talked about the cast
scores and acknowledged same here is
like the strengths lots of successes
which we should do to Jen's point as
well as the areas for growth um and I
think it was well received um but
overall good visit u also had policy
committee uh and look forward to another
one tomorrow um I think we had the as
we're going through the superintendent
search so I think the last meeting we
before the last meeting we had another
meeting on at uh so that's um moving
forward. Uh there was an SO County
School Board Association meeting uh
earlier this week um which CSBA provided
some legislative updates um uh which was
informative uh and I think as I
mentioned before SMCSBA uh we are also
looking to be more proactive on the
legislative front this year. Uh so I and
a couple others are leading the effort
on really getting a sense of all the
things we need. Obviously funding is one
of them. Um, but there are other things
across the county that we're all
experiencing and that want to make sure
that the legislative hears. Um, so that
was part of the meeting as well. And
then AEC uh had a few good sessions. One
uh was about the state accountability.
Uh lot lots of lots of good things to
hear in some ways. Mainly we're not
alone in a lot of our struggles. uh
funding is um everyone virtually
everyone across the state is is dealing
with this and um there are efforts by
CSBA at least to ensure that that is um
among other things reflected back to the
legislature and other state entities so
that everyone can be on the same page of
hey like this actually really does
matter. Um so I thought that was a
helpful call to action kind of session.
Also went to a school finance section uh
which was great. Uh one of the big
takeaways uh was
combined and unified discipline of
recognizing what we have and there's a
lot of ideas we can do. Um but to have
the discipline of when someone says we
should do this to also be able to step
back from for the everyone else and say
okay what does that mean that we are not
doing then is um the trade-off because
we we just can't do everything. Uh and
then I also went to a session on uh
onboarding superintendents. There's a
lot of great pretty tactical stuff that
um will probably be relevant for us
soon.
>> Great. Thanks, Cecilia. I know you were
not at AC, so but yeah.
>> Um I wasn't. Um I also went to a Samato
CSBA um meeting on Monday. Um, and one
other thing I just want to just throw it
out there for those of you um um I am
part of the Ken award um committee and
so we eventually will need help from a
lot more um board members. So if you
guys are interested, let me know and
then I can send you some information
because at the end of the day it's going
to be all hands on deck because
obviously it's a big um
>> that is a big role that you've taken on
um to be part of that. So
congratulations and thanks for doing it.
David Weekley.
>> Cool. Um, so for members of the public
who are not school board members, um,
once a year the California School Board
Association has an annual education
conference. It rotates where it is. This
year was in Sacramento and this is a
gathering of people from all the
different school boards across
California. And so there's um, was it
2,000 3,000 people there? something on
that order. Um, just to talk about what
works and what doesn't. Uh, one of the
things that's definitely a takeaway is a
deep sense of gratitude for our
district, our staff, and the
relationships that we have with each
other, which are positive, cordial, and
professional, which does not typify um
an awful lot of other school districts
out there. So, there's there's a lot to
be grateful for in the in the team that
we have here, and to not take for
granted, which I don't. So, thank you.
Um, as the incoming board president, um,
I went to the board president training
workshop. That was super duper helpful
to have, uh, a whole day set aside to
meet with other people who had
experience in the president role. Uh, as
well as, uh, people like myself who are
new to it. Um, just think about how we
run a meeting. Well, uh, refreshers on
fun things like Robert's rules of order.
We've obviously gotten to observe Mike
doing it extremely well. Um, so that was
really helpful to have uh some time
thinking about uh how we can continue to
evolve our meetings to be even more
effective as a as a team. Um,
that includes like things like a clear
focus on English literacy by end of
third grade. Uh, more active inclusion
of the Hispanic community in our board
meetings. You're rocking it, Augustine.
