okay excuse me all right better if I do things yet thank you hello twisty Marcus how are you doing okay yes no I I texted it to you I just do want me to read text it to you all right first I texted you the full session and then I um texted you the um Open Session [Music] I'll give you like a minute or two bucks and it goes through the motion all right thank you and we know [Music] about them turning down you remain unmute anymore no like to tell other trustees to remain unmute okay okay can you hear me colvera I mean oh yeah covert can you hear me excellent but actually who I was I was looking at your picture but I was thinking about Avatar so actually that's who I want to know if they can hear me I need to know if both of you can hear me actually um but no Echoes no problems right no problems I was able to hear you from the left ear not the right ear oh how about now I was joking oh I was gonna say I never know what kind of setup I have going on here my daughter you know I mean you look like a next style to me towards my right oh yeah left so that's why I was like oh I think on this side but not the other side so one thing uh trust in Verano president to remind you that if you can remind all the board members to keep themselves unmute okay um trustee Chavez is having a problem getting on she says she copied the link from the board foreign she can't get on um let me text her hold on do you want me to let me just write down the number or I don't know if my Rebellion can um can send her the resend trusty Chavez the link to the meeting [Music] sure because I I have so much stuff open right now I don't I don't want to mess up my stuff I need to know yeah medieval is a helping trustee Marcus okay um I imagine we have um a lot of public comment tonight already after do we have um do you happen to have a rough number of what we have so far we are in the email let me check so there are there are two just two in the email yeah there are two in the email okay well I guess I'm I'm assuming we'll have a lot of raised hands um for at least one or a couple of the items so probably going to want to get a sense of that so I can see um you know if if we can do the full two minutes or and we might need to decrease that a little bit depending on how many we have yeah so far we have only two via email okay well if it was only that no problem but I have a feeling it's not only that okay [Music] talk to you again after can you unmute um [Music] and then Dr about trying to admit after um also having a challenge with the link um on the on the uh on the agenda I'm not sure what it is text you her number is that okay answer [Music] who did you say trusty Chavez Rusty Chavez is trying to get on and she's not able to connect to the link on the agenda okay um and that's the link that I use to get in and I'm assuming everyone else in here basically are most people so thinking it's working here I don't see him [Music] so we have two of us here as we agreed I will block videos of all other participants except the board members and um after do you see trustee Chavez trying to get in through he just logged in but but not trust each other very stressful so I will I'll do this again afterwards but since I have a couple of Trustees here I was uh requested to just make sure to inform us all trustees that we keep our microphones um unmuted um and so so I mean if you if you have something going on in the background I guess and you feel that you need to to mute it I mean that's all the obviously fine but if the request was put in to keep the microphones unmuted so I thought I saw a question oh there it went you can't do it okay there you go good now thank you okay thank you um so we do have a quorum now but how close are we with trustee Marcus and trustee Chavez Sofi Chavez is in oh is she um welcome her or give her on the on in the room uh okay yeah I I'm adding is she in afternoon there she is you must begin oh there she is yeah and trusty King I mean trustee Marcus how close are we with her she's supposed to call in yeah she did you said she just called in yeah she just called and I assume it's her so what are the last four digits open number I don't know four one two one yeah oh there she is perfect hello yes and uh trust each other's needs to be unmuted also I'm sorry right okay looks like we are ready all right everyone's unmuted everyone is here okay so we're ready to go Avatar yes sir all right all systems go so I will call the meeting to order at 5 36 p.m for the regular board meeting for Alamo school district of the for the month of June 2020.
Reese I pledge allegiance [Music] New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advance notice of in to attend meetings public bodies in accordance of provisions of this act the East Brunswick Board of Education has caused notice of this meaning to be published at the Board of Education offices written notices and provided to the Sentinel the Newark star-ledger the home news and Tribune and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all board of education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcasts individuals at the board's public meetings should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening and welcome we're going to start out tonight with our superintendents report dr.
MS Carvalho knows exactly what I'm going to say it was one of my information videos where we did like a talk show where students interviewed me and hazel was the one most guilty of refusing to let me see the questions ahead of time she made it clear that I had to answer them cold with no preparation whatsoever so it's a funny that we start like that and end like this awesome thank you for sharing that and now we move on to our retirees again I'm gonna go make I'm sorry also in the zoom room tonight is our new thank you Board of Ed student representative as selected by hazel and Jack and myself through our very rigorous process she's in here somewhere Emily do newsy Oh a rising junior will take over hazel seat and assist the Board of Ed next year so congratulations family Congrats Emma would you like to say hello just so everybody puts the board members can put your name to a face yeah thank you it's an honor to be selected we're excited to have you join us Emily okay miss miss ellie am i good thank you sir alright we're gonna move on to our retirees we're gonna start with Amy bear Amy began her career at Bolton Center school as a substitute teacher and then began working as a paraprofessional for special education she supported students in many different grade levels with various needs demonstrating her versatility and skills she took the initiative to learn new programs and technology and has always been willing to take on any challenge additionally she has supported students and after school activities and often attends concerts and encourages students and lends a helping hand she's a vital part of the walking field trip for fifth graders volunteering as a docent for bulton history which culminated with a rest break and snack on her front porch and was always a fond memory for our students she also supported the efforts of the girls empowerment camp where she demonstrated various skills from the use of power tools to the creation of twirling skirts and of course she found the community sponsors for these activities many of you may not know this but amy is also the magic behind the birthday banners and signs that appear when staffs celebrate birthdays at Bolton Center school she is well respected for her professionalism with staff and her kind and effective rapport with students her high level of concern for the well-being of those around her is evident through her daily interactions she often brought in materials to support lessons and projects enhancing the learning of our students Amy brings warmth and positivity to each room she enters her soft spoken manner warm smile and desire to make each student feel valued and loved allow her to support so many students in a seamless way we wish Amy the best in all of her new endeavors and thank her for her dedication to the students and staff at Bolton Center school Amy you will be dearly missed thank you it's an honor and my pleasure thank you Amy congratulations much health and happiness to you thank you pam browning is our next retiree pam joined the bolton center school family in 1985 as a sixth grade teacher in a unified classroom over the following years she moved to fourth grade looped with her fifth grade class and when an opening appeared in social studies on the sixth grade team she volunteered to fill the position and is now finishing her 35th year teaching at Fulton Center school as a sixth and seventh grade social studies teacher over her time at BCS she's earned a celebration of excellence award for an environmental project she created called talking trees and who could ever forget the final week of 6th grade with the old social studies curriculum and the castle days when mountains of cardboard boxes would be cut pasted glued colored and eventually transformed into worlds of knights and medieval castles for years pam has been the coordinator of BCS is work with Rochelle Ripley and the hawk wing project collecting assembling and packing trucks with clothing and needed supplies to provide support to the children and families of the Cheyenne River Lakota seat reservation in South Dakota one year receiving special permission to drive out with Jimmy Anderson all that way to deliver our contribution and teach a few classes to the school there she's been an active supporter of the choice program at school helping to plan activities for our students after school to allow them to stay and participate in evening concerts and open house activities for the past seven years however one of her greatest and most enduring accomplishments at BCS has been the girls empowerment camp for our middle school girls that she is run with Elaine Allegretti through monthly Friday night meetings and week-long camp in the summer Pam helped to empower girls to be strong independent young women she worked to help them have a safe place to talk about issues they were having while equipping them with strategies to help them become more confident each and every person asked agreed pam was and is one person people turn to for help for reassurance or a caring shoulder or simply a laugh her presence at BCS will be sorely missed we wish her nothing but the best in her retirement p.m.
um Maribel can you please take roll yeah today is muted right today is the regular board meeting of June 11th 2020 at 5 30 PM members of the board in attendance president Ernesto bejerano president vice president clerk Andres Quintero president Thomas president member Dolores Marquez Fausto president members of an Administration superintendent Dr Bauer president thank you so we do have a quorum tonight and also as a reminder this meeting is being recorded um uh we will let's go ahead and start with the Pledge of Allegiance and then we'll get to a couple of housekeeping items so did someone say something okay so given the situation that we're all in and we've come accustomed to if you can stand please do so for the Pledge of Allegiance and if not um that is fine but we will begin the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag to the Republic for which is under God indivisible with liberty justice for all okay thank you everyone so um we will just to cover a couple of housekeeping things so as has been the case in the past um several months now that we've had the zoom online meetings there are a number of ways for you to participate through public comment instead of going through each and every one of those ways I'll repeat what I said last month which is if you go to our website arusd.org and you on the very first page that you see on the top left you'll see a heading that says current board agenda if you click on that I that like link you can see in the agenda the ways that you can participate in public comment which include email text message and through the zoom meeting so I won't go into the details but all the information that you'll need for that is here um on this webpage and it's also on the agenda if you have if you receive the email through the agenda through email or some other way that information is also on the agenda there um throughout the evening uh we will have appropriate cameras and and audio enabled for board members and staff and those giving public comment if um we want to make ensure that there is these meetings are safe and appropriate for the public and so any other cameras and sound will be turned off by default if we notice that someone's name is inappropriate in their Zoom identification then that will also cause the person to be um leader from the meeting um we at the end of this meeting we will go into closed session and then we will return to report back from closed session if there's anything to report back and um I believe that is the extent of it Avatar or Dr Bauer am I missing any of our housekeeping things that we need to cover um Mr Sanchez is going to be available late during public comment all right thank you Dr barley because that does remind me of one thing I forgot so the meeting is being streamed in English and in Spanish on our YouTube channels and that information is also on the the place that I just referenced a minute ago so you can see the the um the video of this meeting there there is a slight DeLay So as items come up on the agenda I will ask for public comment um at the beginning of the item for those people who have made emailed comments and then just to account for the delay on the the YouTube stream I'll ask at some point in most cases for public comment um after that just to give those viewing on the YouTube channel an opportunity to contact us with public comment so with that all out of the way I believe we can move on to item 1.02 this discussion and or modification of the agenda does anyone have um an item here interested um I'd like to move up um item um uh six God where is it at all my notes um the ethnic studies resolution 604 to uh before comments and communication I know a lot of people are here president would like to speak on that is that possible before 401 4401 Okay so 6.04 before 401 okay anything else and the other modifications okay um and as a reminder if you have public comment that you would like read out um for that item or any other item you can email to the address there um that's that we provided and and that email or that public comment will be read out by someone here on our staff okay so no other modifications we will move forward the item 2.01 special recognition for the air USD classified and certificated retirees is that Mr Moran will you be taking that one yes okay thank you do we have is he muted on on his end or our end after he's muted you need to unmute up there is the master on muter of all universe in his to be unmuted [Music] thank you everyone for your patience as we there we go okay hopefully uh you all can hear me um Mr Moran your audio quality is not clear can you share the screen after are you sharing the screen or do you have that didn't we say last week that we would have um music waiting music uh available I think I was my responsibility I dropped the ball on that I'll have to try to remember next month you got to sing then nobody wants that dab I think the Board needs to sing Are we almost there Avatar with the presentation Mr Moran bottom of your screen you can click on share screen yeah but yes I am it reads host disabled participant from screening so you have to allow it [Music] I'm good right now there we go handling so many things okay great thank you so good evening uh board uh president bejerano Board of Trustees Dr Bauer community and special guests my name is Carlos Moran the assistant superintendent of Human Resources on behalf of the district it gives me great pleasure to start this celebration to congratulate honor and celebrate our 2020 certificated and classified retirees typically we have a light beverage and snacks uh in the courtyard for our retirees and their families prior to the board meeting presentation and of course unfortunately due to our current situation obviously we can't do this apologize for that um but we're going to go ahead and and honor all of our retirees this evening so each retiree will receive a retiree resolution uh in a framed as you can see on the picture and as a token of our appreciation this uh gift here that reads thank you for giving so much of your life to our students and our community wishing you the very best Alum Rock School District we will Begin by honoring our certificate certificated retirees read the resolution that's going to be approved later this evening we do this every year so whereas your dedicated Daily Commitment in exemplifying and modeling the highest of academic standards and instructional practices to the children that have been so very fortunate to have you as their teacher and whereas Your Daily Commitment and passion for the care nurturing and well-being of every child you have interacted with through the years and whereas you're engaging and inspiring presence and impact that motivated a countless number of Alum Rock children and whereas your many hours of dedication are recognized in preparing lessons meeting with parents correcting student essays and homework attendance at a countless number of faculty meetings coordinating both parent and student school and classroom activities and fundraisers nursing and tending to the many endless array of playgrounds scrapes and scratches the sharing of your wisdom and counseling skills to a host of students and yes at all times maintaining your cheerful smile your sense of humor and caring this position and now therefore be it resolved at the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District hereby recognizes the retirement of the following 2020 certificated retirees and wishes all the happiness in a well deserved respite in the years ahead Charlene Anderson special education teacher ad Meyer is retiring after 35 years of service with the alamox school district a round of applause for her Kathy Berg transitional kindergarten teacher at San Antonio who's dedicated 30 years of service to the Oklahoma school district per round of applause Conrad Garcia teacher adult Cola steam Academy is retiring after 12 years of service in the Alamo School District foreign third grade teacher at Meyer served the students of Alum Rock for 36 years congratulations [Music] Nanette Reeves teacher Renaissance one is retiring after four years of service in the Alamo School District [Music] thank you Judith sherni kindergarten teacher at Lucha served our district for five years give her a round of applause and Dorothy Singleton kindergarten teacher from San Antonio is retiring after 23 years serving our district and our kids give her a round of applause so we're going to move on now to our classified retirees the resolution for the classified is where you're whereas your dedicated commitment and exemplifying and modeling the highest of standards and practices in ensuring a safe and clean environment for the children enrolled in our schools and whereas Your Daily Commitment and passion for the care and nurturing of the well-being of every child you have interactive with through the years and whereas you're engaging in inspiring Presence at our schools and grounds ensuring the very best learning environment and whereas your many hours of dedication are recognized in providing valuable services to the schools and students maintaining our school grounds and classrooms your commitment in assuring warm and nourishing meals are provided to our students each day and transporting our children to and from school safely each day now therefore be it resolved that the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District hereby recognizes the retirement following 2020 classified retirees and wishes all the happiness in a well-deserved respite in the years ahead first is Francia bosnos she's the senior accounting assistant in the purchasing department and is retiring after 22 years of service to the alamox school district give her a round of applause oh we have Daniel Flores director of MOT is retiring after five years of service with the alamox school district give him a round of applause and we have Virginia lepi Child Nutrition assistant one at Shepherd Middle School she has dedicated 15 years of service to our district give her a round of applause as well questions again congratulations to all of our certificated and classified retirees We wish all of you the best in your retirement thank you Mr Moran and um do we have any comments from anyone on that one uh wait what did I do here okay okay just I just want to thank everyone this is a um this has been an interesting year to to finish your career with us here but you know I think the fact that that you have made it to this point and still made it through this year with the dedication that you bring says a lot about that and we're appreciative of of that and our families are as well so thank you all and and enjoy what lies ahead for all of you thank you thank you Mr President I heard something I don't know oh trust me yes um I just like to think uh all the staff and the teachers for um making our district great and giving um they're uh part of their lives to us you know sometimes they you spend more time at work than you do with your own family um and so I just like to thank them for making Alum Rock a part of their family um and making our children feel so special um and you know that they ended their career with us because they could have gone somewhere else you know amazing teachers especially at the end of their career with all the you know resumes that they carry they could have really ended somewhere else but they ended with us and so um thank you so much for came with us thank you was there someone else uh Dr Bauer yes okay trusty Marquez um um I just I need a clarification before I start with my comment um the the teacher from Meyer Anita Jimenez um I I believe I know her by Anita I don't know her by her other name her maiden name uh do you know do you remember Dr Bauer her name no trusting Marcus I'm sorry I know because I believe she had over 30 something years there and I'm I I knew I heard I heard she had gotten married but I wanna I wanna I have to say this but I I really appreciated her because she I believe is the one that um helped start the Dual language immersion when it first got here before the un's initiative started and stopped us um she was my children's teacher as um in the Dual language immersion and she stuck with it and until it it had to finish but um I really like would like her to know that I appreciate the years of services that she gave and for always stepping up to the plate helping out when the new program came around and I want to thank the rest of them um the classified in the and the certificated um those that uh chose to be part of the Alum Rock Family it it's um it has always been said that ones who worked in Ellen lock it's hard to leave it and they stay on and they stay on and I know that many of the teachers and my friends that have become um friends of mine whether it was classified or certificated um they they're gone a lot of them are gone you know I I've been here for 50 years and I worked there for 30 years and now um you know Anita is now going through um you know um you know going through this district and gave a lot of her life and her time for their families and the children of Alum Rock so thank you all very much for everything you have done for our children yes hello I can hear you Dolores who is this this is Linda how did you out here Ernesto I I I don't know I was thanking all the people for me and then for me the one one person reached out to me did anybody hear that one we heard yeah all of a sudden somebody my phone pinged and I go hello and I was I turned off oh thank you for your comments trustee Marquez I think Dr Bauer um had something and then trustee Quintero as well I see I'm done me and then trustee Chavez the trustees can go first if that's better that's okay and I just want to thank the staff and teachers and everyone uh for the dedication our organization is only as good as the people that it has and so thank you all for giving your time commitment uh to the district um I hope that you can see the fruit of that labor and the kids that have gone through and are doing great things out there in our community so uh thank you for your service thank you trustee Chavez uh thank you for all your service and if you ever want to come visit come on and visit I know that was your home for a long time practically so come on by thanks thank you and Dr Bauer just want to thank also all the staff for all of the years that they gave to Alum Rock excellent years there's that's a a very high quality bunch and if I may just highlight Francia about her years of service to Alum Rock she worked in our uh procure procuring purchasing and procurement department and it's one of those uh jobs that she is but she is an a Very key person and I just wanted to highlight some of our people that work behind the scenes and sometimes people don't know who they are but they're key to the organization that is key congratulations to all of them in the retirement thank you thank you uh Mr Moran yes thank you so the trustee Marquez asked about the last name so the last name is Paredes does that sound familiar did you hear that Justin Marquez uh we can't hear you if you're talking interesting Marcus but hopefully you got that hello I know I'm trying to get I'm having a problem and anybody there now oh we hear you so the last name was Paredes that you were looking for we think yes Anita paderes that's right yeah and and and she was marvelous in helping us you know just kick off that new language immersion went before anybody started doing it in this area except for we went and remodeled the San Francisco um dual language immersion they had over there so she's been she's been with us and the last thing is I did have music uh word president well we can't we heard a little bit of it so so we'll get that down pat next time but thank you for that we need that sometime for sure okay thank you everybody thank you Mr Brown move on to item 2.02 teacher of the year 2020 is that also you Mr Moran that'll be Mr sentence okay Mr Sanchez is he here I'm looking I don't see him on my screen I need to be able to share my screen for the PowerPoint please come over at the bottom yeah click on share screens you should be okay is Mr Sanchez uh also unmuted and ready to go he needs to be unmuted absar Mr Sanchez needs to be unmuted yeah I feel so powerful [Laughter] you won't see my slides yes good afternoon uh members of the board can everybody hear me yes the spirit of yes in the spirit of recognizing our wonderful and amazing staff uh today we wanted to share with you um the teacher that was selected to represent our district as teacher of the year um every year we do this and it's always very difficult and challenging to select one individual teacher because all of them are very deserving um this year the teacher that is going to represent our district as teacher of the year is Clarissa Johnson from Ryan steam Academy and so you see a picture there of her and that's the award that we presented her um so she's representing our district but as I shared with you um she's just one representation of a wonderful wonderful staff that we have here in the district and she's been doing amazing work at the district and Miss Campbell will share with you a little more detail about how she got nominated I'd like to share some words that was written about Miss Johnston when you walk into Miss Johnson's classroom you will observe her working closely with her students she creates a warm and welcoming environment her love and passion for working in a therapeutic program is evident in her instruction relationships she has with her students and her overall classroom culture she has a song to go with all her lessons along with movements to keep her students engaged Miss Johnston also supports her students emotional needs social emotional learning is incorporated into every lesson she provides Miss Johnston Works closely with the team including the mfts the Paras the behavior Specialists and behavior assistance to ensure that all her students are supported in the classroom her number one goal is to ensure that her students are mainstreamed for a portion of the school day she differentiates the content and utilizes her parents well so that the students are engaged and able to access content Miss Johnson like mentioned earlier incorporate song and movement but games and Technology to effectively teach the content during her reading lessons for example she makes the content accessible for all her students through a think aloud front loading the content connecting the text to personal examples and experiences chunking the text and using manipulatives Miss Johnson leads hand on Steam sessions with her students her students design musical instruments when learning about animal sounds during the unit by incorporating critical thinking collaboration communication creativity into her lessons so as you can see she has many attributes and amazing teacher with the therapeutic students that she works with I would like as you can see Miss Johnstone is in this in the slides um her she's here present but I would like to um pass the the word on to miss Katz her principal who nominated her okay can you hear me am I unmuted yes okay yes you are yeah thank you good evening Board of Trustees superintendent Dr Bauer and Community my name is Raquel Katz principal of Ryan steam Academy Miss Johnston to begin with I'm incredibly proud of you you are so deserving of this recognition Ms Johnston creates a learning environment that promotes fun social emotional and academic growth and a sense of community she tells her students how important they are every day and ensure ensures that they persevere through any challenges that they may face her dedication to her students in her therapeutic special day class and strong belief in mainstreaming has helped create a school culture of inclusion across our entire campus where we view all students as our students thank you so much Miss Johnston and congratulations Miss Johnson would you like to say a few words uh yes thank you um I am so honored to get this recognition um there are so many great teachers at this District um but I really want to thank Miss Katz for being a great leader and Coach helping me find my leadership skills and helping me uh grow as a teacher um I also want to thank the staff at my school um for welcoming my students into their classrooms um and being great people to work with and then I want to thank my team um they're fantastic people and I couldn't do it without them oh thank you so everybody a big round of applause congratulations Clarissa [Music] thank you okay thank you very much and congratulations well deserved it sounds like um similar to a preview to the previous comments we you know this this District would not be the district that we are that you know kind of people have sometimes alluded to us as a Hidden Gem and I believe that and it's because we have these gems in our district providing you know this this vital kind of connection with our students so so congratulations on that any other comments from from board members trustee Chavez yeah I want to thank her and also um it looks like she's found her calling because to me a lot of the teachers this is a calling for them and if she just exemplifies what it is to be a teacher thank you very much thank you for being a great role model you know to the rest of our teachers it's great to see somebody Young starting you know with so much passion and I look forward to hearing a lot more you know the wonderful things you will do with our district um you know and all the Committees she'll join um I love to see uh young young teachers uh you know um starting with that type so I look forward to all the great other great things she will do for just thank you trustee trustee quintano no just congratulations on the recognition great job all right thank you uh Dr Bauer hello or trustee Marquez you want to go first no it's fine I thought I was disconnected oh no did you have something or you want to go with doctor no no that's uh it doesn't matter if she'd like to go that's fine I can wait you can go first go ahead trustee I just want to thank um you know Miss Johnson for all that she does for our children and