all right it is 7 o'clock so I think we
can go ahead and get started yeah I
could gavel but I think that everyone
will uh we move on um so Evelyn if you
could do a roll call trusty Lee pres
trusty
King trusty Marquez here vice president
Weekley resent president Wells
here um oh I need to report out on close
session
uh so report on close session from
January 10th um information was given
about negotiations for this school year
and the next school year but no action
was
taken uh and now we'll move on to the
welcome so good evening and welcome to
the January 15th uh 2025 meeting of the
Redwood City School District governing
board
deala again welcome um all members of
the public are our partners in education
so the the board encourages you to
participate and provide comments and it
looks like people are taking us up on
that um on issues of concern regardless
of whether they are on the agenda um to
speak I know people have figured this
out but uh just to as a reminder you can
complete a speaker's card online or if
you're here in person uh you'll find
cards available at uh at the entrance to
complete and then hand them to Evelyn uh
two people down for me um if you're
addressing a subject uh a subject listed
on the agenda you'll be called at the
time that the items being considered but
if the issue is not on the agenda you'll
be called uh shortly during the order
Communications agenda item uh and then
to be fair to all speakers we do limit
the public comment time um it's usually
three minutes but it depends upon the
number of speakers uh and we'll we'll do
that as we get to it all right let's
move on to changes to the agenda
um there's one to
pull
yeah right I'm recommending to pull 8.5
the approval of 202 for school
accountability report cards there is
some information that was brought to our
attention that is
incorrect and a lot of this information
that it that are placed onto the sarks
are uploaded from kpads and so I think
they're we not only think we know there
are errors and thank you uh trusty King
for noting those for us okay pulling 8.5
um and then I wanted to suggest that we
move 11.2 which is the presentation on
the Mathematics curriculum up to the
school report so put it after 6.1 which
is the Orion presentation and before our
public hearing on connects renewal at
7.1 work for
everyone okay any other
changes none uh I need a motion
second I'll make a motion to change the
agenda
okay all right all in favor I okay great
uh moving on oral communication I don't
think we have any one for oral
communication
spot yeah okay then we'll jump right
into our school and Community reports
we're going to start with the Ryan
alternative school presentation for the
2425 school
year and we'll begin with Miss Wong so
Winnie you it's all yours good and I'm
so glad I get to um get started and I
saw a lot of perspective Mi my family
here and they told me that um some MI
families are online as well watching and
my staff are online as well so hi I'm
here doing a solo tonight and it's my
time to shine
right okay so good evening Board of
Trustees cabin members and community
members tonight I'm honored to be here
to present a comprehensive overview of
Orion's academic achievement enriching
programs diverse school events and key
initiative designed to Foster contined
growth and success at Ryan School
so we'll get started with Goal one goal
one focuses on supporting our students
social emotional learning need improving
attendance and reducing behavior and
suspension rate when we look at the absm
rate at orri school across four school
years a significant Improvement was seen
in 2023 24 school year with absenteeism
dropping to
12.9% and further declining to 12.1 1%
as of December 20th in the 2024 25
school year this indicates steady
progress in reducing chronic absen TM
over
time uh next slide
please this slide highlight Trends in
absen TM across various subgroups over
four school years subgroups like English
Learners socioeconomically disadvantage
students and student with disabilities
consistently show higher ABM rate even
though this rate have declined in the
most recent years a subgroup of students
facing home challenges has shown a clear
increase in absm reaching 40% as of
December
2024 this highlights an era an area
where additional targeted support can
help improve attendance and overall
well-being our suspension rate is
trending down to 0% starting in 2023 24
school year and that is Carri forth into
this school
year while we cannot capture all the
effective strategies we have implemented
in just one slide I would like to
highlight the key initiative we have
roll out both last school year and this
school year and talking about the impact
at oy we recognized that the
developmental need of young children can
vary significantly we have four TK at
Orion and four kindergarten classroom to
support our TK and kindergarten students
we have created a dedicated Outdoor
Learning space this school year designed
specifically to meet their need when
designing this space we have several
priorities in mind to ensure it would be
developmentally appropriate for our
youngest learner on
campus first we work to offer students a
variety of choices for play ensuring
they have developmentally appropriate
options to explore second we focus on
smaller group play while our playground
uh our new playground amazing can AC can
accommodate over 100 students we
intentionally limit groups to 50 or
fewer to create a safer and more
manageable outdoor environment for the
students um finally we allocated
additional supervision and our amazing
parent volunteer during TK and
kindergarten recess to guide and support
students during their play you can see
some cute picture here here are some
examples of activities in this uh
Outdoor Learning space including sensory
play with our Sand and Water Table
walking cups large building blocks and
dramatic play we continue to add or
rotate other activities to keep students
engaged we have seen great success with
this initiative we have at only two TK
and kindergarten Behavior referral so
far this school year down from 26 last
school year given this success we have
expanded The Outdoor Learning initiative
to to our first to fifth grade student
and the student in the SLC classroom um
during the lunch recess and morning
recess now students have access to
different kind of play options including
Lunch Bunch Garden Club new this year
and PE coach facilitated soccer game
which began last year as a result we
have seen a reduction in playground
Behavior referral with only five so far
this school year in addition with
support from our mental health counselor
Miss Dian we have launched The
Peacemaker program where third to fifth
grade students facilitate restorative
chat for peer involved in playground
conflicts this program encourage student
leadership and help develop conflict
resolution
skills we have continued our attendance
initiative to promote daily attendance
for all of our students we ensure that
families of absence students receive
regular communication from our office
staff and our mtss TOA families of
student who are chronically absent or at
risk of becoming chronically absent are
invited to attend the school engagement
support plan meeting with our mtss TOA
and
administrators to further emphasize the
importance of attendance school
administration and classroom teacher
have made a very special effort to
communicate policies on when to keep
students home how to apply for
independent study and how to report
absences during our back to school night
and principal's coffee we repeated it
for many times um this provided families
with the opportunity to better
understand our attendance policy and
expectations uh next slide please at
oyan we believe in fostering strong
family and student engagement our
schoolwide events such as author
illustrators Fair M Autumn Harvest
Festival Nuna New Year field day and
Multicultural study there are many more
here I can give a full speech for all
the event and um to promote a sense of
community and belonging for our students
and their family and I want to extend a
special invitation to all the board
member and C member here to join us to
celebrate the Nuna New Year um during
the last week of
January okay now moving on to goal two
supporting our multilingual Learners is
another critical priority at orine
school by 2027 we aim to increase the
reclassification rate to 20% and
decrease long-term English Learners to
10% the table below Pride information on
O's rfap and long-term English learner
rates over two school year in the 2022
23 school year 7% of multilingual
student were reclassified as fluent
English proficient compared to 6% in
2023 24 school year while this reflect a
uh a SL decrease in rfap percentage is
important to know that the total number
of multilingual students was higher in
2023 to 24 school year than in 2022 to
2023 which impacted the overall
percentage despite contined progress in
reclassification our re uh we look uh we
uh we Deep dive into enrollment data and
our enrollment data shows that an
increasing number of multilingual family
are enrolling their children at Oran
school starting in TK which currently
has four classes many of the young
students are in the early stage of
English language development and are not
yet eligible for
reclassification however with strong
support from our teachers they have Mi
significant progress advancing to the
next outpack proficiency level shown in
the next slide additionally I want to
point out some of our students are also
learning an additional language such as
mandrin um in starting in TK which can
which can extend a timeline for
achieving Proficiency in
English now let's take a closer look at
the in at the incredible progress we
have made over the past three years in
supporting our students uh our students
English language development at orri
back in
20222 school year over uh only 6.9% of
the student in all grades increased by
at least one Alpac level fast forward to
22 23 school year we saw a remarkable
jump to
26.8% but we didn't stop there in 2023
to 2024 the number sort even higher with
4 uh
44.4% of the student in all grade
achieving this
Milestone if you look at a cohort data
you might see a big increase in the
percentage of second grade student who
move up at least one Alpac level however
there was a drop in third grade mainly
because the Alpac test format changed
for third grade student it was their
first time taking standardized test on a
computer so the test switched from
oneon-one testing to whole group
computer-based format which was a new
experience for our third grade students
even with this drop other grade level
shown strong progress overall
highlighting the success of our
strategies and ELD support these
exciting achievement are the result of
the collaborative effort of the ran
staff in implementing the following
initiative uh next slide please in
addition to several effective strategy
apply through a cohesive model across
the school district such as adopting
language power curriculum and using
District integrated unit strategies like
inquiry chart join label chance
vocabulary Bank sentence frame and more
over ran has introduced specific action
as part of our own site action plan I
want to highlight one key initiative
designated ELD instruction during our wi
block wi stands for what I need this
school year we successfully roll out the
wi block program at O'Brien recognizing
that multilingual students are present
in all classroom in both uh Mi and Co-op
program our TK to kinderart uh TK to
fifth grade staff collaborated to
analyze students outpack assessment data
this allowed us to group students across
program based on their English language
proficiency level to provide targeted
support tailored to their need at oan we
also place a strong emphasis on building
partnership with families our family
come from diverse cultural background
and speak different home languages
families play a very important role uh
in their children's language development
and we value their partnership and
involvement in the learning process to
support this we offer a a variety of
parent education programs including
project Cornerstone parent education
Workshop in Spanish parent L early
literacy parent education Workshop we
have one of the leader here Megan
Mandarin literacy parent education
Workshop as well to support our family
this programs aim to connect home and
school by providing family with simple
and practical tools to support their
multilingual children many of these
Workshop are even parent l in creating a
space for family to share valuable
experence expences and insight with one
another right um moving on to goal three
goal three focuses on our students
progress in in ela and math as measured
by the I ready and C assessment we are
excited to see a 2% increase in a
percentage of or student who met or
exceeded Smarter Balance Ela performance
from 2022 to 2023 and a 7 uh% in
increase from 2023 to 2024 this marks
three consecutive years of growth
maintaining an average of 52 to 53% of
our student meeting or exceeding smart
to balance Ela performance when we dive
deeper into our data we notice that a
few subgroup that are scoring below our
school average meanwhile we have three
subgroup that scoring far above our
school average therefore we have very
intentional plan to provide the targeted
support and extension to meet all the
students learning need I'll share them
in the last slide according to the I
ready um reading data overall we are
trending on Target in the fall as our
student continue to make static growth
the past three years we have 25% of our
student who are below grade level 24% of
our student who are approaching grade
level and 51% of our student who are at
or above grade level as we look ahead to
Spring given the intentional support and
targeted support that we provide for our
student we expect to see some changes in
this number with a decrease in a
percentage of student who are
approaching or below grade
level in math we have seen a 4.2%
increase from 2022 to 2023 after the new
maap program adoption however we did
experience a 2.6% decrease in the number
of student who m or exceeded grade level
expectation on the smarter balance map
assessment from 2023 to
2024 our teachers are becoming more
comfortable with the new Illustrated
math curriculum and we have noticed a
strength in engaging student by
encouraging them to explore different
strategies of solving complex problems
that said we have identified a need to
focus on helping student build their
math fluency to support this we're using
the district um math support tools like
reflex and fra to help students
strengthen their math fluency and
fact we also see that we have a few
subgroups here that are scoring below
our school average meanwhile we have
three subgroups that are scoring far
above our school
average our four I maap data shows a 2%
decrease in the number of student
performing below grade level this year
while the percentage of student who are
at or above grade level continue to
steadily increase over three years this
is a very positive trend and it's
something we're excited to
celebrate to address these data that we
just reviewed I want to highlight
several District initiative and Orion
specific initiative we have implemented
to provide targeted and intentional
support for all of the oran students
this initiative are designed to meet all
or students learning need and I'm really
excited to share them in details our
first initiative focuses on the
district's professional learning
communities plc's teachers participate
in structur six to eight week increase
cycle uh in all subjects during these
Cycles grade level team analyze
assessment data and identify specific
goal and brainstrom strategy to provide
targeted support and small small group
instruction for students at or you will
see differentiated instruction
consistently implemented across all
grade level and classrooms at the end of
each cycle the team meet again to review
the student progress and determine the
next step if students have met their
goal the team select a new goal and
begin another round of plan do plan do
study act cycle if not the team reflect
on the challenges and plan for the next
step to support student growth
throughout these Cycles our reading
Specialists administr uh administrators
mtss TOA provide additional guidance and
resources ensuring that every team has
the resources and expertise needed to
succeed our second initiative centers on
enhancing instructional strategy in
addition to implementing District align
effective teaching strategies orine has
