Board of Education Regular Meeting

001everyone watching on ITV and Via live stream and call the October 8th 2024 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order with all board members present I'd also like to note that interim superintendent beula is participating in the fellowship for public education leadership at Yale School of Management and is joining us remotely from New Haven tonight we'll now move to A2 our flag ceremony the Madison High School Army jrc Color Guard will present the colors tonight please stand for the presentation of the colors please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands na under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you please be seated land acknowledgement is a traditional custom that dates

002back centuries in many native nations and communities our land acknowledgement was developed in partnership with 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 occupied we respectfully acknowledge that the Kumi people are the original inhabitants and caretakers of these lands now known as San Diego despite the attempted genocide and ongoing impacts of colonization the Kumi Spirit remains unbroken and their Traditions continue to thrive as they carry the memories of their ancestors who bring bravely resisted cultural eraser and fought to protect their land and way of life in honoring their legacy we pledge to uphold their cultural heritage and right to safeguard their sacred connection to the land for

003future generations with gratitude and strength we stand with the Kumi embracing the past while forging a brighter tomorrow we'll now move to item B1 adoption of the agenda tonight we'll consider a variety of items including taking action on the 2024 through 2030 student outcomes goal and guard rail progress monitoring calendar and the renewal of the charter for the San Diego Cooperative charter school as well as receiving a report on the status and performance of The District's air conditioning systems I'd like a motion to adopt today's agenda as published is there a motion thank you we have a motion is there a second thank you that was there a question we'll take your second all right student trustees please vote and all other trustees motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring Miss sultz can

004you please provide information for public speakers about today's meeting protocols yes today's meeting of the board of education is a business meeting that is conducted in public and board members will not engage in 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-agenda 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

005unmute yourself we will call the next speaker please follow along with the agenda so that you know when your item is coming up for discussion when you begin speaking the green light below my name on the dis indicates that the timer has started when the light turns yellow you will have one minute remaining a buzzer will indicate that your time has expired if you have not yet done so and would like to sign up for inperson public comment iPads are available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby thank you now move to C1 in alignment with the student outcomes Focus governance framework our board is committed to measurably improving outcomes for students and recognizes the importance of incorporating student insights and feedback into our governance processes our student Advisory board report which

006represents the feedback from more than 25 District middle schools and high schools helps the Board understand the issues that our students say are most important to supporting their Wellness academic achievement and College and Career Success student board members baldis baldis and Cruz can you please provide your update yes so today we're actually excited to hear from uh student Advisory Board member Glendy Hernandez Glendy is a senior at Madison High School and is currently in her second year on the student Advisory Board she'll be sharing her experience on the board and highlighting key discussion topics from the last two meetings good evening everyone my name is Glendy Hernandez and I am a senior from Madison High School representing the student Advisory Board today the student Advisory Board is a platform of for under repesent voice and

007students from diverse backgrounds consisting of 45 student representatives from high schools and select middle schools we meet twice a month to engage in discussions and pressing issues and provide constructive constructive recommendations to enhance our educational experience last year the student Advisory Board discussed critical topics such as mental health support and resources diversity equity and inclusion academic rigor and course offerings at our two previous meetings this school year we discussed topics such as the new cell phone ban Rule and how to measure student wellness as well as student teacher relationships as a collective board we agreed that banning cell phones is not a good solution as it can serve as a safety hazard in terms of emergencies and due to the fact that our current world highly relies on the use of Technology we discussed ways

008in which we can Implement student wellness through the curriculum and how it can be measured through a strategized survey that allows students to input their perspectives instead of only relying on multiple choice answers we also agreed that student teacher relationships are important as they impact academic achievement and motivation we came up with ways to train teachers to be approachable for all students through their curriculum as student Representatives we learned how District policies directly impacted our daily lives from curriculum changes to budget allocations your decision shape our educational Journey we serve as a bridge between students and the district and we are committed to ensuring that every student's voice is heard thank you for your dedication to our education and we look forward to continued collaboration thank you Glendy really appre oh speak can clap for

009that really appreciate your insights and feedback I think from feedback around cell phones which we know is a Hot Topic to Wellness relationships with uh teachers really appreciate the work that's happening on The Advisory board so thank you for being here thank you thank you so much and any other feedback from uh board members baldis or Cruz on this item wonderful thank you all now moving to D1 general counsel green under D1 are there any reportable actions from closed session no okay and now I'm looking to Dr bagula on the screen under D2 are there any management appointments you'd like to announce yes I'd like to welcome a Whittier K8 School principal Carrie Sanders and also welcome Crawford High School associate principal Stacy McGee I look forward to working with you and I also look

010forward to your leadership thank you thank you and I don't know if you could hear the cheers in the auditorium but we have some very happy folks in the back of the room so we can certainly for these two [Applause] additions thank you and now moving on to D3 would you like to share your information report yes um thank you president Hazen and thank you for acknowledging my remoteness um I have been selected for a fellowship here at Yale University which is dedicated for superintendence and public education this program focuses on strengthening Public School Systems and their communities and I'm so happy to be a part of this program and can't wait to apply the knowledge I'm acquiring along my journey back home to San Diego unified this um last couple of weeks I was

011at a few schools um I went to elementary schools both McKinley and Central was joined by trusty Bara and um area superintendent Gabriel Nunes at both schools it was really beautiful to visit McKinley and to also see Central Elementary School with uh trusty Bara as well I'm really looking at how they're intervening when children are um making sure that we are sorry I we're making sure that students are acquiring the necessary literacy knowledge and the intervention systems that Central Elementary have put in place it was really joyful to be there um as you know I also really appreciate middle schools um and really want to make sure that we think about a middle school experience um in a different way and so I was also at Wilson Middle School in Korea um with Michelle Irwin

012with trusty pson and trusty Bera joining us on those visits and got to hear from two principles that are really leading some amazing work and thinking about the experience differently for their students I also had the pleasure of co-presenting with President Hazen to the League of Women Voters we were able to share some of the high priorities of our district like moving towards our student outcomes focused governance work laying a strong foundation for academic success by focusing on Early Childhood um but it was really important to make sure that we have good partners with the League of Women Voters they have been really beautiful with our efforts for San Diego unified for democracy um I also had meet and greet um with Dr Barry Chung from the College of Education at San Diego State along

013with Dr Rachel Hayne associate Dean for research um we were discussing ideas on how we can leverage being a Hispanic serving institution together we want to make sure that we're working together in service of our students and really partnering up for future work but also for some research opportunities um our lgbtqia plus flag raising um was a beautiful way to celebrate our students um there it was really beautiful to be joined by congresswoman Sarah Jacobs but to also see um students and hear their voice and their experience at our schools and see them as Leaders as well I wanted to offer a update on our lcff our final push for collecting this these forms before the October 31st deadline our data team and site leaders have been working hard at focusing on the collection of

014these forms and I'd like to highlight a few data points that show our efforts this year currently we're targeting our priority students who have been previously eligible for this status and we're at a 94.9 completion rate amongst these families we're working hard at getting the remaining 2,600 priority families to get these forms completed but overall as a districts as a district we're at 98.9 of form completion and finally we got some news today which was really beautiful um superintendent Thurman announced the 2025 California teachers of the year and among the list of finalists one of our own McKenzie Levine a third to fifth grade mile to moderate special education teacher at per Elementary School got congratulated and won this um beautiful uh position so congratulations to McKenzie and thank you for your work thank you

015for allowing me to share um the great work and the privilege that I have a super intendent to uh visit all the the areas in San Diego unified thank you thank you really appreciate the update and look forward to hearing about all the things you learn at Yale we're going to to go a little bit out of order so we are waiting on uh AJ uh from the Council of great City Schools to help us facilitate the next item so we'll move on to section F so we'll consider items F1 through F4 which are related to Personnel matters and student discipline is there a motion on these items thank you we have a motion from trusty white p and a second like from trusty Barrera uh are there any speakers on Section F all right

016any questions uh or discussion from trustees okay let's go ahead and vote trustees we need your vote all right the motion passes unanimously and we'll now consider item G1 the approval of minutes of regular and special meetings is there a motion on this item thank you we have a motion uh from board member Cruz is there a second thank you vice president Patterson and are there any speakers on G1 okay any questions or discussion from trustees okay student trustees please vote thank you and all other trustees motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring yeah we we'll keep on moving I know there's there's a Padre game that folks are looking forward to uh we'll now consider item H1 renewal of the San Diego Cooperative Charter School petition the public hearing for this petition