mainstreaming the children that need to you know need to be mainstreaming and that you know she acknowledges the um the leadership of those that are helping her and those that you know are um are standing right alongside with her so that our kids could have successful years so thank you so much and congratulations Johnson thank you trustee Marquez uh Dr Bauer just wanted to thank uh Miss Johnson for that wonderful program that she has and helping the rest of Ryan Elementary to welcome special needs students in every classroom it's an amazing just a parent of a special needs child myself I want to thank you for making that happen for our kids thank you so much okay thank you and I actually neglect neglected to ask for a public comment did we have any public comment on those items Avatar at 2.01 or 2.02 no there's no public comment on and we have no hands raised at this time none okay so we will move on thank you and congratulations once again um thanks everybody for the presentation we'll move forward to item 2.03 summer extended year overview presentation 2020 is that you trust I mean Mr Sanchez yes um we just wanted to share a little update Avatar if you could uh let Jason sorich have access uh to share his screen uh we wanted to share some of the initial planning some of the work that we've been doing as we get ready to launch our Extended Learning opportunities for kids over the summer so we have a little short presentation for you all right good evening superintendent and board members can everybody see the the presentation yes yes okay uh so again my name is Jason sorch I support academic services and I'm very proud to present the Alum Rock extended year summer programs for the summer along with Sandra Garcia so just a little bit of uh you know a little bit of a background on what we're thinking this year um first off very you know very excited to be able to be flexible enough to Pivot you know in a in a trying situation right so we're pivoting from a traditional setting to a primarily virtual setting so what you see on the slide is these are the vision behind our program part of those part of that information is we're going to offer our instruction in a blended method primarily virtual with some face-to-face instruction we're going to maintain that academic rigor understanding that's what students students deserve we're going to have programs that support our English language learners uh socio-emotional supports throughout and Innovative 21st century themes throughout [Music] hi um am I unmuted yes okay okay um so I'm sorry um of all days my um internet went out here at home there's an outage and it's not supposed to come up till nine o'clock tonight I'm on my phone so I'm trying to see the best I can here so my part is I'm just talking about some of the partner-supported academic programs that we're going to offer we're going to continue with um some of the programs that we have offered in the past um and that we know work for our kids um and these will all be done virtually uh all of our partners have um made accommodations to offer the the programs to our students um in a virtual platform so we will offer um programs to elevate math um and Elevate Junior for third through eighth grade students and CSI which is a computer science um program those are through Elevate math we will also offer Jose Valdez math institutes for um our students that need the review and basic skills and we're also offering a couple of classes of enrichment and these are for sixth and seventh grade students we're going to continue with springboard collaborative which is for entering first through third grade students and this is for students who need uh support with literacy um English language arts in those grades um we're also going to offer an esy program for our special ed students that qualify and um our bridge to kinder program which is also going to be a virtual program for T4 TK and kindergarten students entering 20 entering those grades in 2021 uh we're going to offer a true program through tutor Works which is an agency that provides tutoring services to our district um this program is going to be a combination of um um basic skills foundational skills as well as some coding for the students enrolled in this program okay all right so you know I think one of the things we're very proud of is the opportunity to provide a wide array of offerings so alongside our partner programs we are able to offer uh teacher-directed programs so this year we're offering Ela classes so language arts classes that are going to focus on grade level specific skills in the areas of reading and writing this is for students in grades fourth through eighth uh also ell Support classes and also Digital Arts instruction so the Digital Arts will be woven into both the ELA and the ell classes giving the students kind of um some you know some opportunity to try out some different skills um during their instruction uh the Highlight Within These programs is that the this also gives us an opportunity to try out some some strategies that we can put into place in the fall depending on our return scenario so we have the opportunity to live stream lessons so it'll be a balance of asynchronous and synchronous instruction so we're very excited to to be able to provide that for our students uh on this slide you can see a general structure of what the day will look like as I mentioned a mixture of whole class instruction some independent time a sprinkling of physical activity and art you want to make sure that it's not that not everything is online in front of a screen you want to be able to provide those those off-screen opportunities as well as well as an opening and closing activity throughout the day in addition we also are continuing our music and vapa programs so we have the Alan Rock summer Jazz program that's for students currently enrolled in music programs in grades six through eight uh we are also offering the Alum Rock summer Mariachi Camp again that's for students who are currently enrolled in music programs in grades six through eight again this is all done primarily through distance learning for the setting and I'll hand it back over to Sandra or I will take it from here so we have so here you can see our projected enrollment right so that's a breakdown of each of our programs with the slots available for you know for students at each in each of those programs with a total projected enrollment of just under 2 000 students in grades TK through eight so very excited that we can we can offer a variety of programs and offer it to such a a wide range of students and go ahead Jason yeah and our our final slide here this is just general general information about dates times uh this information this slideshow is also available on our web page uh with contact information and registration information for parents who may have questions and that brings us to a close okay thank you very much for the presentation um do we have any questions or comments from board members I have a question okay I know I talked to Bauer about this but my question was um how many of our students um are going to be participating or we have a rough estimate um in these programs yes so uh so on this slide we have uh we have the projected enrollment by program uh and the total enrollment is a little over 1800 students and that's for students in grades TK uh up through eighth grade declared by have those families enrolled is it looking like we are going to have all 100 percent of students enrolled yeah very good question so enrollment is taking place as we speak a number of our programs are already full uh and for those for those that aren't there's very active and aggressive recruitment going on so you know we're very confident that we're going to hit that hit that March thank you um and just you know in general as we know um that's a small percentage I mean it's a big percentage of our students and at the same time as a whole there's so many of our students that will not be a part of any uh one of these in particular but um you know just to call out to the community and the needs still for summer programs for our children um I also know that the city and county you know the programs are going to look much different this summer so just to you know keep our um Euro and you know if we hear of any resources that our families who may not not be uh fortunate enough to join any one of these that they can still participate in something okay thank you okay we'll go trusty Quintero and then trusty Marquez after that thank you go ahead um yeah so uh well my my question is with regard to I know that the you said some of the programs are already full what strategies are going to use Beyond reaching out what strategies they're going to use because I know that in the past there was uh this window of time that people would be able to apply uh if there was any other open spots my concern is that uh these programs are very much needed and that there may be a re you know some instance of where someone might not be completely full and there may be people out there with an interest in participating is there going to be any open slots where people can still go and apply just to make sure that every spot is taken up uh yes yes there is uh so many of the programs are targeted right to specific uh demographics of students to be able to make sure we're providing support where needed but there's also a a cutoff date right if a number of the programs we've hit that date and we've opened it up district-wide and in addition to that uh understanding that we always want to be able to provide more opportunity we're working on a document within our department to share with parents on a number of other community camps virtual programs provided within uh within the community so that we can provide you know activities enrichment and summer activity for those that that don't uh that don't make it into our programs thank you trustee Marquez thank you um I was looking for anywhere on the presentation because I have I'm not there to see to see what you know what you had on the screen up there I am reading what came to me on the you know my packet and I'm wondering um this summer program being delivered Birch uh through distance learning or is the I'm not clear yes right so so the vast majority of programs is delivered virtually uh there are some special ed programs that require a face-to-face offering so there's there's a mix right and uh for some of the the lessons that are delivered virtually the teacher will be able to uh the teacher will be able to live stream a lesson and also record it um so oh yeah so multiple opportunities for students to to engage and then my other uh question was that out of the 9 000 students that we have I know the majority of them are at grade level or most of them are below grade levels so I I find it um like my colleague um Miss uh trustee Loretta said 1800 seems like a very small number for most of our students that are below grade level the number is pretty high so what are we doing with them uh how are we reaching them and do they understand that um this is going to be two list distance learning or virtual learning I don't know which one you're you're doing um and then after you enter that one which of the programs that are already full you know so I I I'd like to know because I I'm sure the the math Valdez programs are probably the ones that got killed first but I just want to I want to be able to see which ones are already full um Sandra do you happen to know uh if Elevate is full I know our computer science courses are full um our Ela and ell classes are very close to full um where we have roughly 200 students already a springboard has 315 spots they're up to about 250 registered already with uh three weeks ago so most of most of our Elevate classes are um are full but we are taking a waiting list um to the question earlier on how we um we ensure that these spots are all filled we are taking um students on a waiting list and um checking the first day of school to see who shows up on um in class and calling the waiting list as spots are available our Jose Valdez program um both um horses are filling up very quickly we have 360 seats and we're up to 250 that have registered already so um we will also be taking it we'll be taking a waiting list for all of our courses and then just filling from that waiting list so if I can share it also um one of the other things that we're looking to do is also offer different online programs that may be available for students these would be more self-directed we have most of our students with devices at home over the summer so we are looking at different types of licenses that may be available so that way we offer both um resources and math and language arts over the summer so that they can do some self-directed um learning with the tools that they have at home so I just have one final question is there any possibility that I would be able to go and visit these classes to see how it's you know it's being delivered just physically to see how it's being delivered and how the children are taking it in I'm not too familiar with the teacher-directed El and Ela program so I kind of would like to know if that's going to be a virtual or distant learning or if it's actually going to take place and where is it going to take place or any of these in our school sites because this um you know the the packet I'm looking at it doesn't say what sites they're going to be at certainly uh I know at Shepherd and painter we will house the the special ed programs um and we're working on also making it available for our teachers in the ell program and the ELA program um so there's a total of 12 teachers who will have some who are teaching from home um I believe we may have a couple that are teaching at the site so we can provide more information um shortly about the locations but the two locations are open for physical Our Shepherd and painter that's a special ed okay thank you Chavez uh yes can you hear me yes okay um so one of the questions well I had a lot of questions but they also asked similar questions so he said that he could get that information to us can you get that information before school starts yes okay and and also um trustee Marquez said that she wanted to go and visit and see how it was going to be implemented is there a way that you can maybe so everybody does so I don't have to go show up and be another body there that um I guess you have to have only certain numbers there because of the covet is there somebody who can maybe take a few pictures and say look this is the way they're distancing um so that that way I know that everything is in compliance with what uh OSHA and what the health department and our restrictions are can you do that we can definitely set that up we could also we can definitely set that up uh we can also provide can you hear me um Can somebody answer that trustee no we were hearing it so you're okay yeah I can hear Jason yeah you're coming out like there's an organ can you answer that please sure sure um yeah so we can definitely set up the uh the visits we can also set you up um with uh the zoom links if you want to see some of the virtual um the virtual instruction as well okay thank you um I had a I guess a comment and a question the the comment first of all I just want to um as you mentioned Mr sorry it's just the the ability to kind of um pivot and jump into something very quickly I appreciate our partners being able to do that and particularly are in the teacher directed programs our our staff that's willing to you know get in there with this new way of doing things and really roll up their sleeves and get that done I think that's I really want to commend those staff for for doing that work that's appreciated by by myself and I'm sure by the students and families that are going to receive their their services so that's number one the question that I have and it's kind of rhetorical and kind of like maybe report back later when I think of programming I think that um for me there's two different things there's you know the number of seats that we're filling how many you know unduplets participants what we have or duplicated or whatever we're measuring and that's certainly important and and that those are the types of things that we have to report out and that's important but I also and I've asked this question before um on different things I also think in terms of outcomes because to me you know the purpose of these programs is to actually you know develop something or help a bridge a certain Gap or whatever it may be um and so I know you know it's summertime and part of the effort my understanding is to prevent that brain drain thing from the summertime but I also just wonder and again I don't need an answer tonight but I guess I'm wondering if we can make sure that we have conversations with um our our part our providers um in terms of especially with this new model for delivery of services you know how will their outcomes modify if if at all you know what are they what are they measuring in order to determine the effectiveness of of their programming so like I said if you have any comments tonight right it's fine but for me it's more just wanting to make sure that some level of that conversation is had with the providers to have them think and make sure they understand that you know at least for myself I it's important to to be working towards actual outcomes and I know we all are I'm familiar with the programs but I just want to reinforce that in you know in alongside with the attendance numbers and filling those seats and providing that opportunity also you know the other goal of what are we trying to get done here so um no known answer is necessary but if you have something that's fine just if I can share trustive um we do sit down with all of our partners and we do have um you know a set number as well as a particular assessment diagnostic that we use with students we also reviewed data at the end of the program to look at progress in students right whether it's mathematics or language arts so we have um pretty specific objectives in each of the programs so what we can do is is do a summary either ask the individual partner to come through or do a summary presentation for you maybe uh come August or September yeah I appreciate that a summary would be good and I probably wasn't as clear as I should have been in my question I think my question was actually a little more along the lines of like if those outcomes and data and all the stuff that you mentioned if or how it it is modified this time with with the new Blended learning and um and you know distance learning or if it's just all the same that's that's the question I imagine this new model brings about its own unique challenges and opportunities and so that's kind of the the specific thing that I wanted because I know we do track these things but I was specifically kind of referring to the this strange situation we find ourselves in yeah any other comments on this from board members okay do we have any public comment on this Avatar I'm raised we have one hand raised you said correct and Dr Bauer did you have something just to alert you that trustee Chavez is having a lot of time with her signal we just need to be mindful of that I'm I'm trying to help her create her signal is not very strong okay or maybe uh you might want to join us by phone if that might be better she um that's what she's trying to you know to decide but right now she needs to be unmuted every time they just want to alert after every time she kicks out when she comes in it's muted so just after just be aware of that that's it I'm sorry guys it's just kind of a technical thing that is going on right now okay thank you so um the hand raised was it a zoom comment I'm assuming after yes okay so do we have a clock um ready to go so we can give and it's just one right yes only one okay so we um can do two minutes for the public comment on this item and there's no action to take here so we'll just hear the public comment and move forward from there um storage can you end yes thank you there we go okay so who is the public comment yeah the person name is Paul Soto all sort of okay so Mr Soto once your microphone is muted now once your microphone is unmuted your two minutes will begin and then when the two minutes is up it will be muted again so as soon as it unmute you can start talking there you go can you hear me yes okay uh my name is Paul Soto I'm a 52 year resident of a thank you Mighty Bell can we can we pause the clock uh uh Mr Soto I'm sorry King uh distance learning and concerned we're going to be socializing people not to connect with other human beings and I wish they ask a question can you can you hear me hello I think we might have lost him I know part of his public comment was um with regards to distance learning and so if if after if you can keep an eye for Mr Soto if he comes back I think he was having a connection problem as well if he does come back can can you let me know and then regardless of where we are we can we can take a moment to take his public comment on this item oh there he is Mr sofa can you hear me he needs to be unmuted oh yeah hold on can you hear me Mr Soto yes okay I apologize we would I think there was a a connection problem so we're gonna start your clock over again and you can restart your comment okay thank you I appreciate that but my concern is that we're going to socialize the Next Generation to not have eye contact we're going to socialize them not to connect because presence is frustrating to to have these types of meetings conducted in this type of setting because I'm not able to read the body language communication of communication 70 percent through body what that means is what that means is that we're losing 10 percent of the ability for communication to be back and for teachers to people I don't hear that okay um I'm not sure if you can if you can hear me Mr softa we did he drop again okay so I think what we'll do um apparently there's just a bad connection for him so um if he comes back I think we'll go ahead and request him to submit um his comment oh there he is I'll tell him right now sorry Mr Soto can you if you can unmute him please after just I can let him know a different way to submit this comment Mr Soto can you hear can you hear me unfortunately we're having a lot of problems for some reason with the connection so I'm wondering um can you email us your comment or yeah email it because we're not able to hear what you're saying and I really want to get that um comment so if you email it to us we can read that comment out loud one of our staff members in that way your full message will be heard instead of chopped up I were hearing it right responsible and I understand the basic of your comment is that you're concerned about um these types of meetings and the way we're doing things because of the inability to have body language and eye contact and those type of things so that part of your message we did well for the students well that's not part of that I I didn't mean within these types of meetings that that's one element of it but what I'm talking about is the virtual learning of a student at home that's what I'm talking about but there's there is no relationship between the people in the the uh the uh the teacher and the student and that being lacking I think a part of the learning process will lack as well that's my concern okay yeah actually your your connection is much better now so you have about one more minute and whatever your public comment if you want to finish it off since you have okay yeah it just it's just that because I I'm taking my own experience into account and the experience that I had with my teacher they actually asked a question on a Google security test who was your favorite teacher and the reason why they asked that question is because of the relationship that a student was able to develop with their teacher that's a very significant role especially at that age and I don't hear that talked about I don't hear anybody talking about that I hear about just this is the new way that we're going to be teaching this is the way it's going to be and and that's it and that's all but that human element is being left out of the conversation so my question to the board is why is that and is 70 of body language in terms of communication and the way that we communicate with each other that means 70 of learning is going to be missed that's my comment okay thank you Mr Soto I apologize for the technical difficulties um just a reminder to the public unfortunately the board is not able to have a dialogue or respond to specific questions but hopefully within the course of the meeting some of your questions will be answered but thank you for your comment okay um there was there any other comments after no I'm not sure if Mr Moran um Ellen Dory to speak in the public comment now Mr Sanchez was checking emails Mr Sanchez do you have anything the only comment was the curriculum what curriculum will be used for Teacher directed summer programs can you repeat that so that everybody can hear it was what curriculum will be used for Teacher directed summer programs okay thank you very much again the same comment just to the public um since it seems like we have um many people here so just just for your information um we are unable to respond directly to questions you may feel but you're free to pose those questions in your public comment um we have one more hand raised okay um so Brando Zendejas okay do we have the timer already might event yes public comments for item 2.03 okay so so if you could take the timer off Mighty Bell any other 2.03 public comments okay so C9 I think we can move on to item 2.04 distance learning plan implementation highlights and assessment update um who will be presenting that one yes so if I can open up um we wanted to share um board president berano board members um superintendent Bauer we wanted to share an update as to um what teaching and learning has looked like for the last three and a half months uh the planning that's taken place the attention to detail how we've been supporting students how we've been supporting families and teachers in this new Endeavor um so I'm going to ask uh Jason and Miss Campbell and the rest of the group to share with you um those highlights as well as share some updates from the state regarding State assessments all right can everybody see my screen yes all right uh Miss Campbell yes okay good evening board president bejarano board members superintendent Dr Bauer and Alum Rock community members presenting with me tonight is of various members of our instructional Services team Jason sorich Brittany reichels from the special ed Department Tony Colona from student services Anya artigas and Aimee Amazon and because we all had part in really really planning out and delving into our distance learning and providing the resources that are available land as a district we rolled out the implementation of distance learning in three phases a few elements are highlighted on each slide some highlights for each um in phase one we really did prepare to transition into distance learning our priority was safety and defining what distance learning was and really establishing some guidelines and also begin sending home uh devices and textbooks in phase two we began the day school closed we focused again on to continue Distributing of devices getting out student cycle one student work reviewing the CDE guidelines that came out and aligning our plan the district plan to those CD CDE guidelines and then also realigning the plans that each site had in phase three which was after the first three weeks when we realized that we were going to need to continue distance learning we focused on continue again continuing device distribution because we wanted to get a device in hands of every student determine the professional development needs that our staff might need what kind of collaboration and grade level collaboration we needed aligning our grading and also working with our partners to support and see how they can support them right here okay can you open it okay go ahead Jason and this side it shows your our overall vision for distance learning and this this slide and all the links that are there are on our district website which we'll share with you in a little bit the focus of communication is really being able to how we're going to be posting an assignments how are we going to be sending out announcements and doing check-ins then again under the teaching is really creating standards-based lessons and a lot aligned to the curriculum and getting those embed information through the steps I'm sorry I'm sorry just a quick Interruption doctor umassan I think you're your um connection I think we're doing your there you go thank you sorry about that no problem so again the the four big areas that we divided our our plan in was under communication about teaching about connecting and about assessing so I talked a bit about the communication is that back and forth getting information out to students again through Google classrooms seesaw Class Dojo those are all platforms for being able to communicate with students and families too we really worked on a looking and see what kind of services and teaching tools were available for our students we had recommended schedules then there was a connection of making sure that all our students had one-to-one devices and also how did we have those classroom sessions be it a Google meet a zoom or being through a flip grid where kids could fill out answers and then assessment is how did we follow up with checking for understanding as we were doing the teaching on a day-to-day basis week-to-week basis along the way go ahead so in our instructional planning we kind of did we divided it in into kind of three three week Cycles because again when we went into this we weren't sure how long this was going to happen so we really did focus on structures and supports that we needed to put in place so some of those things we planned for were staff meetings aligning grade level collaborations what kind of systems and communication we were providing principles meetings so that we could support them in in their needs professional development and also aligning supports for our students with disability and our English language Learners which we wanted to make sure that we were providing some additional supports for them and again not knowing how long you can see on the right hand side of the slide some kind of a calendar and that's how we rolled out the cycles of work for the students I'd like to have uh Tony Colona if you guys could unmute Tony he's going to talk about some of the work to support our students with disability um so we really put we cast our case managers that worked with our students and those SDC RSP teachers our speech therapists to create individual plans that to the best of their ability given the situation could meet the student's needs so that they could progress on their IEP goals for speech therapists we began by researching and because of some licensing requirements we purchased a platform that was both FERPA and HIPAA compliant that enabled them to begin teletherapy sessions for those students that would benefit from that we also had our counselors our working with our students with social emotional needs in a teletherapy platform to continue their counseling sessions our school psychologists continued assessing students um in even though many of them require face-to-face assessments we continue to assess through records reviews where possible and then a lot of those assessments will be pushed until the summer we hope to start back up and into the fall we had our related Services we're Consulting with teachers and working with families to offer the best Services they could through the platforms that were available and at the same time we really wanted to keep the momentum that we built into district with inclusive models by having our special ed teachers working with General Ed teachers co-teaching joining Google classes and supporting through their General Ed classrooms and then with our Behavior Specialists um they were assigned to work with the different programs and the different schools and it has needed basis they worked with parents when requested when parents had concerns and Consulting it was definitely a Monumental effort that you know we took on and I just want to thank first staff and especially our families for working with us and getting us through uh the school year thank you all right so so as we as we started