introduced three new size specific
initiative this school year grade one 1
to five Wind Block grad three to five
pedagogy of confidence and kindergarten
to fifth grade learning without tears
structure handwriting instruction the
first of this is the grade one to5 win
block initiative again wi stands for
what I need this idea was inspired by
the Henry for principal Jennifer
successful implementation of
intervention support during the Wind
Block time based on our assessment data
we identify a div uh a diverse range of
student need some student require
intensive intervention while more than
50% of the student benefit from
extension activity and additional
practice to move from approaching grade
level to meeting or exceeding grade
level
expectations to address this need all TK
classroom teachers reading Specialists
uh both our Mandarin and English reading
specialist are mtss TOA librarian
Christina RSP teachers de TOA and
administration collaborated to group
students based on their individual
learning need and then the targeted
support include uh includes both
intervention and extension opportunity
for all the student for grade one and
two student receive support and
extension within the grade level band
for grade three to five we have taken an
Innovative approach grouping student
into 14 multi-age groups these groups
focus on accelerated reading math
extension math intervention additional
math practice writing vocabulary English
reading intervention English Language
Art English language development and
study skills all tailored to what each
student need most this initiative
reflect the extraordinary teamwork and
dedication of all the Orion staff their
collaboration and commitment have
brought the wi block to life offering
all students three sessions per week
each last passing 40 minutes and I'm
really excited we are about to launch
the second round of the wing block uh
next week so I'm not taking any meeting
on Monday Tuesday Wednesday from 2: to
2:40 and at Orion we are proud to have a
reach coaching culture that emphasis
ongoing instructional coaching and
professional development for our
teachers since last school year our
grade three to five teachers have worked
with Mrs lamp uh Mrs Virgina lamb our
pedagogy of competence site coach also
is our third grade teacher and Whitney
eeken our District staff development
team coach to implement thinking map
that enhance reading comprehension and
writing skill this year Mrs slam
continue guidance teachers to expand the
use of these tools focusing on
organization purpose evidence and
elaboration as identified in a Cal's
writing assessment data recognizing the
heightened expectation for citing
non-fiction tax evidence in inform
informational opinion and narrative
writing teachers are enhancing
instruction using new seller resources
and refined prompts through
collaboration and ongoing data analysis
they Implement they're imp they're
implementing targeted strategies to
support student growth in
writing um and this school year our VP
uh Briana and she's also our English
curriculum tosa introduced The Learning
without te handwriting curriculum at
orri to address a key aspect of early
literacy that support overall academic
success handwriting is more than just a
motor skill it plays a critical role in
reading and writing development research
shows that when students learn to write
by hand they engage multiple areas of
the brain which help reinforce letter
recognition spelling and reading fluency
our teacher receive professional
development to deliver explicit
multi-sensory handwriting instruction
aligned with the science of reading the
program focuses on printing for grade K
to2 and cursive writing for grade 3 to
five now let's shift our Focus to how we
can support our teachers in effectively
implementing these instructional
strategies as I mentioned before at Oran
we strongly believe in the importance of
professional development and
instructional coaching in addition to
the district L professional development
by Anna we have a dedicated team
providing consistent coaching support on
site for all of the teacher this team
include uh Pro you our our bilingual
program consultant Ela woo and myself
are in-house chain Manor Merchant
instructional coach the district um
staff development team our VP Briana she
is also an an early literacy
instructional coach our in-house chain
pedagogical confidence coach Regina and
also uh the mtss TOA marel this team is
committed to ensuring that every Orion
teacher has the resources and guidance
needed to succeed our approach to
coaching and professional development is
both collaborative and individualized
ensuring that teachers receive tailor
support that align with their unique
teaching style and need we take pride in
developing our own in-house
instructional coach including Alva
Regina and the coaches in the induction
program at our school site the
commitment to developing teacher leaders
within our community Foster a culture
where teacher feel inspired to share
their Knowledge and Skills with one
another as a result we nurture new
instructional coaches building a su a
sustainable peer-driven support system
that Empower our teacher to continuously
grow and
collaborate thank you Dr Baker for your
incredible support and investment in
providing a guest teacher at all the
School site Our Guest teacher has a
really packed schedule allowing teachers
to participate uh in professional
development instructional coaching with
our on-site coaches and their great
level team lesson planning data analysis
and peer
observation um at the conclusion of my
presentation tonight I want to express
my gratitude for my Superstar Oran
teachers and staff the progress that we
have made in fostering academic success
social emotional well-being and
multilingual proficiency is a direct
result of your hard work and dedication
as we move forward we'll continue to
refine and expand our initiative to meet
all of our students learning need and
thank you for believing in the vision we
share for orine
school thank
you all right thank you winie and thank
you to every your entire staff for the
work that you do at Orion um before we
move into board discussion and questions
um we do have two speakers that want to
speak about Mandarin uh the maner
immersion program at oryan so our first
speaker and then when if you could just
yeah step aside they'll come up would be
uh hi uh I think it says hi Ching
yangang yeah
great hi everyone good evening board
members my name before you start just so
you know you have three minutes there's
a timer running there I know I just took
a couple seconds of it rick paused it so
okay we'll start it over but okay great
okay good even good evening board
members my name is hi ching yangang and
I moved to Rood City with my husband in
2019 we have a toddler who will qualify
for TK this year as a family with
Chinese and Taiwanese Heritage we were
especially excited about the Mandarin
imersion program at Orion which provides
an incredible opportunity for children
to connect with their cultural roots and
gain valuable Global skills this year as
we apply for the 2025 202 six TK
applications for our toddler we found
the process to be incredibly stressful
the lottery system adds significant
uncertainty for families who are deeply
committed to Mandarin imersion for the
long term Additionally the process feels
opaque families with little information
have little information about the number
of applicants weightless numbers and
chances of securing a spot which only
adds to the
anxiety I also understand that TK class
sizes are also reduced from 24 to 2
students a class this is concerning
given that there's a Statewide TK raw
and expansion this has created anxiety
for families like my own who are eager
to join the manor immersion program but
feel like chances of getting in are
dwindling I understand that the school
board is under many constraints if
possible I would like this board to
consider the following one please
consider ways to prioritize families who
are dedicated to Manor immersion for the
long term whether it's supplemental
application for prospective Ive or
weight listed families to demonstrate
their commitment two please consider
exploring Creative Solutions to
accommodate more families on existing
campus whether it's combining classes on
exam existing campus mandering is not
just a connection to Heritage for
families like mine but also a powerful
Global skills for all students expanding
this program benefits our community as a
whole I hope we can find solutions that
can ensure every interested child in
rbba city has access access to this
exceptional program thank
you thank you for um sharing your
excitement about the program um one
thing I will add is that that reduction
in TK is that's state law right like
that's not their the universal TK roll
out is um requiring the reduction
there oh I right hear you okay our next
speaker is uh Michelle I'm gonna get
your last name wrong I'm sorry Michelle
strob I have a difficult last name you
can call me whatever shouldn't be that
hard it's it's everybody calls me
something different so it's fine good
evening board members um my name is
Michelle stroby um I'm a mom of a
prospective kindergartener for Orion Mi
um for this upcoming school year thank
you for allowing me time again to speak
tonight um over the last few weeks I
have had a crash course in public
education and advocacy and I wanted to
start by saying how appreciative I am of
all of you um all the hard work you do
the schoolb members our dedicated
principles the administrators teachers
and AIDS you do all of the things here
to make our kids lives better and I
appreciate it so thank you um I know
firsthand that those of us in helping
professions are in it for love and
betterment of our community we're not in
it for Fame and Fortune so really huge
thank you to all of you for that I also
really want to emphasize how hopeful I
am for the expansion of thean Mi program
to keep up with Community interest and
demand as can be seen by the community
letters we share shed and the number of
people here today and also last week
speaking for growth of the program
having two bilingual programs in the
Redwood City School District allows us
the unique opportunity to capture the
growing interest in public bilingual
education these programs can serve as a
magnet for Comm a magnet for Community
growth and engagement moreover by
expanding the Orion Mi program we will
ensure that students of all sex
socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds
and cultures have access to Quality
public education regardless of where
they
live this inclusivity in my opinion is a
fundamental Cornerstone of the public
education system providing opportunities
and advancement for children of all
backgrounds today we're here to discuss
the upcoming 25 26 school years
particularly that's what I'm here to
discuss however I genuinely believe that
expanding this Pro that that with the
ability to expand this program the
challenges we're seeing the increases in
weight list the increase in mi interest
won't go away captured in our community
letters that we have shared with you and
previously last week and also the
speakers here today and parents who of
the current school year um they're
already we already shared with you I'm
sorry parents um for this current school
year but also those looking forward to
school year 26 27 and Beyond
sorry I appreciate your time and
dedication to our children's future and
for the continued support from the board
and allowing this discussion to continue
thank you so much for your
time thanks Michelle again for speaking
about your interest and passion for the
program um I think we can return back to
the presentation from for Orion and uh
now we can open up to board member
questions or
comments anyone concerned the interest
of uh not forcing David Lee to go first
on absolutely everything the other David
I'll I'll take it um so first point of
feedback is actually more for the
district and Jenny and this is going to
be common feedback uh from the other
presentation just from a data
perspective um really would love to see
cohort analyses so just seeing the
progress of student advancement because
when we do year-by-year
snapshot of you know above level at
level below level Etc um that they're
confounding variables that get thrown in
there you know like the the the students
who left new students who came Etc what
we really care about is the progress
that the students make at at every
school in the district um that's the
numbers look good so this is not like
you know taking a Stern eye to it um but
really we we do want to ground ourselves
in our our students learning at a good
Pace um I also feel like you we don't
need to over index on like uh sub
percent wins or gains because like a lot
of that's just going to be in the
statistical noise so small numbers are
going to go up small numbers are going
to go down um and that's not really
telling of of a trend I love the wind
blocks that were rolled out this year uh
it's fantastic just for people who
aren't aware I do have two kids uh at
Orion in the Mi program and they are
loving it um so I I think that that was
a really cool thing to go roll out I'm
loving it too because it's like Yay back
to the teaching time and our teacher got
to choose their favorite subject to
teach so everybody's having fun together
that's fantastic um handwriting is kind
of funny because this is actually my
absolute least favorite class when I was
in elementary school so like um my
brothers would be like well why do we
need to teach the kids cursive they can
type we have got keyboards now um but
the data is actually crystal clear that
that handwriting's got a real strong
link to literacy and academic
performance I guess I did okay even
though my handwriting is terrible but uh
but but the data is really clear so I
think it's a good example of the
district following best practices in
pedagogy um so I just want to applaud
that I think that's that that's really
great despite the fact that I hate
handwriting I I think you're doing the
right thing um nonetheless um cool and I
I love the focus on professional
development for the teachers peer
observation in particular is something
that we've heard is really valued by
them is a great way to to level up um I
wonder about the possibility and I've
mentioned this in other presentations
for peer teaching opportunities in the
classroom uh Kid to Kid especially with
the data that so clearly indicates that
we've got some very Advanced Learners in
the classroom and we've got some
students who could could really use some
extra instruction if we could find ways
to go and pair that um that also is a
proven technique from pedagogy that's
applicable even in uh elementary school
so I think it's something that we should
be looking into thank you so much for
all you do for the school I hear all
sorts of wonderful things from the
parents um and I get to experience it
myself as a as a parent of of students
in your school so thank you for all you
do great I'm so glad that to hear that
your your Tri children really enjoy the
experience at Orion and I heard the love
from our family here
go next um thank you again for the
presentation for your leadership and of
course um thank you to all your staff
for the commitment to serve the students
and obviously their success um and of
course um I love that you took the idea
from Jen and did the Wind Block so
that's actually really great because I
know that we've talked as board members
um how you could mimic either someone
else's whatever they're doing so you
know it's good to know that you guys are
actually collaborating and actually
getting ideas from somebody to make um
your um School better so thank you so
much yeah that's what we did at our
admin meeting because Dr Baker and Anna
now allocated additional time for a
principal with like great practices to
be share with all other principal so we
can learn from each other and we have
the Ed educational r as well so I get
opportunity to ask our cabinet member
like any great things like how to solve
this problem do you have any great
example so we have really wonderful
cohort or principle who are willing to
go way and Beyond to share resources and
best practices uh with each other thank
you
um I think that was it for me um
obviously the numbers look good and
progress is good um I've said it for
other presentations as well so again
thank you so much for everything you do
thank you
hi principal wnny thank you very much
for the presentation um I also have a
child at Orion and I and also he's
enjoying the Wind Block so I think
