001okay good evening welcome to the san marino unified school district board of education special meeting here is your board president mrs namjak thank you dr choi good evening and welcome to the san marino unified school district state of the district address this is a special board of education meeting and it will be delivered in presentation format we will take questions from the board of education at the end of the presentation and if members of the public have questions or comments we ask that you email them to jennifer deletory at j d e l a t o r r e at smusd dot u s she will direct them to the proper staff for handling the purpose of this meeting is to provide the board of education and the general public with information on the status
002of the district's operational and instructional programs aligned to the board of education's 2021 22 goals it is important to my team and i that we provide the board and the public with timely information and updates this evening you will hear from our board president the san marino schools foundation district cabinet and all four school site principals you will also get to preview excerpts from two of our school anthem videos now i would like to introduce you to an incredibly brilliant well-educated articulate dedicated and hard-working lady leader who volunteered when we needed her most to return to her post on the board of education after having served two prior terms i give you our fearless leader board president mrs nam jack thank you superintendent dr deletori um i oh thank you so much uh thank you
003i am uh with that wonderful introduction for our state of the district address i'm going to uh start the board meeting and remind everybody that all meetings of the board are open to members of the public unless publicly noticed as a confidential closed session as allowed by law members of the public may address the board as outlined in the public comments section of the agenda the audio of all meetings is recorded and the member of the public may be held liable for any slanders or otherwise defamatory statements in consideration of the board and members of the audience please turn off silence your cell phones while you are in this meeting the unified district encourages those with disabilities to participate fully in the public meeting process if you need a disability related modification or accommodation including
004auxiliary aids or services to participate in the meeting contact the assistant to the superintendent at j deletori at smusd.us or 626-299-7000 extension 1310 at least 48 hours before the scheduled board meeting so you may make every reasonable f so we may make every reasonable effort to accommodate you documents provided to a majority of the board regarding an open session item on this agenda will be made available for public inspection in the district office located at 1665 west drive san marino during normal business hours in addition such writings and documents may be viewed on the district's website at www.smus i would like everyone to stand so we can say the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible
005with liberty and justice for all thank you we are now at item four of our agenda which is the approval of the agenda may i have a motion to approve the agenda so moved mrs ryan a second plea um mr chang roll call vote uh mrs ryan aye mrs chan aye mr chang aye mr kalaki aye school board members aye thank you and nam jack i promotion unanimously passed public comments number five the board of education adopted board policy 9323b to ensure the public's right to be heard in any matters pertaining to the school district persons who wish to provide public comment will have three options one submit through an online form two requests to speak during the meeting via q a and phone dial-in or three requests to speak during the meeting in person
006via public comment card first with respect to submitting an online form the public may submit public comments for open session on february 2nd from 11 a.m to 3 30. comments received during this time will not be read at the meeting but will be provided to the board of education um dr choi is it correct to say that no one submitted a request through the online portal that is correct thank you request to speak during the meeting via q a and phone dialing during public comment the meeting will pause for one minute to take requests this hand function is used to take requests during the public comment period for online attendees please raise please press the raise hand icon to add yourself to the queue for phone attendees dial star 9. the speaking order will be
007determined based on the order of requests received individual speakers will be unmuted and called to order the third potential item way to speak is during the meeting in person via the public comment card please complete the public comment card and submit the completed card in the designated dropbox with the assistant to the superintendent no later than when the agenda section is called by the board president and in this case information discussion with respect to the state of the district opportunities for public comment are offered prior to the information section for matters on the agenda the board reserves the right to add a public comment period prior to any individual item on the agenda five minutes may be allotted to each speaker in a maximum of 20 minutes to each subject matter however in the event
008there are more than four speakers on the same subject matter the board president retains the discretion to adjust and limit the time allocated to each speaker to ensure that all wishing to speak will be heard within the 20-minute allotment uh now we come to number five a communications from the audience regarding matters on the agenda may be heard at this time but not responded to dr chile president jack we're pausing for one minute to take requests to speak regarding matters on the agenda if you'd like to make a request to speak please press the raise hand icon dial star 9 or submit a public comment card restart we have 30 seconds remaining if you'd like to make a request to speak regarding matters on the agenda please press the raise hand icon dial star 9
009or submit a public comment card okay we have no requests all right thank you dr choi we will now begin the state of the district address first of all i would like to say happy lunar new year to everybody here on the stage and to everybody in our audience whether you are online or in person it's one of my favorite times of the year i appreciate the cultural aspect that it brings to our rich community and am feeling very fortunate that we have and are able um to um have such a rich fabric in order to um help educate our children and enrich our community on behalf of the board i would like to express my gratitude during this ongoing pandemic our entire community of parents students teachers counselors classified staff principals assistant principals and
010school district administrators under the leadership of our wonderful superintendent dr linda deletori have been united in the common goal that student learning should not be compromised despite these unprecedented times we have all come together unwavering in our dedication to keep our students safe and to continue to provide the optimum environment in which they can thrive academically and socially we have been able to weather this storm because we live in this community this is one of the many reasons why i believe san marino is so very very special on behalf of the board i would like to express our gratitude for everyone's patience and flexibility as we navigate these challenging times and the quagmire of ever-changing state county and local laws dr choi may have the first slide please i would like to begin by introducing
011our current board of education i am the president for the current term mrs jane chan is our vice president mr c joseph chang is our clerk and mr kalaki and mrs ryan are our board members i would like to thank and commend each and every one of you you have each brought your own perspectives and valuable experiences to the school board i would like to specifically say thanks to one board member mr c joseph chang because of his long standing health expertise and bank background he has been an invaluable help in providing concrete solutions dealing with our covet issues next slide please the school board and administration are guided by our strategic plan comprised of our school district's vision mission goals and objectives cornerstones of success and what we hope our graduates will be our
012vision is to deliver a world-class education with excellence in academic arts and athletics our mission is to deliver supportive and innovative opportunities for student learning in order to achieve student excellence collaboration and discovery challenging them to take responsibility as members of the global community next slide please in july of 2021 our board and cabinet held our annual board retreat facilitated by a california school board association consultant to guide the board through the process of developing its 2021-2022 board goals the four goals agreed upon are working to support the social emotional well-being of our students and staff effectively assessing and addressing learning regression and variability providing comprehensive professional development for all staff and working toward a plan for long-term fiscal stability of the school district over time after defining our goals it is then the process
013that we ask our superintendent her cabinet and our principals to utilize their expertise to effectuate these goals as administrators and educators which they have been working diligently to do so next slide please introduce okay at this point in time i would like to introduce and ask them to come where right there okay to come up uh here near our stage i would like to introduce two leaders in our community who really embody all the best and great qualities of what it is meant to be a community volunteer they really are the best of the best i would like to introduce aaron velvato president of the san marino schools foundation who has graciously this is her third year serving as president and i would like to also introduce katherine olivares who was a secretary on the
014board of the foundation and is now the annual programs and campaign chair without their efforts as well as those on the board the district would not be where it is today as we ask the foundation every year to help close the funding gap and raise two million dollars since 1980 when the foundation was founded to provide financial support to the school district it has raised over 53 million dollars so [Applause] so a heartfelt thanks to the foundation president belvatto catherine oliveiras thank you very much thank you so much for inviting us to provide an update on our progress this year and to make a very special presentation to the school district and to make a very special award to one of our long-term supporters here in san marino the first order of business is i
015would like to con congratulate catherine oliveiras who has been selected by our board of trustees to become our leader of the foundation here permanently in san marino she is taking on the manager of our annual campaign and running our foundation office and our programs she is a talented amazing parent community leader has great expertise in our ptas and we think will really um be a a great asset to us as we lead forward in in supporting the school district so welcome catherine you will see her [Applause] you will see her as a very present leader on the campuses in the foundation office um and we're really excited to to have her aboard um our update for you this evening we are very pleased to let you know that we have received donations so far this
