Board of Education Regular Meeting

001i' like to welcome everyone watching on ITV and Via live stream and call the April 16th 2024 regular meeting to order with all board members present now we will move to our flag ceremony the Madison High School Army jrc Color Guard will present the colors please stand for the presentation of the colors left [Music] trusty lavender Williams please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance ready begin I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you please be seated we'll now move to item B1 adoption of the agenda we'll consider a variety of items tonight including our District's first ever recognition of Arab American Heritage Month authorization of the issuance of hundreds

002of millions of dollars in refunding bonds to improve and construct our school facilities and the addition of new Community College course offerings in addition to many other items I'm looking for a motion to adopt today's agenda as published with the exception of item F1 which has been withdrawn is there a motion so moved thank you uh thank you motion by truste white Hurst pay and seconded by trustee baso and I'm excited we can now all vote electronically tonight uh student trustees if you could please vote electronically yes technology 2024 it's happening and if all other trustees could please vote the motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring Miss sultz can you please provide information for public speakers about today's meeting protocols yes today's meeting of the board of education is a business meeting

003that 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 a genda 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 public comment please listen for your name to be called speakers are called are listed and called in the order received when your name is called please come to the podium to speak speakers participating via Zoom will be asked to unmute when their name is called if you are unable to unmute yourself we will call the next speaker please follow along with the agenda so that you know when

004your item is coming up for discussion when you begin speaking the green light below my name on the dis indicates that the timer has started when the light turns yellow you will have one minute remaining a buzzer will indicate that your time has expired if you have not yet done so and would like to sign up for in-person public comment iPads are available in the back of the auditorium and in the lobby thank you and at this time we'll hear item C1 Associated student body president reports I'd like to welcome two ASB presidents Analisa Parker from Canyon Hills High School and Pablo gimenez from Logan Memorial educational campus and we ask that each of you tell us a little bit about yourselves and what you'd like our board to know about what's happening at your

005schools and we're particularly interested in understanding how our board policies the decisions we make here are impacting students at your schools Analisa would you like to go first good evening everybody uh hi good evening everybody um my name is Analisa Parker and I'm the ASV president at Canyon Hills High School um I play golf basketball and Lacrosse this year um here are a couple of things happening at my school so first I want to highlight a student L organization called saving our seats it's part of the Aspen challenge which is designed to improve connections and create Community some of the things that are currently working on are improving communication uh with the student body fostering connections among students creating Community fixing the lack of personal connections and making sure people are aware of more things

006that are happening at our school they're working on building Community with our incoming nth graders through freshman bridging in the summer to help welcome them into the culture of Canyon Hills High School and finally they are doing doing this all with the purpose of increasing attendance rates we also have a very strong and growing chavistas club I had a chance to sit down with their leadership and they told me that at first it was just a time to hang out and to get to know each other but then they saw a potential to do more not only do more for their Club but for other students on and off the campus they are a diverse group of students that strive to build confidence competence and a sense of community uh here's just a short list

007of things they are doing or have accomplished uh they recently took a group of students to Arizona to visit Grand Canyon University because of this tour seven Canyon Hill students committed to GCU and many of them are on scholarship the Caesar travas Foundation invited our students to Washington DC to learn about our government and they did that over spring break uh they do community service outside of school and they've recently made hundreds of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and delivered them to the refugee Migrant Center in Chul Vista they advocated to keep the migrant Center open and have made their voices heard by doing so uh they presented to the board of education and they said that one of the best things about being a chave Vista at Canyon Hills High School is that the

008adults don't put any barriers in front of them they said that our admin opens the doors rather than closes them and finally I want to mention something that our ASB class is working on directly and this is um something that we call Community Fest on April 25th we are inviting the entire Community to come and see what Canyon Hills is all about we'll be having a club and Athletics Fair our teachers will be participating in community engagement activities and student organizations will be performing also because it's the month of the military child we've invited the bacon Community Arts organization to present Bratz a play capturing the unique experiences of a military child there will also be music food and games for the whole family events like this bring out the best in our school but

009we but also highlights one of our struggles while our admin o staff opens doors for students we feel the district has closed the door creating a major barrier between students and student money the peard program is hurting students and over taxing our advisers we fully agree that planning ahead is a major part of student government and when it comes to Big Ticket items we always plan ahead but when ASB or a club needs to spend $7 at the last minute we Face nothing but barriers we aren't able to run the program we want because of the many barriers that are being placed in front of us with that being said we urge the board to revisit and revise the pecard policy at schools going forward to help streamline acquisition of materials that are required for

010student centered activities and that completes my report for tonight thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak thank you thank you and I love hearing about the Aspen Challenge and also your challenge to us to look at the pecard program so appreciate that and now we'll move to Pablo uh hello everyone my name is Pablo Jimenez and I'm the ASB president for Logan Memorial educational campus this has been our real first year like having our ASB last year we didn't have that much resources for our ASB um my site only has 9th through 10th graders so I'm probably one of the youngest uh ASB presidents that you guys have had here um and we'll be adding 11th grade for next year um our ASB has really worked hard to build our school spirit throughout this

011year and the years to come um and some of our achievements that we've had this year was we held our very first pep rally and our very first homecoming even though we don't have a a football team an American football team we still have to bring out our creativity and for our for our game for homecoming we created a 9th versus 10th grade soccer game which was a really big success um our school really likes soccer and we've learned that um and we just keep on um trying to work harder and Thrive for the best um during our first year as ASB we worked on our own time after school and and on weekends [Music] to to fundraise for for our school and for our needs um even though we don't have a lot of

012sports um we still try to match a lot of spirit weeks with stuff and our newest pep R um we're actually doing a Willy Wonka theme so uh hopefully that comes out really good um and for the for our future we hope to have a recycling program where ASB will collect recycling from classrooms and common areas and use those as a fundraiser which is not only useful for our school but for our environment for the generations to come thank you thank you Pablo and I know not an easy task having to start an ASB almost from scratch at a brand new high school so thank you for taking on that challenge and I'm not going to ask you because you're so young but I will ask Anisa uh if if you'd like to share with

013us uh what your plans are for next year uh so I actually just recently went to San Diego State over the weekend and um attended the admitted students day um and I submitted my intent to enroll so I'm going to be going to San Diego State [Applause] congratulations um and then I'm GNA be studying business uh getting a major in that and for the future I plan to somehow work in sports uh maybe baseball because that's my favorite sport so oh fantastic that's great well thank you both for being here we'll now hear item C2 recognition of the 2023 24 Ninth Annual recycling challenge Awards and I know we have quite a few people here with us for that today superintendent Jackson can you please introduce the item thank you president Hazen and uh Pablo

014I got good news we got a lot of people here that help lmec with their Recycling and so our our schools continue to exemplify uh their commitment to sustainability through their waste reduction and recycling efforts uh this is our fourth year um of many years um in in recycling our recycling efforts but in our partnership with Republic Services um on the San Diego unified recycling challenge Awards and uh so far uh uh Republic Services have provided $22,000 directly to Our Winning schools and many of our our schools School leaders are here and staff who support the recycling efforts and um thank you uh to Republic Services for contining to help our leadership grow and and helping our environmental stewardship as a collective District I'd like to introduce Janet whiteed the district's recycling specialist uh to

015share the achievement is is she here she's coming there she's coming forward and she's also going to um she's going to share the achievements of this year's uh winning schools and then we'll uh share a video thank you Janet for being here oh you're welcome you you can pull that down and there we go is this the but I'm sorry I wasn't quite prepared because I was informed I might not be presenting today so so um I apologize I do have a few notes to to go ahead and and um recognize our schools so thank you for this time um I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to recognize the outstanding winners of our 2324 recycling challenge winners of this challenge are determined based on their highest overall waste diversion their lowest per capita

016student waste generation and the level of sustainability education and Outreach programs that they have on their campus as far as waste diversion all of this year's winners recycle nearly 26,000 pounds per month of material combined and all of our schools recycle approximately 300,000 lbs of material combined so this saves valuable natural resources while also saving the district money in avoided disposal costs so that's one of the goals we have and then without further Ado I'd like to cue the little short video that yes we have somewhere it it's coming it's TR us it's kind of not up there though yeah all right there we go my name is tanu and I recycle at Sandberg and the reason why I think recycling is good so the Earth does not be become a big [Music] trash hi

017my name is McKenna and I'm from Challenger Middle School I believe recycling is important because helps keep our planet fresh and clean and ready to grow for the future generations to come and it saves the turtles hi I'm plma from Patrick Henry and sustainability is important at our school because it'll help us move towards a more environmentally friendly future [Music] is always up [Applause] there yeah our schools do amazing jobs and um these are just a good great representative of those that are really working towards sustainability on their campus I'm not sure if we have time to recognize them specifically or just want a group photo if possible yeah so I'd like to congratulate everybody all of our first and second place winners and invite everybody down since you came down here uh so that

018we can celebrate you and take a photo so if you are here for our recycling Awards if you want to please come down and we'll go ahead and do a quick photo and I'd also like I'd also like to include our superintendent of the areas so they can come down too yes come one come all I see Steve and Maria here yes okay down here or up here up here come on up we got we got a great representation from Challenger little yeah you all get up thank you for up [Applause] okay yes okay we'll now move on to item D1 General Council green are there any reportable actions from today's closed session no there aren't and now D2 superintendent Jackson are there any management appointments for announcement and none tonight thank you and we'll

019move move right on to D3 if you'd like to share your information report I would love to and as we're celebrating this evening uh we are very fortunate uh to have had six of our schools in our district named 2024 California purple star schools and recognized by our state superintendent Public Instruction uh Tony Thurman our purple star schools are schools committed uh and equipped to meet the unique needs of our uh military connected students and families and this is so this is a big deal for our um our entire community and um with these six it brings um the total of our San Diego unified uh schools recognized uh for being purple star schools to 25 since 2022 and so this is a tremendous tremendous honor for our schools and this year uh happy to

