Regular meeting of the San Diego Unified Board of Education on March 24th, 2026.

001Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started. I would like to welcome everyone here at Morris High School and those watching via live stream and call the March 24th, 2026 regular meeting of the board of education to order. Uh with three trustee or five trustees present and two will be here shortly. Uh Dr. Cynthia Lin, our amazing principal here at Morris High School will provide opening remarks. >> Thank you, Trusty Barrera. Yes, thank you. Good evening and welcome to Morris High School. On behalf of the entire Morris community, it is truly an honor to host this San Diego Unified School District Board of Education meeting here tonight as part of the board's initiative to bring select board meetings to the communities of the schools they serve. We are grateful that you selected the Morris

002cluster for this opportunity to bring work of the board directly into our community. I would like to extend a warm welcome and thank you to our superintendent Dr. Fabola Bagula Morris Morris's district e board member trustee Dr. Sharon Wers Payne trustee of the board and our district leaders in attendance this evening. I also want to recognize and thank our Morris cluster principles our Morris staff students parents and families as well as all Morris cluster families who are here with us tonight. Your partnership and commitment to our students are what make this work possible. Tonight's meeting will highlight the strides our district is making in both literacy and mathematics, two areas that are foundational to student success. I am proud to share that Morris High School along with several of our Morris cluster schools is demonstrating

003meaningful growth. We have seen significant gains in both our ELA and math ESPback scores. and that progress refle reflects the collective effort, dedication, and belief in our students across our entire cluster. We are excited to continue building on this momentum and ensuring that every student we serve has access to high quality instruction and support they need to thrive. Thank you again for being here and welcome to Morris High School. We will now have the presentation of our national colors presented by Morris High School's Army JRTC. Please rise and remain standing until the color guard has exited the theater. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for

004all. Thank you and please be seated. We will now have a special performance by Morris High School's Army JRTC Drum Corps. Four, heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, down. Hey, hey. Hey, hey. down. Hey Woo! All right, give it up again one more time for Morris High School Zoom Corp. >> And I will now turn the meeting back over to Trusty Barrera. And thank you. >> Oh, thanks Dr. Lin. Follow that. Right. Thank you so much Dr. Larkin and thanks to our Morse Tigers and the Morse community for uh hosting us tonight. Okay, we will now move to uh item B, adoption of the agenda. Tonight's agenda includes the student outcomes focused governance update on our literacy and math interim goals. Can we get a motion to adopt today's agenda? A move by

005Trustee Hazen, seconded by Trustee Wyn. Uh, and what are we doing? Roll call. Yeah. Okay. Trustee Patterson. >> Wow. I >> Trustee Or do Oh, I'm sorry. Trusty Ordog >> I. >> Trusty W >> I. >> Okay. And Trusty Hazen >> I. >> We will revote. Trusty Person. >> I trusty Whitehurst Payne. >> And I am an I. Great. >> Okay. Miss Stoultz, can you please provide information for public speakers about today's meeting protocols? >> Yes. Today's meeting of the board of education is a business meeting that is conducted in public and board members will not engage in dialogue with members of the audience. Board bylaw 1025 sets the time limit for public comment on agenda items at 10 minutes per side pro and con or 20 minutes total. Speakers will be able to provide

006testimony at the beginning of the appropriate agenda item or at the end of the meeting for non-aggenda 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 the next speaker. Please follow along with the agenda so that you know when your item is coming up for discussion. When you begin speaking, I will set a timer and a buzzer will indicate when your time has expired. If you have not yet done so, you would like and would like to sign up for in-person public comment. iPads are available in the lobby. >> We

007will uh now move to item C1, our student advisory board report. Uh trustees or DAS and win, please provide your report. The SAP meeting yesterday started off with a presentation which was led by Jen Wilerson, the executive director of office of graduation and we focus on gathering feedback for the LC AP also known as LCAP. First um I would like to discuss school one and some feedback that we received. So we define wellness as taking care of our body, our mind and the connections we have within family and our community. In terms of data, behavioral incidents are currently declining and suspension rates are below the annual benchmark. However, there is still a significant disparity in suspension rates among foster youth. Um, chronic absenteeism is at 14.5% and certain student groups are disproportionately affected. Additionally, student

008belonging survey results were largely positive with 82% of students reporting a sense of belonging and although there were concerns about whether the survey themselves are effective, um that feedback was taken back. Um from our student feedback, many students shared that wellness centers have had a major positive impact on campuses. Many students suggested increasing funding for wellness rooms and ensuring that every school has at least one therapist available on site. Other ideas included having therapy dogs during high stress times such as AP exams and providing more job fairs and opportunities on campus. Students also raised concerns about um anominity in surveys and mentioned that surveys are often way too long causing students to lose interest um partway through. Um they suggested reducing the number of questions and making surveys more engaging. Additionally, students expressed that wellness

009should be incorporated into classrooms and not just offered through separate programs and that physical education classes could be a better focus on overall wellness. In goal two, literacy, we talked about how the district is currently supporting literacy by having teachers collaborate on professional learning communities with over 95% of primary teachers trained in programs like MClass and I Ready. There has also been an expansion of programs that support multilingual learners. From student feedback, students emphasize that reading should be prioritized more and that they would like more choice in the books they read. Students also shared that when teachers say that state tests don't matter, it decreases motivation. They suggested that teachers should instead help students understand why these tests are important and encourage them to set goals. Moving on to goal three, math. Um, we talked

010about how the district is currently facing challenges with lower math scores on the ESPback and CAST assessments. To address this, the district is implementing Eureka math training at the elementary level and amplified Desmos at the middle school level. However, there is currently no standardized model for high school math instruction. Students express interest in having access to financial literacy course which could serve as an alternative to economics in political science. Similar to literacy, students also want teachers to better explain the importance of assessments and help them stay motivated. Um, in goal four, college and career readiness, we talked about how the districts is currently the district's current readiness rate is at 66.6% 6% with a goal of reaching 71.9% by 2030. Current data only reflects postcol outcomes. The district is working on this goal through initiatives

011like the meaningful diploma workg group and the development of alternative diploma pathways. Student feedback highlighted the need for more frequent meetings with counselors and better academic planning starting in middle school. Students also raised concerns about cheating, grade inflations, and the lack of supervision during test and exams. They recommended better training for counselors so that they can provide all possible options to students as well as using restorative approaches for students who struggle in college courses. And in addition to these goals, students also discuss school climate, particularly bullying. Um, there has been a shift from in-person bullying to more cyber bullying, especially through social media. And many students feel that bullying has become normalized and often includes harassment and discrimination. Students noted that in middle school, bullying is more physical and often has fewer consequences, while in

012high school, it is more online and punishments are more serious. Students also shared that it can be difficult to identify bullying and that factors like popularity can influence how situations are handled. To address these issues, students suggested hosting assemblies and classroom discussions about bullying prevention, increasing education around racisms and stereotypes, expanding programs like No Place for Hate, and encouraging students to share personal experiences. Programs like unified PE were also mentioned as positive steps towards inclusion. We also discussed the 2026 to 2027 student board member elections. There are two student board member positions available for the 26 to 27th school year. Applications for the 26 to 27 school year student board member um are currently open and they will close on March 31st at 11:59 p.m. Students must reach certain requirements including that no two members

013can come from the same high school and at least one student board member must attend a school where there are 60% or more students that qualify for free or reduced price meals, also known as FRPM. Additionally, consecutive members from the same school are generally not allowed unless the current member is running for a second term. The student board member position was first established in 2019 after a student petition. And starting in 2024, um student board members are now eligible for um compensation. And as part of the conversation, we also reviewed what free reduced price meals meant or also known as SRPM. And we discussed which schools qualified for 60% or more. And now we will watch a video showing a day in the life of a student board member to encourage students to apply. Applications

014can be found on the San Diego Unified School District student engagement website, Instagram, and on student emails. Here's a video we prepared to promote applications. Thank you. Today, I'm taking you through a day in the life of a student board member. A lot of people have been asking what this role is actually like, so let's find out. First stop, we're heading to a district event. Yes, I drive myself and yes, I even have my own parking spot at the edge center. If you don't drive though, don't stress. Make sure that you have reliable transportation. It takes a little planning. Ask for rides and family and make sure that you coordinate your schedule. And another question I get a lot, yes, there is a stipen for student board members and guest me reimburse for district events.

015So, you're not just out here fighting democracy on your own. And contrary to what most people think, I still have a normal student life. I hang out with friends, I get coffee, I see my family. I'm still a teenager. It's all about time management. Being a student board member doesn't mean you stop being a student or a human. And then it's back to school because it's in the name, student board member. You don't join the board of education and suddenly get bored of education. School comes first always. One of the biggest questions, how do you balance everything? And my answer is that it's just organization. That's it. I use planners such as Google Calendar, reminders, Outlook, everything. Some weeks are busier than others, especially before meetings, but if you stay organized, it's completely manageable. A

016lot of the time commitment isn't just the meeting, it's the prep. Be prepared to work 10 to 15 hours per week. As this is a part-time job, I review board documents, talk to students about what's on the agenda, and make sure I'm ready to represent student voices, cuz that's my main job, making sure students are heard. Board meetings are every other week, plus occasional special meetings and school site visits. And honestly, one of the coolest parts is that people genuinely value your input. You're invited into spaces where real designs are being made. It's one of those rules where you get out of it what you put into it. And one more question from Instagram. Is there an age restriction? Nope. It's not just upper classmen. Any allegible student can run. If you are a current

017freshman, sophomore, junior, you're ellegible. So, if you care about student voice and you're willing to put in the effort, you absolutely can do this. Meanings can be very long, but they're totally worth it. And my favorite part is when students tell me their ideas and I get to bring those forward. It's really powerful knowing your voice actually matters. Being a student at Bormer takes commitment. It takes organization. It takes balance. But it's also leadership, confidence, impact. And if you're thinking about running, absolutely do it. Student leadership starts with student voice. Applications to run for student board member open on March 2nd and will close on March 31st at midnight. Our in-person forum with all candidates will be on April 18th from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Ed Center auditorium. We're hoping to see you

018there. Okay. And now I'm finally going home to do more homework because again, student board member That was pretty amazing. Trusty win. Thank you. Okay, we will now move to uh we've got nothing to report. We've had no closed session, no administrative assignments. Uh and so we'll move to the superintendent's information report. Thank you so much. And I do have a slide that I want to show when I get there. Um I want to start with gratitude. Um this uh orchestration of moving a board meeting to a school site was an idea that board members had about how might we engage differently with the communities that we serve and represent. And then also take a look at the beautiful facilities that taxpayers, voters like you have put in place. Like this is a beautiful modern

019space that is worthy of our more students. So just thank you for all of the work. Um there's a lot of orchestration from students being here, principles being here. I see Morse cluster supporting each other here. Um AV tech, all of that. So just want to say thank you for for helping us bring board meetings to uh the forefront. Um please mark your calendars. Uh spring break will take place March 30th through April 3rd. We hope this time provides families with an opportunity to slow down, reconnect, and recharge after a very busy school year. Whether it's spending time together at home or enjoying local activities um or simply taking a deserved break, we encourage our students and colleagues to use this time to rest and return refreshed. Um we all know that last little leg

020of school always takes a lot of energy, so my hope is that you have that time to come back um and be your best self. I also want to take a moment to recognize the outstanding achievements happening across our schools. This year, the Voice of San Diego honored two of our schools with ACORN awards. The and then 12 of our schools were recognized by the California Department of Education as 2026 California Purple Star Schools, highlighting their strong support for military connected students and families. In addition, 11 of our schools earned the prestigious distinction of 2026 California Distinguished Schools, and four of all elementary schools were named finalists for the 2026 America's Best Schools Awards. I'm realizing that I'm stumbling, but my glasses are on top of my head. Um I and I also got an

021email today that SCPA will also be honored as a great art school in the state of California. So, lots to be um happy about. Um, all of these recognitions reflect the dedication of our students, our educators, our colleagues. So, congratulations to our entire San Diego Unified community. Um, last week, Vice President Boso and Trusty Whitehurst Payne and I were in DC to advocate for the federal government to adequately support public education. It was an eventful trip. Um, despite a tornado warning that shut down Capitol Hill, we were able to have several productive meetings with our representatives in Congress and the experts who sit on the federal committees that oversee education spending. And actually, I have to brief you because um, we did get money for safe routes to school. So, I got to share with

022you about that. Um, we will continue to advocate for Congress to make good on its promise to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and share the impact that chronic underinvestment in special education has on all of our students. We also urge greater support for our military families by adequately funding the federal impact aid program and protecting essential title funding that support our highest need students. While the federal outlook is challenging for public education, our conversations gave me hope knowing that our representatives in Congress truly heard our message and remain our partners in fighting for the resources and supports our students have. Um, Representative Scott Peters actually uh his staff said um every year they advocate for fully funding of IDA. So, we will continue to join them every year until it happens. Um,

023and while we're at Morse Kuster, I want to provide a brief update on Bell Middle School. Um about two weeks ago I met with members of the education justice coalition center on policy initiatives and parents from Bell Middle School. As you may recall we previously discussed the closure of middle school grades at Ottabbon Fulton and Golden Hill. Many of these students will transition to Bethun while some may enroll at Bell Middle School. During that meeting, parents shared concerns about whether Bell will have adequate staffing and supports in place to receive new students as well as how the school will ensure a strong and welcoming transition. Um I I have uh comments here but actually want to speak. I I am also watching this very closely. Um I recognize that this is something that was a

024decision that will impact schools um in a very big way and I want to make sure we're able to welcome the students not in the summertime but before school ends. Um like planning for intentional design and belonging takes a lot of effort. And so one of the things that I know I've met with Dr. Dorsy who's area superintendent. Um Nicole Dwit is deputy superintendent. I've talked to finances and HR of like how are we paying close attention to how we're going to prepare our schools to welcome the students from Ottbon, Fulton, and Golden Hill. Um I recognize that this is going to take an extra effort, but I want to let you know that I'm going to stay very close to this to ensure the readiness for the upcoming school year. And as I previously

025mentioned, um March is among the most difficult moments in the school year as the state law requires us to make staffing decisions often before we have full clarity on the final budget. While these are procedural and compliance-driven requirements, I want to acknowledge that for our classified colleagues, this is deeply personal. We do not take these decisions lightly. I know that layoff and bumping notices are incredibly difficult and unsettling for colleagues and their families. the impact is very real and we recognize the weight of that. Um I promised to update the board on our numbers and so this is what this effort is. Since our last um update, our teams have conducted a focused analysis of current vacancies, anticipated vacancies for the coming year and the appro and the approximately 69 classified colleagues without bumping rights

026as noted on the red circle um on the slide. It's not it's not in the red circle, sorry, right next to it. Um, and tonight I want to share this clearly. We're very encouraged based on the work. We believe that there are meaningful opportunities to place a significant number of these employees into existing or anticipated positions for the upcoming year. If you look at the right side of the slide, there are 78 newly added positions. That increased by 10 positions from the last time I showed this slide at the March 3rd board meeting. This means that there are 10 additional positions to be considered for possible placement. Um, so we we while this does not eliminate the challenges or the timelines we must follow, it does create a very real pathway to reducing the number

027of involuntary layoffs. We have shared this update with PAR and OTBS leadership and remain committed to working in partnership with our classified unions. Their advocacy has strengthened this process. I also want to acknowledge those who came to today's meeting to raise our voices. Uh, we may not agree on every point, but we share a common purpose, serving our students and supporting the people who make our schools every day run every single day. And we hear you. I also want to extend my appreciation to the San Diego Workforce Partnership, specifically Rachel Baressa, for extending their support and providing um half a million dollars to help train staff to transition into their new roles when this plays out. I know this has not been easy, but to my classified colleagues, please know that we that we have

028taken your advocacy with serious consideration and with our full attention. We will continue refining placements, monitoring vacancies, negotiating in good faith with our labor partners while keeping the board informed as this work progresses. Our goals remain clear to minimize disruption wherever possible, prevent or significantly reduce layoffs. Um, I am I want to say this. I'm very confident that all of this will be resolved with a very positive outcome for all of our colleagues in our schools. Um, so I just want to say thank you uh for being here today. And that that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Superintendent Bula. We will now move to item E1. So this is a student outcomes focused government governance uh progress monitoring report on literacy and math interim goals. Dr. Bula, please introduce the item. >> Right. We