016year from 800 families and community members we have raised 1.2 million dollars so far this year and our 43 percent of the way through our annual campaign you will see a flurry of activity the rest of this year we will have our annual banner campaign our annual yard sign campaign and actively outreaching to all of our families community members and businesses here in san marino our message this evening to our families our ask this year is one of participation the last two years we have spent a lot of effort raising additional dollars through special campaigns to support the school district this year we want to return to our roots of participation supporting our school district is every family's business it's every community member's business to ensure the integrity the success and the performance of our
017school district and whether a family can afford a hundred dollars or many thousands of dollars every single one of those donations is critical and important and valued and so we really are going to be outreaching and activating um every single family and would ask for all of your support as we do that through the end of this year today we have a very special um do you want to bring out the check um so we will be making our school our board of uh for the foundation our trustees in december approved the two million dollar grant request for this year from the school district so tonight we will be presenting you with our first distribution of 1.3 million dollars towards that two million dollar goal and the rest of those funds will be presented to
018you later in this year so we wanted to make the formal presentation of that donation to the school district on behalf of our board of trustees to you this evening um tom koch and maurice faldovar are with me this evening as well representing our trustees and so we would like to present this to you this evening you i also wanted to acknowledge michelle espenshade who also was able to join us and our last item of business here is a really really special recognition um over the course of the last 33 years the san marino schools foundation has had a unique and special partnership with the chinese club of san marino this evening we have a vice president chun yen chen and former president maggie lee with us who we would like to invite to come
019forward this very special organization has donated over 750 000 over the course of its relationship and partnership with the foundation um with the beneficiary being our students and schools last year during the measure e campaign this the chinese club came forward with a 200 000 donation which was truly inspirational incredible and just um such a a gift so we have a very special award that we would like to present to the chinese club for their their support of our schools and our students and we'd like to present this on behalf of every student here in san marino all of our teachers our administrators the school board and the foundation to thank you for all that you do for us here in san marino that is our update for you this evening thank you so much
020for having us mrs would you like to come up here and take a picture with the honorees absolutely thank you yes i think we will okay everyone i think these are you know we have so many valuable community partners which is why i think again we are so special and so successful so i believe that you know organizations like the foundation and the chinese club you know have been vital uh in donating their time resources energy and intellect and helping us to continue to provide the absolute best programs and opportunities for students we are very aware and acknowledge that it is because of all of these partners that we can and are able to continue to provide excellent programs and support to all our students in san marino at this time i would like to
021turn it over to our superintendent dr deletori who i can say without a shadow of a doubt that we would not be where we are today with her outstanding efforts in leadership her cabinet including dr richter dr choi all our fabulous principals and assistant principals are exceptional teachers and our wonderful classified staff we are very grateful and at this time dr linda thank you so much president jack members of the board of education student board member executive team in san marino community it is my distinct pleasure to introduce our amazing cabinet and school principles dr stephen choi is the chief technology officer and is also our chief covid compliance officer that's a new position that we just had to create and uh we're so grateful for his leadership and his um intuition and expertise he
022has absolutely done an amazing job uh really helping the school district stay above um just everything when it comes to covid compliance and so we've really done a remarkable job and it has a lot to do with his leadership and of course president jack mentioned mr c joseph chang earlier in helping us to organize clinics where we were able to get our employees vaccinated very early on and also we were able to bring vaccination clinics here to our school sites for the benefit of our students and now we're providing opportunities for our students and our employees to get booster shots and so we're going to continue to do that and thank you so much dr choi for your leadership in that area and of course the technology that has been provided during the pandemic especially
023when you know students weren't allowed to come onto campus for in-person learning and we were able to pivot very very quickly and much faster than most school districts around and most of the private schools around and we were able to go to online instruction and uh you really helped lead that effort so thank you so much then of course we have uh dr lena richter who is as my predecessor would say an individual who is doing the work of seven people in any other district around us so dr richter is our executive director of educational services she is an expert in ed services and does a wonderful job for us she's put together a very comprehensive professional development plan for our teachers specialists and classified staff it is because of her leadership that we have
024been able to really engage our students in their learning variability due to the pandemic she's been able to work with teachers to look for instructional curriculum and tools that we can use to really assess where kids are and address uh meet them where they are and address their needs individually and that has just been a tremendous help to all of us and so dr richter thank you so much for your leadership and your efforts and and i know you'll continue to do great things in this school district these two individuals um my entire cabinet and and uh my predecessor again was saying that he has four assistant superintendents i'll never know what that's like but good for him um these individuals do the work of multiple people in other in other districts as i mentioned
025earlier they work really long hours they're very very dedicated to what is best for the students that we serve their work ethic is beyond reproach and i just really value and appreciate them both additionally i have our amazing principals here they also work tirelessly to represent their schools not only do they each manage the operational needs of their school campuses they also serve as the instructional leaders of each of their schools and they work to mentor and coach our professional educators they support them they support the students they're on the front lines of working with parents to make sure that all students have opportunities to succeed so of course we have the amazing wonderful mr kurtenbach principal of san marino high school [Applause] and we have the fantastic charismatic and uh very entertaining uh principal
026daryl depaulian of huntington middle school and we have this stately and kind compassionate uh atlanta foray from valentine elementary school [Applause] and then we have the very talented and well well-educated dr michael lin of carver elementary school [Applause] who loves data by the way just absolutely loves data um so thank you uh to each one of you for your talents your skills your heart your compassion and always wanting to do what's best for kids we appreciate you so much next slide please so every year our team gets together and we try to come up with a theme that represents our goals experiences and hopes for the future this summer my team came up with rise together rise stands for respect inspire serve and elevate we discussed the importance of all stakeholders in san marino working
027together respecting one another inspiring each other and lifting each other up it is through these actions that we can get through the difficult times together and preserve the one thing that really matters the most and that is our humanity we strive as an educational team to live up to this theme every day we believe firmly that attitudes and behaviors are contagious and if we are positive and working hard to do the best and the right thing for kids then we believe that that will inspire others to do the same so we have used this logo that you see on the screen um to brand a lot of our correspondence we have it on a lot of our presentations and we really do want to communicate the reality that this community as president jack said earlier
028is unique and we are unique and we are special because of our parents our families our community members our students our teachers our classified staff our administrators and our our principals everyone working together and we're all aligned in doing the right thing for kids so that's our theme for this year uh next year we'll try and come up with a better one if possible okay we can skip this slide so we put together this district um infograph just to show you um visually um what our schools are all about we're very small school district in los angeles county as you all know we have four schools we have two elementary one middle school and one high school currently we have 2 69 amazing incredible wonderful students and all schools in san marino have been designated
029as national blue ribbon schools and california distinguished schools which is quite an honor to have every single school in the district um have those two awards bestowed upon them at one point or another currently huntington middle school is the only middle school in california to have received the national blue ribbon award we are so incredibly proud of principal topalian mr rob miller and his entire faculty and classified support staff for being able to accomplish this in a very very difficult and challenging year it's amazing and i'm sure he's going to talk to you more about that when he presents himself but i'd like to give him a round of applause and we'll go to the next slide please so um enrollment i i'm sure that you've all heard me talk about our declining enrollment um
