SMUHSD Board Meeting - March 26, 2026

001for being here. >> Ready? Calling the meeting to order. This is a meeting of the San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees. I'm calling the meeting to order. Today is March 26th and it is 7:00 p.m. Roll call. Uh Trustee Griffin? Present. Trustee Andrade-Zuniga? Present. Trustee Land? Present. Trustee Jacobson? Present. >> And I am present as well. Tonight we have a team from Hannah Interpreting as our Spanish interpreters. For those who would like to attend the meeting virtually in Spanish, that option is available. Hannah Interpreting, would you please communicate that for us this evening? Thank you. Good evening. In order to provide language access, this meeting will have simultaneous interpretation in English and Spanish. To enable the interpretation, if you are using your laptop or desktop, please locate the icon shaped like a

002globe at the bottom of your screen. Click on language interpretation and then select English. If you are on your phone, iPad or similar device, then locate the three-dot menu in the upper right corner of your screen. Click on language interpretation and select English. Buenas noches. A efecto de proporcionar acceso lingüístico, esta reunión cuenta con interpretación simultánea al español. Si necesita interpretación en español y está en su computadora portátil o escritorio, ubique el icono con forma de globo en la parte inferior de su pantalla. Haga clic en interpretación de idioma y luego seleccione español. Si está en su teléfono, iPad o dispositivo similar, busque el menú de tres puntos en la esquina superior derecha de su pantalla. Haga clic en interpretación de idioma y luego seleccione español o Spanish. Gracias. Thank you. >> Thank you very

003much. If you wish to view the closed captions of this meeting, please view the meeting No, it's okay. Please view the meeting on the SMUHSD Board Meeting YouTube channel. The link to the YouTube channel can be found on our website. You may view the captions in English as we live stream our meeting tonight, and you may also view in a variety of other languages if you choose to watch the meeting after it has ended. Viewers may request additional combinations by calling 650-558-2201. For our deaf and hard of hearing community, we have a team from Hanna Interpreting Services, and they will be interpreting our meeting this evening. We would like to ask everyone to speak at a clear and reasonable pace for our interpreters. Thank you. Will our student board representatives please lead us in the

004Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And I want to give a big shout out there to our student board reps. We're always happy that you're here. Thank you. Okay, next we're going to report out of We're going to report actions taken in closed session. In closed session, the board, upon motion of Trustee Griffin, and seconded by Trustee Andrade-Zuniga, moved to postpone postpone the expulsion hearing of case 25-26-25 with a vote of 4 to 0 with one absence. Next, we're going to adopt the agenda. The Board of Trustees may either adopt the agenda as presented or make a change to the agenda through a motion, a

005second, and a majority vote. The Brown Act prohibits any additions to the agenda without a 72-hour public notice. If Are there any questions or comments from the board regarding the agenda? Okay. Is there a motion to accept the agenda? So moved. >> Okay, is there a second? Second. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Um how do we vote? All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Aye. Student board reps, how do you vote? Aye. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, we have our regular reports and the first report is report of the superintendent. >> Thank you very much. Good evening, everybody. Uh we have spring break coming about and our educators and I'm sure so many of our students are looking forward to spring recess on Monday, March 30th and while many of our educator

006educators will be away from work during this time, many of our 12-month employees will continue supporting operations at their school sites and offices. Uh I want to take a moment to thank each of you, especially our 12-month employees, uh for your ongoing hard work and the many ways that you contribute to our success every day. Your dedication keeps our 10 schools, programs, and services running so smoothly and we're really grateful for everything you do. Uh we have a couple of holidays coming up. Passover this year, Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, April 1st and lasts until the evening of Thursday, April 9th and we want to wish everyone who celebrates a happy Passover. Additionally, Easter is Sunday, April 4th and we want to wish everyone who celebrates Easter just a fantastic time with family and

007friends. Uh on March 20th, uh I attended the annual San Mateo Police Activities League Lights and Sirens fundraiser at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds. It was tons of fun. I was joined by uh Shara Kino, Trustee Chavez, Principal Yvonne Shoe, DTA Vice President Rachel Lauderdale and educator Deshawn Mitchell from Hillsdale High School. Uh big highlight was that one of San Mateo High School students, Victor Castro, earned the Police Cadet of the Year award. And additionally, many, many Hillsdale High School students were honored throughout the night. Uh so just tons of fun and uh really great to to support um our local police department. Okay. Uh I want to just take a moment uh Nancy McGee, the San Mateo County Office of Education Superintendent, uh retired on February 19th. She was first elected in 2018 and

008reelected in 2022. And Superintendent McGee has just a super strong record of accomplishments that have improved the lives of children and families uh in San Mateo County. She has strengthened the knowledge, skills, and resources across the 23 school districts to ensure safe and supportive schools, especially under the umbrella of the San Mateo County Coalition for Safe Schools and Communities, which she spearheaded. I've certainly appreciated Superintendent McGee's work on the coalition. And and in particular for her leadership on the Big Five protocol. I'm also super grateful for her partnership in working with our students attending Gateway. I'm going to absolutely miss collaborating with her. She's been a big support and uh trusted mentor for me. Um so just happy retirement uh to Nancy. So thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Booker. Do we have a report of

009the District Teachers Association? There's no report this evening. >> Okay, thank you. Is there a report of the CSA Chapter 519? Uh there they don't have a report. Okay. How about San Mateo Adult School Teachers Association? Uh we do uh trying to promote Miss Diamond. Okay, thank you. >> She may be a little held up. Do you want to move on to the student board reps and we can go back? >> That's a great idea, Ms. Aquino. Student board reps, would you like to report out? Thank you. Okay. Dear members of the board, my name is Sarah Joseph and I'm a senior at Hillsdale High School. I'm really honored to be here today representing students as a member of the student board. A little bit about me, I enjoy staying through clubs and volunteering outside

010of school. Um recently, I want to take a moment to acknowledge our girls and boys varsity basketball teams. Girls were third in league and placed top five in CCS and we even qualified for state and our boys varsity basketball team was second in league and went to CCS as well. Um it's really just a huge achievement for our school's athletics. Um recently, our school also hosted a food club fair at lunch so that students can explore various interests and stay involved in their school community. As the school year comes to an end, I want to say that I'm very grateful to have been part of the student council for the 2025 to 2026 school year and have an impact in the important decisions that this district makes through park through proclamation discussions and monthly student

011board meetings. A proclamation that I've recently been working on here at the district office or at the district is the autism awareness month. As someone who has family members and classmates with autism, I hope this proclamation will successfully create a community that is willing to uplift and support the underrepresented and help them feel more empowered and safe in our community. So, the summary for autism awareness month the autism awareness month proclamation is as follows. Every April, autism awareness month is celebrated beginning with United Nations sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day on April 2nd to increase understanding and acceptance and to foster worldwide support for those living with autism. The neurodiversity celebration week of 2026 took place from March 17th to the 23rd. The neurodiversity paradigm reframes neurological differences including but not limited to autism attention deficit

012hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, dyslexia, discal- discalculia, dyspraxia, Tourette's syndrome, intellectual disabilities, and other learning, cognitive, and developmental differences are natural human variations of diversity and students who are neurodivergent contribute unique perspectives, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and strengths that enrich our classrooms, schools, and broader community. The district affirms that neurodivergent individuals may experience barriers to learning and participation when educational systems are not designed with diverse learners in mind and therefore strives to improve systematic obstacles. The district aims to provide continuous professional learning opportunities for educators to deepen their understanding of autism and cultivate effective strategies for addressing the diverse needs of students with different forms of neurodivergence through individ- individualized education plans, Section 504 plans, and the Universal Design for Learning so all students can access a high-quality education. Thank you so much for your time. We

013truly appreciate the efforts that the board has put in and continues to do so to create an equitable space for everyone. Hello members of the board. My name is Audrey Sim and I am a senior at Burlingame High School. I was last at a district meeting with Sarah in December where we discussed Al Cap and recognized student athletes for their achievements. At the last student board council meeting which was yesterday, we discussed the role of AI in our district and the benefits but also potential risks that it poses and we had a thoughtful discussion about it and explored multiple perspectives including the teacher side and the student side of it which led to a nuanced understanding of how AI should be approached and integrated in our district. As for recent news at Burlingame, we have

014just wrapped up votes for ASB cabinet and the results were announced two days ago. Additionally, Burlingame's prom date and theme were announced today during lunch. The theme being Hollywood and us students are all very excited about it. Like Sarah, I'm very grateful to have been a part of the student board council this school year and for the opportunity to learn about all of the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep the district running smoothly. And one thing I value and admire most about our district is the way we recognize and celebrate the diversity of our community. As April is just around the corner, it is important to take time to celebrate the Arab Americans in our country. So for the proclamation summary, um April is recognized nationally as Arab American Heritage Month officially

015established via a declaration by President Joe Biden in April 2021 and it is a time to formally recognize the achievements of Arab Americans and celebrate the Arab American community's rich heritage and numerous contributions to society. Arab Americans are a powerful part of our society representing of diverse backgrounds and faiths, vibrant tradition, bold innovation, hard work and commitment to community. An estimated 3.7 million Americans have Arab roots according to the Arab American Institute, with ancestries traced to 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Iraq, um Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and others. California, to our advantage, is home to a wide cultural spectrum of diverse people. Our state is fortunate to have the largest Arab American population in the country with

016more than 715,000 Californians of Arab descent. The San Mateo Union High School District serves, recognizes, and appreciates our Arab American students and their families. The district is committed to cultivating a welcoming and equitable environment for all students, including Arab Americans, ensuring that every student feels recognized, respected, and empowered. The district sees Arab American Heritage Month as an opportunity to educate its students about Arab American culture and history, and deepen students' understanding. We know as educators how important knowledge is in combating hate speech, and we use this opportunity to educate our students about the contributions, experiences, and perspectives of Arab Americans, fostering respect, empathy, and the appreciation for diversity in our schools and communities. And that is all for the proclamation. Thank you again for your time and ensuring that the San Mateo Union High School

017District remains a safe and inclu- and inclusive space for everyone. Thank you both so much. We're just always very happy to have our student board representatives. Thank you, Sarah and Audrey. You guys both did excellent job. Okay, can we circle back with uh I see online uh the report of the San Mateo Adult School Teachers Association? Thank you. Yes, good evening, Board President, Vice President, board members, and Superintendent. We appreciate the warm welcome and the opportunity to be here tonight. We are excited to represent the San Mateo Adult and Career Education campus tonight and share some wonderful updates with our community. I'm Genie I'm Genie Diamond, a CE instructor at the adult school. So, we're reporting tonight on our apprenticeship and internship fair that we had in February of 2026. We hosted 17 organizations, plus

018we offered a table for our CTE programs, totaling 18. The feedback we received is very positive. We had some We had lots of volunteers. The organizations that came were the Veterans Curation Program, the San Mateo County Trades Introduction Program, we had Cocia Home Services, HealthRight 360, Bay Area Urban Eagles Incorporated, EDD, Nova Works, UA Local 467, a joint apprenticeship training center, the Department of Rehab, San Mateo Public Library, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, Transamerica, JobTrain, Sheet Metal Workers Local 104 and Bay Area Industry Training Fund, Patelco, North Coast States Carpenters Union, and the IBEW Local 617, and many more. We had a total of uh 100 We had 85 job seekers who registered online in advance. Additional 95 showed up for a totaling of 180. But, all the organizations remained at their tables until the end of

019the morning session, which is rare and a very good sign. The In our second community spotlight, we have We're We're glad to share that we have an inspiring update on recent community events. This past Monday, our school hosted a special Eid EED celebration for the close of Ramadan that beautifully showcased the rich diversity and spirit of our student body. Some of the highlights were the event was a master class in cultural exchange and community solidarity. In wonderful support of the Bridge Academy principal, Sumaya Showman, joined the festival as fully embracing the spirit of the day, participating in a fashion show segment wearing her traditional Palestine dress. Students from Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, Turkey, and Egypt were all given the spotlight as well. The cultural mission of Smailes and Bridge Academy attendees enjoyed an authentic experience

020featuring a traditional sweets and tea, while many students and staff took part in the beautiful art of henna decorations. We had more solidarity with just the party. The event also had a powerful demonstration of our diverse Muslim student community and fostering a sense of belonging for everyone involved. A special accommodation goes to Kalutham, exemplary student within our ESL, GED, and ABE programs. Her leadership was instrumental in the success of this event. She spearheaded the organization from start to finish, demonstrating the incredible initiative our students possesses. This celebration was a vivid reminder of how our schools thrive when we come together to honor our unique thank you thank you backgrounds. Thank you, Marina. Student ambassador, for your collaborative and inclusive spirit. We stand in solidarity and we will leave you with this quote, "Do the best