017was conducted on September 10th 2024 de Walsh director from the office of charter schools will present the item hi good evening so tonight's item is for the renewal of the charter for San Diego Cooperative Charter School staff recommends that the board approve the renewal of the charter for a six-year term beginning July 1 2025 and ending June 31 June 30 excuse me 2031 with the clarifications detailed on pages three to three through 10 of the staff report um I'd like to highlight a few items in the staff report uh table one is a summary of the charter petition and the renewals you'll see Co-op has been uh in operation since 2002 so it's one of our oldest Charter Schools table two has an overview of the school table three shows enrollment data for the school

018and the um High number of District uh elementary schools and and middle schools that the school pulls from it pulls from a large um sector of the the public schools in San Diego UniFi um as mentioned Pages 3 through 10 detail the clarifications made to the charter school and I'd note that the school um has submitted the final version of the charter so we do have that already from the school uh moving to page 10 uh in making our recommendation for a six-year renew renewal term the district reviewed the renewal petition the district's a505 implementation plan and the school's operations during the most recent Charter term table five summarizes the criteria in the district's ab55 implementation plan that was used to determine the length for this High performing Charter Schools renewal term um in 2020

019California Education Code established a new three-tier performance-based classification system for renewing Charter Schools the system details criteria that the state uses to determine if a charter school is high performing middle performing or low performing uh the primary criteria used are the Charter School's results on the dashboard indicators with an emphasis on the measures of academic performance in March of 2024 the state determined that San Diego Cooperative charter school is classified as a high performing school for purposes of renewal um we've included the breakdown of the criteria that school has to meet in order to be considered h performing from the state so they have to have either received the two highest performance levels so blue or green schoolwide on all of the state indicators for which it receives performance levels or received performance levels schoolwide

020that are the same or higher than the state average including for the majority of subgroups Performing Statewide below that state average uh specific to San Diego Cooperative Charter School uh for uh Casp Ela math and the English language uh progress indicator in the last two years the school had schoolwide performance levels that were the same or higher than the state average and they had performance levels that were higher than the state average in all of the subgroups that performed below the state average we've included in Table Six a summary of those results and subgroups um on page 16 we've included a table of the current um board roster for the charter school and a projected enrollment table for the Charter School uh a financial analysis was also done by District staff and it was determined

021that the school is fiscally viable and meets The District's minimum reserve requirements and that's the presentation I'm happy to answer any questions if anyone has any thank you go ahead have a very minor point of clear um this all looks good um the my point of clarification is on the English Learners category I see that there's um it's no more than 5% but that in the most recent year it's actually 5.7% Delta between between the district's El percentage and the um and the Cooperative Charters percentage and I see there's a roughly 30% decline in English language Learners do you have any you see do you understand the question that I was I'm sorry which um section in the staff it's on table table five on the analysis section on the English learner percentage so it

022kind of split it so it was a two 1% Less in 2020 20 22 23 but then 5.7% less because of a pretty substantial drop in English language English learner percentage um so I guess it's a two-part question it does seem like it exceeded the 5% in the most recent year and there was a pretty significant decline in the percentage overall yes yeah that is accurate they yeah yeah what you've said is act is is accurate okay and I know we have um well I want to offer um the representatives from San Diego Cooperative Charter School the opportunity um an equivalent time to speak about the request for Renewal do we have Representatives here sure thank you um Dedra so my understanding is that if a school is in the high performing category we can

023actually do a seven-year renewal why are we doing a six-year renewal um so table five the one that we were just looking at that summarizes is when the district approved its ab55 implementation plan we had some criterias that we would use to determine if a high performing school would get a five six or sevene term and So within this table we've highlighted where they've met the requirements for the seven-year term but there were two two spots three spots uh where they met the six-year term and so because they didn't get all of them in that seven-year term we went with the six year right come on down hi everyone my name is Sarah Saluda and I'm the executive director at San Diego Cooperative um thank you for having us tonight I just wanted to say

024thank you for extending our term um we look forward to continue working with the district and serving uh students and families in the Linda Vista area and I also wanted to extend um my thanks to the Charter office because they've really helped along the way this is the first kind of batch of renewals and um their expertise was great and so I wanted to thank you guys and I heard you're doing school visits so everyone is welcome to come to my school anytime just let me know and we will take you around and show you what we're doing thank you thank you okay is there a motion on this item to approve San Diego Cooperative Charter Schools renewal for a six-year term beginning July 1 2025 and ending June 30th 2031 thank you I second

025it and I I just have one quick question yes how how um they have 11.11% outside San Diego unified on students coming in in table three how does that compare to most Charters um it depends on the charter a lot of the charters location plays a role so if the charter is located closer to one of our boundaries the edge of our boundaries they tend to attract more out of District students um for a school that's uh squarely in our boundaries I'd say that's a fairly average range 10 to 15% um some of them will pull 18% out um some of the schools we've had in um past year not this school but other schools that have been closer to the boundary have pulled 40% from outside of District so um this is I would

026say a pretty uh average number for a school very much in the center any other questions on this item okay we have we have one speaker oh we do have a speaker AR Arthur Congo all right uh hello board and public my name is Arthur Congo associate director ctor of local advocacy for the California Charter Schools Association um just very briefly appreciative of all the work that the Charter office and the district did in collaborating with San Diego Cooperative um and we're really excited about this uh six-year recommendation fully in support of it and understanding the policies that the district has laid forth and their a505 implementation plan um so just really appreciative and supportive of San Diego Cooperative thank you thank you okay we have a motion a second we have discussion uh student

027trustees can you please vote and all other trustees the motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring congratulations we will now go to H2 um unless AJ is there AJ is here excellent we will go back to E1 uh which is approval of the 2024 through 2030 student outcomes focused governance goal and guardrail progress monitoring calendar I'd like to share some context about student outcomes focused governance since this is a new governance model for our district and community and we're just beginning to report on progress against measurable student outcome goal goals in September based on the vision and values of our community our board voted unanimously to adopt four specific and measurable goals to guide the work of Educators School staff principles central office leaders and each of us as Trustees for the next

028six years one thing that has become clear through this governance model is that student outcomes don't change unless adult behaviors do or said differently when placed in the context of governing patterns of behavior avior exhibited in the boardroom can reasonably be expected to be found paralleled in the classroom our district goals are designed to evaluate whether our students know and can do the things most aligned with what our community wants for our students and what our students want for themselves rather than focusing on what is working to achieve measurable results for students our district has spent a significant time on a revolving door of initiatives that often frustrate staff and don't achieve the districtwide results results we seek for students now with the proposed progress monitoring calendar we will have a predictable schedule for the

029board and superintendent to review agreed upon data to see what's working and what's not as we work to achieve four specific goals over the next six years as a reflection of our board's commitment to Student Success accountability and transparency we want to make sure the public is aware of when progress against student outcomes will be reported reported I'd now like to ask Dr bagula and Dr AJ cril from the Council of great City schools to provide information to the board about best practices for conducting effective goal monitoring as outlined in the attached documents Dr bagula thank you president Hazen as we adopt our monitoring calendar this evening I want to highlight the complexity that is involved in our goals and guardrails establishing a monitoring calendar setting goals having data available are all very technical and

030necessary skill sets in education the complexity within this work lies in the work in between understanding the strengths and the needs of our students setting goals as a community ensuring the appropriate resources are there to support being able to monitor growth across a year of schooling and then being able to intervene in a timely manner that is where the complexity is this is culture setting work a culture of continuous Improvement and it requires honesty transparency trust and it requires togetherness we heard in a recent High School report that our data shows only 6% of our Spotlight students are on track for graduation instead of shying away from that data point we want to share it analyze it and take action on it these regular and transparent monitoring reports will ensure that we're moving together with

031our students our Educators community and the board I thank you for this opportunity I'm looking forward to what all of this work will entail for all of our students thank you thank you and AJ I think you're up thank you for having me it's a pleasure to get to join you all uh two pieces of context setting one exactly as your superintendent described this is culture setting work the Board needs to be thoughtful about what do we want to be the culture of learning and collaboration and reflection in the classroom and then begin to look for how do we embody that in the boardroom how do we not make it some toxic data not some finger pointing or some blaming activity but just really a chance exactly as said to just be reflective in our

