001out an agenda item or during the public comment section at the beginning of the agenda, please fill out a request to address the board form and submit it to the secretary. This form should be given to the secretary before the agenda item begins. If you are 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 boards smuhsd.org. That's boardshd.org. Please note that the comments are limited to three minutes. The board president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public
002comment depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. I will call on in-person's comments first and um then we will move to Zoom. Uh David Kristofferson, I believe you're a public comment. Before you start the clock, can I just ask a question about the uh the time? I worked for several hours. This is a very serious topic and I managed to get it down to about 3 minutes and 24 seconds, but I'm worried I'm going to overwhelm your translator going through it at that speed. This is the total of my material. Can I read it at a leisurely voice or do I need to rush through it? Well, you know, you had told me that before we discussed and I think I have leeway, but now that you've put it
003out there for public disclosure, um, do the best you can. Okay. Because we we do have a package. No, I know. I realize that. Okay. My name is David Kristofferson. Trustees Griffin and Lan were here in March 2019 when we discussed concerns about science curriculum changes. I have been back in person for only one board meeting since the pandemic. For those who don't know me, I'm a retired scientist, teacher, and tutor who writes the education blog edissueissues.com, which many parents in this community have read. There has been controversy over the district's ethnic studies program and changes to the history framework. The Sanonteo Daily Journal read an article on March 7th about a proposal to censure Trustee Jacobson. After reading it and listening to her comments at the Israeli American Action Network meeting, I sent an
004email to the board against the censure proposal. I am not going to repeat those comments here, but instead make a general observation, which unfortunately I don't have enough time to put together all the details supporting these conclusions. Public education is obviously funded by taxes from both Democrats and Republicans. It is a big mistake to politicize public education. I was an anti-war demonstrator in college, a peacecore teacher afterwards, and know know the excitement of working to make the world a better place. I am sure that many teachers who study in programs like the social justice program at Stanford feel that calling too and believe that they are bending the arc of history toward justice. As teachers, however, it is our job to teach students how to think, not sway them to our view of the world.
005This is why subjects such as math and science, which we will discuss later tonight, are so important. They represent non-partisan methods of thought that have played a critical role in pulling humanity out of superstition and advancing human welfare. It pained me when watching the ethnic studies meeting video recently that reported uh repeated comments from both teachers and students emphasized how ethnic studies was far more engaging than other classes. Our country is experiencing what happens when people are engaged and constantly fighting for their side. It is very easy to open doors of division. It is much harder to close them, foster hope, and bring people together. The road to division and hatred leads to Gaza, Syria, and Ukraine. It was not the path that Nelson Mandela chose after he was released from years in prison. In
006my peacecore country of Malaysia, over 600 people died in ethnic violence between Malays and Chinese on May 13th, 1969. Four years earlier in nearby Indonesia, a half million people died in similar ethnic violence and an even higher number in Rwanda in 1994. Humanity must make every effort to heal, not inflame our divisions if we are to survive. This book, The World, a family history of humanity by Simon Montafuri was one of the Economist magazine's top books of 2022. It tells the stories since the beginning of civilization of dynastic families on every continent except Antarctica, mentioning many powerful women as well as men. It contains sorted detail you will never learn in high school, nor possibly even in college classes. The book illuminates the dark underbelly of humanity, awakened by unbridled power, not by skin color
007nor gender. And now, because politicians have exploited divisions in our country, and our citizens have either forgotten or have not been taught American founding principles, excessive power is being handled to one single man. Let us not forget an important lesson from over 2,000 years ago. Plato in his republic counseledled that justice is attained by training the mind to control the passions not by inflaming them. Thank you. Okay. Um are there any online comments? There are none. Okay. Uh communications to the board of trustees, Superintendent Booker. Okay. Uh recognition All right, this evening we have Dr. Shman uh presenting on our outstanding AVID senior standouts. So, I'm going to hand it off to Dr. Shman. You I will have some people joining me in a minute. Good evening, board of trustees, district leadership, and community members.