that's a great ad this year um and I
noticed um I just had one question and
really was more about whether we can
provide support you mentioned that the
third graders kind of had a dip in the
lpac because of the having to use the
computer is that something that was
mandated or we just don't have the
resources to do the individual testing
so it is mandated all the third fourth
fifth grade student they would take the
standardized assessment such as Alpac
and a smarter balance Ela and math
assessment all on a computer so there's
a lot to navigate and just uh like you
can only listen to the audio once when
they didn't pay attention I'm like we
need to wake up we need to listen
because it's not going to replay again
it's not like you're with the Tester the
tester can repeat so that's some like um
test skills that our teachers are
training our students uh on improving
okay great thank Youk you
uh actually quick follow up on that just
for my own understanding the the switch
to the computer is that something that
happens every year as then we should
expect to see kind of this drop AC every
year in third grade or is that
specifically last year that was the Swit
so um the Alpac test is all computerized
actually even from kindergarten the
difference is the kindergarten to second
grade you actually have someone is with
you doing the tests with you oneon-one
the students are still um in second
grade they're still using it they're
still doing some of it but it's with an
adult it's a one-onone test where it
happens in third grade we have we have
to regroup students so we have a limit
of 20 per class who can test at one time
in one classroom so if we go 25 we have
to have two people in there because it's
all about monitoring students progress
so there there's the three test the four
domains speaking and listening is done
by our testers and some of our staff
which is a one to one and then we have
the listening which Mrs which Winnie was
talking about where you get to hear the
story once and then they have to respond
to the questions um by memory um and you
know it's a reading test so they have to
be able to read and then there's the
reading assessment and then the third so
each span kindergarten first there's the
test changes in
K12 every de and then and then third
grade this test changes once again third
fourth and fifth so it gets it more
rigorous and then it changes against
Middle School and then it changes again
in high school so as they're growing up
it's pretty much mimics the sback state
test by the time we're um done in third
grade but it is computerized and the
kids have to do it all their themselves
by that so in very short and please
correct me if I'm wrong unless the way
which we administ changes we we would
expect to see a similar sort of drop
among every cohort at that point because
of the way yeah it is a change of an
assessment and they're required to do
more reading more writing from second to
third grade correct okay super helpful
thank you sorry I should have that was a
followup and then I want to also say
thank you for the presentation all the
work I mean obviously we have a number
of folks both today and last meeting who
have demonstrated support so clearly
lots of good work is happening um so
yeah Kudos commend you guys on that and
really appreciate it um I do have a few
questions I think some of which are on
the data and some are more broad things
that I think are going to become
thematic through throughout these
meetings the first one is on the data
for the um chronic absenteeism the one
thing I noted um that looked a little
bit abnormal was the the spike in the
homeless population uh so want to see if
you want to share any insights about
that or causes and I think the district
uh registration is doing really well in
capturing the updated data um for um for
student who have housing challenges like
either who are homeless or who are um
like living in a a really crowdy space
like uh what we call it double up so um
District uh the registration doing
really great job so now we have captured
the student the really special group
that we need to provide more um targe of
support and also make connection with to
keep them updated so we do notice that
and I'm working with our mtss TOA and
our office staff uh in reaching out to
the family checking in with with family
I would request meeting like one-on-one
meeting with family to ask like anything
we can do to help you like um are you
experiencing any um difficulty that we
are not aware of because we want to show
empathy and we want to be here to help
you yeah so the spike is not because it
is a larger issue than before it's that
we're actually just capturing better
data on the homeless populations at this
point and it sounds like at the school
you guys are taking a targeted approach
to better understand it and be more um
prac there okay that's so David just to
put that in context we went one from 179
to 462
as a district okay okay so that's the
context yep no that's super helpful I
think yeah 40% it all kind of depends a
little bit on the end 40% is relatively
high for any such population but totally
understood that we just you know we're
just discovering this in some ways so I
understand um other the other two
questions are really kind of the
standard and just to provide the context
I think it's just um I think it's
helpful to hear from schools and to have
it publicly available both the the big
strengths and the challenges that school
schools are facing especially in a
district where we operate in finite
resources so it for me it's very helpful
to understand what are the particular
areas that have been super helpful for
you to make sure that um within each of
the schools we you know the district
supporting appropriately and then when
there are challenges same thing like we
want to know what those are and if we
can do something about it um that's
always helpful for me to get a sense for
the whole District that's it uh first
question just broadly is um would love
to hear about which strategy support you
believe cont contributes most to the uh
success that you've seen in your school
I would say on-site coaching because uh
a lot all the teachers in our school
district attend the professional
development learning about a new um
evidence research based effective
teaching strategies in a professional
development however the follow-up part
is also very important and we really
lucky that we have a man immersion TOA
teacher and special assignment funded by
R City man emerant scholar and we have a
an outside bilingual mandering
consultant funded by Dr Baker and we
also have our mpss TOA and our inhouse
chained um pedagogy of confidence coach
so they're meeting with the teacher
either weekly or bi-weekly to follow up
and then to um look into their data and
review students for sample provide a C-
teaching opportunity or like demo
teaching for the teacher so the teacher
can see the strategies in action because
everyone's uh classroom is very
different and teacher have different
style theu the student have different
need but how we can um apply what we
have learned in a professional
development into our practical teaching
so that really require a lot of on-site
instructional coaching support So
professional development and coaching on
the instruction side yeah and we have
the guest teacher again really wonderful
so um because teacher have a really SP
busy schedule and but we do need to sit
down to reflect on our practices we need
to be targeted and effective instead of
just teaching for a long time and but we
need to like we really want to see the
good result and it's not working we need
to sit as sit down as a team to discuss
so the guest teacher also is very
helpful super help and then the flip
side uh challenges or ways that yeah
funding to um to continue to recruit
like this talent to support our uh our
teachers on site and I know that like we
have been through the budget cut this
school year and um we are able to use
the side funding to fund a 0.5 reading
specialist and also a05 mtss TOA we're
lucky that we got r cmis support to fund
a full-time Mi um specific uh atosa to
support the teacher and provided
coaching and intervention but all of
this Specialists are really important
but our budget is also really tight so I
I feel really grateful and lucky that I
have a really supportive Community but
this is also something that um is like
kind of advantage that we have at our
site to have to continue to have funding
and support to have these Specialists
working with our teacher because they
need to be sustainable and we want to
really grow our inous trained um
instructional coach to provide the
instructional support for the next group
of
teacher super
consistent that that's all thank you
yeah thank
you I don't want to take up too much
more time and everybody El covered a lot
of things but thank you weny for the
presentation um one thing I did want to
note was thanks for um you know calling
out the discrepancies between the
student subgroups um and putting
together an intentional plan to help
kind of address that I think having
those that those targeted plans to help
the different subgroups um and sort of
bring a little bit more Equity there is
a great thing to do so I appreciate your
calling out of that um and then again I
think the Davids both said it um the
focus on coaching and PD um that was
just that's awesome to hear about um
really exciting stuff going on there
pass it off thank you
Winnie um I know you started out with us
as a teacher uh became a an
administrator did you work to get the
administrative credential and work very
closely with Katherine
Rivera uh this weekend I have the
opportunity to take a friend's class
who's a professor USF um and she teaches
students who want to become
administrators and what would be and
they want to know what is the
requirement that a superintendent has
for a principal and you she served
deserves a lot of these qualities and
and and criteria that one looks for but
your strengths and your instructional
leadership the expertise that you have
in curriculum pedagogy takes you a long
way not only is it in Mandarin but also
in English and the curriculum that we
have and you've taken what the district
has provided and moved it along uh
within the time span that you have been
a site administrator on your own without
you know Katherine being there anyone
else so I commend you for that the other
piece that is really um uh instrumental
and what you have an Knack is for the
ability to evaluate and improve teaching
practices and then follow through with
your staff on how to bring those
strategies to fruition and make sure
that they're happening in at your school
site and the piece that you put together
with the TK the Kinder and the SLC class
that Outdoor Classroom is amazing uh I
want to applaud you in that and also
your step it's it's phenomenal you need
to bring that up you know to your
colleagues so they can see what that
looks like and have them come visit it
because everybody at this point in time
is going through the facilities master
plan and here's something that you know
they should consider I know some do have
an outside uh classroom but it has not
been developed in the fashion that you
have it and it would be I think
something that would really benefit all
children in the district if something
like that were available and then you
have people that have the experience of
what they're doing with students so I
applaud you thank you so much for your
hard work Baker for your hard work and
and always coming up with you know
things that you want to make
students appreciation for Learning and
the appreciation for the love of
learning to continue at school stud I
really and both in in English and Ming
immersion yeah thank you yeah I'm really
happy to share the Outdoor Learning
space experience with all other
principle and at at our um Monday admin
meeting maybe next Monday yeah and then
I also want also want to mention that
Ann our TK um staff development um staff
she's like on site a lot and she visit a
lot of classrooms she also is one of the
person who help us put together the
outdo learning space we have our TK and
kindergarten teacher they contribute a
lot of ideas we have been talking about
it because I like 26 email to be sent
out to parents and have 26 meeting
that's a lot and and we reflect and we
need to find a way to ensure our
students safety in
school thank
you I think we're going to wrap it up
and move on to our next agenda item
which is 11.2 recommendation for
mathematics curriculum adoption for grad
six through
eight okay thank you uh Kendall Klein um
has been working as our one of our ma
our coaches our math coach middle school
and she'll be presented tonight on the
math adoption I think there's a clicker
right there yeah
that one there you go it's been a while
thank you um yes I'm kind Klein I am the
sixth through e8th grade um teacher on
special assignment for middle school
math um I'm joined by some of our pilot
committee members um here support and
Anastasia stamates the K5 math coach as
well so we're here to present a
recommendation uh to adopt a new
curriculum for middle school
math um so as I mentioned we have some
mbers here Rita pilton she's a sixth
grade math teacher at Kennedy Middle
School Jason aen Clifford seventh and
eighth grade and zai who could not be
here this evening but she um carried
another leg of the eighth grade class at
Roy cloud and I just want to give a big
shout out and thank you to them we did a
lot of recruitment um efforts to get
more people to join the board or the
board the adoption committee and um busy
schedules a lot of other commitments so
uh we really appreciate the time and
effort from the three teachers who
stepped up um to be a part of this
it's a long pitch but this gives an
overall uh Spiel of what we've gone
through in the last couple of years um
so since we have some other people in
the building that haven't read it um two
years ago the District middle school
math coach me asked Middle School Math
teachers for their feedback on selecting
a curriculum to better meet the needs of
our students teachers from sixth seventh
and e8th grade volunteered to form a
team to evaluate and pilot curricula and
provide feedback we use the 2023
California Mathematics framework for the
evaluation specifically focusing on
little error there on category four
access and equity and category five
instructional planning and support the
pilot teachers implemented two units
from two different curricula CPM which
is college preparatory mathematics
inspiring connections version and in
illustrative mathematics um Imagine
Learning which is now going by imagine I
IM each teacher provided their feedback
using a rubric for the evaluation along
with inperson meetings to discuss the
benefits of each curriculum we discussed
how each curriculum met the needs the
variety of Learners we have in the
classroom from our Els and multilanguage
Learners to students with IEPs 504s our
newcomers our students who are below
grade level and students who are above
grade level we also discussed student
engagement access collaborative
opportunities and critical thinking
pilot teachers also pulled their
students for feedback on the new
curriculums using all this data it was
decided through a collaborative
consensus process that illustrative
mathematics Imagine Learning or imagine
I am now provide the best solution for
middle school Mass students and this was
um coming from our pilot committee so so
that General overview um I'll go into a
little bit more details of the process
and um some of the findings that our
teachers um came came with so originally
this is going to be a one-year adoption
our typical adoption process is to
analyze curriculum pick two or get it
down to two hopefully and then pilot a
unit within the same year and do the
debrief and the consensus and compare
and contrast and make a decision um with
the new Frameworks coming along we use
the opportunity in the first year to do
a deep dive on the California Frameworks
um we covered chapters 1 through 4 and
then we jumped to 13 because 1 through
four were more pertinent to the um the
Frameworks in general and then
specifically to middle school and some
other um equity and engagement um focus
as well as chapter 13 which is really
looking at the evaluation rubrics and
criteria uh set forth by um the
framework we developed the rubric from
this tool um that the teachers use to
evaluate the curriculum um and then we
go through a pre-screen teachers look at
the curriculum they look at the content
um what's provided we get professional
learning from the curricular uh
