001It is 5:04. Uh, I'd like to welcome everyone here in the chamber and those watching via live stream. I'm sure there's lots of them. And call the November 18th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of education to order with trustees Barrera Bazo when Ordas uh present and trustee White Payne will be participating remotely and trustee Hazen is absent this evening. So, um, uh, so we will there'll be some wrangling with our votes. We, it looks like by state law, we'll have to do roll calls on all of our votes. Um, and that's just a stipulation. When you have one person participating, you have to do a roll call. So, uh, we'll be doing that. Uh, and that we will begin, as we usually do, uh, with our flag ceremony. And tonight we have the scripts
002uh R scripts Ranch High School Air Force JOTC color guard presenting the colors. Please stand for the presentation of the colors. Left, right, left, left, left, right, left, left, right. Jeffrey, present. All right, I will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. 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. Forward. Left, left, left, right. [applause] >> Thank you. Please be seated. All right. I'm told I rushed through the pledge there. Sorry. I was my bad. I don't usually give the pledge, but um uh so with that, we'll move to A3, the land acknowledgement, uh which is a traditional custom that dates back centuries in many native nations and communities. Our land acknowledgement
003was 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 now occupies. We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumi people are the original inhabitants and caretakers of these lands now known as San Diego. Despite the attempted genocide and ongoing impacts of colonization, the Kumi spirit remains unbroken and their traditions continue to thrive as they carry the memories of their ancestors who bravely resisted cultural erasure and fought to protect their land and way of life. In honoring their legacy, we pledge to uphold their cultural heritage and right to safeguard their sacred connection to the land for future generations. >> With gratitude and strength, we stand with the
004Kumi, embracing the past while forging a brighter tomorrow. >> All right, we'll now move to item B, adoption of the agenda. We [clears throat] have a very full docket and we'll hear a variety of items tonight, including two public hearings for charter petition renewals. Some of you may know something about that. Uh a semiannual report from our district advisory council on compensatory education, which we call the DAC, and a report on summer programming. Uh I'd like uh a motion to adopt today's agenda as published with items H1 and H3, the public hearings for charter school charter petition renewals to be heard next. That is, we will move it out of order um relative to the uh published um agenda. Do I have a motion? Uh I have a motion from trusty Wen and a second
005from Trusty Vas. Um I have a motion and a second. We will move to a vote. This again will be a roll call vote. So we will start with student trustees. Um trust trustee Ordas >> I. >> Uh Trusty Wen >> I. >> And then I'll move back uh no then I will move to trusty wires pain I think remotely. Um >> that's an I from Trusty Wyers pain. We will now move to Trusty Boso, Vice President Barrera, and myself. I That is very cludgy, but we're we're going to do that, I guess, all night. Buckle up. Um, okay. We have We now have an agenda and um, Miss T, 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
006that is conducted in public and board members will not engage in dialogue with members of the audience. Board bylaw 1025 sets the time limit for public comment on agenda items at 10 minutes per side pro and con or 20 minutes total. Speakers will be able to provide 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. Speakers participating via Zoom will be asked to unmute when their name is called. If you are unable to unmute yourself, we will call the next speaker. Please follow along with the agenda so that you know when your item is coming up
007for 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 and would like to sign up for inperson public comment, iPads are available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby. >> All right, we will now conduct a public hearing on item H1, King Chavez Community High School Charter Schools Charter Petition renewal. I would like to ask Dearra Walsh uh our director of charter schools office to come to the dis and provide information on the item. >> Thank you dearra. Good evening. Thank you. Um, item H1 is the public hearing regarding the renewal of the charter
008of King Chavez Community High School. The school is seeking a renewal of its charter for a 5-year term beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2031. This public hearing is to consider the level of support for King Chavez Community High. Um, in the write up, table one is a summary of the charter petition and its renewals. Table two provides an overview of the school. Table four provides the projected enrollment for the upcoming charter term and table five summarizes the current board roster for the school. District staff is reviewing the charter renewal documents submitted by the school and will bring a recommendation to grant or deny the renewal of the charter at a subsequent date. Thank you. >> Thank you dear. Uh get ready. The public hearing is now open. Uh we will now take
009up to 10 10 minutes of public comment on this item. Miss Stoultz, are there any speakers on item H1? >> Yes, we have several speakers on H1. If you would please come to the podium and line up. You will have 10 minutes total. If you would please say your name so I can uh mark it for the record. Cindy Kelly, Dwante Haynes, Desi Sullivan, Ashley Mandiola, Lindseay Clara, David Busto, and Roberto Martinez. Go ahead. >> Good evening, President Person, board members, and charter school staff. My name is Cindy Kelly, and I am the CEO of the King Chavez Neighborhood of Schools. On behalf of King Chavez, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight and for your ongoing support of our students, families, and educators. I am honored to be here.
010I have been in education for 22 years and I have served 18 of those years here in San Diego Unified and I would like to thank all of you for your support and dedication throughout that time. King Chavez has been proudly serving the San Diego community since the year 2000. For 25 years, we have remained deeply committed to providing an education and an environment that empowers every student to achieve their full potential. Our schools are rooted in the belief that academic excellence and personal growth go hand in hand and that every student, especially those facing academic or personal challenges, deserve the support, care, and opportunities needed to thrive within the school community. Our partnership with the San Diego Unified School District has been an essential part of that mission. We deeply value the collaborative relationship
011we've built over the years and we are sincerely grateful for the thoughtful student- centered support we've received from the charter office throughout this renewal process. Thank you again to Dedra and Tiffany for your support and expertise. Together we all share a common goal to serve, uplift, and educate the students of San Diego. We look forward to continuing this partnership for many, many more years to come. Thank you for your time and your continued support to our students. [applause] Good evening, board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and for your continued support of our work at King Chavez Community High. My name is Desi Sullivan and I'm honored to serve as the principal. I've been a part of the high school admin team for seven years, six of those as principal. Our focus is
012straightforward. We meet students where they are. We support them through the realities of adolescence and we prepare them for college, career, or post-secary options that create real economic and social mobility. We give our students access to opportunities that matter. Each year we take students on a free college road trip up the coast of California so they can see their potential future firsthand. Most of our students admitted to CSUs and UC's are entering with full financial scholarship. We also partner with apprentice pro apprenticeship programs like the AGC general contractors for students who want to enter the workforce immediately. Finally, our MK trial team has earned county level recognition and they've traveled to Washington DC. This year, our school moved into the Logan Heights neighborhood where we serve our uh near our partner, King Chavez Schools. Our
013enrollment increased by 12% this year, showing that we we made the right choice for our community. Parents and students recognize the work that we do and they're willing to commit to the King Chavez program. Our students juggle schools, jobs, caretaking, adult responsibilities earlier than most and we take that seriously. I'm proud of the responsibility entrusted to me and I'm committed to honoring that trust every day. Thank you for your support and the opportunity to continue this work. I respectfully ask the board to continue supporting King Chavez Community High and so that together we can build on the successes and continue providing an exceptional education to our students. [applause] Hello everyone. My name is Roberto Martinez and this is Destiny Ariano. This is our daughter Galani Martinez. We are here today because King Chavez High School
014has done so much for us. While most schools give up on teenagers when they become parents, King Chavez did the complete opposite. They supported us with our daughter Galani. They always pushed us forward, not only as parents, but as individual students. They believed in us when it seemed that no one else did. They gave us a second chance to a better future for ourselves and our daughter. King Chavez and the teachers had a profound effect. This community nurtured us a academically and personally and are thank and are thankful for the impact that King Chavez High School has had on our lives and for always embracing us with open arms. >> [applause] >> Okay, good afternoon everyone. My name is David Bon Nunes and I am currently a junior at King Chavis Community High School and
015here to talk about my experiences with this school. The school has given me access to pursue my goals of attending university right after high school. From taking honor classes, AP courses, I have been challenged to expand on my thinking and academic skills. I have been joining [clears throat] programs like mocktra and upwardbound have provided me opportunities outside of my classroom to enhance my experiences with public speaking and critical thinking. Something I look forward to in in the upcoming school year is a college road trip where students will have the chance to visit universities outside of San Diego. also having access to after school tutoring with lots of teachers and staff willing to help me get work done and making me feel welcome and safe in school. Thank you. [applause] Eradicating child maltreatment, self harming behaviors,
016and suicidal ideiation is the ultimate goal of our mental health department at King Chavez. Preventative steps and collaboration efforts allow us to make progress towards achieving our goal. For the past nine years as a school psychologist at King Chavez, I'm not limited on to only providing services to special education students, but to general education students as well. Fortunately, our administrators have allowed me the opportunity to conduct professional development workshops for our educators at King Chavez that address our role as mandated reporters. In addition, I'm able to inform our staff of the red flags associated with our children's who are in the midst of overcoming adverse childhood experiences. Overall at King Chavez, we work closely with the psychiatric emergency response team and CPS to ensure that our students receive quality care in crisis situations. Nothing has
017been better than seeing our students talk to per trained police officers at times who relive horrible high school experiences which provides our students hope for the future. Lastly, our partnership with parents and guardians and treating them with treating them as the expert of their children has allowed us to empower them over the years in order for them to advocate for mental health resources not only at school but in their communities as well. [applause] >> Good afternoon. My name is Ashley Mendiola. I graduated from King Chavez High School in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Um, and thanks to the support of King Chavez and the programs that they collaborate, I was able to graduate from the University of Berkeley, I finished my education in three years and thanks to the resources that the school provided. Um,
018they installed values of me of justice where I was able to find my passion and now I came back as a community organizer and I collaborate with Kim Chavez and I have helped 18 students get their seal of civic engagement so that they could put it on their transcript. we are collaborating with them to advocate for more just laws at the city council level. Um, and it's uh been a good opportunity to come back to the community and provide more resources to students like I was a couple years ago. Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Lindsay Clara, proud alumni Chavez Community High School, class of 2023, Southwestern College alumni, and now sociology at SDSU. When I think about where I started and where I am now, King Chavez is the heart of
019the journey. It is where I found teachers who saw my potential long before I did. It is where I found my peers who became my family. It is where I learned that community isn't just about something that you belong into. It's something that you build together. King Chavez opened doors I never knew existed. Through our award-winning mock trial team, I found my voice and confidence. When our team placed fifth in the county, I realized that education isn't just about grades. It's about empowerment, leadership, and the courage to dream beyond the possibilities. Today, I carry the forward the legacy of King Chavez. And now, I work at King Chavez Elementary, helping young children discover their own potential through literacy and confidence building. I also work as transcendence coordinator and teaching artist, guiding youth to express themselves
020through creativity and community. I am living proof that what happens when the schools invest in love, culture, and community. And because of King Chavez, I don't just chase success, I create it for others. Thank you. [applause] >> All right. It's a strong speaker lineup there. Um, very impressive. Do any of my colleagues here on the dis have any questions or comments? All right. Um, seeing none, uh, this item will be brought back, uh, to the board for action at a later date. Uh, let me just I know this is always anticlimactic because but we do have to hear these twice uh, and we'll make an actual board decision at the following meeting. So, we appreciate everyone that showed up to speak tonight. And with that, uh, this public hearing is now closed. Get ready. We're
021about to open another one. Um, but thank you. Uh, should if you'd like to leave, we'll give you a moment to leave. >> You guys are leaving. You You're leaving so quietly. I don't even need to stop the meeting for it. I appreciate that. Um, all right. We will now conduct a public hearing on item H3, the renewal of the Urban Discovery Academy Charter Petition. Uh, Miss Walsh, please provide information on the item. >> Great. Thank you. So, item H3 is the public hearing regarding the renewal of the charter for Urban Discovery Urban Discovery Academy. Um, the renewal also includes a material revision uh for grade level changes and removal of a facility. Um, Urban Discovery Academy is seeking a renewal of its charter for a 5-year term beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June
02230, 2031. The material revision would eliminate grades 9 through 12, remove a facility at 1400 Park Boulevard, and relocate grades seven and eight to the facility on 14th Street. Uh, the material revision was submitted concurrently with the charter renewal. Um the public hearing is to consider the level of support for the renewal of Urban Discovery Academy. Table one is a summary of the charter petitions and renewals. Table two provides an overview of the school. Table four is the projected enrollment for the future term. Table five is a summary of the board roster. And as with the other public hearing, district staff is reviewing the documents submitted by the school and will bring back a recommendation to grant or deny at a subsequent date. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Dearra. All right. The public
023hearing is now open. Uh we will take up to 10 minutes of public comment on this item. Miss Stoultz, are there any speakers on item H3? >> Yes, we have several speakers. It will be the same process. 10 minutes total for the group. If you could please come to the podium and line up. Jenny Owen, Jennifer Hooks, Lauren Augustine, Kate Augustine, Yanitsa Rodriguez, Kayla Avery, McKenzie Morgan, and Ed Abeda. Where are those signs? Okay, I'm going to try to time us so we don't we have a lot of speakers. Uh, good evening. uh superintendent, members of the board of education, and the charter school office team. My name is Dr. Jenny Owen, and I serve as superintendent, CEO of Urban Discovery Academy. I've had the privilege of being part of the UDA team for over
024a decade. I did take a backseat while I had young children for a few years, and I've been back at the helm the last few years after raising my children. Um uh we I'm proud to be back. We've undergone some significant enhancements to our school culture and learning environment. We're really excited to be here tonight. We have some big changes happening and and we're ready. Today, we celebrate 17 years of service and impact to San Diego students and we're excited to present our five-year renewal plan to you all to extend our impact even further. to share our story. You'll hear from several members of our community, one of our board members who has dedicated 17 years of service to our school, several parents, including the chair of our parent volunteer network, one of our dedicated
025teachers, and two students who represent the UDA mission. You'll also see many eager faces in the audience supporting our school. Just look for the bright colors signs. UDA is driven by a powerful purpose. Our vision is a better tomorrow and our mission is to develop design thinkers who will build it. This isn't just a poster on a wall. It drives our action for our students. It's emblematic of third graders collaborating to create sustainable park designs. It's a middle schooler or a fifth and sixth grader designing and prototyping underwater robots to help clean the ocean. It's our young scientists leading community cleanup events with I Love a Clean San Diego. While they collect data on their findings to advocate for change in our downtown community, we develop students who lead by example, making active, positive contributions
026to their local and global communities. If you visit our elementary campus tomorrow evening, you're all invited at 5:00 p. p.m. 84014th Street. You'll see problem solving all over the walls and classrooms. Music and voices of our family members will fill the vibrant halls. The brightness of student innovation will be shining like it always is. Our secondary campus will look the same on Thursday night. As a part of this renewal process, our board completed a careful analysis asking important questions about how we could best reshape our program to enhance our impact on students and the community for the future. This analysis made it clear that splitting our focus and resources across a TK model was not financially prudent and jeopardized diluting our programmatic impact for our TK through 8 students. This led to the strategic decision
027to propose a renewal and material revision to consolidate our resources and return to our roots as a robust TK through8 community model. We believe this transition will be powerful, allowing us to reunify our entire program and bring our entire UDA family together on our 14th Street campus, which is beautiful, I might add. Once this transition is complete, you'll be able to walk across our campus and see an eighth grade student mentoring a TK student and drawing a mural, or a seventh grade reading buddy listening patiently as a kindergarten nurse sounds out their first words and sentences. This return to unified model will strengthen our community and allow us to concentrate our focus on the core instructional foundation that has driven our success since the very beginning, almost two decades. We are confident that our strategically
028unified TK through 8 model is fiscally sustainable, academically rigorous, and uniquely positioned to serve our downtown community uh for the years to come. and we respectfully request your approval for a 5-year charter renewal term from July 1, 2026 through 2031. We thank you for your continued partnership. It's been a long and important journey and we eagerly await your decision in December. [applause] >> Hi, uh my name is Lauren Augustine. I am on our PTA. Um, we've been at the school for seven years and I was invited to the PTA by our TK teacher years and years ago and I'm still there loving it, loving helping and being a part of the school. Um, it's a great space. our the staff, the admin, everybody. If there's any event that we can put on or any small
029any kind of community activity that brings a sense of excitement or engagement to the students, they back it 100% and they'll do anything and move any heaven and earth that they can to help me help them make it possible, which is really exciting. Um, we have past students that come to our events. I know that we have other our principal still in touch with some former families. It's a place where I'm always impressed by um the staff, the teachers, the admin, just how much they care about each student. They don't have to know the student once they're in the door. Uh they know who they are. They know their family. They know what day they had yesterday. They know what they had for breakfast or if they need something. And they really care about the