020announce the dayer TOA middle Middle School is a purple star school along with Hickman Elementary I know Hickman was was here um I think a few folks there we go we got we got some folks representing uh Jones Elementary School and then Perry Elementary uh they were recognized on cbs8 uh and they were recognized as a purple star school along with Vista Grande and Walker Elementary School so I'd like to send congratulations on behalf of the board and entire District um yes and uh thank you for your continued support of our military connected students and family and that concludes my report this evening we'll now consider section g the board consent agenda which includes approval of our board meeting schedule for the first half of 2025 and resolutions recognizing Earth Day and the month of

021April as Arab American heritage month is there a motion on these items thank you we have a motion from trusty white Hurst Payne and a second from trusty korano and do we have any speakers on items G1 through G3 yes we have 22 folks who have signed up both in person and virtual so each person would get one minute to speak so that um we can hear everyone so we'll start with our in-person speakers U if you please come and line up at the podium and say your your remarks when I call your name farita erut Linda Williams and safia chowri and I guess I'll just reiterate you said it earlier but it was a while ago that the lights underneath um M stz will indicate uh when you're at time should I just start

022okay hi my name is farita er I work at the Majel Arab Community Center of San Diego I think I met all of you in the past two weeks so we're acquainted um yeah I'm just here to thank the board for this resolution and express that you know in light of the issues we've broughten up uh previously regarding islamophobia anti- Palestinian repression anti racism that our students experience in schools we really hope that this resolution is a positive Step at further Community collaboration and learning so that schools overall become a safer environment for our students and an opportunity for representation and cultural exchange between our community generally and um other students and so that's really our goal we really see this as a positive thing but a symbolic thing and we really really look forward

023to seeing the implementation of the morals that are being listed and upheld uh in this resolution so yeah just want to thank you all don't need to take the whole time thank [Applause] you good evening all I'm Linda K Williams retired from the district after teaching K through six for 38 years and I'm loading my comments to three items first uh in order to put the district's stated commitment to combating racism discrimination islamophobia and anti-arab and anti- Palestinian sentiment please immediately contact care to get in touch with them to find out what is going on with our Muslim Students it's not necessarily reported to the district I had their contact information here for you I'll be passing it around um and I have two friendly amendments before you vote please one I think it's a

024typle that only the next 14 days April 2024 are declared as Arab American heritage month I think we mean each April as each April comes along hopefully that will be made clear okay and last in the list of the okay and I have uh information about why I think Imam Taha and laia Dr lalia alali should be in the list of San Diego people thank you [Applause] hello um so I'm just going to keep mine short um I'm here to thank the board for this resolution I attended elementary middle and high school in the San Diego Unified School District and unfortunately I know what it's like to be a marginalized student as a visibly Muslim student um who attended um scripts wrench High School Marshall Middle School and Ellen bring scripts elementary school so I

025just want to say that a missed an increase of islamophobia xenophobia anti-arab racism and anti-palestinian racism that Arab students are facing we hope that this resolution is a step towards combating that hate um and progress for our communities thanks and we have baraha oricat Larry Christian Yasmine Elan and akam hello my name is Bal and I attended K through 12 under the San Diego Unified School District and I'd like to take a moment to thank you for bringing up this resolution as a student who was bullied by both classmates and Educators for being Palestinian Arab and not wanting them to represent my identity in any way possible it's something I feel is very important that we honor our Arab students and we present their identities in a positive light I think I think it's also

026no one should have to grow thick skin to be able to receive an education my mother's also a professor and I saw what she went through getting her master's and doctorate by both her classmates and her fellow Educators I just want to end this by I hope this resolution that is a step towards bringing proper representation to Arabs in our community and that it's also Fosters an accepting environment for us and all generations to come thank you for your time [Applause] my name is Larry Christian I am president of Kurama a local independent nonprofit that focuses on the issues of the Arab and Islamic world I'm also a product of San Diego Unified Schools from Sherman to Bernie to Florence to Rosevelt to San Diego High I am pleased with both with the board's recognition

027of Arab American heritage month and its acknowledgement that the resources it has for educating staff and students about America Arab Americans need work my organization has been collecting and developing such resources for some 15 years we are pleased to offer our resources and to have a chance to contribute to the creation of new ones it would be short-sighted however not to recognize that efforts to create resources will run into opposition from those who seek to shape and control them for their own ends I can't emphasize enough how important it is that resources to educate staff and students about arab-americans include honest reflections of the identity and experience that shape the Contemporary Arab American Community as we know it thank you good evening my name is y Mizan and I am a student of the Sano

028Unified School District I strongly support the board of education's decision to pass the Arab herit the Arab American Heritage Month resolution all of my life unfortunately I've seen zero or little Arab representation in school and it's quite saddening um but when I heard of this amazing resolution I was extremely excited the resolution affirms the importance of Education access and inclusion for all students and in recent months we have experienced unprecedented censorship in aasia as Palestinian and Arab students and I expect and I hope this res resolution to be implemented Ed as an opportunity for learning about Arab Middle Eastern North African communities and cultures furthering students understanding of each other and promoting a healthier School environment overall I can tell you that in the past months I have been a student who has been silen

029silenced for my Palestinian Arab identity and it truly does affect a student's mental health and well-being there was a point where I didn't want to attend school and I'm sure that's not what the district wants so thank you so much [Applause] hi I somehow ended up being signed up for online but I'm here so I'm Doris barar I'm with the American Arab antidiscrimination committee I support this resolution I especially support the process that was created between us to forge this and uh perhaps a lesson plan in the future would include uh how we work together in contrast to how many many places are not working together um it's not a perfect resolution I think that we have things to continue to work out but um it's a great start and I just want to thank

030you and um you are part of the process of Arab am the Arab American and Arab Renaissance that is happening but we don't always know that until years go by so anyway thank you and now we'll go to our virtual speaker ERS Nadia Swanson is Nadia available yeah I'm here can you hear me yes please go ahead hi first of all I just wanted to say thank you for your time consideration with this resolution um my name is Nadia I have a son in middle school and um his school actually decided to honor and celebrate Arab American Heritage months uh this for this year and I was elated about it he's in ASB and he volunteered to create a short piece highlighting the lives and contributions of two Arab Americans on their um their media

031platform at school and of course I tried to offer some ideas immediately but he stopped me and said Mama I'm too scared to do more than this and might get jumped and then he went on to elaborate on a group of anti-arab kids who threatened to beat up one of his classmates when uh they expressed their empathy of what was going on in Gaza and it just of course broke my heart that he's too scared to share his culture so this resolution definitely comes at a very appropriate time I think by adopting this resolution Nationwide not just here I think you'll set a precedent by adopting it here um schools will act you know to to provide to be positive role models and to promote an atmosphere of inclusion for all their students um educational

032institutions across the state have adopted these measures for the black community the indigenous people those of Jewish faith and for the LGBT community too so Why Stop Now why stop with us um you thank you Nadia our next speaker is Rana Abdul lader is RA available we'll move to the next speaker also ra isaki is R available all right we'll move to the next yes I'm here thank you can you hear me please go ahead yes this is Raina isaki and thank you very much for supporting this Arab American heritage month and hopefully um will be a very good resolution for everybody and worldwide as Nadia just mentioned before thank you very much for the next speaker is Ernest McCrae is Mr McCrae available Mr McCrae are you are you able to unmute we'll move

033to Dan pritzer is Dan available Dan pritsker hello go ahead please thank you dear superintendent Jackson and board members I appreciate your support for the resolution but I think it's a critical that everyone of Arab descent feels included we must have clarify that Arab identity is not synonymous with being Muslim so let's not forget the very big caldian community in San Diego who adds a lot to our school Community fabric let's ensure that our resolution acknowledges the full spectrum of Arab American diversity including calans Christians Drews bant and of course Arab Jews from the Middle East and North America North Africa sorry in line with your commitment to equity it's critical that your resolution does not exclude any group so in conclusion let's make the resolution truly inclusive celebrating diverse Heritage of Arab Americans and

034ensuring the recognition of all groups thank you next speaker is Alicia Schuman is Alicia Schuman available hi there can you hear me yes go ahead hi there I'm Alisa Schuman I'm in favor of the Arab American heritage month but with modifications the resolution needs to be inclusive of all people of Arab Descent of which many Arabs practice practice different religions being from Arab descent does not mean that you're a Muslim by listing religions in this resolution you're causing Confusion And as it's stated in the American Arab Foundation nahm they focus on Arab contributions not religion or politics if sdusd is celebrating Arab Heritage and including Nations they must include Israel where 21% over 2 million residents are of Arab descent and hold positions in government to not include the Mahi population of Arab descent is

035discrimination and not inclusive also if sdusd is including religion in this resolution it needs to include the mrai population culture history and the Discrimination that they have faced in the past the next speaker is Olivia okovita uh my name is Olivia s Salah I was born in Baghdad and I'm a Mahi Jew uh I am in favor of uh this proposition and I believe that it's very important that we include everyone from the Arab world as to a knowledge and share how can we understand each other if we don't learn about each other uh religion should not be a part of this as there are Jews Drews uh Kurdish all kinds of people and traditions that must be included in this wonderful and very rich culture uh I strongly believe that all children are being

036threat feeling threatened at this moment in time which is very difficult not just for uh Muslim children but also for Jewish children who are afraid to openly show and share who they [Music] are and our last speaker a virtual is TC the initials TC and I think just before they begin because I don't know if our virtual speakers heard the time limit the way the people in the auditorium have uh you have one minute to provide your comments is TC available yes I'm here thank you uh thank you for your time I support recognizing Arab American heritage month because it's important for all students to have their cultures and traditions celebrated I have three students in sing unified their grandparents were born in Lebanon Egypt turkey and Israel all arabic speaking countries and all four

