001I call the meeting of the San Juan Unified Board of Education to order there are two closed session items on tonight's agenda student enrollment in one case Education Code section 48918f and collective bargaining matters discussion with negotiator Daniel figpen executive director Labor Relations and government Affairs regarding CSEA Chapter 127 General operations support chauffeur's Teamsters Local Number 150 Transportation supervisors teachers and certificated supervisory units and regarding non-represented groups management and confidential units we do not have any speaker cards on the closed session agenda items we will now move into closed session and will return to open session at 6 30. the recording May capture sounds and images of those attending this meeting the recording will be posted on the district's website board meetings are being held in person in the boardroom at the district office and
002the community is welcome to attend the meeting may also be viewed on the district's YouTube channel where it's being live streamed please stand for the presentation of Colors by the Dell Campbell High School Air Force Junior ROTC okay ours please follow me in the pledge of the uh um Harry hello other other are good evening and welcome I'm zema creason board president to my left is Pam Costa board vice president that scared me so left his Mr saw Hernandez board Clerk and to his left is Mr benavi and Ms Tanya krevcheck board members to my right is superintendent Melissa bassinelli and to her right is board Administrative Assistant Stephanie Cunningham members of the public I'm sad to share that board member Polly viasquez will not be with us in person tonight as she's contracted covid-19
003but she is with us um on the phone out of an abundance of caution she will be participating in this meeting telephotically here at the here at the agenda's location of the meeting San Juan Unified School District office 3738 Walnut Avenue Carmichael California 95608 all votes tonight will take place via roll call Miss Vasquez I would now like to ask you to respond to the following questions are you able to hear our proceedings on this end yes I can do you have a copy of the agenda for this meeting yes I do has the agenda been posted at your location at the district office yes it is your location such that any member of the public could participate in the public portions of this teleconference meeting from your location yes so it's highly not recommended
004[Laughter] thanks for the hot tips members of the board are you able to hear Ms Vasquez thank you individuals who are attending the meeting in person and would like to offer offer a public comment we ask that you complete a speaker request card available at the staff table and you'll be called on at the appropriate time during the agenda please note that board by law 9323 limits visitor comments to two minutes per speaker with no more than 30 minutes per single topic time will be extended for any speaker who uses use who uses an interpreter please note that public comments including your name become part of the public record we are now at item D approval of the minutes are there any corrections to the minutes seeing none is there a motion to approve the
005minutes for August 22nd this is by Ms kreb check is there a second say goodbye to Mr AV and I have to do the roll call vote so we will do a roll call about men's crab check aye Ms Vasquez aye Mr Amy aye Mr Hernandez Miss Costa aye and I vote I the motion passes unanimously we are now at item E1 recognition of the 2024 certificated employee of the year Dr Toto it's on okay good evening president creason board members super intelli superintendent bassinelli and Mrs Cunningham it gives me great pleasure this evening to recognize two outstanding distinguished teachers of the year Karen Davidson who is a music teacher at Lois pasture middle school and at casserole fundamental high school with 20 years 22 years experience in the district and Susan Sloan is the
006librarian at Bella Vista with over 33 years of experience in the district these two extraordinary teachers of the Year came to us through the nominations of students staff and the community they embody the commitment of the Excellence of San Juan teachers that we have in our district they provide positive caring learning environments where students can Thrive and enjoy growing and learning each day um let's give them a round of applause before I have Mr congratulations I would like to turn the microphone or the podium over to Mr Barry Roth president of the San Juan Teachers Association as he would like to say a few words about these amazing individuals thank you thank you congratulations on behalf of all of the practitioners in San Juan Unified the this recognition is such a fantastic calling out of
007your professionalism your dedication the manner in which you welcome all students every day and we had as you know and but not everyone may know uh there was a team of us that got to uh had the opportunity to visit them while they're working with students and it was so clear as we walked in these safe spaces you created in your library in your music program so that students felt seen every day so that they can achieve their very best and that exemplifies what practitioners do throughout our district always so thank you so very much and congratulations and this is again these two individuals are outstanding members of our um district and I want to congratulate you on all your hard work and being nominated for this and please stay at the house seat for
008just a little while and so we can see your forecast anything to add to this wonderful wonderful dedication any comments questions from the board Mr Amy congratulations to both of you um I do have to say Miss Sloan I was able to visit your library last year when I was visiting Bella Vista and um I really appreciate how much I learned about the teacher librarian role I think it went so much farther than I had understood that role to be and really how it does integrate into the full learning experience um and so thank you so much for that work um I'll also say I'm a big fan of the Bella Vista library Facebook page so be sure to follow it it's a great way to keep up with what's going on with the school
009um and I apologize Miss Davidson but congratulations to you as well and best luck and thank you for all you do any other remarks superintendent bassinelli yeah I just wanted to extend my gratitude so I had the privilege of seeing Karen in action at her San Juan sings and that's just a little sliver of what she does that is beyond all the work that she does throughout the day and that service that you provide to our students is amazing and that event is a beautiful culmination of all the hard work of our students and also our staff so I want to say thank you and congratulations and Susan as I shared earlier so my son Johnny is a graduate of Bella Vista he when I came home from the teacher of the year event and
010I assure that you had received an award he was so excited for you and he said that you were so helpful for him with College and Career and he just spoke to the work that you did with all the students so on behalf of all of our students and staff I want to thank you both very much for your dedication and hard work for our students thank you superintendent stole my final closing but I'll just say I think it's pretty cool that we have such amazing teachers we just have such a wonderful team a lot of people doing a whole lot of hard work to make sure that our kids have what they need so you're appreciated have such a great time celebrating with you a couple of Friday nights ago um and let's keep
011the party going we're here for you uh here to support you and I'll be visiting soon all right thank you and congratulations again so we are now I flipped too many pages we're at item E2 high school student council reports tonight we'll hear from student representatives from Rio Americana High School in Casa Robles fundamental High School welcome to let's begin with Lainey shayta and Morgan Reed from Rio good evening president creason members of the board superintendent bastinelli and Miss Cunningham I am Morgan Reed Rio Americano High School's ASB treasurer and I'm Lainey shayda Rios ASB president I'm so excited to be back with you all again this year to talk about some of the amazing things that have happened on Rio's campus so far this school year over the summer Rio was fortunate enough to
012have our furniture exploring project completed and parking slots redone making more spots available for students and minimizing traffic during pickup and drop-off times benefiting not only the students but and staff but surrounding Rio's neighborhood as well we began the school year with our back to school Jersey dance and rally we sold over 400 tickets to the dance providing us with the perfect opportunity to get students excited for the new school year our football season is off to a great start um last Friday we beat Burbank 49-0 continuing continuing our record of being undefeated this season and marking our program's best start since 1994. additionally Rio has welcomed its first ever girls flag football team and they had their first game last Thursday despite being a new program there's been a lot of interest and we
013are excited to watch our girls play this season another new program we have is our girls seven on seven rugby team which was created as a civitas project by a student on campus our girls golf season golf team is looking forward to a great season with many returning players and our boers water polo team is off to an amazing start um last weekend they traveled to Hawaii and got first place in the punahu Invitational Tournament additionally earlier this month our girls volleyball team competed in the civt preseason Varsity tournament where they were undefeated and won the tournament our annual fall Club rush started today which is one of Rio students favorite events we have over 50 clubs here on campus to represent the diverse interests and values of Rio students additionally student government started a
014new tradition of the tireless teacher award where students or each month students are able to recognize an outstanding teacher and student government presents them award giving our staff and teachers the much deserved appreciation for their hard work and dedication as senior year begins for the class of 2024 and students are beginning their senior project Rio has welcomed its annual food scraps recycling program two civitas students have introduced separate trash cans specifically for food scraps those scraps go directly to Rio's Gardens composting bins to help reduce our school's environmental impact Rio is excited to host our annual college night next Thursday at this event San Juan students will have the opportunity to speak to over 60 colleges and universities as well as other career and educational opportunities we're so excited to have students and families from
015all over San Juan come out as of late student government is preparing for our homecoming dance on September 23rd being our biggest event of the Year homecoming will include a Spirit Week a rally hallway hallway decorations and our homecoming game and royalty we look forward to an event full of school spirit lastly Rio will be hosting its first Smallville night of the year on September 27th in our Performing Arts Center and we welcome the board to come out and see some of Rio's most talented musicians finally we would like to thank the board for taking the time to hear about all the incredible things happening on Rio's campus we're open to any questions or comments at this time thank you thank you that was a great report looking at my colleagues in the comments questions
016Mr Hernandez I just want to thank you for the report and volunteer the next time there's a Hawaii I will go as a chaperone okay thank you so like I have any other comments questions I'm gonna jump in um I just want to say this is Paula on the phone I'm really sorry to be missing you all in person um can you hear me yes yes fantastic uh but just want to say thank you for the presentation there was a lot of fantastic things um but the most probably new and exciting thing that I heard about was the food scraps recycling program that was sounds like a fantastic work I know that food waste is a very uh significant issue both for climate change but also just in terms of um Waste Management Etc so
017kudos to you all for tackling that any other promise questions so as you were talking I was doing the math backward in my heads I'm like I'm pretty sure we've only been in school for a month and two days I'm pretty sure and there's a rugby you're beating and very embarrassingly beating Burbank like wow I hope they don't yeah um I hope they're working on their feelings um it's just amazing that's a whole lot that you're doing and I know a lot of folks are really excited about college week thank you for hosting yet again um huge event you know a lot of seniors from all over the district get to go and have an incredible experience so thank you for all you do I look forward to seeing you throughout the New Year congratulations
018on both of your positions and I look forward to hearing hearing from you soon thank you next we'll hear from Amaya Ferris and Kira Chandler from Casa and please um correct me if I mispronounced your name good evening president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli Miss and Miss Cunningham I'm Amaya farias a current senior and ASA president at casserole high school and I'm Kira Chandler ASB vice president a goal to cultivate an environment where students feel safe to engage in opportunities that they may or may not have experienced before is a priority and a realism at Casa the determination to continue programs which proved effective for our students shined through at the beginning of this year when Caso Robles Junior ROTC program engaged in a seven-day Cadet leadership course where students were eyed smiling
019through procedures such as teams ropes course and community service Junior ROTC began the year with great intent to Aid students and in great intent they were not alone as the annual AP and dual enrollment Camp offered many students a free calm environment to gather advice improve and learn study skills for upcoming AP and dual enrollment classes concurrently link crew got to work welcoming class of 2028 creating a Rowan of excitement for the school year in addition CTE Pathways at Casa including agriculture Automotive Woodshop and score continued to introduce students to New Opportunities and Friends preparing students for After High School as Casa immersed students into our CTE programs for the 2023-2020-2024 school year 17 female athletes chose to immerse themselves into the newly CIF approved sport of flag football Casa Robles flag football team played
020their first home game on September 6th defeating Woodland in a 9-0 win marking the team's first ever win in in Casa Robles woman flag football history while the five football players are grabbing Flags the new bass fishing club is hooking fish and won first place at the lake parody on August 13 2023. the student-focused organizations encourage our peers and communities to support one another making CR Rams the go the greatest of all time to kick off the start of the school year student government put on the back to school rally which reintroduced kids to the excitement and unity of cheering one another on in a battle for school spirit following this the incredible Orangevale community Through the hometown rally at our local Dairy Queen which attracted all casserole football fans and excited them for our
021very first home game which appeared on ABC 10 CBS 13 and made a revenue of ten thousand dollars just on ticket sales on September 11th many Casa Robles students were proud to call themselves Orangevale teen council members at this year's first kickoff meeting OTC is a student voice advocacy program that plans events and provides middle school and high school students more opportunity to be involved with in their community in addition to Orangeville teen Council casserole extends student connections through youth advocacy programs at our club's Day event which will be held tomorrow September 13th during lunch and will give every student the opportunity to join a club where they are free to express themselves and their opinions in a safe space principal Tanya Baker is continuing a new program as of last year called the principal's