029have a whole team here celebrating. Um so I don't know how many of you are going to come up here or um take the stage. So we have a team coming together which I'm really proud of. So good evening to everyone here. Um, again, this is our efforts to move our board meetings closer to the community, but also, um, one of the things that we did a couple of years ago, um, and I'm actually really proud to be a part of this work is really think about what are the four goals that we hold and how how might we hold ourselves accountable to making sure that we're seeing these goals through for our students. So, tonight's presentation reflects something I want to name clearly at the outset. This is the kind of work that matters

030most. how our students are growing in literacy and mathematics in how we as a system respond with clarity, urgency and care. And before I go any further, I want to also say this. This report is not just a reflection on how our students are learning. It is also a reflection of how we are learning as an organization. Um metrics, monitoring, strategy, all of this is a part of a cycle of continuous improvement. Something that needs to be done internally and externally. Um so for example I what I mean by us being a learning uh a learning organization like I love that Santos is up on the dis talking about early literacy you're leading all of the work for our TK that's a big important piece of this whole puzzle and now she's a part of

031this group um we also have introduced new mathematics curriculum and new assessments for elementary school grades again what did we learn what do we need we're moving forward so all of these things as we take a look um continuously as to what is necessary for our children to continue learning. We also look in the mirror and continue to to do this. So, I just want to say thank you to everyone whose work um is going to be exemplified here. Like I'm looking at our director of mathematics over there, Julie Garcia, who's not joining us, but has led extraordinary work in the adoption of of our curriculum. So, thank you to to the entire team um whose hands are all over um this these results. So this presentation is offered in the spirit of continuous improvement

032not just for our schools but for our district. We're refining how we measure, how we support, and how we respond. With that context, there's much to celebrate. At midyear, a majority of our students are on track. 56% in literacy and nearly 55% in math have already met or are progressing toward their annual growth targets. We're also seeing strong early progress amongst our spotlight students, those at the center of our equity commitments with over 40% already on track towards stretch growth goals in both literacy and math. And when we look at the broader trajectory, including CASP statewide standardized test trends, we are seeing meaningful gains across student groups, particularly for students who have historically been underserved. There are real signals that the work across our system is making a difference and there's also important tension in

033this data. We are seeing a pattern of polarization. Students growing at very high levels while a significant portion are not growing at all. In literacy, over a third of our students show no growth or score reversal. In math, more than a quarter. I look at both. I celebrate hard work and then I take a look at what else is necessary. This is not a small signal. It tells us that while our system is working well for many students, it is not yet working consistently for all. We see this most clearly among students who are three or four m three or four more grade levels below. Um so they are already below and we need acceleration. Um where more than half are not yet experiencing growth and we continue to see these gaps particularly for English

034learners and students with disabilities especially when we look at students reaching higher thresholds for growth. So the question before us is not simply are we growing um because we are but the question is for whom and how consistently while I appreciate what I appreciate about this work is that it does not stop at identifying challenges it points us towards action um we are seeing bright spots across our system schools accelerating learning through strong tier one instruction real time data use and targeted intervention cycles we will be hearing um thank you to Dr. Erica Taylor Simmons for being here with her team from Pacific View Leadership Academy. So, we're going to hear in real time an example of that. Um, we're also strengthening our system through principal collaboratives, instructional coaching, and aligned professional learning. Um, we

035doubled down on our communities of practice. I am very, very happy with all of our principal coaches. If you're here today, thank you for all of your work and support of this schools. You are a big part of this team as well. So, we're clear on what we must do next. We need to intensify support for students furthest from meeting grade level standards. Protect instructional time and focus on highquality core instruction. We need to use assessment as a tool to adjust our teaching, not just to measure outcomes and continue to align our system so that every student experiences strong, consistent instruction every single day. And again, our principal coaches who are leading communities of practice as part of our center for educational leadership work. Thank you. Ultimately, this is about coherence because our goal is

036not pockets of excellence. Our goal is a system where every single student in every classroom experiences growth. We are on track, but we're still learning and our commitment is to ensure that progress becomes predictable for every student we serve. With that, I want to um thank you for everyone here and also um say thank you to Dr. Erin Richardson, Santos again. Sorry, I called you Santos, not Santos Gonzalez with your title. Uh and Dr. Eileen Moreno who are here to launch the presentation. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Dr. Beula. Uh, board president, good evening, uh, President Barrera, Vice President Boso, and trustees. The team presenting tonight is excited to be at Morris High School. Um, and I do just want to underscore that when we looked at CASP scores this summer, um, we

037took a look at where might we be able to host a board meeting and there was seven out of 12 schools in the Morris cluster that made growth um, in mathematics and ELA. And so that is why we're here tonight. Um, we will be highlighting specifically one of our schools, but I do also want to recognize there are seven schools in the cluster that made significant growth in both ELA and mathematics. Okay, there we go. So, um, we're going to organize tonight first on focusing on the overarching goals in mathematics and English language arts, which we designed in our student outcome focus goals to be around our CAS assessment. Um, and we are looking at the performance of our third through 8th grade students along with our 11th grade students and how they've progressed in

038literacy and mathematics. You'll see that our goal by 2030 is to um increase to 25.2 points. Um and we will take a look tonight to see how are we progressing towards our calf's goals and in mathematics also to um get closer to zero but we will approach a negative 5.6 of distance to standard is what we're really aiming towards. Um so these are our overarching goals and we're going to start with that because uh that's kind of where we um began. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. uh Moreno who's going to take us through some of our specific data. >> Okay. Good evening board president Barera, trustees and superintendent Bagula. Um we'll begin tonight by reviewing our progress towards our smarter balanced literacy goal. Um our goal is to increase student performance on

039the smarter balanced assessment by 18 points, taking us from 7.2 2 points above standard in 2024 to 25.2 points above standard by June of 2030. Um, looking at the chart, you can see two lines. The solid blue line represents our actual performance and the orange dashed line shows you our original pro uh projection or the pace that we set as our target when this goal was first established. And here you can see that our actual performance in the spring of 2025 surpassed our original projection. In 2024, we began at 7.2 points distance from standard. And in 2025, we jumped to 12.4. That was an increase of 5.3 points, which puts us ahead of our projection of 10.2. When we look at the student subgroups on the table to the right, we also see meaningful growth

040across every subgroup. And I want to highlight that several of our historically disenfranchised subgroups are the ones that showed the highest positive change in distance from standard, including our students with disabilities who made the largest gain with an increase of 11.5 points from the year before. Our Hispanic and English learner students each saw an increase of 7.4 four points and our socioeconomically disadvantaged students increased by 5.8 points. As such, we are on track to meet our 2030 goal to increase by 25.2 points distance from standard. Let's see. Whoops, I went the wrong way. There we go. Moving on to math. Our goal is to increase student performance uh by 18 points. Again, the line chart reflects our actual performance in blue and our original projection in orange. Looking at the chart, you can see that

041similar to literacy, our actual performance in the spring of 2025 surpassed our original projection. In 2024, we were 23.6 points below standard. And in 2025, we saw an improvement that took us up to 19.1 points below standard, which equals a 4.5 point increase, putting us ahead of our projection of 20.6 points below standards. When we look at our students groups uh in the table to the right, we again saw growth across every subgroup. And once more, I'd like to highlight that two of our historically disenfranchised subgroups showed the highest change in distance from standard with our students with disabilities and Hispanic students improving by 5.7 points distance from standard. And so we remain on track to meet our 2030 math goal as well. And uh now I will turn it over to Dr. Richardson for

042the next portion. >> Thank you. We're going to focus on Pacific View Leadership Elementary School. And the reason why is because they had significant growth in both ELA and mathematics. If you look at that gray bar at the top, you'll see that it was 35.6 points distance from standard and 21.5 points. Um, and then when you take a look at subgroups, you'll see that they also improved. Um, every single subgroup, just like Dr. Moreno said our Hispanic, our socioeconomic students increased. Um, and so some of the things that uh Dr. Simmons is going to talk to us about tonight as uh sharing this idea of having um combo classes, which usually when we hear about combo classes, it's said in a negative way, but in this opportunity, they really see it as teacher looping. How

043students have the same teacher for two years. having data visible for students and for educators, looking at daily interventions and also looking at regrouping as needed. So with that, I'm going to invite Dr. Simmons, Miss Hackley, and the community that are here. And yes, and as they're coming up, I'm going to invite uh our tech gentlemen to start the video, please. Pacific View Leadership Elementary began this data journey by looking at the data. But then the data began to shift from my data to our data to what is the data telling us that this student needs. This happened, this shift happened by creating opportunities for communication, for risktaking, for trying new things. There were opportunities for planning and alignment. Um, all of these things led to a sense of belonging for students and for teachers

044too. And then that sense of belonging grew into really strong teacher efficacy where teachers are reflecting on their practice and providing targeted intervention to their students. Can I tell you how my writing improved this year? So this was the one from last year. One day my birthday, my brothers and my family came to my house to celebrate my birthday. I got a PS5. It was so much fun. And then this year's writing, France is one of the oldest nations on earth. Mexico and France had a war in 1862 and Mexico won. That was how single deo day was born. Now you know about France. And this is what it looks like now. Yes, we can clap for that for sure. Well, I'm rather tall. So, uh, everybody, thank you this evening for allowing us to

045be here. I'm proud to share the intentional datadriven work our school has undertaken to strengthen outcomes for every student at the schoolwide level. All students are enrolled in combination classrooms K1 2 three or four five where they remain with the same teacher for two years. This model is strategic and intentional. It deepens the relationships between our teachers and students, including our community, and it establishes consistent routines that allows interventions to carry forward without interruption. Alongside this, we have focused heavily on strengthening our tier one instruction, ensuring that core classroom teaching meets the highest standard before an identified imple uh an identified implement implementation of a support is included. We have also established a data room where student performance is visible and accessible for staff, creating a shared culture of learning, accountability, and teacher efficacy. On

046the intervention side, our approach is grounded in one simple principle. We know every student by name and by need. Our education specialists are now using a learning center model, extending their reach to support all of our students, not just those with IEPs, decreasing the size of our studenttoteer ratio in our intervention groups. Equally important are the interventions are assigned based on each student's individual need and not by their grade level. Finally, we have invested in our teachers. Every teacher receives one full day of release time for collaboration data analysis with their team and education specialist because we know that the quality of our decisions depends on the quality of our conversations. We have ensured that every member of our staff is part of a learning community. At every data collaboration, all teachers discuss the progress

047based of identified skills using formative assessment and curriculum based measures. By creating flexible groups based on need, not grade, our students are able to move out of these groups as needed, which has improved an overall achievement at Pacific View Leadership. I am so extremely proud of my amazing team. They all work so hard. They are here tonight to support our work. And I'm going to move it over now to Miss Hackley, one of our K1 teachers. >> I need Zach's not the best speaker, you know. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for having us here, being able to share the work that we're doing. Um, I have to say at our site, it really is our passion and and our kids are really what drive everything that we do there. So, as just

048one voice of a great amazing team over here, um, I want to share how we are taking a deliberate data-informed approach to personalized learning. One that begins before a single student ever walks through our classroom doors. Every decision we make, from classroom structure to student groupings to interventions, is strategic and intentional. Nothing's left to chance. Our school operates entirely with combination classrooms. This structure is not a limitation. It is a deliberate design choice that allows us to place each student in the environment where they will be most supported and most challenged. By intentionally grouping students across grade levels, we create classrooms where differentiated instruction is built into the very fabric of the learning environment and every student has at least three adults who care and see them every day. At the heart of this is

049intentional teacher and student placement. We carefully match educators strengths and instructional styles to the specific needs of our student population and place our students with equal precision, ensuring that every child is positioned alongside peers and teachers who will elevate their growth. Our education specialists and pair professionals are fully integrated members of our instructional teams. We have created strategic daily schedules to provide special education services and intervention support, maximizing every little bit of resource we have at our small school. Flexible datadriven groupings shift continuously as students grow, keeping instruction and learning rigorous and responsive. Goal setting by teachers and by students and intentional progress monitoring ensure every student's working toward very clearly defined skill specific targets systematically monitored so adjustments can be made in real time not at the end of a grading period to keep

050our planning focused. We use a clear framework. They're above the line or they're below the line. And for students below the line the question is simple. What do we need to do to move them up? This clarity drives every instructional decision we make together. This cohesive, intentional system is built to serve every child with every resource we have because we know each child by name and by need. Let me tell you about one of my current first graders. And if I cry, I apologize. He came to us more caring more than most adults will ever face. He was growing up in a single parent home with a father incarcerated with more than 11 family members under one roof. His family car also carries a multi-generational history of learning disabilities. Challenges that without the right support

051can quietly close doors before a child even knows they exist. When he arrived, he didn't know his letters. He couldn't write his name. He didn't know his letter sounds. He couldn't identify numbers. He couldn't count. He hadn't yet developed the academic behaviors that many children build simply by being read to or by having a quiet place to sit and think. What he did have was potential and a school community ready to see it. Over the past two years, he's moved through different groups, different levels within our program. Always place where the data said he needed to be. Always surrounded by educators who knew him by name and by need. And today he's reached grade level success across all subject areas, reading, writing, and math. This this is what the powerful and purposeful PLA planning, intentional

052instruction, and ongoing progress monitoring makes possible. A strong foundation built for every student by design. This is not by accident. It's our framework working exactly the way it was designed. This is only one story of the many we can share. There's Alex, Sylvia, Dominic, Odin, Ari, Santi, Adriana, Luca, Urgen, Eli, Zayn, Allison, Carter, Giana, Wyatt, Alexis, Elena, Alyssa, Roman, Timothy, and as Ava, my my first grader, explains, she says, "When we go to groups, we're not just learning things that are too hard, and we're not learning things that are too easy. We are learning things that are just right for us. Thank you very much for hearing us tonight. Thank you, Dr. Simmons, Mrs. Hackley, and our Dolphin families out there and our students. Thank you. So, that was our overarching goal. We're going to

053dig in a little bit deeper and begin to look at our interim goals. and we're going to start with our literacy goals. Um, so we have four interim goals that you will see listed here. I'm not going to read them to you because we're going to dig into each one individually. Um, I'm going to hand it over to um, Dr. Moreno who is also going to take us through some of our literacy goals. Thank you. All right, so let's get into the nitty-gritty of these interim goals starting with kindergarten through 2 grade. Um, our goal is that by May of 2026, a baseline will be established um for the K2M class dibbles 8 or lectura reading difficulty screener assessment. These assessments are our early literacy screeners um administered to kindergarten through 2 grade students. And

054I'd like to highlight something very important that is that we are assessing students in both English and Spanish. The Dibbles 8 captures our English- speakaking students um while the MClass Lectura is utilized for our Spanish-sp speakaking students and our dual language students. Since this is our first year of implementation and our goal is to establish a baseline at the end of the year, we have been tracking our participation rates and I'm very pleased to report that we have met our participation goals across the board. Our middle of the year participation rate um total participation rate uh was 94% in Dibbles 8 and 98% in Lectura. As you can see, the participation was also strong and consistent across all three grade levels. Our primary focus uh area of focus this year, recognizing that this is our

055first year of implementation has been strengthening the fidelity of assess of administration. As the teachers continue to build consistency and confidence in administering the assessment, we will see our data quality continue to improve um as the implementation becomes more consistent. This slide covers interim literacy goal 2.2. Our target is to increase the percentage of all third through 8th grade students meeting their I Ready typical growth goal in reading from 63.7% to 73.7% by 2030. This year our target was to move from 63.7 to 65.7. At midyear 56% of our students were on track to meeting their end of the year goal. Looking down at the narrow spread across the subgroups here tells us that our strategies are reaching students consistently. This tells us that we've built a solid fun foundation and that we need to

056accelerate the results. On the strategy side, we've invested in training at every level from teachers to central office, middle school administrators and and elementary administrators. They've all received I Ready training this year. We've also focused on data quality, making sure that teachers know how to administer I Ready with fidelity in order to receive reliable information upon which to act. Assessment services, literacy, and the multilingual education department regularly collaborate on aligning literacy interventions and English learner strategies to I Ready results. Interim Literacy Goal 2.3 focuses specifically on our spotlight students, our highest need learners, and holds them to a stretch goal target, which is a higher bar than typical growth. Our year-end target for 2526 is 33.9% and as of midyear, 43.5% of Spotlight students are on track. Our subgroup performance ranges from 38.8% 8% for

