Board of Education Regular Meeting, October 28, 2025

001All right. >> Can everybody hear out there? We had we had some technical difficulties last time, so fingers crossed. Looks like we got those cured. >> We're good. We're good, Tech team. Okay, we're live. >> All right. I'd like to welcome everyone here in the chamber and those watching at home uh via liveream and call the October 28th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of education to order with all board members present. And I'm reaching for my my gavl, but I'm going to pin this meeting in. And now we will move precipitously to our flag ceremony. Uh the PointLoma High School Navy JOTC color guard will present the colors. Please stand for the presentation of the colors. Oh god. Left face. All right. Trusty Baza, would you like to lead us in the pledge? >>

002I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Ready forward. March. [Applause] Thank you. Please be seated. All right. Next up is A3, our land acknowledgement. The land acknowledgement is a traditional custom that dates back centuries in many Native American nations and communities. Our land acknowledgement was developed in partnership with local Kumi leaders. Students from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts prepared the following video to show our respect for the Kumi people who are the original stewards of the land our school district occupies. Roll the video, 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

003carry the memories of their ancestors who bravely resisted cultural erasure and fought to protect their land and way of life. >> In honoring their legacy, we pledge to uphold their cultural heritage and right to safeguard their sacred connection to the land for future generations. With gratitude and strength, we stand with the Kumi, embracing the past while forging a brighter tomorrow. >> Okay. Uh we will now move to item B, adoption of the agenda. We have a full docket and we'll hear a variety of items tonight, including three charter petition renewals and a student outcomes focused governance monitoring report on student wellness, chronic absenteeism reduction. Uh, I'd like a motion, if I can get one, to adopt today's agenda as published with items H1, H2, and H3, the charter school petition renewals to be heard next.

004Is there a motion? Sabrina Bos, Trusty Bosle, rather with a motion, and Trusty Wen with the second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Uh, student trustees, please vote. [Music] All other trustees, please vote. That motion finally passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. All right, we've got an agenda. Miss Staltz, can you uh please provide information for public speakers about today's meeting protocols? Yes, today's meeting of the board of education is a business meeting that is conducted in public and board members will not engage in dialogue with members of the audience. Board bylaw 1025 sets the time limit for public comment on agenda items at 10 minutes per side pro and con or 20 minutes total. Speakers will be able to provide testimony at the beginning of the appropriate agenda item or at

005the end of the meeting for non-aggenda comment. Please listen for your name to be called. Speakers are listed and called in the order received. When your name is called, please come to the podium to speak. Speakers participating via Zoom will be asked to unmute when their name is called. If you are unable to unmute yourself, we will call the next speaker. Please follow along with the agenda so that you know when your item is coming up for discussion. When you begin speaking, 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 in-person public comment, iPads are

006available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby. Thank you, Marty. Uh we will now consider items H1 through H3. Those are our charter renewals. We uh last meeting had uh our charter extravaganza. Many compelling um uh folks providing testimony. Uh and we will now move to the action portion of that. This is the second reading. Uh and the first one we will hear is H1 innovations AC Academy Charter School and uh for their charter petition renewal. I'd like to ask Dear Walsh, our director of charter schools um of our charter schools office to come to the DAS and present the item. And there she is. Welcome. Good evening. Oh, can you hear? I don't know. Thank you. Um, all right. So, this item is for the renewal of the Innovations Academy charter.

007Staff is recommending that the board approved the charter for a six-year term beginning July 1, 2026. Innovations was classified as a high performing charter school by the California Department of Education. And based on this performance level and per California education code, innovations may be granted a five, six, or seven-year renewal. Um, in the staff report, table two provides an overview of innovations. Um, innovations is seeking renewal of its charter for a sevenyear term. In making the recommendation for a six-year renewal, district staff reviewed the innovations renewal petition, the district's AB1505 implementation plan, and the school's operations during the most recent charter term. Um, table five summarizes the criteria from the AB1505 implementation plan, which was used to determine the length of the high performing charter schools renewal term and the outcomes specific to innovations. Um,

008per the implementation plan, a school must meet all criteria listed in the seven-year term column to be granted a seven-year term. Innovations met eight of the 10 criteria in the seven-year term. Um, and then moving to the renewal standards, California Education Code established a three- tier performance-based classification system for renewing charter schools that are not dashboard alternative school status schools. uh to determine if a charter school is high, middle, or low performing. In March 2025, the state determined that Innovations is classified as high performing. To be classified as high performing, the charter school must have met one of two criteria. Criteria one is that the school received the two highest performance levels schoolwide on all of the state indicators for which it receives performance levels. or criteria two that for all measurements of academic performance,

009the school received performance levels schoolwide that are the same or higher than the state average and for a majority of subgroups performing statewide below the state average received performance levels that are higher than the state average. Um, innovations met the requirements of criteria 2 in that for ELA and math, they had schoolwide performance levels that were the same or higher than the state average and had performance levels that were higher than the state average in all numerically significant subgroups that performed below the state average. Tables six and seven summarize the dashboards um results for 23 and 24 for innovations. Uh, table nine summarizes the projected enrollment for the next six years for the school. We also did a review of the school's finances to ensure fiscal stability. District staff applied a more conservative approach to

010its enrollment projections beginning with the 2627 school year um and used an assumed enrollment of 440. Uh based on the adjusted figures, the multi-year financial projections indicate the school will operate in deficit across out years of the charter term. But despite that, their ending balance is anticipated to remain among above the district's minimum required reserve. >> Thank you, Dearra. Uh do I have a motion to approve item H1? A motion from Trusty White Payne. Do I have a second? Trustee Barrera, I saw, or vice president rather, Barrera with the second. Um, we have a motion and a second. We will now proceed to our um our public comment. Uh, we have we'll take up to 10 minutes of public comment on this item. Uh, Miss Doultz, are there any speakers on item H1? >> Yes,

011we have we have two speakers on H1. Christine Kouglan and Emily Lipkcom Luskum. You have a total of 10 minutes. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Emily Leuskum and I have the privilege of serving as assistant director at Innovations Academy this year. My journey with IIA began back in 2011 when I first joined as a sixth grade teacher. I remained a teacher there for the next 10 years. From the very beginning, I was inspired by the school's philosophy philosophy, a place where creativity, inquiry, and student centered learning are not just encouraged, but embedded into the heart of every classroom. In 2022, I relocated to Washington and stepped into an administrative role at another charter school. Those three years provided me with valuable perspective and experience. However, what stood out most to me

012during that time was the realization of just how special Innovations Academy truly is. The culture of positive discipline and restorative practices that defines IIA is not something easily replicated. Over the past 18 years, it has created an environment where students feel safe, valued, and empowered to take ownership of their learning. Over the years, I have witnessed countless students make remarkable academic progress, and I've seen them flourish in their confidence and self-belief. They learn to take risks, to think creatively, and to understand that mistakes are simply part of the learning process and part of being human. This is the kind of education that not only builds scholars, but also resilient, compassionate, and curious individuals. Returning this year as assistant director has felt like coming home to a community that not only believes in academic growth, but

013also in the growth of the whole child. At IIA, learning extends far beyond the classroom. Whether it's through exploratory field trips, project-based learning, or hands-on inquiry, students are encouraged to see the world around them as their classroom. They learn to ask questions, seek solutions, and connect their experiences to deeper understanding. I wholeheartedly believe in Innovations Academy and it in its approach to education. I respectfully ask that you support a 7-year renewal so that we can continue to nurture generations of students who not only achieve academically but also become thoughtful, engaged members of their communities. Thank you for your time. >> Good evening, honorable members of San Diego Unified Board. I know how hard you work. The work you do is incredible. Um, I'm here from Innovations Academy. I'm the director. I also a founder. So,

014I have been directing Innovations Academy for 18 years. And I love and I'm passionate about the work I do. Um, additionally, I'm here just to mention the fact that I think we deserve a seven-year renewal. And I wanted to explain why. Okay, I sent some letters to you, so you may have seen them and emails, but um just in case, the rubric you have has 10 uh areas on it, and we met, as Dedra said, who I love. I love Dedra. By the way, the charter school office is amazing. Um that two of the areas were in question. One of them is English language learners. that the district is requesting that a small charter school like Innovations Academy match the English language learner population of an entire district like San Diego. I think that's nearly

015impossible. Um, but I want to mention that our English language learner population does match or exceed all of the San Diego Unified District schools in our neighborhood in our area. And that seems like a better comparison to me. Um, regarding the the other area is socially socioeconomically disadvantaged students and though we do not match the district demographics 100%. We do our special ed population far exceeds the district's special ed population. So I think our demographics are not going to match. I don't think San Diego I don't think Innovations Academy is ever going to have the same demographics as San Diego Unified. But I think comparing us to schools around us would probably be a fairer approach. And I also think looking at other challenges we have, you might have a larger socioeconomically disadvantaged population which

016is a challenge and brings its own challenges. And we have a much larger population of special ed students which is a challenge and brings its own challenges. And we each stand to our challenges and do the best we can to meet them. And I think due if you look at the test scores of our special ed students for example, you'll see how we are exceeding the norm in that area as well as uh our reclassification of English language learner students which we may have we might have more of if we weren't reclassifying them at such a high rate. So I just thought that was something that you should know um so that you can think about offering us a seven-year renewal. We actually deserve a 20-year renewal, but that's not on the table. So, we'll

017take seven. Um, but anyway, I just wanted to bring that up to your attention because I know you have a lot going on in your own district and it's hard to look at and know all the data. I really appreciate your time. Um, thank you for hearing me out. >> All right. Thank you. Um, do any of the trustees have any questions or comments? I Okay, seeing none, we we're good. Okay, seeing none, um uh we'll move to a vote. Okay, student trustees, please vote. All the trustees, please vote. I didn't ever saw a flash there. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. Thank you so much for coming tonight. Okay, we will now move to item H2, Altus Charter Schools Charter Petition renewal and material revision to merge Altus Schools AO into Alta

018School's Charter School of San Diego. Miss Walsh, please present the item. >> Thank you. Uh, as noted, this item is for the renewal of the charter for Altus Schools, Charter School of San Diego for a 5-year term beginning July 1, 2026. And a material revision submitted concurrently to merge Altus Schools AO into Altus Schools Charter School of San Diego. Add grades, it should be TK5, not six, to the Altus uh, Charter School of San Diego charter. and surrender the charter of Altus School Ado as of June 30, 2026. Should the board of education not approve the material revision, it is recommended that the charter renewal for Charter School of San Diego be granted. Um the renewal petition identifies the current Charter School San Diego and ADO sites as well as two future sites that will

019replace current sites. All of the sites are included in this um staff report. Tables three and four provide an overview of charter school San Diego and ADO. Um both of the schools are dashboard alternative school status or DAS schools to meet eligibility criteria. DAS schools must have an un unduplicated pupil count of at least 70% high-risisk students and we've noted those high-risk student groups in the staff report. Um, per education code, DAS schools are exempt from the three- tiered performance-based classification system for other renewing charter schools. In determining whether to grant a charter renewal for a DAS school, the chartering authority shall consider the school's performance on the state and local indicators and their performance on the alternative metrics. Uh, per education code, the chartering authority is required to meet with the charter school to

020discuss alternative metrics to be considered. District staff met with the charter school in 2022 and mutually agreed to 16 alternative metrics that would be used for purposes of renewal for both Charter School of San Diego and ADO. Regarding the school's performance on the state and local indicators uh for the 2324 dashboards, Charter School San Diego performed better than or similar to the state in ELA, EL progress, suspension rate, chronic absenteeism, and graduation rate and received standard met for all local indicators in both years. Uh charter school San Diego and ADO schoolwide performance on the 23 and 24 dashboards is summarized in tables seven and eight. Um and the their performance on the 16 alternative metrics established for purposes of renewal are summarized in tables nine and 10 and the details of the outcomes for each

021of the metrics were attached to the staff report as exhibits A and B. uh as reflected in table 9, Charter School of San Diego fully met 13 metrics, partially met two metrics and data was not available for one of the metrics and ADO uh fully met or substantially met 15 of the metrics and data was not available for one of the metrics. Table 12 summarizes Charter School San Diego's projected enrollment for the next five years. uh review of the school's finances was done in addition to reviewing the projections provided by the school district. The district staff applied a more conservative approach to enrollment projections as shown in the tables. Um and the school has sufficient funds to satisfy the district's minimum reserve requirements. >> Thank you, Deedra. Um, do we have a motion on H2?

022Uh, Trusty Bazo, a second. >> I'm sorry. >> Oh, yes. Okay. >> Let's check on that. I'm sorry. Oh, you mean on the Yes. You want to make sure that it's TK through five. Is that what your question is? >> Sorry. To clarify, in the um the staff report um 2B, we have add grades TK6 to the Altus um Charter School of San Diego charter. They actually already serve grade six. So, this would be adding grades TK through five. >> I see. Okay, great. Thank you for the for the clarification. All right. Uh, I have a motion from Trusty Boso, and I'm looking for a second. I I see um um I see a second from um Ashley. Trustee Oh my gosh. Ordas. Ordas. I I have it stored as a Spanish language last name.

023For some reason, it trips me up. Ordas. I'll just say Ordas and then I'll never forget it again. Thank you. Um we have a motion in a second. Um let's um we'll now take our 10 minutes uh of public comment. There are no comments. Okay, that's wonderful. Um do any of the trustees have any comments or questions? I just have a question with regard to the merger. I mean it seems if that's useful to them and we don't see any flags with that. Just want to confirm that with you since I >> uh yes, we see the merger as being um an efficient step for them. They are um similar programs. They're both DAS. They're operated by the same um corporation. They serve some overlapping grade levels. Uh so it's um really I think a

024benefit operationally um and for families to be under a single charter school. >> All right, you heard it from Deer. Um we have a motion and a second. We have had um we have had whatever discussion we needed. Uh and we will then move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. All remaining trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. Congratulations. Okay, we will now move to item H3, uh, which is the renewal of charter petition for E3 Civic High. Uh, Miss Walsh, you're back. Please present the item. >> Thank you. Um, yes. So, renewal of E3 Civic High Charter staff is recommending that the board approve the charter for a 5-year term beginning July 1, 2026. Table two provides an overview of E3. Um, for renewal purposes for non-dash charter schools,

025California Education Code established that three- tier performance-based classification system. Uh, E3 was determined by the state to be a middle performing charter school. U middle performing tier includes all schools that have not been classified as either low performing or high performing. And for middle performing schools, the chartering authority shall consider the schoolwide performance and performance of all subgroups served by the charter school. The chartering authority shall consider clear and convincing evidence as demonstrated by verified data showing the school achieved measurable increases in academic achievement or strong post-secary outcomes as defined by college enrollment persistence and completion rates equal to similar peers. Specific to E3, district staff determined that per the 2024 dashboard, E3 performed the same or better than the state in schoolwide measures of academic performance for ELA, college career readiness, and graduation rates.