022advisory Council which focuses on giving students a voice within their academics casserole students are currently looking forward to the homecoming dance in Raleigh which will be held September 29th and 30th the football game and rally being the 29th which you were all welcome to attend coming up in October Student Government will be holding an event called Haunted Casa which is a community event inviting all clubs sports teams and Community organizations to decorate a trunk for Trunk or Treat the event is open to all elementary middle and high school students and also includes a haunted house or raffle a barbecue and a petting zoo courtesy of FFA casarole will also be advocating for the Orangeville food bank by having a food drive and spreading awareness to this cause we as students are very excited to welcome
023Channel 13 on campus this week as they will be filming some of our student body organizations to be broadcasted for Friday night's football game against Del Oro on behalf of Casa Roble I'd like to see how wonderful it is to have the community support that we do and then I'm proud to be part of it thank you board members so much for your time and go Rams thank you so much for the report any comments questions from the board mrscheck I know that miss creason is a fan of the goats that you guys have on campus so she probably would be in favor of having your recruitment motto be that cassette the goat we do have stickers so we're working on it um I thank you so much for the report I loved hearing about
024it I know um many of us were chatting about the new flag football teams and how amazing the girls are I haven't seen a game yet but I plan to do so and I was really um it's just fun the the types of clubs that you're coming up with so the bass fishing club um thank you for sharing that's exciting um I I just remembered as you guys were talking that um miss Karen teaches um zero period band and it occurred to me that she deserves a reward for that in and of itself is there a period um but I didn't hear anything mentioned about Vander the music program and I just wanted to know if it launched already um yes it has launched and it's thriving band is playing at our football games and
025I'm not exactly sure of any upcoming events that they have but we do love having them on campus awesome thank you so much thank you Mr Raby thank you so much for the presentation I just want to quickly say um how excited I was to hear how many times you said community in your presentation it seems like Casa is really embedded and thriving in in the Orangevale community in that Greater Community it's really important for schools to be a part of that community and also just to say word to the wise it's a really good idea to listen to Mrs Baker um you can end up in some pretty cool places I agree any other comments questions I'm giving a second okay Paul are you good or did you want to make comment no pressure
026okay come on wonderful report again I have to backtrack in my head how long have you guys been in school and I think that's very very cool that you have a bass fishing program I'm really excited to hear more about the OTC program as you continue to move through the year because what an incredible resource right yeah so often um we forget that we're peers and we could help each other and we rely on practitioners and we know that there's a shortage of a variety of practitioners so how do we help each other and support each other it's a beautiful thing so I would love to hear more and just how things are going as you're continuing to come and hang out with us here and here and again um and Ms krevcheck totally took
027it out of my mouth and how are the post goats they are great yay I'm looking forward to coming back I know you probably don't have baby goats right now I'm starting to get used to the seasons now's not the time um police supports the got language and I will start using it myself um I also want to just invite you and you may already know this but also to the Rio team if there's events that you want to invite the board to Ms Cunningham is the board secretary and she'll put it on our Board calendar so if there's anything that you really want want us to be aware of and it ends up on the calendar she'll take it and we'll get the information on her you know in front of us good to
028know thank you thank you thank you so much for coming out tonight and uh of course student voice is so incredibly important to us and the board really appreciates you taking the time to join us tonight we know you have so much to do so let's give them one more round of applause and you're of course welcome to stay but if you have better things to do with your time I get it feel free but of course you're welcome to stick with us we are now at item E3 staff reports Mr camarda thank you and good evening president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli and Miss Cunningham on June 14th of 2022 the board adopted a resolution earmarking 10 million dollars for district-wide safety measures from August of uh August 2022 to through February
029of 2023 uh safe schools conducted uh site safety assessments on January 10th of 2023 safe schools provided this board with a staff report on those assessments and additionally the safe schools Department uh reported out to the superintendent's cabinet the facilities committee site Administration and the City of Citrus Heights on April 25th of 2023 the board received a report by staff regarding the progress of the site safety implementation plan at that safe at that meeting staff reviewed the safety implementation planning including sites that were completed sites that were semi-completed some that were in progress due to construction or some that were partially completed from past fencing projects uh the board received information on the timeline for the fencing completion uh to be completed in two phases one in 2024 25 school year and one in the
0302025-26 school year and as of today uh sites that are receiving updated fencing uh in the first phase we walked those sites with site Administration uh with safe schools with facilities with construction management and with our civil engineers uh the remainder of that process will go in the following steps uh first will our civil engineer will Design the fence layouts based on those walks uh provide cost estimates for the facilities division to review the second part of that the design layouts will be reviewed by the facility staff and also by site Administration uh the third part of that process is the design layouts will be sent to the site Administration to review with their site safety committees their teams their staff their parents and the community to receive some of some feedback uh and then
031finally number four Once the designs are reviewed by all of our education partners and the applicable edits are made we will advance those designs to the the final stages which will be the submission to the division of the state architect there are three schools that are that out of the 11 that have been selected in phase one that can be expedited and those schools include Arlington Heights uh Kingswood and Will Rogers and the reason we can expedite those projects because they're not as complex as some of the other projects that need to be undertaken so we'll be taking a look at that some of the complexities I'm talking about with some of the other school sites or we have to do full civil site surveys and we also have to do a full access compliance
032review for the American with Disabilities Act so that takes quite a bit of time to do that to sure that where our school sites are accessible to to folks that need that accessibility we can also expedite some of those projects by starting those projects in early spring after receiving some of those State architect approvals we can do some of that work that is less disruptive around the campus and the more disruptive work we can complete during the summer during the summer break in some of those cases it's really important that we do start those earlier because as you know the Summers get shorter so we need a little additional time to make sure that those those projects are completed in time for school opening for the 24-25 school year uh beyond the fencing projects as
033you may recall safe school's recommended advice called the lock block these locked blocks allow our schools to go into site lockdown very quickly without the use of a key without the use of any keying device I'll remind the board that all of our school sites do have locking devices on the Interiors either push buttons or different generations of locking devices but this lock block will provide a good opportunity for folks to be able to lock down a very a quick fashion again without using a key or a keying device the maintenance department did a test run on Whitney Elementary School it went very smooth that has been completed and we anticipate the completion of the lock block installation to take about five or six months give or take a few months so we'll be rapidly
034trying to get those completed uh in the next like I said in the next six or seven months and with that board members I can take any questions at the mate that the board may have thank you thank you Mr kamarda any questions description thank you just a question about the time frame how long for the regular um four point submission and the expedited process say one more time what's the time frame from the civil engineer design layouts to submission for the regular course and then for the expedited as well uh we are hoping to get everything submitted uh there's two there's two types of processes one is a over-the-counter review which is a quicker one so we get those done in November or December get approval and then we'll get approval probably around the
035February March uh which is a full review by the division the state architect that allows us to have um to go out to bid and to be able to start those those uh three projects I mentioned in early spring the others will be a little bit later in the spring to be completed during the summer you're welcome other comments questions just one question thank you so much it's so wonderful to hear about the projects moving forward because I know safety is Paramount to so many including me um I think what would be helpful just to wrap my head around what you just said when it makes sense and not to create work for the team but if there's a spreadsheet or a list that just can identify which schools are um getting you know getting
036a fence or engaging in the fencing project that would be really helpful just to wrap my head around who's getting what oh perfect I have that list and I can send that to you I would love that I think you have my email I do yes all right any other comments questions all right thank you so much for the report yeah thank you did you did you we are at item E7 closed session expulsion actions Mr Hernandez the board of voted unanimously to accept the hearing panelist recommendation on of one denied enrollment and case number zero s-0-1 thank you we are Adam at item F visitor comments we do have speaker cards for General visitor comments comments are limited to two minutes the clock on the screen counts down to time under the Ralph m
037brown act the board is not allowed to comment on items that are not on the agenda so we're not ignoring your comments we just can't respond to any individual comments the superintendent can refer items to staff who can follow up with you Ms Rye please facilitate public comment of course our first speaker is Gemma followed by BJ Combs head to the podium hi um my name is Gemma and um I would like to tell you about my experience from San Juan um my experience was not the best because when um I would um I'm sorry uh um that when I was wearing um a different type of mask that uh it had a open window on the top and then um my teacher grabbed me and said that um I was not wearing it right
038and that I can't go hug her but you did so good she just wanted to tell you about her experience wearing the masks and how she felt discriminated against thank you our next speaker is B.J Combs followed by Ross Gallagher good evening president creason superintendent masinelli and board members um I live about six blocks from Barrett Elementary I'm not buried Elementary Barrett middle school now and uh I just want to say thank you for job well done renovating the school it's I've lived there for 20 years and it's remarkable that changes your faith I'd like to make a suggestion at some point either this fall or later next spring I'd encourage you to have an open house and invite them neighbors that live in the community that drive past the school every day that have
039waited for the trucks to get their work loads unloaded and everything like that but we'd like to see what's happened inside as well if it looks as good inside as it does outside it's a gym and you should be really proud of it thank you very much for your time your next we have Ross Gallagher followed by Nancy brownelli hello president creason board trustees superintendent bassinelli and Miss Cunningham my name is Ross Gallagher I'm a school counselor over at Silva Middle School this is currently my fourth year over at Sylvan as a counselor at middle school we serve all students by providing and promoting both academic achievement and social emotional well-being for all of our students myself and my counseling partner utilize Naviance to make sure that students are exploring colleges careers and themselves I
040believe it is our role to create a safe space for all students to feel welcome and supported while they are at school a place where students can explore what makes them who they are I am one of the web coordinators also on campus web stands for where everybody belongs we have implemented web with the goal of creating a positive School culture and climate on our campus through web we have seen more positive climate in our school kids are feeling safe included and excited about the school year and going to a lot more of our events as well as school staff we have seen the change being established with all of the supports that are being offered establishing a culture and climate of everybody belonging is the most important quality to creating a safe environment for
041our kiddos thank you for your time and continued support next we have Nancy brownpelli followed by Laura Fierro hello president creason board trustees superintendent bassinelli Ms Cunningham my name is Nancy brampelli and I am a middle years teacher at Woodside TKA School I've been teaching for well over 20 years I'm pretty sure I stopped County around 15. this is my ninth year in the wonderful San Juan Unified School District it has been a pleasure to serve in this District as an educator I strive to create an environment of safety trust and collaboration in my classroom to afford each student the space and Grace to become the best they can be I wanted to share that Woodside k-a-tka is very excited to have been chosen as an Innovative School the design team in collaboration with our
042new administrators Beth wall and Deborah Johnson who are goats by the way are cultivating and culture of Excellence that supports Innovative teaching and thinking we have many clubs that are including all of our students and we believe that safety inclusiveness are of the utmost importance at our school we are so excited about our journey as an Innovative school and we hope you continue to follow our progress thank you next we have Laura Fierro followed by Pooney Holst hello everyone I'm just keep this short thank you for taking time to listen my name is Laura Fiero and I'm a credential teacher librarian and worked over at the library at Rio Americano High School for eight years I just want to give you a few details of some issues that I've had we've had in the library
043with the renovation process that our site was involved in over the past year we got new furniture and carpeting at Rio and that included our library area I was not consulted at all regarding the library Furniture instead I was told what library furniture and shelving we would be receiving I was repeatedly rebuffed when I tried to give any input as to the furniture and shelving that the district ordered and purchased to be placed in our library as a result I now have over 35 boxes of books with no shelving this means that students do not have access to over a thousand academic and reading resources especially concerning me is how we continue to be out of compliance with California's School library standards regarding our minimal book collection and when I brought up the fact that