032practices not only in the classroom but to really demonstrate that to create a culture of that by being reflective with our practices in the poing room um and so that's really what this front this takes some uh skill building this is not something that uh school board members administrations Master overnight and so there will be some starting stops that's It's Perfectly Normal we expect what's happening in our schools to be on a continuous Improvement trajectory the expectation is here the board and superintendent collectively will also be on a continuous Improvement trajectory so with that is context setting of this evening's task is to for the board to uh adopt it's monitoring talend and this is the board's monitoring talend the the administration generally puts these together for the board because they know when data is

033available uh but it really belongs to the board to say this is when and where and how we will uh provide oversight we will monitor things than actually being being done it's the board's job DET when it will monitor the vision and Valu communi that you've cified in BR and guard rails and so um as you look over your monitoring calendar there a few things that I'd invite you to look for board members one are you positioned to monitor progress toward your goals um ideally every month of the year um to really make it clear that the top priority for the school system is educating children time to investigate are we effectively educating children and so i' look at your monitoring here our time every month and monitoring progress toward our communities Vision that we've

034adopt this our goals and then I'd look to see at least once a year in on our commun values that we've adopted as G have to be monitored every single month and the way the goals do uh but you should monitor each of them at least once per year you should monitor each of your goals ideally at least four times per year and now if things come up and you need to monitor things more frequently then you could certainly make that adjustment this is a starting point um so those are some of the key things to look for that's the key intention behind the work board members what questions do you have any questions on that point okay uh so if there are no questions U certainly the board is welcome to proceed um but

035if there's but if you'd like we can also take a few moments to talk through what are some of the things you're likely to see in the monitoring process when you actually start implementing Madam chair how would you like to yes so I'm wondering if you can share with us because it sounds like there aren't questions per se on um the specifics of the monitoring calendar um but I'm wondering if we can use this time for you to highlight um some of the specifics around the monitoring process and best practices that we should be implementing as board members when we receive I believe our next report is on math um in just a few weeks um some of the practices we should be using in terms of the types of questions we should be asking

036um and not asking as we as we move forward with this work yeah so the first thing I'll ask board members is why would the board spend time every single month monitoring goal and this is a question I have for you board members so if anybody just wants to jump in why is it important to you that you spend time each month monitoring progress towards your goals monitoring um the extent to which students are growing and the things you want them to know and be able to do this the impromptu Workshop here um well uh We've developed the goals in consultation with our community I think we've had a couple of dozen but that's building on what we had already done in Vision 2030 um so the goals uh in theory at least and I

037think in practice represent the values and interests um of our community and uh and since we have agreed as a board uh with our leadership team to hold the superintendent and leadership team more broadly accountable to those goals um it's uh it's only fitting that that's in fact what a large percentage of our time on the DI should be is is ensuring that we're making progress toward those towards those goals so is that a little of what you you're asking for so certainly what I heard is that because this represent uh this is part of how we do our job of representing our community and showing some Allegiance uh to our community fishing values um the actually yeah um any other board members why is it important to that you uh toward the goals of

038your effort which students know are able to do trusty baso in um adding to uh trusty Peterson's answer I think also really specifically being able to look at how much time we're spending on each of those areas of course we do have certain things that we have to vote on that are you know just part of being on a school board but how much percentage of time are we spending on each item and how closely is that aligning to our sofg guidelines yeah this is an important point one of the ways that the school board shows what it believes is most important is by how it spends its time so if the school board spends all the time talking about what the color the football jersey should be then members of your community can infer

039from that that the most important thing to the school board is I've watched that board meeting before um it's it's not an inspiring board meeting it it sends a message that isn't the one that that I think that board intended to send that they sent nevertheless you make is that how you all spend your time is a real signal to your staff and to your community of what you all value and you want them to know that yes we have a lot of business that we have to conduct but that we have to keep our eye on the prize of our children actually learning and and where they are then how do we replicate that whether or not what adjustments do we need to make to make sure that our staff have the support they

040uh any any other the board members why is it important to you why are you why are you traveling uh this particular path why is it important to you that you monitor progress toward your goals trusty well I think we do a lot of talking about student outcomes and results and so forth and we say that's what we're about but if we don't have a plan a pathway to get there and then monitor it as we go along we'll never get there and so that's why we have a lot of frustration because we talk about it when it comes up but then at the end of the year we still don't have any accomplishments like we want to have so by putting elements in place step by step we can monitor as we go through

041the year whether or not we're on the right path to get to where we want to go because we spend all that time the summer days of coming up with the goals and things that we want to see accomplished but will we get there we've got to monitor it and this hopefully will be plan a pathway to help us to get there by bringing it regularly not only for us but for the general public and to our students we make a commitment to them that we're going to focus on outcomes for them that's going to help them in the future and this is the of school boards that there is a lot of talk but not often a lot of walk in terms of really attending to our children learning in fact our team regularly

042um observes board meetings across the codes them minute by minute tracking exactly how the board spending their time as we've tracked board meetings hundreds and hundreds of board meetings over the years um to really look at in what way are they investing their time what we found is for most boards across the country that it's normal of their time throughout the year actually monitoring progress or whether still children are learning or not um that that is the very measure of talking to talk without walking to walk and it's not that board members are bad people they aren't trying to behave this way it's just that often they don't know what it would look like gone through the training to understand that now you begin to put that into practice but that's absolutely essential that it's

043not enough to just say the words actually have to have a plan put it in place and then look every now and then monitor progress to see is the plan working and where do where it's now' got to be willing to walk the walk talk to talk um and so these and and many other reasons that you all have chosen uh to do do this work uh I want to share a few ideas with you about what it looks like to do the work well um and we'll provide some additional materials to some of which you've already seen but we'll provide some more to give you some ideas but but a few one really try to preserve monitoring conversation time for strategy conversations so what what I mean by that is it can be really

044easy to get down into the minutia of what's happening in the district you know exactly how many pencils in pin classroom and things of that nature um at that granular level uh at that tactical of a level rarely provides a board with the information they need to make meaningful strategic systemwide decisions it's also EAS to get really deep into the techn technicalities of this okay so exactly you know what are the metric properties of this particular assessment um and again this useful information to some degree but but rarely justes getting deep into the technical aspects of the data reveal for the board ideas about how best to Pivot strategies at the system level and so the most powerful conversation the board can have in a monitoring context isn't a technical conversation or a tactical conversation

045it's actually a strategic conversation so that's the first idea that I want to impart is really use this as opportunity for generative dialogue among the board members and the superintendent to really dig into uh what what is what are our strategies how do we know whether response when they are working what is that response when they're not working and and then at the end of the conversation really looking down the road what what impact does this have or what are things that we as board members should expect in the future based on what we've learned based on the Strategic and the gener conversation that we've had this evening and so that's the first thing that I would encourage is just understand this would be really challenging because for most Bo bers our our natural inclination

046is toward tactical things like what's happening on the ground in the classroom right now you know in Mrs Johnson class uh but that's that's not the systemwide Strategic conversation that's really going to help you cause the most benefit for your students in this context um and so leaning into the Strategic conversation rather than technical tactical is something that our team will work a lot to support you all on largely by watching your meetings and then providing you feedback you know you asked this particular question but really that wasn't a strategic question that was really more of a tactical question here's what a strategic question might have looked like instead and so providing you all that level of granularity and support um as you prepare to do really effective monitoring so that's one idea I wanted

047to share what questions do you have about this distinction between technical tactical and strategic conversations as part of your monitoring protocols what questions do you have and I do as people are thinking about that want to refer everyone to the hand out uh in your meeting materials the technical versus tactical versus strategic as you're thinking through these differences or any questions you have so this is with the item behind the monitoring calendar does anyone have any questions on technical tactical versus strategic questions okay and unfortunately you all had this material for some time so you've had plenty of time to um to absorb it all so that that's one idea is to really focus on the strategy the second idea that I want to leave you with this evening around what really makes effective goal