026E3 improved outcomes in all four subgroups, included on both the 23 and 24 dashboards in both ELA and math. And per the 2024 dashboard, E3 performed better than the state based on color assignment and or distance from standard in three subgroups in ELA. Uh tables five and six summarize those dashboard reports and outcomes. Um and then as mentioned for the statute, the chartering authority is required to consider verified data. E3 provided verified data to support its postsecary results as reflected in table 7. E3 has an average collegegoing rate that is at least equal to the state's average and per table eight their college persistence rates are um higher are a higher average rate than California and the nation. Um table 11 summarizes their projected enrollment for the next five years. Uh review of the school's

027finances was also done and to ensure fiscal stability district applied adjusted projections that are more conservative for enrollment. Um we did the uh forecast with an enrollment of 365 students and a 92% ADA rate. Um based on the adjusted figures, the multi-year financial projections indicate that the school will operate in a deficit across out years. Despite these deficits, the ending fund balance is anticipated to remain above the district's required minimum reserve through the 2829 school year. Um, we do note that if enrollment does not improve, the school is projected to face cash flow challenges beginning in the 2930 school year with the fund balance fully depleted by fiscal year 3031. Um, and so without those enroll enrollment increases or um cuts to expenses to balance the budget um they may not meet minimum reserve requirements.

028>> All right. Thank you, Deer. Is there a motion to approve item H3? Uh, Vice President Barrera, Trusty Hazen, I have a motion and a second. We'll now take up to 10 minutes of public comment on this item. Miss Stoultz, do we have any public comment? >> Yes, we have two speakers, Brett Taylor and Jenny Marfield, you have a total of 10 minutes. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Bul Bagula and uh, Superintendent I'm sorry, try that again. Pres, President Patterson, Superintendent Bagoula, of other board members, and our uh professional charter office staff, Deardra and Rick. My name is Jenny Marfield, and I had the honor of serving as the chair of the board of E3 Civic High. On behalf of our entire community, our students, our families, our staff, and the board. I'd like

029to express our sincere gratitude to the charter office for your recommendation for a five-year renewal. This recommendation affirms the hard work, growth, and dedication of our team and the vibrant learning community, the vibrant learning environment that E3 provides to students in the heart of downtown San Diego. Since our last renewal, E3 has continued to strengthen its academic programs, deepen partnerships that connect students to real world learning, and renew our commitment to equity, innovation, and student success. We're proud of our graduates who leave E3 ready for college, workforce, and life. Thank you for recognizing this progress and for your ongoing collaboration and support. It's very valuable to us. We look forward to building on this momentum and continuing to serve as a model for what is possible when schools and districts work together to empower every

030student to thrive. Thank you. >> Good evening, board. Thank you for your time this evening. 12 years ago, uh, a unique partnership between San Diego Unified, the city of San Diego, and the San Diego Library Foundation, uh, started a really innovative opportunity, uh, which was to start a high school inside of a public library. Still innovative to this day, 12 years later. Um, but I think what's not always recognized is that that innovation exceeds simply being a facilities, shared facilities usage. and it's really it was an opportunity to to be a community school with unique partnerships looking at how a high school can function in urban environment. Um so E3 Civic High had community schools in its DNA before community schools was a term we even talked about. Uh with your approval of this five-year

031recommendation from the charter office will allow us to continue to push what a community school can be. Uh up until now, my career has been on TRA through uh through before my time here at E3 with traditional school districts. And so I can tell you um there's really an advantage to having charters like uh San Diego Unified approves to push the boundaries of innovation and share those with others so that all schools can benefit. And we are are committed to that at E3 and continuing to support all the work that all of you do. So, we hope that you approve this recommendation and that we can move forward with continuing to build a great school. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Do any trustees have any questions or comments? All right. Seeing

032none, we will move to a vote. Uh, student trustees, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. Congratulations. All right. Returning to our publish agend agenda, we will now hear item C1, a report from the student advisory board member, Harry Park. Harry, um, please step up to the ice and provide your report. Yes. Yeah. Come on up. >> Trusty Hazen, could you make sure he got the mic? >> Yeah, there we go. >> Proceed. >> Hello everyone. >> Um, today I'll be going over the key topics discussed yesterday at the student advisory board meeting on October 28th focusing on AI usage. um student hub update, San Diego Unified School District anti- vaping and student wellness. So last two weeks ago, AI was brought up again here and it

033was continued yesterday as well. Um this is one of the biggest topics facing our school right now because it's so radical. On one side, as I mean pretty much everyone knows, it can be an incredible resource. It can help students study, brainstorm, get tutoring style helps when teachers or tutors aren't available. It can make learning more efficient. It can make flashcards for you and of AI will eventually be part of the future workforce. So hopefully um it would be best to teach students how to use it effectively without getting rid of their critical thinking skills. Um but as we all know it's also very easy to overuse. It's not always credible. It doesn't always tell you that you are wrong in a very critical manner. It could be selfdeceiving and there are concerns about it

034weakening writing skills especially in middle schoolers and high schoolers as well as problem solving abilities. So we went over a couple policy proposals for elementary, middle, and high school for elementary school students who are using school districts Chromebooks. Um they should not be using AI under pretty much any circumstance. This was pretty much consensus. um you know, they should be writing essays by hand. And if they're going to use how to use a computer, they don't need to be using AI to write their essays. Um they're elementary school students. Um handwriting essays is a skill that should not be phased out completely in favor of digital writing because handwriting is still incredibly important. um middle schools as well, they also use mostly school districts computers and so if we can enforce a policy, it would

035not be very difficult to block it. Um and it should not be used in middle school either considering that they lack the critical thinking skills to even use AI effectively to its full uh full potential. Um, and it was brought up that they might still use it at home, like they still might use it at home for an essay, but it could, this could just be an excuse or another way to have more essays done in class so that they don't have to do as much homework for English when they get home. So maybe maybe that is a use out of that can come out of this. So yeah, the less homework for middle schoolers so they can focus on other activities. Yes. And for high schoolers, um, we can, this is probably the best

036time when they can start, you know, learning it because they've already learned how to think. They know how to write properly at this point to some extent. And so we would like them to have the emotional maturity to use AI responsibly. Several ideas were put forth. Um, and there actually is apparently a class in some schools on or like a class on like that allows AI usage and instructs its students how to use artificial intelligence. um to a class or a lecture on what responsible usage entails. Maybe in the far future, maybe not now because it's expensive, but having an educational large language model trained on reputable sources and cited journals um without any of the influence of corporations to have their like political influence into it. Hopefully, that would be the best way of

037still keeping all the benefits of using AI without having to deal with um dealing with outside influence that we should not want in our school. And there's a lot of as it's pretty obvious it gets a lot of its information from biased sources and um yeah it would be best if we could have an education AI model which is possible. All right. Um next we discussed the student hub. So we had an intern from San Diego Met I believe and it's a part the student hub is a part of the San Diego Unified School District website that has multiple points of information. Currently, it's being updated to have a cleaner UI and better compatibility with different devices. Um, the eventual goal for it is to have school websites with a button on it so they

038can redirect it to this San Diego Unified School District page and it has resources on college, has resources on like, you know, drug use, has resources on a lot of different things that students would, you know, it would be good if students can know that such a resource existed, especially if they feel uncomfortable looking at these things or they don't want to talk about it in front of their peers. So, it is being developed. Um the next one was uh vaping. So I think it's pretty much well known. There's a lot of unfortunately a lot of vaping in high school and even in some middle schoolers from student advisory board have reported seeing vaping in their schools. Um there's two sides. On one side people believe that districts should take a firmer stance clear consequences

039like fines, testing or required rehab. um holding students accountable and discouraging vaping altogether is a strategy being used in a lot of schools and a lot of people support it. Furthermore, um there have been uh suggestions to communicate with parents on vaping and its attempts to get rid of the problem beyond a school campus and more on that later. The other side of the students believe that the focus should be on support, not punishment. A suspension won't really solve the vaping issue. They'll just vape at home. And even if a student is, you know, they can get rid of, they don't have to vape at school anymore because they can control their urges, the symptoms of withdrawal from vaping, they include cravings and difficulty concentrating. And so they would still not be at their full

040academic potential that they could be. So it's not just an issue that can be solved at home. Um, sorry, just at school. Uh, the addictive nature of nicotine needs some sort of treatment, whether that's rehab, counseling, or you know, whatever. And again, I think both sides of this, like both sides of um punishment or nurturing, they both agree that this should also extend to the parents as well because vaping is a holistic issue that you know students need to be free from vaping both in school and out of school in order for them to do the best they can academically. Um it needs to be a holistic effort. So there are consent um as for how we could like further steps that we could take to reduce vaping. There's a consensus on making a campaign

041against vaping more personal instead of a lot of the sterilized and commercial style lectures. Maybe you know invite people who have struggled really with vaping to share stories. It doesn't need to be a member of our school. It doesn't need to be a member of the school district or whatever. It could just be someone who's willing to talk about what they went through. And hopefully this provides support for kids who are currently vaping so that you know there's a way out of this. There's a way that you can deal with symptoms of withdrawal. Um you know uh there's there's ways that you can hopefully get vaping free and hopefully they know how bad it really is while at the same time not feeling completely hopelessly lost against it. Um and the last uh topic was

042student wellness. Um, balancing AC I mean this was gone over briefly but balancing academics, extracurriculars and rest is something that all all people in San Diego school districts study with. Many students feel overwhelmed and others feel like they don't have enough outlets for stress relief or mental health support. And student wellness is not something that can be tracked very easily through metrics like academic performance because there are many high achieving academic students who still deal with issues at home or still deal with stress due to the amount of activities they have. Um and on the one side the district actually has several wellness resources like the student hub mentioned earlier but not all students know about it or how to access them. So communication and visibility like links through the student hub could potentially help

043this issue. And this can be um endorsed through Instagram, social media like flyers and what etc to let people know that there are resources out there if you're not feel if you're mentally unwell. So that is all. >> Wow, Harry, that was that was a lot better than AI could do. That was a wonderful overview. Um all right, we will now move to items C2 and C3. Uh first the first of which is a resolution in support of the city of San Diego's due process safety and equity ordinance and resolution um C3 which is in support of Senate Bill 672 the youth rehabilitation and opportunity act. Is there a motion to approve both items C2 and C3. Uh Trusty Wyers Payne and a second from Trusty Boso. We have a motion and a second. Um

044are miss are there any public speakers on these items? Yes, we have two speakers on C3. Mary Gillo and Pablo Asencio. You each have three minutes. >> Welcome. You can come up to the podium. >> Good evening. My name is Mary Gillo and I'm a volunteer with the Second Chance Coalition, which is a coalition of organizations that range from business, labor, faith, social justice, and environmental. And uh we all support SB 672 and I'm here to ask you to support it as well. Uh, young people between the ages of 18 and 25 should be held accountable for their actions, but young people also have a tremendous capacity for change, redemption, and genuine rehabilitation. This bill recognizes both of those important realities by granting a young person sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, the

045right to a parole hearing after serving 25 years. SB 672 is a common sense approach to California youth sentencing that is currently at odds with decades of research showing that the human brain does not fully develop until the mid20s. A young person's reduced culpability is relevant when examining their criminal behavior, as is their enormous capacity for change. It costs about $133,000 a year to incarcerate one person in California. If that person has served time and demonstrated fitness to re-enter society, that money could be better spent on education, health care, or affordable housing. Multiple higher courts in California have urged the legislature to address this issue. The California Senate did just that by passing SB 672 in June of 2025. and I am here to ask you to please vote yes on this resolution. Thank you.

046>> Appreciate you guys. Uh good morning everyone. Good evening everyone. My name is Pablo Asencio. I stand before you not just as a UC uh San Diego graduate uh in business but also as a Triton underground scholar leader that provides services for formerly incarcerated people through the university system particularly the UC system. But as someone who puns the transformative power education and second chances that benefited me personally as a young person I made choices that led to my incarceration. But through education, rehabilitation, and support of my community, I rebuilt my life. I went from being a youth in custoy to working as a firefighter through Calire, completing more than 20 rehabilitative uh programs and today pursuing my MBA program at the RAID School of Business. I now work alongside nonprofits, universities, and other advocates to

047expand the opportunities of their those who deserve a real shot and and um represent real change. Senate Bill 67, the Youth Rehabilitation Opportunity Act, is exactly about that hope to provide someone who really is accountable for their actions and changes an opportunity to be released, not a guaranteed release. It provides a rigorous parole review after 25 years for people who were sentenced to life without parole between the ages of 18 and 25. Recognizing what science has proven, young people are still growing and have the ability to change and change into a productive human being. California youth offender parole programs have shown already exceptional low recidivism rates among those given second chances. This is about a smart investment in our communities. Every dollar we redirect from endless incarceration towards education, re-entry, and support makes California safer

048and stronger. It reflects the values San Diego Unified has long upheld. Restorative justice, youth empowerment, and believing in potential of every young person. I am the living proof that if someone gives the opportunity to rebuild and change, um people in with through the SB672 will be provided that change will show this community, their families their ability to change. They granted me the opportunities through their own uh leeways to change and to grow and I took advantage of that in every way. So I hope you guys also consider and how you do and allow the next generation of youth that were took the wrong path to make a difference and make a difference in our society and our community. Thank you very much. All right. Uh we have a motion, a second. We've heard from the

049public. Do any of the trustees have any questions or comments on this item? Trusty Wire is pain. >> Thank you for uh coming down to share with us. Uh one of my Rotary brothers uh Bill Payne is with the entity second chance. I think someone was here from second chance organization and um we support giving people the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves and to get out into society and be productive citizens. So, thank you for taking the time to come and share. And if you know Bill, tell him he should have been here today. I know we're going to vote for it, aren't we? Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Wyers P. Uh, Vice President Barrera. >> Yeah, thank you, President Person, and and thank you, uh, Mary and Pablo for and Dorothy for being here.