044we have no shelving for all of those boxes of books I was told by District representatives to get rid of books the new shelving has created numerous safety problems the shelves are bowing and unsteady from the weight of the books books are falling off the shelves Etc this presents a real Hazard to anyone browsing through the stacks our previous shelving was completely adequate for the books that we had and we're only five years old yet that shelving was removed and discarded unnecessarily in regards to this recent renovation I've been advocating for our library space for over a year now to no avail I've gone through the chain of command at our school site and in the district presented fax figures documentation and pictures and even offered solutions to this furniture problem but there's been no
045resolution I'm trying to do what's right for the students our school library and the other school libraries in our district that have had the same experience I invite you to our library to judge for yourselves if you have any questions feel free to contact me thank you next we have huni Holst do I just start yes hi my name is Pooney Holst I'm a parent at Rio Americano High School of a High School Junior and I'm here to complain about my experience at Rio Americano with the class schedules and what students have experienced but I'll refer mostly to my son one the master calendar that was created has been a very difficult for kids to navigate as well as for counseling staff to be able to help provide the classes that students were requesting to
046the lack of counseling support with the master calendar and kids asking for particular classes especially when they were scheduled incorrectly has been very difficult um there's been a lack of AP classes available this year and as well as um I'm concerned about actually overall the academic achievement goals set for the school and for the students who desire to achieve as and go as far as possible um when AP classes were unavailable the counseling center and the school did not offer options for junior college classes and did not provide guidance or support for that and um the way kids and parents were updated if classes were available or unavailable did not happen regularly I actually had to go in and I know other parents who had to go into the Counseling Center to get the support
047their kid needed the lack of AP classes this year has been low there were three AP US History classes last year they're only two this year and there were a lot of kids on a wait list my other concern is that my for two years in a row the AP Physics teacher has not completed the academic coursework and I'm not sure what the plan is for this year and I've also asked the school the Counseling Center teacher principal for the AP score not the scores a the number of students who passed the AP exams for the high school Rio Americano over the last three years so I can determine whether or not the class is there are adequate for mine I have more of it thank you thank you and president Chris and that's our
048final General visitor comment I'm sorry that was that was our final General visitor comment yeah thank you thank everyone for your comments we are at item G consent calendar do any board members wish to remove any items from the consent calendar 39 is there a motion to approve items G1 through G6 with by Miss Costa is there a second second second by Mrs kravchek all those info we will do a roll call vote Ms scrub chat hi Ms Vasquez aye Mr Amy aye Mr Hernandez aye Miss Costa aye and I vote I that was unanimous we are at item I won anti-bias education grant program Dr Calvin good evening president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli I don't think so like we're fixing it try it again there you go okay thank you um
049I'll start again good evening president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli and Miss Cunningham the superintendent is recommending that the board receive information on the content of the recently awarded anti-bias education grant program which is funded by the California Department of Education director of equity Omar field Ridley will provide an overview overview of the grant discuss our planned use of the funds and we'll clearly articulate what the grant is and isn't good evening everyone and thank you for this opportunity to share some additional information about this anti-bias grant so this is our why for the grant it's our students in the level of importance we place on creating spaces of belonging we know from our own climate and culture survey from the listening sessions that we facilitate the discussions that we have had and
050continue to have with all Educators but more specifically the psych leaders and teachers who support students every day and recognize that ex that an expectation for academic success occurs when it is built on the foundation where at a minimum students feel welcome valued just a moment okay if you want to keep going well oh it's back okay um where students feel welcome value connected and included so they can be empowered to become the best versions of themselves regardless of race ethnicity gender identity or sexual orientation in summary our ability to create a community of belonging is Paramount to building a community of Excellence some of the primary challenges to building that Community are listed here and have been reflected in our climate culture survey numerous listening sessions and the work of many throughout the district
051to identify root causes in order to address them but the data shows us is that discriminatory actions Prejudice marginalization and otherwise and othering which is excluding and making others to feel as if they don't belong are having a profound impact on students unfortunately it is likely that this data represents an issue that is even larger than is depicted on this slide as many students often suffer in silence it's difficult if not impossible to create a culture of climate a culture and climate of belonging when acts of discrimination and racism are telling students that at times they are on their own in their efforts to counteract these barriers to belonging when a swastika is spray painted at an elementary school when students don't understand the impact of the n-word and use it indiscriminately with each other
052and at each other and homophobic slurs are used to bully and ridicule students when students are blocked physically blocked from accessing certain spaces on campus or access to resources when racial and ethnic tension lead to confrontation and physical violence when these things happen we have to improve the way that we counteract and interrupt and we have to take steps to improve the way that we communicate because the students who experience discrimination and marginalization do not get to embrace the positives that school has to offer and those who witness it if we have to ask ourselves well what we have to ask ourselves is if those are the lessons that we want them to learn so what is anti-bias we pursued this Grant on the premise that anti-bias means to be focused on reducing or eliminating
053biases Prejudice and discriminatory behaviors based on but not limited to race gender age sexual orientation disability and religion in the context of the anti-bias grant this understanding of what anti-bias means shapes the actions efforts and strategies that Aid in reducing and eliminating biases prejudices and discriminatory behaviors for the purpose of further developing our community of belonging in our district specific the specifics of the grant are identified here in summary on August 30th receive notification that we've been offered the maximum Award of two hundred thousand dollars for this three-year Statewide Grant the rationale and parameters for this grant as articulated by the California Department of Education are to confront hate bigotry and racism in our schools and connect and connected communities using these Grant guidelines as a framework we crafted an approach that refrains from allocating
054any funding for professional development or curriculum while also supporting our most marginalized students as a result our focus is on building a network of existing Educators who can effectively support and partner with students and staff to combine combat hate bigotry racism and other forms of biased Prejudice and marginalization as Equity Liaisons and identity Club advisors our Equity Liaisons will be site-based Educators who work with site leadership site-based teams staff teachers and students to support these here listed primary components and reach these here expected outcomes the scope of work will be described on the following slide but in short we anticipate that their efforts will improve our abilities to identify and track potentially critical incidents more quickly interrupt them before they escalate respond more effectively when they do escalate and accrue accurate data throughout the school
055so that we can respond more appropriately and intentionally in the future our identity Club advisors are site-based Educators who have volunteered to work with students during their lunch times and after schools for the purpose of creating an increased number of safe spaces to talk voice concerns on our lived experiences and develop a sense of belonging in community this is the scope of work for the two positions that we would fund over the next three years as stated previously our Equity Liaisons are site-based Educators who volunteer to take on extra responsibility by working with site leadership and site-based teams stayed in the section 3B of the grant which focuses on past Equity efforts by San Juan Unified our Equity Liaisons previously provided professional development which was discontinued at the end of the 21 2021-2022 school year
056this grant provides us with an opportunity to establish new and expanded roles for our Liaisons and as a result our Liaisons will support the eight-point commitment represent their site at district and department meetings be a positive collaborative and solution oriented member for their site it's be the liaison between the site and the equity Department collect site-based data regarding discriminatory actions Prejudice marginalization hate speech and othering and then what's listed in this box as well our identity Club advisors will support the eight-point commitment by creating safe space for students empowering students to develop communication leadership self-advocacy skills through listening sessions and surveys collaborating regularly with site Equity Liaisons and the advisor Network and improving the reach and impact of student voice in our system so with data collection we have we have identified six ways to
057measure the impact of this plan much of this responsibility falls under the purview of our Equity Liaisons data collection duties will include climate surveys staff and student listening sessions Equity liaison and identity Club advisor observations tracking meeting attendance tracking student participation and identity club meetings and articulating specific site needs the equity department will also work to accrue student discipline and attendance data once a data accrual platform has been developed so in summary I'd like to clearly articulate that this grant does not allocate any money to professional development or curricular purchases nor do the individuals in either of the positions provide professional development rather will provide volunteer opportunities for identity Club advisors and site Equity Liaisons to support their sites it is aligned to our eight-point commitment it supports lunch and after school identity clubs it
058expands our ability to collect data around some of the biggest impacts to Student Success it improves communication feedback loops with school within School sites between schools and the district it aligns to the requirement of the CDE Grant which states the grant program is to prevent address and eliminate bias and make all public schools inclusive and supportive of all people and all students we believe that we have crafted a plan that would allow us to do those things thank you for your time thank you so much for the report and information we do have public comments I'd like to remind the public that comments are limited to two minutes the clock on the screen counts down the time Ms Rye please facilitate public comment of course first we have Ashley Freer followed by Denisha Bland I
059am here today as a parent of a student in the district and also as a local lead for Mom's demand action so I'm going to be talking about my perspective from the Mom's demand action today and I'm sure there are many other voices that will provide other perspectives as stated in every Town's research-based article how to stop shootings and gun violence in schools which you all have in your email fostering a safe and trusting School climate is one of the key recommendations in the plan to keep schools and students safe supportive and trusting schools are the strongest way to prevent School violence when we focus on student well-being we create conditions to prevent school shootings and other violence the evidence shows that most School shooters are current or former students and that they nearly always
060show warning signs we also know that gun violence in schools has a disproportionate impact on students of color anti-bias education is critical to school violence prevention when diversity is not valued or respected harmful behaviors like bullying and violence emerge we know that in our school district there is a significant increase in racial tensions and discrimination against marginalized students groups preventing addressing and eliminating racism and bias in our schools creates an inclusive and supportive School environment students thrive in positive School environments safe schools are built on trusting relationships among students staff and administration an anti-bias approach Fosters these positive relationships and provides an inclusive welcoming environment for all members of our community our schools are the heart of our community our kids need to learn environments that make them feel safe valued and connected accepting this
061grant to fund anti-bias education shows our commitment to being a more inclusive diverse and Equitable school district and it is critical to preventing School violence please approve this grant next we have Denisha Bland followed by Lynn Berkeley Baskin good evening good evening good evening my name is Denisha Bland I am the associate director of says Sacramento Area Youth speaks which is an outreach program from UC Davis that empowers youth to become change agents of their own lives and I'm here today as a community partner with the equity department since 2015. stress the importance of funding the anti-pius grant you know as San Juan stresses the important importance of their Rich tradition of helping students find academic success it's important that we fund this grant now more than ever when we have students complaining about discrimination
062hate things like that it is especially important that we look to Our Community Partners and our programs to contribute to help a student when you think about a student's academic success you must take in to consideration their social and emotional well-being if a student does not feel safe on campus if a student feel like they're being discriminated on campus there's no way they're going to be able to get to academic success academic success it is proven for a student to succeed academically they must be able to get their social and emotional needs met in programs such as says project optimism black youth leadership project and you can are programs that specializes in these type of things that help students when you were focused on a student's social and emotional well-being then you also get to