008It's always a privilege to be here to celebrate some of our most outstanding AVID seniors. And on behalf of our AVID team, we want to thank you for your consistent and unwavering support of AVID. It's our goal to continue to expand AVID so that all of our students can benefit from it. Before I ask each of our AVID teachers joining us tonight to introduce their site's outstanding senior, I did want to take the opportunity to publicly acknowledge and thank all of the AVID elective teachers and our four site coordinators at our AVID schools. Aragon, Berlingame, Cappuccino, and San Mateo. They pour their hearts and souls into this work and you can see it in the data packet provided to you that our program is achieving outstanding results for our students. The majority of who are
009BIPAC and almost a third who are or were multilingual learners at some point. These students just needed a little more support in learning about what it takes to be college and career ready, and AVID provided that support. Our program would not produce the outstanding students you are going to get to meet tonight without them. I'd also like to thank and acknowledge the students families for supporting their students college and career dreams and their success in AVID throughout the years. So I'd like to um ask each of our AVID teachers to present their AVID senior standouts. We're going to go in alphabetical order. So Aragon is first. Good evening. Um, I'm here on behalf of our 42 wonderful avid seniors at Aragon High School. Um, all of which are standouts in their own way. Um, however,
010um, this was not just my choice. Sam was selected by his peers. We we do a lot of voting in our AVID uh, cohort. We've been together, most of us, for four years, all four years with me. Um, and overwhelmingly, um, this cohort asked, uh, selected Sam to represent their class. Um, because, well, he's he's amazing. I mean, you can see all of his hard work, everything that he has done over the past four years. And I'm so proud of Sam for all of his accomplishment in um in these four years at Aragon High School. He's been an outstanding student, always working really hard, going above and beyond. And honestly, he probably could have left AVID and put in another, you know, class and would have been fine. But I am so grateful that you
011stayed with us because you have been a pillar of our cohort. Um, your humor helps to strengthen our community. Um you've helped your peers academically in tutorial and many of them have um raised their grades because of your help. Um you have been a shoulder for your peers to lean on uh whenever your AVID family needed you. So I thank Sam for all of his contributions to his Avid family and your contributions will live in our hearts forever. But now I want to turn it over to Sam to say a few words. A thank you so much for that. So um hi as you all know uh my name is Sam right um I'm speaking here today because after four years of taking AVID I was chosen by my peers to create a speech on
012behalf of the AVID program right and uh a question you might have is if AVID is worth spending on it does it help the school in any way and my answer to this question is yes simply because of the skills and lessons that I've learned my personal favorite lesson I've learned through taking AVID was the college admissions process. It's a it's a tough process, right? But with AVID, Miss Chver uh taught me various things on my college adventures where whether it be finding out if a school is test blind or how to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. FAFSA is the reason the answer to that by the way. So, so whether it be the skills we learn or the college admissions process, um I hope AVID is a program that schools
013can continue to have. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, President Griffin, members of the board, Superintendent Booker, and District Cabinet. My name is Michael Zozos and I'm the BHS AVID site coordinator and this is Emily. Tonight we gather to celebrate the embodiment of the AVID spirit and it is with immense pride and honor that I stand before you to recognize Emily Escalante Mendes as this year's Berlingame High School AVID seniors stand out. Emily is the very definition of perseverance and resilience and heart. As a first generation college student, she has not only navigated the challenges of high school, but has done so with unwavering determination and a clear sense of purpose. Her journey at BHS has been marked by grit, quiet strength, and a steadfast commitment to personal and academic growth. Qualities that exemplify what
014it truly means to be an AVID student. In every space she's entered, Emily has brought with her a thoughtful mind and an earnest desire to grow, not just for herself, but for the betterment of those around her. Whether she was tackling rigorous coursework or learning to become a strong advocate for herself, she approached each challenge with maturity, courage, and a growth mindset. What makes Emily truly remarkable is the evolution of her voice. When I first met her, she carried herself with a quiet confidence. Over time, that confidence blossomed into leadership. Today, she not only speaks up with clarity and purpose, but leads with conviction. She has emerged as a trusted voice in her Avid classroom and a respected role model on campus, someone her peers admire and others naturally look to for support. Beyond the