030in the past and i feel that this graph really illustrates um the current trend and the current trend is not unique to san marino unified school district most districts in the state of california are in declining enrollment and there are several reasons for that first of all the most important reason that our enrollment is declining that we have absolutely no control over is the fact that babies are not being born so we have the lowest birth rate since the great depression right now and there's really nothing that the district can do to you know change that trend so that's just something that we're going to have to live with um there's another reason a lot of people are moving out of the state of california because of the cost of living it is very uh
031it's it's not very business friendly high taxation unaffordable housing if you look at our our community of san marino it is very very expensive to move into san marino as you all know um and to be able to afford a single-family residence other high-performing districts in the area have condos they have apartments they have town homes they have other housing options for families to move into their district so they may not be declining as quickly as we are in san marino there are also many vacant homes in san marino that were purchased by investors and they are not on the market to be either sold or leased and therefore that's inventory that is sitting there not available for use that could be occupied by young families with children that would attend our schools i have
032not seen an increase in the number of students that are leaving us for private schools we've always had students leave our district for private schools for one reason or another but we are tracking now that data so we will be able to analyze that data and really dig into the details as to how many you know parents are leaving our school district for private school because of religious reasons how many are leaving our school district um because uh the school is a legacy school their parents and grandparents attended that school and how many are leaving because they're unhappy for one reason or another and if they're unhappy what what's the reason you know give us those specifics so that we can really study that information just to make sure that we can always provide our
033very best efforts to retain our enrollment so we're at a place right now where we know that we function best at 3 200 students and we have 2 699. so we really need to work hard as a school district and as a community to stabilize and and then grow our enrollment if at all possible and there's lots of conversations that we're having as a leadership team to ensure that we come up with strategies again to retain and attract new families to san marino schools so we are taking that very seriously and that is something that we're going to continue to work with the board of education on as we go forward next slide please so again we're super proud of the fact that every school has been either a distinguished school well and a national
034blue ribbon school we have also been ranked by niche and by the us world news as one of the top performing schools in california we're very proud of that as a matter of fact we will have a news release going out very very soon on niche ranking us again as one of the top performing schools in the area next slide so now it is my pleasure to turn it over to dr lena richter to talk with you about students dr richter thank you dr deletori thank you dr dr deletori and thank you for your very complimentary words um as this slide shows and as dr delatorre alluded to earlier in san marino we put students first it is our commitment and our priority to place students at the forefront of our decision making and at
035the center of every facet of district operations we recognize the hard work it takes to promote the student success and to meet the divergent needs of all students san marino unified has committed and remains committed to doing this work to building programs services and instructional opportunities intended to support the academic behavioral and social emotional well-being of all students san marino truly believes that all students means all students we strive to promote the boundless potential of every student and work higher tirelessly to best prepare them for college career and life by developing positive relationships supporting students foundational needs cultivating inclusive learning environments fostering opportunities for student agency and instructional practices that support the varying needs of all learners the unique needs of our students define the very work that we do each and every day to
036help every student effectively engage navigate and adapt to an ever-changing world but most importantly to help each student assume personal autonomy so that they can make a profound impact on their future to do this samri san marino unified has maintained and continues to maintain a laser-like commitment to exemplary teaching and learning this commitment is operationalized through implementation of meaningful relevant robust professional development opportunities that directly support the academic behavioral and social emotional needs of all students what's best for students has been and always should be at the forefront of everything we do here in san marino this is substantiated by our commitment and perseverance to seek out relevant research-based professional development opportunities specific to student teacher and staff needs to best cultivate learning environments where all students feel safe feel that they belong and have
037opportunities to learn our teachers are experts without a doubt and bring to the classroom exemplary teaching and learning ever-changing student needs call for ever-changing and innovative teaching and learning as a district we want to be sure that we are equipping our teachers and staff with the tools and resources necessary to meet the evolving needs of our students through intentional professional development opportunities we continue to refine and escalate teacher expertise and student learning to best meet the varied needs of all of our learners let me go to the next slide we are extremely proud of the work we have done in this arena the work we are doing prioritize prioritizes and strengthens our board's priorities this is evidenced through intentional professional development opportunities including multi-tiered systems of support which is a framework that allows students equitable
038access to robust education where multiple measures are used to plan for prevention intervention and enrichment for all learners san marino unified school district has partnered with the l.a county office of education receiving a two-year grant focused on universal design for learning a framework that allows flexible learning environments and opportunities that address and support learner variability by allowing students voice and choice in their learning we are proud that all four of our schools are currently in year one of two with udl universal design for learning beginning this year our elementary schools have begun implementing the i ready assessment and instructional program this program provides adaptive diagnostic assessments and individualized instructional pathways that best meets the needs of every learner our partnership with l.a county office of education has allowed implementation of positive behavior interventions and support
039also known as pbis to help promote school safety behavioral expectations and inclusive learning environments our elementary schools are currently in year two of three with pbis and we look forward to our second secondary schools joining pbis in the upcoming year we also recognize the critical need to cultivate inclusive learning environments that best support the social emotional and academic needs of all of our students through intentional professional development opportunities focused on diversity equity and inclusion trauma-informed practices implicit bias and gender spectrum we continue to do this work to ensure that every student can achieve feel safe be healthy and feel a genuine sense of belonging san marino unified has strived to develop professional development opportunities and rigorous instructional programs that provide teachers students and staff comprehensive systems of support which together create exemplary teaching and learning
040conditions our students teachers and staff have worked collaboratively through this process we are extremely proud of the work that we have accomplished together and look forward to exploring and further expanding district programs and partnerships we go to the next slide please as we look ahead a few programs and opportunities the district is considering include a spanish dual immersion pilot at one of our elementary schools or at the elementary level expansion of our cte courses and pathways as well as an early college academy at the high school these considerations are still in the initial stages of planning and require further research and exploration to ensure they are the right programs for our students interests and our students needs and that they can be seamlessly integrated and complement current district programs one of the ways in which
041we will be doing this is to survey our students and our parent communities to best identify the most relevant and meaningful cte pathway options and at this time i would like to now introduce dr steven choi to provide an update on technology thank you dr richter good evening board and uh you know it's it's really a pleasure for me to share an update uh in regards to technology because technology will continue to play an important role for the san marino schools technology is often used as a catalyst to implement new initiatives but in practice technology tends to stick around serving as a nexus to support critical processes in the areas of learning teaching collaboration continuous improvement and innovation as the district's chief technology officer it is my honor to highlight three focus areas in technology
042this year first the district is in the process of upgrading its aging network infrastructure some key projects include replacing network switches wireless access points and mission critical directory appliances with thoughtful planning and coordination the district leveraged multiple funding sources to make this happen specifically the district combined competitive federal e-rate program discounts along with cares act funding also known as one-time essr funds to implement network upgrades of approximately one million dollars installation of network equipment through have already begun and will continue through as late as september as we navigate through the challenges of a global supply chain i'm very excited about the prospects for when the network upgrades will be completed as it would support more engaging digital experiences more collaborative connections and smarter integration of systems to best serve our students the next area that
043i would like to highlight is also typically considered behind the scenes work and unfortunately with the recent rise in incidents occurring in k-12 schools cyber security is now too often in the spotlight and is a high priority for us this year schools today are sadly prime targets for cyber criminals the fbi warned that cyber actors view schools as targets of opportunity with ransomware attacks data theft and disruption of services at san marino schools we take cyber security and the duty to safeguard our student and staff data very seriously this year we implemented 24 7 mdr and edr cyber security services that monitor detect and respond to cyber attacks we also perform routine vulnerability scans and implemented a cloud-based off-premise backup and disaster recovery solution along with these new tools we also value educating our users