050Uh I it's important uh for us as an educational institution uh to strongly support this bill um really for a couple of basic reasons. Um, as as our speakers have shared with us, we want people to have a reason to pursue an education, to have an incentive to say, if I pursue education, I've got a shot at going out and and being a contributor to society. And by creating that opportunity, this bill does that. But also to, you know, Mary Gillow's point, every dollar that we save from not incarcerating uh somebody can go right back into our public school system. And that is happening with uh the learning uh communities uh for school success program, which channels savings uh from people who have uh no longer been incarcerated. uh right into efforts like reducing chronic

051absenteeism and uh uh me mental health and wellness support in our in our public schools. So, um I know that this is a campaign that's going on up and down the state and I hope that other school boards, other education institutions uh come and and support this bill. >> Thank you, Vice President Barrera. comment. I will just say briefly on item C2 um which my colleague Vice President Ber and I have sponsored um with regard to the due process safety and equity ordinance the city of San Diego that was um developed by council member Shaunie Laura and is also has some support from the county board of supervisors. Um, look, we're in pretty uncharted times here, uh, as a nation and a community. And fortunately for our students, uh, our district is very committed to

052protecting all of our students. We have single point of entry. We have very clear rules in terms of the necessity of a federal judicial warrant to access our properties or our student um, our student data. Um but uh we've seen from the city that there are additional means uh that can be taken to provide that security for both our students and their families and our staff. And so I'm excited about this. Um this item includes instructions of staff to explore um contracting and procurement um criteria as well. So we'll see what uh what staff develops on that. But um I just want to reemphasize the fact that all of our students uh are our children and our youth. We consider them our family. We protect them as though they were they could be our children.

053Um and our staff is our family. And we as a district uh and a board will absolutely do everything in our power. And we will leverage all the power we have to protect our uh students, families, and staff. So uh and the community at large as well. So, um, with that, if I don't have any additional comment, we will move to a vote on items C2 and C3. Seeing no comment, we'll move to a vote. Uh, student trustees, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously, both C2 and C3 with student trustees concurring. Thank you for coming tonight. All right. Uh we will now consider item C4, the resolution in support of the district's commitment to raise awareness about the dangers of vaping. Trustee Bazo, would you like to introduce the item?

054>> Yes. Thank you, President Patterson. Um I'm very honored tonight to introduce this resolution that is commits our district to raising awareness about dangers of vaping and also we're going to be help we were I'm going to help to launch the second annual anti- vaping contest. This will go toward until the end of the year and I'm doing this alongside our student board members Alina Nuen and Ashley Ord I can't roll ours either but um the program is called the voices for ch voices for change 2025 break free breath free it's a PSA contest and this is really about our students really hearing the voice of our students and so Dr. Bagoula, superintendent Bagula and I attended both our um student advisory board meeting and they had a great conversation there as well as the

055swear meeting which is like a wellness um committee for our students and they had some fantastic ideas. I'm hoping to still utilize we've been working closely with the comm's team so I appreciate their work on this. Um we're going to be in addition to providing information about the program in a video that you're going to see in a minute here. um social portraying this through social media. I'm hoping to have the students be able to do some of those um some of those social media posts and uh we want again we want to make sure that this is coming from our students peers because especially as they get to the age where they may be starting to vape. Um this is really the most important. This also relates to our student achievement goal number one,

056student wellness. And so that we want to make sure in addition to um physical and uh health um being important, our emotional support um with vaping, I was just looking at some of the some of the statistics in our resolution. Um it show in ages 13 to 24 you have a much higher increased risk of developing depression, anxiety and can also intensify uh suicidal thoughts as well. Also with the or earlier our students start with ecigarettes, they will move on. There's much greater chance of them moving on in using combustible cigarettes and other types of tobacco products and a much higher chance of them this being a behavior for the rest of their lives. It's really at an epidemic proportion as our student advisory board member had mentioned. um this is a very small in

057the you know I feel like in the in the big bigger picture but something at least to start um the process and I also am hoping as we developed this survey student wellness survey I'd asked our superintendent if we could include a question on vaping because it's so directly tied with um with the these negative behaviors. Um, so that's kind of a little bit about the contest. Just as far as some of the funding, and we don't have very much. I wish we had more. Um, a few years ago, what when this started out, it was um through a settlement with the Jewel company, and Juul, who is who makes tobacco products and the um actual vapes um that that students use. And so we were in a multi-lawsuit. I think it was nationally national

058lawsuit. And so several school boards received funding. Um this was going to go into our general fund because you know we're always looking for additional funding and I was questioned that and thought we need to do something to really increase awareness with these fund this funds this funding. It was only supposed to be a one-year program and we've now turned it into a two-year program and we're going to continue on um you know making this bigger and better every year. And uh so again I want to thank our comm's team for their work on this and our students as well. And one of the big misconceptions a lot of people will say is oh see ecigarettes are better for you. They're you know not as bad for you as as cigarettes which is false. They're

059actually worse for you because in addition to tobacco they have several other chemicals that are getting into the bloodstream. So um if anyone tells you that you can tell them they're wrong. Um we are trying to focus on our middle school students. Although all school students are encouraged to be part of this program. Last year I don't think we had any participate from the middle school and that's really a time when we have you know this behavior is really coming into play unfortunately. Um so with that I think we're going to show a video. I want make sure I um oh the contest um let's see it says students can get involved by creating a video or a poster show showing why it's time to break free breathe free breathe free from vaping drugs and

060alcohol and it's open to all San Diego Unified School students transitional kindergarten through 12th grade and winners can win cash prizes and districtwide attention will be honoring them at an upcoming uh board meeting and it's going to be open through December 19th. Um if students are younger, um suggestion would be to to talk to your teachers or principles. Hopefully the principles once they get this information, they'll be sending that out. And if they aren't, we make sure that parents know about this by sending out emails to them as well. And at the high school level, you they'll also be receiving information about that through um student email. So, a lot of different ways to get involved. Um, we also had a California Department of Education tobacco use prevention grant that's called a two-pay grant. So,

061I also want to thank the the county for providing that grant monies to uh make this possible. And do you want to you guys want to add anything? >> Yeah. So, I just first wanted to say um I'm really proud of what the district has been doing and in taking a stand, I guess, against vaping and putting student wellness first. And we all know that vaping it doesn't just harm the person using it, but it also has like a major effect to the community around it, whether it's through secondhand exposure or just like overall negative impact. Um, I really am proud and by I think that by passing this resolution and continuing the second year of this campaign, it it's raising awareness that needs to be said within the district about the dangers of vaping.

062And I'm just really happy that our district is showing that we care about our students and we're protecting our students well-being. And this is just not about today, but it's also about the future of our district. Um, I'm really proud to be a part of a district that listen, acts, and leads with the goal of keeping our campuses safe, healthy, and supportive from all. Um, I would just quickly like to say that I'm very happy to be sponsoring this resolution with Trusty Boss and Trusty Nuin. I mean, it's it's a genuine problem. I I think one of the things that we don't think about is like we always are hearing unfortunately there's people that we see in the streets or stories that we hear of substance abuse substance use but once we think about it

063for young kids we're like no way like years ago no adult would be sitting here thinking that their child could be exposed to these types of substances and that's one of the things that we have to think about and from the student perspective just walking onto campuses and seeing that it's it's very unfortunate. It's very sad to see and some people are too scared to speak up about it. So, I'm glad that events like these are created especially in a creative way. We have students who are making posters. They're doing videos and it's always nice that they can portray what they want in their own way. It shows that they have emotion and they have passion for it. So, I'm very happy to be part of this resolution. >> And President Peterson, I just want

064to make one more point which I think is really important. Um I think some of >> you can also make this point in discussion. We don't have a motion yet. So this is just introductory. That's okay. But okay, you can continue. >> Yeah. Yeah, I'll finish up my thought. Um I think when some of us were in high school, um that with combustible cigarettes, you know, it was obvious that you were smoking, but now with vaping, you know, it's very easy to do in a classroom. My kids used to tell me how kids would just breathe down their shirts. Um and yeah, so it's happening all around us, not even realizing it. So that it's almost I think worse than uh actual cigarettes. Oh yeah. All the time in the Yeah. in the classroom. So

065anyway, I just wanted to make that point because I think that's important. >> All right. To be clear, those were introductory remarks. Uh we do not have a motion on the floor yet. Um so I will entertain and we have a video. Okay, we have an introductory video. Okay, let the video roll. >> People vape is because they're having trouble like coping with other things in their life. both stress and social pressure, especially in vaping, is something that's pretty normal for um teens in our age group. >> Media is definitely like one of the biggest influences, especially in like movies and in social media. >> Show people or our classmates and peers that bing is not a positive thing, it's a negative thing. talk to teachers and administrators and counselors and let them know that

066this is something that a lot of people are working towards limiting. >> Remind people that you have alternative sources like mental health support or things like that. >> If you quit vaping, like it'll improve your health, you'll have better performance at your sport or you'll do better on tests because you can focus. I feel like that would be good. [Music] All right. Very cool. Um, do I have a motion on this item? Trusty Bazo. Do I have a second? Uh, Trusty Oras. Um, we have a motion and a second. Um, we will now take board discussion. Uh, we heard a little bit of that in the the um introductory remarks. Do we have any additional um comments from trustees? Okay, hearing no further comments, we will move to a vote. Um, oh, wait. I'm sorry.

067Are there any public comment? Okay, good. Okay, I almost missed that. Um, okay. With that, we'll move to a vote. Uh, student trustees, please vote. All other board members please vote. All right. Item C3 um C4 rather passes uh with uh unanimously with student trustees concurring. All right. And now we're going to move to a little um um a little interjection here. Uh yes, the last board meeting rather we had some technical difficulties and um we had a a a video that we had queued up but we weren't able to really hear it or see it. So tonight we're going to briefly play this from our October 14th, 2025 meeting. Uh we adopted the resolution we adopted was in support of Filipino American History Month and we're going to replay that uh video from October

06814th. [Music] Filipino History Month uh is important for um not only our students but the community at large because it gives us uh time to pause and really reflect on what are our contributions in American history, our contributions in the classroom because it's hard to >> uh my name is Joanne Fields and I am a community partner um with San Diego Unified School District at Marram Mesa High School. We are launching again this year our road scholars program at Morris High School. I was uh the chair of the Morris cluster. So I've been really involved for past couple decades. There are fun ways to be included. For instance, with the road scholars program, uh we had a field trip with students during the summer break to meet with our Mystiso uh leader, our San Diego

069mayor, Todd Gloria, and that's where the students became face to face with someone that um has made history, but they asked questions of what motivated him and and those are the type of experiences that I look forward uh to working with the school district. And we do that also during the time of Filipino History Month. >> Thank everyone for being here to celebrate Filipino American History Month. >> Whenever I think of like Filipino American um heritage month, I just think of my mom. But through her, she's like a way that I can like be connected with who I am. Hi, my name is Hinn. I'm a senior at Morris High School. So my mom is very like familial and hospitable and I feel like that's a core value in Filipino households. For example, she caters

070and she makes food like Filipino food and she has her own catering business. [Music] I was a part of the first Asian-American studies class and through that class I was able to learn not just about like Filipino American history but also learn about other parts of Asian-American history. Through that class it just connected me with a bunch of people from or a bunch of students from my school that also don't feel connected with their culture. And through that disconnection, we bonded and we were able to be like, it's okay if we're not connected with our culture because like we're still Filipino no matter what we practice or what we do. That's why I I love working with our schools because we create a fun experience while teaching and having a teachable moment to show again

071that it's not only Filipinos, but we are Filipino and we should be proud because we have contributed into the history and are part of the fabric of uh the US. [Music] All right, that was that was much better with the sound. Um, with that, we'll move to item uh D1. Uh, General Council Green, are there any reportable actions from close session? >> No. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, as there are no management appointments to announce under item D2, we'll continue to D3. Uh, Dr. Bula, speaking of road scholar, you've been all over this country lately. um please provide your information report. >> Yes, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Patterson. One of our priorities is um making sure that we're communicating about the opportunities to strengthen connections between home and school. We know that when

072family, staff, and students work together, schools thrive. So, there are several ways schools share leadership with community and family. And I just want to remind us of these necessary school-based leadership groups as they're forming now. Um I also did this in interviews in Spanish in order to make sure to engage Spanish speaking families. Um, so our school site councils, our school site councils provide opportunities for parents to lead. Um, these groups give families an active role in shaping school goals, resources, and programs, ensuring that your voices are heard and that decisions reflect the needs of your community. Um, school site councils bring parents, educators, and principles together to guide the school plan for student achievement, including how funding such as title one resources is used to support student learning. And it was also really important

073for us to develop the tools to have that information very easily accessible to them. And so I know that our team has created that way. So um those avenues so parents and families and members of SSC's can look up the balance of budgets um school achievement and be able to further um enhance their leadership at their school site. They also work with the district advisory council for compensatory education or the DAC to focus on the funding that flows into San Diego Unified from the state and federal government for students that are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Um, and I'm going to continue to ask for that. I know as principal it was always really hard for me to recruit parents to come and be a part of these meetings. Um, but this is actually the way where shared

074leadership happens. And so we've been talking about meaningful SPSAS. So we need to have real meaningful engagement with our SSC's. and I'm going to even say with our ELACs as well. So, there's opportunities now um at school sites to lead in this way. I also want to remind us um that our school choice enrollment application campaign has gone well, but we've decided to extend the priority application process through November 15th of 2025. I want to thank the team for that extension. Um I know that this came actually as a parent request and so I was really glad that the team took on and honored that request. So, thank you. Right now, nearly 5,000 applicants have applied for choice. Families outside of San Diego Unified and other school districts along with families within our school district