015classroom, Emily has demonstrated a deep sense of community and service. Through her involvement in Scouts of America and 4, and through the many hours that she has dedicated to volunteering, Emily has consistently sought ways to make a difference. Her compassion for others and for animals reveals a heart focused on creating meaningful impact. There was a time when Emily questioned whether a four-year college experience would be within reach right after high school. But in true AVID fashion, she persevered, doubled down on her goals, and rose to the challenge. That pivotal shift is a testament to her strength, her self-awareness, and her unstoppable spirit. Emily, your ambition serves as an inspiration to us all, and your willingness to dream big reminds us that with hard work, grit, perseverance, and a little individual determination, anything is possible. This
016fall, Emily will attend Chico State where she will major in prevet animal science. Emily, congratulations. We are so proud of all of your accomplishments. Hello everyone. I'm uh my name is Alan Manalo. I'm the AVID co-cordinator at Cappuccino High School and I'm here to honor our AVID senior standout, Santino Kosen. Um, Santino is a student who I greatly appreciate because our particular AVID cohort um, went through a lot of ups and downs in terms of turnover the past few years. Santino was a student who was an AVID student his freshman year, ended up leaving the program sophomore year, but found his way back to us for junior and senior year. Some of the words that some of my colleagues have used um, in their speeches were family and community. And one of the reasons why
017I wanted to honor Santino is because of what he brings to our community. When our um when our AVID numbers weren't looking as great as they could, he was able to convince some of his friends to join our AVID community and help rebuild our program for his senior year. Um Santino is a two sport um two sport athlete. He had actually just bust here from Seoia. And while um while handling his responsibilities as a two sport athlete, he's a he has maintained a 4.25 weighted GPA. Um he's a church volunteer on Sundays and right now he is still undecided between San Jose State and UC Riverside. Um Santino, I wanted to honor you. Thank you for your work with AVID. Um Hello. Um, the next slide is our Thank you. Hi, I'm Marne Malone from
018Sonteo High School and I'm here to talk about David Sanchez, um, our standout senior. I love to speak highly about our um, our AVID students, but I reached out to his current and former teachers as well. so that they could have the opportunity and I did a mashup of what they have said. Uh so his teachers over the years have this to say about David. Love David. He is the perfect choice for the avid standout student. He is creative, focused and hardworking. He is usually quiet in class, but when it comes time to share his ideas, he is eloquent and thoughtfully expresses himself. He is a scholar in the traditional sense of the word. With a hermit's dedication and a vocation-like mindset, he curiously examines the world and seeks to expand his understanding of its
019complex interconnections. His academic disposition will bring him great individual success and simultaneously push our society forward. David is so bright. He always makes great observations about what we read, asks important questions that not only show his deep interest, but also a nuanced understanding of the topic. More than that, David is a wonderful person. He is kind, compassionate, and so witty. He's just the best. Such a humble and hardworking guy, just an ideal student to work with. He embodies the dedication to his education, kindness, and ter determination we want in all of our ADVID students. To have played a part in his development has been a true honor. His teachers are all truly proud of what David has accomplished and know at UC Davis he will continue to do great things. Congratulations. want to congratulate all
020the I was looking at that there's tremendous accomplishments. Boy, it's uh you know you my if I had my hat on, I'd take it off to you. Okay, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. It's going to be kind of interesting. Um, I have speakers on two items and uh our wisdom, we've adopted the agenda. I'm not going to try to unadopt it and move it around and and whatever, but I'm going to um call on the public. Is there a way we can comment on that? You did a good job. Do you mind if we say something? Yeah. Go ahead. I before you leave, I just want to say I just want to say I am a strong advocate of AVID uh BIS thanks to the help of Samia and Mr. Zozos.