030students future and their present, which I just think is very impressive. Um, I know that our kids and all the other students are going to leave really able to stand up for themselves, stand up for their community, um, and just be productive members of society. There's a real sense of independence that, um, is fostered at Urban. And we love it. And I'm excited to see the adults that our kids are becoming being fostered by these great staff and teachers. Hello, my name is Kate and I've been going to UDA for eight years since TK. One thing I really like um about UDA is the teachers. For instance, when one of my friends was upset, I asked my teacher, Miss Satan, um if I could go to the bathroom with her because she was upset during
031free time, and she said yes. This is one of the many examples of how the teachers really care about students at UDA. I'm also very excited that there will be a middle school at UDA next year so I can stay with my little brother and sister for two more years. Thank you for this opportunity. >> Thank you. [applause] Good even good evening superintendent and members of the board of education. My name is Edward Abda. I am the uh vice president of the urban discovery of board and here tonight speaking on behalf of UDA and not my professional position as the senior associate dean at UC San Diego. It's been a pleasure. This is personal for me. For over 17 years, I've been not just a board member, but been a witness to the proud working
032alongside the founders dedicated to community to help us guide through an innovative public charter. And I've seen firsthand how this school changes trajectory for children and their lives. My professional background is closely aligned with the reasons we built UDA. Throughout my entire career at UC San Diego, beginning with my first role serving underreperate students in the high schools, I've been dedicated to one core principle, ensuring every student, regardless of their background, has access to support and skills necessary for post-secondary success. We are not just focused on graduation. We are f committed to producing innovative graduates and compassionate leaders who are empowered to address the most pressing issues facing our community. We've even finalized a a connection through our unique collaboration with UC San Diego, which has helped UDA establish a community education hub right on
033campus. This partnership provides our educators with worldclass professional development and until recently offered high school students access to dual enrollment courses and certifications. We're seeking this renewal because TCO TK through 8 program is the heart of our mission, always has and ongoing will be. It's not just as strong, it is it is thriving. This is where we see the most tremendous impact. It is where we consistently deliver significant gains, especially for English learners and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. The request before you reflects a strategic proactive decision to protect and amplify that success. We are proud to work of the work we've done at Urban Discovery over our long-standing history as a charter school. We are energized by the strides our current students are making and inspired by the potential of those we have yet to serve.
034On behalf of UDA board, respectfully request that you approve the five-year charter renewal and also the long-standing relationship working with Unified School District. It's a passion and partnership I take great pride. [applause] Hi everyone, my name is McKenzie and I'm a kinderg. I love my school because I get to read books in the library with my teachers and friends. I live really close to my mom to walk me to school every day and [snorts] come to my visit. Everyone was really nice to me and my friends helped me learn new things every day. Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening. I'm Yanita and I'm a teacher at Urban Discovery. I've been teaching there for 5 years. I'm here to tell you a little bit about what we do. So the core of our educational model is
035interdisiplinary project based learning and design thinking which allows students um it this model has allowed us to continue to push our students in their academics and make academic gains while also meeting the needs of our diverse learners. Um I urge you to support our petition renewal. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. >> All right. Um, thank you so much. Do any of the trustes have any questions or wish to discuss this item? I will just say, you know, we talk a lot about we have our own budgetary challenges um from time to time and uh we talk a lot about the concept of strategic abandonment, which is identifying what you do best and figuring out in a structured way how to focus and prioritize what you do best. And so I'm I'm fascinated by the choice
036and I'm encouraged by it. I know it takes a lot of courage and I'm excited to see how it unfolds. Um that's all I've got for the time being. Um so with that I don't see any additional comment tonight. Um but uh we appreciate your comments and again I'll just reiterate we at our next I believe our next meeting will come back. Um we will we have to hear have the second hearing and we will make a board decision at that time but we appreciate you coming out tonight and with that the public hearing is now closed. [applause] >> [cheering] >> Thank you dear. All right. Uh with that we will return to our published agenda and we'll hear a report from the student advisory board member um Ethan Ramirez. Ethan um if you'd like
037to come up to the dis to provide your report we'd like to have you come right up. >> There's any chair? >> Yeah, come on up. Right. You can be where Deerra just was. >> No, you do what you need to do. Thank you everyone. >> Is the Is the mic on? Is your mic on? You press that gray button. Yeah, >> I think is it on now? There you go. Uh thank you everyone. Uh thank you for inviting me here and letting me speak. I hope you all having a great afternoon and evening. It is a rainy day. Uh but we're here to discuss what went over at our student advisory meeting uh the 17th which was yesterday. So we were firstly very grateful to have uh our superintendent Franny uh sorry not Franny
038um Favi at our meeting and we got some great notes that she spoke on. Uh one of these notes was that we want to help improve more of our communication. So um more like talking from us up here, you know, the superintendent and like our higherups down to the students. So we have a clear communication stream. Uh another thing that we also mentioned is that um we want it to be more like um students to teachers, more like people, students and them speaking down to each other. So it's not like a superintendent or like the higher up speaking to like the students. It's more like them talking to each other, letting them them know their information that they want to hear. So it's more like inclusive than like they're just like me, you know. Um
039we also talked about um posting more on our social media. So more of our um student advisor board social media because we do have an Instagram but we think it's not as active and as informational as we'd like it to be. So maybe this includes more like entertaining videos and more like on trend stuff and less like can in other words like less just like posting posters and like just information dumping but more like attention grabbing and like making you want to hear the next video and making you want to hear and continue listening on. Uh but other than that um another thing we talked about a lot was the in-person meetings that our fellow student advisor members will be doing at large schools. So uh this will just start December 5th and they are
040going to help talk more information about this board and give more information that students in this community have a voice you know if they have problems that they think they should be heard that should be talked about that they're able to come here and speak their mind because I think it's very important that everyone knows that they have a voice in this community and we're all a very open community. So they were going to these schools and we're trying they're they're trying to get to every school. So I wish them the best of luck in doing that. But spreading information about they have a voice, you know, they're able to come here and speak their mind. Uh another thing we talked about was uh the anti-ab campaign. Um it did not get as much engagement
041as we would like it to, but um this just means that we have more room to grow and it means that we have more room to get more engagement, drive more engagement towards that. So we talked more about um us being student advising members going to our schools and being like pillars of representatives for this board and like driving more engagement towards those campaigns and more like being leaders on our campus and just letting know people know because we are representatives after mall like what like what's happening on campuses and what's happening here. Uh next we also talked about some school safety making sure that our students are very safe in schools. Apparently, we've had some uh recent scares the past couple weeks. Uh just making sure the students are in school, they feel safe,
042they feel protected because that is very important in our community because we want students to be focused more on learning and not about their safety. Uh ways that we could have this will be um having drills as Fabi said during our meeting. Um we do a lot of drills, fire drills during school, like during class, you know, and I feel like we're all very versed in how to do that, but it's like becoming too much of a schedule, you know, it's like too predictable. So, what about these times where we're not in class? You know, what about these lunch times, these before schools, these after schools? What does that mean? What are we supposed to do? Because as a student myself, I'm not too sure about what I'm supposed to do in those times. So,
043uh we talked about maybe looking into more ways of having drills that talk about those protocols instead of just always on the classroom, always what happens in class, even though that is very important as well. Uh next, we talked to our former member of the board, Lorena. She was our former student. uh what was student engagement intern? So she over the last five years has been helping us connect the connect the student and the higher up gap. Uh she talked about how it has grown over the last five years how when she first started out as the intern there wasn't really a clear way to connect and get people's opinions through through a certain website. Everything wasn't really connected but it has grown a lot over that time. So she's been very proud to see
044that thing. But uh there's still room to grow. So, you know, is making sure that people know that a website exists, they're able to come to these meetings and make sure they're more publicized and making sure that people know that once again they have a voice because that is very important. Uh and just some any notes that we had on the meeting was that um just focusing on the small things that can progress into the bigger things. You know, I think we talk a lot about these big things overall vaping and stuff like that. guys like these are big very broad goals but sometimes it's hard as a community us as students specifically to contribute like massive factors at a time. So more just like what small victories can we have what more progression can
045we make towards these things that in turn will lead to big massive you know things that will help sorry if I'm going over again but like results that will help contribute towards these goals that we want to attribute to. So that was mostly talked about and thank you very much for letting me speak today. >> Good. Great job, Ethan. Thank you. [applause] >> All right. Uh we will now consider items C2, C3, and C4. Uh these are all resolutions. The first recognizing November as Runaway and Homeless Youth Awareness Month and then Native American Heritage Month. And finally, the resolution recognizing November 20th, 2025 as National Family Parent Involvement Day. Is there a motion to approve items C2, C3, and C4 together? I have a motion from Trusty Bazo and a second from Trusty Horas. I
046have a motion and a second. Uh, Miss Staltz, are there any speakers on these items? Okay. Do any of the trustees have questions or wish to discuss these items? Trusty Ordas, take it away. Okay, I wanted to say I'm very happy to be sponsoring this resolution with Trusty Boso and I want to emphasize how important it is. Homelessness is an incredibly painful and emotional issue in our communities, especially when we learn that children are at risk of becoming homeless or already are. I want to thank the district counseling and student support services department for providing vital resources to our students and I'm confident that we as a district will continue supporting these children for many years to come. Trusty Basso. >> Thank you, President Person. I know um I've sponsored a few resolutions this evening,
047including this important one, but tonight I'd actually like to recognize uh parent national parent involvement day, which we celebrate on the on November 20th. Um, I'm proud to co-sponsor the resolution supporting this measure along with Trusty Hazen. Uh, because we know that when our families are engaged that our students really thrive. And we also know that parent involvement only happens when parents, guardians, and caregivers really feel welcomed and informed and empowered at at our school sites and all of our school facilities. And with our student outcome focused governance goals, this principle should always be at the center of everything we do. and I'm always reminding them that as well. Um, as a former PTA volunteer wi with San Diego Unified, I really saw firsthand at the schools how parents and caregivers can make such a
048positive difference. Um, because you end up not being there just for your own kids. You're there for really all the kids. Um, and that's and and it makes such a difference to to especially to some of the students that maybe don't have as uh as much support. It also means ensuring that our communication is accessible in every language, that our schools are places where our families feel comfortable and safe walking through the doors, and that we're providing really meaningful opportunities to help shape decisions that are going to affect the children. And so, I wanted to say tonight to parents and caregivers, thank you. Thank you for showing up for your children and for your schools, whether it seems like a big or small, you know, um, endeavor. Really, every little bit really helps and and
049the students really remember. I still have students come up to me now. They're graduating from Mir Mesa that remember me uh helping out in their classrooms. So, it really strengthens our campuses and our entire community. So, as we recognize parent involvement day, uh we as a district are reaffirming commitment to working with all caregivers, not just parents, but all caregivers of students. And because in doing so, our students achieve more. They feel more supported and they know that adults in their lives are interested in their future. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Bazo. Um do I have um I I want to remember to check on um Trusty Wire's pain there. Make sure we don't Do you have any comment? My comment is I I support what uh Trusty Maza just said. It doesn't matter
050uh an adult on campus and a lot of times they'll call you OG's but they appreciate it too and they'll come to you later and say uh thanks for supporting me or thank you for being around and I'd like to encourage folks even if you don't have children and you are an OG come in volunteer help be around. They do appreciate all the work that we do to help them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty W. Uh do I as Trusty W. >> Um I also want to piggyback off of what Ashley was saying. Um, I'm really proud to be standing behind the resolution of homeless youth awareness um with the rest of my colleagues and I really believe in the power of community and how our community especially always shows up for youth and
051I hope this action inspires continued advocacy, stronger resources and like renewed dedication to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to feel secure, supported and valued. No young person should have to face those challenges alone and together we can make sure that they don't. >> Thank you. Um any further comment? All right, seeing as we've exhausted our comments here, uh we will move to a roll call vote. Um so I will start with the student trustees. Trusty, >> Trusty W. Trusty White Payne. >> Hi, >> Trusty Boso. >> Hi, >> Vice President Barrera. [clears throat] >> And I am an I as well. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. All right, that went more smoothly, the roll call on the second time around. Um, all right. Uh, with that, we will move to
052item D1. Uh any reportable actions from close session will be published within 24 hours on the district's uh website board actions summary. So you can look for that if you're curious. All right. [clears throat] As there are no management appointments to announce under item D2, we will continue item D3. Dr. McGulla, please provide your information report. >> Thank you, Dr. Person. I come to this meeting with deep gratitude for our educators for their commitment every day to helping our students achieve. Last week, we received the results of the California school dashboard, and it shows that our students are continuing to make tremendous progress. We improved in six of seven state indicators when compared to last year. We reduced chronic absenteeism. We reduced suspension rates. We increased graduation rates, and I keep saying the number, 90%.3,
053highest in recent history. We improved in our college and career readiness indicators. Students did better in English language arts and we saw improvements in mathematics. And I'm proud to report our district led all large urban districts including Los Angeles, Fresno, Long Beach, and San Francisco in five major categories: English language arts, mathematics, chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness, and graduation rate. So, thank you to all the educators showing up and working very hard. Applause to you. [applause] So the numbers are great. Um families in the audience and at home might be wondering how we have been able to make this happen. Well, let me tell you, we are centering our work on meeting the students where they are in their educational journey and then working closely with them to help them grow. That's why it
054was so important to build a mechanism of having ongoing formative assessments to be able to see where our students are. We are using data to our advantage. We don't just sit and wait for assessments at the end of the school year like the California dashboard to determine where we need to make adjustments to our lessons. We're providing teachers with data in real time, and I like to say actionable data that is allowing them to work with students sooner and helping them achieve. Assessments like the California School Dashboard reinforce that we're on the right track, but we know we must continue to do so better because we need to get to 100% of our students 100% of the time achieving and we're not going to rest until we get there. So, thank you again. We also
055had a really great visit um to Petco Park. Um, increasing graduation rates like the one I just mentioned are the results of lessons and programs we're able to offer our students. Our college and career technical education department is a tremendous example of how we connect students interested in different career pathways with curriculum and professionals who can give them more perspective on an industry industry where they have an interest. On November 6, about 400 of our students visited Petco Park to meet with professionals working for the venue and Padre's team to learn more about everything from hospitality and food services to engineering, marketing, and entertainment. It was really cool to see like every single possible career job at Petco Park was explored. This partnership formed for Pathways at Petco event is a powerful example of how
056education and industry can come together to open doors for our students. I want to thank Dr. Cook, director of car career, college and technical education, and his entire team, the Padres's organization, and especially all of our students who participated. Let's check out a video um featuring several of our students who had the opportunity to participate. And I brought you a Padres's hat. >> Thanks so much. [laughter] We are live here today at Petco Park and today we had a wonderful event called Pathways at Petco. It was a great day of learning where our students got to see and connect learning from their pathways to future opportunities. I had no idea. I was just surprised to see to see anything actually and talking to like actual mentors who are teaching things that I'm actually interested in
057like marketing and creating content. Really like the physical therapist. I thought getting to be able to ask him questions on what he does and how he gets to work with the players uh was really interesting and really fun to do. I wasn't aware of like how much is going on behind the scenes. It made me realize that there's like so much going on in the background that all has to be maintained and built by some by and designed by an engineer. >> At San Diego Unified, we believe in college and career readiness. That means preparing you with the skills and habits to thrive with whatever comes next. But we're really proud of these programs, of our CCT programs that let you explore everything from health sciences to digital media to construction. Every path deserves respect.