075now have extra time to apply for the school that is best for their child. Whether it's International Bakaloria, STEM or STEAM, world languages or visual and performing arts. The application is easy to complete and you can do so on our web web page sanounifi.org. I will always make this commercial um about FAFSA applications. Earlier this month, the FAFSA and the CA Kada application window opened for our high school seniors. These forms are the first step in unlocking financial aid for college, whether that's a 4-year university, community college, or career technical program. I encourage our students and families to begin the process early so your senior has every opportunity available for their future. View your school counselor for assistance and the deadline is March 2nd. I'm going to add a little bit here. um our our

076school counselors and our and our school counseling group led by Dr. Gomez and also I want to give a shout out to Dr. um Romano Rosario and Dr. Robersonson. We were asked to pilot um automatic acceptance to all of our CSUs and there was a lot of work that our schools had to do in order to see the qualifications. But what it did was it was it it allowed us to actually dive deep into how our students are doing, do actual credit checks, make sure that our data systems are up to par. Now, I know the team worked really hard and at the same time the news came out that Governor Nuome said CSUs will have automatic acceptance. So, I was worried a little bit that we did this work in vain, but no, we

077did not. Um, this will actually prepare us to do this work much easier and much faster. We learn from our practitioners on site. I want to say thank you for the heavy lift, but we'll also do the work um a couple of years in advance of Governor Nuome's rule. So, this is going to be something that we'll have to communicate to families that this is something earlier that San Diego Unified will have. So, I just wanted to say thank you to our team that led that work. Um and finally, we are making changes to the way that we share information with our families. Since the start of the school year, we have revamped our web page, San Diego Ununifi.org. The homepage features grade level information streams. Um we started to send out five separate um

078targeted weekly newsletters for each area, areas A, B, C,DE, so that you're able to see what's happening within your own geographic region and a new family resource guide to San Diego Unified. Specifically, the family resource guide to San Diego Unified was developed to put information families need at their fingertips in one place. It is now available in English, Spanish, Filipino, Somali, and Vietnamese. And it includes topics such as tips for new families, information about student wellness, before and after school programs, school nutrition, stats and facts about the district, tools to receive district updates, a helpful list of all of our acronyms because I know we'd like to ed you speak, and detailed information about the legal rights of our students and families. This is a tool um that should be used about and it's even

079like as a a commercial for people that might be considering San Diego Unified to have it easily in their fingertips. So in the coming years we can expect that it will evolve and change to meet the needs of our families. But this is a really good start in making sure that we have this very easily available. So that concludes my report and thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Bula. Don't go very far. We're going to need you in a second here. Uh we will now hear item E1. Oh, did you have a comment in relation? >> Just want to express my appreciation for the focus on communication, listening to families, um, extending the choice window based on that feedback and your work to make sure that especially Spanish speaking families are aware of SSC and

080opportunities for engagement. I know this isn't about our communications guardrail, but I think really great evidence um, that we're continuing to make strides in that direction. So, thank you for that. >> Okay. Okay. Started something. Yes. I I want to acknowledge what happened to our families this past week um with our children. Uh our job as trustees and as school community is to try to keep our our students safe and um to be proactive when we can to protect our children. And uh I want to thank superintendent and her staff for working with the mayor and with the council people um to do something about the Persian community. And as I've said to her, my concern is for all of our communities, the city, we're all a part of the same community. Um, I was

081at Faith School yesterday after we learned that it was one of the children from FA school that we all as a city, as a community education, otherwise we have to do whatever we can to help protect our children and if there are some things that we know about and this is even to the larger community. There's any way we can do something to try to help our children to stay safe, please let us know. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh we will now hear item E1, student outcomes focused governance or SOFG as we you could probably find that acronym in the resources FB just described. Um we have our monitoring report. Uh student wellness chronic absenteeism reduction goals 1.1 and 1.2, belonging and relationships goals 1.3 and 1.4. And student wellness index pilot goal 1.5.

082>> Thank you. >> Welcome. Oh, we we brought the whole team. Wow, we rolled deep. Wellness is everyone's responsibility. >> All right. This evening's report offers a portrait of student wellness through the lenses of belonging, mattering and relationships, attendance, and self-efficacy. The data presented marks our first attempt at quantifying student wellness metrics and also reflects our district's evolution into a learning organization that continuously listens, reflects, and adjusts. The findings show clear areas of growth and points of concern, reminding us that wellness is a progressive, ambitious goal, one that will require both courage and collective learning. Some of the key findings and or points of celebration are that chronic absenteeism continues to decline district-wide improving from 21.4% to 18.7% with especially strong gains among Hispanic or Latino, English learner, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Growth mindset and

083teacher student relationships remain our highest rated survey indicators, both improving three percentage points over the past year. Belonging and mattering are trending upward with spotlight students exceeding the annual target by more than a full percentage point ahead of schedule. Several elementary school sites, Marshall, Hardy, Encanto, and others serve as bright spots, demonstrating the power of coordinated attendance teams, data-driven intervention, and family partnerships. And in this learning, there are points of concern and opportunities for learning. Self-efficacy remains the lowest survey category at 51% particularly among middle and high school students and was measured based on student responses to the following questions. How confident are you in achieving your academic goals? How well do you manage tasks when they seem overwhelming? We also saw the sharpest declines in our middle school wellness indicators of belonging, self-management, and

084confidence, which with which much like our academic data signals a vulnerable transition period for our students that demands targeted attention. Every time I read those questions though, I think I would have a hard time answering them too. So I'm I I understand this is an evolving thing. That's why I say I'm leaning into the complexity of this. In addition, it is concerning that our students with disabilities continue to exhibit the highest chronic absence rates at 27.9% which indicates that we need to strengthen and differentiate supports to ensure our system is not creating barriers or challenges for our students to attend school regularly. for our next steps and learning as a system. Now that this data is available, area superintendents and site leaders will be analyzing and reflecting on their school level data to set sight

085specific goals that increase student wellness and are integrated into school plans for students achievement. LCAP goals and future wellness index design, which leads me to the final highlight of this presentation. a partnership with SDSU, the county office of education, and five neighborhood clusters who will pilot a multi-dimensional wellness index in 2526 to establish our district baseline. Our hope is to use this learning from this year to inform future wellness measures that speak directly to how we've defined wellness, which encompasses the body, the mind, the connections with family, friends, and the community. Wellness is not static. It is a journey of learning and alignment. These results do not define us. They inform us, reminding us that progress and wellness is both measurable and meaningful when we learn together. Our commitment remains to build a district where

086every student is present, connected, and confident and feels cared for and is cared for. It's only by learning, leaning into our collective wisdom and experiences that we can impact the wellness of every child and every community. I know we said we have a whole team and I want to welcome up Marisa Allen, Dr. Romano Rosario, Susan Bardoll, and Melissa Speden. Thank you, Melissa. Um, and I also want to thank our school leaders who are here from Hardy and Marshall Elementary along with area superintendent as we celebrate bright spots. And I do often talk about how wellness is everyone's responsibility. So, it's really beautiful to see such a large team. But thank you so much. You have the microphone. >> Thank you for the introductions. Good evening. Good evening, president, board trustees, and superintendent Bula. Tonight

087we will be presenting our interim progress report on our interim wellness goals aligned with board goal number one student wellness. Our work aligns with the guidance from the California Department of Education and attendance works a nonprofit initiative which recognizes that attendance is a key indicator in student wellness reflecting both the students physical and emotional readiness to learn. Throughout this report, you will see how we are connecting those traditional metrics with broader indicators of belonging, relationships, and emotional well-being. We begin sorry we begin with our shared definition of wellness, which is taking care of our body, our mind, and the connections that we have with family, friends, and our community. As requested by the board, we're using our current measures, chronic absenteeism, and key components of the student survey, specifically belonging, mattering, and teacher relationships while

088simultaneously developing the multi-dimensional wellness index. Our approach is informed by the CDE and attendance work guidance, which emphasize that attendance and wellness are deeply connected. Students who feel safe, healthy, and connected are more likely to attend and engage in school. This approach allows us to monitor progress using existing indicators while we build our comprehensive system that captures the full picture of our students wellness. I'll pass it on to Dr. >> Good evening, uh, President Person, Trustees, Superintendent Maggula. So, we're going to begin with looking at some attendance data. And what you see there coming off the heels of a global pandemic is uh incredibly high chronic absentee rate. A reminder, Crognic absentee is uh an indicator when a student is absent 10% of the time or more. And that tends to be a point where

089uh we see in research it highly impacts the students success. And as we uh San Diego Unified like many districts saw big decreases uh between the 2122 school year and the 23 uh 22 23 school year. But then we see that uh decrease starting to become a little less steep. Um, and what we want to prevent is a new normal where uh we have a baseline that's higher than what it was pre- pandemic. So just so you know for San Diego Unified, our preandemic uh chronic absentee rate in the 2018-19 school year was 12.4. So, we're uh we've set up a chart. We charted a course to incrementally um do the work to get back to that prepandemic level. Um the goals that we set are guided by our California dashboard. They have a definition

090of what is considered to um decrease in chronic absenteeism, which in this case it's half of a percent. So we thought, you know, post pandemic the chronic absentee rate was so high that we need to be a little more aggressive than a half a point percent. So we actually charted out a 1 and a.5% average per year district-wide in a decrease in chronic absenteeism. And that's what you're seeing in the dotted line. And what you're seeing with that 18.7 is our projected chronic absentee rate for 2025. A little caveat that the official results will be published November 15 when California dashboard is released. But this is our estimates using the same methodology. Uh they count all students that attended one of our schools for more than 31 days. That's the rules for count for who

091counts towards the district's chronic absentee rate. Also, uh it's inclusive of students from TK to 8th grade. That's how the dashboard does that indicator. And what we saw, and Dr. Beula mentioned this, is not only did we see a decrease district-wide, but we also saw higher than average decrease for some of our groups that had high chronic absentee rates, including our Hispanic students, 3.4% decrease, and our English learners, 3.2. uh are but we also see areas that for instance uh our black students they were actually uh at 24.2 uh they had a lower chronic absentee rate than our students with disabilities or English learners or Latinos but they had a 2.2 decrease which was less than a district average but it's still substantial uh decrease in chronic absentee rate. So now what we're showing is

092our spotlight students progress. Now uh during the 2425 school year we looked at our spotlight students and how they did in terms of chronic absentee rate and we calculated a 27.6% chronic absentee rate. So we set a target which was 2% a year which is more than the one and a half% a year that we set for all students. This is consistent with what we're doing with literacy, with math, with our CCI, uh setting larger targets for our students that are our spotlight students. Um something of note with our chronic absentee rates, and it's not shown in the data here, but there is a difference between uh chronic absentee rates across grade levels, and that's something that we're very interested in looking into. Uh what we've seen at San Unified, similar to throughout the state,

093is higher rates of chronic absentee amongst our TK students and our kindergarten students. And often we see the chronic absentee rate uh decrease in the later grades of elementary and then start increasing again in high school. And what we know is through our experience is that it's it's not just um students not coming to school because they choose not to come to school, but it's also the family dynamics that are critical and how that chronic absentee rate manifests itself in our totals. So with our spotlight students uh we are um working diligently through um improvement networks. We uh facil we uh collaborate with the county. They have a I can improvement network and we have another broader statewide initiative called raise and we're working with a subset of schools that have large percentages of of

094spotlight students to really try to have targeted work that's ongoing work every two weeks we meet we get a list of students we identify what are the strategies we're going to use what are the interventions and we monitor whether it's working or not and we really think that that's part of the solution is is using data in a way that's actionable and just being relentless about that pursuit of uh engaging our families and students in the importance of coming to school. Um so uh with that I'll switch over to our uh student survey and what you see here is a composite of four of the questions that were asked and like Marissa mentioned with the focus on belonging mattering and relationships and and I really like the intentionality of us uh really picking these questions

095thoughtfully because you know what happens when you really believe that your teachers care about you, you know, so if you if if teachers are are acting in a way where their students believe that they're caring about them, uh their students are going to be more likely to ask them for help. I mean, I I think that we can all agree on that premise. And when our students are more likely to talk to their teachers when they need help, they're going to feel a greater sense of belonging. and they're going to feel like their voice and their presence matter. And all of those things are foundational to the goals that we're setting. And what I do want to point out is we did see encouraging increases in this composite score of the students uh scoring it

096a four or five which is the two highest rating when we combine these four. But their one uh caveat is that last year being the first year that we administered the student survey, we administered it in January and then again in May. This is the first year that we administer it in the fall. So what is still uh determined or what still we're going to see is whether that uh increase is a function of it being the beginning of the school year or if it's in a function of things uh student behaviors and attitudes changing based on what we're doing. So uh we had marked at the beginning of the year a goal of increasing this composite score by 2%. Which would be uh going from uh 57.4 in the spring to 59.4 in the

097spring of this of this upcoming year. And based on our fall survey, we've exceeded that growth and we'll readminister the survey right before spring break. And that will be shared with the board at a later date. And finally, we're looking at our spotlight students. And another caveat of this is that we're still in the process of finalizing our cohort of spotlight students for the 2526 school year. So, what we did with this is the winter of 25 and the spring of 25 was the 2425 uh spotlight student cohort. and the fall of 2025, we use that same 2425 cohort of spotlight students. So, it's it's more of kind of a match data. So, those students that in the spring reported 54.9% in that composite, uh those same students reported a higher um level of um

098belonging and mattering and relationships. Uh and again like overall this is higher than what we had uh initially set out as a goal and we're um looking forward to continuing the work. Uh we develop dashboards for our site leaders. Um these uh new goals are going to translate into uh SIPA goals and uh really try to work uh handinhand with school leadership and the counselors to use this data formatively so that we can continue to improve the the climate for our students and the well-being. So now I'll turn it over to my colleague u assistant superintendent Kazari. All right, I get the fun part, the bright spots. Um, so we know leadership matters and one of the ways we talk about what this work looks and feels like at schools is by talking to principles