Publishers and their trainers um so they
can hit the ground running and implement
the units what's newer uh this round
they require two units to be um
implemented one is really setting the
stage for this type of pedagogy and
instruction and then jumping into the
content um from there they or during
their implementation they use the
rubrics to analyze and collect evidence
um and we came together and did a um
consensus process a consent to cons a
consent to consensus which is a similar
um routine we use in the K5 process um
with the um with Kim bambal from County
who is the math coordinator for the
county and so we used that and implement
it with the middle school committee as
well um we kind of were at a place where
it was good in a sense that it was okay
there were still questions to be had and
still very curious at seeing what the
other curriculum had to offer and so
with the heavy lift and load of that
first year um going through all the
Frameworks creating the evaluation tool
learning the new curriculum um and
having to do two units um we decided to
push the second curriculum to a second
year um some benefits to that were um we
were able to the uh Community teachers
were able to find the units that aligned
so there were similar content from both
curriculum so they can have a better
comparison they also um with imagine I
am because all of the curriculum once
the new Frameworks were um adopted were
making movement and changes to the
curriculum to better align with the uh
content of the framework and so for
imagine I am more of those pieces have
been updated as well as their tees their
teacher editions um they updated those
and the student workbooks to uh to
improve upon them and so we were able to
get a sneak peek and use that as our um
tool for
implementation the rest of it looks the
same they pil it they use the rubrics
collect data analyze meet discuss
debrief um and come to a consensus and
so through that process with the two
curriculum IM came forward with the
higher score um and so that brings us
here to present our recommendation to
the board to adopt imagine I am um if uh
after this there if it moves forward a
public review um which we've done in the
past with other um Pilots we will have
the um curriculum out on display and
then we'll reconvene so
with that um kind of going in the
Frameworks um the state standards
changed they were adopted revised by
April
2013 I was a facilitator of the Middle
School adoption back in
2015 and so we've um that's when we got
CPM now we're jumping to 2023 so really
what are some of the differences and why
a new framework so um some of these
slides were taken from um uh udl
president presentation at the County uh
led by Kim bambal and so um you'll make
note or see note of that so I've
borrowed them from her but over the
course of time um we did see Improvement
in MTH scores across the state covid hit
we know that story um but really what
persisted were those opportunity and
Equity gaps between our student groups
and so the new framework is really
written to address these and to close
these and to accelerate our groups so
that we are all achieving um at the
highest
levels so what is it the content
standards are the same so when you look
at Ed reports um which evaluates um the
alignment of content and standards those
are the same what our kids need to learn
throughout a year is the same and the
standards for mathematical practice
which are thinking of like student
habits of mind of how to engage with
mathematics how we want to them um
experience to communicate to um to
engage Eng with it hasn't changed what
has changed or added per se is that
there's going to be an expectation that
the curriculum includes these three
things drivers of Investigations so I
have a little cheat sheet here um is
really highlighting the purpose of
learning mathematics and making
connections to the real world as well as
um really highlighting critical thinking
and engagement with the mathematics
mathematics is not a passive receptive
um subject we want them to think
critically and to engage with the um
wonderings of mathematics to see the
purpose and its usefulness um not just
something to be memorized and to
regurgitate um also uh content
connections an emphasis on how
mathematical Concepts relate across
various areas um it's a web and not
necessarily a ladder our courses might
make it look like a ladder but the
content is connected within a grade
across grades Concepts you learn in
third fourth are building and really
weaving up to algebra so we're all
connected
did and then the Big Ideas are really it
integrate standards rather than in
isolation Okay so we're focusing on
deeper understanding stronger conceptual
development to really make a lasting
impression on their um procedural
understandings and building connections
like I mentioned within and across grade
levels and so what's changed is that
these are now expectations for
curriculum that are being written to
include these things in terms of
pedagogy and processes to support
support teachers in meeting these
needs I forgot my water hold on one
second so um those of you interested
there's the CDE press release and links
to the framework
summaries um and just revisit the
Frameworks are really aligned with our
mission and vision of the district um
and for those of us who might need a
reminder rcsd creates a safe and
supportive inspirational and rigorous
joyful an inclusive environment for all
Learners and our vision is that rcsd
will be a thriving Dynamic Innovative
and nurturing Community where each
student realizes their unique gifts and
strengths to achieve High intellectual
performances for personal and academic
success and these are our base values
Innovation really encouraging student
voice that Equity so that passion um for
all students um engagement and
Partnerships so as I mentioned a lot of
these things are connected to the
framework and the big bullet points of
what Equity means in the framework all
students deserve powerful mathemat
mathematics instruction high level
mathematics achievement is not dependent
on rare natural gifts but rather can be
cultivated and that's what we want to do
in our classrooms we want to bring
students to the table and get them
immersed with it all students regardless
of background language of origin
learning differences or foundational
knowledge are capable and deserving of
depth of understanding and engagement in
Rich mathematical tasks
student engagement must be a goal in
designing Mathematics Curriculum
alongside critical content goals and
students cultural backgrounds
experiences and languages are resources
for teaching and learning
mathematics this is a long quote I won't
read it all but this is an excerpt from
chapter one in the framework and those
bolded words are really the best ways
that we know through research that
students learn and commit their
understanding of mathematics and build
the passion for mathematics and you also
notice that a lot of these bolded words
are not just limited to mathematics
instruction it's really across every
content and so our goal is to bring
those and highlight them in our
curriculum and bring curriculum um to
our teachers to support
this so as I mentioned we focus on kind
of like a reading group uh book study I
guess you could say um with the
committee um we read the chapters we
took notes our ponderings our questions
um and brought them to the table to
discuss and reflect on what that looked
like in our current curriculum and what
it could look like and what we're
looking for in the
adoption when it came to chapter 13 we
use that as our basine to really think
about the rubric um that we wanted to
focus in on there's a lot of criteria
that's provided on the with this tool um
and a lot of it is very similar to the
2013 tool but they've added and modified
some of the language to align with the
new framework and so although we looked
at some of the items um or the criteria
numbers listed there in categories one
two and three we use uh we really
heavily emphasized um category four
access and equity and category five
instructional planning and
support another long bulleted list but
want to make sure we cover things so a
lot of these are pulled straight from
the teacher noticings and one uh not
wonderings but noticings and
observations um from implementing uh
imagin IM um if you read through those
you will see a lot of the language that
is connected to the bolded words we saw
in that excerpt from chapter
one um they saw a lot of problem solving
student collaboration um noticing and
wondering which invited all students
into the mathematics um students were
helping each other they were also
comparing their work they were going
deeper and extending their mathematical
ideas um and the big thing here we have
a large multi language learner
population and one of the best ways to
help them learn our language and
particularly mathematics is also through
language for all students and so really
um the curriculum provided the on-ramp
for them to use that academic language
and improve the use of it and explaining
their thinking and processes and they
were taking more risks in solving the
math right um kids who might feel like
they aren't math kids and we have adults
that say that too and our goal is to
erase that vocabulary from students um
so they see themselves as math people
and that starts with thinking engaging
in the thinking trying and taking risks
when they're trying to solve
problems here are some of the teacher
preferences in the sense of what was
provided by the curriculum in the sense
of providing student engagement and
supports for that um there were
connections to Real World um situations
that were diverse they include in um
Inspire videos and so through a sequence
of a lesson or a unit they are
connecting um videos to the mathematical
content um daily warm-ups connected to
the lesson available in Spanish and more
languages to come um something that they
provided um is a student workbook both
hard copy and digital and what we found
was that they included scaffolded
examples and models and pictures and
things that supported a lot of our
Learners um they took a lot of ownership
of these notebooks and um still allowed
them to draw diagrams and express their
thinking in their own
way the online dashboard is pretty um
pretty awesome it includes a lot of
other options so students have an option
to do their work online on a written
workbook or for teachers who really like
that spiral notebook that's still a
possibility so there are choices and
options for students that works best for
them and what they saw online was that
they also provide some more scaffolds
that are not in the notebook so word
Banks and multiple choice and things
that might scaffold that learning and
that support for students who might need
that when they're doing something
independently um one thing with the
engagements and the supports so um we
know that students come with to us with
unfinished learning and so our goal is
to close that unfinished learning fill
that in and IM provides um this through
an adaptation packets okay and what that
does is when we'll talk more about it
but there's a check your Readiness
assessment before every unit and it will
assess what students know or need to
know to jump right into the
content in the rubrics and the um item
analysis it'll let them know you as a
teacher um what is it exactly the
student needs and it ties it back to a
previous IM lesson that can go back to
third grade fourth grade fifth grade
with a lesson that will help the student
CL or the student the teacher close that
Gap with an instructional lesson to
build a concept and then jump into the
grade level content faster so it's
providing that that on-ramp for us it
also has extension problems that are you
ready for more so students who get that
they have the opportunity to rise to the
next challenge um they very much look
like a performance tasky of question
where you have to answer questions
quantitatively but there's usually some
sort of response where you need to
answer in written form and um the other
program we adopted did not have this um
IM has the accelerated program which is
the three years into two model which is
what we currently have right now um and
so that is already uh written and
packaged ready to
go Lots here what they found beneficial
there's a lot of information Within the
units within the sections and within the
lessons about what to expect what does
it include how are we going to teach it
what are the mod mathematical models
we're going to use highlight any
misconceptions or common misconceptions
that students will have um they provide
um slide decks for teachers with teacher
notes to guide them through the
instructions particularly when you're
learning a new curriculum having those
little um notes on the side uh with
directions on instructional strategies
um and routines are very beneficial
um I think I mentioned this already
potential error so it highlights those
and helps teachers prepare in their
planning to be ready for any of those
potential misconceptions so that they
are ready with those um prompting
questions or scaffolding questions um to
help their
students
um's yeah um a little bit more um a lot
of sentence frames guided questions
discussion supports for our multil
language Learners um the directions for
the instruction routines and the big one
the mathematical language routines that
comes out of Stanford it's been around
for a while it's usually been something
in a curriculum where teachers reach out
and pull right and put it in their Bank
to use this curriculum specifically
incorporates it and they will show you a
whole progression across grades of where
you see it being used and in what lesson
so you can see the flow um and again
it's really getting kids to talk
mathematically and support them in their
language acquisition as well for our
multilanguage learners
okay next one monitoring student
thinking and understanding um we need to
assess our students and it's not just
always the end of the chapter test it's
not always just the esack we need to see
those little pieces along their journey
and um IM provides a lot of those um the
check your Readiness like I mentioned
kind of like the pre-assessment and
guide teachers in knowing what the
students might need to unlock their
learning in the next unit the daily
cooldowns um and they are directly tied
to the learning goal of that lesson so
it's very clear for the teacher to see
what the student what the students
understood or what they might need going
into the days uh ahead um section
checkpoints are really um like think of
quizzes so after a few lessons there are
questions that are um addressing the
section goals so you've got lesson goals
section goals and then the unit goals
and there's an assessment for all of
those um Mid units for longer units um
as I mentioned end of unit assessments
and all of them come with some sort of
rubric um
where it will kind of standardize the
score but it gives the what is needed to
attain that score um again also followed
up with suggestions of possible
misconceptions so that teachers can take
that back in their
planning it's also provided online Andor
print um which is really beneficial um
as you guys were just talking about
espac and elpac that's online um there
is a new a skill set that students need
from reading a computer to then showing
work on paper to them being able to
answer something on a computer that that
is another skill set and so it really
supports that so it doesn't feel as
shocking or drawing later on um there is
some Autos scoring involved um so when
you're a teacher um particularly a
single subject at a comprehensive middle
school and you have hundreds of kids to
score um the auto score just is the
quantitative but then that opens it up
for teachers to spend more time
analyzing the student writing responses
which is also on espc it's called the
performance task and it is um multimix
problem solving type of question with
multiple questions um which require
quantitative answers as well as written
responses so imagine I am um It's a
combination of two things auster of
mathematics has been an open resource
for education for a long time um it is
uh owned or co-founded with by William
McCullum and and he was one of the lead
writers of the um Common Core State
Standards and so um there's a deep
connection to the rigor and the
expectations and the types of items um
that our students need to prepare for
embedded throughout that curriculum and
imagine learning is the learning
platform which is the computer portion
so that's the teacher dashboard that's