037of them are Jewish and the grandparents still speak Arabic to this day including the Turkish grandmother who still speaks Laino arab-americans are a beautifully diverse population their contributions to our country and Society is valuable both from an accomplishment perspective as well as a way to counter misconceptions unfortunately the resolution as it stands only feeds into these misconceptions because though only 15 to 20% of Arab Americans are rather than Heritage anti-arab sentiment ought to stand on its own without politicizing it with islamophobia and anti- Palestinian allegations as neither belong in a resolution about arab-american Heritage simply referred to the original draft put forth by the founders of N and you will see that they do not include religions Nations countries politics so why is San Diego unified we do have one additional speaker in person a

038barbakan good evening good evening my name is a b i in the eighth grade and I'm a Muslim Palestinian student in the San Diego Unified School District I strongly support the board of education's decision to pass the Arab American Heritage Month resolution um I would like to take this opportunity to for you guys that I am dissatisfied with the outcome of attending a school within this District due to my past experiences at my school scusd has a stated commitment to um to diversity equity and inclusion while I was discriminated at my own school not only by my peers but by my own teachers I showed up to school one day wearing a traditional wearing traditional Palestinian apparel and sorry and um a professional teacher mistook to be it mistook it to be something worn by

039a terrorist group and explicitly asked me if I understood what I was wearing it is hard knowing that this is something happening to me in a place that I expect to be safe and inclusive um and Arab and unfortun unfortunately I wasn't able to feel that I was um accepted and welcomed by my school Community which brings me to recognize Arab Heritage Month recognizing us as a people thank you thank [Applause] you that concludes our public comment on section g thank you and do any trustees have questions or wish to discuss any of uh the items in section g yes trusty Barrera yeah I just want to uh thank first of all the individuals and organizations that worked with us to put this resolution together and I also want to thank president Hazen and vice

040president Pon for taking us through the process to get here tonight so thank you for that work yeah vice president peton I'll just say briefly thank you to everyone who turned out tonight to speak on the item and who worked on this item as it's as it's moved across our Collective desk and uh everyone who called in as well uh I'll just say just in the in in the um interest of transparency it's a challenging time to develop um items that Impe upon some of the challenges we're seeing throughout the world particularly in the Middle East and um and I appreciate the sensitivity that um participants have shown in terms of navigating that we have attempted to navigate that um in the most transparent responsible compassionate way possible um what I will flag moving forward

041is this is a resolution ultimately uh it's uh it's um naturally an imperfect uh object and and it's not an end in itself uh this is a commitment um on behalf of the board uh and uh as well as a leadership team uh to acknowledging uh some of the historic um uh lack of support that we've provided it's a commitment to improve our support um and engagement with uh the arab-american community here uh improving professional development improving um uh uh fostering cultural events uh potentially in terms of curriculum as well terms of dual enrollment potentially having um coursework on our campuses uh again a number of the speakers have noted it but um uh this is a start of a process of um re-engagement and Improvement in terms of the support we provide to our

042American students and their families so I appreciate everyone being here today and I particularly just want to say I appreciate um the work that President Hazen has done um in terms of helping to navigate uh through through a process that's been challenging at times but um I think we've we've um we've come to a an conclusion that we can we can all be proud of uh uh through through that difficult process so I want to appreciate um president Hazen's work on that yes trusty waiters pan I too want to commend our leadership team and working through this to get unanimity here because it was very disturbing the last time so thank you for going back to the drawing board and working it out getting it right thank you go ahead thank you I I Echo

043um my my colleagues comments and uh don't want to repeat anything but uh appreciate the work that's been done between last meeting this meeting and definitely the energy is much more positive and more collaborative and um so I it it's very obvious that you know a lot of work was done with our um leadership on the board in working with our um Arab Arab American community and so that's very much appreciated yes tryano I just want to say uh really quickly first I mean thank you so much to everyone that put this uh resolution together I think one of the great things um that I noticed about it was that it was truly rooted in the needs and wants of our communities I think we did a really good job of listening to our communities

044and it's by no means perfect but I think um just seeing the way that our communities and our leaders have rallied together uh was really inspirational to me me okay and I have two things to say on item G so I'll start with the quick one which is G1 um which is our meeting schedule and I just wanted to note for everybody this is like the not fun exciting stuff but everybody knows I'm process oriented so here we go um we have added our budget workshops for so this is looking at the schedule for next year so a year from now but really um appre appreciate the addition both in February and March of budget workshops I think the feedback we heard from trustees was that it was really helpful this year to do that

045and so I'm really glad that we're thinking ahead planning ahead so that we can do that again next year because we know next year will be another challenging budget year so glad to see that um and then the other thing I just want to flag uh for the trustees is the Community College District joint meeting um is not is tenative in there because right now we typically have this meeting in March um which seems silly when our joint goals our annual goals and I think we should come together at the end of the year to really evaluate what we've done collectively um in achieving our shared goals and so that I think is in there and we're going to work with them to see if they agree with that so wanted to share that and

046then moving on to G3 I'm really proud that our board has worked with San Diego's Arab American community and really appreciate the partnership and Grace of the community um in introducing our school district's first everever Arab American Heritage Month resolution people of Arab Heritage have helped create the beautiful and diverse fabric of America and arab-americans have meaningfully contributed to our country for hundreds of years and as we heard often in the face of discrimination bias and hate and I have to say it is heart in to hear from our students about their experiences because I know we can do better I'm grateful to be part of a school district and a board committed to combating hate and discrimination and cultivating inclusive School environments where all students feel a sense of belonging and people of all

047backgrounds are celebrated this resolution as we've heard is an important first step in honoring the rich Heritage and history of our Arab American Community moving forward with the US Office of Management and budgets new updated standards for collecting race and ethnicity data with a new category of Middle Eastern or North African the Mina category um across all federal agencies I look forward to our district being able to disaggregate data so that we can better understand the needs of our arab-american students and ensure they reach their full potential so with oh go ahead one last comment I I do I I want to say thank you to president Hazen uh vice president Pon um I also want to lift up our Arab American community members our students and and um I know we've already uh we're

048going to connect with our student who spoke uh so that we can continue to work with our our schools and uh be better able to support our students uh and I also want to lift up our staff I think that's an important piece because I know Brian um and Ebony uh worked with with you all and I think that's important to recogn ize uh the collective in this and uh thank you for uh the patience uh the kindness and the the love for our students um and our entire Community thank you all thank you and I agree thank you thank you thank you to all of our staff who have shephered us all through this process really appreciate it so we will now move on to a vote student trustees if You' please vote motion

049oh yeah we have a motion by trusty White Horse pay in a second by trusty korano it was just a long time ago so students if you'd like to go ahead and vote thank you and all other trustees please vote okay the motion passes unanimously with student board members concurring [Applause] we'll now consider District operate operational matters items H1 and H2 is there a motion on these items thank you we have a motion from trustee white Hurst Payne is there a second thank you from truste baso and do we have any speakers on uh H1 or H2 okay okay any trustees have any questions or wish to discuss these items well I just quick oh were you gonna on H1 or H2 oh go ahead trusty WHUR pay I I want to thank Lee and

050his team and all of them for all of this hard work and it's really exciting to see where we are and can't wait to see the manifestation of it I'm going to see the one in scripts Ranch soon but it's really exciting that we're moving in this direction and hopefully we can help this city to bring more housing into the city so that we don't have so many homeless people so thank you for your work thank you and vice president Pon yes so I to be clear there there won't be a presentation on the the the document we have here there's not be a presentation question yeah okay so I do I do have a couple of questions um both well I have one overarching question which is um obviously it's in it's in our

051interest as a district in the interest of our taxpayers who have um been generous enough to to um vote in s z y y and now measure you um to get as much Bank for the buck is possible so I I I think it's obviously advantageous per se to to collaborate um and leverage that leverage those funds um I think part of that is predicated on a on a faith that those those those the the the labor relationships that will prevail in those in those collateral contracts will be in some sense obviously we can't mandate that they're identical to our project stabilization agreement but that that have faith as a board that when we leverage that those funds it will be in some general way comparable to the types of Labor relationships that Prevail in

052our own contracts if we were going to do that inhouse so um my I have a basically a very simple question regard to that what what is the nature of um uh in in regard to the RFP what's the nature of uh the the project is there are there do we anticipate a pla um does the does a firm currently have a have a have a pla that's uh in some way comparable to ours so yeah thank you thanks uh Bor thanks for your kind words about the project um the RFP language uh stipulated that successful proposers should have demonstrated ability to partner with the building traits labor unions and um Advanced Equity social justce jce and provide Community benefits and affirmed housing the successful proposer has experiened with uh local pla in fact they

053just broke ground um in February on 100 unit uh affordable housing project in San Diego called Skyline with MTS that and and that includes a a pla or PSA um so so I hope that answers um this item is is merely an authorization of staff to begin negotiations with a firm to develop affordable housing at the Central site and we'd expect that a firm would um and their General Contractors and subcontractors would establish or enter into a pla um with the Building Trades and Carpenters unions um and and we this we see this likely occurring prior to board consideration of a of a detailed formal agreement uh with affirmed in the future thank you I'm to be clear I'm very excited about this project this is a great first step thank you any other questions

054or discussion on the H items okay well I agree I think it's very an exciting First Step uh as we are able to build more build affordable housing uh to really address uh the needs of our community uh also wanted to note uh that in H one uh our bond sale um we're being asked to authorize issuance of more than $500 million in refunding bonds which will create at least 5% in present value savings to taxpayers and I really appreciate our team's ongoing work to ensure we make good use of taxpayer dollars in support of our local schools so thank you to everybody working on that and we have a motion and a second uh any speakers on the item all right let's go ahead with the student trustees please go ahead and vote okay

055and all other trustees okay know getting used to the new two sets of Lights here okay I know I know all right so the motion passes youan iously with the student board members concurring we'll now hear item H3 which is a first reading of the proposed renaming of Clay Elementary School we're joined by samagi facilities communication supervisor and Lindsay Mel tell me how to say your name m m callisen you know and I'm one with a name that's impossible to pronounce okay mikis principal of Clay Elementary uh and if you can go ahead and please present the item to us sure thank you so much sorry my we go okay okay well thank you board members and superintendent Jackson am I sorry okay here I am okay so thank you superintendent Jackson and board members