021you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Maya Angelou. Thank you very much. Thank you for your report. Okay, next we have a governing board comments. And we will start with trustee Griffin. Okay, I just have one quick comment. I'm curious, did anybody else sit through the Latino School Board Association webinar two days ago on math curriculum. No. Okay, I'll report on it. There was a There's a webinar and it was the Latino School Board and it was board governance and instructional coherence, the conditions for high-quality math instruction. That was really good. It talked about the quality of the materials and professional development and a unified strategy. And I you know, it was something I said at my desk. I guess there's a series of webinars that they have and

022I'm going to take advantage of them. So, that was what I did between tax returns. That's great. Nice. Thank you for sharing that. I'm sure it's more exciting than the tax returns for sure. Um Trustee Jon Esunico, would you like to share? >> Yes. Thank you. Um well, it's nice to be back with everyone in community. It's so it's so nice to be in person. Um I want to start with the land acknowledgement. Our community acknowledges that all of our campuses lie on the ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone. The Ramaytush are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula, whose land was stolen from them and whose native language was lost because of Spanish colonization. As settlers on the stolen land of the Peninsula, we should be alongside the Ramaytush remembering and honoring their

023ancestors and relatives. We thank the first people, the Ramaytush Ohlone, for taking care of the land we use now for education and activities. Our responsibility of caring for the earth is unique and personal to each of us, but should be rooted in allyship with the Ramaytush Ohlone so we can work together to protect and preserve the land for future generations. Thank you. That was written by some of the students from Capuchino uh many, many years ago now, uh but thank you to the students. Um Trustee Chavez and I we participated in legislative week last week virtually. We were able to talk to our legislators and advocate for legislation that is going to be affecting our schools and our educators all across California. The one that I spoke about was Prop 98, which is one of

024the guaranteed sources of funding that are that go to the school districts across California. And some districts rely on it a lot more than others. However, it's not equal all all the way across. And so we need to protect Prop 98 because it will be a a huge huge problem for a lot of districts if that funding goes away. So if anyone's interested in advocating to their legislators about Prop 98, please please research it. Um anybody who has students in public school um you really need to educate yourselves on Prop 98, please. Um yesterday I'm I'm the executive director at the Center for Independence of individuals with disabilities and we partnered with Bay University and some of the teachers from Bay Academy also joined us in providing information to the parents of students um that

025are in special education on our services and how we can partner in transitioning out of being a youth and into adulthood. Um there are many different services that the nonprofit that I work for provides, but I just want to lift up most of all our special education department. It is one of the most unique programs that I've ever seen um all across California that serves our students and there's different programs but this is one of the best that I've ever seen. Um our director my goodness why am I forgetting name Dr. Hooks she is really great at making sure that we are being mindful with the funding and that we are finding the least the least restrictive care for our students that need more attention. Um all of the teachers and the support staff are

026amazing. Um they really need to be celebrated. Um with accessibility in mind I want to say thank you to our interpreters and to the district for funding the interpreters. It is important for us to have access for everyone in the community and just like the students were doing their proclamations we need to be available for everybody. So thank you. Thank you. Trustee Land would you like to comment? Sure. Um where's my notes? Okay. So just a couple things. I attended Burlingame open house it was quite impressive. Um what I really enjoyed was getting the eighth graders to come visit. The counselors came to my the the high school counselors came to BHS BIS and invited them to come to open house. Well, that was great because it was like the day after and guess what?

027Tons of kids from BIS went to enjoy BHS to see what it was like. It was very intriguing. I walked around and I was like no I'm on the it was my other hat. I'm wearing the school board hat not the principal hat. But it was really nice to see what was going on. I was amazed at all the stuff that went on. I think my highlight was the robotics team in the in the cafeteria. It was amazing to see how much what they could do with with what they do with the the robotics. It was quite impressive. Um I also want to give appreciation to Superintendent Booker. Um there's been an I know that uh BHS is busting at the seams and there were some enrollment concerns that I that I had to deal

028with and I just really want to thank him for trying to work things out and make it and working with the staff to make it happen. So, much appreciate that, you know, and I'm listening. All right. Um last thing is um I'm part of AXA um which is the Administrators Association of Region 5. Um I just want to note that we have a lot of San Mateo Union High School District members part of it and I just want to acknowledge that uh they're they're a big part of it including um Mills Principal Pam Dizinszky, uh Angela Taylor. Uh it's a good group and it's nice that uh San Mateo Union is represented it with that group. Um that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Trusty Jacobson. Uh yeah, I am I also

029attended open house at Hillsdale High School where my kids go. Um and they had they always have a great barbecue where people can gather and and socialize and and raise money for um one of the classes and uh I attended a a workshop for parents of seniors as we head into the spring where a lot's going on and emotions are high with college acceptances and rejections and different things going forward. Um an exciting graduation activities. So, it was a it was a really great night and I I didn't get to see all the teachers that I wanted to, but anyways, it was great. Um I also attended the AI Task Force meeting. This was the second uh Task Force meeting that we had with students, parents, community members, and staff. And we are so fortunate

030that in our district we have a lot of community members who work in tech, who are, um, on the front lines of developing these AI products and know inside and out, um, how they work and what some of the risks are, and some of the best use cases. Um, this is a really great group. It's very strong. We're asking hard questions like, how do we prepare students for careers that don't even exist yet? Um, what aspects of education do we need to preserve? What aspects of education can AI enhance without replacing? And how do we prevent deepening a digital divide among our students? So, in this group we we identified some emerging threads that were coming through from all of our stakeholder groups and that is helping us to build towards developing a policy, um,

031to propose later. Um, earlier this week I was in Sacramento for, uh, uh, California Policy Center Parents Not Partisans Summit. And there were many other school board members and county school board members there, um, other, you know, parent groups, and we heard speakers that included assembly members, legal experts, and legislative advocates. And, um, one of the things that was brought up was in this paper that, uh, from the ACSA, uh, school administrator, uh, that you brought up, um, this court case, court decision Mirabelli versus Bonte, that impacts one of our policies. Excuse me. Um that has to do with parental rights and um our LGBTQ students. So, it's something that we need to educate ourselves about this court decision and um take a look at our policies because it was made clear that that lawsuits

032will be coming. So, I think that's Oh, and then yesterday we went to the capital and we spoke with different um assembly members and senators at the capital. And one of the bills that I was discussing that is that has come up this year is AB 1644. It's a stronger uh smartphone prohibition bill that would um prohibit smartphone use in schools for the entire school day. So, this is on the horizon This is on the legislative horizon. It's still in its very early stages, but as the bill is written right now, it um includes It would include funding for schools to implement this policy, which is something that would really help out our district um if that's the way that we go. So, I don't want to say too much about that right now, but

033um I know it's coming up later on the agenda. I just wanted to point out that um I was speaking to legislators about that yesterday. Um that's all I have. Thank you. Trustee Jacobson. Okay, I have a few things to say. I want to welcome again our student board reps. Thank you for being here. Um and thank you, Trustee Andrade Zuniga, for mentioning the legislative action week. Um I'm always amazed that trustees from our county uh collaborate together and then we have meetings with different represent Congress members um and and other uh congressional members. So, it's great for us to have one united voice and really fight for our students um whether it's budget or policies. Um I also want to mention that um last week I attended the third annual women's power breakfast held

034by Assemblymember Diane Papan. It was held at um Skyline College in San Bruno and our very own Angela Taylor, our director of our adult school, was there as well. It was great to network with uh women leaders around the county. Um and as Superintendent Booker already mentioned, we had the Licensed Sirens Awards and Recognition Dinner uh last Friday and seven or eight of our students received I think it's seven of our students received looking at Miss Aquino uh received recognition and then of course as Superintendent Booker already mentioned, the Police Cadet of the Year was our very own Victor Cas- Castro from a junior from San Mateo High School. So, that was really fun to be part of that celebration. Um I also attended the Citizens Oversight Committee meeting. Uh that's a awesome dedicated group

035of community members and parents. And um as uh Mr. Hawkins will say that they are looking for additional members. Please let us know. Please ping me directly if you want or our district uh our phone number call into the phone number. Um yeah, or reach out to me because we they do want uh we're looking for more members. The We We're looking for more members. Uh the meeting is always open to the public, but we're actually looking for a dedicated member that can come. We I think we meet quarterly. I'm looking at Mr. Hawkins. We meet quarterly and it's really a great group of of uh parents and volunteers. Um lastly, I want to mention that um our district is so amazing. I'm so proud of the fact that we serve six cities um and

036all every city has boards and commissions that are overseen by city council. But San Mateo, the City of San Mateo reached out to us and sent us some openings for some of their commission for some of their commissioners, for their youth commissioners. So, that's why I want to read this out. So, there's a few openings for a youth commissioner, so that would be totally the right spot for our high school students living in San Mateo. So, civics arts commission, they're looking for two youth commissioners. Community relations commission, they're looking for two youth commissioners. Library board, they're looking for two youth commissioners. Park and rec commission, they're looking for one youth commissioner. Senior advisory commission, they're looking for two youth two youth commissioners. And sustainability and infrastructure commission, they're looking for two youth commissioners. So, there's

037a lot of opportunity for our youth in San Mateo, the city of San Mateo, to serve on those. So, reach out to me or you can also look on the website for the city of San Mateo, but feel free to reach out to me and I can connect you with the right person. And that's my report out for tonight. Thank you for being so patient. Okay, next on the agenda is public comments for non-agendized items. I know there's a lot of people here, so some folks are probably here for an agendized item, but this is non-agendized items, so let me read this. If you're joining us in person and wish to make a comment about an agenda item during the public comment section at the beginning of the agenda, please fill out a request to

038address the board form and hand it to the secretary, Ms. Aquino. This form should be given to the secretary before the agenda item begins. If you're joining us virtually, use the raised hand feature on Zoom to be recognized. When invited to do so, your camera must be on before you are called upon to make a public comment. We will call on you to begin your comment once we have promoted you into the meeting. If your camera is not operational, please email your comments to the Board of Trustees at [email protected]. Please note that comments are limited to 3 minutes. The Board President may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comment depending upon the topic and number of persons wishing to be heard. Again, this is for non-agendaized items, something that's not on the agenda.

039So, Ms. Aquino, are there any um in-person comments for the non-agendaized items? There are none for non-agenda. Okay. Are there any hands raised on Zoom for non-agendaized items? Not for non-agenda. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay, next is communications to the Board. I see we have none. And then recognition, I see we have none. Okay. Next is our consent agenda. So, we have 21 items on consent. Do any trustees wish to pull any item from consent for discussion or question? No? Okay, do we have a motion to approve? I'll second. I'll move to approve the agenda. We have a motion and we have a second from uh Trustee Andrade-Zuniga. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, how do the And board reps? Student board reps? Sorry. Aye. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, moving on to

040special reports, which I know there's a lot of folks here for this. So, that's our cell phone policy, uh Superintendent Booker. Thank you very much. I think we have a slide deck somewhere. Take a moment there for that to come up. Um I want to thank everyone uh for coming tonight, participating. I know we have members of the public uh online as well. Uh tonight we'll be presenting our update and recommendations on uh Board Policy 5131.8 regarding student mobile uh communication devices. Uh Thank you. So, I I I want to point the community to the board memo as the presentation is somewhat brief cuz I want to leave a lot of time for conversation and questions from the both the community and the board of trustees. But, tonight I'm going to briefly walk you through

041four areas: our process update, our serving survey findings from families, staff, and students. And I would say that is the newest piece since our last board meeting discussion, the district's recommendation, and finally options for board discussion and direction. This work began in September of 2024, where we started reviewing and researching statewide guidance including the phone free schools act. And over the past year, we engaged students, and families, and staff through surveys, and feedback, and a working group representing multiple stakeholders to review research and and policy models. I want to remind the board that that working group reached consensus to recommend a what we call a bell-to-bell policy. District and site leaders analyzed all of this information, implementation factors like supervision, certainly cost, and our ability to be consistent across the district. What you're going to

042see tonight is a recommendation that reflects both that input and what we believe is operationally feasible across all of our schools. So, family participation, and again, I want to direct people to the board memo cuz it digs much deeper into all of this. We received what I would call strong participation from our families with over 2,600 responses across the district including responses in multiple languages. Some of the I'm not going to read all this for you, but you can see it there and read it in the board memo, but family shared a range of perspectives. Many support stronger restrictions citing distraction and mental health concerns. Others emphasize safety and the need uh for communication access. Some are satisfied with current site-based approaches. Uh and there was a consistent theme about the importance of clear expectations

043and consistent uh enforcement. Um When asked directly about policy direction, about 57% support restricting phones during class while allowing uh use during breaks. That's passing period, brunch, and lunch. This is similar uh to our current practice, but I want to acknowledge our current practice from school to school to school uh is not necessarily consistent or unified. So, I want to be clear about that. Uh about 39% support a full bell-to-bell uh restriction. Educator participation, we had about 481 educators participate from across our schools, certificated, classified educators, and administrators. Uh which was a great showing. I really appreciate everyone's effort there. Uh educators were very consistent in their feedback. Phones uh are a significant distraction to learning. Students frequently use them when they shouldn't, and enforcement has been difficult when expectations vary. And we heard some