048monitoring in these monitoring conversations around psychological safety um something that you said earlier Madam chair is that what happen to the boardroom Echoes uh in the classroom um this is one of those areas where that particularly can come to life if the board has toxic conversations about student performance data in the boardroom you permission there to be toxic conversations about student performance data in the classroom and so in the same way that you want data to speak about what students know um in one particular snapshot but it's not intended to tell you who they are what they're worth or what they're capable of it's just you know what is the knowledge and skill of snapshot and and you want to really Inspire your staff to have healthy conversations around that and not you beat children

049up with data but really use it to help them uh be thoughtful about their own performance and growth in the same way that you want that to be true in your classroom a way of helping encourage that is to have that be true in your boardroom and so when you're having these monitoring conversations and you will be looking at very real data about what students currently know and are able to do at a given snapshot uh there will be a Temptation that when you see really excellent data that like well those must be the good people and when you see data that doesn't quite meet your aspirations well those must be the bad people that's that is not an effective conversation that that will create a psychologically unsafe that will create a toxic work environment

050um for your senior staff that will trickle down to your classroom staff and so what there is to do is to be constantly looking at how is this a reflection of what adult Behavior change I need to contemplate um what could I what is this data telling me that I need to do differently as an adult on behalf of the students I serve and as you come at the conversations from that perspective not who who's good and who's bad who's right and wrong uh but but what are our students telling us through this data that we need to be doing differently as adults and and and what is my specific role in that that that will help you create a more psychologically safe space while you're getting involved the moment you find yourselves blaming or

051shaming either your staff or your students you've really gone to a toxic place that will do more harm than good and so this idea of psychological safety is the second key idea that I want to leave you with today uh around what is effective goal monitoring look like what question do you have about psychological safety and the role of the board of um of of demonstrating uh what that looks like in the boardroom uh as a way of creating culture for that in the classroom what questions do you have about psychological safety and G any questions about creating psychological safety from the Das okay well the the benefit of board members all doing their pre-reading and homework is that there's not a lot of questions that's right that's the the other good news is you

052know as your coaching team you know we're available you know pretty much around the clock and so as you all are digging into this and you're wanting to do really well um here's a couple quick strategies one uh do your homework in advance just like you have tonight you know do the pre-reading and so on and so forth uh it's really important that your staff get you the monitoring information uh we recommend a minimum of seven days in advance uh I think you all are planning for a little bit more than that uh but that gives you time as board members to really dig into the material and do the pre-reading this is one of those areas where it's really really important uh to do the pre-reading uh another key tip as you all are

053getting ready to go down this road um is develop questions in it um and there's the three types that we talked about earlier technical tactical and strategic you can develop all those in advance the technical and tactical make sure to send those to your superintendent in advance so that she has an opportunity to uh get that information together for you your strategic ones you can send those in advance or not but the more you develop the easier will be for you to fine- tune them to ensure that they're actually strategic in the ways you intend what you can also do is as you're developing your sets of questions in advance from reading materials you can reach out to your coaching team and ask us hey could you look over these questions for us and give

054us some feedback uh here's what I'm trying to understand does this question really help us get at that in a strategic way and we're absolutely help uh happy to support you in that way really month by month sitting down with the monitoring reports and going through with each of you individually and going through your questions with each of you individually if that would really set you up for Success so those are just a couple of ideas of things that you could be doing now um in advance of your getting started on this journey to goal monitoring to really set your board up to be successful with this work um any uh questions or comments uh before I uh start to get out of your way let you get back to the rest of your meeting

055yeah we have a question from trusty baso yeah um thank you AG for that I just was wondering if there's a recommendation from the council in terms of like percentage of time spent on questions in the actual board meeting versus like percentage of time I know you're saying to prep in advance but is there like kind of a recommendation of how much time spent on questions should be in the board meeting itself and how much time in advance of the board meeting in terms of like you know emailing questions or speaking with the superintendent um yeah uh so let me speak to this from a few different angles U one first the really really big picture the big picture is that the board wants to get to a place where you investing about 50% of

056your time each month into monitoring progress towards your goals um now there's a whole lot that goes into that uh some of your uh student celebrations as part of that when you're celebrating students who um have grown relative to the goal that you're monitoring that evening for example uh so say you are uh looking at a goal about sixth grade science maybe you bring in your students uh your fifth and sixth graders who've grown the most in science in the last quarter uh that could definitely be a part of your monitoring so it's not just data it's also you know again culture setting culture building and looking at all the ways this exist um both qualitative and quantitative in your school system um and so ideally 50% of your time each month as a board

057has spent monitoring progress fade your goals so it's so there's less of a recommendation for one in particular meeting but really saying let's put all of our me the minutes for all of our meetings together so say we met three times in August and across at a 100 minutes so the question is did we spend at least 50 of those minutes monitoring progress toward our goals so that's the first uh way I want to respond to your question uh the second way I want to respond to your question is for each monitoring report we tend to find that um to really do a deep dive into a particular area of the goals it's kind of hard to do in less than 45 minutes and frequently takes around 90 minutes or so for one particular interim

058goal um and so for that reason we generally recommend folks monitor one two or three interim goals per month uh depending on what your how your calendar is set up no more than that uh because you won't be able to do a deep dive you you'll run out of brain energy very quickly um but if you are just monitoring two different interim goals maybe interim goal uh 2.1 or 2A uh 3.1 you know 3A or something then expect to spend someone in that neighborhood 45 to 90 minutes um on each of those individually um that's somewhere in that range is where a lot of boards um um end up in terms of how they're of how long it takes for them to get through monitoring conversation and the third way I want to answer your

059question so the first way is global try to spend 50% of your time over the month the second way uh the second is just a little bit more tactical you usually spend 45 to 90 minutes uh per um individual uh interim goal the third thing that I uh I want to respond is that you asked about sending questions in advance you definitely want to send all of your Technical and tactical questions in advance because that way you'll have that information back so they can help you uh have a more strategic conversation at the deis and so getting all of the technical and tactical questions out of the way in advance empowers you to have a more strategic conversation in the meeting and that's really the most value that you'll be able to add is to

060really have a strategic conversation not a really technical or tactical one but what I would recommend in order to make sure that all of that is credibly transparent and the community has access to the same information you all do is that the staff uh what we generally recommend most districts wind up doing is they'll collect all the questions that all the board members asked in advance all those Technical and tactical questions they'll collect all of those and they'll provide an answer to all of those in writing back to the board of course but then they usually will attach that Q&A document to the agenda so that if community members are curious about what was the pre homework that board members did uh what were those Technical and tactical questions that easily transparent to the public

061and um if somebody wanted to you know do a public information request they could certainly get that but what we're saying is you know make it easier on people um just elevate your level of transparency in that regard and all of those questions that are asked in advance um just add them to attach them to that particular monitoring item in the agenda so that that's easy if Community folks want to know what the back ground questions were they can see that and right now we are now in the habit of sharing questions in advance and those are Consolidated we received the written answers are we getting I can't remember are they attached to the agenda or will we do that okay so it sounds like moving forward though we can share those publicly um so

062that that information is available to everybody um and I think unless anyone else has other qu I was going to say but that's helpful to know because we're sharing questions but he's talking specifically about like Technical and tactical so that's something that we can kind of be aware of when we're looking at our type of questions to get those out of the way so that when we have the actual conversation we're all kind of yes thank you okay very good and I think uh truste Cruz yeah I just want to quickly say um thank you for these guidelines and I want to highlight uh under the effective gold modering document especially I really like how succinct and direct it is written you know like don't hide the data don't sugarcoat the data do your homework

063uh you know at the end of the day we're here to work towards these goals and no matter how bluntly they're written you know we will work very hard towards them and follow those guidelines so thank you we often follow the wisdom of brne brown that uh uh Clarity is kindness that's right that's right and I also want to just remind everyone I know everyone took a look at this before but I think again as we head into our uh monitoring conversation around problem solving and Mathematics next time um let's remind ourselves about these their current performance questions um that are included um strategic questions that we can be asking so as we sort of build this musle around strategic questioning um if you're unsure exactly what to ask there are some really great guidelines