this journey uh three months ago you know we really started to think about uh teaching and learning how do we make sure that we have the rigor um and how do we make sure teachers are in a position to be able to be successful uh so this is an early draft this is a hyperdoc linked with a variety of resources professional development items uh podcasts a general Resource page for teachers making sure that teachers had had some Foundation to be able to work from uh from there you can see uh the variety of curriculum that's been available to teachers throughout this distance learning process so broken down by grade level you can see all of our Core Curriculum areas our Core Curriculum each of them comes with an online component and then in the final column you can see uh the variety of online programs that we've either introduced or reinforced through this time right to support all core all core subject areas so from there it was an opportunity for us to really go deeper to identify where the professional development needs were so there were at least two separate surveys where that we put out to teachers asking what it is that you need in terms of of support right from pedagogy to implementation so uh in the top left column we have an online tutorial that's a that's a document that houses curated um videoed uh professional development opportunities um my zoom screen is just showing the zoom and then trusty Chavez if you can mute your Zoom we can we can hear you okay now it came through so I the thing is is I can't even see that all I have is a screen that is white with that says Zoom so I can't even go to it to unmute me I'll just lower the volume on me okay um I don't know if that will work but we can try it all right after can you mute her I think yeah I can mute your trust the job is if you want you can yeah let's unmute let's mute her until she's ready okay sorry about that Mr storage you can continue no worries okay so uh we also had a number of of teachers really step up to the plate and say that you know I'm strong in these particular areas of distance learning uh you know let me support teachers so we have a number of teacher created opportunities uh learning opportunities that took place throughout the month of May those were those are all archived under the arusd teacher opportunity page uh and then an ongoing item that we have is uh edtech coaching and mentoring where we're pairing up um groups of of teachers uh in search of additional uh you know ways to develop their proficiency with teachers who are you know who are proficient so that's ongoing and then finally we have a distance learning YouTube page where we house a number of different resources videos um and and recordings all in the name of professional development um so from there you know we started to think about you know uh you know what other resources do we have and obviously the most valuable is our parent group so what is it that parents you know that parents are really asking for uh so we made sure uh that we were sending home sample schedules uh to help parents develop routines um grade level specific academic resources so whether your child is in a TK through sixth grade there was there were appropriate resources that parents could access um resources you know on how to use technology right tutorials online tutorials um that are available at uh at your fingertips from there it was really about how do we take all these vast resources and how do we house them in a central location uh so I'm going to take you now to our to our District web page what it actually looks like so this is our this is our distance learning page and you can see down the uh under the distance learning headline right here is our Alum Rock distance learning plan and vision available for folks and then down the right a variety of tabs right so we have a tab dedicated to parents uh one for teachers one for tech support uh one for ELD or English language Learners um a page devoted to socio-emotional learning resources that you'll you'll see shortly uh we have created a podcast right so we uh we put out two podcasts a week where we're interviewing uh District staff parents teachers even students on their experiences throughout distance learning here's our YouTube page and we also have a Blog that we that we update twice a week so you can get a little sprinkling of of what's available on our what's available for parents so you can see what we have housed here is distance learning information uh information around different options that are available in in this scenario as I mentioned a variety of schedules there's the resources by grade level along with enrichment activities as well and then one more we can highlight here this is our our page to support our English language learners and it is linked back to our home page okay so we will we will make sure that is that is updated but hopefully you can get a good sense of of how we you know how we thought through the resources that were necessary and how we've made sure that um they're available and accessible for all right and I'm going to hand it off to right and Anya after if we could unmute I me Amazon Anya artigas and Brittany reichels please Jason do you want to go ahead and click on the website we can go through that there we are so um I'll I'll just talk and tell Anya and Amy uh catch up but um Aimee and Anya put together along with the district counselors put together resources for social and emotional learning um thinking in terms of what do students need during this time parents caregivers and Educators so they compiled lots of different resources embedded them and then we put them for students they're by grade level we also have the crisis numbers and this is on the website as well so they can go through and access any of these resources could you click on students really quick Jason and then go to tkk and these resources are in Spanish and English and they are bi-emotional um different emotions so like if a student is feeling anger they can go in there and then they're going to get a list of resources so this is something that they can students can access on their own as well as parents and Educators if you click on an emotion like anger or you're gonna see lots of different resources from videos worksheets different breathing exercises all kinds of different things targeted at these different grade levels for them to use so it's just a place for resources to be held and uh thank you Brittany for for uh introducing the SEL Resource page and um there are also other tabs for as you see their parents uh and caregivers as well as Educators because we really wanted to make sure that all of our stakeholders had resources throughout um throughout uh our our distance learning um period and um places and phone numbers where they could access extra support um if needed so um this is a work in in progress we are going to be continuing to update the the information that is found on the scl resource page and um we're also hoping to transfer this because right now it's on a Google site it's it's still uh it's it's it's still a work in progress but um we will be transferring it um to to have it be more accessible on our District web page and have it be on its own page and we also are looking forward to pushing this out through parent Square as well once once we um uh curate more resources and other support that parents teachers and students may need thank you all right and we're going to end up with um Brittany reichels is going to kind of give up just share one or two things on the state and local assessment updates um so as most of you know our elpac and Casp assessments have been suspended we were in the middle of summative elpac so our third through eighth graders were tested in for in the four domains those scores will come out in June late June early July based on that data we can move to reclassify um but as far as cast but that was totally suspended for this year so it does have implementation implications on um different accountability things so we're kind of looking at ways that we're gonna um work on that so you can see that we also have the initial lpac we got a lot of our students initially lpaced if a student was enrolled during covid-19 a letter goes into their file explaining they were enrolled then so they will be tested come fall um for the PFT that was that's the physical fitness test there's the legend at the bottom so you can kind of see the acronyms but that was suspended for this year it will continue next year um our Pathway to the Seal of biliteracy we were still able to do that for our eighth graders at onalante this year um and we will presenting that information at our next board meeting thank you and that concludes our presentation okay thank you very much for the presentation um do we have questions or comments from the board trustee um as a parent of an 11 year old who just promoted to sixth grade you know I know her teacher did a fantastic job um and so that's just a reflective of all of your work thank you um and just a question you know I know there was so much done and so little time um and I would just maybe take any one of you any one of you can answer this question going back four months ago to where we're at now what we know now um what is what is one thing that you would say that's been a huge learning during this process um that would then you know make it a little easier hopefully we never have to go through anything like this again but just something you know one thing if one of you can answer that that you learned um going through this process um that would be valuable um in moving forward I think for me I think it was some you know cohesiveness is pretty is important and also just really as we we kind of delved into it is that the whole professional learning opportunities was also another big learning is how do we provide them because everybody everybody jumps into professional learning opportunities in a different way so being able to provide those learning opportunities for the for our staff in different in different modalities because sometimes in a bigger group some people are not as open but really looking at some of those options that we could provide support for everybody thank you and I I would add I would Echo Miss Campbell's statements and I would also add uh just the power of resilience that's been on display um for the past four months you know just in terms of of teachers learning uh pushing forward all of us within uh all of us in the support teams being able to get you know find you know collaborate with one another communicate with one another make sure that we're uh that we're learning or putting the best product forth and and failing forward right and learning from it along the way so that resilience has been on display throughout okay thank you any other comments or questions from trustees interesting Marquez here go ahead I'm I think I'd like to ask the team if they could share um what they believe was probably the most detriment thing that happened to our students learning you know I I will share um who is this this is uh Renaissance okay so if I can share um trustee Marquez one of the things that I think we learned from listening to our parents as we engage in conversations about their experiences is how much they value um how much they value connecting with the teachers regularly and how happy the students were how much more engaged students were when students and when the teacher was present right so I think that was a huge learning for us um and and parents um really shared how powerful they felt that was okay thank you Renee thank you Renee because that brings me back to um the parent that had a concern of that you know the the connection between the teacher and the child um and I think that's probably what lays heavy on me is that those those things are not going to happen um with distant learning um and I don't know how we can get around that you know but it is a concern thank you for sharing that I truly believe what you said is true thank you any other questions or comments from trustees okay I have a couple of things I wanted to um to mention first of all I have to say that I'm I'm really just um amazed at you know the what was presented to us tonight and what we know has been going on these past however three or four months um because I know that it's no small feat to I mean what you presented to us tonight typically and you could correct me if I'm wrong but it's something that would be developed over the course of many months or years and this is something that that the Alum Rock team turned over like I mean almost literally overnight so it's I can't be even stated how Monumental that that effort is and and the product is I mean as someone mentioned I think Dr almazan it's a work in progress like anything we continue to get better but even at the state that it's in it's it's a product that I'm very proud of as our as you know a trustee here for the district um I see Applause here from Dr Bauer she agrees um I think that um you know to kind of go along so I've been doing a little bit of of research for something different in terms of the impact of um this this distance learning and and zoom meetings and everything on socio-emotional development um and and just Social Development and stages of development and obviously because of it's been not that long that there's the research is limited but there actually is some research that um that I was able to find that does demonstrate that although it's not the same I mean you know this doesn't account for like olfactory like smells and just like an energy in the room those things that you cannot do online but there is evidence that suggests that um many of the social cues that that we particularly young children and students need to develop social skills to learn rules to learn how other people react and respond again it's not the same as person but the evidence suggests that that it can happen so so a lot of that Social Development um I think that is so important to to Echo your point Mr Sanchez is that I so appreciate um all of our staff and our teachers who who went out of their comfort zone and you know really tried this distance learning thing out and and connected with our students regularly and and you know just seeing a teacher and maybe being able to see classmates and interact in that way it is crucial a crucial part of their development that we're responsible for and so I think that is um that's key to what we're doing to continue to look at ways if we have to continue down this path because of Health Department mandates and all the different things that come down to us if we have to continue down the path that we continue as a team to consider the importance of those that Social Development that can apparently still happen at some level through through zoom and other platforms where we connect virtually so I had that my questions were kind of already asked in a different form I was going to ask if there was anything that anyone felt we did particularly well or areas that we could improve upon next time like I said that's similar to the questions already but um if anyone has an answer to those more specifically um and then before I anyone answers that the last thing I just wanted to say was that I think the investment that everyone has put forth into this including our students and our parents you know it's also no easy task for a parent to have to learn you know this hot spot and this tablet and this Chromebook and how do I log on to this and that like it's it's a huge investment of time and energy for everyone involved and so hopefully when we you know when we do go back to what we would call normal um I would hate for us to to you know just put this stuff aside and now just go back to how it was I think there's tremendous value in what has been created and what continues to be created and I think one thing that isn't represented here but I know like for instance the town hall model that Dr Bauer and and people put together is seem to be a very valuable way for parents um who don't traditionally or aren't able to come to these meetings but a very valuable way for them to participate to share their thoughts and so even though you know if we go back to it back to quote unquote normal I would love to see some thought and planning into how we can maintain a lot of this work that we've already invested in and balance that with you know that normal that we all hope to go back to so those are my comments slash potential questions on on that item um Miss Campbell and then Dr Bauer after that very fast I see we have 190 books in 109 particular many people are having trouble including our trusty you know with the internet signal and so I wanna learn those of us who live in the east side will really need to create a big voice and Shout Out Loud to our um the people that manage internet services in sorry that was one of the major learnings for us that we provided connectivity we provided the devices but the signal is not strong enough and you can see it today in the meeting right so Seaside Alum Rock Let's write letters let's make phone calls we need I don't know those are things that the district cannot take care of but we as a community can we're always concerned about that thank you I mean I have to say it because that was one of the biggest learning for me as a superintendent thank you Dr Barry it has become painfully obvious tonight and we do have a resolution later on tonight that kind of speaks to that um Miss Campbell I believe you had something um yeah I just I I wanted to kind of take this opportunity to kind of highlight a couple of things one again is just uh some of the amazing creativity that our teachers have some of the amazing projects they did with their students the ways they connected with the students um I was just in awe of how fun they were how they engaged their students and how much the kids looked forward to it talking to print teachers and saying that kids at you know six o'clock in the morning already online trying to do the work because they wanted to get it done so that's one piece I also wanted to really a shout out to our principals because our principals also really were that go between in the work that we were doing centrally to taking it to the teachers and and really helping helping it roll out so that was another last piece and then just the the willingness of everybody to step up and help help each other learn share ideas work together to to better the the delivery of learning to the students so those were the just a few thank you thank you any other comments we we just have one comment from Dr artigas um she worked uh diligently uh on the essay ELP since she wanted to share a few thoughts I'm sorry if you can unmute Anya please okay and I know trustee Chavez after that I saw your hand so you can go after that okay thanks so uh thank you so much uh assistant superintendent Sanchez uh so in terms of the SEL piece I think that you know both Brittany and Amy uh covered it uh well and and completely um there was a lot of thought that went into it I just wanted to also make sure that that um you're aware we are going to do a soft launch of another component of of the SEL and resource piece uh we have created a survey that we're going to put on the website and host on the website where families can begin to tell us what resources they need in case they're struggling to be able to communicate that on the phone they can go on our website and they can fill out a survey that's going to populate a spreadsheet so that we can make phone calls daily as a counseling team um so I wanted to put that out there I also wanted to just say that um you know we've been making phone calls to the parents my interns are doing uh closing counseling sessions with kids and it's given us an opportunity to really talk at length with the kids as well as with the parents um you know and the parents have been incredibly grateful for everything we're doing uh but both kids and and parents are missing uh that connection and that togetherness um with the teachers and the staff at the school and that was very very clear uh in the conversations we had but they have been very appreciative of everything that we're doing and how quickly we turned it around so you know prison uh they had on I know you mentioned that and and again that's been what has been said um as we've been talking to families and we're going to continue to do so up until the end of the month um we have about we've gone through about 120 families and we have about another 130 to finish so thank you thank you trustee Chavez actually she just answered one of the questions that I had is it was are they calling the parents and I remember uh before all this covet started I think I asked in the boardroom that we have a board policy about parent involvement never did I dream that the parent involvement was going to involve then teaching them at home but that's in a way this is kind of like of all the bad stuff that's happening this is like a really good thing they're more to me it seems like they're more involved they have to be more involved and I just want to say thank you to all the parents out there and say keep up the good work there's a lot of uh learning that didn't happen because of all this but um with their help with the parents help and the students willingness to learn they'll they'll get back up there as far as the learning curve went thank you thank you uh Mr oh no any uh uh after do we have any public comment on this item yes we have three hand raised okay so Maribel can we get the the clock ready um was there any other comments or questions from uh board members or staff one quick thing that I just want to um maybe request particularly for this uh the distance learning resources page on the website is if there's any way um that and I know it's it's the coding that Google provides for the translate but if we can in some way call out that translate part a little bit more so that um parents or families that that want to come here and get resources can more easily understand or or get that they can translate the page into their language and and get those resources that they need I know it's there and that's awesome that we have it but if if there's a way to call it out a little more um that I think that would be helpful for for some of our parents or families that that need the translation so thank you and so after who is the the first name that we have foreign okay um so Mr Soto thank you I think you know the routine now hopefully we have a better connection so there's two minutes on the clock when you are unmuted um you can begin to speak and then when your two minutes are up you will be muted again okay can you hear me yes okay um I wanted to thank uh Dr Sanchez in uh Miss uh board member uh artigas for re-emphasizing the point that there's there's an element about these conversations that's not being talked about and that is the element of that communication you alluded it to it uh board member when you started talking about that there's an energy that we bring our spinal cord actually has electricity our central nervous system has electricity when we're in the presence with somebody there's power there and that power is lacking and there's going to be a consequence for that and that consequence has to be researched a lot more than just trying to measure is this person grasping do they know what two and two do they know that two times two is four you know there's there's all of these other social elements that over a generation you see because we're measuring them in very very small blocks these things are actually measured in Generations and so when you get to a point where these kids are 20 years old and then measure them against a 40 year old that's one generation and then you will be able to really actually see the difference this is a paradigm shift Google is coming here and I see their advertising all over these school districts and I'm not okay with it I'm not okay with Google advertising on element School District number one number two there's a historical precedence for this historical president for the kind of neglect that has gone on in Alum Rock School District like I said my father's from South SE puedes my entire family had picked fruit in that area and where it had pesticides ddts sprayed on them and had to work in the field all through the summer and that's why school started in September so there's like a whole lot of conversation that we have to have around these particular issues but the neglect of the internet to the east side of San Jose there's a historical precedent for that thank you okay let's reset the clock and who is the next name Avatar next name is here Trinidad if I have not pronounce it okay I don't see it on my screen but um I missed I couldn't hear the first name but Mr or Miss the Trinidad um can you hear me okay so same thing you're when you begin speaking the clock will start your two minutes and then when the two minutes is up you'll be muted and um that'll be the end of your time okay thank you I just wanted to point out one of the questions that you had originally asked was what was done right or what was done um that benefited this whole process and I just wanted to point out that when everything happened of course it was a quick transition to doing everything online and there was a huge distribution of laptops or home devices for the students to be able to participate in class sessions with so I think that was a really good and Swift adjustment on behalf of all the school districts um the other concern that I actually had was in in all districts not just yours um the amount of time that and it comes back to what Mr Soto said is the amount of time that teachers are not spending with the students it was kind of like a um an adjustment shock I guess so to speak where the kids go from seeing their their instructors from five times a week in about six hours a day to once a week for about an hour a day and I feel like that's not enough time to teach the lessons that the teachers are supposed to be or or trying to implement with the students and and I just feel like that's not enough time whether it be once or twice a week for an hour or two a day and I get the concern is being online all the time with the students but I do feel there should be more instruction time offered during the week versus what's offered now okay thank you okay and we'll reset and what's the next one Avatar we have flor de Leon okay Miss de Leon I believe you know the process so when you are unmuted you can begin your comment um uh can you hear me yes okay um so good evening everyone my name is flor de Leon and I first of all I want to say um and I'm a parent and I also organize it as group um I I just want to say first of all thank you you know I understand all the work that has been done in the district but I also want to say that um we need to we need we have heard from parents that there are some kids that um they they'd even stop going to school you know and I understand that also some parents are not very experts on um like running all the the programs or or tools that you have on the website and I'm just concerned that um how are we helping and uh these kids and at the same time the parents because the parents are not uh prepared to be to be teachers you know and a lot of them don't even um have the skills of Education probably they went up to third grade so and I'm just asking the district um what are we doing to support those kids that are that until now haven't received any distance learning and um the other thing is that you know um also the health and the wellness at this time is very important because all the the things that we're going with the pandemic and with that with the things that are happening with that police um brutality and everything that is going but also uh causing that um emotional uh for our kids and the parents and I think we need to to like like uh superintendent says and others have mentioned that working with parents is very important and as a matter of fact it's one of the things that uh you guys are required by state to um uh Center Racial equality prioritizing health and wellness through uh community and schools it's a it's a math thing that we need to pay attention because I always hear that priority is security but I think we need to start working on that and I just say that parents are here to be able to um to support and just reach out to us you guys know who we are and uh we want to be part of this thank you okay were there any more after that after none okay any further questions or comments from from trustees okay thank you everyone um so we can move on to item 3.01 um so this is huh do we uh am I not on for some reason I thought I think so we had talked about 604 no uh you said before 401.
Valesky Thank You president Becker and good evening everyone in some form we are all participants in the worldwide reaction to the senseless death of George Floyd and how we move forward in a positive productive in respectful manner as superintendent of East Brunswick public schools it is my responsibility to catalyze the words and ideas for formidable anti-racist anti-bias anti hate change into actionable solutions we are a district of excellence that is one of the reasons why you decided to move these Brunswick while excellence will always be our pursuit so shall our strengthening of an inclusive culture and our schools our work is not static and changed for the sake of change is not good enough our professional development are critical the summer will have a focus on inclusiveness and equity in spite of the budgetary constraints we must overcome this board and administration has never wavered from committing resources that improve and sustain an environment that reflects the humanity and dignity of each individual but it goes beyond money it must be a core belief in how we treat every individual it is my commitment that ebps will not only communicate those beliefs but it will be a non-negotiable expectation that we model behavior that is anti-racist anti-assad anti hate every day East Brunswick Public Schools is proud to partner with East Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce in Brunswick Square Mall for the first ever MC foods 2020 battle of the classes in East Brunswick community food drive competition to celebrate the 2020 graduates of East Bay High School student leaders from D BHS plan to organize this community service event together with ebh s principal dr. michael vanilla and mr.
congratulations thank you thank you I've always considered the fact that I landed this job in Bolton one of the greatest blessings of my life I'm gonna miss everyone and we will miss you much health and happiness thank you our next retiree Karen Cordero Bolton high school dedicated educator proud mama to bone high school graduates environmental advocate worldwide traveler and Bolton eyes Cole's by far most enthusiastic cheerleader we know her as Karen Cordero we should have sent pom-poms to her house tonight I think Karen began her career at Bolton High School in 1985 and was retiring at the end of the school year after 35 years of teaching over the years Karen has inspired students to explore the world around them enjoy the wonders of the night sky question the how and the why of the natural world and protect the environment as a former student stated she has taught students not only how to care for the environment but the importance of caring for the environment she has taught a plethora of courses including freshman science UConn environmental science ecology sophomore biology and astronomy all with a passion for teaching and an overabundance of enthusiasm teaching has not simply been a job for Karen it has been her passion and she has wholeheartedly dedicated herself to the Bolton community for the past 35 years Karen and her husband Tom moved to bold and early in her teaching career in order to raise their children Lindsey and Collin in the Bolton school system but even before her children were students at the high school and well after they graduated Karen has thrown herself into extracurricular life at Bolton high school throughout her career she has served as class advisor student council advisor Cheerilee coach member of the National Honor Society selection committee ski club advisor and buyeth on coach dedicated chaperone of various events and trips supporter of the Performing Arts an extreme fan at just about every sporting event we have she has also organized highly successful educational trips to Costa Rica South Africa in u.s.