044of those comments the last time we we discussed this topic. Many emphasize, I'm going to continue to say this, but they emphasize the need for clear, consistent, school-wide systems to make any policy effective. All right. And so, what you're going to see here, these are the educator recommend recommendation preferences. So, in contrast to families, about 2/3 of our educators that that participated in the survey support a bell-to-bell restriction reflecting their experience managing classroom dis- distractions. And lastly, we have our student partici- Oh, did I hit next? There we go. Student participation. We received over 4,100 responses from students giving a strong insight into student perspectives. And again, from pretty I wouldn't say neces- evenly distributed amongst the grade levels, pretty good and across the different school sites on our campuses. An overview of our student

045responses. Students had a lot of mixed views. Some feel phones don't impact their learning, while others acknowledge they can be distracting. They consistently report that current rules are not often not followed and enforcement is inconsistent. And overall, students are divided on necessarily what the policy should be. With that said, and this I don't think comes as a surprise, most students, what is it? Almost 85% favor the current approach of restricting phones during class, but allowing them during breaks with relatively low support for a full day ban. Um so, what's ahead of us? So, to try to simplify it, the board has one of two options in front of them as we see it at a high level, either option one, which is a bell-to-bell model. This is similar to what we're seeing at San Mateo

046High School. Uh no phone access during the school day, locked during class time, brunch, lunch, passing periods. Or option two, which is what we call instructional time only, and this is restricting phones during instructional time, but allowing use during non-instructional periods like breaks and passing periods. All right. The district recommendation hasn't changed from the last time around. Uh while I definitely understand the desire, the research, um um, all of those things that we've been reading on, listening to, um, I I take those into consideration, but I also take logistics and finances into consideration as well. I do think we need to establish a consistent baseline across the district. We heard that It doesn't matter which direction we go. If you If you ultimately vote bell to bell or instructional uh, time only, there needs to

047be a uniform policy. We have shared staff. We have staff that move to different schools from year to year, and having a consistent policy and consistent expectations will only help, regardless of option one or option two. Uh, we certainly And And that consistent at least consistent baseline is no phone use during class time across schools. Uh, we're recommending that we allow access during breaks for communication and student independence. Preserve flexibility though for schools that are ready to implement stricter models. So, like a San Mateo High School, uh, obviously allowing San Mateo High School to continue their pouch model, but if there was another school site that wanted to move to a similar, um, model of bell to bell, we would, uh, encourage them and support them in going through a process with their school site

048community. Uh, and then regard and And this last bullet is regardless of what option the board chooses, but pair this with digital citizenship and wellness education. It's not enough just to restrict. We need to teach kids why we're restricting it. And above and beyond that, which I've talked about in the past, look for ways to bolster student activities, uh, during brunch and lunch, uh, so kids can interact with one another, regardless of the policy decision. Uh, we need I I would say we need more of that. Um, so uh, there we go. I tried to keep it quick, uh, so that there's plenty of time for discussion. And I'm happy to take questions, or President Chavez just handed off to you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, I'm going to call on the

049board for comments and then we'll Would you like to comment first or have public comments? Let's see public comment, yeah. Okay. Okay, great. Do we have to make a motion to change cuz the agenda would have to be Um no, the agenda doesn't doesn't specify who I just want to ask you Yeah, to take your input. Okay, great. Thanks. So, we'll call on in-person comments first and then we'll do the Oh, you have the one. Okay. Do Do they Do you want them to go first? Okay. I am going to promote um Sorry. Noah Robinson. >> Okay. Thank you. Is it okay if we Should we Should we come back to Uh yeah, he's able to accept it, looks like. Okay. Sorry, go ahead. Okay, no, no, no worries. No worries. Um Okay, we're going

050to start with in-person comments. Um Cheryl and I I apologize if I um mispronounce you and mispronounce you anyone's name. Not pronounce you anyone's name. Um Cheryl Westmont? You have 3 minutes. Thank you. Oh. Press the button and No, in the middle. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Cheryl Westmont with the with the Peninsula Chapter of Mothers Against Media Addiction. We strongly support the Bell to Bell phone policy in San Mateo County schools. The evidence is clear. 72% of public school leaders say phones are a major distraction affecting the overall attention span and mental health of students. Florida and New York both saw test scores rise after adopting similar policies. In New York, 83% of educators reported better student engagement and 75% said they could teach more effectively. California will

051soon adopt the statewide bell-to-bell policy. You have a chance to get ahead of it. Two juries this week found Meta guilty of designing addictive and harmful apps for our kids. Let's stand up to Big Tech and support a school day free from constant distraction. Tonight you have the power to give back to the students. Please vote yes for bell-to-bell. I also have a handout um uh Mama is uh really tracking all of the the legislation happening in California. And so um it it includes the bell-to-bell, but there's a probably there's probably a dozen bills that are coming up that I would love to share with you. And if it's okay, I have I hand it off. >> Absolutely. If you want to hand it off to Charlene. Thank you so much. And thank you for

052your comment. Um next is uh Anise Graham, and I apologize again if I'm if I don't pronounce it correctly. And Anise Graham, thank you. Thank you Board of Trustees. My name is Anise Graham, and I'm a long-time parent in the district as well as a substitute teacher. I think we are all in agreement that phones should be inaccessible during instructional time. So, let's focus right now on brunch and lunch periods. On average, brunch and lunch totals about 40 minutes. That means that our students have less than 1 hour of their day to socialize in person face-to-face during the school day. More than 20 states have already enacted bell-to-bell phone bans in schools. And this past week alone, I read that Maryland, Georgia, Kansas, and Pennsylvania just passed stricter bell-to-bell bans after realizing that the policies

053that they had in place were not working. From surveys done recently at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, they found that when phones were banned in schools, teachers and principals reported that they saw kids making more eye contact and conversation, especially during recess and lunchtimes. Basic human skills that our kids deserve. The majority of our San Mateo Union High School District teachers have told us clearly in the latest survey that they would prefer a bell-to-bell policy. Clearly, they are seeing problems that cannot be solved in other ways. Offering more lunchtime activities might benefit some kids and provide more live interaction, but no school has the space to provide lunchtime activities for over 8,000 students at a time. Change is hard, sometimes expensive, and sometimes comes with challenges. But we have seen the proof across

054the country, as well as right next to our San Mateo High, the kids are more engaged with both academics and with one another. So, why would we not want to try to be part of that movement? We should be leaders here in San Mateo Union, not followers. 10 schools, six cities, one district, and one policy. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. You want to switch over to the There's a student, correct? Yeah, they're on a classroom break. If you want to promote. I'll promote Noah Robinson, okay. Okay, Noah, you'll have 3 minutes. You can begin. Thank you. Hi. Um, I would just like to speak shortly as a high school student and as one of the members of the working cell phone group. Um, through my experience with the group, we were

055able to look at a lot of the statistics involving this issue, as well as some of the first hand accounts of other students um, across the entire district um, speaking on this issue and their personal experiences and overall given my own personal experiences and what I have also learned as a part of this group, I would very much support the um, addition of a bell-to-bell ban on cellular devices as part of this um, kind of voting matter. Um, I think that in phones are instructional time and that it is also um, that the uh, kind of ban on phones during instructional time that is being proposed right now um, won't have as strong of an impact as needed in order to support students learning um, when compared especially to a bell-to-bell um, plan. I would

056also like to um, kind of bring forward the merits of the bell-to-bell plan as also a benefit towards the social um, situations of students for across the entire district during breaks, during passing periods, and during lunch periods. I've noticed that so many students, including myself and my friends, are often like caught on their phones even when they have people right next to them that they are friends with, they have no trouble talking to, but it's just the the kind of addiction. And this is why we do need these digital citizenship and phone use information parts as part of this, but I think that a bell-to-bell would greatly impact just the well-being and the mental health of these students as well as the social lives as like this this is part of the reason why school

057is so important is that it gives a chance for people to make friends, to meet each other, to socialize, to learn this type of social etiquette. And even in elementary school, students are taught like through social emotional learning courses and all of these things, but then now once it gets to high school, it all kind of gets thrown away and is often lost as a result of the phone, I believe. And just through all of this, through the damage to instructional time, the damage to social health and social well-being, and the ability to kind of grow in these areas, I think that a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones is really really what is needed at this time. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Noah. Okay, we're going to shift back to in-person comments. Um

058Bill Softky. Hi, I'm Bill Softky. I actually live in Montara, and there I sit on the board of the Montara Water and Sanitary District in an arrangement something like this. And I sometimes berate my colleagues for being looking at their laptops rather than the people talking. But that isn't a problem here. I'm here because I got one of the best educations ever starting at Menlo Atherton High School. And in the '80s and I learned about electronics and I learned about bandwidth and information flow. I was a bandwidth junkie. I wanted as many pixels and the best refresh rate and the highest frequency, the lowest noise total harmonic distortion. I knew the numbers and I loved it so much that I learned those things and kept on all the way to grad school. Caltech, theoretical physics.

059I'm studying the brain and I get to stumble across the cool thing that brain neurons have a hundred times more information flow through them than anyone in neuroscience thought, which is crazy except I got some of the most brilliant people in the world including a recent Nobel Prize winner to back it up. Fast forward again, I give up on neuroscience but not physics, that's what I am. Go off, learn my programming, data scientist, chief algorithm officer, software architect. I had to be the guy who answered the questions for the CEO and figured out crazy things. And at some point the math that I had to use in business combined with my urge to understand the brain. And about this time I was married to the most brilliant person I know, Priscilla Benford, a Stanford PhD

060in narrative theory. Who knew narrative theory was a thing? And Victorian literature. She explained Shelley's Frankenstein sign like nobody in 200 years. She solved a problem that novelist Henry James gave up on in the 1890s. So that kind of brilliance in media theory and literature combined with what I knew about inflammation information flow through sensory systems and brains and so forth led to this giant paper, ultra peer reviewed, made predictions which all been coming true in droves. And the conclusion of that is we humans are the victims of our own success. Our hands so skilled, they fill the world with interesting things. Our eyes so innocent, they follow eagerly. The good and bad news is that there is not a hundred but a million times more information going through those neurons and through our sensory

061system than through any digital technology. Million, not a factor two million. That's why tens of thousands are dying of suicide every year. Our nervous systems can't deal with blinky things which were made to capture our nervous systems. When people make technology it works. And in fact technology was designed to capture our very delicate attentional systems it well. I strongly recommend bell-to-bell so that the kids who want to practice the high bandwidth in person, that million-fold, so that those kids have someone to practice with. Thank you. If anybody wants to read them. Thank you for your comments. but in the future. Thank you for your comments and thank you for giving those to Mr. King. Thank you. Right on time. Everybody was right on time. You guys are great. Um, next speaker and next public comment

062is Jean Lou. Jean Lou. Thank you. Hello again. My name is Jean Lou and I have ninth and sixth grade children. Thank you so much for conducting the surveys to gather more information. On the family surveys, it is very compelling that 39% of families prefer bell-to-bell. For the 56% of families that voted to keep things at the current status quo of instructional time only, I wonder if parents may feel differently if they had the full picture. First, if they were given the research showing the benefits of a phone-free school environment, not just for learning but socially and emotionally too. Second, if parents knew how schools will handle top concerns like communication during the school day or the safest practices during emergencies. Three, if every parent could really see what is happening during lunch and passing

063periods with many kids glued to their screens playing video games, scrolling through social media, rather than talking face-to-face with their peers, if they had the full picture, would parents want to keep the status quo? On the teacher surveys, 66% prefer bell-to-bell. We entrust our teachers to care for and educate our kids for a large part of their days and lives. If 66% of our teachers, who spend every single day with our kids, believe that a bell-to-bell environment is what's best for our kids, shouldn't we listen to them and trust their expertise? On the student surveys, it's unsurprising that 85% prefer to keep their phones. But, if the research is out there, isn't it our role as adults to act in the best interest of our kids, even if they're unhappy with the decision at first?