063academic success and so I just really want to stress the importance as the district is ever changing our communities are Ever Changing we must take in consideration our Title One schools such as Encina KJ that need some extra extra support and with this grant we can continue that extra support thank you Netflix Lynn Berkeley Boston followed by BINA lefkowitz good evening residents of the District School District employees and board members I speak this evening on behalf of President Betty Williams of the greater Sacramento NAACP and as the community outreach chair of the Jewish community relations Council together these two organizations serve tens of thousands of local voting residents under my hat with the naacpi commission then Professor Luke wood and his team at black minds matter and Community College Equity assessment lab to look at
064school exclusionary outcomes for black boys the capital of suspensions report many area districts re realigned and responded based on that report but this District was already on top of it San Juan Unified was one of a handful of districts in the state that led School inclusion by creating a position that actually analyzes Pathways of exclusion and tracked it based on race and other identity measures measures they were eager to develop a communication Pathway to community-based groups impacted by hate-based happenings on or near School premises they engage the Central Valley Holocaust educator Network to help teach about genocide and which symbols are used as tools of hate San Juan also created the equity collaborative which we've already heard about this district is developing a deep understanding of power who's had a long time and how it's
065been I'm sorry understanding of power who's had a long time and how it's been communicated who doesn't have it who and how power needs to be shared and is taking note of who doesn't want to share it the practice of anti-bias education and supports sorry the NAACP and Jewish community relations council is unwavering in our support for the practice of anti-bias education and supports all grants and budget allocations that seek to embed equity and inclusion that Fosters social emotional and academic excellence okay next we have been a left voice followed by April B good evening president creason School Board trustees and superintendent I am being a lefkovitz I am not here today as your County School Board trustee but I'm here as a community resident I urge the board to stay the course on your
066Dei efforts including this anti-bias work this will increase student connection to school and improve attendance and academic outcomes Dei is important to me because I am the mom of a young man who came out senior year his family and high school supported him but not all students have had that experience many face bias and stigma hence suicide raids are four times that for gay and trans kids than for other students GSA clubs can positively impact school climate and reduce suicide rates Dei is important to me because I'm Jewish my temple was firebombed 20 years ago and sadly we now have lock Gates cameras and security guards to keep us safe when we see swastikas in our schools in our communities we do not feel safe anti-Semitism is real for our Jewish children Dei is important
067to me as my son-in-law's Cuban his family fleeing Cuba in the dark of night during the revolution he beat the odds unlike many immigrant children who face bias low expectations and lack of opportunities in their schools Dei is important to build Interfaith and Intercultural awareness as a member of the sisters of salaam Shalom a Jewish and Muslim women's group working together to tear down the walls of ignorance and hate contact Theory proves that we cannot hate people whose stories you know a part of anti-bias training please continue to support anti-bias and Dei efforts thank you next we have faithful being followed by Maxine good evening my name is April Bean I'm a concerned homeschool parent of two students in the San Juan district and I'm also a 21-year veteran of the public schools as a
068teacher here in California tonight I'm here specifically to address the antibias education grant program that you plan to vote on tonight for those of you who are not aware the cultural marxists who have infiltrated our government and government schools have stolen our language in an attempt to obfuscate the truth of their agenda stealing and distorting the language is the means by which they are able to convince otherwise sane and rational people to agree to things that they would otherwise not agree to now I don't have time to go through a list of the many ways that this has already taken place in our nation but I can tell you that this anti-bias grant is not in fact intended to reduce or prevent any sort of bias from taking place in our schools in fact quite
069the opposite just look at the data collection that the gentleman mentioned it's an agenda if anything the funds from this grant will be used to encourage students to stay focused on how they are victims of hate by creating identity clubs that do nothing but divide vulnerable students based on race gender and sexual preferences rather than uniting them so let's just get real here for a second our San Juan schools are not doing so well academically our students can't read and they're falling behind and if this is truly an institution of learning why isn't the board laser focused on bringing our students up to grade level proficiency instead of adding clubs that will further fracture student morale and cohesiveness furthermore I am a little concerned about and would like to know uh more about if the
070board members in support of the antibias Grant have considered how the leaders of all these identity clubs will be vetted are they all going to be background checked and are you going to be willing to be liable for any of any abuse that may happen to these vulnerable children so thank you very much for your time and I ask you to vote your conscience tonight next we have Maxine followed by Debbie good evening I am is that working okay I am a member of the community I happen to be sitting with a lot of people that are in education but as a member of the community I am aware of what's Happening against by these anti-bias program I hope it works but there are people out here in our region that are against the children
071really thinking that reporting that making the board members or School teachers reporting children that are gay to the parents is absolutely not Fair these parents do not know their children if teachers need to report to the parents what the child is like that's all I have to say is this is something that's going on I'm aware of what happened in north of us in uh uh with with hop she is some kind of board member and she's calling for Christian members this is not necessarily a Christian Community we have all religions here and I don't agree with that board I think it's in the Roseville area I'm not sure Rancho Cordova no Rocklin thank you very much yes and that is totally wrong and I'm here just to represent wanting to stop that movement and
072I hope that you all succeed with the anti-bias movement because that sounds wonderful to me thank you next we have Debbie followed by Catherine Mirage Debbie okay good evening board um I'm not as prepared as I'd like to be I heard about this meeting about four o'clock this afternoon so I'd really like to just jump in and let you know that um about three months ago I saw an article in the news that the international monetary fund which is over the world bank and you know lots of countries they announced that in order to borrow money the Nations have to sign up for the diversity inclusion Equity programs all the the companies the corporations they all have to sign on to this agenda I just want you to know that this Grant which I totally
073support the ideal I've been involved in non-violent communication and recovery from codependency and healthy and loving relationships for over 30 years I just wanted you to know that I'm watching this agenda coming down from top down totalitarianism is a fear we have had countries where they've had genocide and all of these fears are very emotional we we have I've watched this community we are a community separating into little separated clubs isn't going to bring the community together but if you would bring in the beautiful program of non-violent communication they have been doing this work out of Oakland for over 25 years where we identify feelings and needs and how to get those needs met but when I ask you tonight please do not notice anything in this room that is blue stop do not notice
074anything in this room that is blue that is all you will see thank you next we have Catherine Mirage followed by Susan Zimmer good evening president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli and Miss Cunningham I am here tonight as the sensory integration and adaptive communication teacher at arcade Middle School formerly known as an Autism teacher because that's not what I teach I teach students how to manage their sensory needs and how to communicate when they don't talk when they can't get up in front of us and put together sentences in a way to communicate their thoughts wants and needs I want to read to you from uh Governor Newsom uh on the direct support professionals recognition week he States every Californian with disabilities deserves to be included as a valued member of the community
075I value each and every one of you I value each and every person who has come up to speak so far and who will come up to speak because they have a voice I teach the one percent don't have a voice I would like you to consider supporting this so that we can show students there are many ways to have a voice many ways to communicate their wants needs and ideas because I sit every day with the students who can't and that is the main thing I teach in my curriculum so if you need to come down and see what the worst is what the hard end of the spectrum is please come see my classroom foreign ER followed by Jess DeLand good evening I appreciate the opportunity to address you I have not been
076a Sacramento resident all my life I lived in the Bay Area and I had a career as a 8th grade middle school teacher a board member in a neighboring District uh Campbell Union School District and um as a principal and I just have to say I hope that you accept the superintendent's recommendation to uh take the money and do with it as you can for every student in the district uh exclusion in my experience has never worked and the more that we can accept and include and acknowledge and I so appreciate the comment by the woman who said that we can't hate people whose stories we don't know and I think to move forward with that any opportunity we have even though it's exciting to get two hundred thousand dollars it's a drop in the
077bucket but I'm excited about what it looks like is going to happen with that money and I hope this board will unanimously accept a grant that our that our governor our state our Educators have gotten behind and have said that it will be good for all of our students every student uh we have to move forward and I appreciate your time thank you next we have Jeff Dylan followed by Bill Simmons president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli um I've lived in the San Juan district for decades and my children and grandchildren attended school here and I just wanted to say a couple of things I believe that the core charge of the San Juan Unified School District is to offer to all of our students the best education we can possibly provide them
078and to provide every student with equal access to that education that equal access is provided only if the district respects these students for who they are and makes them feel that they belong when we allow students to be marginalized or to feel that they're less than because they are black or Jewish or Latino or LGBT those students are denied that equal access to education and the district has failed them um one other point I'd like to make is that anyone who takes on the role of a teacher or administrator in the district is is agreeing to become part of that effort to assist the district and its purpose of of providing equal education to every student in the district and I hope that would hope that teachers and administrators alike would take advantage of the
079opportunity this program offers uh to be part of that effort and to to bring bring everybody into the fold so that all of our our students can receive the same quality education thank you very much next we have Bill Simmons followed by Chris grezens president creason members of the board I'm Bill Simmons a taxpayer and voter in the district for over 35 years with all due respect some of you need to do a better job preparing for your meetings at the last meeting some of you said and I quote this training is structured to create bias or I haven't looked into the grant or I'm not aware of this grant shame on you you get the board packet several days before the meeting if any of you had contacted superintendent bassinelli or Dr Calvin and
080ask questions you would have known that this grant does not provide training or curriculum but it's support work it supports work that is already happening in the district this was on the consent calendar to access two hundred thousand dollars from the state to support current programs if you ask Chief Financial Officer stahlheber she will tell you that the district cannot afford to just give away two hundred thousand dollars to make a political statement I have I have been to all 64 schools and met with students in these clubs if you want to understand what this grant will support attend some meetings with students after school you will find out that the BSU or the pride pack provides social emotional and mental health supports that keep kids in school you wasted you wasted a lot of
081time staff time to prepare the dog and pony show that was presented here tonight the taxpayers in San Juan do not want a political board your job is to be nonpartisan and focus on the 39 000 students of San Juan if you want to be political go to Rockland to Mexico Casino in Texas the voters will remember the voters will remember what qualified foreign board members and fellow neighbors I'm here in support of this grant educational program my name is Chris gressens I'm a husband father and physician in the Carmichael Community I was encouraged to attend this meeting after reading the op-ed piece by city council member uh Katie valenzuela's op-ed piece in the Sacramento Bee and just as an aside please support the Free Press so very essential to the nature of our nation
082more specifically I'm supporting well-designed anti-bias education programs such as this one they're essential to healthy safe happy and constructive communities only through such essential education can we accomplish the following five goals number one getting a handle and the hateful vitriol that too often these days pervades many educational experiences while we cannot expunge these problems completely programs like this can go a long way towards making that happen number two supporting the development of a fair and Level Playing Field for students of all backgrounds irrespective of race ethnicity religion gender and the many other and varied features of merely being a human being number three avoiding the censorship of educational content for misplaced religious or alleged moral reasons religion often is a beautiful unifying force but please help us keep any overt and sometimes all conceived worship
083of religion outside of our public schools and governments it does not belong there number four respecting science and management men are the challenges theories subjectively and not with political intent and finally number five supporting education that leads to safe healthy happy and sick of successful lives in short please make this happen and for good measure let's also continue to do all we can to be good and kind to one another that's a principle against which I believe no one can truly hold a bias thank you next we have Sarah Thompson followed by Karen Roberts hi thank you so much for having giving us this opportunity to speak to this important issue I'm here to support uh the grant for anti-bias and I want to speak to my own bias as uh the executive director of
084the Sacramento kindness campaign um we created a program a year ago to help unhouse children in Greater Sacramento with their families who are referred to us by school districts um and building this program a year ago I knew that we were going to have to provide a lot of nights of shelter and I worked with local hotels and I was nervous what was I going to do when somebody didn't want to check out on time or if they smoked in a rumors took a pillow or if they made charges so I talked with the hotels and we kind of came up with a plan but a year later after we've helped more than 50 families we've helped to 26 families to become permanently housed including nine San Juan Unified families and I want to tell