021We have it at our schools, sixth grade, 7th grade. We've had a field trip to BHS. We are inspired by you and I'm hoping that at BIS we can bring a next generation of AVID over to your all to the schools. Thank you so much, Felicia Dave. Thank you, Pelisi Dave. Congratulations to everybody. Um and especially, you know, families too, moms, dads, um siblings. Um it's, you know, it takes a village, but congratulations, students. Man, we have amazing students. So, you're inspiring. You are inspiring. Thank you. I want to say congratulations as well to everybody. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to consent agenda. We have speakers and I'm going to ask the speakers speak before we actually take action. And we're going to start with the comments regarding um P10 uh which
022is the proclamation and then we're going to ask the speakers on I this is on item 13 the single use bottles and and so we'll have all the speakers speak uh and then we'll take action on the uh on the agenda. the item as presented. Karen or Reese. Hi. Uh my name is Sunshine or Karen. Uh I am here as an incoming parent to the district and also as a Jewish grassroots representative. I want to thank you first for the opportunity to speak in front of you board um and also district representative. I am here to thank the district superintendent Booker and also Miss Chalkley um director of communications for working with our students from the Jewish clubs in the district to help shape the proclamation for the Jewish Heritage Month. Such a great educational
023moment where we can really get our kids involved in shaping our future in the district when we let them advocate for themselves. I love that. Um, and I'm especially proud to stand here today since today is actually Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. And my grandmother survived Ashwitz. She was in the gas chambers. Um, they ran out of gas and then three days later Ashwitz was freed with the help of of this wonderful country. And that's how I can stand here in front of you. Um, and I'm thankful for what the US did for my grandma and the ability for me to stand here as an American citizen, as a Jewish American citizen. And thank you for having this proclamations and working with the students. So, thank you also students for doing that. Um, and I
024think um, you're the bridge for a brighter future. Thank you. Thank you, Emtt Cler. Hi, and thank you for letting me speak here tonight. I'm the uh co-president of the Berlinger Game Jewish Cultural and Heritage Club. I'm a senior at Berling Game High School. So, I'd first like to thank you all for helping to make my three years here at Berlingame uh really incredible. Um I say three years because I actually moved here my sophomore year from Los Angeles. um where I was very involved in my Jewish community and I really wanted to continue that here in the Sanonteo district and when I first actually moved to Berling game we were met with lots of anti-semitism it was very scary there were swastikas regularly there were posters of Adolf Hitler regularly and that was very
025scary that was something that made me terrified to go to school but luckily through working with members of the district Dr. Fong who is an incredible resource. Uh, Superintendent Booker as well. I believe you actually met with my father who is you were very incredible in that process. I just want to say thank you for all of your work in combating anti-semitism which is at all-time high right now. Um, the Jewish community in my opinion is a huge champion of American values and the values of liberalism and democracy. And I really would like to appreciate this time of uh recognizing our contributions to American society. I think that, you know, the Jewish American community really wants to be this contributor of our values, which I think go hand in hand. Um, so again, thank you
026for letting me speak tonight. I'm very honored to be a Berling game soon to be Berling game graduate a soon to be Berling game Jewish graduate. So thank you for all of the work and one of my favorite Jewish quotes uh who which has been championed by one of my Jewish icons Ruth Bader Ginsburg Cedric Turd justice justice you shall pursue um it basically means that when there's an issue that we must confront we must take that opportunity to confront it. So thank you all and I hope that you continue to fight and work with the Jewish community. So, thank you. Thank you, Brody Freedberg. Hi, I'm Brody Friedberg, an 11th grade student at Aragon High School. I also serve as the president of the Aragon High School Shalom Club, which is our Jewish cultural
027club for students on campus. First, I'd like to commend the board of trustees and superintendent Booker for allowing Jewish student leaders to help edit this year's Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation. This is especially critical given the dynamic climate around anti-semitism that we experience as teenagers in the Bay Area. I'm truly grateful that we could contribute to the proclamation and voice our ideas, and I believe that hearing student voices is a vital step in passing successful and effective legislation. At the same time, I regret that the board of trustees is not doing more to protect its Jewish students. The Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation is not quite enough. It is a proclamation that is traditionally passed every year by the board and functionally achieves not much. I've personally experienced anti-semitism at Aragon High School and I've
