001be a live stream and call the February 10th, 2026 regular meeting for the board of education to order. Where are our student trustees? Okay. With with three of our trustees present, the others will be here. Oh, student trustee or will not be here. Trustee went. Okay. All right. Now for our flag ceremony, the Lincoln High School Army JRTC color guard will present the colors. Please stand for the presentation of the colors. Hello. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. Trustee Wyn, would you please lead us? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Part time. >> All right. Thank you, Lincoln. Uh, land acknowledgement is a traditional custom that dates
002back centuries in many native nations and communities. Our land acknowledgement was developed in partnership with local Kumi leaders. Students from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts prepared the following video to show our respect for the Kumi people who are the original stewards of the land our school district occupies. We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumi people are the original inhabitants and caretakers of these lands now known as San Diego. Despite the attempted genocide and ongoing impacts of colonization, the Kumi spirit remains unbroken and their traditions continue to thrive as they carry the memories of their ancestors who bravely resisted cultural erasure and fought to protect their land and way of life. In honoring their legacy, we pledge to uphold their cultural heritage and right to safeguard their sacred connection to the land for
003future generations. >> With gratitude and strength, we stand with the Kumi, embracing the past while forging a brighter tomorrow. >> Okay, we will now move to item B, adoption of the agenda. Tonight's agenda includes an update on item on interim goal 4.1 college and career preparedness and the annual report from our district English learner advisory committee. Could we get a motion on today's agenda? Moved by trustee Hazen, seconded by trustee White Payne. Uh any discussion? Uh trustee Wyn, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. All right. Uh, 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
004sets 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 testimony 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. Please follow along with the agenda so that you know when your item is coming up for discussion. When you begin speaking, the green light below my name on the dis indicates that the timer has started. When the light turns yellow, you will have one minute remaining. A buzzer will indicate that your time has expired. If you have not yet done so
005and would like to sign up for in-person public comment, iPads are available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby. >> Thank you, Miss Stoultz. We will now hear a report from our student advisory board. Trusty Wyn, can you please provide our report? Yeah. So, I'd actually like to welcome my student engagement intern, Katherine Leang, to present the student advisory board report. Hello everyone. My name is Katherine Leang. I am a junior at Mission Bay High School and the student engagement intern for the secondary office. At our most recent student advisory board meeting on February 2nd, we discussed our current events, including the teacher strike and affordable housing for our district employees. We also reviewed the future school year calendars where our group provided input and ensured that all student perspectives were heard.
006Thank you so much for having me. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Any questions or comments for our student advisory report? Okay, great. Thank you. >> All right. Okay. We will now consider item C2, our resolution recognizing February 2026 as National Black History Month. Dr. Begoula has arranged for three students to join us tonight who recently won awards for their recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and please introduce our students. Superintendent, >> as we recognize Black History Month with the resolution, I also want to lift up the work of some of our students who are winners at a contest held by the YMCA of San Diego County. I know I was at the breakfast along with Deputy Superintendent Dit, and I know you were there too, Dr. Whitehurst Payne. Um, so while attending
007the human dignity award breakfast, four of our students were winners of the art, poetry, essay, and spoken word contest. Three of those students are with us tonight. I'm going to ask that they um say hello when I call their name. So Jayla Beltran from Horton Elementary School. Jayla. Yay. We also have Pavl Dewitin from Baloa Elementary School. Pav. And we also have Isa Gonzalez Tossano from Burbank Elementary School. Um, we do have a fourth student who was not able to join us tonight. Um, Havana Ashton from Lincoln High School. She won first place for her the high school category. But let's watch a short video about the winners and afterwards if we can all join to take a picture, I would really appreciate it. Let's watch the video. I submitted the the Martin Luther King
008statue think the in Washington DC rudder made me like admired for like his first place winning. So yeah like I wanted to try to make a craft but then I decided to make like the painting instead of a craft. So it and and I wanted something challenging. It's admiring the painting. When you paint, it actually makes you like it shows you history, but also you paint. So, it's kind of fun. It's about um Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did for us. So, and how we how they stopped I mean how he stopped segregation. So, I drew Martin Luther King's face um because um he that shows who he is and what he looks like. And this is the the photo um of when he was giving his speech about um about I have
009a dream. I really like drawing and I think and I thought that I could maybe win um by with my drawing. I draw Martin Luther King. I put a the same paper right behind it that that Esme posted and then I was tracing it. My mom said um if I do it, I get a surprise. I have been looking at the videos that had it Martin Luther King on YouTube. And what did you learn from about Martin Luther King? >> That I have a dream because um he wanted people to be the same. Thank you. I'm going to give you a round of applause. I was really proud to see all of you at that breakfast representing San Diego Unified. So, we wanted to make sure to take a picture with you and celebrate you.
010So, if you can come on up and we can come out to take a picture, I would really appreciate it. Is everyone ready? Everyone else? >> Yeah. do all >> congratulations. Can we get a motion on item C2? So moved by Trusty Whitehurst Payne, seconded by Trustee Hazen. Uh and we've got one public speaker. >> Yes, we have one public speaker, Ashken Jones. You have three minutes. >> Good evening, superintendent and trustees. Um I'm Ash Khan Jones representing Assembly Member Dr. Lache Sharp Collins of the 79th Assembly District. Um, we really appreciate both Dr. Whitehurst Payne and Trusty Hazen bringing this item forward as it not only celebrates the legacy of leaders like uh Dr. Whitehurst Payne, but leaders like my boss, the assembly member, people like Dr. Weber, people like Supervisor Montgomery Steppp and
011Councilman Henry Foster. It celebrates the the representation that we finally achieved um in this community here in San Diego and in this school district. And while we appreciate you bringing this item forward, it also highlights the work that is still to be done as far as uh the income inequality that the students of color um not only here in SD Unified, but across the state and San Diego County feel. And as this year as this year moves forward, 2026 moves forward, um we just look forward to working with the school district to continue on that work and deliver uh the brightest future that we possibly can for our students of color here in the district. So, thank you all for just bringing this item forward today. >> Thank you, Ash. >> Thank you, >> Dr.
012White P. >> And I want to say thank you. Thank you for those remarks and for taking the time to come. Uh this morning I had the opportunity to visit the um George Walker Smith Education Complex, the new building, the new facility that's being built to represent all of San Diego Unified School District. And we had a presentation before uh his family was there, his two um children and um grandchild of the uh third child. And believe it or not, you know, I'm tough, pretty tough, but there were a lot of tears there just seeing um pictures of him and um just the vision that he had on his face. It was almost like he could see today and um I was surprised to see his daughter and his granddaughters crying too. Um I just
013want to offer us all a word of encouragement and that is that this too shall pass and that we'll get through it. We will continue with the dream that we will make it over. We're we will overcome and um we will continue to do what we know is right, which is to recognize those who have gone before, who've given their lives to supporting all of us, not just one group or the other, but everybody that we all have a part in this equation. And uh I want to thank Lee Duggaroth while he's here because he has continued to pour um resources into recognizing all of us. So students, you talk about Dr. King, you'll know uh Reverend George Walker Smith also because he gave in this community to help you and all the children here
014in San Diego Unifi. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. White Payne. Trusty Hazen. Thank you. And thank you for reminding us, Trusty Whitehurst Pain, of his incredible contributions and that we'll be able to remember him in our new headquarters. I'm honored to join Trusty Whitehurst Payne to bring forward this resolution. Uh, and just want to remind us all that this isn't just about one month, but really about lifting up black excellence all year long and building a school district where black students are affirmed, supported, and given every opportunity to achieve their dreams. I was just uh looking at the new book. It's called The People Can Fly by Joshua Bennett. And he reminds us that black history isn't simply a story of struggle. It's a story of imagination, of joy, resilience, and boundless possibilities. And
015our schools must reflect that truth. And that's why this year's resolution pairs celebration with responsibility. We've added a new clause calling for the use of disagregated data to ensure accountability to confront disparities and to turn our values into positive outcomes for all of our black students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trustees. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Trustee W, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. Great. That passes unanimously. Okay, we'll now consider item C3, the resolution recognizing and honoring the Lunar New Year 2026. Uh, trustees win and Bazo, would you like to say a few words about this resolution? >> Thank you, President Barrera. um being a a proud representative of a district that has a a high um percentage of um Asian communities represented and having my students or my my
016own family go to school in this area and just learning a lot about stories about um the immigrants that have come to this country from many of these countries including Vietnam and just the trials and the things that they've gone through and um I'm So very proud to be able to support this resolution on behalf of all of those individuals who are such, you know, amazing, incredible parts of our community and um happy to be able to also partner on this resolution with our student board member. This mic is a little far from me today. So, um, as Lunar New Year or what my family calls th is approaching, um, I would just want to take a moment and recognize and celebrate the new year, which, um, as Trusty Basel mentioned is celebrated by a
017a lot by a good chunk of our students in San Unified. And I just wanted to talk about how th is a time for renewal, gratitude, and hope. And it's really a moment for us to honor our ancestors, honor what we've accomplished throughout the year and gather with our loved ones and look ahead into the new year that's coming um with health, um happiness, and prosperity. and the traditions, the history, the cultural values that are associated with Lunar New Year. It really enriches our school communities and it reflects the diversity that makes San Unified so strong. Um, I just wanted to extend my thank you to all of our students and families who celebrate um this new year and even to those who don't. Um because in my family we say thank you to everyone
018>> for being here with us. So may the new year bring us peace, success and joy. Um and in Vietnamese we call it. >> Thank you. Thank you Trusty W. Thanks for thanks for helping us understand and learn more about the new year. Okay. Uh we need a motion. Trustee W. Thank you. And seconded by Vice President Bazo. Uh no public speakers. Okay. Uh Trusty Win, please vote. >> All other trustees. All right. Thank you. Was great. Oh, not me. Okay. All right. Okay. That motion passes unanimously. Um, >> did you want to let the families exit if they want to leave? The families might want to leave at this point. >> Oh, yes. Uh, if if you can, you're welcome to stay, but if you uh if you need to. Yeah. >> Okay. Uh,
019under item D1, do we have any reportable actions from the close session? >> We do not. Thank you. And Superintendent uh, Bulib, administrative assignments. >> I have three leaders to welcome to new positions. I'm very excited to celebrate um, two associate principles. Associate principal for Mira Mesa High School, David Silva. Congratulations and associate principal for Crawford High School, John Larkin. And last but not least, because I see him back there with his family, I want to give a very warm welcome to our new principal at Ibara Elementary, Mr. Jeremiah Ellard. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for joining us tonight. >> All right. Thank you, Superintendent. And uh can you give us your information report? So, um, this was written in the spirit of, uh, good news. I don't know about you, but I can use
020some good news. So, everything on my report is good news, including celebrating what we last did, um, just a few I'm going to say a few days ago because it feels a few days ago, but I don't think we celebrated and stood enough in our housing workshop recap. So, I'm going to start there. Um, the cost of living in San Diego is one of the highest in the nation. As the second largest school district in the state, we're doing everything within our authority to support our staff and educators to have a good quality of life. From pay that's higher than the state average for school districts to fully funded benefits, and now we're adding affordable housing to that list. Last month, our board of education took important action to ensure our workforce has the opportunity
021to live in the communities they serve. I am proud to say we have nearly 3,000 units of affordable housing in the pipeline to be built on San Diego Unified owned properties. We have some more due diligence to do on the proposals. The board decided to move on to the next round. But assuming they all hold up, we're on track to more than double the amount of housing ever built by school districts. It's rec we're being recognized for this bold move. Dana Cuff, founder of City Lab, a center in UCLA's architecture and urban design department, said, "I think once San Diego is successful at this, other districts are going to follow suit." And Greg Francis, the education workforce housing project lead at the California School Boards Association said, "Sandy San Diego Unified is positioning itself as
022the undisputed leader in workforce housing in the state and actually in the country. The district is setting a new bar with other districts should be inspired by what they're doing. So, our commitment to creating affordable housing for at least 10% of our workforce is an important one and there's still a lot of work to do, but everyone in this district should be proud of the work we're doing in this space. So, I just wanted to sit in it because I think we're tired after two days, but it is a big deal and I want to just celebrate us. So, thank you very much for all of your support, trustees. Um, the second celebration, um, I'm going to call on Dr. Dorsey. Our advocacy work at the state and federal levels is very important to the
023work that we do to educate students every day. Last week, we learned that Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs and the San Diego congressional delegation was able to secure an 850,000 appropriation so we can create mobile washer and dryers for our students and families who experience homelessness. >> It's Dr. Dorsy Dorsy, I don't know how you're going to pull it off, but I I believe in you. >> All right. Student wellness is our top priority and being able to provide access to this type of services at our schools helps boost students confidence which helps them excel in the classroom. We already have some schools that have on-site stationary laundry for children who need it, but this will allow us to help even more students at more schools. Right now, we're working through those next steps on receiving the
024funds and starting to create the specifications. But thank you, Dr. Dorsey, for leading the way. Thank you. And to conclude my superintendence report, I would like to share with you that some of our schools and our school leaders are being recognized by prestigious organizations. Um, ENCUST, the national uh center for urban school transformation. Um, our schools were selected as finalists for 2026 national best urban schools award. They are Dwey Elementary, Garfield Elementary, NY Elementary, Seoia Elementary, and Sulk Elementary. Among hundreds of schools across the United States, only 26 met the National Center for Urban School Transformation's rigorous criteria to earn honor role distinction and our four schools were part of the 17 finalists. Each school will be visited by the National Center for Urban School Transformation to gain a deeper understanding of each school's culture,
025leadership, curriculum before the winners are announced later this year. The ACORN Awards given by Voice of San Diego, Edison Elementary, and Mission Bay High School are being recognized by Voice of San Diego and will receive their ACORN award that celebrates schools that go above and beyond to serve student populations in March. Both Edison Elementary and Mission Bay High School will be recognized during a special event. Our outstanding African-American educators of the year by the National Sority Fe Delta Kappa, Inc., Two of our San Diego Unified um outstanding leaders are being recognized this year by the National Sority and that's Dr. Dorsey area E superintendent is being honored for his unwavering commitment to educational equity, community partnership and innovative leadership and Ebony Weathers, executive director of equity belonging, is being recognized for her courageous systems level
026leadership rooted in equity, radical love and belonging. Both will be recognized for these outstanding achievements on Saturday at 39th at the 39th annual outstanding African-American Educators Awards Breakfast at San Diego State. I'm almost done, but see, I told you it was going to be good news. We needed it. Um, Association of California School Administrators, AXA, and the San Diego County School Board Association Region. So, two different organizations. We have four educators who were named winners of different awards presented by these two organizations. 2026 AXA region 18 administrator of the year Dr. Erin Richardson senior executive director of school networks for central office. Congratulations Dr. Richardson and Heather Potter, principal of Knox Knox Middle School for middle school grades principal. Congratulations Heather as well. We also have Scott Sodac member and past president for parent volunteer
027of the year. So I'm going to give him a round of applause too. And last, but certainly not least, the 2026 San Diego County School Boards Association School Board Member of the Year, our very own Dr. Sharon Whitehurst Payne. >> That's my good news report. Thank you so much, Superintendent Bula. We definitely needed that good news. Okay, we'll now hear item E1, a student outcomes focused governance progress monitoring report, and this is on interim goal 4.1, college and career preparedness, tracking completion of our A to G course requirements with a grade of C or higher. Superintendent, please introduce the item. >> Thank you. Um, when this board received the first progress monitoring report in September, we grounded ourselves in two commitments. First, the graduating students with a meaningful diploma requires more than meeting minimum requirements.