okay that's what I have down yes just saw there are two raised hands just okay do you know if that was for the last one or for this one okay so let me just say um so yeah so I have after this we'll go to 604 but for now um so we do have two people so we'll take those two comments shortly and then um this is also the opportunity for anybody who has who wishes to address the board on an item that is not on the agenda tonight so if it is something on the agenda you can wait till that item but if it's not on the agenda and you'd like to address the board you could also provide public comment at this point so we will take those two hands that we have and then if you have anything for item 3.01 you can additionally um raise your hand and speak to that item so my develop if we can bring the clock back up and um after who is the next name is Veronica okay um Veronica I don't see it here can you hear Veronica um can you hear me yes so same thing um the clock will start when you begin speaking and you'll have two minutes and then your time will be up at that point so you can start whenever you're ready thing yeah okay I am hold on I'm sorry hold on San Antonio elementary school children uh um sorry about that yeah I'm sorry we were just restarting the clock because you at first you were not we couldn't hear you so can you restart it Mighty but I'm sorry we just had a bad connection so we were restarting your clock but now we can move forward so whenever you're ready great hi um good afternoon um I am the mother of two um uh students I'm also talking on behalf of my community um and the children in our district and I also want to address the Alan Rock Union School District and Mandarin resolution condemning all discrimination and racism ensuring and inclusion School environment for all students I appreciate that that was sent out it was a little bit too late after all the incidents with happening around um I also want to follow up with the um cf351 5.3 and a district policy Security Department any complaints of hate motivation Behavior shall be investigated and if and the district's uniform complaint procedures specify an ar1315.3 and uniform compliance procedures um and just wanted to um Mr board president they had I know why didn't we call the compliance officer to us for your behavior and trying to call the police on a black Alum Rock employee um you thought was trespassing in our schools we urge you to end the funding with the police in our schools invest those funding and programs for our teachers and staff to not commit the same racist mistakes you have made again and we urge you to bring into action those um that contract that you the Island Rock holds with the San Jose police department and take those please out of our schools to Wellness and for our children terms how to respond to that start putting actual you know social workers like yourself in our schools and not police officers and to the pipeline um really again let's not make that same mistake that you did for president of calling that as race you know calling on a black person police officer um and educate ourselves and our our children thank you very much for your comment um and as a reminder to everyone this is an opportunity to make a comment on an item that is not agendized tonight there is an agenda item I believe for that particular item so if you wanted to speak to item 2.04 the distance learning plan implementation highlights or something that is not on the agenda this would be the time for that after who is the next person um so this is also if I can request before you speak can you let us know if you're um sneaking on item 2.04 the distance learning or item 3.0 3.01 non-agendized items um so when when you begin speaking the clock will start and your two minutes will begin at that time okay hello can you hear me yes all right so hello my name is Jacqueline Franco I am the mother to two daughters attending Cesar Chavez Elementary I am here today representing a group of parents Community leaders and organizers so most importantly I am here today uh representing my daughters and uh the students of this District um I am requesting an item to defund RSO police on campus and redirect those funds back to students academic supportive and prevention programs um our East Side communities have been drastically impacted by covid-19 and our students you know they're going to return in the fall with trauma and more needs than before um we believe that we need to provide programs like restorative justice technology and internet support that we've already heard before like in this meeting that we need and counselors for all our students it is our responsibility and it is this board's responsibility to provide to prioritize those needs and well-being of our students first um so again I uh we are asking to cancel all police contracts and redirect those funds and I'm officially officially requesting this item to take to be placed on the next Alum Rock School District board agenda thank you thank you and the next name after his theme is okay and just it sounds like um for the purposes of note-taking and it sounds like that past comment was for item 3.01 just for clarity um so Mr Espinosa same thing if you can reference which item you're speaking to 2.04 or 3.01 and then your um your time will begin once you start speaking and you will last for two minutes hi uh can you hear me yes great hi uh my name is Tim and I am a parent of two students in the district and I'm speaking on behalf of my community on item 3.01 and I'd like to begin by addressing the social media post that was made on the school district's behalf that suggested their support of the police department uh to post something of that nature during the height of the protests over the murder of George Floyd was insensitive to say the least and I'm glad that the post has since been removed however we all know that it does not stop there our school district has been faced with major budget cuts our teachers have been affected libraries have been closed cuts to our community liaison liaison support and sadly several schools have been closed and repurposed spending on police presence in our schools however has not uh has not been cut we know that sport policing is linked to this country's long history of oppressing and criminalizing black and brown people 24 of a k-6 elementary students have some sort of police presence on campus our district is part of that 24 and it should not be because our kids in our community are not criminals with that being said it's time for our district school board to take action to redirect and redistribute the funding used on police officers and sros back into students academic and Social Services we are requesting that this that the school district take public position in solidarity with black lives matter our students and families and immediately terminate and cancel all contracts with the police department or any law enforcement personnel and redirect those funds back into student academic programs support programs and prevention programs that align with restorative justice practices as an example with that being said I along with many others and requesting that this item is placed for discussion and action at the next uh district meeting thank you thank you okay after our next person is Jeffy also can you repeat that I couldn't okay Jackie I heard um I think I heard Jackie am I unmuted yes um again if you can reference which item you're speaking to 2.04 or 3.01 and then once you begin speaking your two minutes will begin thank you this is for item 3.01 thank you my name is Jeffy Costa I live in San Jose and I'm a Public School parent and I want to ask that you cancel all police contracts and I ask that you add this issue formally to the next board meeting for discussion in action the budget for school policing should be reallocated for community and Creative Solutions for student safety and well-being we know that police and schools leads to violence and arrests we know better now we need to do better we need to add counselors nurses wellness centers our music and a curriculum that addresses our country's history of racism and acknowledges the contributions of our different community members of color and include social justice standards thank you thank you are there any more after yes [Music] if you can let us know which item you're speaking to and then your two minutes will begin when you start hi I'm speaking on item 3.1 I'm sure you guys are aware of the Nationwide protest the world today I called the board to defund the police from Iowa Rock School District we need your support to a movement to eliminate the police from schools we must take the money out of the police department and redirect it into mental health support counselors after school programs teacher teacher coaches Librarians translators Student Wellness Center Breakers and robust ethnic studies cultural responsive teaching and racial Equity training for teachers and staffs we need a resolution I want to challenge the board today to move from words to actions don't just play pledge take action dismantle the contract that instills fear harsh discipline and pushes students to the prison pipeline I need this on an action item for the next meeting and I have two boys and a lot of nephews that are in middle school and I'm a very involved parent and I urge you guys to please put more into our schools we have lost teacher resources we have lost Foothill counselors we have laid off Librarians we have cut off liaison's hours and we have shut down schools we have two translators for the whole district for uh English to Spanish and we have one Vietnamese translator we need to invest in our schools and we also need to invest in our technical department because it has been lacking for the past meetings and we need to do better than that have a great day thank you next person after or after are you still here and do we lose him okay yes I am okay uh who's the next person [Music] yes I can okay so same thing if you can reference the item you're speaking to and your two minutes will begin when you start talking so I'm referencing item 3.0 I am the business agent that represents Teamsters look uh as we had to face challenges to do it through a zoom meeting and we have to set up a date for ratification but we're very very pleased that both sides during this terrible time uh for economics and the challenges and fears of covid and the social distancing that we were able to reach uh the goal line and uh again thank you to your team and to the district I hope our relationships continues to uh stay in a very very positive way as it has for many years thank you Alan uh next person Avatar this person is Veronica um did is it the same one that spoke on this one already I'm not sure it was the previous item or the next item okay so uh Veronica um used I believe you spoke previously are you speaking to the other item no it I already spoke on this item that I wanted to speak okay so you're you're good for now right yes okay thank you um do we have another one after yes Miguel what was that one Miguel oh Miguel okay so Miguel I don't see it here but can you hear me girl yes you guys hear me uh yes incredible we can hear you so if you can yes we can hear you can you hear us me now we can hear can you hear uh hello yes we can hear you can you hear us Miguel um so maybe we can are there other ones after if um yeah I don't know if you can hear but if you guys can you guys hear me oh you can hear us now can you hear us Miguel yeah Ernesto okay we can hear you okay okay um okay so if you can it looks like we have a better connection now so if you can reference if you're speaking to item 3.01 or 2.04 and then when you begin talking your two minutes will begin okay uh yeah I'm referencing uh item 3.0 my name is Juan Miguel I am educator organizer representing was from someone's speaking on behalf of item 3.0 on defunding police at our at our high schools and and School District um just just has as Salinas the county of Salinas has has done it uh to to prevent and create these great allocate these resources um such a you know put it putting it such as in Digital Arts to Arts uh things such as preventing um you know promoting mental health and and best practices uh ethnic studies to solve the identity crisis and and promote the diversity that the city is all about um also a lot of restorative practices that we can allocate these These funds for um to to to create some sort of expression for these students and also provide opportunity um and also wanted to mention uh if we can allocate some resources to find financial literacy uh as this world go grows and uh a lot of students I know I can speak from experience of uh not coming you know coming out of high school and not knowing what to put my money or what you know what is what what is it the definition of of saving or investing um and such and such and such um with that uh thank you um yeah okay thank you okay Avatar do we have another one dilza Gonzalez okay Miss Gonzalez I believe you know the routine so if you can reference which item you're speaking to and your clock will start uh when you begin speaking um good evening can you guys hear me yes okay good evening my name is Gonzalez I'm parent of three students in the Olympic School District I just want to make clear that I am here today as a parent um first and all um second I want to Echo what every single parent and Community member just said we do need to deep deep down police officers we need um more programs for our kids no more than ever especially after we're going under um a cup budget that's gonna affect our district so um please let us our community second I want to talk about and um an item that was brought um last last um board meeting around supporting um that letter for undocumented families I would like to talk on the subject just because I couldn't I didn't have time to talk on the last meeting um I I want to say as a paranormal of the Umbra school district and also as um as an undocumented person that I was five years ago by not by trusting Linda Chavez not supporting or abstaining support in favor of this letter of support um I believe it's um a betrayal kind of to our community and also to the philosophy of the alumboro school district especially on number six where it says ability of children to learn in affected by social health and economic conditions and other factors outside their classrooms right now our families especially our students and the students that you're representing that are um High needs students and most likely families won't be receiving any um unemployment or any other fundings from the government this when people like this or Governors who try to help us we need to power our families we need to support our communities and we need to support especially that district and the families that we represent and that you represent when you're sitting right there thank you and have a really good evening Thank You Avatar do we have another name yes we have four more the next person is Victor Vasquez okay um give me a second um okay so Mr Vazquez I believe you also know the routine so if you could just let us know which item you're speaking to and your two minutes will begin when you begin speaking good evening as part of our racial economic Justice values last week's almost made for issues a statement what we call for organizing that leads to a more just Society with substance of care challenging racism classism directly and I'm filtered dismantling any police and immigration enforcement that destroys a racial solidarity and prevents us from building racial solidarity for a world where everybody can live free of fear and reach their fullest potential we stand with our families our children and we also and our leaders and we will advocate for investing in true community and school safety and well-being including housing education and health care we support redistributing resources from policing the militarization back to students teachers and community-based and control Solutions we ask the board for you to support the parents requests address their demand and also redirect those funds back to our schools students and teachers thank you so much and have a good night thank you who the next person Avatar yeah this person is Olivia or this okay Mr Ortiz um if you can let us know which item you're speaking on 2.04 or 3.01 and then 2.01 okay thank you so when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin good evening my name is Olivia Ortiz and I have two kids in Illinois School District uh one of my kids goes to the Cesar Chavez Elementary School I think it was the beginning of last year we have lost our counselor Miss Ashley which was a tremendous help for my kid because he was going through a lot in first grade and I've been asking uh who will replace this Ashley and until now no one has given answers or who would replace her there's a someone that comes to school will used to come to school twice a week but that wasn't enough I I hear I always hear that from teachers from uh program um teachers that how much do we need a um a counselor today I'm asking and I'm supporting the parents community that you guys cancel the contract with the police department allocate those those funds and I really I think that we really need more than more than any time before we need counselors at school especially around the kids are going to be back to school and we know that a lot of kids are going through so much right now parents are going through so much and we will need that support so I really hope that you guys do that and find even more funds to get more counselings I want to see counselors on schools I don't want to see police we need those so please do the right thing I'm also asking you guys to please uh put this formal item on the agenda for the next meeting uh I know that you guys want our best for our kids that's why you guys are in there you know sitting in in the board I know that you guys are the best so if you guys want the best for our kids please do the right thing please cancel the country with the police department and allocate those funds for more counseling and more and we there's a lot of needs in our schools a lot of needs so we can use those funds thank you thank you uh next person after this View okay I didn't get the last name but Myra um elagio oh there it is Myra Bellagio yeah can you hear me yes so the same thing if you can let us know the item that you're speaking on and your two minutes will begin when you begin speaking okay perfect so I'm calling on item 3.01 and I want to request for you to put it for Melinda agenda for the next meeting and I am a sister of two kids in the Ellen World West District and I'm calling for you to cancel all of the police contracts and allocate instead the funding for other services that our kids desperately need just like going some of the requests from the other community members there's a lot of needs in our schools and our neighborhoods are already over policed the least thing that our kids need is to go to school and find more police and feel in a place where they're supposed to feel safe um my sister for example she is in fourth grade and she's been waiting in the wait list for an after school program for three years which I think is ridiculous um my mom has no time to pick her up and so we have to um first of all around and see who is whose turn it is to pick them up so as you can see and as you have been hearing there's a lot of other needs in our school district that you could address by um redirecting the funding that you're putting into the police contracts and so I urge you to restructure the funding to address the real needs of our children thank you so much thank you next person after next person is Paul Soto I'm not sure if he wants to speak on the next item okay Mr Soto can you hear me yes I can hear you okay we can hear you good too this time so um same thing if you can let us know if you're speaking on item 2.04 or 3.01 and then when you begin speaking your time will start 3.01 thank you um everybody okay yeah sure go ahead um I'd like to talk about the uh school to prison pipeline okay because this is a fact that I'm sure some of you are aware of it by the time that a child is in the third grade the third grade the California Department of Corrections borrows against those numbers that they receive from all the school districts because the both state institutions and so what they do is they give those numbers to Bankers they give them to mortgage companies they give them to uh to auto loan companies because they can predict how many beds they're going to need in the future for that generation based on the numbers of kids in the third grade these are just facts this is not opinion this is not my thoughts I didn't extrapolate this from anything so what my issue is is that those facts are not reflected in the type of investment that is going on in the schools particularly the East Side School District I mean will Glenn will Glenn ain't nobody getting laid off over there and the wealth that was accumulated in Willow Glenn was off the backs of Mexicans on the east side so that's what I meant by there's a historical president that becomes injustices that are going on right near right now because it goes to funding inside these school districts so what I'd like to see is that that particular item because it can be uh supported because Raul parales councilman Perales showed a film and it was called uh the kids that we lost and it supports statistically and academically everything that I'm saying right now so what I'd like to know is why that issue isn't talked about and that we could see that reflected in the police officers there because what they're doing is they're socializing these kids to get acclimated to being under that kind of authority because they already know by the third grade uh what the test scores are whether or not these kids are going to end up in California Department of Corrections thank you thank you next person Avatar is Maria Martinez okay um Maria I believe you know the the routine so if you can let us know the item you're speaking on and your time will begin when you start talking can you hear Miss Martinez I don't see her on my screen um can you hear me Miss Martinez Maria yes thank you there you are oh yeah which item are you speaking on yeah one okay thank you whenever you're ready yes my name is Maria Martinez and and also I'm putting in in Alum Brook 301.
ronald lichtenberger the president of the Chamber of Commerce the kickoff was Saturday June 6 and 4500 pounds of food were donated there is still time to contribute and support your favorite EB HS class food collection occurs in front of the Brunswick Square Mall near Panera every Saturday throughout the remainder of June from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. any donations from Lawrence Brook the more hammer sholde inbound will be credited to the class of 2020 donations from frost Berlin in Churchill Junior High School benefit the class of 2021 and the class of 2022 is supported by notations from central chidduck in Warren store fur and additionally the East Brunswick Education Association is working with dr. vanilla and each EB HS class Council to purchase two thousand dollars of food per class for the MC foods MMC foods Battle of the classes this EBE a grant also includes funds to purchase signs and a special gift for all graduating seniors the total value the EBA grant is value at twelve thousand dollars the EB EA is honored to support the class of 2020 all EB HS students and the community the less C which class will win the inaugural MC foods 2020 battle of the classes last week East Brunswick teachers dropped off three thousand dollars worth of books to elementary students meeting reading material this was a pride in public education grant from the New Jersey Education Association and the East Brunswick Education Association so thank you to him both we have been informed by the state of New Jersey that the grab-and-go program for meals in East Brunswick Public Schools will end on June 30th as a result the last meal pickup will be on Monday June 22nd there will be seven days worth of meals handed out instead of the normal five in order to cover the days through June 30th and all those although the school year is ending learning doesn't stop please visit our district website at eb net org for a variety of summer learning opportunities where you'll find information about how to extend learning at home as a family offerings from the community programs and reading opportunities through East Brunswick Public Library our last day of our most unusual school year for all students will be Wednesday June 17th and I want to express appreciation to our entire EB school community all of our families especially all of our doing some teachers during this unprecedented learning and teaching environment I wish each of you a safe summer and sincerest hopes or opportunities to enjoy the things that make each of you happy finally we have been monitoring government governor Murphy's continuing allowances to limitations on gatherings for graduation beginning July 6th after a few final touches we look forward to finally sharing our plans to recognize the accomplishments of the class of 2020 thank you thank you dr.