057English learners to 41.8% for African-American students. This means that all subgroups are at or above our year-end target. Once again, I'll turn it over to Dr. Richardson. >> So, just Mike um just to point out also some of the strategies that um have been implemented is with our literacy team that is working really closely. Um we have a list here of schools but again looking at the data what is the data telling us um having targeted teacher support um to impact the instruction in the classrooms and then also to constantly go through a cycle of plan do study acts. What is happening in the classroom? What do we do about it? Let's try something on. And this continuous cycle of improvement is helping our schools and our teams are working really closely with um many

058of our schools in addition to training um side by side in the classroom. And so all of those strategies are are happening to help improve here with our literacy. We're going to move to math and we will get to the DRDP, I promise. Um when we take a look at mathematics, we have three interim goals. Um the first goal that we're going to take a look at is looking at our students K8 who meet their I Ready typical growth. This pattern follows exactly as Dr. Moreno said in um English language arts. Our growth target is to increase from 54.8 to 64.8 8 by April 2030. This year's target was for us to move from 54.8% to 56.8. Um you'll see that 55% of our students in grades 2 through eight med met the midyear typical

059growth. We are on track towards meeting the goal that we are hoping for this year. And again mirroring what Dr. Renault said, you can see that when you look at our percent on track to meet goal and our total students and when we disagregate it by our our student groups, we are within a narrow range of the math um of the scores that we're hoping to achieve. The strategies that we've really implemented, I want to again highlight what Dr. Beula said is the TK5 Eureka squared adoption that we have uh taken on this year. We have cluster leads. So we have 32 cluster leads that are leading professional learning for our sites and preparing them um throughout the year. They worked with them in the summer pulling our teachers out. In addition to we had

060230 site leaders come together to talk about how is implementation happening and what is our very next step as we look forward into next year. This year, our focus with Eureka Squared was really focusing on following the sequence, the scope and sequence of the curriculum, making sure that we followed the lesson structure of the curriculum and then using the curriculum guides for resources for our English learners, our spotlight students, our students with IEPs. And uh with this work, we know that our site leaders, our board members, our communities of practice are in our math classrooms looking at this work very intentionally. Math goal 3.2 is where we focus in on our spotlight students and wanting them to meet their annual stretch growth in mathematics. Our goal is to increase from 26.8 8 to 35 in

0612030 with this year's target moving from 26.8 to 28.8. You'll see highlighted in the gold color, 40% of Spotlight students in grades 3 through 8 met the midyear stretch growth goal. Um, and again looking at our on track and we look at our Hispanic, we look at our students with disabilities, English learners, all narrow within that 40%. So a few things I think we that are contributing to this is the data analysis that's happening at the local level at our schools with our data team working side by side with our teachers both in literacy and mathematics. I don't want to say that's happening differently. Um but also this access to state adopted curriculum for our TK5. And because of that, it has also kind of put a highlight on some of our secondary work that

062we need to do. And on March 5th, um, our math team had a movie viewing of Counted Out, which is a call to action of how mathematics is really um, there's injustices that are happening with mathematics. And I'm living that with my electronic my electric bill right now. Just so you know, how much solar I'm producing. my m my husband has a spreadsheet. He can figure that out. I don't know that I could. So, those are the injustices. While they seem minimal, but they're actually happening in a lot of our communities. And so, our plan is to continue to redesign our secondary curriculum with the same intentionality that we have with our TK5. With that, I'm going to hand it over to Miss Gonzalez, who's going to share our 2.4 4 and math 3.3 goal.

063>> Thank you >> and thank you for welcoming welcoming me to uh this board meeting to talk about our early learners. So our interim goals is to administer the DRDP to measure to measure foundational language development and numeracy in TK classrooms at 24 schools as a pilot in anticipation of the state making it mandatory for all TK classrooms um next year or the the year after. This chart shows participation by school and it shows that we had about 870 students participate in the first administration. Um and the second administration will be taking place uh in May with the same number of schools and students. >> Thank you. So it when we did this in July and March of last year, we talked about our work with the center for educational leadership and the University of

064Washington. And so our team felt like it was important to come back to what are the systemic um strategies that we've implemented. And Dr. Beula mentioned our leadership coaches and we do have some of our leadership coaches in the room and this work while it started three four years ago is really starting to um expand and when we talk about scaling this would be an example of how we are really scaling the work. So while we've continued to have principal data collabor collaboratives to look at I Ready data to look at grade data at our secondary school, we also now have 26 leadership coaches um who are supporting five to seven principles and walking classrooms every single campus and looking at math instruction. And I'm just going to underscore while we're looking at math instruction,

065the skills that we're working on transcend to all the other content areas as well. We're practicing through the lens of mathematics. Um, and then working on peer feedback. How do I give you feedback as a principal, but also how am I giving feedback to um the educators that we went into their rooms and and have reflection around that? Over the course of the last, I'm going to call it two years, we focused on the four dimensions of school leadership, which is the squares that you see here, and looked at our student outcome focused goals and looked at like what can we as leaders do to impact the data, impact the student outcomes that we have on our campuses. And one of the things we've been really practicing is the five dimensions of teaching and learning

066which is also out of the center of education uh leadership. Our principles took a survey and measured their their success with knowing the five dimensions at the beginning of the year. They were at about a 2.5 on a liyker scale right there in the middle like I'm kind of comfortable not much but when we gave them a recent when we gave them a recent how you're feeling they're now a 4.2 of they're feeling success with the five dimensions of teaching and learning and having that sharper instructional lens and a having in lie of principal institutes they felt was like some of the best professional learning that we've had in a very long time. So I share that because that is the work of our leadership coaches. That is the work of getting into the um

067our schools and opening our doors and sharing our practices. In addition to that, our area superintendents continue to have spotlight schools, focus schools that they are working on intentionally. They are there every other week. They are looking in the classrooms and they are helping our leaders to move the student outcomes that they are focused on. So here you can see the schools that our area superintendent are working on as well. So scaling it not just where area superintendents have one school which is what we shared in July but now they have more schools and it's happening through our communities of practice. The work is not done like Dr. Vagula said and think it's important for us to share looking forward. Um we have we will continue to do the data collaboratives. We think that that's

068important. you heard from Pacific View and how important that was for them to continue to look at data and our um data team coming alongside our principles, our educators and all of that work. Um we also are looking to scale the work of the um center for educational leadership and our communities of practice and continuing this work for last year. It was kind of a test. We are working with AASD on continuing to move in that direction and we'll also continue to have our area superintendent have focused schools that they are in frequently and moving practice. Some next steps that we're considering are um data assessment shifts from the end of year I Ready and I'm going to say to Dr. Mareno if I mess anything up jump in for me. Um, one of the

069things that we're hearing is we're assessing our students three times a year through I Ready and that's a lot. So, one of the considerations that we're going to take a look at is having the I Ready at the beginning of the year, a midyear, and then really using our CAS data as our end of the year marker. So, that's some next steps that we'll be engaged in with the board as I continue to focus on the student focus goals. Um, also looking at the literacy assessment data and how we're using that to strengthen our tier one instruction and using evidence-based instructional practices based on those schools that we name that are doing the work. What can we learn from them and how can we scale that into more schools? Also looking and partnering with our

070special education department. How are we um doing early interventions with our youngest learners who maybe have only been alive for 72 months, right? um how do we help and come alongside them? And then also continuing to deepen our learning as educators and leaders around high quality mathematics instructions, especially for our spotlight students. How are we designing our mathematics lessons with them in mind? So with that, that's our conclusion and we are open for any questions, comments. >> All right, thank you so much uh Erin Stos and Eileen. Um, we have speakers. >> Yes, we have six speakers all in support of this item. I'd like to call them as a group and give 10 minutes for the total for the group. So, if you would please come forward at to the podium. Diane Wilkinson, Ian

071Yulola, Jose Sanchez, Ramon Gomez, Don Basks, and Megan Glenn. Be a total of 10 minutes for the six people. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Jose Sanchez. I'm the labor relations representative for the OSS 724 unit. Uh, this is great. This is wonderful. You know, congratulations to the program and, uh, for student achievement. Uh I I think that you know when it comes to English writing math you know it's important for for our students to to understand and develop that you know o over the years you're going to need it obviously in your careers and uh but one of the things that that that we understand as as members is that you know ma the mathematics for the board does not add up you know uh we uh don't understand how the reduction in hours

072for a lot of our folks folks uh add up to uh equ equivalent to uh a lot of the positions that are being offered to them. We we get that the board is trying their best to to help uh make sure that our folks are not negatively impacted, but our OSS unit, for example, has yet to hear from the board on what's going to happen with one of our people. Uh we don't know what's what's going on with that. uh some of our folks getting reduced in hours uh for within CSCA overall will lose their benefits uh because they're being reduced in hours. Uh the math doesn't add up. You know, positions offered must be greater than or equal to uh what they have currently. You know, uh we uh these numbers are not numbers

073on spreadsheets. These people are not numbers on spreadsheets. uh these are workers um and that our students and schools rely on every day and so we need to make sure that our people are treated as numbers. Uh our students depend uh on our our our staff to help the schools function, help them in the classrooms. So we ask that you do continue to work with us uh to make sure that the impacted employees being uh reduced and hours being cut uh get worked out with our units. uh resend the layoffs. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Diane Wilkinson. I am the uh classified uh labor relations representative for the per educator unit. I do want to just say that the three of us uh uh Ian, myself, and Raone want to wait and stand

074with our fellow classified staff and move this to public comment if the the board is willing to to do that for the three of us. All right. Thank you very much. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Um, okay. Board members, questions, comments, who wants to start? Dr. White here. >> I want to say thank you for the report. And I get kind of excited about looking at the numbers in the sense that in several areas you've exceeded what the anticipated annual outcome was uh expected anticipated. In fact, I note that with math I said why don't we go for zero instead of below. Remember always asking I didn't like us pushing towards a negative area. Um, and for those of you who don't know, one of the goals, we were moving up 18 points, I think, trying to

075get to a negative instead of just go for zero and into the positive territory. So, we knew we had a formula and a structure and we were following that. But as you go through and we move forward looking at the data, hopefully you'll keep that thought in mind and and let us know uh as we move forward. But the larger question that I had in mind in light of the spotlight data and what's happening overall, um it seems that we're making improvements for a lot of the spotlight students and I think there was some unspoken um belief that if we really move the spotlight students, we would move the data overall and we are. that is impacting what we're doing with the data. But then we have some of the other students who are stagnant

076uh so to speak, you know what I mean? We're not they're losing ground or they're not moving forward. And so you've had time to really soak up these data and to really think about them a lot. What what are some of your thoughts about what we need to do to keep those students who are just kind of like passive? We've developed the term at my church is passive aggressive. Um they're not saying anything, but they're not moving forward either. They're just kind of going along with the the game overall without improving. So what what are your thoughts about how why um are we focusing on the right area? And I know this is only you know introductory data that we have here. two semesters. I mean, two times is not really a pattern here, but

077what are your thoughts? So, um it's it's actually with our new assessments going to be um a lot easier to capture all students, including the one the ones that you just described because in the past um we basically focused on proficiency levels, right? the colors. That was it. Um now, um we're able to get data on both growth and proficiency. And that's really changing everything because we're able, for example, one of the things that the data team works on when um we go out to school sites is um with teachers is we hand them a a quadrant and in that quadrant and they're and they have their students data and that quadrant is made up of um four squares where they put the names of students who are say high proficient, high growth, high proficient,

078low growth, low growth growth, low proficient, you know, and it makes it possible to see, for example, the ones that you're talking about who might be stagnant, right? Um, high students who are high proficient but low growth, hold up, what's going on there? If they're high proficient, then shouldn't they be reaching their typical growth goal at at at bare minimum, right? And if they're not, um, seeing their names on that quadrant really puts that forward to us. Um, so that's one of the ways that our data nowadays that we're getting both growth and proficiency and we're working with teachers to understand that we can actually look at both and be able to target students in many different ways that we weren't able to before. So we are capturing a lot a lot of different types

079of learners this way. >> Can I add something too? Is that possible? Um, what I and I always like to actually credit Dr. Patterson about the the tools in the cockpit. Um because I think that's really important when you're actually thinking about a a school or improvement. Um but one of the things that was really important to me because I've seen this turn toxic with like too much data and then it becomes a shame or blame is about action, right? Like what do I need to do next? And I remember as a brand new teacher um I had to submit my reading scores to my principal and at a certain point I saw I actually told her I said I can't just submit this to you. I need to know what to do next. I

080haven't moved these five kids and you're not helping me. And so I've always held that belief around data is only good if you know what to do next with it. And so as we continue to use some of these tools um they will clearly actually I went to the training for the data by the way. It got really tricky for me to follow. Um but it was also like really good to see that if I'm actually really curious about a student, I can go in there and it and it will tell me what do I need to do next? like um and it answers the question that the teacher posed of like if they're below this line what do we need to do and the tools will be there as well because sometimes you do

081get into this I have 36 children before me I haven't moved these five I need ideas on how to move them and the tools that we're developing have those two that was very important part of this whole puzzle >> very good one one other point that's kind of a sidebar and I'm sorry they left um they talked about the combination grades And um the president and I were at Chavez this week in advert. Was it last week? It was last Wednesday. Yes. And um the principal engaged in that conversation about having the combos and and the issues that they raised. They also had the second language issue. Um so they're going to have to do some work. But that's an important issue that she addressed inadvertently about all the combination grades and how they're addressing

082having combinations um right up front. >> Yeah. So that's the second principle that I've met that actually uses that as a strategy and which where I actually think that that matters right because we can actually say like oh my god everyone's en combo classes what a tragedy to go no actually what's the opportunity here and the opportunity can be that we're actually with the students two years in a row where we really develop strong relationships and partnerships with families moving forward. That's one strategy. the other school that when the principal narrated that she said I told everyone they were going to be combo grades just period we were going to do that when especially when we were looking at literacy levels and how much they overlap um and then we're going to figure out the

083support system so I think it can be used as a strategy but I really appreciate that she flipped that narrative around how horrible this is to actually what's the opportunity here >> thank you president. Um, I'll just say briefly on that subject. My daughter had the enormous benefit of of looping through COVID. It wasn't a combo. It was the same teacher who had had the whole class. They said, "Hey, this is going to be hard to transition to online learning." And so, they all actually knew their teacher. I mean, it was an extraordinary benefit. So, um, and then I I'll just honor what, uh, our area superintendent Mity always says about combos. Naturally, we have a lot of complaints about combos when they happen. And what she often says is combos are actually uh educational

084opportunity for the students. The challenge is at a staffing level because you actually have to have very experienced um well-trained um teachers in order to to exploit the potential opportunities that are inherent in in combos. Um so uh I think in terms of what to reinforce what you said to expand that training so that we're actually facilitating our teachers acquiring that um knowledge and experience. Um I have three very well I don't know if they're brief they'll be brief for me saying them but um uh one is oftentimes we see one of the we we we over the years have seen challenges when we have two different metrics and they show different results and we're all like wait a second we felt so confident about the first one and now we have another test of

085the same subject and it so uh broadly speaking in terms of the correlation our first portion this evening was cast scores and the second was I ready. Um and so it would be interesting just to see sort of some initial thoughts on what that correlation or lack of correlation is. That's the first question. Um and then the second is um I I'd be interested in hearing just some you know coming out of academia I mean if you're in social science you just hypothesize things and pretend it's science. Um, but if you're being hard-headed about it, you you you need to have the questions you can ask are very limited ultimately because you can't it's very hard to test test experimentally test social science questions. But we're in an educational setting where you have to create

086hypotheses and you have to sort of do your best to attribute outcomes to particular interventions you made. So I just want to give you an opportunity to kind of have some initial reflections on what you think are the highest leverage things that this is attributable to. um because we have these are remarkable results I think. Um and then the final question is on I guess the most concerning thing of everything I saw over the weekend when as I was going through the board documents was this student typical growth is at offset extremes and I I was a little startled that at the midpoint there's 35% students that are am I reading that wrong that have no growth at all. That is concerning to me. So I guess my final question is like let's talk about