064and AJ really appreciate your invitation to reach out to coaches if any trustees um have questions need feedback in in advance of that first monitoring report so thank you for that absolutely and I would just um saying a in a word of closing we absolutely have uh working with his governance team um you know regardless of what's Happening you all manage to maintain a focus you all manage to keep moving forward you all manage to uh keep trying to figure out how do how do we improve as a governing body um that is um while desirable not Universal um and so for being such a a wonderful uh partner to work with certainly you know we work with um most of the districts across the council um but for being being such an amazing partner

065to work with uh thank you and thank you for letting us be part of this journey with you well thank you for your coaching and support and I think you you were talking about walking the walk versus Talking the talk um so we've been talking a lot and I think we're really looking forward to in a few weeks really digging in um doing some meaningful monitoring and continuing uh really to move the needle for students and making sure uh that our students are achieving academic success success um and more importantly Wellness as well so thank you and to be continued all right well we do have uh an action item here which is to approve the monitoring calendar is there a motion on this item a motion is there a second thank you we have

066a motion and a second are there any speakers on E1 we had a virtual request but the person is not online so if Colette Kavanaugh is present you can come and speak Colette Kavanagh then there are no other speakers on this item okay uh any final questions or discussion Jesse Barrera thank you president haen one of the things that we discussed at one of our workshops and you know I'm not suggesting that we move to this um maybe even this calendar or the school year but is the idea that when we're doing our monitoring uh conversations that we might actually get out of this format and get out into the community and um use a format similar you know to our community conversations um small group discussion you know a chance for people to really

067uh participate rather than having their you know three minutes at the Das so I'd like us to think about that a little bit um I really like the idea of breaking up uh board meetings uh one meeting to focus on business that would happen here and a meeting that when we get to focusing on outcomes is out in the community so just something for us to think about and discuss yeah no I think that's great and I really appreciated you know what AJ shared about making sure that we're using monitoring as an opportunity to really celebrate and shine a light on students and so maybe thinking about how and where that can happen within the context of monitoring all right we have a motion and a second student trustees please vote and all other trustees

068okay the motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring the board will receive its first monitoring report as I mentioned at the next board meeting when we'll review progress towards District goal three problem solving and Mathematics and we will now move to H2 is that correct okay H2 is our report on air conditioning um or actually all of our HVAC system so we'll receive an informational report on the status and performance of our District's heating ventilation and air conditioning systems Dr bagula would you like to introduce the item I don't see you on the screen thank you president Hazen this presentation serves as a followup regarding our status of our HVAC units I'd like to welcome John Hensley our senior executive director of operations and Brian M director of operations to provide this update thank

069you both for being here so good evening superintendent Pula um board President is on and fellow trustees my name is Brian M I'm the director of physical plant operations department and I'm here to co-present with John on our HVAC systems while our facilities planning and construction our FPC Partners design and install the majority of our systems out there it's physical plan operations responsibility to maintain those systems can I oh I've got the clicker here learn how to use it I don't great so is it okay so real quick overview uh though 92% of our 6,000 plus classrooms were not adversely affected during the recent Heat Wave we recognize the 8% that were during a 30-day period between August August 12th and September 12th we acknowledge the impacts it had on our students and staff we

070also understand the Nexus between Clean safe and well-maintained classrooms and student achievement we're prepared to discuss the cause and effects of these failures we'll briefly touch on the types of systems our current status and our path forward so under cause and effects we experienced excessive heat with the warming climate we are seeing additional stress to equipment due to longer run times we have a backlog of deferred maintenance we're currently in a reactive maintenance mode meaning replacement of our components upon failure to extend the useful life of the systems as as opposed to replacing costly repairs we have an aging inventory of systems and components in fact one-third of our districts hbac systems are either past or nearing their end of the useful life life cycle range from 10 to 30 years depending on the systems

071we also experienced intermittent Run cycles to capture utility savings during break periods which added another strain to our system and what that means is turning off and on the system when you turn the system back on uh the system is compromised once in a while so um newer equipment comes with components that require higher higher level of web web access to diagnose so our our um technicians out in the field they don't just have the regular tools for hvc anymore they're out there with their laptops as well so it's gotten really sophisticated building codes continue to get more and more stringent newer systems are tied to Door and Window contact so if your AC's on and the window opens or the door opens it shuts off um CO2 Contra levels are monitored and adjusted by

072the equipment we we continue to experience supply chain issues with long lead times while sourcing equipment and though we're appreciated for the great work that our FPC Partners continually do on the new construction with construction comes inadvertent impacts so interruptions impacts to instulation roof duck work leaks that we work directly with our HBC Partners to work through the warranty periods on so I'm going to try to get us to the next so I wanted to provide examples of the different HVAC systems that we different HVAC systems excuse me on our campuses our building automation is extremely complicated the system remotely monitors controls and schedules utilizing webbased controls and serves approximately 70% of the units that are out in the field Chiller plants and variable refrigerant volume vrfs is what we call them are high complexity

073high efficiency both systems serve entire sites large portions of sites and our vrfs Also may just control single or multiply multiple buildings on site I liken the vrf system as it's so sophisticated to servicing your EV Vehicles you wouldn't take it to just any mechanic you take it to a certified trained technician um our package unit split split systems serve multiple and single spaces within a building they're our most common system medium complexity medium efficient efficiency but most reliable and that's the majority of our systems that we have out on our SES and then there's window and wall mounted units those are typically in our Portables and relocates as our FPC Partners continue to build new construction those go away um we also maintain non-conditioned spaces with ventilation and exhaust systems in our gymnasiums restrooms

074kitchens um as these systems controls continue to evolve the maintenance industry needs to keep up at this time I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to Mr Hensley thank you sir good evening all I'll provide an overview of the PO expenditures for calendar the calendar year 2023 totaling $77 million this pie chart includes both budgeted resources and other funding sources such as grants essr funding reimbursement from other departments or schools I'll start with how we prioritize HVAC work orders health and safety are our highest priority fire smoke burning smell Etc will Top the priority list every time then we consider student needs age numbers of students impacted access to outdoor air location Inland versus closer to the coast are a few of the additional factors used to prioritize our response times the haax slice

075of pie also includes Esser and Cal shape funding pop applied for and receive Cal shaped grants to inspect 38 schools for proper operation this grant included inspection of mechanical equipment minor repairs testing and balancing of the system to reset equipment to original design standards and installation of CO2 sensors in every classroom currently we are reviewing the potential for obtaining additional Cal shape funding for 57 more schools filtration preventive and plan maintenance are also included in the overall cost for maintaining hvx systems we also utilize contract delivery methods when possible to diagnose and repair complex systems as Brian shared some of our hva systems require factory certified tech technicians to maintain the manufacturer's warranty when lack of heating or cooling is negatively affecting the learning environment and cost repairs exceed bid bid thresholds we have pursued

076emergency declarations to continue Educational Services for students overall we are completing roughly 83% of HVAC work orders received each year so our backlog continues to grow this also includes requests for heating during the winter months with that being said we consistently review operational needs when considering Staffing and funding adjustments which Brian will cover in a minute but we must remain mindful of the whole picture it was just eight months ago we were responding to leaks and flooding on our campus campuses from the terrific winter storms as we look ahead we must plan for our move away from natural gas to all electric facilities and gasoline vehicles go away and we we're going to have electric vehicles in the future so there are many factors to consider when planning facility maintenance needs for our district thank

077you for your time and I'll turn it back over to Brian thank you John thank you John uh regarding our path forward so under resources will continue to manage our budget to address our immediate need we are currently reviewing allocations within the categories John shared earlier we're looking to increase the hbac slice of the pie which will will impact other categories we'll continue to look for additional grant opportunities and work with our FBC Partners on a replacement plan to reduce our backlog and just to be clear this isn't just a San Diego Unified School District or a state of California problem this is systemic Nationwide um K12 education has been underfunded for decades are there areas we can do better within our current budget absolutely we're reviewing and updating our processes moving forward processes including

078increasing our preventive maintenance assigning staff by areas or school to build systems component familiarity and increase accountability going to revisit our Contracting methods update our position descriptions with competitive salaries to draw the talent and utilize automated systems to support the dispatching technicians with Cal shape we'll commit resources to manage additional grant funding opportunities and under replacement plan and future maintenance costs we'll work with our FBC Partners to develop replacement schedules update our preferred equipment lists and Design Systems to mitigate the impact on future maintenance costs Code Compliance will continue to increase our familiarity with California building code Title 24 ashrey standards and oer requirements our desired outcome is to reduce our backlog and distributions to the educational environment we're still researching through our professional networks to determine an appropriate metric where we can measure by