064I understand that implementing a bell-to-bell policy will be very hard for the district from a logistics and costs perspective and unpopular with the students at first. It requires a great deal of courage to make a stance on the more difficult path. But, the research about the positive benefits of phone-free schools is out there. There's a trend sweeping the nation and the world. Entire states, blue and red, large school districts like Los Angeles Unified and New York City, and even entire countries are moving in this bell-to-bell direction. Aren't our children worth this extra effort, trouble, and cost? Shouldn't we support our teachers in providing the best possible environment for our kids? I am pro-teacher and I am pro-kid. Please consider voting for a district-wide bell-to-bell policy rather than keeping things at status quo with an instructional

065time only. Our teachers and our kids need you. Thank you for your comments. Chrisella Benford? Thank you. Hello. Thank you for this time to speak. Um my name is Chrisella Benford and I'm a local advocate for young people. I live in Montara and I also chair the board of directors of a nonprofit called FairPlay which works to protect babies, children, and teens from the exploitative business practices of marketers and Big Tech. But before I was an advocate, I was an academic and uh as my husband and research partner said, I earned my PhD from Stanford with a dissertation sitting how market pressures shape how novelists write. So I've been very interested in commercialism and its effect on communication. Um so um over time, my research expanded to human-computer interaction and then to theoretical neuroscience. And

066I'm here today to urge the board to vote for the bell-to-bell policy and um research which um somebody already mentioned but um research led by Angela Duckworth shows that bell-to-bell bell-to-bell policies produce better outcomes uh than instruction time only policies and the more consistently enforce the policy, the better the benefits. And I'm going to use the rest of my time to talk about three of those benefits. So the first one is um bell-to-bell policies support learning and we all know that phones hijack attention and focus. But did you know that even a turned off phone face down will um reduce cognitive capacity and the effect is called brain drain. And it happens because the mental effort that we use to not think about our phone, uh we can't use it toward learning. So, um that

067is one of the problems with having the phone nearby. Um two, benefit two. Bell-to-bell policies, as we've also discussed, support social development and overall well-being. And, you know, for many students, school is the main place that they're practicing in-person social skills. And this matters enormously for adolescents who are between the ages of 10 and 24. And this is a time in our lives when peer interactions characterized by trust and empathy are essential for our well-being uh and our positive development. So, um it's true that social media and social gaming apps offer opportunity to socialize, but it's very very very important to remember that those platforms are primarily commercial environments that are designed to maximize profits with little regard for the well-being of young users. And the lawsuits um in California and New Mexico have documented

068those harms. I'm not going to go into that. Um my recent research in human-computer interaction called Buying to Belong details how social gaming platforms are designed to facilitate bullying and harassment for profit and recklessly exploit adolescents' developmental need for supportive relationships in order to sell virtual currencies and goods. My own research in neuroscience shows that when online time replaces offline time, people trust their own judgment less and struggle more with uncertainty. So, um these the third one, uh we've heard bell-to-bell policies make schools safer, and that is why, in conclusion, I think that it is important that people all across the nation give students the gift of an environment where learning, social connection, and development can happen without the interruption from attention vampires. Thank you. You're You're at time. Well, actually you're over. Thank Thank

069you so much for your comment. Comments. Thank you. Next is Ross Vinok. Vinok. Thank you. Sorry if I mispronounced it. No, that was perfect. Uh thanks, everybody. Uh I have two students at Mills High School. I just want to start by applauding the fact that we're going to be doing something about the problem with the cell phones in schools. I'm a little bit confused how option two is different from the status quo. I would say the existing status quo is failing dramatically, and option two seems to be more of that. Uh but I do want to say that actually eliminating phone use and internet-enabled phone use during class time will be an important and substantial thing. It will be difficult, and I want to applaud the people who are working in that direction, regardless of

070how people vote tonight. Uh I also want to say that it's really the bare minimum. It's like the absolute bare minimum is to keep the phones out of the classrooms. There's a reason why the act is called the phone-free schools act and not the phone-free classrooms act, and I think we should acknowledge that. Classrooms is an absolute must, and somehow we're sort of stopping there. I think, you know, when I when I look at the presentation that the superintendent gave today, and I got to see it ahead of time, it's clear what the studies show. Everybody agrees that there should be fewer phones around. It's clear that the adults who we trust to make these decisions, the teachers, know what to do, which is to keep them out of the school bell to bell. Uh

071it's also clear that we have a really thoughtful set of recommendations by a group that we put together for the purpose of making the recommendations, and they said we should do the bell to bell. And somehow we decide at the end of that, because it's going to be challenging, we're going to set those recommendations aside and basically stay with the status quo. It doesn't make any sense to me that we would do it that way. Uh I really honestly could not believe that that was the conclusion after sort of going through the slides. It's like, oh, obviously we're going to go with option one, but somehow we go with option two. Now, I understand that there are logistical challenges. However, I also look at the logistical challenges of trying to make what is basically the

072status quo system work somehow. And that puts all the burden on the teachers, which I think is not the right approach. I understand that there there may be other things that I don't get about the way that this works, but to me that's what it reads as and I think it's really unfortunate that we're coming to that conclusions somehow we have to put all the burden on the teachers and I don't think it's working now. I don't think it'll work in the future. So, I I don't I there are aspects of the of of what the group recommended that I don't personally love. And at the same time, it's way better than the option two that was proposed earlier and so I strongly urge the board to vote for the bell-to-bell structure. I think that

073we should learn from the district schools that have implemented the policies that have been recommended by the group that we set up in order to put forward a recommendation. Those schools love the policies. We should learn from that. We should figure out what to do so that we can support that across the district. And to really make our schools fun free. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Sebastian Steinbeck. Hello everyone. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you for putting all the work into this recommendation and sharing the the findings. I also want to thank everyone that spoke before me. This was brilliant stuff and I'm kind of like, oops, what can I even add to this? Because I I support everything that was said, fully. Um maybe just highlight a few

074things that stand out to me. Um when I saw the two options and one was the status quo designed to preserve instruction time. And then I see what the students say, which is it's being undermined, it's being circumvented all the time, which matches with my kids' accounts of what happens in school. Because kids are smart. And addicted to their phones because phones are addictive. And then they want to keep the status quo, then I wonder, will that really impact anything in terms of better instruction time? It really can't if we keep things as they are. So to to really reinforce what speakers have just now, staying with the option of the status quo will not improve anything and we won't have good instruction time. Um yeah, and I second that my I'm surprised that the

075recommendation of the teachers, who I know have a really hard job, does not tip the scale towards, of course we're going to do that. I was also shocked even though I didn't see the the slides beforehand. Um Okay. Another aspect I want to bring in is that I'm a father of three kids. I really care, like many parents, about their kids and I've invested a lot of time into developing ways to supporting them be their best self. I studied, I learned. And there's many things that children need to become their best selves. One One part of that is good instruction. Again, we need that environment so they learn things. But the magic happens somewhere else. The magic happens when kids are actually free. And by free, I mean not distracted by whatever shiny thing is

076going to around them. Free to be with themselves, free to be with each other in that space that is not structured. You could call it structured unstructured time. Where that magic can happen, where suddenly you get that idea. Where you have a moment with a friend say, "You know what? Let's do this." I I invite you all to to think back to the moments that were the most inform formative in your life. I bet you those you were not on a phone when that happened. And and I have 20 seconds left. Okay. Before I forget, vote for bell to bell, very important. Um The reason I came here from Germany 13 years ago was I believe in innovation is the way out of the conundrums we're all all in. I really I still believe that

077and I love this area for the inventiveness that it has. But what's really innovative is not continuing to digitize everything. What's innovative right now in our educational spaces is to give kids that oasis of freedom that they otherwise don't have outside of schools. So I urge you to give them that gift. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next is Allison McQueen. Good evening. I enter into the meeting record a petition in support of bell to bell phone restriction in all SMUHSD schools. Currently, there are 1,255 signatures. Our petition reads, quote, "We SMUHSD teachers, staff, and parents of current and future SMUHSD students urge the SMUHSD Board of Trustees to restrict phone use in all SMUHSD schools for the entirety of the school day, from bell to bell, in support of classroom learning

078and equity, keeping classrooms and the school campuses phone-free during the school day aligns with San Mateo High, DTech, San Mateo Foster City Middle Schools, and follows the recommendation of the SMUHSD phone task force." End quote. Now, I'll speak on my own behalf. There are many activities that districts prohibit because they do not support a positive learning environment. Things like disrupting class, cutting class, or being tardy, dress code violations, littering, unauthorized use of bikes or skateboards, food delivery during school hours, loitering after school, and unauthorized visitors. Yet, when it comes to phones, SMUHSD has inconsistent rules across campuses and even across classrooms, excluding SMHS and DTech, which already have bell-to-bell restrictions. This inconsistency creates confusion and opens the door to inequitable enforcement. A bell-to-bell policy sets a clear, shared expectation for everyone. It also gives teachers

079something invaluable, time. Instead of managing phones at the beginning and end of every class, they can connect with students. Those moments, up to 14 times a day, are where relationships are built. And those relationships matter. Every one of us can remember a teacher who made a difference. The benefits are clear, stronger focus, improved mental clarity, better social interaction, reduced bullying, streamlined classroom management, and lower anxiety. That's why 26 states have already moved in this direction. Santa Clara has implemented bell-to-bell and other districts are close behind and we should be also. California law AB 3216 also recognizes that phones during school hours negatively impact learning, mental health, and increased distractions and cyberbullying. We have a clear path forward. Vote yes on bell-to-bell. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next is Ryan Ryan Chow. Hi. Thank

080you Board of Trustees. My name is Ryan Chow. I'm a sophomore at Aragon and I have a middle schooler who will be attending Aragon in the near term. Aragon High School is currently operating on the instructional ban for cell phones, but in talking to my daughter, you know, it doesn't work in any class. Like every class, there's always some child on the phone and you know, I think if it's ineffective as students are still constantly using devices. So, the the ban is uh is ineffective as students are still constantly using devices in the classroom, which is one of the reasons I believe the majority of teachers voted for the bell-to-bell ban. Students who are constantly multitasking are not as efficient and effective as learners. On another note, after remote learning during the pandemic, I spoke

081to many teachers and they all expressed that the students were already you know so development development developmentally behind in terms of social development. You know, our students' reliance on cell phones during breaks during the school day is a crutch that will continue to delay their social development. Please help us foster an environment for our students where they can grow inside and outside the classroom by voting for the bell-to-bell uh cell phone ban. Thank you for your comments. Joyce Cho? Excuse me, Joyce Cho. Thank you. Thank you, Board of Trustees, for allowing me to make comments on I'm Joyce Cho, and I also have a sophomore at Aragon and a middle schooler. I strongly support the bell-to-bell policy. High school is this period of time where so important for social emotional learning, and it is this

082time when the students should be making friends, should be hanging out with them. They need to learn how to get along with each other and how to navigate the difficult social dynamics, and also how to connect and communicate via eye contact and body language. How will they develop these soft skills if their eyes are glued to their phone? Having all students have the same expectations not of not having their cell phones during the breaks and lunch encourages more interaction. It is a terrible feeling when you're trying to talk to someone and they're on their cell phone. You feel ignored. You feel the loss of connection. You feel unimportant. And that's not what I That's what I make want to make sure that our kids don't feel. Having the ban minimizes this experience for our kids.

083And you know, cell phones are interesting. They're fun. They're addictive. And so, I don't want the cell phones to become the default for their interaction during breaks. As a parent, I want my children to be making memories, to be deepening their connections with their friends, and that can only happen if they have opportunities to interact in person, not behind the screen. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your comments. Gabriel Ortiz Good evening, Board of Trustees. Uh my name is Gabriel Ortiz. I'm a father of a ninth grader and a seventh grader. Um I'm a physician. I'm a chief medical officer of a local medical center. And I'm here to support with the ban to the cell phone ban policy, the bell-to-bell ban. Um I think it's a simple evidence-based policy change

084that supports best supports our students' health, growth, learning, all in an evidence-based way. Our teachers are right. They're seeing the problems. Our kids are addicted. Many adults are addicted. They're These devices are meant to be addictive, and these young brains are not developed enough to be able to control that. We need to assist our teachers in creating a uh the right learning environment. We know that so cell phones are not just occasional distractions. I will submit to you a recent publication from the Journal of the American Medical Association published March 6, 2026. Um these are constant distractions. Um this this paper found that students pick up their phones over 60 times during the school day. Uh they spend nearly 1/3 of their day on their on these devices. And that level of interruption is associated

085with reduced cognitive control, the variability that students need to focus, learn, and succeed in school, and to connect with their peers. This isn't just about attention, though. It's a There's a large body of research that shows higher phone use is linked to worse academic performance, increased anxiety and depression, and greater exposure to cyber bullying. In fact, a large study done Oops. Large study done in New Zealand back in 2024, which led to the recommendation of that country to ban uh cell phones from their schools, showed that um there's an overwhelming negative effect of cell phone use on educational outcomes, leading to their cell phones away for the day policy that's been in place since 20 24. Schools exist to provide a structured, safe, and effective environment for sustained thinking, for human connection, for learning. But

086when phones are allowed between classes and at lunch, the distraction just doesn't stay contained. It spills into every period of the day, and that's what our teachers are reporting to us. This policy is not about punishment. This policy is about protecting the fundamental ability of our students to learn and protecting their mental well-being. Um there of course may be reasonable exceptions that we can build into such policy for medical conditions or learning uh requirements. Um there can be communication centers if parents need to talk to their kids during school, where they can call their parents. And this doesn't need to be expensive. It can be simple. Um and so I've put in another vote to support the the ban uh banning these cell phones from from schools, and I'll submit these documents for your review.

087Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for Thank you for providing those to Ms. Aquino. Okay, next is uh Peggy Chin Ortiz. Hello. Um I'm Peggy, and I am a parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler. Uh and I'm a neuropsychologist and for those who are familiar with maybe autism or learning disorders, you might know that a neuropsychologist is a psychologist that also happens to specialize in memory thinking. Um and I'm going to be honest, I almost wasn't going to come today because I didn't think I had to. Uh because when I think about well, the reason I did come, I'm going to say is the anxious and distrustful part of me. That's what got me into this room. But once I came and I heard actually one of our first

088speakers, I think they were from Zoom. Um the part of me that was like, I don't need to come, settled back in. And that was the quote that she said from Maya Angelou, do the best you can until you know better. And when you know better, do better. And so I don't feel the need to show you guys any more data. I think there's plenty. There might be even more, who knows. And I actually think from teachers and staff that I've spoken to that you actually all know the data. So that's not the issue. Um I think though when I think about another famous wise person who was killed way too way too young, and I think of his words, which words I'm going to paraphrase it, but the long arc of history bends towards

089what is right. And I see that today. And that's why I didn't think I had to come. Because when I see our student representatives and what they reported on today, and I see the land grant acknowledgement that was done, and I see the interpreters and the language translations that were done by the school board, I have faith that you all and all of our parents and even the students actually, that you are we are all capable of doing hard things. We are capable of making the investment in time, in money, to do what is right for our children. And I see that you all believe that a rising tide floats all boats. So, all I ask is that you continue to do what you have done, that I've seen during COVID, that I've seen tonight,

090and that you continue to do what's right and best as Sacramento will do, it sounds like, um by our children. And I thank you for the work that you have done already. And I thank you for the work that you will do and continue to do. Thank you for your comments. So, we have four more and we this is and then we'll do the ones online and so, um Sam Sam Lou. Thank you. Um I'm the parent of three kids in the district or one that will go to join soon and a full-time teacher myself. I urge the board to consider a full bell-to-bell ban. Stanford researchers researchers surveyed the entire country and found that half of high schools have full bell-to-bell bans and this is increasing quickly. Why? These are direct quotes from news

091articles on schools that implemented full bans. From Jefferson County High School or school district in Central Oregon. This district superintendent said, "The positives far outweigh the negatives. The students didn't realize how big of a distraction cell phones were for them until we took them away from them." An article written about our own San Mateo High School. San Mateo's assistant principal observed the cell phone ban in action and it blew his mind. Students were engaged with each other. They were interacting. They were playing card games. They were playing out in the yard. They were goofing around. They were in circles talking to each other. Again, for our own San Mateo High School. If parents understood what is going on in their schools, they would support a full bell-to-bell ban. I trust that the teachers know what

092is going on on the ground. I am pro teacher and I'm pro kid. Now, I understand the costs and potential inequities of using Yondr pouches. Bans don't need to have Yondr. There several schools that have implemented bans without Yondr pouches. Superintendent of Orcutt Union School District in California said, "Implementation has gone very smoothly. Every once in a while, a student will need a reminder not to have their cell phone out, but some of the feedback we've gotten from students is that they're better able to focus. Rather than using locked phone pouches or storage systems, the district just decided to rely on students keeping phones in their backpacks." Principal of Evanston High School implemented phone ban without the Yondr pouches. Overall, it's been a smooth transition. It's a hard switch because it's a change of habits,

093but I don't know that anyone really likes this rule, but everyone ultimately understands why we have it. Students can keep possession of their phones, but they have to be turned off and kept out of sight. The language we have is stowed away, which means the phones are put in a certain place and powered off. So, they can put in their locker. They can leave leave in their backpack. They can leave it in their car. They can leave it at home. It just can't be in their pocket or anywhere on their person. So, you can implement an effective ban without Yondr. And then, lastly, the article on San Mateo High, Sidarth Goji, San Mateo's three-time class president, said that the absence of phones makes his school much more welcoming. Conversations move past the surface level when

094you have time to talk to one another. And they even cited a junior at San Mateo High School who said she specifically enrolled in San Mateo High School because there's a cell phone ban. Please support our kids. Please support our teachers. Please consider a full bell-to-bell ban. We can make it work. Thank you for your comments. I tried to do the best I can for reading this next one. Rada Zor Zorda Zordadian? I'm sorry. Sorry about that. Sorry. Hello. My name is Rada Zarandian. I'm a uh resident of uh San Mateo and Hillsborough. I and I have two older kids. I'm here to uh urge everyone at Board of Trustees to pass the bell-to-bell um restrictions for all uh forms of um digital uh digital phones and uh laptop, anything that besides laptop. And uh

095I believe it is your responsibility as educator and us as parents and all of us together to encourage our children to transition from a life of digital life to analog life. And one of our parents here from Germany alluded to this fact that there is a movement in the in Europe, and especially in in Germany, that analog life is our right, not just digital life. And the way they uh they actually uh define analog life is a life that promotes intentional living, physical activity, and slower pace of life in general. And I think this needs to be a new concept for all of us, especially for our beautiful, you know, students and here to start this movement here in San Mateo County and be a leader in this transition. Thank you for your time. Thank

096you for your comments. Jessica Westmont Hi, I'm Jessica Westmont. I wasn't going to speak today until I saw the majority of families um are not fully on board with Bella Bella. Also, side note, I was like making notes for my speech. I looked like I was like doom scrolling in the camera right there in the background. I was like am I one of them? Um but I graduated from Aragon 10 years ago. So, I know it might be like what kind of stake do I have in this? I don't I don't have a kid and far from it. Um but um my mom is a very passionate woman and she's fully convinced me on this and it's a super important issue for kids in their future. Um so, when I was in high school, I

097don't know how they did it. They kind of like the Wi-Fi like blocked um the the Wi-Fi blocked all social media and then all the uh and then the service was like one bar. So, um we could like kind of text, but like that was it and it worked. The conversation flowed at lunchtime. We were having a great time. Like I was not on social media all day. I don't think I I think I would maybe pull out my phone to find my friends at lunch. Um but like if they were missing, but that'd be it. Um, and I mean, it's just proven that social media and doom scrolling is actually toxic for the brain, um, toxic for our mental health, um, and our attention span, which is super important in school. Like, my friends

098and also, like, anybody younger than me, some some people older than me, too, um, can't even sit through a movie without like playing a game, a movie that they put on, too, right? Like, like, they chose it and they are like playing a game or like doom scrolling on Instagram or TikTok and like can't even pay attention, like, like, you chose that movie, like, how are you going to pay attention in class like if you can't even pay attention to a movie that you wanted to watch? So, um, attention spans are just so short right now. Like, I have I was diagnosed with ADHD as a young kid and like, I think everybody's kind of getting it now. I don't know. Um, I don't Yeah, um, but um, and it's going to get worse with

099future generations if we don't like put a stop to this now, so, um, let's free kids for like 8 hours a day. Thank you for your comments. And the last in-person comment for this topic is Sue Jung Lee. Thank you. Okay. Sorry, um, I was trying to gather my thoughts together. I don't really have anything prepared. I just have a bunch of scribbles. Um, so, it might be disjointed, but I kind of everything everybody already said, all the research, blah, blah, blah. I think we all know that and I think we're all in agreement on that. Um, I just wanted to emphasize one thing and I think of it this way, like I would ask all of you like, how many of you are like 100% happy with your own phone usage? I mean, I

100I can speak for myself. It's not I don't know anybody who's like, oh yeah, no, I'm pretty good, you know, and my you know, balance, everything. Nobody nobody feels like that. So, and we are all adults. I urge everyone to remember like we did not grow up with this. We had the luxury, the privilege I I can't believe it's a privilege, but yeah, of growing up without all this in our face all the time. Okay, so we can't turn back time. Um, our kids now already are not growing up that way. But I kind of feel like at the very least, can we give them the passing breaks and lunch time to like be forced to like talk to somebody in front of them like nearby and in real time and just like these things

101that are now luxuries, can we we have the power to at least ensure that for them for this brief like four years of their life. They have the whole rest of their life to be constantly distracted. They we're adults. We can barely deal with this. I am totally addicted and I am always trying to reduce my time. I think we need to set our kids up for success in dealing with this drug. I don't know. And I also think bottom line it's it's not just about oh, like kids need to learn how to talk to each other, da da da da. I'm talking about like when I say socializing, it's not just that. It's a demonstration of what we value and what we prioritize. So, these kids are all going to grow up to be

102the world of tomorrow and do what kind of world do we want them to live in? I kind of don't like it right now even and if everything accelerates I don't even want to think about what it's like. And so, this actually this actually affects the kind of world that they get to look forward to. So, and I guess like the last thing I wanted to just say is I think we should listen to the teachers. They're the ones who actually deal with this day in day out. Why don't we listen to the people who actually have to deal with it? I mean, it seems like pretty good idea to me. So, thanks. >> Thank you for your comments. Thank you everyone for commenting and being here and I'm going to call I'm going to

103ask Miss Akiko, you know, if there are any hands raised. We have two hands raised. >> raised, okay. I'm going to promote Arion Adamkova. Arion, you can turn your camera on. Okay, and you can begin. You'll have 3 minutes. Hello everybody, members of the board and members of the community that came out tonight. I was so so impressed by all of the speakers tonight. I I really value your time, your thought processes, all of the beautiful words that have been spoken this evening and in fact, I've kind of changed what I was going to say, which was quite dry because most of you said what I want to say. So, I'm actually a teacher voice and I've been a teacher in this district for 24 years. I currently teach at Cupertino High School. I'm a

104Spanish teacher. I'm also the parent of a young man um and the the spouse of somebody who worked on the first iPhone at Apple and to our detriment to all of the world's detriment and we acknowledge that fully and I apologize. We apologize to the world. Um but I want to say that you know, we've we've known for a long time. I knew from the the get-go that this was going to be a problem. Um you know, 10 12 years ago, 2012 is when we saw our students, our young people, their mental health start to decline. It was in concert with the uh first iPhone. Um I want to say I was a member of the cell phone work uh work group uh throughout the fall um commissioned by the district and we recommended a

105full bell-to-bell ban. Um we had a lot of really good conversations, so it didn't just come out of we all had an opinion coming in. A lot of us changed our minds listening to one another and reading research. And we know that the research and all of the evidence demonstrates how the smartphones along with digital technology in general are hurting our kids' mental health, academic engagement and learning itself. Um it's not just what's happening in the classroom. I mean, and it does take its toll. We have fewer teachers that even want to teach because of all of the different behavioral issues. And I absolutely know that the behavioral issues are tied to the phone, whether they're distracted by their phone in class or not. There are so many negative messages and negative things happening to

106our kids throughout the day, at home, in between breaks because of what they're seeing on their phone. I was also part of the San Mateo High School pilot, Yonder pilot, and it was amazing, and I was a true believer, and I still am a true believer. And maybe a couple of things that I can just say with my teacher perspective, um are I see our most vulnerable students, our loneliest students, the kids that struggle the most with academics are the ones that are most addicted to their phones. And if we care about those kids, if we care about our most marginalized kids, we're going to get the phones away and allow for that freedom, whether that's to be socializing or to be alone with their thoughts or just to read a paper book. Um thank

107you. I've that's all of my time, but I really, really strongly recommend for this full ban along with almo- pretty much every teacher I've talked to at Cupertino High School. So, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your comments. Okay, and now I'll promote Margie Kim. Thank you. Hi everybody. Sorry, that took a minute. Good evening, Board of Trustees, district leadership, and to the amazing community that made it out tonight. I wish I was there. My name is Margie Kim, and I am a mom of two boys, a sophomore and an incoming freshman at Aragon. Thank you so much for laying out all the data and considerations in the memo. I appreciate the work that went into the process, but frankly, the recommendation that the district leadership outlined doesn't quite seem to

108align with the data. From the survey results, 2/3 of our educators support a bell-to-bell policy, and across all groups, the biggest issue is inconsistent enforcement. Yet, the proposal keeps a classroom-only model that depends on that same inconsistent enforcement and puts all the pressure on the teachers. And this isn't only about the classroom and academics, it's about the social environment and mental health. When phones are allowed during breaks, students default to screens instead of making meaningful connections, and that is especially critical for incoming freshmen who are trying to build new friendships. The memo also raises concerns about cost, infrastructure, and implementation. We understand those are big challenges, but they are implementation challenges, not reasons to choose a less effective policy for our kids. No system is perfect. Tools like PA systems aren't flawless, but they're effective.

