001here in the chamber and those watching via live stream and call the May 12th, 2026 regular meeting of the board of education to order with our trustees all about to be present. We will start with our flag ceremony. The Mission Bay High School Coast Guard JRTC color guard will present the colors. Please stand for the presentation of the colors. Time march left. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Retrieve colors. Right face forward. March. [applause] traditional custom that dates back centuries in many native nations and communities. Our land acknowledgement was developed in partnership with local Kumi leaders. Students from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts prepared the following
002video to show our respect for the Kumi people who are the original stewards of the land our school district occupies. We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumi people are the original inhabitants and caretakers of these lands now known as San Diego. Despite the attempted genocide and ongoing impacts of colonization, the Kumi spirit remains unbroken and their traditions continue to thrive as they carry the memories of their ancestors who bravely resisted cultural erasure and fought to protect their land and way of life. >> In honoring their legacy, we pledge to uphold their cultural heritage and right to safeguard their sacred connection to the land for future generations. >> With gratitude and strength, we stand with the Kumi, embracing the past while forging a brighter tomorrow. We will now move to item B, adoption of the agenda. Tonight's
003agenda includes the semianual report from our district advisory council on compensatory education and a progress monitoring report on our guardrails around effective communication. Could we get a motion to adopt today's agenda with charter school related items H5, H6, and H8 to be heard first? Also, please note that item C10, resolution in support of community housing and item H7 have uh with new heights academy have been withdrawn. Do we have a motion? Motion win second or uh student trustees please vote. All other trustees please vote. All right. Okay. And uh Miss Hamilton, can you please provide information for public speakers about today's meeting protocols? Today's meeting of the board of education is a business meeting that is conducted in public. Oh, did I skip a part? Sorry. I think I skipped a part. Sorry. Okay. I
004did not. Yes, I'm good. Sorry. Today's meeting of the board of education is a business meeting that is conducted in public and board members will not engage in a dialogue with members of the audience. Board bylaw 10:25 sets the time limit for public comment on agenda items to 10 minutes per side pro and con or 20 minutes total. Speakers will be able to provide testimony at the beginning of the appropriate agenda item or at the end of the meeting for non-aggenda public comment. Please listen for your name to be called. Speakers are listed and called in the order received. When your name is called, please come to the podium to speak. Speakers participating via Zoom will be asked to unmute when their name is called. If you are unable to unmute yourself, we will call
005the next speaker. Please follow along with the agenda so that you know when your item is coming up for discussion. When you begin speaking, the green light below my name on the deis indicates that the timer has started. When the light turns yellow, you will have one minute remaining. A buzzer will indicate that your time has expired. If you have not yet done so and would like to sign up for inperson public comment, iPads are available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby. >> Thank you, Miss Hamilton. We will now uh consider item H5 and this is the Kip Adilante Preparatory Academyy's charter petition renewal. Uh we would like to ask Dedra Walsh, director of our charter schools office to come to the dis and present the item. A first reading of
006this item was conducted on April 14th, 2026. This chair is very low. Sorry. All right. Thank you. So, this item is the um renewal of the charter for Kip Adilante Preparatory Academy. We are recommending the board approve a 5-year term beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2031. Table two provides an overview of the school. Um tables five and six also provide some um data from the dashboard a summary of the schoolwide data and the subgroup data for KIP. Um we also have um provided in tables 7 through 10 KIP's verified data results from I Ready and um we've included the board roster. We do note that the board includes a representative from San Diego um on the KIP SoCal board. Table 12 includes the projected enrollment for the 5-year charter term. Uh the
007district does note that we have concerns that the enrollment projections are overly optimistic. The school is projecting a growth of about 119 students despite four years of declining enrollment. Um we also reviewed the budget documents that they submitted. uh the budget and cash flow. We do find the enrollment and ADA assumptions appear optimistic. Tables 13 through 15 reflect KIP's um historic enrollment and ADA, the school's enrollment and ADA projections. And then uh finally, the district's modified enrollment and ADA projections. For the district calculations, we used an a flat enrollment of 315 students and an ADA of 91%. Um, we also note that the school receives substantial support from what Kip calls the school success team. Um, they from the CMO office, they get um adjusted CMO fees, sometimes completely waved CMO fees and then also
008contributions um from specific accounts to the school. So, their financial model currently is dependent on significant ongoing external support to maintain their current operations. Um and if enrollment does not reach the projected levels, uh KIP will utilize the um KIP SoCal management fee model to maintain their financial sustainability. So um that's how you report. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Dra. And what's your recommendation? >> Uh sorry, we are recommending that the board approve the fiveyear renewal term. >> Great. Thank you. And we got a motion from trustee Whitehurst Payne. Do we have a second from trustee or doaw and miss Hamilton? Do we have speakers on this item? No speakers on this item. Okay. Board comments, questions, discussion. If if none uh trustees win and or please vote and all other trustees, please vote.
009Great. Congratulations, Kit by the line. [applause] All right, we will move to item H6, which is action on the renewal of the charter petition for City Heights Prep Charter School. Uh, first reading of this item was conducted on April 14th, 2026. Uh, Miss Walsh, please present the item. >> Thank you. Uh so for City Heights Prep staff does recommend that the board approve the renewal of the charter for a two-year term beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2028. We've included uh in table two an overview of the school. Um tables five and six again summarize the dashboard uh schoolwide and subgroup performance. Um, so for City Heights Prep was designated by CDE as a low performing charter school. And so while education code specifies non-renewal as the default recommendation for a low performing
010school, chartering authorities may renew if we um have a written factual finding specific to the charter petition that the charter school is taking meaningful steps to address the underlying causes of low performance. And those steps are reflected or will be reflected in a written plan. We've summarized the written corrective action plan that the school submitted, including the underlying causes and the actions and goals that the school intends to take. After reviewing the plan, uh district staff did note two concerns that we'd like the school to incorporate. Uh the first one is the corrective action plan. The goals lack specific measurable annual targets and it does not include information on how monitoring and ongoing corrective actions will be done. So we are asking um via this um report for the school to implement both of those
011actions um as it as it does its corrective action plan. Tables seven and eight include the school's verified data. Um tables 9 through 12 summarize the comparison data for city heights prep. So for low performing charter schools, our AB1505 implementation plan requires us to perform that comparison. So this is the data um resulting from that comparison. And then lastly, we also reviewed the budget and cash flow that the school submitted with its charter renewal term. We do note that despite projected deficits, the ending fund balance um is anticipated to remain above the required minimum reserve and there are no apparent cash flow concerns over the charter term. >> Thank you, Miss Walsh. And so to clarify, the recommendation for a two-year renewal, is that contingent on the school following the corrective action plan? It's contingent
012upon them um creating and and their board adopting that written action plan. >> Okay. Yes, >> understood. >> So when they come up for renewal uh basically in two years, we would look at this corrective action plan to see how they implemented it and what results came from it. >> Thank you. Do we have a motion on this item? Moved by Trusty Hazen, seconded by Trusty Whitehurst Payne. Uh do we have speakers on this item? Yes, we have one speaker, Arthur Congo. Good evening everybody. Arthur Congo, senior director of local advocacy with the California Charter Schools Association. just speaking in support of this renewal recommendation by charter staff. Um, City Heist Prep, as we heard in the public hearing uh back in April, uh they do serve an extremely unique u migrant refugee student population
013predominantly. Um they do a tremendous job at getting those students graduated and getting them into and enrolled into college um at a tremendous rate. So I think that speaks to the program and you know what they do and as we heard from one of the student speakers um those students when they do come over are already at a disadvantage um learning English and traditionally do not perform well on standardized tests. Um but that is not a fair measurable outcome uh for students and especially that student population. Um so just here speaking in support of the recommendation. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay board questions discussion. Trustee Hay. >> So I guess I just want to make clear that in moving this item um we are there is also the expectation that the specific
014metrics you've identified will be tracked by the school and reflected in the corrective action plan. So I guess my question is so I made a motion to you know support the renewal. Do we need an anything else to make explicit the expectation that that this will be monitored um in advance of you know coming back to us in two years? Um we will as the charter office and the oversight person we will monitor this when they come back um and as part of our ongoing annual site visits with the school. Um I'm not certain if there's a board component that needs to be modified to include that language, but um just as part of our oversight and monitoring, we will review their uh results and their plans to make sure that they've implemented what they
015said they would implement. >> And is the expectation that these items would be monitored on an annual basis for the next two years? Yes, we we anticipate that the school will do um much closer monitoring that than that, but as the oversight authority, we will look at it annually. >> And would you let us know if say a year from now these things weren't being monitored? I guess my question is before two years from now if this wasn't happening, would we be made aware? >> Um typically we work with the school on concerns. If they haven't addressed items that need to be addressed, we would work directly with the school. Um we can certainly provide a board update if the board >> Yeah. And for me, it's just simply making sure that they're monitoring what
016we have asked them to monitor. >> Thank you. >> Yes, >> I just have a brief um clarifying question. Um in my time here, we've never had a nonrenewal. And so, to my recollection, we haven't. And so my question is um in the situation that a charter gets in it gets in um I don't know what to call it a spiral where it's not providing um the supports that students need to succeed. Um do how do we how do we support the students in terms of preparing for that transition if we believe that that is a possibility? Um because certainly we're in a certain sense here already if if the state recommendation is for nonrenewal in a certain sense. >> Yeah. >> Um so we um we have spoken to the school in the past.
017This is the second time they've come up for renewal in the low performing category. Um and we did note in our staff report that um if they are low performing at their next renewal, there is a risk that they may not be renewed um having been low performing three years. We've also noted that this school has made um some significant progress um in its um dashboard results comparing itself to itself and especially um in the LP indicator um and in the verified data. That's why we included that as well to show that students are um making progress in those markers even though it may not be reflected yet in their CASP results. Um, so there is some progress, but the school is aware and we have had conversations with them about there's a risk of
018you not being renewed if you come up low performing again. And as for supports for the schools when we have to do a non-renewal um uh of a school, the school and the district um in the most recent ones we've done, which have not been very recently, but we do work together um with the school to provide placements and supports for those students. So, our um neighborhood schools enrollment options office is involved. Their team connects directly with the school and then um with the school's um kind of permission and collaboration directly with those students and families to find the best placements for those students. We actually have another item um that is coming up tonight where um they have engaged collaborative collaboratively in that process. So >> yes, Trusty White, >> I think that um
019this is good that this came up because it will come up in the other um of the charter, but the state is very specific for charters. they have in one sense more accountability than the other schools because they do have to show some progress over time or else um when we have one school with 8% and and there's not the same kind of red flags. So I I think that the teachout piece, which is what you had with the other school, which means that they're required to meet with our schools, our placement office, and others, and show where each child is going and how they're going to benefit from this new placement. And you're monitoring on an annual basis with that caution that if they don't meet the standards, then they will be um terminated.
020So I feel comfortable with this plan with you monitoring on what's going on and sharing with us because we have been known with in one case I believe we did shut them down before time when they weren't meeting our standards. So I think this is good. I'm comfortable with moving forward. Thank you. >> Okay. Any other board comments? If not, trustee or vote and win. Sorry. And all other trustees, please vote. Okay, that passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to item H8, action on the material revision to remove grades 9 to 12 and a location from the charter petition of America's Finest Charter School. Miss Walsh. >> Thank you. So this is the material revision uh to the America's finest charter school. The revisions will be effective July 1, 2026. Uh in table
021one, we've included a summary of the charter petition and the renewals. Um we note that this school initially was not serving high school grades. They did a material revision in March of 2017 to add high school and now they are back to remove that high school program. They currently serve um grades K through six on a district site. Um and then they have their grades seven through 12 students at a privatelyowned site that the school owns. Um we do note that the school will retain ownership of the property, but they will not have students um um based out of that school site. Table two is an overview of the school. Table three is the historical enrollment for the school, which reflects significant declines over the last two years. Um, and then on March 5th, uh,
0222026, the AFCS board of directors voted to close its high school program and transition back to a TK8 model. The decision to close the high school was made due to substant to due to sustained low enrollment, limited ability to offer a full A throughg program and supports and the financial impact of operating a small high school which contributed to a significant deficit. Um uh we do note as mentioned earlier AFCS has been proactive in collaborating with the district to support [clears throat] the placement of the high school students into new schools. Um, we've had meetings uh between the district and the AFCS staff to coordinate that and get those students into new placements. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Do we have a motion to approve staff recommendation? So moved by Trusty Wste >> they're going
023to keep it right because they're going to use it now for the middle school. Um it's our understanding that um their current TK8 site, which is a district property, has gone through um whole site modernization and it has been um designed to house the entire TK through 8 program. They have grades seven and eight at the high school site right now because they needed the space for the construction. So they moved those um grade levels over there a year or two ago as a temporary solution for construction. Um, but now all TK8 will be at the single site and they will because they own the property and they haven't made a decision on what they want to do with it yet, they will retain ownership but they will not operate a school site out of
024there or have students engaged in educational activities there. >> Okay, we have got a motion by Trusty White Spain, a second by Trusty Patterson. Do we have any public speakers on this item? >> Uh, yes, we have one, Eddie Park. Good evening, uh, Superintendent, uh, Dr. Bula and the, uh, board members. Uh, it's good to be back here. It's been 10 years. [laughter] Good to see all of you. Um, my name is Eddie Park. I am the, uh, new executive director of America's Finest Charter School. Tonight's material uh revision regarding the closure of the high school was a sad moment for our school community. We recognize the hopes and hard work and commitment that went into building the high school program and we are grateful to the students, families, staff, and supporters who were part
025of that effort. At the same time, I want to express our commitment to the future of AFCS. As we move forward, our focus will be on building a strong, stable, high quality, innovative school TK to 8 program [snorts] in our brand new school building. We have an opportunity to strengthen our foundation, serve our students well, and create a school community that families can be trust and be proud of. And while the chapter is while this chapter is closing, I remain hopeful that one day with the right planning, resources, and community support uh we may be able to reimagine rebuild the high school program in the future. So, thank you for your time and for your continued support of our students. Good to see all of you. Thank you. >> Board member questions, comments. >> Nope.
