Board of Education Regular Meeting

001We will in the meantime begin the meeting. I would like to welcome everyone here in the chamber and those watching via live stream and call the March 25th, 2025 regular board meeting uh to order with all members present. Yes, that's true. I'm I'm being honest there. We've got all board members present. I verified it. Uh now for our flag ceremony, the Lincoln High Army JOTC color guard will present the colors. Please stand for the presentation of the colors. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. Uh, our newly returned superintendent, Fabiola Bugula, would you like to lead? Yes, please. On the count of three. One, two, three. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

002justice for all. Right. Word. Can we clap for them now? Thank you. Please be seated. Okay. All right. Next up, we have our land acknowledgement. The land acknowledgement is a traditional custom that dates back centuries in many native nations and communities. Our land acknowledgement was developed in partnership with local Kumi leaders. Students from the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts prepared the following video to show our respect for the Kumi people who are the original stewards of the land our school district occupies. Roll the tape. We respectfully acknowledge that the Kumi people are the original inhabitants and caretakers of these lands now known as San Diego. Despite the attempted genocide and ongoing impacts of colonization, the Kumi spirit remains unbroken and their traditions continue to thrive as they carry the memories of their

003ancestors 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. All right, we will now move to item B, adoption of the agenda. At this point, I always say we have a full agenda, but I really mean it tonight. Um it's going to be a long meeting. Uh we typically like to have one report and we have a couple of reports. Uh so bear with us tonight. There's a lot of really important things going on and we will give it all the attention we we uh we need to. And

004so with that um some of that will be the progress monitoring report on literacy and then we have three items. U it's really a housing package related to our commitment to workforce housing. Do I have a motion uh to adopt today's agenda? I have a motion from Oh, I Okay. Um Okay. I have a motion from Trusty Cruz and a second from trustee uh Hazen. Uh is there any discussion? Seeing no discussion, we will move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. Remaining board members, please vote. We're just shy. Uh Vice President Barrera, let's see if you can get it in time. There you He got it in time. All right, that's unanimous consent. All right, Miss Stoultz, can you please provide information for public speakers about today's meeting protocols? Yes, today's meeting of the

005board of education is a business meeting that is conducted in public and board members will not engage in a dialogue with members of the audience. Board bylaw 1025 sets the time limit for public comment on agenda items at 10 minutes per side pro and con or 20 minutes total. Speakers will be able to provide testimony at the beginning of the appropriate agenda item or at the end of the meeting for non-aggenda comment. Please listen for your name to be called. Speakers are listed and called in the order received. When your name is called, please come to the podium to speak. Speakers participating via Zoom will be asked to unmute when their name is called. If you are unable to unmute yourself, we will call the next speaker. Please follow along with the agenda so that

006you 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 available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby. And Miss Staltz is um a little off script, but um do we have given that we kind of have a initial idea about what the testimony is going to look like? Do we have any idea about what our time limits are going to be so we can inform the audits to prepare their speech both for agenda comment and

007for non-aggenda public comment? We have quite a few speakers for agenda and non-aggenda comment. So if each speaker would please be prepared for one minute that would be helpful to all of us so we can hear everyone. Uh people are still signing up as I am speaking right now. So the list is going to be pretty long. Thank you Miss Staltz. Okay. Uh and I will try to move at a pretty good clip in terms of moving the meeting along. Um but again we encourage uh public comment and board comment as well. I'm sure there'll be plenty of it. Um, we will now consider item C2, adoption of the resolution in the matter of recognizing March 31st, 2025 as Caesar E. Chavez Day of Service and Learning. Uh, is there a motion to approve item

008C2? Trusty Baldis, do we have a second? Oh, um, Trusty White Payne with a second. Miss Daltz, are there any speakers on this item? No speakers. Um, do any of the trustees have any questions or wish to discuss the item? Vice President Barrera, do you want to cue it? You good? Okay. Oh, I forced you. No, that's good. He's out of respect for their our time tonight. Um, okay. Uh, student trustees, please vote. All remaining trustees, please vote. Uh, the motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring. All right. Uh, now for D1. General Counsel Green. Under item D1, are there any reportable actions from close session? No. Thank you. Okay. As there are no management appointments to announce under item D2, we will now move to item D3. Dr. Beula, please provide your information

009report. Thank you, President Person. It's always a pleasure to be here with you all and March has been full and a productive month. And with spring break just around the corner, we're inching closer to the end of this school year. A time that's filled with milestones and celebrations across our schools and our district. As we approach this final stretch, I'm proud to highlight our growing community partnerships, especially our collaboration with the San Diego Padres's on the district-wide attendance challenge. It was launched on March 17th and running through May 9th. This 8-week initiative provides schools with weekly updates each Monday comparing current attendance to their established baselines. And as you may recall, trustee Dr. Whitehurst Payne has issued a friendly challenge to all of you and your respective school communities to rise to the top in

010this effort. It is a spirited way to remind us all how attendance connects to student success. On the philanthropic front front, I'm pleased to share exciting progress. Our director of grants administration, Manny Rubio, is leading the development of a district-wide funding priorities plan, similar to our approach to legislative priorities, which we'll bring forward to your review and eventual board adoption. In the meantime, I'll continue sharing key grant and philanthropic announcements as they come in. Today, I'd like to thank two generous partners. First, a big thank you to the Gates Foundation for awarding us $30,000 to enhance mathematics instructions for all learners. These funds will support a trainer of trainers model designed to develop a network of 32 math math teacher leaders. These leaders will receive ongoing professional learning, guide the implementation of our newly adopted

011elementary curriculum, and work directly with our school communities to ensure a strong and sustainable instructional shift at the cluster level. Second, I want to thank the Masons for their $5,000 donation with the support of Trusty Barrera and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in partnership with the Masons, the Padres, and the San Diego Public Library. These funds will help our students attend the Negro Leagues baseball exhibition, an important and cultural educational opportunity that deepens both historic knowledge and civic connection. I also want to acknowledge the money festival held this past Saturday at LMAC where it was an opportunity to ensure families could easily access their Cal kids accounts to start securing their child's educational future. In just a few hours, our families unlocked over $70,000 towards college. Thank you to area superintendent Steve Dorsy for your

012work on this. Trustee Vera and Assembly Member David Alvarez for attending. On the topic of federal advocacy, I want to recognize the collaborative efforts made this past weekend. I was joined by trustees Bazo and Whitehurst Payne along with Dr. Cook as we met with representatives from the office of Congress members Juan Vargas, Scott Peters, Sarah Jacobs, and Senator Adam Schiff. We advocated for our students by urging support for federal education funding, which is critical for our students with disabilities, lowincome families, and military connected youth. We also voiced strong opposition to proposed cuts to Medicaid and child nutrition, including the proposal to eliminate the US Department of Education. While Congress holds the power to act, I want to be clear, dismantling the department would be a disservice to students, not just in San Diego, but across

013the country. The education department plays an essential role in ensuring federal education investments and programs that are implemented with fidelity to serve the students that need them the most. At a time when our schools need more support, reducing federal engagement is a step in the wrong direction. We look forward to continued partnerships with our elected representatives to advocate for all of our students. Finally, I'm honored to share that San Diego Unified has been recognized by the California Association for Bilingual Education with an award titled Pioneer Bilingual Programs in California for our long-standing dedication to English learners and multilingual families. This is a reflection of the hard work and heart our educators bring every day to ensure every student is seen, heard, and supported. Thank you for your continued leadership and partnership as we move forward

014together. Thank you. Trusty Wersb, I just need to add that I too want to thank um Larry and Juno and Lawrence and Juno uh Kushman for their support of the uh Negro League U event that's coming up starting in April. Thank you Trusty Wyverns and thank you Dr. Mcula. It's good to have you back on the DAS. We will now hear item E1 interim goals 2.1 to 2.3 literacy UTK through 8 significant annual growth on the fast. Dr. Dr. Bula, can you please introduce the item? It is with both urgency and optimism that I present to you our literacy interim progress monitoring report. As we assess our current reality, we recognize that literacy is not just a subject. It is a fundamental right, a pathway to opportunity, and a predictor of lifelong success. Our responsibility

015today is to reflect on where we stand and chart the course ahead with clarity, courage, and conviction. I want to welcome up Dr. Romano Rosalio, our area superintendent um Mitsy Marino and also our superintendent Dr. Dorsy. I think we have room here up on the dis. Thank you. Before we dive into this report, I want to highlight three essential reflections that shape our approach to progress monitoring. First, progress monitoring is not just about compliance. It is about learning. And as a district and as educators and as leaders, this mindset is critical. Our purpose is not just to track numbers, but to refine instructional practices and accelerate student success. Second, we have made an important shift in how we assess student progress. We honored our principal's ownership of selecting the assessments for grades 2 through eight

016that work best for our schools, allowing them to administer the fast or the I Ready assessment three times a year. However, the state requirements for a K through2 dyslexia screener does require us to shift assessments for K2 grade levels in the 2526 school year and also gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate our grade 3 through8 assessments as well. We hope through this process to identify one assessment that will be administered in future years. This consistency will allow us to see the patterns more clearly and drive better outcomes for students. Third, we are paying close attention to average growth as an indicator of teaching capacity. Beyond tracking student success, we must also examine pedigogy, how we are teaching, what instructional shifts are needed, and how we strengthen teacher development. This is where professional learning, coaching, and

017leadership development become essential in ensuring every classroom is positioned for success. There are bright spots in our data which reflect intentionality and effort from our educators and school leaders and students. Our students with disabilities showed a 4.9 point improvement, an indication that targeted interventions and support structures are beginning to make an impact. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students saw a modest 7 point gain, signaling progress in ensuring that literacy growth is not bound by economic status. These successes though underscore a critical truth. When instructional practices are strong, when teachers collaborate in professional learning communities, and when data informs our strategy, our students thrive. However, our work is far from done. We're barely laying the foundation of this work. Our literacy data reveals concerning trends that we must address with urgency. Our black and African-American students have fallen further

018behind with a 3.0 point decline in distance from standard. Our English learners declined by 6 points, reinforcing the need for stronger research-based literacy interventions that address the dual challenge of language acquisition and comprehension. Hispanic students saw a minimal 0.1 point drop, but stagnation is not success. We must also ensure that our largest student population receives the support they need to accelerate their learning. Moving forward, our focus is on four key areas. Strengthening our instructional coherence. Literacy instruction and curriculum must be aligned across our schools and our grade levels to ensure that every student receives consistent highquality instruction. Centering our literacy efforts on black, Latino, and English language learners. Students need bold, intentional instructional shifts that drive real progress. We have to scale what works. We have to find those bright spots across our district. And

019we must ensure those practices are implemented systemwide, not just in individual schools. And lastly, we must invest in our educators. High quality literacy instruction requires expertise. We must continue to prioritize learning, coaching, and collaboration to strengthen instructional practices across classrooms. And if these themes sound familiar, it is because they are. You heard the same focus in our math progress monitoring report. This is not by coincidence. It is because we have these ingredients that we need to do better. Too often in education when things don't go planned, we over complicate our work. Our focus today is to learn, change, and strengthen so that we can improve outcomes for all students. This report is not just a reflection of where we stand, but it's a tool to guide our next steps. And with that, I'll turn it

020over to Dr. Del Rosario, Mitsy Marino, and Steve Dorsy. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Everyone can hear me? Yeah. Thank you. Uh, today I'd like to walk us through our district's performance data and goals for student achievement in English language arts. Let's start with our main goal. Goal two states that the performance of our students in the CAS Smarter Balance ELA portion will increase 18 points from 7.2 points above standard in June 2024 to 25.2 points above the standard in June 2020. Uh looking at the data on the right, we can see that our current standing across different student groups is quite stark. While our overall district performance is above standard, we have these significant disparities as Dr. Bugula pointed out uh where our Asian, white, Filipino, and students of two or more races are

021performing well above the standard. While several of our student groups such as African-Americans, Hispanics, students with disabilities, English learners, socioeconomically disadvantaged students are well below the standard. And if you see the arrows there on the far right, um while we're seeing some encouraging uh encouraging improvement, as Dr. Regula pointed out with students with disabilities overall uh across the various groups, we saw a very little change and a notable three-point drop in our African-American students. Uh the graph shows our progress and projection with the blue line representing our actual distance from standard over the last two years and the red dotted line projects our targeted targets through 2030. And at the bottom of the slide, you can see our yearly target goals, increasing approximately three points each year to reach our 2030 goal of 25.2. And

022a reminder that we intentionally selected three points as a growth goal in alignment with California dashboards 5x5 grid. Setting three points is what's uh minimally described to be considered as an increase. Now, let's look at our first interimm goal. Interm goal 2.1 focuses on our youngest students, kindergarten and first grade. The percentage of Spotlight students in grade in grades K through 1, achieving significant annual growth on the fast early reading assessment will increase from 26.6% in May 2024 to 56.6% by May 2030. So, let me uh remind everyone of uh who our spotlight students are. Site leaders were tasked with identifying 15% of their students who are farthest below standard primarily based on assessments such as CAS a reading early reading and additional classroom evaluation. And then we worked with our partners from uh UCSD

023Sandera and a data team from Renaissance to establish a growth model based on norm reference distribution uh where we set the cut points at 70%ile meaning students must show exceptional growth to be meet that threshold. Looking at the demographics, we have 82 schools uh participating in early reading with 8,925 total students of whom uh 1,249 students or approximately 14% are spotlight students. The spotlight students have a higher representation from historically underserved populations consider uh compared to the overall student body which uh what is what we would expect. So in terms of how they did in the winter early reading, uh we can see that our baseline and initial progress for the early reading assessment with our K1 spotlight students uh was at 26.6. So that re that 26.6 represents uh last year's spotlights kindergarten and

024first grade students. And uh we set as a a goal for this year for 31.6% 6% of our spotlight students to meet that minimal threshold of significant growth. So far, uh between fall and winter, 31% of the uh kindergarten and first grade spotlight students made that significant growth threshold. Um putting us pretty close to uh what our goal is between fall and spring. Now, we'll transition to goal intermal 2.2 two where we're focusing on students in grades 2 through eight. Uh the goal states that the percentage of Spotlight students in these grades achieving significant annual growth on the fast A- reading assessment will increase from 29.7% in May 2024 to 59.7% in May 2030. For grades two through eight, uh we had 119 schools with 38,71 total students, uh 5,118 of them being spotlight students.

025So that's about 13%. Again, we see a higher representation from our historically underserved populations in the spotlight student group compared to the student body as a whole. Looking at our A reading data for grades two through eight uh between fall and winter uh we saw a baseline of 29.5% uh last year with our spotlight students from the 23 24 cohort. Uh currently based on the winter administration the of the A reading we're at 27% of spotlight students making significant growth which is below our goal of 34.5 for this measurement period. So a work to be done here. Now the a final intermal is based on our I ready a reading assessment. So, for goal 2.3, interimm goal 2.3, uh we're establishing a baseline this year for the percentage of students making significant growth from fall

026to spring in grades K through 8 using the I Ready reading assessment. The spotlight student selection criteria remained similar uh where sites were asked to identify the 15% of the students that were farthest behind based on assessment and classroom assessment. For determining significant growth, we collaborated with I Ready and we used a norm reference growth model uh where they uh helped us identify uh students uh what they call stretch goals. So since we're at the halfway mark, we set the uh threshold as those students that met are 50% to their stretch goal. And what we would expect is somewhere between um uh 25 to 35% of students making their stretch goals. And I Ready describes that as the student is on the path for proficiency if they're making their stretch goal. Uh we had 26

027schools participating in I Ready. 7,494 total students of whom 1300 1321 were spotlight students and that constituted about 18% of students. Uh you'll notice that the demographics are a little different from our A reading and early reading with higher percentages of historically underserved students compared to the student body at a whole. And finally, we have our baseline data for I Ready reading. Currently, 34% of our Spotlight students in K8 are making significant growth on this assessment. Since this is our baseline year, we haven't yet set incremental targets, but we'll use this data to establish appropriate growth targets moving forward. So, with that, I'll hand it over to area superintendent Marino. Good evening. I'm here to talk Oops. I'm here to switch the slide and talk a little bit about how our students in area C

028are doing as it relates to this goal. So what you see when you look at this, we have most of our schools are using the fast assessment. So 22 of them and four are using the I Ready assessment. When you look at this data, what it says to me is the spotlight students in area C, it really mirrors the district data. it it's not better, it's not worse, it's it mirrors the district data. But when you look closely, what this slide doesn't tell you, and what I like to say when I look at data is I want to look at actually where's the celebration. These students are making growth. They're just not making significant growth. So, I'm going to talk about the challenge of moving from typical growth to significant growth and some strategies that

029leaders can use with their school teams to get there. Um, another kind of bright spot uh that's also not on this slide is that 57% of the schools in area C are actually making growth with their students on on their distance from low risk. So again, we're seeing growth. So how do you take that growth and then build on it? I want to share a couple of the strategies that we're using in area C. Um, and then I'll share kind of how that's going at one of the bright spot schools. So one of the highest leveraged strategies is we come together regularly to gather around the data and we just pause and we reflect and we're holding the researchbased strategies in our hands. So we're holding the leadership strategies in our hands and we're asking

030ourselves really which of these strategies make sense for us to use now based on what the data is telling us. What do we need to do when we get back with our school teams? And how do we engage our educators in getting this close to our students by name and by need to make some instructional decisions? If we move one and a half students on average per school, we'll go from where you see us sitting right now to 40%. We'll be exceeding the goal. So that's the good news. We've got to know who the students are who we're going to maintain and we have to know who the students are who we're going to move to significant growth. So, it's just like you've heard over and over probably about getting very very close to our