028heard anecdotes from students across the Santo Union High School District about the anti-semitism they have continually faced. They have encountered this hate from their instructors and from their peers on classroom walls and painted onto banners and in bathrooms. It is evidently not an isolated issue. These stories have also uncovered a bit of a pattern of inaction at the hands of schools. Jewish advocacy organizations and individuals have constantly pushed local governments, including the Sanato Union High School District, to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Allianc's definition of anti-semitism. Explicitly defining anti-semitism and spreading this message in all relevant communications would be a good first step toward protecting our Jewish students. And especially with Yom Hashawa, the Jewish People's Holocaust Remembrance Day having been today, I encourage you to continue to hear the experiences of actual students in
029our schools and to legislate on behalf of us in the memory of all six million people who experienced the oldest form of hate, anti-semitism, and were not saved. I encourage you to continue to listen and legislate in order to guarantee our protection based on our religion and ethnicity as Title 9 should already demand. I'm always happy to be a resource if you would like help organizing students or drafting legislation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Joshua Parker. My name is Josh Parker. I'm a a local pediatrician and a member of Congregation Beth Jacob in Redwood City. It's a dangerous time in America right now for many of us. There are people in power who see others and they see us as other and they don't like it. They see us who have different heritage, different
030religion, different color and they want to silence us. They see people who've come to America and they want us silenced and they want us gone. And this frightens me. But I do have hope and I see the young people in this room who will be adults very soon. And I hear dissatisfaction which is wonderful. And thanks to their pushing, we have Jewish American Heritage Month and we have AAPI Heritage Month. And that's a fact. So to the students who did this, thank you for giving me hope and thank you for making me proud to be American and thank you for representing us well here in San Monteo County. Thanks. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to comments regarding uh I13. Uh, Cindy Chen, this is the single. Oh, sorry. High five. Good evening
031board members and superintendent Booker. I hope all of you are doing well. My name is Sydney Chen and I'm a senior at Berling Game High School. And my name is Matthew Lao. I'm a senior at Aragon High School, too. We are speaking today on behalf of the San Mateo Yuyun High School District Sustainability Committee, a group of students, teachers, administrators, and staff who care deeply about making our campuses more sustainable, especially as this month is Earth Month. We want to begin by thanking you for your for your continued commitment to environmental responsibility. In 2021, this district made an important statement by declaring a climate emergency and pledging to take meaningful steps towards sustainability. We see this climate emergency declaration as not just a one-time commitment, but rather a framework and a sense of responsibility to
032continue enacting environmental policies and initiatives to protect our planet. We see that commitment reflected in actions already taken, and we're here today to build on that progress together. We as a students of student representatives of the district sustainability committee are here today to urge the board the Santo unified high school district board of supervisor or board of trustees to end the sale of single-use plastic water bottles worldwide. We throw away 500 billion plastic water bottles every single year. And when there are countless water bottles stuffed into trash bins every single day at all our campuses, that is when action is needed to take action to mitigate plastic waste. To produce a single plastic bottle, it takes 1.4 gall of water and about 3.95 million jewels of energy. And while companies claim that plastic bottles can
033easily be recycled, only about 79% well about 79% of plastic bottles end up in our landfills. Limiting our plastic use is the first place is the first step to the best solution. And as a district, we have the opportunity to be a part of this change. Since launching launching our petition to ban plastic water bottles, we've created a sort of energized school community and more than 1,250 verified district students, staff, and community members have signed our petition in support of this effort. That's a powerful message showing that our school communities care deeply about taking action to eliminate the sale of plastic water bottles. In my high school experience, I've seen my fair share of plastic waste. Every day during lunch, I'm constantly reminded of the massive amounts of plastic my school generates. It is truly
034frightening. It is a common occurrence to see hundreds of plastic containers and bottles in our waste bins, left on tables after lunch, and littered on the ground for seagulls to snatch up. All of this plastic waste is created in just one day. And it has made me think about how much plastic my school generates in a week or in a month or as an entire district. Many other students and faculty members have expressed their concerns about our school's plastic waste generation. And many feel as if selling plastic bottles is not necessary. Stopping the sale of plastic bottles is a simple yet profound step towards fulfilling our district's sustainability commitment. With all of our campuses providing filtered water stations for students to use, as well as students bringing their own reusable bottles, banning the sale is