028And second, that sustained improvement depends on our ability to monitor progress early, intervene intentionally, and learn as a system. Tonight's report builds directly on that foundation. It is the next checkpoint in the same body of work, not a new conversation and not a separate initiative. Across San Diego Unified, more students are graduating and more students are leaving high school prepared for what comes next. As of today, the class of 2025 is graduating at a rate of just over 90% and nearly 67% of those students are meeting the state's definition of college and career preparedness. that places us as above prepandemic levels and ahead of other large urban districts across California. That progress is very real and it matters because it does not happen by accident. It reflects the same systemwide focus this board discussed in
029September. Real time monitoring of student progress, earlier course correction when students fall off track, and stronger coordination between educators, counselors, and school leaders to keep students moving toward graduation and post-secary readiness. At the same time, tonight's item is not about celebrating outcomes alone. It is about examining where that progress is occurring, who it's reaching, and where the work remains uneven. Particularly for our spotlight students whose success continues to be central to our equity commitments. This report will walk the board through updated data on college and career readiness, A throughG progress, and spotlight student outcomes. It will also highlight where targeted supports are helping students exit spotlight status and where additional focus is required to accelerate progress. With that, I'd like to invite um our staff up to the dis um to walk us through the
030data and trends and the implications for our next steps of leadership decisions. I want to welcome Dr. Aaron Richardson, senior executive director of school networks, Dr. Jen Robersonson, executive director of the office of graduation, and Dr. Dr. Domander Rosario, director of data insights, systems and supports. Thank you team. Thank you. >> Thank you, Marty. I'm going to wait for Marty to finish. tried to smarten up the board. >> Good idea. >> I promise Dr. Robersonson will explain. >> Well, good evening, Superintendent Dr. Bugula, board president Barrera, Vice President Bazo, and trustees. Um, tonight we are going to present our updated report um specifically 4.1. Um but we also wanted to provide some data since the last time we presented in September. Um the dashboard and the data wasn't finalized from the state of California. So
031we will be reviewing um our data that has been formally published by the state of California. So our first goal uh our overarching goal really is about our students graduating but also being prepared by the state of California's definition of college and career um preparedness and the indicator. So when we first started this in 2023 we had the percent of 59.9 with the goal of us reaching in 2030 uh 71.9%. So the overarching goal I wanted us to remind ourselves of what the state says is college and career prepared. You'll see you have a larger piece of this so that you can actually read it because it's quite small. Um in addition to receiving a three or higher on smarter balance assessment by literacy is also acknowledged along with CTE pathway completion, college course completion,
032API. So there's a lot of different metrics um that the state has defined as um college and career prepared. So I wanted to talk a little bit, we've seen this graphic before and while it is um beautiful. Uh there's a lot going on in here and want to remind us that this really comes from the research from the University of Chicago and the research that started in uh Chicago really came from Chicago public schools and the fact that their incoming ninth graders only 57% of their incoming ninth graders in 2006 graduated within four years. And so the call to action by not only the city but also by the University of Chicago was to really look in and see what was happening with the ninth graders and why they were not graduating because the the
033public said it couldn't be a flip of a coin. Maybe you graduated, maybe you didn't. And so what they realized was that ninth grade was more predictive than gender, than race, than economics. And so they really started to look at what ontrack meant. And they defined an on-track definition which they've iterated in the last 20 years. Our work has really been grounded in the research from the University of Chicago. And so when you take a look at this graphic graphic and you look at the um octagon shape that's up there, those were the five levers that they said really changed nth grade success in their system. So by freshman teaming, what this is is adults coming together and talking about student progress in the classroom. What did it look like? How does Aaron show up
034in your classroom versus um a different classroom? What might be the needs? Looking at that bridging and transition that happens between eth and nth grade. Recognizing that though some systems may have a sixth period or four period day, there's still a difference of the gravity of a grade and how it follows you and teaching students about that. Having strategic scheduling. Some of that meant like sharing teachers, cohorting students to make sure that teachers have a common set of students to talk about, recognizing the impact of strong adult relationships, and then looking at those grading practices and what's happening in instruction in the classroom. So, while those were the levers that Chicago um came up with and they've really monitored those and a lot of our schools have taken this work on as well, we realized
035that there were three levers that we knew that we could control with a college and career index. And that was A throughG, CCT or CTE completion and early college access. And by early college access, I mean our CCAP classes that are at our community college, but also our AP and IB programs. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Del Rossario who's going to share our data. >> So good evening trustees. Um good evening uh Dr. Bagula. So as Dr. Richardson mentioned, uh this is our overall goal for is by the class by the class of 2030 uh we would have 71.9% of our students who graduate be college and career ready and uh what you see there with the dotted line started off from 2023 is aspirational. We wanted to continuously improve over time
036and every year see an increase uh year over year. That's really the the approach that we're taking just continuous improvement learning by doing. And what we see here between 24 uh and the cohort of 2025 is a much bigger increase than what we had projected or what we had planned. We uh reached that point of 66.6% where we had previously come to this board and shared that our goal was to reach 64.4 for the class of 2025. So that's something worth celebrating that is and you'll see in uh other slides how that compares in terms of the context throughout the state. But I I think what's most encouraging is that often we see increases, but those increases aren't consistent across different student groups. And what we see too often is that those student groups that
037are historically on the margins tend to have smaller gains than other groups. But this isn't the case um with many of these student groups. As you could see, uh the black student group, Hispanic student group, uh socioeconomically disadvantaged students, they all did better than the district average. So that's always a positive sign that we're closing the gap. We still have a long way to go as you could see, but we're closing the gap. Next slide. Um if we take a look at the preparedness indicator um you'll see that we started with 2017 and the reason we start with 2017 is this is when the state first published the CCI indicator and we were at 53.3. Um so you can see our progression through the years. I want to also recognize that 2021 and 2022 are
038missing because the state did pause during that COVID time on the CCI index. Um and I do also want to state that the increase in this is because we are bringing together leaders and um counselors together to look at data more than four times a year um to really look and see like how are our students progressing and what are the moves that we can make um in real time to make sure that our students are successful. We have one coming up at the end of the month. Um and then also the learning and coaching in our communities of practice. This is top of mind as they are working and walking in classrooms. So this is the comparison that uh u Roman brought up is like how do we compare to our large urban districts
039and you will see that more than 6% were exceeding um their growth. So, I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Robersonson, who is going to take us deeper into um more specifically our 4.1 progress monitoring. >> Good evening. As Dr. Richardson and um Dr. Del Rosario mentioned it's important to frame this in that first we need to get our students to graduate and second then the um state of California then recognizes of the students that we graduate how then are they measured on that CCI indicator. So part of our goal as the department of uh graduation alongside our high school administrators is to really take a look at this interim goal of monitoring the progress of spotlight students and all of our students. But for the purpose of this interim goal, we'll highlight um
040what we are doing in monitoring for our spotlight students, but know that this is applicable to all of our students across our schools. So, um, not only do we have that umbrella goal of meeting our graduation rate and then increasing our, um, UC A3G preparedness and our CCI indicator, we also have a goal that's um, really focused on ensuring that our spotlight students are on track for A throughG completion. And when we talk about A3G completion, we mean with a C or higher. It's important to recognize that San Diego Unified still has um the allowability for us to graduate with a D. Um when a student earns a D, then they are off track for UC uh CSU eligibility. So we have set annual goals that then um we progress monitor to get us to
041our our ultimate goal of increasing that. But we had to dig a little deeper um systemically and ask ourselves along with our high school principles and our counselors how are we going to monitor student progress in the moment from year to year and what do we mean by that? So um uh the office of graduation along with our data insights team went out and met with counselors and site leaders to develop what you see here um of how we are going to monitor A throughG on trackness for all of our students and our spotlight students. So I'll just start off with the nth and tth grade year but you'll see that it compiles upon each other as we progress. It is our expectation that um at the end of the ninth grade year, our students
042would have earned a C or higher or be in progress of earning a C or higher in science, math, and English. And we are monitoring that at every single grading report um that we have available, whether it's a progress report or a final grade mark. Then at the conclusion of the nth grade year, we will then um be able to provide data that says this amount of students is on track for A throughG C or higher. And then as we progress to the 10th grade year, we're really looking at okay, if a student was off track their nth grade year, are they in progress of making that up their 10th grade year? Um recovering those D's and Fs. So we look at two years of English, two years of math. You'll see there the WH
043is world history. um majority of our students in the 10th grade have that that requirement. And then we have uh two science courses. So this is our benchmark that we're monitoring student on trackness for A throughG completion with a C or higher. And if you uh just noticed at each grade level, it it compiles on top of each other. So, we'll hold on to that as we continue out um this presentation so that when we talk about progress monitoring, we're really um taking a look at these benchmarks. Um this is a very important slide. This monitors you're going to see I'll first start off on the graph on the left and then I'll talk about the comparison rate. Um you're going to see the both the bar graph and then the I don't even know
044what to call it but little scale graph on top. um the the little bar graph on top, I think that's what it's called, is our graduation rate. And then the um underneath part is the percentage of our of those graduates that um graduate UC CSU eligible. Um, but I want to pause at the 2009 uh year because this was very important to us as a district because we noticed um our community noticed, our board of education noticed that um we were tracking our students whether it was um unintentionally or overtly. we said we need to pause this and we need to course correct and we need to ensure that we are um offering a meaningful diploma and that all of our students had access and opportunity to take A3G courses. So our board um with
045community input switched our diploma pathway um in June 9th of 2009 to say um the first class of 2016 will graduate A throughG compliant. And so, um, that was really important to mention because then we then track moving forward each graduation rate, uh, per year and then those students that graduated the percentage of students that were UC A3G compliant. So, you'll notice um that we have progressed um, and we've gone up and down with regards to the fluctuation during our COVID period and our waiver period. But note that we are starting to move on an upward trend again for both our graduation rates and our UC A3G completion rate. And then on the far far right, what you're going to see is a comparison of the overall grad rate um for each of our student
046groups and then the A throughG completion rate. What I would like to point out to you is um similar to what Dr. Del Rosario pointed out um we have work to do with our students with disabilities and our English learners. So, while we are gradually increasing our graduation rates, what this data tells us for our students with disabilities and our English learners is we have work to do with ensuring that our students are being placed in A throughG courses, that they have time within their schedule to remediate or recover any mistakes that they make throughout their educational journey, and that we're actively monitoring our student progress. So while we are um making increases and celebrate successes in some areas, we know that we need to dig a little deeper and work more closely with the