058Success isn't a one-sizefits-all. It's about finding what fits you. It's my [music] first ever experience actually working somewhere for photography and I feel like it's a very good experience [music] so far and I feel like I could carry this on when I'm older as well. >> It really made us feel uh unified literally as a district to see everybody having this wonderful opportunity. So, thank you uh Petco for this really great chance and this really great and amazing experience. I have one more. >> Yeah. Thank you. [applause] Lastly, I want to update the board on two key advocacy actions from the past week. Uh first we held our inaugural advocacy community partners meeting at Wilson Middle School. More than 30 leaders from state, city, county, and federal offices along with community organizations and parent groups
059joined us for a candid discussion about the future of public education in San Diego. President Person opened the session and Dr. Cook and I walked partners through a presentation on student progress, the projected 2627 budget gap, ongoing pressures in special education impact aid and federal programs. We also discussed the real impacts families are feeling from propos from proposed SNAP and Medicaid cuts. The group group closed with shared commitments to protect K through2 funding, strengthening support for students and families, and building a unified voice for San Diego schools. This meeting is the start of an ongoing effort. We will reconvene in February to provide an advocacy update and review the governor's proposed budget. Second, yesterday we hosted Assembly Member David Alvarez, his staff and partners, including CTA, LPI, and SDA for a focused visit on the
060importance of California's community schools investment and the need for long-term sustained funding. Thank you, Trusty Barrera, for joining us at Sherman Elementary School. The visit held in preparation for an upcoming assembly hearing highlighted how community schools, CTE, and expanded learning are improving student outcomes across our state. At both Sherman Elementary and Lincoln High School, the message was clear. These investments are working, and they require stability to grow. I want to close by thanking our staff, principles, and partners who supported these conversations. Your preparation and your commitment to students continues to drive this work forward. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Beul. Sit tight. We'll be with you in about five seconds. Uh we will now hear item E1, the District Advisory Council semiannual report. Dr. Bugula, please introduce the item. >> Thank
061you, President Person. I I've been smiling at them in the audience here. I'm happy that they're here. Um it is my pleasure to introduce the fall 2025 update from the District Advisory Council on compensatory education programs. This presentation underscores the vital role that parents, students, and community voices continue to play in shaping equitable decision- makingaking across our schools, particularly through our school site councils. Um, I know I'm about to say their names. I don't have this in my notes, but I really appreciate the level of engagement that this group um does and so thank you so much. Um, so to introduce you, Kishana Christopher, DAC DAC chair from Lincoln High School, Dr. Crystal Troll, first vice chair from Claremont High School and La Hoya High School. Nathan Williams, second vice chair and student leader from
062San Diego High, Katrina Krupska, Title One representative, and Dario Gutierrez, director of strategic um planning for student achievement. And with that, I'm going to turn it over with a lot of gratitude. Thank you for leading us through today's um presentation. >> Thank you. Thank you for having us. No problem. And we are so happy and delighted to be here today. Um, again, we represent a wide array of schools in our district. And I just want to give a salute and a nod to Lina Parker who's in the audience. She was our last chair. Um, she really did help to lead us and guide us in a um a pivotal way that we all are thankful for. I also want to acknowledge that um Lina, myself, and Crystal have all been moms that have been a
063force in this district to advocate for not just our own children, but the children at our schools and in our neighborhoods. And um it's been a pleasure to be around such great um influential people. Thank you all. And I want to give a shout out to Nathan. He's been a rock star with us, our student, second vice chair um at San Diego High. We It's such a privilege to be with him and as an educator and mom, I just we're so delighted that he's a part of our team and our SPSA team, Dario, uh Stacy, um Mr. Lemon, Brandon Lemon, and uh so many others. We're so grateful to be here today. So let us get started on our presentation. So our DAC goals are to um empower our SSC members, our parent members or
064student members to um support student success because that's what our bottom line is. We would really want to see that students are achieving and the needle is moving and an upward um progression as far as their achievement goes. Number two, we really want to ensure that um um we are consistent and continue to provide accessible information and we've done that in a wide array of ways this past year um with a new onboarding process and a new um SSC template which has streamlined the way we do business as an SSC throughout this district. and it's a unified format. So, we're thankful for that. Um, our next slide, I'll give this to Nathan. Thank you, Kesha, and good afternoon. Um, board in front of me. Very happy to be here. Um, and piggybacking off of Kishana
065about new things and new and exciting things this year. the very thankful to the SPSA department for having this new uh landing page for the DAC and overall um being that we started in September as of September we've seen that it's a better user interface overall for a lot of our representatives and for many school sites it's um got greater organization of resources and it's uh constantly updating during our meetings live and a lot of users are very engaged in our meetings and they really enjoy having that resource to them and it overall increases the transfer of information from the DAC to our school sites. And then we also have this year we're trying to revamp the 2.0 version of our take it to our your SSC. Um, I'm in charge of this and I've
066had a lot of fun trying to uh bring this back to our school sites. It's a very quick recap of our DAC uh of the meeting that day and it's a good resource for the DAC reps to share to their um own SSE when they have their SSE the following the SSSE meeting their following week. And it increases access to resources and material. We've had a lot of great feedback from different um school sites and they are very thankful to have this this year. They seem to love it and I keep hearing a good feedback. So, it makes me very happy to um serve our 144 school sites. And now I will give it to Crystal I believe. Oh, you're next, Kisha. So, sorry. >> Yes. in this take it to your SSC tool. It
067also empowers our parents that um when they come to the meetings they know exactly what to report on. They have the confidence with the tool in hand and there are links um attached where even if they email it to the SSC members, they too can click on those links and and get the information they they need also. So, it's a great tool that we use and we're so grateful for it. Our next item is to show the progress that we've made with transparency and accessibility to everyone. The public, not just parents or or guardians, but the public can now see through our live budget link um the LCFF budget and the Title One budgets. And we're grateful for that because at any time anyone can go on uh and in the QR code and enter
068in information. And how does that relate back to us? It relates back to us because we wanted to um really talk to parents about the different ways they could use the Title One funds. And it was our commitment this past school year to increase the spending on things that their children needed. And we really put a dent in the in the money on the table this time around that. And we're proud to um report that in 2023 2024 the spending was 1.9 million. I mean, the unspent funds were not 1.9 million, but the last school year we almost spent over a million dollars more, which is great. We left less money on the table. So, this year our commitment is to teach parents more in our DAC meetings, different ways that we could utilize the
069funding to um increase student achievement. And hopefully we'll see less bags um there. So hopefully maybe we'll see like half a bag instead of eight bags that are sitting there now because we're currently at a eight um 8,000 I mean sorry 8 million as of 102925. All right, our next Crystal. Thank you Kishana. It's great to see everybody. Uh so we like to pe see people engaged in the DAC and so we offer opportunities for the DAC reps and parents and students to participate in other work some of what we call the heavier lifting of our DAC. So we've formed two subcommittees. Uh we formed many along over the years but for right now we have two a bylaws subcommittee and a title one ranking subcommittee. So the bylaws we redid the by bylaws about
070two or three years ago and we did a full overhaul. It took us a year to go through all of the different sections. Was in pretty good shape, but you know, we have to take a look at it again. There's some things we need to update and make sure that are still relevant. So, we're working uh with a committee of some DAC members and community members to uh look at these bylaws. And then uh so I'm spearheading that. Daio is spearheading the title one ranking committee. And um we've had some great meetings just looking at data and thinking about how to uh make sure that we're you know allocating and and potentially even making a recommendation about maybe changing that threshold so that we can reach more kids with our title one money. Um so
071yeah, so we're really getting folks engaged and we're excited about what we can um do with our our ideas. I don't know, Daria, do you want to talk about that one or the title one? >> Title One rank it. I've I've had wonderful time working with a committee. We've met twice. I think we scheduled it for an hour and they go on for an hour and a half because they just want to ask so many different questions and the idea I love the idea comes about, you know, transparency, advocacy and all that. And so they ask all kinds of questions and sometimes I feel like I talk a lot and I say just let me know if I'm overwhelming, you know, like no, give me more. We want to just know more of of of
072how this is all done. So we've had a great time um with it. Uh we are going to do a recommendation I believe tomorrow. Actually it's going to be till the December meeting about like why we're doing it because we don't want to just like take a poll as to like how everybody feels about it. We want to ground oursel in data and so that's really what we're after. We're looking at other school districts and however uh who else has been doing it. It's an eyeopening experiences for some of the uh members in that committee of how other districts do the funding and so forth. I just want to be as transparent as possible with everybody and have I've had a wonderful time trying to answer as many questions I have and again they just
073want to just know understand and know more. Have a great time of all and Christa was part of that committee and I believe was as well. >> Thank you. So, we're moving the needle on um just trying to make sure more kids are able to get um support in other schools if if we can um lower that percentage for increasing title one funds at more schools. So, we still have another meeting um set for December for that title one ranking committee. And um we do have a new title one rep who's Kat her name is Katarina. she couldn't make it today, but we just want to give her a shout out and thank her for being a part of this. Um, and our next bylaws committee meeting is in January. All right. And our last
074slide is um our DAC requests and recommends that um we um receive additional responses to the other recommendations that we had given um for the LCAP and that we continue with our district leadership meetings which I know we have one coming up with our superintendent at the end of this month and then alongside DAC that um The board uh creates policies to ensure and strengthen those goals for accountability in our SPSAs and inclusion of our DAC and year-round district level discussions of title one um spending. And with that, we thank you so much for your time. We um we are grateful to be here today and we also want to thank our SPSA department who works very closely with us um and will continue to be ambitious this school year. Thank you. >> Thank you
075to the DSC. Are there any public speakers on this item? Okay, seeing none, we'll move to the board. Are there any trustees that would like to reflect or ask questions on this item? Trusty Baza. Y >> thank you. Um and I love that we're looking at the amount of funds that are supporting the Title One program and trying to make sure that they're actually all being used. I I really appreciate that because I know that's something that's been a concern on the of the board. Um, so I completely agree that the about the transparency and this might be a question more for staff, but um, I was wondering with our title one funds and you touched on this a little bit, but as we're looking at data around student achievement and attendance and social emotional
076needs, um, are we doing anything specifically to look at title one programs and if they're really determining the effectiveness of those um, those funds that are being used for those programs that are title on is there a way to I know it's these are difficult questions but to measure if that's if they're successful or not is you know so that do we want to stay with that particular program or next year shift to something else or >> that's that's a whatever question comes up just about every single year >> it's one of the u uh it's it's something that a school site council has to do they always have to evaluate their school plan every single year so any programs implemented by title one must be evaluated by school site council. Um they talk about
077uh different kinds of data that can be used. Um and so as of right now all we've done with DAC is is start the sharing of the different strategies comparing from like school A to school B and what's working. And that's kind of like some of the advocacy that we want to have among school sites is like is sharing the ideas of what's working between school A and school B. Title One funds multiple different programs, but they those programs can also be funded by other uh resources. And so what we want to know is also what uh programs being used regardless of funding that's making a uh changing our needle here. You know, as Kishana says, we want to spend our million dollars that's left there, but we want to spend them on the right
078things. And that's really what we're after. We're not just spending it down to say we're not going to return any kind of funding. It's really what's really making a difference for our kids. Every school site makes their own choices as far as looking at data and so a school site may be focusing on social emotional aspects of it. Some school sites may be focusing on the literacy aspects and the mathematics and so forth. And so we want to say, you know, share your best practices. Uh federal guidelines say it has to be evidence-based u interventions in there. And so that's one one thing that we do have a presentation on and where to find some of those evidence-based practices and those are in our website for the DAC members to look at. >> Thank you.