031learners and implementing the researchbased strategies and the researchbased teaching practices. Um when we get together, there's another strategy that we use that's very helpful with the leaders is we go into our schools and we go in cluster groups. So we're with the leaders of the cluster and when we're in the classroom, we're paying attention to the experience of the students who are our spotlight students and we're there to actually learn what we might try. So sometimes when we're out there, we are thought partners with our educators thinking about what they might try to get stronger engagement. And sometimes we find these amazing, brilliant places where kids are are actively engaged and cognitively engaged. And then we say that's a place where we can go and learn. So, I looked at we've been in lots of

032classrooms and there's lots of bright spots, but when it came to the data pointing to us to a school tonight, we're going to talk about Sunset View um and the bright spot and really share some of the high lever strategies that they're using at Sunset View because as you see here, they're getting really different results than area C in general and the district. So on the early reading you see that we have 57% of the students at sunset view who are making significant growth. On the A reading we have 47% of the students in in grades two through four. Those are the grade levels there who are making significant growth. So we pulled up next to them and we want to learn what is it that you're doing and I would say the number one

033thing and you find this in every school where students are achieving are the conditions for learning. The children in the building feel part of something special. You walk through the hallways, you hear children talking, you hear them collaborating, you see them gathering their resources and materials and asking questions. It's an active place for learning. Whether you're in the early grades or in the upper grades, um, when I looked at the student survey data, I found something remarkable. 83% of their spotlight students, so I filtered for that, said that they felt like they had a trusted adult they could go to for help. That says something. They also 83% felt extremely safe. That says something. So I would say the number one strategy that they are implementing across classrooms is creating the conditions for learning. The

034second one is high quality instruction. So they have high quality tier one reading instruction with small groupoup instruction in their primary classrooms and they have this year focused on writing instruction. So now they have the strong reading instruction paired with the strong writing instruction and we hope to get more acceleration because of the reciprocal relationship there between the reading and the writing. Um, next they have teacher-led professional learning communities where they're gathering around the data. They um are looking directly at students by name and by need. They do that twice a week. So every teacher twice a week is gathering with their colleagues in professional learning community getting close to students. Um and then all of these things point to the student centered data driven decision making. Um whether it comes to becomes talk about

035direct supports to students. So now we know what you need and we're either going to give you a targeted intervention or we might differentiate our lesson to strongly support you inside the classroom. So that's what I learned. And I think that the the thing that I loved the most was when I was walking through the hallways, I took a picture of this bulletin board and if you can't see it, it says we shine brighter together. And that just speaks to the community that they've built around supporting all students. And so at this time I'm going to pass it over to my partner Dr. Dorsy so we can shine brighter together together and he can tell you a little bit about what's happening in area E. Uh and and so similarly within area E as Mitzy

036was saying we have that typical growth across uh the different tests of early reading a reading and and I ready. Uh the the focus on spotlight students is really where uh area E is is starting to shine. And we have a whole bunch of different uh areas within Morris and Crawford and Lincoln that are are actually shining through with their spotlight students. So as you see within the numbers there that is is really that focus on those spotlight students getting that significant growth. Uh as we look at it there are areas where we can definitely improve and we we understand that and that's how we utilize our data cycles as we are going through. So this data is actually based on our our our assessments that uh Roman and the DIS team have created for

037us through I Ready through FAST. But the school sites are actually using interim data as well to really drill down and find the the gaps that kids are experiencing and addressing those directly as they go through. Uh we hope to see that correlation come through on the CASP a as we move forward. But we understand that with those data cycles and high quality instruction, that's where we can really start to see the improvement. One of the focuses of area E that schools are really starting to dig into is repprioritizing their PLC's a and really digging in and making sure that we understand th those focuses of the PLC and why we really need to look at our kids and ask those questions about how are they doing and really focusing it on the work that

038the students are doing. Uh, one of the great things that I I am really starting to see a and hear as I'm going through the school sites and visiting and seeing some PLC's and seeing instruction is the change in conversation where previously we would have these data conversations and it was like the kids this and the kids that and and they didn't get this. But now we're starting to see, oh, they didn't get that, but what can I do differently to help accelerate that? What process can I and seeing those conversations and seeing the teachers read and lead through that is is really amazing. Uh the focus on I Ready is important. Uh we only have nine schools within area E that are actually using I Ready. So the fast is there as well but

039again their focus is the foundational reading skills right we we know the research says read by three and if we can create that foundation we are really going to do some things well uh one of the focus through schools that we are going to talk about is actually one of those pioneer schools and and that is Chavez Elementary dual language uh this little gem I'm telling is rocking it and and it's exciting to see the momentum that is being built on the campus and it's really coming from the teachers, from the principal, from the supports. Uh each staff at the beginning of the year, they went through and they made their smarty goals. Uh and and the E on the end of that smart goal is just that focus on equity because that is so

040important in what we're doing. They are an LCRS school. So they're focus now is that K2 support and they're starting to use hegedy strategies. Uh the the great piece of this is they have the LCRS. So they have the literacy coach who partners with the principal and and here's where it gets different because we actually have the principal who is leading the way showing the importance of looking at this data in those meetings with the teachers and able to really look and push down on that data. Within that picture there, you can see some of the spotlight students and and the wall that they have created within their PD room. It is literally three walls. You only see one, which is the spotlight. It starts with special education students and goes all the way across

041through every grade level. They have created a visual with each interim assessment that they put on there. So, you can see where the kids were previously and where they are now. and just that flip. So within that first assessment, you saw a lot of red, a lot of yellow. The second assessment, now it's like orange and green, but they can flip it. The motivation that that gave the teachers was incredible in that first round. Their second session improved even more. Here's where they took another step is they brought in duel. Previously our dual schools the data is completely different. Now duel is doing heardy in Spanish. K through2 is doing heardy in English. As you walk through the classrooms you see the same strategies being used and it is phenomenal. Uh the credit goes to

042Francisco Santos who is leading the way. Uh and and Francisco is actually agreed. He is one of our spotlight schools, but what he is going to do because we have dual schools in Morris and in Crawford that are solo amios. They have no partner. So what he is going to do is bring Balboa, Boone, and Fay together to really start to focus and utilize what they're building here to spread. uh his coach Maria Shyman created this whole dashboard uh with Stephanie Torres from the district office and it it is something that you really have to experience. It's almost like a ride when you go through there. uh but the momentum that it is building with the teachers and how they are so focused and they can literally drill down to the student and actually see

043who's yellow, who's red and they start to think about why is he red, why is she yellow and they know the stories behind and how to then go about supporting those students. So we are really excited about the growth that Chavez is starting to get with their spotlight students. So some of the things that we have learned and that we're expanding are the obvious things that you have heard probably when you listen to the math department. We've organized them under the cell leadership uh four dimensions of leadership because that makes the most sense because that's what our leaders are studying. So you'll notice here um the collaborative data driven culture, right? That's living in both places. But what we didn't talk about, what's really important there is that we're recognizing and celebrating growth in approximations

044as Steve talked about uh it's also happening at our spotlight schools. It's also happening in our data collabs. That's where you get the efficacy piece because you're realizing that our efforts are actually paying off and improving outcomes for students. Teacherled professional learning communities there under resource management. that's around uh the piece of resource management is around nurturing talent and that's where our educators are learning from and with each other and then obviously evidence-based teaching and leadership practices and the conditions of learning living in the um learning and teaching environment. So all of this is about every school needs a plan that's got student outcomes at the center and then they are implementing the researchbased strategies from cell and the teaching practices um to improve the experience and outcomes for our students. Ways that we can

045we're expanding this is we have opportunities where we're bringing our leaders together in institutes and collaboratives and in data in data monitoring sessions. we have lots of opportunities and we're always asking ourselves the questions how are our spotlight stu students doing what are you trying how's that going and may I come see that so just opportunities both formally and informally to work towards the um improving the outcomes by implementing the researchbased strategies so what we learned and and how we're going to try and improve the system and we really are starting to understand the import the the importance of that principal leadership and the coaching of teachers on site uh with Chavez, Maria Shyman, actually going in and modeling lessons for teachers and then stepping out and letting the teacher take over just to build

046that efficacy for our teachers. Again, relates to Hattie, right? The visible learning and understanding that that collective teacher efficacy is really what's going to be helpful in driving that. uh the student center uh data is really so key because the kids are actually starting to see, hey, I'm making improvement. I'm not a flatline. I'm not getting worse. I'm actually growing and my teachers are there to support me. The community is there to support me. Uh the literacy curriculum coherence is a huge component. uh and the support of the literacy grant and the ability to actually align our instruction. So we have a conflagulation of of curriculums that are out there for our K3 youfly heard uh benchmark font you name it. So when we try to have these consistent conversation it gets really difficult because

047we're not t talking apples to apples we're talking apples to bananas. Uh and and so when we start to get things into alignment, which we are working on now, uh Dr. Codington and and Sarah with the literacy department and and here's a a cool component is they're actually working with Julie Garcia and and Jessica Walsh in the math department together to talk about literacy across not just their department breaking down some of those silos which Dr. Beula has been talking about at Nauseium. they're they're starting to come down and understanding that we can build that collaborative structure not just like within our schools but from the district office as well. So increasing that and building that professional learning uh another great component and again breaking down those silos. So we have the benchmark curriculum but

048now we also have the amplify MC class that is coming powered by Dibbles right and if we can get our alignment in assessment as well I ready is going to be consistent now we're going to again be talking the same language from school site to school site we can actually have so when uh Francisco is able to pull boon and Fay and BOA together they're having the same conversation it's not a different conversation And the last component that is really so important is and it and it goes to that community school approach. Uh Chavez is actually a community school and they have that family engagement component. uh Samantha Tez who's their community school coordinator is actually part of this as well and is in some of those data chats and bringing families in so they

049could actually see how the kids are doing and report that to the families and just again building that community right there on the school site and and it is phenomenal. We were actually lucky to do the the Chavez march uh for Cesar Chavez at Chavez School and just the faces lighting up and the community being excited to be back on the campus because they haven't really done it because of COVID but but now we are starting to expand. Uh I I actually have an anecdote from one of the San Diego PD officers who was actually blocking the street for us and he was just like, "Man, I love coming back to Chavez." And I'm like, I'm with you. I love going to Chavez, too. That's why it's one of my spotlight schools. I think that's

050it. And that's it. Is that good? All right. Well, thank you, Steve, Mity, Roman. We really appreciate it. Um, Miss Staltz, are there any public comments? All right. Well, uh, I presumably there's going to be some questions and comments from the board here on the DAS. Uh, do we have any comments out of the gate? I see Trusty Hazel with her hand up. Thank you and thank you for the work to break down the data for us and share the spotlight schools. I really appreciate the focus um on the impact of self-efficacy both for educators who are seeing that they have what it takes to help really move spotlight students to achieve significant growth uh and in turn I imagine and you sort of spoke a little bit to this that we're also developing student

051efficacy because kids can see they also have what it takes to achieve significant growth and while you know I appreciate you you mentioning you students are growing and we want to celebrate that. We do want to keep pushing on the need for significant growth among spotlight students. Yes, we should celebrate um sort of that traditional growth we would expect, but we know if we want all of our kids to be, you know, at grade level by third grade, which you described as an important indicator, we have to really keep pushing um recognizing that we all collectively have what it takes um to move the needle in that regard. Um, I do have a few technical questions. I'd asked some of these in advance, but didn't quite get all the answers. Then I'll get to strategic

052questions. Um, this is a technical one, but just something that would be really helpful. Um, not just for monitoring report items, but for all items is if we can please include background information. Right? This is our second literacy monitoring report. Um, and you know, I'm racking my brain. What did we talk about last time? What was the discussion? What was the deliberation? What were the key items? What were the key next steps? None of that is included in the item. I had asked and I heard that's not part of the template, but it would be great if that could become part of the template. Um I'm also wondering uh in terms of the bright spot schools um and you shared two very different ones um but are they using site funds to pay for any

053of the tools or professional development or resources um that are contributing to their growth um or are they using resources that are available to all schools and all principles and all teachers. Um, so that's number one. And then number two, um, mentioned this previously, but want to lift it up again. Um, as this goal pertains to, um, students all the way through 8th grade, seeing a bright spot school um, in middle school, a middle school bright spot school would be really helpful. We know we have a lot of work to do um, with that in that regard. So really understanding which middle schools are seeing um growth um and whether that's different in terms of the strategies they're employing um than elementary schools because I don't want to forget about sixth through 8th grade. Um

054so I guess we can start with those technical questions. Um and then I'll ask the strategic ones. So I can get to your resources. Yeah. Uh that's a big one. Yeah. It it's both. Mhm. Uh so Chavez actually has the LCRS grant. So a lot of what they're they're building and doing uh Maria Shyman uh Maria Zumi from the district office. It is all paid for through the grant and that coaching component is really part of that where the resources come from the school is uh Francisco Santos actually uses some of his own money to actually give extra time. Uh, so they have their PLC time, but he's also releasing teachers to actually be able to see each other. Uh, so the dual teachers were actually able to go in and see one of the

055Heggery sessions to then help develop their skill. So he's actually using different buckets of money. Some of it's title one. Uh some of it's the LCFF money that they have, but kind of what Mitsy was saying is that resource management component so important, but using all of his different buckets, he's able to to make some things happen. And I can say that because we have strong partnerships with our families that in many of the schools in area C, our families um find it very important and and worthwhile and like to provide um funding to the school for sometimes enrichment, sometimes um uh directly for professional learning. But in many of our schools, we also have foundation support so that for the release time, the students are having an experience with a credentialed teacher and then

056the teachers can be freed up to plan. So I really appreciate the partnerships we have with our foundations and certainly there's a strong foundation supporting Sunset View. I think that's helpful and I think as we think about scalability recognizing that achieving these results is requiring extra, right? whether that extra is coming from a grant from title one from school foundations. And so I think as we think about how do we replicate and as we think about some of our philanthropic priorities and other things, how do we make this common and not the exception for those schools that happen to have the extra funds? Um because not every school has access to that extra. And so I hope you know we're we're thinking about that. Um I'll get to my strategic questions. Um let's see. Oh,

057so this came through. So I had asked a question about are we on track to meet the goal. I had asked this previously and the response that I got was um that we aren't um that we're seven percentage points below annual interim goal 2.2. And I'm wondering based on your evaluation of the data and work with principles, why you think we aren't seeing the desired results in terms of spotlight student growth. Um, and I'm wondering if we're deploying a literacy acceleration strategy that isn't working and what you're recommending schools do differently um, moving forward. So, basically, since we're not on track, how do we how do we get there? How you get on track in my opinion is much simpler than it seems. Is you get right down to by name and by need. So

058not by number, not by percentage, but who are the students at my school who are spotlight students and how did they perform on the last assessment? How did they perform on multiple measures, not just that assessment, but every assessment that I give? And what kind of reteing reassessment do they need so that they can actually master the standard? Not everyone. Steve and I aren't gonna master a standard in the same way in the same time frame. So, when we get in the habit, and I'm telling you, this is work we're doing and it's taking time um to build with our educators. But when we get in the habit of of both pause, reflect, figure out exactly who needs what and then do that reteing cycle. So, I say retach, reassess, and recognize and celebrate growth

059and approximations. I believe that's the recipe. As I shared in my area, it's 1.5 kids. If we know their name, not the 0.5 kid, could be two over here and one over here. But if we know their names and we know what they need and you either build it into a targeted intervention, you partner with your partner educator, you gather together and say, "Now what? We can do this." I'm not I believe we're going to make our goal. like I believe it because of the work that we're beginning to do around the data around getting closer by name and by name. Well, and I'll I'll add in there too that the momentum that is being created at the school sites through the data cycles is really empowering uh the teachers and the students, right? So,

060student outcomes won't change until adult behavior changes. The adult behaviors are starting to change. That is something that we're going to be able to really start to lean on and leverage of when we focus this closely on the data and we're able to see this growth from these students, it it multiplies and and the energy at Chavez has really grown from the start of the year. They are like buzzing on they're like when's the next set going to be up so they can come and look. And when we create that type of buzz around our students, I think that's a a recipe for success. If I could just add one point, I I always think back to my time in the late 90s, early 2000s, uh teaching in South Los Angeles, and you know, I

061I present my lesson, some students will raise their hand, you know, they they'll answer the questions, and in my mind, it's like a feedback loop. you know the students are learning and then I give them an assessment and uh the only students passing were those that were raising their hand and then somehow you know to have a frame to give a voice like we've talked about bring light to students that are just quiet often like when we think about our ELTELS or English learners they're they're not defiant they're just almost like invisible and and that's really I think the strength of this approach and and the way this is going to really operationalize our progress is when in the planning for that lesson, I'm thinking about that student ahead of time. I know my spotlight

062students and we say by name and need also by strengths. They have strengths. They they have I I'm going to use some examples. I know this spotlight student really likes this, you know, whatever it is. I'm going to incorporate into my lesson without lowering the standards. How do we really bring it's not it's not about, you know, making sure my top student gets it or even my middle student gets it, but how do I get my student who's like farthest behind to master this skill? Uh it's by being very intentional in how we prepare for those lessons. Thank you. Um so at the end so the slide 14 references literacy curriculum coherence under system work and you describe right comparing apples to bananas is is kind of challenging as we try to work together. Um

063and when I visit elementary schools I too see a lot of variation in curriculum and instructional tools and even hear from principles like I just wish you would just tell me the thing to do and we could all be doing the same thing. Um, and I posed this question in advance and the response, one of the responses was that site principles have the autonomy to choose supplemental curriculum to support instruction. Um, and I think back a year ago we heard there's a laundry list of things and we're going to really make it more narrow and be more clear about the most efficacious tools we can be using. And so I'm wondering as we look at scalability um and replication, what are we doing to ensure that it's not choose whatever you want um but that