047schools on that. This is another graph that compares our um A throughG. Well, you'll see two data points on this. San Diego Unifi's on the far left. Um the state of California is right next to us. and then large urban schools um in comparison with on the bottom you're going to see the grad rate and then on the top what you're going to see is the A throughG completion rate. So you'll notice that San Diego Uni Unified um does far out pretty well with regards to both our graduation uh rates and and um our A3G completion rates. So the work that Dr. Richardson had mentioned with regards to our levers and us working closely with our high school principles, instructional coordinators, and counselors. Um, we are confident in the research and the levers that we're
048using to move the dial for our students. So to continue with this work in reference to our spotlight students again you'll see an incremental goal over time. Uh what you may notice is that this goal of increasing our A throughG for our spotlight students is larger than the goals that we set forth for um all students uh in the college career goals that we shared earlier in the uh previous slide. It was a 1 and a.5% increase a year. This is uh aspiring for and planning for a 3% increase every year. again the group is farther behind and it's consistent with what we're trying to do is to close that gap and accelerate the progress. Now, one of the the challenges that we have as we're in the third full year of implementation of our
049spotlight student initiative and what we have done is provided guidance to the school sites that every year they're to review all their students and after the six week progress report that's their final opportunity to curate and select 15% of the students who are farthest behind in terms of their grades in GPA. High school spotlight student criteria is based very much on GPA. So in a way it it feels like we're uh the best way to to describe what I've heard is it just feels unfair. You know at the six week mark we're telling everyone pick your students who are farthest behind and now a few weeks later we're telling them why are so many kids behind? You know if that makes sense. Um, but what we're ignoring in this data when we're looking at the
050progress of our spotlight students is what about the students that were previously spotlight students and are no longer spotlight students. And I think that's an important point to bring up as we think about our cohorts and the success and the efficacy of the efforts that we're making. So in the next slide, we try to tease it out and get a better understanding of what's going on with our spotlight students. So what you see here across the three different color bands is uh the darkest one represents all students. So if I start on the left, I'm looking at my ninth grade students after quarter 2 and semester 1. So this is after the first semester finished. And you could see that the majority of nth graders, 81.6, 6. I'm not wearing my glasses, but 81.6 are
051on track for A throughG, that means that they received a C or better in English, science, or math, and they're enrolled in those courses. Um, now, if you look at the light blue, that number represents the current students that were selected this year as spotlight students at the six week mark. What percentage are on track for A through G? That's step forward. But then what we did is we pulled out the students who were previously identified as spotlight students. In this case, it would have been in middle school, but over the last three years, these are students who we uh listed as they exited spotlight. So, they weren't identified as spotlight students. And you could see they're doing well. They were spotlight students and they're doing almost as well as the average for our entire
052district, which is quite notable. Now, you don't see that same pattern exactly reflected in every grade, but you do see it consistently where those students that were formally spotlight students are doing uh better than the the current spotlight students that we selected this year. And it's just evidence that uh the work that we're doing in building the foundation for our spotlight students is translating in better grades. C's are better in A throughG courses. and this work. I I just want to add um some of the nuance. Um we have um new to this year, we've trained every principal, every instructional coordinator, and all the high school counselors on very specific uh A throughG dashboards. So, when we're looking to improve A throughG rates, uh really the way I think about it is like it's the
053battle to prevent D's and remediate D's because, uh we're um getting students to pass a class with a D may keep them on track for graduation, but really what prevents us from meeting our goals for A throughG is when we don't remediate those D's. And often what that's a result of us waiting too long. Uh so by having benchmarks and really having the tools so uh today any counselor at any school can see exactly what ninth grader needs to be. And now with so many of our schools in 4x4 there's a possibility that those remediations could happen during the school year. They can make those adjustments quarter 3, quarter 4. And with our benchmark dashboard, A3G dashboard, those students will then be labeled on track because they're enrolled in the appropriate class and if they
054uh get a C or better, they'll be on track for A throughG. Um so in addition to that dashboard that allows us to find the students, uh we have tools that we've developed for counselors, uh where previously we were very tight in monitoring on track for graduation. We've added dimensions where every student attached to their profile, we have an A throughG on track and we continue to share that with our instructional coordinators, provide trainings with our counselors. And I I want to just um kind of tease what's up in the near horizon is we've been talking about what we refer to as a college and career student app and we're on target to roll that out this semester. So I think a missing piece is often our counselors, our teachers are the gatekeepers of this
055information and often the students aren't even 100% sure whether they're on track or they're not on track. So all of this is going to translate into um a tool that students are we're going to spend time that students understand if they're on track and if they're not on track, why they're not on track and how they could be coming on track. So, I look forward to sharing more about this uh app in the coming uh weeks and months as we roll it out in the high schools this semester. >> We've shared some data and the theory of action and the levers of how we are moving the dial with our student outcomes. um and we have identified a high school and a high school leader that we would like to um share with all of
056you this evening. I have the honor of presenting on behalf of Morris High School in in the place of Dr. Cynthia Lurin who is the principal at Morris High School. She couldn't be here this evening, so I hope that I do her the great honor of representing her school. Well, um I'd be remiss to not recognize that um Dr. Dr. Cynthia Larkin is a phenomenal African-American leader and educator. She is a lifelong learner. She um is a leader that I love, respect, and admire and she walks the walk. Um she is a transformational leader. She is a coach, a principal coach, participates in our community of practices where she works alongside our um middle and high school colleagues who are a part of her community of practice. Um she also shares much of what um
057she has led through and continues to lead through at Morris at our data collaboration meetings with our high school principles where we often share our best practices. So she is a leader that we can learn and grow from. Um so I think it's important to recognize that. I also think it's important to recognize that um Dr. Larkin has been at Morris for over 23 years. So once a tiger, always a tiger. Um she was 14 years as an English teacher at Morris High School, left for a small little blimp to get some administrative experience at Claremont High School and then returned to Morris High School as a principal and she's on her ninth year there. She's led them through a full WASK accreditation and much of that um I would attribute to her leadership. She
058has a laser-like focus on instructional practices and building a positive school culture. So um I would also like to recognize Markeel Lincoln who is associate principal and Nanica Jones the associate principal. They are a a collective team of phenomenal African-American uh leaders at that site. And then also attribute much of the work to their counselors and then their staff at Morris High School. One of the things that I would like to highlight that uh Morse has done extremely well on and with is building the strong student adult relationships on their campus. I was recently asked by a colleague in our district, why does this matter? And I would like to remind us that we have a wellness school because first and foremost, in order to get our students to graduate, in order for us to
059ensure that they're literate and mathematically sound, they have to be well enough to come to school and they have to feel that they belong and that they are connected. And so tonight, I share with you the amazing work that Dr. Lurin and her staff have done to build a culture on their campus where there is strong adult student relationships and they actively work on these by introducing strategies that they learn with the county through SD9UP. And so um there are some schoolwide strategies that that you see um on this slide where you would think to yourself, shouldn't these be the norm everyday practices where students are greeted at the door when they enter or exit a building? That is not the norm on any of our school campuses and I would encourage you even though
060we have those aspirational goals. Um we need to lean into these levers because it is not often the experience of our our students let alone our spotlight students. So schools do strategic work in ensuring that we are welcoming our students on a daily basis, that there's connection happening and that every adult on the campus or every student on the campus feels seen and feels heard and that they're connected with an adult champion on their campus. Um, as a staff, they co-created classroom expectations and agreements so that when a student walked into my classroom or Aaron's classroom, they had the same exact experience. Um and and the students got to have a voice in what those expectations could look and feel like. Um they got to know their students by administering a get to know you
061survey where they asked questions and for the first time students expressed to them, I had never been asked these questions like what excites you? What are you interested in? What are you passionate about? And then the admin team, they they modeled this for their staff by um asking their staff, what is it that you want us to know as an administrative team? And I highlight those things because it does matter. We um as students and even we as adults want to feel seen and heard and have this sense of belonging. So they intentionally add in interventions um that are strategic and these are strategies that they've learned from the county that they implement um on a daily basis. So, I offered to you um we we at Morris adopted the um all all teachers had
062to adopt at least three spotlight students where they intentionally got to know the spotlight students by using that 2x10 uh intervention strategy where you're asking students deliberate questions about themselves. Um there is a practice at Morris that after every grading period they are monitoring grading reports. meaning if I were to then issue D's and Fs or if I've noticed that a student has been absent for five days, the question um that that is posed back to them is what are we going to do differently um to ensure that our students are seen and heard and are connected to the learning. Um the one thing uh that I want to highlight that I provided as an exhibit before you is that another practice that they've implemented this year which is really critical to ensuring that our
063students um feel seen is that they have implemented a strategy called we see you postcards and each of you have a postcard in front of you um as well as how they implement it but it's not just about celebrating the successes they write postcards to students students about resilience, grit, um try again next time. You did well, but let's try this again. And so the ask of the staff is that after each grading period, let's take a look at our students. Let's acknowledge them and and send them a postcard. Attached with that is a smarty. If you happen to have had the postcard that said, "You're all that and a bag of chips," you would have got a bag of chips with that. Um but when um when we have talked to students about this
064practice, you'd be amazed that many high school students said this is the first time ever that they've been recognized by an adult, whether it was at home or whether it was at school. So when a student um feels seen, when they feel heard, and that they know that an adult champion is on their campus, they feel more connected. And so that is something that we want to highlight. That is a bright spot and Morris does it well and we can learn from a lot of the strategies that are taking place at Morris. What I'd like to really celebrate is you see four students here um at Morris High School. They're all 11th graders. Um I had the opportunity to interview two of the two of the students. The other two were not feeling well. Um
065and the reason why uh we identified these four students is because upon um entering Morris High School, they had below a 2.0. know um in their middle school uh careers and so that put them on the list of spotlight students. So immediately as Dr. Richardson said, Morris um we do freshman teaming activities. We do the bridging is what we call from the transition to 8th to 9th grade year. Um Belle and Morris work really well together with um introducing themselves and connecting. Uh so that's very beneficial. Um so I had the opportunity to meet with Maya in the middle um middle Maya Lawrence an 11th grade student and DaVon Lopez an 11th grade students and I would just like to highlight a few things that they wanted us to know about Morris and their experience
066uh at Morris. Um first I I need to mention that Maya and Davon both have above a 2.0. So, it's important to recognize that while they entered into high school, um with all the strategies and supports, they uh now have above a 2.0 and have recovered some of their their mistakes that they may have made. Um I think it's important to note that when we talk to teenagers, there is a recognition and we all have recognized this at some point in our journey with working with high schools, ninth grade year. when you go in when you leave a middle school um and you go into high school as a ninth grader, it could be somewhat uh scary in terms of um the environment being with older students, the um workload, if you will. Morris is