026Okay. Trustees or dozen win, please vote. All other trustees please vote. All right, that passes unanimously. Great. Okay, we will move on now to item C1 and this is our uh student advisory uh report. So, Ashley and Alina. >> Um for our student advisory report today, I would like to welcome Aaron Widmer. She is the A intern for this academic school year and she will be presenting on behalf of student advisory. >> Thank you. Thank you. Hello all. Um, my name is Aaron Woodmer and I'm a senior at the San Diego Met High School. Um, this semester I had the opportunity to come back and intern with the Office of Investigations, Compliance, and Accountability here at the district. Um, but this time I was focusing on the human trafficking prevention program. During my internship, I
027worked with another student intern, Logan, who's not here today, but um we were mentored by Shaw, Carlos, and Rakina. Um and so this past Janu January, the A uh relaunched their human trafficking prevention program in implement implementing a new program with three main focuses. The first being reporting and response protocols. They launched a new reporting form as well as redid their website. Um the goal was that when a concern is raised, there's a clear process to respond appropriately. Now any concern related to human trafficking can be um described on the form without a reporter feeling that their concern must meet a certain threshold. Every report gets looked at by someone in our office and we respond with resources not only for the student involved but for the staff. The second main focus is services and
028resources. So we ensure that students have access to real support through our community partners. The partners are San Diego Youth Services, Olive Crest, the center, and one Safe Place. All of these partners have resources such as referrals to shelters, counseling services, food, dropin support, um, and give youth a safe place um, to talk or take a break from their difficult situations. And the last focus is training and awareness. Um, educating students, parents, staff, and the community so they can know the warning signs and know how to support individuals going through something. Um, so far the San Diego Unified School District's ICA has given trainings to the community. The San Diego Unified Nurses, Transportation Department, and district staff since January. Uh, sorry. Um, so oftentimes human trafficking is something not widely talked about and that's why
029awareness and education is so important. Throughout this semester, Logan and I worked together on a variety of projects that were focused on education. So here are some examples. Um, and so one of our main projects was providing a training for the MET students and staff. So we presented at our school. We also helped create webinar slides um used to train school staff as well as the community. Um we made posters and also uh different digital work. Um but our main thing we've done so far is we created a sticker um that's going to be going on all the buses at San Diego Unified School District. Um these stickers are to help students know where to report concern if they have one. Um I left you all a sticker if you guys would like to see
030one. Um, and so my mentors Rakina and Carlos are passing some around if you are interested to see our work. Um, and so yeah, thank you so much for this opportunity to spread awareness on human trafficking prevention and thank you to the board members for giving me this time to speak. >> Thank you. [snorts] Thank you. Fantastic. Trusty Hazen, >> thank you for your work. I think it's critically important. I'm wondering, and you may not have an answer. I'm wondering um how much of an issue this is for our students. um in terms of I mean so you're providing resources and we know people are calling the office for help and you're connecting them to partner organizations um and you maybe you don't know but are you able to speak to how significant an issue
031human trafficking is for our students you can say no or if if that could come back to us I think would be really helpful to understand >> I know that um part of my role is helping get information out to students um because I know we don't always get reports from students either that they don't know how to report or they're maybe scared to report. So that's definitely been my role as an intern both last semester and this semester to really get students to know information that can be helpful to them. Maybe not in the now or maybe it could be for a friend or someone. >> Yeah, Vice President Baza. >> Yeah, thank you so much for this. I mean, it seems like such a easy and simple thing, but really I mean this
032could just make such an impact, you know, in people's lives. And so I'm so appreciative of you, you know, taking the leadership on this and I hope because you're an intern, >> I just wouldn't want it to end with you. I hope this, you know, because this is such an important initiative um, you know, beyond, well, you know, trafficking, but just in general, you know, there's a lot of data showing, um, you know, controlling relationships and things like that are a huge issue in um, our young people's lives. So hopefully, I guess I'm telling you, but also the larger department that I don't want this to go away. I mean, I want this to maintain a after you're gone. And hopefully, were there other things you're doing to educate like maybe social media campaigns or,
033you know, are there other ideas for things that could kind of keep this alive? Um, we didn't work on it specifically this semester, but I know two semesters ago, um, the ICA does have an Instagram account that was kind of worked on. Um, I don't think we've added to it, but it's definitely something out there that we could. Another thing is we did make this sticker. Um, it does say speak up, right? It doesn't say stop human trafficking. Um, because we want to make sure that people know they can report anything and maybe they don't even know it's human trafficking. Um, and then we as the people receiving the report can then funnel it out and be like, "Oh, this could be human trafficking. They didn't even know it." Um, so our sticker is also
034to try to get any reports. Um, not just human trafficking. >> And Erin, you're a senior and not to put you on the spot, but what but any uh ideas about what you're going to be doing next year? >> Um, yes. I'm going to the University of Utah next um year to study nursing. >> Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, >> thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Great job. >> Okay, [applause] we'll now consider items C2 through C10. These are resolutions recognizing classified employees week, Harvey Milk Day, Jewish American Heritage Month, AsianPacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, Military Appreciation Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Women's Health Month, support for the community schools partnership program, and not support for the housing is is being withdrawn. So, um, oh, I'm sorry. So this is C2 through C9. So can
035we get a motion on C2 through C9? Uh motion by trusty Whiters Payne, second by trustee or DAS. And do we have speakers on these? >> Yes, we have speakers on two of the resolutions. Um on C4, Jewish American Heritage Month. >> Um I'll start with that one. Okay. Uh, Zachary Hobentock, Adam Msia, I'm sorry if I'm butchering your name, and Naomi Harris. >> It's very hard to hear. >> Can you hear me? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. Good evening, President Pereira and the board of trustees. I'm Zachary Hobentock and I'm in 10th grade. I'm a member of American Jewish Committee's Leaders for Tomorrow program for Jewish teens in San Diego. Thank you to Trustee Hassan and Bazo for introducing this resolution. I'm speaking in favor of the Jewish American Heritage Month Resolution. Passing the
036resolution will recognize the important contributions of Jews in America today in sectors such as the arts, politics, science, and entertainment. Such a recognition is very important in an age where, according to the FBI, 69% of religiously motivated hate crimes are committed against Jews, while Jews only account for 2% of the US population. When a resolution like this is passed, important information about Jews will be taught in public schools, which will give students the opportunity for understanding, which is often the first step towards change. Please vote yes on this resolution. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Adam Maslia and I serve as the director of the finest community coalition, a coalition of 48 local Jewish organizations united in confronting anti-semitism here in San Diego and ensuring that Jewish students, families, and community members feel seen,
037heard, and protected. I am here tonight in strong support of the resolution recognizing May as Jewish American Heritage Month. Jewish American Heritage Month is more than a commemoration. It is an opportunity for students to learn a fuller American story, one that includes the contributions, resilience, diversity, and lived experiences of Jewish Americans across generations. That matters here in San Diego. The San Diego Jewish Community Blueprint study found that more than 100,000 Jewish people living here live here in this region. It also found that the majority of Jewish adults are concerned with about anti-semitism with many having per personally experienced anti-semitism recently in their own lives. For Jewish students, those concerns are not abstract. They shape how young people understand identity and safety in their schools and communities. This resolution sends a clear and needed message. Jewish
038students and families belong in their San Diego Unified Schools. Their their history matters. Their heritage is valued. And standing against anti-semitism is a part of the broader work of building a safe and inclusive school for every student. Famous Jewish San Diean Jonas Sulk once said, "Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors." Tonight, you have the opportunity to do exactly that. To model for the students the kind of the community that we want to leave for the next generation, one rooted in dignity, understanding, courage, and respect. On behalf of the finest community coalition, I respectfully urge the board to vote yes. Thank you. Hello, my name is Naomi Harris. I'm a parent and a community volunteer. And I was here three years ago, the first time that you did adopt a Jewish American Heritage Month
039resolution. I want to thank you for considering it again um and doing it these last several years. So, I want to thank you for adopting this resolution. Um, the recognition matters because it helps ensure that students learn about the many contributions Jewish Americans have made, past and present, to our nation, our world, and our local communities. At a time when understanding and inclusion are especially important, acknowledging Jewish American history and identity sends a powerful message that every community's story deserves to be seen and valued. Although this resolution is being adopted near the end of the school year, I hope the educational resources connected to it can continue to be made available to teachers throughout the year whenever relevant to classroom instruction. Jewish American history is American history, and these lessons can enrich learning across many
040subjects and grade levels. Thank you again for your leadership and for supporting inclusive education for all students. Wayne Harris, Eileen Glasser Wesley, and Deborah Marcus. >> Thank you. And thank you, Trusty Hazen and Trusty Boso for bringing this resolution forward. Um, this resolution recognizing May as Jewish American Heritage Month is about our students, our families, and our community. San Diego Unified includes thousands of Jewish students and families, and the resolution is an opportunity to celebrate their stories, traditions, and contributions in a way that brings students of from all backgrounds together. It's also about learning from one another. When students learn about different cultures, and histories, it builds understanding and respect. And right now, with anti-semitism and hate incidents on the rise, that kind of education matters. It helps to create a school culture of respect
041and positive student connections for everyone. I also appreciate that the resolution recognizes the incredible impact Jewish Americans have had both nationally and here in San Diego and the work happening in our district to strengthen Holocaust education and civil dialogue in classrooms. It's about bringing students together and this resolution is a simple but meaningful step in that direction. Thank you in advance for voting for this resolution. My name is Eileen Glasser Wesley and I'm a board member of the American Jewish Committee AJC San Diego region and I'm also on the national board of governors for AJC. I live in La Hoya and I'm honored to be here today to thank you, thank the board for their support of this resolution for Jewish American Heritage Month. Jewish American Heritage Month was established in 2006 by President George
042W. Bush and has been supported by every administration since. Jewish Americans have given to their communities and to this nation as loyal and patriotic citizens, always grateful for the safe harbor that America provided for them. Jewish Americans have served in government and and the military, have won Nobel prizes, headed universities and corporations, advanced medicine, created and performed in enduring works of visual arts and and performing arts and written great American novels. They have become emblems of justice as members of the Supreme Court and so much more. Perhaps most importantly, American Jews have always pushed America to live up to its promise as a nation that upholds freedom and justice for all. This month, we are celebrating the many contributions of Jewish Americans for over 370 years in this this country. and that by adopting this
043resolution, more of the fine people of San Diego will learn more about the history, culture, and accomplishments and the diversity of the American Jewish Committee. I thank you again, >> Deborah Marcus, Judy Han, Mark Wesley, and Jeremy Gimble. Hi, my name is Judith Han and I want to thank the trustees Huzzan and Baso for making this meaningful step to recognize Jewish American Heritage Month. This acknowledgment sends an important message that the experiences and contributions of Jewish Americans are valued parts of our shared history. Thank you again. Thanks. We have one virtual speaker, Jeremy Gimble. Please unmute yourself. >> Good afternoon. My name is Rabbi Caner Jeremy Gimble. I'm here in San Diego at Congregation Beth Israel as an educator and also as a parent. Jewish American Heritage Month is not simply about honoring one community
044story. It's about teaching our students that the American story has always been strengthened by the many cultures, faiths, and voices that help shape it. As someone who works with young people every day, I have seen how representation builds belonging. When students learn about Jewish Americans, our contributions to civil rights, science, music, labor movements, public service, and the arts, Jewish students feel seen and all students gain a deeper understanding of the diverse fabric of our nation. Especially at a time when anti-semitism and polarization are rising, education matters. Not education rooted in fear, but education rooted in curiosity, empathy, and human dignity. Our tradition teaches that every person is created but sell Elohim in the image of God. Recognizing Jewish American Heritage Month affirms that every student's story deserves to be acknowledged and valued. Thank you for
045supporting this resolution and for continuing the work of building schools where every child feels they belong. Thank you. We have four speakers on item C9, which is the community schools partnership program. Ashley Leva, Barbara Pinto, Anna Ramos, and Grace Rojas. Please come forward. >> Do we have to go in order? No. Okay. >> Um, I can go first. Um, good afternoon board members. My name is Anna Ramos. I'm a community organizer with ACE, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Um, and I'm also a former San Diego Unified School District student. Um, I was actually part of the sexual health advisory board when I was in high school and it was one of my favorite experiences in my time at San Diego Unified. Uh, because as a first student to be a part of the
046advisory board, I actually had an input in my future education and the education of my peers. Um, all this to say, I'm here because as a student, I was deeply involved in my community. um and I still deeply care about in my community and the future opportunities we can give our students and their families. Um and I know that this resolution is aiming to fill in a funding gap for the five already underserved schools. Um but it's not enough. The district made a commitment not just to the students but to the community around them. Bubble Elementary, Fulton Elementary, Knox Middle School, Paradise Hills, Horton. All of these schools are in working-class neighborhoods with higher needs outside of the classroom. And I actually grew up a few blocks from Bubble Elementary. I went to what used
047to be Cesar Chavez Elementary, and I firsthand know my community and their already tough economic position. Um, they're at an institutional disadvantage. And so when we talk about equity, this this is who we need to prioritize. This resolution is only providing a fraction of the of what the full grant would give them. And on top of that, it is a conditional it's conditional funding for a wellness coordinator because if Newsome doesn't release the Prop 98 funds in June, then we are really left with no guaranteed funds. Um, and so we're asking the board to go beyond this res resolution and give our schools guaranteed funding for all of the community schools positions regardless of state budget outcomes. Our students deserve this and more. So please, I urge you to do more. Our kids cannot afford
048to wait. Thank you. Hi, my name is Grace Victoria Roas Himenez. My pronouns are she, they aa, and I'm here um to represent our students. Um my I have ne um nephews and nieces who are in unified um school district and um they are getting in the um services. Uh my nephew, he's autistic and um these are very important resources for him to thrive and to grow up um with uh the tools needed to be successful and with um the budget being um not being granted um that was promised um that denies for other schools. And so I see the benefit for my um nephew um and I see the disservice for the other schools as well. So if we are able to give the whole grant that was promised um that that's very important.
049So that's what I um that's all I have to say. Thank you Ashley Leva and Barbara Pinto. Hi, my name is Ashley Leva and I'm an ACE member and I'm a part of the education justice coalition. I am also a former student of San Diego Unified. It's disappointing that this grant that was promised and was a designated funding to help uplift these communities that are already underserved is being undermined. and even more upsetting that you are not stepping up to fill the gap for these students to be able to receive the resources they need to its entirety. The current resolution seems to disregard the needs of five community schools that were denied the grant. Mental health is a necessity, especially in these already disenfranchised communities. I believe the school board can do better than what
050they are giving these kids. I believe we can all do better for the well-being of the children of these children so they have a better opportunity to succeed and empower our communities. Thank you. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Barbara Pinto and I am a former student in San Diego. I'm also a member of ACE. I graduated from Lincoln High School. I've worked with the San Diego Unified School District for 30 35 years. I'm retired and I know that there are differences in our schools all over the district. I'm very sorry that any of the schools in question have been denied necessary funding. um their requests were already cut in terms of staff. So now they're only allowed um one staff member. That person is a wellness coordinator and this person's placement is contingent on
051the funding that uh hopefully will be restored by Governor Nudson. We are not guaranteed anything. So whatever the solution is that you have put forward it won't serve the problem. It won't resurrect the problem. I mean it won't solve the problem that we have. Uh I have worked as I said all over the district and I am I can attest to the fact that all schools are not equal in services. They are far from equal in curriculum, social services, and extracurricular activities. They are not the same. All five schools um should have been at the top considered at the top of this list instead of the bottom for support. The solution considered is not enough to fix the problem. We are in hopes that you can and will reallocate funding to help these underprivileged schools.
052And let me and let these students and their families know that they matter. And would you let me share this? I'm a grandmother of three triplet granddaughters. They're all graduating this summer from universities. one from UCSD, one from UC San Marcus, and one's transferring from San uh Southwestern to San Diego State. And this is all happening because they had the advantages of resource teachers, lead coordinators, and wellness um personnel as well. They are extremely grateful. So, I hope you'll consider these kids that are underprivileged. Thank you very much. Okay, that concludes our speakers. Uh, we have a motion in a second. Oh, >> it's a little bit late. I did sign up. I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> My name is Carlos Perez. I've been here before, but I'm a parent. Uh, my daughter goes
053to Fulton Elementary School. Um, and I'm just here representing all the other parents that can't make it today. It is a tough neighborhood. I dropped my daughters off at school. I talked to the parents. They have real issues going on. they would love to be here advocating for their students. And I myself grew up in an underserved neighborhood and there was a lot of resources that were given to me that I am grateful for. It helped me be successful. It was important that my daughter uh went to school in our neighborhood. There's a lot of great diversity, but I have seen that there is just a gap when it comes to getting the resources that they need. They're at the age where they're starting to know who has and who has not. And unfortunately, uh
054my daughter starts to make comments like that. So this community school grant that we wanted that I was so hopeful for when we did the work to apply for it and got the news that we would get it and then it got cut. Uh it was just heartbreaking because uh just from experience like I know the benefits that this could have for those students um and just ask I know it's an investment. So I appreciate the work that you're doing but really seeing it as an investment. I think investing in those students will help them give them uh just bridge the gap a little bit to help them be successful not only in academics but enrichment. So, I appreciate the resolution that you're doing now, but just ask that we get the full funding of
055the community grant. Um, that you just consider that. So, I just appreciate the time. Thanks for what you do and for hearing us out. >> Okay. We again have a motion and a second items on item C2 through C9. Uh, do we want to vote on all of the items together? I actually would prefer to take item C9. uh and deal with that separately uh because I have some comments about that as well. So do we how do we feel that who's the maker of the motion? >> So okay, thank you Trusty Boso. Who is the second? >> Ashley C2 through C8. Yeah, we'll do that first. Okay. >> Yeah. Yep. [sighs] >> So, I know there's a lot of fantastic resolutions on here that and several that I've sponsored, co-sponsored. Um, but I want
056to speak to one that's close to my heart as a public health educator for almost 25 years now. Um, I want to just share that three years ago the Supreme Court overturned Roie Wade and today as we observe women's health month, I feel the weight of that anniversary and I know that many of our students, our families, and our staff in this community do so as well. I don't want it to get lost in the shroud of all the insanity that's going on to now. Um, so that's why I felt very strongly to make these comments. I know this isn't a a comfortable topic for many, but I do believe silence does us a disservice to the young women and men in our schools who are paying attention, who are asking questions, and who deserve
057adults who will speak honestly on their behalf. Reproductive health care is healthcare. It is not a political abstraction and it is real life for the students that we serve. And I want every young person in our schools to know that their health, their body, and their futures matter. I have daughters that are 26 and 28 that have less reproductive rights than I did at their age, which is mindboggling. Our responsibility is to ensure that our students have access to medically accurate health education known in our district as SHEP, which stands for sexual health education program. It's incredible program, not watered down information shaped by any type of politics. our students to deserve deserve to understand their bodies, their rights, and the resources available to them so they can make informed decisions throughout their lives. I
058believe this anniversary is a call to action and I will continue to advocate for health education at San Diego Unifi that honors the full humanity of our students and a school environment where every young person feels supported, respected, and empowered regardless of what happens in the courts or legislators legislatures. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, [applause] >> Trusty Hazen. Thank you and really appreciate uh Vice President Boso what you shared and underline exclamation point um how critically important in it it is um that we recognize this and that we continue doing the work every single day uh to make sure uh that here in San Diego Unified we are educating our students about their bodies about reproductive health. Um, and I can say as as the mom of a seventh grader, I was able
059to see last year um what our sex education looks like um and how robust it is and comprehensive um and really appreciate the work we do in that regard and thank you for being a leader on this issue. Um I'd also like to speak to uh C4 and C6. I'm proud uh to introduce the Jewish American Heritage Month resolution alongside Vice President Boso tonight. And since we are a little competitive, I saw LA Unified was really patting themselves on the back for introducing uh their own Jewish American Heritage Month resolution. And I would like to say this is not our first. Um we have been celebrating this uh for a few years now. This month is an opportunity to celebrate the rich, diverse, and enduring contributions of Jewish Americans to our country, our communities, and
060our schools, and to ensure [clears throat] students see themselves and their histories reflected in what they learn. As a school district, we know that representation matters. When students see their identities reflected in the classroom, it builds belonging and supports our district's number one goal to improve student wellness. When all students learn about the diverse communities that shape our shared American story, it fosters empathy, curiosity, and respect. Jewish Americans are diverse and have contributed across every field. And in San Diego, Jewish leaders have helped shape our region in meaningful and lasting ways. At a time of rising anti-semitism, schools must both respond to hate and proactively build understanding through education. I'm grateful for the instructional resources and ongoing professional learning supporting this work. Tonight, as we recognize Jewish American Heritage Month, we reaffirm a simple but
061powerful commitment that every student deserves to be seen, to feel safe, and to know they belong in our schools. I'd also like to express my support of our resolution recognizing military appreciation month in District B, which I represent. I have the privilege of representing many schools with very large populations of military connected students and families, including multiple Purple Star schools that work every day to support students through the unique challenges and transitions that military life can bring. These students demonstrate extraordinary resilience, adaptability, and strength. And I'm deeply grateful to the service members, veterans, military spouses, and children who contribute so much to our school communities and to the fabric of San Diego. And appreciate trustees Bazo and Whitehurst Payne for bringing forth this resolution to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring every military connected student feels
062supported, welcome, and valued in our schools. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Win. >> Good evening, everyone. So tonight, as we recognize several important resolutions before our board, um, mental health awareness month, women's health awareness month, and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month. Um, while each resolution highlights different experiences and communities, they are all connected by one shared idea. Every person deserves to be seen, supported, valued, and empowered within San Unified School District. So, first, mental health awareness month reminds us that mental health impacts every classroom, every family, and every community represented in this district. As students, we are often expected to keep pushing forward no matter what we're carrying internally. Stress, anxiety, grief, burnout, pressure, or the uncertainty about the near future. But one true strength is not pretending everything is okay. True
063strength is asking for help, supporting one another, and creating environments where people feel safe enough to speak honestly about what they're going through. Students cannot truly learn if they do not first feel safe, supported, or even cared for. And that's why mental health resources, counseling, empathy, and community matter so deeply within our schools. To any students who may be struggling quietly, please know that you are not alone and your value is not determined by your hardest moments. And as a district, we must continue building schools rooted not only in academic excellence, but also in compassion and humanity. That commitment to care and dignity also connects directly to the importance of women's health awareness month. Women's health is not just a healthc care issue. It's an equity issue, an education issue, and a huge community issue.