064it's really these few things because I worry what if somebody chooses something that's not the most efficacious or not the most coste effective. Um so if you can speak to what are we doing systematically? what's the do we have a strategy in place um to narrow what folks are using? So similarly with uh the math report we are actually going through a an adoption process for mathematics which will start next year. Again that's going to be something that will narrow the the tools that are used and then it becomes how do we hold folks accountable to that and and that's that leadership move. Uh the same conversations are now starting to happen. Uh Dr. Dr. Kajukin in the literacy department looking at we know benchmark was adopted at the beginning of co. We know that

065the training was not what it should have been. We know that we need to go through and shore that up because then we can start to say okay now the accountability component is here. Uh it's not going to be teachers pay teachers. It's not going to be these faroff things that are out there. We want to see what you are utilizing across the base. And I think the component of partnering schools I actually have and I think a couple of the other areas have principles that are going across clusters and having collaborative meetings and conversations about what tools they're using. So as we start to bring that into alignment now those conversations are completely different in our data tools. But that's going to come to to Mitsy and and I and the other area superintendent

066of saying this is where we're going. This is the expectation. This is how we're going to hold you accountable. We're going to be looking at the data thanks to Roman who is aligning that for us. So really the the the stars, yes, are are starting to come into alignment. Uh we're still going to have some one-offs that we're going to have to address and and really start to bring in the focus. Uh it's kind of like the Wallace Institute, right? The the effective principal leadership is so important. Yeah. in in driving that with Francisco being in the mix. He knows making sure that all of our principles are in the mix and understand what is being used is are in the classroom so they can see, hey, that's not the same strategy that they're using

067in duel. They're using something. Now we can have those conversations to to really start to align and hold folks accountable. That's great. And I do really I have one last one. Okay. Trustee Byer Payne's been waiting here patiently. I promise it's my last one. Um, and really appreciate the enthusiasm you all have in leading the work. Um, the data shows that 10% more Spotlight students in area C are seeing significant growth on I Ready than compared to the students in area C who are taking the fast. And I'm wondering what you attribute these differences to and if there are different strategies being used at I Ready schools. if it's simply I Ready itself and the different uh the differentiation that it allows sort of through the software and so I'm wondering if you can speak

068to that because it seemed um meaningful. I don't feel like I could speak Oops. I don't believe I can speak to that because of the N. Right. So you've got an N of four, four schools using I Ready and you've got 22 using I don't be feel like I have a a data set where I can do a comparable like I can compare these four to these four because when you look at the four you also look at demographics you look at starting point you look at because starting point for spotlight kids spotlight students is also varies right and their experiences so I feel like um as the mathematician scientist who lives in this body um I feel like I couldn't make that uh on the spot decision. I'd have to dig deep, look at

069other I Ready schools. Um get some, you know, partner with Roman and the team and see if there is something different because I know that I Ready also comes with some other um supports that schools may or may not use and I just don't have that information and I No, you don't have to know it now, but it'll be great to know, right? if there is something unique to the strategies being used there and if it's specific to I Ready. So, one of the things I know I can do is talk to the principles who are using I Ready and talk to them about their their spotlight student work and how they're using I read and what we could uh definitively share is that the assessments while both correlating to CASS they're different and the

070fast bridge is very short which it has its positives but uh it's considered a screener and it puts students in kind of risk uh thresholds where I ready is more of what we would call a diagnostic and it gives more specific information uh what is the next step that's needed and I I really think it's important that we uh recognize the work of our assessment department Dr. Moreno and her uh three uh we call them darts, our district assessment resource teachers. They're out there every day um building meaning because it's not about the assessment, it's what you do with the results. And um you know, it's I Ready is a high quality diagnostic and it's and it's loses its power or its um ability to help if we don't look at those results and really

071have that inform our instruction. And that's really been the work this year as we support it at the sites. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty We. Thank you. And I want to thank the team for your presentation. Um just to address that last point before discussing my real point. uh the I'm monitoring the ends because if you're looking at a smaller end where you have 20 students or whatever that could be an anomaly case and it's not really giving you good trendy data. So you really have to be careful when you extrapolate it to a larger population and the ends are really small just hopefully those aren't the deviant students uh and distorting the results and what we're trying to interpret. So I'm trusting you all to be monitoring that part of it as we go

072along so that we don't get uh data that are distorted. Okay. So I'll leave that there. I did note that um for area E all of the test just pretty flat same the uh early reading the A um reading and then the I ready all the pretty much lower 30 so no uh outliers or anything like that but the thing that I really wanted to comment on is um Chavez school because thank you Steve we went out and visited the school and uh Francisco is doing a great job there uh with the school. I walked into the data room and to see the students names displayed with the colors is it's really you could see anyone walking into that room and understanding the transition from the red to now we're moving out of the red

073zones for students and each child was named in that room so that we know what's happening to each child without having to go into the weeds. It's just there in the color. And so I I was very pleased and he went through a litany of all the things they're doing, how they're using their funds and so forth because it does point out the halves versus the have nots. the question you asked earlier about um Sunset View and how the parents are subsidizing uh what we're missing as a district. That has to occur with the Title One monies and other grants that we're getting for those schools in order to equalize it so that those children have access to learning just like anybody else does. So that was very important point and I know my colleague

074is always asking the question about kids up here in this community versus elsewhere. Um I really like how Francisco has managed to bring that team together and use every piece of it for the same thing. Uh, and I know some of my other schools I've visited are struggling to get all of the teachers on board with uh with everybody, every grant, all the monies are going to support the resource teachers who are supporting in the classroom and um not just kind of leaving some out. I mean, when you're spending your time and energy fighting that concept, then you don't have time to really focus on as a team what the student needs are and how we can present the data in a way that will help everyone to see what our goals are and how

075we can achieve those goals. So, I really commend him for for what he's doing there and how he has managed to do that. And then when we did Caesar Chavez day riding in the low rider and bouncing around, it's fun as usual. Um to see the parents there and the excitement that they've generated on that campus is really a good thing. Thank you. All right, I see Trusty Boso. And then is that you, Trusty Cruz, after that? Okay, I'm trying to get a stack together. Trusty Basel, thank you so much for your presentation and all the work you're doing and um and it's great to get this update. Um I did want to and usually this is where I like to focus. I I know we touched on family engagement a little bit, but I

076just really want to make sure that's like an integral part of this whole um you know piece and what we're doing because a lot of these parents, you know, they may not have high high literacy levels either if maybe they came from another country, English is not their first language. So, it's not that they don't want their kids to to um be, you know, achieve, but they might not themselves know, you know, or be able to provide some of those resources. So, um, if you could talk a little bit more about specifically what we're doing to really engage those families because I'm sure they they want, you know, every parent wants the best for their kid. They want to, but they may not have the resources and may not know. When I was um, we

077were doing the tutoring program when uh, we were in COVID, I started this tutoring program with a a retired principal friend and just a lot of the students just didn't even have books at home. they had nothing, you know, and and I know we try to provide some of that, but just really making sure that we're engaging not only parents, but you know, it could be grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Um, and then I was also uh just going to wanted to my second part of my question is I know that the spotlight students are very crucial and that's our focus, but you know they are 15% of our students and um and I'd like you just to speak to what if you're not a spotlight student but you're just kind of like a little bit

078above a spotlight student. Um, you know, you're still struggling but maybe you don't fall in that, you know, that category. Um, and you know, how are we incorporating all of our students, not just specifically the spotlight students to make sure they're all getting um their needs taken care of? Thank you. Can I answer the first part? So, one great opportunity we have right now is parent teacher conferences. This is the space where educators sit face tof face with the families and partner on what's next and where we share what we're working on at school and here's what how you can help at home. This is where bags of books get exchanged. This is where um ideas for what you can do over the spring break are shared. Um we really do rely on our parents

079as partners um for all of our learners and right now all of our educators are meeting with their parents and I would say this is the top opportunity for connecting um and going for that 100% not everyone gets it but going for that 100% connection with each and every family member. So, and to add on to that, uh, we are lucky to have several community schools which family engagement is the lynch pin uh, of what is occurring. And I I think I talked about Samantha Tez at Chavez who is bringing in parents not just for educational components, but also to support them with any needs they may have. So, really, that's a a huge component. Uh we're also working with Pam King and the family engagement department in in utilizing capacity builders uh which is

080a concept from Dr. Karen M uh about the importance of creating the conditions for our families just like we are trying to create the conditions for our students for learning. We're trying to create the conditions for our families to belonging to our school. Uh which then ties right back into that circle of community school. Uh so we really have some some strong processes and systems that are starting to be built and now it's just going to be a matter of making sure that we can connect those components together to again break those silos and really circle our community up for for that growth. And if you can touch on the part about the if you're not a spotlight student, but maybe you just fall right outside that category and what's being done for some of

081those. I need to bring you to Chavez. Uh so you can literally see the wall and you you got one little slice of a corner. It is literally wrapped around three walls of a room starting with students with disabilities. UTK K12, every student is there and they're all visible. So it is it is not just about our spotlight students. We know those are an important focus and we know that right the rising tide raises all boats. So if we address those but we are also able to see the little yellow over here in third grade that's surrounded by green and and so just that visual is able to get the teachers to draw right in and go we got some areas we need to support. And so you can really start to see it and

082it's those data cycles that are going to bring that about. But but through that great wall that they created, you can really see it. If I could just add one other point and it's it's a great question because um if I were to interpret this whole spotlight work that you know everyone else 85% of the class just go on your device because I'm going to like pay attention to this 15%. you know, those students, our spotlight students would probably make progress, but um those are interterm goals and our overall goals are for all students to make progress and and really if we if we think about this as merely like a tier 2, who gets extra support, it's not going to work. It's only going to work when we really frame it in the terms

083of who has access and making sure that a broader swath of students have access to the learning to the thinking uh to the talking and by shining a light on a spotlight students we make a a wider ramp for more students to be able to access the learning. Trusty Baldis first I want to thank you all very much for the presentation. is very clear and digestible. I really want to second Trusty Bos's point about the importance of family engagement in our district because I can speak firsthand from the student perspective. When my parents are engaged in my education, when they know what's going on at school and when they check in, that's when I succeed and that's when I do the best. So, I think we really need to continue our work with family engagement

084and strive to bring the parents into the equation. Um, in the past few years, we've been seeing the growing trend with women outpacing men in education. And I think that when we break down the data into student groups, it's important to also show the data between our male and our female students. So my question would be, have we looked into this data? Do we see any disparities between the two categories? And are we committed to going forth with this? Good question. I I could share that um all of our assessments and grades we give site leaders um drillable dashboards and we always include many many filters including gender filters are part of them and we uh uh provide them protocols for them to you know look for those patterns but I think that's a great

085question for us to dive a little deeper. I do too. And I can say like I am I love data. I love monitoring meetings. I love gathering around this. And I can say that I haven't yet said let's look at how our boys and girls are doing comparatively in this. I haven't and I thank you for that nugget because I do think I know that our classroom teachers do but I can say that I haven't led that work yet. So thank you. Wow. Thank you. Good question. I had a feeling Vice President Barrera. Thank you, President Peterson. And again, thank you again for the um and I I appreciate the consistency in now in the format of these reports uh from math uh to literacy. So, Mity, you had mentioned about the um at sunset

086view, you know, 80 plus percent of our spotlight students saying that they had a connection with an adult that provided support. Um, and I think you had said in a previous conversation that that actually exceeded the percentage of non-spotlight students. Um, can you give us a little bit of a sense of what's going on there that would make Spotlight students feel even more connected than the rest of the students at the school? Well, the rest of the students weren't weren't far behind, but I was just I was surprised to see that big of a difference. I also gathered some anecdotal data visiting classrooms. I pulled up next to spotlight students and talked about that experience. They are just very very well cared for in the classroom in terms of their needs are supported during the

087day by their classroom teacher with at you know at their point of need and their their peers are helping each other but it's not just spotlight students who are getting help from each. It's everybody's helping each other. And I said to one student like who helps you in your class when you need help? And he's like anybody. I can go to the teacher. I can go to my friend, you know, I can, you know, it just had lots of strategies. So, I just think that they're the kind of learning community that puts learning community first and says, what does it mean to be a learning community and have defined that with their school teams and then they make intentional moves to live into that both in their classrooms and in their hallways and in the

088whole spirit of the school. All right, we're around the curve here. Um I just have two quick ones which is there's been several there's been a sort of discussion sort of jugged my memory to when we had our workshop and we talked about goal two and then the three interim goals um not to relitigate it but one of the concerns that I had is any strategy that attacks the tail of a of a curve whether it's the top of the the sort of quote top tail of the curve or the or the quote bottom tail of the curve those are fairly resistant to moving just be for the nature of how you how how you how you become how you find yourself in the tail. Um and so as a high lever strategy, I had

089a little bit of skepticism that the the that focusing on the tail of the curve was actually going to effectively move the whole because our our board goal two is actually for all students three through eight and 11 and then 18 points by 2030. And I believe Roman pointed out what you said tonight, which is that pedagogically if you focus if you have a lesson plan that's that's planned around pulling everyone up, including those students, your spotlight students, it's going to be better for the whole plan, which I think is a hypothesis and um but what I would love to see is and I I conceded that this is it. We've got we've got interim goals that are spotlight and the goal which is for the whole um one thing I'd like to see in

090terms of that hypothesis is um is that we actually as part of these ones especially on literacy that we actually have just like a slide to kind of talk about because we could theoretically get through all the interim goals for the next five years and the final get to the goal two and realize the interim goals actually weren't moving the goal which is what interim goals are supposed to tell you. So we almost need a slide on these things to say here's where our interim goals are around spotlights because all of our interim goals are around spotlights but here's a slide to show how and to what extent that is in fact moving the the the larger the goal to the top goal. So that's just to sort of if we could see a slide

091on that to just confirm that in fact the spotlight interim goals are actually pulling the main goal um and not have that hit us in 2030 as a surprise if it is or isn't. And then the other thing is on um PLC's uh I want to affirm the conversation around parent engagement. I have my parent teacher conference tomorrow at Tory Pines Elementary and um so and I am always shocked. I always say I'm especially in elementary school when you actually really have a long period of time to get to know the kids. I these teachers know so much about our kids and to know them emotionally, cognitively know how their minds work. I am so grateful to that work. So big believer. Um, I'll just say on PLC, I can see that a large part

092of this is about the path from superintendent to area super from board in terms of vision, values, goals to superintendent to area superintendent to principal to teachers and other staff. Um, and those linkages are very important. My concern when I I've talked to lots and lots of principles and one of the concerns is per our negotiated contract the PLC is pretty much exclusively the purview or what what the PLC does is exclusively the purview of the teachers. How do we I guess it would be the word be promote or how do we ensure that this tension that we often identify between autonomy and consistency or coherence when we get at best practice on PLC given the constraints of the contract how do we help principles site leaders our labor partners how do we promote adoption

093of best practices in terms of PLC's we read the research with our educators When we do that, when we share the research and read it together and we look back at our protocols and see if there's something we might add, always I always see educators making the decisions aligned with the research. I've never seen anything different. I think that sometimes it's just been a long time since we've had a new read. It's a long time since maybe we've looked at the research and really get done the deep dive back into what was supposed to be what were we supposed to be doing here that's most impactful. Um, we have an upcoming clustered collaboration. We're actually going to read with the leaders uh an article that very well may get passed down to educators if the

094leaders think it's it's worthwhile. And it's talking about kind of the the PLC light model and whether or not that's as effective as as the true PLC. Um, so that's that's one way um is just to read together and decide what you might need to do differently. I think also I mean we know when those PLC meetings are and what we know about effective leadership is that relationship that's established with teacher leadership. So if I'm uh a principal with integrity that follows through and I have time dedicated to work with my teacher leaders on thinking about the professional agreements that we're going to be working on on those Wednesday early release days. You know, that's really how it happens. If I if I'm if I have to use my my positional authority, then I'm doing

095something wrong as a leader. I it's really uh to Mitsy's point, you know, looking at the research and changing hearts and minds. And really the the right answer often uh emerges when we're really thinking about, okay, we have a limited time here to move uh forward and what we've been planning and and those that's kind of the the iterative nature of the work through the relationships that are established. Great. Thank you so much with that. Oh, you have another Oh, I'm sorry. Did you answer your hand? I I just don't want us to leave this discussion thinking that by focusing on spotlight students that we're not focusing on all students. We've left spotlight students out of the discussion. Now we're adding them. And a simple thing like the color coding so forth, everybody gets that.

096Not just the spotlight students. We all know, even the spotlight students and everybody else. We all know who's on target and who's not. And we can all build this community so that we're all together. Like you always say about the rising lifting the boat and all of that. I mean, it's just a community. You know what that means? Everybody's a part of the community. Okay? So, we're not going to leave your your child, your children behind. My children are very advancers. They will not be left behind. I'm confident about that. I'm as concerned as you are about our spotlight students. So, I'm a big believer. Uh Trusty Hayen. Yeah. Just to that point, I know that we're not just monitoring goal 2 in 2030. We're going to be monitoring it every year. So, we'll have

097a chance to see whether the hypothesis is right. Right. that when we use this targeted universal approach and focus on students that we've often overlooked, um are we actually able to do right by all students? All right, we good. Sorry about missing you there. Okay, good. Thank you so much, Steve, Roman, Mitsy, and thank you to the audience. Come for the comments. Stay for the literacy. Um, I am very cognizant of the fact we have a we have a large crew here that's stuck with us tonight and so we'll try to move this as quickly as possible. Um, we will now move to item E2, approval of proposed East Village Middle College High School uh, and San Diego Metropolitan Regional and Technical High School 2025 to 2026 instructional calendars. Is there a motion on E2?