099about the things that they do. So the slide that you're seeing represents places where we see standout work happening and please know that that work is not happening by chance. It's happening by design. Um, and this is evidence of strategic leadership and followth through. Um, and really in the case we're going to be really talking about chronic absenteeism. It's how principles hold a whole community, right? This is not just the effort of a principal, but it's their strategic action is seen through their staff, their students, their parents, and and just the community at large. And being a principal, that work is not easy. So, um you see a list of schools up here um that show some really amazing growth um in decreasing chronic absenteeism on the left um and also where we see uh

100great data for our spotlight students in terms of how they responded to the survey on the right. For tonight, we are very proud um myself and this is also on behalf of uh my colleague Steven Dorsy to represent two principles today. Um, we have principal Aragon who is the principal at Hardy Elementary, principal Marin who's going to be talking in a moment at Marshall Elementary. And if you look at their data, they have made significant growth in decreasing chronic absenteeism in their schools. And we're excited to learn a little bit about how they did it. Good evening and thank you for having me. I'm Christy Aragon, the proud principal of Hardy Elementary, and I'm so excited to be here to share about our growth in attendance. Over the past year and a half, we've lifted

101our ADA almost 3% to 97% ADA and reduced chronic absenteeism by more than 15% hovering around 7% today. We organize the work in three areas. We look at each through a tier one, tier 2, and tier three lens. what all students need, what some need, and what a few need. First, our attendance team. Each week, our counselor, clerk, health tech, and I meet to review student attendance data and assign one concrete next step per student that is either chronically absent or at risk. That might be a positive phone call, a nudge letter, a Kinvo text check-in, a followup on an independent study contract, or even a home visit. Many of these strategies have been taught through our I can improving improving chronic absenteeism network through the county office of education. Next, leadership and communication. We

102make the data visible in our hearty happenings weekly newsletter. As you can see in the slide, we publish the weekly percent present and chronic absence snapshot side by side to our SPSA target so families see the goal and where we are. Additionally, every Friday at our schoolwide assembly, the traveling owl, also in our photo, the traveling stuffed owl moves into the classroom with the top weekly attendance. It's a friendly competition that keeps attendance front and center. And finally, improvement practices and mindsets. We learn from our own data and then make adjustments. Last year, we saw our best weekly attendance during our literacy week with our book character parade and our family readout. We hit over 98% attendance, a clear signal that joyful, engaging days bring kids to school. Two years ago, we saw a dip

103in attendance on the week before winter break. So last year, we built in December to Remember with Daily Spirit Days. Yes, I was the elf on the shelf, sitting in a planter, waving to students as they entered school, and I hid all over campus that day. And who says it doesn't snow in San Diego? On the last day before break, I sprayed snow from the roof while students reached to the sky and ex to experience a California snowstorm. It's up there as one of my favorite days ever, and we dramatically improved our attendance that week than the year before. At Hardy, we work hard to create opportunities for families to engage in their child's education and learning community and create a warm, nurturing school environment. We know that if students are in attendance, we can

104teach them and they will grow. COVID and the years that followed disrupted habits and the daily rhythm of coming to school for many families. So, we are rebuilding that habit, partnering to remove real barriers, and making every day worth showing up for. Schools should feel safe, inviting, and a little magical. As our hearty families have heard me say time and time again, I want students to run into school in the morning and cry when they have to leave. Not really cry, but you know what I mean. When students and family feel that sense of belonging and joy, attendance and achievement follow. Thank you. [Applause] So, our bright spot of Marshall brings me to Frankie, Beverly, and Maize. Joy and pain, right? Our bucket has been full on pain lately. We need to bring out the

105joy and that's what Marshall Elementary has done. They have transformed that campus into a joyous campus. A and that is all from the work of Miss Maris Soul Marin, the new principal of Marshall Elementary. And I'm going to let her sing her song. a good friend of mine and one a mentor of mine always says, "Don't write it out. Speak from the heart." So that's what I did today. When when Dr. Dorsey said, "Hey, we're going to present your work." And I'm like, "Okay, do you want me to present a slide? Do you want me to create something?" He goes, "No, just, you know," I'm like, "All right, I'll give you a couple of pictures. I'll do something." He's like, "Okay." And I gave him a bulletin, you know, and a couple of I was

106like, "Here, I'll give you the dock. Uh, take some pictures." And and then yesterday he goes, "Oh, guess what? You got to come and speak." And I'm like, "Oh, okay." And I was so busy yesterday. And then this morning I'm like, "Here, you can do this. I can do that. Let me create the" and he's like, "Don't worry. Just speak from the heart." So, I'm going to let you know that as the new principal of Marshall Elementary, I walked onto campus and I knew that I had to think about this school, my school now, and think about how could I come into a school that had had many administrators in the last five years. Think of a school that had 89% attendance rate with about Let me go to my data in 23 24 42%

107chronic absenteeism. and think about what are the systems and structures that are already present at that school that I could use to influence students, teachers, and families to really lift because I didn't I wanted to be a change agent, but I needed it to come from the people that were already there at that school. It had to come from them. And so I needed to know who was already there in that campus that were the people that could do this. I wanted to motivate children to want to come to school. I wanted to influence teachers to want to walk alongside me. And I wanted to show parents that we were there to open up our doors again because they were closed. Those gates were closed. We were walking children to the gates and release releasing

108them. And I wanted to open up the gates and let them in. So I needed to look at data and I knew that we were part of I can but we didn't have a coach for the first two months and I didn't know what I can was. And coming from central office off of five years, I was like, I don't know what this is. But it was rolling up my sleeves with a powerful young counselor saying, "We're going to do this, Mrs. Mudding." And a community assistant that was going to say, "I will do whatever you need." And a couple of teachers that were saying, "I will write along with you." And beautiful children that would do anything. and parents that said, "Thank you for opening up your gates." And knowing that we had families,

109we had already a PBIS team that had some systems and structures. We had um who knew it that we were looking at and really being able to look at data and the I can working with um the county and really pulling that data apart and really focusing in on those chronically absent students. And we took our data from 42%. you say 25, but we say 24 anyway because we looked at it to the very last day and now um so at the end of the year we did have 25 and that was a 17% change and when we saw that and we presented it every single time every we met every week and we presented it to our staff and we showed them the data they started to believe that all those little things, all

110those postcards that we had them write out, it was making a change, that they were buying into it. Those scratchers that were that was created by um my counselor was highlighted in at the San Diego County Office of Ed. We were creating goals, student centered goals that they are now creating. And I was pushing it in our staff bulletin. We have golden horseshoe highlights. Mrs. Alleski, our first grade teacher, doing nocost celebrations, a watercolor painting party when they meet their goal. and and and the goal is if we get you know one student absent for 17 days we meet our goal and she has 97% attendance rate and for the first two months we were at 95 and our goal this year our ADA from 89% last year is not we're striving for 95 and

111so that is our goal and now we're connecting it with parents because Even today we had our ELAC meeting and our task today was attendance and we targeting our TK and our kindergarten and I said what can we do? How about Padres and El Park on our additional modified days? getting our cafeteria people to make sack lunches on our additional modified day and having them bring uh lunch 15 Haitian creole families along with 15 other uh elac families and I look at my Haitian creole dads and I'm like wouldn't you like us to open up your our soccer field and the ads just open up their eyes I'm like after lunch we do a 10 minute soccer match with your your sons or daughters and they were just lighting up. That's how we get our

112parents involved. That's how we get our K our students involved. That's how we motivate our teachers because when we see the data, they will come. >> That's it. >> The joy creator Hi everybody. I hope you can hear me. I'm Susan Barndoller. I'm the executive director of nursing and wellness and mental health resource center. And as we've just seen, attendance is one important indicator of student wellness. It reflects whether students feel well enough, safe enough, and connected enough to come to school each day. But attendance is just one piece of the larger wellness picture. To truly understand and support wellness, we need a broader multi-dimensional view. One that helps us look beyond who is present or how our student, staff, and school communities are doing overall. That's where the development of our wellness index comes

113in. The index is organized around the four dimensions body, mind, relationships, and community. Integrating physical health, mental health, and relationships into comprehensive measure. We are developing this index in partnership with Melissa Speden at the San Diego County Office of Ed and Dr. Dr. Jennica Paw from San Diego State University whose teams bring research expertise and deep focus on student well-being. Our internal team supporting the wellness goal has been identifying all of the current work that is already being done under each domain of the wellness goal with the ultimate goal of aligning and supporting our different departments. Since we will be measuring wellness, we want to understand how we currently support sites and students and determine where the gaps, the overlaps, and the unmet needs may exist. Now that we've looked at how our wellness framework

114aligns with the district's vision and existing supports, we'd like to share where we are in developing the student wellness index itself. the tool that ultimately will help us measure our progress towards the board's wellness goal. This slide introduces interim student wellness goal 1.5, the development of a multi-dimensional student wellness index that will be will be piloted across five clusters participating in the student behavioral health initiative program or SB HIPP. So this is an existing program that's happening in these five clusters. The clusters are Canyon Hills, Marram Mes Mesa, Mission Bay, Morrison, and San Diego, and the schools are listed underneath there. We're currently in the research and design phase. And our greatest our guest speaker, who couldn't be here, she had to leave. Melissa Speden, was going to share more detail, but now it's going

115to be Marissa Allen sharing the detail that Melissa Speden would share. We're not Melissa Spaden. I think we can both agree, but we're going to do our best. We have our notes and we're going to read her next couple of slides. So, you take over in this one. So, to develop our pilot of our student wellness index, a multi-dimensional measurement tool, we have worked with these five clusters listed here. Our students co-constructed the definition of the framework of wellness and are currently helping us determine which questions most authentically reflect their lived experiences. So one of we we engage in cognitive interviews in this process with about 90 students across all five clusters. I don't think it's five is it five? Yes. um asking them a series of questions about each individual survey question. The counseling

116and wellness teams at the district and at the sites did a phenomenal job um with our students organizing the students and the spaces that they were in during these interviews. uh recording the feedback and sharing the insights. And this research collaboration and process ensures that the index reflects what students themselves consider wellness, not just adult defined measures. The same schools will pilot the survey this winter and the data from these survey questions will help us understand how we currently support schools in each of these domains as well as provide our research partners the information that they need for the validation process. Ultimately, the wellness index will serve as an anchor measure for future wellness monitoring reports. Right now, our focus is on the student survey, an important component of the index. But through the year,

117we will continue to collect data and align quantitative data from across the district and eventually include staff and parent self-report surveys aligned to the wellness goal. Right now, we're aware that the current iteration could possibly be wrong and definitely incomplete, but we are working across the district to understand both what is accessible and valued data to include. So before we show this video, a central feature of this work is student voice. And I know we keep saying we want to hear our students voices. Our students are not just participating, but they're actually co-designing the index. As a as as shared in past discussions, for wellness data to be accurate, it has to be in student accessible language. So through empathy interviews, they shared their perspectives on what wellness means to them and how schools can

118better support them. Their interviews were a critical part of the process, providing direct feedback that guided the definition, the framework, and now the survey development. So, we're going to show a short video featuring these students and reflecting on their experience and their role in shaping the wellness index. I want to thank the staff and the students who helped put this together. No. [Music] The reason wellness is so important to me is because I think everything builds off wellness. Wellness and mental wellness is essentially the foundation for everything that we're able to do and able to accomplish. It >> can help me like think clearly and it gives me opportunity to help other people. Wellness allows me to express my feelings and share it out to trusted adults and allow me to collect myself. >> Having

119them reach out to us shows that they care about us and they care about our opinions and our thoughts. So that's why I think it's important to have us involved in a process of um serving us. I think it'll benefit our future and and it'll show kids and help better understand kids that it's okay to, you know, speak up for your feelings. >> Getting our input ensures that the survey reflects what wellness really means to students today, not just what it looks like on paper, and shows that students are partners in creating better schools and communities. At wellness break at my school, we get to eat snacks against the wall or play with Play-Doh or draw. >> I practice wellness at school by coming, of course, to the wellness center, but also tapping into building

120a support system that can help me through wellness challenges like teachers, friends, and more. Miss Diaz comes into our rooms and helps us about a lot of things like if if we're struggling with cyber bullying or a lot of things, but she also teaches us sometimes you can just step out and go to the counseling center and you can take some deep breaths, drink some water, chill there for a little bit. I practice wellness at school by trying to maintain balance and connection to my daily routine. Between my classes and activities, I've learned that wellness means being intentional with how I spend my time. I've loved it. Um, I thought it was super effective in gathering students voice and ensuring that students really felt heard. >> Liked about the interview is that Mr. Scott was

121very patient, helpful, and kind to me. And he boosted my mood because of how like positive and how kind he was. I like that they well they um like they treated me like an like a real person, not just like when pe when adults are kind of like oh like that to a child and then adult. >> I liked how there was no pressure, you know, how you were able to answer freely and how um knowing it's going to help benefit, you know, like the future students and everything. Okay, shout out to Mr. Scott. That was Scott Irwin who's retired. He started all this and we are coming back in his place. Um, so now that you've heard how the Wellness Index is being developed, I'd like to close by sharing what's next. Over the

122next several months, with the help of Dr. Pause and Melissa Speden. We will finalize the index elements. Then we will pilot the wellness index in those five clusters and work to establish a baseline by May 2026. We'll return to the board in summer of 2026 to share our progress and early learnings. Because wellness isn't a single program or department, it touches every part of the student experience. The wellness goal committee is also building a coordinated menu of tiered supports. These supports will be aligned to the index and tested in our pilot schools to ensure it not only measures wellness, but it also strengthens the systems that support it. This work that's happening now is a district-wide effort. We're mapping what we're already doing. We're um mult changing it based on the needs that we see

123based on how we develop the wellness index and it requires continued coordination across a lot of departments. Together we're building a clear picture of student wellness and the support to help every student thrive. In closing, this work is really about bringing our systems together, using data to understand how our students are doing in body, mind, relationships, and community, and making sure every part of our district is aligned around that shared vision of wellness. The wellness index will give us a more complete picture of student well-being, combining dataike attendance with student voice and lived experience. We're grateful for your continued partnership and welcome your perspectives on finding the right balance between those qualitative and quantitative measures and what our students tell us about their sense of belonging, safety, and connection. Thank you. >> Really good. All

124right. Um, wow. Thank you to everybody who uh presented tonight and thank you to all all of you out there. Um we will now move to our folks in TV land. Uh do we have any public speakers here in the room or >> We have one inerson speaker and two virtual. >> Okay. >> Uh in person is Mary Davis. You have three minutes. Hi. Good evening. Mary Davis here with the public education oversight project in advocacy for old school education and to urge you to shift back to reading proficiency first and foremost. San Diego Unifi just released its new goals and somehow literacy I was shocked to find is goal number two. Wellness the feel-good catchall is goal number one. And as seemingly well-intentioned as that might be, let's be clear, you can't wellness your

125way out of illiteracy. And for all the talk about banned books, it's it's interesting to me that banning a a book is temporary, but illiteracy until that problem is solved will deprise somebody more than from a book than any political foe ever will. Uh it also fuels the prison pipeline. And so knowing that then I would ask you by subordinating literacy what role you might be playing in that wellness uh is window dressing. It looks good on paper but it doesn't teach a child how to read uh when you apex that. So I see so many districts that are shifting the goalposts from reading to wellness, from academics to social justice, from outcomes to optics. Every new buzzword hides the same old failure that too many students can't read or do math at grade level.