044with cybersecurity training this year we conducted cybersecurity simulations and fishing exercises while developing containment and remediation protocols to better secure and protect our users finally the last technology area i want to highlight is something that is very visible with one-time cares funding the district purchased new computing devices for staff and students this year all faculty receive new laptops to replace aging five to eight-year-old laptops and in addition all students in grades tk through one now have access to class sets of new ipads and students in grades two through five receive class sets of new chromebooks i'm also very pleased to report that every huntington middle school student as well as san marino high school student was issued a new chromebook to take advantage of online resources available on and off campus providing our secondary students
045to reliable and powerful tools such as google workspace for education and the schoology learning management system will make a positive impact on student learning while i can go on and on about technologies this year i would like to shift and highlight the district's response and management of covid it's hard to believe that we first had to close our schools on friday the 13th in march of 2020. that was 691 days ago we are now more than 100 days into the current school year and it is remarkable how many changes have come our district's covet response truly demonstrates that anything is possible when we work together especially when we are willing to pivot and change and pivot again all while being very patient but yet never losing sight of what's most important which is to create
046safe in-person learning experiences for all our students and employees our district is extremely proud of the robust covet testing programs we have in place our test programs are available to all smusd students employees and volunteers we offer weekly on-campus pcr testing to help identify those that may have coven but don't even know it our health covet support staff also administer rapid antigen tests to those that develop symptoms while they're on campus and we'll get results in as little as 15 minutes and in the past months with generous support from the california department of public health as well as laco we were provided self-test kits and we provided them to those that may have had exposure or have or suspect that they may be sick this school year our district has provided over 22 000 pcr
047rapid and rapid tests i want to thank all our covet testing partners chinatown service center two trees consulting kova testing 24 and omnipathology who have been essential in helping us create a safe in-person experience one of the most powerful tools available to combat covid have been vaccines as of january 25th and based on a self-attestation survey 96 of smusd employees 87 of smusd students are fully vaccinated also 82 of our elementary students are fully vaccinated when vaccines were first made available in march of 2021 board member c joseph chang helped secure vaccinations for all our employees in partnership with usc keck as soon as vaccines became eligible for younger age groups smusd partnered with albertsons to host several on-campus vaccine clinics to students ages 12 and up in may and june and later to students
048ages 5 and up this past november and december along the way the district also hosted a couple of booster clinics this past october and again in january we received great appreciation and feedback that the online clinics were convenient and had brought ease to many families now a key distinction in our district's response to covid is the availability of dedicated covet support staff smusd took advantage of a 450 000 award from the cdc's elc grant to cover covid personnel equipment and supplies vaccination outreach and testing costs i want to recognize smusd cova coordinator asha lee kovid support staff geraldine damian lisa herron john martinez and elizabeth reuter for their tremendous work in testing contact tracing and for being such a valuable resource to our families especially this year and especially through the recent omicron search i
049also want to take this opportunity to highlight the magnitude of personal protective equipment or ppe our district has used this year our schools have used over 37 000 ounces of hand sanitizer over 4 000 cloth masks 56 000 3-ply surgical grade masks 2 000 kn kn 95 respirators and two 2 800 n95 respirators the district has also installed over 200 air purifiers throughout various classrooms and indoor spaces while some of this ppe was funded with one-time cares funding many were provided as donations from generous parents community members staff members board members local non-profit organizations as well as global businesses that cared about san marino we are forever grateful finally i just want to conclude on this slide that our covet journey is not quite over yet there is a lot of hope as the metrics
050indicate that the worst of the omicron surge has passed i believe all of us are looking forward to the day when our students and staff will no longer have to mask indoors or outdoors so we appreciate everyone's continued patience we will continue to monitor closely and follow la county public health protocols and guidance to ensure our students and employees are safe with that thank you for your continued support i'd like to now turn it back over to dr deletori to talk about facilities thank you so much dr troy i appreciate all of your hard work in the area of managing um our covent pandemic and you have done an amazing job i wanted to talk with the board just a little bit about facilities not only do we want to ensure that we are providing
051a a safe and healthy learning environment we want to make sure that we are training all of our employees to be able to do just that um so with respect to our facilities one of the things that we did early on in the year was to take our leadership team and provide them with outstanding training in threat assessment which was provided by a harvard trained forensic psychologist by the name of uh dr tony belisse and he is a very renowned and well known for his expertise in preventing school violence and he has just been a very strong leader in providing the training to not only school districts but to law enforcement agencies and i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the fact that we have had such tremendous support and what a great
052partnership we've had with the san marino police department and the san marino fire department we have chief rueda here from the fire department and chief and contro here from the police department and these distinguished professionals have been very active in participating in our safety trainings they show up when we have safety meetings with our stakeholders school principals and pta representatives they have been just amazing in making sure that we are all um on board with the plan that we have in place to make sure that our children are safe all of them in the event that we have any threats to their safety additionally rotary was so kind and generous they donated monies to the school district so that we could purchase the raptor system and the raptor system has been installed at all four
053schools and so now visitors to our campuses have to show their california idea driver's license which is scanned and this system will do a background check to make sure that we are not allowing access to our campuses to anyone who has a questionable background we want to make sure that our kids are safe and and healthy and that is one tool um along with many others that helps to keep our kids safe so we're very grateful to rotary and mr dennis near presented us with that check so thank you [Applause] we appreciate you and your generosity in addition to that in terms of facility upgrades we have mr gil cardenas who has really stepped up during this challenging time there's a lot more cleaning and deep cleaning and sanitization that's going on in our classrooms
054he and his team have been doing doing just a wonderful job he had to train all of his guys to manage uh the way that they clean classrooms in a very different way there's a lot of extra steps now that are having to be taken in order to do that um he has been engaged in some um general painting projects at the schools uh but again the focus and the shift in work responsibilities has really gone to the side of making sure that classrooms and offices are safe spaces super clean sanitized et cetera so a lot of extra time has been spent on that i wanted to mention that we have received covid funds dr choi touched on this to upgrade our technology infrastructure but also to upgrade our hvac systems and so the money
055that we received is going to go to huntington and valentine we're going to be replacing the hvac systems at both of these schools in order to improve the air quality for our teachers and for our students and so when we're asked what are we doing with the one-time monies those are two really big projects and we have spent you know 1.3 million on upgrading our technology infrastructure and we're going to spend about that on the hvac upgrade as well we are hoping to be able to upgrade valent excuse me carver and the high school as soon as possible but mr cardenas has informed me that they have done some general maintenance on those systems as well and those systems are newer than the huntington middle school and the valentine hvac system so that's why we're
056starting there um so there's been a lot of work that has gone on in addition to that we have the barth athletics complex which was construction was actually completed in uh december i believe and there have been some residual just small things that we're dealing with at the barth athletics complex it's a wonderful facility huntington middle school waited a very long time to be able to have a true gym for the school where we can host other teams to come and play our huntington middle school teams we never had that before and so it is a really wonderful space we have wrestling on the top floor it could provide additional revenue opportunities for the district going forward um if we were to lease some of the space out to groups that can come in and
057utilize the space responsibly so we're hoping to be able to maybe have some conversations with the city and other groups on that um speaking of the barth athletics complex i think uh everyone knows that um the plan back then when we first built the barth athletics complex was to collect donations from private uh donors in order to build the facility and we did just that we had a significant number of uh private donors that did give their money for the facility and due to the escalating cost of construction over time as the facility was being built the cost kept going up and so we did use two million dollars from the district's reserves to help offset the cost and then it was ultimately decided that we were going to borrow um six million dollars six