087that. Those are my three questions. Thank you so much. Um so although um we don't have a direct correlation between I Ready and and Cass right? Um and also this is our first full year of implementation which means that we also don't have our own historical data just yet to draw that a very reliable line between both assessments. Um, however, what I Readyy's own research tells us is that when students do meet their typical growth targets at midyear, they're more likely to show gains on the state assessment. Um, and then the truth is that what happens between the mid-year assessment and the spring CASP administration also depends enormously on what's happening in inside the classrooms, right? So, um, that's, so I I can't tell you with certainty what instructional quality looks like across thousands of

088our classrooms, um, right now, but what I can tell you is with with confidence is that the midyear progress that we've presented to you tonight towards typical and stretched growth are very encouraging because it means that our students are on a positive trajectory. Um, I can also tell you that I looked at the proficiency level data, right? So our goal is around growth but I also took a look at our proficiency data and that too is in a posit is headed in a positive direction. So, um, with those two things, um, I helped me be optimistic. And then, of course, the third thing that you saw tonight as well is that we clearly have many systems and strategies in place, many that that we're not unable to share, um, today. Um, and so, uh, I

089Ready did does have a linking study that they did with Smarter Balanced. They they call it an equipentile linking study. And what they did is they take the I Ready scores. They looked at the I Ready scores of lots of students and then what the students um smarter balanced level was and they're able to then link and say well students who um achieved between this I Ready score range tended to get a level three, a level four, a level one, a level two. And that's why I Ready is able to give us some projections. They're very careful to to not promise because of course we're talking about individual human beings but they are able with a lot of reliability. Um in fact their correlation is super strong. Um a strong correlation would be.7 and their

090correlation when they link their I already scores and smarter balanced in reading um was between 081 and 084 and in math it's 085 to 089. So that's super strong correlation. Um so my my uh my answer to your question is that the midyear data is most definitely trending in the right direction. Um we have lots of systems and strategies in place to support our schools. Um and so I can say that I'm I'm feeling cautiously optimistic that um we are going to see improvement in our scores as planned. Thank you um and thank you to the team for this wonderful presentation. I wanted to give a quick comment and then a clarifying question for um the strategies implemented for the counted out movie. I just wanted to give you know a shout out. It was

091really good. Um I talked to a lot of students that did attend and one of the members from our student advisory board attended as well and he said he liked it. So I think that was a really good strategy. you know, movies is something we all watch. So, I think it was good that, you know, for the kids that like math and for the kids that just want to know about math. I thought that was a really good idea. So, just a shout out on that. And my clarifying question is for looking forward. Um, you said for the data assessment shifts from end of year I ready. So is it going to be just to make sure one at the beginning of the year, middle of the year and then that third one is going

092to be the CASP or just I wanted to clarify. I think that's the conversation we're starting to have and we'll engage with the board of when we look at our student outcome focused goals and moving forward. Um that is just some information we're hearing from the field is it it feels like a lot of assessment um to have CASP at end of year and to do an endofear I ready assessment in mathematics and ELA >> trust here we'll make sure to bring all recommendations because we actually are coming up with as we learn again as we're paying attention to us we have some recommendations for the board Good evening and thank you for the fantastic presentation. I'm always impressed at how you can take so much data and so much information and really get that

093make that succinct and and hit on the priorities. Um, I did want to ask I know our goals are around 3 through 8, 3rd through 8th grade and then 11th grade which is a huge you know area and it seems like the focus tonight has been primarily on the ele elementary levels which is great because we do of course want to you know if we can specifically I guess speaking to math since that's kind of our challenge area right now is um getting those foundations in place early. Um but was just wondering I know we've talked about this before and there's a lot of information but um I know there's different you know that there's it trends that there's some grades that they have more difficulty than others in terms of those making those transitions

094and so specifically with our spotlight students um what are we doing at like is it grade five and then grade eight to like are we you know what's the delineation and how are we focusing specifically in some of those um those grades where they're having maybe more difficulty. And then the other thing, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but when we're talking especially about our um spotlight students is about around um our community and what are we doing to get our parents involved, particularly with those students, but of all our students. I mean, it doesn't end like the end of the school day that, you know, they can do math and make it fun. I mean, we had math activities at my daughter's elementary school that were fun and um I wish

095we'd had those when I was growing up. And so what are the schools doing or what specifically for our students that are really struggling or are we reaching out to their parents or their guardians or you know who you know to really um deep dive and and make sure that they're getting some of this instruction hopefully at home or you know something to extend that learning. So that would be my two areas. Here we go. Um, so I think the first part that you were talking about a lot of the focus being on elementary, I think when we look at the CASP and how it's designed, the students are taking it grades three through eight. Um and then in secondary we shift it kind of shifts to goal four where we're really looking at grades

096because when we look at the research um a lot of research shows predictability in the marks the grade marks and so when we shift to six seven eight and on that's in goal four where we're really tracking our student progress to um being successful with a C or higher in in those courses. Um however we also recognize that there are um strengths in having common assessments and possible like end of course exams where we might be able to measure students understanding in we're talking about math and English today. And so that's a lot of the work of the the secondary team and taking a look at how we re-engage our teachers and bring our teachers together to look at like what are we teaching in our classrooms and what would an intercourse exam look like

097and how does that look across the district and at grades. Um and then I think your second part to parents and I appreciate that is a lot of that work um we know that it is happening with our our literacy teams that have the grant that are coming in and working side by side in our schools around that and that that really is happening at a local level in in our schools of inviting parents in. um our principles have been trained in the I Ready also and in the reports so that not only are they working side by side with their teachers but also with their parents. Um what we and I think Dr. Moreno can add to this is that's not as the single measurement isn't about the success of the students. It's also

098the formative assessments that are happening in the classrooms and not just the I Ready data but like how are our students engaging with manipulatives with the curriculum in those assessments also. So a lot of that's happening on the local level at our schools. >> I appreciate that. I just think it you know that like for example at the school that tonight what are what are they doing for community engagement and how I mean it might be doing done locally but if it's really making a difference should we be doing that encouraging that at all of our all of our schools I mean I just would like in these reports to learn a little bit more about the schools that are doing well what's happening within the community not just the school day and not just

099the teacher to enhance that environment for our students. Thank you. >> I understand, Trusty Bos. I've actually been reflecting on your questions because I I don't have an accurate view because I actually I see the newsletters and I see that schools are having those math nights and those those types of activities. And I reflect on when I was a principal and I remember actually my area superintendent saying, "Why aren't your why aren't your parents coming to the cluster meetings?" I'm like, and I would say, "Come to my coffee with the principles. I have like 80 people for family Fridays. There's 300. they just don't want to go to the cluster meetings like I can't control that. So I but I also think that there should be an intentional design. >> So I've been actually thinking

100about your questions and wondering what might we do. So I hear you and then also understand like how powerful it is at a school site. So that's actually what we're trying to think about like what's the tension there and and then how might we actually do this together so if there are some really great practices we can replicate. So more to come on that one. I've been kind of thinking about that more. >> Yeah. And just one more point, I think you can really point to our schools that have strong community engagement as being some of our highest academic achievement schools. So, and I know it's hard harder at some schools at other, but I think it's just something that we need to continue pushing because I think it's really important and we can't leave

101that out of the equation here, so to speak. >> Thank you. I want to begin with gratitude. Um, I think I was just reflecting on the few years I've been on the board and just the noticeable shift um, in the reports we're receiving, in the data literacy, what we're hearing from principles, the discourse on this board. Um, and it's really inspiring to be part of and to see this transformation. So, just so much gratitude to everybody who's doing the work on the ground. um our educators, our students um and the leadership team and Superintendent Beula, I really appreciate um you reminding us to celebrate the big wins um but also noticing that growth is inconsistent and that we do need to intensify support for students furthest from growth um and from meeting grade level standards.

102So, we have a few questions um and a couple are going back to questions I had um when we first heard about our preliminary CASP data um in July and curious about some additional insights you might have. Um, so then you, you know, we saw and we heard again tonight about the ELA achievement, um, for Hispanic students in particular, um, and significant growth um, amongst Hispanic students in ELA. And in July, you know, we talked about like what are the strategies that are contributing to the significant positive results? And at the time, um, we weren't quite sure. um we had some anecdotal information or qualitative data that suggested what we thought might working might be working and I'm wondering now eight months later um now that you've had an opportunity to do a deeper review

103of the data um if you can share what you understand now what is the story the data is telling us about the growth we've seen among Hispanic students in ELA um what is it um that we are doing better as a result of that data and those insights and what do we need to do more of specifically um for that subgroup? And then I've got a couple more. >> Okay. So um I I feel like um as you mentioned the data literacy has grown exponentially. It has just absolutely exploded. Um the engagement that we have from our educators and and leaders is amazing. Um we when we had um MClass training for beginning of the year principal PD and mind you this is voluntary right? Um we had 65 attendees at the beginning of the

104year of principles and um same for middle of the year. Um for beginning of the year principal train the trainer, we had 149 principles show up to that. Um, we just had a middle of the year principal data dive and we had 82 principles attend that and last week we did specifically I already ed specialists and counselors and we actually have to make more of those sessions because they were so packed but we had 107 that we just hit um specifically for ed specialists and and counselors and we've also gotten to meet with the middle school principles twice. So there is a lot of engagement. The data and assessment team uh resource teachers are I mean their calendars look crazy from all the you know going out to school sites and engaging and and helping

105to train for both MClass and I Ready. So um I I would say that's one thing that is making a big difference. I'd like to add two two specific ones as well. Um, for example, right now we're actually in the process of constructing and designing um, literacy work for elementary school and our English language learner department, our multi-english department is at the table. So, they're not going to be a part of the planning afterwards, but they're planning the design and that's how we've been running all of these efforts is we're inviting folks to the table in the design. And so, I think that matters. I not that I don't like saying that all Latinos are English language learners. So that's actually something that bothers me personally. Um but I also think that there's something about

106seeing them as a language asset and planning for that design intentionally. So that's one. The second one, and this is quiet, um and I don't think we got a lot of attention for it for both. Um when Ebony Weathers first came on, we created a black scholar plan. We also have a Latino scholar plan that we're both both plans are continuing to be in action. Um, and so we continue to make those efforts around talking about representation, making sure that we have accurate books, making sure that we're we're engaging parents in different way, that we're looking at our systems and structures and interrogating them. Those that work still continues. It's just kind of quiet internally, but those are very important pieces to this puzzle as well. >> Thank you. And I think um as we

107continue to hear in future reports about the strategies that are working, understanding what some of those are um so that we can ensure we continue to invest in them as a board and as we're building budgets. Um so what I'm hearing then is that the growth we've seen um in this subgroup you would say reflects the work we're doing across the board around data literacy. really using data to inform practice in real time on the ground and nothing well I'm hearing maybe something's unique to this population. Um so I guess learning more as we move forward you know I expect and I hope we'll continue to see um significant growth. I'm really understanding right when we get disagregated data understanding is there unique work that is happening specific to these subpopuls that we need to

108understand or is it simply a reflection of the systemic work we're doing for all students. Um I think um the other thing that seemed uh noteworthy for me is this shift I think so we've talked you know a lot about equity and equity of opportunity and when I looked at the IRA midyear progress report there seems to be the shift not just in seeing equity and opportunity but a significant move towards equity in student outcomes um and I think that's really noteworthy and something for us to celebr celebrate and I know you know you sort of spoke to that as you said you know as we look across subgroups we don't see a ton of variation and I think that's really really big right that students across um different race and ethnicity groups socioeconomic status

109disability status irrespective of their native language are growing at the same rate um seems noteworthy so can you speak to that um and does it seem noteworthy to you as well and a reflection of some of this real equity work we're doing. I'm going to invite Eileen at any point to jump in. I think Eileen said it first of um noting in the data and as we took a look at it of of seeing that there isn't the variance that that you named and I think when we look at the strategies is when we're pulling the data and I'm looking at the reports our teachers are able to get more granular and I think Eileen and her team are constantly sending out like dashboards where teachers and um principles are looking at them. We heard

110tonight from Pacific View like they have data walls. Their teachers like know and can name them. And I think that's a lot of the system that we've been trying to build that is helping us with that variance in the sense of we have the data and we can do something and act with it. >> That's great. >> And I I that reminds me of something that Dr. Bagula said earlier and that is we're we're talking about data but not not as a hammer. Right. It's it's a completely different um conversation that's happening now. The data is actually being utilized. Um we're taking action on it. It we don't feel helpless with it. I feel like sometimes in the past it felt a little helpless, especially when we were only focusing on the colors because that's

111all we had. >> Yeah. >> Um so, um I I think that's a shift. And I I also want to make sure that I add that it's both data and assessment literacy because you you can't really >> grow um and understanding what you need to do for your students unless you both understand the purpose of assessments, what they're supposed to tell you, what they don't tell you, as well as the data that comes from them. >> Thank you. And I think I really appreciate you reflecting on the fact that we're not using data as a hammer. And I know when the board started this work around student outcomes focused government governance that was a concern we had right that that we didn't want the humanity to get lost in the data and seeing the way

112we're using data and hearing um from Pacific View I I loved um when we heard that it's both data informed and personalized right that you don't lose the students in the numbers um which I think is beautiful and and really incredible. Um I have a question and it's really something I want you to consider. I don't know over the next few months. So because the um CASP ELA distance from standard was 12.4 points above standard in 2025 and our target for 26 is just 13.2. I'm wondering if you think it's appropriate to recalibrate our annual targets for 2026 all the way to 2030 to reflect the three points of annual growth we have heard all along should be our standard. Um and so I'm wondering what you think and you don't have to answer tonight

113um about setting the 2026 goal at 15.4 points above standard um and then up from there. And so I guess superintendent if you can get back to us before the end of the year about whether that makes sense. >> Yes. Because there's a lot of them. I mean that's happened several times even in the beginning. Right. Um where I think again I go back into this has been our learning journey as well. So we do have recommendations for data sets now that we've become more familiar and as Dr. Moreno said once we have our own trend data analysis because we've been doing this for several years then we can more e easily and nimly say hey I think actually we we low targeted that we need to make it a higher target that's the conversation

114I'd like to have and we reconvene and talk about our SOFG goals in general so I would like to bring back those numbers >> in the summer >> yes I I believe it's even scheduled I don't remember Marty but yeah >> but we will >> okay and then one final question about the Pacific view um bright spot which I thought was just incredible. Um I guess I'm wondering so we heard about the high impact strategies they're using. We heard them speak very clearly about how they use data to inform practice. They talked about knowing students by name and by need. But what are we doing to scale that? How are we making sure that every principal and every school is utilizing these practices? Um, so if you can speak to that. Um, you you talked

115about you named um having student outcome data in a designated room, daily interventions by need, not by grade level. Um, a full day of teacher release for grade level data analysis, two-year teacher loops for combo classes. Are these best practices? we expect to see it in all schools and if so what are we doing to make that so um and then the last thing about Pacific View that I'm really curious about is are they simply using for their ELA um curriculum benchmark and sort of our standard districts curriculum or are they using site funds for supplemental instructional materials to build foundational skills? Um and if they are that says to me that our standard isn't enough and so curious around whether we need to really be looking um at the you know CDE is adopting

116new um instructional materials recommendations in the next couple months and do we need to be looking at that the same way we looked at math instruction for elementary. >> So um >> math curriculum. >> So sorry. Yeah. Three questions. Okay. Okay. So the first one um we the way that we're actually we want to scale those types of practices in a really um I'm going to use the word both harmony but also grassroots way. That's actually why the communities of practice are so important. And so when Erica begins to share those practices and and other principles start visiting at a certain point we are going to have to go beyond the communities of practice right like again that's we want to establish that relationship of walking each other's site of doing the data analysis of

117saying why did you get this result and I didn't those are the types of conversations we're encouraging and we recognize that at a certain point we actually have to do cross community or practice conversations and so so that's all that's all moving forward um the middle one I'm not actually sure what curriculum they use. But I'm going to actually say um to your last point, we do have a cross-dep departmental team um that is actually right now looking at what CD is about to do and designing a literacy plan for our elementary school and again with not only our med multilingual department and you know there but with also with teachers with principles and really thinking about what is going to be our work with literacy next year. what curriculum adoption is CDE going to

118move forward and then what's going to be our design that's currently happening right now. Um I want to say I spoke to both Dr. Moreno and Veronica Lopez Mendes about that um because I want to be briefed on where we are with it. >> Thank you. And I think if we can find out at a later date if they're using any additional um instructional materials that would be really helpful. Yeah, I I just want to lift up what so much of this conversation and Trusty Hayes and your questions are bringing about. So, just the contrast between the story that Superintendent Bullet is telling as a teacher, feeling frustrated um that you're not able to move students and feeling frustrated that you're not getting support to move students. Contrast that when you were beginning your career

119as a teacher with our teacher tonight from uh Pacific View who said what we saw in the one student that she story she was telling was potential and a community a school community that was ready to help that student realize their potential. So it's just the difference in culture really and um you know uh and ownership between that story many years ago this story tonight. But I you know I think the questions that Trusty Hayen I it is asking is very much about how do we make sure that that culture is the culture of the district and and we don't have you know that the common experience is not superintendent Bula beginning her career with frustration but a culture of an entire school community coming together and feeling effective. and and and ownership building from

120that. So I I don't know if there's I just wanted to lift that up, but any any thoughts about that? >> That's it's exactly it. It's teacher efficacy. That's actually why I've always been I've always watched data cultures with a critical lens because I thought data has to be actionable, which is actually something that Dr. Roman always says like where is the action behind this data point? That's always been the important piece. Um it should be actionable, it should be collaborative, and it should increase teacher efficacy more than anything. Um, and I've always tried, I know we've talked about this with Hadtie's work with teacher efficacy being one of the biggest components of student achievement. That's always what we've been after. So, I loved hearing it in action, too. >> Well, thank you so much.