079I I might just recommend for future reports so we can see like where the title one funds are well as he's talking about where we those can be replicated, what's successful, what's not working as well, kind of getting that information more specifically by school [clears throat] site. >> I Yes. Um, and I want to say it's not as robust as we describe it. So, it does need a lot of building in, but that is something that we're seeking because it'll help with decisions. So, I agree. >> And Dr. Beula mentioned a U meeting that took place last um week with uh several leaders in the community and uh parents there did mention um concerns about that as well. So, we are all very committed to making sure that we're spending money on things that work
080and that change and transform the results for our students. >> I'd like to weigh in here. >> Please do. Trusty Wesman. >> Thank you. First of all, I'd like to congratulate the team. It's a beautiful team. You guys are doing some hard work. And I think that was Nathan. I wasn't sure but Nathan was presenting there a moment ago and uh was proud of him as a student. Uh and that's my first point. How how can we expand so that we have or maybe it could be built into the structure so that we have one student from every school participating because that really seems to help develop the student. gives them an opportunity to participate in a leadership role and also they bring so many rich um support mechanisms to the program to us accomplishing
081the kind of things that you're talking about. So I'd like to hear some discussion from the committee from the representatives about what's happening with that piece of it. First >> I have an idea and thank you Dr. White Hurst Payne because uh every school may or may not have a student representative on their SSC, but I know that the school um my child attends at Lincoln High School. They do have several. And um the idea just came to me that we could start a committee for students um and they could also meet with us and speak about similar to what uh we saw the student from San Diego High do with the student advisory group. We could do that with SSC for student members and um to help expand their leadership role and capacity. Well,
082that's I mean I I really feel that students are bringing um a wonderful element to all of to the board to the school board and to every aspect of our district and I just wonder I didn't see the data uh but how do we compare to the past in terms of getting representatives from um other schools I mean from all the schools to participate know that has been an ongoing one goal. So maybe I missed it somewhere. Uh where you discussed uh this may be a Dario question. Do we have representation from all the schools? Is someone participating? We've used the strategies that we discussed to get somebody there to participate in the meetings and the DAC meetings. >> The DAC meetings. So secondyear school sites are required to have student uh rep members on
083the school site council. I've gone to multiple school site council me where we hear from the students and the student voice is where we hear from school site council. DAC is a little bit different. Uh the purpose when DAC first started it was up as a parent group um and then it joined it's really open to any school site council member um to to be a rep for the DAC. So it it really focused first on parents uh DAC executive a few years ago. Uh Chris will talk about the bylaws committee a few years ago. They changed the bylaws to say like a DAC rep member can be a student member. So that shifted and and that is now shifting over to having a parent student voice on DAC. So we'll have to come together
084to talk to the DAC executive. You know, Kishan just brought up idea of how we can then bring those student council members that are already participating in school site council to come to our DAC meetings, you know, once a month and we'll have to kind of come together to say uh what they're doing. Our new um templates and all that shares all the information to every school site council member out there. So maybe we'll have to kind of uh tighten it up to maybe do a student focus uh uh student focused communication to maybe entice the students to come to the DAC meeting. So we'll have to kind of do some a little bit spin. I've talked to our our DAC uh counterpart as well. They do a little bit of different ways to bring
085the uh families to come in also for DACA. So I've talked to Sylvia about it. I think they just had like a mariachi presentation at was it Logan? I can't remember what the last DAC was. So they're trying to get the parent members coming in so we can have some kind of spin for students because a lot of we talk about DAC are like you know LCAPS and and SSC's and different things. So we want to make sure that it's also um interesting for our students as well. Trusty Orves, >> I just wanted to um quickly comment on what Desanna, you were saying before on your idea on how there should be a committee with students. Um I'm sure Lena and I would be more than happy in helping you guys with that and whether
086either starting it or getting the word out. Um maybe not maybe it won't be Lena and I, but getting as much students as possible. I thought that was a really good idea on getting that student voice because not not a lot of people know about the DAC. Um, so I want to say that was a really good idea and we are more than happy to help you with getting student voice into that because that's very important. >> Yes, no problem and thank you for sharing that. Um, last May our uh, at our board report we did um, present the attendance and so a review of that may include how many students were a part of it and we'll do another um, attendance review again for participants um, in this coming school year in May. Yes.
087>> Very good. >> So, I think this fits in um the conversation we had and Ethan as a as the student advisory board uh reporter. I asked them students, what would you like us to communicate? And they said leadership opportunities. So, I think within our communication process, we can offer like this is a leadership opportunity. To your point, be very clear about what it is um right of what you're going to kind of come in and entail, but I think it's a really important one. So, I think we can do something there, too. So, thank you. Um, Vice President Ber, >> thank you. President Patterson, um, great report. What would you I don't know if you've kind of done the analysis, but um, what is helping move uh, those spending rates to come down or
088the un unspent money to come down? What what what would you attribute that to? >> Well, we gave the public access to the budget. Yes. And so they knew what was on the table and what was left at a certain time during the year. And we also had during our DAC meetings a series of different types of info sessions >> to to to help the parents understand or the SSC members understand this is what you can request. This is what how you can spend the money. This is how you advocate for spending. >> Yeah, that's great. No, thank you so much. And so it seems like the educational tools that you're developing are having direct positive impact already. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, that's great. um as you're going through your analysis of um you know
089the potential to lower the threshold um I would just you know kind of throw out that um to the extent that lowering the threshold means taking money away from uh uh schools with a high uh un unduplicated count. Um I would certainly be wary of that. Um so as as you're thinking about different options and you know exploring that idea, I would just hope that it is not uh you know the result of it is not less money for the schools in most need. >> Sure. I mean that thank you Richard. That was actually something that came up in the title one ranking committee about what happens then to the school size. We actually did a we I could have actually that particular report report I was able to show you know from Rosa Parks
090all the ways opera and so forth. It's like what would it have meant >> last year would have been six additional schools would have been qualified. >> Yeah. >> Uh the majority of the funding that would have lost would have come from the secondary school sites or high schools actually would have been elementaryaries. We received some more middle schools but we actually talked about that. Interesting that everybody at this title one ranking committee were all from title one sites. So, and >> I don't know if you want me to share the results of that because it's going to be taken to the December for general. >> The unanimous consent from the title one sites that were at the D at that ranking report knowing that they would allow funding. The unanimous consent was to take
091it to DACA general that they would want to lower it down to the 35% level knowing that of those caveats about losing title one funding for those school sites. >> Got it. And so again, it was grounded on analysis, data, and so forth. Loud and clear that they want to just open up more opportunities for more students. If we have an opportunity to uh have a meaningful, impactful decision to help support school sites by lowering it down to 35%, even it meant that other school sites would be losing funding, they were all in agreement to it. I was very clear with the title one ranking committee that we are uh it's an advisory committee >> and but we did want to take it to general as far as like their recommendations. Do we continue with
092the recommendations from it? So we'll be taking the DAC general uh one of the title one reps from I believe Mir Mesa is going to do the presentation at our DAC general meeting in December when they'll go over some some more of the analysis. I appreciate that and that's that gets to the point that Trusty Whitehurst Payne you know was making and and this goes back years and years as you know a lot of us know um when there's a discussion about shifting money um we want to know who was represented in that discussion and so if um if we don't feel that there was adequate voice of schools that potentially could lose money um then that becomes that becomes an issue. So just it's it's a it's a conversation that um we're all very
093familiar with. Um and so we just want to make sure that uh you know that the voice of uh schools with the highest needs are fully you know represented in that in that discussion. >> Absolutely. And that's will be taken to DAC general in December. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. >> We'll be notifying school sites about again this will be a not necessarily a vote but a recommendation. Yeah. That's really what they'll be doing. >> Yeah. Okay. And then uh president sorry the the last point and this is for the superintendent. So, we saw this morning this announcement um from the Trump administration that it's moving the or trying to move the title funding uh from all the uh title categories into the uh Department of Labor. I think we want to monitor to the extent
094that that uh process moves forward. How is that um affecting our ability to actually draw down our money? Is that creating new barriers for us? So, it's just something for us to pay attention to. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> Um Trustee uh President, may I say something? >> Of course. >> Uh thank you, uh Richard Barrera for saying that because every year we get to the point and and we have this ongoing discussion. Um, I a couple of weeks ago I spent a couple of nights in in the hospital at UCSD and one of the things that I really observed was how uh folks were in teams, they were prepared, they had their career goals and at all levels. I mean, I had a neurosurgeon team that had five people on it. had ENT
095team with five people and um you know all the various teams and even down to nursing to cleaning to at every level these folks were being trained and serving as interns and so forth and I thought about our schools and how we should be preparing our students for something. Um, part of the whole function of of DAC and and this additional support is for us to train our students. That's why I said we need to get more students involved in the process. Not just to serve on the community committee because it's something cute or something fun, but to actually begin to think about the future and what you want to do and participate in that process. To the extent now that we're looking at expanding these funds to different schools, I hope we keep in
096mind that it's not just about giving monies uh to schools for them to do whatever, but there really needs to be a more clear a clearer focus on the purpose of the funds and why uh we're trying to train them to help them for the future to help with some gaps and some of the things that we as a district are not doing. That's why I always praise the coaches because they already know where those students are going. They're training them right down the line. The the uh offensive folks know all their folks and defensive and I think it's called a special team or something like that. But they are familiar with their kids. They're working with them and bringing them in line. Um the band folks are doing that. We need that at every
097level. Even if we're talking DAC, we need to be sure the students are training and focused on something. And that's why I was so impressed with Nathan. I think he has a future and uh folks seem to be taking him under their wings. Sorry, that's my sermon for tonight. Okay. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Back to you. >> Thank you, Dr. Whitehurst Payne. And you're actually speaking to a person who has trained coaches and trained them to um know how to look at the leadership development in children and um their academics and how to read their transcripts and how to see those pathways. Um, and so when I when I say that there's a committee, potential committee, um, I'm thinking ahead in that way where we are training children because I'm an educator at heart.
098I'm a mother first, but an educator at heart. And so I do hear your vision and I would be more than happy to collaborate with you on how to um realize that and and and make it a reality because I hear you loud and clearly that training um our our students is our top priority. And as a trainer of coaches, coaches who this district have um you know really really um praised for their efforts, I know exactly how to do that. Um and I want to also just share that uh we do take into account in very articulate and robust discussions of how the monies are be to be spent and what we should be looking for as far as um moving achieve achievement levels for our students. And so we don't take it lightly.