the dashboard for students if they
decide to do an assignment
online so illustr mathematics is the
content and in the
curriculum Imagine Learning is the
online dashboard that we access it
through um AUST of mathematics have
certified partners and so imagine
learning is one of them there are two
others um but they are certified
partners with a luster of
mathematics and so um from that
framework that we talked about earlier
um all the curriculum coming forth now
is going to be focus on incorporating
that problem-based learning um and so
what that
means um a little bit of a comparison
the gradual release model um the I do we
do you do is one model of instruction
and problem based is another that kind
of flips it on its head so to speak um
gradual release is great for explicit
instruction some guided practice and
then you turn the students loose to do
some independent practice
that's where a lot of the teacher
responsibility is on the explicit and
then the independent practices towards
the
end problem based though is that idea of
invitation to the mathematics you are
providing students um questions or
activities or tasks that get them to
start thinking about the
mathematics that think time then goes
into activity time where they are
collaborating so they're collaborating
with a partner they're collaborating in
a team collaborating maybe whole class
back and forth um but that is where they
are now sharing their thinking and their
ideas and through that process the
teacher is guiding that synthesis of
their their thinkings and their
wonderings to put them together to meet
the learning objective so the teacher
knows what the goal of the lesson is and
from the interactions with the students
and seeing what they do know building
from their strengths to take that
understanding into uh meeting the lesson
goal
and so um we have the grade level within
the grade level we have the units within
the units the sections and within the
sections are the lessons and so what I
was kind of talking about that problem
based and just just illustration of you
know sections within the units and
lessons within the section but within
the whole curriculum from 35 we didn't
this this uh image does not show um K
through2 but it shows the intricate
connections of that web of mathematics
and shows the um very um planned precise
flow of content and where it leads and
where it builds upon and that is
partially um one of the ways that they
have created those adaptation packets
right to backwards map to where um what
students might
need so very
connected then we see it from middle
school to Algebra
1 again the connections and um you know
the Reliance of complete those
assignments completing those lessons um
so that students can finish their
learning we talked about assessments
already I'm going to skip to that
one all right so back to that problem
based um pedagogy and looking at the
overarching design structure and so what
um the flow they take is no matter at
what level of the curriculum you're in
whether it's unit to section to lesson
they're they're following an invitation
to the mathematics they get a deep study
of Concepts and procedures and then
there's a synthesis and cool
down and again sorry these got out of
order somehow um so at the lesson level
you have a warm-up that's the invitation
you have the activities and then the
synthesis and cool down within each of
those you have like a little another
minicycle and this minicycle is a
predictive predictable routine for
students and we've seen it's very
beneficial um so that when kids know the
routine that's coming through it opens
up other avenues to take in the math and
to engage with the math and so in the
warm-up there's a launch kids get some
work time and then you're synthesizing
that part of the lesson you then work
your way into activities there could be
two to three um depending on the lesson
again with each activity you have a
launch you're helping to ensure that
students understand the task and the
activity that's about to come um cover
vocabulary language give them the work
time again that can be independent
thinking time that translates to the
pair share to make meaning to share
their understandings um and then work
towards that goal and then towards the
end and even during the teacher is
working on actively um synthesizing what
they're hearing and seeing in the
classroom to pull that knowledge base
from the kids to make that math
community and then the synthesis and
cool down again synthesize bringing
every everybody together connecting all
the dots from the activities and then
giving them the cool down to see what
they were able to take in at that lesson
knowing the scope and sequence of what's
coming up that this will come again and
so how do I plan for when it shows up
again and how do I support
that um this is more just a graphic of
showing you know like I said at any
point in the curriculum whether you're
at the unit level the lesson level or
the activity level they each go through
these three phases um so the invitation
the Deep study and the procedure of the
concepts and procedures and then the
consolidating and applying so it's
happening either at an introductory
lesson right instructional to
culminating or in a lesson level warm up
to classroom activities to synthesis and
cool down or in the activity the launch
the work time in the
synthesis um there's more information on
this within their program but they
really have intentionally again with all
the curriculum that are working towards
incorporating things that meet the
California standard or the new
California Frameworks Universal Design
for Learning access for students with
diverse abilities the instructional
routines particularly the mathematical
language ones and then the extensions
for students who are ready for
more um so um after this process of the
month of public review and depending um
where that you guys take us um it's
important to be mindful and I think I
can piggy back up what um Winnie just
said is that um curriculum instruction
pedagogy particularly with new
curriculum um requires uh professional
learning and so is great now which is
what CPM our current one had and was
ahead of the time they provided in-house
professional development so it's
connected directly to the curriculum
you're teaching I am does the same and
so these are just some examples of what
um they have kind of um put together as
a flow um but we do have a professional
learning um representative who also
recognizes that we are our our Middle
School teachers have done problem-based
and coll ative types of teaching before
and so there is a menu that you can
choose to meet the needs of the teachers
based on how they're feeling six weeks
out from our next PD day and then pick a
a PD that would um be the most
beneficial for them um
so I think that's it thank you for your
time yeah thanks Kendall for walking us
through the both the adoption process
and the curriculum there and so then
this is the beginning of like a much
longer process right we're just getting
the information and I can discuss it
then it goes out for review for public
review for 30 days right then we move on
from there okay great um I'll open it up
to the board for questions comments and
discussion um again thank you for the
presentation um I appreciate your
passion and obviously the teachers that
are piling this um curriculum for their
commitment to to Redwood City um there's
definitely a lot of information and I
was like you said it so clearly so um I
really don't have any questions I I'm
looking forward to it because I trust I
trust the Educator's judge judgment um
um I'm really looking forward to and one
of the things that I wanted to say is uh
Miss Pilon was my son's sixth grade
teacher during covid and I do want to
tell you you had a board member watching
you almost every morning um when
obviously that's when we went um sh
shelter in place and so I do want to
admire want to say that I admire the way
you taught um although I was you know
working and kind of listening because I
could multitask um I appreciate
as um as a student when and we have
wonderful teachers right um but when
you're like you were so calm and just
like the way you were teaching him and
um he got a good grade in your class and
he's doing well in high school so I I
appreciate that so I just wanted to make
that comment because I know a lot of the
times we really don't have the time and
even when we go out and make
observations we really don't talk to the
teachers so I just want to tell you um
you know you do make a difference people
are watching without you
knowing but anyway um I really I really
do appreciate it so thank you so much
for all the work that you guys do for
rid
City any others any others David sure
I'll go um so the the old Russian
proverb is no or trust but verify and so
I I love the uh thoughtful process here
in terms of curriculum selection I did
my own research it thumbs up yeah you
guys picked the right one so
um nice work there um I love the focus
on metacognition you know really
focusing students on capturing the
uncertainty being okay to be uncertain
just as an inversion from a classroom
where it's like you're kind of supposed
to know the right answer and raise your
hand and blurred out the right answer
and you don't actually learn anything in
that environment so just like that again
the grounding in pedagogy moving forward
to how do human beings actually learn
things and applying that in the
classroom thumbs up um this stuff is
also not like abstract like earlier
today I actually had to administer a
math test to some uh to a professional
to decide whether or not they would get
a job at my company um so like the stuff
is real and it really matters for uh for
real life um I
so overall just thumbs up good job we we
picked the right curriculum I get
curious uh about things like Mastery
based instruction especially given the
dense interconnectedness of the subject
material as you said it's not just a
simple lad there's this complex web web
of dependencies I think it's really
important to not move a student into an
environment where they really don't have
the prerequisites down um because that's
just going to continue compounding the
uncertainty they have about the subject
so I'm wondering what's the degree to
which Mastery based learning is
incorporated into this so with this
curriculum with the amount of formative
assessments you're able to catch um we
schools have mtss um coordinators and
structures on site um but really from
you know when we have kids sitting in
our class our goal is to teach grade
level standards and identify those
missing pieces that we can do just in
time supports and make that Clarity so
that they are applying it to something
that they are learning in class um
there's lots of studies that show by
repeating courses that does not
necessarily uh is effective either um uh
full tracking kids all day also shows
not so there is um there's always a
little bit of everything that needs to
come into it but our number Equity is
making sure every kid in our district is
getting gr level content at their grade
level and then putting them in supports
and having um really formative data to
help us meet those needs um and I'm sure
other sites have other examples of the
mtss just like Winnie was kind of
mentioning but if we don't have those
common assessments or those on on
goinging Mini assessments to inform us
we can't catch that and so we want to
also anticipate catching it and so it
doesn't develop over time cool uh last
question um again unsurprising comment
for me but uh we we know that a number
of different classrooms have got very
different levels of students it looks
like you've got some great
accommodations for that can we
incorporate peer instruction to so part
of the problem-based pedagogy and
cognitively guided instruction is having
some of that peer tutoring going on um
it takes some training and I'm going to
put a plug in right now we have teachers
that have been working with peer teach
um which is a um uh a research group
from Stanford and so we have a handful
of teachers that have been using it and
it is like a coaching training ground to
help kids learn how to do that um and so
uh we're seeing some progress with that
um but uh and the kids are enjoying it
and the teachers are enjoying it so um
it's also very helpful I think for the
teacher to see and Lear learn what that
is because they do it as teachers and so
coaching kids on how to tutor um that's
also quite a big task but um it it the
the way it works has been um pretty
awesome and they are making um
adjustments and adaptations based on the
feedback from the teachers um and so
yeah so cool thank you
yeah yeah this is exciting um and it's
going to align our K through five uh
math curriculum with our Middle School
one which I think is really neat um and
the the one thing that is really visible
when you see it in practice and we hear
about it all the time is just how
different it is to have the start with
that you do uh and and struggle right
and have to watch the students kind of
struggle their way through it and put it
in there
um is that I would I was didn't realize
that is that part of the math framework
to switch to that model or was that
really something that's specific to
illustrative math it is talked about in
the framework and a lot of it comes back
to the drivers of investig
if we don't um there's a saying by oh
Dan Myers um he's a big math Guru is
kids need to have you have to create a
headache and then you're the aspin and
so by giving them thinking tasks or
getting them welcomed into it and to be
curious and not know the answer right
away You're creating a headache in a
good way like let's let me put that
clears in a good way but then the
engagement and the working together and
um doing knowledge Mobility where kids
are learning from other kids you're
realizing that aspirin is not just the
teacher all the time the teacher still
on point to synthesize and to connect
the dots or to guide and frame questions
um appropriately but um you want them to
get that Curiosity and you have to
create a little bit of a huh why is that
otherwise it's more passive and you know
that's not as fun yeah tot totally um
okay well great and you know and I'm
really encouraged by the emphasis on
equity and access um same with the k35
curriculum um you know it's really great
to just ensure that all our students
regardless of their background of
ability of you know access to this high
quality math instruction so you need to
well we'll see how it goes through the
public hearing one when it comes down
for future adoption but uh everything
looks really positive thanks thank you
Kendall and your group for all your hard
work and then just one question if this
is selected and we start uh of course in
August when we come back
what is that uh professional development
going really going to look like because
you know they there was anxiety last go
around right
Anastasia with the elementary so yeah
we're fine
tuned okay perfect perfect also well but
also too um just like with everything
like they are Innovative they have
reflected on some of the PD and like the
map or flow that I showed you and some
of the courses are the same but they've
also fine-tuned it right like they are
practitioners also and so they've
reflected and they are adapting some of
their PD um already created kind of a
flow map um of what it could look like
and then my friends here are also going
to look and see like after they've gone
through it like which one of these would
you know what they suggested is that
what would um be the most beneficial um
so and oh and I presented all all this
to our Math teachers on the January 6 PD
so they have the full scope they've um
got they got a little bit of access to
the public review earlier so they're
kind of exploring and and um uh so yeah
so they they've been introduced and
explained and so we'll see where it all
goes great thank you thank you and thank
you again to my crew back here they were
quiet but I don't blame you it's a
little I always get a little nervous
still thank
you all right excellent let's move on to
our next agenda item is the public
hearing regarding the connect Community
Charter School renewal
petition Rick is gonna go and grab who
we need um
then we have a presentation we have some
public comment I think we'll do the
presentation then take public comment
and then we can U we'll do the oh no
we'll take the public comment during the
public hearing right right okay great
perfect that's
okay of
yeah well that's true you do it that
time if you want