056for um giving us this opportunity to share with you the process that we engaged in after receiving a a community proposal to rename our school so Samar and I are looking forward to um sharing with you the steps that we took um and engagement with our community and stakeholders hello thank you for having me I'm Sam ragi so kind of want to recap how we got here um so about mid last year we received a proposal um a fairly strong one at that with really strong justification to change the name of Henry Clay Elementary School uh there was a petition attached to that with about a th signatures um and the the the community members the parents from the school um made a fairly strong case for why the school should be renamed um they

057also suggested four names for the district to consider and that was Octavia Butler Amanda Gorman Bell Hooks and Dr Bera Pendleton these um this proposal and petition along with the four names was brought to the school names committee for their consideration um and speaking to the strength of The Proposal the committee immediately um endorsed a name change um but tasked staff with conducting additional Community input on what the new name might be um so working with with the school principal there was a school site Forum that was hosted at Clay Elementary where the proposers um had an opportunity to present to the Clay Elementary families um or concurrently and right around that same time a survey and what we're calling the initial survey was sent out to Clay families and staff soliciting feedback and suggestions

058that the committee should be considering um from there the committee reviewed um those submissions and discussed them at length the committee looked at uh you know basically looked at a pool of possible names the four that were suggested by the original proposers um the survey results that were generated out of clay Elementary School and of course any names that were considered by previous school names committee committees um and they selected um a final four and asked staff to develop um a final survey that would be distributed to Clay families and staff um we recognized the work that the Community Partners who made the proposal have put into this so we shared the um draft survey with them for feedback there was feedback on some of the language descriptions on some of the names and they

059requested that the committee consider add an additional name to the survey we shared that that feedback with the committee they've made those adjusts adjustments to the survey language and did go ahead and add a fifth name so the final survey um was a survey of five names that was emailed to the entire Clay Community and to Clay staff um we had the the survey open for a couple of weeks uh and we received 106 responses and you could see the the the votes um down below uh the majority uh voted for Rolling Hills Leadership Academy with um just over 50% of the votes uh and uh Dr Bertha penlon if I'm seeing it correctly from here or no B Hook's Leadership Academy was number two with about uh just shy of 20% of the vote

060uh the committee convened over two meetings to discuss the survey results there was a lot of discussion about it um but ultimately this committee the consensus was um to abide by the survey results that was the public vote um so unanimously with a lot of consensus the committee um voted to recommend Rolling Hills um as we have seen in PR previous uh Elementary School name changes there was a lot of heated debate around leadership Leadership Academy or Elementary School um so this committee actually it was the suggestion I think of the student um me one of the student members of the committee um offered a compromise position of Rolling Hills leadership Elementary School um and that is the recommendation brought to the school board today by the school names committee um and that was essentially

061the process that we followed um happy to take any questions that the board members might have thank you both really appreciate it this is again want to reiterate the first reading of the item so it's informational only action will be taken um at a later date do we have any speakers on the item yes we have 10 speakers I'll call their names if they could please line up and each speaker will have two minutes Jared Tucker Sabrina young Denisha Jenkins hello everyone good to see you again uh my name is dra Tucker I've got two students at Clay Elementary so why are we here we are here because over 1,200 people have stood up and said we are not okay with Henry Clay and we want a restorative name from our school those two things

062together have been the goal since the very beginning we commend you all for taking the first step changing the name of the school now we ask you to has take care of the second part which is choosing a restorative name Bel hooks once said Justice demands Integrity it is to have a moral Universe not only know what is right or wrong but to put things in perspective and weigh things in our proposal we put into perspective not only Henry Clay's history but the climate nationally and right here in San Diego when the school was named Henry Clan slaved over 122 people he amended the future Slave Act to make sure that countless others would be in would be brutalized and even killed in 1957 when our school opened sing unified also chose to honor Robert

063E Lee with the elementary school this was the same year as The Little Rock N in Arkansas and just three years removed from Brown B ucation Justice demands Integrity so for the names committee to have all this perspective to weigh these things and land on Rolling Hills is disappointing and frankly heartbreaking Malcolm X said if you stick a knife on my back N9 in and pull it out 6 in there's no progress if you pull it all the way out that's not progress the progress is healing the wound that the blow made and they won't even admit the knife is there Rolling Hills is not progress choosing Bell hooks is she spoke extensively on the power of love and an Engaged education system to transform lives these are values that we believe in and we're

064certain that you do as well I'll close with this in February the Board of Education passed a resolution in which they stated that the history and contributions of black citizens have consistently been overlooked misinterpreted and undervalued in curriculum of public education institutions prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and still today at the end of the statement it was resolved that the San die Unified School District does hereby recognize the tremendous contributions made by black Americans to the development of our culture communities and nation and our ongoing commitment to fostering an anti-racist anti-bias and restorative district for all students black lives matter this is your resolution these are your words and to that I say prove it you cannot in one breath acknowledge that the accomplishments of black Americans have been long overlooked and

065undervalued and then in the next breath say we need yet another racist school name change to a generic geography feature so please prove it by making the restorative choice and replace Henry Clay with B hooks for our elementary school thank you thank [Applause] you I'm seren young a teacher a kindergarten teacher at Henry Clay Elementary and I also live in the neighborhood two blocks from the school I'm active in all things clay Park and Clay Elementary one year ago our not okay with Clay Grassroots Community initiative came to the board to advocate for a restorative name change for our community school until that time neither the school Community nor District had made any effort to rename Clay Elementary even though the legacy of Henry Clay is not one worthy of any public space through our

066efforts the issue came before the board and a district level renaming committee was formed at first we were genuinely appreciative that the district was paying attention to the concern and to their responsibility as an institution committed to ending systemic racism however the committee's effort fell short the renaming committee's process effectively silenced the voices that originally brought the renaming initiative forward the school district did not include any of the not okay with Clay Community members on the renaming committee or in any meetings even in an advisory capacity the school did not provide the school district did not provide any legitimate Community Education or facilitate any deep or meaningful dialogue that this issue warrants the renaming committee's town hall and surveys failed to address restoration the concept the topic and what that might even look like the

067name Rolling Hills goes against the voice and mission of our community and goes against the Board of education's Public commitment toward restorative and racial Justice if the renaming committee had included not okay with Clay's input they would have known that the name Rolling Hills is a known illusion to the name of our neighborhood Rolando Rolando has historically been a racially Redline neighborhood meaning black people were not allowed to purchase homes to name this school Rolling Hills is to continue to uphold and celebrate a history of white supremacy please do not support this the committee put forth a generalized survey asking for the community's input while the name Rolling Hills did Garner some support we cannot replace one racist name with another with racist Roots you'd like to wrap up please we are holding you as

068our board to a higher standard we will only accept a name that is restorative and aspirational as a board member you have the power and the responsibility to reject the commun the committies recommendation and all processes used to manufacture outcom time is up that reproduce systemic racism and the processes thank [Applause] you and just to want to remind everyone that we really do appreciate your feedback and we do ask that you please keep within the two-minute time limit and again uh you will see a yellow light and then a red light as your time is coming up good evening my name is Dr Denisha Jenkins I'm a registered nurse and a Henry Clay parent I'm also a graduate Prof Professor specializing in ethics and institutional responsibilities towards human rights and Justice I'm speaking to oppose

069the names committee specific unilateral decision to change from elementary school to leadership Elementary or originally Leadership Academy and now Leadership School when we inquired about the rationale behind the change we were informed that it is because we are a leader in me school we have ethical and policy concerns about the move to name a school on behalf of a for-profit company and the school that the school is contracted with additionally leader and me is a high controversial program that is in fact being removed from districts across the country this program was purchased and continues to be maintained for tens of thousands of dollars using Title One funds this feels a betrayal when our children don't even have Equitable Library services and are lucky if the library is open once per week we brought forward four

070actual leaders for incredible black women for consideration B hooks Leed is a leader through collaboration love and Community Building again the move towards Leadership School was not Community engaged was unilaterally decided by the committee and is in direct opposition to our communities and your commitment toward anti-racist restorative action thank you so much thank you the next group of speakers Laura chel Brian Jenkins and Christopher Bono good afternoon my name is Laura chatel I'm a registered nurse in the community here and I'm also a parent of a child at Clay Elementary School I wanted to speak today against the changing of the name of Clay Elementary to Rolling Hills Leadership Academy the emotional labor that's gone into getting to this point has been extensive by recommending rling Hills Leadership Academy a name steeped in whitewashing authoritarian

071practices you're upholding a long-standing pattern and Foundation of white supremacy I implore the members of this board to do the right thing and instill install Bell Hook's elementary as the rightful name of our community school I also ask you bring transparency and access to the naming process of schools in San Diego unified moving forward so that they remain free of inappropriate influence under the guise of an advisory role please teach our children when that something is wrong they can rely on the adults and leaders in our community to make it right renaming the school using the restorative name of bell hooks Elementary thank you [Applause] hi my name is Brian Jenkins and I'm a parent of two graduates of Henry Clay Elementary and one student that is currently there right now um before I again

072or before I begin I do want to State how exhausted and disillusioned I am with this entire process for nearly two years we have begged the district to remove Henry Clay's name from this building and replace it with a name that is restorative and works to heal the wounds that have been created for nearly 70 years it's really not that big of an ask and yet 2 years later here we are and his name is still on the front of this building uh when the district did finally acknowledge the structural racism behind Henry Clay's name it handed the keys to a committee of people who in my perception had no problem with Clay being there in the first place and so it's really no wonder why we are here today uh with the name being