099um we do really take it seriously because this is not just our children but our communities that we're reinvesting into. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. That's beautiful. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I just want to there's something comes up um meeting after meeting and I it's it's clear that the that we're often asking a question that is really in a way beyond the capacity of DAC to to satisfy within their own purview which is what's the most effective use of title one funds. It's like the recurrent question. But then I also realize there's no Daario can't do regression analysis on you know we don't have the resources of the staff and and D can't do it. So my question is whether the district can't help facilitate maybe university partners coming in
100to help us um or maybe working with other districts. I'm trying to identify how the board can help the DAC. um we can work with other districts because I mean every district in the country is wrestling with title funding and how to spend it effectively. So there must be we must be able to work with Long Long Beach or LA and figure out they've undoubtedly worked with university partners as well. So I'm just I'm hearing this right now thinking you know what we need to actually come in as a board to help assist either to bring in university partners if we want to do it in house or to identify analoges that might be able to inform us. But I we keep being urged we keep having the urge to ask Dak a question that
101we have not given them the resources of the staffing to be able to answer the question for us. So I just want to acknowledge that. Um but uh Dr. Yeah, >> I agree with you and I one of the things that we've been doing about just single plan for student achievement and DAC and SSES is I think there's multiple steps and the first step that I was really able to hone in on was making the SPSA meaningful like having actual principles work with them, go through them, have the supports, have the data at their fingertips. I want to get to what you're saying. I want to get to the point of like this is the investment that we made in student outcomes at our school and these are the and these are the results and
102we're not either going to abandon it because it didn't work or we're going to continue it and not only are we going to continue it but hi other schools this is actually what works like I want to get to that point but I we needed to make the SPSAS be meaningful like there's multiple steps here that we have to do in order to completely reform how we do this so I'm really happy to be um partners with DAC in that endeavor but I agree with you I'm pursuing that. >> Good. Great. Okay. Um, with that, thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. [applause] >> All right. With that, we will move to item E2, the report on summer school programming and 2026 extended school year sites and dates. Uh, Dr. Buga, please
103introduce the item. Thank you, Dr. Person. Um, tonight you'll receive anformational update on our summer learning programs and our extended school year services. A look at how we serve students this past summer and how we're preparing for what comes next. Summer may sit outside the traditional school year, but it's become one of the most powerful levers we have to keep students moving forward academically, socially, and emotionally. The team will walk you through our enrollment and attendance patterns, the sites we operated, the per pupil cost, and what the data tells us about student engagement from our youngest learners all the way through our high school graduates earning those last credits. You'll also hear about the shifting state requirements for ELOP funding and how these changes reshape the landscape, pushing us towards universal access for TK6, strengthening
104our alignment with special education for ESY eligibility, and widening the number of campuses we plan to open next summer. I'm going to pause there because we have a really beautiful opportunity for growth. um really happy that the decision came from the state to be able to do that to offer this for more families for San Diego, which takes building and planning and designing. So, I know we're currently doing that to make sure we have a really good opening for our families this summer. So, I just want to say that that's still in the planning stages. So, thank you team. This update is not just a look back, it's a compass check. It tells us where our summer investments are paying off, where inequal inequities will still show up, and where we need to sharpen our
105strategy to make sure every student, whether they need acceleration, intervention, enrichment, or stability, has a place to land. I want to thank our teams at extended learning, special education, college and career readiness, prime time, and our site leaders. And I made sure to name all of those because that's how many people it takes to come together to design this. And I want to thank um the board for your continued support. Summer learning doesn't happen to by accident. It happens because we prioritize it. I made the mistake of putting a mint in my mouth before I started talking. Sorry. With that, um, to walk us through this presentation, I'll turn it over to Toby Pace, extended learning senior director, and Dr. Jen Robersonson, Office of Graduation Executive Director. Thank you so much, team. >> Thank you.
106Thank you for that opening. So, this evening, uh, both Toby and I are here to share and provide updates on our summer programming of where we've been and where we're heading. And so, as, um, Dr. Dr. Bullo mentioned uh this is the overview of our presentation this evening and then we'll open it up for conversation. But uh we're going to very shortly provide a historical overview um a data review of the past several years of summer school and what we've done both for an academic program in the morning and also enrichment programs. Then we're going to um reflect on some of the data that that we're presenting to you. And then we're also going to be looking ahead. Um Toby's going to share the uh shifts in funding and some strategic shifts that we're making
107with our plans for summer 2026 and then we'll open it up for board conversation. Um any questions, answers, suggestions, etc. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Toby who's going to take us through some historical data review focused on elementary. >> Thank you, Jen. Um, super excited to be here tonight to share about kind of looking back but really planning forward because as we all know nationwide there's a thing we talk about called the summer slide and we know without these robust summer programs our kids would regress and so we really want to highlight what worked as Jen mentioned and then really how do we make those strategic pivots to really implement quality programs for this upcoming summer and summers to come. So first we're going to dive into academics. So specifically
108this first slide here, um this is taught by our amazing SDA teachers. Um and I want to highlight a couple things. We went back three years and so all of these graphs will go back to 2023. Um if we go back to 2023, it was kind of the end of the EOG, the land of the plenty. We started having those conversations between 23 and 24 about what are the mustos. So you'll see that um some key important things I want to highlight shift between 23 to 24 and 25. specifically um our programming for all of our academic programming taught by our SDA teachers for elementary and high school. We offered and middle school um we offered that full day of programming, five hours a day of instruction. Um and then in 2024, we strategically shifted
109to the mustos of offering the minimum requirement of four hours of instruction. So the last two summers 24 and 25, I want to highlight that that was a 4-hour instructional day um for our students which pivoted a little bit in that. I also want to highlight below these graphs specifically the um universal access which actually we're returning to in summer 2026. it was an opening for all TK8 to any students who wanted to enroll in those academic and enrichment programs versus specifically in the spring of 2024 and obviously this spring of 2025 we strategically invited our UP which we all know is our unduplicated pupils homeless foster low socioeconomic and English learners as well as we included our special education students. So with that, looking at these three graphs in comparison, um we also want
110to track the enrollment, which is important to note. When you enroll in a program, we must staff for those. We don't know who always shows up on day one. So we also want to track the actual attendance. So while we staff for enrollment in all of these upcoming slides, we actually want to track the attendance rate. And um this is actually what we call the participation rate. new in the state we actually have to report to Calpads any student who attends one day of any ELO program. So in this slide in future slides when we are defining attended we are defining it specifically as attended at least one day or more of programming. In the future slides I'll show you how we broke it down a little bit but I wanted to highlight that really
111that these percentage rates um where it says 60% 71 and 86 is showing that participation rate increased. I also want to highlight um the per pupil cost and as you can see in the far right um again to really narrate that we had 110 hours of instruction provided for students in TK through 8 in 2023 that was the 22 days of summer academics versus we went back to that 20-day four hours a day um and we were able to reduce that per pupil cost um down to based I'm sorry highlighting that that per pupil cost is based on who is enrolled because that's how we must staff those programs. This is kind of what I was alluding to, the second pieces, because if you're like me, I want to say, okay, that's great, they attended
112one day, but what about 20 days or 50%. So, we actually um put this together in a table specifically for our TK through six because we're really trying to make informed decisions specifically as we move into um the rate one ELOP for our TK6. So as you can see here, we actually did it in specific bands to highlight the fact that we want to see those one to three days. So as you can see specifically here, we had over 50%. If you add those columns um on the 14% and the 48, we had more than um 50% actually attending. This is just specifically for last summer. Again, this is TK6 um for that academic programming. And with that, I'm going to pass it to Jen for secondary. Thank you. So the slide that you see
113before you replicates that of the morning academic program for elementary. Um what I want to emphasize here similar to what Toby mentioned is that in 2023 we had um 22 days of summer programming for credit recovery and also for firsttime credits. And then we made a shift to 20 days and really focused on credit recovery efforts. Meaning a student had already taken a class and needed to remediate those credits during summer. So what this shows is that over time we had decreased the number of sites that were open uh for our students to remediate credits. That's not just um a strategy for summer, but it was as a result of our extended day I call it night school opportunities that each of our high schools offer. now during the academic year. So, what that means
114is all of our high schools have access to funding that allows our students to attend night school um extended day courses after their school day to remediate their credits, whether it's online or in person. All of our high schools do have that in play now and they can offer up to six cycles of credit recovery sessions at their school site. So that that offering of um extended day over the past two years, we have seen that more students were able to remediate their credits during the year, therefore not needing to take a summer program. As Toby mentioned for the attendance rate, this is um inclusive of at least attending one day, but I want to highlight for 2025. The importance here is as Toby mentioned, when we enroll students, we staff for enrollment and we
115staff by credentials. And so when we do not as a secondary uh system really focus on if a student is not attending three days, that's our policy that we're not being um adamant about dropping our students. We maintain the staff and you'll see that class size is reduced then over the summer. And so those are things that we're exploring as a team right now. What you're going to see on this slide is um the delineation of in-person versus online credits that are issued. You'll see that it it houses A's, grades of academic grades of A's, B's, C's, and D's. And you may wonder why why did we include D's? D's um in our um graduation requirements count as credits and count towards um their graduation credits. Therefore, it earns them that one mark of a
116credit. What you're going to see here is that the amount of credits issued has decreased because that's the indicative of the students enrolled over the summertime. Um, what we are getting closer to is online learning, which I'll I'll share in just a moment. Um, the success rates of our students in a credit recovery in person versus a credit recovery online. Um, and so we explored both options over the the past couple summers. Um but what we really uh landed on as um feedback sessions from our site leaders who have led and then also our students is that our students do desire that in-person learning and so we're going to continue to explore. Oh, one thing I wanted to mention is you'll see that we have been able um to reduce the number of summer graduates
117because we've been more intentional of credit recovery during the school day and after school in the academic year where we then have worked with our students to ensure that they're ready to graduate with their class. Um but then we work diligently with our students to ensure that they are summer graduates and um have that opportunity to walk across the stage. And then what you're going to see on this slide is actual um credits by subject area broken down by in-person and by um online learning. And so we focus on the core subjects. So you'll notice that um in in-person learning this is issued and I as a learner could have multiple credits issued to me whereas Toby has a different number of credits depending on the courses that she needed. So, this is all inclusive
118of all of our students and all of the credits and grades issued. So, um this just replicates, you know, in English for the in-person learning, we issued 932 grades. Um the credits earned were 836. So during summer, what what ends up happening at the high school level is if we don't if we as a system do not drop you by the third class period or the third day, then the ask is that we give a no grade, which then a credit is not issued and it does not impact your your transcript. However, we have had numerous conversations about really um educating our educators and our counselors about ensuring that we are um dropping students because teachers are the arbiters of grades and can still issue an academic grade. So, while we've had some teachers award
119the NG no grade, which doesn't negatively impact, um we have had educators issue the grade of an F. So, now a student has two Fs on their transcript. And so we have found that it's very impactful. So we're thinking through systems of support uh for both enrollment and then tracking this throughout the summer. And then we learned um a great deal this past summer about online learning. And so when um online learning for for students who have uh struggled, let's just use integrated math one, two, and three, and have historically struggled in a math class in person with an actual educator. it is relatively difficult for them to um be successful in online credit recovery without a an educator and without the support system. And we saw that evident in the credits that were issued
120over the summer. And while we did um encourage the issuing of no grades and and also dropping um of those who weren't participating or meeting that participation mark, we uh still had students earning FS and earning NGS. And so with that, we have another component of summer. Um, and so Toby's going to talk about ESY. >> So in closing of the academic portion, ESY, as we know, is a federal requirement. ESY standing for extended school year. And it is starts in August when every child has an IEP has that conversation. So throughout the years, throughout the 180 instructional days, every case manager is having meetings with those families. And so we want to really highlight um the specific ESY um enrollment and attendance as well as the eligibility. So on this slide um specifically we're
121hiding highlighting XE which is early childhood special education. So part when the child turns three all the way to trace which is for those students that after high school we really want to get them into college and career. So it's really those three year olds all the way up to 22 year olds that we're really highlighting in this. Um, we also want to highlight the attendance rate here. And as you can see, it's maintained pretty clearly throughout from 22 um 23, 24, 25. We really want to drill that down. I do want to highlight the per pupil cost, which obviously is higher than other costs. That is because of our um required ratios of teacher to student students. So, for example, we have a 1 to 10 in some of our MPC rooms, multi um
122medically fragile kids. for our exe our early childhood that is a one to 10 or one to 12 plus we also have par educators so there are a lot of other staff and that's why that is almost doubling of our average of our academic so it's really important that we look at that because it is a big cost but it's also giving these explicit services to students who not just have an IEP but the IEP team decides that those children would regress on their goals if they didn't have those additional mandated 20 days four hours a day with that um we re actually want to drill down specifically the last three years of eligibility by grade level bands. So as I mentioned that early childhood those three and four year olds before they get into
123TK we see about 3 to 500 those have increased over the years but as you can see just from the visual of this graph are our elementary students. So that high level over the last I will say three years but we've looked actually over the last five years has really been a component of learning loss for students with disabilities. We know that as a system we've seen um IEPs increase, but there is something to be said by that um for our middle school and high schools as well. We actually wanted to take this and drill it down even further to two specific categories. As we know, special education is a continuum. So all children are different. That's why we call it individualized IEPs. But we do have these two big buckets. mild to moderate students
124with disabilities, usually about 50% or less, receiving what we call specialized academic SAI services in the class to our ESN, which is our extensive student needs. So, we really um actually saw a huge increase of our students with the mild moderate um disabilities in our summer program over the last five years. And we really saw this as an area of, you know, and in in a future slide I'll share with you. This is really an area of growth of to really drill down how can we have those conversations in IEP meetings during the 180 days to say does your child really show regression or would they do better in a morning academic with their peers. I know for me as a former principal we always talked about that least restrictive environment. We want our kids
125to grow in SEAL social emotional learning build peers build relationships. So, we're really leaning into this data piece and this is one of the components we wanted to highlight tonight as we're going through this data. So, with that, we're going to actually move into enrichment. So, those first components were really about elementary and secondary as well as ESY um taught by our amazing staff um our paras all of the people working together for that program. Now, we're going to move into specifically enrichment. I do want to highlight that on these next few slides, we're going to highlight elementary and TK8 enrichment. We do offer the last couple years, one of our pivots, we do offer um VAPA and we're actually working closely with Dr. Cook to offer some other opportunities in the summer for this
126upcoming summer to really expose them to CCT pathways in middle school before they get to the high school. So, we're exploring that. And then we're also going to continue to offer our into our fourth year of our teach leadership institute where we have paid internships. But specifically to look at our um those programs were less than 300 students total. So we wanted to really lean into these big buckets specifically for enrichment um taught by outside of district staff. And so what I'm going to use the word is we call them CBOS or community-based organizations. So these next two slides, we're really highlighting our amazing partnerships across San Diego of our community-based organization through contract direct services. So in this prime time um summer, this is not during the regular year, which we know we have
127a 144 sites with before and after school. This is specifically to meet two requirements from our state of ACES grant and ELOP grant. We must offer a 30-day minimum 30 days, nine hours of day for all of our students in TK through six. Again, you see back in 2023, we offered it to our seventh and eighth. Not a lot of kids enrolled there. So, we did pivot back to the mustdos. And 24 and 25, we specifically offered um these enrichment programs to our students at our open sites. I do want to highlight the per pupil cost and some similarities and differences between this slide specifically with our direct contracting with our prime time partners. You can see the average of hours and I would like to highlight 24 and 25 because they're much more consistent.