121Uh, incredible presentation, incredible work, the cheerleading. Thank you. >> Okay. Can we get a motion on item F1? Moved by Vice President Bazo. Do we have a second by uh trustee Whitehurst Payne? Uh any questions or comments? If not, trustee or no speakers. Trusty ord. >> Oh, you don't you you don't vote on this one. Okay. Uh Trusty Hayen, we're voting. >> I >> Yeah. Vice President Boso. >> I Trusty White Payne. >> Hi. >> Trusty Person. >> Hi. >> And Pereira is an I. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay, we'll move to our board consent agenda, but I did want to uh separate these items tonight because of the importance of uh item G1. So, uh item G1 is um approval of initiating the process for the name change of Caesar Chavez Elementary School. Uh can

122we get a motion uh for that? Yeah, Trusty Wyn, thank you. And do we have a second? Uh Trusty Ord. Uh okay. And any public comment on this item? No. Uh board questions or comments? >> Uh why don't we start uh with superintendent's prepared statement? Yeah. Thanks. >> Thank you, President Bara. Tonight, you're taking formal action on item G1 to clarify that the district may take up more than one school name or mascot change within a single year. The current administrative regulation 7310 only stipulates that one name change per year may take place. We talked about the mascot change at at Claremont. Um, this item also initiates the process to consider a name change for CESF Chavis Elementary School in alignment with board policy 7310. This will be a structured communitydriven process that includes engagement

123with students, families, staff, and the broader community with a recommendation ultimately returning to the board for consideration. I also want to share that I've been speaking with the principal and in speaking with the principal, the school will begin removing the name from active use as this process moves forward. This step reflects the seriousness of this movement and the school's commitment to creating a safe and supportive environment for students while we engage the community in determining a path forward together. We recognize that this is not a simple or easy moment. It calls for us to lead with clarity, with care, and with integrity. But our focus remains on supporting our students in the community and creating space for meaningful dialogue and ensuring that the outcome of this process reflects the values we hold as a district.

124So, I want to thank you board for your leadership and the school community for engaging in this work with thoughtfulness and purpose and I'm uh waiting for your vote. >> Thank you, Superintendent Trusty Hazel. >> I just want to express gratitude to the superintendent and to our president and vice president for being so responsive to this matter, recognizing that a name change is essential and getting this on the agenda so that we can take action as quickly and also as thoughtfully as possible. Also, thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty W. >> Um, I also want to ride off of what Trustee Hazen was saying. Um, thank you, Superintendent Beula, and the board for being active on this, um, matter. Um, I do want to say that as a student, um, this really hit me hard

125and it hit my community hard as well. And I just wanted to say that this person doesn't define who you are and it does not define who we are as a district. So, I just wanted to say thank you um to Fabi for taking matters into your own hands as we found out on the way. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you, Trusty W. Yes, Vice President Fos. >> Thank you. And I definitely um would like to echo my colleague sentiment and I'm I'm am also very appreciative that we're taking swift action but also at the same time really you know with regard to the actual name change really making it a meaningful dialogue not >> jumping into that piece of it but really making sure that our whole community is part of that

126beyond just the elementary school community but our entire district because as Trusty Newan mentioned um this you know Caesar Chavez was seen as a leader for, you know, many people be beyond just the even be beyond the S San Diego community, although we've been hit hard because he was um, you know, so I guess had such a big name here. But I think Dr. Bula made a important point the other day that anytime you hold someone up >> at this kind of level that to that they're that's it's not realistic and it's really not healthy either. And you know, as we've seen, others have al also fallen from the throne. And but it's really any kind of movement like this just such an extremely important movement for uh the our you know our families, our

127working families. Um it's not just about one person and it's never been about just one person. So, I think being transparent, having the conversations with our students because they're smart. They're going to want to talk about this and talk through it, but also remembering that this is way more, you know, what what has been done and will continue to be done through our service clubs, you know, our discussions and um class, you know, it's it's not to um diminish what's been done in this movement and can will continue to be done which because of one person who may have tarnished that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Sorry, just to your point, um, we did create a guide for educators to engage in dialogue with students. Um, because and and actually we talked

128about that. I know it's very much centered on Cesar Chavez for now, but we thought, why don't we just make it in general because if it continues to happen, we need to be able to hold that tension and have conversations that deal in truth and in integrity. So, that'll be published very soon. >> Thank you, Kelsey Waters. It's kind of uh fascinating to me because the morning that the article hit the paper, both uh Richard and I were at Chavez School on the stage there um for their annual rally uh march around the community and the students have always celebrated. I think I've been on the board 10 years and I've been there 10 years and um this has always been a great time of celebration for them and the low riders marching around the

129community with I don't know every police officer it seemed like in the city uh they're our police officers and uh the community is out waving and so on and just recognizing the impact that it had on the students. because the ASB is in charge of the program. >> Yeah. >> They're the MC's and the whole bit. They tell us what to do. >> Uh and to realize what it meant to the students when we were saying Cisva and just that whole celebration and it finally came down to the principles talking about the fact that we've come through some difficult times in the past. uh this particular school in fact when the flood occurred and floods occurred two years ago and how it became the beacon of of hope for that community and the pandemic and

130all the things that they've come through and uh our words of encouragement to them was we will get through this and remember the good things that happened but we will move forward and I want to thank superintendent and and our officers for moving forward and agenda andizing this particular item for us to begin the process tonight to let the students know that some good things can come from a movement. But then we also recognize that we're all humans and that um there are times where we will fail and it's not for us to celebrate the individuals but to celebrate the good, to take the best and to move forward. And that's what our last lines were. He said, "Wait a we can do it. We can get beyond this. This school will continue to improve

131and we will not be victimized. We will be successors here." So, >> thank you. >> That's my continuous message. >> Thank you. >> Um, trust or better. No, we're good. Yeah. I just want to pick up on what Trusty Rogers pain just said. So, at the celebration on Wednesday, the a combo class, the uh fourth and fifth graders from room D202, they wrote a poem that they um read at the celebration. And I'm hoping that one particular part of this poem can not only guide the school community, but our entire, you know, community as we think about uh what's next. And this section says, means community power. Our school has lived it. Remember January 22nd, 2024 when the rain came, the water rose, streets flooded, homes were lost, cars were lost. Many things were lost.

132But our community was not lost. Neighbors helped neighbors. Families helped families. They translated for our families. They cooked hot meals. Los Takerto fed us free tacos. Because when times are hard, we are united. Together, we are strong. Yep. With that, um, Trusty Ordos, >> I. >> Trusty W >> I. >> Trusty Hazen >> I. >> Vice President Bazo >> I. Trusty Whitehurst Payne. >> Hi. >> Trusty Person. >> Hi. >> And I am an I. All right. Okay. And item G2 is approval and appointment reappointment of individuals to our ICO. Can we get a motion? Trusty Person. Uh seconded by Trusty Whitehurst Payne. No public comment. Any questions or comments, board members? Okay. Trusty W. >> I. >> Trusty Ordaz. >> I. Trusty Whitehurst Payne. >> I But there was some discussion on it, wasn't

133it? We didn't get any comments or public comments. Okay. >> Okay. Uh, Trusty Person. >> Trustee Hazen. >> I. >> Vice President Bazo. >> I. >> And I am an I. >> Okay. Let's move to uh items H1 and H2. Can we get a motion? Uh, sorry. Yeah, Trusty Hazen uh move Vice President Bazo second. Any public comment? >> Yes, we have six uh public speakers on item H1. So, for Barlaws, I'd like to give 10 minutes for the six people to come forward and speak. They are all uh in opposition. Kristen Hurst if you could please come forward. Abdi Muhammad, AA Muhammad, Sundis Muhammad, Anas Ahmad, and Nafisa Abduhi. Be 10 minutes for the group. Good evening. Uh, first of all, thank you all for the work that you do and the time that

134you spend helping to support our students. My name is Kristen Hurst and I work at Carver Elementary School. I also happen to be wearing blue in solidarity with uh classified staff. Um, I would like to take this opportunity to uh talk about the possible colllocation of Carver Elementary and IFO Charter School. Um, I wanted to make you aware of some facility issues that are at our site that could pose some potential risks. I know that as a school district, our priority is student safety and well-being and there our school was built in the 50s. We haven't gone through site modernization and we have a plumbing system that reflects that. We have two um separate bathroom areas for students with a total of six stalls for girls and six stalls for boys. Many many times this

135year we have been down to three stalls for girls and three stalls for boys because of the issues with our pipes and the water having to be turned off. So I'm concerned that if we add an additional school site onto our current school site that that would overload the already fragile system that we have with our facilities. We did have an informational meeting with folks from San Diego Unified that came out and talked to us. There were many, many questions that staff and families had about this collocation that were not able to be answered. And I understand that's because of the timing. The offer hasn't officially been made. It can't be accepted yet. But this has left parents in a really frantic state. Um, as we all know, not having information can really be distressing

136to families. I've personally had many families tell me that if this collocation moves forward that they will be opting in to other schools. Our school site right now, we have about 189 students. We can't afford to lose any more students at our school. So I feel like it has the potential to do irreparable damage and we want not only Carver students but also if students to be safe all students. So I hope that um you will take this into consideration with uh deciding on this matter. Thank you. >> Thank you board. Uh my name is Abdi representing Charter School. Uh we've been here before and this is a conversation around facilities. Uh the current F10 campus is no longer supporting our enrollment realities. Uh we've been here many times and uh what better way than

137to hear from our students. We too worry about the safeties that were just mentioned and uh we all that we ask for is a fair adequate space for for our students to learn and grow. Uh so without further ado I have uh our team here with me Annas uh Nafisa and Lilana and we have our former students now teachers uh to to speak to you as well. Please w give them a warm welcome. Good evening board members. Close your eyes for one second. Imagine a school that feels like a big fa big warm family but is wearing shoes that are two size too small. My name is Annas Ahmed and I am a fifth grade student at Charter School. I am here tonight because I care deeply about my school and want to speak up

138for my classmates and our future. I am asking you to let our school stay where we are and expand into the Jackson Annex so we can have more room to learn and play safely. When I arrive at school in the morning, I see my friend from second grade and my buddy from 8th. On my way to class, we fist bump, laugh, and keep walking. It feels like a family reunion every single school day. I have three main points and I'll keep them clear. First, this school is my home. I've been here since kindergarten. I I so I know the staff members and routines like the back of my hand. I feel safe here and that helps me focus and I do my best. Second, right now we're crowded. Recess gets packed. I love basketball, but

139there aren't enough courts, so games get squished together. When space is tight, it's harder to stay safe and harder to enjoy school. PE soccer can feel like playing on in a living room. When spaces are too crowded, it makes it harder for us to enjoy activities and stay safe. Third, more space means more classroom. And I truly cannot imagine going anywhere else. I love if so much, and I want to see it continue to grow and support students like me. So, here's my ask again. Please support our school. make the decision to give us room to grow by expanding into the annex. Thank you for listening. >> Nisa, >> good evening members of the board. Before I begin, I want you to keep in mind this is not just about any school. This is about

140IF Charter School, my home and there is nowhere else I would rather be. My name is Nafisa Abdullahi and I am a fifth grade student at IF Charter Charter School. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I love my school because of the people and the environment we have built together. My teachers are kind. My friends support me and I and being here every day feels comfortable. My school is also close to my neighborhood so I feel connected to it. I have been at FDN since first grade. Now I am in fifth grade so I have really grown up here. This school means a lot to me because we spend so much time here. I am surrounded by people who represent who I am and and I don't feel like I have

141to try hard to fit in. I feel accepted and supported and there are staff members I trust and can rely on. Even though I was really young, I don't remember much about my old school because I has shaped who I am so much. If I had to leave the school, I would feel sad and mad. I truly love this campus. It is not just like my home. It is my home. I cannot imagine going anywhere else because this is where I grew up. I also want to talk about space, safety, and learning. Our classrooms are small and can feel crowded, which makes it harder to focus. As someone who loves to read, I wish we had more quiet spaces to really focus and enjoy learning. During recess during during recess it can get very crowded

142and sometimes I feel overwhelmed and end up sitting out. I I have also got I have also gotten hurt when too many students are playing in the same area. That is why I strongly believe our school should be able to stay where we are and expand into the Jackson Annex. More space would give us better classrooms, safer areas to play, and help students feel more comfortable and focused. I'm respectfully asking you to support uh to support our school and give us the opportunity to stay and continue learning in a place that truly feels like home. Thank you for listening and caring about students like me. >> And now we have Liliana. Liliana Btos. >> Good evening. My name is Liliana and I a student at Charter School. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to

143speak today. As students, this uncertainty is stressful. Our teachers cannot fully prepare and we do not know what to expect when we arrive. We deserve clear and stable learning environment so we can focus on our education. We are also concerned because we have not been guaranteed access to have to guaranteed to access important learning spaces like libraries, computer labs or support rooms. Many students at IFN are English learners or need additional academic support and these spaces are essential for our success. I as an IFT student I believe that we should have more space because it helps families stay together so they don't need to go to other schools. Another reason why we should have another another space is because it allows students to have more a space to learn and educated. Thank you for listening.