085you that after 300 160 nights not a single homeless family has smoked in a room not one no one has checked out late not a single pillow has walked out there have been no damages out of 360 nights so why was I so afraid that there would be this type of an outcome just because these families were homeless it was because of my own bias and so I want to talk about well-intending community members who are wrong who need some education and this two hundred thousand dollars is as so many incredible speakers before me uh it's it is a drop in the bucket but we all could take a look in the mirror and realize that um we we don't want to have bias a lack of opportunities low expectations we want equal access for
086our families and um so I plea I hope you'll you'll vote for this thank you so much for taking my words into consideration next we have Karen Roberts followed by Cornell Anton good evening thank you for allowing me to speak my name is Karen Roberts I'm the parent of a K-12 District student who graduated from Rio Americano High School the year that the swastika appeared on the baseball field um and and I support this anti-bias measure um because the district's mission is to empower all in an inclusive learning community and it values belonging with genuine respect for diverse cultures identities and abilities I ask why would the district or any other school district forfeit its share of California's 20 million dollar anti-bias education grant which is designed to help prevent prevent address and eliminate racism
087and bias in our Public Schools are there any members on this board representing people in our community that believe we don't need to prevent address and eliminate racism and bias in our world let alone our schools strong opinions no experience and no interest in learning ends conversations before they can begin I believe the district Grant application The District staff created submitted to the state and further explained in the board packets illustrates a well-justified application with realistic proposed activities designed to help reduce racism hate bigotry and other forms of bias Prejudice and marginalization in our schools and I'm completely dumbfounded as to what rationale there could possibly possibly be for opposing the acceptance and implementation of this Grant on behalf of our children I hope you will all consider voting I on this agenda item thank
088you next we have Cornell Anton followed by Andrea hedstrom thank you for giving me the chance to speak my name is Cornell I'm a friend of tanyas I'm here tonight to support my good friend Tanya we both have similar backgrounds we both grew up in well our parents in foreign countries we immigrated here when we were young we grew up under a communist impression intimidation my parents used to speak about intimidation and bullying that happened in Romania where Romanian Pentecostals and a lot of times in schools they will talk about anti-bias about accepting everybody but it actually quite happened quite the opposite most of the time and we're afraid that's what's going to happen with this program Tanya stood up for her Common Sense Christian values and what did the Sacramento be do somebody mentioned
089it back there they wrote a hip he said included Tanya they tried to intimidate and Bully her even though she has a freedom of speech she could vote how she likes to and the Sacramento be they did not report it accurately they just uh they did like a very biased hippies on her this is the same media outlet that called Rockland school district fanatical just believe that fanatical four passing a regulation where teachers have to notify their parents if there's something going on with their kids which is not it's not radical that's not a fanatic but that's common sense can you please respect me back there so these uh these programs are actually full of hate their re-education programs they're very biased and the doctor here he did not provide details how they're going to
090accomplish this cycle used car sales man they just say oh yeah that Windows weapon now we got leather and all this but they don't give you the details about how their programs are implemented what are you going to do after the 200 000 runs out or do you audit this program who's responsible for that do I end up doing more harm than good we actually saw this in my home country Romania where a lot of these programs existed the Communists were really good with this which is exactly this program you know all right thank you next week Andrea had strong followed by Lorraine Pryor hi my name is Andrea hedstrom and I am the wife of a San Juan Unified public school teacher as well as the mother of four children who formerly attended School
091in the San Juan Unified School District I also want to mention that I am a lifelong Democrat who is pro-marriage equality that said I want to specifically thank Tanya kravchuk for her advocacy on behalf of children within the school the San Juan Unified School District as a mother for children as a mother of four whose children did formerly attend San Juan public schools and who are now currently being home educated I want to speak about my growing concern that top-down State curriculum and specifically decisions being made by the state legislature and Governor seem to be interfering with the role of school boards to be able to make decisions at the local level by people within the community including involved parents and the Very school board members that we elect to represent us and I say
092this as a long time Democrat so I'm Rocklin to Chino Valley and other school boards across the state my perspective is that parents want to have influence and say over what is being taught to their children in schools involved parents are not the enemy rather involved parents are the most important allies that schools and teachers have I also want to say that as an entire entirely non-religious person that I might have some perspective on why this anti-bias training could be questionable due to the sections on gender as I said earlier as a longtime Democrat who is pro-marriage equality feel compelled to express my enormous concerns that children are being exposed at younger and younger ages to gender ideology and to even sexually explicit content thank you for your time next we have Maureen Pryor followed
093by Lisa Stanley all right good evening there you go hey uh good evening Lorraine Pryor with black youth leadership project um a community partner of San Juan and as I'm listening to the things that are going forth I did not write anything but I'm just going to tell you what I'm hearing you have a lot of folks who have a difference of opinion however none of that matters because we all have to figure out a way to work together now we're hearing things about Unity children who share the background that I have have not felt a Unity on your campuses there has always been some sort of pervasive wanting to belong you do not see teachers who look like you you do not see administrators who look like you and so when you're talking about
094bringing money that's not coming out of your general fund right you're getting money from an outside source to help you deal with belongingness on your campus that is critical our children are being put out of your schools at astronomical rates I think the last report I saw 13.3 percent right that they're not even 13.3 of your population so there is something wrong with the climate in your institutions because when I go to your schools to Advocate I ask are the are black children doing something differently than their counterparts and I am told no what you will see if you look at the research it says that they are hyper focused on why because there is a bias and so when you enact anti-bias education you give children who look like me a fighting chance and
095so I wholeheartedly support this and I hope that you will too our kids need to be feel connected they need to feel included no one needs to be ostracized for how they are we have to figure out how to work together and it starts by trying to get an understanding of who each other are thank you President Andrew said we have hit our 30 minutes of public comment on this item okay hold out for just a second per board by law 93-23 that concludes the 30-minute time limit there are still how many comments about 10 about 10 yeah they're still 10 about 10 people who wish to make public comment do board members have an interest in extending the time for visitor comments okay is there a motion to extend visitor comment for another 30
096minutes so moved moved by Mr Avi is there a second Say Goodbye Mr Hernandez um this will be a roll call vote Ms krevcheck aye Ms Vasquez aye Mr Avery aye Mr Hernandez aye Ms Costa and I vote I the motion passes unanimously all right next we have Lisa Stanley followed by David martesian hi my name is Lisa Stanley and I'm a student Advocate with black youth leadership project the harm that I've seen inflicted on black students on campuses across this region and state are simply disgusting the level of blatant racism that goes on on campus campuses has to be stopped we as a community have to do better San Juan is one of the few districts who are really putting the action behind the buzzwords for that we thank you it brings some relief
097to the fight be well he has been trying to combat the disproportionate discipline rates for black students I'm in full support of the anti-bias education grant and as mentioned before it's two hundred thousand right it's it's pennies the grant is supportive of inclusive environments for all now why would anyone be against that unless they themselves are part of the problem which makes these spaces needed in the first place I challenge everyone to ask yourself what are you teaching in your households that all students don't feel safe racism and hatred are taught in your homes look inside yourself and figure out why what truth you can't face about your ancestors wrongs because you are sure living off their wealth and privilege which was built on the backs of blacks it must be nice to live in
098la la land and not see the Discrimination bias and absolute hate that goes on in the real world but I choose to live in reality I choose every day to use my complexion to confront peers colleagues family and whoever else is still spewing ignorance I will continue to speak up for what's right and give our black babies a voice next we have Davidians followed by Victoria Whitney thank you good evening we're president creason members of the board superintendent bassinelli I don't have a whole lot of prepared I appreciate you guys extending the time I'm a father of two kids that go to the San Juan or attend San Juan School District I myself attended elementary through High School in San Juan and I urge you to support this grant thank you for your time next
099we have Victoria Whitney followed by cerissa Brown good evening my name is Victoria Whitney and I'm also here to encourage you to support this grant um I live in the district Miraloma is my home school for my kids my daughter graduated from the IB program with an IB diploma from Maryland while she was there one of her classmates came out as gay to his parents and hung himself in their family garage the following day after she graduated one of the students there who was being bullied for being gay shot himself and killed himself on campus um I spent many years working for the State of California I ran the water quality program and the water rights program in the state at different times we had similar training to this at my office and I started
100looking around at who the supervisors were who reported to me we had one black guy he was a geologist and one openly gay guy out of about 150 employees that I managed that got me thinking so I went to UC Davis which is my alma mater and I sent a note to the chancellor asking how to increase diversity and what I found out is we weren't hiring people because we didn't get applicants who met the job criteria people don't meet the job criteria we we hire scientists and Engineers mostly people don't meet the job criteria graduating in those programs because they don't have a lot of kids going into the university in those programs and then I read in the paper about two black girls at Mira Loma who dropped out of the IB Program
101because they were being harassed I'd like to close by letting you know that two hundred thousand dollars is cheap and if you get complaints or a lawsuit against you it's going to help save your butts foreign hi my name is Rosa Brown I have two children that are part I might cry but um this is a very sensitive topic I have a child who was denied education fate for 11 years he's in 11th grade he writes and reads it a second to third grade level because his race was used to justify why he could not be assessed for Disabilities to prevent him to learn to read and write because of the Larry P versus Riles that part is not talked about in discrimination anti-racist and anti-bias and I think that needs to be discussed I
102left 17 Page of documents proving with all your letterheads denying him education because of his race so I left it with them so I just wanted to um bring the attention to you and then I think um we have to focus on the board and Our obligation to focus on addressing an educational needs and not social justice um that is a political agenda that takes the core Focus away from educational needs that's why we're here is because we're a school we're school boards with 30 30 000 some students there's educational needs that are not being addressed and has nothing to do with social justice but social justice takes away from the mandated duty of the board which is educational needs no more no more funding or conversation is needed to political agendas but transition to
103focus on educational needs no more funding is needed the funds are there they're already established things to address their social justice is not enough talk about true educational needs of District personnel and board members wish to address social justice that should be done on their time on on your own time and not on the purpose of the school board to further your agenda thank you next we have Irina gayenko followed by DJ Waldo Irena good evening board nice to meet you all of them all of you I'm sorry first of all I apologize I may need a little bit more time so folks hang here can you speak into the mic oh I apologize better yes Okay so I might need a little bit extra time I will try to avoid it but due to
104my condition I might need just a little bit of more time to finish what I have to say I I do have everything written down um so my name is Irina gianko I am a mother of a student in San Juan District and it was a rompy both but bumpy wrote for my child and I at times but there were times when you guys were extremely helpful I have always been an advocate for children who are unique and very often they are excluded bullet not helped and to not support don't do not have support from schools and not to the fault of their own but because they do not have enough resources we experience it first and this grant I'm in a big support of it this grant will provide more resources for children that
105are different that are unique this grant provides more resources for children that envelope will allow them access to academics with the proper support with the help of support of Staff such as counselors and accessible materials giving opportunities that would not exist otherwise that is the point of the grant at first I didn't understand the opposition to the grant especially I apologize I'm out of time yes that was that was the three minutes that was the extended time like extended time you were granted extended time because of the condition you noticed but that was the extended time of three minutes and I have to ask you to conclude your comments that was uh and next we'll have DJ Waldo followed by Murad MO sarama uh before I go Maya say just may I asked just for