128We had it averaging around 100 hours of student um 100 hours for those 6,000 students last summer um to about $500 an hour per pupil. And that's what we're looking at, especially when we're going into these budget conversations. We have to be super aligned to be uh fiscally responsible and make sure our kids are still receiving these quality programs taught by our um CBOS and different things like that through our partnerships. On our second slide, this is um highlighting our amazing partnership for the past five years of with San Diego Foundation through our level up enrichment program. Again, I want to highlight back in 2023, um, we were able to offer over an average of 147 hours of programming for students. That was a high cost, but it was, um, amazing different opportunities, opportunities for
129kids to go to the zoo, opportunities to partner. Um, on this slide, I do want to highlight that these are all thirdparty contracts. So we as a district contracted directly with San Diego Foundation and then they subcontracted to some amazing CBOS across the county and we really have learned so much over the five years of our partnership with San Diego Foundation. But we also did see an huge increase of our actual cost per pupil with that um third-party um mindset. I want to highlight a couple of our partnerships such as the Shabistas, the Caesar Chavez Service Club. They actually are a partner with us right now. We're actually renewing another contract with them. Amazing. Met with Natalie earlier um last week. We are writing that contract because we want to really ensure that that direct
130student services aligns to our goals and our grant requirements. Whereas they were actually a partner with Level Up and they were a partner with Prime Time. So what we're really trying to do is be as fiscally responsible to get those same services. Another example is our YMCA. We have a contract with them through our Prime Time partners as well as through Level Up. What we're really trying to do is get that per pupil cost down while maintaining these rigorous amazing partnerships. So, yes, there will be a lot more uh contracts coming down the pike. But I did want to highlight this because our overall students and I want to highlight specifically um we only actually served and that's only one day only 2800 students last summer in our level up program which is a lot
131less than our prime time overall if we compare the previous slide to this. So, we're really trying to have those hard conversations and look at things at a critical lens while still maintaining quality of programming that is um essential for our students here. And so, with that um all of that data, we're going to move into kind of highlighting high level what worked and where do we grow. I don't I don't I always am a firm believer in growth mindset. So, what worked the big changes we made this year was the implementation of our summer enrollment platform. As you remember, um, we embraced on a new RFP with, uh, transact. So, prior to this last summer, parents in elementary, middle had to apply to all these programs. One through a Google doc, one through powers
132school, one through a, um, platform, one through info snap. We actually had one platform. So, we're excited to build on that. So, that's a celebration. Next, we really were able to align the prime time summer and the morning academics to be all on our campuses. We realized using our district campuses is key because they're our neighborhood schools. So that was really important. We also got a lot gran more granular with our datadriven site selection. So that means we actually surveyed five years of past attendance and we saw each cluster by cluster enrollment and attendance and hm why did they attend here and what schools can we open for the biggest bang for our buck. So you'll see later for example I'll take Zamarano as an example. Zamarano is a site that can host over well
133Derek won't like this I I'll say over 700 students whereas other schools in that local two blocks from him can only host up to 250. So we're really trying to be strategic about opening sites that have capacity that aren't on under whole site modernization because we meet with our facilities team, our transportation team, our food services. We also really worked with all of our departments. So starting in, believe it or not, July, we have debrief meetings with all of these departments to say what worked in transportation, what worked with facilities, what worked, what didn't work. Let's have real conversations. So we've really centralized that through the ELLO department, having those ongoing conversations, and then meeting with our site principles, going to sites, surveying parents, surveying teachers who taught summer school. So a lot of that
134we we really honed in on that over the past three years. And this second to last bullet here, I really want to highlight that we passed with flying colors all state and federal audits. Specifically, this was the first year that we had the ELOP audit. It was brand new this year and we pl passed that with flying colors whereas many other large districts did not. And there's the top five findings on a CDE website of districts that didn't fight um passed that ELOP audit due to many reasons, but we were in the clear on that. And most importantly, I think my last bullet is what I'm most proud of is we created engaging, enriching, joyful academic and enrichment opportunities for over 28,000 district students. So, I didn't put that in any other slide, but I
135wanted to slide it in here because over 28,000 of our district students had an amazing opportunity to lend attend at least one of the days of those programs. And this is where we're really getting reflective. We're saying where do we grow? So, we highlighted these four areas and they're big buckets, but I can promise you I have an amazing team that were looking at these details. While we had one platform, we still had multiple enrollment windows. So, for example, you enroll for prime time, you do morning academic, and you had level up a month later. We want to get rid of that. We want to have one window. So, a mom of a student says, "Okay, I know what I want to commit to for 30 days. Let's have one window." So, we're able to
136do that this year. That's one of our areas of growth. As I mentioned previously, really identifying our mild mod students for ESY services and having those conversations with our special education team and our program managers to get that message of, hey, what is the least restrictive environment for them? And then, as I highlighted with our enrichment partners, really um leaning into the fiscal inequalities across our summer programs so that we can really offer the best per pupil dollar to still provide those quality programs. And again, ensuring equitable opportunities across all grade levels. So really leaning into surveying middle school principles. What do middle school students I should say? What do you guys want to show up? How why do you want to come during the summer instead of playing on your video games? So we're
137really leaning into these areas of growth. And with that, um, the changes that we're really looking to implement, number one, as uh, Dr. Bagula mentioned we are super excited and we shared it yesterday with Assembly Member Alvarez is the advocacy that all of you on the board that Fabi Nicole C Dr. Cook and then our community has really advocated for this big shift that effective July 1, we are now a rate one ELOP district. That is exciting news, but with it comes exciting responsibility. So I want to highlight all of our programs are still going to exist. We still have that 180 days, nine hours a day from prime time at our 144 sites. We still have 30 days of intercession, nine hours a day. The difference is down in these bottom boxes. We're going
138from only inviting 28,000 students to 47% increase almost 50%. To offering it to 54,000. So what that means is we have a requirement to offer the new keyword when you become a rate one and I've been on fun conversations with our CDE universal access. That's the new language that we all need to embrace is how do we offer universal access to all students? Specifically, we're talking about our TK6 students in that. And the beauty is we've been able to do that with one-year gradual expansion due to the advocacy, but becoming um July 1, that will be something that is required for us to serve all students. So, in closing those four uh strategic shifts, as I talked about, we're really going to lean into those um enrollment windows, creating one concise window specifically for serving
139our elementary and then our middle and secondary through um enrolling through their high school counselors, as Dr. Robersonson mentioned, being really strategic about talking to counselors, working with Mariana Gomez, and presenting this to high school counselors starting in January. also really leaning into our partnership with our amazing special education department to put together um my team has put together some one-pagers what ESY is and isn't versus what summer academic is and isn't. So really creating this as actually a tool so that every case manager in in their annual or trianual IEPs throughout the year have a one pager that they're aware of the importance of what is that least restrictive environment. So, we're working on that. Going to um bimonthly um I attend the ESY and the program manager meetings with all of our amazing
140special ed department. Number three, as I mentioned, really leaning into removing a third-party contract, but contracting directly with these trusted CBO partners. And we're hoping to launch that um RFI, which is a request for interest uh hopefully in the next couple weeks to really not turn away those those partners that have been tried and true and working with us for the past five years, but really bring them on to our campuses, especially during those additional 10 days that I put in the proposal for you. So, and that is again specifically for our TK6. And that's after ESY closes. It'll be right after that Fourth of July weekend. And all the dates are in there as well. And then lastly, um to do this, we need to increase access to our programs by opening more district
141campuses. So you can see specifically last summer we opened up 59. We're looking at going to 73. And then on this uh final slide is I wanted to highlight kind of some specific differences especially in our elementary. So last summer of these elementary, this first uh five columns by learning community, we only had 41 sites open. We are proposing opening 51 specifically for the rate one expansion as well as to meet some of those needs of some of the schools that are actually in proximity. We did a lot of goo Google mapping and we don't want to leave any child out especially with that requirement for our elementary. For our middle schools, we're still going to highlight at Northeast, Southwest. And as I mentioned, those are our four Bell, Challenger, CPI, May, and Wilson, offering
142ESY for those students, but also partnering with BAPA, and CCTE to kind of offer kind of a wheel or rotation for kids in seventh and eighth grade to get excited about going to their high schools. And then, as Dr. Dr. Robersonson mentioned moving from only six high schools open last summer to opening up a few more to nine, six to nine um to offering those programs at more high schools this upcoming summer. And then our atypical and specialized settings, obviously we're going to keep those at eight last year and eight this summer. So with that, those are our proposed sites and dates and um we'd like to open it up for any board discussion. Just appreciate the opportunity you share. >> Thank you Toby and Jen. Miss Douls, do we have any speakers on this
143item? Okay. Uh, we will move to the dis now. Do any of my colleagues have? I see Richard with his very subtle hand up. Um, Vice President Barrera, >> thank you, President. Um, so great presentation. Thank you. really uh comprehensive and I I just love the way that you're both um thinking through how we make adjustments based on what we've been doing but also as we prepare you know to be a a tier two >> rate one to rate one rate one side yeah um that's great um so a few things one is I I think that's fantastic that we've seen more credit recovery happening during the school year and and and sounds like also during the school day times. Is is are we allowed to use ELO money for that work during the school
144day? >> When I reference during the school day, that would be for our 4x4 schools. >> Gotcha. Um yeah. >> And then we use our A throughG grant for credit recovery. >> Okay. Okay. No, that's great. Um, and then what I'm thinking about is so with high school students in particular, I know when we started this a few years ago, we were thinking, you know, comprehensively, not just credit recovery, but acceleration and enrichment. Where are we now in terms of our ability to um go beyond credit recovery and offer opportunities to high school students? You'd mentioned the teach lead program. Yeah. >> Well, one of the things that our student body has asked for is that we broaden the scope of summer, especially for middle and high with regards to first-time credit. >> Yeah. >>
145We saw our students thrive when we were able to offer world language during the summer to accelerate if their middle school did not have that program in place and or math. A lot of our students we've seen and we track the data will go to a charter school during the summer, take an integrated math or a world language class. So, we are having the conversation um with Toby and her team about expanding those first-time credit opportunities for our middle school and our high school students um both for core classes and also our CCT classes and visual and performing arts classes. >> That's great. >> Yes, >> that's great. And then um so I'm just thinking about you know we always come here and we start having uh the conversation about outcomes and you know Toby
146you had mentioned summer slide and so we talk about you know how do we measure you on the academic side you know um what the impact was of participation in the summer but it also seems that the point of enrich enrichment is um you know maybe more on our towards our wellness goal. So, I'm wondering if we've been thinking about using our summer programs as, you know, kind of pilots to incorporate our wellness index and to and to learn more, you know. So, so we want to hold ourselves accountable that we're, you know, achieving outcomes over the summer, but it may be wellness outcomes that we're more focused on when it comes to the enrichment. So, I don't know what what our thinking has been about that. >> Yes. Um, I would love to highlight
147that because there's specifically just for our academic morning, I'm sorry. >> Um, we did do a pre and post with our Caesar Chavez Foundation assessment and we actually entered that into formative. So, we do have that data for ELA, >> math, and an SEAL. It is very limited though. And so one of the conversations we're having is how do we now that we have a unified you know assessment system especially in elementary because we can look at grades in secondary but in elementary how do we measure that and how do we measure joy how do we we did attempt that and we did give a survey but does that really measure you know what we're looking at so we are exploring that yeah >> specifically for future and I can actually send you we have
148a whole report from the Caesar Chavez Foundation where it shows the ELA the math as well as the goals yeah that um we've shown growth in across for elementary for the TK6 program. >> Yeah. >> But I think it's something we need to continue to look at because I really feel like measuring that a part of into alignment with our goals is huge. >> That's great. That's great. Thank you, >> Jessie Bazo. >> Thank you and fantastic presentation. Um, thanks for all your hard work and again really getting down to the details and being transparent. I just had a question with the um attendance and I know it sounded like it's it's getting better from past years but if only we only have less than 50% of the students actually showing up for 16 to
14920 days. Is that right? Yeah. So is there like what's the policy or is there one and it's like you never want to you know um say a student can't take part but if a student doesn't come for more than three days like something like a waiting list I mean we there's so many other students that could benefit from that and benefit from this program and if the ones that are there aren't showing up is there a way to incorporate other students because if we're getting less than 50% of attendance It's just kind of concerning. So, go ahead. >> I think um one of the things that we're exploring exploring with um HR and also with labor is when we at the high school, we do have written in our policy that if you've missed
150three three class periods um then we will release you from summer. You're missing out on that instructional side. for elementary. Um I think it's something that we could explore because as Toby mentioned, we're staffing um for those enrollment numbers, which means that at any given point, if you go into a summer site and you'll see that um our attendance counts are low, some of our classrooms will have eight students in it, 10 students in it. And we didn't make any staffing adjustments in the summer. So that's something that we're looking at um with our teams to see if there's a way in which we could do things different. >> And to your point about wait list, that's exactly where we were going with our new system with transact. We're actually asking them to build out
151a weight list because with this universal access, the new law is we have to open it. So if it's one week everybody, then we have a weight list that backfills. That's exactly where we're going because we really don't want anyone. This is free for our families. This is grant funded. let's get them in and let's expose them. So that is um actually a part of our ask from our transact platform is to create that weight list. Oh, great ideas. >> Uh trusty wires pain. >> Thank you. I'm glad to hear that because I do know that time of uh after a couple of days that classes were being closed uh because of that if you didn't get the numbers they were closed. I'd like to return to something that um Richard Barrera was saying, trustee
152was saying um and one it's the whole summer recovery. Have we done a a a deep dive to really look at that group of students um the students who don't want to do it during the school year, they do it during the summer. Have we done any kind of study or case analysis on them to profile them to figure out what's going on, why one group chooses over another group. And then uh related to that also or maybe not exactly related was uh recently UCSD put out a study or uh something from them saying that our kids are graduating but they're not able to do the math or something. The math hasn't gone up. And I wonder if we do any kind of analysis or quality rechecking or figure out ways that we can really