144AIA. >> Good evening board members and thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Aia Muhammad and I stand before you as both an IFEN alum and a current teacher today. IFIF serves students from historically marginalized communities as well as those from immigrant and refugee backgrounds. Students whose voice whose voices often go unheard and whose needs are too often overlooked. Many arrive carrying the weight of displacement, language barriers, and uncertainty. Yet, what they find at our school is not just an education, but a sense of safety, belonging, and possibility. Our students deserve a stable, equitable, and fully resourced learning environment. The proposed facilities plan does not meet that standard. Classrooms are not clearly identified and essential spaces for English learners, um, special education and targeted intervention services. many services many of our

145students rely on on daily basis. The plan also lacks enough non-classroom spaces like offices, meeting rooms, and staff work areas, all critical to supporting students and educators effectively. We remain committed to collaborating with the district, but we strongly urge that these concerns be addressed after the allocation is finalized, before the allocation, excuse me, is finalized. Our students who have already overcome so much deserve the utmost clarity, equity and safety. And I was as a previous if an alum myself, I stand here today to show you the success of this school. Not only being a previous student, but now being a teacher and being able to create the path forward for the future generations to come. So please consider this urge that we have with you today. >> Okay. Thank you. And I know you've got

146one more speaker, so we're going to allow one minute. Good evening members of the board. My name is Sundis Muhammad and I'm also a IFEN alum now teacher. Um I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of our students. Our students deserve a learning environment that is stable, equitable, and fully equipped to meet their needs. At this time, the proposed facilities plans does not yet provide that. First, the classrooms that have been offered to our school have not been specifically identified. This creates significant challenges for planning instruction, organizing materials, and preparing students for a successful transition. Second, the current proposal does not include access to specialized spaces that are critical for student learning. These include areas for EL support, special education services, and intervention. At IFT, a large percentage of our students rely on these

147supports every day. Additionally, the plan does not provide sufficient non-classroom spaces such as offices, meeting rooms, staff areas, and student support spaces. These are not optional. They are essential for running a functional school. Finally, safety remains a major concern. Collocating two schools requires clear structures, defined by defined boundaries, and internal int and intentional planning to ensure that all students are safe and supported. We are committed to working collaboratively with the district to resolve these problem to resolve these concerns. However, we respectfully ask that these issues be addressed before finalizing the facilities allocation. Our students deserve clarity, equity, and safety. Thank you for >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Okay. Board questions or comments? >> None. Trusty Patterson. Well, I just I mean in relation to this, do do we have any staff staff

148on on the issue with it? Yeah. Thank Thank you so much. Good evening, trustees, superintendent pugula. I'm Regina Vega, the manager of instructional facilities planning department. I have facilities planner Gabriella Elliott with me and we're here um we're available to answer any questions about the offer and what it includes. >> Great. Thank you, Jess. >> Yeah, I mean just to reflect some of the comment we heard from um there was concerns about the bathroom capacity, I believe, um and the availability of additional instructional space beyond the classrooms and I believe safety was another predominant concern. terms if you have any thoughts about that. Thank you. >> Yes, definitely. Um, I listened with care to the statements of IFN Charter School and their students and their staff because we want to be able to have a

149successful collocation if the Carver collocation is approved and also we listened to the teacher and we've worked with the Carver administration. So the it sounds like there are maintenance issues, but by design, Carver Elementary did handle did have a much higher enrollment and had the same number of restrooms. There were two removed when portables rem were removed a few years ago. Um but we have our district architect on uh available to help us to count fixtures and ensure that by design by code we are meeting the number of fixtures that are required for both IFEN and Carver students. So maintenance issues yes we need to work with PO to make sure that they are ready to go for start of school. And then specialized spaces also was was mentioned. And I'll address that. In our

150offer, we aggregated teaching stations and specialized spaces. So that's why the number is so high. It's 15 per classroom. 158A. That's how the table worked out. So that leaves plenty of room for organizing the program by the charter school when they receive this allocation of seven on Carver and 22 at Jackson plus 17 supplemental habitable spaces on the Jackson campus offices multi-purpose room. So we are meeting the Prop 39 requirements. students have access to this site at Carver at uh Jackson and we're not duplicating every one of those functions on the Carver. That is kind of like an overflow. >> Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. I Yeah, Chelsea, right? I know we've had uh collocations like this with divided I mean the schools aren't that far apart on 54th and around to

151alcohol boulevard back up in for Carver but it just seems like kind of an odd formation to leave one and go around like that. Um, I'm sure you've met all the requirements and I'm looking at Lee always to ask him about the space and what his opinion is about meeting the needs. I'm sorry for to the rest of you, but he's my go-to person. >> Lee has information about the modernization. >> Well, thank you, Dr. White Hush. Um so yes it it the the prop 39 does comply with this offer does comply with the code complies with the law. The um the toilet fixture count is is legal um and design and those buildings were designed to accommodate the students and the student loading ratios align with the requirements of Prop 39. will tell you

152that that help is on the way and that we're about 50% through the design of a modernization of the Jackson campus that is not just a modernization to provide the campus with better facilities but also provide some uh capacity expansion add six classrooms and two lab spaces to the current campus. So um hopefully in the future that will you know resolve the some you know the need for uh allocating through Prop 39 um uh for IFEN. >> Thank you because you answered my other question which is I know they're undergoing potential um remodelization. It's coming online soon. I believe we've begun that process and I think you just addressed that. >> Yes. Uh and and this board approved the project um several years ago. We we initiated design um the the project is um is

153slated to go to the division of state architect. The design plans will go to DSA in August of 2026. Um we expect that uh DSA approval or sometime around February of 27 and we would be bidding and awarding the contract uh in prior to summer of 27 and we'd start construction midsummer 2027 and then we're looking at probably a two two and a half year timeline for construction. So, I guess so we're voting tonight on final offers and we know that we're a few years away and thank you Lee, you know, from uh the modernization of the Jackson campus. Um but we have two school communities that don't feel quite satisfied with where we are now. Both the Carver community and the IFN community. So, how do we know as a board that the action

154we take will include the continuing to work with both school communities uh to make sure that we're in a better place than I think the two communities feel right now? >> Yes, I can address that question. >> Yeah. uh we've only come so far since the November 1 applications from our charter schools have been received and we've met each monthly deadline and kept this moving forward. But what's yet ahead of us is the collocation planning. So there's an exhibit in each final offer that states the terms for sharing a colloccated site. And we've done this successfully at several of our district sites. And it's um temporary. This is a one-year offer, but we know long term we're looking at making this work until there is another facility. >> So there's a collocation plan. So if

155we vote on this offer tonight, the next step is a collocation plan. >> Yes. >> But how do we have confidence that that collocation plan is going to be something that works for both communities? The collocation planning has just started but we have guidelines. We've learned from other collocations of what the needs are. Uh we've listened carefully to what the what if charter has presented so far to us and safety is a number one. So we we invited them to come for a walk across the car Carver campus and get that collocation planning started. select the individual classrooms. We're waiting to do that. So, um we're confident based on our current collocations, we don't see increases of safety incidents on colllocated campuses and we've seen that there's also an increase with competition to uh for

156in the academics between colllocated campuses. So, um, we have reason to believe based on our current collocations that it will be successful. >> Okay. I think what I'm searching for is something that comes back to the board, um, so that we can actually either get an update or in fact um that that approval is necessary from the board on the final collocation plan um to to make sure that we're comfortable that that that process has been a good process. We'd be happy to bring that back to the board, but the April 1st is our deadline for the actual >> Yeah, I I think that what you're really pressing or it's the same issue at Bell. We know that we have some planning going on, but staff member, I mean, the community, the parents, they want

157to know. They don't want us to wait till April 1 or sometime down the road. They want to be involved now, >> not five months later. And I know the guidelines say you can wait from November to April to start looking at that. You said whenever it was. I I think that's my anxiety >> that it's like we h we're forced by a timeline to vote. >> Yeah. >> But that process of really ramping it up to do something to make both groups feel like this potentially can work hasn't even really gotten started in a in a great way. And I think that's the same issue that the Bell community expressed to me about right >> the fact that we're moving um kids on that we've got to just involve people >> more now with

158technology and so forth. >> So um I'm just wondering if the board has consensus that in approving this offer and the entire item H1 and H2 which is what the motion is. Um, we're also asking for an update to come back to us uh on the uh collocation plan and we want to make sure that the two communities have been actively involved in the development of that plan. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. With that, Trustee Wyn >> I. >> Trusty Ordaz >> I. >> Trustee Hazen >> I. >> Vice President Bazo >> I. >> Trustee White Payne. >> Hi. >> Trusty Person. >> And I'm an I. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, >> that was uh items H1 and H2 and >> Oh, I thought that was just H1. It was both

159of them. >> It was both of them. >> Oh, well then I have >> Oh, you've got to comment on H2. >> Comment on H2. Yeah. Um, so H2 is the boundary shift for Nippoly and Carson. Um, and I support the change and appreciate uh the work that was done, but I do want to point out or that it seems to reflect maybe some missteps in planning. So, Nippoai is our newest elementary school. Um, and I'm still just questioning how could we have so underestimated the need for elementary classrooms at this nearly brand new site. Um, and so I just ask that when we're planning, when we are evaluating the needs of a community, how many children we expect to be there, that we really do thoughtful work. because I'm just going to be honest,

160it's crazy to me that we built a gorgeous brand new school and it's already at capacity and we're now having to shift a boundary. Um, so I just ask that as we move forward with planning and demography, really doing the thoughtful, careful work to build schools that can accommodate the students who are going to live there in the very near future. >> Thank you. Thank you, trustees. Okay, we'll now move to the consent agenda. Do any trustees wish to pull any items? items one through 24. If not, can we get a motion? >> I believe we have a >> speaker on, >> but can we get a motion first for the or do we want to pull I4? The speakers pulled I4. >> Okay, >> so they've been pulled. >> It's up to us to

161pull it, but Okay, so we're going to pull item I4. And can we get a motion on the remaining consent agenda items? >> So moved. So moved >> and and seconded. Okay. So, uh, we have speakers on item I4. Well, why don't we actually vote on those other items? Okay. Um, Trusty Ordas, >> I. >> Trusty W. >> I. >> Trusty Person. >> I. >> Trusty Watersh. >> I. >> Vice President Bazo. >> Hi. >> Trusty Hazen. >> I. >> And I am an I. Okay. Speakers on item I4. >> Thank you. Yes, we have four speakers on I4 and each speaker will have two minutes. If you could please come forward at the podium. Bill Urky, Mitch Mulanx, Joe Hasslower, and Paul McNeel. >> Go ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you and good evening,

162Mr. President and members of the board. My name is Bill Urky. I am legal counsel for the Seligman Liberty Station LLC group, and we are here to oppose and strongly urge a no vote on the proposed compensation agreement for the Naval Training Center, which is one of three agreements that are part of item I4. Before I give my short statement, I did want to confirm that you all received our opposition letter that was sent yesterday to all members of the board as well as the superintendent and general counsel. Was that received? I hope so. If not, please let me know. And if it was not, I would ask that you possibly postpone consideration of the item due to the financial significance of it. But was as was referenced in the background paragraph of the agenda,

163when former redevelopment agency properties are sold, a portion of the proceeds are to be distributed to the taxing entities within their jurisdiction in proportion to their required property tax revenue. Here, however, the NTC compensation agreement and for that matter all three of the agreements would deprive the district of its fair share portion of property tax revenues. I hope the meeting has There we go. um the property tax revenues for these former redevelopment agency properties. The proposed NTC compensation agreement attempts to cram down the use of a 2011 valuation date so the city would pay much less than would be realized if the properties were sold in the open market. Importantly, there is no legal obligation for the district or any taxing entity to enter into a compensation under the redevelopment dissolution law. And in fact,

164the only time 2011 valuations are to be used is if there are is an agreement among all taxing entities, but there's a dispute on the valuation to be used for a sale of a particular property. Here's the takeaway for the district. If no compensation agreement is approved by the board, the redevelopment agency dissolution law would require that the properties be sold in the o open market, which again would realize much more money for the district, which is important because the district receives 43% of every property tax dollar more than any other taxing entity in this jurisdiction. And that is money that could be used for paying teachers, retaining teachers, and providing uh student services. Other members of our team are here, but again, I urge a no vote or at a minimum a continuence of

165this item to a date certain so we can meet with staff and any board members who might want to discuss the item. Thank you. >> So, are the other speakers going to speak or Okay. >> Yeah, we don't see time. So you've got two minutes. >> Hi, my name is Joe Heisler. I'm a asset manager of real estate at Liberty Station for Seligman Liberty Station LLC. I'm speaking on uh in opposition of consent item number I4. And uh first off, thank you for your service on this board and especially the student there. That's awesome. Um this consent item is based upon a recent appraisal, but if you turn the page, it's dated 15 years ago. It's a retrospective data value. Um I'm not sure why uh there would be consideration not of a value 15

166years ago and not a current market value. We have tendered offers to purchase some of the properties in that appraisal um with their former city of real estate RDA holdings. Uh our number that we're offering is reflective of today's values. Seven times what the city's offering you. Uh so and there's two other property owners willing to pay seven times as well. If you took your 1.4 roughly that you would get and put it uh required uh current market value. That number difference if it was seven times like we're willing to do and two other property owners with current market value. That number is $10 million of proceeds to you if you do uh seven times 1.4 million. Um as an analogy very quickly or uh more uh elementary look at this. You have a property

167manager. You have invest in investment in a property. The city's your property manager. Um you need to be compensated current market values for that property. Your property manager wants the property but doesn't want to pay current market value for it. Again, we have a pro portion of the properties. We have a offer that's seven times what the city is offering and that offer is not being considered. Uh I'd also like to highlight the fact if they can't pay you by mid 27, they get a below interest loan as with no term on it. So that's something to consider as well. So just say no, require current market value. If not, we're willing to purchase our property and pay a fair market value price for these properties. And again, thank you for uh service on the

168board. >> Thank you so much. >> Good evening, members of the board. My name is Mitch Mullenex. Um my father taught junior high school for 45 years. He was also the union representative. And so I saw firsthand the difficulties you face with budget shortfalls and with layoffs. I understand that dollars are very important. That's why I'm urging you to vote against this item today. It's a complex item, but in essence, basically, you're partners with a city on former redevelopment properties that they hold. They've been holding these since 2011. They were supposed to pay you back then. They just didn't. They got a court order that's now forcing them to act and pay. They want to pay you in 2011. There's no reason that you have to accept this. You're not obligated. you don't have really

169have the luxury, I think, to sort of subsidize their real estate portfolio with $10 million that you could use for avoiding layoffs and supplementing the budget. So, I'd strongly urge you to reconsider what your staff's recommending. Um, push back on the city and demand that you get full value for the share of your ownership. Thank you. president, members of the board. I'm Paul McNeel. I'm working with the Selman Group tonight. And um I've been married to this organization for 22 years. My wife is a school psychologist specialized. Um and I've seen the budgets, you know, come and go and come and go and to see the school district leaving money on the table. Um, I know it's complicated, but I'm going to just direct your attention to one very important little bit of math. Um,

170and that that number is 43%. So, the school district receives 43% of of uh property tax dollars in this county. you are the by far the biggest holder of and the most interested in these dollars like not receiving a seventh of what you should receive but receiving the full 43% of a number that actually represents the value of some of these properties. So I would strongly uh strongly recommend a no vote on this and um ask the city to present something that's more palatable that benefits you more and my family more. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Do we have a motion on item I4? >> Wish to discuss item. >> Yeah. I mean, I'll I'll move in order to discuss. >> Great. Yeah. >> And do we

171have a second? >> Okay. Second. Yeah. Trusty Patterson. >> Um I have not received anything. I just checked my email. I haven't received anything. Um and um and so you know this is I understand the nature of redevelopment. I understand the nature of winding redevelopment down and what's in broad strokes. Um but uh I I we could bring our general counsel up, but I I think probably at this point given the nature of the testimony, I I can't at this point in time disambiguate everything that's that's happening, but I think it's probably sound from a fiduciary perspective for us to um there's four total items, right? And I four is that my recollection? >> What? three agreements. Um would is would general counsel be supportive? Is there any need for moving forward or can we

172can we move forward with two and peel off one and return with the one that is >> Okay. Thank you. So um we my motion would be to move forward with two and to postpone at a later date that is appropriate with whatever timeline the city or the judge or whatever the context of this this decision is. So to move forward with two and then hold one um for uh commerce with our council um either in close session or some portion in close I it's unclear what we'll be briefed in individually and then we'll bring it back in some format. So move forward two and hold one. >> Okay. And are you comfortable with that? Okay. Great. Go ahead. >> Why why are we pulling just one? When you look at the percents, it is

17343% uniformally. >> They're the only ones complaining, but the process is what I'm talking about. We get the bulk of it. Does the city get to use 2011 for >> well or I I mean it's and I was chair of SEDC and I know about when we closed down in the whole bit and now it just feels kind of Anyway, >> are you in >> I definitely want us to pull the one four um that they've complained about, but I I'm just >> You want to pull all three? I'd like to pull it all and get some more information about why, how, this way, how does the city. It's not that I don't trust the city, but um I don't trust the city. Um anyway, I'm sorry. >> Okay. So, >> it's fine. So, let's

174amend the motion. We'll we'll >> pull them all for later consideration. >> All right. So, that's the motion. We'll pull all three and we'll get briefed by council. Great. Uh Trustee Ordas >> I. >> And Trusty W >> I. Vice President Bazo. >> Hi. >> Trusty Patterson. >> Hi. >> Trusty White Spain. >> Hi. >> And I am an I. >> Thank you. >> Great. Okay. We'll move to non-aggenda public testimony. Um, Miss Stoultz. >> All right. We have over 50 speakers on non-aggenda for non-aggenda comment. So if you would like to indulge one minute per that would be over the limit in bylaws. Okay. All right. Um we have let me start with our Zoom speakers. We actually have three people who are virtual and again you will each have one minute. El amra

175El Caou Cahuli I'm sorry to practice your name. Go ahead if you're available. >> Yes. Thank you for your time. I'll be brief. I just wanted to say that I um your student speaker noted that cyber bullying is an issue. I don't know why your teachers at Persing Middle School are wasting time and participating in that, but they are leveraging their employment status and invalidating parent and student experiences online. I believe that if I can figure out exactly who they are, then an attorney could also. I believe they should stop using their personal devices as those could be subpoenaed and I believe school time should be for the children. Finally, I uh they probably shouldn't do it at all lest it appear that they accept benefits for themselves that could have gone to underserved members.