national parks giving students and community members alike the opportunities to experience nature outside the confines of our small town the travelers still talk about how the trips were truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunities simply put Karen is the epitome of a dedicated and passionate educator who constantly goes above and beyond to ensure that both high school students have a positive and memorable high school experience we will miss Karen and wish her much health and happiness in her retirement people that I watch it's your time at your time I think it's finally my time so thank you all it's been a pleasure and I loved working with everybody congratulations Karen how can that be lots of fun travels absolutely absolutely hang on everybody I gotta take a sip of water I needed a box okay moving on to Laurie Lopez Laurie has been a fixture at Bolton center school for the last 32 years and will be missed greatly as a colleague mentor and friend she began her work in Bolton as a special education teacher before moving on to fifth grade she would serve her time as a Spanish instructor before ultimately ending up as a sixth grade language arts instructor the sixth grade team so tightly tightly knit that got along extremely well and lended on leaned on each other for support and Laurie's experience and grace allowed her to bring so much to her team her fantastic sense of humor brought levity to both her classroom and her colleagues in and out of the classroom her language arts team appreciated her candor and her willingness to always share new learning and opportunities for learning with her team so that we could all get better to serve the students and help them succeed her students shall miss her wit and the kindness she always brought to her teaching despite her always holding her kids to high expectations beyond the classroom there were so many pieces but not everyone saw from Laurie her caring for students and advocacy for those who did not have a voice to speak for themselves was invaluable Laurie brought nutritious food for students who had none or who were homeless she donated items when she saw firsthand an obvious need she was willing to literally do cartwheels down the hallway to brighten the day of students in need of a smile even her accidental humour from technology frustrations or thrown coasters gone awry brought joy to those around her Laurie has been a supportive teammate and will be a lifelong friend to those who knew her she will always be remembered for her wisdom the joy she brought and the grace she shared with us she has been and is an amazing educator and the whole she leaves behind will be hard to fill thank you Laurie for all of your gifts your teaching your friendship and your camaraderie you will be dearly missed we wish you the best in your future journeys Laurie you're on mute down at the bottom of your screen pull your thing all the way down to the bottom left you see the mute button click on it Joe can you unmute her no I tried I can't a little microphone symbol lorry with the red line through it just click on that right down the bottom you can hold your spacebar temporarily unmute [Music] and next steps with everybody that my path has crossed in the bulletin community particularly at Bolton center school I have gained so much in so many ways from knowing each and every person and it's made me a better person thank you very much health and happiness to you in your retirement congratulations thank you and last but certainly not least our last retiree was barb Thomas Barbara Thomas has spent 22 years teaching in a bolt-in public schools with three of those years at Bolton high school and the remaining years at Bolton center school teaching grade six through eight she's been a valued team member who will be fondly remembered for her intelligence and helpfulness as a fellow math teacher Kelly Buchi said a Barbara Barbara is not only an amazing teacher she is a kind soul she is the first to offer help or expertise a good friend and a wonderful co-worker she will certainly be missed many other faculty members echoed the same sentiment of her helpfulness and they will all miss her her fellow staff members will miss her sense of humor as well many recall the years that they all ate lunch and laugh together with Barbara in her classroom one of the biggest laughs came when Barbara revealed to convinced her students she rode a motorcycle to school every day to help with the ruse the rest of the team went along with the joke and confirmed miss Thomas did indeed arrive each morning riding her loud motorcycle aside from her humor her students also appreciated miss Thomas's intelligence and helpfulness I was always willing to go the extra mile to make sure students had the help in math that they needed one of her recent eighth graders Mia Kota Adkins said of miss Thomas if someone needed help she was really good at helping them in fact barb often gave up her lunch period worked her study hall or stayed after school she always tried to make teaching math and Joya believin holding auctions for students where they could redeem tickets earned in class for prizes these prices ranged from everything from wacky glasses and floral leis to oven mitts and everything in between the students loved the prizes she also shared with her students her expertise with quilting by running quilting workshops in past years during enrichment when asked what barb looked forward to doing in retirement she responded plans for a retirement include a less stressful part-time job a lot of quilting and needlework we wish barb all the best in the next phase of her life and we thank her for all of her service to the students of the Bolton Public Schools and for being such a wonderful team member barb congratulations or would you like to say something thank you I will certainly miss working with the students but it's been a great place to work and mixed feelings but it was time thank you thank you best of luck and health and happiness in your retirement Thank You chair bro Neil that concludes celebration of excellence for this evening thank you to all of our students who have achieved high levels this year and congratulations to all our students and thank you to all of our teachers who are retiring regular business part of our meeting so you're welcome to stay or not if you so choose we do we have any comments that have been submitted from we do not have any comments from the audience okay do we have any additions to the agenda we do not hi guys thank you very much you're welcome appreciate it thank you to our friends from Florida Nancy and Nancy absolutely tuning in from their lanai very good okay on to routine business item do you have a motion to approve the May 14 20 24 double business meeting minutes Chris Davy thank you well bye Chris we have a second thank you bye Chris second by Sue do we have any discussion or edits Lori Lori you're not on mute Lori there we go oh she's back to the minutes I do and this is Chris Davy under e3 just good typos in the second line of e3 where it says re CS is it should be risks so our ESC and then two lines below that the Bolton scholarship fund also meet virtually that should be also met virtually thank you are there any other corrections or its or comments hearing none all those in favor of the amended edited minutes say aye [Music] is there anyone who's opposed or abstaining I think everyone responded formative passes unanimously like a motion to approve the minutes of the may 28 20 20 boards education virtual special meeting move by sue second by Anne is there any editing as well on Board of Education Committee reports finance okay so at this point we are the budget is 84% expended which compares to last year at the same time we were 85 and extended and coronavirus is an ever-changing landscape first time would you like to weigh in on a few things I would yes please if we could please put up the transfer list thank you so for transfers we had to purchase instructional supplies for our behaviorist RB CBA we needed additional monies to cover the shortfall for speech and language testing of $6 as you know we needed to repair the leaking hydronic pipe repairs at center school the board approved that a May 14th meeting but it's accounted for there for you we needed to purchase an additional Wilson reading kit we purchased the new laptops for administrators and some admin assistants that that happened you approve that on the May 14th meeting as well we had a dollar 90 five shortfall to order our fiscal check stock purchase we had previously previously deferred projects now that the building is unoccupied that we've been working on that was approved by the board at the May 14th meeting that is there for you we purchased a carpet tiles for the Bolton high school library and office space because we're in a position now because no one's here that we can actually get that job done we needed additional postage required due to the end of school mass mailings that had to happen because of kovat we had to cover a shortfall for our secured document delivery we had to purchase that feature in school messenger to allow for the electronic sending of report cards at Bolton center school and we had a shortfall in line for our psychological testing if we could then go to the budget status report please and if we could go to the last page of that report you will see that we have a revised projected balance of a hundred and seventeen thousand five hundred and fifty four dollars that would include our commitment towards the 2020 2021 budget and our request this evening for a $75,000 transfer from transportation and fiscal services to systems management to purchase two hundred more touchscreen Chromebooks and that will then position us to be a one to one district I think this is essential for us as we move forward in the fall every child is going to need a computer as the unknowns do to cope at nineteen are very large I we will be putting this in for reimbursement and hope to be able to be reimbursed at a minimum for 75% of this cost but I heard on a call the other day that there is once the FEMA portion is exhausted with the 75 percent reimbursement then you can apply for the 25 remaining percent through the relief fund waiting for more specificity on that but that is where we stand and that is the request for this evening are there any questions yeah actually Christianized so with all of these new technology purchases are do you see these as a one-time purchase to help us get through the covert situation or are we going to have to readjust our technology or replacement cycle to now start incorporating all of the computers that we've we bought this year so to be honest Chris I don't know that we've really gotten that far in it right now we're still in emergency mode with COBIT and trying to position us to be in a place where we need to be for the Fall for whatever the ball and or winter or rest of next year are going to bring for us we have begun to have some conversations about that but I don't want to shoot off the cuff right now till I have had a time with the administrative team to really talk that through and time with Sarah and Alan to really examine it further thank you very much I'm not really sure what's on the screen right now Joe Miceli thank you um are there any other questions okay hearing none we'll first need a motion regarding the transfers please okay I'll read the language that Kristen provided yes please yeah I moved transfers recommended by superintendent Hecht in May budget update I'll second that oh it's Christie you have any more questions we have any more questions or discussion on this Carrie none all those in favor of the transfers the regular transfers okay anyone who has opposed abstentions passes thank you all right so I also moved to approve the transfer of $75,000 from transportation and fiscal services to systems management to purchase two hundred more Chromebooks to enable the district to be one to one second Mike thank you do we have any questions or discussions on this motion hearing none all those in favor anyone opposed or abstaining that also passes unanimously thank you everybody we're done with yeah that's correct yes yeah well one one made it we did sorry about transportation transportation so trip go ahead transparent yeah go ahead sorry no no no I was just gonna suggest that you update us okay so transportation met and we have reached an agreement with both m and j in havens transportation regarding the co bid 19 closure and I just wanted to thank Andrea for the countless meetings that we had to get that done so thank you very much Thank You Kristin for all your hard work yes Chris tonight I second that thanks Ron to community meeting reports you know we have any community meetings yeah I have some but before we do that we did should personnel have been on because Personnel Committee did me I'm sorry yes it should have that is a good point a Personnel Committee met yesterday to discuss the superintendent's review and contract and we will be discussing that in an executive session this evening now on to community meeting reports so I attended the correct annual meeting in May crisis was virtual it was followed immediately by the monthly board meeting at that meeting members were asked to collect information ahead of our June meeting about how much their districts spend at crack each year and on what services I'd like to thank Christian and Casal for providing that information to me and just so the board is aware this current fiscal year we will be spending a little over $250,000 with crack about half of that goes to tuition for our students who attend magnet schools most of the rest is for IT services and the amount we send a team out of the town sense to Craig is actually higher than what the school sends for IT services because we share the that cost with the town and then there's very small amounts for professional development consulting and the virtual high school program moving on to a scholarship fund we continue to meet virtually at our last meeting in May we approved the recommendations of the scholarship review committee scholarship awards for BHS seniors will be announced as part of the graduation ceremony and notifications to current college and grad students will be mailed out next week this was the first year that we used an online application so if there are any parents of applicants unfortunately as it seems they've all left the meeting but oh yeah it's got yeah and if there are any parents of applicants who have comments about a new process or suggestions for improvement we would love to hear them [Music] ensue Andrew and I met with charter revision Commission and Ola Andrew talked more about that but I wanted to mention that after the after that meeting I learned that the Commission is considering inserting language into the Charter that would require the town and the Board of Ed to share a Director of Finance I shared this information with Kristian and asked whether that would even be legal under state law I would also like to suggest that the Board of Ed that we might wish to send a formal letter to the Commission expressing our thoughts on the idea and I think you may have seen the email that Kristin sent this afternoon with some further information about that issue lastly I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the recently released Bolton 2020 survey results they're available on the town website they do include some feedback that are relevant to the school system while the schools generally receive high marks from townspeople the comparison to a similar survey conducted 20 years ago seems to indicate that people do not rate the quality of the school as quite as highly as they once did so I hope that some future point we as a board can look into that and you know try to figure out what might account for the drop in ratings whether it's you know something we need to be concerned about is there anyone else who attended any community meetings yeah the Charter Commission meeting was focused largely on the question of whether or not the Board of Finance would be eliminated there were kind of kicking that idea around and I think the three of us generally agreed that we think the Board of Finance maybe has a place I think but it was hard to react thoroughly without knowing what the alternative would be we expressed we have a good working relationship with the Board of Finance currently and well that's very subjective to who are on both boards that it seemed like we were mostly in favor I would say of not eliminating but we all had kind of said well we don't really know what's gonna replace it so it's hard to react completely the question of Finance was very very briefly discussed as only one Commission member asked us and kind of said well we're not generally in favor of that although we are have been and are continuing to explore shared services in general that this is certainly not something that's a superintendent is in favor of and likely not something that should happen but that was how that conversation went without any other community meetings I'll turn things back over to Kristin for the Superintendent of Schools report I'm just looking for a little direction if I could regarding Chris's comments about something from the board is that is that something the board wants to do is that something ender you want to do you want me to work with the attorney to craft something for the board what would you like me to do do we we have opinions from other board members like to hear from anyone who has maybe a strong opinion about it one way or the other some maybe don't know or haven't been around long enough to have a very concrete opinion about it or this is sort of like to know I would I have more questions than thoughts at this point so so I think it would I would like to know what's entailed and what you know what a direct like who would be doing the jobs I mean how would the jobs that are required by the Board of Education for finance and business it covered and what are the jobs and how are they being covered now I know that Kristin's mentioned that you know if they need more help you know they need more time for that those duties and and those jobs so like how would the jobs be divvied up and um is it are they thinking of one I I just don't have enough information to even make a decision like they need to be more clear and we're defined though what it is they see you know the whole how it would all function could I suggest we maybe defer this to our next meeting and Christian maybe you can we can for one thing put it on the budget and I'm not sure if we should be having a full discussion about an issue that's not at the budget I mean the adjourn we might might not be a good idea to have a full discussion about something that isn't noticed on the agenda and second it would give you time to gather some information about what our finance office currently does do and how practical or impractical it might be to expand those duties or have them managed by somebody who's reporting to the town manager also well if part of that researches we probably should understand the legalities of it as well so I think consulting with the attorney as part of that preparation is important agree do we know when the Charter Commission is planning to have this finished I mean what kind of time frame are we looking for in terms do we have enough time to hear from the attorney and then write a letter from the board regarding our opinions my understanding is that we have plenty of time I don't think the Charter Commission is wrapping up their work until early next year late this fall at the earliest so maybe you want to consider a work session on this piece because I think it would be important for Casal to be there and for you to hear her voice in all of this as well so do you not want to consider canceling the meeting two weeks from now to not have meetings Hawaii can we not discuss this at the July meeting you don't have a July meeting Kristen needs a break I can see it oh no we usually have a fly meeting and then we cancel its meeting last year when you adopted the calendar we took it off the calendar oh well we never happen aren't we currently in meetings every two weeks mode anyway we have a meeting scheduled for July 25th okay I'm sorry see June yep yeah and then what would be two weeks after that Oh Nathe or ninth or tenth or something that would be July ninth we haven't yet we haven't been formally asked to respond to anything yet as I understand it's just you it sounds like it was briefly discussed at one meeting of the charter connection is that correct it was briefly discussed and then I learned subsequent to that meeting that the reason the question was asked at all is because apparently there is one member of the charter revision Commission who has latched on to this idea and brings it up at every meeting and so potentially could make its way into the commissioners recommendations well we certainly will have time but you know I'm just getting to the point is we don't need to rush to have a meeting it's not like this leagues if that's not enough time to be prepared for it if it's gonna go into the fall we put it on an early agenda item or whatever and have the time to properly understand all the facts as long as what you're describing for the schedules where the Charter Commission is that then I would think that we would have that time I don't want to rush into a meeting and inhabiting and that's not be ready for it I don't Kristen I don't know how much time do you think you want I mean you've got to talk to him turning it on the how you know yeah yeah well and I think you know maybe it's you know I I have information from the attorney that I have sent and shared with you certainly if you all wanted her to be present at the work session or the discussion we could certainly have that happen as well you know I don't think it's gonna take us all and I a lot of time to put sake I mean we could probably rattle it off right now but I want to be thoughtful I'll write her role and and all that she is responsible for and all that it entails and how it continues to grow so if you want to do in two weeks that's fine as well what about four weeks which would be July ninth at that time I mean two weeks I don't know how much else we'd have to discuss the wrap-up of school maybe in four weeks would have we would certainly have more guidance from the state and we would have other business potentially to discuss regarding the return to school I mean I know we don't usually have meetings during the summer so this is in July 16th it's gonna be too hard they're trying to coordinate our schedules why don't we try and get a date together for this and have a meeting sometime in July and discuss any ongoing coltd concerns and then this matter is so we agreeing how do we like that Kristen yeah that's fine I just want to make you aware that I am gonna be off the last week in July and not available that week so I'm just putting that out there yeah why don't we try to have it and like the first you know maybe not the ninth or the 16th but one one day in one of those weeks we can try and get some dates together outside of this current meeting and see maybe it'll be a week before that or maybe now whatever works for people but I think we sounds good okay I think I might have lost them yeah the other day soompi I think we should but have one the week after that or the week after that and try and get together a on what ever updates we might have or whatever business we might need to take care of because the you know we may not need to do every two weeks over the summer time as there's no functionally active school but you know we already have this piece of business and I'm sure something else will come up by then so we could do maybe a quick meeting take care of this item and then anything else that might occur and then decide on when with the next appropriate time after that to meet sometime probably in early mid-august good all right we'll get together on that and okay now we are on to the Superintendent of Schools report okay so we're gonna start with our distance learning update I've shared previously that our distance learning approach has been guided by three core values connection core content and creativity our team of administrators teachers and staff have worked very hard to not only teach remotely but to support our students and maintain relationships from afar we continue to learn a great deal from this experience and have spent time over the last two weeks examining and evaluating both systems and structures used during distance learning and where students are with regards to their learning at the end of this year and planning for the start of next year the has been invaluable in terms of assessing student learning planning pre-assessments remediation aligning materials and reprioritizing standards providing summer learning experiences designing meaningful celebrations for our eighth graders and our seniors and planning for the fall so again I would like to thank the board for your support in allowing us to make a change to the calendar for the last two weeks of school I cannot echo enough I've heard from staff member after staff member after staff member how invaluable and necessary that time has been and how much has been accomplished that will be to the benefit of our students for sure while distance learning has continued to be an extremely heavy lift for all of us I would like to take this opportunity to again thank our dedicated administrators teachers central office staff paraprofessionals administrative assistants custodians and our food service staff for their tireless efforts on behalf of our bolton students to date we have served well over 10,000 meals and we have done our very best to keep every single child engaged this has been a full team effort and every single member of our staff has stepped up to do what is right and best for kids I feel truly blessed to work with the committed professional and caring people in the Bolton Public Schools I would also like this opportunity to take this opportunity to commend our students for their grit and perseverance during this pandemic and to our parents for their partnership and for teaching at home lastly I would like to thank the Board of Education and the town for their constant support during this very difficult year the community of Bolton has risen to the challenge that this pandemic has presented and we have done this together I'd like to turn it over to Beth Gould Snyder now please good evening I have a quick update and of course it just as I did that my whole update just left so I have to now get my phone hold on a second sorry so I echo Kristen's sentiments with the big thank yous to everybody the staff has been great parents have been wonderful and the students have just really gone above and beyond they're really working hard right up to the last minute many of them so team my speciality choose related service providers and paraprofessionals have continued to provide direct instruction to students right up to the last day of school we're still meeting with kids we've been meeting to share when went well in ways we can improve if we need to do distance learning again we met with the high school special ed teachers just last week they initiated the meeting with with me and then with the high school administration to talk about really some things that we thought were really great and some things that we thought we can probably change for the next time if we do this the counseling staff has been working on a plan to support social-emotional learning for students upon our return whether we come back in person or distance learning we really are looking ways to support becoming a classroom community either in our new norm with distance learning and masks and things like that or via distance learning so we will be continuing that work over the summer and the extended school year program for both schools has been planned for and as superintendent had already told you it will be a distance learning program the summer and the credit recovery program for the high school is being finalized as we speak so that is my update thank you thank you it's malinowski good evening and I also would like to thank everyone for the time and the support through through these very challenging months it's been I really am honored to work with an amazing staff over the past few weeks are updating around curriculum we very really focused on meeting with all teachers and all grade levels in or departments to identify articulate and document curricular standards in terms of how the standards concepts and skills were impacted by distance learning we are very fortunate to have the Atlas platform we're on the teachers facing side we're able to actually document what's happened where teachers feel that they have addressed or partially addressed or not address certain standards it's been a nice way to reflect and completely document where we where we are with our curriculum and how we might need to reprioritize for next year one big takeaway that our staff especially at the elementary level has been able to walk away from you're very fortunate that March visit time a year that we were stepped away because in terms of our standards we really hit we've touched on almost 100% of the standards in ela and a little less in math but really we're over 90 percent in hitting the standards at some point during the school year so that is a huge testament to what our teachers have done we're certainly marched to the end of the years not a lost time it's that reinforcement and strengthening so that documentation of partially met skills we've been able to communicate that with the receiving grades so that teachers may plan appropriately for next year and also use our online platforms so that we are able to make sure we don't lose our thoughts over time so that has been a very productive and helpful time and staff really dug in to have that communication we've also as Kristin has mentioned we've we're moving towards that one-to-one initiative and we have already secured 150 at the touchscreen Chromebooks prior to this so we are well on our way Alan is already working on getting those secured the reason for a move towards touchscreens especially is our youngest learners one thing we did learn in this distance learning experience and should we be in some sort of blended learning experience really our young learners the keyboard experience is not necessarily appropriate for the type of all types of learning that needs to happen and while we don't have a full IT department having a chromebook will then mimic somewhat what the tablet experiences can happen so for platforms such as seesaw which has been a great benefit for our young learners is now easier and accessible and equitable for all of our students and that's really been our focus of choosing the devices that have been available of how we can make sure that you know as we think about what may happen next year equity is certainly at the top most of our thoughts to make sure we can continue the learning process Thank You Darryl good evening everybody a lot going on into the Year wrapping everything up staff and students are finishing up into the or activities finalizing grades and as a superintendent mentioned earlier we secured a system of getting report cards sent digitally secured so we're looking forward to using that collecting any last assignments distribution of materials and collection of materials this week I'd say probably about 50% of families have come to the school to drop off school materials and to collect their materials and we're gonna have another day in either late July or early August for any families everyone able to make it this week so we're gonna hold onto those materials teachers are trying or have worked really hard to last two weeks with meetings with Sarah for curriculum meeting with each grade level for student articulation from one grade level to the next we had staff meetings today we had a meeting about seesaw today so there's a lot of I'm tired of looking at the screen but we've had a ton of productive meetings last two weeks so thank you for that time with the restructuring schedule we're sending out or actually they got mailed today the academic awards for fifth through eighth grade students so all the teachers called the recipients of those awards I signed to think about 200 certificates so those would be getting mailed today I know they mean a lot to the students so they should be receiving those soon mr.
um thank you I have I had one grandson and Alan Brock and two niece in San Antonio school so today I want to talk about uh first I want to make it Echo what I mentioned the answer about the trustee Chavez because since she had she made the all that she will support the Alum Rock family and when I when I I don't be present in this meeting but I hear about this and I feel so so sad when I hear that and also uh I would like to to hear how the Disney will support families so that they are not a big from the their homes when the uh eviction monatory ends I know them uh um all their or families here at Alum Rock that's a lot of income family and and I don't know how that the district can support them to don't lose their home uh because I don't be hearing nothing about uh Alum Rock what what a support uh uh or families and I hopefully you can put this um this island and the next meeting because I want to know how how can support our family for don't be eviction in the uh pronghorns thank you thank you um do we have another one Avatar no I have none okay so thank you everyone for your comments and um with that all being done we can now skip ahead and move to item 6.04 if my computer there we go adopt resolution number 37-1920 establishing an ethnic studies adoption committee for the Alum Rock Union School District yeah if I can uh um ask you all my colleagues you all know that we received a letter today from somos uh with about 290 signatures of students parents community members and leaders such as high school student Marcos pissarro associate dean of San Jose State University Pastor Jethro Moore uh the second President of the San Jose Silicon Valley NAACP Juan and Jackie Gamboa professors at San Jose City College the Alum Rock Teachers Association Jolene Smith Chief Executive Officer of first five Ron Murrieta arts and culture consultant co-founding member San Jose Arts Advocate board vice president Californians for art and California Arts Advocates and former National trustee for the Filipino American National Historical Society Lillian celaya Korea LCSW social worker Christopher Ariola past president of La Raza Lawyers Association Helen Casa African-American Community Service Agency board members amongst many others and in addition as you all know we receive letters of support from others such as the South Bay indigenous solidarity canson Chu assembly member of the 25th district who highlighted at the Alum Rocky Elementary School District about 98 of the student population is composed of students from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds now more than ever it is important that schools provide culturally relevant instruction and curriculum studies show that ethnic studies promote respect and compassion among students ethnic studies also helps to narrow the achievement Gap the opportunity gap for students of color another letter that we received from Magdalena Carrasco council member for District Five who states the families I represent are from diverse backgrounds with important stories to tell sadly generations of history have been lost due to curriculum that has not been inclusive and only told of a dominating Society in the wake of covid-19 it has become even glaring obvious that disparities of communities of color have taken place through a long history of racial systemic injustices the country has changed in the last 100 days and the youth are leading the change we must meet the needs of an evolving World which includes diversity equity and hunger for racial Justice beginning with an inclusion of ethnic studies in our school's curriculum another letter that was received from Juan Pablo Mercado PhD with the Northern California focal and National Association for Chicana and Chicano studies Knox who states by learning how to analyze structures of colonization imperialism domination and marginal marginality our students of all backgrounds can effectively explain the importance of race and ethnicity along with creation and culture cultural and artistic expression and movements of resistance our students can also better imagine strategies to dismantle these violent and oppressive structures and the last letter I'd like to highlight but certainly not the least that we received from Sylvia Nolasco who is a part of our Alum Rock Family her younger brother is a current student in our district and she is currently a student at UC Berkeley studying history and comparative literature and hopefully considers one day to come back to our community here to teach our students she reflects her experience as a student and says students should not be given a watered-down version of History so that they grow up full of just disillusionment and even betrayal at the injustices that history books cover up as I did ethnic studies is an important tool that can teach children how to fight generational battles Against Racism classism and xenophobia to implement that in the upcoming generations of leaders is the best way to fight academic racism and advocate for Real Change in our communities of color which are under extreme duress and now more than ever as we know 300 plus or just to support this resolution and I'd like to share what this resolution will do it will empower the Alum Rock community staff stakeholders and students to start creating a strategy to implement ethnic studies and begin the incubation period for ethnic studies in our district by establishing an ethnic studies adoption committee the committee will reach ethnic studies curriculum for research and review relevant materials consider the scope of piloting the curriculum they will set a timeline for implementation on curricular adoption the committee updates the board at each regular board meeting with the ultimate goal of presenting a recommendation to the superintendent and ultimately us the board through this resolution it directs staff to designate ethnic studies as being a part of the 2021-2024 El Cap to be presented by the educational services division outlining the pace and the cost of the implementation it should be noted that once adopted we will be the third Elementary School District in California to adopt a resolution such as this and enables our district to One Day become one of the many K-8 districts in California with an ethnic studies program therefore now I make a motion for our board to adopt resolution 37 1920 establishing an ethnic studies adoption committee for the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District second okay we have a motion in a second on the floor to um adopt item 6.04 um so is there any questions or comments first from um trustees on this item and if you have public comment on this item and if you're in the zoom call can you please raise your hand now so we can get an idea of um the number of of comments that we'll have and avtar or Mr Sanchez do we have any through email yes we have one through email and we have 20 plus people raised hands how many more than 20.