064Too many women and under served communities continue to face barriers in healthcare, experience diaspores and treatment, or feel unheard in spaces where their well-being should be prioritized. And as students, many young people are still learning how to advocate for themselves and navigate systems that can feel overwhelming or inaccessible. That is why education matters. representation matters and creating safe environments where students feel informed, respected, and empowered matters. So to every young women and student listening tonight, your voice matters, your health matters, and your future matters. And to the women across our schools and communities, to our educators, counselors, nurses, caregivers, mothers, mentors, parents, thank you for the strength, compassion, and leadership you bring every single day. And finally, as we recognize Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, we celebrate the histories, cultures, and resilience and
065contributions of Apita communities throughout San Diego and across our nation. As the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, this resolution is especially meaningful to me personally. My parents came to this country carrying sacrifice, hope, and the belief that education could open doors for the next generation like me. Like many immigrant families, they worked so hard so that their children could have opportunities they never had themselves. When I read this resolution, I see more than historical milestones. I see generations of people who fought to belong. I see Filipino sailors arriving in San Diego centuries ago. Japanese American families who endured incarceration camps. Refugees rebuilding their lives after war. Pacific Islander communities preserving language and culture. and the Southeast Asian communities continuing to thrive despite discrimination and xenophobia. These stories are not separate from San Diego's history. They are
066San Diego's history. Representation matters because students deserve to see themselves reflected in what they learn, in who leads, and in the stories we choose to uplift. Students should never feel like they need to erase part of themselves in order to succeed or in order to belong. So to our Apo students, your culture, your identity, your language, and your family history are strengths. You belong in every classroom, every leadership space, and every conser conversation shaping the future of this district. And to our broader community, these resolutions remind us that progress happens when we care for one another, advocate for one another, and continue building spaces where every person feels they belong. Whether we are talking about mental health, women's health, or cultural identity, the message is the same. Every student deserves dignity, support, opportunity, and hope.
067And as we move forward, may we continue choosing empathy over judgment, understanding over divisions, and community over silence. Something in my language that we say is which means when the old bamboo grow when the bamboo grows old, the new bamboo rises. So may we continue lifting the next generation to lead with courage, compassion, and pride in who they are. Thank you. And as Sharon would say, this is my sermon for the night. >> [laughter] >> Preach. Preach. Trusty win. It's fantastic. [applause] >> Trusty White Spain. >> Thank you for that. I'm not going to give my sermon. You gave it tonight. [laughter] Thank you. I just want to comment on uh C6 uh military appreciation month. regardless to how you feel about um the military and what's going on. Uh this week the superintendent and
068the deputy superintendent and I visited Perry School and I can't remember was it like 50ome percent of the kids have a parent overseas or on a boat or whatever and so that school is heavily traumatized. Uh and there are others I'm sure in the same boat. So if there's anything you can do um principal is under a lot of weight and stress just knowing in some cases no parent is home. They have a grandmother or aunt or somebody who has come in to take care of the children. So they're there on Saturdays at Saturday school offering some support to the children. if you have thoughts or time or whatever to help out at that school, I'm just I'm calling the alarm as um the trustee over that school to do something to help to relieve
069that school from some of the pressure just because the parents are away. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Trusty. >> Yes, Trusty Ardons. >> Thank you. And thank you to all of my trustees. You guys, it was all amazing. I can't even pick a favorite one. Um, I do want to make a quick shout out to Apa for the youth summit that they did last month that Alina and I visited. It was absolutely beautiful. We were there. We saw so many students and I'm very proud of everyone on that team and that whole department who set that up. I'm very proud of our students and I'm sure Alina liked it um just as much. I want to speak on C3 and C7, the resolutions I'm co-sponsoring. So C3 is adoption of resolution recognizing May
07022nd, 2026 as Harvey Mil day. Harvey Mil's legacy reminds us how powerful representation and courage can be. His work for equality and fairness created opportunities for people who are part of the LGBTQ plus community to live openly and safely. And that impact is still felt today. Recognizing Harvey Milk Day is not just about honoring history. It's about encouraging students to stand up for inclusion, respect, and the rights of our others of respect our rights of others in our communities. I'm very happy to be co-sponsoring this resolution and thank you. And for C7, adoption of resolution recognizing May 2026 as mental health awareness month. I strongly support this resolution because mental health is just as important as physical health. Mental health is health. It's not something that can be forgotten or treated as a weakness. It
071requires deep care and time for the child. I understand that for the generations before us, mental health was not treated as important and dismissed. It wasn't always talked about. Recognizing mental health awareness month is not just a month that we put up flyers for. It's a step towards breaking the stigma from before, encouraging people to seek help, and ensuring that no student feels like they have to struggle alone. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Ordas. Okay, we've got a motion and a second on item C2 through C8. Uh trustees or DAS and win, please vote. And all other trustees, please vote. Great. Those pass unanimously. [clears throat] Okay, item C9. Um, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve item C9, but then I'd like to uh talk to it in a
072second. So, do we have a second? Yeah, second. Trusty Person. Um, so this is about community schools and this is about we have five schools that we believe through our process are ready to become community schools, fullervice community schools. And I think it's important to understand that San Diego Unified was not only one of the first districts to fully implement the community schools program, but we've done it with fidelity. And we have a community schools advisory committee in a process that in order for a school to be designated as a community school, they have to go through and apply. So this is not just there's a little money out there so you know any school can be designated a community school. They have to show that they're ready and that they understand the key principles
073around community schools. And we have five schools that made it through that process and are in fact ready to become community schools. We also know that the because San Diego Unified was one of the first um districts in the state to fully move forward and implement community schools. We as a district never applied for what's called a planning grant from the state of California. We moved straight to an implementation grant. And the [clears throat] way that we have funded our community schools up until this point has been in because we have received those implementation grants. Unfortunately, the state has made an interpretation around community schools that the only districts eligible to apply for uh expanding the program are districts that received planning grants in the first place. Right. So, so we actually were penalized for
074being, you know, out out in front. I think there's a lot that we can do and we have been advocating to change that. But there are also a couple of important things that are happening right now in the state budget process. So, Governor Nuomo in his January budget uh proposal uh proposed actually uh putting a billion dollars of ongoing money into the community schools program which would allow for uh uh renewal of existing community schools and expansion certainly in our district including the five community the five schools that have applied for community schools designation. That's a good thing. The bad thing is the governor also in his January budget proposal and we've been very vocal about this has proposed holding back $5.6 billion of Prop 98 funding that we know equates to about $90 million
075for San Diego Unified. So what I would propose is as a first step in terms of our commitment to the five schools that should be receiving full implementation grants um that we take this first step with the language of this uh uh item item C9, but that we come back uh at our June 23rd meeting after we will see the adoption of the full state budget. So, we'll be clear about where we are both with the community schools proposal in the state budget as well as the uh um where we are with the withholding of the $90 million. And at that point, if we feel like we're in the right position, uh I think San Diego Unified should do what we have done from the beginning, which is to invest in our community schools that
076are that are ready. So, I would propose moving this item tonight, coming back on June 23rd, and seeing if we're in a position then to actually uh bring on these five schools as full full service community schools. >> Okay. So, for clarification, >> yeah, >> um I mean I what I'm hearing is there essentially two things. There is voting on this measure as it stands or this item as it stands >> and then something additional say an intention to bring something else back. Correct. In the future. >> Correct. Yep. Okay. So, so my motion on this is simply to adopt item C9, but with the intention, as Trusty Person said, to come back on June 23rd. So, with that, any board discussion? Trusty Hazen. Yeah, >> I know uh Trusty Patterson said it and you
077repeated it, but I'm just just for clarification. The motion that we are voting on is simply to approve the resolution that's included on tonight's agenda. >> Correct. >> Okay. and to under with not as part of the motion but to understand the intention to come back on June 23rd to consider the full implementation of community schools at these >> that's not what we're voting on >> correct >> got it yes thank you >> I mean it makes a lot of sense because we all comment all the time on how we don't know what's going to come out of the budget finally but bring it bringing it back then would be helpful >> thank you Okay. So, if I could So, I just say I mean I think um this won't be my problem for much
078longer, but um but I think the the one thing I would say is you know in the future part of what happened this year and it's kind of gets funny every year a little bit is that there's not a unitary process of thinking about the budget in totality. So to think about the way various um decisions made. Uh so you know in our case for example this year I know there was an original intention to have some budget language in these reszos and then we had um we had a a vote with our labor partner in relation to our labor partners on um the the raise with um contingency language and then there'll be the conversation in June about the budget itself. So I would just say for me I'm in support of this item
079as it stands. I'm also in support of bringing something back in June to consider. I it would again I guess this doesn't apply to me but you know I would say in future it would be to me it would be advantageous for us to think of those all holistically. You know we have these budget for instance last year we had a series of budget hearings. It would be great to fold in all our priorities into that unitary conversation about the budget both in relation to to raises and um and um and in relation to programming that we priorities that we have um I would just to me it's advantageous to have that a unitary discussion about the budget so we understand what the give and take is uh in terms of the priorities >> and
080I that's nice and And um I won't say pie in the sky uh but I will say um that we are always going to get anomalies and we are unable to predict what our governor I mean let's get a predictive governor hint hint out of 61 names um and we can always predict what's going to come out of the budget and then do the same with the legislators so that we can always predict what's going to come out of there. Uh but given that scenario, uh I'm sure that Dr. Bula and the team are constantly making adjustments as issues go forward. So I would love to do that, Cody, but you know, you know, we're subject to be on the dis voting and they voted in Sacramento a different way and now we have more
081monies or less monies or whatever. It's the nature of the beast in terms of actually doing the budgeting. And that's why I really commend our staff for um just trying to stay on top of all these little u idiosyncratic issues because to us $5 million, you know, to them they don't really care in Sacramento. seems >> that it's going to throw our budget off or here we're making a decision tonight and they've pulled a rug under us when we've had in the past that this automatically goes through and now they say oh here's a caveat we're going to place here you must have applied it's kind of like the Jim Crow law you must have applied for this in order to vote or do what you know it's just crazy >> so uh I want
082us to think about what U trustee Peterson said, but I also want staff to know that we're not as unrealistic as it seems in the sense that we can't make a decision without having every eye dotted and every tea crossed because things constantly change. Thank you, >> Trusty Hazer. >> Thank you. And I guess I so two things. First, I think community schools are critically important and I think it is an absolute shame that these five schools didn't receive the funding because of this silly formality because we were ahead of the curve. So, I want to be really clear about that. See, we've seen the impact of community schools. Um, and I guess when so I hear the intent for um, this to come back to us in June um, depending on what happens with
083the state budget. And to Trustee Patterson's point, I don't want to lose sight of all of the other equally important things. Um, we may want to use additional dollars to fund. Um, and so when I hear Trusty Patterson saying thinking holistically, I think what you're getting at is we shouldn't solely be looking at potential investments in community schools, but maybe thinking about what what does the budget allow us to do? What are the most important, most impactful things for the greatest number of students um who need services, support, and all of the things that that we want for them. So, I would just ask that in June um we hear from the superintendent um a much more holistic representation and and recommendation about how we might use additional dollars not solely focused on on community
084schools. >> Vice President Bos. >> Thank you, President Barrera. and um I uh I support your um your uh what you've offered as far as coming back to this issue in June and as um Trustee White Payne mentioned, yeah, I think we just are starting to go down a really deep rabbit hole if we're going to try to figure out every thing in the budget and how that's going to impact us because there's always going to be, you know, there's always going to be changes. Um, and again, staff is very good at at being resilient. Um, but you know, this time next year, we're going to have be talking about completely different things. So, there's always going to be something that comes up. But I do think to the community school issue, if we've issued
085these grants and we've supported them, we do need to give them priority because they were approved. So I, you know, I understand we need to look at everything, but I also think because we've already made the decision that we want to prioritize them. We we I want to stand in support of that um pending, you know, the budget decision, but I think that's important because we've already said it was important. So >> Okay, with that, we have a motion and a second on item C9. Uh trustees win and or please vote. All other trustees, please vote. Okay, that passes unanimously. All right, we are ready for it uh section D. Uh so uh anything to report out on close session? >> No, not tonight. >> Okay, great. And uh Superintendent Bula, item D2, administrative assignments.
086>> Yes, I went to the wrong plan. Sorry about that. That's right. >> We have two um associate principles that we're welcoming. Uh one to um Garfield High School and another one for LMEC. I'm sorry I'm pulling out the names, but I want to congratulate Leica Rodriguez um at our new associate principal at LC High School and our new associate principal at Garfield High School, Ara Perez Picon. So congratulations and I look forward to getting to know you and seeing what your leadership will do here at our schools. So congratulations again [applause] >> and superintendent. We can now move to your report. >> So it is a moment of tremendous pride for San Diego Unifi. This year more than 6,200 seniors are expected to graduate and take their next steps into college, career, and life.
087Across our district, 25 high schools will celebrate graduation ceremonies this May. All of our graduates have shown resilience, determination, and a commitment to their futures. Preliminary estimates place our district's graduation rate at 91%, an increase over last year, building on the strong foundation of 90.3% achieved in 2425. I'm going to pause there because that's actually pretty historical, and I really want to thank everyone that's made sure that our students are graduating and getting us to that 91%. So, I'm really proud of that work. So, thank you. Just as important, our students are leaving us more prepared than ever, outpacing other large urban districts in A throughG completion with rates 26% higher than the state average for similar districts. What makes San Diego Unified special is not just that students graduate, but how they graduate. Our
088seniors are walking across the stage with meaningful achievements that reflect who they are and what they're capable of. 732 students have earned the state seal of biiteracy, demonstrating proficiency in multiple languages and readiness for global society. More than 2,000 seniors completed career and technical education pathways, gaining real world skills for high demand careers, and many have completed rigorous international balora programs, earning certificates and full diplomas that prepare them for success anywhere in the world. I was equally curious about how many of them received dual credit enrollment, too. Um, I don't have those numbers, but I'm paying attention to them. Um, we're also especially honored to recognize the historic Logan Memorial High School inaugural graduating class of 157 seniors. These seniors represent not just student success, but the fulfillment of years of community advocacy and vision.
089Just four years after opening its doors, Logan Memorial is sending its first class of graduates into the world, future ready and full of promise. And I want to uplift because as a longtime principal in that area, that community long ago deserved a high school. Um I always did not like seeing my students actually have to bust out of the neighborhood um to go somewhere else. So I'm really really proud that we have that for them. One of these seniors is the high school's first validictorian, Arat Santiago Vaspara. When he first arrived, he did not speak English, and today he's graduating with top honors, heading to San Diego City College and plans to transfer to UC San Diego to study computer engineering. His story reflects the resilience, determination, and potential we see in our students every
090day and the impact our dedicated educators who support them along the way. Um, but let's watch a short video done by NBC7 Telmundo about Logan Memorial High School. If we can please play the video. The first high school on Logan Heights is celebrating its first ever graduating class. >> NBC7's Shawn Delaneise has a closer look at the first chance students have had to go to school in their very own neighborhood. >> Early estimates place the San Diego Unifi's graduating class at 91%. That would be the highest rate that the district has ever seen. And this makes up Logan Memorial High School's first class of 2026. [cheering and applause] >> The first class from Logan Heights's first high school has a humbling story to share. >> I started my high school year off pretty bad start.