058point three million dollars actually um to finish the project through a product called certificate of participation which you'll later hear me refer to as the cop so we borrowed that money and we were able to complete the project and the facility is amazing and wonderful and it is being utilized and will continue to be utilized by the huntington middle school students um and they're really enjoying that space um but we need to you know keep continue to work with the board of education to determine whether or not we're going to look at our reserves to pay off the principal of the barth athletics complex or possibly go out for another bond because the original plan was we're going to we're going to do this we're going to go out for a bond pay off the
059barth and everything you know will be wonderful and um as you recall in 2019 we uh went out with measure s and measure s did not pass um so we're that's that's a conversation we are going to have to have um in the next year or two or not maybe we just you know look at some kind of long-term plan to pay that principle down because the term is through uh 2041 and so um it's about a half a million dollars a year that the district has to come up with and the board was so wise in committing um three years worth of cop payments to a reserve account so that for at least the next three years we do have that money set aside in our budget to be able to manage that so
060that was really smart on their part so that's all i have to say on that slide and now i would love to turn it over to mrs pearl azupa she is our our business services consultant pearl hi good evening well i would i would like to start off to talk start talking about district funding and um this school district funding is a little bit of a complicated way or complicated story in terms of how schools are funded and it starts with the local control funding formula which is the basis of the majority of the funding for a school district it represents about 75 percent of the money that we need to use to operate this entire system and provide the excellent educational program here at san marino there are some building blocks though we add
061to the base funding so we get a base funding where everybody in california every single student gets that same base amount and to that we add a grade span adjustment they understand that to have smaller class sizes in kindergarten through three were it costs more so for those grades we get an extra bump of 10.4 percent and then for grades 9 through 12 certain classes are a lower class size so we get an adjustment there we add on that to the base then we get a cola a cost of living increase that has to take care of the total operations of the district and so next year their projection because of the robust economy of california and we'll talk about the state part of that in just a moment is 5.33 for next year this
062year it's 5.01 then there's a separation from school districts based on the number of unduplicated students that are in your demographics so if you have a high english learner or you have students that are eligible for free meals or have a large number of foster youth you get extra dollars above and beyond that and then if you have certain higher percentages you get more so um here so we do get some supplemental monies there's concentration grants but we do not get any of those dollars so when we look at all of that that becomes how the basis of the formula works on the next slide it's a little bit hard to read but this shows the amount of base grant for this year first to start off with so every student in california gets this
063base grant amount and then next year we're going to add a cola to that and then you'll see the new base that will become next year and then for grades k through 3 and 9 through 12 we add that adjustment that i mentioned so that you now have an adjusted base rate of the those dollars that are there and if you have supplemental students which we do have some we add another uh amount to that so what makes it a particular challenge for san marino is that we in order to provide the excellent program that we're wanting to to give we are basically working with the base grant amount and we are not able to get funded exactly for what it costs to provide this program and we'll talk about some of the ways that
064we were able to provide that in just a moment the next slide this is just a sneak peek um that we want i just wanted to share that when we changed from the revenue limit formula which uh and then went into the local control funding formula system the agreement was that the local entity had flexibility in the dollars that they received although we're seeing less and less of that based on next year's budget however part of the agreement was that we would disclose to our community by stakeholder um input how we're spending those dollars so at the next uh at the february 22nd board meeting dr richter will be presenting the nlcap update and lcap stands for the local control accountability plan will be a mid-year report and we'll actually be discussing how those dollars
065are being used but that's just a sneak peek of what that report is going to look like so this is for parents to share how we're spending the local control funding formula and the dollars that are associated with it next slide please so a lot of times people have been asking why aren't we a basic aid district and basic aid meaning that we rely totally on our property taxes and not rely on state and the way it works is on the left side there is the property taxes that we receive and that becomes the base for the amount you're going to get and then we layer that with state eight for the difference so for example if you had um your formula was you're gonna get a hundred million dollars and you got 50 million
066in property tax the state would backfill the other 50 in order for you to be whole and that formula is derived by that base grant amounts that i mentioned times your average daily attendance okay basic aid districts what happens with them is they get that same calculation but they're able to get all of their funding through property taxes and so whatever they get above and beyond that they get to keep and so if um so for example in san marino we get 15.3 million in property taxes based on our assessed valuation and those are assessed and paid in december and april and um if we were to become basic aid we would need 26 million so what would happen is that we would need obviously to have more assessed valuation on our homes now i
067am understanding and i uh dr de la torre can probably share more of the history of this but a lot of the homes are valued um from 1960s the 1970s because there's a lot of turnover so the assessed taxes on those homes are not what they truly are value in today's dollars if they were turned over and sold then we would obviously have more taxes but that's the reason why san marino is not a basic aid district and we're not unfortunately very close to that at this point and lastly as i mentioned this is a pie chart that shows that 75 of our funding comes from the combination of property tax and state aid but we are very unusual and very very fortunate to have the support of both the foundation and the parcel tax
068and other donations that 25 of our dollars come from these different sources and i would say that we probably are one of the very few districts in the state that get that kind of support and contributions to provide the excellent program that we here have here at san marino so with that i will turn it back to you dr dil thank you so much mr suzuka we appreciate your uh professionalism and expertise so as mrs azuka was saying over the years approximately anywhere from 25 to 30 percent of our revenues comes from local sources such as the san marino schools foundation the two parcel taxes and pta donations we are very unique um i think in the words of vice president chan we're a unicorn and very very unique for many districts around in that
069we don't have a high number of unduplicated count students so the monies that we receive from the state are not sufficient to provide the level of education that we are currently providing to our students so if you took out that 25 to 30 percent of our revenues we would not be the same school district that we are today um so we are so grateful and just so appreciative of our school's foundation and the work that they do and the fact that our community supports the parcel taxes just to give you a sense of what the parcel tax pays for um measure e which generates about 4.1 million dollars pays for two counselors four elementary teachers 7.2 middle school teachers 17.2 high school teachers and three technology positions if you look at what measure r pays
070for it generates about 1.6 million dollars it pays for one high school counselor two elementary school teachers four middle school teachers four high school teachers and two um technology positions and one network analyst position if you were to take away the parcel taxes and the school's foundation revenue we would have to lay off 41 percent of all of our certificated staff 41 that is a it's a huge number and that is what makes san marino so different than other school districts most other school districts all of their staff are a hundred percent funded by state revenues not the case in san marino so um again we're grateful thankful appreciative and we cannot afford on any level to lose any one of those revenue sources and now i have to say that one of our administrative
071goals which is tied to developing a long-term fiscal stabilization plan for the district um and a way that we can a pathway that we can increase or at least stabilize our enrollment is to elevate the district's profile and one way to do this is through marketing um including school anthem videos so at this time we'd like to share with you a sneak preview of the kale carver elementary school shine video that will be used for promotional purposes and while we would love to be able to share all four videos with you they're still in production and so we won't be ready to um release all four for about the next four weeks but we're super excited about this project i have to give my thanks and praise to dr linda richter who's been instrumental in
072coordinating the effort to roll these videos out our principles have just been wonderful in making sure that the production goes very seamlessly and so with that if you would play the video dr choi [Music] my favorite part about going to school here would probably be mystery science i like going to school because it helps me learn i like seeing everyone smile and being kind to me here my favorite part about going to school other than doing recess is learning like stem and math and language arts there's a lot of new teachers you can meet that's nice we have a great principal and friends to play with everyone should know that carver doesn't just help you learn but it makes you leaders when i grow up i definitely want to be an engineer i especially want
073to test out airplanes and rockets i want to be an animal researcher when i grow up i want to be a professional gymnast i want to be a great cello player one of my favorite facts was that i've learned that there's no sound in space a kelp can grow like two feet in one day also the fastest baseball pitch is up in space i like playing with my friends on the playground especially the drum ropes i like reading i've been learning about like um shapes and like grammar carver is the best school to attend because the teachers make learning a lot of fun also i can tell the kids really love us you don't have to feel nervous because i started out nervous but i still make more friends welcome to carver you're gonna have