Gillespie on tonight's agenda you'll see that we will be celebrating many wonderful achievements of our students but first the board would like to recognize our 2019 2020 retirees who represent a variety of positions including secretaries custodians instructional assistants teachers bus drivers and child nutritionists these retirees have devoted nearly 900 total years of service to our district and for that this board is truly grateful Susannah I think you need to unmute it's within your control sorry about that ok so thank you very much and I am excited to kick it off and just you know we wish congratulations you've been to your group Janet ah Bluff instructional assistant from Hammer shield middle school with 20 years brace Ariano school aid from Frost elementary school with three years Selina Barca instructional assistant from Central Elementary School 15 years Robert burner cooperative education teacher from East Brunswick High School 26 years and James Borden Tecna education teacher from Churchill junior high school with 11 years congratulations tall all right now continue on with sue brewer art teacher of Bal Monroe 29 years Allen Broadman social studies teacher at East Brunswick High School 28 years Joleen buckle oh bus driver and our support operations facility 12 years Florence character Oh in child nutrition in easy from high school 13 years and Joann Casa ready early morning aid with Community Programs 20 years congratulations it's my honor to recognize Laura K Bach Trembley speech language specialist for the district 32 years Jennifer Chao an instructional assistant priest from the high school 20 years Kathy can gusta in the admin building 16 years Audrey de Mond in English and I'll a teacher from the high school 21 years and Margaret donatello school aid at the high school 21 years congratulations all I would like to congratulate and thank each of our retirees for their dedication to our children Leslie D jack instructional assistant chittock elementary school six herbs Gabriella Engelhard splitty memorial elementary school 20 years Ellen geyser school nurse East Brunswick High School 25 years Margaret Wilson coy school nurse commercial middle school 24 years and Brian Howard custodian Churchill junior high nine years congratulations I'll okay he on a 4k Ella 90 teacher at no more Elementary School for 27 years Mary craft area the administration building in what 11 years Kathleen Holland an instructional assistant a memorial element 19 years on new caliber she a friend of the teacher at how much political school it was 20 years in Chafee Cowell elementary teacher development school for 71 years that I'd love to see you all thank you food we researched in the Blumenthal continuum and first and foremost thank you very much wrong reservists enjoy your retirement and know that I'm extremely jealous of all people Laura lungs secretary for 24 years of Lawrenceburg elementary school Kathy Moreno secretary with the administration building for 20 years Noreen McLaughlin a bus driver support operations facility for 10 years Charles mother Muir bus driver support operations facility for 11 years and Rena Paris instructional assistant at Memorial Elementary School for 22 years it is my honor privilege to introduce the following retirees Michelle Pickett elementary teacher of Frost elementary school for 19 years Rob Reider custodian at Lawrenceburg elementary school for 17 years donna i know'd elementary teacher frost elementary school 19 years Susan sent our yellow special education teacher East Brunswick High School 18 years and had a 4k accountant at the administration building 15 congratulations all thank you for your service and I continue with honoring these wonderful dedicated people who have been such a source of pride for our district for so long I also wish you well luck in your retirement Emory Schneider school nurse secures East Brunswick High School sherry he got kindergarten teacher Warren stalker elementary school 44 years Susan chairman elementary teacher Lawrenceburg elementary school 34 years Carol and so well school aid East Brunswick High School 20 years insurance wickets special education teacher once offer elementary school 23 years now it's my honor to introduce the following with high risk carrying timber child nutrition from East Brunswick High School for 24 years Roni Damon instructor assistant rhesus is branching high school for 19 years mostly with her neither school 8 Forrest elementary school for 24 years Kimberly Wales special education teacher should Churchill junior high school for 15 years ronita with school aid and alimony aide Forrest elementary schools congratulations to all red Harris and my best wish it was you and your family thank you thank you to Danny rogério for doing all the prep work for this our way of saying good luck and goodbye and now we come to one of our favorite nights of the year recognizing our students we have nine resolutions to give out so what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask for a resolution I asked for emotionally for resolution items two through ten so they don't have to interrupt each one with a motion in a second may I please have a motion resolution items two to ten so mu by Li Wu second by is there any discussion all those in favor I posed stain motion carries our first resolution of appreciation is for the 2019 2020 Board of Education student representative whereas Rachel Lobo has served as a student representative on the board of education for the 2019 2020 year and whereas rachel has faithfully attended meetings offered insight as a student of east brunswick and effectively communicated the Board of Education actions to her fellow students now therefore be it resolved with the East Brunswick Board of Education recommends and commends Rachel Lobo for time and service to the East Brunswick Board of Education Rachel you have been an absolute pleasure you have given so much of yourself your passion your energy your insight your laughter you shared with us you've given us a real sense of what it's like to walk in our halls as our students we greatly appreciate it and we wish you the best of luck and stay in touch with us please thank you so much for this opportunity I really appreciate it and I am like this these meetings I would feel like I learned so much and you all like helped me grow a lot and I'm honestly like gonna come back and say hi whenever I'm back from college um and also really looking forward to all of you meeting Tony who's the new board liaison because he is incredible you guys are gonna be so impressed but thank you all so much not only for helping me grow up but for helping all the students that you sponge-like in the staff we appreciate everything that you do thank you Rachel congratulations okay um Vicki so I'm ready for the Rutgers waxman yes okay yes so it is my pleasure to provide the resolution of commendation for the 2020 Rutgers waxman scholars whereas 17 East Brunswick High School students participating in the nationally recognized Rutgers waxman Scholars Program in which they focused on the DNA sequence analysis of genes and have had their research published on the National Center for Biotechnology information database which disseminates biomedical information for the better understanding of molecular processes affecting human health and disease and whereas scientists from around the world will be accessing the published research of these students for their own research purposes and whereas this accomplishment a tribute to the students hard work dedication and commitment has brought local state and national recognition to their school the district and to the community now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes and commends Shruti Shah Magna thick apat Michelle Chung Liliana Cantillo Michael's son Abdul Muhammad Sophia Julia Eric way Margaret Lynn ELISA woo Vaishali umayal on staff darkman shreya rajeshwar on parameter das Sahil ma Malhotra Rachel Yan Sarah Adams and their advisor and Cinelli congratulations Barbara ready when you are you need to unmute there we go thank you whereas our PTA spend countless hours supporting our 11 schools and more than 8,000 students contributing greatly to their school communities and helping promote a positive school culture and whereas our PTAs fundraise extensively so they may give technology and playground equipment fun mini grants to teachers provide scholarships and so much more than we did and whereas the PTAs generously arranged for and fun special programs authors and illustrators music and dance history and science assemblies and workshops that enhance and enrich the learning environment for our students and whereas all those involved in our PTAs are wonderful examples for our students modeling good citizenship and the importance of doing one share to make the world a better place now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education gratefully acknowledges the incredible support of the PTAs and their dedicated service and devotion to students and staff Thank You Tube a Monroe PTA president Vicki we're central PTA and President Lisa valino shidduch PTA and present Anna daisa Churchill PTA and president Wanda Miller East Brunswick High School PTA say and president Lisa Clark frost PTA and president Jamie Wasserman commercial PTA and president Wanda Miller Herman PTA and present Nikita filarsky Lawrenceburg PTA and pray Adriani vez karela Memorial PTA and president Julie Roth ah no and warrants or PTA and president Sarah Rubinstein and further be it resolved that the speranza Board of Education would like to extend a very special thank you to the president of PTA presidents Council and a good friend Jamie Wasserman who has supported and encouraged a PTAs in all their efforts thank you I have a resolution of commendation for the 2020 Future Business Leaders of America whereas the New Jersey Future Business Leaders of America is a student organization helping to build important career and business leadership skills that are necessary in the workplace and whereas each public high schools FBLA Club attended to New Jersey FBLA spring Leadership Conference an exciting conference that includes both valuable leadership workshops and challenging competitive events and whereas the East Brunswick High School's FBLA Club did an excellent job competing in all areas five East Plymouth high school students they dispersed in their division Maria Galkin electronic career portfolio barnaba deshi adenosine in entrepreneurship Eric weigh in administration in gap in March in political science and now therefore be resolved that the East from the Board of Education recognizes and commends the winning FBLA members Maria galkin for Nevada she Dennis sang Eric way Gavin March and their advisers Nicole Kenny and Caitlin Shannon for this outstanding accomplishment congratulations I have the combination for 2020 New Jersey We the People whereas at the New Jersey we two people 2020 this citizen and the Constitution competition students testified on compositional issues and simulated congressional hearings demonstrate impressive knowledge of the Constitution exhibiting the think critically and express their ideas clearly and articulately and where is following rigorous preparation 30 years public high school students in the Advanced Placement Institute for political legal education or AP EPEL class placed first in the New Jersey we to people 2020 the citizen of the Constitution competition for the 31st time out of a possible 33 earning the club has the opportunity to represent the state at the national finals and intensive competition competition held this year virtually and where is this accomplishment a tribute to the students hard work dedication and commitment has brought local state and national recognition to their school the district and a community therefore now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes niha agony benjamin bajalia Sophie Brown nunya Chandra Lorenzo Preciado our June Deepak Andrew sweat Julie Harmon a Masha Jia Rodney Caitlin Marquez Rishi min Terada Simran Mookie Serena who Jacob Stern her na goo da Shi Kai Wang Andrew youn Dennis dang Kelvin jiang meiyan Clark Deshawn de la Christa thigh thigh on Kim Lucille Milligan cm Mookie Joseph Romney ream a beer Rasheed Nami sonica Lindy Shaw Milly Tressler and their teacher dr.
Sanford and mrs. Sullivan have done an outstanding job preparing a summer learning plan for the summer it's called learning adventures they had a parent meeting the other day and then had a livestream student meeting the other day I was in both of those and they just did a really good job laying it out and if you hear that turn flat Buster it's a picture of Buster and a piece of cardboard in anywhere you go this summer you're to bring it with you and take a picture so I have mine with me and going to Harkness once school gets out and I'll get Harkness with it we're currently in the midst of also some hiring processes as you could tell tonight we have some retirees and we're trying to fill those positions and so far the pools have been very solid and the processes are going very well thank you Joe you your army oh yeah thank you we're wrapping up as well at our last faculty meeting today and they're tired they've been working hard I can't say enough about the teachers at the high school and everything that they've done during this tough time they're at the point where you know students are really done with new learning classes have ended in these last few days are you know catching up those last little bits returning work picking up materials left to school all those kinds of things the teachers are working hard as Sharon mentioned sharing feedback about successes and things that we can do better next year and we're doing I think a really nice job of gathering that information so we can use that to plan for whatever the fall may bring I also wanted to the guidance department with their amazing work not just keeping up with students to make sure kind of they take care of business but also under Dean Johnson's guidance and and and caring hearts really doing a great job getting ready for scheduling which is tough at a high school especially a small school on a good year and then you just send everybody home and try to do it remotely it's just it's it's insane but with all of their hard work so so Christine Taj and Santee amy hyun and danielle Levasseur all of their hard work we're actually kind of in a spot where we would typically be roughly for scheduling which is and I guess that's hard to appreciate but that's amazing that we're at that spot so I'll roll in to graduation summary if if you wish yes okay so what plans are finalized the I's are dotted the T's are crossed the students have been given the information they're getting another webcast for me a little video with some very explicit directions of the how to's for Monday night but they're gonna come by the high school starting around 6:15 to pick up diplomas we've got a plan for all of that that's the detail piece so they'll have we've got two professional photographers we're going to take care of all that stuff and they're going to muster over at the center school for a 7:30 step off for a parade chief Dixon and trooper Contenta have worked hard to come up with a you know a really nice send-off for the students so we will depart the center school we'll go through the green will go down Hebron Road up Loomis past actually through the high school parking lot last time as students down Steel's crossing and then into Columbia where the Columbia fire department will be waiting for us so through the center of Columbia and out to the drive-in hoping for everybody to get there around 8:30 I hope you all received the email from me last night with all of those details so you can see the parade route and also kind of your pass for your to join us at the drive-in if you wish also the youtube link if you want to watch from home it's the it's the same video so that is the plan we will start at 9 o'clock both virtually and in person because that's when the drive-in says it's dark enough to hit go Thank You Darryl 8th grade promotion planning continues to go well as similar to the high school students have submitted some pictures and short videos that we're adding to the program which is this coming Monday the 15th of 10 a.m.
okay on Zoom raised hands okay um so I think um let me see we're at eight o'clock I know this is an item that a lot of people want to speak to and I certainly want to provide that platform as much as possible I'm just wondering and I'm bored if colleagues if you'd like to chime in on this um if we given that there's 20 comments at two minutes each that's 40 minutes plus anything that maybe need to be translated plus additional people that come on we're looking at maybe an hour if we go two minute comments so I'm putting out there the possibility of limiting comments to one minute just I mean just in the just in the interest of time for this evening does any any of my colleagues have any um thoughts about that I know we we still have closed session we have a budget presentation several other resolutions so we still have a full agenda so I'm wondering what the consensus is from colleagues I have a comment it's trusty Marcus and I'm hoping that the community will work with us so that if your turn comes up to speak on it and someone has already said would you have said just go and just say that you're in support of the resolution and that's it and if somebody has already made a comment but if no one has made any any reference to what you were going to say you you're more than welcome to reference I mean to go ahead and and speak to it um a minute sounds good only because we have so much on the agenda to go through um uh president um correct uh it's going to take us into an hour and then we have to do the closed session and then the rest of the agenda so I hope that you will be willing to work with this board thank you thank you trustee Marquez any other and I suggest a minute and a half I know it's important and I'll be here until 11 30 plus you know but I also want to hear from our um community members okay any other thoughts uh after I used to give you an update there are 30 plus oh my gosh okay wow are you still hold to that 90 second one the sooner we start this sooner we'll get through that okay any other uh thoughts any other comments from board members [Music] um let's do one minute to then allow for okay so here's what we'll do um just in a second we'll go to comments from the board but I'm gonna just prepare everybody so um I am gonna say one minute limit if you go over that a little bit I'm gonna provide a little bit of leeway because I want to you know provide that platform and to trusty marquez's point if you can condense down your comment it will provide opportunity for more people to um to be heard so we'll go with a minute I'll provide a little bit of cushion at the end of that if we need it I'll be flexible on that and if you could also be flexible if you can condense your comments I think we can all um you know make this efficient so that's what we'll do thank you everyone for understanding so now um any comments or questions from board members and I don't see trustee Chavez oh there she is but I hear do you have any comments your mute there you go you're unmuted comments or questions trusty Chavez I'll have them for later okay um I just if you can have Avatar check off of mute because I've been um muted off and on the whole time sorry Avatar okay thank you I will try thank you okay so I I'll go yes we can hear you okay so um I have a couple a question and a couple of comments so my question is um and trustee Loretta you you brought it up actually in your initial statement on the second page the second whereas um which is the one that says whereas students from a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds make up approximately 98 of student population I'm wondering if you would be um if you would be amenable to modifying that because my question is if if 98 of students make up um students with ethnic and racial backgrounds do those other two percent have no ethnic or racial background I'm I'm wondering if maybe there we meant to say minority or non-white or something else because the way it's stated here it makes it seem like that other two percent have no ethnic or racial background which I would which I would say is inaccurate good question and good point um I got those numbers from Dr Bauer and I just maybe my text you know when I asked her for the percentage maybe it didn't get reflected um so if we maybe I don't know if and I don't want to speak for the the way it was intended but my assumption was that it meant either minority or non-white given the way that the it's structured here I know uh Dr Bauer you uh confirmed the number so um Dr Bauer the number is correct I think what he's recommended to add 98 percent minority because that's the the sense right the other two percent also have uh an ethnic background that's Mr uh but it they're they're um your vocation and so number is correct he's just recommending to add 98 minorities to students in the district and he wants to ask if that is if you're okay with adding that word that's it I'll get back to you I don't know let me just because that Minority word obviously is not you know represented in the so let me just I I know and yes we'll we'll definitely change that so it reflects and I'm not necessarily I mean I don't necessarily mean that word I'm just suggesting that something I'm in agreement so yes let me just think of that sentence look at it and then get back to you so we'll definitely change it sounds good so then I just um had a couple of comments um first of all I want to um I want to thank trustee Loretta for bringing this to us here at Alum Rock tonight and I want to thank um a colleague of ours in the Oak Grove School District Jorge Pacheco Jr he's really one of the people that's been at the Forefront of starting this process of ethnic studies in K-8 schools and Oak Grove School District in fact is the First k-ray District in California that that has approved this process so so thank you to my colleagues for for getting this getting us getting the ball rolling in this area um and to and also to Okra for providing us with this template that we're using tonight for for our resolution um I was actually happy as you as you mentioned the names of all the people that support this I was happy to see the name of of an old friend of mine from the letters of support Dr Jenny Luna who's Who's down at CSU Channel Islands right now and um I bring her up because in around 1997 her and I participated in a training at UC Berkeley um to develop ethnic studies and specifically Chicano studies classes in the community and so we we actually did that at that time when we developed the Chicano studies course that we ran for about a year in in the Mayfair area with um I forget around 30 kids teenagers and preteens came to that and then she moved forward and she has been able to continue to teach as a Chicano studies professor and now I'm very happy to have the platform to to also continue to support this um this push towards ethnic studies in our K-8 school so I will strongly be supporting this because I know both on a personal level and as well as through an academic lens that that this you know this type of curriculum this this um this effort is crucial to to particularly our community in being able to have some self-identity or improve or enhance their self-identity and therefore engage more in the curriculum I know there's um several of us who probably either in high school or college for me it was College when I first had that opportunity to take an ethnic studies class and that literally changed my life in terms of the direction that I went with things and um and so I would I would love if we can not have our students wait till high school or college but if we can get them started early I think it's excellent so I'm appreciative of the work that's gone into this at many levels and I will definitely be supporting this tonight I have a comment yes trustee Marquez um and I'd like to thank you for the words that you said and I'd like to thank my colleague Lorena for bringing this um to the Forefront because I want to remind some of you that are way younger uh that um they will be standing on the shoulders of people who have tried to bring that to Alum Rock but it has just never been the right moment either the political power was not there the vote was not there um whatever the reason it was it has been brought to um to Alum Rock School District you know um just getting Cesar Chavez to be something was you know a milestone in itself because we had to really fight for that and I say we because I was there with them marching and advocating and and helping to get elected positions people to the alamog board that were going to support that just like we're doing this right now I think this is a ripe time for it and I really appreciate that it has finally come and that it will it will happen I I I'm very happy to hear that but um there are people that they will be standing on the shoulders of that really fought when it was a very difficult time to do it thank you thank you um any other comments from board members or questions kids I want to thank you uh trustee uh I don't know enough for bringing uh forward this proposal uh to bring ethnic studies I think it's important for our students to be able to see themselves reflected in the curriculum um when a dominant culture puts forward to the curriculum they tend to forget everybody else who's here um as a child I remember I went through to school and we went through the Mayflower we went through everything oh yeah and there was missions and then then it was the stars and stripes and where the United States and where what happened in the in between in California and so that really leads some students to really look down upon their own culture uh because they don't even see themselves reflected in in their broader and broader society and uh it's not until they get to College they start realizing oh my God we were here um we were part of this place a long time ago and we didn't just kind of appear just the other day um and um and so it's important to start uh I have that Awakening taking place earlier than what it's happening what's happening right now we're losing a lot of traction a lot of momentum and that really generally hurts people at the core as they move along and they really don't know who they are they're having to attach themselves to other folks and their disillusioned and so it's uh it's um it's a long time coming I think uh uh all those folks who worked especially those individuals who put in some work some heavy lifting uh you know a lot of people easily would have given up when Jerry Brown pushed back on this uh but uh it was picked up and uh some remember Medina and others who you know move forward and pushed on it you know they did a great job and so now it's incumbent upon us to go ahead and pick up the ball and start pushing it into our into our district so thank you for uh this uh proposal I will be I'll be supporting it and uh looking forward to seeing it move forward in our district thank you um any other questions or comments from board members I just want to add really quickly too that I know a large percentage of our district obviously is Chicano Latino however they identify um and and that's certainly exciting for me and for many of us but I also want to recognize that when we talk about ethnic studies there's certainly locally and nationally you know great um contributions by many other groups um here locally from the Filipino Community Vietnamese African-American all the everyone that makes up our you know the the the great diversity that we have here so the the exciting thing to me is not only for our students to learn about their own identities but to learn about those um you know their their neighbor sitting next to them and the desk next to them or in the zoom window next to them or whatever it is like you know it's important that we learn our own history but as well as the history of those who were not spoken for in the predominant history we've been given um do you have you had a chance to look at the the wording on that particular line and any thoughts on that um how I get I mean just that word minorities right but I I can't think of another one maybe we'll just put ethnic and racial minority historically underrepresented communities so it would so it would say um whereas students so what basically would it say whereas 98 of the student population in Alum Rock are comprised of historically underrepresented communities that what you said something along those lines okay and that way we you know we account for and recognize that there are there is also two percent who are a different segment that we're not talking about in this particular resolution that makes sense yes I accept the amendment thank you very much um so if there's no further comments from board members I don't see anything else so we can move forward to public comment everybody take a big deep breath and um so as I mentioned we will go we will set the timer for one minute um and I will allow some flexibility for you to finish a thought at the end of your one minute um and then I will unfortunately need to um stop people at some point and if you can condense your time that will allow for more people avtar um I saw your hand is there something new we need to know about so I bought this request Mr Sanchez to read the comment via email okay and then we will leave people on the zoom session perfect okay so Mr Sanchez if you can read what you have at a at a normal speaking pace and we'll still hold it to the one minute um timer so at one minute wherever you are and that comment will um we'll cut it there okay okay so um I have a couple here um let me share I have uh Francisco Robles and I think he he would like to speak regarding this um so he might be there in the audience and then we also have um Gabriel Hernandez um dear superintendent school board members I'm writing to you in urge or support of providing ethics studies curriculum to students that attend schools in the Alamo school districts in Florida Leon shares her support for the adoption of ethnic studies okay um I also have public comments from Joanna Gonzalez Lugo uh good evening my name is Joanna Gonzalez logo I Am A San Jose City College alumni and will be a student at the University of California Santa Cruz majoring in critical race in ethnic studies this fall and support ethnic studies resolution for delamrock's Union School District taking ethnic studies at San Jose City College I learned that my community was once land of the Ohlone people as well as that my community as that my community to be liberated of historical marginalization or being of color tree quality must be obtained to do so I believe it is in part to remember all those who came before us and their experiences for this or with this knowledge the present can be successfully understood and the future can be created where a child despite of their barriers a unique characteristics is certain that they can achieve their dreams and be proud of who they are knowing their ancestry I hope that the children of the Alum Rock School District and tomorrow may be provided with what their ancestors were not the opportunity thank you right we'll have to cut it there Mr Sanchez that's a little bit past the minute so we appreciate that um are there any other ones to read yes um here's one more I'm downloading the documents here uh this is from Valeria Ortiz hi my name is Valeria Ortiz I am here as a student but most importantly as a mother when I was in high school I learned a lot about my ethnic ethnicity and how to be proud of where I came from and what I represented it was something new to me because I was never taught about it in my previous school years I agree with having ethnic studies in elementary school and middle school because while I was growing up ethnicity wasn't spoken about or even brought to the table a a teacher once told me you can learn about your history and history class because most of the history books are written by white people and they only talk about their side of the stories that really stuck to me because we are treated differently just for the fact that we come from a certain race or have a certain color of skin we are not taught about our ethnicity in school we are not informed and we think it's okay but it's not okay I agree to having ethnic studies for my brothers and my sisters but also for my son who is two years will be attending school so when two years we'll be attending school and it will feel empowered because he will not know who he is thank you okay is that the last one you have to read Mr Sanchez let me see if there's any other ones I believe that is it okay thank you very much for that so now we can move forward to the hand raised ones in in the zoom room um oh sorry for my dog barking um one of the zoom things we get nowadays so we can start this is for everybody I've already stated how we're going to go about doing this so um foreign I'll turn off my microphone and after if you can call the people the first person and the time will start when they begin speaking there are 32 people 32 people so I will just call them one particular we'll give them one minute after their time ends uh and in the beginning I will read what people like so that they will be in line so first person is Jorge pachico the second will be Francisco Robles thank you so Mr Pacheco when you begin speak can you hear me yes I can hear you okay we can hear you so once you begin your your time will start okay thank you trustees my name is Jorge Pacheco Jr I'm a trustee and vice president for the Oak Grove School District and ethnic studies teacher I just wanted to let you know how proud and excited I am to hear the support from all of you and how necessary this is especially during a time as historic as this you know that we you know that ethnic studies is one of the most um Advanced ways to address racial inequities and social justice in our classrooms in an academically rigorous way that will equip our students with a critical capacity of understanding their world without critical thought they cannot they will not be able to survive the many institutions that they will encounter in higher education and Beyond I highly encourage that you please adopt this um this resolution and become the Third District in California that's K-8 to adopt such a resolution Mount Pleasant just did it yesterday lastly the county also take great priority to ethnic studies we are currently creating a framework for all districts to use and we're currently building out a resource resources so please know that and thank you again thank you okay next person after Francisco Robles hello good evening uh superintendent Bauer Board of Trustees my name is Francisco Robles and I am a product of the Alum Rock School District having attended a Soviet LaSalle Elementary and o'calla Middle School many many years ago um when when we are born we are given a gender a name a culture a race and as we get older we are given instructions to go out and be something in life when we're children and many especially children of color we we bring those instructions into our classrooms our playgrounds into the world yet despite that that beauty we hold within us the world tends to beat us down and suppress that beauty telling us that our ancestors and people of color and culture were Savages thieves and criminals um our school's curriculums currently Hammer that in and beat our Beauty down and by implementing such curriculum of ethnic studies um you are allowing us to shine and allowing our our future children to shine and be proud of who they are and I thank you and I thank you okay after our next person next person Adam Perez can you restart the clock uh Maribel okay when you begin speaking Mr Perez the clock will start for one minute can you all hear me yes okay uh good evening to the members of the board um my name is Alan Perez I am also a product as is my older brother of Alum Rock school districts uh we both attended Lester Shields and he attended Apollo Middle School I just want to talk about the transformative powers of ethnic studies especially in the critical time and place when um races really um kind of separating us and by implementing ethnic studies we can start to build more bridges and deeper sense of community within our students especially at a younger age when their minds are so fresh and quick to unite instead of adhering to the divisions that tend to go on in our society as we grow forward and I personally can attest to the fact that ethnic studies save me from a quote-unquote latchkey near Dropout student to being a senior not UC Riverside majoring in ethnic studies and media and cultural studies so I Gravely uh implore all of you to pass this resolution tonight thank you and have a good evening thank you next person after yes Jesus hey foreign I've been a professor of ethnic studies and Chicano studies for well over 20 years close to 30 years now uh both San Jose State University and San Jose City College um prior to that however I was a high school history teacher and I was also prior to that an elementary school teacher where I taught ethnic studies to sixth grade students uh illegally because there was no official program implemented um and I really want to congratulate you for taking this on um it's well overdue I'm not going to repeat what a lot of folks have already said and are going to say but as an educator I can tell you that if you're going to establish a a committee um you know it's important to also move towards not just the resolution but also to implement uh officially within the curriculum ways in which it's implemented fully and not just an add-on I'm already talking with colegas and Mike that I work with about establishing a certificate program for ethnic studies for teachers at elementary or K-12 who want to earn a certificate in ethnic studies so that they can be better teachers in the classroom so I know we have the Valdez Institute thank you for your comment Mr Kubota I hate to cut people off but we're going to keep it short but if you have more further information please feel free to to email with us with that and we can certainly take that into consideration and add that I apologize again for for cutting off and I apologize in advance for everyone else as well thank you for your comment next person after Jacqueline gambor okay hello everyone good evening my name is Jackie Gamble and I'm a professor at San Jose City College I teach ethnic studies I also have a parent two daughters ages 6 and 14.