035almost intuitive. Additionally, we will have other more sustainable ways the district can sell water to students and faculty. Aluminum cans are a great alternative as students can reuse and recycle them as needed. Exactly one year ago today, I was here speaking behind this very podium, urging to end the end the usage of plastic foodware in our district. Together with the district sustainability committee, we were able to take small yet meaningful actions to eliminate the plastic usage with condiment dispensers, reusable utensils, and tri bins. And today we urge you the district board of trustees to end the sale of plastic water bottles in our district. Last year I learned about implementing climate policy and how it doesn't just come with time, but it also comes with working people who know the district well in order to
036implement this policy. So since last year, despite our plastic food ride regulation not being officially passed, I joined the district sustainability committee and I've worked with staff and students in reducing our plastic usage. And throughout this year, with time, collaboration, and a relentless commitment, we have created a district-wide coalition and advocating to end the sale of plastic bottle water bottles. So here we are. Here we are today along with Sydney and we are pleading the same very message to remove the plastics plaguing our campuses. We are paving a movement for plastic free campuses in our district and it all starts with your call to do so. Thank you so much for your time and we look forward to working with you to create a sustainable future for all of us. Thank you. Thank you. Are
037there any online comments? There are none. Okay, Trusty Land. Um, I wanted to talk about 13 um which is the SIPASS. I again I just want to acknowledge everyone who made those wonderful statements and I I applaud you for your for your comments and your and your words and I support them. Um I just wanted to make a mental note about the SIPAS. Usually we talk about these very important documents that were passed by site councils and formulated by principles and I just want to acknowledge all the energy that goes into these passage of these things these documents. Um it takes a lot of time and there's a lot of effort that goes into these. So I just want to acknowledge it even though it's on the consent agenda. Uh I'm not going to remove
038it but uh I think it's very important that we acknowledge that all the work that has gone in by the the the communities at each of the at each of the high schools. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion on the cons. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. How do we vote? I I student board I Okay, it passes unanimously. Okay, now we're moving on to uh special reports and appearances. Take it away. All right, good evening. Um, we're really excited to be here to speak about mathematics in Sonteo Union High School District. We have a whole cadre of individuals. Some of our amazing um, math department chairs are here, math teachers, as well as our county office to um, provide
039this presentation. So, I'm really just going to launch it and then we're going to hand it off to some of um, these folks here. So, we're going to talk a bit about our programming. Um, our county office um collaborators are here to talk about the California Math Framework and give some background there. We have teachers from four of our schools who are going to talk about some of the math intervention task force work they've been up to. And then there are two courses of study that um individuals from those schools are going to talk about. And then we'll have some time for some questions and discussions. And we just want to really thank the board for um asking for a presentation on math because um these are some of our hardest working teachers and obviously
040a really important content area that um is good to have some discussion on. So I'm going to pass it over to Mr. Simmons and he's going to get us started here. So I'm just going to do a quick brief uh overview of our pathways and a couple key data points that we're tracking as a district. Uh so this slide reflects the general course sequences across the district and certainly there are a few variations um across the sites. This chart outlines the basic set of courses and the sequence from top to bottom of each chart. Um just to remind you that uh cappuccino has a different pathway because of their affiliation with the international balorate program uh and their courses are aligned with the international integrated math pathway um and which integrates traditional course content that's
041outlined on the lefth hand side. So algebra and and geometry and those subjects are integrated into the international math pathway. So just wanted to make sure you understood why we have two separate math pathways in the district broadly speaking. Um so this slide outlines are kind of four there's I'm going to talk about five data points and these are four of those five. Um and these four core math goals as a district are and the outcomes that sort of outline them that are outlined therein and these are really for the class of 2024 and the class of 2025 are current seniors and last year's seniors. Um so the first one and I'm sort of just going to go from the top and go in a in a in clockwise order here. So students passing algebra