10630 seconds I'm really sorry but I can't we already extended your time and so it's just not fair to the others but I am asking staff to follow up with you so that there can be some follow-up so thank you so much for your comments but we're going to need to invite the next speaker up now before I go I have really big concern for one of your members who uh openly speaking in my community against non-traditional sexual and gender time is that okay so thank you next we have DJ Waldo followed by Murad MO sarama hello hello good evening everyone I don't know the formal way to thank everybody but my name is DJ Waldo I have four kids in San Juan uh an eighth grader sixth grader and third grade twins we've been
107in the district for seven years now um when this was brought to my attention last week or yeah last week about the board meeting vote last time and I had concern about a couple people um abstaining and people saying no and I'm I'm just I I just it's just confusing to me so I just wanted to read again two things from this and unfortunately I think a lot of people that some people have left that I think need to hear this but hopefully you all can hear it um it says the purpose I'm just going to read from the grant program the purpose of the anti-bias education grant programs is to prevent address and eliminate racism and bias in all California public schools that make all public schools inclusive and supportive of all people what
108I don't understand is like how can you be against that like like what am I missing I mean I literally read this and I was like yeah well no yeah like obvious right next part it says I'm I'm skipping down a little bit emphasis shall be on preventing anti-Semitism and bias or Prejudice towards groups including but not limited to African-Americans Asian Pacific Islanders Latinos and people who are lesbian gay bisexual transgender or questioning youth again like what am I missing I mean you can see me I am as white privileged upper middle class white dude as a guess right this is not affecting me right now none of this will affect me fortunately most of this whatever happens tonight won't affect my family we're very lucky we're very fortunate we're very privileged but I'm worried
109about all the other kids and I don't understand I just don't get it like literally nobody has explained to me other than we're fascist or whatever else I don't understand why this isn't a yes that's what happened followed by Rachel Raymond members of the board and Miss viaskas uh sending you positive vibes feel better um I haven't taken this Podium for public comments since the Bastion of board member Mr Miller may he rest in peace Steve was a true servant leader whose leadership is greatly missed speaking of leadership this sport can lead by this grant two hundred thousand dollars to support the equity initiative of the district this is not controversial it is not this is a safety issue if our students are targeted because of their identities they are not safe and they are
110not safe when they're not safe they cannot learn no matter how well a statement is recited to pull the recommendation of the consent calendar or not sounding offensive it is offensive especially when the district was dealing with an anti-semite semi graffiti in the in the schools that's very offensive our kids of all backgrounds should feel welcome and safe in our schools on such a training programs are the foundation of safety above all thank you next we have Rachel Raymond followed by Alan Rhodes thank you president present and members of the board my name is Rachel Raymond I'm a a parent of a child at Thomas Edison Language Institute School in your District that's grounded in diversity and inclusion I stand today to express my support for implementation of the Grant and I realize that there's
111little that I can add that hasn't already been said in support of of the implementation of this grant but I did want to reflect on a couple of points because I watched the feed of the vote uh the vote down from consent calendar for this item at the last meeting and part of the reason that the this item was voted down was the belief that anti-bias training was going to be delivered in that training would somehow impinge on an individual student or teachers of religious beliefs they're sincerely held religious beliefs and while I I'm still at a loss at understanding how diversity education would even impinge on an individual's freedom of religion and expression that's not what this grant does there isn't training for educators that is part of this grant it's not what has
112been applied for it's not part of the deliverables of this grant and to be clear uh the the board voted this down without even knowing that the Grant had been applied for it was without realizing that you were already being considered you've been approved for this funding and now you're at the point of will we take the money that is being given to us or instead deny it and refuse to implement the very noble goals of uh developing a supportive and approachable School environment for all students next we have Allen Road hold on don't start here please let me get started let me get situated I got to maximize my time um I can go now uh good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent to the community members that are here the staff
113people that are listening I come to you as a resident 35 years of the San Juan School District taxpayer father grandfather grandfather of six five already been through are in this forever in the schools now one graduated from Mira Loma in the IB Program awesome program one is three he'll be coming along but I have I have four of those kids that are the one percent that the woman I mean the teacher spoke about special needs and you're looking out for them and we we honor them we appreciate that but my grandson who is in the seventh grade now came home last year and told his mom and daddy that he was bullied it was racial uh slurs said to him and he was hurt he doesn't know what to do I went with his
114mother and his father to the school talked to the principal and she was working on addressing the issue but the issue remained my grandson is now doing independent study he's only in the seventh grade I have another one who was in Mira Loma she's doing independent study we need to find a way to work for all the kids we have to find Solutions I believe that I believe what B.J Waldo said what are we here for it's a no-brainer I don't understand truly any of you that don't see the value of this I'm confused I can talk to you offline because I have 23 seconds I was a board member for 13 years I know what it takes I've been a black man for 72 years 50 years I've been working to help young people
115see what it means to be strong in spite of what everybody else may say about you please don't make this more than it should be just why wouldn't do it do the right thing thank you very much and president creason that was that was our final public comment thank you so much for facilitating public comment for all of the comments um and now we will turn it to the board do board members have questions and comments Ms Costa thank you thank you I supported this grant a few weeks ago when it was on consent calendar and I still support it and I really appreciated hearing the comments from our community members our parents it for me it is an issue that every child in this District from the time they entered the district to the
116time they graduate be treated with utmost respect from their peers from the staff from the community this grant provides that so that every student has a voice when we received comments by email several people talked about why aren't you focusing on test scores and somebody said that tonight and it's interesting because when you think about equity Equity is the umbrella and it provides a learning environment that is safe it provides the social emotional skills for students to learn how to become part of a community and it's interesting because there is a meta-analysis uh study that was done about social emotional learning and it was done across all the states but it was also done across multiple countries the places that have strong social emotional learning taking place thinking of equity is the umbrella to that
117score 11 higher on standardized tests so for people who want to focus on the test scores this is a way to allow our students to be safe in classrooms so they can do well test scores are only one tiny bit of data but this is something that is going to make a difference in our students lives um I I cannot say strongly enough we need this and more money to focus on equity and diversity in San Juan and I encourage everyone to support the grant their comments questions Miss Mr 80 thank you very much um as one of the people that wanted more information I'm grateful to staff both for the presentation and the background materials that were shared here and grateful all the public comment that we received both an email and for those
118folks that are in the room I am supportive of this grant I think it's a good Grant um I particularly digging into it getting beyond the summary that we were provided in the board of letter I'm very supportive of the identity groups identified in the brain for the simple purpose that I support identity groups for the same reason that I support activity groups when a student is able to find their place in community they're going to be in a better position to learn um I tell my own kids that you got to find your people right it might be the football team it might be the ping pong team and maybe a club but you just you have to find your people and I think that's what identity groups support I struggled with identity groups
119because when I first think about it it seems like something that divides us and I think that is some of the comments that I received and I understand that perspective but I think what I've seen from the district what I've seen from presentations before this board are that identity groups are are a step because the next step is bringing people together in community I think it was the black student union they were presenting on their activities and it's a great example because the identity Club was the first step and then they held Affair at the school where they brought everybody together and I think that when we do that whether it's an equity liaison an identity Club I see the value in that and I see how that directly contributes to education um I will
120note I wouldn't have known about that if I hadn't asked for the additional materials for me I'm a person that likes information when I make decisions this was a case where I needed more information and I veiled myself up that option I know that's not the way everybody does it but that's the way that I process things and that's the decision that I made I'm pleased to be here tonight and be able to support this credit so thank you Mr honey oops Mr Hernandez thank you thank you for the report I really appreciate it I as well when I abstained two weeks ago I did so because I wanted to be better informed on this agenda item over the last two weeks I tried to do just that I met with Dr Calvin and Mr
121field Ridley and during that meeting they answered all my questions we met for a lengthy period of time actually and I wanted to know what is the grant how does who does it benefit and how does it work and this is what I found out as I dug deeper I felt this grant to be simple it provides funding for liaison and advisors at certain sites it supports all students as it reads in the pack and on page two it will create more inclusive environments for all students that includes race gender age sexual orientation disability religion and more the how it supports efforts to combite hate bigotry racisms or any form of bias or prejudice as it reads in the Grant application I appreciate you both for taking the time with me to help me understand
122this fully and I feel that the report speaks for itself thank you Mr Chris do you want to give Paula a chance I think I'm happy to jump in whatever said she'll jump in Ms Vasquez uh thank you very much um for the staff for pulling this together I as was made in my remarks when this was first brought forward um two weeks ago I am supportive of this effort and I just again want to express my gratitude to staff for putting this together and to in general our amazing Grants Department and team who on a regular basis brings in a ton of money for direct supports to our students and I'm super grateful for those efforts I also want to just say thank you to those who came to speak at the board meeting
123tonight and to those who also submitted comments via email um in our emails there were a number of individuals who wrote in opposition to the Grant and a couple spoke this evening to believing that this effort doesn't protect people with religious beliefs and I want to take this opportunity to clarify that that is absolutely not correct the goals of the grant funding are to engage in efforts to prevent and address bias or Prejudice toward any group of people this work is key in building welcoming and supportive learning environments for all of our children if our kids don't feel welcome at school which the data shows us that more and more do not here in San Juan they cannot learn I want to also point out that at our last meeting we heard an agenda item
124regarding absences and truancy our primary tool to decrease absenteeism and Truity in that report was prevention which is creating safe and inclusive environments for our students this work could not be more imperative I will always support our identity work in service to all of our kids including our black student unions our gsas our latinx clubs and other identity clubs and supports I remain alarmed about remarks that have been made both via emails this evening and in other venues regarding concerns of religious coercion around supporting gender identities specifically particularly given the political conversation happening in school board rooms across the region this is clearly geared towards our student and staff who identify as lgbtq and I will not stand for hatred or bigotry towards them or anyone else to paraphrase the American writer James Baldwin we
125may not always agree we can disagree with each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression or that of any in my community and denial of their Humanity the grant this grant is a drop in a very large bucket of funding that we need to adequately achieve the goals of making sure all of our students feel welcomed them at school so I support that it will go towards direct support for our students in the form of the equity liaison teams and identity Club advisory teams thank you again and I'm glad to support this grant I would like to thank everyone first and foremost who took the time to email and come and comment here today um as a refugee from a country that suppressed speech I value the opportunity and the right to voice
126opinions both privately and publicly and I appreciate you and I particularly appreciate the people who did so in a civil manner without resorting to personal attacks I also believe that disagreement as part of that discourse and is actually a Cornerstone Cornerstone of our democracy in our country I stand by the statements that I made previously I really want to stress that I value what you said today and despite what you may feel I do hear you and there are very many people in this room that are doing really amazing work and I value that for the San Juan School District but although we share a lot of a lot in common of the ha or excuse me of the what we disagree on the how and the where and I maintain that this grant in
127the how and the where May violate people's deeply held religious beliefs which is a protected class and for that reason I do not support the implementation of this grant okay um there's many of my comments have either been said um in front of the diet at the podium or behind the diet so I think I'm just going to round us off with just a couple of personal notes to tie it to the work um my son in fifth grade received a flurry of hate messages I mean fifth grade band babies in fifth grade I mean and he showed me his phone he didn't know what to do with the words I mean the n-word kill yourself this and that that's your mom black this black bat I still have them if anyone would like to