Um, and even some fun things like uh
visually communicating uh more
consistently and clearly clear clearly
bilingually using tools like Nano Banana
Pro which is absurdly good at making uh
explanation posters. And so like that
that's been uh a really interesting new
tool in the tool bag uh to to help with
understanding and communicating with the
with the public fairly complicated
things like school finance and budgets
which are really gnarly. Um, so I think
we're we're getting armed with a bunch
of new tools for communicating, which is
pretty powerful. Um, turns out that a
bunch of other districts start their
meetings with a student-led pledge of
allegiance. Um, which they generally
describe as something that's pretty
sweet. Doesn't take very much time. You
rotate which school sends a student uh
with with their family to go and do the
pledge. And of course, they uh, you
know, scatter back home uh after leading
the pledge. But I thought that was just
kind of something a little bit sweet and
maybe something that we could think
about doing. the fellow uh board
members, board presidents that I talked
to from other districts universally
described that as like a wonderful,
happy, fun way to start pretty much
every meeting and it doesn't really take
a whole lot of time in terms of
overhead. Um so, uh that seems like
something we might consider doing. Um a
lot of other districts have made uh
caps, usually about 10 minutes in terms
of presentation length, uh to really
focus the board's time on deliberation u
back and forth between the board
members. What do we like? what do we not
like? What's going on? Um and that
districts that focus on having earnest
deliberation about student achievement
outperform districts that don't. Um and
the data on that is pretty clear, too.
Um and I I've seen us start taking some
great steps in this in this direction
even tonight. You know, we we got uh big
beautiful decks full of rich information
and then condensed it down to much
shorter presentations. Um the hope is
that it will net be less burdensome on
staff that they don't have to give
hour-long presentations. They just have
a lot of rich data and then kind of give
an executive summary uh orally. Um but
just universally this was described as a
great move. I didn't talk to anyone who
was like, "Oh yeah, we we had a
presentation cap and it went terribly
and we had to go back to like longer
presentations because it just didn't
work." um to uh a number of boards
and and this is actually technically
part of Robert's rules of order um would
receive information you know on the
agenda item and then this was very
interesting that they move in second to
bring the item to the floor for
deliberation and and so there's these
two separate segments that happen where
first there there's a presenter there's
questions that are asked of the
presenter and then the item is moved and
seconded and that point deliberation
begins among the board. Now, sometimes
there's nothing to deliberate because
it's just so obviously let's do this
thing. So, this is like we we shouldn't
be obviously looking to make things take
longer than than they ought. That's
silly. Um, but I thought it was
interesting to really focus on uh where
in what is going on here does there need
to be a conversation among the board and
then when that happens that actually
happens after the second and that's a
little bit different than just how we've
been running things which is generally
when we're ready to vote we move second
vote right um but again Robert Schules
said you you move and second it to bring
it to the floor to discuss and then you
go and you vote on it when when you're
ready to vote so anyhow just not saying
we necessarily have to do that. You
know, we've been doing modified Robert's
rules of order, but it's like it was an
interesting thing to think about in
terms of like when do we need to talk
about things to really deliberate as a
board. Um the comment on the website
rings true. I think there's a lot more
that we can do on comms there. Um and to
publish a clear governance calendar.
When are we going to talk about what
just in plain English, right? Because
it's obviously we we we can't have like
10-hour long board meetings and stuff.
uh and and if somebody suggests hey I
think we should talk about XYZ topic
that doesn't mean it gets put in the
next board meeting but just having a
mechanism for collecting what are all
the different things that within some
finite time period we should discuss put
them in the hopper put them in a parking
lot that we kind of actively maintain
stack rank and then we make a best
effort to go and fit those in as we can
yeah and then to publish so people like
will know like well when are you going
to go and talk about X subject it's like
well that's that that's in our April 7th
meeting or whatever like oh good. You
know, often times that's all people
need. They need to know that they're
being taken seriously and the things
that we should be talking about, we're
talking about in some finite time. Um,
Mississippi came up quite a few times uh
in terms of literacy discussions. Um,
and I may have had my mind changed on
things like uh retention. As it turns
out, the threat of retention in third
grade um is one of the components of the
Mississippi plan that's proved radically
effective. Um and so I I think I may be
tempted at some point for us to look for
a study session for literacy in the K K
to3 window. Uh to look at what works,
what doesn't work, what things are we
already doing and that's awesome. Let's
double down on and you know what are
some approaches that have been very
successful in in other areas as well. Um
so just want to put that out there. Uh
went to a couple different sessions on
uh facilities and property um covering
school closures. Turns out it's really
important to reach out to the community
early and often to engage them uh if
that process is happening at some point.