091Like I was getting Fs like bad crying in the bathroom. Bad. >> Throughout my life, I have faced hardships that many deemed traumatic to overcome. It was a little rocky, a little rough, but um the staff stuck around. I did too. Pretty much the reason I stuck around was because of the staff. >> Staff like Rosio Ramirez Hajj, who's now Logan Elementary's principal. >> So, I started off as a classroom teacher. Um the graduating class was actually my fourth grade class. >> Congratulations, class of 2026. >> They're first generation. Um they're the ones that translate for their families. Um, we also have maybe, you know, they have youth in transition. >> She watched the class's hard beginnings become this year's victory lap. >> I've been able to maintain a 3.5 GPA with honoral classes and
092college classes, [applause] >> three AP classes, and currently completing my third college course with all A's. >> Anyone can prosper from their struggles. Before this school was built, many students had to bus over to neighborhoods like Pointl or La Hoya for high school. The sometimes hour commute made it harder to be a part of extracurriculars or for working parents to stay engaged. This school keeps all of that in reach. >> Our families stay here. Our kids stay here. >> Shawn Domines, NBC7. And the seniors will get their diploma during a special graduation ceremony that's coming up. >> Beautiful. wanted to make sure to catch that because we had some great student speakers and thank you for joining us in that celebration. Um, one of the things that I learned today too is um, there was
093another news uh, place that created a story about LMC Mariachi and it's up for the Emmy. So, I'm I'm crossing my fingers that they get the Emmy for that um, story. So, while we celebrate these student achievements, we remain equally focused on advocating for the resources needed to sustain and expand these opportunities for every student. Last week, I visited Sacramento to continue advocating on behalf of San Diego Unified with state legislators and the governor's office. We urge the full funding of Proposition 98. Fully funding education is essential to strengthening early interventions and ensuring students receive the right support in the right time. These investments allow us to expand professional learning for educators and build a comprehensive support system so that every student has the opportunity to thrive. I do want to add this, it wasn't
094just about Prop 98. We also advocated for full community schools funding. So, I wanted them to hear because it was one of those things that we said it should not be a grant. It actually should be something that we actually give because we know it works. Continued advocacy for special education funding, a stabilization of COLA or cost of living increased for all of our staff. And then I also spoke to Senator Archeletta about supporting military families and students. So all of the things that I know we need support on that that was actually a place to do so in Sacramento. In addition to advocating for resources at the state level, we're also committed to strong fiscal stewardship here at home. San Diego Unified recently achieved 19.6 6 million in savings for local taxpayers through the
095successful completion of a 299.5 million general obligation bond refunding. By refinancing portions of prior bond measures and taking advantage of favorable market conditions, the district was able to reduce long-term debt costs while maintaining existent repayment timelines. This work will flex our ongoing commitment to responsible financial management and maximizing the impact of voter approved resources. Benefits of this financial position to San Diego taxpayers. It reduces our total debt service costs without increasing tax rates. It captures savings upfront while maintaining repayment schedules. It improves overall efficiency of voter approved bond program. Beyond our financial and advocacy work, I also want to take a moment to highlight the meaningful experiences that continue to shape and support our students and families. On May 2nd, I was honored to attend our district's inaugural newcomer student leadership conference where over 100
096families came together to celebrate their journeys and aspirations. Five newcomer students from Hoover, Crawford, Lincoln, San Diego High, and Patrick Henry were recognized and awarded for their academic excellence and contribution to their school communities. This was a celebration, but it was also a big welcome to our newly immigrant families. One of my favorite things, and I want to say thank you to the team that put this together, was that if families came as a family unit, they were also given a money, I believe $100 for groceries. And so again, we're trying to wrap around services for all supports for our newly immigrant families. Um, lastly, later this month, we will celebrate our 2026 teachers of the year, classified employees of the year, and volunteers of the year at the annual San Diego Unified Stars in
097Education Celebration on May 20th. This event is an opportunity to recognize the individuals who make an extraordinary difference in the lives of our students. Our teachers provide the foundation for student learning and achievement, bringing expertise, care, and commitment into their classrooms each day. Our classified employees play essential roles across our district from transporting and feeding students to supporting instruction and ensuring our schools operate smoothly. And our volunteers strengthen our school communities through their time, dedication, and partnership. Together, these individuals represent the very best of San Diego Unified. And I always want to say thank you for holding the mutual responsibility we all hold for our students. That concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Okay, we will move to it uh section F and um we're going to consider items F1 through F5
098related to student discipline and collective bargaining. And do we have a motion for F1 through F5? Trusty Weters Payne, seconded by Vice President Boso. And do we have any speakers on items F1 through F5? Uh yes, we have one speaker on item F2, Miguel Ariano. [snorts] Hello everyone. Um [clears throat] board members, superintendent, um I'm here to speak in favor of item F2 as that is the memorandum memorandum of understanding regarding the impacts and effects of the layoffs. Um I am thankful for the work we did to save as many jobs as possible. So thank you. This is a is this the best agreement? No. But under the circumstances, this is the minimum that these people deserve. I want to be very clear. If we want our students to feel safe, seen, heard, and valued
099from preschool to high school graduation, the people closest to them need to feel the same. There is more work for us to do to address the harm being done to our classified staff and the and and their families. For example, these displaced workers deserve training to prepare them for their new jobs as they're going into positions that are different from what they're used to. You can read about that in the agreement. Um, but as soon as the funding is available, we need we need that so that these workers can be 100% for our students. Um, our collaboration cannot continue to be based on what different employee groups say they deserve because we all deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect that we give our students every single day. Again, thank you for
100your movement and I appreciate the collaborative effort. >> Thank you. >> Okay, any board comments or questions on items F1 through F5? Yes, Trusty Hazen. Just briefly on the uh ratification of the collective bargaining agreements, just want to express my sincere gratitude to our labor partners, to the superintendent's office, to our HR team uh for navigating this um so thoughtfully and really centering um our staff who we care so much about throughout this process. and I'm really pleased that we are ending up um where we are tonight. So really appreciate all the work that went into it. >> Thank you, Trusty Hen. Okay, with that trustees win and our DAWs, please vote. Oh, you don't vote on this collective bargain items. Yeah. All right. Oh, please don't vote. All other uh trustees, please vote. Okay.
101Thank you. And I skipped over item E1, which is our semiannual report from our district advisory. uh council on uh compensatory education. Superintendent, please introduce the auto. [clears throat] >> Thank you, President Bara. It is my pleasure to introduce this spring's update from the district advisory council on compensatory education programs. Tonight's presentation highlights the important role DAC continues to play in strengthening parent, student, and community voice in our district's decision-making, especially through our schoolside council. Presenting this evening are Kishana Christopher, DAC chair, Dr. Crystal Troll, first vice chair, Katarina Krupska, Title One representative, and members of the SPSA team, along with Dario Gutierrez. Thank you for to our DAC executive board, our SSC representatives, our families, students, and the SPSA support team for their continued leadership and support. With that, I'll turn it over. Thank
102you. >> Good evening, President Betta, Superintendent Bula, and members of the board. We really appreciate you having us today. We're a small but mighty team today. Um, we have two members of our team that weren't able to make it, but one is receiving an award. Um, and that's Nathan and the other could not uh be here. But my name is Kesha Christopher and it's my honor to serve as a chair of the district advisory council for compensatory education. Tonight, I'm here to present our 2026 spring update on compensatory education programs. Our focus this year hasn't just been on compliance, it's been on impact. And there we are. All of our members are dedicated and we thank the SPSA team as the engine um that helps us to move forward. So, our goals this year and
103last year are to empower our members to ensure that um they have consistent and accessible information. We'll be going over more of that throughout our presentation as far as what we've done. Um we don't just meet once a month. We meet constantly in the field and helping our our peers um in our community to ensure that we have um understanding about what the SPSA is and that it's a breathing living document that we all can work through change and advocate for. Quickly, we'll go into our um this is our live budget link. We have um expanded our live links to um give greater access and transparency. This is our show me the money link that gives our communities um at their fingertips any budget of any school in the district. So, as we look at
104the track for our third year of improvement, we're on track for our third year of improvement in spending. The year- end totals show a 50% um increase in spending from 2023 2024. So, that's a big improvement. And what's driving that improvement? We are training the parents, training our DAC members on um data on what questions to ask at their SSC meetings, on how to pivot if something isn't working at the school site, and just on how to ensure that more money is getting in into the hands of the teachers and the students and resources to close the achievement gap. And here if we look at our daily title one monitoring, this is also a tool on our uh landing page where you we can review how much money is um being spent and on what.
105And I believe it says here SulkQ Elementary has a pretty um good way of spending their their title one money with parent involvement. And we could look at that model and say, well, what what is Sulk doing? How are they how are they utilizing their funds and um peer-to-peer um ask or um advocate for our own school sites to use those funds. So, that's a good way to use this data and the tools that we have. This is our landing page, our 2.0. And again, everything's on there. Our our meeting um times and minutes. Um we made sure that it's it's uh modern looking and easy to read and access all the information you need. Our ticket to your SSC is a document that we've gotten rave re reviews about. um our student um executive
106board member Nathan, he does a great job at summarizing everything, putting it all in one place so that at any time it empowers our um SSC members to come and share information uh answer any questions that the SSC may have. And this data shows that our um new and improved um landing pages landing page with data um is being widely used. We have 657 users and 6675 of those users are new users with an average of um spending maybe 30 seconds on each thing um each topic or just browsing around. I will pass the mic to Crystal. Okay. Thank you Kishana. Great to see everybody. Thanks for having us. So uh we keep track of relevance for the topics that we're presenting to our DAC body. This is um a data point that we've been
107uh accumulating over the years. And so we see here uh majority of our topics seem to be very relevant to the work of the SSEs. As you remember a few years ago, we really kind of focused in on topics that uh helped SSE members do their work. So, we're doing some summer planning uh this summer and um we're going to look at some family engagement ways to make that uh a little bit more relevant um uh just to make sure that it's useful for for our our body. Uh just an update on some things that we're doing. We have established two committees since the beginning of the academic year. A bylaws committee, uh you may have déja vu because we did this a few years ago and as much work as we put into the
108previous bylaws, those things always need to be reviewed and updated. So, we um have a committee of about seven to eight DAC members. We've met over a dozen times uh over the past several months. Uh and we have probably another five or six meetings to go. Uh we're going through it with a fine tooth comb. We're looking uh ways to just clarify language, add some different processes. One of the is a transition process for executive officers to make sure that institutional knowledge is carried over and people aren't starting from scratch. Uh we had a title one ranking committee. Ario kind of led the charge on that for us and thank you for your um approval to lower the title one threshold to 35%. Really made a difference for our school sites. So wanted to convey
109our thanks there. And that group also met um probably three or four times and was made up of DAC members and we had really good discussions about you know the benefits and challenges with uh DAC threshold, the funding threshold. We're working with uh James and his department about communications, getting the word out about the DAC um and just to make sure that folks know what it is. You know, as I always say, the DAC SSC is the place to be, but people don't really know what that is. So, it's just getting the word out. What does that mean? Uh we also, as a way to promote, you know, better transparency, communication, some of our goals, we have this um SSC agenda tool that was actually developed by our SPSA department. And what it does is
110it really provides a um kind of a systemized template where all school sites are using the same agenda format. And as an SSE member, I have access to this. Whereas before it was held by the principal and you know if the principal and SSE worked well together, sometimes the SSE member uh chair could help the principal develop the agenda. But this really does create more of a a co-working environment so that you can really see in real time things that are important for us as an SSC to to work on as well as to participate together in creating the agenda and the topics. So it's really about greater collaboration and transparency and just um tools that are available. All right. So data, you know, there's always the data. I love data, data, data. Um this
111is attendance. And now I know that we've talked about attendance not being the sole primary data point, but it is a piece of data. So um so we see here we have 175 school sites um and of those 175 139 are title one school sites. So we can see the participation rates of title one schools non-title one um and then um you know how many average what's the average meetings per site so yeah do they show up for one meeting two meetings three meetings ideally we want them to show up to all eight but we know that that's not always possible. Um and then we see actual DAC representative participation on the right side whereas on the left side it's just we could have multiple people from the same school site attending the meeting because
112it's open to the public. Um but everybody who attends signs in. So this is our way of keeping track of of who's there so that we can reach out to those who are not there to help them make sure that they can come and learn how to do their work better. >> Thank thank you Crystal for that. um very good and informative um discussion. So I wanted to just go back here really quick because there is one one piece of data that this doesn't reflect. So to be fair I want to say that we have an amazing family engagement um person that's Pam King who comes faithfully every meeting. She comes at the very beginning of our meeting and part of our um sometimes parents and families, you know, they're getting home, they're getting on,
113they're getting settled, so they're not always on sometimes when she's there. So to be fair, I want to make sure that I let you know she's done a wonderful job and um we want to make sure that we can work that out in the schedule um to be fair that that she gets the the views that that's necessary going back. All right. And we always end our meetings with um requests or recommendations. And our recommendations are to provide that we receive um responses when we provide our LCAP recommendations and that we continue our monthly leadership meetings um with Dr. Begoula and or Dio and then we um alongside of DAC create a policy with the district to ensure that we have um accountability for that living breathing document. uh a lot of our members don't
114know what to do if there's an issue with the document or who to speak to and how to get things done um when it comes to that SPSA. So, we want to make sure that we can um uh ensure that that there is a chain or a process there and then inclusion of DAC and year- round district level discussions of um title one spending and we think that's in progress and we think that we can possibly do more. So, we'll be planning over the summer and um getting next year's goals and ideas down so that we can move forward. Thank you again. >> I just wanted to respond. Hi, good evening. Just respond to some of our um DAC responsive staff. So, LCAP, I just want to thank uh our senior executive director Misand who's
115been working with our DAC done presentations. We've talked about the LCAP. believe there's a meeting tomorrow to have some more LCAP discussion and we will be providing written feedback any adjustments based on the feedback that we receive based on our DAC committees as far as continuing the district leadership and meetings you know we'll continue that they have access to me at any time for any kind of enhancements and any kind of needs for the DAC and school site councils and I just want to talk about an intentional shift that we will be moving towards the following year this year we talked about attendance and relevancy and and making documents public and transparent. I do want to acknowledge uh Dr. Eileen Moreno and Dr. Roman de Rosario who have also are leading the shift of moving
116more away from the funding and you know continuing that but also looking at our data. So they've created some really nice uh public uh data platforms for our SSC members to uh look towards and so we're going to do that intentional shift to now looking at student progress and outcomes. So that's where that shift is going to move towards and as far as the last one is the title one spending and reservations. We talk about title one spending. We presented to our DAC our entire title one package our reservations what we talk about um for that. So they kind of see how our title one funding is there to support yes school site choices when it comes to the needs at the particular school sites and that's where that 35% uh threshold we have that
117we can have down there but also our district priorities when it comes to title one reservations and what the needs are um from leadership and where we're going to point some of our fundings and needs for school sites addition to that. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Yes. And do we have public speakers on this item? Nope. Uh, Trusty Patterson, >> I have a perennial question, which is certainly every year or every time you've come back. One of the >> I think I pressed it, but maybe I'll get closer. Are we Are we just a low It's a low intensity evening on the mics. Um, one of the perennial questions is whether or not the district is providing adequate um, information in relation to what interventions are high leverage. I mean, a lot
118of these SSTs are um certainly underresourced and and working hard to get parents who are very committed to getting the best interventions, but don't necessarily have that the information, not because of any failure on their part, but because we're not actually helping provide them the information that could inform their decision-m. Um and so I guess my question is for both for you Dario and for our DAC team, do we feel like we've made some progress in terms of helping to inform some data informed um information for uh SSTs to make better decisions? Well, I'd like to say um I believe that uh I Eileen has done a wonderful job with um her breakdowns uh for for test scores and then um certain interventions needed. And so I think that um yes, since uh my first
119year on DC, I think there's been an uptick in in what we're receiving. And um I'm happy that there's going to be more growth. >> Thank you for that question. So I did forget that of my speaker notes. So as far to be working with a small cohort of schools were to identify them. Believe we're going to choose about 10 of them and to be very purposeful about what strategies activities are actually making the difference towards it. So we will be very intentional. That's why I said we want to shift away from like just the budget spending. Yes, we want to make sure our services are received to our students, but we want to know what are those best services because we certainly could have spent down all our funds towards something that really didn't
120make of a difference. So, we want to make sure that that's happening. So, we are uh going to start that next year with a small group of of school sites that we'll be looking at, you know, did uh did those strategies actually make that difference. So, I appreciate that comment because I forgot to or question. I forgot to add that I I think we all have the same question because it says in progress, but is that two years from now or one year from now or six months or hint hints? >> That's I mean that question has been there for quite some time. It's something that we've tried to >> make sure what we're doing um is really making an impact. I hope to by next fall spring maybe we'll have the schools identified. We
121have our first DAC update start and maybe set our parameters and so forth. And so hopefully by next spring's DAC update here we'll have like the outcomes and so again we will be shifting more towards outcomes of student progress. >> Yes. >> All all of the I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you. >> No, I was >> okay. All of the things that are in progress are legitimately in progress. Like for example, the SPSA accountability, we had worked extensively about a meaningful SPSA. This has been a few years worth of work of like you're actually reading them. Yes, we are. And we're providing academic achievement data now. And so I'm actually wanted to say also I know reiterate the thank you but of this partnership because just even in the last couple of years
122the reason why we're able to actually see the money right and the funds in real time I think is very important because I remember running my SSC's having to run reports and it wasn't accurate the day of. So it's really good to see the same day the agenda clarity that we have and the sharing and also the achievement data. I think we're we're all getting all the ingredients that are necessary. So, I'm just really proud of the partnership that we have and the transparency we're building. But yes, all of those things are legitimately in progress. [laughter] >> Uh Chelsea Hazen, >> thank you and thank you to all of you for your work. Um it's great just high level to see that title one funds are being spent. Um, I think I'm trying to think
123when I joined the board, I feel like there was a balance of something like $4 million um remaining and that that's no longer the case and that we are using these dollars to support students and using them quickly is really great to see. Um I'm wondering and this sort of gets to what uh Trustee Patterson referenced and what you spoke to about uh sharing high impact strategies so that we can actually take them to scale and I so at the board level we hear about and uh you bright spot schools are shared right that information comes to the board um so that we can see schools that are exceeding often their SPSA goals using their site funds to implement high impact strateg ies um and improving outcomes for students, right? Exceeding those growth targets they
124had set. And I'm wondering is that information coming to the board? I know you said Eileen is sharing high impact strategies, right? So, we're seeing these results and we think these are some of the strategies. Are you also seeing the bright spot information? Because I think it's really meaningful um to me to be able to see that um and to see those stories. I'm curious if that's coming to uh DAC and and to SSC's. >> Do we have I believe that might be in our next SSC DAC agenda. That not on the executive. I have to look at that. So that's certainly something. >> Oh, sorry about that. >> I think it's a no. Um >> it's it's a no, but it's definitely something that we could um work towards as far as like what