067a 4x4 school. So what um the two spotlight students articulated is that they really are appreciative of a 4x4 school because of the workload reduction. And so both students um emphasized that when I left my middle school, I had six classes that I didn't really uh see a connection to to a 4x4 structure where it was less of a workload and now I'm taking courses that I'm really interested in. And so DaVon um lifted up uh that he is really interested in and really connects math with auto body. And so he is a student that thrives in math. And he uh wanted me to share with everyone that when he goes into auto he's not thinking that it's class, he's not thinking about math. All he's thinking of is the opportunities that he now has
068afforded to him. What he also wanted uh me to share is that um one of the strategies Morris is a um schoolwide AVID school and so all of their students participate in AVID. He really appreciated the AVID strategies that he learned because what what he shared with me is that um in his home English isn't the first language. So he struggled with literacy and reading comprehension and AVID class gave him the strategies to break down um different texts so that he could accelerate and so he attributes much of his um success to his auto body teacher and his math teacher. Those are the two teachers that he felt have u really uh connected with him and um kept pushing him to excel. And then we have Maya. Maya um is really interested in culinary arts
069but has a passion of writing and so she is currently taking uh an African or I'm sorry an American literature uh through the African-American perspective course that she really uh appreciates and I'd like to mention that Dr. Cynthia Larkin is the one who authored that course for San Diego Unified and Morris has um s since we adopted that that class um Morris has been a school that has offered that class. So Maya has really appreciated that course and is connected to that course um and uh she wanted me to share that without culinary it's something that she's really passionate about. So both of our students lifted the fact that they um appreciate our CCTE pathways. They want to see more of the cert certifications offered to our students, more awareness. Um, but that they wanted
070to emphasize that at Morris High School, um, their educators and their leaders and their counselors really see them. They can go into the counseling office, no matter if it's not their counselor, and see a counselor. Um, and that they know that someone on the campus cares about them. And so that was really important to note. And um what I started to say and I never finished that thought is that often we see in the ninth grade year our students have not yet um matured academically. They don't recognize in middle school our grades while they count they don't count on a transcript. Meaning what you see on your your report card is not on a high school transcript that's going to take you into college. It is often at the conclusion of the ninth grade year,
071the beginning of a 10th grade year that it's an aha moment for a high school student that my grades really do matter. And so both of those students lifted up that without the help and support of the educators on the campus during their nth grade year. They wouldn't have had that aha moment and and at the 11th grade year, they no longer feel like they um are trying to catch up because they're on track now. So I thought that was very important to highlight. um they do know and recognize that their leadership appreciates them and is there for them as well. Um one of the things that the board uh also asked of us is to progress monitor with regards to the adoption of the alternative sequence diploma. So I'm going to segue from our
072A throughG monitoring to our progress u monitoring of our um alternative sequence. So I'd like to remind the board that we adopted the alternative se sequence last year. Um and so we're tracking for the they would be the first class class of 2026 for the approval of the alternative sequence. So there was this um belief that perhaps we would have a large number of students that were uh participating or earning the alternative sequence. And I'd like to share with you that that's not the case. There are some things that I'm going to discuss in the subsequent uh slide that will lift up some action items that we need to take in order to if we are going to move students in the alternative sequence, we need to take a look at as an organization. So,
073I've listed the schools for you. Hoover has two students um that gained approval. Kernney High has one, La Hoya has one, and Mission Bay has three. So, what we've learned from that is third year of math. we really as a district need to explore an alternative to integrated math 3. And so we have a work group that's meeting that's comprised of our instructional team. We have um uh high school leaders and counselors that are also participating in this as well as math educators and we're exploring alternatives um to meet the equivalency of integrated math 3. Um the additional thing that we uh noticed is that we really need if a student is going to move on to the alternative sequence, they really needed to have started a CCT pathway their ninth grade year. 11th grade
074year is too late. And so one of the the key takeaways from this is that we just met with our high school counselors. Um, we also have what we call a PLC of high school counselors where we said, um, we want everyone to start off on A through G, but we also want everyone to start off on a CCT pathway. And so, let's figure that out as a community and how we can make that happen. So, that was another learning. Um, another learning uh is really around this change in mindset. Um, we need more opportunities for our students to be able to take college courses in ninth and tth grade. So, we through unintended consequences have come up with some obstacles and barriers at our high schools as to why we don't permit 9th grade
075and tth grade students to take college courses. So, we're working through those um at each of our school sites. There was a recent um passage where we allow ninth grade to to take it at at the community college, but in the past ninth graders were disenouraged, if you will. Um so we're working through that right now. And then finally, uh, what we've learned from all of this, um, throughout these past couple months and throughout our time, um, working in the office of graduation alongside our high school principles, counselors, and instructional coordinators is, as um, Dr. Del Rosario mentioned, we do need uh, to as a district develop criteria for when and if we exit our spotlight students with high school principles and are we going to monitor cohort data and what that looks and feels
076like. So, we're having those internal conversations now. We meet um as Dr. Richardson said in secondary data collaborations both with middle school and high school principles where we continue to learn and grow from one another. We also replicate that with high school principles, middle school principles, and elementary principles. Um we are actively monitoring um student grades and transcripts for immediate course correction. Um, if we're not aware, each of our high schools do have what we call extended day or night school. Um, 4x4s can immediately uh have students remediate and course correct, but if you are a school that does not have that opportunity, then we do have what we call night school after school credit recovery courses that a student can do that instead of waiting until summer. So, um, with the dashboards that that
077Dr. Del Rosario mentioned we actively monitor any type of course correction that we could be making. Um and then finally um we are going to reestablish reconvene the meaningful diploma workg group to really continue to monitor diploma progress of our students and discuss any uh additional barriers unintended consequences of policy design. um because it's not until we have conversations with counselors when they're working with students on a daily basis that we don't recognize some of the things that they see um that we could then explore together. So with that it concludes our presentation and we'll open up for Q&A. >> All right. Thank you so much Jen, Erin and Roman. Really really terrific report. No public speakers. Okay. Board members Dr. Wers. Excellent report. I am delighted sitting here just nodding and really excited. First
078question I guess maybe goes to Rossario and that is um are we setting our goals too low? I mean instead of saying we want to go to 90, can we go to 100? I know back it up a couple. We're going for everyone and then if we don't make it okay. that we're really shooting to ensure that every child and it sounds like you've put the mechanisms in place to work through it. I love the idea that we're not waiting till graduation and we're all standing there looking stupid because a child has not um met the requirements. And it's really not reflective of that child. It's reflective of the system that we would allow a child to go through four years or it took 12 13 years and not be successful in the sense that
079they didn't know what their requirements are. And I've seen them standing there looking like oh did I have to take that or was that a requirement? Uh hello no one told you that in the whole time you were there. So, I love it that you're monitoring not only on an annual basis, but on a quarterly basis, on a halfyear basis, you're staying on track with the children. And I know that's really kind of irritating some of them who want to procrastinate, but the parents are probably delighted that you know where every child is. And I never forget that child at Challenger where they could go in and Debbie um went in and could tell me every where that child was, knew everything about him. That's the way it should be for every child. And by
080pulling up the spotlight students, those are the ones who thought they could hide and now they can't hide because we're we're identifying them and saying we're going to stay on top of you what you're doing. So, I mean, all of my questions related um to the fact that you guys are are doing a a great job with that. I do have one question related to mental health. Um, and this is something I've talked to the superintendent about and perhaps she'll talk to you all about it. I mean, just ensuring that with all that we're doing, how are we looking out for the students mental health issues? Because in spite of everything, it still seems that we're missing the boat somehow. And I don't have the answer. I don't think anybody around this dis has the
081answer. But and I'm sure it must weigh heavily upon you guys, too. Is there anything we can do that you've come across that would help us with that issue? >> Well, I don't think I have the answer. Um I think in what um Dr. Roersonson presented on behalf of Morris is a step closer to how do we build that student adult relationship um across our campuses and those um small moves like greeting at the door um greeting at the gate um walking into a counseling space and and being welcome at are all examples of how we get closer. I don't know if I have an answer, but I think when we look at that aspect of it, we're getting closer to that wellness goal. Trusty win. >> Um I just have a one clarifying question.
082So, I was looking at the um graduation A toG completion chart and I just was curious what trace was and why their graduation rate from 23 all the way up until 25 was at zero and how their dropout rate was um extended by 2.9%. >> It's a great question. So, um, traces a school that when our students, um, our students that are in a path for a certificate of completion andor need more time with their learning, we then exit from a high school and then enroll into Trace. So, Trace helps meet their their goals that are written in their student IEPs. So, they may not yet have graduated from school. They need more time, um, more learning, uh, more experiences in order to get them the option two to transition them to adult school um,
083or then they're earning their certificate of completion. I think what I would add is that um, if they do graduate, it may be from our adult school. So, it's not necessarily like through trace. And so, um, like Dr. Robersonson said, it may take longer, but it wouldn't show up in our district data. >> Trusty Haz, >> thank you and thank you everybody for the work that you are leading and the transformation uh that that's a foot. I appreciate it. Um I'm wondering when we look at um the A throughG completion rate you showed us from 2017 when we first began requiring A throughg for graduation to today we basically remain the same right 70% over you know from 2017 to now and I'm curious of the 30% not meeting A throughG and you don't have
084to answer today but I'm wondering at a future meeting can let us know what percent of those students maybe have severe or profound disabilities or um challenges that make it impossible to complete A throughG because what I'm getting at and to Trusty Whitehurst Payne's point is what is a realistic percentage right I heard you say 100% and I think maybe 100% is not realistic but but what should that be because I'm stuck on why have we stayed at 70% when it seems like we've been doing a lot of work so that's a followup up unless you feel like you can answer that today. But really of that 30%, how much movement can we see? Um, and then we heard about um the success of exited spotlight students, which was wonderful to see, but you didn't
085share the N. So what I'm wonder are we talking about like a dozen students that were spotlight and are no longer spotlight and 80% of them are on track or are we talking about hundreds of students? So can you shed some light on on the size of that student population? >> Yeah. Um that uh slide was in a previous slide that didn't make the cut but it was it was significant. And I I if I want to um I don't want to give the exact number, but it was uh it was close to the size of the current Spotlight student cohort that was uh formerly Spotlight that are no longer Spotlight. It was over a thousand. It was it was a significant number. >> That's great. >> And it was very notable. Yeah. >> Terrific.
086Yeah. And I would just say moving forward like to be able to share the end so that we know. And that's great to hear. Um I'm wondering so you shared all of the different CCI indicators um that a student could meet to be considered college or career prepared and we look at this amazing growth we're seeing in goal four, right? We're exceeding the annual targets we set. Is there a specific indicator where we're really knocking it out of the park? What I'm getting at is like is it that most of our kids are doing, you know, meeting ELA and math on CASP? Is it the career pathways? Is it like what are the things or are there a few where we're really pushing and seeing a difference or is it really across all the indicators?