126And instead of fixing it, districts seem to be pivoting to an increasing medicalization and profitering off of the students. Between data collection and expanded medical billing, we've gone from students as learners to treating them as patients and profit centers. Many school services are now reimbursable through medical, which means that every service, screening, and support plan actually incentivizes a profit motive. While literacy stays a distant second place, the real priority seems to be turning vulnerabilities into valuation. Cash for kids disguised as care. That's not innovation. It's institutional self-preservation. So, here's my challenge to you. Move literacy back to goal number one. Stop measuring success by slogans. And if the board truly cares about wellness, start with the well-being that comes from actually knowing how to read, write, and reason without the help of AI, not with

127data for dollars or cash for our kids. Thank you. and our virtual speakers, Courtney Bulitzki, Courtney available. >> Yes, thank you so much and good evening um honorable trustees. My name is Courtney Baltiski and I'm calling tonight behalf of Children First Collective San Diego. Um calling to offer a thought partnership as well as enthusiasm for this wellness index. a tremendous amount of intention and work have obviously gone into these first phases. Um my inquiry and curiosity is how we really adapt the index to our TK through second graders. Um at this point, you know, across the state, we continue to see extremely low rates of chronic absenteeism for these grades. And though it could be different methodology to engage with these families and kiddos, they've got a lot to say on this subject um and

128I know the district will do an incredible job in adapting the methodology um for that sincere engagement. Uh thank you so much for your consideration and continued efforts for early education across San Diego. and Aaron Hogaboom. Is Aaron available? >> Yes, can you hear me? Thank you. My name is Aaron Hogaboom. I'm director of San Diego for Every Child and of Children First uh San Diego. Um like u my counterpart Courtney, I want to really commend the trustees, the superintendent and staff for focusing on this multi-dimensional student wellness index. Um, this really does de demonstrate the district's commitment to student success and family engagement, looking at students holistically as part of their communities, and I really appreciate that. Um, and I'm while I'm so pleased that this report on student wellness, um, similar to to

129my colleague who spoke before, um, it does the survey data doesn't appear to, um, include the TK through 2 grade students. Um, and I'm just curious if there's a timeline for when we begin to also evaluate the wellness of those early grade students. Um, realizing that we might need to look at different um, uh, different measures um, than older students or perhaps relying additionally on family engagement. Um, but really that differing process shouldn't dissuade that data collection. And this seems um, particularly important given that high rates of absenteeism in early grades. Um so to reinforce um the focus on TK and kinder students and families um we strongly believe that we should have um insights on four, five, six and seveny olds so that we really can best meet their needs and set them up

130for long-term success. Um I really just want to again commend the district on and the board um and the superintendent for this focus. Um and just uh again reiterate our uh partnership and collaboration to focus on the TK through second um grader in the survey. Thank you so much. >> Great. All right. Thank you. Do any of the trustees have any questions or comments? >> Is that your hand? Did I see a hand over here? >> Seeing none. Just kidding. Trusty Hazen. I wasn't I wasn't sure if Trusty Whitehurst Payne wanted to go first. Uh so really appreciate uh what's been presented. Uh appreciate that we are seeing wellness day data in the same way we see literacy and math data. Um being able to see what our goal is and how we are tracking

131against that goal. So appreciate that work. Um, I wanted uh to mention that I noticed uh in the wonderful presentations we heard uh the reports from Hardy and from Marshall. Um I think we have two new principles um that are doing really extraordinary work. Um, and I think this really reflects what happens when we bring in and empower and support exceptional student centered leaders who use both data and joy um and partner with educators. Um, we see that kids are able to reach their full potential. And uh I don't know as much about Marshall, but because Hardy is in my subd district, I've had a chance to visit um and I know we've all seen um that they aren't just a bright spot when it comes to the data shared here tonight, but we also

132saw in both literacy and math um that they're a bright spot as well. Um and I think that that's noteworthy. And so when we hear criticism about our focus on wellness, I think it's really important um that we know that when we focus on wellness, when we create joyful, engaging learning environments, students don't just show up. Um students learn and students achieve. And what we see at Hardy is students who are now growing significantly in literacy and math and they are happy and healthy and well. Um, and so what it really reinforces for me is the work that this board endeavored to do I think two years ago when we set these goals. We said yes, we believe every child can thrive and succeed academically and we also want them to be well. Um, and

133we are doing both of those things. Um, I do have a couple questions. Um, and it's about so first around the absenteeism, the chronic absenteeism data and comparisons to preandemic levels. Uh, I'm curious if you think that the high rates of absenteeism we're seeing in TK might skew the data because pre- pandemic we didn't have a lot of TK students. And so when you pull out those four and five year olds, do we see the same thing? Um is it so if you can speak to that and then I've got a couple others. >> Uh without a doubt if um all of a sudden we had um 20% more grades that we were evaluating or or 10% more grades more um grade levels and they had the lowest rate, it would have a negative impact.

134The way I would think about it is is each like in adding TK would have whatever that delta is which is right now it's about um three or four points uh lower than the other grade levels uh you would divide that four by like seven or eight and that would be the net impact on the total grade. So I and that's significant. >> Yeah. So I think if it is significant as we continue to look at that data to maybe remind us what it would be sort of with and without just when we're comparing to preandemic um because you said that you know that that change is significant. Um I'm wondering also if it would be possible so we saw that there was I'm going to use the word significant. tell me if it's statistically

135significant. Um, but a significant decrease in chronic absenteeism among Hispanic students. Um, and we also saw similar noteworthy increase in ELA CASP scores. So, this increase in literacy achievement um, amongst the same population. And I'm wondering if you think it is a fair assumption uh that this increase in attendance also contributed to that increase in literacy achievement um or if that's something that we could dig into. we have an opportunity to further explore um like we always say you know correlation isn't necessarily uh causal but with our our change to the student survey I've shared in the past that while it's anonymous it's not confidential um meaning that we have the ability to further disagregate the data and really dive into those types of questions uh where we're trying to um compare dimensions of student

136attitudes and attendance and how that correlates with um their race and ethnicity and how that compares with other schools in the county. So, I I definitely think it's worth diving into it because it is a very large significant student group, our Hispanic students. And now um not just with our literacy scores, but we saw increases in the CCI index for our Hispanic students and an increase in their attendance rates. And after a while, it just seems obvious that something's going on that's working. And I think that's something that we are continue to look into. >> Thank you. Yeah, I think that's something that I'm really hungry for is what is it that we're doing that we believe is really moving the needle for our Hispanic students? And so my hope is that when we receive

137future reports that there's a little more analysis and insight into um what might be contributing to this. Um, I want to reiterate what we heard um from uh community members who shared comments about uh really wanting to see wellness data for our youngest learners for TK, kinder, first and second grade. Um not having those insights I think is really challenging. um particularly when we know that when we invest early and support our youngest learners uh it yields really positive results down the line. So I know I've said it before um but it continues to be a concern of mine that we do not know um how our youngest learners are doing and how well or unwell they are. Um but we do we heard last year that there were behavioral challenges. we hear that, you

138know, we have high rates of chronic absenteeism, yet we don't really have a sense of their wellness. Um, I'm wondering if at this point, and I don't know if this is for you, Superintendent Bugula, but if there are any insights as we sort of head into budget season about investments that we should be making um to support our wellness work. Clearly, our investments in school leaders is making a difference, but any other insights that you think are important um for us to keep in mind um as we work on the future budget? And that is every every time we work on a budget, the first thing we do is we say what are the investments like how are we going to make sure that we maintain these supports. Um and so I I don't have

139the very specifics but I do know that that's the first thing we do is we say what are our goals? How are we going to reach them? And that's actually money that we know we want to make sure we continue to invest. Um it is an aim for us to make sure that that's very transparent and public so that our families understand that that's actually the first decision that we make is to continue to support our students. I do want to speak to the young grades and your concern. I do we also want to know I also am like just what I'm trying to do is making sure that the work um is developed in a way that is reasonable with educators and so right now we just have a lot of new assessments and

140I'm I'm trying to make sure that I'm being mindful of that and developing that assessment literacy that's very necessary before adding another piece in there. But it is something that I'll continue to pay attention to. Thank you. All right, Trusty Wires Pain, >> thank you for this opportunity to share and I must say it was a a good report. Uh I too noted the um increase um the Hispanics and the EL students are really leading the way in on the chronic absenteeism data and uh whatever we're doing. I'm sure Roman you'll find out what's going on and figure it out so we can extrapolate it to other groups and to uh a deeper extent. But I I want to comment that uh I have I know 39 uh regular schools uh some charter schools. I

141have not gotten out to all of my charter schools this year, but to all of my uh traditional schools. I have visited them at least once, some of them several times. And I am more and more con convinced Richard uh trustee Barrera and I comment all the time that we know when we have a leader at a school because uh that school is not on speed dial to us um once a day or two or three times a week or whatever. We we meet at nauseium. Uh, and uh, I must say that I commend the fact that Marasawa, and I know she's back at a site, but I really am very pleased at what is going on at Marshall's school. We've visited that school and um, went around and checked on everything and I like

142the progress and you heard about it tonight, the things that are going on. When we have that revolving door for leadership, it does not work. We have to have a leader who is stable, who has a vision for where we want to take that school and how we want those children to learn. We must have that. And I'm glad that um Dr. Bagula understands that and is working to continue that process along with her staff. Thank you, Steve, Dr. Dorsy because he knows he's on my speed dial if uh one of my schools is not um is having difficulty. So I'm very grateful for you. I know you left central office and went out to a school, went back to a school and you told me you're retiring from there when you do, but not

143yet because we need we need stability and we need to see the kind of growth um that you're bringing forth at that school site. I I want to talk for a moment. And by the way, before I go any further, I want to just acknowledge the Lincoln students who are there. They're here for a reason um to see us. But uh I want to acknowledge you here in the audience. But uh I want to acknowledge that we are as human beings we are multi-dimensional and we need something more than reading, writing and arithmetic or as they used to say back home reading, writing, arithmetic. Um we can do those things but we also need to acknowledge that we have uh emotional needs, mental needs, physical needs, etc. And we can do it all. We can

144do it all. At least we'll be trying. The students today do not want to be bored with reading, writing, and arithmetic by itself. They want to do some things. And that's why as long as I'm on this board, and that could be for a day, a week, a year, uh I will emphasize that VAPA, my colleagues, I know several of you agree that VAPA is important. Some students only come to school because they like band or only because they like singing in the choir or whatever it is. the uh football players, the a uh athletics program, they are interested in what the coach is saying to them and they come because they know the coach will get on them and check with their English teachers and their math teachers to find out how they're doing

145in their classes otherwise. So, we have to be smart in this year of 2025. I keep emphasizing that and stress multi-dimensional aspects of learning and teaching and I only touched on a couple of them with DAPA with the athletics program and so forth, but we open the door for whatever our students need and we try to meet those needs. We're now expanding. I've shared earlier about the kids in the neighborhood. if they're walking on their way to school and they're they're hit by vehicles, then we need to figure out how we as a community, not just the schools, but how we can help our children not to get hit by a vehicle because there's nothing there to protect them. Whatever it is, if we we can do it, we need to do it. And so

146we hold them accountable because I love the Padres's. They always dangle those awards and the whole school gets to go to the Padres's ball game and my schools have gone two years in a row. Yeah, I have to rub it in. Uh I don't know what happened this year, but at least two years in a row, we've we've had Paradise Hills and Hamilton to win. And um we can challenge them and and expect them to learn something, too. It it's okay to do that. So, I commend you. Thank you, Marisol, for coming back and helping us out at that school. And I know if you need uh even for what FA is going through, the kind of difficulties they've had this year, uh the area superintendent is out there supporting them and we're doing everything

147we can here centrally to support that school. We're about helping our students. Enough said. My sermon for today. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Bazo. >> Thank you, President Person. Um, I'd like to touch on a little more. Both my colleagues have touched on this, but um, one of the things I was interested in is finding out, I think probably for future reports was specifically what Dr. White Payne was mentioning like what what specific areas are students coming and I assume it's going to be a lot of different things. you know, it'll be VAP, it'll be athletics, but let's say there's a lot of people, a lot of kids that really love chess club. I don't know, I'm just throwing things out there. It's going to be really important to know that information because as

148we're looking at budget cuts for the future, you know, if there's something that really stands out as a marker, um, and I think we need to do that for elementary, middle, and high school because it's going to vary. Um, some of the things we might assume might be high in the list maybe aren't as much. Um, so just to really kind of get dig down deeper and have a better sense of like if there's a spec I don't know lacrosse I'm just you know saying like I don't have ties to any of those but um just because I think that's important because we that's what I've said when we've been in our budget workshops is are we making sure that we're keeping the programs that we know are going to be most important to these