Uh all sorts of interesting restrictions
about what you can do with property um
that make it uh challenging. Um lots of
complex bits there. And on employee
housing, pretty interesting. They they
apparently down in Mountain View uh they
overshot their build uh by a by a fair
chunk. uh they were not doing a good job
at uh regularly checking in with the
folks who were going to be leasing their
units and they they they built too many.
Um and they also had some interesting
awkwardness about planning to to build
in a muchbeloved community park and it
turns out that the people who enjoyed
that community park were not a fan of
that. So they had to alter their plans.
Um yeah, so it was uh it was it was a
good conference. Um, it's really good
for us board members to get some time
apart to go and think about what we want
to do, how we can make a positive impact
on the district, and it was great to go
undergo the president training. So,
yeah, it was a it was a good conference.
Cool. Um, yeah, I, uh, last night I met
with RCF. Um, it was nice. I hadn't
realized they raised $850,000
last year, which I thought was pretty
impressive because when I was on the
board, we could never break out of 200
225. So, that was a pretty big growth.
Um, I did go to the city council meeting
on Monday. They're going to rethink how
they're doing the Mills Act. Um, and
sort of looking at that. Um, so that was
there. And then, of course, AEC. Um, one
of the highlights was the Golden Bell.
Uh, congratulations to our mental health
program. Like, that was awesome to see
it get recognized. uh and you know it's
just it's a testament to that. Um in
prior with that I went to uh something
about they called it braiding I think it
was braiding funding between like your
mental health program and your ELOP. Um
and uh super interesting couple
interesting facts you know that the
state of California of course is has a
huge funding for ELOP plus a little bit
more for expanded learning. Um and the
presenter called it the largest in the
universe. he doesn't have any proof to
show that it's not the largest in the
universe, but it's uh it's a good amount
of money for expanded learning. Um so
it's nice to see that we're we're doing
that. Um uh the the other one though
that was upsetting of course was that
mental health is the number one reason
that children from Z age 0 to 17 are
hospitalized. Uh and
I did not know that um that we're
repeating a fact. I don't know if that's
true. That's just what the presenter had
said. So it is true. Yeah. and um just
how important you know mental health is
there. And so this one was really they
were both talking about the power of the
expanded learning and also the power of
mental health programs. And then it got
into the hey if you shift time maybe you
can offer mental health through ELOP
funding by doing it after school which I
know we're already doing and looking at
um and looking at like all the ways to
get the funding back to be able to
maintain these programs because every
district has funded it originally with
their onetime funds. um and those are
going away and they're all looking for
creative ways to be able to continue
this funding. Um
so one that was I don't know if we're
doing but there's a a grant for wellness
coaches and what they were saying was
that you probably have on your staff
people that are doing the work of
wellness coaches and so you might be
able to take them with a little bit of
extra training turn them into a wellness
coach and have this grant be able to
fund it for the work that they're
already doing. So you're kind of
supplanting that work with the grant
there. So that might be I don't know if
that's there. Um, another interesting
fact was math equity for multi- language
learners. Um, you know, they were
talking about about adopting new
curriculum and improving curriculum and
how much that's like 40x more cost
effective than almost any other
intervention. They mentioned class size
reductions as the 40x, but it's such a
big big effective thing to have the
right curriculum in place and um, be
able to get that in there. Um, and so
that was that was uh an interesting one.
And then the last one that I'll touch on
because um it's relevant to what we're
doing here, I went to um on Friday
morning Nomus Unified uh talked about
their welcome center um which we started
at last year uh at the Dwayne campus um
which is taking some of the services
that the district offers um you know but
at different sites or sort of maybe some
at the district office, some you know at
at different schools um and partner
programs and sort of bringing them into
one place so that uh it's easier for
families to be able to navigate through,
you know, what can be the complexities
of the different um, you know, groups at
the school for being able to get through
um, you know, a task that they're trying
to do. For us, I think we're doing
enrollment. Is that right? At our
welcome center. Um,
>> we have enrollment at the welcome
center. We also have a we have a grant
now for a um, mental health specialist
that's there. We work with parents to
determine if there are some needs that
they have at this point in time so we
can steer them in the right direction.