098Trusty Wires Payne, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Trusty Bosle with the second. Do we have Oh, Miss Staltz, has anyone signed up for com public comment on this? Thank goodness. Uh trustees, any any comments or questions? I'm trying to move, man. I'm I'm feeling the weight of this this agenda. Um seeing no comment, we will move to a vote. Uh board student trustees, please vote. Remaining trustees, please vote. All right, that motion passes unanimously. All right. Uh moving on to item E3. This is a public hearing and approval of Alba 2024 to 2026 instructional minutes modification. The public hearing is now open. I'll find my gavvel. Miss Staltz, are there any speakers on this item? All right, we're on a roll. Seeing none, uh, we can open this item for board

099discussion. Do any trustees have questions or wish to discuss the item? Seeing no comment, we will move to a vote. Is there a motion to approve item E3? Uh, I have a motion um from Trusty Cruz and a second from Vice President Barrera. Uh, seeing no discussion, uh, we will move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. Remaining trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student trustees concurring. Okay. Um, we will now consider uh item F1, student discipline. Is there a motion on this item? Uh, Trusty Wires Pain with a motion. Is there a second? Trustee Hazen with the second. Miss Staltz, are there any speakers on this item? Uh, seeing no. Do we have any trustees uh with questions or comments on this item? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Student trustees,

100please vote. Oh, students and votes. Sorry, I should have followed the script there. uh aditting uh trustees, please vote. That motion passes. Strike. Can we just do we have to revote or can we just strike bald? I have to revote. Okay. Um board members, please vote. That motion passes unanimously. All right. We will now move to items F2 and F3. public hearing regarding the initial proposals from the California School Employees Association chapter number 759 CSCA to bargain a successor agreement in accordance with section 3547 of the California Government Code and public hearing regarding additional subjects of negotiations from the San Diego Education Association to bargain a successor agreement in accordance with section 3547D of the California Government Code. The public hearing is now open. I'm on this gavl tonight, folks. Okay. Okay. Uh, Miss Al,

101are there any speakers on this item? Oh, there we go. Seeing none, uh, we'll open this item for board discussion. Do any of the trustees have comments or questions on this item? Seeing none, we're not even going to vote on that one. Wow. We're just going to close this. Close it. There we go. The public hearing is now closed. Blank and it'll pass. You know, um, now we're up to F4. We'll now consider item F4, approval of the revised position descriptions. Is there a motion on this item? Trustee or Vice President Barrera with a motion. Do I have a second? Trusty Bosa with a second. Miss Staltz, there any speakers on this item? Okay. Do any of the trustees have questions or wish to otherwise discuss this item? Seeing none, uh we will move to

102a vote. Trustees, trustees, trustees, please vote. Hey, you got it. You got it. The buzzer. Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Okay, we will now consider board consent agenda item G1, approval of corrected minutes of the January 14th, 2025 regular meeting. Is there a motion on G1? Uh, Trusty Hazen second. Trusty Bald Baldis. I almost did a combined Baso and Baldis there. Uh balls, we have a motion and a second. Do uh any of the trustees have questions or wish to discuss this item? Okay, seeing none, we'll move to a vote. Uh student trustees, please vote. Remaining trustees, please vote. Trusty Hazen, she got it. Okay. Uh that motion passed unanimously with student trustees concurring. We will now move to section H, district operational matters. I would like to provide some context for the first three

103items in this section. All right. This is our housing package which some of you have come here tonight to hear about and to comment on. Uh we are as a community, as a nation really, but certainly as a region in a profound uh affordable housing crisis. San Diego is the least affordable region in the country. We have essentially failed completely to uh keep up with uh the demands of our community members for housing. Uh in the last arena cycle, cycle five, we only built 37 moderate income homes. of the 15,000 we were allocated by Sandag and only 10% of our low-income homes that we were allocated, it's not much better. It's a little better. 285 of 19,000 in middle income uh in this cycle over the last five years and about again 10% of our

104low and very low um housing. So it means basically that all of us are paying substantially more for our housing and our both our staff and our families. our staff with all the inflation we've seen about 22% inflation over the last five years. Uh and housing has actually the cost of housing has actually inflated 22% in real terms on top of that. Uh so our staff has seen essentially a quarter of their purchasing power in relation to housing declined over the last 5 years. So that's obviously very concerning. Uh housing is a huge cost for all of our families uh for all of our staff but also our families. Part of why we're seeing across the board um secular declines in enrollment is not because we have declining neighborhood participation rates. Our neighborhood participation rates,

105which is to say the number of students that are coming to our schools um that are eligible to come to our schools, both ageeligible and within the catchment areas, is actually going quite strong. Uh the reality is we have very serious demographic um impacts that we're experiencing. The the most substantial of which is it is now too expensive to raise young families in our community. So we have as a district committed and tonight we will um take a huge step forward and put us really in the national forefront um of educational workforce housing. Um we are now considering a housing package that will uh that will dramatically um not just take a step for in terms of housing our own staff but really take a leadership role in our region. Um and uh we will

106there'll be three items and we'll have them introduced by um different folk on this board. Um but the three items broadly speaking will be we'll have a first item on goals and principles. Um and those goals and principles will then be um incorporated into each of our requests for proposals. They will kind of guide each of our RFPs um so that developers and and project proponents will be able to understand what what it is we're trying to achieve with these um projects. And the second will be uh a um the actual request for proposals for the first five sites and Lee Doggo will come up to discuss that. Um and then we will also be uh finally uh vice president Barrera will u introduce an item item three which will um be a proposal to

107actually uh establish the first uh affordable housing finance authority in our region the first in the state under the new enabling legislation from last year and trusty Barrera or vice president Barrera will describe that in more length. So with that um I will turn uh the microphone over to Trusty uh Hazen. Are you prepared? You ready? You with us? Um Trusty Hazen will give an introduction on H1 which will be our um goals and principles. Sure. And I'll just keep it brief, but I think it's really important uh when we're launching large 10-year initiatives like this and you might even say sort of once in a-lifetime initiatives um that we take the time to set overarching goals to ensure alignment and clarity for future board members. We're not all going to be sitting here 10

108years from now and district leaders so that our work doesn't get off course. and really appreciate uh the receptivity uh to my feedback about asking the board each of us to affirm our shared goals and guiding principles um before moving forward with the next two items uh on on the agenda. And my hope is that these goals really reflect um what we discussed at the workshop back in December uh and will allow us to stay focused on what we want uh for our employees um and particularly I know that Jesse Baldis was just whispering in my ear um those employees uh with students in our schools as well and all of that is reflected here. Thank you Trusty Hayesen. Do I have a motion on this item one? Trusty Aen with a motion. Do I

109have a second? Trusty White's Payne with a second. We have a motion and a second. Uh, Miss Stoultz, has anyone signed up to comment uh for public comment or comment on item H1? Yes, we have 10 in-person speakers and three virtual. Each speaker will have one minute. If you'd please come to the podium. We'll start with our inperson Kyle Weinberg. And can we just clarify, we will have three separate periods of comment. This is these comments are specifically in regarding uh item H1 which is our our goals and principles. Uh thank you Kyle Weinberg, president San Diego Education Association special education teacher from Bell Middle. As educators, we've seen the impact of the rising cost of living in San Diego on our students ability to continue to live in our communities and the ability of

110educators to teach in schools near where we live. We have an educator um at Rosa Parks Elementary who's now living in um housing built on district property, the Liby Livia development, who um was commuting from Tijuana for 10 years, waking up at 2 in the morning um to wait in line at the border with her five kids um having to brush their teeth in a coffee shop uh before she dropped them off at school and went to her job. Now she's paying half of market rate to live in a three-bedroom apartment at Livia in Scripps Ranch. We want to continue replicating this model. Um talking to Karolina, um she says being able to live um in affordable housing makes her a better mom, better teacher. Um so we support the district's um policy that um

111and goals. Uh we need to have mixed income housing within the affordable housing. um and we need to remove any barriers um for uh like application fees or and prioritizing our um housing insecure employees with that process. So um as a member of the housing workforce um education workforce housing committee um these were our recommendations and we appreciate that the board with your leadership on adopting these. Izzy Martinez Hi, Isel Martinez, CSA Prera, Educator President, Chapter 759. I want to commend uh the board and the district on moving forward on something so desperately needed here in San Diego and hopefully it is replicated across California and maybe nationwide. I think uh to share a story, I have several members who are homeless and still show up 100% every single day for our children. And more

112often than not, the neediest children are special education students who have severe behavioral, cognitive, and physical impairments and still give 100% of themselves to these children. Yet, it's still falling short on them to have their own basic needs be met. And so this initiative is what is necessary to keep our amazing educators, our amazing classified employees here in San Diego to make these students the the best versions of themselves completely. So I appreciate the board to taking this on and being the leaders in what workforce housing should look like. Jordan Latchford. Good evening, trustees. My name is Jordan Lashford and I live in University Heights. Uh, thank you to the San Diego Unified School District for addressing our housing affordability crisis by advancing workforce housing. I overall support this item, but want to raise a

113few concerns. I commend the district's goal to house 10% of staff within 10 years, but urge the board to avoid to avoid arbitrary caps on density. To meet the scale of our housing needs, each site should be evaluated for its highest and best use to ensure the district can achieve and surpass this goal. To that end, I strongly oppose the 500 unit affordable housing gap on the university site here. Limiting capacity and restricting development to only affordable units prevents needed community improvements like parks and plazas. A mix of affordable and market rate housing would provide greater flexibility and deliver public benefits especially in University Heights. Thank you for your time. Krishna Hammond followed by Andrew Bowen. Hi uh my name is Krishna. Um, I'm also supportive of H1. Um, but I have similar concerns. Um,

114I'm a longtime resident of San Diego. My mom's a teacher and I think it's really important that we expand our workforce housing to include as much housing as possible. Um, so I think that it's really important that we um take advantage of this opportunity um to think big, to think broadly, and to um maximize this space as much as we can. And uh yeah, thank you for all your time and I'm excited to see how this plays out. Good evening, trustees. My name is Andrew Bowen. I'm a homeowner who lives up the street on Campus Avenue. I'm really happy to be speaking in support of this item. I think you've come a long way from where the conversation was uh a year ago. your real estate workshop in December was a very necessary course correction

115um with regards to this resolution where it reads uh consensus with community and labor partners. I would suggest rather than consensus we aim for collaboration. I think that's a more active word and uh we should recognize that consensus is not always possible in a city of 1.4 million people. It also doesn't always lead to the best outcomes. Uh so I you know recognizing that there will be disagreements in this neighborhood and in the surrounding neighborhoods I think that we should aim for a spirit of collaboration um but consensus for the sake of consensus I wouldn't say is not the the goal that we have. Um secondly where you say maximizing affordability is the highest priority I would suggest saying maximizing the number of affordable homes is the highest priority. I would caution against falling into

116this trap of aiming for the highest percentage of affordable homes rather than the highest number. You could have a 50-unit project that's 100% deed restricted or a 150 unit project that's 50% deed restricted. One of those projects is providing more affordable housing and the fact that it includes market rate housing should not count against it. Thank you. Oliver Aiz Pierce followed by Pierce Brownstone. Good evening board. Uh my name is Oliver Asus. I am a resident of San Diego and I just want to applaud you on making this first step in in making a workforce housing. I fully support it. Um, growing up in San Diego, I'm well aware of the housing affordability and the you have a wonderful opportunity right now to help change and make, you know, housing affordable for our educators as

117well as the residents of San Diego because we really do need affordable housing. And I urge you and implore you to continue to move forward. Thank you, Pierce Brownstone. Zack Thompson. Hi, my name is Zach Thompson and I'm a member of Vibrant Uptown, a community group that advocates for abundant housing policies, efficient and safe mobility, and accessible public spaces here in the Uptown neighborhood. Uh, I want to thank the board for your time and attention on this issue of workforce housing. Um, I echo the other speakers. This is just so critical. Of course, it's our workers here that make our community what it is, and we need to house them, and we've failed to do that over the last several decades. Um, I I want to just ask that your policies on on workforce housing

118address the need to build as many homes as we can. Um, I echo some of the other speakers that a a really narrow focus on building just affordable has a tendency to cause us not to build as much as we could. Right? We exist in a community. We need to worry not only about the supply for our teachers and staff, but the community as a whole. And we're talking about some of the best public land we have in the community. and what are we going to do it for it with it to maximize the benefit to everyone. Thanks for your time Gail Fest followed by Monica Dela Cruz. Good evening um President Peterson and board members. My name is Gail Frerieded and I'm also a member of Vibrant Uptown and a resident in district three.

119It's not lost on anyone that there's a housing crisis. The 41 4100 Normal Street property is the largest publicly owned parcel in San Diego. Please don't be shortsighted by limiting the property to 500 homes and low density. As a taxpayer, I'm asking you to consider a mix of market rate and subsidized affordable housing with no height or density limits. This is your chance to build a complete community including a public plaza or a park and have it surrounded by cafes and restaurants. This would complement the normal street prominade that's currently under construction. The proximity of this property to both bike and bus transit makes it ideal for limited car storage. Now is the time for abundance. Thank you. Hi, my name is Monica de la Cruz. I'm uh echoing what other sport uh speakers have

120said in encouraging um that we maximize the opportunity that we have at this property. It's really a a location that has so many uh amenities and so much infrastructure that's already built. It's in the center of an urban core next to jobs, next to transit connections. Um and it's an area that's growing, too. I think that we have the opportunity um to build part of a community that is going to be integrated even more so if it includes market rate housing and a mix of incomes. Um and we can also I think build more affordable housing if we um have it mixed income. So, I'd like to see that um that there's no additional uh height requirements or parking requirements that would restrict the number of units that we can build overall and that we

121just maximize the the um properties. Thank you. We'll go to our virtual speakers. Shannon Gil, please unmute yourself. You have one minute. Excuse me. Sharon Gil, we'll move to Aaron Hogaboom. If you're available, please unmute and you have one minute. Good evening board. My name is Aaron Hogboom. I'm director of San Diego for Every Child, an initiative to cut the experience of child poverty across San Diego in half by 2030. I'm also co-lead of Children First Collective, a group of passionate individuals and organizations committed to meeting our region's childare needs. It's with both of these hats that I first want to commend the board for being willing to uh tackle the housing question for your workforce. I think you're setting an example for large-scale San Diego employers who are seeking to recruit and retain their

122talented workforce. We're at a crossroads as to how to do that with significant cost of living across our region. Expanding into thinking how we can holistically support people, their families and communities. That's what leads to healthy recruitment retention. It's on that note that I also want to encourage the board and staff to explore the possibility of colloccating early care and learning within any affordable housing you are considering. We've seen the city of uh San Diego do this through their NAS to developers and the county of San Diego explicitly include the importance of considering early care and learning expansion with affordable housing um within their childare blueprint. This could be a wonderful way not only to the meet the needs of SCUSD workforce and their families but the surrounding communities as well. Thank you so much

123for considering the importance of partnering with early care and learning in this initiative. Tara Ryan. Good evening. I'm Carara Ryan. I'm with the City of San Diego's um office of child and youth success. I'm also a member of the San Diego Children First Collective and I'm a co-chair of the implementation team for the County of San Diego Child Care Blueprint. Um I'd like to echo the previous callers um recommendation. Um while I applaud the efforts and fully support affordable housing for educators and other uh members of the district, um urge you to consider um how to include child care um in any affordable housing development um behind housing. Child care is the second most expensive uh item for many families, especially those with young children. and uh meeting that support would also help them be

124able to maintain uh their residency in the city and be able to to live where they work in their community. Um the childcare blueprint provides a lot of strategies. There's a collocation report um that provides strategies on this type of development and uh there are many partners here to support the district um in these efforts. Thank you. Right. Excuse me, Ryan Baham. B Aha M. Hi. Yep. My name is Ryan Baham. I live in downtown and my wife uh we'd love to move up to Hillrest, but we can't find any middle housing up there. So, I was pretty excited to hear that the unified district was putting out RFPs for housing and of course I voted for funding last year. So, it's really exciting to see this stuff starting to come to fruition. Uh my

125comment is on the uh the campus in Hillrest. So it's a generational opportunity to do something really unique, really special in the heart of one of the city's villages. We're a city of villages and this is the opportunity to build a model village. Super exciting. So think, you know, culde-sac of Tempe, Arizona meets Barcelona meets PB. Uh I agree that it should absolutely prioritize affordable housing, but more than that, it should maximize all housing and income types. Aside aside from providing desperately needed housing in a historic housing c crisis uh which again applaud all of you for taking this on. It's really awesome that you're doing it. Uh it should uh also be a priority to create community uh in the middle of our village uh because there's also an e epidemic of loneliness and

126atomization that's linked to sprawl in our built environment and not having places for especially young people to collect and engage in community. Where can young people even have a public life to connect and make friends outside of school? This is the chance to create those third places and safe fun places that make cities worth living and and visiting and of course make families want to raise their kids nearby. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we'll go back to Sharon Gell. I believe she might be available. Go ahead. You have one minute, Sharon. It looks like you need to unmute. Go ahead, please. Sharon, you have one minute. Looks like she's not available. Is that the remainder of the public comment on this item? That concludes comment on H1. Okay. I'm going to entertain board comment. Just