074an awesome time [Music] watching that makes my heart happen i just love to see you know these kids talking about their school and really enjoying their experience and praising their teachers and their principal and talking about what they've learned and what what makes them happy and that's what it's really all about and it's just so wonderful that we're creating these videos that we're going to be able to push out to people and hopefully attract more families to our wonderful school district so at this time i would like to turn it over to the carver elementary school principal dr michael lynn thank you dr deletori [Applause] wow um that's going to be a tough act to follow the kids are so photogenic and i absolutely agree with you that that video made my hosting watching the
075kids good evening and thank you to the governing board superintendent dr delatore the executive team and student board member for the opportunity for me to share a few things about carver school i would like to start by expressing my appreciation to the principal valentine's school mrs foray for her wisdom and partnership throughout this year we have all been in uncharted territories this year and i'm grateful for the collaboration and mutual supports that carver has with valentine every step of the way for example both carbon valentine have worked diligently to create partnerships and instructional schedules with encore music and the armory center for the arts to deliver high quality consistent art and music programs at both elementary schools we share the same challenges and the same joys in having our students attending school in pers in
076person we have a great appreciation for the dedication and professionalism of our teachers and staff and the generosity and kindness of our families at carver school in addition to academic rigor we offer a strong character education program that teaches students to basically be kind and empathetic we focus on students being trustworthy respectful responsible fair caring and being good citizens we catch kids when they do the right things and reinforce good behaviors as you can see the collage of photos the social emotional well-being of our students and staff takes center stage carver school is a fun and safe place for our students thanks to dr richter we have a wealth of professional development trainings on udl pbis iready our teachers and staff are true champions and have gone above and beyond in addressing learning regression and
077learning gaps we have been using one-time funds to create homework clubs to help students who need that extra help also at carver school there's no shortage of celebrations let it be student treasure hunting and finding gems on the playground or students earning carver cools or classes winning the golden shoe award every week it is heartwarming to involve our students in celebrations because students are worth celebrating it is wonderful celebrating miss mcgee as our cover school's teacher of the year and mrs azagrida as our classified employee of the year it is also a great joy to see kids and staff feel connected in the red ribbon week activities the halloween parade thanksgiving activities the winter sing-along for tk through third grade the hundredth day of school celebration the dr martin luther king jr remembrance activities and
078more recently the lunar new year activities last friday in short i have full confidence that because we have such loving and supportive families and such outstanding teachers and staff when this pandemic is finally over our students will be just fine the state of carver school is strong and our kids are in good hands thank you and i would like to yield the balance of my time to the other outstanding principles next we have uh mrs alana 4a principal of valentine elementary school president jack members of the board student board member dr de la torre our illustrious superintendent and cabinet is an honor to speak to you tonight on the state of valentine valentine is a school of 626 scholars athletes artists and musicians guided by 28 exceptional teachers and 29 dedicated staff members at valentine
079students learning experiences take place inside and outside the classroom we want students to discover who they are through opportunities to develop interests skills capacity and talent our students are taught to be helpful empathetic accepting respectful trustworthy citizens at valentine i'd like to highlight three critical programs that we have for social and emotional health the most effective program for social and emotional well-being for elementary students is spelled with six letters r-e-c-e-s-s play is children's work during play children stretch their imaginations they create make-believe games and get lost in pretend worlds they make their own rules and learn how to follow or adapt those rules as needed unstructured play helps build and strengthen the prefrontal cortex of the brain this area influences the way a child learns solves problems and gains knowledge throughout their environment frequent daily
080play can help reduce anxiety stress and irritability it also helps boost joy and self-esteem in addition to unstructured play valentine's students get explicit instruction in emotional self-regulation and conflict resolution through second step lessons delivered by our gifted school counselor mrs stacy beavers parents receive lesson summaries so they can reinforce social emotional skills at home but that's not all physical education significantly contributes to students well-being therefore it is an instructional priority for california schools and an integral part of our students educational experience high quality physical education instruction from miss laura pollard and coach wes gonzalez contributes to good health develops fundamental and advanced motor skills improves student self-confidence and provides opportunities for increased levels of physical fitness that are associated with high academic achievement the four c's of critical thinking creativity communication and collaboration are the
081pillars of our standards-based content instruction our experienced high quality teachers create opportunities for students to be independent learners build strong content knowledge to comprehend as well as critique to value evidence to use technology capably and strategically and understand other perspectives and cultures our teachers care about their students they create safe nurturing learning environments i'm honored to work shoulder to shoulder with such talented dedicated group of educators we are a cohesive team and we have great school pride our students take pride in their school and love to demonstrate heart an acronym that reminds students of school-wide behavior expectations no matter where they are on campus they make morning announcements to inspire their classmates to high levels of citizenship and service they take initiative to keep the campus clean and honor those who serve them recently fifth
082grade students gave spontaneous standing ovations to our noon supervisors they love and respect our day custodian mr alberto ariano along these lines student leaders recently planned a week of random acts of kindness with the support of miss pollard we've seen our students excel and first lego league winning championships and innovation awards due to the pandemic we are not going on field trips but we are bringing special programs to school virtually or in person students have enjoyed guest presenters like the harlem globetrotters history comes alive and the griffith observatory the valentine pta led by our fabulous president aaron clardy and our energetic executive board is a proud presi supporter of our students teachers and staff the pta plans annual fundraisers like the fall fair the parent party and the jog-a-thon to support arts education programs like
083armory art and encore music professional artists and musicians deliver superior content instruction to all our students in addition fifth graders have the opportunity to participate in band and orchestra two programs that lead into vapa programs at the secondary level the titan marching band performed for our students in the fall our students were awestruck and inspired our pta demonstrates a passionate commitment to the arts through their generous giving each year the pta also funds our library media specialist our health clerk and two new supervisor positions valentine parents are incredibly generous with their time and resources if you were to visit our campus today you would see red lanterns swinging in the halls balloons festooning our entrance and vibrant signs to usher in the year of the tiger just this last weekend our garden angels helped to
084restore and renew six garden boxes for our students to enjoy the kang and mccarthy families uh spearheaded this effort it's one example of the love and dedication our families shower on our school our parents know what an investment in valentine means helping their children enjoy a rich educational experience at school with 76 days left in our school year we look forward to a lunar new year assembly a parent party an engineering fair open house mayday a jog-a-thon the hat parade and hopefully maybe no masks go vikings up next we have mr daryl topalian principal of henry e huntington middle school board president nam jack members of the board of education student board member superintendent dr linda delatore district executive team site principals mr jason kurtenbach miss alana frey dr michael lynn teachers and staff of
085huntington middle school and the smd school community good evening and happy lunar new year the year of the tiger one of growth and recovery at this time i'd like to take a moment to share with you the courses activities clubs hangouts and opportunities that make hms one of the greatest schools on the face of this earth as you look at these 14 images on the slide they're only a small breath of the glimpse of what really happens daily on the atms campus now you look in the center and you see that seal yes back in november of 2021 henry e hunter middle school was awarded the prestigious honor as the only middle school in the state of california to be named the national blue ribbon school this goes without recognizing the great work that is
086happening at valentine at carver to set a solid foundation for our young people as they come to huntington but i cannot take ownership for all this this is under the direction of leadership of of atlanta foreign mr jason kurtenbach who are former principals of huntington middle school on a five-year study that overlooked huntington middle school to receive this award so thank you and recognition to both miss atlanta foreign and mr jason kurtenbach 325 schools received the national blue ribbon school in 2021. more than one thousand three more than excuse me 132 000 elementary and secondary schools are in the state of the united states of america 302 those are public 23 private in 45 middle schools and we hms being the only middle school in the state of california to receive that award this goes
087yes now i've recognized some individuals as administrators and especially the educators at carver and valentine but this recognition really goes to the hard-working teachers and staff at huntington middle school they have demonstrated their dedication to students and the tradition of excellence not only to themselves as committed educators but to their students hms will not just rest on being an award-winning school no we will not rest on that but most importantly we will model for other schools who are still striving for that academic excellence in math and english and science and social studies while bringing the highest level to the visual performing arts to our athletics into our other school organizations currently now at huntington middle school we have over 620 students who attend daily approximately 200 students at each grade level do you know that