109They set a clear, consistent expectation that phones are put away for the school day, and they significantly reduce overall usage. As previous parents mentioned, almost half of the US states have now moved towards a bell-to-bell or full-day restrictions. The trend is clearly moving in that direction because partial policies have not solved the problem. And we understand this shift may be hard at first, but it sets the right standard moving forward. We are not asking for the San Mateo Union High School District to lead. We're actually asking you guys to make sure that our district does not fall behind. Please, please, please support our teachers and students, and vote to support a district-wide bell-to-bell policy. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Well, thank you, everyone, for speaking, both online and in person. We had 20

110public comments tonight on this topic. So, I'm going to open up um to the board for their comments. Um Trustee Griffin, would would you like to go first? Yeah, because I suspect I won't get another comment once it goes to everybody else. So, I want to thank everybody who sent letters in. Um you know, this was the most thoughtful letter that we have received. And we And we receive a lot of different letters supporting a lot of a lot of different policies, and they tend to be carbon copies of each other. You know, if you read one, you read them all. But, the letters that we that at least the ones I read, they were all individual. They were all based in some point of view and some concerns. And um people invested time in

111them. So, I appreciate that. Um the next thing is, you know, the this I hope everybody realizes the people that are going to be that this policy is going to impact, this is not about enforcement, discipline, punishment. Uh this is about well-being. This is about development. And I think it's an important decision. When I first started, I was kind of okay, you know, we're going to have a, you know, classroom only deal. And And I was concerned about the cost and the you know, the impact on the general fund. But, after you know, I did research and you know, there was that that one guy in uh the doctor from the public health in LA, and you know, he was talking about vague policies produce vague outcomes and schools that draw clear uniform physical uh

112physically enforced uh lines saw the strongest compliance. I mean, there was a lot of stuff written about this and it you know, and it really persuaded me that we needed to go bell to bell. Now, having having said all of that, there's still a lot of outcomes. There's a lot of issues and challenges um and I don't think it's easy, but I think the it's going to be worth the effort to to you know, try to implement. And you know, I think the administration's going to have some challenges cuz I am concerned about emergency communications, um medical, anything that might require communications due to a medical condition. Um I really want you know, I think digital citizenship is really important. Even even if we didn't have a phone ban and a policy, we needed digital

113citizenship. You know, that needs to be like first class and you know, probably way back in elementary school. Um but I want to see some really good activities that engaged the um the entire campus. You know, if this thing passes where you know, okay, it's nice to say, well, you hang around with your buddies and you kind of talk and you know, they'll probably be sitting there with their hands like this while they're talking cuz they can't you know, just kind of oh, you know, how are you doing? You know, okay. So, I you know, I think it's it's really important that we get that and we probably want to look to the students to get some feedback on stuff that might interest them, um engage them, um and let me see going and it's

114it'll be a challenge. Um one thing I don't want to burden the teachers. I mean, you know, from the the you know, the bell to bell, I I once we get implemented, I think it creates less of a burden on classroom management and will allow us to uh uh allow the classrooms to focus on learning. And I learned a new term, doomscrolling. Boy, uh after I heard that, we got to you know, we got to change this. So, anyway, thank you all for your input and those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Griffin. Trustee Andrades Negrete. Yes. Thank you. I like Trustee Griffin had the same concerns when it came to cost, uh when it I'm a person with a disability. I have I have a spinal cord injury, so I can't I

115have a lot of paralysis, and so my hands don't work. So, I rely on my phone. Um and you know, other folks that are like that uh that have that type of disability, whether it it be, you know, spinal cord or not, um we rely on our technology, cuz that's our accessibility. Um and then my next concern was implementation, like what, you know, Trustee Griffin was saying. Um what does this going to look like? Who How long is it going to take? How much is it going to cost? Um what are the students going to be doing? You know, we're not going to just throw them out to lunch and say, "Hey, you know, entertain yourself, right?" We'll have to have some conversations about what's interesting and what's going to be involved. Um after meeting

116with different teachers, meeting with parents, um and some students, doing some research, I like Trustee Griffin. Thank you for everyone that has sent your emails and your um your well, your presentations tonight or your uh public comments. Thank you. Um I have done a little bit more research too. Um I am in favor of you know, completely doing something different because you're right. The whole world is addicted to their phones, absolutely. 100% hands down. Um it's also I have two children myself. I'm very fortunate that my kids went through high school. I mean they had the phones, but it was they weren't they didn't have the phones until later because they were a little bit older and their dad and I had waited for some time to give them a phone. Um but with that

117said, um I just I also am concerned for the implementation of it all. So, I look to the administration to talk about, you know, if this is implemented what does that look like? Um and you know, we I think we have to keep looking at the plan and we're probably going to revise and you know, it's not going to be 100% perfect all the time. Um but like like Superintendent Booker said earlier, it does have to be something universal. We can't have piecemeal all over our district because it has to be that has to be the basis of why it's done. Um our teachers need to have some sort of support um in the implementation. So, that's it. I think those are my thoughts and thank you. Thank you, Trustee Ambrosio. Okay. Trustee Lam? Thank

118you. >> So, first of all, I want to say thank you to um Superintendent Booker for putting to a great presentation together, showing us the surveys, giving us, you know, all the evidence. The memo was incredible with the research and all that. Audience, thank you for your participation. Thank you for your comments. I learned a few new things. Um and I appreciate some of the comments that were made. So, thank you. Um I guess for me I I'm going to tell you some anecdotal stuff. So, as a middle school principal, I do a bell to bell at BIS and it's not easy and enforcement's not perfect. Um but this is what I do know. Um once upon you know, once in a while I take the bus with the kids and I don't say anything

119except for good morning, how's it going, how you guys doing? And I just sit on the bus and I I observe. My observation is 90% of the kids are on their phones. It's in the morning. And they're playing games and they're playing games that I know cuz I ask about the games and I know the games. And it's unfortunate because 90% of them that's what they're doing. Some of the others are talking and, you know, getting into trouble and I have to tell them to quiet down and that sort of thing. But that's what I see on the bus. We get to school and I say, you know, I'm at the entrance and I say hi to everybody all the kids coming into the one gate and we talk and I say good morning and

120when the bell rings, the phones go in the backpacks and everybody knows when they're looking at me that it goes in the backpacks and their AirPods go in their their put them away and they know not to put it in their pocket because again if you have it out, brain drain. And I'm already drained a little bit and I should have put that away. I was embarrassed. So, you know, and during the school day for the most of the part the phones are away. Then you have brunch and lunch and no phones are out. And they're playing games. We have, you know, basketballs out and soccer balls out and you know, as long as we have equipment that can be passed out and like uh Superintendent Booker said, if you have activities, you create environments

121where the social activity is being drawn in. Kids are interacting and they're playing cards or doing different things. And I see it at the school. You know, do we have rule breakers? Absolutely. How many kids go into the bathroom to use the phone? And you know what the biggest problem is? Parents texting their parent kids. Hey mom, get me home. You know, or you know, hey, don't forget to do blah blah blah and they take their phone out and go to the bathroom and read it. So, enforcement is going to So, you know, bottom line, you know, there's a few things we need to worry about and um Trustee Griffin, Trustee Andradi-Zuniga mentioned, you know, how we're going to enforce this? How do we invest in this? Um I am going to flip the script

122on this. You know, I know Superintendent Booker really went for you know, and the leadership went for option two and said we can aspire to more. Mine would be the reverse because we have a tale of two schools. We have how DETEC did it and we have San Mateo, how they did it. Very different stories and they were in the press and they were very very very public what happened and very different stories. If you look at one story, you look at San Mateo and how they did it. They started with leaders, student leaders who tried it out. They started pilots. They started programs. They started talking about it. They started having conversations of what would be different. And they included the students in this. And as it grew, there came a time when now

123we're doing it. Now we're in. So, they had a plan and they used it over time and it became how they implemented it. In contrast, DETEC did a very different thing, very top-down, this is what we're doing and what happened? Rebellion. You had kids complaining and parents complaining and why are we doing this? And that's something we have to take into account. If we are top-down and I, you know, and that's we're implementing it that way, it's going to be a problem. It's everything that Trustee Griffin said is everything that Trustee Andradi Zuniga said. It's going to have difficulties being implemented and I think that was some of the concerns of the leadership in our district. So, I think my suggestion would be if we go with bell-to-bell, which I think we should, for all

124the reasons that you mentioned, what we need to do is let the schools come up with how they're going to implement it within a time period, in a time frame. Let them come up with the solution. One of the uh teachers one of the comments here who's the gentleman who's a teacher mentioned that absolutely right, it doesn't have to be Yondr pouches, but it could be something. It could be in backpacks. That's what we're doing. You know, but it has to be the choice of the school. It's the buy-in. It's the buy-in of the students that will say, "Okay, I'm on board." And you get that critical mass and you say, "Okay, the critical mass is saying this is the way we're going to do it." And you get that buy-in from students and they're

125going to do it. Majority. Are people going to break the rules? Absolutely. Is there broken Yondr pouches all the time? Probably. And yes, this is going to happen, but we have to have an aspirational, and that's what I mean by flip the script, is we have bell-to-bell, but have a timeline, have a plan, put it together, have the students input, and figure out how you get to that answer. That would be my proposal. I have a couple last comments. So, the whole idea of out of sight, out of mind. You know, if it's away, they don't think about it. But if it's hidden here, it's a brain drain. If it's close by, if it's in your pocket, they know it's in your You know it's in your pocket. You've done How many times have we

126you forgotten out of the car and you go, "Wait, wait, it's not there. I got to go back." You know. So, the point here is if it's out of sight, if it's not physically close to you, if it's put away, if it's in a Yondr pouch, if it's in your backpack, it's out of sight. And that's the goal that we have to have. That's the goal that we need to really aspire to if we're going to have a policy like this with bell-to-bell. Um I'm going to say two last things. One inspiration was again what the teachers were saying. If we use the current system, I just realized how much time kids have to do by taking their phones out, putting it on a chart paper, or chart thingy, or and locking it away, or

127putting in a cubby, and making sure that happens every period, and then they're getting it at the end of the period. What a waste of instructional minutes. If you have any Yondr pouch, they don't have to worry about the enforcement. It's in there. And so I was like, "Wow, we're going to save instructional minutes now." I didn't realize that till just now, and I've been in this business for a while. So, thank you for that. The next one is it's a worthy investment, so the money's worth it. We've done We've spent $200,000 on things um recently that I think were extremely important, and I'm really grateful that the district did it. We can do it for this, too. All right, so critical, it's important, let's commit. The last thing I'm going to say is I

128want to talk about the power of boredom. Because to be honest, I and I watched this during doom scrolling, by the way. Um but the power of boredom is this whole idea that unstructured time, not having the phone, I totally believe what someone was talking about when they were saying they're distracted and ADD is now becoming a norm in our in our society because we need to be entertained every 2 seconds, and it's just so close to get to that phone and get it on. But the power of boredom is creativity. The more bored you are, you have to fill that void. And that void is going to be creativity. And so, as far as I'm concerned, fine, put it away, let's be bored because then they're going to find things to do and talk

129and communicate and develop and all the things that we were you were talking about. So, bottom line, I think it's important. I think implementation has to be done at the school with the input of the students, and have a timeline to make it creative and make it work. If we just let it happen and every and we do it dictatorially, it'll be rebellion or it'll be people figuring out ways to make it not happen. So, we need to get the voices. We need to get the voices of the students. Okay, how do you want to implement it? What's a reasonable implementation? Can we start it at the quarter, at the semester, trimester? How are we going to do it? We going to use pouches? You know, come up with a system that works for them.