079how we know the goal should be better than the 92% that we recently had we're committed to continuing to review our process for missed opportunities and improvements in addition we will continue to engage with our stakeholders to develop replacement plan identify appropriate budget to secure to secure the resources and implement the plan all in support of properly serving students and staff in closing we are committed to being good stewards with our resources ensuring we have a clean safe and well-maintained learning environment for our students staff and Community to thrive and belong that uh ends our presentation open it up for questions thank you Mr Hensley and Mr M are there any speakers on H2 okay any questions or discussion by trustees trusty WHUR Payne I want to say thank you um for all the work

080you're doing to try to keep 15,000 systems operating um when I I saw the articles in um I think it was an ed an air in Baltimore someplace and then looking at other school districts that don't even have air conditioners and uh I thought wow we have them and folks are complaining because some of them are breaking um I this just seems overwhelming to me because I'm just one person I had an air conditioning unit it didn't last three years without needing a new one so and I'm thinking about all these 15,000 and what you're doing um the area where I am concerned is in getting help I I don't think there's some urgency within me for our students to start learning to help uh to go into these fields there are jobs out there

081related to this folks can't hire enough people and I just kind of feel like we're we're just kind of lazily going through the tulip path and and there are jobs out there there's work to be done where people can be paid on good money to help keep us flowing and we have a we have the pool here with our students there's like fire we've got to move fast to get this done because there's some connection there's a connection between us not producing out of our 95,000 students enough to go in this field to to help us to keep all of these units going and as you said it's no longer just using a screw but they they said you can control my AC on my phone without me being there so that's technology and we've

082got to do something about it that's what I'm I'm concerned about how can we help you to help us to help our students to help overall that's my frustration thank you thank you trusty Barrera uh thank you president haen yeah just building on that and I think Dr wer Payne just took us to a really important place which is about um you know career Pathways for our students my question was just more about as through the bond program FPC is installing more complex units what kind of training needs do we have within our staff um so that they're able to handle those units so that's a real good question um we try to keep up with the latest technology technology moves rapidly um so we we are behind technology we need to get better um

083and training is we owe that to our staff right we ow we own the tools the training and the opportunity to be successful and so that's that's on thank you any yeah trusty baso thank you I um just had a question around that you mentioned about construction so and this is just I just was I wasn't clear on so if there is new construction going on at the school sites do they upgrade the does the does that always include new air conditioning units in each case or not okay so not always so it depends on the the scope of work and and uh the budget they currently have for that project um so it's it's kind of a mixed bag six of one half dozen of the other so um on a lot of the

084wh site modernization projects um we do see some HVAC systems getting replaced um others we don't the new schools typically have brand new systems and those are more the SOP ated systems we are working closely with Le group and our FPC Partners to ensure that uh we're looking at at long-term maintenance costs down the road and not just looking at The Upfront costs okay well appreciate this report and the commitment to improving uh getting up to speed on the backlog I think really appreciate the feedback around um um the the training um I guess in terms of I know you said you don't yet have a metric in terms of what we're working towards um in terms of how many classrooms it might be reasonable could be impacted say during a heat wave like we

085just experienced right we're not going to have 100% of units cranking on all cylinders um but I do look forward to you coming back to us with what that metric is right what do success look like what are we working towards um so that we know if we're there or if we're not and I think the other thing that's particularly as important as we navigate through this incredibly challenging budget year um is the board understanding the choices um we need to be making as it relates to HVAC I heard you say as we consider you know spending a bigger slice of the pie on HVAC um other things obviously you we need to spend less on I think really engaging the board in that conversation through the budget planning process and upcoming budget workshops so

086that we're really aware and that the community is really aware um of the choices that we need to make here um so appreciate the work you're doing the focus on on getting better because we know that when kids are in comfortable learning environments that often they do better and so really a nice um sort of complement to what we just talked about sort of in terms of the student outcomes we're driving towards we know that having classrooms that are cool and comfortable will contribute to those positive outcomes we seek so thank you for your work okay we'll now consider items oh H3 is that right H3 and four all right uh are there any oh is there H3 and four approval of termination of a trust fund and revisions to annual resolutions is there a

087motion on these items thank you we have a motion and looked like was that a second thank you from trusty baldis uh are there any speakers on H3 or H4 okay I I just want to make one comment for people who are trying to start trust and um endowments and all of that my advice PR is for you to look at this this is $200,000 and I've heard of people saying oh $10,000 and let's do an endowment uh no it doesn't quite work that way you need a lot of money for endowments and trusts and so forth so thank you thank you uh any other discussion on this okay uh student trustees please vote thank you and all other trustees all right motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring we'll now move to

088section I uh and we'll consider items i1 through i37 the superintendent's consent agenda items I6 i1 i12 i28 i32 and i33 were previously withdrawn by staff Dr beula are there any items on the consent agenda that you'd like to highlight for us tonight I have no report tonight thank you okay thank you and trusty WHUR pay I believe you'd like to pull i23 for discussion I would thank all right and I'll move the others thank you so we have a motion on all of the other items in I uh without i23 is there a second we do do have a speaker on I4 all right uh so we have a motion we have a second and let's go ahead to the speaker on I4 Willa Weston oh all right all right thank you all right

089so we have no speakers on this item we have a motion a second let's go ahead and vote on all items in I without i23 uh student trustees please vote thank you and all other trustees motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring and now let's go ahead uh and discuss i23 trusty whiters pay this is an item that has been in the media a lot that I think we need to hear from staff since is here and um Lee is Lee Doug is going to come forward and share thank you and while uh he's coming up I do want to remind everyone that i23 is around the turf field and track surface replacement at Lincoln High School so um uh Lincoln High School um Stadium area track and field experienced quite a significant

090intrusion of groundwater underneath the track and field which created some differential expansion basically the surface became Gump bumpy because you had with lenses of clay that would absorb the groundwater and create an uneven surface which created a you know not a good plane condition um so this item is a Construction contract to replace the field but also it's not a typical field replacement in that we're not just replacing the surface that's worn out but we're actually going in and removing the entire field and drainage system below and then we're going to put in a layer of soil cement um that will basically um keep the um groundwater from intruding into the area under the field when we're while while the contractor is doing that work we're going to have a a geotechnical consultant do some

091analysis see if we can figure out where the groundwater is coming from we're not sure whether it's naturally occurring we saw a lot of um problems when we had that significant rain and choice Creek um issues um so uh during construction we're going to be doing some testing and Analysis and trying to find out whether it's a um naturally occurring groundwater or or coming from um water pipes we're pretty sure that it's not coming from our water system because our water meters aren't spinning and um and um I guess that's about all I had to say about this project it's a um uh it it this is not unique um um this has happened before we had a similar problem at script tranch high school years ago um where we had to shut down the

092field for a year and and do similar uh renovation so thank you all right well is there a motion on i23 okay we have a motion from trusty Whitehurst pay is there a second thank you a second from trusty baso and any any speakers on i23 okay uh let's go ahead and vote student trustees thank you and all other trustees i23 passes unanimously with the student board members concurring we'll now receive public testimony on non-agenda items Miss sultz have we received any requests for non-agenda comment yes we have four person speakers and one virtual I'll call the virtual person first Colette kavana I believe is now available and can you remind everyone how much time they have you have three minutes each three minutes per speaker hi sorry I don't know if I can turn

093on my I don't know why my camera is not on that's okay we hear you loud and clear please go ahead okay great so um my name is kit kavana I'm a Lebanese American and I've taught history and geography to grades 6 through 12 for 6 years and I have a Ms in education and I wanted to speak tonight actually about the necessity of mental health support and appropriate accommodations for our Arab American and Muslim Students right now so with the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and the daily Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians as well as attacks on is attacks on Yemen and Syria many of the Arab and Muslim Students in our community are regularly receiving devastating news about family and friends being killed beloved cities full of memories being leveled my own mother lives