073recommended that I would argue is still rooted in the same uh structural racism that Henry Clay's name is um there's much to discuss but I do want to maybe uh with this small amount of time I have Nar my focus on how this name came to be so in a interview from Gary patile who was the head of the names committee on November 13th 2023 um he justified Rolling Hills uh and I quote uh Rolling Hills Leadership Academy was added by the committee to the survey to include a naming option that pays homage to indigenous peoples by recognizing the region Region's geography according to the name description that was created by this committee tonight this committee has Justified its proposal through what I would argue is a disingenuous attempt at Community engagement Rolling Hills didn't

074come from any discussions or surveys it was implemented by the committee as an alternative to renaming our school after instead of renaming our school after a courageous brilliant black female leader scholar scholar and activist Rolling Hills doesn't describe anything Geo geographically unique to our neighborhood um it's ridiculous instead it's an illusion to the Rolando neighborhood uh which was named Rolando in the 1950s when developers were looking for something quote exotic um people will tell you that it's somehow related to Spanish it is not a Spanish word it is purely a way to Market a neighborhood and get people to buy houses um it should also be noted and I think uh Sabrina did a nice job of talking about this that during that time uh it was racially redlined so I ask you today to

075reject Rolling Hills and instead uh vote to put Bell hooks Elementary School on the name of our school thank you thank [Applause] you hi everyone my name is Chris Bano um I'm also a Community member and I have a daughter at the school uh I want to bring up two points tonight I'm sorry um the first is that I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed with the leadership not only in the school but also in the on the board or the committee or whoever makes the decisions because our community raised so much support there were 1200 names in the petition we roam the community took so much time over two years of effort um and our community wanted a restorative name and the names committee did not represent the community when they made this decision to support

076um to support this name uh the last thing I just want to ask you is this name is easy we're asking you to be brave um we want a name that represents our students and our student body is not all white children it's not people that want to uphold slaveholders so we want to change the name away from Henry Clay we want Bell hooks because we want a name that our students and our community members are not ashamed of we want a name that they're proud of um and we hope you support this decision thank [Applause] you the next group of speakers Rebecca McCrae Becky bonitz and Cara veter good evening board members and Mr superintendent my name is Rebecca McCrae and I'm here um as a teacher from Clay Elementary School I'm also here

077representing the teachers and staff at our school with the exception of one person um first of all I'd like to express Express appreciation and gratitude to this board in our district for working with our community for the last two years as we've navigated this renaming process in the beginning this process was empowering and brought many members of our community together it was Apparent at first that the process for renaming schools was under construction in our district and that our journey would be one that would require us to work together that is exactly what the Clay Community did we did everything the district asked of us to do throughout this process we know many District staff members spent a great deal of time and energy to support us in this process and for that we thank

078you unfortunately at this time the whole process has been stalled and our community is feeling negative effects because of this the first read of this item could have easily taken place a month ago as the presentation you saw tonight and the process have not changed since then so tonight we finally hear a first read but again will be delayed in a vote being carried out per the agenda a vote on this matter is not even scheduled at this time I implore you to please make a decision on this matter as soon as possible the delay on your part has contributed to so many divides in our community as well as families expressing distrust of this District the Clay Community needs a vote so that we can move forward I know that our community will be

079able to come together and grow from this experience once it is over I know that it will take time and a lot of work but I trust that my co-workers and Community are the best most capable people to make this happen together please do your part and vote on this matter we need an answer so we can move forward as a community thank you hi there my name is Becky bonitz and I'm a teacher at clay as well I would like to reiterate what my college just shared that we urge you to move forward Ward and vote on our name change when this process began we were clearly informed that our suggestions did not mean we would be choosing what was the name that was chosen that being said no matter what name is chosen

080there will be people who are not in support So this should not delay us any further please move forward on the vote so this item um can help our school move on to our next chapter [Applause] thanks hello everyone thank you for having me here today um I'm a parent my name is Cara veter and I'm a parent of two students at Clay Elementary who are here with us tonight um well I think we can all agree that changing the name is well pass due I have been disappointed to witness how the school district has responded to our reasonable request for collaboration and transparency in the renaming process as my fellow parents Educators and community members have shared the name Rolling Hills was not one put forth by our community-led process calling it an homage

081to the indigenous people of this region without even naming the Kumi nation is an of their thriving and active Community let alone including them in that renaming process it is shameful that the renaming of this school has not been an equitable process with the district I must also say that if we are to teach our children that cooperation truth-telling and sharing responsibility are important facets of leadership then this renaming process has been the opposite of these tenants in every way if we see a problem then we must address a problem together as only together can we affect lasting change in any real meaning way thank you and our final two our final two speakers relle Smith and Josh veter hello everyone my name is relle Smith and I'm here representing my daughter who cannot be

082here I'm the grandparent of twins that ATT 10 clay elementary school boy and girl and I was asked to be here on their behalf because they cannot make it tonight so I'm kind of new in the area and I've just become aware of the name change agenda or initiative weather and I did a little research as a grandmother and according to miss Bell hooks she's an advocate for change which is what I aspire to be I'm in school getting my masters in Behavioral Science clinical mental health and I plan to be a help meet or helpmate or whatever I need to be for the school in the area and what I liked about her is what she well she started with What's Love Got to Do With It according to Bell hooks everything her inspiring

083work on engaged py based on well-being and critical Consciousness is well worth reading Bell hooks was an African-American teacher author feminist and social activist her pen name borrowed from her maternal great grandmother is spelled without capital letters to draw attention to her ideas rather than her identity her approach to education focuses on critical pagy and the theoretical aspects of Education such as belonging well-being and community and she will absolutely be honored as she's in heaven that the school is renamed after her so that's what I want to say thank you all for allowing me this time God [Applause] bless hello uh my name is Josh feder I'm a parent of two children at clay um and I'm going to keep it pretty short and sweet for y'all um I have the luxury this evening something

084that I never have of sharing the majority opinion that's been expressed here you've heard so many people that I am absolute privileged uh to share Community with uh that is uh something that I think is a blessing every day I wake up that I live here and I have so many beautiful and thoughtful considerate people uh in my community that you've been hearing from uh and I would implore you to take the work that they've done to heart and to show them the respect that they deserve for their efforts and for their bravery standing up here and doing what's right thank [Applause] you thank you and do any trustees have questions or wish to discuss this item that a hand up trusty whiters pay that is that is that is all right I have met

085with the District staff and I express it then to them and I'm expressing it again I I have some concerns about the way this was handled my experience with name changing goes back to Pacific View leadership um Elementary School and at one time it was Robert El but the way that was handled was that every child in the school it became a schoolwide activity not just for a select few but for everybody they did the research they uh worked through what they wanted they all knew they wanted to change the name I believe you said one of the uh legislators brought it to uh our attention and they got on board they were United in doing the research they were United in having the students every child vote and at the end there was unanimity

086among everyone about the name change this has a funny feel to it if you will because in the very beginning um we were they were ignored the 11 1200 folks who brought the name to us in the beginning were ignored and then finally we found a way to talk to them and get that information that's where the disconnect came in from that point to now the name changed the suggestion I mean it just doesn't feel right to me uh I am also the trustee over Ro uh Rolando Park and Rolling Hills you know I'm looking around where are the hills um I'm sorry I I didn't I wouldn't have thought a name of Roland Hills and then they said uh while it was because of Native Americans but I I don't think it matches somehow

087or another um I I'm telling you superintendent and I wanted this to come before the trustees because I know you've been approached you've been approached I don't know if you were Sabrina Richard I it just feels like we need to open we need to discuss it openly because we don't want a brown act violation with us going uh yes under we don't want a brown act violation so we needed to bring it here so we can discuss it openly we've heard now from the community we've heard from staff but me I want you guys to weigh in on this I know someone mentioned the fact that we need a process that's transparent to all of us not just to the community but to all of us so that we all know where we are which

088Step we're on and and we can say yes that's a step we're on and it's being followed uh and I don't want to blame staff because I kind of got the feeling that they were just kind of the last ones on the toen bow who had to deal with this and um they weren't quite sure what they were dealing with but I just think that it just doesn't feel right to me so I've talked now let you guys talk thank you trusty Barrera yeah thank you president hayen and I appreciate trusty whiters pain uh where you're at I what we've heard tonight I I've heard two very strong um and clear messages one is this community is ready for a decision from this board uh so that it can move on the second is a

089very compelling argument in favor of the name Bell Hooks and given the messy of the process and again I'm not blaming staff either and I and I appreciate the um the presentation but you know we had a board appointed names committee um we don't have that now so when we talk about a names committee it's not the names committee that we've had we um we've had a process that I think has been clear uh and that has been followed in the past by uh discussions about uh renaming a a school and it doesn't seem like that's been clear um we've heard tonight um we've we've seen the results of a survey but we've also heard I haven't heard an argument in favor of the name uh Rolling Hills leadership Elementary School even though I get

090that that's the recommendation coming from from the names committee although the names committee is not the names committee that we've understood it to be in the past um so you know it's a first reading I would just say that what we need to do is we need to agendize the action item um so that we can help this community move forward and come together so I hope that that can happen soon and if I was Voting tonight I would first defer to uh trusty white Hurst Payne's recommendation given that I think what this is doing is it's bringing the the decision to the board because there's not clear consensus coming forward from the community so I think we need to agendize I think we need need to make a decision I've heard a compelling argument

091in favor of the name Bell hooks I have not heard an argument in favor of the name Rolling Hills leadership elementary school I will defer to trustee white Hurst Payne um but that's where I sit right now thank you vice president Pon thank you president haen so first of all I want to thank staff I want to thank everyone who showed up today and who has shown up over the last two or three years as well um in this and I also want to thank um uh trusty whiter pain for framing it in the way she has um I given the controversy here I've I think we've all studiously avoided communicating pre-c commmun so this is genuinely the first time I'm talking we're talking to our colleagues um which is like a little I mean