127a couple clarifying remarks um before moving forward on comment on this thing. Um there's been a first of all there's I have a feeling there's going to be some proposed amendments possibly to this um that could get complicated. Um but we will do that because we really do need to hammer these down tonight because they're going to get hardlined into our RFPs. So we will have to handle that and uh amending from the DAS is complicated but we'll get through it. Um, and I will say just in terms of process, what typically happens, the reason why it comes to us and we're not necessarily don't necessarily have a consensus around it is we typically see a draft and then staff goes through and does one-on ones, but in the interest of the Brown Act, they

128can't then come back to us because that would in effect be a serial meeting. So, we are when this hit the docket, many of us, all of us saw this for the first time as well. So, we will have to work on that consensus in front of the public. That's part of what the Brown Act does. um it could get a little complicated. Let me just clarify and then one more clarification. There's been a series of questions over the last week or two about the cost of of of this. I want to just clarify in terms of that we have unrestricted funding which is what we pull our salaries and benefits for our staff from. Um that's to one side. Then we have our bond measure measure U hardlined I believe Lee 216 205 million

129hardlined 25 million for education workforce housing. However, we cannot statutoily mix or it gets very complicated to mix bond money and contract and project money. So these the five RFPs you'll see tonight are not bond money. at some later date either on one of these if they don't get if if doesn't get bid on or on another site we will use that bond money for education workers housing but these five contracts we'll be offering tonight are not are essentially no cost to the district. This is a we are work we are putting out a request for proposals from developers who are interested in us leveraging our properties for them to build the this project these affordable um these affordable units. So, just to clarify, that's broadly speaking what's happening tonight. And um I just wanted

130to clarify about um with that I will move to board comments on item one um uh goals and principles. Trusty Trusty Cruz. Yeah. Do you know how many applicants we're going to get towards these housing units? We have no idea. I what I will say is part of the flexibility we're giving is to project proponents is we are in a very challenging it's a challenging environment for developers right now just in general uh interest rates are very high there is a lot of uncertainty it's not coming from us it's coming from somewhere else um and so it's it you know we're we've set broad parameters for project proponents to put together a proposal that that will pencil and then we'll select among I hope we get a lot of them from all over. Does that

131answer your question? We have no idea. Come again. Uh Lee will come up on item two. Unless somebody has a specific question for Lee, we can bring him up. But I happen to know Lee also doesn't have any idea how many how many proposals we'll get. We had more than three times people requested applications. I would imagine we had 2700 responses [Music] to so we had we had quite a few responses to an employee survey that expressed interest about 2,700 responses. So there's a a lot of interest in affordable housing. A lot of people are driving long distances as we heard from uh from Kyle and Izzy, you know, um to to so this will make make a big benefit to to our employees and and in turn help our students. Thank you, Lelay. Uh

132any other comment from the board? Trusty Baldis. I just want to begin by expressing how grateful I am that we have a clause in this resolution that uh says the properties will be responsive to employees with students in the district. This being said, I wanted to know if we could make the verbiage of this point a little bit stronger to say that the properties will prioritize employees with students in our district. I think going forth it's so important that we're not only supporting our workforce but we're also supporting those students. I'm seeing general counsel shaking her head. Is that I think we need to be careful that we don't discriminate on the basis of familial status. Um that is something that we cannot do. Okay. Thank you. But I think it is implied that some

133mix of housing, I mean your typical single adult may want staff member may want a a single house whereas if you wanted three that might imply so a developer would probably produce some mix but um additional comment trustee Hazen. Sure. I'm uh so the third goal um that references maximizing affordability. Really appreciate the comments on that one. um and uh the recommendation to think about um maximizing the number of affordable units and uh I'm wondering uh what my colleagues think about um changing uh bullet three um to reflect maximizing the number of affordable units, not simply maximizing affordability. That would be your suggestion. Okay. So, I'm going to why don't we try this? Because there's there may be suggestions coming from several people. Um, we'll note them down and have a discussion about them. And

134if we have a consensus around it, I will entertain a substitute motion, not a friendly amendment, but an actual substitute motion on that new verbiage and try to move forward on one thing rather than going point by point. Does that sound good to everybody? Okay. So, I have a suggestion from um from Trusty Hazen that we amend the maximizing affordability to maximizing the number of affordable units. The number of affordable units. Okay. Now, again, we're not yet making a motion on this. We are just going to try to put together a unitary alternative and then I'll entertain a motion for that. Does anybody have any concerns about changing maximizing affordability to maximizing the number of affordable units? Well, I mean, we already have a definition of affordability. So, I we're implying by maximizing affordability that

135we're talking about the number of units, but I think it's good to specify that, right? I mean, we're not talking about the depth of affordability. It was implied at least when I first read it. Um, but I think making it explicit makes it even better. Is anybody opposed to that changing affordability to the number of affordable units? All right. For the time being, we we have none. So, we will put that uh in the in the hopper for a substitute motion. Um, do you have any additional comment? Do any other board members have any additional comment? Okay. I'm gonna try a couple of things here and they're more for discussion at this point and I'm just there are things um first of all I think SDA both SDA and CSSEA um which are the labor

136unions representing our our certificate and our classified employees and we at our workshop both talked about the desire to have mixed income on each of the sites. not mixed income in totality, but we don't want sites that are wholly classified employees or wholly. And to be clear, in terms of salary, broadly speaking, our classified employees frequently find themselves, particularly early in their career, in a low income category, whereas our teachers typically are middle middle income. And one of the problems with strictly low-income housing projects like the Lolivia portion that's low-inccome, it's really most teachers don't qualify for for that. So that is exclusively at this point. Is that right? Is that exclusively our CSEA our cert our classified staff at Livia? Yeah, it is um it's exclusive to you know the lower AMIs and most

137of the uh certificated staff don't qualify based on income. Okay. Correct. Thank you, Lee. Um, and so that's that is a that is a constraint on a developer because you typically use different financing mechanisms to develop low-inccome like low-inccome housing tax credit and other things. So, it can be a constraint on developer, but I believe our labor unions and our board at the workshop has expressed a a consensus around having projects that are mixed income. If I were to propose a bullet point that says something to that effect that um uh uh projects I should be mixed income. I mean I I'm I I don't necessarily have the exact verbiage right now, but is anybody opposed to adding that as a as a as a goal? Yeah, trust me. Yeah. Thank you, President Peterson. I

138I certainly support the goal of mixed income housing and I think that does reflect our discussion at our board workshop. For me though, it's being clear that what we're saying is u mixed income projects development by development that um remain affordable to our employees. So what I would not support is a definition of mixed income that includes the development of units that our employees cannot afford. So I think so we've got you know sort of in the I think goal number one uh 10% of our workforce. We know we've got in our uh agreement with SDA and CSEA the basic notion of 50% for certificated staff, 50% for classified staff. Um I think there's a desire to see that each development reflects that breakdown. Um so we wouldn't put 100% classified employees in one development

139and 100% certificate in another development. We want we want that um that mix of of incomes. But the idea that on our property, public property, we would be developing units that neither our certificated nor our classified employees can afford is not I think a proper use of public uh property. Okay. So that is So here here here's my challenge on that. And Lee, you'll you got you're going to have to help me on this one philosophically. There's a board discussion which kind of gives the public and ourselves and staff an idea of what we want from projects but but it may be I mean I don't want to get a situation where you have like a signing what's that like the presidential this signing statement where it's like yeah this is the law but actually

140this is what it means to me. Um, but at the same time, I don't want to get too deep into stipulating everything, but I do think I think that there is I've we I've heard from from lots of developers, not only in this context, that there may be a scenario in which it's difficult particular for middle income to for the project itself to co cover the delta on the affordability given the lack of public mechanisms. particularly somewhere here like with the annex which is going to be a very expensive thing to solve for a developer and especially if there's going to be some amenities. I agree with vice president Barrera that in general what we want to communicate to developers is if somebody can come with a 100% affordable for for both our classified and

141certificated and they can make a pencil and give communityf facing benefits and fix annex on this you know etc. That's what we prefer. But it may be that all the developers say, "Hey, I really can't make that pencil and I'm going to need whatever. I'm going to need to cross subsidize with whatever 10% market rate." The scenario I don't want to see I I'm so I'm leaning toward richer in the sense of like we want to see maximum affordability, but if all of our if if what we do is we exclude lots and lots of developers who say there's just no way you can make that pencil. That's that's the scenario I don't want to uh to get in. Do do you understand my the conundrum here, Trusty Hazen? Oh, no. Trust, you came up

142here, Lee. Let me get something from Lee and then I'll I just here to answer questions. I mean, you you could I mean, these are meant to be principles. I mean, and they we didn't get into the sort of the weeds in terms of we defined affordability as, you know, someone should never have to spend more than 30% of their income on housing as, you know, sort of a broad um you know, you could you could get into area media incomes as a definition for I mean speaking to what what Richard was saying, you could specify a range. One of the things that you know and Izzy and I were talking about in the when we had and and Kyle in the um w with the with our working group with our with our bargaining

143unit partners um was we did want a broad range of of incomes and somewhere ranging you know from say 50% area median income all the way up to 100 or 120% area media income. So um because even people making 100 to 120% sometimes struggle to meet that 30% of their income threshold in our really costly housing environment. So that would those are some of the discussions. If you wanted to take these principles and get them to be really specific um then you could start putting AMIs in there. But I don't know if you it it gets um one of the things that I heard I thought I heard was we in from the workshop was we wanted to be more less restrictive more open to a variety of proposals and see what we what we

144achieved with obviously the goal of maximizing affordability. And when we what we meant by that was maximizing the number of affordable units like the like the the development you approved um at the former central elementary school site which actually has 100% affordable units of a variety of ranges of AMIs. So anyway, if that gives you some help, I thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions. Appreciate it. We'll have you up in a second on this number too. Trusty Hayen, you had a point. Yeah, I I think as written, this first bullet um provides that flexibility uh to get the market response we're hoping to elicit, which which Lee described. And I think the way that it currently describes the importance of supporting affordable housing, not capital A affordable necessarily, but really describing it as

145you know, Lee did as you know, affordable being when less than 30% of families income is spent on rent. I think that provides the guidance um for developers to provide that mix that that we're looking for um and agree that I don't I don't think the goal should be so prescriptive to describe specific levels of AMI that we want to see um because they are guiding principles. They are not hard and fast rules. These are aspirational and I agree that I think they should be flexible um because we want to see the most creative um proposals uh that developers can provide us. Thank you, Trusty Hayes. Toward that end. Oh, I'm sorry, Trusty Bos. I didn't see your hand. Yeah, I agree with uh my colleague Trusty Hazen and and what um Lee is sharing

146that I think it's better. I mean, we we can't just think of this, you know, right now, this year, next year. I mean, this is something that we're hoping 20, 30 years, 40 years down the road. Um you know, our our our staff is going to be able to take advantage of our our community. So thinking more in those lines, um I think you know having general guidelines, but um if we're getting too specific and in the weeds, I feel like that's going to really kind of limit us. And I'm just not super comfortable with that. So I think we need to keep it so that, you know, looking ahead that this is is going to be a a long-term deal and things can change. So I appreciate that. I guess so. I had one

147other point or 1.5 other points on this. um which is I I think also what I would like to see and I don't know if it really needs to be e stated in this but maybe just a signing statement um is that I think it's important that you know I saw this on this not to mention a very troublesome thing but the sports arena process that ended up being about um about not to my mind not a holistic consideration but just which one is doing which one has most affordable and then you you make it look you say that this one's affordable then you pull back later and I I I want a process to everyone's point that's not governed by that that is flexible in the sense that I think it's important that this

148we are talking about placemaking projects projects that actually are attractive ive that welcome the community that are communityf facing that are not huge blocks of construction that are actually open um and really I mean imagine this site we want to both maximize the affordable units on this site within the constraints of and I think it's important to clarify with the the the upward limit is the the community plan and the general plan that's upward limit We don't want special use permits, but but within that that's, you know, pretty pretty substantial. Um, I say we don't want special use permits because we don't want to sign a contract that we don't know is going to get through and it's going to take two years to wind its way through the process. So, we want this thing

149to be consistent with the community plan with any other, you know, bonuses or whatever from the from the general plan. Um but what I want to see and this is my one concern about giving and I want to give flexibility and if ne need be to communicate that we want affordable units the max to maximize affordable units but if the alternative is 100% a affordable project that is a Texas wrap that's like completely not that's not welcome to the community that doesn't have community facing benefits because they can't find a way to cross subsidize the the the community benefits versus one that has some market rate because they need to cross subsidize it to be attractive. It to be a place that that is consistent with the overall with the with the community plan and

150with the vision and really becomes a real a placemaking center of the community. I think that flexibility is important because it may be especially in this financing environment it may need be to make a attractive project and not just like a block Soviet style project. you actually may need some additional cross subsidization on that thing. So I I um I'm I'm happy with I'm happy with us communicating what our values are but leaving the flexibility to to have project proponents come forward and figure out what pencils for them. Trusty Wersp and then trusty trusty hazy. I've listened to all the discussion. I I think number one, we already have track record on on meeting the community needs. Um in spite of everything, you know, I did think I was going to get um shot out

151of the district or whatever when scripts first was asked to accept a project and now they're delighted because we did bring them in and some of those who were anti are now big supporters. We've got to engage the community and allow them to have voice and not only to do that to not just give them a prefuncter role but to really hear what they're saying and implement what they're saying and then beyond that ask them the the uh contractors to really look at what we're trying to do. We may not know how to say it and if necessary we can come back and look at that whatever the comments are that come out and make adjustments hopefully and um make something that's beautiful for this community and for the city of San Diego. I live

152two years on this street here, Campus Avenue. There's a resident around here somewhere. Um I mean it's a beautiful neighborhood and we want to keep it that way. We want to keep it that way for every one of our pro for every one of these properties. We do not want to go into the communities and put an eyesore and we don't know all the verbiage now that we need to say. We trust our staff. We trust the community and what they've been telling us, but as we go through hopefully we can make adjustments if necessary to implement something that we're all happy with. That's why I support this and your adjustments not not a problem for me in terms of the affordable units versus affordability. So Richard, we hear you also. Thank you, Trusty. I

153appreciate uh the feedback you've shared uh President Person and the importance of thinking about this thriving uh development or series of developments that we want to build for a variety of incomes. And I'm wondering uh on this document under number one where it says San Diego Unified School District establishes a goal of creating affordable housing opportunities for 10% of its workforce over the next decade. If maybe uh we could revise that to say 10% of its workforce from a variety of income levels or a spectrum of income levels. to get to your point that we have the goal that it's not just our lowest income um employees um but that the goal really is about affordability um for a variety of employees. Would that get where you're trying to go? Me? Oh, I think I'm

154happy. I think we've got a discussion. We got I got my we got our signing statement in place. Um so the other thing we heard some comment a comment about um community engagement and consensus with community and labor partners. I mean I take I take that comment to heart. We all understand the limits of consensus. There there comes a point when a board has a board or a subcommittee has to make a decision. Um so obviously I we could attempt to edit that here. I think we just understand that the the you're working toward consensus, but you understand at some point the thing has to get built. So, um we'll do our very best to achieve consensus with both labor partners and the and the community. With that, anything else? I think we've got I

155think we have a substitute motion that the only substantive change is maximizing the number of affordable units is a high is is the highest priority is it is a is the highest priority I mean that is our highest priority correct I mean so we we'll change is it okay to change the A for the is the highest priority that's what it highest implies Um, okay. So, the current language, everything else remaining the same is maximizing the number of affordable units is the highest priority. Do I have the substitute motion for that? Trusty Hazen with the substitute and trusty Wers Payne uh with the second on the substitute motion. I think that we have a working um item now. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion.

156Oh, I want to give Boso the chance to What a What a strange time to to abandon us. I I wanted to get a chance because this is a this is a moment. Okay. How about those bears? I don't know. I don't know. I think it's March Madness. Somebody told me that. Nicole, the win. Nicole, you said it's March Madness. I Shaina knows. Shane is sad. Oh, is it a sad day? I wish I hadn't asked. There she is. Okay, enough vamping. Is that what that's called? All right, all trustees present. Uh we are moving to a vote. Uh student trustees, please vote on the substitute motion. All other trustees, please vote on the substitute motion. Hallelujah. We have a motion. Uh unanimous consent. I'm gonna have to unmute again here. Thought I was going

157to get some rest and I realized I have to actually move this thing forward. Okay. Um we will now move to the related item H2. I'd like to call to uh do you want to be at the podium or up there? Whatever. Yeah. Okay. You're a podium guy. Um, I would like to call Lee Dolgarov, our senior executive director of facilities planning and construction to introduce item H2, resolution of intent to consider joint occupancy proposals for affordable workforce housing. Welcome. Well, thank you, board president. Um, it's clear from all this discussion that our teachers and staff succeed when they can affordably live in the communities that they serve, which in turn leads to student success. And um item H2 is aligned with the goals and principles that um you just approved in H1. And I'll

158make a we'll make the minor edit with an amendment to the RFP when it goes out to include that change that you just approved. Um but um this item H2 is the next step in creating affordable workforce housing. And um as part of this uh process, staff is going to schedule and facilitate community listening sessions at each of the properties and seek ideas and input prior to receiving the affordable housing proposals as part of this RFP. And then staff is going to evaluate those proposals and provide recommendations for you in the future for your consideration at a future meeting. Um, and and I want to say on behalf of staff, we really appreciate your leadership on this important endeavor and uh we recommend approval. Thank you, Lee. All right. Uh, do I have a motion

159on item H2? Trusty Barrera, Vice President Barrera, rather. Do I have a second? Trusty Bosa, comments, comments. We have we have to have a motion first and then you can comment on the motion. So we now have a motion. Um okay. Uh do we have any public speakers? I I think we do. That's my guess. Yes. We have 15 in-person speakers on this item and six virtual. So I'll call the in-person folks. You each have one minute. Gail Followed by Isaac Warner. I'm clearly not Gail, but she said she was fine. So, uh, good evening, trustees. Uh, my name is Isaac her. I'm a Hillrest resident on Cleveland Avenue, just a few blocks from here. Thank you for your leadership in tackling one of the most urgent challenges facing San Diego, housing. By prioritizing affordable

160housing for faculty and staff, you are taking an important step toward keeping our educators in the communities that they serve. You recognize that housing security isn't just a personal issue. It's a fundamental building block of a strong school system and a thriving city. At the same time, this initiative presents a much bigger opportunity. In particular, the Bucker site here in University Heights sits at the heart of our urban core, exactly where we should be embracing density and not limiting it. Uh to your earlier point, uh in adjacent parcels, the uptown community plan calls for up to 290 homes per acre. The district has a chance to be a leader in a smart community-driven development by prioritizing more homes, a mix of incomes, and public spaces that enhance the neighborhood. This isn't just about building housing.