094in Beirut so people are receiving constant updates from family members who they're concerned about and in education we talk a lot about addressing the emotional and institutional barriers that prevent children from thriving in the classroom and the trauma and grief that our Arab and Muslim Students are experiencing right now um really needs to be considered and accommodations need to be made to better support them especially with our middle and high school students um who have more unfiltered access to social media they're watching the live streaming of the genocide of their family and friends on a daily basis and the trauma of this really impacts their executive functioning their memory retention their emotional regulation and and as I can attest in my experiences as a teacher and as many as all teachers I think can kids

095don't always have the language to express the effects of Oppression or grief or trauma um but we as Educators and people as parents you can if you're attentive you're going to notice shifts in their behaviors and their attitudes their ability to complete their work in a timely manner to focus in class again like their emotional regulation as I said before and so we develop individualized education plans for students who require different supports in order to make their educational experience more Equitable and I'm just here to ask for official accommodations to be made um for Arab and Muslim Students in our community who are so tragically impacted by this genocide um so if that can be either worked into existing IEPs or if it can just be taken into account by their teachers and administrators so

096that they're given the support that they need and that teachers can re recognize that the students are going through something that they may be easily triggered they're not always going to be able to prevent triggers of course but recognizing and sort of keeping an eye out for those things in our students and recognizing if they're not finishing their work in a timely matter if they are experiencing a lot of grief and tenness or depression sort of keeping tabs on that and making sure that they have the supports necessary in the schools and in the classrooms thank you thank you yes we do have one other virtual speaker Doris barar are you available Doris yes I am can you hear me yes you have three minutes great okay I thought you were I wasn't on your

097agenda anyway uh Mr crabill's comments on psychological safety really spoke to me regarding the plight and reality of Arab American students strategy means that we need to sequence progress towards balance the are AR students are out of balance in terms of how they they are being treated and for decades now we have been vulnerable and the last year we are more so especially Palestinian students who have been suffering as Colette said many with uh dozens of family members who have died and then watching it live streamed entire families have been lost in Gaza and the relatives are here in San Diego we have asked for Psychological Resources in the past just just this year in fact in our orderly meeting about a month and a half ago but it goes nowhere please identify this reality

098and let's get started we've actually been asking for these kinds of resources since after 911 but instead our students were treated terribly bullying continued we're now in an intergenerational slant towards failure it is failure much of the information about the Arab world is based on propaganda and and this is also about education it's essential that those pieces of information that are propaganda must be cleaned out of the educational materials they are Rife with tropes misinformation and misrepresentation the sources we use for historical information and framing are vetted and reliable they include respected Scholars from top universities who are Israeli Palestinian American European African Asian and from all religions and ethnicities these Scholars agree on the sequence of historic IAL and religious events over recent and past history anthropology archaeology Etc these resources are available if

099our students were better educated and our our our our teachers were better educated there's a good chance that our Arab and Muslim Students may get the help that they need they need help immediately this is an emergency it's past an emergency and this school board has got to do something and guide us in doing something Colette has experience in this she just spoke and I would um defer to her for the sequence of things but we need your guidance because I work for the American Arab anti discrimination committee we don't get we don't get somewhere on something we call our attorneys so please guide us we want to be constructive in this matter thank you very much thank you and we do have five in person speakers Samar Ismail you have three minutes good evening

100school board members my name is SAR isma and I am the community organizer with the Council of American Islamic relations and I come here before you today as not only a concerned like Community member but also someone who is a former student in a California School District system I grew up Muslim I grew up Palestinian I even had experiences in the past like in way in 2011 where a teacher at one point played a video describing all Palestinians as terrorists in a class and that's very harmful and upsetting especially for a young kid I was in middle school and I had to stand up going against our teacher and this is what happens when we don't have a critical cultural sensitivity training for our teachers because again like all the speakers before me before said

101this is a difficult time this is an unreal time watching a genocide unfold on our screens and obviously there's political turmoil especially in discussion with this right so teachers don't really know how to address this nor do they know what their students are feeling how do you comfort a student who just lost dozens dozens of family members or like me I'm watching my Village get destroyed on my phone literally watching a bulldozer go right through it's unreal but we obviously as Muslim orgs and adab orgs want to assist you guys with having a proper program to ensure that your teachers know how to handle these conversations rather than have something harmful that could lead to further problems down the line to be proactive in a sense right having some kind of um cultural sensitivity training

102to have some kind of talking points so that way the student feels seen because I cannot begin to tell you how amazing it was to finally have a teacher who knew the difference between Palestine and Pakistan because trust me it's actually taken years years for teachers to acknowledge the difference but that small thing goes a long way for students who have felt underrepresented for a long time also seeing and learning about our history in an ethnic studies curriculum would be amazing working with local Scholars to teach about adabs and Muslims because after all we are a part of this Society right why aren't we teaching about it let's break down all the harmful Nar narratives that have been built since 911 and teach our students and teach this younger generation what it means and to

103be a part of this community and all the different and diverse members of this community and we're here happily ready to assist with this as a Muslim organization who represents well over a 100,000 um Muslims throughout California we're here we want to do this this is why we're here to represent our Muslims and make sure their L represented in schools because by not doing it you're signaling that these students don't belong at these schools as much as the others and that's why we ask that you please work with us on having some kind of toolkit to hand out to teachers and to get some kind of ethnic studies program where Muslims are included thank you thank you Omar abush good even evening school board members my name is Omar abush sham and I am representing

104K the Council on American Islamic relations so what we're seeing in in Lebanon and across the Middle East it can't be ignored it can't be hidden or discouraged to talk about it's something that is affecting our students on campuses and across everywhere it's not just on campuses in their daily lives they see people dying they see people being killed and murdered and slaughtered so providing mental and psychological Health Services on our campuses can totally change the way these students are exposed to these things can change the way these students react to these things many of our students are suffering on campuses as they see the Slaughters of their family their friends and many that they and many that look like them are just being killed and slaughtered so these students they often face challenges like

105other than this they face discrimination islamophobia and the increase of misinformation which is going around right now and it can sign signicantly impact significantly impact their mental health Mental Health Services that are tailored specifically to these students to the to their experiences can help them navigate the pressures of school while feeling supported and understood many Muslim and aop students encounter bullying or exclusion due to their faith or their ethnicity which honestly it it hurts many students experiences all across campuses across San Diego County and in San Diego uh providing culturally sensitive uh counselors who are trained to understand the specific issues facing these communities is something that is a necessity something that we have to work on the this support can help students develop resilience and equip them with strategies to cope with this emotional

106strain and that may arise from this incorporating Mental Health Services into school environments also promotes inclusivity and acknowledging and addressing what marginalized groups face across San Diego and across the United States mental health professionals in this school district should work to create awareness among staff and Foster understanding of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds in doing so this school district could be an example for other school districts Across the Nation and across California where Muslims and Arab students feel accepted protected and feel supported both mentally and emotionally these services are key to promoting a more inclusive and supportive atmosphere where all students can strive this can be done through collaboration with care and the ADC we would love to help out we would love to be there to provide uh NE necessary cultural competency training to

107these teachers to these Educators so they can help these students address certain issues that are actually hurting them thank you very much thank you Ila Weston I barely need a microphone if anybody knows me first thing I want to congratulate all of you for finding a solution instead of layoffs when I look at each one of you I'm seeing a smile coming back because I know you and that means the world to me we have the greatest unified board since I've been speaking at school boards and that's the truth this is the first place my 5-year-old son at the time was able to speak how he felt when he was taught taught you know different and right now we have our Islamic Arabic neighbors and friends having to witness mass destruction of their country and

108they're not even being identified properly I met one young lady who's at Claremont University and she was called a terrorist a towel head and she said I'm from Lebanon you know the students are preaching what they're learning at home and I hear often when we're afraid and concerned about having the right amount of money we don't have to worry about money we have to worry about Partnerships I heard earlier about mental health that is one passion of mine and right now our students need it we heard them speaking how it made them feel and they live here they had to skip their first graduation walk we can create Partnerships with USD I just walked in to the psychology department and they said we've never even been approached by the school district to do that we

109would love to do that and then they can get more credits and that way a student will always have somebody trained in that therapy we could work with schools that have good film districts that way as my friend stated some teachers are affected they're different they'll put their personal opinion in but if we create video shorts which I've heard from San Marcos they're willing to do every group I reached out he would love to be that so it can be shown in the school one of the ways I raised my son is at two he watched any moment he wanted a family is a family by Rosie O'Donnell and that represented our lgbtq communities and it was such a beautiful way to teach my son but guess what it breaks my heart when I'm meeting