092not talking to our colleagues in that way is what we do all the time but it's it is it's particularly uncomfortable when there's controversy because you recognize hashing things out on the die is the very challenging having not only been on this board but a watcher of boards in general um and so uh um I'm recognizing the challenge of trying to Hash this out on the dis but I really appreciate white her paying creating the space for that because I do think it's appropriate given the context I would say first of all whenever a process doesn't feel quite right is ultimately on the Bo on the board for not having worked with leadership team to establish that process so I just want to I want to reiterate this strikes me as a systemic problem that

093originates in in the boards not have having established a process um or not having reestablished a process that was formally working um I think we've under specified when I when I've tried to kind of when I finally got the the list of who was on the committee and and who was invited to this or that meeting it to me it seemed like the primary engagement of the naming committee was to solicit and then receive survey data which is not really how you'd want a professional central office how you'd want to EST establish a process in which a naming committee was actively engaged in creating a unitary Universal process that would be applied in all situations like this this is likely not going to be the first time in our tenure this is going to H

094the last time in our tenure this is going to happen so I think right out of the gate we're going to need to establish a better process because this is not satisfactory and in fact it's led to the metric of it not having been satisfactory is that it's led to dis disunity on this thing which is not what a board wants to see in terms of a recommendation we we'd like to see consensus um I'll say specifically in relation to the the recommendation coming um from from the committee I have some concerns first of all and it was mentioned by one of the speakers I have a pretty fundamental concern with Leadership Academy or leadership Elementary being included in the in the name per se that is a I was told by multiple people engaged

095in the process c um that it was an homage to um the vendor product leader and me and to the fact that the school had achieved the lighthouse Lighthouse school um and and that is something that is a wonderful achievement to have to have obtained that um Lighthouse um uh designation but ultimately I think it's a bad form to include a vendor product in the name of a school this is a public this is a public school um it will there may ultimately be another site site leader another leadership team or other forces may come into play that the school community may not be satisfied with that product and then there is a anchoring effect of the name that in fact makes it difficult to move away from a vendor product which is not where

096we want to be as a public school and I I think this is something we'd have to discuss the board moving forward but I think in general uh elementary schools should be elementary schools high schools should be school I think there is a there's a strong case to be made for there to be a universal naming convention and in relation to our our different levels um and I think that would help us to avoid this kind of a problem there could be other vendor products that got folded into names in the future that I would be equally find equally problematic um I'll say too in relation to Rolling Hills and Rolando as a Spanish speaker Rolling Hills does not that's a that's a false atmology in terms of bringing it back to Rolling Hills Rolando

097is not the Spanish word for it's a Spanglish word for people who have been exposed to Rolling and then back translating into Spanish but that is not the Spanish word for rolling and um certainly not rolling in the aspect of the way we describe Hills as being rolling so um and I also hear what the community has said in relation to it but but I find it problematic I'll just say one other thing in terms of survey distribution it's a it is is concerning that we have underspecified how we want surveys distributed I don't think surveys are a great tool sometimes are necessary um but in in relation to this the survey was actually distributed to the Rolando School community and the Rolando Community Council I serve on the Hoy Town Council i i i

098there's a very important role to be played by town councils and and community councils that we have chronic problems in community planning groups and town councils and having a a a a a board board bodies that are representative of the community um it tends to select for particular populations that are able to participate in that way in the council so I would have concerns out out of the gate with us having underspecified who we want to engage in the survey process my my understanding from multiple people in the process was that in fact the Rolling Hills name was suggested by by the Roland Community Council which just adds to the the challenge around it um so all told I have a lot of concerns about the recommendation coming from the the the committee I'm very

099sensitive to the fact this is not I'm I'm not a parent in this school this is not my subdistrict um I appreciate um trusty wirers pain giving me the opportunity to share my concerns because ultimately we have to make the decision collectively um I would say I want to Echo what trusty wers pay said in relation to what a process that and I didn't know about uh Pacific View in terms of that process but but when I saw this my thought was wow it would be great to leave lead with students and to lead with curriculum and education about what does it mean to name a school what does it mean when you distribute a survey with frankly for the general population fairly obscure African-American they're not obscure to me I did my master of

100Fine Arts in in poetry I know B hooks very well I know a lot of these folks very well but when you compare these sort of Fairly publicly obscure black revolutionary transformative um thinkers with an sort of anod Happy Acres Rolling Hills whatever that is your average person seeing the survey is G be like I don't know who these names are but I know what a Rolling Hill is let's just go with Rolling Hills so the nature of a survey the nature of a survey per se is going to select for the sort of less restorative the less transformative name so I'm not going I'm not right from here and again I would defer to to trusty whitear pain I have a lot of concerns about the process that we establish I think we UND

101specify this process and we did not give adequate guidance to staff um I am cognizant of the fact that we've heard from teachers saying we really need to move the process forward so I understand the the nature of it and I've heard from the community in terms of what their consensus is um I leave it to Shar to trusty wers pay to to for a recommendation but those are my concerns and I really appreciate the opportunity to share those in a transparent fashion thank you superintendent Jackson I I ju I do um want to remind us as a board um couple things one and and one of our teachers mentioned this the the decision is for the board not the names committee or anyone else the second piece I know that and and I appreciate

102the discussion of the process and the names committee that is very technical I I'm not going to get all hits on us but I will mention it this is an Adaptive issue this is about identity this is about relationships and for me watching five schools be renamed whether the committee was established or whether we're saying we need a better process of the five four of them were controversial and so I I just want to make sure that we're not Landing it on the process per se do we need to get better absolutely Clarity transparency I I totally agree um so I just want to invite us to pay attention to to that and it was mentioned um a couple of times I mean the community uh those folks here I I don't want to suggest

103that I think there were 10 speakers represent the entire Community but they're here they've put two two years into this there's some investment there there's some um ownership there that's going to play into any process um and you hear the teacher saying hey we just we need to move forward we we got some teaching and learning to take place and um I I want to say I appreciate the fact that collectively the the the one thing that we can agree on is Henry Clay will not be the name let's just I not enough has been said around that and so I I want to acknowledge the the community members who are speaking here the staff members who are here the leaders uh Lindsay um for leading a school for this board I don't want those

104things to get lost so I I just I felt compelled to to make mention and remind us um we as uh Humanity have to see our way through this not a process because we can do all of those things and when we come up with a name I mean there are five recommendations and only one is the winner others who voted for the four others are going to be upset it it and so we have to be able to hold that as well and and I um just want to remind us of that because there's a lot that we're saying around the process these are difficult difficult components and um I agree with with you truste um Patterson is uh Dr White Harris Payne holds the community because she gets to go to many many

105different meetings here from different people uh in this and so um we lean on her but we as a collective board have to come together on this one thank you trusty baso thank you and thank you for this dialogue and I also appreciate Dr whiters Payne for bringing this forward and um also appreciate my conversation with Jared around this issue and I go back to what you say Dr Jackson about um one of my first meetings here in on the board was uh the renaming of Sarah high school and this is a whole high school so um and that was they changed their name to Canyon Hill so it's not unprecedented to use uh a landmark I understand that it's different here there was a different concern about the the but you know um I

106think also what you brought up trusty Pon I was confused by the leadership academy too because aren't all of our schools like for leaders I mean it just seemed yeah a little bit um of an entitled a private school name if I'm being completely honest um so I yeah I do have concerns with that but um I also feel very strongly that us as a board should not be the ones naming the school because in 30 years 50 years none of us are going to be here but but that Community is still going to be there so I do defer back to trusty whiter pain and the community um and you know if we need to go back to the drawing board to do this we'll do that but I don't think it's I guess

107when it gets to the point where it's us I think it it needs to go back to the community and maybe we go back to Canyon Hills and talk to them about how I mean they they got a whole High School on board I know it wasn't completely smooth but they had you know have has there been conversation with other schools that have gone through this process maybe um those communities CU I know that they did do a lot of community outreach as well um but it sounds like you know we need to go back to the drawing board and um work on this a little bit more so thank you to everyone involved TR Toriano thank you and I first really want to thank um our staff for really putting together all of this

108um I mean I really appreciated what truste white Hurst Payne said about the idea of a of a funny feeling because I've thought about this and like we've had this conversation um in our meetings and like walking me through the process logically it seems okay but there's again this funny feeling that I have and partially is because I think um trusty Pon did a really great job about this is that if we want to have a transformative name if we want to have a restorative name it's inherently paradoxical to use a survey because the point of a transport transformative name is that it changes cultures it changes um and makes a positive impact on communities and so a survey isn't the best way to do that and so I when I when I look at

109this survey and I I wonder if like first is a survey really the best way to go about this recognizing that okay we have teaching that needs to happen in classrooms we need to move on um and like I also appreciate what um trusty Whitehurst Payne said about framing this about this is fundamentally our decision but I look if I could make the decision I have deep admiration for Bell Hooks and I would immediately choose to have B hooks Elementary School be the school but that's not my place it should be rooted in the visions and values of our community and so if our community isn't on board with this is if we go out to create a survey um through our prescribed process and the prescribed process comes with a name that comes out

110with a name that many community members also have a fundamental problem with I think that's a not a description of the community but it's a description of our process and I think it's a great statement or not great but it's a important statement about the process that we're using and so so I think in our one-on-one we did a very good job you I think you guys did a very good job of outlining what exactly that survey process was uh in the presentation specifically today that um you didn't really go into as much depth um but I think what is really irking me about all of this is that there is a deep divide in the community in in what our community is AR what their community is arguing and what our data shows and

111we're asked to settle that debate and that's not our job that's not my job I think that's the job of the committee and it's clear that they're not doing that and so I mean I think staff has done a phenomenal job I mean you've outlined all the processes that made that happen um but it's clear that those phenomenal processes are not enough and I appreciate that this is a first reading I would not absolutely not feel comfortable voting on this right now and so I really look forward into seeing what this looks like in the future thank you and I know superintendent Jackson wanted to add something just for clarity our names committee is not responsible for settling that debate there there will inevitably be debates around names I think to your point um the