161It's about shaping a more vibrant, inclusive, and connected San Diego. And let me be clear, regardless of what you might hear tonight, this community supports that vision. We welcome more neighbors. We want walkable, thriving spaces where teachers, families, and working-class folks of all kinds can put down roots. And we want a school district that not only educates, but innovates. You have a chance to make bold choices that reflect the needs of today and build the future. So, let's build more homes, activate more community spaces, and set a precedent for how public institutions can shape a better, more livable city. We're counting on you. Don't let us down. Thank you, Krishna Hammond. followed by Andrew Bowen. All right. Uh hello. Uh it's me again. Uh I'd like to uh support uh measure H2. Uh I support

162the intent to move forward with joint occupancy proposals uh for affordable housing uh across these five key properties. Um, I think it's really important that we are um expanding these housing opportunities and still um retaining public ownership of the land. I think that's really exciting. Um, I live just around the way and I think that this is a great opportunity to make the community more vibrant. Um, I I bike is my primary form of transportation, so I like seeing new things coming around the neighborhood. Um, so yeah, I just want to thank you and I think that we should continue to prioritize proposals that deliver um the best housing outcomes and long-term affordability without compromising the district's mission. Thank you. Good evening, trustees. Uh, happy to support this item. I think this RFP is workable.

163Uh the language appears to allow for uh developers to access the density bonus program and complete communities with the city of San Diego, which I think is really crucial to you all meeting your goals. So that's a good thing. Um it also appears to allow for a mix of market rate and affordable deed restricted affordable homes. Um again, I hope staff will correct that if it's not the case. Um I I would like to make the point that just because a home does not have a deed restriction on it does not mean it's unaffordable. Uh you have teachers who are married to highincome earners who also deserve housing and and you should make space for them as well. Um you could have a first year teacher who qualifies for affordable housing um and then works

164very hard, gets a raise and suddenly loses that housing because uh they no longer you know their income has passed that threshold. So I think um you need to understand that the housing market is a game of musical chairs and you need to be creating space for everyone. Um, for the smaller sites, I think it it it makes sense to maybe have 100% affordable. Um, but here we have enough room for everything. I think 13 and a half acres is plenty of space. Um, and it would be foolish not to include a market rate housing in order to lower the overall development costs, the the preservation of the annexes. Um, getting this space ready for development. Um, I I I wish I could say more about this specific property on Normal Street because as a

165resident of this community, I care deeply about the future of our community and I see so much potential here. I walk my dog around here all the time and imagine what could be. Um, so, uh, I would just like to say prioritize commercial uses on the ground floor, prioritize open space, and don't prioritize parking. Thank you. Zack DeFazio Ferrell followed by Vahan Harti. Right. Hello and thank you uh for your time today. My name is Zach. Uh I live in University Heights. I've been living here for nine years. Um, my wife lived in Houston, Texas last year, and after visiting her several times, I realized why so many Californians are leaving for Texas. Um, it's because they build a lot, they build fast, and they build for much less money than we do. Um, unfortunately,

166we do none of those things in California. Uh, so let's not limit ourselves to self-imposed density and height restrictions. Um, I like where some of these conversations are going. I think we're taking a lot of steps in the right direction. So, let's go big, tall, and add market rate housing to subsidize um additional affordable homes for teachers and other sort of workforce members. Um let's not be discouraged by grumpy naysayers that come along from time to time. Often they live in expensive homes and they complain about things like traffic and community character and their views. Those things aren't they're not important. What is important is that teachers have affordable places to live. Um I think our students and our teachers alike will both benefit from that. Thank you. Hello board members. Uh my name is

167Van Heruni and I have owned a home here in University Heights for a few years now. And before that, I rented a place. I will never forget the struggle I went through to find an affordable place to live in this neighborhood. I wanted to live here because it is a walkable neighborhood and allows me to live a less car dependent life. I don't want to deprive anyone else of the opportunity to live in this beautiful community. I am in support of the plan to develop on this campus. However, what I have reservations on is how much land is being set aside for cars. If this was a project for Mission Valley, I would understand why you would want a parking structure. But not here. Here I can get groceries and even hardware by foot or

168by bike via the Vermont Street Bridge. Our logo is the street car and we're near many bus stops. There are town homes, apartments, cottage courts, and other multif family buildings all around here. The building where we buy goodomen coffee has homes above it. Instead of constraining this project with parking and density limits that the city and planet kimies don't even impose upon it, we can build more homes for families. We can have shops like a grocery store or bakery and even more open spaces. Thank you, Peter Cronin, followed by Oliver Asus. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Peter Cronin and I'm an over 10-year resident of the Hillrest neighborhood and thank you board member uh White Payne. It is a beautiful neighborhood. Um more importantly, I am a proud husband of a

169public school choir teacher and I'm very excited for this joint occupancy proposal. It's great to hear so many developers are submitting for applications. I'm also a huge huge transit advocate. I understand that it's early, but the initial rendering of the redevelopment at this very site, there seems to be a massive parking lot in the middle parking structure, I should say. Uh, I hope you would consider sticking to the San Diego and Uptown community plan guidelines related to parking and truly maximize staff housing as well as add community spaces, commercial space and perhaps market rate housing to help maintain uh the cost of this redevelopment. If this affordable housing allows a concentration of staff that work at similar sites, uh there's an opportunity to lean on the resources that already exist with the Sand Sands commuter

170program. that includes things like van pools. In addition, this land is a veritable public transit hub with the park and Howard bus stops uh serving the 111 and 215 buses. It's just a great spot for housing and gathering. Thank you for your time. Good evening board. Hello again. I just want to show and tell and applaud my support for you moving forward with the proposals that you guys have put and had the full discussions. Um, I think this is a, you know, generational opportunity for us to make a, you know, a statement with housing here in San Diego as well as the state and it can be a model for what can happen nationwide. So, I encourage you as you consider all the facts and figures to um make this a development that is worthy

171of San Diego that would make it a landmark. Um you know, we are in a area that is very walkable and I encourage you to make it more of a transit oriented development. Um because we are within, you know, distance walk, we are within a walkable neighborhood. We have transit. We have bike infrastructure here. So, let's not waste the opportunity and make it simply just for cars. Thank you, Anthony Deng followed by Jean Bartholomew. Good evening, board. My name is Anthony Deng and I'm a policy advocate at Climate Action Campaign. Our mission is to slash climate pollution and create healthier communities through effective and equitable policy action. We are excited to support the request for proposals for the affordable uh workforce housing projects. In 2023, climate action campaign supported this board in drafting and adopting

172a resolution committing to all new buildings being powered by 100% clean electric energy and not fossil fuels. This will directly lead to improved indoor air quality and health health outcomes for our communities. We are excited that this RFP is the perfect opportunity to showcase your commitment to clean energy. As a second largest school district in California, this is also an opportunity to demonstrate that we are able to set a precedent and be leaders in developing sustainable communities that provide affordable housing to teachers who live and work in their community. A sustainable community also requires prioritizing our neighbors with housing over parking and no natural gas hookups. We recommend that the RFP include in the criteria commitment to build all electric to align with the adopted building electrification resolution and provide clarity to developers or at

173least that the resolution is communicated to developers in some way. We look forward to this RFP moving forward. Thank you. Hello, my name is Gene Bartholomew and I'm a master city in city planning student at SDSU and I live around the corner on Georgia and Howard Street. And I really just want to say this is as everyone said, this is really this property is ideal for highdensity transit oriented development. There's a bike lane right here. There are more bike lanes that are planned on Howard Street. There are bike lanes on me street. Uh and the normal street prominade is uh just down the street. In addition, the one, the 10, the 11, the 215, they take you all over the city um downtown all the way to SDSU. It's awesome. I really don't need to

174have a car living here. So, I really implore you not to add additional parking requirements. I think it's really important to recognize that this is one of the most walkable, transit oriented, bikable areas in the city and really take advantage of that and to not add additional height limits. As you can see in new developments going up all along Park Boulevard along El Cahone, they're taller. There's a huge development that went up just behind the alleyway of my house. And does it impact me? No. There's just more shade in the afternoon. But what I have is more neighbors. And that's what we love. We would love to have more people in this community. Thank you. Kristen Harms, followed by Bill Ellig. Good evening. My name is Kristen Harms and I'm president of the University Heights

175Historical Society and a member of the Community Coalition of University Heights. I've also lived on campus avenue in University Heights for over 30 years. Our coalition has collaborated with the district and the University Heights community since 2018 to create a vision and site plan for the Brecker site that achieves the goals of the district as well as the surrounding community of University Heights. We are really pleased that the RFP for the Brecker site includes one truly affordable workforce housing. We congratulate the the board on their leadership. two, conformance with local zoning and community plans. Three, adequate on-site parking. And four, preservation and rehabilitation of annexes one and two. However, we are dismayed that the RFP does not include the AVRP site plan, which represents over seven years of collaboration between the district and the University

176Heights community. So we respectfully ask that board members respect our seven plus years of engagement with the district by one incorporating the AVRP site plan into the RFP for the Brecker site and two using the AVRP site plan as a starting point for the Brecker site public workshops this spring. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Bill Ellig. I'm a member of the Uptown Community Planning Group and I'm not speaking for them. I am a University Heights resident. Um I thought it would be helpful to provide you with a little bit of context about of our out of context of our community. Thousands of unaffordable market rate units have been built or are planned to be built within a half mile of this site. We look forward to, you know, welcoming the 500 units of

177the affordable units of the workforce housing into our neighborhood. However, the Brecker site cannot be developed in a vacuum. We have collaborated with the district for over seven years to create a site plan that addresses the needs both of the district and for the community. The site has a rich history that goes back to the 1890s and the construction of the normal school that used to be here. It's a gorgeous building. Once again, I'd like to reiterate, we'd like respectfully that the RFP include the AVRP plan into the RFP for the Breer site and to use the AVRP site plan as a starting point for the public discussion coming up this spring. Thank you, Mark Johnson, followed by Zack Thompson. Good evening. It's going to be a long night, it sounds like. Hi, I'm Mark

178Johnson. I'm president of the University Heights Community Association. I've been involved with this process since pretty much the beginning, which as many of you will remember, involved a land swap with developers, which caused a massive outcry from our community. That outcry was furious and it ultimately resulted in the district and the community working together and collaborating on an ultimate solution that everybody was not thrilled with, but not unhappy with. It seemed to meet in the middle. The site, as has been passionately argued by scores of community leaders, business owners, and residents, is the gateway to University Heights. It's our front door. It's critically important to our community what happens here. And I think that everyone understands that from the numerous community outreach programs we've had. We've had three community workshops, seven task force meetings with

179the school district, five community presentations by Vice President Barrera to the UHCA, over 25 articles in the University Heights newsletter, two communitywide surveys, eight site plans created by students of the new school architecture. A lot of work has gone into this and as Kristen noted, so much time and energy has been put into this. Please, let's build from that and not start start all over again. We don't have time. Thank you so much. Hi, my name is Zach Thompson. Um, I think you've heard um a lot of young folks come up here and really implore you guys to think about the future. The future. Um, sorry, I'm speaking to this property in particular in the re redevelopment here. I live in Bankers Hill and have lived in the uptown area for 10 years. Just looking

180at the future, what this is going to look like. We want more and more people here. This is where the transit is. This is where the biking infrastructure is. this is where the shops along the street are. Um, we really need to build for that future, the future that we're all going to live in and not focus on everything that we've done in the past which has led us to this housing crisis. Um, so just really want to encourage you to not uh have any additional height restrictions. Uh really focus on how are we going to get more people in here? How are we not going to get cars in here? Um, and also thinking about how those two things open up the opportunity for open space. Right? It's not just about how many people

181live here, but what this community looks like. Are there going to be lawns? Are there going to be trees? Or is it going to be parking and shorter buildings? Thank you. Clifford Wiler, followed by Dne Colbreth. Thank you. I could speak for about five minutes about why I'm here. Um, I've lived in Mission Hills within walking distance of Fremont since 1978. I have been at the forefront of protecting Fremont for years, even to the point of getting petitions in the 1980s and serendipitously doing a lot of other things. Um, however, I am also an attorney representing school districts for over four year 40 years. I'm retired. Uh, I have a personal agreement with the need for affordable housing for school employees. However, Fremont is much different from what you've heard about Uptown. Fremont is near

182Oldtown. One of the things I want to say in my one minute is parking and height restrictions are much more important in Oldtown. If you don't have parking available for this site, you're going to suffocate Oldtown. Um, also in terms of the height restriction, at one point Navore was going to put 32 stories in. The community got very aggressive. If if you go with no height or well, when you review Fremont, if it's too high, you will get very aggressive opposition just for Fremont. Please consider Fremont differently. I don't want to have to come back and to tell you I told you so. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dane Colbreth and I'm representing the local nonprofit Build SD as one of the founders. Fixing the housing crisis is one of our top priorities.

183This plot of land is some of the largestly largest publicly available land that can be used for housing. Additionally, in the transit accessible urban core, which is exactly where denser housing is needed, we face a critical shortage of affordable homes for the struggling population of our city and a hardworking one at that. I strongly urge you all to move forward with this. One of the most effective solutions to a housing shortage may be shocking. It's building more housing. Thank you. All right, we'll move to our virtual speakers. Sharon Gell, if you're available, you have one minute. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead. You have one minute. Okay. My name is Sharon Gail. I live in uh uptown. I attended the meetings about the I'm speaking about the Washington Street Project. I attended the

184meetings before the pandemic. So, I know there's a lot of opposition to things that don't look like single family housing by people in the local area, but you have to consider what's best for the property, what's best for the school district, for all of your students, not just the neighbors who live in single family housing. The area is actually has a lot of multif family housing. Now you the um Winston was built an apartment building across Park Boulevard recently. It's seven stories high and it fits in. You have very tall buildings on a few blocks south on Park Boulevard that were built 40 years ago for senior citizens. People don't complain about that. There are multif family housing all around. So don't put limits on this property. Don't waste your property. What your asset, you

185need the money. School district needs more money. Don't waste this. And also don't limit, don't commit to doing historic. You know, that's going to be extraordinarily expensive. And while a few people might like historic, the overwhelming majority don't. city has two property house museums, Marston House and the uh Villa Montazuma Villa, and they lose money. They're only open three days a week. Thank you. Your time is up. We have tourists every year, residents every year that don't go there. Thank you, Maxwell Gergen. You have one minute. Hello, my name is Maxwell. I am a resident of Little Italy. I am commenting in support of this RFP for both the project in Oldtown and the project in University Heights. I think it is important that we maximize the amount of units that we build in these

186projects, specifically affordable units as well as the total units that are built in these projects as these are both ideal locations for more housing and both ideal locations for community building and incredible locations for transit oriented development. Thank you. You have a great day. Paul Jameson. Oh, go ahead. You have one minute. Great. Uh, my name is Paul Jameson. I live in San Diego. I'd like to express my support for this item, but also second the pro housing and transit comments for the normal street site, especially about accessing the density bonus program for complete communities, allowing for mix of market rate and affordable and reducing the expensive parking construction costs on the site. So really encourage you to be bold and go up to the allowable height limit and density for the location. Uh 500

187units is not enough given the size of the site and the magnitude of our housing crisis. Uh, regarding Trusty Barrera's comments about no development of units that employees can't afford. I'd love for all these units to be affordable, but I think today's economic realities mean we shouldn't be restricting developers by making it difficult to pencil out. Getting affordable housing built with submarket rate housing is much better than long delays or nothing getting built. So, thank you. Anar Saliv. Hey, good evening trustees. My name is Anar Sallay. I am a resident of the city of San Diego and I urge you to ensure this redevelopment maximizes housing and public space for not only University Heights, but the entire city of San Diego. I appreciate the urgency set at the top of um item H by board

188president Patterson on the housing crisis that we face here in San Diego. We have a rare once in a generation opportunity to create a truly vibrant transit oriented development, one that includes both market rate and affordable housing so that homes are delivered efficiently. This site is a prime location for highdensity housing with easy access to major bus routes, planned and current bike infrastructure, and thriving local businesses and services. I urge you to remove unnecessary height and density limits, eliminate parking requirements beyond city standards, and ensure this development includes a public plaza surrounded by cafes and retail, like the successful Piaza de la Familia in Little Italy, for example. In the meantime, put some pressure on the city to study and redesign the dangerous Elcohone Park and Normal intersection to ensure safety for current and all

189of our future residents as well. Let's together build a sustainable, walkable, and inclusive community that truly reflects San Diego's values. Thank you, Dante Tufano. Wesley Morgan. Um, I I registered, but I didn't know I was going to speak, but I'm here. Um, I echo all of the pro density comments in regards to the normal street property. Um, I live in uptown and it's such a beautiful piece of property that um, I don't think we should limit ourselves based on the amount of pavement, the amount of parking spaces, and the amount of like parking garage that we do there. Um, I'm very happy with the uh, recent shift in um, community engagement to broaden that to the entirety of San Diego. Um, on this um, I attended my first meeting last year and it was clear