And then there is um the person that is
similar to a receptionist but does a lot
of the background work with the parents
when they're coming in. Where are you,
>> you know, where are you from? Where are
you living? What supports do you need?
and then we send them to the agencies to
help them with those supports. Plus, if
there is a community school, this person
will explain what a community school is
and what services you can receive at
that school site. If you're going to be
attending a school site that does not
have a community school, it's ex it's
explained that you can go to any school
within the district and go to a
community school center, the family the
family center and receive services if
needed. Plus, we have the nurse that's
housed there, right? And she's there
several times uh a week. Yeah, there's a
real power that when you stop in to
answer that and then there's a question
for the other person and they're just
right next door, you know, and you can
sort of get those things that can really
streamline the the experience of
families having to navigate through, you
know, a lot of a lot of these processes.
So, it it was neat there. Um, theirs is,
uh, they do not have as many community
schools at Nomus. They I think they have
two. Um, I think two at their high
school. Um, and so the welcome center
really fills that need there. whereas um
we are blessed to have eight community
schools um and that really expanded
program there but but it's still
interesting to to hear about that um
yeah that was kind of the stuff I
learned from uh the educator conference.
Do you have anything to share from ADC?
you give you at least the ones I've gone
to also. But the one of the uh ones that
I felt was really interesting was where
they had a former legislature along with
an attorney and then along with a
superintendent.
And the legislature, the former
legislature I should say, um spoke that
when the ALC cap was created, the ALC
cap was created
not to be 100, 200 or 300 pages, but um
as I was telling David Weekly earlier
that when I wrote the first L cap, it
wasn't even 40 pages. Um, it was to be a
document that was to be where you were
going to go in the areas of mathematics,
language arts, and how you were going to
get there. Not what is re but not what
is mandated right now. So CSBA
along with AXA has gotten together to
see if they can't get this changed. That
means talking to legislators, talking to
the state board of education who keeps
putting on these mandates for additional
pieces to be put on the LCAP. And a lot
of us were superintendent there just
nodding our heads and saying they don't
listen. And and it's true they do not
listen. Um we have thank God ours is not
but I heard superintendent next door to
me say his how many pages his was and I
go what? and I go, "Who who you can just
put it in a bookshelf. You're never
going to look at it." So, um, hopefully
there is momentum with CSBA, AXA, and
getting others involved to get this
changed and to get it relooked at. Um,
the amount of bureaucracy that is put
into this, it was never meant to be that
way. And he said that and he go he
apologized and people just said well you
should get back in and start changing
this but he is helping both CSBA and AXA
to move this forward to move it forward.
It was sad to hear but it's true. So at
least we're not the only ones that are
feeling it or and then it trickles down
to the county office of ed. No, you need
to put this in here. But why? And the
the superintendent who was presenting,
she's and she is she was from um
Pittsburgh Unified and she told the
county, "I'm sorry, I'm not doing it.
What are you going to do to me? Go to my
board." And she and and she didn't do
it. And and and and then I I went up and
asked her, "What happened to you?"
"Nothing."
So that was that was a great one. The
other one was the one that I was talking
about previously with the coaches and
how they got to where they are right
now. Year six,
that needle has moved and those kids are
moving. As long as they started out with
them since be, you know, she said we
were at kindergarten, but not since they
started TK. As long as they've been with
us since TK and moving forward, they are
moving. And of course, you do have your
students who have disabilities, but
that's another criteria that you have to
look at that'll be different.
>> Excellent. Thanks for those updates. Um,
let's move on. Uh, we have no
information items. Um, so then we're on
to section 12, uh, correspondence. I
don't know if anybody has anything that
they want to share to put into the
record or, um, acknowledge.
Okay. Um, let's review our governance
calendar. Um, we have a schedule of
future agenda items and a parking lot of
uh suggested topics that could go onto
that governance calendar. Um, does
anyone have comments on
uh questions or anything to change for
I know uh it was mentioned before about
how valuable these can be.
Okay. Um, time for reflection,
continuous improvement. Does anyone want
Did you have something for the previous
one or are you jumping in here or
>> pre previous one?
>> Okay. Yeah, jump back. Go back.
>> It'll just saying the same thing as
always, which is it'll be good to get a
study session on reporting.