112data coming in is how do we come together as a community I think one of our Educators said it specifically I I that we're this community is going to find their their way together and and it is it is based on the the the speakers tonight there is some level of divide but it is unfortunate fortunately unfortunately the way it is our responsibility as a board Collective board to make the final decision on renaming with with the information coming to us however it it's it's coming to us the board has to discern from that and the committee can help inform the board on processes what took place but ultimately the board um is here um put in office by the constituents to make those decisions that's the formal piece I I think we all can

113agree to your point we'd love for it to be a collective decision by the community coming forward like we're together on this right and and I fundamentally agree that I mean at the end of the day this is fundamentally our decision and it's the goal of the names committee to help us make an informed and valuable decision and what I'm saying is that from what the information that I have right now in front of me I don't have that given the disconnect between Community Voices and this survey that's what I'm pointing and and and I think it's I mean so just for for folks here I'm I'm I'm uh facilitating I'm I'm not you know going right left I'm I'm I'm saying you know we can look at data any way we want and make

114the decisions right we could say to your point uh trusty Vera um speakers have come forward I I believe just factual there were t speakers and we have a petition of 1,00 folks we also have after the petition 106 folks who voted for something else and so that's what we have to discern we have to go go through that um and figure out uh what we're hearing and then also what we value uh as as a board I think that's that's really really important um to hold on to because we can say well the survey didn't work but to Dr whiter Payne's point at Pacific View they did a survey and it worked it that's why I say this isn't a technical issue this is more of an Adaptive issue that we have to work

115through so thank you president thank you and yes trusty lavender Williams and then I and I do want to just add before you jump in I apologize um I do think there's consensus that there were challenges in the process we've heard multiple people say I have a funny feeling about this and so I do want to just acknowledge that there is consensus around that there is consensus around the fact that a year ago this board said yeah let's change that name nobody wants to name so I think all of those things are true um and I'll save the rest but just go ahead H trusty lavender Williams no thank you um by the time it gets to me everyone already kind of said pretty much everything so I'll make it sure I promise um definitely

116amazing conversations from the community and our Educators on what they want and what they believe something else I just want to really shine light on is we see these surveys and we see 106 response but I don't see any students in that I don't see any student opinion student voices and I definitely understand um as trusty Peterson was saying earlier about how we might not understand the importance of what this name might mean but I believe that our students are um intelligent enough to understand understand that process and to speak with them on what that would mean considering that they're going to be the students going to the school and the ones representing what that name is actually going to be meaning so I just want to shine light on that that we should definitely

117have more student input on this conversation they did do student surveys but it was kind of trusty yeah go ahead ummer you may want to come and address that what's the question oh were there any students who participated in the survey but not I was talking about about something totally different yeah so if you could speak to the composition of survey respondents s stud you want me to if you could just speak to the composition of all the survey respondents sure so the survey was emailed to Clay Elementary families and staff now whether families engag their students in responding that that that I'm not sure but prior to Distributing the survey the School site did do some work with students um that helped inform um you know the final survey and the feedback that was

118given to the committee and Lindsay might be able to talk more about that I can speak to that so um when we first um when the board first voted to change the name of clay um I engaged our student Lighthouse team which is representative of students in utk through five and invited them I explained the process I explained what was happening I said our school board has voted to rename our school I gave them some background information about the why and the rationale and I said so a lot of these people a lot of these adults have never been to our school so what would you tell them what word would you use to represent our school and so they all just jotted down words and um one of the big word one of the

119words that was mentioned most was leadership as we're you know is something that we as not because of leader me but just the culture of our who we are as we believe our students are leaders so that was one of the bigger words in the word art that I made that came forward um that word art is on the initial the first survey that went out to community members seeking input because I wanted our community members to know these are the words to our students that represent our School site um after that we engaged our after we received the five names and got the final survey um we engaged our student Lighthouse team again and they decided to have our third through fifth grade students participate um in the survey so they went to every

120room with our Lighthouse coordinator and received um input from the students and um we shared this data with the names committee as well the results were 60% for Rolling Hills 20% James Baldwin and 20% um I wrote it down I didn't bring my notebook um but it sence like students did participate not in the survey but they did their own we we decided to heard their feedback yes and like Samar said if families had their students take the Google survey they were absolutely able to um but then we did engage the students in a separate process and that data was shared with the names committee as well thank you so I guess my biggest takeaway from all of this and I think trust well first thank you trusty whiters pay for bringing this to all

121of us um for ensuring that we collectively have the opportunity to talk about this I wish we would have done it a year ago I think I so I just want to accept responsibility and I heard uh vice president peton saying this was our work this is the work of the board uh and we never established a process for doing this and so it's been bumpy it's been messy uh and I also heard you know the superintendent say irrespective of the process there are going to be winners and there are going to be losers and some people may not be happy I think that's true but I think for me knowing that we do not have a school naming process um is problematic and I think we need to do the work as a district

122um to develop that process to clarify what are the overarching visions and values of our district that we want to inform names how do communities go about renaming whether it's initiated by a group of students which was the case in at Canyon Hills or community members as is the case here or Nipa we built a brand new school and we had to come up with a name for it we seem to do this sort of ad hoc and as these one offs but we know we need to name schools it is part and parcel of the work we need to do and so I would like our I would like staff to come back to us with a recommendation for a thoughtful process and for us to be able to get clear on what that

123process is because I think at the very least we owe it to the community to our constituents who spent two years going through hoops through this frankly non-existent process that we were making up as we went along um and that doesn't feel right to me and so I think that's really really important um I want to own that we were not transparent with the community I think we share you they thought oh we need to collect these petitions they collected all these petitions then we said well here's what we have to do you you actually have to do this thing and then we're going to do the survey and the survey informs the names committee but we can't tell you who's on the names committee um I think we need to be transparent we need

124to have a clear consistent process when we don't have clear consistent processes that are used at every single School process processes become in Equitable that's concerning to me um and so I think what I'm grappling with is there's this urgency because nobody I don't think at least nobody on this Das I don't think anybody in the room that we've heard from wants the name Henry Clay Elementary and so I guess the question I ask is is there a way for us to remove the name immediately while we develop a process clarify that process not just for the school but across the district um and then work through and develop a community centered um name um and again defer to uh trusty white Hurst Payne and who is closest to that Community um but to go

125through that process and then determine a name and I think about and I'm not a huge sports fan but the Washington formerly Redskins which said this is a bad name so they became I think the Washington football I'm looking to like anybody who knows sports right we're going to be the Washington football team until we come up with guardians right so I think my question is can we say this is a bad name nobody wants this name let's take that name off the building come up with something temporary and it'll be weird and awkward like the Washington football team was um and then really develop a process that we all are clear on that we can all stand behind it sounds like we had a names committee and the composition of that committee was clear

126at one point we no longer do um I think also getting clear on the staff who lead the work I think you've both done an amazing job but it strikes me uh that this work should be led you know so often renaming needs to be restorative we have staff who lead restorative justice work uh and so I wonder why staff who lead restorative justice work aren't leading these kinds of processes and could there be a cross functional team um of RJ staff and construction facility staff um working together to think about all of this so I guess one of the things I heard um from trusty barera was a request to agendize an action item at the next meeting um and I guess the question is is the desire of this board to vote on

127a name at the next meeting uh or to receive recommendations about a process um and is there an appetite for removing the name temporarily as we work to more meaningfully to go through a different process or a process we can all get behind um before coming up with the name trust one of my trustees yeah I I appreciate what everybody's saying it feels like we're torturing this community we're just I I think I think we need to correct our process I frankly think we had a very clear process and we had a board appointed Brown act open meeting uh names committee so I think we I think we have to do that work to redevelop our process but I think we also should take action on this item and uh and I think that allows

128the community to to move forward and um and I I absolutely hear superintendent that with the best of all processes that doesn't mean that there's going to be consensus in the community and you know I don't think any of us expect that but I think we've heard a lot and I I I I think we should take action on this school and develop our process and I I would go for B Hook tonight if I had to vote tonight and the main reason the the piece that bothers me more than anything else is you had 1,00 people expressing an interest in this and then we get down to 106 and we ultimately come down to 55 people making this decision and it doesn't sound like somehow or another this group I I don't know uh

129haven't been a researcher I want I would want to see how this these surveys were stratified um blessing was concerned about uh how many students um I I don't know I I don't like that piece of it given that Bell Hook is a second name and I don't think anybody on this Di has a real strong feeling for Roland tells tonight if I had to vote and I know we vote next week rather than tonight I would go with the Bell hook because it has a second highest number of votes and we have the right to make that decision ourselves I I hear what you say I agree with it we need a process but I don't want to torture this school with like two years from now we'll get around to after we've gone

130through we've put staff through something again and we've gone over and over and it just drags out and we wind up with um coming back to one of the names my vote tonight would be for B Hook that's just me I'm one of five and I recognize that I think I heard chesse Barrera share that sentiment as well um and I guess looking to the other trustees about whether you would like to have a name come before you at our next meeting to vote on vice president Pon I don't know that this is a non-motion non vote but but I but I would but I but I I would support um trustee uh weer Payne's recommendation I I would absolutely support that as well and I think um the two of you did a phenomenal

131job of outlining what exactly that um survey process looked like if you can kind of give a brief I know you didn't really go into the details but I mean that was what was really striking to me is to go from a th to 106 can you talk about I'm sorry to like bring you back up to the podium but just really quickly what that process kind of looked like and and we're here to answer any questions you have so keep firing them off um so if I recall the the petition the petition was to change the name of clay and that garnered about a thousand plus signatures uh perhaps the community members could correct me if I'm mistaken but I don't think within the petition it suggested which names to change it to I

132think that's something that came in the actual proposal that was submitted to the district um I just don't know whether when folks were signing the petition they were also signing for those four names and that was something that wasn't necessarily clear to the committee um does that does that answer your question so how we go from a, to 100 we don't necessarily also know who the Thousand folks are um you know one of the lessons that staff we've learned in previous name change processes is that it frequently there's a lot of kind of community engagement that takes place external to the district which we're not necessarily part of or privy to right and then it gets brought to us for consideration um and you know the school names Committee of last year felt that was