130And each school's going to be different, you know? And so, it's aspirational implementation rather than um rather than just sticking with the status quo. All right. Thank you. That's it. For your comments. Thank you. Trustee Jacobson, would you like to go next? Sure. Okay. Uh first of all, I I add my gratitude and thanks to all the engagement for the task force, for the for the effort, and um willing hearts and minds that they put into that effort. And thankful to our everybody who wrote in. We We received a lot of letters in the last few days. And surprisingly, they were all in consensus with you all. Um I was actually pretty surprised that we really didn't get any uh here tonight or recent letters that were um opposed to this policy other than our

131student board members that were opposed to it. Um I don't mean to laugh. I'm sorry. I'm just saying it wasn't We didn't get a lot of negative uh You know what I'm saying. Okay. Um In reading the memo, it was pretty clear that the I share what one of the speakers said or maybe a few of the speakers said that reading the memo didn't really lead you to the conclusion of choosing instructional time only. Um the main barriers that were given were implementation or infrastructure, um you know, systems. What does this say? "Significant staffing and supervision systems to ensure consistent compliance throughout the day." And um cost and needing for communication, training, and community outreach to build shared understanding and reduce confusion, conflict, and uneven enforcement. To me, these sound like adult problems that are

132getting in the way of what is best for kids. And while I understand and appreciate that these are significant hurdles, um they are secondary to the primary mission that we as a board need to advance, which is creating an optimal learning environment for our students. And uh I'm going to bring forward a point that uh nobody has brought forward yet for my other board members to consider is that I have a high degree of confidence that our district can roll up our sleeves and do what it takes to serve our students. And the reason why I am very confident about this is because within the last 6 months, we accomplished a massive logistical feat in addressing food security insecurity, excuse me, um for a 6-week period during the winter months. In a very short time,

133we had a plan in place and executed it with precision, mobilizing staff and volunteers, disseminating meals and groceries, communicating to families, and creating new systems. And we did it very quickly and effectively and successfully. And um our superintendent likes to say that where we allocate our dollars shows where our values are. Well, we as a board we value educational success and student well-being. And a bell bell-to-bell policy supports both. So, when we approved that food insecurity initiative, we approved up to $630,000. Which is two and a half times the cost. And that was a six-week initiative that served a subset of our students. Two and a half times the cost of a district smartphone bell-to-bell solution for a year for all of our students. So, um I think we can do this. And we agreed

134on that because if students are hungry, they can't learn. Well, if they are distracted, they can't learn. So, um Let me see what else I have here. We didn't let adult problems get in the way then and we shouldn't now. Our superintendent is really good at communicating and advocating and mobilizing. And we saw it with that initiative in November. So, maybe you threw yourself under the bus for doing such a good job with that. Um Anyway, I don't believe that we lack the capacity to implement a bell-to-bell policy is the bottom line there. Um just a couple other things. I very much support the need for the the digital citizenship and wellness curriculum that is part of this uh proposal. And um I'll bring forward another anecdote. When I was chatting with a a teacher

135at um open house who teaches chemistry, both general and AP, I was asking her about what she thought about the policy. And you know, she was like, "Oh, you know, it's probably a good idea, but then you've got to consider um personal devices as well, because that's going to be a different work-around solution and and something that I'm sure will come up." Um and I said, "You teach AP Chem, and right?" And she was like, "Yeah, but I also teach, you know, sophomore chem." And I said, "Well, do you notice a difference between the AP chem students? Like, I think they're probably more locked in. They probably don't need like look at their phones as much." And she was like, "Actually, anytime uh they are feeling anytime they encounter something that is hard, that's what

136they revert to is is their video games or their phones or whatever be and it it's like what one of our community members said, it's a crutch socially, but it's also a crutch academically. When when the work is hard, that's what they go to is their phone to avoid. So, that's coming from one of our teachers as well. And then the last thing I'll say is um one of the speakers uh what really touched me is when he said, "When you think about your best memories in your over the course of your life, were you on your phone in those moments?" And I thought about my daughter when she went to her senior prom, she said most of the kids were not on the dance floor. They were sitting around on their phones at prom.

137We need to give our kids back their lives. We need to give them back their childhood. We need to give them back their boredom, like uh Trustee Land said. We need to give them back tactile, real experiences. Um so, that's why I'm for bell to bell. Thank you. I have a couple of comments to make, but I wanted to ask our student board reps if they have anything that they want to add. I know earlier you guys I don't know if it was both, but um I think you were speaking about the students uh in general at your schools, but I was just wondering if you wanted to chime in at all. It's totally up to you. Yeah. Um I'd like first of all, I'd like to say like thank you everyone for coming here

138and sharing your perspectives. They're really insightful. Um but I just think that like personally as a student, I can speak for myself and like I can see like how other students um like how their cell phone use has like affected them in classrooms. I think that in general like technology is something that's like has become increasingly like part of our day-to-day lives, so that's just like taking I think that taking it away so suddenly like it I I mean, I see that we're trying to address the issue of like distractions in the classroom, but I also think that it's having a full bell to bell would be like an extreme in that sense. I think that like first off, it's important to see that phones aren't just like distractions. They're like resources that we can

139use as students for um researching information or checking assignments or collaborating with classmates. And I think that they're also really useful like during passing periods to text your friends, like when you want to meet up or something. So, I think that like just having them as tools is like important to take note of and I also think more importantly that like having a strict ban would just ignore like real-life responsibility. In the real world, like you go to college, you go to work, no one's taking away your phone. You have to hold yourself accountable as to like focusing and completing your work. And I think that if we do enforce the ban, yes, you're taking away your like students' phones cuz they don't have a choice, but then when they step out into the real

140world, they're just like faced with issue like I can assume that not having phones during high school would cause them to constantly be on their phones in college because they're like, "Oh, now we have access to our phones." So, I think that it's more valuable to like like have students like learn those skills ourselves and how to like regulate phone use ourselves instead of just like having rules that like strictly like forbid us from using it. Um I also think that there's a safety in terms of communic- or there's an issue in terms of safety and communication. Sometimes students need to contact their parents or like ask for rides or emergencies or just to give important updates. I just like wanted to take a moment of like me personally and I know like a lot

141of my friends, we talk about how like school shootings have become an increasing issue in the become so common in the United States and I think that not having my phone on me like there's there's such a high possibility that would happen to anyone at any school. So, I just think that like it's really scary for me to not have my phone on me. I feel really disconnected if I were ever to like call my parents or if I needed help in something like that. I think a phone ban would prevent me from like having access to that and feeling safe at school. Um and I just think that that would stress out my parents not having contact with me. I think my friends at San Mateo I go to Hillsdale personally and we have

142phone homes. And um they've shown to be really effective in classrooms because our teachers have like a rule where it's like you're expected once you enter the classroom to put your phone away. They don't have to ask you. So we don't necessarily waste time. They don't waste time on instruction telling us to put our phones away. It's just an expected thing. And if you don't put your phones away you're marked absent and no one wants that. So um I think about my friends at San Mateo were telling me how difficult it is to um contact their parents because I I'm pretty sure some of them don't even have access to their computers during school which is such an issue. I don't know how they manage that. But I think just like having Yondr the entire

143day it's so hard to just in general like contact your friends or just do anything really. Um so I think that like we should aim for more of like a balance and in general like a compromise instead of going to like two extremes. I think that we should allow phones during lunch or passing periods and only permit them in class when teachers allow it um for learning purposes. But for the majority of the time when class is in session and teachers are lecturing they should be placed in phone homes which are usually located next to the teachers' desks so that teachers can keep an eye on them. I think that this would like reduce distractions which was like the whole issue and also like teach students to be responsible for themselves and to pay attention

144in class in general because at the end of the day we're impacting our own futures and like our own learning by not paying attention. So, I think that it shouldn't just be about control. I think it should be about like preparing the students for the real world and not just delaying when they have to learn how to manage their own phones at the end of the day. But, thank you. >> Thank you. I'm doing Tim, would you like to say anything? Yeah, um Sarah touched on a lot that I also thought, but I just have a few more notes. So, a few examples of how phones are, in my opinion, like necessary throughout the school day. Um so, we have this thing called BTV in Burlington game and it's just like a news video that

145we watch um a few times a week and they're always putting QR codes in those videos so that we can scan it and go to whatever website um teachers want us like visiting. Um and there's also the Minga app, which is where our student IDs are and like all of my friends use it. Like we don't really bring the physical like ID anywhere. We just have it on our phones. And if we ever wanted to like take pictures of the whiteboard after class if we didn't get to finish like taking all the notes, um that's also another reason. And also just texting parents and friends about like pick up time if you and your parents happen to forget um that it's a minimal day or something. Like it's just important throughout the day to like

146be able to remind your parents of that. And I just feel like the bell-to-bell is very extreme like Sarah said. Um and I know a big concern is losing instructional time due to um like having phones during class. And I think a phone hotel or a phone home is more than enough to just solve that problem. Like um at my school we have those and I just I don't see teachers like having trouble getting kids um paying attention during class because all the phones are up. And I know Trustee Land was saying how um it's like taking up instructional time, like having to put the phone in the pouch and like grabbing it after class. But for my school, like when you walk in class, like you walk in before the bell rings, and you

147just put your phone in there before the bell rings. And then as the bell rings to like signal the end of class, people grab it at that time. So, it's really not taking up any instructional time. And I know um a few of the parents here were saying that um during brunch and lunch, how um students just have their phones have their heads in their phones and aren't really like socializing. Um I see it firsthand that that's not happening. Um all of my friends at least like we're talking the entire time. Like our phones are in our pockets, like socializing, I just don't see that as an issue. And when I look around, I don't really see people just staring at their phones. I see people talking to their friends. And so, yeah, while I

148agree like phones should not be present during class, um I think phone hotels are just the perfect like option, and I don't think that banning it for the entire school day is necessary at all. And yeah. Thank you for Thank you for Thank you both for speaking up and sharing your comments. Um Sure. Um Okay, go. I just wanted to to address a couple of those concerns. Um I I totally hear you about learning how to self-govern your own phone use at this stage because once you get to college, you know, no one's going to be locking up your phone. I totally hear that. At the same time, wouldn't you rather have 4 years of not having to govern yourself, where it's just something that you not you don't have to think about, and um

149it's it's also those 4 years of where your brain is developing uh where it's really vulnerable to um interference with your normal brain development. And then um also there's been uh actually one of our our guest tonight, I think she's not here anymore, but in an email to me she was talking to a college professor and said that the college professors they're having issues as well with students not being able to focus in class. And so I think that um it's just it's also helping you to break that addiction so that you're better prepared when you get to college. That's what I have to say about that. And then as far as the um reasons why you would need to use your phone during the school day, I think that we are very fortunate that

150we have San Mateo High School who have already tested out those cases and troubleshot those um issues and figured out solutions to those problems for those who have emergency needs or who need to communicate with their parents um or who need to communicate with other students or have physical ID cards. I think they've figured that out and we can it's it's not enough of a barrier to not do uh what the gold standard is. So, thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um Okay, I have a couple of thoughts and comments um but I want to thank everybody who spoke again. I want to thank you again everybody who spoke in person and also on online remotely and and also thank you to our student board reps. Um I wanted to mention I know we've mentioned

151a couple of times um the approximate cost is $200,000 annually, but I don't I don't think that's annually. I think that's the initial cost if we were to buy Yondr pouches for all school sites. Um So I guess we can have that clarity but later maybe or now? Annually. Annually. Okay, I thought that the cost to purchase the new say the Yondr pouches for example was approximately $200,000 and some pouches depending upon what company we choose which is obviously up to the district um admin. Some some have a one-year one-year some some have a two-year warranty so then I was thinking the cost would go down in year two and year three. Absolutely if they last. What we've seen so far at least some of the products they don't they don't last so well but

152there might be better products as this advances. So if if products do last longer than the annual costs come down. >> Okay. Thank you for that and I have a couple of other comments. I wanted to comment about I mean when I grew up we didn't have cell phones. We had a our pay we thought the biggest leap forward was having a phone that you can go six feet away from the wall and it was cordless. We thought we made it, right? We have a big phone and and we're just talking on it and we it's not plugged in the wall anymore and we're just like six feet away from it or 10 feet away from it and then it starts to get static-y. We thought we arrived, you know, just like Neil Armstrong arrived

153on the moon. We thought it was really great and then the other thing I wanted to mention was trusty Lynn just like when you leave your car or you leave your house without my phone. The other thing if you're taking a long trip and you're not a driver who plugs in your phone you want to have your phone charger. So I have two Well, now they're grown. They both graduated Cappuccino High School. One of them said one time on a family trip Oh, no. Um Well, we were only going somewhere three hours away but I my one of the biggest things that people are worried about is I can't leave the house unless my phone is fully charged, right? Or you have to have a battery pack or you're you're to be driving in your

154car and you have a cord. So, my daughter said, "My phone is not charged. I don't have a I don't have a battery pack." Well, I didn't have a phone growing up when I was your age. Well, what did you do in the car? We looked out the window. So, I think there's a lot of students and it's not the students uh you know, this this stems from this is a systemic problem just like Trusty Griffin uh said last our last board meeting, it's not all on the students' shoulders. It's on the parents, it's on adults. Uh what even here it was light out cuz the meeting started, you know, at 6:00 for the board members. Um person walking in the crosswalk they're just looking at their phone while they're walking and the light the

155light changed. So, they didn't notice that it was almost, you know, it was yellow and they still started to walk. Well, I'm not going to Nobody here's going to hit somebody in the in the crosswalk, right? But, I didn't even honk because I just that's not the right thing to do either. But, society I think it's it's a global problem. It's a systemic problem. So, um Yeah, I think we need to have more more of that looking out the window when you're driving. Not for the driver, but for the passengers when they're students, um kids. Um so, I wanted to make a couple of comments um I appreciate the fact that the cell phone advisory working group um comprised of various populations of students, parents, site administrators, district staff, family engagement coordinators and they met

156three sessions to review and research and analyze the data and develop their recommendations. Um I reviewed their running agenda and I felt like that was I thought that felt like that was well done. Um I also looked at AB 3216 3216, which is Assembly Bill 3216 Governor Newsom signed into law September 2024 the phone free the phone free school act requiring every district charter school and county office of education to develop a policy limiting the use of smartphones by July 1st, 2026. And of course that that's why we're all here. We've been meeting uh for over a year now discussing what policy we will put forward. Uh it also says AB 3216 also says parents and educators must allow students to use their phones in the case of an emergency or in response to a

157perceived threat of danger or as allowed by a teacher, administrator, doctor, or by the student's individual education plan IEP. And also to Trustee Andradi-Zuniga's point, which is very important, if a student needs um a laptop or uh an iPad or a phone, a a device for communication and and uh for for physical for physical disability, absolutely, right? Um the California Ed Code section Oh, so that I wanted to mention the California Ed Code is what we're all governed by. There's about a thousand public school districts in California. We're we're all mandated to follow the California Ed Code. So California Ed Code section 489017 was amended with these updates outlined in Assembly Bill 3216. So I'm just want to mention how how important it is for us to to actually do what we're doing here and

158having this discussion cuz I think it's important. And it's also important to recognize that um there's going to be times that students need a phone and that's where they can go to their teacher or we have we have wellness centers, so I don't have the answers. Um I know that just like Trustee Jacobson had mentioned that we have um Well, we don't need to recreate recreate the wheel now. I recognize what Trustee Land had mentioned. Every school site might might start out a little bit differently, but we have our amazing San Mateo High School that's already been been following uh in this path of having bell-to-bell band, so I wanted to say that that I I do think um we can make this happen. It's it's it's not going to be easy at the beginning.