190that there was a lot of um, I think very isolated discussions leading up to that point. So, thanks for uh the recent community engagement and um I look forward to um these exciting plans and the long-term affordability here in San Diego for our school district staff. Thank you very much. Oh, okay. Um good. Okay. Well, uh thank you to everyone who commented. We certainly appreciate it the engagement. Um, so, uh, do any of the trustees have comments? Look at that. Um, I would like to just say you will have you. So, a lot of the comments except for the Fremont, which we call Ballard's Ballard Center now. Um, uh, a lot of the comments were sort of about predominantly about this site. You will have an opportunity to speak on all five of these. Uh

191um Lee Belgarov will be leading uh work there on all five sites. There will be will they be on site? They will actually be on the sites. Yes, we'll have it. We'll probably have it at the burning multi-purpose. I think that's our plan. Got on site or adjacent to the site. There'll be a Ballard. There'll be one at Ballard Center and there'll be one at River and Linda Vista. Um so there will be another opportunity to speak to it. Um, and I have actually a question for um, Lee on the all electric. I guess I was operating under the impression that our board letter from last year would apply to um, to joint occupancy as well. Is that accurate or do we have to stipulate that in the RFP? We could. Yeah, it's not specifically

192stipulated because we wanted to allow flexibility. Our green building code right now already is pretty restrictive when it comes to natural gas or and sustainability. Um but uh we didn't specifically call out that requirement if the board chooses. Um we can certainly add that as a requirement that the buildings be 100% electric. Um if that's a and and that could be done via an addendum to the RFP draft that you see right there. I'm inclined to compel it. I mean, it'd be nice for I mean, I guess you could also just express a preference for it to know that it's being weighted in consideration. Is that compelling? Yeah. Okay. If if I have we have consensus, um I would move to amend the RF all five RFPs to reflect that. Well, it's just it's one

193RFP that that allows a developer to bid on any one multiple. Absolutely. We can, if the board so pleases, we can uh include specific language that restricts it to all 100% aligned with our the board policy last year on all electric. Okay. I have a motion from Barrera. I see a head nod and a hand raised from um uh Trusty Hazen. We have a motion and a second on just one clarification. I believe that the motion is that it compels all electric. Yeah. I don't think that that's going to add a significant amount of restriction to the developers. I mean, I think that there's a lot of technology out there. I mean, you know, things have changed quite a bit and I think that um it isn't a a stretch for this to be 100%

194electrical. I mean, I we we can certainly come back to you if I get a lot of feedback in the ne to the contrary and make that, you know, come back and amend that. But I I don't I'm not concerned at this time. I mean I I think if it's if it compels it, the developers can put in their proforma. All of them will put it in their proforma and they'll be competing against each other on the same playing field. I I don't personally see that. So we have a motion and a second. Do we have any additional conversation on that? Um so uh let's make that I guess everything we we still have to discuss the item, but let's make that um a substitute motion. everything identical except adding um language uh uh obliging

195uh all electric in alignment with our initial policy that we adopted last year. Okay. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Um now we'll move to discussion of the motion that is identical in every single way except adds all electric. Do we have any additional discussion or comments? Okay. With that we will move to a vote. Hold on. I'm off. I'm I'm just guessing we're moving to a vote and I'm going to double check. We've got comment on it. Yes, we will move to a vote. At this late night, you don't want to get too far off the script. It can lead you in some serious trouble. Um, okay. We have a motion in a second. Uh, we have exhausted discussion from the dis. Uh, we will move to a vote. Uh, student trustees,

196please vote. All other board members, please vote. That motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring. Okay. We will now move to the related item H3. I'd like to call on Vice President Barrera to introduce item H3, resolution of the matter of creation of a regional housing finance authority. Thank you, President Patterson. And I I think in your uh intro uh you described it really well. So, uh, there was a state law that was passed, uh, and went into effect January 1st, SB440, that permits, um, two or more local government agencies in a region, uh, to come together and create a regional h housing finance authority. And what that does is it it allows the agencies that are uh partners in the authority to raise revenue to uh look at um properties that uh in

197this case both uh entities own uh to combine uh uh resources that both entities have and to think about um priorities uh that both entities share. And when I say both entities, we're specifically talking tonight about San Diego Unified School District forming a regional housing finance authority with the San Diego Community College District, our longtime partner. Um, and uh we're excited to uh to move forward and and and create uh this new entity. As uh President Person said, I think this is the first uh new uh regional housing finance authority under the under the bill is modeled after entities in uh Los Angeles in the Bay Area. There's certainly the opportunity at, you know, any point down the road to add uh other local uh government agencies to the uh authority, but uh to begin

198in a partnership with the community college district um who we work so closely with on so many issues, I I think just uh just makes sense. So that's what item H3 is introducing. Um, so I think the item requires us to both vote to join the community college district in the creation of the entity and to appoint two members of this board uh to the uh board of the new regional housing finance authority. Thank you. Um, Vice President Barrer, do I have a motion? Trusty Wires Payne second. Trusty Bazo and a second from Trusty Bazo. We have a motion and a second. Um, has anyone signed up for a public comment on this item? Yes, we have four speakers in person. Krishna Hammond, followed by Andrew Bowen. Uh, thanks again. I'll keep this one short.

199I know it's getting late. Um, I'm very supportive of uh item H3. Uh, I think it's really exciting that the community college district and the SDSU USD are coming together to work together on this. I think it's going to really uh open up the funding opportunities. And uh, yeah, I think anytime that you have a bigger pool of money for stuff like affordable housing uh, or better amenities or stuff like that is a net win for everyone. So, um, thank you very much. Good evening, trustees. Happy to support this item. Uh, thank you Trusty Pere for bringing it forward. I think it makes a lot of sense to pull your resources with the community college district. Um, and I I would say, you know, it would be a quintessential California thing to do to create

200a new government agency and call a day and pat yourself on the back. But I trust that that's not going to happen. I think it I think it makes sense also to have a different venue for having these conversations about housing. you all are focused on student education and and while that is very clearly tied to housing um you know there's there's you you can hire staff who have expertise in this matter and um I would it appears that this might be sort of a venue for channeling the MeasureU bond revenue into some of these projects which I think makes a lot of sense. I would note measure U requires you to pursue cost-saving measures. So, um that would include uh uh including market rate afford uh market rate housing along with affordable housing to

201lower the overall development costs and uh it would uh presumably not include uh ex you know unnecessary parking requirements and that would be a cost adding measure. So um just want to mention that as well. Thank you Oliver Asus followed by Brenda Taylor. Oliver or Brenda. Hello, my name is Brenda Taylor. In regards to the low-income housing topic, I recommend that the school board drop this proposal and get back to focusing on the core of its mission. While the topic of housing is a topic these days for looking like u moralizing or virtue signaling from larger problems and challenges facing the district such as declining enrollment, lower desired proficiencies in math, reading, language arts and science and a budget crisis that remains largely unresolved in uncertainty. San Diego Unified provides free child care for housing,

202free school lunches, and in May 2022, it passed a resolution to re to support reproductive rights, which allow children starting at the age of 12 to access free abortions without parent knowledge, providing free tampons, including the boys bathroom and locker rooms, and now the discussion of affordable housing. Sounds like socialism is beable being slowly crept into our school system. America is not a socialist society. The United States operate operates on a capitalist mixed to market market economy. America relies on private ownership. Socialism leads to communism. Let the city are everyone else went over. Let the city and county and the citizens work out these housing crisis. Thank you for allowing me to speak. All right. Um, so we have a motion and a second. I what I neglected in the motion is because uh we

203also need to appoint um two members to this if we pass it. I'm going to give the maker of the motion an opportunity to um to propose two members as part of their motion. I would like to nominate a couple of folks, trustees, not in position as officers, but as trustees. Um, Richard Barrera and also Cody Peterson. Yes, nice. Uh, okay. We got the seconder approving of the motion. So, okay, we have a first and a second. We've completed our motion. Uh, I'm back on track. Um, okay. We have a motion, second, we've done our public comment and we will now move to board discussion. Any board discussion? Trusty Bazo. Um, I just want to say thank you to uh the public for being here tonight to to support this. It's really exciting work and

204something really people you know not only California but across the nation are really going to be following and and uh so and I also wanted to thank uh Dr. Patterson our president and uh vice President Richard Barrera really for I guess you know really forwarding this uh or take you know the the team get getting us here and working closely with Lee and the rest of the staff. So um it's really exciting work. I'm excited to support it and um just wanted to share that with you. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Bosa. Trusty Wy, I just want to say that I too have committed my life to helping to get housing in every venue possible. I don't know, maybe about 10 years ago. Um we were looking at some for my um church, United Methodist

205Church, and it got derailed u because of opposition. But we really have to be considerate of folks and try to get as much housing. Any and everybody needs to try to do whatever they can so that people are not sleeping on the street or in cars or being treated inhumanely because they don't have a place to stay. So, I support us doing this and I'm really excited that we're engaging in doing something to help all the people, not just some, but all Yes, I will jump on the proousing bandwagon as well. I think this is really exciting. It's exciting to be part of a board that is leading in this way as we think about uh the housing affordability crisis, being part of a body that is taking action, leveraging the resources we have, the

206unused properties we have to make a difference for our staff, um which we know will make a difference for our students. This isn't only about our employees, but we know when we invest in our staff, when we provide stable housing, mental health improves, stress decreases, and our employees are able to show up better at work and give their all for our kids, which is what we all want. Okay. Um, I will just say first of all, I really appreciate um Senator Nancy Skinner for um for authoring SB 4040. uh we've tried in San Diego before to establish affordable housing finance authority and uh didn't quite get it across the line and she was able to do that for the whole state and really establish a framework for doing it and um and dramatically reduce the

207friction and effort required to do so because a lot of the um language uh for the the policies and um is contained in the bill itself. So um they've done a lot of work for us. I will also just say in terms of leadership on this issue, I think this does move us uh into the leadership regionally but also across the state, across the nation in terms of tackling this issue and I really want to thank our partners at Sandy Community College District um for their commitment on this and I think they're the ideal partner. Both of our boards and both of our districts recognize it's very hard to be in public education in an urban district, especially a coastal urban district, and not recognize that the lack of affordable housing is a critical issue

208for our for our school system. Um, I'm in subd district C, which has really taken the brunt thus far of what is what where the whole city is heading in terms of the inability to raise young families uh and to be able to afford housing. My subdist, as I often say, has 13,000 resident students. Richards, I think, has 31,000. same population, but you can see that close to a third of the amount of children because it is so difficult to raise young families in our communities. And we will be in a secular decline of a percent a year. We we've slowed it somewhat, but a percent a year in terms of enrollment through essentially no fault of our own. Our neighborhood participation rates are high. it is strictly largely a function of um of housing

209lack of affordable housing for our community. So what I would just say is in general leadership is not just about doing your part. All of us know the leaders in our community when you do your part you're really not doing enough to lead. So I think it's time for us to in support of this motion to lead to do more than our part not only for our staff um and our families but for the region as a whole. So, I'm very excited about this and um and I really appreciate the support of the board um thus far and um let's move forward. So, um seeing no further discussion, uh we will move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. Oh, sorry. Do it. I did that. You saw that? I mean, everyone saw that. I

210can't even hide it. Can we roll that again? Student trustees, please vote. All remaining trustees, including myself, please vote. All right. Okay. We're not even Okay. Yes. Mot motion passes unanimously. Um Okay. Uh we will allow if you need to leave now, you can leave now. We'll understand. Um but we as a board will move uh to items I H4 and H5. Approval of final offers for allocations to charter schools under Proposition 39 for the 2025 2026 school year and approval of the updated home to school transportation plan is required under AB 181. I believe I saw a hand from um Trusty White Payne. Do I have a second on H4 and H5? I see um that Trusty Baldis has raised his hand. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion

211on this item? Oh, is there anybody signed up for public comment? Oh, thank God. Um, is there any discussion on this item? Seeing no discussion, we'll move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. All remaining board members, please vote. Motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring. All right. Okay. This is a weird one. It's but we're doing this. Um, so this is a public hearing. Uh, agenda item H6, a public hearing for the board to take any public comments and make findings relating to two solar contracts that appear later on this board agenda under consent items I19. We are opening Gavl's back the hearing. Miss Doultz, are there any speakers on this item? Okay, that's too bad. Um, seeing none, we can open this item for board discussion. Government code section 4217.12 authorizes a

212public agency to enter into energy service contracts if its governing board determines it is in the best interest of the district at a public hearing during a regularly scheduled board meeting. Attached to the agenda item is an energy analysis, one for each contract prepared by outside experts, showing that the cost to construct the solar panels will be less than the cost of energy consumed by the district without them. For for the five sites, LMA Portal, Ross and Sessions elementary schools, Twain Main High School, and Riley Alternative School for contract award to HSP solar and construction incorporated. The district will realize savings in energy costs of 14,192,000 through 2050. the expected life of the solar PV system for site one Lafayette Elementary School for contract award to HSP solar and construction inc. The district will realize

213savings energy costs of 3,177,000 through 2050. Do any trustees have questions or wish to discuss the item? Seeing none, uh is there a motion to adopt these fighting findings that based on these energy analyses, it is in the district's best interest to award the two solar contracts to achieve these cost savings? Uh, Trusty Bald Baldis has a motion and it looks like Trusty Bazo has a second. Okay, let's do it. Student trustees, please vote. All remaining board members, please vote. Trusty Boso, do you have an opinion on this? Okay. Uh, that is four votes. All board members present. Run, Shaya. You can get up in on this solar thing. It's It's all the rage. Here she is. D. Just hit it, man. We're ready. We're just holding it. Oh, we did it. Okay. Um, the

214motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring. Okay. Wow. Oh. Oh, now I got to close it. The public hearing is now closed. Okay. We will now consider item H7, approval of the 2024 2025 local control and accountability plan federal addendum. Is there a motion on item H7? Vice President Barrera, do I have a second? Trusty Whitehurst Payne, we have a motion and a second. Uh, Miss Salt, are there any speakers on this item? Okay. All right. Do any trustees have questions or wish to discuss this item? All right. Seeing none, we will move to a vote. Student trustees, please vote. All other trustees, please vote. That motion passes unanimously. The student board members concurring. All right. We will now consider items I1 through I37. This is a consent agenda for fortunately. Uh the superintendent's

215consent agenda. Consent items are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion followed by a vote. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless the board, member of the public, or staff requests specific items be removed from the consent agenda for separate discussion and action. Any agenda item removed will be voted upon following the motion to approve the consent agenda. Does the board have any items they would like to have pulled from the consent agenda for discussion? All right, seeing none, Miss Staltz, has anyone signed up for public comment on section I? Yes, we have one speaker on I22. Okay. So, we are going to pull I22 and set it to one side and then we are going to vote on the totality except for I22 and then we will

216bring the speaker on I22 up. Okay. The speaker Oh, so you would like to speak on another item. Is that what you're saying? No. I I mean, why don't we just do that? Well, let's just do it because I don't want to I don't want to gum it up. We'll just have you come up in a second or not come up in a second and then we'll move forward. Let's just keep it clean for the sake of the record. Um, we are going to now vote on all items in the on the consent agenda except for I22, which we will return to momentarily. Is there any dis Oh, there is no discussion. It's a consent item. Consent agenda. Um, student trustees, please vote. Oh, motion and a second. I think we didn't already get a

217motion second. Let me go back. No, no, I thought we did. Not yet. Okay. I got sidetracked by that. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Trusty Cruz motions. Do I have a second? Okay. Trusty Bar, Vice President Barrera seconds it. Um, okay. We have a motion and a second on the entirety of the consent agenda agenda except for I22. Uh, we will now move to a vote. Uh, student trustees, please vote. All remaining board members, please vote. Motion passes. Agenda passes unanimously with student board members concurring. We will now move to I22. Um would our speaker uh like to I was shocked that I saw something. Um hi I'm Erin Gretenberger and I'm going to make this really quick because we have some whose stories really reflect more than what I have to say. I'm sorry. One second.

218Let I'm so I'm so sorry. My sense is that we probably need a motion on this item in isolation and then you'll be able to speak on the motion because we don't have a motion on the floor on this one item. So, I will entertain a motion on I22. Vice President Barrera. Um, Trusty Cruz, we have a motion in a second. Now, ma'am, I apologize for that. We have a motion on the floor for you to comment on. Um, so I'm here just to speak briefly on the infant program and the part C grant. Um, I wanted to clarify some things. You all got my letter and I'm not sure you got a chance to read it. It was presented at the CAC2 last week. Um, what I want to do is clarify the infant

219program has been told that there will be six classes closed, not because of low enrollment. Clarifying that, Cody. Um, second, there are going to be four teachers accessed. There are going to be eight PIFFs accessed. The infant program is never underenrolled. there's often a waiting list for the infant program. So based on that decision, I'm under trying to understand with I understand the budget. I understand the ability to for the district to have to supplement some of these things that have gone on. What I don't understand is not being able to get reports that talk about the part C under IDA, the part B, the E grant, the Medicare funding. If you want to collaborate on a situation as so important as this where it involves cuts to our youngest learners, that means you meet

220with your stakeholders and the board approved early childhood special ed program governance team to work on these strategically and plan and collaborate with early childhood. But this was a bombshell dropped. There was no planning. There was no meeting and now we're getting you're getting information. We're getting information. Nothing's clicking. But I will tell you, we are closing classrooms now. They say, "Oh, we're going to open other things." Well, there's no plan having someone to go to Logan Memorial. We know we've struggled at Logan Memorial with special ed. This is not the time to try it again. So, I'm just asking you to listen to these parents. um maybe respond to my email and and please come visit Twain. Twain who everybody volunteered this summer to make that the most beautiful site and it's got amazing

221teenagers from Twain volunteering and really becoming accepted and maybe having some good career choices too. Thank you. [Applause] Um, thank you. Uh, Fabi has not sorry, Superintendent Bula has noted that and we'll uh take that up with staff. I think I'm in communication with Dwayne and I'm scheduling a visit there in the next week or two. So, um, do we have any additional discussion on I22 board discussion? Okay. Um, yeah, Dr. Bugle has it and I'll reach out. I'll do a site visit here in the next week or two at Twain and um thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second. We have no additional discussion from the dis. Uh student trustees, please vote on item I22. All remaining board members, please vote. All right. Motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring.