it rick do you want us just go ahead and
he'll start he has something uh good
evening uh board members uh and members
of the community uh tonight we're here
to discuss connect uh Charter Schools
renewal petition uh and the public
hearing connect Community Charter
Schools last Charter renewal was
approved by the District board for a
term of July 1 2017 through June 30th
2022 due to the pandemic and suspension
of the California dashboard the
legislature enacted legislation that
automatically extended connects Charter
for an additional three years as a
result the current connect Charter term
was automatically extended through June
30th 202
conect submitted a petition to the
district seeking renewal of the charter
for a 5-year term from July 1 2025
through June 30th
2030 District staff and legal are in the
process of analyzing the petition
documents submitted by connect and will
be communicating with connect about any
issues and changes that may be needed
this evening's public hearing is
required by the Education Code so the
board may consider the level of support
for the renewal petition by the teachers
other employees and parents of the
district this public hearing is an
information item only and it is
anticipated that connects renewal
petition will be presented to the board
for Action at the February 26 2025 board
meeting representatives from the charter
school are present and wish to address
the board regarding their renewal
petition they'll be given up to 15
minutes for that
purpose after hearing from petitioners
the board will take and consider any
public comment regarding the renewal
petition as part of the public hearing I
will now turn things back uh over to you
president Wells to proceed with the
public hearing regarding the connect
Community Charter School renewal
position okay do we open the public
hearing before the presentation or you
can open the public hearing uh they'll
give the presentation and then you can
take comments following all right then
uh let's open up the public hearing at
832 uh
and um we'll start with I'd like to
invite Haley up to have a do a
presentation that you provided for this
agenda item and then after that we will
do public comment I'm going to look and
see how many uh speakers we have and
we'll decide on the time limit uh with
our policy if it's over 10 we start
reducing the amount of time um from
three minutes down to two or one
depending upon the number but we'll do
that then so uh I'll pass it to you
haly okay thank you very much um like
you said I'm Haley dupi I'm the
principal at connect Community Charter
and I am joined by parents current
students staff members and some alumni
and community members so we had a few
people have to leave uh because they
live far away and they have young kids
but we have quite a crowd and some
speakers tonight um so just uh I will
move on to here so uh connect open in
2013 um you were saying and I was one of
the actual founding members of connect
back in the day we are a TK through 8
school with a focus oncl and pbl in our
Charter so tonight I thought I would
just include a few elements from the
petition you have that um but I wanted
to focus on some of the progress we're
making this year and the many
initiatives that we have implemented and
plan to implement going forward so this
is just a screenshot from this year and
last year's California dashboard we are
super proud that we are out of the red
on everything uh you can see that we are
um especially for English language Pro
learner progress in the green of course
we have some progress to make for
English Learners and uh excuse me for
English language arts I'm nervous and
math um and we are working on
that I wanted to call attention to these
charts that are in the petition this is
some data that compares our continuously
continuously enrolled students students
who have been at our school for more
than two years to um students who uh are
newly enrolled so that might be
newcomers or students who have
transferred to connect and what you see
in the top two graphs are um Ela and
math and it's connect's growth as
compared to the state's growth so you
can see that for students who have been
at connect more than two years we're
really seeing a lot of growth and um
just to be clear the state data is
actually 2223 because we didn't have the
this year's before we had to submit the
petition uh similarly that bottom graph
shows that shows the difference between
continuously enrolled students and new
students and their distance from
standard so again we see that there's
quite a significant difference in
students who have been at connect uh for
some amount of time um obviously it's
still below standard and we're working
on that but we feel that the progress
we're making uh is definitely uh stands
out U I'm going to skip this slide you
have it in the packet this is from our
NWA map testing uh winter excuse me fall
to winter but since I have a limited
time I'm going to focus on the data that
is shows a Year's progress again to call
attention to how our students are really
making progress when they're with us
over time so this graph shows
winter 2023 to Winter 2024 NWA map the
top row in that first section is for
Math and the the very top row shows
growth so you can see that overall in
grades three through eight connect
students are in the 73rd percentile in
growth on the NWA map over a year's time
and then like that 40% blue shows that
40% of our students are in the 80th
percenti or higher in growth so again I
think it's really important to see that
over time we are really uh noticing a
lot of progress in our students and then
similar for reading and language use
that progress is is usually a little bit
lower for us because we have so many
English Learners and they're testing in
English we had a lot of newcomers
joining our school last year I think we
had about 20 many are from rural areas
where they haven't um had a lot of
schooling and and their literac we're
you know trying to support their ly
skills um but again it's to uh point out
our
growth for um TK through 2 and we are
wrapping up our winter assessments so I
wasn't able to have any charts in there
uh and there's been a lot of absences
and illness and some glitches and
wrapping up that assessment data I'd be
happy to email it to you later we
adopted um amplify mclass as a literacy
screener so we got lucky that's on one
of the the state of Pro list going
forward and we've been pil we started
piloting it this year and that has shown
us that in our kindergarten through
second grade about 43% of our students
moved up a full level so for example if
they were well below they moved to below
if they were at grade level they moved
to above grade level so about
43% and of the students who didn't move
a full level we still are seeing growth
we have you know very few students in K2
who are um just at the same level U and
then in terms of our English Learners
I'll talk to you more about our newcomer
program but in that we're also finding
that our newcomers are either meeting or
approaching standards so similarly
making that good
growth um for special education I
actually don't have data to show you on
this slide but I wanted to talk about
our special education program uh we have
a full inclusion model at connect we
have two special education teachers and
seven par professionals so we have quite
a team supporting our students with IEPs
and we definitely follow all of the laws
help students so to uh sorry we
Implement their
accommodations and uh work as a team to
support our students with IEPs uh just
one data point last year we reclassified
nine e students and 30% of that or three
students were actually students with IEP
so we're seeing a lot of growth in our
English Learners who have IEPs as
well let's see what's next so how have
we done all this we um like the district
have a lot of initiatives that we have
started in the last couple of years we
have 1.5 literacy specialists at connect
and last year they started doing a ton
of research about the science of reading
looking at curriculum looking at
pedagogy attending workshops you know
sending me podcast cast doing everything
they could so that we could start moving
towards uh implementing the science of
reading this year they are co- teing
they are running PD with teachers and
teaching assistants they work with
individuals small groups and this uh
literacy this these literacy Specialists
have really helped move our uh students
along I would say in the past I would
walk in a room during reading time and
students were not confident readers like
they might be turning the pages looking
at the pictures and now when I walk in a
room I really see every student reading
and they're talking about their reading
they come in the office and read the
wall and they want to show off their
reading so that's been a tremendous
growth and we plan to continue that
we've updated our reading curriculum in
the past we did a our model was really a
lot of teacher created material and we
realized like that wasn't really working
in especially at those younger ages so
we've moved to a much more systematic
comprehensive
uh literacy
curriculum um and those grades we
adopted also for ELD we have a
systematic ELD that we're using um and
then our educational software one thing
we also started this year is a newcomer
class and actually I got the idea from
watching one of your meetings uh so our
newcomers uh go three times a week for
75 minutes with a specialist and we have
them grouped by first to third grade and
fourth to eth grade we're such a small
school that we really need to to have
those U larger age ranges uh and they
are also making tremendous progress in
their
English lots of professional development
we have partnership with the county
we've been working on udl we have
another partnership with World Savvy
which is kind of a coaching model our
teachers six times a year are recording
a lesson and sending them off to a coach
and getting lots of uh feedback about
their teaching we've done uh pbl
training we're using the elevation
platform for El curriculum so lots and
lots of training initiatives every
Wednesday staff meeting is a different
training
topic so that I think has been really
instrumental in helping to move our
students forward and to see that
progress that I showed you um there was
a video I don't know I don't know if
this will work but you can see the text
we had a student of a English learner
say good afternoon the question being
asked I feel good that my daughter is
attending this school they support her a
lot they treat her the children well
they care for them it's very beautiful
she didn't know much English before but
now she has learned other words I like
the way they teach them so just a little
video okay School climate is another
area of success for us you can see uh we
have our suspensions have declined to
under 1% uh and I would say that the
climate at connect is um
I wanted to say friendly but that's not
the right word uh we have a really safe
open caring community and whenever
people come on our campus they give us
that feedback like I love being here
your kids are so nice it's such your
staff is so welcoming uh and so we
really are feeling that and I'll talk to
you more about our comprehensive
counseling program which I think has
been instrumental to helping create that
environment we started partnering last
year with Cassie so we have a full-time
school-based therapist through Cassie we
also had a full-time counselor last year
this year is about 50% uh you can see
that the Cassie counselor had 465
sessions she started in October so that
was October through the end of the year
and that was really amazing I mean I
think we were still seeing students with
well you can see a lot of anxiety and
anger behavior issues postco and she
really worked with so many kids to help
them with what they were going through
and uh to be successful at
school um oops I skipped in terms of our
school climate I'm skipping around just
a little bit I just wanted to mention
that we have really strong student and
staff retention about 90% this year so
we just had three teachers leave last
year two of them just they lived really
far away and um one we had a teacher
pass away last year so we had a sub in
her for for her so that was great and I
think that's another element of our
success like having staff who know each
other who know the kids who know our
program it really has made a huge
difference this year and then our
continuous enrollment this year is about
91% we actually had six students
returned from other schools so they left
um and then decided to come back to
connect because they felt it was a
better fit so that's always
reassuring um our counseling program we
started working on this about two years
years ago
and really uh what we have a connect is
we are all on the same page everybody
teachers and Par professionals all
attend the same trainings and I think we
all approach students in a similar way
and we have a caring approach we want to
support students so whenever anybody
sees a student who looks like they might
be off having a bad day we fill out a
referral for them to see either the
counselor or the school-based therapist
and we really try to take this proac Ive
approach and through that we've really
decreased any kind of disruptive
behaviors or problems because we get to
kids before the problem escalates so we
try to anyway and for the most part we
do so we continue with Cassie this year
you can see the number of clients and
visits um and our kids are starting to
self refeer as well coun the counseling
room is a really safe place sometimes
they try and get out of class to go to
the coun in room and hang out um but
they're super comfortable coming they'll
come to me and say you know Miss Haley
might be crying can I go check in with
Mr Eddie and so we do the referral and
counseling has become a Norm at our
school and I really think that this has
made a huge difference for
us uh some other initiatives that create
a positive School C School culture we
have a schoolwide Seal program we've
been that's been part of connect since
we opened but the difference is we are
on our third year with the same trainer
the same curriculum we are starting to
speak the same language around that
whereas before it was maybe a little bit
more peaceful now peace meal now we have
some continuity we're doing SEO with our
cross AG buddy classes those are really
fun to watch um we have a permaculture
project happening so we're working on
Greening the campus and um it's much
more complex than I can say here tonight
but it's essentially trans forming some
of the green spaces into more
sustainable um spaces with native plants
to attract
pollinators the garden is uh thanks to a
partnership with the district we've put
in drip irrigation we're going to grow
some food those can be outdoor
classrooms with Science Education so
we're excited about that this is our
second
year and uh I think a real Cornerstone
of our our school climate is also our
in-house after school school program so
our par professionals we call them
teaching assistants they run our after
school program so they are with our kids
all day long they know our kids it's a
seamless transition and they spend so
many hours with kids they are like the
backbone of our school and when kids go
to our after school program you know
they get academic stem activities
healthy snack but they really just have
a really caring team and then our
teaching assistants have great
relationships with families often
families
um will go to our teaching assistant as
a first uh as the first person if
there's an issue or they have a
question and I think the slide
cut check my not
sorry um sorry well I don't remember but
I'm G to run out of time so I move on to
the next slide but I think there was a
little bit
more uh and then enrichment so we
believe strongly in in providing
enrichment for our students
opportunities that they might might not
be able to get outside of school we have
an art and a music teacher we've brought
in dance teachers we've tried to start a
middle school elective programs we you
know only have about 60 or 70 middle
schoolers right now it's hard to have a
big a rich elective program but we have
tried with sports music PE uh this year
we put on a play a musical in December
there's study hall student governments
so we really try to think creatively and
work as a team lots and lots of field
trips our seventh and eighth graders are
going to yosity next week um and all of
our fourth through eighth graders take
an overnight trip every year so that's a
big investment for us we start a