087>> Well, we only we we hone in and uh focus on three. So it's A throughG completion, CCTE pathway completion, and then our we we call it early college credit. So it's API IB passage rates, and then our college courses. So we really when we when we meet with um the counselors and the educators and the leaders, we're really taking a look at moving the dial of those um indicators. Um it's not often, well, in an ideal world, juniors take the SVAC Um, and we've heard from our student trustees, um, the interest level of a student taking an assessment that does not directly tie into a grade andor their future. And so we really focus on things that are in our sphere of influence and and control and that we could take action on. Um,
088so those are the ones that we really focus on. Another one that we're um really exploring and tapping into with our schools that we have not yet done before is the workability um of our students then having uh those skills that are taught students with disabilities would be in workability if you will and are being the taught uh career college and career exploration and the skills needed to be in the workforce. So we just um it's like a course correction as far as what course to offer on our high schools and then so we've added that into our our um indicators as well. >> I I I want to add because I'm remiss I have DAC sitting over there and I know we're also looking at uh seal of biiteracy. Yes, Veronica. And looking at
089that advancement as well. >> Thank you. I'm wondering and so you shared how we're doing compared to other large urbans and I'm wondering what the value in that is um and is it just an FYI to I mean I think it's val you know valuable externally to share and for media to be aware but I wonder in terms of our work does that matter for anything and do we look at that or are we focused on the goals that we've set internally >> I like to add it there because it is large urban and we just want to compare and I always want to be ahead of LA. >> That's a good reason. >> Yeah. I just don't want to lose sight, right? Because >> we want to more than be ahead, right? The goals
090we've set are much more ambitious and so yes, we will continue to beat LA. Yes. even in sports. >> But um >> but in that question before you leave it, I wanted to know um >> are we who are the are the people who are ahead of us like the rural areas? I mean who's ahead of us because it looks like we're at the >> Yeah, I was just going to say >> yeah, >> that's not the rules. >> Yeah, go ahead and then I'll go back to >> Go ahead. I want to cheat. I would love to see us I like myself graduation for us because all kinds of We've improved by% overall% >> bad sounded allowed to me. I don't know what to say. Um it it the when you when clearly there
091are interventions that are happening proximate to the student like sightbased interventions that are having major effects I mean big change but then overall like at 40,000 feet the kind of interventions we make I mean it it's relatively minor it's a half a percentage or whatever and it's the outcome of of certain sites going way up and other sites going way down and some sites varying around a mean. Um, and so for me it it it's really so much of the story that emerges from this is about those sightbased interventions where a lot of the data is and and to the extent that we can have any impact to me it's identifying what the high leverage interventions are and then helping to to not to mandate that but h helping that spread the best practice to
092spread. I think hypothetically I see 4x4, but there's got to be sites where you see a negative 20 drop and you're going, "Okay, they're doing something wrong there." Or maybe it's a cohort effect or whatever, but it'd be great if we can start getting into that and then staff can start bringing, "Hey, here's an example of what we saw at this site where they introduced this boom and we saw five sites introduce that and they all went, you know, surged up." So that would be very exciting. Um, and then that also has to do with a little bit about the comparison question because because um, it goes back to what we always what I always say, you know, these achievement scores are Zillow scores just in in education terms, you know. So, um, we see
093sites that have A throughG completion rates enduring a A throughG that are varying between 89 and 91 or whatever and other sites that are bouncing between SE 69 and 71 and other sites that and that's over time. I mean, sometime you'll get a maybe it's a great site leader and boom, it pops up for a while or whatever. Or maybe you have a you lose a site leader and suddenly there's chaos and there's that vacuum and and now it kind of drops for a while. Um, or you get a cohort effect from COVID or whatever that is. Um but so for me what I would like to see always is is is I don't want it to be ownorous but it would be great to always be have have one eye on the absolute scores
094but another eye on what's happening relative to where we would anticipate them being in relation to their demographics. And I would say that's also true about the large urban comparison which is to say I mean LA Unifi is what 86% free and reduced price meals. I mean that so to say that we're >> achieving relative value is like obviously so it would be great to see a chart where we're actually seeing where we are >> just with one other variable like free and reduced price meals or you know socio economic disadvantage and then we could actually see like oh actually we're beating the spread on these sites rather than just yeah we happen to have slightly more advantageous you know socio economics in that than that district. So well that's that's all. Thank you so
095much. >> Okay. I think what I'd like to just highlight in in that Dr. Person is if you take a look at Twain High School, um Twain High School is one of our schools that made very significant growth of like 9% and um because we're looking at data so frequently. Principal Redmond took a look to find out why was my graduation a rate that I didn't really think it was at like 50%. and realized that he was moving a lot of his students to option two where they were graduating through our community college district which meant that he wasn't getting the credit for the graduates. So like what you're saying the narrative and the moves that our site leaders are looking at and the shifts that they're making. I just think that's an example of
096when we're coming together as principal leaders and counselors and instructional leaders and we're looking at the data, we're trying to figure out and get closer to what is the data telling us what can we really shift and and what can we act on? >> And then also wanted to address your question on 4x4s. Um staff reported that um the high schools have engaged their governance. So SSC's, STS, parents, ELAs, that kind of thing. There's also professional learning right now happening with their teachers because they have to go from 60 minutes of instruction to 80 80 minutes of instruction. So there's that professional learning and then also the learning that goes into like actually creating the master schedule. And so that's happening right now too. >> And say for the record when I went to La
097Hoya cluster after that conversation we had here they were also upset with us but they were upset for the opposite reason that point was which is to say and they said point blank and this wasn't one of them. was unanimous. Eight of the highest eight of the highest 10 achieving schools in this region are using 4x4. It is a high lever intervention to improve achievement. So I will say La Hoya cluster just you know anecdotally is is is hungry. So >> can I finish my >> Yes, please. >> Thank you. Uh and I will say we actually Dr. Robertson and I had a conversation um with a few folks in in the Henry cluster and they too are interested in learning more about the 4x4. Uh I so last few questions I'm I was trying
098to make sense. So tonight's report is on goal 4.1 and how we're doing and how spotlight students are progressing towards our target of being on class on track with ag um with a C or higher. So it say so 27.7% was where we were in 242 25. Um but I can't tell from the bar graph that was shared. It's it's like between 31 and 49.5% of 9th through 12th grade spotlight students are on track. But I have no idea how we're progressing towards our goal. So I guess like the bottom line like do we expect to meet the target of 30.7% by this spring? And I asked that a because I really want to know today and b because when we're getting these reports on specific interim goals like 4.1 we really need to understand
099how we're progressing towards that goal and those metrics. >> So spotlight student initiative being you know we're in our third year full implementation. Mhm. >> Um when we first established the baseline, we extrapolated based on which um of the students who graduated that year, when we set the baseline, um let's go back to see their middle school GPA and identify the students who had below a 2.0 entering high school. So we used that as a proxy spotlight which was consistent with how we were um guiding the schools for selection and that original benchmark was set um based on of the students who graduated that entered in you know meeting the spotlight criteria uh what percentage met the A throughG and that was for the purpose of establishing a benchmark so we could start uh improving
100from there. I I alluded to the reality is if you think about us asking sites to pick the 15% of students with their lowest GPA in some cases that that may be students that have you know 1.5 GPA their senior year and those benchmarks they accumulate as Dr. Robersonson and Richardson shared year-over-year. So, if we pick a senior student with a 1.5 uh GPA as a spotlight student at the six week progress report, um it's going to be very difficult in a 9-week span to get that student to remediate, you know, Fs and D's. So I I really think that there's a case to be made like many of the practices that we are learning from is to really think thoroughly about uh how we select our spotlight students. Uh what guidance we give to
101schools um in terms of when a student is like exited from that criteria. Right now, the current guidance is give us the 15% of the students with the lowest grades and let's try to help those students. But that doesn't really it's it's it's very noisy. You know, it's it's trying to find the signal within that noise. Part of what we did is we separated out students who are no longer Spotlight students. And we saw a signal that something's working with that initiative. But I I do believe there's more work to do and refining that process of selecting spotlight students and um that may lead to us having to kind of reorm our baselines based on uh a methodology that's aligned with what we're trying to do. I appreciate that and and the nuance and I
102think you know as we set these goals. It was sort of our best guess about the right um metrics to help us understand the progress for this priority population. Um what I'm still not clear about is do you feel are we on track to meet the goal for this year? Are you saying the target is so wrong that we we don't know? I mean for those of us right we're not using this data to inform practice on the ground. My responsibility as a board member is to know how are we progressing towards the goal for this year five year goal >> with confidence share that I see progress but I do think that um it's very difficult to evaluate whether we're uh on track to meet that goal. Initially that goal was set by the
103graduates of a certain um cohort >> and we transition after the fact because you know by the if we wait to evaluate whether it's working until after they graduate it's too late. So through the conversations of our trustees here uh we really pushed us to have an ontrack measure >> so that we can really evaluate and intervene sooner. So with that, what we didn't do is come back and reestablish those metrics so that we could really be confident that we're on track since then. >> So is that a request then for the board to then adopt a different measure because we can't tell right now whether or not >> what Dr. Del Rosario, we um do have the data that we can share. Um we did leave it off this presentation. We we have it
104available and we can share. We're monitoring. I like to like three different data sets, if you will. Um, and so one of our next steps was to to really as a board and with leadership define what we mean by spotlight students or cohort students, if you will, and stick to that because I believe clear is kind. And then when we're monitoring, we know what we're monitoring because right now we're monitoring three different groups. So we have the data for three different groups that we could share with you. And as Roman mentioned, we are making progress, but it's which group do we want to actively monitor. And >> so I would ask that we do that sooner rather than later because it's it's really challenging to sit here and not know how we're doing. And I
105sense that it's challenging for you all, too. Um, and so not to belabor that point, sounds like there's work we need to do and we need to get clarity and the board needs to understand whether or not we're on track. Um, and what we mean by spotlight. Just a quick final little question. I'm It was exciting to hear about all the student relationship work that's happening at Morris and the incredible leadership, but I'm stuck on why they're being lifted up as a bright spot school for interrum goal 4.1 when we look at the data sheet um and their students A throughG completion rate decreased year-over-year. Um so I guess help us to understand um why they were lift up as a bright spot here. How the amazing and clearly relationship building work is contributing to
106A throughG completion. What am I missing from from this story? >> You're missing a data point that I neglected to share. Um so one of the things that I wanted to highlight that I I alluded to that Morris um works towards is a leverd driver is the relationships in comparison to grading. So after the this year 2526 as I mentioned they they monitor grades and set forth goals student goals and educator goals after progress report and a final mark. So, they're being lifted because at the end from Q1 P1, which is a progress report, to Q2, which is a final grade, 59% of their spotlight students have made vast improvements with earning a C or higher >> this year. >> This school year. >> Yes, that was my bad. >> Yes. >> Um, Vice President
107Baza, >> thank you, President Barrera. Um, I just wanted to touch on a few things that have been mentioned. I think um what Dr. White Payne was saying about how starting earlier really focusing on that is is uh truly truly important and also um Trusty Person mentioning really looking like he said the different schools to see how we're doing there because one thing that's really standing out to me is the difference between the graduation rate percentage and the A throughG completion in many schools um it's like a you know 20 30% difference uh between those. So, kind of getting into that a little bit more and why, you know, why such a big there's such a difference there. Um, but I had a question about I think it's slide 13 where you talk about from
108uh the spotlight students, the exited spotlight students, all students, but the spotlight students. So it looks like the f the ninth grade uh 49.5% and then it goes down pretty significantly to 10th grade and but then by senior year which is when we hope to have less violate students. Actually it looks like the number goes up. It's going up from 10th grade to 12th grade so that there's a higher like almost 10% more spotlight students by the time they get to their senior year. So if you could kind of speak to that a little bit and then I have one other question after that. >> I think that's a function of how we built those benchmarks. So for instance uh we put science as a ninth grade benchmark >> and a 10th grade for a
109two years of science. In reality based on the A throughgs they need two years of science upon graduation. So what other systems do is they put science as an 11th and 12th grade benchmark. Um and in those cases you might have more students that are on track earlier on and then they're off track. But we have placement criteria guidelines that we tell our we ask our school sites and counselors give your your students science in nth grade. Mhm. Mhm. >> Um so because we want alignment with those guidelines and these benchmarks, uh we set them up this way. Um, so I I I believe a lot of it is a function of that and also I I think in general um and this is something that we're working to get better at, but remediation in