>> Okay. Is that uh Let's see. Is that in
there? Probably not yet. Not yet. Okay.
>> Okay.
and TBD tenure PB student grid student.
So there is Yeah. There's a study
session in the backlog. Yeah. It hasn't
been scheduled yet. It's in the parking
lot.
>> Yeah. I've got my own parking lot and
I'm trying to figure out how to stitch
that in here.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> Sorry, just to get clarification, you're
speaking of the about the student growth
data discussion, right? Is that the one?
>> Believe so. Is that the really just
student outcomes reports generally?
>> Okay. basically like all the things that
we have set for our goals on the LCAP,
how how do we what is the most
productive way for us to report on that?
>> Okay. I think um that study session
that's listed in the parking lot was
referring to your study session.
>> Perfect. I'll also note that there is an
update on communications in the parking
lot as well, so relevant to the policy.
Um okay. Uh on to uh board uh trustee
meeting reflection.
Thoughts on how to improve the meeting?
Um I think partially things went off the
rails um in a way that I don't think was
intended but um perhaps we should uh
consider how the impact of of things
could have could have come through.
Yeah.
>> Yeah. I agree. I I'll start with the
positives. I the same thing as uh I
think we've mentioned before and has
been reiterated today as well. Uh I
think the format of less time presenting
more time discussing is I really
appreciate it. I think it's leading to
better discussion uh on the deltas. Uh
yes perhap I think I I've pontificated
much. I'd like to do that less. uh and I
can probably be uh for for myself uh to
be more reflective in the the what I'm
communicating and how to make sure that
it is clear that uh everything is
supposed to be generative and not
conflicting.
>> Yeah, thanks for that. I I also I do
want to acknowledge our presenters that
did an amazing job of really like yeah
getting to the heart of both what was on
the slides and what wasn't on the
slides. I thought that the the two
presentations were really well put
together. I know Dr. Baker, you you wor
you you made some suggestions for how
people put that together, but it really
flowed and they were dense and engaging
and really like I thought I really
appreciated the work that went into
that. Um hopefully it wasn't a ton of
work. It was actually because it ended
up reducing the time. I know probably
the first time it was a lot of work to
be able to get to it
>> because it was already create.
>> Yeah,
>> it was already done and when I came in
and said on Monday, let's shorten it. So
it was it was work to get this first go
around.
>> Okay. Well, I super appreciate the that
that part and also having that the
richer preview that we could actually go
through and and pull that uh through.
Yeah, the combo of having like a large
rich pre-eread and then a dense
presentation and discussion versus
narration of slides is fantastic. So
like more more of that I think that's
going in absolutely the right direction.
But for me also um with the the large
slides, if we don't need the narration,
it's kind of more embedded in there,
that would also just be really helpful.
Then then maybe we're not having to ask
questions that are already kind of
answered.
I mean, when it comes down to
presentations, I really do um appreciate
the all the effort that it's put into
the presentations and how it's
thoroughly explained and um
and I do want to just bring out the
maybe uncomfortable
um
comments or whatever. Um, I want to say
and on a personal level, but I think
maybe as a board, um, I do want to say
that we as board members have talked
about how much we do appreciate all of
you guys in cabinet. So, I do want to
say that you guys do have our support
and um, at times it might be
uncomfortable situations. Um, but please
know that we could talk about it and we
are here to help you. Um, again, the
needle is moving and I want to keep on
that positive note. So, please know that
we do care.
>> Yeah, thank you for that, Cecilia, for
the reflection on that. Um,
any other comments on this topic.
Otherwise, we'll move on to the calendar
note on Saturday. Um, we have a long
close session. I'm sure everyone's aware
of that.
>> Note it. Um, next week is our
organizational meeting and that'll be it
for the calendar year.
>> And then let me see what else is listed
here. I think that's about it. Wait, no,
I'm still on the old item. It didn't.
>> Yeah, I think those are the two. All
right. Any other thoughts on the
calendar? Okay.
>> Changes.
>> Uh, none at this time.
>> All right. Um, so then we are on to
adjournment. Can I get a motion to
adjurnn? I move we adjourn
>> and a second.
>> Second.
>> Would you like to deliberate? I'm
kidding. Uh,
all in favor?
Fine.