125exactly is happening. I do listen to what happening and I've had some >> title one schools who have had some shifts and changes that are asking like me as a director I was like is it possible we've had and they actually gave me data points we've had this shift at our particular school site is it possible for you to continue doing some kind of special funding to continue this this particular strategy that they have to have that on there so I I hear it from the field but I don't think we have it >> as an intent intentional and I guess just for clarity if you all aren't um sure what I'm talking about. So when we receive board reports on our student outcome goal progress so literacy math uh college and career preparation we
126also see those schools that are overperforming and why and we hear from site leaders uh and we hear from district staff and so my hope would be that SSC and other schools are able to see that information too because it's really meaningful. Um so to that point I did take initiative to ask um for the list of um schools that may qualify for certain awards. Um, and one of them, one of the awards was the blue ribbon award. And I wanted to see all the title one schools that maybe didn't put in all the paperwork but are eligible because we wanted to make sure that um, if there are schools >> and they qualified and they didn't, you know, put in their paperwork that we could still see what progress they're making and how are
127they using the funds to translate that abroad. Great. The the DAC body. So that did happen. >> Terrific. um because I think there are a lot of wonderful things happening and we want to do everything we can and I know the superintendent is leading work you know to take that to scale and I'm curious you talked about 10 school pilot are the 10 schools that have been identified are those schools that are high growth schools or are the 10 schools schools that are underperforming um that we really want to support with high impact strategies? We haven't identified them yet because we're taking all of those into consideration and also seeing the work that they're already engaged in. And I say that because there's some schools that are community schools. Um they they have like too
128many initiatives going on. So I want to make sure they do things well. So I don't want to overburden them. So I'm still exploring who they they're going to be. >> Got it. Um, and then I guess going back I so you called out this family engagement relevance um the response rate and and I would just push us like to be curious um about whether families really want family engagement um at at uh DAC meetings or not because maybe the data is telling us something something different um than we heard narrated. Um and then lastly, the deck referenced um work to develop a plan for schoolwide program uh waiver process. Can you speak to that and what the objective of that work is and when it'll come to the board? >> Yes. The call it
129swap schoolway program waiver was part of the title one ranking uh process. It's educating our SSC members part of the ranking. when you go below the 40% threshold, you have to uh approve something called a schoolwide program process, more of a uh of a legal process or it's just check the box type of thing. So, I just brought that up to them about the options that we will be taking it for our board meeting on June 23rd. Okay, >> where we take the school w the school plans. Those schools under 40% have to have that waiver in place. Uh otherwise, it goes in targeted. It was more of an education talk talking points um when I met with that ranking committee. >> Thank you. And I I do have a question I mean an answer
130for your question uh regarding the relevancy for family engagement. So we realize that we also may need to pivot with the content and um one suggestion is for our family engagement um coordinator to come to the our next DAC meeting as usual and um ask and pull the parents as far as the relevancy topics because we're realizing just like we realize with our SPSA sometimes we have to pivot and and take another go in another direction or go go go with another set of topics. So that that's our intent and we've already discussed it. >> Thank you, President Barrera, and thank you for being here tonight. And I've really seen a shift um with the these committee reports um that it's more, you know, not just how many people have been attended, but just all
131the, you know, information that you're really d diving into is is fantastic. And I think it's really ultimately making a difference in our, you know, our our school communities and making that impact for uh our students and why I I think one of the things too that's kind of coming up is making sure our parents and community members understand why it's important. You know, I think a lot of people still don't understand what district advisory committee is, but I think there we're we're sounds like you're doing a great job in terms of increasing that awareness. Um, and I wanted to yeah mention the title one and I think it's important that not only that we're that we're seeing how much that schools are using but throughout the year because I don't know for various reasons
132it might be new leadership at the school or just not knowing you know what they can use their title one funds for. Um so I think that's fantastic that we're um getting that number down. I know Dr. White's pain was would lose her mind all the money still left on the table. Um, I did want to ask for the attendants at the meetings. Uh, so with regard to that, so I know sometimes there's parent like I I know there's one parent in Mayor Mesa that went to the meetings for years and years and I think she kind of finally retired. Is there ever a plan in place? And I I know you guys are volunteers, so I you know, I don't know if this might be more of a staff question, but when you see
133a school drop off and they're not coming, you know, is there any kind of followup? And also for some of our our schools that have haven't been coming for quite a while, um if there's a school that's, you know, um a title one school that that's really hasn't been participating for maybe a year, two, three, is there any followup that's done? And maybe that, you know, means uh touching base with the principal or, you know, the area superintendent when they're out on their visits. Um, but is there anything that or ideas that you have or perspectives you have on that? >> So, something about attendance, just want to recognize that sometimes we don't capture all attendance. I know some people didn't sign in because it's all through Zoom and sometimes it's hard to find out
134who Sarah's mom is and we're asking and finding out. So, our attend is actually better than what's represented in those slides. So, just recognize that. I think um Nathan's take it to your to your uh SSC has been that double-edged sword as far as well if I don't attend I'm still going to get all that information. So, that's kind of like that little kind of little way thing. Um we actually just had a at the DEAC executive um attendance and how to make it more prominent. So it's kind of like do we display because we're actually created a prototype already that I shared with the DAC executive of a prototype was like uh every school Adams Alcott and so forth alba and it will show and display attendance or not attendance. I don't know how
135we want to be so intentional of displaying that. I know DAC executive I definitely want to do that but you know do reaching out to school sites that don't attend and saying like it's important for you guys to attend. I know you guys have the take it to the SSC documents but it's also important to hear the context and all that. We do record our meetings or they're available if somebody misses them as well. So, um, we will kind of explore as far as like how much visibility we want that attendance to be displayed and we can certainly try and keep it more internal if need be. But, uh, we'll talk about that conversation as as far as that's going to do, but we can certainly reach out and try. >> Yeah. I didn't really
136mean like I don't want you to put schools on blast, you know, like because they're not attending. I mean, you know, people are busy, but I was thinking more Yeah. internally like quietly reaching out and sometimes the schools might think oh it doesn't matter if I go to that meeting or not but if you if they get like an email from someone saying hey we haven't seen you in a few you know months hope you can attend then it's like oh okay they're noticing and maybe you know at that so that was that was more my intention not to like embarrass anyone but >> yeah and part of that DAC attendance one um that Crystal shared is once they do attend they they uh tend to attend more than once. So, it's getting those people
137to come. >> Yes, absolutely. And we do see a spike in attendance right around budget season when when um and and then a kind of like you know so so we have to strategically plan this summer about what what can we do to make sure that you know there's not a fall off and even with the uh the numbers on the website the clicks and the you know browsing that that's usually high during budget season and and trying to figure out you know what forms or what what to look for and So, um, yeah, there there's there's more planning to be done. >> I will just want to offer to your point, Trusty Boso, I've seen a lot of new faces at the SSC. I mean, I've been doing this work for many years and
138when I pan across the Zoom, I kind of see who's here, a lot of new names. So, so it tells me that people are um learning about it and they're wanting to get involved. So, that is changing for the best, I think. >> That's exactly what I was just saying to um the president. This is a new level of discussion. Before it was how can we get them there? >> Um access even going online versus coming in person. >> So as you move up the the ladder and get more and more people to participate, you'll have some other uh challenges. But this is great that we're at that point. And I know you must be happy because you know we've been fighting this battle for a long time. >> Yes. It's wonderful. >> Reap the
139fruit of it. Yes. >> All right. Well, fantastic. Thank you so much for for our presentation. >> Thank you. >> Y >> All right. >> Okay. We'll move to item H1 and this is our progress monitoring report uh report on our effective communication uh interim guard rail. >> Effective communication is essential. It is the foundation for building understanding, trust, and alignment across any organization, especially within a school district as large and as diverse as ours. As a district, we have committed ourselves to fostering a healthy and intentional approach to communication with our students, our families, our staff, our educators, and the broader San Diego community. Like, one of the things that I love is we're reaching out to student interns to say, "How do we communicate with you?" Um because I know if I design
140something uh it won't be attractive to a teenager. So I get it. As a district, we have committed ourselves. Did I just read that? No. As a district, we have committed ourselves to fostering a healthy and intentional approach to communication with our students, families, and broader San Diego community. We recognize that strong communication is not simply about sharing information. It is about building relationships, upholding transparency, and ensuring people feel informed, connected, and heard. At the same time, improving communication is always a work in progress. Whenever we talk about change and improvement, it is important to remember that growth takes time, patience, and grace. Change is never easy, but it is necessary if we're committed to serving our students and families at the highest level. This ongoing improvement is part of the responsibility of our lean
141but increasingly effective strategic communications and information team. Over the course of the 2526 school year, the team has taken important steps to strengthen the systems and the practices that support district-wide communication. Each member of the team brings a unique background, perspective, and skill set to this work. Together, they're helping to develop a more coordinated, responsive, and transparent communication structure that better serves our schools and community. Tonight's update focuses on the foundational elements of a healthy communication system that has been developed and implemented throughout the school year. They will highlight measurable outcomes that demonstrate how this work is making a difference. This work matters because communication matters and when we communicate effectively, we strengthen trust, improve collaboration, and create stronger outcomes for students. Now, I'd like to turn it over to the entire team to get
142us started with their progress monitoring report. Thank you all for being here. Thank you. >> Good evening. Excuse [clears throat] me. Good evening, superintendent, trustees, and everyone watching in the audience and at home. Uh my name is James Canning. I am the executive director of strategic communications and information for San Diego Unified. Uh tonight you're going to hear how we're building confidence through collaboration um to create a healthier communication system. Uh before I continue, I'd like the rest of the team to introduce themselves, please. >> Marica Broomman, communications supervisor. Hi, I'm Tara McNamera, our digital communications specialist. Hello, my name is Pedro Kajo Cervantes. I'm the web developer and administrator. >> Hi everyone, my name is Susan Shimoon and I'm the communications office manager. >> As you're going to see in the next slide, it
143outlines our guard rail for effective communications. I'm pleased to report to you that this year uh unlike maybe the year before uh we've worked really closely with the departments how on how they present the information in their four in their progress monitoring reports around the four goals and by the start of this upcoming school year. We will have individualized communication plans for each of the four goal areas so that there's a consistent continuous communication throughout the course of uh the upcoming school year. Next slide please. So you may remember last May uh in this presentation we talked about changing the culture of communications along with developing an unified approach. uh we presented you with 34 different projects that would help us do that. And I'm proud to tell you today that the team was able
144to complete and or put in progress 88% of those projects. Uh you've all been provided a supplemental document that shows the status of those projects. That includes a board as well as a community. If you looked online, uh the 12% that we didn't complete or put in progress are probably some of the most difficult. um they are the ones that require the entire organization something like changing uh the email text and newsletter system for all of our schools along with our district uh collapsing or redefining district department logos and examining how we leverage or don't leverage uh social media accounts based on our departments. Um these projects they really take more time, more care uh and more collaboration than we had the time to do this year. Uh next slide please. So last year we
145talked about how communications used to be structured to be a more reactive, not proactive group. But over this school year, we've been able to build confidence through the collaboration that we've had with departments, schools, parents, and students. I'm going to share some examples. Uh we've regularly scheduled projectbased meetings with visual and performing arts, food, nutrition services, college and career technical education as well as equity and belonging. We've been working uh with the with the neighborhood in schools and enrollment department along with it as well as the data insights team on in the very infancy stages but new enrollment uh strategies. We've also, as you heard earlier, partnered with the DAC to help spread the word a little bit more about their work. Uh we've collaborated a little bit with the CAC, right, to raise awareness
146about some of the needs around special education. And we've also uh been really great at taking feedback from our team members as well as the PTA and other advisory board members. So, thank you Pam for making those connections for us. Um, I'd like to go to the next slide, but before I talk about that slide, I want to also mention uh that one of our communications uh goals last year was to really work more with students. And so, you've heard in these meetings about uh the newly formed student communications committee and we're working with them to bring their ideas to fruition. But what we're going to talk about right now is the fact that some of our uh student trustees from last year had a mandate for us. Uh they said, "We want to see
147you expand how this district reaches people via social media." So what we were able to do um by working with our educators, our students, our schools, and so forth was create a new strategy. Not a strategy that told people, "Hey, come sign up for our pages, but one that really focused on cheat achie um sorry, one that really focused on putting those people at the center. So instead of promoting events and static graphics, we moved to a more media focused uh approach with video as well and featured our classified employees, our teachers, our schools as well as leaders telling their stories visually. Uh standard annual growth rates for a organization like ours is anywhere between five and 25%. the slide above on the screen you will notice that we have increased those uh beyond those
148those standards uh for the top three and then the bottom two we're still working on. I'd like to dive deeper in the next slide. Um so YouTube is a really important channel. If you look back at this district's work with this channel, uh, in 2003 2004, that was the last time the district had a full-time multimedia specialist. You will see that there was about 43,000 views. This year, with a part-time multimedia specialist, we were able to get over 132,000 views. The reason for this jump is because we're creating shorter videos focus focusing them on students, educators, and district-wide success instead of events that happened one day and the content was no good anymore. We are also increasing the volume, meaning the number of videos were producing on a regular basis. And most importantly, because of
149the new processes that this team has put in place, we have more quality ways to put that information in front of families, students, and the broader San Diego community. More views means more people know about the great things happening at our schools. My next and final slide, um, then you'll hear from everyone else. Uh I mentioned earlier that we're improving the way we collaborate with the schools. So we have 1775 schools in this district between areas A and E. Between June 2025 and April 2020 20 June 2025 and April 22nd of 2026 by collaborating with schools we have generated 275 total earn media and district produced nonduplicative stories about our areas. Those are television stories, print and online news outlet stories, videos we've done or either written content that our team has produced. On average,
150that means we're getting about, you know, you look at the decimals and so forth, a story a day, around 25 a month or so. Um, you've all been provided with a supplemental document that shows the status of each area. But I'm going to quickly review what this chart says to you. So, area A, you have 37 schools. 22 of your schools working with us generated 49 duplicative non-duplicative stories. Area B, you have 38 schools. 21 of those schools worked with us to generate 49 non-duplicative stories. Area C, you have 33 schools. 23 of those schools worked with us to get 56 non-duplicative stories. Area D has 33 schools. 23 of them worked with us and was able to generate 55 non-duplicative stories. And then area E, Sharon, you're going to like this. You have 37
151schools. 26 of those schools helped us generate 67 non-duplicative stories. This was a major win as far as we were concerned. One, because we got the schools to actually work with us, and that's a 60% average of our schools that worked with us. So, we're eager to build upon that next year. and I'd like to turn it over to Tara and Pedro to tell you a little bit more about how we got those results. >> Thank you, James. Um, I'll start by framing some of the foundational improvements we made this year to strengthen how we communicate with families, students, and staff. Um, the through line across all of this work is consistency, relevance, and access. So for families, we moved toward more localized communication through five area focused weekly newsletters and clearer uh grade level
152information streams for students. Uh our high school level in particular, we launched a Canvas classroom to create a more direct and equitable channel in a platform many students already use. For staff, we established a centralized internet, weekly newsletter, and text reminders to reduce scattered one-off messages and create a more reliable rhythm. Uh together, these channels give us a stronger foundation for communication that is targeted, timely, and measurable. Uh I do want to note that much of the data you will hear and see in the following slides um is baseline data. uh these are firstear foundational changes so for several channels uh this year just gives us our first meaningful benchmark for measuring progress over time. Um so I'll hand it over to Pedro now. >> Thank you Tara. Yeah so on July 11th of last
153year we overhauled our entire sanifi.org homepage and the goal was simple. It was to reduce friction so families were able to find exactly what they need and when they need it. And we didn't just change the colors, we changed the structure. We built identity around our area networks and grade level streams. So now instead of digging through district-wide noise, a parent sees news and stories that are directly relevant to their specific school and students age group. And the result of that, it is now our one true source. After a whopping 1.5 million views since July, our families have appreciated its accessibility and ease in navigation. We're seeing higher engagement on our most visited pages, which allow us to better narrate the good happening across the district as a whole. And the July redesign has successfully
154shifted our focus from volume to high value engagement. Our audience is far more invested. People would view our homepage about 2.4 times on average, and now they view it five times. That's a 107% increase. People used to be about 32 seconds on average on the homepage and now it is over a minute. That is a 16% increase. So, we've effectively cut out the noise and created a homepage that keeps our community engaged twice as long as the old site. >> Uh so, the family newsletters build directly on the website redesign. So, the grade level streams and area pages give families, like I mentioned, a clearer place to find updates tied to their students experience. Um, while the weekly area newsletters push that information directly to the families in a more local and relevant way. Um,
155and the data show that this approach is working. Across all five area newsletters, we generated more than 1.1 million opens and 136,000 clicks from August through April. Uh on average that is about 29,000 opens and 3600 clicks each week with an open rate around 30%. Um by industry standards a 30% open rate and this level of click activity um are healthy for a large public sector audience. Um and those clicks matter because they show families are not just seeing the message. Um they're actually taking that next step to read more, check a deadline, access a resource, or complete an action. Um but at the same time healthy does not mean finished. So we do want to uh see this continue to grow especially as expanded and more accurate family contact information is captured through increased
156adoption of our online systems like the parent portal. Um as we all know better contact information does mean better reach and better reach means more families can access the information that supports our student outcome goals. Next slide please. Thank you. Um so next is our student canvas classroom which we launched to strengthen the directto student um communication for our high school students. Uh canvas gives us a way to reach students inside a platform that many already use for school and s since the launch uh in August the classroom has generated more than 200,000 total views averaging about 6,900 views and uh with roughly 1,400 unique student visitors each week. Um what is most important that we've learned is what students are choosing to access. Uh so the top content areas students are looking for include
157deadline reminders, scholarships, tutoring contests, leadership opportunities, student voice opportunities, and college and career planning resources. Um but to be fully transparent, uh Canvas is not a perfect universal channel, um because use does vary from campus to campus. Um but for the students who are active there, the data does show that it is proving to be a strong information hub that connects them to actions, deadlines, and opportunities in a more consistent way. >> Let's talk about our inside San Diego Unified staff internet. Our staff aren't just visiting the internet, they're power users. We started with a few update buckets and later on added more to suit our district needs. And now we're seeing a massive 10 pages per session with an average engagement time of over 3 minutes. So this isn't just click and quit traffic.