110terms of summer school and and adult school often we start with the seniors and we want to make sure we keep them on track and then we work our way down and uh 9th grade sometimes gets um you know we start running out of time to set them up for uh remediation. we run out of spots, but we're really working to be more comprehensive. And I I really believe that that 4x4 is going to help with that as well as is just having good tools that brings visibility to which students need to be remediated um more in a more timely way. >> Yeah. And I I think it's great. It looks like we made good progress from 9th grade to 10th grade, but then that creep up is a little concerning. So, I guess just
111being more aware of that. And then my other I think just to cl sorry vice president just to clarify. So this is the percentage of students in that category who are on track. So we actually want to see that it go up you know by 12th grade because that means that there are more students who are on track to graduate in each of >> right but for the spotlight um the spot so see how that we have almost 50% spotlight on um year one. >> It's not 50% of students are spotlight students. It's right 50% of Spotlight students in ninth grade are on track to graduate. >> On track to graduate. Okay. But then that drops down to 31%. I see what you're saying. Okay. So it the trend is good. I guess it's just
112that. Okay. So the troubling >> concern is where it um drops down from 9th to 10th and 10th to 11th. So not that senior class. Thank you for clarifying. No, >> but that is a big drop from you know the 11th the 9th to Yeah. But thank you for clarifying that. >> 10 10th and 11th grade are the tough years for our teenagers. >> Okay. >> You you start to see I I use the word mature academically because it's different for different maturities. Um academically when that realization hits their 10th and 11th grade year like oh I am going to apply to college. My grades matter. And then we have to then work magic. We work magic with our students to get them back on track. And then the other I don't know if it's
113just more of a comment or question, but I don't see any information here just around um working with our community, our parents. Um I just think that should be a part of all of our reports in terms of how I mean, yes, they're high school students, but you know, they're only in school for a certain amount of hours per day. They you know, what are they doing after school? what are they, you know, how are their parents and or community members, grandma, grandpa, whoever, how are we incorporating them into this um this whole plan? Because it it talks a lot about what's going on during school. But, you know, as with everything else, there's so much going on around that and how are we making sure that we're bringing that community in to help with
114these this and you know, making sure that they are aware of where their students are. And I know we're trying to, you know, we're making progress in that area, but I just don't see really too many any information about parents, community members, and what kind of work is being done in that area. >> Great. >> Just very quickly, just super quickly, >> I understand. I I get it. But in terms of um this I mean, this is too big of a drop for it to just be students aren't performing in nth grade. This is a structural drop. I mean, in nth grade, you don't have enough time yet to fall behind. So that's where you are and then you fall behind in 10th grade and then you're catching up the whole time we're trying to
115remediate it. So to me this is not a story about what we are aren't doing. This is something that's inherent in the nature of high school but and we can improve on it. But I would say in terms of spotlight I think part of the I mean I may just be so uninformed that I think it's simple but but to me it's about the rate of departure. It's not about what our graduation rate is or our AG rate is for people that escape. It's about how quickly we're getting people to escape from spotlight. And I think part of the solution there is to is within the category of spotlight to have spotlight students we are who are still receiving spotlight investments and spotlight students who have escaped needing the investments. So you preserve the cohort
116and it follows them through and but you're seeing the ones who have who are who have escaped needing the investment. Does that make sense? So thanks. Sorry. >> No no it's great. Go ahead. Did you >> uh I just think that some questions were raised about this table and that requires a lot of in-depth work that we couldn't do tonight. >> Yeah. >> So I'm sure you're going to do that because uh first of all we should never compare trace to >> correct >> the Met to New Dawn. I mean, you have to understand those schools and so it's wrong to even compare them. And even with SCPA, they had 100% there in 23 20 that's everybody. So they had to go somewhere. That's why I laughed when I said that about the 100% because
117obviously that was unrealistic, but at least they were aiming for it. So, I I mean I look forward to more information on this, but obviously we can't go into all of that tonight. Thank you. >> Yeah, I just want to uh thank Superintendent and uh Jen and Aaron and Roman. This report was so clear uh that it's enabled this level of discussion, you know, uh from the board and it's exactly what a progress monitoring report should look like. It's you're you're you're um reminding us of our goal. You're following trends. You're giving examples of uh you know uh best practices. So just very very much appreciate uh the report and yeah similar to um Trusty Patterson what really stands out to me that I think is probably the most important at least I believe uh
118data point is the spot the students who have exited spotlight and how they're doing and and you know to trusty Hazen's questions I think that's really helping us clarify what is the metric that matters matters to us and it is if we identify students who are at one point spotlight students and now they are exiting and succeeding in this case 60% A to G completion rate um I I think that's very very important you know data for uh for us to be looking at and that's really what the reason that we said let's focus on spotlight students to begin with. So, I think that's terrific. And I also um I I think it's a it's a fair point about sort of the comparisons to other large urbans. I think Long Beach and San Francisco are
119good comparisons for us, right? Yeah. And um and it is it is important to, you know, sort of put ourselves just the way that we when we look at schools, it's like what's the context? How do you compare to similar schools? Large urbans are different than other types of districts, different challenges. um and Los Angeles and Fresno have much higher, you know, uh rates on duplicated counts, but Long Beach and San Francisco are, you know, they're fair comparisons, I think. So, so thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, Trusty Hayes. Yeah. >> I'm just wondering because it seems like we're sort of close to consensus around this spotlight sort of I think defining, tracking, monitoring, and so I'm wondering uh I guess Superintendent Bula, if you've been what the next step is so that we
120can close the loop. I don't know if it's a special meeting, a workshop, but I it's so important I think to all of us. >> I think when we come back um just like we did last year when we looked at all of our goals and thought about adjustments because I will say that I I actually have a recommendation of maybe not having a spring assessment for grades three and up because of the overassessment that we're currently doing. So there's a couple of recommendations. Again, this is a continuous improvement cycle and so as we continue to learn, we'll continue to do that. I did want to make some comments though. I want to thank the team um because this was a great report and we're seeing data. We're seeing improvement for our students. But I
121want to also give them kudos and a lot of applause honestly for the big lift that you have like having schools identify a certain population going through a continuous cycle getting high school groups to participate in PLC's hiring uh counseling director bringing counselors together for the very first time running checks like everything that you've heard them say that took years to implement and I I'm I'm uh I was listening to Dr. Person talk about the data he wanted and I want to go okay so now he wants to triangulate it but when back then we didn't even have anything on the dashboard. So I love this nature of like continuous improvement but I also know that all all three of you have carried a large amount of work for this system on on in service
122of our students. So I just wanted to say thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. And we have no public comments now. All right. So we will uh now move uh to item E2 and this is our annual report from our district English learner advisory committee superintendent. Tonight we have the opportunity to hear directly from the parent leaders who serve our district English learner advisory committee or DAC. These are volunteers representing families from across San Diego Unified and their leadership reflects deep commitment to our students, our schools, and our shared responsibility for student success. This evening, the DAC Executive Board will present their annual report. They will highlight the work they engaged in this past year, celebrate areas of progress, and clearly name where we must do better. Just as
123important, they will offer insight into how we can strengthen our partnership with English learner families as we work to improve outcomes for students. As a district, we must be cleareyed and focused. Our English learners continue to experience the lowest academic outcomes of any student subgroup. While their areas of progress, the data reminds us that improvement is not happening fast enough or consistently enough. Accelerating achievement and supporting students on their path toward reclassification will rec will require intentional collective action from this board, from district leadership, from educators at every level and in authentic partnership with families. The voices of our English learner parents are not supplemental to this work. They are central to it. Their insights help us understand where our systems are clear, where there are confusing, and where we must strengthen communication, engagement, and
124celebration of student milestones. I want to thank the members of DAC for their leadership, their advocacy, and persistence. We're grateful for your partnership, and we look forward to hearing from your presentation tonight. With that, I'll turn this over and welcome Veronica Lopez Mendes, our executive director of multilingual education, who will introduce our DAC committee. Good evening. It's a pleasure to be here today. Um, board president Barera, uh, trustees, superintendent Bagula, thank you for offering us the opportunity to be here today. I have the privilege of presenting to you three of our executive board members today, who will be presenting today's item. With us, I got to get my glasses on. Sorry. is our chairperson, Francisco Arcero, Amber Artiagas, our um vice chair, and Catalina Aro, our parliamentarian. And I'm going to hand it over to
125them. I will be there. Vanna, I will click for you. >> All right. Well, good evening, board of presidents, trustees, and superintendents. My name is Francisco Arao and I am a parent representative from the district English advisory committee also known as DAC. Tonight we're honored to share celebrations and concerns from English learner families across the San Diego Unified. This reflections come directly from conser um conversation with parents who want to be who want the best for their children. We want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to share the work we have done this year and the areas we want to continue to focus on the strength in the upcoming year. DAC is the parent advisory group made of families of English learners. Our purpose is to make sure parents of English learners have
126a voice in their in the district decisions. That is why it is important for us to be here sharing our work with you. We have been working in partnership with multilingual education med department but today we're speaking as a representative DAC and as a parent who represent the families of English learners. Our goals is simple. When parents understand how the system works, the childrens do better. Simple that is. We're here to celebrate the progress that has been made and to be honest about where and where we still need to improve. We want to share both our success and the areas we need to strength moving forward. But today is the month of February, month of celebrations. And let's continue with those celebrations. We would like to begin by celebrating the accomplishments for our English learners
127and the academic growth that they have demonstrated on the last year's statement assessments. Overall, our English learners increased by 7.4 points in English language arts and four points in mathematics. This gains show at the hard work and teachers, school staff, and families who have worked together to support our English learners across the district. We are also encouraged by the by the progress of our long-term English learners who showed a growth as well as 8.7 points of English language arts and 9.6 points in mathematics. This progress was made possibly by working closely with the multi-education department and focusing on teachers teaching strategies that make student needs. We are hopeful to continue seeing that this level growth in the years ahead. We respectfully ask for the continued support of multilingual education department to ensure the English learners
128remains a shared priority throughout the district. So all students are given the opportunity to succeed. Good evening. This year, our English learners showed a 3.3% decline in lang in English language progress. This means that many English language learners are not making at least one year of growth on the ELPAC. As a parent, this is very concerning to me. We would like to see a stronger focus on improving academic outcomes for English learners. This could include providing additional supports or interventions when students need them and ensuring that all English learners receive and actively participate in designated EL at every level, elementary, middle, and high school. is receiving instruction. We looked for patterns and trends in LP scores across elementary, middle, and high schools. One key finding stood out. English learners in middle school made the greatest
129gains. We believe this is because middle school English learners receive designated English language development or ELD as a separate class. This class provides focused language instruction that helps students improve and succeed in their academic work. This data is included in a separate attachment for your review. We believe that this can establish a basis, a foundation um for success and >> and that uh princip school principles uh or the the administration of each school. Be attentive or be aware of the satisfactory development of this program. All right. So, as we continue working together as the DAC executive board, we have identified three areas we would like to strengthen. The first is DACA DACA engagement. Increasing the number of school sites with active ELACs will lead to stronger DAC participation and more meaningful family engagement across the
130district. We want to ensure that our meetings are engaging and are parent focused. The second focus area is improving communication with families about English learner status, ELPAC, and reclassification. When families clearly understand these topics, they are better they are better able to partner with schools and educators to support their children's success. The third area is celebrating milestones at school sites in public and in a consistent way. This helps families of English learners understand that reclassification is an important goal and that parents play an active role in supporting their ch their child throughout this process. By focusing on these areas, we can strengthen family partnerships and improve outcomes for all English learners. As the DAC executive board, we want to continue improving school site participation at at our DAC meetings. One step we have taken this
131year is offering both in person and online meetings options so more families can choose how they attend and receiving important information to bring back to the school elacs. We know that when school sites have strong active ELACs, we we do see better DAC representation and stronger family involvement overall. Currently out of all the school sites have active ELACs and we would like to see more numbers growth. We need your support. We know it is a a requirement by the state for having any over 21 students that are with the need of English learners. How can we make it can we make it mandatory? Can we make it a requirement? We need your help. We're asking for support from the board of education and the superintendent to help encourage and monitor that all school sites have