110with my friends and my Islamic Arabic brothers and sisters and they're concerned for their children so besides Partnerships with a film area where we could have little skits and in addition to that we need these students to sign a contract K through 12 campuses should be no bullying no racism no discrimination that's a safe Zone and we need the parents to sign up with it too we all know and it saddens me that if we talk about the ethnic groups that have been attacked it would never stop so let's think about contracts I'll send an email to the people I have email contact with because that will save us money help our students and also put mental health in our schools all over and Madame President and Mr Vice President and my friend Sabrina and

111and Sharon I know you're capable of this and the students are too so thank you for hearing me out and Richard Richard has seen my son speak at the school board and thinks he's a hero so let's do this for the students let's work together thank you the next speaker is Bill you have three minutes um hey my name is Bill I rep I am from a Democratic Socialist of America before I speak IID like to talk a little bit of my background uh I grew up in Dallas but I spent most of my school life in Shanghai and no matter how tough and brutal the school system there was I am always grateful that I never had to live through one school shooting drill and um we've heard these amazing speakers talk about the

112need for anti-bullying to combat racism islamophobia and uh and violence in schools and I think I would like to provide you know some of my observations when I went to college after uh I came back from Shanghai uh I was I went to UCLA and one of the first Jewish friends that I ever met on campus was my roing team teammate and he would always invite us to shevet um and and um one day when during our team breakfast when someone started to talk about oper a protective Edge which was the war in Gaza in 2014 he started to shout out that he has never knew what a Palestinian is and it made me feel very uncomfortable I was I was a silly 18-year- old back then so I couldn't explain why but I felt

113that maybe I shouldn't go to um you know his his events afterwards because what if he's going to say something similar to me later on after uh I moved to Chicago and for a bunch of reasons I lived in the third worst ghetto in Chicago right next to a torture house ran by the Chicago PD I started to understand these types of things these are rhetoric used to dehumanize people they're they say these things I'm not just saying Jewish people because most of the rhetoric is from non-jewish people uh they say these things because they want to dehumanize them and once you once you call someone a non-human you can do whatever ever you want to them and U I don't think uh anyone here would agree to that and um you know as a

114UCLA alumni I have to point out that you know there were Beverly Hills High School students going to UCLA during Palestine solidarity encampment yelling the nword and rape threats at people I I remind you they are high school students they're like 17 18 years old and uh they already had Nazi friends like this was reported by independent reporters and uh and CNN so um you know this this is a very serious problem that we're talking about and um I fear well I have a lot of trust in you I fear that Beverly Hills might be a loss cause but um you know we we really need to treat this this this epidemic of bullying of racism and violence very seriously because I mean once you go up a ladder into into college um on your

115own and uh trust me c chancellors will not be our allies um UCLA's Chancellor Jean blog was cheering as uh these high school kids and their Nazi friends were attacking uh UCLA students so we really need to rely uh on you guys and and of course our student representatives to to foster a more welcoming a more peaceful and a more diverse environment here thank you tazin nazam good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you for giving us this opportunity to address you all I will just bring your attention to your mission statement and talk about that the San Diego Unified School District has a mission to allow all students to graduate with skills motivation curiosity and resilience to succeed in their choice College of career in order to lead and participate my dear friends have spoken

116earlier so I won't repeat all of that but as a parent for my student my Stu my child when they attend s dieo Unified School District for them to graduate the school needs to create a safe and secure environment for them to be able to learn where they are heard and they feel supported by the staff by the teachers and by their peers for them to succeed and choose a college of their choice and a career of their choice they need to feel like the world is ready to receive them and that the school has prepared them for this amazing journey that they're about to take when they graduate high school and for them to lead and participate the school and the teachers and their peers are responsible for their confidence I know that as

117a parent a lot of that is my duty as well but I ask the school to support me in this cause of raising a civically engaged a contributing member of society so that I can send off a successful citizen of the United States to go and contribute and contribute back to society and be a moral uh person who leads with a moral cause person who contributes back to society and stands up for those that need their voices to be heard so I ask the school district to provide support to provide resources to Arab Muslim Students to Palestinian students and I know that the ethnic studies curriculum has also been brought to the school district time and again but this is a great time to revisit it and include those voices in there that have never

118been included or have not been given the space that they required the distinguish the distinction between Arabs Palestinians and other Arab countries is a very important distinction that needs to be included in ethnic studies I am always addressed as an Arab just because I wear a hijab but when my student goes to school and is wearing a hijab they need to be understood that they is the second largest population of the Muslim Muslims is in India and we are South Asians but we we hold our own identity the largest Muslim population in the world comes from Indonesia and that's a very important identity to the Muslim diaspora as well so distinguishing between our ethnic D identities but also holding our faith as a valued identity piece is an important thing that the school needs to

119hold important for our students and create those safe spaces so they're able to learn and lead and participate in society and become successful members of society so I asked the school district to visit with our resources and my my colleagues have already presented us as a resource so please reach out we're here for you thank you thank you that concludes public comment you can come please come up please come up three minutes please say your name so I can put it in the record yeah my name is alaja a rwa and I registered also online to make sure so it's AR alaja and I am here as a parent like who my children attended like the public school here in San Diego and also I am a a student PhD student SDSU in education with

120the focus on social justice and equity in education and I want to share with you all what I'm learning is amazing on the paper all what I'm learning about diversity representing students representing all the stories The Narrative is so important and that's what I'm coming to you here to appeal to you just bring the right narrative to the curriculum I would say as like I am Palestinian I am Arab my children first went like during like in high school that was in scripts Ranch went through a lot after September 11th and that was one of the main reasons that help like directed me to this program to PhD and also I am a teacher I used to I taught for 20 years so I was like and the seem to stor is the same dilemma

121is always happening and that's maybe because of um like from what I'm learning it's just like the narrative is not there there is a misrepresentation there's the stereotypes right so just like when this is like there's negative stereotypes in inside the school and in the curriculum am sometimes it happens innocently due to the lack of knowledge and that's when we say the narrative has to be corrected that's when we say hear from us listen like hear our story and I want to just just quickly share with you it is so excruciating to deal with what we have back home and then I have to go to school I have to go sometimes to work with that normal face like a relative of mine his father that just moved to Gaza to teach in the University

122his son was captured civilian died under torture he like when you hear all these stories and then you just have to put a smile and then when you go to school you are the villain imagine our students I have a granddaughter now she's three years old when she passes by schools and she knows Schools she's like my school I just want to make sure that when she goes to school she feels safe she feels represented and that's when we say reach out to us and I want you to know there are so many resources there's cares and Diego there are the organizations the many organizations mosques in the Muslim Community over here on at SDSU there is the Middle Eastern studies there are professors over there who are willing to help and provide their right

123narrative because conflict a lot of times appears like happens because it's not we don't know about each other we do not know correctly about each other and those Middle Eastern like professors there are Arabs Muslim Christians Jewish professors that are working together to correct this narrative so just like reach out to them I can help all of us can help let's bring like have correct the story in the curriculum not in the textbooks in the curul culum provide uh training to the teachers let them know us let them come to our Islamic organizations let them come to our cultural organizations because if they do not know us how can they get hear us thank you my name is Susan mcen thank you good evening uh I I'm here in solidarity with my Palestinian and Muslim

124sisters and brothers and want to ask the board to please reconsider opening up the ethnic studies program in the curriculum to in to include excuse me the Palestinian and West Bank the Gaza Strip all of what's Happening as a cursor to the story of the Holocaust we spent a lot of curricula and time focusing on the Holocaust and and the Israeli perspective and we're just missing and and leaving out the whole historical perspective from gazin Palestinians Muslims around the world and we need to change that you know silence is complicity and I ask everyone to just consider that when you're you know you we've spoken they've say that they have we have the resources here to help the board so we ask for you to please reconsider and open up the Palestinian and the Muslim

125perspective into your curriculum thank you thank you thank you all for taking the time to provide your comments to the board and superintendent today we appreciate your input and please know that your perspectives help us to better serve our students parents and the community this meeting is now adjourned the board will meet on October 21st for our first budget Workshop of the year and our next regular board meeting will be held on October 22nd 2024