042or math one, right? That's sort of our critical first step in the process. Um on the first try uh with a C minus or better so that they're on track for UC eligibility. So 67% of our students are in the class of 2024 achieve that outcome. The next uh sort of second step, right, is that we would want students passing algebra 2 on the first try so that they maintain their UC eligibility. That's sort of the last step on the on the the minimum requirements of UC u and that's again getting a C minus or better. So there the reason why our our percentage of passing classes is higher right in both of these but those are with D's and so we really want to make sure we're sort of tracking to the to UC
043eligibility. So most students end up actually passing these classes but we're really talking about UC eligibility. So that's why it's a little bit nuanced. The third percentage, and this is at the bottom there, is is um student as students who meet or exceed the standards on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, the CAST test, right? That's our annual test that we give once in high school. As you can see, 46% of students accomplish that goal in the among the class of 2025. So, this this is the one data point that's sort of out of line with the others. It's really just actually this year's current seniors because that's the most recent data about about the CASP assessment among our students. And then finally on the on the left hand side there my my
044left um uh we closely track the extent to which our students meet the minimum requirements for UCCCSU eligibility. This is one of seven components of eligibility. Right? The A to G requirements. That's the seven. Um but it's the one that often defines whether or not our students are eligible because that number right there that 72% is just about the percent of overall UCCCSU eligibility. So in general, math is one of the key uh determiners of students UCCCSU eligibility. Um this second and final data slide outlines the outcomes of the first administration of our new math assessment, the NWA uh MAP assessment. Um as outlined in the memo that accomp accompanies this item, we administered this assessment to our first two core courses in math, algebra 1, math 1, and geometry and math 2. And as
045indicated on this slide, 65% of students in algebra 1 have a solid handle on the key concepts relative to their peers on the in the broader sample of test takers. Meanwhile, students taking geometry did even better with 75% of them scoring in the two uh quintiles of all test takers taking the map. Um however, right, so there's a sort of flip side to this, right? Uh the flip side is that we simultaneously see about 35% of our students scoring below average on the assessment and this was disproportionately comprised of our historically underserved student populations. Unfortunately, as predicted, um we will spend the rest of this presentation discussing the inequities highlighted by these five key data points and things that we're doing to try to address them. Um that discussion the discussion of of sort of
046what we're doing is actually going to is going to is going to happen now by but we're going to actually go up a level of the system to understand how our curriculum and instruction in math is connected to the state's math instructional framework. The most recent having been adopted in 2023. We've asked our colleagues Kim Bambau, the math coordinator, and Jared Perllo, uh, executive director of research and systems planning from the county office of education to assist us with this portion of the presentation to help you and the public better understand this new math frame, relatively new math framework. So, Kim and Jared, and I think they're going to have you do a little math. There's no there's no test though, so don't worry. There might be a test. Good, good evening, Board President Griffin
047and members of the board. Um, thank you to the, uh, district administration for inviting me. Um, I've worked with many of you in some of the different roles I've had, and tonight I get to wear my math professor hat, which might be my favorite hat. Uh, especially because we get to do some math. Um, and this is really just to sort of get us thinking about some of the issues that, uh, will really be illustrated in the framework and the and the standards, but but getting a sense of what it actually means in content is is oftentimes helpful. So, we'll take a trip from Tracy to Bakersfield. Um, I always tell people we can assume an ideal trip. We're not stopping at Pup Anderson. We're not waiting for trucks to pass each other. We can
048go as however we want. Um, and so we would ask students to describe this trip um in a and they could do it how they want at first, like do it in a story, do it in a table, make a graph. We're going to eventually steer them towards making a graph, but that's something that we can sort of provide support with as they're forming their ideas. And but the big thing is what choices are you able to make? If we frame the question in this way, how are you deciding to take your trip and think about the pieces that need to go together in order to make that trip? And so after we set students in groups and they argue with each other and they kind of make their choices and some of them we