132active ELAs. Sites based ELAs played important role ensuring accurate information with parents of English learners in language they understand. They also help families understand the reclassification process and ensure the students and family voice are heard. By working together, we could strengthen our family engagement and improve outcomes for all English learners. I think earlier we had a pres uh uh presentation about focusing on the high school students and and I think that's great information that I was able to acquire and see, you know, across the whole region, the whole county here in San Diego. But why starting ninth grader? Why not start focusing elementary school? I know we mentioned that probably starting ninth grade might be too late. Well, I think starting middle school might be already late. Thank you. The second area we would like
133to strengthen as the DLAC board is improving communication with parents of English learners specifically to increase awareness and understanding around the English language proficiency assessments ELPAC. and what it means for a student to be identified as an English learner. It is important for families to understand how reclassifica reclassification connects to academic progress and long-term success. At the middle school and high school levels especially, parents need clear, authentic communication to ensure their child is enrolled in a designated English language development or EL class until they are reclassified. Fore direct AMA. >> We can better support students and families by clearly explaining when and why a child is classified as an English learner, what assessments they take each year, and why the ELPAC matters. It shouldn't come as a surprise. Parents should also understand how to monitor
134their students progress and how to work with the school to make sure their child is growing in English language development and that the school administrators >> of of each school of each institution um are aware of the development of this program. When parents have clear, timely information, they are better able to advocate and support their children and partner schools to support student success >> and student success. guarantees school success and school success guarantees the success of the district. >> Thank you. >> So this year, well not only this year but previous years, members of the DAC board have had the privilege of joining many families as they celebrated reclassification in our district. We have seen many schools go above and beyond when they making these ceremonies and they're very beautiful, meaningful and they are honoring
135students bilingualism. We would like that to become an experience for all our e students and their families. Families have shared with DAC that reclassification sometimes needs to be more visible and celebrated. This is an important opportunity to recognize our students achievements and help them be proud of what they have accomplished. It is also a chance to highlight the value of bilingualism. English learners in our district are bilingual and reclassification celebrations are a way to honor the incredible skill and hard work they have demonstrated. On behalf of the DAC executive team and MID, we would like to thank you for your time and your continuous support. Thank you so much, DAC. No public speakers. Okay. Or members, any questions or comments? >> Uh, Vice President Baza, >> thank you so much. As I was saying last
136time at the previous uh conversation we were just having, I'm so grateful for the input from the parents and really the family members and how important that is in this conversation and all about our uh student achievement. Um I guess this is more of a comment for staff. I think when we had talked about this and uh board officers I had suggested it looks like we've done some amazing work around um at some of our schools. I know man middle school I believe had done some has done some really amazing work. So for future reference it would be great to have some of that highlighted. I know they mentioned kind of generally but having some you know examples of what that looks like would be super helpful because um I was at a there was
137like a scholastic um presentation and I I know man middle school particularly had um a focus in this area and has been really successful. So just having a little bit better understanding of what some of those act, you know, activities, events look like and how we're incorporating the the parents, community members would be helpful. >> I like definitely like to add. So that's one of those great things about this year that we started doing in-person uh meetings. >> I personally was opposed. Uh I was so used to be able to multitask, be at work and hold the meeting, right? after our first meeting seeing the parents the value to be able to get talk to a person get to know the parent you know you don't get that feeling on a zoom meeting >> so
138what did we start doing is not only that was we start having balorico we start having other performers from other different cultures in our meetings on top of that we started getting invited to a lot of events >> actually we're celebrating next week next Wednesday at um Barnard's uh elementary school. Uh we'll be there. Um so that just kind of tells you of the highlights. Now we loves to attend um whenever we are getting reclassifications. We love it. I I personally I love to attend. I think it's great to be able to give hope to the parents. And speaking as a parent, you know, we don't do this for a paid. We do this because we try to help. And I think by having being around and and seeing and also us getting informed, we
139have that personal um touch with the parents. So I think now we start having uh I think our attendance have probably quadruple from our first inerson meeting and that I think that can fed from other ELAC meetings. Uh we're having a u an ELAC meeting at one of our schools. We already have 27 parents registered to attending next Wednesday. We need to bring a lot of uh breakfast uh pastries. But that's just going to give you an idea and we like to but we show those highlights on our DL like meetings and that might be the reason why we start getting more attendance because we're very proud. We're proud of our school. We're very proud of the district and what you guys have done in the partnership. So we appreciate that because that motivates more
140parents to be involved. Uh this is my going to be my last year as the board. But like I'm saying to my executive board, I'm like, "Hey, I'll be your biggest fan. I'll be the liaison. and I'll be whatever it needs to be cuz we started seeing the growth of the improvements and it it just takes a whole village. So we really appreciate Thank you >> Trusty Wersia Park. >> Yes. uh my school like man man Valencia >> um I'm just waiting for us to really go forth the same thing I said about earlier 100% I think we ought to look at every child as potentially able to do and it's up to us as individuals both parents and educators to push to help them to support so that they can achieve. I mean that's
141way I operate and my question first question related to um your point about making it mandatory >> for all the schools and I thought why don't we have one at every school? Why why don't we have a an ELAC? I mean what's Well, it has to be 21 or more. You noted here that there are some schools >> we >> do we have one at every school that has 21 or more. >> We thank you for that. So the chart that you see represented on that PowerPoint um those numbers each in each of those circles are there schools that must have an ELAC because they have 21 or more students. So of those schools we still have some that don't. But I'm happy to report that as of two weeks ago, every school in area
142D and area E now has an active ELAC. And and that was in part because of our collaboration across departments in our district to ensure that that happened. And now we're going to tackle the next few areas with parent education and recruitment and supporting those staffs to identify some some potential parents that might want to step up into leadership roles because it when you invite them, they show up. And so I think that sometimes it just takes that invitation. >> Okay. Also note a hint to the >> Sorry, Trusty Hazen. >> Thank you. Uh and I'm ready for area B to get added to that list. Um I am well first of all, thank you to all of our parent leaders and for all the work you do. Um and for showing up at an
143inerson meeting even though you weren't so excited about it. It seems to be working. Uh, I'm wondering if you can speak to what seems like unfortunately a noteworthy decline in reclassification rates over the last 3 years. Looks like we we went from 17% um to about 13%. So, what's going on there? Uh, why aren't we reclassifying more students? Why is the trend line going in in the opposite direction? Um, I guess I'll ask a few questions and answer them all together. Um, the second is, um, so when we're looking at high school, we're we're beating LA. Um, but when you showed us statewide data, um, LA Unifi's doing much better on LP than we are, and I'm wondering, are we collaborating with them to share best practices? Do we have a sense of what they're
144doing? Are they using the same strategies, but they're working better? Are they using different strategies? what can we learn um from from LA if if anything or other places? Um and then I'm trying to make sense of this the data point where there's this decline in overall progress of English learners, but then you led with these noteworthy gains in ELA and math among ELS's and long-term English learners. So, help me understand how both of those things can be true. Um, and connecting to the previous conversation around spotlight students, are the majority of our ELELS and ELTELS considered spotlight students? Um, so are we really providing these targeted interventions um the way we would for for spotlight students? And then lastly, uh we just heard about well we heard a request around designated um EL instruction
145um and this sense that something was happening good in middle school um but that maybe in elementary school we're not providing that designated instruction. And so I'm wondering is that true that elementary school students aren't getting that designated instruction? And if that is true, do we is it a best practice to provide designated versus integrated? Um, and if that's true, do we have the capacity to do that? And do we need to integrate that into our budget this year? >> Thank you. I I took notes so I make sure I addressed all your questions. You're asking very very good questions. Um, so the first is the the decline in the reclassification rates. So the current rate that you see represented there that 13.3% is an active moving target right now. We are in the process
146of our reclassification window still for some students. Um we are also just started doing alpac testing and so as soon as we get those scores so our final final end of year recclass percentage rate might very well hit the mark of the same as last year or even increase. So it's like a moving target right now. So we'll need a few more months to gather like final numbers and final data. >> So is your sense then that we'll be at least where we were? >> That is my that is my hope. Great. >> Yes. >> Um the next one was around are there any key levers related to LP and we have some districts that are outperforming us on LP and we we recognize that. Um we do a lot of collaboration with the large
147urban districts through a network called the bilingual coordinators network at the state level where we share best practices and I think this goes handinhand with the designated EL question that you asked. So, the state requires and it's best practice that students get both integrated ELD instruction throughout all of their courses, the whole day, and that they also get a protected designated EL time. At the elementary school, that's typically 30 minutes and it's typically done by the classroom teacher. >> Daily or >> daily? Thank you. Daily protected designated ELD time >> with the classroom teacher. So there's different models. There's classroom teacherbased models. There's also deployment models and there's pullout models. Some call it walk your walk to EL where everybody from 8 to 8:30 walks to their leveled designated ELD class and say third grade.
148Um we have um concerns about how um our elementary schools are delivering designated ELD instruction and how designated ELD instruction is being monitored at our elementary schools. And we're working on that right now um through various actions, communities of practice, looking at uh what supports our core curriculum offers or is missing that we might potentially need to look into. That's one thing. And then the other is the book end which is our high schools. Um our high schools had uneven practice in terms of whether or not they were delivering designated ELD as a separate course and that has now since changed and that really is a a testament to our superintendent's guidance and our collaboration with the office of graduation to ensure that a few things are happening. Number one, every student that needs a
149designated ELD class is being placed in one this year and moving into next year that the principles are building in enough sections of designated ELD into their master schedule to meet the number of English learners that they have. >> That's great. >> Um, and then the other part of that because it's one thing to be in the class and then it's another to look at the quality of the instruction that you're getting in the class, right? And that's the the work that my department is doing is looking at best practice not in a professional development delivery model but in a community of practice model where teachers are coming together identifying what are some of the needs and then figuring out how do we uh help students to gain access to that instruction and then >>
150can I just close so in terms so I'm hearing we aren't where we need to be in terms of designated EL in elementary school there's work we need to do to to up our game. And so just to close, do we have the capacity >> the dollars, the support, the professional, whatever is involved to do that? >> I do believe that we do. I do believe that we have the capacity both um with those that are available to support schools and instruction. Um it's just a matter of reigniting that monitoring of it happening and professional development support for educators. But our team is definitely poised and ready to do that. delivering and provided designated ELD at the elementary school doesn't cost any money, >> right? It's the same teacher that's there. And you know, I
151come from schools that have had large large amounts of English language learners and we know how to do it right. It's just a matter of re-engaging with our school leaders to ensure that it's happening, collaborating with our area superintendent. We actually have a little learning session with them on the different models and how elementary schools can deliver designated ELD so they know what to look for when they go out to school sites and then just being ready and available to support where needed. >> Thank you. Okay, >> no I just um one of the things that emerged on several of the slides is the importance of reclassification recognition of reclassification. So I guess um to be explicit in terms of what the board and central office can do um is that is that having quarterly
152celebrations here? I mean what what do you think would be appropriate for for the board to participate in in relation to recognizing reclassification >> as like a as like a life transition for a student and a family? >> I haven't gotten my invitations for this year and usually several schools invite me so I don't know if it's too early or what. So, I know normally that happens um after after we get uh LPAC results, right? And >> I mean I I've mentioned some some reclassification. I'll I give a shout out to Rosa Parks as one of them. >> They have a a huge event. M >> it's actually a a great celebration that uh we've been stealing those ideas and letting the other schools elementary schools showing them videos be like hey look this is
153a great celebration. >> Um at some other campuses they tend to uh mix it with end of the year which is also nice. So I think it all depends on the amount of group of how many getting reclassified. if you're only getting four, five, or if you're getting 10, 15, uh, I think that kind of changes. >> This may also be a function of my my subd district, but it's not as a common of of an event, so it's a little bit new to me. So, yeah. Thank you. >> Can I just add just quickly to that to the point that every single child that reclassifies, we want to celebrate, but you may be at a school where there are two students and they don't get that celebration. So I think what you were asking
154is is there a district-wide celebration? So I would just ask that we explore that so that everybody has the Rosa Parks experience irrespective of the school they attend. >> That was actually one of our last discussions is how might we do that like centrally? Do we invite them here? Do we have a different celebration? Like we were actually tossing around those ideas too. >> And we we do >> those are the things that families remember, right? Absolutely. So take pictures and all of that. So >> uh could I just ask uh the DACA? So you reported out to us basically on number two on this sheet about um achievement standards on the ESPback. Do does the DAC also monitor these uh metrics up front? So the number of long-term English learners, reclassification rates, uh number