leadership group so our that's mainly
middle school and they've helped with
things like Spirit weeks but also things
with much more responsibility when we
had parent conferences they were at the
table welcoming parents pointing them
out where to go checking if they had
we're on parents square and helping them
get on parents Square so we're really
trying to create more leadership
opportunities for our Middle School
especially we've had volleyball and
Spike football some lunchtime clubs and
then we also work with science from
scientists who come in and teach uh some
Hands-On
science
and that we have these three Young G two
of the three young gentlemen here
tonight so I won't play the video they
might they might want to talk so not
sure if I'm over my 15 minutes or where
I'm at but uh that is what I have for
you and I'm open to questions I guess I
just want to say I really look forward
to working with you it's been a pleasure
serving the community we love our school
staff loves our school kids love our
school and we look forward to being
around for longer all right thank you
Haley for the presentation I think we'll
move into our uh speakers now our public
comment um we have eight speakers cards
so we're going to allow up to three
minutes for each one uh and then when I
call your name just come up to the
podium where Haley was presenting um the
first one is Julio
sigite I get that last name right
probably not
speak yeah
EX
for
for for
thank you I'm gonna have to interrupt
there um and uh
Gonzalo online and is he okay he's here
up all right so Gonzalo will provide the
translation thank we're g do we're GNA
do the interpretation in English good
afternoon very grateful for your time
and for listening and more than
anything
to attending to these kids that are the
future of this community I believe in
them I also believe in every single one
of these teachers one of my kids
studying that school and now he's at the
University therefore at this point in
time here with every single one of these
parents and listening to you and looking
at your faces I can let you know that
this community in this community there's
a future and exists because it's
depending on on you and the
Bel how much you can believe in this
community because these kids these
teachers are representing the future of
our community and for more time to come
and so with a lot of respect towards you
I thank you for taking care of us for
listening to us but more than anything
knowing that you are parents that you
believe in what our kids can do that you
believe that what you decide is going to
be the future for all of these kids kids
and so us as parents were here we had to
wait for a little longer but we know
that when we have the
trust we can do powerful things and at
this point in time my heart is very
joyful to see you this is the first time
that I get a chance to meet you it's a
pleasure to meet you and I trust that
you you will create the future for these
kids very bright very big because that
is I have my someone behind me he's a
kid that has been able to excel because
you have put your decisions in a lot of
our communities and so I'm very grateful
and thank you for believing in us
because we are Latinos and because you
believe in us and your decisions have
are going to create the future of this
kid it's very grateful and very thankful
for thank you for listening is and more
than anything for believing in us your
decisions when you see and when I see
your faces I can observe you and I can
understand what you're thinking but but
more than anything I know that you
believe in us and that is a great value
that you that you can reflect in us
thank you for believing in us we are
very grateful and please take into
account these words as a parent you that
are parents as
well you trust correct you trust that
when you drop off your kids leave them
at school with the teachers your kids
are well and that's the case of my
daughter my daughter's case has been one
of the most well-known cases is at
school at connect school for me dropping
our daughter at school it's safety it's
safe and so that's what we request from
you to trust continue trusting in the
teachers that they can help them as much
as you can very
grateful thank you gonzala and G Julio
our next speaker is Shantel
Garcia had to
leave speaker after that is Amanda Von
hello I am I've been a teacher for 16
years and this is my third year at
connect I'm going to speak about the art
program because I'm the art teacher at
connect I am also the teacher for all
the newcomer students as we said we had
about 20 new students that came to our
school that were also new to this
country and I am just so so proud of the
work that this school does to serve the
students
um particularly the newcomer students
and I just wanted to say that I have a
lot of experience teaching newcomer
students because 16 years ago uh
systematic he was first um brought up as
a training and I actually received that
training 16 years ago so I'm familiar
with this program and I've really never
seen it implemented in such a way as it
is is done here because I'm able to work
with small groups of students not only
that but we have students uh we have
teachers that teach and can teach in
Spanish and can hear um the needs of
these students and can really address
the needs of these students and I'm not
only seeing the newcomer students
one-on-one in small groups I'm also
seeing them in their classroom setting
so I'm seeing them multiple times a day
and I think um that's one of the reasons
why we've seen such tremendous of growth
with our new cumber students um I also
want to speak just briefly about our the
art program I've been a committed art
teacher um for so many years I've run my
own art program I've actually taught art
here in Redwood City um through the
Community School of Music and Art I've
been at Northstar I've been at warcloud
I've been at John Gill which is now or
um so I've seen all of the art programs
that have been going on in Redwood City
and actually all over the Bay Area um
and I'm really proud of the curriculum
that is happening at this school not
only is it um encouraging students to
create artwork but it's it's encouraging
students to reflect and to speak about
why they created artwork how they
created it um to give Reflections about
what other students have done um so I
wanted to speak a little bit about um
both of these programs because I'm so
proud to be a part of them I'm so proud
to be at this school and with the growth
that's happened in just the short three
years that I've been there but also um
to see the students that come back um
after school and you're going to meet a
few of them um and just to come back to
see the teachers that they've developed
relationships with and like I said I've
SE students um throughout them I see the
same students throughout this day and I
think the students here they don't just
see one one teacher when they come to
connect um Haley has really um
miss our leader has really given a lot
of responsibility to the staff and a lot
of wonderful training so um I'm proud to
be a part of this school thank you
Amanda for sharing your experiences as a
teacher um our next uh speaker is ma
oo good afternoon and thank you for the
opportunity
um um my name is mid K I'm originally
from
Kenya and I came to this country to
study mass communications research and
public administration eventually I
worked uh for a very long time as the
community services director for the city
of East Palo Alto until I retired and
actually got into teaching and initially
I worked through a placement agency so I
worked in schools from Peters to San
Francisco Public Schools chat schools
private
schools and uh connect was one of the
schools so why did I join connect and
why did I propose to them that it made
more sense you know to to contract with
a long-term sub instead of every every
time a teacher is not available you know
getting a a Ser that does not know the
kids and so on and so forth so I I found
connects program particularly around
social emotional learning and uh you
know Project based learning extremely
attractive and because of those two
emphasis that they had I I proposed to
them that I could be a long-term
contract guest
teacher and the the ease with which the
administration accepted that also you
know certainly impressed me um I'm
hoping
uh that the district renews the chter
because I think uh the school is
involved in something phenomenal and I
think we are we are transforming the the
the lives of kids educationally I've
seen kids who came in here did not speak
a word of English and uh one of them may
be speaking to you tonight and I'm sure
you'll be impressed thank you very
much thank
youa okay next
speaker uh looks like it's Monique
PES put that in um then our one after
that is Anton uh Anton Estonia
okay good evening uh first I'd like to
acknowledge all our alumni students who
have showed up to uh this
meeting I'm beyond proud that they're
even here and I think it speaks volumes
about our school that that they are in
attendance and from what I've heard some
of them might actually speak which I can
tell you right now is a little
nerve-wracking well let me continue so
I'm the music teacher at connect um I
teach General music to the lower school
and as students go through our program I
start introducing some basic keyboard
ukulele I also uh run an ukulele Club
after school and a cello club which I
just started I'm I'm actually a cellist
uh so it's great to actually um to to
teach this instrument that I know so
well to to students and I was able to
acquire these instruments through uh
donations from a nonprofit oh I'm
running out of time okay so I'm going to
get right to what I want to say and this
is regarding the musical that we
premiered at our school and I say
premere because the the production was
created by one of my colleagues uh Mr
Jake he wrote the story uh created the
dialogue and we basically premiered it
at our school about a month ago and
doing so to be quite honest was one of
the most stressful but also amazing
experiences in my musical career care um
I I can say that in all likelihood most
of our students don't have any theater
experience I don't think Mr Jake had any
experience putting on a musical uh so in
order to coordinate everyone uh we
needed basically all of our teachers to
work in tandem in coordination now with
most musicals from what I've experienced
there's auditions and certain students
participate but at our school we had
almost every student part participate in
the
musical in various ways some students
danced other students um acted some
students in Miss Von's class created
props um other students promoted the
musical and then I had some students
actually perform in a makeshift tiit
band uh playing ukulele keyboard and
cello so doing so was uh I think one of
the best experiences ever had and I know
that we endorse Project based learning
at our school and I'm happy to say that
this was the biggest Project based
learning um thing that we've ever
accomplished at connect so i' just like
to share that with you the name of the
production was space is the place and uh
maybe you can check it out sometime it's
on our parents Square website thank you
very much thanks Anton for sharing about
space as the
place uh our next speaker is Bianca
Carta let's see I think this says Waller
sto
Franco all
right good evening to everyone here um
my name is Walter and I'm one of the
recent graduated students from last year
I was born in water rala I arrived to
the United States 3 years ago and thanks
to this community now as you can see I
can speak English not that well as I
wish but I can have conversations with
people
um I'm here because I really appreciate
this community I really appreciate Miss
haly I really appreciate the
staff and when I got here I used to
think that I didn't feel in this
community
I thought that I will never speak
English in my entire life but now I'm
here my art teacher Miss vong she's a
very nice teacher I really love Miss
vong Miss Haley is the best person I
ever met the staff is the best one I
really love this school now that I'm on
high school I used to come back to this
school to visit the people that support
me with my R scales with my language
skills and I'm really thankful to them
because than to them I am the person
that is speaking just right here to
you
[Music]
um sorry I'm very
nervous
but this community is the best one
and I hope to the day that I decided to
have kids my kids can go to the school
same as
me thank
you thank you Walter thank you for
sharing some of your personal experience
we're really glad you're here and you
sell yourself short you speak English
wonderfully so really really appreciate
you speaking tonight um let's see we
have uh last speaker is itar giron
good afternoon my name is xamon and I
graduated connect Community Charter
School in 2020 when Co hit so my
experience with connect um so I used to
go to a school called Fair Oaks and
unfortunately that school closed down so
my mom decided to enroll me to connect
this started in third grade I didn't
think a small school would actually
impact me as much as connected cuz I
went and even Mr Anon was my teacher he
taught me the madica and what was it the
recorder
um honestly this school is amazing cuz I
a few weeks ago reached out to my old
teacher cuz now I I'm currently enrolled
in San Francisco State University I'm
currently studying mechanical
engineering and just I often think back
to connect I currently have siblings who
go and they still have the Thro I did
when I went to connect I I I missed my
teacher um so a few weeks ago I decided
to text her just to just to um keep keep
up with her you know and something she
said is teaching at connect was such a
special experience for me and I often
find myself wondering how everyone is
doing it would mean so much to me to
plan a reunion and catch up with The
Wonderful class of 2020 and for me
thinking back that even the teacher her
name her name is Kathy canella I miss
her so much um I really do want a
reunion and for me connect like it's
just a very small community but like it
has so much meaning and so many memories
were made for me and even my siblings
they come home telling me Oh my God Mr
Trey oh my God this happened I'm like
yes like I I had that and it's just it's
an in it's an incredible experience and
I just gained so much knowledge and it
made me just a better person in general
oh yeah I just wanted to say that thank
you thank you itar thanks for sharing
your experience uh congratulations on
your next academic Journey at you at San
Francisco and good luck at becoming a
mechanic engineer um okay our last
speaker is going to be Ashley soless
[Music]
hello my name is Ashley siiz and I'm an
eight grade I have been in Kun since I
was in third grade I was like about I
like about K since I was a little is
that they helped me learn speak and read
in
English and I want to and I want to
thanks K is that I learn many things and
also is that the stuff tra us as well
sorry I'm nervous thank you oh that was
great very well done thank you Ashley
very well done I appreciate it that's
the end of our public speakers and the
presentation so I think I can close the
public hearing and then if the board has
any discussion that they want to have we
can go ahead and do that
afterwards is that right uh for it was
closing the public hearing and then
moving on to the next then just moving
on no discussion at all okay there'll be
opportunities in February okay to
discuss when it when it actually comes
up and yeah I think no I wasn't sure
questions or not no we're gonna close
close the public hearing we've heard all
the all the comments and your
presentation so thank you and then we'll
move on thank you and I just want to say
Anton has worked at the school since it
was opened he forgot to mention but he's
a he's a long-standing member thank you
so much for your time and I hope you
don't have to stay too late
good night all right thank you yeah so
we'll close at
9:13 um or do does anyone want a f
minute break we still have a several
action items to get through um and
reports I don't think it's going to be
very long but I wasn't sure it's like
9:15 I just wanted to check in do people
want a
break uh5
yeah power through power through is are
is everybody else at the de could with
going through yeah
okay um so we are moving on to the
consent agenda can I have a motion to
approve move to approve that second all
in favor by all right uh and that was
without 8.5 which we had pulled from the
agenda thanks okay um then we're going
to move on to our action items uh 9.1 ad