128see him I'll never forget and it was devastating it was absolutely devastating and I'm going to be 100 it wasn't necessarily handled very well um it was very clear it was someone that knew Kaden it was very clear it was someone from his school at the time we have the lived experience of when things go really wrong like really really wrong and I'll tell you my baby was I mean he was immediately in therapy and he lets me talk about this um story um and thank goodness he had me there you know to just kind of put him in the spaces and like oh my gosh we're gonna heal from this and you're beautiful you're everything um and I know our experience isn't unique and so when I think about you know my comments of
129course I supported it last time I'll support it this time but when I speak about the urgency that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about it's not just the black community it's all diverse communities and I know in um sjusd we're hitting close to 50 people of color which is a huge dramatic shift from when I was first elected in 2018. we are changing growing in a beautiful way um community and we know that that number doesn't always capture all the diversity we don't know who's lgbtq plus and that number diversity we don't know we know that a lot of our newcomer families identify as white so it might not you know but that's a diverse population too but different and uh unique needs so I raised just just to say myself my family have
130lived experience of the issues that were outlined on what I believe is set slide three it calls it out very very beautifully you know significant increase in racial tensions and discrimination um bullying um issues of bias risk I mean all the things are slightly I mean the need is there in our my family or myself personally has personally experienced those things so something that I know has been challenging throughout the years is when folks often well-meaning let's be honest sometimes not that don't have that shared lived experience tell us we don't need something when we say this will help or this is something we need when someone that doesn't share that lived experience says no it's devastating and it's really hard to get over it's really hard to overcome um I also think a lot
131about my family you know a lot of people have heard the story I've lost two siblings to Suicide all of my siblings have substance use issues um all of my siblings all four of them have passed away and I'll tell you what if there were services like this and my diverse family I'm pretty sure I could call one of my siblings any of them after this meeting and be like oh you should have seen this me but I'm not going to be able to do that so if I can save anybody's sibling then I I want to go ahead and do that so I just want to share I thought I felt like that's a way to round this out I don't need to repeat what others have said um of course I support this
132work and um I'll leave it at that and I think it's probably time for everyone okay I would like to move the item okay the item has been moved by Miss Vasquez is there a second Ed by Miss Costa we will roll call vote Ms krupchet nay Ms vs aye Mr Avery I Mr Hernandez hi Ms Costa aye and I vote I the motion passes five one thank you thank you community um we are at item I2 cultivating leaders program Dr Kelvin brief intermission okay um the board would like to take a quick recess so I'm going to adjourn us into a recess is five minutes good for five minutes and we'll we'll be back shortly thank you I'm gonna ask those in the back of the room if you can move conversations outside of
133the boardroom we're going to continue with business or of course feel free to join us and have a seat Dr Calvin Flora is yours thank you once again good evening president creason members of the boards superintendent bassinelli and Miss Cunningham the cultivating leaders program was launched last year as a pilot tonight we will provide an overview of the program discuss the outcome of the first year of implementation and share how we have grown and developed as we move forward in the 2023-2024 school year San Juan Unified School District San Juan professional Educators Coalition and San Juan Teachers Association have worked collaboratively over the past year and a half with one main goal in mind the development of a program designed to recruit and retain a diverse team of leaders and help them develop the intrapersonal
134and interpersonal skills needed to successfully serve our schools originally there were three cohorts practitioner teacher and the aspiring administrator cohort comprised of sjta members and a new administrator cohort comprised of sjpeck first and second year administrators our cohorts have expanded this year and now include members of the California School Employees Association the confidential group and San Juan administrators Association we had 68 participants last year and have started the 23-24 school year with 86 participants this table shows a breakdown of participant representation for the 2022-2023 and the 2023-2024 school year we'd like to point out that in addition to our new members there is a significant increase from the teacher practitioner group and a significant drop in the vice principal principal group and while the question is a normal part of any organization there is considerably
135less reflected in our 23 24 numbers this is a good thing one of our goals is to retain leaders in several of these administrative openings that did come about where the result of promotions not resignations that includes five vice principal participants from last year's program that were promoted to a principal position and if you see a discrepancy four versus five is because one was promoted last year in the springtime and three aspiring administrative participants who were promoted to vice principal position in 23-24 so these were teachers or practitioners who were in the program last year and um promoted to vice principal positions we also surveyed our practitioner and teacher leader cohorts in order to determine whether or not there was increased participation and Leadership roles at their sites and many shared that they had taken
136on positions such as sjta reps coaches committee members meeting facilitators coordinators and as one participant shared a leadership role in her community outside of the district the three major components of the program are mentoring which is an opportunity for individual support seminars which provide training in the inter-interpersonal skills and networking events which allow all members of the program to interact and build relationships with one another our motto was and continues to be do the best that you can until you know better and when you know better do better we survey our participants on a regular basis and have taken their input and made a number of changes which are reflected in this year's program these include the reordering and revision of our Seminars the expansion of our cohorts and the addition of after school practicum
137workshops such as interview preparation obtaining your administrative credential and sharing power in partnership with families our mentors are comprised of both current and retired San Juan administrators we support them in part by facilitating regular meetings in which they can share experiences and collaborate with one another and by sharing the results of an interest survey that they're assigned participants take all so that they can better meet the individual needs of each mentee we also encourage them to attend the seminars in order to better reinforce the skills that their mentees are learning finally Mentor service sponsors for their mentee and health facility facilitate shadowing opportunities the mentor mentee relationship is one of the highlights of the program it is my pleasure to introduce principal Aaron wertzer who is in his second year as a mentor and his
138mentee vice principal Michelle Sherman who will discuss her experience as a teacher participant last year who is currently in our vice principal cohort I'm Michelle Sherman and I've had the privilege of working in San Juan for over 25 years in that time I've had several mentors that have helped me to become the educator that I am today but through the years my needs have also changed and so have my mentors last year when I was accepted into the cultivating leaders as an aspiring administrator I was fortunate enough to have Michelle Flagler a retired administrator as my mentor she guided me through the process of revamping my resume and letter of intent she also worked with me on preparing for my interviews and she helped me she helped and guided me through the logistics portion of
139my journey in this my second year at in cultivating leaders my needs are definitely different than in my first year as sylvan's new vice principal I find every day brings on new challenges and new learning there's no binder or book that to help prepare me for this job as a vice principal however having Aaron whom I've had the pleasure of working with for several years on the system of professional growth and now as my mentor I know that I can contact him and ask him anything and confide it in him into my day-to-day interactions Aaron has given me permission to accept that I am on a very steep hill and that when just when I think I've learned something new and something else is has come my way that I think I've got there are
140hundreds of other things that I still do not know but that's okay because that's the job Aaron brings his years of experience and wisdom with him each time we talk or meet he brings the trustworthiness of a loyal advisor and friend and I feel lucky and supported through our Mentor mentee relationship cultivating leaders has brought us together with a different need and I will be stronger and a more confident leader because of this program and because of the support that is provided through the mentor program thank you good evening and thanks for having me here tonight my name is Aaron wertzern over the past 15 years I've served as a VP and principal of Will Rogers and the principal of Carnegie Middle School when I was a new admin I was excited enthusiastic about this
141amazing opportunity but I did not know what I was stepping into like many new jobs a lot of the learning about the position happens after the work begins you don't know what you don't know the first few years I spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out what to do next when applying direction or resolving problems that often I had created due to my many missteps in my new admin position I had just met my co-vp and our new relationship there was no trust I had no idea how to dress my first principal I did not know what questions I was allowed to ask and who I was allowed to mask them to it became very isolating pressures from parents new situations with students and the always constant of guiding staff led to
142struggles with pressure and nowhere to turn having this lived experience has led me to find Great Value in the cultivating leaders program in the past two years I've had the honor of mentoring Fort new Middle School administrators through this initiative the thought of having someone to turn to has been incredibly comforting when I look back at the stresses I had as a new admin when I speak to the mentees they talk about struggles I'm able to relate to these specific moments in time often just by sharing that many of these problems are Universal and are not a specific response to work they have or have not done helps to offer reassurance to the work they still have to accomplish I'm hoping by speaking to them and how common some of these same issues are at
143every site and offer them some guidance of how to work with them I can reduce some of the stress that come with the position this mentra program requires a minimum amount of conversations occur every month I believe this required Metro mentee time has benefited the mentors as well administrators often don't have carved out time to stop and talk through a problem it has helped to keep me for lack of a better term Sharp there are conversations I'm relearning how to address old situations in today's context I have to often rethink how I dress old situations and re-examine my bag of tools as I address problems I get to mix years of experience with new thoughts and energy as I am moving forward thank you this we are conducting seven seminars this year that all focus
144on various aspects of communication relationships and reflection we also hosted our first event of the year on August 3rd which is our annual meet and greet it was well attended with over 100 people present and provided an opportunity for mentors and mentees to meet one another and to begin to explore their strengths the cultivating leaders advisory which is a collaborative form by the San Juan Teachers Association San Juan professional Educators Coalition in San Juan Unified meets monthly to review data prepare seminars and make program adjustments voice is important and decisions are made based primarily on input from our participants next steps include the addition of after school workshops and book studies we will continue to seek leadership opportunities for our participants and add a pre and post survey that will help us make better levels
145measure better levels of growth that marks the end of this presentation and I'd like to point out that in addition to Aaron and Michelle all of our advisory members are here including advisory members Shannon Brown and executive director of San Juan's Teachers Association Damon Smith the president of San Juan's professional Educators Coalition and would be happy we would be happy to address any questions that you may have thank you so much any comments questions from the board Mr Amy um I just wanted to the comment is thank you um I think it's no secret that we're going through a generational shift in education employment we have a lot of new leaders that are emerging and I think programs like this are going to be critical to you know trending our own right finding those people
146that have a heart and passion for San Juan Unified and helping them become the leaders in San Juan Unified um I think it's a wonderful program so thank you too thank you for running the program and then also to the mentors and mentees that are choosing to participate because I know it's extra on top of extra um and it's appreciated Mr Hernandez Dr Coven I'm just curious on how the mentor mentee are matched together I mean is there a draft or how does it work no special formula but we do get together The Advisory Group we know um the mentors as well as the mentees and we try to match based on their strengths and their relationship and their grade levels proximity we just look at all those things and try to match them up
147and usually we're a hit but thank you any other comments questions just to type in to say I would watch that if it was a draft awesome I'll just say what a cool program I mean there's so much opportunity with it you know growing I mean instilling the idea that someone could grow sometimes we don't see ourselves as a leader right but you just need someone to say no you would be great you know you just need some training so there's that bucket that I think is wonderful and then there's another bucket of you know there's a lot of people that do get put into management roles because they're really good at their current job not necessarily because they're great at this new job um a lot of management decisions are you know you're really
148good at making widgets I'm not dumbing down the edge of work of Education it's just you know an analogy that comes up in the business space quite a bit and so this really does take the time to build in the training that takes time and to do it in a way that there's a community of practice so that grows with the cohort is a really beautiful thing that um continues to provide that just ongoing support and professional development and strength um in jobs that are actually quite hard so those are my two cents I just think it's a great program and really appreciate the report thank you all right we are now at item I3 2022 2023 unaudited actuals and 2023 2024 budget revisions MS stahlheber good evening president creason members of the board superintendent