153hone in on what it is the students are missing that would make them unable to do whatever math we're requiring them to do or I mean it was just an intriguing study to show they said that our kids aren't performing and I don't like them saying that if there's something we can do about it. >> Yeah. I think one thing that we're exploring um that we have studied for the past three years now is within the mirror Mesa cluster. So what happens between Challenger and Mirror Mesa is we take a math educator from Mirram Mesa who teaches the students leaving Challenger during the summer and they're enrolled in a high school power up class that then the teacher provides extra skills in um areas of growth for the student so that they're better prepared to
154take his or her class when they're enrolled at Mary Mesa High School. So, it's their first touch point with that teacher of building the relationship with the with the students in the summertime. Um, it's not focused on remediation. It's it's focused on some cool activities and modules to get them interested in the math. And then they see that educator again come fall when they enroll in Mirram Mesa. And we have seen a huge success in in not only the relationships that that happened um but also in the student success in that IM1 class. Um the goal is >> when are we going to expand that? when when are we going to expand that and extrapolate it out to other >> other teachers, other schools? I mean, that sounds very promising to me. >> Yes. So,
155one of the things that we've talked about is um we use the term bridging in all different ways, right? It could be used for orientation, all those things, but that in in essence is like a a case study of bridging. Um and so we Toby and I have talked about um replicating that both for math and also for literacy. And so those are generally the two areas that we see when our students enter into high school. Um if you're not reading at grade level or performing mathematically at grade level um it's a challenge and so if we could provide any type of support uh for the students to be more successful um then we can definitely do that. >> I mean that to me is just totally fascinating because uh according to I think it
156maybe was an editorial or whatever and you have to take that stuff with a grain of salt. Um, but they were just lambasting the educational system, not just, you know, San Diego City Schools, Unified School District, but I think there is something that we can look at to see um what you're doing there. And that sounds like it's a really great idea to actually process. I like that. Let's talk about that when I'm back up and around. Okay, >> sounds great. >> Thank you. All right, rounding the corner here. Got some high fives all around. Um I um I just have a few questions here. First of all, thank you for the presentation. I definitely like the direction we're going on this thing. I think um I think one of the I think I've I've
157over the last three years I've been here I've I um a persistent fear I have is that when you look at what would end up being something like the per pupil hour funding like actual bottom in the chair the numbers are just stratospheric in terms of the cost per pupil hour, the actual per per pupil per hour. Um, and particularly for level up. I mean, that's my one of my biggest concerns level up. And I think, you know, as for staff, I am cognizant of the fact that the board told staff, I mean, this was the paradigm. You had you had, you know, helicopter money coming out. You had to figure out how to spend it fast. you needed we needed to have the partnership with San Diego Foundation which has its own cost structure
158and or its own overhead and then you have all these providers and I think one of the things that was most concerning about it ultimately was in using offsite non-district sites the the level of friction was insane in terms of h of the friction to get a student in the classroom room, especially when you have academic the morning academics stopping at 1 and then across the entire city, you've got some great opportunities starting at one. Um, and you've you've not quite you've prioritized your unduplicated students who are in frequently south of the 52 or south of the eight or south of the 94. And then you've got these very high quality content north of the 50. I mean, it's just that when you looked at it on paper, like there's no way there's so much
159friction in the system. There's no way you're going to get enough bottoms and seats. And so I am happy to see us leaning toward using our own sites, continue to use CBOS and um and but using our own sites which I think we will see a dramatic increase in the uptake and especially when like right off the bat I I I felt when I as a parent of kids I this the the thing that made made sense for us as a district to distinguish between your summer your summer academic and your afternoon enrichment was like, why are you doing that? Why isn't it just a thing you sign up for? And as your kids get tired toward the end of the day, now there's cool stuff and they have fun or what, you know what
160I mean? Like, so that continuum where it's on the same site, you're not picking them up, you're not dragging them. Um, and you're using CBOS or to the extent possible, we're using in-house staff. if there's if there's a if there's teaching staff, certificated staff that go, "Hey, I love gardening. I want to do this and they have some way of applying and have them be, you know, um indigenous to the site or what to talk is. I don't know what the proper term is." So, I'm I'm excited about that. Um and and as we move into rate one, I guess in addition to my concern about the per pupil hour, per pupil hour, what it actually really came out to if you tried to calculate it, particularly for the level up, um is just the
161she the raw numbers of um of in terms of how do we drive the money's coming to us. I mean, if we can put the student in the seat, the money's going to come to us. So, and we believe that this is a great thing. I mean, I'm a as a parent, as an educator, it's great to do a cool summer summer school. I want my kids in the summer school, particularly, you know, I'm in a I'm in La Hoya cluster. There's a lot of parents with a lot of resources to send their kids to ballet or whatever they're, you know, or summer camp or whatever they're doing. There's a lot of our families for whom this is their opportunity to have enriching content in the summer. And so particularly for unduplicated students, you know,
162I've got we've got what 28 28,000 I before we were seeing of the 28,000 you're see we saw what ultimately the ones who attended at least one day again an asterisk 2,800. I mean that to me is heartbreaking that we had a great product that so few of our particular unduplicated families took took us up on it. And so for me I I I think in terms it's important for the board at some point because ultimately staff is left with this like well okay ours is but to serve you say we have to do it we have to do it but at a certain point if the board isn't giving prioritizing things if it doesn't isn't establishing values that you can use to interpret the options. Um you're kind of left to make you're the
163you know the officer on the ground making hard decisions in the in the trenches. And so for me, I just I want to say the shift that we're making towards accessibility 100%. I think that that is your primary I would call it friction, but it's basically accessibility. As close to the students routine as they are, as close to their home, as close they are to potentially walking or having their parent drop them off quickly before they go to work or whatever, the better. Reduce that friction. Um equity, making sure it's equitable. I think when we use off-site stuff, it just opens up a lot of um especially given the distribution of where the sort of high quality locations are in this city. I think when we have offsite honestly I was my best experiences at
164in education were gateways over I don't know was it called gateway or gateways? We called it gateways over UC. It was summer stuff. I still remember rocketry. I mean we did rocketry, dungeons and dragons. There was a Dungeons and Dragons class. That's awesome. To this day, that's awesome. Um, even typing, I hated it, but I, you know, we went and did it. >> It wasn't in a cool place. You know what I say? I had, you know, we were with our peers and having fun. And so, I think having high quality content delivered by qualified staff that care in your local community, it that is accessible is vastly preferable to some awesome thing that you can't get to. um and costs an astronomical number. So accessibility, equity, I would in in-housing everything we can building
165capacity for our own staff and building those relationships. They'll then carry into the school year, but then using CBOS as well because we're going to have to it's going to be a huge task just to serve that many students. Um and then um the last thing I'll say is is I'll close with a question which is um for your when when you're envisioning this when we're trying to get from in addition to the basic things I've discussed and you discuss as well. What do you think are some high leverage interventions to get that participation rate up so that all of our TK to to six students are going, "Yeah, let's do that." You know, well, we're getting close to that. I mean, 54, we're not going to get parents people go on vacations, whatever people
166do. But, you know, if we can get 30,000 kids to participate in this thing, I mean, I think we'll all be >> pom, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> I just appreciate that, Cody. And I think to answer that question directly, it's the communication to me. It's I need to be able and I started it last year of a force copy for all of my principles to send out if I can send them. And that's one of the big things is we're actually going to be sending I think it's been a big partnership with our communications department is making sure that every family's cell phone number and email address is up to date and then pre-registering all of our homeless foster our students. So working closely with that team, but really getting the communication ahead
167of time that this is our enrollment window and then setting up hubs working closely with community schools to say hey this is the window like soon as like I'm waiting for this day today like we talked about it and then November 19th tomorrow morning we have meetings with all of these CBOs ready to say how do we get this work on your flyer how do we get this flyer in front of people so really getting that communication not because mean nothing bad about it but when I send an email nobody knows who I am but as a principal when I put something on my class dojo Joe, when I put something specifically to my family saying, "Hey," and what we're proposing is to do, especially for our TK6, is to do it during that spring
168um conference week because we also know that that spring conference right before spring break is the most important. So, our tenative enrollment window, that one enrollment window I'm talking about, is strategically targeted for those families that need it most, that are having those one-on-one conversations with teachers in the classroom. and how do we partner to get that communication out there? Creating flyers in all languages. So, I would really lean into the communications and I have a whole comm's plan that I'm working on and with the support of our amazing communications team as well. That would be specifically for the TK6. And then for secondary, I know we're also working closely with our counselors and how do we register them in the appropriate classes so that we don't over identify, but we actually identify the need
169of a student who may need that credit recovery and explore the acceleration opportunities. >> Yeah. When you asked intervention, um, if you ask a high school student, which we did, they'll list things like, I want to take driver's ed. I want to take rocketry. I want to earn a certification in. It's not, I want to take the same English class that I just earned a D and F in. So when I appreciated that you brought up wellness and we can review as a team the index and the goals because when also when you ask u many of our elementary and middle school principles the need to continue for extracurricular sporting activities is really um high level students our families don't have the funding sources to pay for club sports. So they they do want to
170explore those types of opportunities. So the more we can partner with the CBO, I find that to be an a natural intervention to allow for that connection and for us to improve wellness. Um oftentimes we hone in on the the literacy and the math and the academics and then we forget the other aspects of someone's social emotional well-being. >> I see trusty pain jump back jump back in. Are you are you hungry? Are you you want this? You want a bite at this thing? Um, I I can appreciate us working on the cost and and bringing that down and so forth, but I also want us to realize that these nond district entities um had to be wooed, if you will, into supporting us. And it took these um the foundation and others to woo
171them to come and work with us. And so and it may have been some others who worked with us. And yes, the cost was prohibitive, but I think we also got the opportunity to see what the possibilities are. I mean, it's like we were locked into our own little world and they opened it up for us to see. And in our desire to cut the cost and to eliminate that middleman, um, if you will, woman, whoever, I just want us to be very careful as we navigate through that process. I'm not sure if I made sense. >> No, I did. I appreciate that. It was It was before my time, but I can imagine that that was a challenging time. >> Yeah. Do you guys understand what I'm saying? >> No. Yeah. Yeah. And and
172I didn't want to attribute blame. You know, we were trying to get great products as quickly as we could to these kids under very trying >> overnight. They came in and helped us build capacity and understand that and so it is still a great partnership that we have valued and they brought so much to the table for us and so we are forever grateful for that five-year on-ramp to building capacity 100%. And I would just say please come back to the board because in terms of communication I think all of us are ready to the extent that we can be useful whether it's being part of road shows going to our cluster meetings or being on KUSI or NBC7 wherever it is. I mean we we're all believers in this in in summer enrichment. So
173>> I think we're good. >> Oh. Oh well here comes F. Okay. Dr. I'm just thinking about the request when we were talking about DAC especially um trustee Boso talking about how do we know which interventions are are making how are we spending Title One money. I think the same thing here. I think we need to consider if we're putting out our RFIs, our partners should know that we're data driven and they should be able to tell us if their program is actually moving the needle for students. We might not have to do it ourselves. We should actually ask them to do it. So, and and I also really appreciate because I'm going to double down on what both of you said. This should be fun. Like these are still kids. They should come and
174have fun. These aren't this is how they learn and and so I want them to I think that that would actually increase attendance. If I was going to come and do I'm not a Dungeons and Dragons, but you know, something like that. So, okay. School of Rock. [laughter] All right. Thank you so much to you guys. >> All right. All right. With that, we're we're uh we're rounding the corner here. tends to go pretty quickly after this. Um, we will now consider item F1, unless I'm mistaken. And uh Oh, yeah. There we go. [applause and cheering] Yes. Yes. Beautiful. >> Summer. >> I did. This audience doesn't always give claps. So, that's a tribute to your performance tonight. Um, we'll now consider item F1 regarding collective bargaining. Is there a motion on this item? F1.
175Stalt. >> Oh, Trusty Wires Payne and a second from Trusty Bazo. We have a motion and a second. Miss Staltz, are there any item uh speakers on item F1? >> All right. Uh do any of the trustes have questions? >> No. Seeing none, we will move to a vote. Uh this will be the elected trustees. Um Trusty Wers Payne >> I. >> Uh Trusty Bazo. >> Vice President Barrera. And I am an I as well. Uh that motion passes unanimously. Uh we will now move uh we will now conduct a public hearing. Get ready for the gabble. Uh on item F2, initial proposals from the administrative association of the San Diego City Schools, AASD certificated and classified supervisors units to bargain a successor agreement. The public hearing is now open. Miss Dalt, there any speakers
176on item F2? Okay. You're going to you're going to be surprised, but uh the public hearing is now closed. Action will be taken on this item at a subsequent meeting. But I think that's the fastest we've ever had a hearing. Right, that particular little moment right there. Okay. Uh we will now consider uh approval of item G1, proposed schedule of board meetings July through December 2026. Is there a motion on this item? Trusty Baza with the motion. Do I have a second? Uh trust with the second. Uh we have a motion and a second. Um we have a motion and a second. Miss Dul with any items on F2. Okay. Uh do any of the trustees wish to ask a question or make a comment? Okay. Seeing none, we will move to a vote. Uh
177we will do the roll call again. Student trustees. Trusty Lfas. >> Uh Trusty W. >> Trusty Whitehurst Payne >> I. >> Trusty Bazo. Vice President Barrera and I'm an I as well. That motion passes unanimously. Student trustees concurring as you already know since we did a roll call. Uh we will now consider items H2 and H4. Designation of the annual organizational meeting of the board of education and approval of revisions to the 2025 2026 annual resolutions. Is there a motion on these items? Vice President Ber with a motion. We have a second from Trusty Bazo. We have a motion and a second. Um, do any of the trustees have questions or wish to discuss the item? Uh, do uh do we take comment on this from the public? Typically, there's none. Okay. Um, see no
178public comment or board comment. We will move to a vote. Trusty Ordas, Trusty Wen, >> Trusty Wyers Pay, >> I. >> Trusty Bazo, >> hi. Vice President Barrera and I am an I as well. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. All right. [sighs and gasps] Okay. We have now arrived at the superintendent's consent agenda. Items I1 through I27. Consent items are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion followed by a vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless the board, member of the public or staff request specific items be removed from the consent agenda for separate discussion and action. Any agenda item removed will be voted upon following the motion to approve the consent agenda. Does the board have any items that would wish to remove?