149students because if we're cutting those out from under us we're just you know that's we're that's that's not going to work for for our students if we're trying to accomplish a wellness goal. So, that would be the first thing. And then I also just want to put in a plug. I've shared this before, but I think it would be eventually, and I don't know if you can speak to this, but um to have a health education class at some point because at that because with that, you know, if we do have budget cuts and we don't aren't able to do some of these programs, you know, we'd have that class in place for not only to discuss physical wellness, um emotional wellness, but um environmental health as well. um it could just be a place

150to encompass all of those um areas. And I know again that's a budget issue, but has there been any discussion about possibly having you know this within like classroom content um or is it just going to be incorporated like kind of across different um topic areas or you know kind of to have like a specific place to discuss some of this? >> That that's a a good suggestion. we haven't um formed any sort of class because we're trying to figure out still like how do we measure this? What does it mean? Um more more than anything, we're trying to figure that out. But that's a really good suggestion. Thank you. I'll make sure to note it. >> Yeah, >> at Mirland's we have it as part of the middle school wheel. >> The sixth grade

151wheel at Mirland's one of the health education is one of the one of the four sections that all students take. >> Yeah, I've seen it at middle schools in different ways. So yes, I I just think it should be more comprehensive than that because not every student gets that and if we're talking about really make being serious about this would be I think we need to focus time on it. I just want to add that with um the high schools that are moving to the quarter system or the block schedule. It has come up. So, it's out there and it's being talked about, I think. Um, you know, you know how it's just but it's out there and it's being talked about. It's much easier in the middle schools, I think, because of the time

152they have available. Alo now that they're seeing some more openings for electives that that it's being talked about. >> Vice President Barrera. >> Yeah, I just so much appreciate this report and I appreciate you bringing together the um developing wellness index with chronic absenteeism. Um because you know as you've talked about the attendance works research and and by the way the Hardy and uh Marshall your schools are like the poster children for you know the best practices research around a lot of things but certainly reducing chronic absenteeism everything that you're bringing your teams together looking at data um the family engagement I love the opening up the soccer field, you know, example. It's so great. Um, but the reason why it's so important that you're connecting these two points is because we know what the

153research about reducing chronic absenteeism says it's you you have to get the wellness right in order to reduce chronic absenteeism. So, it's the relationships, it's the connectedness, um it's it's it's student health and safety and it's family, you know, connectedness. Um, so what I think would be great, you know, what we saw were the chart of schools that have made huge progress in reducing chronic absenteeism and then the chart of schools that are scoring really highly on the Yeah, exactly. if we could um you know even look looking at all of our schools, you know, kind of have a simple uh chart that looks at both, you know, and and over time I would expect that those two data points will come together as you know, Trustee Hazen pointed out as will the academic outcomes.

154Um, but it would be it would be great to just kind of see uh where is a school and I know we're developing it, but where is a school on the wellness index, where's the school on chronic absenteeism and looking at both of those together as you've done in this presentation tonight. Thank you so much. Yeah. >> Okay, you're in the final stretch here. I've got a few um questions and comments here. Um so I just want to take us back a little bit um in terms of where this come came from and the truth is I can't remember anybody lobbing us on this initially you know this was we were in um student outcomes focused governance uh meetings with uh with our consultant council of the great city schools and um when several of

155the board members insisted hey we think wellness is a is a major issue our our head the head consultant said that's actually the holy grail but nobody's done it yet so it's it's a big that's a big wave to drop into I don't think he used the surfing analogy now that I that came out of my mouth it doesn't fit but that was the effect um and and we really insisted uh on it and we insisted on it for several reasons one of which I think is informed by our experience but certainly my experience is as a parent um what is most important to me and I think as a district the concept in of in local parents is the fundamental task I mean people will talk about all the other stuff but to me

156that's bells and whistles when you are in the status of a parent you are going to keep that child safe you are going to ensure that they're not being bullied you're going to ensure that they feel like they belong like they matter um and you're going to make them feel um you're going to make them feel welcome at at a human level. Are they healthy? Are they psychologically well? Are you as a as in local parents, are you ensuring that their relationships with their peers are supportive um and nurturing? So, I would say on one hand without regard of it with to its collateral benefits for the the other goals, it is in it of itself to meet your fundamental job as um as a as a district that is in in local apprentice. Number

157one. Number two, we wanted to find goals that um were high leverage or interventions that were high leverage. And one of the things that for me there's always a tendency when you have a set of goals to pick or when you have a set of objectives for a district to pick goals that are directly adjacent. When when you set a goal, the tendency is to intervene directly adjacent to that. So you say, well, our goal is literature literacy, our goal is math. And then everybody in the district goes, "Oh my god, we better focus right adjacent to that thing." But there in all likelihood, and we know this in our in our in our own lives, there are high leverage interventions that are not necessarily directly adjacent to the thing, but have an overall effect.

158And for and and what we see in our very best principles, this is what we see is principles that create a campus culture, a sense of belonging, a sense of wanting to come to school and motivation. I mean, I I don't want to pick favorites and I won't say any names, but you go on these sites and it's like boom, all the kids are saying are are are slapping the the principal high five. Everyone you talk to loves their principal. Uh the kids want to come to class. They feel like they belong. Um so, and that is if you were to say, "How do we raise literacy on that campus?" And someone said, "Get a great principal." Like, no, no, I want to raise literacy. It's like, bro, that's your highest leverage intervention. You know,

159you have to figure out what the highest le leverage intervention is and it may not be directly attacking that thing and it may not be directly adjacent to it. And I think in relation to that, this goal, having it be a goal is part of is is our belief that it is a fundamental responsibility of ours and local apprentice. Having it be the number one goal reflects that we believe this is the highest leverage intervention we can make at at the level of the central office in order to move everything else. And so I think as we you know we may not necessarily in all situations be able to do regression analysis on this thing. So there may be a certain amount of kind of interpreting whether it's causitive or whether it's just correlative and

160we may be able to we may have to make do without that sort of academic regression analysis with with a correlation and I think we're going to be very happy if we see that correlation. Um, so I'll just say that and and I want to say um that um when you adopt a goal that whose time has come immediately sense it from families, you sense it from students, you sense it from staff. And I will say that this is one of those goals when I go to cluster meetings, everybody can see that this is the time has come. You know there is um I had a parent who uh I said our goal and and we had this conversation from the dis a former superintendent had said we're going to do okay okay we're going

161to do social emotional learning and what did we say whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa you're not going to see those huge collateral benefits it's great we should do social emotional learning but you're not going to see big impacts high leverage impacts on everything else just by social emotional learning that's why we're focused on wellness per se and when I and I talked to a parent and I may have said this before I don't think from the diet but this parent was like I talked about wellness and he started choking up big burly guy not the guy who he said you know what I would have thought what you were saying was nonsense but I have a 10th grade daughter and she's had the same group of friends for the last 10 years and last year

162for whatever reason those five five friends abandoned her. Something happened between them and she is alone and she sits in a room all day every day. I can't get her to come out. Her grades are suffering. He's like, I wouldn't have believed that wellness was a Rosetta stone to unlocking all these other things in her life until it happened to me. So, um I will say that father and trying to understand what's happen is the same problem we all face in trying to assess wellness. And this is why I really want to I want to simultaneously acknowledge all the staff work the staff's done. acknowledge that it is very difficult and that it's it's current it's incomplete and we're and we're getting toward there and and toward that end look it's inherently hard to assess

163wellness I am I well geez I don't know you know it's like ra and ask my friends ask my family it's like it's rashan you know everyone has a slightly different perspective what I'm okay I'm I'm I'm on you know I'm a good I'm on a good mixture right now but um so so it is inherently hard and when you're dealing with students and staff and families but focus on students. When you're dealing with students, there are obvious limitations in terms of budget, in terms of intrusiveness of your measures, in terms of the desire of students. We heard from students again and again that they don't there's a lot of data they don't want us collecting about them. They want us to know if they're well or not, but they there are limitations to what

164they want us to know. Um, and I and we respect that. So, there's a whole set of limitations. So I want to honor the work that staff is doing to try to to try to create this index that is that both approximates what it is without overstepping the bounds of student privacy and and other constraints. And toward that end I want to just clarify there there are three distinct things in terms of approximating wellness. We've got a proxy measure which is which is chronic absenteeism. So okay, we're trying to use that to triangulate where where students are. Then we've got an approximation which is our current survey data that we're trying to use. Um and that's not perfect but you know it's very hard it's hard to gather this data. Um and then we have

165the wellness index. My question and I'll say just two more things and then we'll go straight and shut up and it all be about your answering the question. if you could sort of anticipate a little bit of what this third part is about. Some people have asked me just in the broadest terms of what this wellness index might look like that's distinct from a proxy and distinct from a survey. That's so that's my question and but I also want to just clarify and the final thing is to clarify a a question that's come up several times from people which is you're focusing on wellness what are the investments you're making wellness and this is in wellness and this is similar to what we get around if you go back to the LCAP people are like

166oh what are your LCAP investments and then you're left with this $180 million of LCAP investments and it's like that's how much you spent on targeting students no no we spent all this on the budget over here but that's just the targeted stuff so one of the things I want clarify about wellness is there are certain targeted investments we're making. I think community schools for example is is one of those. There's certain targeted policy decisions we're making in terms of um like the 4x4 block scheduling to get more to get more opportunities for electives to get more room for students to have a choice field experience um and to have four classes in a given a given semester rather than six and that sort of thing which I think has some collateral benefits on wellness

167as well. Um and then we have SB HIPP and to clarify that's a state SBI and SB what's SBH CYBHI. These are state initiatives. We are responding to the state wanting a partner to help with their investments in in health and well-being and we're the perfect partner for that. So that's not certainly not us gaming this system. This is actually a state initiative. We were in co cohort one with the state trying to foster our ability to help better serve their needs. Um so I just want to clarify around that. Um, and to say this is the final thing I'll say before you answer this question is the real benefits I see are not this particular program, this sitebased program or this district-based program. It is the diffuse impacts of what it means to have

168a board and a leadership team and our area superintendents and our principles and our teachers actually moving in alignment and understanding that they are we are holding ourselves accountable to this wellness. I hear it when I go in classrooms. I hear it when I go on sites. I hear it from parents. I hear it in cluster meetings. This is a district that believes that wellness is foundational not only to wellness per se. Wellness is foundational wellness, but wellness is also foundational to personal growth, interpersonal growth, to academic achievement, to career and college readiness. We believe that it is foundational to all that. So, and and that kind of diffuse impact of what it means as a district and as a leadership team to to to to communicate to our staff and our families and our

169and our children that that is our number one goal. It's I think the impact's profound and I look forward to seeing that both in the data around wellness and in our academic uh data. So with that just the question around what might this wellness index look like. Sorry to go on it later. So, I'm going to do my best to channel my best Melissa Spaden that I can, but when there I'm holding two pages of ideas of parts of the index that could potentially be in our final product and we've divided it in body, mind, relationships, and community. and it is tied to the work that all of the departments are doing currently and then aligning that with our goals. So when we look at things like body like um what are we looking at

170in terms of our our food and nutrition program and it's not just I know you guys have said this before it's not just the meals that we're how many meals we're doing out it's are the students accessing those meals have we seen an increase in it what kind of choices are they making and what is our department doing to provide that increase in access that increase in choice so that's one of the things we're looking at. I think another thing is when we talk about mind, a lot of that fits around a lot of different assessments. So, MTSS has the SIT assessment. Community schools has another assessment. Um, I know we have a lot of um data around what our mental health providers who are mental health providers see. And we have a mental health

171provider district funded in every school. um the kind of data around what our counselors are seeing, the types of groups you had mentioned, clubs, we've got a lot of different clubs through our wellness centers, and then of course the activity in the wellness centers. When we look at relationships, there's stuff around conflict management. There's stuff around belonging and mattering, which goes back to surveys, but engagement and meaningful participation. So that can be that kind of data that the counselors see in terms of the referrals that they're getting for whatever reason and how we're dealing with that. And then for community, it can be as simple as all of the community um services that are available on the sites, but then it can also be access to community, the family engagement events. So that's just a

172part and then I think as we start to develop it more, we can give you more specific elements of it. And that's also part of what our researchers are helping us with. And so we're compiling all of the information and the supports that currently exist district-wide to see which ones will fit well into the index. But again, that's part of the work that the researchers are doing with the survey questions and working with our partner at the county as well. >> I have one more thing. It's also around facilities too. The community can also mean the facilities that are on the campus. So those facilities fit scores, those are data pieces that we have for our sites. >> All right. Any additional comments from my colleagues? All right. Seeing none, thank you so much. We

173really appreciate all of you. Thank you. All right. There is no action associated with this item. So we will move to um item F1 and F2 uh related to student discipline and collective bargaining. Is there a motion on these items? I have a motion from Trusty Wyers Payne. Do I have a second? Trusty Hazen. We have a motion and a second. Are there any speakers on this these items? Okay, seeing none, do any of the trustees have any questions or comments on these two items? Seeing none, um we will move directly to a trustee vote. Trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously. All right, we will now move. Are we good? Did I >> Oh, yeah. Okay. I didn't see it. Must have been late. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um uh we'll now consider um our

174we'll now move to the consent agenda. The board consent agenda item G1, the board meeting minutes. Is there a motion on the minutes? We said we have a a motion from um Vice President Barrera and a second from Trusty Oras. Um we have a motion, a second. Are there any speakers on the minutes? Okay. Not a popular topic to comment on, but do any of the trustees have uh any comments? Okay, seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. All right, we will now consider item H4, approval of submission of request for allowance of attendance due to emergency conditions. Uh, do I have a motion on this? Vice President Barrera? Uh, Trusty Bazo, I have a motion in a

175second. Um, Miss Stals, any speakers on this? Okay. Do any trustees want to talk about this attendance forgiveness? Okay. Um, seeing no additional comments, we'll move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. We'll now consider the superintendent's consent agenda, uh, which is items I through I23. The superintendent's consent agenda uh is 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. Please note that the agreement for item I23 was not