Alan Rodman who will be dearly missed and their coach Mark laundry resolution of commendation pontypandy ng mea all state symphonic bang well as following a rigorous audition process and one East Brunswick High School student was among the top students musicians from throughout New Jersey selected to participate in 2020 ng MEA all states of phonic pen and whereas this selection requires a commitment on behalf of the student that result in many hours of intensive practice and they're successfully auditioned into the top assemble for the state and this achievement cumulates in a performance with the all state symphonic band at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and whereas this honor in tribute to students talent hard work and dedication has brought local and state recognition to our school and the district and to the community now therefore be it resolved that is branded Board of Education recognize and comment Hanna Lee and his teacher and debugged Brian passed congratulations well the resolution commendation for the 2020 New Jersey Music Educators Association young composer composition contest whereas this competition sponsored annually by the New Jersey Music Educators Association recognizes the accomplishments of student composers by providing an outlet for their critique of their original music and whereas four finalists were selected from the entries to present scores and recordings of their music and be interviewed by the NJ MEA conference that was held in February Emily toss composition for concert band syncopation circus earned first place in the petition and whereas this honor a tribute to the students talent hard work and dedication has brought local and state recognition to our schools the district and to the community now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes and commends emelita and her teachers Marjorie Lopresti and dr.
and I'll send out an email as well but it's Bolton celebrates comm www is not necessarily needed so Bolton celebrates comm we did a dry run today on the website and we definitely have some things to work out but we have all the meat and potatoes now it's just refining and we'll try it again this weekend live streaming it because we wanted to be as seamless as possible so yeah we're ready to go and just in the final stages were excited thank you any questions or comments for us the up Chris so yeah I have a couple questions but before that I just wanted to say my wife brought my attention to an article that was in The Wall Street Journal yesterday or the day before the presumed to assess how distance learning had gone in the country and basically gave it a failing grade and in looking through it I was struck by how many of the problems they highlighted that Bolton did and so just I wanted to express my appreciation to Christian and Daryl and Joe and the rest of senior staff for all of your work throughout this spring it's been remarkable and we are clearly in good hands here in Bolton so thank you for that on to my questions for Daryl the learning adventures what was the sort of feedback you got from families and students I got the initial email and it meant to attend and then forgot about it and so I hope that not everyone else forgot about it as well what is new so with anything new the attendance was a little lighter the first meeting that we had I think and you were there and some of the other parents I think we have had 10 parents I would say and maybe eight it's probably the ones I could have picked out before the meeting but yeah it was it was a good meeting with some great questions and I think the biggest takeaway was that the parents were excited that it wasn't just like your formal reading logs that it really was exciting engaging giving the students a voice and choice with the work so that's a shift from the way summer work was in the past so I think the the vision is is strong and it will get more families and students on board thank you so I know in an earlier meeting there was some discussion about you know possibly needing to start the school year earlier to help with kids getting caught up I know we moved to the adjusted schedule at the start of June so students would have enough so the teachers would have an opportunity to review where all students were and where deficits might be having done that work do you have a sense how much extra makeup will be needed in the fall and to what extent it might impact our ability to get through the curriculum next year and that's addressed to both Joe and Daryl or Kristen or anyone else sure I think a great place to start might be with Sarah actually with her curriculum meetings that she just had and in which she was able to get through and then I can add to it Joe thank you Joe thank you Darrell so what was clearly articulated in our meetings the reason both grade levels were there so that teachers could see what standards they can integrate into their next year's curriculum and that's part of the documentation so it's not this was like a review of the previous year certainly there will be certain skills and standards and concepts that will be hit harder at the beginning of the year but we have really also discussed a very important piece of the start of whatever next year looks like we'll be needing more time to build our community and really looking at the social emotional aspect of learning for all of our students looking at our second steps curriculum and other age-appropriate ways of getting our students into learning because hopefully we'll have a stronger idea as to what the year will look like so we will certainly have to make those changes that we we've been learning about and doing and you know thank you for your compliment about the very hard work that everybody put forward but we also feel that we would like to improve and in doing so you know we also need to get our students engaged and figure out you know if people are in a distance situation how do you bring kids in and even if they're not kids have will have been out of school for five months so so there will be I think that in some areas it might take more than one year to completely catch up and that's why the documentation in Atlas has been so critical and the teachers have been very specific so that the thing that the learning can build upon each other and the teachers are feeling very confident that they can integrate what was either missed so for example I'm a very specific example and some grade levels the fractions because it was the first time out the gate having hands-on experience and learning that so teachers know that that's going to get integrated perhaps more throughout the day at the elementary level so they're very beneficial beneficial meetings in that regard and we've also discussed it we'll probably meet again mid-year to regroup so that we can better answer that question and just keep this ongoing dialogue so that we can not lose sight of these students and disclosure so that happened at all levels in all in all areas for that I hope that answers your question somewhat Chris absolutely thank you very much oh is the importance of that building community and the emotional impact that the social that this distance learning has had and assessing students where they are what they're learning but emotionally where they at and like Joe mentioned we were a little bit lucky going into distance learning in March because they had the rapport in the relationships with their classes who knows what September's gonna look like teachers aren't going to really know all those kids as well so that's a concern of mine and and we're constantly thinking and trying to develop plans for that as well thank you I'll just add that our teachers are chomping at the bit to dive into whatever needs to be douve into to get ready for the Fall and and the unknowns and it's nobody's fault it's just the unknowns that are out there is absolutely tearing them apart because they're they're really eager and ready to start planning the next year and they're just they can't so I worry about their kind of social emotional well-being as well to be frightening and just after that there was a little bit of relief at staff meetings today when I said we are really well positioned to be one-to-one with more updated devices for the students so at least that gives something for teachers to hold on to that we can say is it definite so just to see a little bit of a sigh of relief over one thing that they could count on so again thank you for your support in that as well thank you are there other or comments yeah I just have a quick question about can you give us a little more insight on Kristen on what you're waiting for for guidance on what we're gonna see this fall and you know how we're gonna just like what are the next little steps that we're taking on that yeah so we're taking a number so let's start with the guidance first reopen Connecticut has one group assigned to be discussing about school in the fall again on the governor's call on Wednesday afternoon the Commissioner of Education was pressed when are we going to know when are we going to have some information and actually that press this time around did not come from a superintendent it came from a First Selectman so you know everybody is is eagerly awaiting some kind of path forward here he indicated that I think he hedged his bets and basically what I heard was we are several weeks away before they're going to provide any guidance and you know what is several equal I don't know he certainly acknowledged the fact that he is acutely aware that we are all in need of some guidance and right now in some level we're spinning our wheels having said that as you know tonight you approved the transfer of those monies for the additional Chromebooks so that's been a team effort this week for sure and thank you to Sarah and Alan and Lisa and Casal for the incredible team effort in even finding them and trying to get them because that was a day long process because they're not really available and we finally found a group that we've worked with before that had 2,000 in a warehouse in Texas and we were able to get them in time to get them into hands of some of our students who need to have them over the summer so having said that there's that piece both both schools both principals and I and Beth and at the respective schools the nurses did a walkthrough for several hours yesterday morning taking a look at various parts of the building and where we needed to make Changez or purchase some clear sort of like dividers if you will so whether it's on the front counter in the main office things we have to change in the nurse's offices items that we have to purchase like throw away blankets if the kid is sick got to get rid of the pillows and the nurse's office you know what kind of protection screen do we need to put up in the cafeteria as kids are coming through for their lunch how can we arrange things rearrange things in the cafeteria particularly at the high school we move some things create a one-way area where kids can't be on both sides looking at a variety of different things at center school one of the things that we rapidly came to was we have a lot of various seating to meet the needs of our youngest learners and our young classrooms and we don't have desks and chairs in there because that's not appropriate for little kids but because of that we have tables and so you know what all the information we're receiving is that social distancing has to happen people have to wear masks so John is looking into the potential of renting small tables that meet the size of our little people because I don't know that it makes sense to purchase them it may in the end I just don't know but we're looking into potentially renting additional furniture for the year so we're working with transfer enterprises on that right now in the end it may be cause more cost-effective to buy I'm just not sure right but there's all of these pieces Beth has been working diligently on continuing to secure PPE for us masks and gloves John continues to work on on securing and you know the sanitizer which we've had on backorder for I don't even know months now at this point we have to replace all of our soap dispensers so that their automatic soap dispensers so you don't touch them anymore thank God we have paper towel holders that you just pull down on the paper towels so those are good but we have to block off at least one sink in every bathroom so that there's a distance between sinks if there happens to be more than once student in there at any given time so I don't even know that I've captured it all to be honest with you my head is spinning with all of the things that we need to be doing and maybe my staff wants to add in more of things that I may have forgotten yeah everything from looking at a library and how kids check out books right because you don't want like a kid going a student going in and touching twenty-five books before they pick the one they want but using utilizing a digital talking with Jen Herrick and Kristen yesterday and the walk a digital system of reserving the book and then maybe get sent to the classroom just looking at different scenarios for every situation you can imagine yeah and Sarah you know is continuing to look at you know we purchased a whole know we have received for free a hoax to various platforms which has been great that they've been free but now we're not sure like you know do we have to now you know are we paying for it and if so where we find the monies for that so it's it's like this domino effect that I every day you know I think we get up and I must have five different conversations with each administrator every day about all of the aha moments that we've all had during the hunt we're trying to sleep so thank you for that question yeah no thank you and I completely appreciate all the steps that you're going through to prepare for whatever it is we see in the in fall lastly how much discretion do you think that the school district is going to have regarding opening or closing so ultimately the super done it always has I think the decision I mean I close schools before the governor did and because I did it because I felt that it was the safe thing to do for our students and our staff for sure however having said that I mean they gave very prescriptive guidance for esy and summer school and one of the things that I heard today on our emergency management weekly call with with town officials and our Stern Highlands Health Director he shared that he's on a committee at UConn for their reopening and they're going to be testing everyone and so I asked him will Rob are you hearing that we're going to have to test every child every teacher every staff member and he said that that is somewhere in one of the pieces of the governor's plan about reopening but that's more about you know getting testing really up and and just part of our existence I think at this point so I think it's going to be pretty prescriptive but again in the summer school rules there was all these prescriptive rules and then it said but it's up to the superintendent because I think it's statutorily it's up to the supertonic okay thank you for that yep thank you anybody else okay think we're on unfinished business we sure all right I believe most of you got the email about the asbestos project and how we have to amend the minutes Christian you wanna review that at all absolutely so you may recall that our at our November 14 2019 meeting the board approved the asbestos project at BC s as completed for one hundred and thirty eight thousand nine hundred sixty dollars and seventy nine cents that number in those minutes needs to be revised to reflect the final total of a hundred and forty-one thousand four hundred fifty dollars and seventy nine cents there was a retainage payment that did not come in until well after that meeting in November and we want to include it so we can recapture the full amount that we are due so we'll need a motion please this is Chris I moved to amend the November 14 2019 minutes item G dot three previously adopted to move I moved to revise those minutes to reflect a project total for Bolton Center school project number 0 1 2 - 0 0 4 0 - C V in the amount of one hundred and forty one thousand four hundred and fifty dollars and 79 cents second thank you have any questions about this or want to make any comments should I abstain this is real because I wasn't on the board then I yes okay and I have second okay that was in November right so then Andrea would abstain from this okay any questions we all understand why we're doing this all those in favor of amending these minutes Oh anyone opposed and abstentions Riya and Ben ram ram Ben abstain and everyone else as a favor and that passes thank you and 2020 2021 budget so mr.
I'm here to support the resolution for I think studies I teach Mexican American history and culture where I have taught at the high school and college level my students often comment that my class is their first time they have learned about their own history language and culture there is an appreciation belonging and self-confidence from these classes with a sense of responsibility to teach their younger children or their siblings and the question always comes up at what age should kids take ethnic studies and I believe the time is now and I want to introduce my daughter Jade who would like to read a poem actually um so we can restart the clock for another minute and we'll give her as much time as we can at the end but we want to give her full minutes and she's a separate speaker how much thank you so whenever she's ready we'll start the clock okay so this is one of the first poems that she read um actually when she was first learning how to read and so um it's called in lakish you are my other meme if I do harm to you I do harm to myself if I love and respect you I love and respect myself thank you so much thank you that was beautiful that was beautiful and lucky thank you was that the are you done with your comment Miss Gumball uh looks like yes okay thank you both um Avatar um do we have the next person yes this person is Juan Gamboa okay Mr Gamboa whenever you're ready yeah can you yes we can hear you thank you good evening my name is Juan Gamboa I'm a professor of ethnic studies at San Jose City I'm here in solidarity with my fellow students teachers and community members for ethnic studies a significant amount of work and struggle has gone into this resolution for ethnic studies which will affect the lives of thousands of students and familias and my years of teaching I've witnessed the transformation empowerment of our students through ethnic studies it shows the academic benefits of ethnic studies including improved academic performance attendance test scores on State Testing but equally important is the profound transformation I've seen with students and themselves when they see themselves in the curriculum and in the classroom that Fosters a sense of belonging that validates them their culture and their history I've seen ethnic studies motivate students to continue their education and give back to their Community As Leaders who value social justice and respect and diversity so while many of our students are chickenx I've also witnessed many non-latino students take ethnic studies and help build Bridges across diverse communities and stand together for justice students have told me that they oftentimes come to complete their degrees but through ethnic studies they found their history their identity their voice and their desire to make a positive change thank you for supporting this and I strongly recommend the board to pass the resolution for ethnic studies thank you uh next person after yeah Gonzalez okay Miss Gonzalez uh when you're ready and You Begin your the clock will begin um good evening could you guys hear me yes but everybody has said um encourage you to vote in favor of it and mainly think um give that thanks to miss Herrera for bringing this item and thinking of our students and their future um I would love to see where this goes to and how much our students are going to get impacted and learn from this thank you very much thank you next person after is Demi yen can you repeat that one Demi Yang Demi yeah oh there it is Demi Yang okay we can hear you so once you begin speaking your minute will start good afternoon my name is Demi Yen I major in ethnic studies at San Jose City College and I'm here in solidility with my fellow community members I'm an immigrant who moved from Taiwan to this country 10 years ago for the first five years I only stay in my Asian community and Billy talking to my neighbors my life changed dramatically since I started to study ethnic studies it shows me a true diverse American society looks like I become a peer mentor and volunteering after school program in my neighborhood before ethnic studies I have learned from the media that I am a modern minority which provide unfair myths that divide America being a mentor makes me realize that students just need more encouragement and see more successful example who represented them it has nothing to do with their availability to because all kids are intelligent in their own way besides that I have been grateful in ethnic study allowing me to dismiss the bias and stereotype my Asian Community host to other groups ethnic study shows me building Bridge with other brings more Harmony and resource back to our community I would hope I am not the only one who privileged to have this precious experience which is why I urge the board to pass the resolution thank you thank you okay Avatar next person this is Alexander newian Alexander Nguyen was that can you hear me yes yes we can hear you awesome okay good evening my name is Alexander and I'm a graduate student at University of San Francisco I grew up in East San Jose went to McCollum Elementary and triple Middle School in Allen Rock now I'm trying to be a future teacher back in East San Jose today I'm here to support the call for any studies in Alamo School District I took my first ethnic studies class at De Anza College where I learned to deconstruct internalized ideas about myself the history of Spanish people and empowered me to address issues in our community I realized later the power testimonials can connect different communities like the Vietnamese and Chicano community in San Jose our stories mattered and we should honor those stories now let's decide to create our stories studies saved my life where I was close to jumping out of college however college is too late let's start early the political climate today people are more interested in ethnic studies but conclude what is happening who they are and their history this is why it's needed we see ethics studies we need ethics studies for these conversations and to help our lives and communities our future generation deserves this so I urge the board to pass the element ethnic studies resolution this evening thank you for listening and have a good evening thank you next person Araceli Aguayo um hi good evening everyone my name is and today I am here to support um this um um okay sorry so today I am a partner now Alhambra school district and also a member of Empire program at Thomas Mayfair and today I am here to show my support to the ethnic studies program because I think that this program is very important because over the time we have seen that our Latino Community have has faced this community discrimination by education and segregation in many forms so I believe that any studies will help our students to increase their self-esteem and also configuration confidence to succeed in their education and in all areas of their life thank you thank you next person foreign my name is Nicole and I'm an ethnic studies student at De Anza College the other side of the train tracks is what my end of Sunnyvale was called growing up from a young age I knew the place I called home and the people I call friends were literally considered other the things that deemed this place this piece of Sunnyvale that borders parts of Alviso Milpitas Santa Clara and San Jose unbelonging to the rest of the city was the demographic of ethnicities cultures traditions and languages that were not of European origin as a young child this was confusing while making my way through my Early Education I came to realize that the same communities who were considered to be other in my city were the same communities that have been historically and institutionally considered other in this country it wasn't until college that I was exposed to an inclusive pedagogy I was able to look past the bias that our education system instills in all of us that continues this sense of otherness teaching ethnic studies at a younger age will not only give our youth a more complete picture of the reality of race and Society it will create a generation that is better equipped to address racial Injustice and help bridge the meaningless divide it's created for this reason I you can finish oh well I think we understood what you're going to say thank you uh next person Salvador hello oh there we go okay we can hear you all right uh just before I start I I would like to add that I have my brother here that's also going to participate um but I'm ready I'm ready yeah so each of you will get one minute thank you I appreciate it all right so my name is uh Sal Rosales Jr I'm a arus DNS JCC alumni um our family our owners and operators of a local business San Jose flowers here in Alum Rock you know we've been here since we were young and we're still here um one out of four I'm one out of four kids to two immigrants uh my mother who started this business passed away in 2016 left us with this business and we continue to be here as kids you know we were we were a bit lost because our two parents were immigrants who worked my dad worked two jobs my mom worked full-time so we had babysitters we were just a little bit lost not a lot of guidance and um um we could not relate to to the you know to the people around us sometimes and definitely not to the history being taught to us um we ended up being Troublesome kids troublemakers um and eventually in our in our early 20s we were having uh trouble with jobs and that led us back to college but but Chicano studies and ethnic studies led us to to opening our eyes and seeing where you know relate how we relate how we belong um so we definitely know that there's definitely uh benefits from that people can can get from that okay um so if we can if maybe your brother can go now your minute yeah um has passed so thank you so yeah um so uh my name I'm also here um if you guys have time I'm here with my sister as well and uh if she was be able to talk um I would appreciate that yes for sure she'll get another minute once you're done okay so yeah so just um like you know um kind of like the same story so you know I'll try not to take you know too much of the time but my name is David Rosales and I'm a resident uh in the outer Market uh Union School District also a former San Jose City College alumni and then uh before taking ethnic studies um I was going taking college classes but I just wasn't you know I I wasn't really in the school I just knew I had to take it so I can you know get a career or job or something but after taking ethnic studies I think it really opened my eyes and just uh showed me you know what was important you know like Community Family school and just like learning about different cultures and how important that is to the students you know because we're not taught that and then we're portrayed negatively in like the media so I think it'll be good for all the students to take it at a young age so um so yeah I urge the board to pass the arusd ethnic studies resolution this evening and uh thank you for your time thank you and now your sister all right okay hi my name is Alma Rosales and I am the oldest one of these two here and then a little sister and Juan Gamboa was my teacher at San Jose City College and I just want to say that um I took his class um when I had was freshly out of prison and I was a statistic I was in and out of prison my my youth I went to juvenile hall Elmwood and by taking that class it really um sparked something inside of me you know ethnic studies I was uh 24 years old and now I'm a case manager for people um in the system and that class saved my life thank you [Music] thank you okay next is the is your little sister speaking or graduation party tonight the whole family's in support thank you yes yeah thank you okay next person Avatar Claudia okay um can you hear me yes okay um I don't see the time but I'm assuming it'll start when I start oh I see it my name is Claudia cuello a parent and a member of the pool here it's almost major now more than ever we need to incorporate ethnic studies to our children's education we are living among not only a divided Community due to race and social injustice but to the loss of belonging overall our children are being raised with Caucasian holidays and beliefs that cover up the real battles that went on behind the scenes are we our students deserve to know the truth behind their Roots so they can better represent themselves at the same time it is important that they learn from others cultures to begin cross-cultural pollination and thus Foster appreciation respect and admiration to all those around them in our community thank you thank you next person Jacqueline Rubios hello can you hear me yes okay um good evening everyone my name is Joaquin cover rubius I am alumni of San Jose City College and current student at UCLA majoring in Chicana and Chicano studies as students at a young age we are programmed to believe everything we are taught in school is pure and true but in a lot of instances that isn't always the case back in elementary school I was taught that Christopher Columbus was a hero and it wasn't until several years later where I come to find out the truth at San Jose City College I felt an experienced firsthand the academic and personal impacts that ethnic studies has had on students when students take an ethnic studies class they aren't just learning but they're engaging with the material and shaping it into what they want it to become to them this empowering and academically rigorous curriculum gives students the critical thinking and problem solving skills they can apply inside and out of the classroom by passing this resolution I believe the Alum Rock Union School District can have high levels of success in building student engagement and improving academic outcomes for the students thank you thank you next person Avatar you're muted after just in case man there you go I'm sorry I mispronounced the name before he was walking uh the next person is floor di Leon okay ready yes we can hear you okay good evening everyone my name is flor de Leon I am a foreign and Community organizer in the group heads almost Mayfair first of all I want to thank Rusty Corona Corina Herrera for bringing this up item for adoption establishing any studies committee for Alan brass School District means a lot to our students and to the community as as most of our students are students of color our communities have long been affected by injustices and social economic and emotional inequalities and have struggled day after day with all those disadvantages disadvantages in order to get ahead and have a better life or career assessor Chavez say we need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the Earth ethnic and the cultural diversity that nourish and it straightens that Community as the and and this nation also any studies are proven to help students better academically they feel if they feel they are reflected in that curriculum and students learn uh to this contract internalized ideas of unworthiness these courses will help the students become empowered and part of their roots for this and more we need to adopt this resolution and give parents and aspers of the subject the opportunity to work to make the curriculum and learning status a reality in our district okay thank you Miss Lillian oh perfect timing thank you okay next person Avatar is Jonathan Gomez greetings board and Community my name is Jonathan Gomez I'm an assistant professor of Chicana Chicano studies at San Jose State University and I want to begin by thanking Corina Herrera lloyda for introducing this resolution as well as somos Mayfair for inviting me here this evening I'm very much in support of the AR USD ethnic studies resolution in my experience teaching ethnic studies courses at San Jose State I continually come across students many of whom are from San Jose who share with me how they wish they could have had the opportunity to enroll in ethnic studies courses at an earlier stage in their education in ethnic studies students discover their history finding their culture and use the knowledge they acquire to develop an active role in the world that is based in social justice I urge the board to adopt the resolution and give San Jose youth a head start at crafting a livable Destiny through Equity oriented and race conscious curriculum and pedagogy thank you thank you next person after Lopez hi can you guys hear me yes yes hello my name is star Lopez I am currently a double major at San Jose City College ethnic studies was born through protests right here in our very own San Francisco where students of color demanded that universities update their course offerings to include history in a non-eurocentric perspective and this is what we are still fighting for today I have the right and our children have the right to learn about their own culture and ethnicities that surround them every day it should be mandatory for our youth to understand and learn about other cultures and have a sense of belonging for their own ethnic studies promotes for students to be able to think for themselves to gain a better understanding of other cultures while learning to respect and tolerate others also helping them understand that they can change their communities in a positive way please understand that ethnic studies can help our children become more confident and determined to be their best selves I urge support the board to pass the arusd ethnic studies resolution immediately thank you thank you next person after yes Maria Martinez hi can you hear me yes thank you hi my name is Maria Martinez and I'm parent for I don't know uh first I want to thank you trustee Loya for bringing this resolution and I want to ask you trustees uh to support Agnes to this since Martin had asking asking for four years in the alcat forums see Agnes studies with health or children's to and reject the first and the shame of their own skin color the culture and their language and we also teach them about the different cultures that we have in Alum Rock and with this and the Roses thank you next person is Brenda zendejos hi I just want to thank uh Karina for bringing it now students should not have to wait to be in college to learn about their own culture um and now we get to learn the real history um not European Centric history we're in 2020 and that this is something huge in major and I want to congratulate the whole board um that is supporting this we have had prejudice and discrimination in our cultural DNA because the vast majority of American holidays and rituals and our understanding of American history and culture all reinformed reinforce the security of an anglo-american or white American history of experience thank you so much because our students will now know their true uh culture and my kids will be part of this and I am really excited that this is happening here at Elm rock thank you thank you next person Bellagio can you hear me yes okay hi my name is I spoke earlier um and I just want to spoken support as well I migrated to the us at the age of 13 and I was enrolling high school as a freshman in the east side of San Jose and for the four years that I was in high school I did not have the opportunity to learn anything about Chicano history or even like the Mexican-American history even living around the sir Travis neighborhood it was not until my junior year of college at UC Davis I had the opportunity to learn more about Chicano studies and really reflect about my role in in the community and as I see my little sisters now I can see how they need to learn about our culture and other ethnicities that make up our very diverse City here in San Jose and they should really have the opportunity to learn and celebrate their history and be motivated to continue to work to serve our community so thank you for that thank you next person [Music] before we start after do you have a rough idea of about how many more we have about 17 oh 17 okay can I say something um it's obvious how this vote is going to go can we vote um I think I'm going to continue to allow the community to have this platform to express their thoughts on this item I think it is obvious I agree but I think it's important particularly at this time but just in general for the um for this platform to be given to the community so I'll continue however you say we have 17 after let me correct it's only 12.