158It's deep intentional usage where employees are interacting with our tools nearly a million times a month to get their work done. So the internet coupled with the weekly staff newsletter and text reminders uh bring that same single source of truth strategy to our internal communication with staff. Uh this shift is important because it changes the staff experience. Instead of every update competing as a separate email, we're building a more predictable weekly cadence um and creating a space where staff know to look for district updates, deadlines, opportunities, and resources so that teams have a clear pathway for sharing information across the district. Um and again, data show that engagement is strong. So, from August through April, the staff newsletter generated more than 198,000 opens and 73,000 clicks. On average, that's about 5600 opens and more than
1592,000 clicks per week with an open rate around 33%. Uh, the texting adds a second touch point for staff who have opted in. Uh, staff text generated more than 225,000 successful sends and 14,000 clicks with an average click rate of about 6.2%. Um, similar to the family newsletters, those rates are healthy by uh industry standards, particularly given the size and complexity of our staff audience, which includes many different um employee group schedules and varying levels of access to our district online um systems. Um but also similar to the family newsletter data, we see this as a strong starting point but definitely not the finish line. Um this inaugural year we received more than 900 entry requests for the staff newsletter. Uh which tells us that our staff and departments do see this as a real
160district-wide communication channel. Um, with that, we are excited to use all of the data and request information that we received to work with dis other district teams, um, principles and leaders to improve how our content is shared. Um, all of this is part of building uh communication capacity across the district, making it easier for leaders to reinforce priorities, connect students and families to the right resources, and ultimately support student outcome work at school sites. Um, with that, I'll turn it over to Marica. >> Thank you, Tara. What you just saw was a number of foundational elements and new things that this department is utilizing to help increase engagement among our different audiences. And what I'm going to walk you through is a process that we use when uh with every project using some of the
161foundational tools along with our areas of expertise in media, digital communications, strategy and so forth. So let me walk you through the process. We begin with a collaborative strategy meeting to clearly understand the purpose, audience, and desired outcomes. From there, our team develops a communications plan that aligns messaging, timing, and tools. We then share the plan with the department to asssure alignment. Once the plan is in place, we move into implementation using a range of communication tools and strategies such as videos, website support, principal toolkit, staff, internet, canvas, classroom, text, newsletter, and earn media andor social media. A key component of this process is our ongoing strategic touch points. We stay closely connected with departments to assure an alignment, understand how our community is engaging, and make thoughtful adjustments in real time so we can
162better reach and support our students, families, and staff. Next slide, please. We now have used this process and applied it to every project when collaborating with a department. And so I'm going to take you through some of our successes we have had and the tremendous outcomes that we feel like we've achieved in collaboration with our department partners and schools. Starting with the local control accountability plan survey, LCAP for short. The LCAP is our three-year roadmap for student success. It lays out our district goals, the actions and services we use to get there, how much they cost, and how we will know if they are working. Our department began building awareness ahead of the survey launch to ensure families were informed and prepared to participate. We produced English and Spanish videos, provided website support, created a
163flyer, provided guidance related to the principal toolkit, guided the strategic timeline, shared information via the website, family newsletter, text to families, and the staff newsletter. These actions resulted in 272 responses this year, nearly matching the total responses from the previous four years combined. Next, we have the Voices for Change PSA contest. It provides students with a creative outlet to raise awareness about mental health and substance prevention while encouraging peers to make positive healthy decisions. This campaign aligns with all four student achievement goals. Some of the communication tools utilized in um include social media with creative graphics, produced videos, student canvas, and family newsletter. Student participation increased 71% compared to last year. And for the first time, middle school students submitted video entries. For the food and nutrition services second annual survey, families were invited to
164share their feedback on school menus, offering ideas and suggestions to help better serve our community. We saw an increase of 33% from last year. This demonstrates stronger family engagement and feedback. Next, we have the Gallup employee survey. Employees were asked to share their honest thoughts about their workplace experience. The survey results help the district better understand where we are meeting employee needs and where we have opportunities to improve. Our collaboration and strategic messaging led to a 30% increase compared to last year. For the parent portal accounts, we saw a significant increase of 69% in access and engagement. Today, over 84% of families have activated their accounts. that is up um just over last year was 50%. This uh parent portal accounts gives families greater access to information and tools to support their child's success. And
165a couple of new efforts we want to share the CYBH schedule outreach that's the children and youth behavioral health initiative. The state initiative allows our district to request reimbursement from health plans and insurers for providing behavioral and mental health services to our students. We implemented a phase communication um support to build awareness and families for action. As a result, 9,000 families responded with a 40% click rate on the initial email, reflecting strong engagement and supporting our focus on student wellness. And finally, we have student re-registration. Beginning March the 23rd, 2026, we ask families of currently enrolled students in grades TK through 11 to complete the student registration for next year form in the parent portal. Our department collaboration has resulted in 72% of existing students already registered, helping ensure our students are successfully enrolled and
166positioned for the upcoming school year. Across each of these efforts that I just named, we are seeing the impact of intentional collaboration where clear coordinated communication leads to stronger engagement, increased participation, and better outcomes for our students, families, and staff. We are deeply appreciative of our partner departments. Their collaboration and trust in us are essential for implementing these strategies effectively. I would now like to hand it over to Susan. >> Thank you, Marisa. So, what the last year has shown us is that when we partner with our departments early on in the process, our communication becomes more proactive and effective. As James mentioned earlier, we've had initial meetings with the leads of our four goal areas in student wellness, math, literacy, and college and career readiness. through August of this year. We'll continue to meet
167with them and become more ingrained in the expertise, goals, and day-to-day work of their departments and use that understanding of their work to develop tailored, cohesive communication plans for each of these areas that we'll implement in the coming school year. So, continuing to partner with them will create stronger and more accessible messaging to our families and staff. And throughout every step of these foundational improvements, we've been receptive to feedback from our students, families, and staff to help us communi uh continuously, excuse me, improve the processes we've established this past year. In March, for example, we met with principles to hear their concerns and feedback on the principal and AP updates portion of the staff newsletter and internet. And as a result, one of our goals this year is to refine the staff internet and newsletters
168to make them more effective, accessible, and reliable for everyone using them. Based on conversations with our newly established student communications committee, we'll also be developing a student internet for targeted, relevant information our students can access in a more centralized location. We'll refine our collaboration with area schools and we'll continue auditing and streamlining tools for communication to strengthen our connection with students, families, and staff. And looking ahead, our department will be working on some key communication initiatives from now through May of 2027. Uh we'll be looking into producing community-based board meetings, including a Spanish language one. We're looking into implementing a regional electronic newsletter for our community partners to connect them to the work that our district is doing. We'll continue to evaluate and improve how we communicate with families by collaborating more with our community
169and family engagement team. And we'll be partnering closely with our enrollment team to identify new outreach strategies. And this brings us to the end of our presentation. Um we want to thank you for joining us today and for your continued partnership and support. We look forward to continuing this work together and we'd like to welcome any questions or discussion. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much communications team. Really comprehensive report. Really appreciate it. Um any public comments? Okay. Uh Trusty Ordos. Yes. >> Thank you so much for the presentation. You guys did really well. And I did want to give you guys your shoutouts on the student communications committee. Um, and I'm really happy with the student canvas. Like if like to be completely honest, like I've heard it from all of my
170friends. I've heard it from like in the classroom there's a kid who's like, "I don't have a scholarship." And then the kid's like, "Look at the student Canvas." And he he's like, "Okay, okay." And then you see him [clears throat] open his computer. Um, but my question was specifically on we know what recently happened with Canvas being hacked and it basically took over the college Canvas and also the district Canvas. Um, and this is more of a question for like the future, I would say. But what happened a few weeks ago was a learning lesson. You know, all Canvases was shut were shut down. We weren't able to do anything in any of our classes. Teachers weren't able to do anything. So, do we have we thought of ways that if this can happen again,
171because it can, especially with us all being part of the digital world, how communication will still be reached out. I think specifically in the time that it happened now, it was during AP test season, it was during seniors graduating, it was during summer school updates, um, college class updates for next year. So, have we thought of ways that maybe like we can work around that since everything's pretty much digital? So to be clear, um the Canvas uh incident that occurred uh affected our school for schools for I think a day and a half. Um you know it is our partner in that. um and they took all the proper measures to ensure that we had uh safe um space if you will for students uh so that data wasn't any further compromised. Um with regards
172to how we use Canvas, it is really informational, right? It's anformational classroom. I'd like to hope that within that day and a half the students had already seen it earlier in the week. Um, but I think one of the conversations that we've begun to have with our uh, college and career readiness team is, you know, school counselors are underneath them. And so, one of the things that we want to be able to make sure we do is work better to ensure that counselors who are in our schools have the information, have what they need to be able to do that hand-tohand uh, engagement with students. They often do it now. Um, but, you know, how can we improve upon that? So I think from a communications information sharing standpoint that will be um a helpful
173tool. Uh in terms of the IT part, I'd have to call our partners up here to talk a little bit more about that at some point. Um but I think for this uh we can continue to work on those safety measures. >> One of the protocols is to actually meet and I'm gonna put words in your mouth, but you can actually tell me I'm wrong if if I need to. Torren is there is a team that comes together and says like what do we do now and then how do we actually get in to mitigate it so it doesn't happen again like from our purview right like this was a hack for canvas not San Diego Unified and so we always strengthen our measures after every every lesson learned >> thank you um President Barrera.
174Um, and thank you guys. That was amazing. I think it's the most comprehensive report we've had and just the numbers and all the work you're doing. I can really see it. Um, just, you know, in being out in the community and really appreciate that. And I wanted to give a definite shout out for the because normally when I get a newsletter, it's like uh you know we have such a large district. So really sifting down information that's going to be specific to your schools or you know my case district A, but like maybe I'm a parent and I just want to know about Madison High School. I don't know. But I think it's a really really nice way of consolidating information that might be true across the district, but um it kind of personalizes it
175a little bit more. So I've really enjoyed um those and it's just I like that it's really summarizing. There's not, you know, it's not real busy and it provides important information. So I wanted to mention that. Um I also wanted and this is more beyond just you know communications team and I've talked to James about this too but I think um one of the things we still need to work on is for example the LCAP when we had that we had a community engagement um session I think it was virtual a few weeks ago and I you know I've been in the school board now for six years and I'm still like learning all the time about things but we tend to sometimes like um talk shop I think within the district thinking people understand
176what you're talking about. And I was sitting on there that call going if I was a parent right now, I would not understand what you guys were talking about. So, not towards you specifically, but I think we just need to do a better job sometimes with the public and just really breaking it down because it's confusing. There's a lot of terms we use that I think a lot of parents don't understand. I wouldn't understand if unless I was on this school board. So I think we need just need to be more aware of that sometimes because I think we don't realize it but um breaking down information is I think is going to be really really important to making sure that parents it you know and it's not saying that parents are you know you
177know slow or anything but it's it's a lot you know and they're they're busy people and you know um it's it's it's a lot and a lot of it's very complicated and we want them to be able to understand it and and make it um you know comfortable for them as Well, um, and then the other comment I was just going to make was when we do include our students, um, like our advisory committee I think is great, but we just want to work around their schedule sometimes because I know when we were working like on the anti- vaping, um, initiative, you know, we would schedule meetings and but it was like, well, where are the students? And it was like during class time and I'm like, well, they can't be here right now. So,
178I guess just being mindful as we're moving forward and working with our students that we're scheduling. You know, sometimes it might be after 5 and maybe you have to adjust your schedule that day. I don't know. But, you know, making sure that if we're working with the students that we're working around their schedule sometimes because sometimes we would get on the calls and there wouldn't be any students. So, um just keeping that in mind. Um but I think you guys are doing fantastic work and uh I appreciate the report. Thank you. Here we go. >> Thank you. And um echo uh what Vice President Bazo said about making things accessible to families and sometimes it's as simple as breaking down acronyms, right? Sometimes we get texts, right? I say this as a family um with
179acronyms I know as a schoolboard member, but I imagine a lot of families don't necessarily know what an LCAP is. Uh so I appreciate you lifting that up. I it's great to see um the increases um in so many different categories. Um I guess one of the things I'm wondering is what are the goals? Um, so I heard in for some of the items um that this is aligned with industry standard, but it's really challenging uh to know if you know 2,000 responses to the LCAP was good or not good, right? When I think about uh I don't know 95,000 students times often two parents, um it feels not so good, but maybe it is. And so it's really I guess in general moving forward if you can share what our objective was for each
180of these items um not simply growth compared to last year or you know years prior but really what is it that we were driving towards and did we achieve those goals and so I don't know um if there are any specific items that you want to speak to where we met our goals where we're really happy um about what we achieved but any additional context would be really helpful for me to understand. >> I I think um it's important as Tara kind of pointed out right these are foundational. I mean to some degree um we're helping departments establish some of that you know I mean when you look at the LCAP as an example um I don't know how many if you go back and look at the data over the last four years comparatively
181this year um they had numerous community meetings all kinds of engagement and got nowhere near what we got in one year and so I guess where we hope to be able to expand this conversation is with these departments because I think a lot of times um you know it's we got to make sure people know and then we're kind of hoping and we think that this is a starting point. I can tell you that I know for fact the survey I particularly worked on that one for the staff we were like let's get 78%. And we didn't get 78%. Um, but we did have something to strive for. And I think what we've all tried to kind of uh impart on each other and then when as we're working with departments is let's set a
182goal. Let's set something to strive for. And if we don't hit it, um, you know, we got to keep trying. Every every number could be better every year, every day. And I think that's what we're going to keep doing. >> Yeah. So, I appreciate that and appreciate you calling out the Gallup survey because I know I think it's below their standard of what they'd like what you Gallup would like to see and what we'd like to see. But I guess, you know, I appreciate the striving and growth is incredible and we want to celebrate that and again knowing what we were aiming for is is really important, right? I imagine for the CYBHI fee schedule, we have a goal for how many families we wanted to participate and so knowing did we meet that goal
183with, you know, our communications um or not would be helpful. Um, and then also I'm curious about, so I think it's really exciting to hear about the individualized communications plans for each goal area. Can you speak a little bit more? It's so hard with you all like on the side and behind me, but alas. Um, to what what the objectives of of those plans are? um are they uh sort of multi-directional in that they're aimed towards uh the public sort of media relations towards families sharing uh high impact strategies that could be used at home to say improve I don't know literacy or math um towards educators what are say more about these individualized communication plans for the goals >> yeah I can tell you that um they're not just publicity plans um they are
184plans that are intended to be fully integrated in the sense of uh reviewing how we how these departments are interacting with all of our different audiences. So if you think so to what uh trustee Bazo was mentioning about you know the jargon that's being used in a meeting if a department's working with us the goal is to help break down that jargon help them with those processes. I always use I like to use this example uh and I should have read it probably before saying this but like I didn't know what Dibbles was. >> Yeah. >> And Dibbles is like uh for our literacy program, but we were getting Dibbles submissions to send to families. And so I was talking to Tara and saying, "What is a dibbles?" M >> and so I think that