176complete when the agenda was published. Copies of the agreement are on the back table for public review. Does the board have any items they would like to have pulled from the consent agenda for discussion? Trustee I23. Okay. I23 has been pulled. >> There's also a public speaker on I4. So you have to anyway. >> I understand. We'll pull I4 then. >> Yeah. Yes, we'll pull. Yeah, we'll pull items I The board has pulled items I4 and I23. Uh, has the public or staff pulled any items for disc for discussion? Oh, I4 also. Okay, I see. I didn't I see. Okay. So, we have a public comment and a board comment on I4. Okay. So, we'll set those to one side and then we will um um Okay. So, we pulled that out. We will now

177move to Do I have a motion on the remainder of a a motion from Trusty Wires Payne and a second from um Trusty Wen? Um we have a motion and a second. Um, we will now move to a vote on the consent agenda except for I for items I4 and I23. Uh, student trustees, please vote. All other board members, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. We will now move in numerical order to the items that were removed. Um, Miss Stoultz, would you like to ask the public commenter to speak on item I4? >> Yes. I believe we have one speaker from our group from Lincoln High School >> on I4, which is the agreement with Young and Prosperous Foundation. You could >> if you could give us your name please so

178I can the record. >> Okay. Hi guys. >> Good evening. >> My name is Naima Aaliyah Curtis and I am a senior at Lincoln High School. I have been a part of the Young and Prosperous Foundation since my freshman year and is currently the class president of Young and Prosperous. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides youth with mentorship, sorry, mentorship resources and opportunities to grow as leaders and scholars through these pro through programs like scholarship excellence, black girls united, and student athlete mentorship. Young and prosperous help students prepare for college, build confidence, and connect with education and with purpose. Their college and career exposure initiatives such as outofstate and instate college shores open doors to new possibilities. The foundation's impact speech for itself, achieving a 100% high school graduation rate and college acceptance

179rate among its students along with significant improvements in attendance across the San Diego Promise zone. The Young and Prosperous Foundation has played a major role in shaping the person I am today. Through their guidance and support, I was honored to receive the youth leader of the year award from the 39th Senate District along with many other meaningful opportunities for growth. I would like to thank the San Diego Unified School District for having for um allowing us to have the opportunity to partner with the Young and Prosperous Foundation helping which will help even more students gain access to mentorship, educational opportunities, and life-changing resources that empower them to succeed in and beyond the classroom. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Trusty Oras, >> thank you. I'd just like to take a moment and quickly comment on item

180I4 because this ratification is crucially important and very close to my heart. As you guys can see, my family is out there. So, when I first joined the Young and Prosperous Foundation, and I am still relatively new, but the moment I walked into the first meeting, I felt a strong sense of belonging and saw a loving family. The deep and hard work every adult has greatly done for this foundation is very clear and a beautiful thing. The community services this foundation does is powerful and deeply rooted in all communities. They offer not just resources but mentorship, hope, empowerment, and love for our students as they prepare for their postsecary journeys. We're grateful for their partnership and the positive impact they continue to have on our young people. And from my experience, they truly care and

181they truly love. Thank you, >> Trusty Wyersp. >> And I I want to say that my church has given several of the previous student scholarships I do believe as they've gone to various campuses 11 12 a number of students. So, um, I commend you all for what you're doing, for helping students, taking them around and preparing them for the future. And thanks for coming and for, believe it or not, we gave Curtis, we gave her father an award, remember, for classified last year. Her father was the one who received it, and she's following in his footsteps. Congratulations. All right. Young and prosperous and old and prosperous. That's very good. Um well, does any do any board members have any comments? Uh oh. Oh, but you have your We'll get to that in a second. We'll

182take a vote on I I4 and then any other comments on I4. Um, excellent. With that, we will move to a vote. Uh, oh, thank you very much, ma'am. Uh, do I have a motion on I4 specifically? I have a motion from Trusty Ordas and a second from Trusty Wen. We have a motion and a second. Uh we took our comments out of order, so you can superimpose those. Um with that, we will move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. >> Mine was pre-existing. I did not. I want I want Okay. Student trustees, please vote. All other board members, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. Congratulations. What I I just pressed the button again. It's just too It's been too long of a week. Um, with that we will we're

183going to have to uh we will now move to item I23 which has been pulled by a trustee. But we will first see if there's any members of the public who are speaking on Okay, we have no members of the public. We will move to um board comment. >> Yes, you've pulled it, but we'll get a motion. Do you want to move this item? >> Yes, I would like to move this item enthusiastically. Okay, we have a motion from um Trusty uh Hazen and a second from Trusty Wyers Payne. We have a motion, a second. Are there any comments from the public on this? No. We will move to board comment. Uh Trustee Hazen, >> thank you. So, this item is our safe parking agreement. I'd like to, you know, high-five uh Vice President Barrera

184from across the dis. This has been a long time coming. a lot of advocacy um from the district, from our board, uh from council member Elo Rivera, the housing commission, um and and others. And so I just could not be more thrilled that finally, and it really has been after about two years uh of concerted effort and focus on ensuring that the old Central Elementary could be a safe parking site. uh that tonight uh I expect we will approve our agreement with the housing commission, a licensed agreement so that they can then subcontract with a provider and we can provide a safe, stable place for children and families who are living in their cars to be able to stay overnight and receive the support services they need. I think it's fitting that this is on

185the same agenda that we were talking about wellness because we know being able to go to sleep somewhere that is safe, knowing you have the support you need and can get to school um without having to worry uh about what's happening overnight is is going to lighten the load of a lot of families. So, I'm grateful that we've gotten this across the finish line and can't wait for that program to open up um so that we can start supporting kids and families. And I think the other exciting thing is that even though this is temporary, believe our intention is to be able to take this to other sites. So this will be here until we redevelop the site as uh affordable housing. Um but that we can learn from this over the next year and

186then identify other sites where we can operate safe parking as well. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I want I'd like to sh thank uh Vice President Barrera and and trustee Hazen for carrying this in part because of the Brown Act. It's kind of they they they're doing their thing in silence. We don't really know until we see see hit the docket. I also I also want to thank our partners on this and in particular Jewish Family Services which from my understanding really came in um as our um a white horse on this. So night night and shining armor, whatever you call it. Um and so we want to thank them as well. Um with that, do we have any comment? Um we will then move to a vote. We have a motion, a second. We've

187had our discussion. Uh student trustees, please vote. No, mine was already there. Yeah, it's I'm a student of life. Uh student trustees, please vote. All other board members, please vote. All right, that motion passes unanimously. Student trustees concurring. Uh that now brings us to uh non-aggenda public comment. Uh we will now receive uh public testimony both uh from folks in the room and online. Miss Doultz, have we received uh any requests for non agenda public comment? >> Yes, we have three three non-aggenda comment requests. Arlene Nubar You have three minutes. the case for teaching disobedience. We talk a lot about preparing children for the future, for college, for careers, for citizenship. But real citizenship is knowing when the rules are wrong. Every democracy in history has depended on people willing to disobey when obedience becomes

188injustice. Progress has always been driven by those who dared to say no. That courage doesn't appear out of nowhere. It's learned. It's modeled. And it's practiced. And it needs to be encouraged in our classrooms. When we punish students for questioning authority, we're not protecting order. We're suppressing suppressing conscience. Silencing discomfort instead of examining it does not teach respect. It teaches fear. If we teach children to obey, we get obedient citizens. If we teach them to question, we'll get guardians of democracy. Schools are where democracy should live. We must treat every child as an emerging moral agent, capable of reason, compassion, and dissent. That means giving them opportunities to test their own limits in play and social relationships, to debate, to advocate, to challenge unfairness safely, constructively, and proudly. Civil disobedience in its purest purest form

189is not rebellion. It's responsibility. It is the heartbeat of every free society. Democracy isn't kept alive by rule followers. It's defended by those willing to say no when power goes too far. When a student refuses to join in bullying, that's civil disobedience. When a teenager walks out to protest gun rights or our current uh regime, that's civic literacy and action. And when an educator teaches students that rules are not sacred, but values are, that's how democracies renew themselves. Our role is not to demand obedience, but to cultivate discernment, to raise children who can recognize the difference between lawful and just, between order and integrity. Because the most dangerous citizens are not the ones who speak up. They're the ones who've been taught to stay silenced. Genevieve Z. My child's horrific school injuries did not slip

190through the cracks. They were pushed because Golden Hill School refused to report the child injury for legal defense reasons, which violates state child endangerment laws. And we need to close this napsy loophole because this is intentional evasion of the district's legal child abuse reporting obligations. When the principal stopped me from passing out medical education about health risks to children associated with forced retention of bodily waste, she told me I had to go about this the right way and told me to file a uniform complaint. On October 15th, 2024, I reported the gross child neglect acts of admission to uniform complaints. I described a medical detail the progression of my child's injuries from Miss An's repeated classroom hygiene facility bullying including infection, broken skin. I added quote, "This is a liability for the district and should

191be addressed for serious injury prevention, mental, emotional, and social health." End quote. Eric responded, quote, "Thank you for reaching out regarding your concerns. I've read through your emails to get a better idea of everything that's been going on. I know the policies surrounding uniform complaints can be a bit confusing, but uniform complaints are for a limited amount of issues. Unfortunately, the issue you described wouldn't fall under the scope of uniform complaints." End quote. He then said, quote, "I would encourage you to continue to work with the site." End quote. and quote, "Although it seems like you only need to continue working with the school and copying Edith from the district's investigations, compliance, and accountability office in case you have any additional questions in the future." End quote. Is a principal of a school supposed to

192know the correct reporting agency for child neglect injury? Why was this month's missing victim also sent to uniform complaint? Why is principal Julia Martinez from Golden Hill School sending parents to uniform complaints instead of directing child abuse victims to proper reporting? Does it have something to do with her and the person who abused my child dressing the same for twins during the spirit week of the 2324 school year? and does child abuse qualify as a subject which can be resolved at the school site without reporting to authorities and since the ICA is not the proper agency to report the child abuse why do uniform complaints and Dr. Bagula sent me to the ICA when I clearly asked them what is the proper procedure for reporting child abuse. I needed this info. Are uniform complaints and

193ICA workers liable for failure to report child abuse after receiving unreported child abuse information from parents and not reporting to the appropriate agencies. Can we change that since their only job working for the district's legal team is to try to prove that the child abuse did not happen. I followed up with the ICA trying to document this properly. Quote, "What is the procedure for reporting child abuse?" End quote. End quote. Can you please send me to the person who can provide the proper procedure for documenting child abuse at a school site? End quote. Shaw replied, quote, "You have made it clear you believe child abuse occurred. That is what was investigated as part of your complaint." End quote. But the ICA asked me no questions and wouldn't even submit my pediatrician's letter to the ethics

194point against the teacher. The ICA repeatedly closed my injury report against the person who injured my child and refused to add any evidence to it. So, I asked uniform complaints. Quote, I'm contacting to follow up and find out the proper district procedure for when a parent reports illegal activity ongoing child injury in the classroom after reporting through uniform complaint form at the principal's direction. Student was not injured because of race, sex, etc. with something different. Thank you for your help." end quote. Lynn, the UC compliance officer, did not answer and blocked me after this one and only email. This conflict of interest endangers children. We need to force the district legal legal defense team out of the child abuse reporting process for parents. Stop the district's dismissal and evasion of child abuse reporting and prevent

195legal department meddling to pro protect child safety and report child abuse properly for student wellness. Thank you, Mary Davis. You have three minutes. I'll keep it short and sweet due to the hour. So, Mary Davis, government watchdog with the public education oversight project. Uh, one thing I was looking through your um goals and while you have the communication and literacy goals with the interim goals listed in the problem solving and math, it says that they will be defined by July 2025. So, if you have done that, if you could please list them. Um, and then the second thing was artificial intelligence. I'm not sure how many people have taken to use it. I'm pretty new, but I found it to be a complete gamecher for me. And um but the thing is is if you

196have the skills it can be a force multiplier. I can write a press release. I can write an essay. What I fear is a generation that is going to become a substitute that they will not have the capacity and the critical thinking. The other issue I have found it to be frequently wrong. I would say at least every other session or two I have found a mistake is made. And if you're going to do this, I would like you to have case studies on AI fails. And you could start with the two lawyers up in Reno, I believe, that are facing disciplinary, if not possible, disparment because they relied on AI and it hallucinated and they were caught, they were told to come before a judge and face the consequences. So, uh, we're talking careerending

197consequences for reliance on that. Lastly, if we talk about mental health and wellness, I do encourage you to please focus on Abigail Shrier's book, The Kids Are All Not Not Not Not Not All Right, and it's about bad therapy and what I have seen as a troubling trend of what she calls rumination. And I was so happy she was able to give a name to it. When you tell people to focus on their problem, it puts them in a doom loop. It's one thing to recognize a problem, identify it, come up with strategies, and move on. when you're living in that and that's why this whole thing about lived identities, lived experience, there's pros and cons and the cons can be very devastating that you create this doom loop of thinking and I think it

198explains a lot how in three generations we've gone from storming the beaches of Normandy, 17-year-olds that were storming the beaches to now needing safe spaces and uh quiet rooms for ideas that maybe we don't like or disturb you. So, I would just really say let's try to find some common ground. bring the pendulum back to true resiliency. Uh sail your ship into the wind and face your problems. That's the message I want for your wellness. Thank you. >> That concludes an agenda comment. >> All right, that uh brings us near to the end of our uh evening. I just I think all of the board members now would like to acknowledge our colleague who is sailing into the winds of her own surgery tomorrow. Um, no, in several days. Next week. Next week. What's the

199date? We Yeah. Well, unfortunately, I was told to say it. So, um, we have something to present to you here. I think some people are moving. We love you very much. We are thinking of you. You're in our hearts and our minds. The prognosis is good. We have every faith that it'll work out just fine safe safely and you'll have a solid recovery. But we're thinking of you and you are a valued member of our beloved community. >> And with that We'll get a statement from you on your return. That's what we'll wait for. But baited breath. Um, with that, thank you everybody who provided input tonight. Uh, thank you to our staff and to the the public both here in the room and u and at home and to the students that presented today.

200Thank you so much. Um, with that, this meeting is adjourned at looks like 8:07. Um, the next meeting will be November 18th, 2025. Thank you so much.