176Thank you for your time. >> Okay, the next Zoom speaker is Miguel Ariano. Miguel, if you are available, please unmute. >> Yes, I'm I'm I'm unmuted. Sorry. >> Go ahead. You have >> um Hello everyone. I apologize for not being there in person. I've obviously caught whatever is going around and I want to be brief. I appreciate the movement for keeping classified employees working, but there is still a lot of work to do. But I appreciate the gesture. However, I do want communication from the district. Had CSEA uh leadership known that this board meeting was going to be student focused and showcased uh their skills, um we would have respected that and choosing a different date. This is um the continued lack of respect that classified often feel. Please be better. and Jason Bozart. >>

177Good evening. Um, my name is Jason Bozart and for the past several years I have been told about how uh San Diego Unified was the destination district for young talent in the field of education. Um, this not only applied to teachers but classified staff as well. They supported their people, lived progressive values, and created relationships and bonds of trust that weathered many storms. Well, apparently that time has passed. As a classified employee in Huntington Beach, I am used to MAGA fanatics making disastrous decisions to solve short-term problems with horrendous long-term consequences. San Diego, instead of being a shining beacon for other districts to follow, is quickly becoming a cautionary tale of what happens when your leaders do not fully follow through on the values they espouse. Let me assure you, when you lose the trust

178of your people, the consequences are dire and extremely difficult to undo. As someone who has seen the long road of rebuilding and what it looks like, I am begging you. Please rethink these reductions. These cuts will not serve or solve your problems. Thank you. >> Okay, we have a number of in-person speakers on various topics. So, I'm going to call names like a group of five to come forward at a time. You each have one minute. So, let's start with Rosio Leon. Rosio available, followed by Ma Mahalani Burton, followed by Laura Ferrar, Ryan Baker Barrett, and Elizabeth Chennamched. Good evening. I am Rosio Leon, lead organizer with the center on policy initiatives. We are here in solidarity with Bell families who have brought up more than reasonable concerns regarding the transition of 250 students to

179Bell most from Ottabon and Fulton. Talking with and working with Bell families, I see the genuine desire of families, staff, and school admin in creating a welcoming and nurturing environment for all students and staff next year. Middle school is already a tough time for students, and a transition of this nature has the potential to greatly exacerbate existing issues with funding, staffing, and creating a strong sense of community that allows students to feel safe to learn and build their identities. This work has revealed a deep structural issues in the district's relationship with students, staff, and families, which is also visible in the decision to lay off 120 classified staff, which my organization strongly opposes. Bell only scratches the surface of these issues. But how we move forward can be a model to address power imbalances, miscommunication,

180and mistrust between the district and schools. I ask you to work with families from Bell and to create a strong transition plan for next year. And of course, no to the layoffs of classified staff. Thank you. Good evening, board members. I'm a student here at Morris High School and I'm here to advocate for Bell's funding as well. Here at Morris High School, we have over 600 kids and we need a bunch of security to ensure the kids safety, which includes our security members being around almost every corner in these hallways. And at my old middle school, Millennial Tech Middle, we barely had any teachers and our funding was very low. And our counselors, we had about two, I think three counselors max. And within this, our kids would follow into the wrong paths leading to

181drug substances being on our school campuses and sexual activities going on during our middle school life. And I would just like to say if Belle isn't eligible to get this type of funding that they need to support their children grow and prosper, especially children with special needs and those in need of counseling can that can create a downfall within these children developmental traits. And we need to build equality within our education system. And it starts with providing reasonable funding for Bel Bell Middle School. And if we cannot continue to advocate for our communities, what will our community become? Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Laura Ferrar, STARS counselor at Mission Bay High School. I'm here once again to speak in strong opposition to the elimination of andor reduction and allocation of our STARS counselors. Um, now

182when you hear STARS, you may think separate setting, but in high school, all STAR students spend at least part of their day, some most of their day in general education classes. So when one of my students has a crisis, when they're screaming and crying and banging their head against the wall, that affects 35 students in a class. And if there's no counselor, who are you going to call when that happens? the case manager who's co-eing elsewhere on campus, the students non-STARS counselor who has 400 other students on their case load, the associate principal security. Think about all the staff that will have to absorb the work of the STARS counselor just so the district can save some money, a small amount of money relatively speaking. And think of the ripple effect of how star students

183unmet needs will affect all the other students in their classes across the school. I hope that helps you to consider the impact that the elimination and reduction allocation of the STARS counselors will have on the entire comprehensive site. It's not worth the money you're trying to save. >> Hi, I'm Elizabeth Chadamchetti. I'm a parent of a STARS student. Um, there seems to be a disconnect for the families. STARS is a placement counselors are an integral component of the STARS program. Dismantling the structure of the program changes the placement. By removing the team, students were promised, the placement has been altered and our students will be denied faith. Families agreed to stars based on its design. We are not an experiment. Eliminating a dedicated counselor and shifting responsibility to wholesale counselors, serving significantly larger student populations

184will material change the implementation environment for STAR students. When placement assessments occurred, we were told to remove specific line items from our IEPs because STARS already included supports on a comprehensive campus, including a dedicated counselor to each STARS site. Writing and services already included in the placement was considered redundant for us. Now, we're being told we will only get the services in our IEP and we will not be able to rely on previously agreed upon structure of the STARS placement. That's a pretty exacerbating catch22 to navigate for families. Deleting these agreed upon star specific key components from your district website won't make my statement untrue, which is what's happened. >> The next group of speakers, ta, excuse me, Taylor Jensen, Laura Auo, Amy McN, Shelley Cook, and Arlene Nubar. In your posted agenda for this

185meeting, you stated that you are committed to transparency, accountability, and keeping students at the center of all that you do. You also claim to value belonging, creating schools where students can thrive academically and socially. Those are powerful words, but right now they are just words because eliminating STARS counselor positions directly contradicts everything you say you stand for. These counselors are not optional. They are lifelines. They support students who are struggling with mental health disconnection and real life challenges that don't disappear when the school bell rings. For some students, STARS counselors are the only reason they stay engaged, the only reason they feel seen, the only reason they do not fall through the cracks. So, what message are you sending when you remove them? If you truly believe in belonging, prove it. If you truly put

186students first, show it. Please reconsider these cuts and align your actions with your words. Thank you. A neurologist from Stanford once described my grandson's brain as a network of high-speed roads with no stop signs. Everything moves fast without signals to guide the flow. It can become overwhelming and chaotic. Stars counselors are those stop lightss. They provide the structure and guidance that help kids regulate safe safety and navigate their world. These counselors are not duplicating services. They provide specialized proactive support that general education counselors, they just simply don't have the training and or capacity deliver. Calling them redundant just isn't is just inaccurate. It's dangerous. A month ago, this board praised the San Diego Unified Police Department for a wellness check that helped save a student life. STARS counselors are doing that every day. If you

187remove these counselors, you are not saving money. You are removing the support structure that keeps vulnerable students safe. And when the vulnerable students lose that structure, more of them will end up where no child should go, the emergency room. I'm asking you respectively to please keep the stars program. Thank you. There's a critical distinction I need you to understand. Psychological safety is not the same as niceness. You can have polite emails, calm tones, and professional language while still punishing people the moment they speak up, disagree, or advocate. And when that happens, voice becomes risk. In psychologically unsafe environments, even calm, reasonable self- advocacy gets labeled as defiance or being difficult. not because of how it's said, because of what it challenges. And that has real consequences. When employees learn that speaking up leads to retaliation,

188dismissal, or character attacks, they stop speaking. Not because the problems are gone, but because the cost of honesty becomes too high. Good evening everyone. um to the board in its entirety. Okay. Um thank you for opening this floor for me to speak. My name is Shelley Cook and I'm a firsttime parent at BELL MIDDLE SCHOOL. WOO! GO BELL. Thank you. Um with my child being seventh grade with an IEP, I consider myself as being an active parent that have poured in thousands of volunteer hours cheerfully. There are benefits of being an active parent with one being in the know of important school information and two being able to create and make change. I have a concern with Bell Middle and the addition of several hundred students. Uh though I do not oppose of this growth

189as I am on board of welcome welcoming them properly. The goal for the school is to have a smooth trans transition. Uh but is that a re reality? We are not prepared to merge what I heard could be nearly a thousand students. Not when there are upcoming staff cuts. You you as the board have a background um a background statement on your uh I have it here. Sorry. Right. Um well on the front line I see neglect where you are in terms of where are you in terms of visiting the school. We need you to make these transitions and the time is now. Thank you. Okay. The next group of speakers, Camille Richberg, Curtis Calcater, Michael Brayette, Troy Johnson, and Cassie Blanch. I go down. Special education staff and general education staff are doing the

190best they can with the resources they have been given, but they are not getting the support that they need from all of you at the top. Many staff members are afraid to speak up because they fear retaliation. Substitute staff are not properly trained to support our students. I know this because I used to train support staff. I worked for behavior support resources. You weren't you weren't hearing uh you were saying earlier about uh spending about half a million dollars on training while laying off staff. That doesn't add up. Why are we investing in external training instead of strengthening the people already in our classroom? Having a filled position does not mean that we have support. An untrained substitute is not the same as having a trained PAR. When staff aren't prepared to handle the escalations

191or emergencies, it puts staff, students, and substitutes at risk. And those incidents cause accidents which cost money and trust. We are one of the largest school districts in California. We should be setting the standard, not falling behind. You see, you see numbers, but we see what's happening in the classroom every day. Let's work together because our students deserve real support and not just the appearance of it. >> My name is Troy Johnson. I am a proud classified employee, the CSEA area K director, and I sit on the Kalpers board of administration. CSEA is here today because we believe in our schools and we believe in our students. And if we believe in students, then we must also believe in the people who support them every single day. Classified staff are not optional. They are not

192secondary. They are essential. So when we talk about cutting classified staff, let's be clear about what that means. It means fewer adults available when a student needs help, less support for students with disabilities, more strain on classrooms, less stability across our campuses. Right now, the district is proposing to cut classified staff while approving raises and protections for others. That sends a message and that message matters because the people being asked to carry the greatest burden are the same people closest to our students. As someone who serves on both the state CSEA board and the Kalpers board, I understand fiscal realities, but difficult decisions do not have to be uneven decisions. So today, we are asking for your leadership. Leadership that values the people doing this work every day. Doing the right thing is not always

193easy, but it is what our students and our staff deserve. Good evening board. My name is Curtis. I am a PAR professional. I'm here to address the fact that over 125 classified staff are facing layoffs. No teachers, administrators, or supervisors are in jeopardy of facing our same fate. We are already understaffed. Removing us will open up the district possibly for lawsuits for non-compliance due to insufficient coverage of our students with IEPs. It's simple math. Fewer bodies equals more room for error. Our rep has secured a 2.5 raise both this year and next. We need more bodies in crucial positions. Our case managers are already have heavy case loads. We need more staff for security, custodial, lunchroom, paras, bus drivers. We asked for this and are pleased have fallen on deaf ears. It was stated that

194those representing us said they had no choice and could find no other solution. So, your answer is to cut even more from the staff you need the most, who get paid the least. Those who show up with a drive and a passion to assist those students who need the most assistance. Here's a consideration. How about this? How about reducing a percent of the possible upper echelon, making six figures annually? I propose 2.5 this year and 2.5 next. Will it affect your mortgage, your car payment, college for your children, unexpected medical expenses, vacation perhaps? It'll definitely affect the 120 plus you intend to pay slip. I have chosen this career because I have a passion for bringing our youth up, giving them a voice. And in some instances, I feel that I have none and so

195do my colleagues. I hope that you read over these minutes. I hope you that heard and review the words I said here today. We are your backbone at San Diego Unified School Sites. We're there. Do not cut one single one of us. I hope you have heard quite the obvious place you haven't considered for a solution, and that is to look up, not down. Thank you. Okay, the next group group of speakers, Jasmine, Anna, Laura Fron, Genevieve Z, and Richard Gon. Hello members of the school district. Thank you and I'm glad to be here. I'm I have six kids and I have two kids over here in Mors, one in um Bell Middle School and two in Pen Elementary. Okay. I'm here because I want to advocate for the student safety and well-being. With the

196transition of receiving more students at Bell, we need ensure more counselors. I'm scared of what I heard. I was scared when I heard about not having a full nurse because I my two daughters, they used to be a 504 kids with um with sisters and not having a full-time um nurse in the school when we have ESN program. Um I don't want to imagine an emergency at a school when minutes and seconds are crucial. Now imagine a kid dying from not receiving the proper care on the right moment. Uh my daughter was just telling me uh with this weather we have an increase of kids going to the nurse because they have bloody nose, headaches and all that. So, I'm happy to be here and I hope you guys consider not reducing and giving enough

197um founding for Bell Elementary. Thank you. Uh ware superintendent board of trustees. My name is Richard Gihon and I have the pleasure of serving as the second VP for OTBS bargaining unit. I come before you today with a simple and urgent request. Let's align our actions with our values. This board often speaks about empathy and equity. You often start your remarks with gratitude. But when cuts are made, it's unclassified staff who take the hardest hit. The very people who support our students daily, build relationships with families, and keep our schools functioning are treated often as expendable. And when we remove those positions, we are not just cutting jobs. We are cutting student support. MLK said and reminded us, all labor has dignity. If we truly believe that, we must stop balancing budgets on the backs

198of those with the least power and generally the lowest pay. And in the words of Dolores Werva, every moment is an organizing opportunity. Every person a potential activist. Every minute a chance to change the world. This is your moment. Equity is not what we say, it is what we protect. Gratitude is not what you say, it's what you do. I urge you to do what is truly compassionate and right. Protect classified positions, protect student supports, and stand in linement with the values you espouse. Gracias. My name is Jasmine Marquez, a current afterchool youth leader and an intern at the center of policy initiatives. Alongside the Education Justice Coalition, I'm here to support fair funding for Bell. I want to express my deepest concern with the funding gap and a lack of initiative when it comes

199to making sure that Bell has the necessary support it needs. I am strongly against laying off the only bilingual front desk clerk at a school with such a large Spanish-speaking population. Upon hearing parent testimonials, I also want to strongly support streamlining communications with parents. I ask that you prioritize creating a strong transition plan for students and families. And I ask you to reconsider the proposed layoffs and recognize the importance of the classified staff and what they each bring to the community. Students and families deserve transparent communication and fairly funded schools. Bell is a community school. I urge you to support the community, support the students, and support the families as they navigate this transition. Thank you. My child to see the swastika, so I stepped on it while helping my child off the bicycle. Every

200staff member who parked in the parking lot had to walk within 3 ft of it to enter the school. I wondered how many Jewish families attended our school. I was shocked when it was still there at pickup. A few days I I after a few days I reported it to Tina Castillo, the office worker who told me to get a doctor's note so my kid could access her right to a safe classroom so my kid didn't have to excrete waste publicly like a dog. "Thank you for telling us," Tina said. "In the challenge of funding, the district needs to look no further than installing a backbone to fire liabilities, incompetence, neglect of duty, and immoral conduct. All we parents have ever demanded was policy compliance for safety only to be dismissed, retaliated against, slandered. Because