088over 15 elective offerings are in the visual performing arts making over two-thirds of our school population we have course offerings in coding and in spanish and the highest level of courses are taught on campus for student achievement those high school levels are algebra courses our honors algebra courses and our spanish courses our amazing staff is involved in 15 honors courses and our students are thriving in those courses in english and in math there's elective opportunities for our students to strive as well with an award-winning and well-recognized visual performing arts program we'll put a plug in for march 17th 18th and 19th music man will be performed right here by our young people we have our our our performing arts department under the direction of derrick jameson mr folsom and miss katie simpson who is out
089on maternity leave but mr jake ferntile is filling in we have our chorus of vance we have choir conconte in our advanced quarter belcanto the spartan band the varsity band the winner sun will fill our horrors and our cafeteria with sound some pleasant and some with squeaky reeds the visual arts consists of our seventh and eighth graders and done a great direction under ms macedo and the art intro classes for our grade six students and a fabulous job to our sixth grade team doing middle schools for success as well as our intro with miss macedo and then to the pe classes which they attend our students are also thriving in yearbook and as i've shared with you preparing for the spring musical from a social emotional learning standpoint ms june gonzalez our school counselor is
090doing a great job with the fox wellness lounge which we're hoping to hope to show all of you soon at our showcase that is available for students and parents in our staff by referral with our student connectedness where everybody belongs with our web program safe school ambassadors that we have the fox wellness labs for our students who have a need with our interns out there to help them and guide them daily and our great thing that is started by our activities director miss kelly keto with our student hangouts and now we also celebrate our school citizenship with our students who we celebrate in areas of respect responsibility integrity honesty perseverance and kindness and i'm just going to take a moment to share just candidly the great students that we have here at this school there's
091a seventh grader named nathan chan who yesterday on our campus found a wallet he comes up to me at lunchtime mr paulie and i i found a wallet has money in it i said well do you find a name in it so there's no name and i look over there off to the side where he found it there's a boy frantically looking for his wallet 76 dollars now what a middle schooler is doing with 76 dollars i do not know and how much i had in my wallet but just the honor just right there the integrity of a seventh grade student to bring a wallet up to your middle school principal that says something about the quality of our young people yes we're a national blue ribbon school but i challenge my students to be
092national blue ribbon in their character so that says something about nathan chan lucky boy andrew who got his wallet we also have been coming up the career day february 17th where maybe some of you will be participating in under the direction of june gonzalez who will be sharing that with our students that's just part of being connected in the wellness of our young people and also under the direction of dr um linda richter for our udl training thank you for our staff who are being able to address and facilitate the needs for all students in the areas of academic support we have wonderful teachers who are reaching out and opening their classrooms at lunch and in the in the afternoons in the areas of math english and now science and this is all based on
093our student needs and seeing that the need our students are coming back with but our teachers are opening their classroom doors at lunchtime and after school our activities led by miss kelly keto our amazing athletic director and activities director we have asb with student government jesus for life chess club science olympiad who are award-winning who are doing amazing at their invitationals our speech and debate team doing amazing in the direction of mr miller our mock trial team with some of our summer cervantes doing an amazing job in their competitions and winning competitions our math team is doing great in our robotics team and our hangouts are hangouts where our teachers are just opening their classrooms at lunch we have the art foxes we have goods games with mr good we have the fox peace garden
094we have tuesdays gamers and we have the fantasy sports all available to our students to feel connected to this school we have our amazing athletic program for our travel teams and our murals from flight football across country to volleyball basketball track and field tennis wrestling and cheerleading and when all this has happened so many amazing things are behind the scene with our amazing pta led by jacqueline chung our pta president who's support and resourceful for all of us they're amazing association the executive team they plan and they do events we have the coming fox games on march 11th which i hope many of you have seen our promo video on our website and then our parent party on march 11th to follow they support our teachers with resources more importantly food to feel loved and
095valued now after sharing all the fabric of life of mha's campus and looking at our 14 images my hope is that the san reno community understands and embraces the value of an smusd education at henry e huntington middle school middle school is challenging even if in age of 11 and 12 and 13 and through the pandemic all the teachers and staff at hms want each and every student to be valued and an active learner but right now be healthy i have challenged my staff i have challenged the students to combat kobe c combat oh omicron v valiantly into defeat cobin and think of 19 ways that you can do that and i'm proud to say today again we had zero cases see hms is here to strive for excellence build and direct our young people
096in their character and expand opportunities for students to apply their depth of knowledge in various capacities beyond the classrooms in conclusion i invite all of you to the hms showcase this february 24th beginning at 6 00 pm and for our fifth grade families we're going to be incoming sixth graders at 5 p.m in the barth athletic center thank you for your time now mr jason curtin bob [Applause] good evening let me start by thanking these three wonderful people out here who with their staffs have planted many great seeds that are blossoming over at san marino high school thank you president jack members of the board of education superintendent de la torre and the executive team for the opportunity to provide you with some insight some as to the state of san marino high school along
097with everybody we've been weathering the storm of this global pandemic but we've done so by pulling together and by working harder than we ever have my staff regularly gives up their prep periods to substitute for each other when they're out for illness or out to take care of a sick child or a loved one they then do lessons grading and other classroom preparations throughout the evening in order to maintain the rigor and relevance for our student body in preparation for their post-secondary lives throughout all of this they practice grace and understanding that students are being required to stay home for days sometimes weeks due to covid they've reduced or completely forgiven assignments provided opportunities for test retakes and extended due dates far into the future our students have done amazing jobs amid expectations that i
098doubt many of us could have shouldered at their age they've remained flexible and yet consistent doing her homework as she's trying to listen very good we've had to postpone many competitions and matches games etc and our students have simply gone with the flow they've maintained as strong attendance as possible given rules requiring them to stay home or be pulled out of class to test day after day despite all of this we've seen amazing success from them let me provide you with some data to show you how amazing we have been during a time of great stress these last two years we've increased our course offerings adding ap and honors courses as well as increasing enrollment in those courses we now offer 17 ap courses that's one shy of arcadia next year we will be uh
099ahead of them our ratio is now more than one to one which far exceeds the national average for schools similar to ours 87 percent of our students who took an ap exam last year scored a three or better during the height of the pandemic we improved in our niche ranking to number 13 in the country for all comprehensive public high schools our dual enrollment courses through pcc which only began this year have seen an increase going from two courses with about 32 students in semester one to three courses with about 52 students in semester two through the pandemic our students have remained focused academically averaging a 1358 on their s.a.t a 30.2 on their a.c.t they received over 101 offers to the university of california campuses with 40 students choosing to go our students also
100received 15 offers to select colleges and universities such as yale harvard mit with 13 accepting and attending our counseling department has not only increased their individual meetings with every single student but has added to that meeting with each individual eighth grade student and begun doing social emotional learning and college prep lessons throughout the months in our homeroom period they've also began to provide multi-systems of support for any student in danger of failing any course credit deficient due to covid or the state mandated independent study the district approved short-term independence study and social social emotional support both through our counseling office and the wellness center the wellness center has averaged one threat assessment per week which most people would say is awful and i say that is a win we are encouraging our students and we
101are seeing our students seek us out for the support that they need on a regular basis we have parents contacting us and teachers noticing things that they may not have noticed before and they now have the resource to go to to get students the help that they need our staff has increased their support of students as well offering after-school academic support classes in all areas of need including foreign language science english and math we've applied for the state of california a through g grant and with it we will be able to host more summer classes for remediation given the need we created due to the pandemic we're going to partner with pt affiliates to offer courses to help our students get ahead as well despite all of these challenges we've celebrated our cif girls championship