149bassinelli and Miss Cunningham tonight we're going to review the 2022-23 unaudited actuals along with the revised 2324 budget so what are unaudited actuals uh they are year-end financial statements that we prepare to present to you they become our final audited actuals in December after our financial audit is completed and we bring it back to you at that time it's required by Education Code 42100 so we're fulfilling that requirement by bringing this um and I think that covers everything on there I'm going to write it to you so we're going to start with our unaudited actual uh revenues for um our unrestricted funds our unrestricted revenues increased by 16.1 million since estimated actuals which were brought to you in June approximately 7 million as a result of the P2 Ada mitigated mitigation certification that we forecast
150when we brought that budget to you and um and discuss the estimated actuals other state revenues increased approximately 2 million as a result of 1.8 million in adjustments to Prior year and current year Lottery allocations and some small adjustments to other state grants other local revenues increased by 7.3 million 6 million uh was made up of higher interest earnings in quarters three and four from the County Treasury this category of Revenue fluctuates it's based on average daily balance pull treasury rate and subject to economic conditions and overall performance the remaining difference is a result of approximately 802 000 in increased fees collected and 540 000 in e-rate credits we're moving on to our restricted revenues now restricted revenues increase 12.2 million since estimated actuals lcff category reflects an adjustment to the property tax portion of
151our sell for revenues in the amount of 240 000. our federal revenues decrease approximately 5 million as a result of unspent federal funds Federal programs require that unspent Awards amounts be booked as deferred revenue and will be reflected as adjustments in our 2324 budget when carrier is posted and we bring first interim back to you in December the programs with carryover include Title 1 2 and 3 and federal covid grants our other state revenues increased approximately 16.4 million it may revise reductions were proposed for the learning recovery block grant in the art music and instructional material block grant that were significantly lower in the final adopted budget so this resulted in an increased Revenue in the amount of 15.1 million for these two programs alone the remaining approximately 1.3 million is a net result of
152adjustments to multiple State programs the largest being a 1.5 million increase in our restricted Lottery revenues local restricted revenues increase approximately 676 thousand dollars four hundred and three thousand of which the increases related to donations receipt the remainder was a result of adjustments to multiple local restricted programs so you can see how our revenues break out the largest portion of our funds are derived from the local control funding formula that makes up 61.8 percent These funds are calculated based on our Ada grade span base rates and in addition we received grade span adjustment funds supplemental funds based on percentage of unduplicated targeted students which are our free and reduced qualified students English language Learners and our homeless Foster youth so here are unrestricted expenditures our estimated actuals versus our and audited actuals unrestricted actual expenditures
153reflect a decrease of 8.5 million at close versus estimated actuals salaries and benefits decreased by approximately 3.7 million this was a result of unfilled vacant positions on spent stipends and signing bonuses and summer school expenses that were not paid prior to June 30th as we transition to the new system they were moved into that system books and supplies reflect a decrease of approximately 1.8 million as a result of approximately 740 000 announcement site funds the remaining funds are the result of unspent Department funds shipping delays account for a portion of the unspent funds and those expenses will be reflected in first interim when carryover will be included in the revised budget you also see some of those in our revised budget that we'll discuss after we're done talking about estimated actuals is some items came
154in and have already needed to be paid for so we've thus already anticipated what that carryover would be in a budgeted services and other operating expenses reflect a decrease of approximately 2.9 Million approximately uh 161 000 as a result of unspent utility budget 526 000 as a result of unspent budget for repairs related to buses Tech equipment and site and Department rental and Lease budgets approximately 1.5 million was a result of unspent site and Department funds for Consulting and Professional Services and the remaining approximately 315 000 is a result of unspent postage and phone budgets Capital outlay reflects a decrease of approximately 652 000 due to a warehouse truck being delivered after June 30th and for due to the reclassification of an expenditure restricted expenditures decreased by approximately 21.5 million salaries and benefits reflect a
155decrease of approximately 4.2 as a result of unfilled vacant positions on spent stipends and again some of those summer school restricted programs that were moved into the current year books and supplies reflect a decrease of approximately 14.1 million 4.9 is due to a delayed receipt of textbooks that we expected to receive before June 30th but came in after July 1. so they've been moved into our current budget excuse me 1.9 million is unused donation funds that will be budgeted as carryover and reflected in first interim and the remaining funds were unused site and Department budgets for supplies and materials services and other operating expenses reflect a decrease of 3.8 million approximately 549 000 as a result of a decrease in special ed outside Services 1.02 million is related to service contracts that will carry over
156into the 2023-24 year for expanded learning opportunity program and the remaining funds were unused funds from various sites and departments an increase of 936 000 is related to a bus that we anticipated receiving after July 1 but we received June 30th so this is the breakdown of our unaudited expenditures and you can see 86.37 of our total expenditures are related to salaries and benefits the next biggest category is our service and other operating expenses which make up 8.46 percent of our budget so uh this is our general fund summary and you can see that we experience an increase in our total revenues of 28.4 million and a decrease in our total expenditures of 30.051 so overall our fund balance increased by approximately 58.5 as a result of those changes um these are the components of
157our ending fund balance so our total ending fund balances at unannotted actuals of 254.8 million consists of some non-spendable those are our prepaid items our stores we have restricted balance of 118 million our committed funds are 41.2 million assigned funds 6.4 million in our reserve for economic uncertainty which is required two percent set aside of 11.8 million currently our NSI balance is to 75.84 million here is some additional details around those committed funds so we have a bus replacement plan and you can see we didn't have any changes in there the only changes we had from what we brought in estimated actuals to now was an adjustment in our text device refresh enhancements we will have um we'll be bringing a new resolution to you at the next board meeting to update our committed funds
158so the unspent supplemental funds will be added to that committed fund balance as those funds must be used for the purposes they were received foreign here is a summary of our other friends all friends reflect a positive fund balance choices Charter School reflects the surplus of just under 200 000 our adult education reflects a small deficit we're working to monitor that with the site leadership to ensure that is not a structural deficit and make any adjustments is needed the Child Development Fund reflects a surplus although expenses outpace revenues so the Surplus is a result of rating of our ELO P funds for qualifying school-aged children attending our Discovery Club program which is reflected in that other financing column and that was approximately 1.5 million the remaining 2.7 million of the transfer was allocated as part
159of our ELO Esser plan to support the program as it used fund balance to support deficits experienced in 2021 in the amount of approximately 1.8 million and expected further deficits as the state was recovering from the pandemic the program also used 1.4 million in one-time covid funds that were awarded through this from the state directly to fund 12. without the use of the previously received coveted funds and the district transferred ELO Esser the program would have experienced a deficit of 2.1 million now we're going to move on to our revised 2324 budget and you can see we experienced an increase in our lcff again that is related to the Ada mitigation that was certified with our P2 and then we also experienced an um we booked an increase to our local Revenue as a result
160of those increased interest earnings in quarters three and four we typically don't budget that until we receive them because it does fluctuate so much but with our high fund balance currently and receiving so much in those uh final two quarters we went ahead and bumped it up by two million dollars on our restricted side the only increase that we've experienced was for the teacher Residency program the rates increased in the final budget Act and for our expenditures on the unrestricted side we saw an increase of 5.96 4.9 of that is increases to salary and benefits related to lcap goals that added staff to sites including 2.25 in School site support staff for safe environments the remaining increase was a result of 22 23 expenditures that were not received until after June 30th that we mentioned
161in a prior slide on the restricted we budgeted that additional 375 000 for the teacher Residency program and that's what UC reflected here our overall uh general fund summary the net impact of the increased revenues and expenditures is a projected increase of approximately 2.29 to our ending fund balance so next steps we'll have our final audit report that we'll bring back to you in December along with that person or on budget we're going to work with our labor Partners to settle negotiation and revised budgets as needed now we'll revise our assumptions as more information comes out from the state in just general economic conditions and then continue to build system-wide understanding strategically align resources to goals and identify efficiencies to improve workflows and maximize our resource potential um any questions thank you so much for
162walking us through that questions caught us reward Mr Amy um to have a math question you don't have to answer it now um but if you look at slide eight on another unaudited actuals expenditures which is the pie chart um I think it's also in another chart we have a you have listed by certificated salaries classified salaries and then benefits um I think at some point in the future I'd be interested to just see how the benefits that that percentage applies to classified and certificated employees almost like a portion of the both right like how does that 29 break out to the two classifications similar to salary so again not something you have to do now but just a piece of information that might be helpful to me in the future okay thank you yeah
163other comments questions my comment would just be thank you you make it sound so easy um and I really appreciate the succinct and clear report thank you thank you okay then we recommend the Board of Trustees approve the 2022-23 unaudited actuals and I want to give a special thanks and shout out to the fiscal Services Department I'd like to move the item second oh I've been so seamlessly it's like would you like to go okay two seconds uh roll call vote Ms crochet aye Ms yes hi Mr Avery aye Mr Hernandez hi Miss Costa um is absent and I vote I so the motion does pass with five eyes and one absent member thank you appreciate it we are at item I4 conveyance of a permanent easement at Catherine Johnson Middle School at the Creekside
164site Mr kimarda thank you president creason members of the board superintendent Pastor Nelly Miss Cunningham the superintendent is recommending that the board call a public Hearing in order to solicit public comment and to adopt resolution number 4095 declaring the conveyance of a permanent easement at Catherine Johnson Middle School uh to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District otherwise known as as SMUD of conveying a permanent Eastman at Catherine Johnson Middle School Creekside site to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District SMUD a public hearing and is now open for public comment there being no comments I declare the public hearing closed do any board members have questions or comments Mr Hernandez Mr Hernandez move the item is there a second seconded by Mr Avery and to be clear this is a motion to adopt resolution number 4095 roll roll
165call vote Ms krevchik aye Ms Vasquez aye Mr ravy aye Mr Hernandez aye Ms Kosta is absent and I vote I so the motion passes with five eyes in one abstention I'm sorry one absent member thank you thank you thank you president karissman creason uh the superintendent is recommended that the board adopt resolution number 4097 declaring the intent to convey a permanent easement at casserole fundamental High School to the Citrus Heights water district and to call a public hearing to be held on September 26th of 2023. I'm here to answer any questions that the board might have thank you so much is there are there any questions comments if not is there a motion to adopt resolution number 4097 so move moved by Ms krevchek second seconded by Mr AV we will move to a
166role called vote Ms kreb check aye Ms Vasquez aye Mr Amy aye Mr Hernandez aye Ms Costa is absent and either I the motion passes with five eyes and one absent member thank you we are at item I6 exemption to the separation from service requirement Dr Toto good evening president creason board members superintendent bassinelli and Miss Cunningham um tonight I bring forward upon the superintendent's recommendations the governing board adopt the resolution number 4089 for the exemption of the separation from service requirement pursuant pursuant to the Education Code 24214.5 or 26812 um in response to the concerns of the difficulty of um of employers hiring substitute teachers during the current teacher shortage the existing law provides an exemption to the separation from service requirement and this resolution basically what this does it allows us to bring
167back retired employees prior to the 180 days that they're supposed to wait to come back and provide service for us and the resolution has identified two individuals who are interested in coming back prior to that 180 days so I asked for your approval of the resolution thank you so much any questions comments from the board this is an action item is there a motion to adopt resolution number 4089 so moved moved by Mr Avi is there a second second In by Mr Hernandez we'll move into a roll call vote Mrs kreb check aye Ms Vasquez aye Mr Avery aye Mr Hernandez Miss Miss Costa is absent and I vote I the motion passes with five eyes and one abstic member thank you very much we are at item J board reports are there any board
168reports Mr Hernandez I just want to um report that uh I have the the flag football for girls like football was mentioned tonight by our high school visitors and uh I was so impressed by these young ladies out there and I talked to uh Miss bassinelli we actually attend the uh game at Del Campo can't remember who they were playing but anyway um to find out that every house was it El Camino no it was not a center it was Center Center another District um but to find out that every High School in our district except one is participating in real fight football and uh and it's outstanding and what we're hearing and what I'm hearing that these girls are having so much fun at Dale Campbell for example 78 girls tried out for the
169team that's more than guys went on for football 78 so he had a cut or flag football which is I mean that's sad he had a cut but great that the participation so what you see so that's it I think I was thinking about the maybe the first flag football game to hit the news I won't talk about the results because we're all winners in the show USD any other board reports all right uh we are at item K future agenda do any board members wish to add any items to the Future agent okay we do not need to return to closed session we are adjourned good night everybody