179Has the public removed any items? Has staff removed any items? Okay. Well, that means we are going to vote. Uh I'm going to entertain a motion on uh the items the consent agenda as u listed in the agenda. U >> trusty wires pain at trust trusty when we have a motion and a second. Um we do not discuss this item. So we will move directly to a vote. Uh, Trusty Ordas, Trusty Wen, Trust Trusty White Pay >> I, >> Trusty Bazo, >> Vice President Barrera, and I am an I as well. Uh, that motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. Okay, this is always a shock when we get to public testimony because I get get that Twilight Zone feeling where I feel like night's going to last forever. Um, but it's not going to
180last forever. We are now um at that moment in the agenda where we received public testimony on non-aggenda items. Miss Stoultz, have we received any requests for non-aggenda comment? >> Yes, we have seven requests for in-person comment and one virtual. We'll call our in-person speakers. Hassan Okansky, Nora Chadez, Joe Chup. You have three minutes. >> Hello board. Good evening. Uh, good evening, president. Good evening, uh, trustees and superintendent. My name is Joe Chup. Uh, I have a background in, uh, clinical therapy and a specialized in childhood trauma. I am a resident of San Diego Unified uh, school district. and I'm here on behalf of Tidespeak, a PK12 uh through 12 public charter school that will soon be submitting a petition. My goal tonight is to simply introduce myself uh or us and uh share how
181TidSpeak aligns with San Diego Unifi's priorities. Tidespeak is committed to creating an innovative PK-12 model that addresses the achievement gap by embedding trauma-informed care and ensuring full inclusion across every classroom. Our mission is to become a regional leader in therapeutic and academic equity. Uh empowering students to regulate their hearts, minds, bodies, and succeed academically and fully participate in the comm community in their community. Tidpeak is not new to this work. Uh for the past 5 years, we've been actively serving and supporting families within the San Diego Unified School District, providing communication support, advocacy, guidance, and trauma-informed services. Our relationships with the families of this district have shaped our understanding of local needs and directly inspired the design of the our school model. Uh this uh mission aligns closely with several of the district's goals. Um
182first being wellness and belonging. The district's focus on mental health, caring relationships, and the student wellness index aligns directly with our approach as well. All tightspeak educators will be trained in trauma-informed practices and emotional regulation strategies so classrooms remain safe, predictable, and supportive uh conditions that are essential for engagement and learning. Uh secondly, our communication and literacy. San Diego Unified School District has prioritized strong literacy and communication outcomes. Tides is deeply aligned in this area as well. Our model embeds language supports throughout the day, visual supports, AAC access, language modeling, and explicit literacy instruction, helping all students, including those with communication differences, build strong reading and expressive skills. Uh we're also addressing family partnership and IEP transparency. The district's the district emphasizes the importance of caregiver education and meaningful participation in the IEP process. This
183is core to our identity and for years we've helped San Diego families navigate assessment services, special education systems, and we'll continue to center families as collaborative partners in their child's growth. Um, our intentions to be a partner to the district, advancing the San Diego Unified School District's commitment to wellness, equity, inclusion, and strong communication and literacy outcomes. Uh, thank you for your time and your dedication to the students and families of San Diego. I look forward to working with you as we move through the petition process. And I'm also going to introduce uh my colleague uh Christa. >> Oh, time's up. Okay. Thank you, [applause] >> Janine Stusa. You have three minutes. I heard a lot of really great things today about the what the school district is doing. Um, unfortunately, I have to bring
184a concern to your attention. My name is Janine Stusa. I'm a San Diego Unified resident. I'm a parent and I'm also the Scripps Ranch High School Music Booster President. On November 4th, our school administrator received an email with the subject heading units were not reported for nonCIF sanctioned sports. The email stated that units can no longer be paid for anything other than CIF or board approved sanctioned sports. These units will be turned off and the employees will need to hourly credits to be paid hourly time. Included in this email was a list of employees whose units would be turned off. This obtuse and insensitive email meant that the district employees who had been working with our marching band for the past three months and received paychecks for works work done in August and September would
185not get paid for the work that they had done in October because suddenly units could not report be reported for noncif sanctioned sports. To resolve the situation, our administrator and music directly director needed to quickly transition our VAPA coaches to new job classification, but there were no viable options available to them. The viable option, VAPA specialist, which was approved by this board at the July meeting, um is only being piloted for new hires at specific schools at this time. It will not be available to everybody else until the spring of 2026. This callous disregard for VAPA coaches is not unique to our school. Any school who currently employs uh these specialists to teach our students in dance, choreography, color guard, marching band, voice, and rugby, which is not considered a CIF sport, encountered the same
186issue. This includes Patrick Henry High School and Mira Mesa High School. It is my understanding that the district has been working on AB5 compliance for approximately two years and this appears to have been a siloed effort because payroll enforced the law without HR being ready with the roles needed for a smooth transition. Why was compliance suddenly necessary three months into the school year? Why wasn't there coordination between payroll and HR? Why is it that the district finds it acceptable to communicate HR and law changes in the worst possible way withholding a paycheck, an earned paycheck? This is unconscionable, unethical, and unprofessional conduct. And unfortunately, just another example of poor communication and administration where VAPA is concerned. In the middle of the 202425 school year, after employee salaries had been budgeted and paid for for months,
187the district informed music directors that not all of the Proposition 28 money they had budgeted would be available to them as promised. Some of the funds would be held back. Actions like this have ripple effects that not only impacts employees, but our students as well. Our booster club had to make up for the promised 2028 money for the Prop 28 money that was not delivered, taking funds away from planned instrument purchases and repairs and leaving the music program less prepared for the increased student musicians in the 2526 school year. The goal of administration is to remove barriers and make transitions smoother so that educators can focus their skills on students and teaching. Where Vapa is concerned, I've only seen this the district's actions create instability and chaos. To maintain continuity and stability, advanced notice is
188required of everyone, all functions involved in the process that is changing with a timeline for the change and the actions individuals have to take to support the change. These are essential steps in planning and implementing an organizational change. >> Thank you. We love our VAPA coaches and we want to see we've seen what miss >> staff staff will look into this. I we really appreciate it and staff will look into it. We will resolve this problem but your time is up. Unfortunately, we have to hold people accountable three minutes. Thank you so much for being here tonight. Marshall Kesling, Arlene Newbart. Obedience is not self-discipline. George Lov explained in his writings that conservative ideology worships obedience as morality and SDUSD has adopted that mindset flawlessly. If a kid blurts, must be defiance. If they wiggle,
189must be poor upbringing. if they disengage must be a character defect. Spoiler, it's not. It's the curriculum. It's the system. It's the environment. You can't give 5-year-olds developmentally inappropriate work, strip away play, demand silence, and then act shocked when they don't behave like tiny office workers. This isn't a self-discipline problem. This is a systemic problem hiding behind moral language. Instead of asking whether daily tasks are meaningful, instead of asking whether the assignments are developmentally appropriate, instead of asking why the classroom structure demands silence and obedience, instead of engagement and curiosity, we zero in on the child. Blurting is treated as defiance, movement is treated as misbehavior. Disengagement is treated as laziness. It is the fundamental attribution error in action, blaming individuals for what the environment creates. Education focuses all its energy on teaching kids self-discipline
190and none on examining the flawed structures that require it. Every time a 5-year-old fails to be compliant, you're not seeing a character flaw. You're seeing bad policy. You're seeing tasks that are boring, irrelevant, or developmentally inappropriate. You're seeing a system designed for control, not learning. Children don't need to be trained to comply with outdated structures. They need environments that make sense for who they are. They need environments built around curiosity, development, and choice. They need tasks that spark thoughts. Research shows that self-control is situational, not fixed. Children display it when tasks are engaging, developmentally appropriate, and offered with autonomy. Demanding more self-discipline is not a neutral request. It is a way of protecting the status quo. It is a way of blaming children so you never have to question yourselves. Children need adults who look
191at the system instead of pathizing the child's. If you want compliant kids who never question authority, congratulations, you're producing them. If you want thinkers, explorers, kids who love learning, we're going to have to stop blaming children for reacting to the environment adults designed. Self-discipline [snorts] isn't the issue. Adult accountability is. Genevieve Z. The Geneva Conventions, Chapter 3, Hygiene and Medical Attention, Article 29. Quote, "The detaining power shall be bound to take all sanitary measures necessary to ensure the cleanliness and helpfulness of camps to prevent epidemics. Presenters of war shall have for the use day and night conveniences which conform to the rules of hygiene and are maintained in a constant state of cleanliness. End quote. OSHA mandates employers to allow workers to leave their work locations to use a restroom when needed. OSHA says denying
192or delaying bathroom use can lead to serious health problems such as urinary tract infections, bowel disorders, and kidney damage under Assembly Bill 1632 statutes of 2022 and codified in the California Health and Safety Code Division 104 part 15 chapter 2 article 6 section 1.8700. The restroom access act requires a place of business with a toilet for employees to allow anybody with an eligible medical condition who requires immediate access to a toilet to use the employee toilets. An eligible medical condition for this law is when a bladder with uh 150 milliliters. This is what 150 milliliters looks like. And this is also the size of a pediatric bladder 5 years to 10 years. For context, adult bladders can normally hold up to 800 milliliters of urine overnight. Common sense led other school districts to address hygiene
193facility access directly to protect children from general and gastrointestinal injuries. Garden Grove approved a new student wellness policy January 28th, 2025 which decrees that students must have timely access to visit the restroom when needed before, during, and after the school day as well as during breaks. They prohibit punishment for hygiene facility access. This is no surprise given the 2013 2014 lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District's Loma Portal School because a teacher severely injured a 10-year-old from daily hygiene facility denial or the 2012 lawsuit at Patrick Henry High School for forcing a teen to piss in a p in public because of a no bathroom policy. This district always loses money in these toilet denial lawsuits. My child's abusive third grade teacher was in repeated violation of California Ed Code 35292.5, which demands unobstructed
194access to restrooms. The ED code is not enough. We as a district must force termination of unsafe teachers to prioritize students biological needs. Kindergarten toilets are inside the classroom by California law to prevent unsanitary classroom conditions. But how do we as a district protect students from dangerous teachers with a repeated history of breaking hygiene laws? This nine-year-old recounts his experience with witnessing an Whitmire's repeated child abuse in his kindergarten class. The 2122 school year. He transferred out of Golden Hill K8 School to Escaper when assigned to the abusive teacher again for third grade. >> We were sure the copyright Yeah, >> we asked her to go to the bathroom. She said, "No, no, no, no, no." And then she peed his hand and started crying. >> Oh my. That happened in um our grade, too.
195>> They are now talking about the 2425 school year. >> What happened? >> Wait, like he was like asking to go to the bathroom many many times and she kept saying, "No, sit down. No, sit down." She said," which means shut up. I witnessed that classmate in excrement at pickup. To force SDA compliance with California state child safety law to protect students from unsafe teachers with a history of repeated unsanitary classroom behavior, we need unobstructed immediate hygiene facility access written into our policies so bad teachers can't repeatedly injure our kids' genitals. Nothing is more important than hygiene safety. Thank you. We have one virtual speaker, Tanner Blackman. Tanner Blackman, if you are available, please unmute. >> Hello. Yes. >> Go ahead. You have three minutes. >> Uh, fantastic. Uh, my name is Tanner Blackman. I
196am the parent of a child in TK, so just starting in San Diego Unified School District. Um, we're at Carver Elementary School out in Redwood Village at, I believe, the earliest starting school in all of SDUSD. Our bell rings at 7:25 a.m. and instruction begins at 7:35 a.m. That means school on a normal day ends at 1:50 p.m. Who among you is available? Who among you with gainful employment is available to pick your child up at 1:50 p.m. um half days and at 11:15 a.m. As a sense of how out of whack the schedule is um they serve lunch at 10:50 a.m. um before I even had a break at work. So I bring this up because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics since have at least since
1972014 stated that early school starts are associated with increased health risks of obesity, depression, drug use, etc. as poor as well as poor academic performance for mostly for teens because they haven't really studied it that much for young kids. But there's been a couple recent studies from Purdue University and Seattle Children's Hospital just last year that shows similar outcomes for kindergarteners. Um, since my child has started this schedule, um, and mind you, I have work, so I can't pick them up till after three at earliest. So, by the time I'm able to pick them up, they've had a full 9 to5, my four-year-old. Um, and I'm just here to say that 7:30 a.m. is way too early for a 4-year-old school start time, especially when they are afforded no naps. I have inquired for nearby
198adjacent schools to try to get a transfer, schools that have better, you know, more normalized bell times. Um, I've been told by administrators that that's not really possible midyear. I've been told by one of them that perhaps it is if you have um I guess the just okay of the principal of that school. I am here today to request that my child Otis Blackman is hereby granted for health reasons a transfer to a school with a normal bell schedule. Um, I will follow up directly with you guys at your office. Um, because this is going to be a really long year for me and my family if this continues. This, um, 7:30 a.m. is much too early for four-year-olds to start school. Thank you much. >> That concludes non-aggenda comment. >> All right. Thank you
199to everybody who uh, testified today. It is important to us. We take it seriously. We can't obviously respond because it's not agenda public comment, but uh it's important commentary and we appreciate it. Um and with that, this meeting is now adjourned. The next regular meeting will be held on December 10th, 2025. That's going to be a very substantial meeting. So, I encourage you all to attend. >> We have somebody looking into that. I'm sorry, Sharon. What was that? >> Would you just have staff to look into that? >> I will. Dr. White P. Thank you. >> Thank you.