Arvind Gopal congratulations next is a resolution of commendation the 2024 general Science Talent Search whereas Lucy's now as senior at East Brunswick High School was recently recognized as one of 300 students selected nationally for the 2024 general Science Talent Search and whereas Lucy's entry resulted from the study she completed while a student at Stony Brook University's 2019 Summer Scholars program titled the computational development of a novel class of veronik acid containing Chopra noids and sis restricted compressed hummus statin a for analogs for tumor vascular disruption this project is important in combating cancer by reducing blood flow that feeds neoplastic growth and whereas the top 304 Jenner on scholars and their high schools were awarded $2,000 each whereas this honor a tribute to the students talent hard work and dedication has brought local and state recognition to our schools the district and the community now therefore be it resolved that the East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes and commends Lucy for attaining this incredible Heather sorry I disconnected for a moment I was concerned I wouldn't get back I have a resolution accommodation the National Center for Women and information technology aspirations in computing award recommendation whereas the National deaf women Information Technology Award for aspiration buting honors ninth through twelfth grade students to self identify as women genderqueer or non-binary for their computing related achievements and encourages them to pursue shion's whereas award recipients are selected based on their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing presence demonstrated had a computing experience computing related activities leadership experience tenacity and faced with barriers to access components for post-secondary education this award recognizes high school students who identify as women compute elated achievement and interest as a part of an effort to encourage more young women to choose careers in technology and whereas to high school students Laura Kai and Kayla Wong was like it from high school applicants across the country for their outstanding aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing as demanded by the computing experience computing related activities leadership experience tenacity in the face of better access and plans for post-secondary education and whereas florica was a national winner and Caleb along with the state winner and for as one east runs a high school teacher Danielle Nephi received an honorable mention and whereas this honor a tribute to the students and teachers talent hard work and dedication has brought local and state cognition to our school the computer science department the district and to the community now therefore be it resolved that East Brunswick Board of Education recognizes and commends or hi Carol along their teachers I'm Cohen and Danielle nasty wondrous congratulations a wonderful group of students that we are proud to honor and indeed we are proud to honor every single one of our students for their own successes their own beauty their own stories we are so proud of all of you and so glad to be play a small part in all your successes any other board members have anything to say or shall we move on with the rest of the meeting I'm not seeing the entire screen Bernie I don't know if you can fix that so I can see all the board members on the top gallery video yes that's something you have control over I had it I think it was a sign I had Jeff on my entire screen it was like a sign okay for the good of the cause of the public video remote conference access as a reminder members of the public who wish to provide comic during the good of the cause for the public portion of the meeting may do so through zoom a remote video conferencing system free direct access is available by entering the URL meeting ID and password you see before you on the screen upon joining the meeting your participation will automatically be muted to ensure there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the Board of Education in order to be recognized select the chat feature and zoom then enter and send your names in Korean immediately you will be recognized to speak when your name is called individuals of invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves public participation shall be extended to residents of this district persons having a legitimate interest in the actions of this board public participation shall be limited to three minutes for each individual duration before I ask if there's anyone wishing to address the board I believe our attorney Matt Jacobi has a few words he wanted to say good evening everyone the public portion of it is not free back and forth dialogue because we're in this virtual format what we're going to do is we will ask each participant to lists or make their statements to the board at the conclusion of all of these statements it's at that time that dr.
Misskelley if you could put that information up there for me yep one second so this evening I am recommending that the board reduced the 2020 2021 budget in a personnel benefits line by $30,000 for a total board of education budget for 2020 2021 fourteen million eight hundred and thirteen thousand three hundred and five dollars we received a rate concession from Cigna for health insurance from 19 and a half percent down to 19 percent that will help with the set of this reduction due to the savings and new hires we were able to add back the one elementary position that was cut in next year's budget this position needs to be added back to address the needs of our youngest learners after one third of this year being in a distance learning model in addition there continues to be a need to add additional staff member to the business office to support the business manager this need has been shared with the board for a number of years now we have additional reporting requirements koban 19 several CAPA projects an upcoming roof replacement project and day-to-day operations that require additional support we are hopeful that the savings from the new hires and resignations that we did not anticipate that there will be monies available to support this position in some kind of capacity whether it be part-time or full-time and there is the information on the screen for you about the $30,000 bringing the board's budget increase to three point four seven percent and that $30,000 as everyone knows is the final reduction approved by the Board of Finance for the Board of Education spudger for 2020 2021 any questions hearing none we'll need a motion on that okay I can make it um let's see I just lost my language I moved to reduce the personnel benefits line by thirty thousand dollars in the 2020 2021 board of education budget thank you second thank you been moved by an second thigh band do we have any other questions or comments on this adjustment hearing none all those in favor of reducing the personnel line and by $30,000 say aye [Music] any one who is opposed or abstaining that also passes unanimously we are now on to and get off my motion screen and onto my where was it a new business right so the 2020 2021 Board of Education meeting schedule you should have found in their email a few days ago we need a motion to adopt the 2028 2021 Board of Education meeting schedule somebody's house is making tuitions anyone wanna move to approve the 2020 2021 Board of it so moved second by an okay to discuss that does anyone have any questions or discussion on this meeting schedule pretty routine maybe we should add July meetings cuz Corona 20 is gonna need necessitate it I'm ignoring that cop bull this havoc emerges Willis have emergency meetings in that case all those in favor of adopting this meeting schedule any opposed abstentions that meeting scheduled passes unanimously and the next item we're looking for a motion to cancel the June 25th 2020 Board of Education meeting RIA makes a motion to cancel the meeting so second is there any comments discussion I don't sad they want to meet again on two weeks hi opposed abstentions we are not meeting on June 25th and will get together some it's for the what we discussed earlier resignations thank you so I'm going to inform the board that BCS remedial reading teacher Lisa Shaw BHS special education teacher Lindsey Lockett leer pcs paraprofessional Rebecca Holloman and BCS cafeteria worker Lisa Costello have resigned thank you it will be missed and we have a future business we have lunch prices that was reassuring we have lunch prices to discuss oh yes I'm sorry I think I yeah I think I I pulled up the old agenda yes yes watch prices it was another email you should have received yesterday yesterday so I you know I apologize for the lateness of the add to the agenda and the information just received this yesterday it's it's a fast-moving train here gang I just want to remind the board and for our new members that last year I shared that Bolton receives federal funds from USDA for our food service program and as such we are required to use the paid lunch equity tool if we are not at the required average for 2020 2021 of three dollars and nine cents for a lunch which we are not our current lunch prices are two dollars and ninety cents at Bolton Center school and three dollars at Bolton high school further we are 15 cents below the required weighted average required by USDA this weighted average goes up every year basically we are at the USDA's direction for pricing and if we do not show that we are using the tool and increasing our prices the state can order us to raise our prices or we will not receive USDA funding or we could keep our prices the same and the BOE would have to make up the difference and this was not a budgeted item as our food service program currently remains a self-sustaining program if we have if we were to lose USDA funding it would mean we would need to raise the prices of lunches to approximately $5 a lunch further we do have the ability to apply for a waiver for the paid lunch equity requirement if the school food service account maintains a positive or zero balance as of this past December 31st 2019 however while we are very cognizant of how this pandemic has affected our community it is not unfortunately our recommendation to apply for the waiver as minimum wages go going to go up yet again this year as is the cost of food we're already seeing a rising cost of food now this waiver can be done but it only sets us further back as the weighted average increases every year and the board was made aware that we would need to make an increase again this year and I can tell you we will likely need to make an increase again next year if the board does decide to apply for the waiver we must submit it by July 30th the state did not provide guidance on breakfast pricing so our plan is to keep breakfast pricing the same for next year and I believe that I'm looking for my answers to the questions maybe Chris has it that he had posed that I think would be important and for everyone to hear so one of the questions was how much do we receive from USDA for each meal our lunch reimbursement rates for 1920 with the required weighted average was $3 and as I shared in 2020 2021 it's three dollars and nine cents for paid thirty-two cents reduced lunch three dollars and one cent free lunch 3.41 sent an additional six cents per meal certification compliance grant he asked are the prices we charge for meals factored into the calculations for who qualifies for free or reduced meals the price we charge and USDA requires we charge our based on those that do not qualify and pay full price per the USDA ple tool will higher prices allow some families to qualify for assistance who might not now qualify families qualify based on their income and/or direct certification eligibility a higher price will not change how they are eligible we do anticipate we will see an uptick in qualifying families based on the current events and their income levels going down and/or assessing services like Medicaid or snap after we discussed this last year I thought about this issue further and it occurred to me that the concern on the part of the USDA might be that town's not in effect use their federal free reduced meal dollars to subsidize the cost of meals for kids who might not need that assistance if that is the point of ple then I'd agree with the reasoning answer yes this is precisely why the USDA requires we increase each year the USDA raises the reimbursement rates for those that qualify for free and incentivize the paid and reimbursement meals as well if we do not raise our paid pricing the free reimbursement dollars will have to make up the difference and eventually the model becomes unsustainable the program can no longer operate successfully jeopardizing meal access to those that need it most if our meal cost is lower than the federal reimbursement rate is there some way to petition for a lower reimbursement and thus keep prices lower for everyone and while Heather clearly understands the thought behind this as do I he they continued increase in minimum wage and food costs make this unattainable the government increases reimbursement each year and they expect our programs to do the same to ensure that we can be sustainable what is our actual per meal cost would be interesting to get a sense of what sort of improvements we might be able to make if we raised prices say to 310 at BCS and 325 at BHS we currently don't have the actual plate cost per meal available right now we're still in covent 90 mail situation but we also have to consider that labor is factored into this as well there's always room for improvement nothing comes to mind at this time we offer a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables scratch cooked meals within each menu cycle and we do our very best to be sure we are featuring and favorites and they do share with us what the VAM papers are I might add we're always looking at ways to increase participation and we do our very best to create a menu that would encourage this within the guidelines that we have to work within what I can say jumping to 310 and 325 or even the recommended $3 and 310 would do is help the program to continue to be self-sustaining self-sustaining school nutrition programs are unusual as most districts rely on BOE funding so keeping pricing at or higher the weighted average promote sustainability and as I've shared with the board before you know each year we're sort of in that might next year be the year that we're not being self-sustaining anymore but we are still working very hard at keeping our self as a self-sustaining program to the extent that we can Chris I want to thank you for those very thoughtful questions so do we have a motion to raise the launch prices by 10 cents to $3 a ECS and 310 at BHS for the 2020 2021 school year second that things move very well by su second by Chris we have any discussion on this topic I just like to say that I hate doing this I hate when the government tells you you have to do things when they don't make sense and I don't know if I want to fight about it this year but next year I might so all those in favor of this increase this year I all post abstentions that motion passes and we are now on to unfinished business would you like me to note in that approval that the price increase is under protest but the board members realize at this point there no alternative I think we had similar situation last year agreed do we have any unfinished business or a new business or anything you know what what I was wondering about actually and I don't know if this is appropriate but we hear a lot about the resignations and retirements and I'm always very curious to hear when we've hired new people and I wonder if it might be possible to highlight our new hires perhaps at the August or September meetings we always do that okay for what I just can't remember it thank you okay yeah no problem they don't always attend but we do share the information fantastic yep cool thank you so that concludes the regular portion of our business meeting and we are now looking for a motion to go into executive session and to invite the superintendent to attend to discuss the superintendent's review and contract so moved seconds and did you move that thank you motion by Anne second by Rhea to we have any discussion all in favor of going into executive session opposed abstentions thank you everybody
okay so can I um request you after that once if any more add-on can we not go beyond 15 so if the 12 that we have stay as the 12 we'll we'll stop after that and three more come on we'll add them but at that point please let me know and at that point that's when we'll um cut it off just in the interest of time okay thank you Christy Chavez and thank you after so was it Victor Vasquez that you said next yes okay thank you community uh there's a famous chant that we use um roughly translates to a people without a history or people without a memory or a legacy the curriculum in our schools have systematically excluded our legacies our memory or cultural heritage as people of color a very essence as human beings in our International indigenous right to share a legacy and culture with the Next Generation this has been denied we're here because we want ethnic studies now we want our memories our history we want that to be part of the alamark school district we want our children to learn who they truly are our children need spaces they can learn about their food sales their Chicano Latino black Native American API culture cells we want to hear Progressive white history as well we want to build Unity we want to heal and we want to transform ourselves in our society there's plenty of evidence that ethnicities does show that it's transformational and I'll leave that because we talked about that already and please pass thank you next question next is good afternoon or good evening everyone this is camiliana spontanea parent and Alum Rock Union School District um I am also the executive director of someone's Mayfair but I am strictly calling as a parent this evening um I want to fully support the resolution and thank trustee for her support as well as the trustees who already have identified their support of this resolution as someone who minored in ethnic studies at UC Berkeley I know how foundational it has been to my world view the understanding of root causes and systems change and overall empathy and kindness which I want my children your students to also have access to and I don't want them to have to wait until College to understand these Concepts and tools additionally now is the time as our black brothers and sisters are literally fighting for their dignity and their existence we have an opportunity to teach our students real histories of struggle and resistance systemic oppression and challenge them to think critically on how to forge new ways forward together in solidarity in the short term I hope that this will also have a positive effect on bullying as we know that happens on school campuses within the district and across the country thank you thank you next person actor Victoria okay Victoria are you are you able to hear that you said Victoria right yeah can you hear me oh there it is yes we can hear you hi good evening my name is Victoria partida I am a San Jose resident and soon to be a Alum Rock Union School District Parent I asked him to support the ethnic studies resolution I was born and raised in Salinas California and into two years ago when I finished my graduate degree I found out that residents of Salinas were 70 70 of Selena's residents were of Mexican descent and 65 of residents did not speak English very well now why is this important because I'm 30 years old and if you know the statistics of Latino students you you would know that out of 100 students only three of them go on to get a graduate degree ethnic studies are necessary to teach us our stories such as the Bracero program that after again often get under binded in traditional American teaching please support the ethnic studies resolution thank you thank you next person after is Leslie karma karma gel okay can you hear me yes okay um so when I was in Middle School and Elementary School at the AR USD District I was often confused it took me way too long to find out about my history of traditions and cultural activity the school system always told me that Christopher Columbus was such a great guy as a child and I believe that when I grew I found the truth I figured that nothing else they tell me is true the system only shows what they want of the story which is America is always a good guy it took a teacher of mine this year to decide to teach off the book for me to know more about other perspectives in the stories even when I had world history as a class of books were still so focused on America and trying to convince us how perfect it is not once that I get to learn a bit of History outside of this country I would have loved the chance to learn about why my culture celebrated certain days and did certain things I know there will be people out there saying well it's the parent's job to teach their children their own history and culture without logic we shouldn't have history classes at the moment there are plenty of benefits but I don't have time to go yeah thank you next one over here hello can you hear me yes okay my name is Arturo Villarreal I have been teaching uh ethnic studies at Evergreen Valley College for 30 years and I'd like to reference a study that came out of Stanford 2016.
Valesky the super head of schools will respond to the various inquiries or questions or provide information we don't do that to be rude we do that so that we can have a full understanding of what all the different questions are and often there are repeat questions this way we can then answer them succinctly at the end of the public portion so we don't engage in it back and forth but what we do do is we do listen to all of your comments and questions and statements and then dr. Valesky will respond at the conclusion of the public portion thank you very much thank you Matt Burnie is there anyone wishing to address the board I see no one having sent a chat message requesting to speak no one here we go we have Ning who is requesting to speak so just one moment and if you would kindly unmute yourself okay you are unmuted and state your name and address for the record please unless I can't see a picture of you unless you are a student in which case you do not have to give your last name or your address this is named John I'm a parent just want to say first thank you all very much for the efforts all these during this difficult time and as parents we really appreciate just a little bit feedback I have two kids a one middle school one high school um I think what works best is if the teachers may sometimes have more live videos or like a bazoom meetings with the students at a fixed time maybe every other day or something rather than just give assignments for their remote learning that's it thank you I'm sorry would you please state your name once again I did not get your last name Z H a and G thank you very much thank you bernie is there anyone else wishing to address the board no there is not okay seeing none I close the public portion oh we have a late comer Nell okay um I will let the speaker talk could you please state your name and address for the record unless of course you're a student you did not have to give your last name of your address then hi my name is Shi I um spell as X I and last name is AI um I would like to express some concern over the percentage of mass proficiency rate at EB High School um we saw it from niche comm it's only 18% it's among the second lowest among 16 schools in the surrounding school districts so as a parent I'm shocked to see such a low number for EB high school and so and I hope this would be a wake-up call for our mass education at EB to make some adjustment to our curriculum to make us strong again at mass education thank you we have an sang okay um I had closed the public portion but um it is a zoom meeting and I know that it's it's difficult to get the timing so we will allow the next person to speak as well please state your name and address for the record unless of course you're a student no last name or address if you're a student thank you mrs.