133important that when we do community input there needs to be a community input process that's driven by the district as well and that's we got to surveys for example um we use a survey to name the Mission Valley School um niip Elementary School and an interesting data point npae was the number three vote um in that public survey right and the committee last year decided that the number three vote was still the proper name for that school and that's the recommendation they brought forth quick question do you know that who the 106 are uh so we we have asked um for zip code um and whether you're a parent a staff a student or just general Community member so we have a better idea of who the 106 are than what's that what's that breakdown

134or do do you have that oh if I can grab my laptop and pull it up for a second one second not to torture you here but yeah and I'm wondering because we're not voting now I'm wondering if there are Ser I imagine there may be more data or information everybody wants and so I'm wondering if maybe we can compile that and put it together and provide it in advance of um the next meeting just give me one second here to find everything so I guess would you like it now or later honestly it's a mine was a point of information but if it's not if it's not going to be readily accessible that's all right you can come back okay so what I'm hearing is there is a sense of urgency um from trustees

135that we agenda is an item that we decide on a name uh that that name be Community informed and um after that that a process is developed that is used consistently uh so that we can clarify to anyone who comes to us whether from inside the school outside the school to change a name um exactly what that process is and so that as a board we're really clear about what it is the other thing I will add is also knowing what the timeline is I don't think it is ever right for it to to take over a year to rename a school so let's get clear on that and the last thing I will add is um I do want to be mindful of all of the staff capacity required to do this and we

136can't do this a lot of times during a year and so I think the other thing um that should come out of this process is how many name changes do we even have the capacity to do in a given year um and being thoughtful about that superintendent Jackson Just for clarity um I want to make sure that everyone here watching listening understands that the committee did bring this forward earlier over a month ago yeah there were questions from the community at that point we then said hold off let's get some more information before we bring the first read so this I I'm going to take responsibility I'll take resp for delay no no no no no no no I'm going to beat you to this you know one of the things that that we do

137talk about is making sure that we have the best information for our board to make the decisions and there were questions and this happens this is this does happen and so it was not the decision of the names committee not to bring this forward this was my decision to say we need to make sure each trustee in our 101's separately were brought up to speed with where we are before we came this evening and then part of our board processes is that we have a first reading and it is has been the intent of the committee and staff superintendent to bring this forward at our next meeting it wasn't going to be this first read and then let's wait six months before so I just I want to clarify for everyone here that it was

138not the names committee the principal uh Sam or anyone else it was a decision that we made I made to pull the item educate come forward tonight so thank you for for leading this effort as well and thank you for all the feedback yeah and thank you to everyone and just to clarify as we wrapping this up um my feedback around the sh oh yeah just one second um my feedback around the length of time it's taken really represents the I think year that the community was trying to figure out how do we rename and then the an additional year um before we got to this point and so it's really not about the last month it's about everything leading up to this um and yeah if you want to share that last data point

139and then we'll move on so 67% of the responding votes came from the actual zip code of the school um and then those votes broke down to 67% or 71 votes came from a parent guardian of an enrolled student 23 votes came from a staff member five votes from from a neighbor a campus neighbor 13 from a Community member and then three from students and then we can break it down to by you know who voted and what if we can of course we can yeah if that's helpful thank you both so much I know this has been way more work than either of you bargained for over the last year and really appreciate the time um and we will we will Land This Plane very soon so so but really quick just to be

140clear of what we're asking for for staff per the recommendation what appears is cons consensus we are asking staff to come back with to try to get four votes for Bell hooks Elementary is that what is that what it's going to come back as or what's it going to come back as so we will be coming back with a recommendation for the board to take action in our at our next meeting I will also begin and we've already started working on a process that we will then bring to the board at a future I'm not I'm not going to be able to commit to in two weeks uh we have a we have some other things happening right now um as we think about Staffing and um and Personnel matters so that um I love

141the fact that we're talking about renaming a school and and needing that um but we have some other things happening as well so and by action you mean pick a name pick a name yes we pick a name thank you thank you everybody pick a name all right we will now consider items i1 through i3 5 the superintendent consent agenda the following items were previously withdrawn by staff they are I4 I6 I9 i19 I20 i21 i27 28 29 and 31 Dr Jackson are there any items not naming related on the superintendent's consent agenda that you'd like to highlight I just like to lift up to as we align to our um student outcomes Focus governance and and our priorities uh first I'd like to lift up I2 uh we have an a great opportunity to

142utilize an online process to provide us uh realtime data to our Educators which will accelerate uh and and accurately reclassify um our multilanguage Learners so really excited about uh I2 and the second is i26 as we focus on improving our mathematics uh and and we focus on outcomes there this is an opportunity to elevate summer academic experiences through uh mindsets mathematics uh and this will assist in providing additional support to our students uh this is contract is an uh expansion uh to all seven middle schools participating in summer uh learning and will create Hands-On mathematical experiences for our students so I want to lift those two up this evening thank you thank you and is there a motion on items i1 through 35 thank you trusty baso is there a second thank you trusty Barrera

143do we have any speakers on Section I okay any trustees have any questions or anything they'd wish to discuss okay I have just a small one um so around uh I8 the interdivisional curriculum committee recommendations um just ask that all of the information related to the proposed courses please be shared with us there were like links within links within links and really challenging to navigate so just a technical one um and with that we can move on to our vote student trustees if you could please vote thank you and all other trustees okay the motion passes unanimously with the student board members concurring we'll now move on to section J uh and we'll receive public testimony on our non-agenda items uh Miss stz have we received any requests for non-agenda comment yes we have three

144requests uh yonas gilu GH i l i u you have three minutes good afternoon uh Madame president vice president and superintendent Dr lamon Jackson and all members so uh my name is yonas G and then I have a child with special education who goes to elementary school so actually you know uh following your Dr Jackson uh following your motto about you know the opportunity inclusion and and you know of inclusion and equity for all we enrolled our student to Central Elementary School and uh you know after week of observing the my child you know the here his teacher is uh Mrs bongat Penelope they call her Miss Penny she observed him for about a week and then she told me next year we going to put him in under different placement and then within six

145months by June of 2023 he met and mastered all of his goals so we told her you know instead of you know repeating the same class next year why don't you set him to a different goal so that we can push you know his limit and potential but for some reason uh which we don't understand you know she said no no he going to repeat you know the same class while every you know family who comes to the same school they have a positive opinion about him they tell us you know and then we put him under ABA class they told us you know your student your your your uh son he is not supposed to be you know in this restricted environment you know let's put him under you know at least in under

146mild moderate so we have been you know going with her you know for the past you know two years and for some reason she is not you know looking at the person you know who is trying to shine and then reach his full potential but for some reason which we we don't understand she is the only one who is just putting themin know to this level so you know I asked her what is your moral irrational you know to just put him under this restricted environment you know where the students are you know with him they just communicate with his AAC environment AAC device they don't talk they just you know put the AC device some of them they are cognitively impaired also so why don't you put him under mild moderat that way you

147can push him a little bit up then she said you know he has to access the curriculum on his own then he said who who told you that one he said the speech and pathologist so can we talk with her then can we can we speak with her as members of the IP team no if you have to talk with her it should be through us I have to be you know the ears and the eyes of the school I have to defend the school so why are you defend the school for you know we are just trying to have you know a natural and spontaneous conversation with her to see what is her perspective and then what is her recommendation for putting him on this this perspective then she put you know the principal

148the speech pathologist and then herself under this the judu class oh okay so uh from uh March 5 then she became so aggressive she became physical with him she became totally uncomfortable so she was trying to send him to isolation and then the child he became you know from this kid who held high his head go to the school I'm sorry yeah and I wonder I we appreciate the feedback I wonder if we can refer this to the superintendent to look into this please Dr Lemon Jackson I also email it to you the concern and then Madame President I'm going to leave this one with you also so kindly consider thank you Anthony Pard hello uh I have to say there's a a lot of wonderful things were said uh tonight that I got a

149chance to hear kind of goes right along with what I'm about to say right now um with some sadness and anchored in faith uh my name is Anthony Pard and yes I do have something here prepared uh this Exposition testimony uh is not just about an individual I identify as an Apostolic Christian American black man of multi dissent I am a teacher uh we have endured discrimination Prejudice racism bias sexism all difficult to prove however we have a voice when we are abused we choose to use our voice to expose and to teach we teach students to use their voice without fear of retaliation students and teachers contend with institution institutional systematic structural human rights or atrocities occurring within our public education and on our educational campuses for our district we have Personnel who provide

150guidance for such matters we have a union in solidarity to promote and utilize appropriate social justice practices in addition to our evolving evolving restorative justice practices to attempt to safely and peacefully resolve these matters to resolve these matters important moral elements need to be within our character truth transparency vulnerability and honesty demonstrated by our staff members and learned by our students without these uh people without these virtues can cause our voices to be marred incoherent and sometimes silenced we encourage our students to participate in vulnerable transparent conversation without fear of retaliation because we tell them they are not alone we teach our students there will be uh disagreement and it's an argument but our voices are heard we teach our students there will be confusion and misunderstanding but we have an opportunity to cause Clarity

151we hope our voice of exposition is not labeled egregious or unsafe for students and adults to hear it is a voice with reason for our future the hope is we are able to learn from the truth of our experiences and I hope you learn something from me right now thank you all for listening is Roa new haly available oraya it doesn't look like it then that would conclude public comment thank you thanks to everybody for taking the time to provide your comments to the board and superintendent today we appreciate your input and please know that your perspective helps us to better serve our students parents and the community this concludes the agendized business of the board we will be holding a special meeting tomorrow uh right and early tomorrow uh to continue our student outcomes

152focused goal setting work and our next regular meeting of the board will be held on April 30th 2024 this meeting is now adjourned e