159There'll be some challenges. It's going to vary school site to school site what the biggest challenges are. So, um So, I just want to thank everybody for your comments and thank my colleagues for your comments as well. Do I know if anybody else has anything else to say? I just want to say one more thing. I'm sure we'll have um to the student board reps. Um you know, I don't want your experience to be something that's not real or something that's not like enough for us to consider what you're saying. Okay, I know that you said, you know, you made some really good points. Um but I just want to say I want to just acknowledge your experience and I guess ask you to um cuz I know that the student board representatives had written

160us a letter. And, you know, you all made really good points. Um out of the student body I know you said too that you observed that at brunch that people aren't on their phones. So, what like what would be the best scenario for you? Like implement say Okay, say this passes and we have to implement it. So, instead of doing something so drastic at once like you're saying, like what do you think Well, in your opinion, would be a good start? Um I truly think that like the phone pouches. I don't know if every school in district has it, but I think those work really well. Um obviously, I don't know what the teachers are thinking, but I don't really like the teachers that I have. I don't see them like constantly reminding us. Like

161we just do it. I think we have that like mutual respect. Like all the kids at my school just do it. Um and I think if every school if they don't already have it could just use the phone pouches. I think that's enough. Yeah. When you're saying school pouches, do you mean like over the door pouches or do you mean yonder pouches? What do you mean? >> Oh, the um the pouches that are on the wall like next to my teacher. Oh, um I completely agree with Audrey. That's what's been implemented at Burlingame where she goes in Hillsborough. And I think that um I just wanted to say like when we were freshmen, sophomores freshmen and sophomores, like we didn't have any like rules on like where we could put our phones, but I just

162wanted to address um some of the like a point that some of the parents made um whose children are freshmen or sophomores and the issue of like you obviously want your kids to be making friends and like making new connections, but I just wanted to like like ease your mind a little that when um we didn't have any phone pouches or yonders, we had a really easy time making friends and phones were actually never an issue. Um I'd say that in fact, we were more focused on um like sports and like just like talking to people in class more than actual like phone distractions. I think the main distraction was talking to other people and not the phones really. Um but I think that like based off of like our experience of not having Yeah,

163at one point, I think we actually like really prioritized social interaction. I can't speak for everyone. I know that there's some kids who prefer to be on their phones, but I think the majority prefer to um be socializing and like talking to their friends cuz a lot of times you don't even have classes with them. So, I just wanted to like make some of the parents feel better about that. Do you think students in your your your colleagues would be interested in being part of like implementation committees at the school sites that would help you know to to brainstorm this and like do you think people would be interested in doing that? Would that help ease it a little bit? Um yeah, I think if we just include like student perspectives, that would be super

164helpful. So I think I mean I would be interested in it. So I think yeah, other people would be too. Good. Thank you. Great idea, Trustee and listening here. Thanks. It's great. And I I wanted to mention one more thing. I I know I talked about the cell phone advisory group and all the all the different uh groups that were that were part of it, the students and parents and site administration site administrators. But I forgot to mention that um the group well-rounded and and met a few times, but really well well-rounded students, parents, staff. Um and I just I forgot to mention that that advisory group recommended the the bell to bell so as well as a lot of our teachers. So that that's why I would be recommending that's why I would be

165I would be I'm in favor of it, yeah. Thank you. So are there any more comments or if not, I'll entertain a motion. Uh I'll move that we vote on Is this a vote thing? Uh okay, just making sure. I move that we vote on whether or not to adopt the district's recommendation. No? Okay, that we're going to approve the bell to bell ban. >> Po- point of order. Mhm. Yeah, so what what I would recommend that a a trustee does is develop uh a motion that is in the positive of what they want. So you don't need to deny my recommendation. So mine is just a recommendation. So, if you are in favor of a bell-to-bell policy, then I would encourage you to indicate that I make a motion for the district to develop

166uh BP 5131.8 mobile communication devices that uh addresses a bell-to-bell solution. >> just say ditto. Something like that. Yes. I'll second Point of order. No, it's a Whatever you can motion it, I'll second. >> I'll second. And your motion is to approve the bell-to-bell ban. >> My motion is to uh direct the district to develop a policy 30 5131.8 5131.8 Um that will restrict smartphone use and personal device uh or yeah, personal devices uh bell-to-bell. Okay. And Did I hear a second? Second. Okay. So, because this is um I'm going to just going to do a roll call vote for this for this one item. So, Trustee Grippen? I'm going to do a roll call vote because it's it's it's okay. Don't question me. She's like, "I'm the Trustee Grippen." Aye. Thank you, Trustee. And

167Trustee Okay, Trustee And Trustee Senica? Um I'm voting yes with the caveat that we need to have students involved in the implementation. I agree that. I agree, too. Trustee Land? Ditto. I think that's aye. Students involved, okay. Trustee Jacobson? Aye. And I'll vote aye as well, so it passes 5 to 0. And I want to ask our board reps, how do you vote? Vote whatever you think >> Yeah, whatever you want to Vote your conscience, trust me. Go for it. I vote nay, too. >> Okay. All right. Thank you so Thank you for that. I would be interested and I didn't want to get in the way of the motion as it was getting down the tracks to see the implementation plan. >> Yeah. That it you know, and how this is going to roll

168out. And I guess at this point where you're going to work on a policy. I think the implementation plan is separate from the policy. Um you know, cuz the policy is just going to be here's how we do it, but how you intend to roll it out with as an informational item. At our next board meeting, it's likely that I'll bring forward board policy language that mirrors what you saw in the board memo. I gave an example in the board memo of I don't have it in front of me. I think Santa Clara Yeah. unified or union Santa Clara unified. It'll be very similar to that. Maybe not exact, but very similar in board policy language. And then my goal is April 30th board meeting to come forward with what you're basically requesting. What is

169our implementation plan? Because we need significant lead time to order Yeah. the solution, the pouches, whatever that's whatever that is. Um because school districts across the country are doing this right now. And so there may be back order then So we want to get this done as quickly as possible. So likely we'll come to you April 30th with our implementation plan. Thank you. Superintendent Burke, can you also uh just give us maybe like what the different financial impact will be over time? Like what is the best scenario, like the the least expensive to the most? W- Well, just to >> Since you're already here. Yeah. So, you know, assuming there's a lot of assumptions we have to make in that, but let's pretend and this is in the sense of worst-case scenario that we have

170to replace a majority of these pouches annually. What we are seeing in costs are anywhere between $160,000 a year to $250,000 a year. It just depends on the product. I'm sure these products are going to get better. It might be less than that, but it's not just in pouches. It's also in time of employees. Um someone has to people I mean we've I think last year or last I can't remember when we had principal shoe come and present a little bit about added responsibilities for assistant principals, for an office staff, campus safety supervisors, um let alone teachers. Um teachers are going to seen see phones out of Yonders or whatever pouch we decided on doing. So, there's there's a human cost there, too, that I can't quite calculate. Um so Thank you. Okay. Thank you,

171everybody. We're on to the next part of the agenda. This is when the max mass exodus occurs. Now the fun. Yeah. Thank you, everybody. Okay, next we're on we're on Q. Uh construction I don't think we have construction items. Uh we have division of human resource personnel consent agenda. Uh Dr. Black? Yes, we have the uh consent agenda that has the personnel actions, has a uh Delta Dental Retiree Group Renewal Agreement, and an MOU between USF and the district for field experiences of school sites for uh interns. I make a motion to approve the consent to a human resources consent agenda. I'll second. Oh, okay. All right, well you almost had 3 seconds there, so Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Um all in favor? >> Who was the second by? I

172have to write that down. >> do it in writing if you need to. Drawn in writing. Thank you. Okay, so we have a we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. I did the roll call because it was a controversial item. >> Christy Griffin. Mhm. Nothing. Okay. She wants to do another roll call. >> No, we're not going Yeah, she didn't do a roll call. That's not controversial anymore. With 30 public comments, it's good to do a roll call with Uh Next we're on Division of Human Services. Uh Dr. Black? Uh the personnel action addendum, no specific recommendations. Um recommend approval. I make a motion to approve the personnel actions addendum. Second. All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. That's a 5 to 0. And the second item? The second item is

173a MOU between the district and the district's teachers association that Mr. Hawkins worked very hard with uh the union president and it's regarding the class form uh restoration uh transformation projects over the next 3 years and the compensation for teachers to move uh in and out of the classrooms. Okay, any questions? >> Sorry. Okay, I'm just seeing if there's any questions from the audience. If not, then go ahead. Then go and make the motion. I make a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding. I'll second that. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And then item number three? Next item are the agreements that are E-rate subsidized agreements for our WAN, the wide area network, and the internet service provider agreements that we have with AT&T. We'd like

174to renew these and then once approved, the E-rate will reimburse the district for 60% of the cost, which is approximately 510,000 is the total cost, so they'll reimburse 360,000 or something like that. I make a motion to approve the E-rate. So you're seconding, Rankin? Second. Okay, so there's a motion in a second all in favor all in favor? I All right so that passes five to zero. Division of student services we have none division of instructional services we have none division of business services Mr. Hawkins. All right, thank you. Every two years the state approves updated developer fee rates and these are in even years. In order to implement these updated rates the districts across the state are required to perform a developer fee justification study which is included in the next item as well

175as having a public hearing which is the current item. The updated rates for developer fees are $2.15 for residential and $0.35 for these are per square foot rates for commercial and industrial. I'm happy to answer any questions. Okay, I'm going to open the public comment. Open the public hearing I mean. Okay, Ms. Aquino do we have any public comments? In person or online? There are none. >> No, okay with no public comments I'm going to close the public hearing. Okay, then item item two. All right, yeah. This is the approval of the updated developer fee rates if approved tonight those new rates will be going to effect 60 days from today. Are there any board questions or comments? No, okay. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Okay, second. We have a motion and

176a second all in favor? I it passes five to zero. And I'm going to W board operations Mr. Superintendent Booker. Thank you. This evening we've got the 2026-2027 proposed board meeting dates for consideration. Are there any questions from the board? >> For now I can say yes. I make a motion to approve. Trustee Land. I agree. Did you get that in writing? He said he'll approve it. Well We've included two specific board study sessions that we do annually, the fiscal board study session and the D lack board study session. That obviously this calendar does does not include any additional study sessions that the board may or may not request. We'll add those later. >> So again I'll make the motion to approve. >> We have a motion? I agree. We have Yep. Can I say

177something before you make your motion? Can we also put in the motion that they are subject to change if needed, right? That goes without saying it. You can put that in the motion, but it to Trustee Land's point, all that takes is is a board decision to change meetings. Right. But we have to vote on that too, right? Later down the road, yes. >> put on later on the road. Okay. Okay. Okay. But thank you for doing this so we have an advanced notice and I'll make sure I inform. Yeah, so we and we have a motion and a second, right? Yeah. Second, okay. So all in favor? I. I. Okay. Passes five to zero. And we have second item. Yeah. We have two W2 and W3. W2 are the January 2026 board policy updates

178and I'll just say February 2026 updates part one. And this is typical for a first reading then in you know, the board Sorry, excuse me. The district is recommending that we move to consent for our next meeting. Perfect. Sure. Sounds good. Okay, that sounds great. Okay, and lastly future board agenda items. Do any trustees want to have a future board >> Can I say something about that? So I'd like to agendize the special education study session for June. for June There you go. So can we look at our calendars? And then send dates to Randall? I can yes or I can put it in a weekly with some proposals. Okay. Oh, that's great. >> you know what you think. That might work better. Yeah, yeah. That might work better. Okay, please. And and trusty Andrades

179Zuniga, you're you're suggesting June, the month of June? Yeah. >> Okay. >> Well, Can we just do early June? >> Yeah, we have too much going on from now on. At least the first week of June cuz then I can send the graduations and promotions and stuff for me. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. And anybody else? Any other items? for future board Okay. All right. Well, thank you everybody. This was a very great meeting and I'm going to adjourn the meeting at 9:40.