185what we're what we've been able to see over the course of the last year is we see um these goal areas who are doing great work in the classrooms. You know they have a bunch of different audiences to speak to and I think based on what they do every day sometimes it's the same content that they're pushing out at each audience or they're receiving. And so it's our job to kind of go in there and say, "Okay, how are we going to talk to parents about this? How are we going to talk, you know, share this with media? How are we going to share this with our own staff?" And so that's really the the intent of these annual plans. And we hope that some of those um things that we do as it relates
186to how we interact with students and staff become like really foundational to that work. And then every year it's like kind of a they have a new goal, well, we have a new goal, you know. Um but that's really uh the intent. >> I that's great and great to hear because I I do think you know there is translation that's required and not from one language to another but really from edu speak to what average ordinary folks how average ordinary folks talk. So I really appreciate that. Um, one of the things I noticed as you're talking about um, social media and growth across platforms including YouTube, which was really great to see. As I look at content, it looks like there's been a shift, and tell me if this was a a strategy or an
187intentional shift from sort of creating our own content, which we do here and there, to really pushing out uh content that's been um produced by outside media, and I imagine that's because capacity is diminished. There have been budget cuts. Has that been an intentional strategy? And I would say if so, it appears it's working. as we look at, you know, YouTube and other channels having um more followers and more engagement. >> Um no, I think actually um the difference is as I noted earlier, we you know, we really put an emphasis with our part-time videographer in creating as much content as we possibly could. I didn't have she she wasn't available to us. Um, so I didn't have all the final numbers, but I know as of a few months ago, meaning in December, she
188had already produced 110 videos. And so I will say that I think the media part of it, so the use of or the capturing um of the coverage that we received uh is actually a new practice. Uh, historically, it was just a report that got sent out and it never got captured and utilized and placed in other places. Um the other thing is we are doing more media. Uh we're working more with our schools. We're working more um with our departments and then we're creating opportunities for this district to tell their story. Oftentimes using potentially the media as the as the foundational piece, right, where everyone hears about it and then we start to take that information and parcel it out to different people who need to understand it hopefully in different ways so that
189they can uh you know uh retain what it says. U so your your your question is not wrong like it when I say no I just mean we're trying to build a balanced approach. I think you just you know there's more television stations than there are number of videos we can produce on a single topic. >> Thank you. Thank you for some of those questions, but I'm very pleased at what you're doing and you're right to call me out on my schools. Can't resist it. And you know, I had already gone through and analyzed what was happening at my schools. Now, as I understand it, these are stories that you generated. >> So, they are stories. So, let me give you a good example. So, at the beginning of the school year, we we uh
190all went to Bell Middle School and featured Bell Middle School as our school, right? As the as the opening school day. Bell Middle School probably alone, between the videos that we did with them and the videos that that that our media partners did produced probably 10 actual pieces of content. But we're only counting it once because we felt like if we counted it, you know, duplicative, like it it it varies. So, it's it's it's important to point out that that story didn't just appear once, you know, that that was one topic, if you will. Um, and then there may have been multiple covers. You know, we might have had Gemma out here from the UT or Jacob. they might have wrote a good story too about it and then also so did the UT and
191then you know our multimedia specialist uh created a video that we also use so we're trying to use moments to share information um did I explain that okay >> that that makes a lot of sense and I I had figured that out but um right below Belle you you have Bthoon which Belle has eight items there [snorts] by the way and Bthun has zero. >> And uh for someone from the outside looking at that would say Belle didn't generate any kind of attention versus we went out to the school to uh bthoon. >> Yeah. >> And um but it was not something that you were >> producing. It was something that was organic if you will. So it's important to point out and anybody if they want to jump in here. So every day um
192we have a regular meeting uh and it's we call it like an editorial meeting and we look at what schools and departments distribute to us and tell us that they're doing um and then Marica and Tara make the decision like what can we do with this and they might say James we need a media thing you know they might say okay we need to do a story that goes that we write ourselves oh this deserves a the the thing that's happening and why we keep saying why we said in what Susan outlined uh we need to continue to refine that process because the reality is that they're not not all schools either have the time capacity or maybe even are aware that we have the ability to help them do this. I think historically we
193um I'm not sure how far back I'll say we go but like we weren't necessarily being of service to schools. we were mostly uh reacting to their maybe crisis of the day. And so in this we're hoping uh through this presentation conversations that we've had with other schools by working closely with departments like VAPA CTE they're starting to see themselves in the work that we're doing and they're talking to each other. Uh I don't know Tara Marissa I mean do you guys anybody else? I I think that you covered that well, James. I would just add that um you know, this is the first year that we have really tracked that data. So, I think that we're really excited to take the summer and look at that and see where those gaps are across areas
194and which schools in the areas um so that as we continue to improve our processes um that we can become more intentional in where we are all we're still grabbing stories that are organically happening at schools and then also proactively going out and and reaching the the areas that we need to. And that's a good thing because I can hear my principles saying now, uh, you have 10 zeros on here, 10 no contacts, and, uh, five in the Crawford cluster, three in Lincoln, three in the, uh, Morse cluster. And I know they're they're competitive, too. >> And and and I'd like to say, I mean, you know, to those schools credit, I mean, it is possible that we did not see something, right? they may, you know, many of our schools have been asked for
195many years to kind of, uh, do for themselves. And so, uh, we have our systems in place. Some of them are human, some of them are, uh, electronic systems that track these things. Um, so if there's a school out there that sees that zero and they got a bone to pick with us, we're ready because we want to help them. >> Thank you. um team just take us through as building on uh one of Trusty Hayen's comments. So take something like CYBHI and it looks like we had 9,000 families respond to the survey. How does that then how do we use that to get families to actually sign up and get us the information that that we need? Yeah. How does that work? Um the 9,000 that I mentioned is the initial response we got
196when we kind of breadcrumb creme right you're going to get this information be ready this is what it's about this is why we're kind of asking it so we kind of did like a warm handoff um and so um I think uh after that we sent out you know reminders texts we put it in our family newsletter we kind of put it in all of our communications so it wasn't just like a oneshot deal just an email or whatever we kind of diversified our communications So we're thinking out of one of those one family will see it. Sometimes you know they don't want the text. They don't they opt out. Sometimes they just look at their family newsletter. So in between all of those touch points we're thinking one families is going to respond. And
197we were pleased with that number because families are so busy and for them to click on there look at it. Yeah. >> And you know open it up read it. I think for us we were like okay that's 9,000 people. >> Yeah. Go ahead there. Yeah. >> Um thank you Marissa. Uh just to add on to that. So with that in particular, you know, that that process isn't over. You know, that was the initial push and the nursing and wellness team um Kate and Yuka who are leading that work, they um have taken it a step further and with many of the other projects as well, you know, there are other um outreach points um that go uh that build on the kind of baseline work that we've done collaboratively with them. Um and I
198think that uh we are continuing to having uh uh meetings and um you will see more uh about the CYBHI uh coming forth and I think that it's just as we uh work through more and more of these projects we are just learning what is resonating and what is working um so that we can continue uh building. >> Yeah, that makes sense. And so, for instance, if nursing and wellness tells us our goal is to get to 40,000 families to sign up, um, how do we then go from our initial communication with 9,000 families to 40,000 families actually signing up? >> But also, how many families are there? Because it's not the same as the children. We have fewer families than we have children. So the 200 >> Yeah, I uh I'm not exactly sure
199on the the numbers, but my understanding is that that is 9,000 of the unique information. So I do believe that that correlates to the um students, not just the families because I believe they have to put the information in for each student in individually. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Correct. >> Yes. So if I if I can so I think you know the the what what Tara and Mara said right is that it's not over >> right right >> and I think that um with that example um they now know they have a partner in us right so we we say it's not about continuously doing the same thing over and over again um it's about finding new ways to figure this out and and so I think that there have been subsequent meetings since there
200was a break. You know, we saw this often with our um as we went through uh trying to increase number of parents who wanted to be part of powers school, right? You know, communications was not the only person in the room. You had it, you had data insights, you had neighborhood, you know, schools, you had you had a bunch of different departments. And so, you know, we do our thing, somebody else comes in and says, "We're going to do this thing." And it's more of an engagement. And that's why we want to be more involved in engagement going forward because we think we could have a a supportive influence on how we engage beyond um the online world. Uh and that's really something that we think as we continue to hone the online systems we
201want to we want to build and support the teams that are out there having to do the onetoone conversations with families. >> Great. Thank you so much comm's team. Fantastic report and fantastic work. Yeah, really appreciate that. Yeah. All right. Okay. Could we get a motion on items H2 through H4? >> Uh Richard, um item H2 has to be um voted on separately. Yes. >> Okay. Oh, got it. Okay. So, thank you, uh Melissa. A motion on item H2. >> Trusty Wers Payne. Do we have a second? Second. Uh, Trusty Hazen, uh, why don't we go ahead and vote, uh, trustees win and or other trustees. Okay. All right. Um, and H3, can we get a motion? Moved by Trusty Whitehurst Payne, seconded by Trusty Hazen. Uh any further questions or comments? Okay. Trustees or
202Dawson and Wyn and other board members? Okay. And item H4. Do we have a motion? Yes. Trusty W. Uh and do we have a second? Thank you, Trusty Ardaw. Uh okay. Uh trustees Win and our Daws, please vote. and other board members, please vote. Okay, great. And that gets us to our consent agenda. Uh we will consider items I1 through I47. Uh consent items are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion followed by a vote. Um, do any trustees wish to pull any items from the consent agenda? No. And we've got a speaker on item I one. >> Uh, yes, we have two speakers. >> Two speakers. Okay. Great. >> Um, Naen Allen and Sarah Kefir. Do we want them to speak now? >> Hello. I'm back. Um, I I'm Naen
203Allen. I have a daughter in the deaf program here. one um on a topic like this before you even really start the clock I I just want to say this is a terrible way to give somebody who has a vested interest um a voice in these things this is the first time I'm hearing about these new classes for the DHH by reading them on the agenda and I'm here away from my family for three hours to to make a comment. Okay. So starting with that I want to say first of all that I'm back um to report back to you on what happened after my last public testimony last time. So now, um, if you recall, I talked about my daughter getting an A to G. That's not going to happen anymore. That's been taken
204off the table. And what was communicated to me was that it was a miscommunication. And I just want to be perfectly clear. Um, it's not a miscommunication when it's repeated, when it's in writing, when it's a follow-up meeting, and it's offensive truthfully. Um, and you don't simply have a miscommunication honestly repeatedly like that to a family you're suing. Okay. So, that's offensive. It's offensive. Aside from that, I do want to talk about my concerns about these DHH A to G qualifying classes. It's concerning to see that we're putting up for approval 24 new classes for one school, for one program. Um, you know, I've got a million questions about how are they vetted? are do we have qualified teachers to teach those classes? Have they been trained in those areas? And you know, I'm I'm
205going back, this has only happened, if you think about it, it's this has only come up like about a year ago, a little over a year ago. And I think about, you know, the last meeting, I think uh trustee Huzzanne said that a six-year strategic plan is too long. And we heard from Dr. about, you know, that we have to be thoughtful, careful about how we make these decisions and that that we're talking about systemic change. Well, there's a program begging for systemic change. We're not graduating our kids. We're passing our kids socially. And this seems like a recipe to p just to continue that process, but with a diploma. Now, it's not going to give you an outcome. It's going to give you it. All we're doing is pushing the same problem all the
206way downstream. So, I I hope I urge you guys to take a closer look at this and to be more transparent about what are we doing to qualify these classes before we change the program. Thank you. Hello, my name is Sarah Kefir. I am the chairperson for the CEC and I'm mostly here to highlight what Naen said. um and what she's gone through recently. Um she had a meeting with the special education department and they assured her it was a misunderstanding, a miscommunication um what graduation pathway her child is on. I'm positive that Miss Allen did not misinterpret what her child pathways options were. I'm positive about this. She's very well aware what those options were and for that to be told to her as a miscommunication or her misinterp Come on. Um, if we
207want meaningful change within the district, then we need to be honest when we misstep or misspeak. And our DHH program is still lacking. We can say all we want about the programs being accredited, but if the staff for the DHH aren't trained to teach the new curriculum, this work is meaningless. We can accredit all we want and we can but we're just pushing these children along and we we absolutely cannot do that. We're trying to create meaningful diplomas, meaningful graduation, meaningful futures. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Okay, board members. Uh do we do we have a motion on the consent agenda? Moved by Trusty White Payne, seconded by Trusty W. Any comments? Uh, Trusty W. Yep. Okay. Uh, trustees win and or please vote. And other trustees, please vote. Okay, that
208gets us to non-aggenda public comments. Miss Hamilton. Uh so yes, we have 23 speakers signed up in person and 13 on Zoom. So we are going to do one minute a piece. Okay, I'm going to start with Finny. Finny, I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing your name incorrectly. Charles Hoff and Anya Ras Stoi. Okay, I'm gonna move on to Todd Levenson, Ryan Bray, and I just have Julie, no last name. >> Hey. Uh, good evening. I'm Brian Bray. Let's get my notes out here. Um, I call this the wedge. Uh, this is how my kids hold it when they're looking at stuff they're not supposed to be. Um, I'll try and go quickly. I was hoping for 2 minutes. Two and a half years ago, many fourth graders at Barnard Elementary were using SD Unified issued
209Chromebooks to access a Pakistani chat website. they were being exposed to sexual content by adults on another continent. At the time, many parents were alarmed and notified Principal Chow. He took decisive action. He banned the devices unless students were under active supervision in a classroom. I'd hoped that the school and district had learned the lesson that giving kids cart blanch access to poorly managed internet connected devices was a bad idea. Unfortunately, the lesson was not learned this year. After noticing our sixth grader hiding her Chromebook from us because she was accessing adult content online, I emailed our principal and counselor at PB Middle, noting that typically the websites we don't approve of were being accessed at school. >> I have more, but Bloxy is not cutting it. [applause] Okay. Reese Garmin, Lauren Price, Amry as
210quick as I can. >> One of the most gratifying experiences I've had as a parent has been seeing my daughter's love of learning flourish. One of the most deflating was then seeing that love of learning, particularly in math, diminish in school with technology being a major factor. I thought that'd be the low point, but they kept coming. Like finding out that she was being read to by a computer. Like then finding out three weeks ago that she was playing a video game during school time, killing zombies at school in the classroom, killing zombies. I'm not anti-technology and I love a lot of things about it, but I do have questions. First, what standards should guide us when deciding to use technology? like maybe does the technology show in replicated independent studies a substantially better result
211than non-digital approaches on meaningful educ educational outcomes that make it worth the potential harms? More questions I have. Do parents have the right to know how much daily screen time their kids have at school and all the activities they're doing on screens? Do parents have the right to hear the justification, the strong evidence for why? Okay, thank you. If I've already called your name and you're in the audience, please come forward. [snorts] >> Thank you for your time. My name is Rhys Garmin. I'm a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at San Diego State University and I'm the dad of a TKER and a kindergartner San Diego Unified. Um here to request the choice to opt out of laptop learning in the upcoming academic year. Uh this is not an anti-technology position. In my own department
212at SDSU, in our undergraduate and graduate teaching and in our research programs, we make heavy use of recent technologies including machine learning and artificial intelligence. We use these tools because we can demonstrate their effectiveness in certain types of college level instruction and training and because they let us solve research problems that we could not solve otherwise. It's different with kids. We ran the experiment on screenbased learning for young children. We needed remote instruction during the pandemic. We tried it and the data are in. Students learn less well from computers than from teachers. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name is Lauren. I am a parent of a first grader and a fifth grader. Uh my fifth grader started school during the pandemic. She did distance learning. We were issued a Chromebook for kindergarten. Uh I truly
213believe this was the best we could do at that time and we all stumbled through administrators, teachers, parents and students. Unfortunately, I feel 5 years later, we are still stumbling through. As a fifth grade middle school student, she has not been taught basics that are required of her in her curriculum on a day-to-day basis, such as typing, best prices or best practices for online research, email etiquette, online safety and privacy, as well as learning how to print something [laughter] like things that she needs to turn in. Uh, I think we're doing it backwards. We need to change the process. We need to eliminate the onetoone school devices. We need to implement a computer lab setting in which a educator who is dedicated to uh technology is teaching them these best practices that I mentioned before.