option of resolution number 15 this is
the resol resolution to apply for zero
Mission School Bus initiative
incentive uh good evening uh as stated
this is for resolution number 15 to
apply for the zero Mission School Bus
initiative uh known as zes tonight
Martin Cervantes director of M transport
overseas Transportation along with Vidal
Duran Vidal Duran the manager of our
transportation services is here to
present the
item good evening Dr Baker Ste board
members and our new board members
Jenny King Jennifer King and David Lee
welcome welcome to the board and our
members of the
public
um excuse me we are here to request
approval to proceed with propos um with
board resolution 15 sorry my throat's
Killingly which will allow us to move
forward with Part B of the application
process for the placement of four large
buses specifically for three CG buses
and one
diesel this would all be through zes
grant program offered by the
state currently our Fleet consists of 20
buses seven of which are fully electric
while they're the remainder of is a mix
of gasoline and diesel
vehicles in order to comply with the
California sorry California's upcoming
emissions regulations we must transition
our entire gas and diesel fleet to zero
emission Vehicles by
2035 to ensure we meet these
requirements uh we will actively
monitor relevant grant opportunities and
strategically apply to secure the best
possible funding
outcomes uh we will bring this matter
back to the board
with approval of part C once we um have
approval from Part B of the
grant um um at all our transportation
manager that U will talk a little bit
about our
Fleet yeah good evening um Mar says
Vidal Duran Transportation
manager uh you know we been monitoring
different grants in order to fulfill the
requirements that to meet the state
deadlines and all that
um there were a couple of grants
available uh and we decided to approve
SSB because
it's the money that will come out of
pocket from the district is less than I
that other the grant that was available
right now um
we were pre-approved already for four
buses uh there's a the deadline is in a
couple of weeks for Part B and and um
you know once we get approved for Part B
then part c
will you know I think hopefully we'll
we'll get it but we need your approval
in order to move forward with that
all right thank you Martin and Vidal um
I'll look to the trustees if anybody has
questions or anything that you want to
discuss yeah uh less about the program
which seems like a great idea um more
just the documentation if I
understanding this we're being asked as
a board to approve the resolution that
was posted on on the board talk is that
correct correct I think the the only
concern that I have is on the last uh
resolution clause which I think suggests
that the authority would be for approval
to enter into the contract without
further board um approval which it
doesn't sound like is what is actually
being contemplated operationally but
um uh it seems like that last one that
last part should be stricken um go ahead
with the process but I I don't I'm not
comfortable with the idea of us
approving something that we haven't seen
so I don't I don't know there's open
discussion on the district's end on how
to resolve
that does anyone have uh feedback on the
from the district about I think you're
talking about the be it for the resolve
that if selected for funding
yeah yeah and as we said what we would
bring this back this is moving us
forward from Part B to part C uh and uh
we've talked internally as well as that
before we uh would take anything uh
forward we would bring it back to the
board some of the terms and conditions
haven't even been released yet and will
be for part C uh and we bring that
before we uh did final submission and
issuing purchase orders or any
other
uh binding
agreements this this allows us to move
forward to part C so I guess my question
is if this resolution minus that last
Clause were approved if that last part
were stricken does that give the
district sufficient authority to
continue moving through the process like
I I'm not trying to stop this I just
want to make sure that it does through
all the documentation allows to actually
do the approval we probably not need to
take it back to our attorney to ask and
see if it'll be allowed in that fashion
okay because it was given to us in this
manner and it went through legal and
this is what legal presented to us on
how to move this forward at this
particular particular time knowing that
they had the information from where
we're going in that that direction to
get the the grant funding this is what
she put into place are there I guess are
time constraints on that I don't know
have constraints on when do it has to be
in next two weeks the next two okay we
don't have a board meeting till we don't
have next the end of January has 30th
yeah and the next board means on the 6th
I believe fth so the the Clause is
talking about uh enter into the binding
Grant agreement not into the binding
contract to purchase the buses
right that's what this is for right so
so what would come back to us would be
like a proposed contract to actually buy
the buses this isn't giving them
authority to go and buy the buses this
is giving them authority to enter into
the grant agreement right but we don't
know what the terms of the grant
agreement are either yeah we we won't
know until we go through the process and
then we would bring that back to you
yeah for
approval set my piece our County
attorney I mean I should say it's our
attorney that works for us also works
for the school yeah these these
templates have been used in the past
through it's gone through our legal I
think I think it's a fair concern and I
I would Echo it and I would say let's
send it to legal but legal sent it to us
so I sort of feel like um that diligence
is is reasonable to ask for and perhaps
has been done so yeah
yeah
I ra the concern and we put it to a v
sign yeah does anyone else have anything
that they want to discuss about this as
um that David um brought up I mean I
would say that we if if no one else
objects we just leave the language as
written for the amendment and then we
can decide um as trustees when we go to
vote on the action item whether or not
we can we support it or not as an
approval if we could also give legal
just the feedback that like this felt a
little uncomfortable um just I can do
that because she went through the RS and
so from the regs this is what she moved
forward with and we're not the only
District that has the same language
either I I believe it I I'm also I mean
I'm being the annoying lawyer I I just I
read the text I it's kind of what it
is but I like the approach that that
Mike's already proposed yeah okay um
does anyone else have comments or
questions that they want to ask I think
no I asked a few questions over email
they all you answered many of them here
already um I didn't know about the 2035
time limit to replace the whole Fleet uh
for electric buses so yeah that's across
the state yeah yeah so definitely need
to be getting ahead of that um so with
that in mind then we're going to leave
the resolution as written um is there a
motion to approve the
resolution I'm okay making a motion okay
is there a second second okay um and
we'll do an all in favor I all in favor
yeah okay did it was that everyone that
said they're all in
favor anyone in
post and no no one abstained okay so
that was everyone great okay so 9.1 uh
we're done with we'll move on thank you
thank you Martin appreciate it um the
next two is the acceptance of the
California school Association chapter 5
sunshine proposal this is for this year
and next year yes thank you we are this
um item and the next item all relate to
our upcoming negotiations starting with
CCA on February
4th and while we have closed salary
negotiations for
2425 there are still uh one more
component of health benefits that still
needs to be negotiated and was planned
um as the cycle opens in January so the
timing is appropriate and then one other
article and then our continued regular
negotiations for next school year and so
the attachment tonight is cca's intent
to negotiate these items any questions I
can
answer looks like the regular beginning
of the process um so thank you for
bringing this to us uh can I get a
motion to approve oh is there any
discussion any questions no I see not
uh any can I get a motion to approve I
move we approve this and the
second all in favor hi he that's
everyone uh then we will move on to the
counterpart uh 9.3 which is the
governing board's receipt of initial
proposal for negotiations with the
California School Employees Association
chapter
5 thank you so similar to csca
presenting their proposal this is the
district's proposal that is coming to
you for approval
any questions regarding this approve uh
proposal nope um just you know looking
forward to uh you know a good good
collaborative experience hopefully so uh
can we get a motion to
approve I move we approve and a
second okay all those in favor I I
that's everyone all right and lastly we
have n .4 which is approval of personnel
changes for the 2425 school
year thank you so we have a request from
uh different uh Department CNS and
Facilities to establish two new
positions that would begin after
approval of course and going through the
appropriate process uh to support CNS
and
Facilities any questions regarding this
request I don't have any
um does anyone else have a question or
comments anything to discuss okay can I
get a motion to approve I move we
approve and a second and a second okay
and all in favor I let's deliver that
Fresh
Foods that's our next agenda it
that's of our announcement
time um yes so then we have Megan
O'Reilly Green who wants to speak uh for
the board
reports three minutes
sorry and I wanted to just make a
I don't think your mic is on yeah oh is
that perfect thanks I was so quiet in
here I couldn't tell that my mic wasn't
on um thank you guys all so much for all
you do as board members and your
dedication to um you know the
Improvement for all students in Redwood
City really appreciate it um as I was
listening to Winnie I wanted to um add a
little piece that I noticed that
something she went over was the
difference in scores for underserved
students from the school year um 22 23
to to last year 23 24 there was a
decrease in about 11% um for ELA and
math for those students and I think the
one thing that she didn't mention was
that there was a gap last year in the
site tutoring program so before that we
had had healthy cities which was a
pretty robust tutoring program that we
put in place and then um that program
went away because I don't really know
why they went away but um they they said
that it wasn't working and they had a
spent a year trying to figure out how to
put in something more robust and so what
this community came up with after much
discussion is the imple the the
initiative to implement something with
the where the teachers are involved
using the wind blocks and as well
they're doing an on-site tutoring
program which is very extensive lots of
parent um support tutoring um and a
pretty comprehensive plan that they're
working with the teachers which is
wonderful um so I think that just kind
of points to like the power of community
to you know raise the scores of
underserved students and the district is
not alone in this um a major threat
across every presentation tonight was
the difference in performance across
students with and without resources and
I have a really good strategy for
helping the most atrisk students I bet
you guys can guess what it is um and I
feel that a fixed mindset is kind of
limiting the effectiveness of us
deploying this powerful tool in the
district so last week we heard from um
my daughter about like the lifechanging
you know education of Mi and um I had
put a slide in the
slide deck that we presented and I just
want to read to you guys the differences
in scores between underserved students
at particular Mi schools and their
District counterparts so at Ying Charter
they have a
52.6% increase for underserved students
versus underserved students in alamed
County as a whole um at Irvine
international school for Mandarin they
have a
46.5% increase um relative to their
District underst served students College
Park The F figure is
28.5% um West County public is
26% Barnard public in LA county um 30%
and John Meir public is 11% so if you
want kids to do well in school in math
if you want them to do good in math you
want UND sered kids to do well in math I
would say let's put them in a Mander
immersion program so that's my argument
yes sorry the time yes thank you thank
you for your comments uh this evening um
and then we're on to our report from
board memb and superintendent um does
anybody want to start with it's only
been a week uh so not expecting a time
but does anybody have anything to
report standard uh no we have just like
the board report we I attended the SMC
SBA um program not just for new trustees
but for trustees across the county so
that was very helpful just to get a
sense of what's going on across other
districts in the county and S
happy to share the materials once
received
those anyone else no nothing okay you
also attended the um the CTA breakfast
the legislative breakfast or whatever
that was nice yeah thank you we we are
there uh with Aon wurn and Cindy Meek um
the one thing I they had the CTA
president speak uh David Goldberg uh and
he had some interesting things that I
thought I'd just share real fast which
was uh um he reminded everybody about
Prop 13 of course and asked who's paying
1970 taxes still it's not really
individuals right it's the corporations
that were around from that time and
that's where it is um he mentioned that
uh CTA is will be advocating in 2026 to
extend a prop 30 and prop 55 which is
the increased income taxes and that adds
adds to our prop 98 um and then he
mentioned the um a bill that the
president had just signed um and CTI had
had access the Social Security Fairness
Act that allows public employees that
had been paying into Social Security
actually be able to get their social
security after retirement so it was
interesting some good information
there great uh I attended the RCF
meeting last night and so they're
preparing for their different types of
funding activities that going to start
taking place the end of February and
also um attended uh the Orion growth
plan committee today which went from 3:
until about 4:45
so the next step
is the committee was divided up into
five different groups and after they
have re we reviewed all the data that we
have gone over and now it's time for
them to make a recomend make
recommendations to me to review bring
them back to staff to see which ones we
can actually move forward with and then
bring a recommendation to the board
probably in April sometime so um it was
a really good working group very good
working group so we'll see what how we
move forward you said April is the time
when we'll hear from
okay all right let's move on to
information we've received the quarterly
Williams report for the second quarter
of October 24th through December 24th
that's 11.1 um no no comments no
discussion perfect um 11 2 we already
had so we're at 12.1
correspondence correspondence I can't
think of any off the top of my
head I guess I was go
ahe I received correspondence from
another classified employee regarding um
the oh my God I just went BL the support
for the summer program summer assistance
program okay
um any others will uh received an email
about Energy
Solutions okay um as it seems like a
potential relating to the Solar projects
that are ongoing in the district I think
all of us received it um but just
offering an alternative or
something right I received a um email
from an incoming TK parent for Orion Mi
concerned that the play Thrive after
school program may not have enough
classroom space to offer uh to all of
the interested DK
students all
right shall we move on to uh possible
other business or suggested items for
future
agenda I don't have any tonight um and
then the board meetings calendar any
changes to the calendar okay yes we got
some changes um there is a closed
session February 5th 5:45 to 6:45
I did send a calendar invite um but just
wanted you guys to know as well yeah no
the calendar invite is super helpful um
because yeah that's the easiest way for
me to
remember
um I'm just as a reminder I'm I'm in DC
I'll try and patch in remotely to some
parts of that
but got it um okay we're on to adjourn
the meeting and do I have a motion to
adjourn I move we adjourn and a
second All In in favor I I all
right that's good