102tennis team and tonight i just found out that brother and sister cassie and ryan harrington just took first place in the rio hondo league championships in wrestling our homecoming our hoop coming and soon our winter formal will go off without a hitch we hosted our first ever showcase wherein we celebrated and highlighted the many many many things which make hms so special 32 clubs 27 sports and a host of other opportunities not seen at most schools from that we've just begun hosting campus tours with our first happening just a week ago having over 20 families attend considering smhs as a school of choice next year our enrollment has increased from the start of the school year as well only two students but we're going in the right direction [Laughter] it's progress in a positive way
103we're working with huntington middle school to have our first move up day on march 30th where smhs clubs and performing groups will take over hms and show the upcoming 9th grade students how to make the most out of their experience at san marino high school we are a community of support for each other our students our parents and our staff work together to make our school run and no one on our staff could do what they do without the other thank you so much to all of our amazing principals i have to say that this is a very challenging time and the reason that we have been able to do as well as we have is is definitely in part to their leadership their courage their strength of conviction and all four of them have
104not only been the leader of their schools but they've been in the classroom substitute teaching and so talk about hands-on and really rolling up their sleeves and getting in the trenches and doing what they need to do to keep their schools running and that's just remarkable and i'm so grateful for all four of them so thank you so much now i'd like to turn it over to dr troy thank you dr delatorre with so many amazing activities you may be wondering how can i keep in touch with our schools and not miss a thing one of the easiest ways is to visit our school and district websites this year we launched redesigned websites in september of 2021. the new websites offer impactful visuals that are fully compatible with mobile devices and provides full language translation
105in addition our electronic newsletters will continue to offer a wealth of information please be sure to sign up to receive them on our websites under newsletters furthermore the district utilizes text messaging to alert parents students and staff as well as the community for timely notifications the district also continues to offer the smusd mobile app which is available through the app store and the google play store the smusd mobile app conveniently provides students and parents a personalized integrated and multilingual experience to stay on top of school and district meals notifications calendar events student attendance grades and more and lastly another great way to stay informed of what is happening throughout the district is to follow us on facebook twitter and youtube and of course as many of you are also joining us virtually today the district
106will continue to use zoom meetings and webinars to live stream various events visit any of our websites to follow and join these engaging media platforms i'd like to now pass it back to dr delatorre thank you dr choi so this evening all that we have discussed and highlighted and emphasized ties back to the four major board goals that were developed this summer the work that has been done at the elementary school with the second step curriculum uh recess as uh principal fourier mentioned along with the wellness centers at both san reno high school and huntington middle school address the social and emotional well-being of all of our students the adoption and implementation of iready which addresses the learning regression and variability caused by the pandemic is being effectively addressed through dr richter's work in terms
107of putting the committees together selecting the programs and making it all come together seamlessly so thank you dr richter for that um in addition to that we have comprehensive professional development that has been implemented this year that is supporting our teachers and classified staff and then we have the fact that the board of education was really committed to setting aside monies in a reserve to address the long-term fiscal stabilization needs of our school district is really critical and that ties back to their board goal number four in terms of not just planning for this year but looking to the future to support our students and really being forward thinking there as superintendent i am very very proud of the work that has been done by our board of education our cabinet members principals assistant principals
108directors teachers and classified employees i'm also especially grateful for the support of our dedicated and talented families and community members we have the most amazing pta council and pta district-wide that any district could ever ask for and i'm so grateful for every single one of them it is only with the dedication and support of all stakeholders coming together to serve the best interests of our students academic and social emotional needs that we can truly rise together to meet the challenges of today in preparation for tomorrow the state of the district is strong and it's strong due to our outstanding school board and their leadership it's due to our leadership team our teachers our parents students and community members it is because of all of you that we are great that this school district comes together
109to make things happen for our kids and with that i thank you and i would like to play the video for the high school the great part about san marino high school is every day is different today it's a big robotics thing tomorrow it's something amazing with the speech program or we'll have a new theater production going on or getting ready for the homecoming parade it's just super exciting to be able to do things like that the school offers a lot of academic related activities such as like debate or like robotics debate is a big after-school activity here offered on campus it's an educational opportunity to learn about the real world and about topics that you don't necessarily discuss in your academic classes the community supports the school in a way that no other community
110i've ever been in can support their high school they know that an investment in us is an investment in their kids we need everybody to pull together and that's what makes us uniquely strong and that's how we get such great output from our students we really are the it takes a village community and we we live that every single day i would just say like the overall community of san marino is just like everything so connected my favorite part about going to school here is probably just like the teaching staff i feel like they're very like engaged and they really like want their students to learn the reason that a kid should come to san marino is we do so much even amidst all the craziness that is happening in the world we figure out
111a way to get kids what they need people are invested in each other we hold each other up we're grateful that we get to be here we know how lucky we are and we invest in that every single day so um it is now 7 56 pm and so we are happy to entertain any questions from the board of education at this time so dr deletori um i would just like to commend you and thank you i think this was such a thorough informative state of the district report you know a nice way to be able to look back a nice way for us to view what we are presently doing and then a preview of what may be in the future so really i commend you and your staff and your cabinet uh and
112your administrators for all that you have done um and this presentation was a wonderful one so thank you very very much thank you so on behalf of the board are there any questions that uh we would like to ask of superintendent dr delatorre one thing that was missing was um a huge shout out and thank you to you dr del tory um i didn't see anything really um because i don't think you're going to be tooting your own horn and yet you really rose to the occasion for us when we needed stability we needed strategic thinking and we needed somebody who really was willing to make the tough calls when it needed to be done but also to defer to those who might know on the ground um a different way of doing this too
113and i am just so grateful for your leadership this year and you've really helped us navigate yet again another unprecedented year so i just wanted to say that before thank you by the way i serve for long-term safety committee a member represents a board member i appreciate your leadership and from the superintendent to the executive staff and to the full school side principle i think during the course in 19 it's been almost two years thank you so much for your open mind when we have a suggestion and we can adjust and adopt the new uh the action so that's reason i think uh this school district student have a more lucky than the other school so thank you thank you i'd like to say something um thank you so much each of the site administrators
114for your presentation it gave us a lot of joy seeing the kids but also hearing your report the in-depth look at where we've been where we're now and where we're going how inspirational the young people are for all of us and thank you so much for your dedication and work and then dr deletoria and her executive staff thank you for taking us through last year and now this year without your leadership i don't know if we would be in this particular position and then i also want to thank my fellow board members for the work that you guys put in as well because i think we're in this together and i think together we are rising thank you i i would like to to also thank the site principals um as well as all of
115the teachers and all of the uh classified staff at every at every site across the board up and down and throughout the district i know that everybody has done a tremendous amount this year to really step up for our students and our families and i'd like to thank also the schools foundation for the donation that was made tonight that's a tremendous uh donation so thank you for that as well as all of the ptas as well i know that each of uh the members of the executive committees and all of the parents that are and teachers that are working with those ptas to provide a great environment for our students so thank you as well as dr choi and dr richter and dr dale latoya thank you very much for everything all of you guys
116have done thank you um so i would like to end by saying um uh and i think um principal kirkenbach you're the one who said this but i think we have all um uh i mean you encapsulated it you articulated but you know we are a community of support of each other so and i know that we keep repeating ourselves but i don't think we can say it enough i thank my fellow board members i thank the superintendent under her leadership her cabinet dr leonard richter dr steven choi our site principles extraordinary your stories were uh amazing um and uplifting and to our uh extraordinary teachers to our fantastic classified staff and our community partners the foundation the chinese club just to mention a few so really uh we started by saying you know we'd
117like to express our gratitude so i'd like to end the meeting by saying we'd like to express our gratitude yet once again and at 806 meeting is adjourned thank you