201Golden Hill School failed to document last year. Another child was forced to excrete waste publicly this school year in Miss Anne's classroom like a dog. Because the person who abused my child retaliated and lied to a judge, claiming I had followed her in my car. My child lost her best friend. Because she lied to police, claiming I was waiting for him in the school parking lot. I was no longer able to pass out child abuse reporting info to other affected moms. I'd never tried to contact Miss Anne anywhere outside of school gates. Are there policies about retaliation after crime reporting? Principal Julie Martinez and team used the pressure washer to remove the words child abuse written in cheap children's chalk that could have been removed the water bottle splash before calling CPS. The swastika faded

202over weeks. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm back. My name is FR. I'm still a taxpayer and a voter in this district. Still pretty angry about the layoffs that are mostly my fellow classified support staff who are paid some of the lowest wages in our city while taking care of our kids. also not happy about how disrespectful you've been to our time here tonight, dragging out what should have been a handful of items. We had people here earlier who had families and other commitments and were pretty visible and you were breaking out board consent items and reading poetry, which I happen to have a degree in. So, I got to say it's pretty hard to have my vote for state office. Richard and Cody, last time we were here, you and your board said some pretty

203disrespectful and dehumanizing comments about who has to go when there are raises when you give raises. And I'm supposed to trust both you with my state tax money and how we educate our kids at the state level. Just remember, you're going to need a lot more than just San Diego votes this time around. And I have plenty of friends across the state who are tuning in and wondering why you would do this. I really hope you have a better answer than the one you both gave last time. And I hope for your student board trustees get excused from their slams this week for making them stay way past 800 p.m. on a school night. I got you guys. Okay, the next group of speakers, Thelma Navaro, Carlos Perez, Matthew Leba Gonzalez, Michelle Krug, and and

204Sarah Mio. >> Good evening, distinguished board. My name is Matthew Lib Gonzalez. I'm the business representative for the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council. We're the umbrella organization for all 22 industrial construction unions and over 35,000 hardworking skilled and trained uh individuals throughout San Diego County. Um in July 24th, 2009, I looked this up Lee um prior to coming. In July 24th, 2009, the building trades and San Diego Unified had the most substantial, it's called, we call them PLA's, but for you guys it's called a project stabilization agreement. At this time, everyone on the board understood how important it was and how the kids are important to modify every school, every school in San Diego Unified. We're still working off a measure Y funds and I'm an alumni from this high school. And the

205high school when I came here looked nothing like this. I'm a third generation proud union member. The reason why I'm here and I'm a construction worker and it's past my bedtime. It's this thing called solidarity. And I stand with all the classified workers here. The 140 workers that were released, they do jobs that other individuals don't want to do and they're hardworking and I'm here to support them and I strongly urge you to please reconsider your decision. Thank you everyone. >> Hello board. Good to see you again. My name is Carlos Perez. My daughter goes to Fulton Elementary which is just right over there. I'm here um for the community schools that applied. We put in a lot of work uh with the school government's team. Um you mentioned before and I I really was

206inspired by the school that was here earlier talking about we need to know the needs um and meet you know know them by name and know their need and you want to create that culture in the district. I think you can start by knowing the needs of Fulton. You can go there across my there's a small playground. They're under construction. It is not a great experience over there. Um she hit her head under the playground. It's so small. I don't know if you've been there. You should see there there's construction going on. But um there there are definitely needs. Uh it should be a community school. We applied. U we know that they need the funding to make it more equitable for our community schools. Um and the impact that it's going to have when

207the junior high goes over to Bell is going to impact Fulton. So I also want to advocate are we considering how we're going to soften the blow to the the funding that's happening there. So, I have sent over a uh last time I talked to you guys, send over what do you need? What is the cost? It's in the inbox of the superintendent and deputy superintendent. So, I just ask that you look at that, know the needs of the school and and meet them where they're at. So, thank you very much for your time. >> Good afternoon, Buardes. My name is Sma Navaro and I'm a researcher and policy advocate at the Center on Policy Initiatives. All staff deserve stability, community support, and for their work to be valued. Over 120 staff members are at

208risk of losing their job, their community, and the connections with students, families, and educators that they have made. Every single school and classroom impacted will feel the effects of their absence. So, I come here in opposition of the layoffs targeting classified workers. I previously worked as a special education aid and have seen firsthand the immense difference that adequate support has on students most likely to fall in the cracks. Special education staff provide dire behavioral support to students who would otherwise struggle much more to get through the school day. It's these school workers that provide a clean space for students and staff and make sure that sorry make sure arrive to school and are fed every day to students and parents. Even one pair educator or office clerk can make all the difference in feeling safe

209and supported at school. Balancing the budget on classified workers threatens the quality of education and safety for all district students. Note to the layoffs. >> Hi. Um, Michelle Krug. Um, when did you vote to allow AI to take over my ability to speak to my elected officials? As a blind woman, I showed up here and am confronted with told that I have to fill out a tablet to be able to speak and there was no school employee in sight anywhere. I looked around. I asked. You really need a person at that desk and you really need pen and paper for those of us that are not able to do that. Um mainly I came to support the classified workers. I do understand that we have numerous situations where there are supposed vacancies on paper but

210they are currently have substitutes in them. So it looks like they're vacant and those are the ones that are going to be excised, but in reality, you're going to leave the schools without the administration staff that they need. So please figure out a way to not lay off these essential educational folks that our kids really need. Okay. Um, good evening everybody. My name is Enedo Jstrada. I am the political director for the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council. Also here speaking on behalf of the San Diego Imperial County's Labor Council. Um, our students deserve the best. Whether it's the skilled and trade labor that builds the facilities that they're educated in, or the teachers that lead their lessons, or the unsung heroes, the classified staff that keeps our schools clean, our children fed and

211transported to class on time. Students deserve the best, as do these classified workers who keep our schools running. Right now, these classified workers are not getting the recognition, staffing levels, or compensation they deserve. In fact, the district has decided to lay off more than 120 of these workers. The result, our students lose critical support. our neighbors lose their jobs and our community suffers. We're here to ask that this board undo this vote, support these classified workers, and ensure our students, these workers, and this community receives the support they deserve. Thank you. Okay, the next group, Anna Ramos, Barbara Pinto, Jen RC, Nathan Pagador, and Monnique Barrett. Hello. Um, my name is Cassino Strick Smith. I'm a high school student and a student fellow at the Center on Policy Initiatives. As mentioned earlier uh on the

212topic of Bell Middle School, you mentioned you are watching this issue closely, but this issue does not need watching. It needs action. Bell's enrollment is expected to increase from 700 to 100 to 950 next year because of the closures. The district made this decision without family input and there is no clear plan to close the funding gap for the 2026 2027 school year. Bill's family demands the district give a clear and transparent plan for the next year that includes meaningful input from the families, including fully staffed a fully staffed Bell Middle School so that it reflects student needs, including additional mental health resources and a bilingual front office clerk. The only bilingual front office clerk that they had at Bell, a school which 60% of students speak Spanish, was one of the 120 school staff

213that received layoff notices. So please hear our needs and take decisive action to fund Bell Middle School so I and the students, parents, and teachers can say thank you to you. Good evening, Gordens and superintendent. My name is Nathan Pagador, vice president of distribution, CSEA's chapter 724 OSS. Again, I'm speaking in opposition to the cut. Actually, let me take my phone out of my pocket. Let me get my notes here. Yes, I took notes. So, superintendent, I appreciate the fact that you are trying to reassign staff instead of showing them the door. However, reassigning staff means you're taking away you're still taking bodies away from frontline positions to help students. At the same time, I would also like you to consider, especially in the distribution field, one vacant stock clerk position because that is one

214position that you could either reassign someone to or someone could be qualified to fill. Yeah. Should they be Yeah. should they lose the position. And I will also say also for Bell Middle School and also for the school clerk position in general. I know one of their job descriptions is to cons to cover the health office when there's no nursing staff. So if that person's gone, there's no nursing staff. That may fall to the principal, that may fall to who knows. Please reconsider the cuts. Thank you. Hi board, I'm back again. Monnique Barrett, SDA vice president. Good evening. I want to talk to you about something simple. Who do you believe keeps our schools running every single day? Because it's not just policy. It's not just leadership. It is people. It is our classified staff.

215It is the front office staff who hold families together. It is the PAR educators who support our most vulnerable students. It is the custodians who create safe and welcoming spaces. It is the workers who show up every day and make our and make sure our schools function. And right now, those are the very people at risk. I need you to understand something clearly, please. When you cut classified staff, you are not making a neutral decision. You are making a decision that will be felt immediately in all classrooms and on all campuses and in the lives of all children. Because when support disappears, students struggle. When relationships are broken, trust is lost. And when the foundation is shaken, everything above it starts to fall. So I'm asking you, do not balance the system on the backs

216of very people holding it together. Do not create instability in the name of stability. Choose people, choose students, choose the adults who make our schools work. Because in the end, this is not just about jobs. This is about whether we are willing to protect our children experiences every single day. and the and they experienced people. Please do the right thing. Stand with our classified staff. Protect their jobs. Protect our schools. Thank you. >> Okay. The next group of speakers, Justin Boon, Matthew Schneck, Keshana Christopher, Sierra, and Christopher Gomez. board member, thank you for your time, gave me time to talk today. My name Justin Bon. I'm working for San Unified School District for 41 years and I work part-time, I'm the only Cambodian interpreter for San Unified School District. And the bad news two weeks

217ago I received uh information about my uh my position will be lay off and I spent the 41 year in the district. Uh I want to retie uh with the district not in not this situation. If you can help me I really appreciate that because I've been uh helping the translation unit since 1984 until now. I've been through many superintendent. The first superintendent I I I Mr. Fjan he's my superintendent my first superendent superintendent when I first was come to uh this country in 1984. So right now I'm 64 years old. I want to retire safely and effectively next year. So if you can help me I really appreciate that. Thank you so much. Okay, the next group would be Alejandro Martinez, Ilsa Ram Rios, Huxley Sedari, and Jorge Garcia. 8:30 p.m. All right. May

218I start? Yeah. Uh, hello board. My name is Alejandro Martinez. I'm a community me community organizer at Mid City CAN and a proud member of EJC. I'm here to demand equitable funding for Bell Middle School, a campus that sits in the heart of Southeast San Diego, a community that has a deep history of inequitable funding and lack of resourcing. Unfortunately, I know firsthand what lack of resourcing in schools can do to a young person. Bell Middle School was my home school growing up. I saw many of my friends, including myself, participating in behaviors that did not make my community safer. I put others in harm, largely because an environment where I spent 40 hours of or more of my week did not meet my needs culturally, mentally, and spiritually. When we underresource and inequitably fund

219and staff our schools, we increase the likelihood of violence in our communities. Youth and families must be included in this process. Schools exist as second homes. As the young brother said here earlier, I ask that you fund Bell Middle School appropriately and in relationship to the 35% unexpected student increase this school year. An investment in our schools is an investment in public safety. >> Hello board. It's good seeing you again. and I spoke with some of you and I heard you. You're keeping Bell, you know, in your sights and I want to thank you with that. But I was going to talk about something else and I want to just relay a story with you. I teach lacrosse over here from Morris High School and we lost some games, but I reminded them not to

220focus on the scoreboard and focus on the real core values of this sport. All right? Learning to take care of each other and watch over each other. And I think this is what we have been trying to tell you. All right? Stop looking at the scoreboard. Don't pull up the spreadsheets. All right? Put the focus on them. All right? And to get them there, it requires the resources. It requires to watch over them. All right? This goes for the special educations, the front. Everybody's been saying we're missing a lot of blind sides here and we're printing out to you. So, let's stop looking at the scoreboard and let's focus on students and make sure that we execute correctly. Okay, the last group of speakers, Diane Wilkinson, Ian Ulola, Ramon Gomez, Don Bas, and Megan Glenn.

221Hi everybody. I'm Don Basquez as the OTBS president and I wanted to talk today. I I do appreciate the the phone call that we had Fabi on Friday. Um understanding that we're we're starting to make some moves. The difficulty I have is some of the comments that has been made, whether it's been in the media or the last comments on March 3rd about softening what was happening to our classified units. It is not fair. That is part of the disrespect we've been talking about. We have three units, OSS, OBS, and Paris. We do a lot. We we make this district work. And when you try to soften what's happening, how we have people that yes, maybe we can get them moved into situ other positions, which is awesome, but we have people that are losing

222hours, they won't be able to make their rent. We have full families that are losing their ability because they don't have the benefits anymore because they're moving to a position or being bumped to a position that is going to end that for them. That is not okay. We've got to stop this. It hurts everybody. Harm to one is harm to everybody. So, please think about reconsidering and doing things differently than how you've always been doing it. Well, I'm just going to reiterate what she said just a little more angry so you guys can hear it a little differently. Um, uh, tonight I stand with all classified. I'm glad you've noticed our advocacy, but not sure you've really heard us. If so, you would have been treating us as equal stakeholders from the start. You agree

223uh in words that student achievement uh equals classified staff that are essential to this goal, but your actions demonstrate otherwise. I like her, I'm so sick of this narrative that your adjustments, your reassignments, your bumping the bumping that we've all negotiated that may mitigate these loss losses. The work of these positions that you are eliminating doesn't go away. It is left to those already working beyond capacity. It is a stress on the system that is busting at the seams. These working conditions are the students learning conditions. Plus, these shifts and reassignments leave out the fact that there will be workers with less hours. They may be reassigned or bumped to a site that automatically is not as accessible to those that may rely on public transit. It means less time with family and probably higher

224health or childare costs. Budget cuts are not neutral. They have human consequence. If you believe classified are essential, they deserve your support in word. Indeed, stop making them do more with less. Give them the support and staffing to help them show you what they are truly capable of for their students. >> Hi, my name is the approved layoffs have on school sites. When you reduce the people who keep schools running, you reduce the support students receive. I also want to take my time to get ahead of the narrative that is being pushed that the people in positions being eliminated are getting saved. Dozens of OTBS members alone will be facing significant pay cuts even with this saving of jobs. That's not even looking at how many PAR and OSS will face. There are many employees

225losing such a large chunk of their hours that they're now facing a loss of benefits. Some going from about 40 to about 10 hours per week. Would you guys be able to pay your bills? Would you be able to take care of yourself or take care of your families? That's the situation you're putting dozens of classified employees in. Avoiding layoffs should not come at the cost of reducing employees standard of living. The harm has the harm has not been eliminated, just redistributed. Please resend the notices and give everyone their jobs, wages, hours, and benefits back and give students back the supports they need to succeed. >> Good evening. My name is Raone Gomez and I serve as the senior labor relations representative for the CSEA San Diego field office. I want to begin with a

226simple but important point. Every classified employee we're discussing today is here because this district made a decision to hire them. You selected them. You trained them. You passed them on probation. You trusted them to serve our students and community. They became a part of this system because you believed they were necessary. And now many of those same employees are being told they may no longer have a place here or that they have to accept something less and be grateful for it. That deserves reflection, especially when at the same time the district is moving forward with raises and protections for others. So this is not about a lack of funds. It's about those funds are being prioritized because redu when reductions are concentrated on classified staff, the very people providing daily direct student support. It raises

227fundamental questions about your priorities and how these decisions are being made. We hear that reassignment opportunities may reduce layoffs and that's important. But reassignment does not replace the loss of positions and services at school sites. is does not restore the supports students rely on and it does not maintain the capacity schools need to function effectively. Please reconsider the layoff recommendation. Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm Evelyn Clark. Um I am a parent of a student who attends Bell Middle School. As a military family, stability and proper educational support are essential for my family to survive. Over the past year, our son's IP was not consistently implemented. These were ongoing failures that directly impacted his education and this was when the school had more staff and more resources than it will have moving forward. So, we

228have a serious concern. How was the district meet students needs with less? We are thorough strongly opposed to any layoffs or reductions in funding at bell. Cutting staff in a school that is already struggling to meet student seats is not a solution. It will make things worse. It increases case loads, reduces support, and puts vulnerable students at even greater risk. This is about accountability. We are asking the district to explain how it will meet its legal obligations, how it's it will support students with increased needs, and who will be held accountable when those obligations are not met. Families should not be asked to accept less while needs are growing. Our students deserve full support, adequate staffing, and a system that works. Have a moral compass. Thank you. That concludes non-aggenda comment. Thank you everybody for

229addressing us tonight. We are adjourned and our next meeting is April 14th, 2026. Thank you.