155of students reclassified, is that something that you also monitor as a committee? >> So part of the u mandated requirements, the legal tasks that elax and daxs must do is have a continuous cycle of data analysis. Yeah. And so like our next DAC meeting is next Thursday at LMEC um at 4:30. you're welcome to attend and the data insights team will be there sharing um our ready data our local assessment data with with um the parents in attendance and then providing them with a little video that they can then take back to their school sites in case their representatives were not there. So we do try to offer as many opportunities to have data available to parents at DAO so then they they can go back to their school sites and they can ask about
156those that that same data and how it applies. what does it look like at their school during their ELAC meetings? >> Great. Great. And that's one of the reasons why earlier we mentioned about we need your help. >> Yes. >> I'm not a big fan of saying you need to do this. It is right. But the thing is I feel like a lot of those ELAC representatives that do not attend our DAC. >> Yeah. >> They're missing a lot of information that they can't bring back to their campus. >> Yeah, that's right. >> So, thank you. >> Good. Thank you so much. Yeah. I'm sorry, Vice President. >> Oh, no. I just wanted to say again, thank you to all of you for taking the time to come down here to be part of this
157meeting because you're such an integral part of this work and without your um you know being involved in this, we wouldn't have this kind of uh success and even though you're dropping off as chair chairman, we we need to find somewhere to we'll keep him keep you busy still because it it's just that important. So, thank you Thanks so much. Okay. Uh, can we get a motion on item F1? Moved by Vice President Bazo, seconded by Trusty Whitehurst Payne. No public speakers. Any discussion? If not, uh, all adult trustees, please vote on this item. Okay. We will now consider items I through I35, the superintendent's consent agenda. Uh, moved by Trusty Whitehurst Payne. Is there a second by Trustee Hazen? Uh, no public speakers on consent. Okay. Uh, uh, Trusty W, please vote. All other
158trustees, please vote. Okay. We will move to non-aggenda public testimony. Uh, Miss Stoultz. >> Yes, we have five speakers on non-aggenda. You will each have three minutes. The first speaker is Laura Ferrar. Hello everyone. Uh my name is Laura Ferrar and I'm the STARS counselor at Mission Bay High School. STARS stands for successful transitions achieved through responsive supports. It's a specialized program that the district has had in place for many years for some of our most challenged and vulnerable diplomaabound special education students. These are students who have not had success in traditional educational settings even with supports and accommodations and they need a tailored setting with responsive supports as the name of the program indicates. However, next month a proposal will come before all of you to eliminate a large part of these responsive supports,
159the STARS counselors. Is it because the students suddenly no longer need the these supports? No. Is it because STARS counselors do the same work as traditional counselors at the site? Absolutely not. It's a purely financial decision, saving maybe a few hundred,000 a year and a multi-billion dollar budget at the expense of some of the district's most vulnerable students. The thought is just put these students on a regular case load of 400 to 500 plus students like everyone else. No, these are students who before they came to stars were acting out violently at school. maybe hiding under desks, running out of classrooms, or refusing to come to school altogether. Speaking of finances, some of these students also have had such severe behavior and academic challenges that they were previously enrolled in non-public schools at district expense
160of tens of thousands of dollars per year per student. STAR students need a dedicated counselor to provide them proactive as well as reactive support. They will languish on a regular counselor's case load just as many of them unfortunately did at school before coming to stars. These are not students who will advocate to a counselor the supports they need. They need someone specifically looking out for them. An adult champion. Someone who has had the chance to build that relationship with the student. someone who knows them well enough to anticipate what they need before that unmet need has damaging effects on their education or wellness and or mental health. One parent said, "Programs like STARS do not just support students, they protect them. Once this support is gone, that damage simply cannot be undone later. So, please
161do not allow these cuts to happen and cause damage to our already vulnerable Star students. Thank you. Amy McNal. Good evening. I also don't like in-person meetings, but if anything will get me here, it is my child. So, I am Amy McN. I have a son who is a star student. Um, I have something to read, but before I want to say he spent four years not going to school. He got many assessments, tests, doctor's appointments, exhaustive things, and he finally last year landed in stars. It was very bumpy. This is the first year that he has academically done swimmingly. He hasn't missed a day. He's straight A's. And it is direct result of his counselor over behind me. So, granny glasses, excuse me. My name is Amy. My son attends Mission Bay High School
162as a star student. The district's proposal to eliminate my son's stars counselor constitutes a material change to his educational program and a unilateral modification of his offer of free appropriate public education which is in violation of the Individuals of Disabilities of Education Act which most of you I know know. So this is going to be pretty redundant but this is specific to my son. His IEP identifies the STARS program as his placement. Again, it took many years. That placement is defined not merely by location, Mission Bay, but by the services and the supports that enable him to access educational benefit. His counselor is an integral embedded component of that program. Some days the only way I can get him to stop proverating over school is to remind him that he has access to his counselor.
163getting him out of my car in the morning as you have access to her if you need to go. That won't be available in a gened setting. Um, allow me to also refer to the San Diego Unified website under the STARS program section two under strategies. It's the third bulletin allocation of a school counselor to each school site. Since all students in STARS are eligible to receive their counseling services, courts have been clear that districts may not unilaterally reduce or remove services that are part of the students agreed upon program even when the district characterizes the change as administrative or cost or staff related. When a change substantially alters how a child receives his benefit, which it would for my son Finley, it's a change in placement and services that requires an IEP team determination
164and parental consent. And ju just like with all of his peers, removing the STARS counselor fundamentally alters the nature of the STARS program and creates a risk of regression and a denial of fate. The obligation is to implement the IEP as written for these vulnerable students like mine. If the district can't do so, then proper legal remedy is to reconvene the IEP team just not to reduce the services unilaterally. And since I have met some of his peers, many of them are also English language learners. So it's like they just have many challenges. Until an IEP meeting occurs and I consent to changes, the district is required to maintain his current level of services. Thank you very much for your time and consideration and also for being here tonight because we're all here for the
165same reason, right? We want to help these guys and girls. >> Thank you, >> Arlene New. Quick compliance question. San Diego Unified has a non-discrimination policy, AR430. I know this because I finally read it. I wouldn't have guessed it existed based on how it's enforced. On paper, AR430 is very serious. On paper, it requires investigations to start in five days, finish in 20, and end with written findings. very official, very compliant, very PDF. In reality, you file a complaint and wait. No findings, no conclusions, no notice of extension, just silence until your legal deadlines expire, which is a very convenient way to avoid accountability because once findings are issued, right attach, the right to challenge, the right to escalate, the right to seek external review with an actual record. So instead, the district appears to
166issue nothing. That's not reasonable delay. It's not a staffing problem. It's not an oversight issue. That's a system. That's strategy. Technically, the policy exists. Practically accountability does not. So here's the question for this board. How many discrimination complaints were quietly closed by never being closed at all? I turned in three. A policy that exists only as a PDF is not compliance. And a district that runs out the clock on civil rights complaints is not protecting anyone except itself. So, I'm asking you for oversight. Audit how many AR 4030 complaints never resulted in written findings. Explain why deadlines are not enforced. And maybe stop pretending that a policy no one follows is an actual safeguard. Adria Bogart. >> Hi everyone. Uh my name is Adria Bogart and I am a school counselor that supports uh autism
167level one students through our designated or specialized program stars at CPMA. And uh I'm here tonight because obviously my position and the the um stability of our students is slated for elimination. And so I wanted to bring up some points. I had a handy dandy speech, but as I heard all the great presentations today, I changed a lot of what I'd said. Plus, my colleagues already spoke so beautifully. Um but I did want to start off with the fact that we um function under the the understanding of presumed competence. So, we do not address our star students as special ed students or uh less than. We know that they're capable and they rise to the occasion every single time. And we can see that in the high school graduation numbers, in the A to G
168access, in the um meaningful diplomas that our high school colleagues are providing. Um Dr. Robersonson indicated a need for specialed improvements for AO to G access. The numbers need to get better. That's what STARS counselors do. We provide A to G access for all of our students. Um we are the adult champions for our students. I was told that one of the rationale behind eliminating the STARS counseling positions had to do with equality and that um having a special ed coun a a regular ed counselor with fewer than with with 250 or more students was not equitable to a specialized setting counselor that would have 36 students or less. Um, and yet there are still school counselors at Alba, at New Dawn, um, at at many of our specialized and separate settings. So, that rationale
169doesn't really hold water for me. Um, I I really would like to know the rationale behind the decision. But basically um all the things that were called out today, all the board um priorities of student wellness, literacy, communication, math problem solving, college and career readiness, we are doing for the district's most vulnerable students who have the most to gain because we have a student now who used to stab people with pencils and he's now on full track to be immersed in gened and back uh into his LE which is the point of stars. So, I want to just ask you to please reconsider your decision. Special ed is a priority as is funding and staffing. And so, I would like to ask that you rethink your decision and uh reinstate the STARS counselors for next
170year. Thank you, Genevie Z. How many students must sit in their own bodily excrement in class before the cost of an action moves your hand to type a basic student toilet access guarantee so we can protect school funding. A San Diego Police Department child abuse unit investigator told me that nothing will change unless one of the moms presses charges or the district attorney gathers enough documentation from affected parents to press charges against you. Shaw said, "My pediatrician's letter are only proof that I spoke with the pediatrician about the injuries, not that the injuries happened. There's a word for Shaw's behavior. Was I supposed to bring feces soaked clothing into the office for proof? Photos of an older child's genital rash. What proof did Shaw from the ICA want? Did he want me to wait for
171injuries to worsen before helping us escape unreported ongoing physical and emotional harm? Mom, we had a quiet coyote drill today. Miss Anne ignored it and kept teaching. Mom, she doesn't smile at us. She only smiles at the principal. Mom, she wouldn't unlock the bathroom at recess. Mom, she threatened me when I tried to use the bathroom. Mom, she yelled hurry up into the bathroom. Mom, she looks mad all the time. Mom, she wouldn't let me get my lunch box. Mom, she told us she can kick us out of the school if we go to the bathroom without her permission. After witnessing the unsafe classroom, I asked the principal for cameras to be placed in the classroom for accountability. Other parents agreed to pay for them with me. The principal said the teacher would have to
172consent to her own monitoring. You could force teachers to wear body cameras like police officers do so we could identify dangerous behavior before it injures children. The school refused other attempted parent volunteers in Miss An's classroom after I called the school crying after the pediatrician's appointment where they told me we had to report Anne Whitmire to the police for child abuse and neglect. I was crying so hard during this conversation I had to take several breaks from speaking. But I was very clear about what had happened. Golden Hill K8 School violated PC 111166, failing to properly report our students injury. At parent teacher night, Miss Anne turned away from you, repeatedly tapped cabinet handles, and everything on the countertop after she saw me approach for a greeting. I repeated hello in case she didn't hear
173me, and I walked around to see face tof face communication for the smile and handshake. But she turned away from me again. She placed her open hand up on the wall and I saw it shaking, actually shaking. Healthy adults do not prevent children from drinking water or using the toilet. healthy adults smile, introduce themselves, shake hands, and maintain comfortable, brief face-to-face conversations. She had many interpersonal blind spots. The basic social skill of greeting a bubbly PTO parent was the least concerning. Look, most people become teachers because they love children, but someone to hold aggressive power over weaker people in a cycle of abuse. Kids deserve loving, healthy teachers who smile at them. Mom, Miss Whitmire controls us like dolls. Mom, she makes kids stand in the hall by themselves when they ask to use the
174bathroom. Mom, she said I'm not your mom to a kid who told her his mom says he can use the bathroom at school. How much of that was I supposed to deny when my older kid was running at me, destroyed in tears after school with fresh feces on her already rashing genital skin? Parents of kids who transferred out warned me to record all conversations with the principal because she has her own agenda. And it included slandering a parent who was reporting a crime. I don't even want to be here now, let alone get slandered in another district legal team attempt to discredit my crime report. But I'm not money motivated. You're gambling with school funds by repeatedly failing to block trauma-inducing power seekers from accessing our kids. The ICA is a serious liability. Hiding unreported
175child abuse crime, delaying accountability, sheltering the abusers from proper police and CPS documentation of student injury. You sent child abuse reporting to the ICA. You were complicit. Force the ICA to be mandated reporters. Strictly enforce PC1166 or defund their reckless operations. Press charges against principal Julie Martinez for failing to report child abuse after knowing about the child neglect injury at our Golden Hill School. Fire all teachers who interest students. Parents are scared. Prioritizing child safety is not controversial. Stay strong. Thank you. And we appreciate everybody who's >> There may be one more speaker, Jessica Lopez. >> Apparently not. >> No. Okay. Thank you, Miss Soulsson. Thank you for everybody who's taken the time to to speak to us tonight. We are adjourned. Our next meeting is February 24th. Thank you.