214Only then do we issue individual devices for the students. We have an opportunity to stop the stumble through and create a transformative tech experience for our students. >> [applause] >> Chrisman Payne, Clarissa Elmore, Brett Wasman. >> Uh, hi. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Cool. Thank you. Yeah, I'm Chrisman Payne. Uh I'm here tonight to speak uh as part of schools beyond screens. Um yeah, so I'm I'm a I'm well I guess credentials. I have like a master's degree in physics. I'm also a telecommunications engineer. Um I do a lot of like writing software for RF measurements for cell phones. Um I really like technology. I'm not a lite. Um I think that our organization's point is that um tech use in classrooms is shifting from uh very directed intentional use cases um towards
215something that uh doesn't resemble like beneficial learning outcomes for children. Um I think like Reese was saying uh you know we actually got all the kids on laptops and uh now a lot of them can barely read. Um, so I think there's plenty of evidence there. You know, you don't you don't even have to look at like the like the large cohort analyses of like screen time and its negative uh negative correlations with outcomes for math and reading scores. Uh, really quickly, just a call to action like please meet uh our our organization's calls with urgency. Um, we're all currently parents of young children and we want to see change like immediately because uh my students are in school and I don't really want them cooked by being sat in front of a laptop one
216to one. I don't think that that's a good paradigm for uh children in elementary school. So, thank you for your time. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Clarissa Elmore. I'm the community school coordinator at Encanto Elementary and I'm here today to strongly oppose the bumping of our guidance assistant, Mr. Isaac Santhion. He touches every part of our school community. He serves on multiple committees like SGT, our community school team, meetings, foundation, social committee, and he supports attendance efforts, helps lead behavior interventions, builds relationships with families. His impacts reaches classrooms, the playground, the front office, family meetings, community partnerships, and beyond. And the most important thing to say is that to know Mr. Isaac is to love him. And stability matters in a high needs communities like ours. When students finally have someone to trust, someone
217who believes in them, and someone who consistently supports them, we should be protecting that relationship, not breaking it apart. This is will be the fifth guidance assistance our school has had in 10 years. We cannot continue disrupting the relationships that our that helps our students feel safe, connected, and supported. Removing someone so deeply invested in this community would cause real harm to students, families, and staff. I ask that you please look beyond position on paper and consider the human impact of this decision. Thank you so much. [applause] How many seconds do I have? Okay, I have one minute. Hi guys, my name is Ana Stoi and I go to La Hoya High and I wanted you guys to just look at this picture right now. These are what the bathrooms look like at my school
218and my campaign for student board members centered around public health which is why I'm proposing that we create a public health advocate space. Um 55% of my soap of soap dispensers in my bathroom were not functioning and in some bathrooms none of them worked. I found that menstrual product dispensers were completely empty or unusable. Students at my school do not wash their hands, not because they don't want to, but it's because we don't have the resources to be hygienic. And this is not just one school. Students across the district have talked to me about locked bathrooms, empty paper towel dispensers, missing toilet paper, and a lack of menstrual products. Uh some teachers have shared with me that they're spending money out of their own pockets to fund these resources for their students. And this is
219a call to the school district that they need to take action to ensure that our basic rights are met. right now that I know that we have been facing a $47 million deficit and I completely understand that not every idea can happen immediately but I really care about finding realistic solutions that everyone can be a part of. So I hope that you can create a public health advocate for students or um say custodians around so that we can better ensure that our bathrooms are clean. [applause] Good evening board members. Uh, President Barrera, Superintendent Beula, thank you for allowing us to speak here. My name is Brett Wasman and I'm a father of two daughters, ages 2 and a half and 5 years old. I'm here on behalf of a local advocacy group, as you know,
220schools beyond screens. Um, I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us and expressing some of your um, mutual concerns that we all have here and noting that some of our requests, maybe not all of them, um, including my own, but I I don't think they're extreme. I think that what we're asking for is very realistic and something that's not unreasonable in any way. Um, I appreciate you collaborating and working with us on that. It's very important that our voices are heard and you're going to hear us until we feel that way, I'm sure. Um, I can personally say that is my belief that we should be providing our students at all of our schools a better education than we had. That is generationally generationally what we have done in this country, much less
221this great state of ours here. Um, we're not doing that anymore. That's serving a disservice to our kids. We need to change that policy. I think it's time to stand up and do something about that. Pencil, paper, and learning is research back. What we have now has very minimal research to back it. It has a lot of dollars behind it, but I don't think anybody here is beholden anybody, so we don't have to worry about that. I think that the one-on-one Chromebook dollars that we've been dumping into all of this for for four or five years could be used on supporting our teachers with steam uh uh programs, VAPO programs, or maybe even supplies. >> Thank you for your time. I'll see you in two weeks. [applause] Um, Amelia Simpson, Arlene, and Renee Cadalano Gooseman.
222My name is Amelia Simpson and I'm a parent to two children at Longfellow Elementary School. I'm a trauma surgeon and the chief of surgery at Scripps Mercy Hospital just down the road. My husband, also a physician, and I are both products of the public school system from kindergarten through medical school and believe wholeheartedly in the mission of the public school system. We are, however, deeply concerned about the amount of screen time and Chromebook access afforded to our children in elementary school. Despite the return to in-person education after COVID, the screens have unfortunately persisted. My daughter has used her Chromebook in the classroom since TK. The math programs she has access to are woefully simplistic for her grade level and also incredibly stimulating, more akin to a video game than a math lesson. Currently in second
223grade, she's often in class reading on her Chromebook with headphones on, listening to music at the same time. Not only is this an ineffective method for improving reading comprehension, but it's isolating and limits her interactions with her peers. The evidence is very clear. Increased screen time in schools is linked to reduced attention and focus, impaired social emotional growth, diminished critical thinking and poorer sleep, as well as increased rates of depression and anxiety. We all know that more screen time is in general is linked to two to threefold increase in suicidal behaviors in adolescence. And although the risks are not just from screens in schools, I feel that San Diego Unified should be focused on endeavors to reduce mental health issues in our children and not worsen them. I hope no one in this meeting has
224ever had the job of sitting a parent down to tell them that their children took their own life after battling depression, but I have. For this reason, I strongly support Schools Beyond Screen's mission of screen reform in our schools, specifically eliminating devices for TK through 2 grade, eliminating one-on-one devices for third through 8th, and blocking student access to YouTube, social media, and gaming. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Failure is data. That is one of the foundational principles of how human beings actually learn. It is how inquiry works. It is how problem solving works. It is how innovation works. And frankly, it's also how adulthood works. But somewhere along the way, education decided every mistake needed punishment or compliance. Then adults act shocked when kids become anxious, disengaged, terrified to participate or unable to problem
225solve independently. If play disappears and dysregulation rises, that is data. Students and adults deserve environments where mistakes are treated as opportunities for understanding because real learning is messy. Real learning involves uncertainty. Real learning requires psychological safety. A healthy educational system is not one that never fails. It is one that is capable of learning from failure instead of denying it. [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Renie Catalano, co-lead of School Beyond Screen San Diego. Thank you for collaborating to make reform for us for next year. The at the foundation of our resolution, we are asking the district to adopt a framework for evaluating technology use. We are not simply focusing on screen time and getting kids off screens. We also want to provide a solution. What I provided you in a handout is the edtech
226triangle, the first research-based model of healthy classroom tech use. I'm also providing the research behind it, the edtech report. This is open-source peer-reviewed and scholarly research about screens, learning, students achievement, and well-being. The edtech triangle condenses this research into a diagram and has four categories to evaluate tech use. The details and descriptions are in the handout. Apps, tools, and lesson plans can easily be filtered throughout the four categories. It can be applied consistently in one classroom or across the district. The district does not have to recreate the wheel. The model is already there. The deep concerns from parents is because there is currently no frameworks for evaluating tech use in the district. What we are asking for of the district is one adapt to frameworks to evaluate critically tech use before implementing prioritize transformative use.
227Use supportive technology spariting. Reject any technology use that is restrictive and disruptive. Recognize that tech is not imperative for academic success. And recognize that tech that all types of screenbased educational tech can be isolating for students from their teachers, peers, and decrease in-person learning skills. If we adopt this frameworks, use will be intentional and use will be limited. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Robin Natanu, Mary Reyes, and Genevie Z. >> Maybe unless Another Robin here. >> Okay. Hi. [laughter] Uh, good evening. My name is Robin Notton. I'm a parent of two kids in the San Diego Unified School District. I think we all share a baseline expectation that school is a safe place, that the adults are thoughtful about what our children are exposed to. And in my experience, that's been true. So when Chromebooks
228came home, I and many of the other families I know assumed that that same care extended to the devices that someone had thought through what kids could access and put guard rails in place. What I've learned though is that it's not that simple. Uh take the typing club. Seems like a really neat tool for third graders to learn how to type. But while they're typing, while they're practicing, ads play in the sidebar. There's been scary movie trailers and political candidate ads. Um, to my knowledge, nobody approved those ads and nobody from this district had a say in what a third-party company decided to casually show to eight and nineyear-olds on a schoolisssued device during the school day. That should alarm all of us. Um, I have a lot more to say, but my ask [laughter]
229is that every app goes through an approved process that includes how the app handles ads, data, and outside content with parents represented in the process. These devices deserve the same scrutiny we'd give any other potential safety risk in school because our kids should trust that we're doing our due diligence to keep them safe in class and online. Thank you. [applause] Child abuse crimes are crimes of convenience. Some kids throw food. We can't willfully obstruct access. Some kids goof off in bathrooms. We can't willfully obstruct access. Another Golden Hill mom contacted me the school year to inform me her first grader asked to go to the bathroom. And the teacher said he asked to answer a math question before he could go. He could not answer the question. He suffered unjustifiable physical pain and emotional distress
230before non-consensually peeing his school kakis in front of all his friends in the classroom. The mom was not notified. The child claims the principal told him, but the teacher says he can't go. Don't go. The teacher told the mom, "Your kid drinks a lot of water. This kid does not drink more water than a normal kid." He says they tell him to stop drinking water when he tries to while at school, leaving him thirsty and uncomfortable during class. Mom previously told me he was forced to hold pee during an entire school performance because the teacher made a long list of kids waiting to use the bathroom and his name was at the bottom. Teachers regularly do this while there are many empty stalls and student bathrooms. He needlessly suffered pain and discomfort through the entire
231school performance. This year because the teacher forced retention of bodily waste. This child is developing bathroom trauma and urgency incontinence. When the mom talked to his teacher, she changed her tone. The kids can go at any time. If that were true, he would not have suffered that trauma. General safety rights are not negotiable. His parents unfortunately want to homeschool for wellness and safety as Missurly injured this child. One student at a time is medically dangerous child neglect crime. It must be reported to authorities for health code enforcement as teachers are negating carefully planned constructed toilets per school population. Thank you. [applause] Um, Edith Ortega, Jade Corfiio, Elizabeth Johnson. >> Hi, my name is J with video and Mr. Isaac is a great principal and he teach us the golden rule. treat others how you wanted
232to be treated. And he respects us and he takes care of us and he um and we always be with Mr. Isaac. Thank you. [applause] >> Hello, my name is Paola and I am a first grader at Aanto Elementary School. I am here to talk about my best friend, Mr. Isaac. I want Mr. Isaac to stay because he makes school fun and a happy place even when I am sick. I want to come because I don't want to miss school any days. Mr. Isaac helps me be good student. He doesn't just talk to me. He talks to everybody and and helps everybody. We always make sure we're okay. Please let Mr. Isaac stay. We need him to help us learn and be kind. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. My name is
233Sad Ortega. I'm here to talk about the human human side of the budget and stuffing decision you make you are making in the last 10 years encanto has had five different guidance assistant this constant reol revolving door of staff harms our children's deep trusting relationships are the only way to overcome the barriers our families face you you cannot simple plug and play a new person into this role and expect the same role results removing someone who is fully invest in our childrens and replacing them with someone who may not want to be there. Mr. Isaac has the trust of our parents and the hearts of our students. We will like to keep Mr. Isaac at Encanto. He is part of our families. Thank you. [applause] Hello, my name is Elizabeth Johnson. I'm a psychologist with
234specialized training and learning systems and adolescent development. Uh, I'm here tonight to voice my concerns again about the use of Chromebooks in our district's classrooms. At the last meeting, we shared the scientific underpinnings of why human warning, excuse me, why human learning and retention works best biologically speaking via paper and pencil learning and not via screens. Given I only have one minute, I won't repeat the science, but I will say this. It is now widely accepted that screenbased learning correlates with lower scores in mathematics, reading, and science. It is widely accepted now that screenbased learning correlates with decreased cognitive functioning, specifically lower memory, lower conceptual understanding, lower focus, and lower overall cue. And it is widely known now that Google admits that goo that excuse me Google admits that school Chromebooks were used as a
235tool to onboard children to become adult customers of Google products, YouTube subscriptions, and the Google ecosystem for life. With all due respect, as an institution of learning, what are we doing? My family, like the hundreds of families I represent here tonight, believe in public education. We are the products of a public school education. We believe it's an honorable use of our taxpayer dollars and we want our children to stay in your public schools as long as it makes common sense. Again, with all due respect, we are bump bumping up into a common sense issue here. We must align edtech tools, excuse me, we must align educational tools with how human learning actually takes place, not with big tech marketing strategies. Thank you, [applause] Elizabeth Fulp and Taran Reer. Hi everyone, my name is Elizabeth and
236I wanted to briefly speak regarding my support for the resolution for reform of tech use at San Diego Unified Public Schools. As a parent and a medical provider to the pediatric population of San Diego County, I've unfortunately seen firsthand the negative effects that increased tech use have had on attention spans, motor skills, and mental health on our little ones to the teen population. With the new published data regarding limited tech and learning outcomes, I am in support of the schools beyond Screen San Diego resolution as written and look forward to your support on June 23rd as the resolution is presented for a vote. Thank you. [applause] Um, and we have next speaker on Zoom, Scott Thurkelson. Please unmute yourself. Yes. Hello. Hi. I'd like to start by uh thanking the board members for being here
237and having the courage to do what you've already done. Making schools completely cell phone, smartwatch, all that stuff. Making schools free of that may seem the like the most obvious thing in the world to do, but I understand it was probably difficult and a controversial decision. And I'm really thankful that you had the courage to do it. I think if you ask any teacher or parent, they'll tell you what a difference you made in their students life. My hope is that you'll continue to put students first by limiting students screen time in the classroom. I teach at a local community college and I've seen how the negative effects of screen time pile up year after year after year to produce continually worse problems. I have two children in the SD school district and I've served
238on all the committees SGTSS all those what I've come to realize is that no one understands how much students are using their screens and it's a problem impossible to manage at the local school level. I'm asking that you please step in and provide some guidance from the top down that students need to be successful. Please continue to have the courage to resist the tech companies and the convenience of computer managed instruction and choose instead to set students up for success in the future in the same ma. [applause] Please unmute yourself. Rebecca, can you hear us? >> Hi there. I'm just a parent of a TK student and a first grader um in Mir Mesa and concerned that we don't really have any information about what our kids are watching in the classroom and how much
239time they're having. would definitely like to advocate for um everything that the screens without or schools without screens is um proposing in their upcoming resolution, but would really like the opt- out option as well. Um and just more transparency about what our kids are watching. Thank you. [applause] >> Darlene Gonzalez, please unmute yourself. >> Good [clears throat] evening. Hello. And it's nice to be on with you guys tonight. I'm sorry I couldn't be in person, but let's wrap this up quickly. You know, I've done work with the DAC and I'm the president of the Lewis Foundation. But my name um is Miss Darlene Gonzalez and for the past three years our school site council meetings at Lewis have been consistently run from 2:15 to 2:45 followed immediately by SGT from 2:45 to 3:15. That gives
240us 1 hour to govern two separate bodies that are supposed to include meaningful parent engagement. Yet in practice parents are present mainly for quorum not for real participation. We also do not give enough uh we do not get enough time to receive the SPSA to review it and I've seen the same pattern across multiple school sites. So it's a broader question for our director. >> Thank you. Thank you Darlene. That concludes our speakers. Great. Thank you. Okay. Our meeting is now adjourned and our re >> Oh, okay. One more. >> Yeah. >> No, no, no. Go, go, go ahead. >> I'll be very quick. Um, my name is Erikica Wolf. I'm a parent of two students in our district, one in TK, one in second grade. I'm here because I'm concerned about the technology use
241in classrooms. I echo all of these parents. I support schools beyond screens. Um, at your last board meeting, we heard a very concerning incident involving Minecraft and external messaging, which is a crisis waiting to happen. My child has told me that in kindergarten, he was watching someone read to him rather than his own teacher read to him. No face to face. Um, and now my 8-year-old asks for screen time at home nearly every day because it's constantly front of mine. Uh, the minutes add up from school at school from assessments to digital reading and gamified math. Even when individual apps are appropriate, this doesn't feel like healthy boundaries are being developed. My children's school did just release uh techn uh tech guidelines yesterday, which I'm really grateful for. This is the first step in visibility.
242Um, but what I think we need to do is continue to have some critical review of how the technology is being used. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very [applause] much. >> Good evening members of board and superintendent. I'm a proud parent of Eanto Elementary. I'm here tonight because our school success is being triggered by a potential bumping of our guest assistant Mr. Isac. At Enanto, we practice share lead share leadership. For five years, our school site consulate has vote to s this position because we recognize that Mr. Isaac is not just a staff member. He's the engine behind our school turnaround. The numbers speak for themselves. In the last five years, Mr. Isaac tireless outreach including home visits and daily tracking has held a slasher chronic occentisms from a staggering 63.9 down to 22%. We
243ask to the district honors our sidebased decision making and keep Mr. Isaac and Encanto where his his work is clearly saving lives and futures. >> Thank you. Can you give us your name please? >> Marta Lopez. Okay. >> [applause] >> Okay, fi final speaker. >> Hi, good night. My name is Vera Corona. I'm parano. Uh, today I'm here because I'm truly concerned about the possibility of losing a guidance assistant who has mean so much to a students and to all a school community. Not every staff leaves a lasting impact, but Mr. Isaac Santan certainly has. Beyond teaching a subject, he has know how to listen, support and motivate students during impact moments in their lives. Many students find in this school a safe place where they feel valued and capable. At the time we so
244many young people need guidance, understand and people who believe in them, teachers like him are indispensable. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. [applause] >> Okay. Okay. And we are now adjourned and our next meeting will be on June 9th. Thank you so much everybody.