222All right. Here we Okay. Okay, that got us pretty far. Okay, so far as I can tell, that's I'm just going to double check this so that I cannot Yep. Okay, I guess that's it. All right, we are now um we will now receive public testimony on non-aggenda items. Many of you have been waiting for a very long time. Now is the time. Miss Stoultz, have we received any requests for non-aggenda comment? Yes, we have 24 folks have signed up in person and we have one virtual person. So, let's do the virtual person if uh she's wanting to speak. Isabelle Newton, you would unmute if you'd like to speak. You have one minute. I'm going to defer to the next meeting um since it's so late. Thank you though. Okay. So, now we'll go to

223our in-person speakers. Uh we will each have one minute. Sandra Appling followed by Janette Woodard Woodward and then Jaylen Woodward. Okay. Janette or Jaylen Woodard. Uh she was she's with Barnard. They they received some information and are satisfied with it. And okay, Jennifer Maderos. [Applause] [Music] Good evening, Dr. Beula and board members. Uh, the Grant TK8 community contributes significantly to the overall success of San Diego Unified with impacts reaching far beyond our neighborhood. Grant parents serve on the board of organizations like the VAPA Foundation, district PTA leadership, and advocate for schools and families at state and national levels. In the San Diego Unified class of 2025 alone, grant students are validictorians, student board members, all state athletes and musicians, and founders of community aid organizations. And yet it regularly feels as though the district only

224sees us as an ATM. I'm an educator. I understand the increasing constraints and foroding projections that lead to a conservative budgeting process. But what Grant is experiencing right now is not fiscal constraint as much as our district leadership operating in bad faith and using our children and teachers as ponds. I've been active in the PTA long enough to hear multiple former administrators say the refrain in these budget meetings has always been your parents will pay for it. It seems like nothing has changed and that's unconscionable. We know that conservatism is the norm in school budgeting, but Grant has proven year-over-year that we will have the enrollment needed to support the teaching load. This year, we're not only being told that the district will not allow for enrollment adjustments until well after we would lose teachers,

225but that if the parent organizations offer to fill in the difference to ensure that we retain our teachers, that the San Diego Unified will not cover those accompanying costs when the enrollment support um when the appropriate funding comes in. Thank you. Please. Um the root of the issue is a disparity of funding. Uh Trusty Hen, you said earlier that you didn't want to forget about sixth through 8th grade and the sixth through 8th grades in K8s are suffering right now because of this funding formula. So please reconsider that and close the gap. Three other speakers [Music] [Applause] [Music] Jackie Kowalik. You can come over here. If you could just give this to any one of the board members to look at for me. What is this for? This is an AAC device. It's a communication

226tool that my son uses that's provided to him through San Diego Unified. Um if somebody could actually look at the screen while I'm talking um and try to find the word help while I'm talking to you. If you could look at the screen and try to find the word help. So if you could shake your head that's fine, too. Um you only have one minute. So yes, I understand. Imagine trying to find the word help and being three years old, but you can't. That's my son's experience in his current classroom. Without enough PAR educators in the classroom, he will be unable to communicate with his teachers what he needs because he will not have an adult to model it for him. The information about the cuts to the infant and toddler program has been unclear.

227At times, we heard teachers were being let go. Then the outcl program uh classrooms were closing. And then finally, a letter confirming that we're losing key staff and cutting power educators in half. This isn't a budget decision. It's cutting access to education for kids like mine. He relies on his AAC and trained adult modeling to make progress. Without proper support, he and so many others will be left behind. Instead of cuts, we should be expanding this program. Please do not take away the resources that our kids need to succeed. Um, and that is Yeah. Riley Riley [Music] Deobian, followed by Rana Betta. I'm speaking for my daughter Raleigh. She's homesick. I'm getting well, but I'm so sick. Um, her son is in my grandson is in the program, and I'm crying because very affected by

228this. Um, this is my grandson last year in the baby toddler program. He was almost two years old. Um, he moves all the time. He has He's still non-speaking. He's on an AEC device. He couldn't participate in classroom activities. He wouldn't sit still. He wouldn't do anything. But because of the baby program this year, this is him in the three-year-old program. He participates. He sits in class activities. He still moves all the time. Don't misunderstand me, but he's so much better. And it's because of the baby toddler program. It's the classroom experience that changed him, not just the visits. So, when you cut staffs, I've heard you guys talking a lot about how much you respect your teachers. What are you doing to them? You're going to go from from 16 students per teacher to

22921 students per teacher. What are they going to do without resources, without aids? Really think about what you're doing to the kids and the teachers. Thank you, Rana [Applause] Basada. Hi, I'm a parent here to express opposition to the budget cuts the district is making to the infant toddler program. My 20-month-old son, Mina, has Down syndrome, and the education and support that our family is receiving from the infant toddler staff is essential for his development. The staff at Alcott and at Twain integrate their knowledge of child development alongside therapeutic practices in a way that's distinct from what we received from my son's therapists and medical team. Cutting the budget of this program is a disservice to children like Mina as well as to their families. In a letter sent this week, the director of special

230education claimed that the district would continue providing highquality support for these students, but the district is eliminating a third of the staff. Providing bare minimum number of adults in the classroom is not quality support. Early intervention has been proven to improve life outcomes for children with disabilities. These cuts put a greater burden on the educators who remain and also put a greater burden on future educators to fill in the gaps that could have been addressed in early intervention. I oppose these cuts that will lead to lower quality earlier intervention services for my child and I ask that you do the right thing for children like Mina. Thank you, Paige. Ciao or Ashlin Cow, Elsa Luna, Giata Espanol, Michelle Deovier. My name is Michelle Dover and I'm the mother of Edith who is a current student

231at Twain. And you can see this beautiful classroom. I had no idea it was just built. It's impeccable. It's wonderful. I was only introduced to the infant toddler program when my daughter was 2 and a half years old at a routine transition meeting between Regional Center and San Diego Unified. I had no idea it existed. We could instantly feel it was a special place and that these were magical human beings. By Eda's third day there, she was telling me she had a best friend. That is incredible progress from her running and crying when she used to see other kids. It is unfathomable to introduce any cuts to such an invaluable and successful program. With all the services we were getting at regional center and raies and paying out of pocket for other OT services, why

232didn't I know about this earlier? Why is it such a secret? One in six children in the US have a developmental or behavioral disability. Based on the number of students that San Diego Unified serves, that would be approximately 1500 students per grade. This program only serves 240 for all of ages zero through three. That is woefully insufficient. I demand the district offer full transparency of its budget and why it thinks these cuts are warranted, especially with the dismantling of the Department of Education, federal funds for special education programs are unreliable. It is up to the district to make sure that these are necessary and effective early intervention services are available to all families who need them. Thank you. Stephanie Roberts, Stephanie Roberts, Carlos [Applause] Arosa, honorable board members, Superintendent Bula, esteemed educators, my name is

233Commander Carl Rosa, commanding officer of a helicopter squadron North Island. More importantly, I'm a parent of three students at Grant TK8. Our district has made a commitment to providing all students with access to a broad course of study. Yet, a significant disparity persists between staffing levels at TK8 schools such as Grant and Language Academy when compared to others such as Montgomery and Taft. Despite comparable enrollment, traditional middle schools in our district bent from 17 to 20 teachers, but TK8 schools serving the same grades, teaching the same subjects, and preparing students for the same future must do the same work with just 11 or 12. The result, few opportunities for our students and K8 schools to explore the arts, STEM, foreign languages, subjects critical to a success in the future job market. I urge the support

234to take steps to ensure TK programs receive the staffing they need to serve students equitably. As a military leader, I know the success of any mission depends on the strength of the team. We cannot ask our T8 educators to do more with less while expecting the same results. Let's ensure every child in this district, regardless of the school assignment, has access to a complete and robust middle school education. On a personal note, I have moved my kids eight times in the last 19 years. It is hard for them to make friends. Electives like these have given them community. I empathize with the hard choices you have to make. But I just want you to know that programs like these are expens exponentially more valuable to the students and people in this room than that number

235on that ledger. Thank you very much. [Applause] Melissa [Applause] Schwarz, followed by Kate [Music] Sparrow. Hi, I am not a public speaker, so this is totally out of my element, but this program is so important to me. My name is Melissa Schwarz. I am an infant toddler education specialist and I urge you to reconsider the proposed funding cut to the infant toddler program. This decision will severely impact the district finances and the lives of our most vulnerable children and their families. The infant toddler program under part C of IDA builds vital relationships fostering trust and empowering families. This is transform transformational for the children with developmental disabilities. We must retain experienced staff to preserve our toddler classrooms, which provide essential early learning experiences. Losing these classrooms directly deprivives our youngest learners of critical educational opportunities.

236From a financial standpoint, cutting this program is a costly mistake. Studies show that a $13 return for every dollar invested in early intervention. In-house services ensure continuity, engagement, and datadriven support, reducing later costs. Delaying these services compounds needs, increases expenses, and decreases effectiveness. Cutting this program breaks trust, signaling that early intervention is optional. We've witnessed firsthand the transformation transformative impact from uncertainty to advocacy, from delay to success. Therefore, I implore you do not cut funding in the infant toddler program. Recognize this program as a foundational investment. Preserve our toddler classrooms and staff. It is a moral and financial imperative and vital for our students, schools, and community. Thank [Applause] you. My name is Kate Spar and I'm a co-f facilitator of the parent group at Mark Twain with teacher Melissa Schwarz. My son Matteo is

237a former student of the infant program and my daughter is currently a reverse mainstreamer. Their teachers were both Melissa Schwarz and Megan Chi at Alcott and now Mark Twain. I'm spitting my testimony tonight because I want to share how integral the infant program has been for my family. I'm concerned that changes are being made without input from the teachers and families. I understand there are budget restrictions, but there was not an opportunity for the program to develop creative solutions without compromising the quality of care for special needs families. When I met Melissa, my son was just a baby and I was lost and overwhelmed with the prospect of parenting and advocating for my special needs child. Matteo has a rare genetic mutation and even with all the uncertainties, Melissa was always compassionate, generous, and supportive,

238especially when all they could do was cry. She and all the staff at the infant program treat every family like they are their family. This can feel like a very isolating journey, but they have successfully cultivated an inclusive and non-judgmental environment for us all. They support not just the children, but the ment uh mental and emotional tribulations that families experience. Early intervention works and saves money for the district. In the long run, I don't know where we would be as a family today if it wasn't for the support. And every special family, every special needs family deserves the same opportunities we were given. Please give us an opportunity to preserve the integrity of the infant program through creative collaboration. Thank you. Ava Patri. Ava Patri followed by Sandra Bird. I am not Ava. I was

239in the restroom when I was called earlier. Are you Are you Sandra? Yes. Can I go ahead and go now? Yeah, go ahead. Awesome. Thank you. Uh, hello everyone. I'm Sandra Appling. I'm here tonight as Grant TK through8's PTA president. I'm representing our 244 PTA members in our school community of 754 students. Tonight, I'm making an ask to utilize our databacked confirmed enrollment numbers to build our 2526 budget rather than minimum projections. I understand the significant budget constraints and the need to meet a bottom line. However, for some schools, grants specifically, that bottom line that's currently there is incorrect. Right now, district leadership are allowing an incorrect number on a page to affect the outcomes of our students. With a trend in declining enrollment with the district, Grant is a school that is maintaining and

240growing our enrollment and is poised to have that continue. Our programs and offerings at Grant are the key to that success. However, during this budgeting process, our school community is asked to determine which of those programs we find expendable. Let me be clear, it is none of them. We are at a point that the district should not be making blanket statements that no school is allowed to have their confirmed enrollment for next year reviewed to build our budget. District leadership should instead be leaning into and discovering what is happening at schools like Grant with positive enrollment numbers and look to model the structures and opportunities that are leading these outcomes. We're not asking pre preferential treatment or something that others are not getting. We're simply asking to have our true enrollment numbers reviewed to build

241our budget for 2526. Thank you. Forgive me. I'm a student at Mir Mesa High School set to graduate this year. I'm also the sixth best tuba player in the state of California, which has allowed me to be accepted at all but one of the 13 colleges I had applied for. I didn't get to where I am through the private schools I went to in elementary that lacked both academic rigor and individuality. I found both at Grant K8, specifically through its varying electives that should be an established right for all public middle school students. I understand that all other middle school, all other middle schools in the district receive funding for the performing arts through the VAPA Foundation. However, I beg that we find a means to support the community of passionate educators and students at

242Grant K8 despite it being a TK through8 school. Schools like Korea Middle School, Challenger Middle School, and Dana Middle School have booming music programs solely for the fact they are independent of their elementary counterparts, which I believe is a disservice to the to the many students of the Midtown area. Music is just as important as science or math, though the state might not think so. So long as there is a need for doctors and statisticians, there will be a need for music. And those in the public school system who are passionate for music must not be stamped out. Thanks. [Applause] Sandra Bird. Sandra Bird followed by Jake Vizone. No, Sandra. No, Jake. Valerie Trainer. It's Valerie Triena again from District D representing Defense of Democracy. The closure of the federal department of education is likely

243to divert public funds to private and charter schools through school voucher programs. This shift undermines public education, draining resources from already underfunded schools and disproportionately harming students in lowincome areas. This is part of a broader strategy to dismantle public education, weaken teachers unions, and impose political control over curricula, threatening academic quality and critical thinking. This is a pivotal moment for American education. It is vital that we do not lose sight of the promise of equal educational opportunities for all students, regardless of their background or abilities. We must act now to defend the fundamental right of every child to a quality, equitable education before it is stripped from those who are most vulnerable. I thank the SD unified board for steadfastly protecting the interests of our students. Maxton [Applause] Lavine followed by Arlene [Music] Newar. All

244right. My name is Maxton Lavine. I am a senior in high school at PointLoma. I'm a former student of Grant K8. And I'm here to talk about my former music st music teachers employment status. Because frankly, I I mean, we talk in vague terms, but that's what's actually up for debate is whether or not that school gets to have that teacher again. And I mean I am a published musician. I play 10 instruments. I am currently shopping around for jobs in the industry based off of experience that I have built up on sources that are accessible to me. And that all started with her, with Briana, uh, who's legitimately one of the most competent academic instructors I have ever encountered in my experience in the San Diego Unified School District. Now, I don't pretend to

245understand any of the financial arcana that goes into her losing her job, uh, because y'all saddle me with too much work for that. But I I do know that VAFA awarded her with teacher of the year like a couple years ago and I mean you and me and all of us but that somebody o owes to her to back that up with something more than a certificate. Thank you for your time. Good evening. Personal bill of rights. I have the right to a mentally safe workplace and to be heard when I voice a concern about that environment. I have the right to timely accommodations and not to have my disabilities used against me by my employer. I have the right to expect that school leadership act with a commitment to equity. Equity. I have the

246right to be supported when I ask for help, not blamed, dismissed, or silenced. I have the right to have my humanity recognized, and to be angry when I'm wronged. I have the right to a work culture that protects the vulnerable and to advocate for myself and others when it doesn't. San Diego Unifi's operational model should not depend on employees not knowing their rights. And it certainly cannot continue to operate on the assumption that its employees won't stand up and say, "I have rights and you violated them." Valina [Music] Guerrero or Kelly Schlax. Good evening. Uh, my name is Kelly Schlax and I'm here tonight as a concerned citizen and a proud parent of two children who have attended public school in San Diego Unified. I'm here to express my support for Rainbow Club, the essential

247LGBTQ plus support group at Gagege Elementary. This district has a code AR-5131.2 states, "Our district believes that all students have a right to a safe and healthy school environment. The reality is that students who attend school with active gay straight alliances report significantly more positive experience. According to glisten.org or LGBTQ plus students are three times more likely to miss school due to feeling unsafe. More than 80% of LGBTQ plus students said they felt unsafe in schools. It is lowering attendance. Statistics shows that school with gay straight alliances do better because they feel safe. It is our duty to promote acceptance. The School Success and Opportunity Act AB266 reinforces this by allowing students to compete in sports and use facilities based on their gender identity. Without incentives like Rainbow Club and Jedi, San Diego Unified will

248not fulfill its own anti-bullying objectives. This district is already doing the work by being part of San Diego Pride Parade and proudly participating in National Out for Safe School campaigns. I urge this board to fight for all students for a safe and inclusive learning environment. Thank you. That concludes non-aggenda comment. All right. Well, thank you all for waiting through a very lengthy agenda and providing moving testimony this evening. Uh we hear you. your testimony makes this district better and we will take it back to our staff and work with them to improve our what we're doing around budget and budgeting and curriculum and instruction. So, thank you for for testimony tonight both in the room and uh at home. I believe with that this meeting is now adjourned. The next regular meeting will be held

249on April 15, 2025.