049find out that their parents drive way too fast. Um we ask everybody to plot their charts on on on a single graph. And so this is some work that I've had from students in the past but different groups come up with different ideas. And so the big question is after everybody puts it up here I ask who's correct? Who has the right answer? And really all of them up here are correct. Um so the question is what choices did each group make? And we can sort of backward figure out like who was driving at which speed and and then we ask what sticks out and a lot of students might say well why is that one going the other direction? And they would ask that of each other and they would respond well when I
050punch it into Google it tells me 225 miles to go and it counts down. So, I'm going to start at 225 and count it down. It's like, oh, that that's really interesting. That is how our GPS works, isn't it? I have another student that might ask, why does that one chart have an arrow at the top? And the group might say, well, graphs always have those little arrows. And we say like, well, is that really appropriate here? Are we are we stopping at Bakersfield or are we going through Bakersfield? And I I really bring that up because while these tasks oftentimes we talk about good tasks having lots and lots of right answers, it doesn't mean that there are no wrong answers. And there are certainly things that we can say are are maybe not
051appropriate in certain context. And we want to be really critical about the choices that we make and and what they actually mean when we put these down. and and having those conversations with students and even better the students having those conversations with each other really illustrates um what it means to have these charts and and every piece of the graph. So the key ideas of a task like this is that we really want to start with connections to student experience and move towards abstraction. It's a little bit different than the way things have been done in the past uh where we might think oh we want to keep things simple. we're going to start with like this is the equation of a line and and just we're not going to complicate it. But it's really
052hard to understand deeply what that actually means. So if we start with a connection to that student experience and then move towards abstraction, they have a lot of things they can connect to um and really attach meaning to. Um and Kim will talk more about this later. It's important that it does actually connect to student experience. Um, this task works great with the students that I taught over in the East Bay who have lots of experience driving down five. I wouldn't use a task like this when I was teaching in New Orleans where most of my students never left the city. So, we do need to make sure that we know our students and are actually connecting to their experience. Um, we do want to think critically about those choices and I talked about the
053conversations that happened between students and and um really digging into like why did you do this and is this appropriate to do at this time and ultimately we want these open-ended tasks that really bridge across lots of ideas at the same time and that's called out in the current framework and this sort of big ideas. You know, math is certainly very interconnected. um it's it's a continuum of things and the way that more that we can connect them together the smoother the student experience is going to be as they progress through the curriculum and and really the thing that's great about this is that I'm already anticipating the future in this stuff. Um you know the whole are we counting down or counting up? We're already starting to introduce the idea the concept of vector
054versus scalar quantities um and and having signed velocity like negative velocity versus positive speed. I don't use those words, but we're already introducing this idea. We're talking about the com the connection of slope, rate of change, the uh direction of the line, and and we're really introducing that the angle of that line or or the slope or the actual curve it of the position graph is going to be the velocity, which is already introducing key ideas in calculus, although again, I'm not going to explicitly call this out, but we're we're really laying the foundation for where we're going. Um, and if I have a group that is like, "Oh, I'm done. I'm I'm good." We're like, "All right, so instead of driving to Bakersfield, how about you're going to meet your friend somewhere like around
055Kolinga." Um, and and figure out, you know, if you're driving at different spots and and that introduces already the idea of the systems of equation things, which, you know, not an algebra 1 standard. It's really an algebra 2 sort of concept um to have this like complex system of equation stuff entered. But we're going to introduce these ideas and start um getting getting students um sort of aware of them, which is a great thing about tasks that have this high ceiling that we can sort of introduce things as as students start to move through it. So um with all those sort of things, hopefully that helps you connect um what we're really talking about with some of the ideas in the standards and frameworks to an actual problem as I hand it over to my
056colleague Kim. Okay, thanks Jared. So, I'm going to briefly um um go over the framework and as I'm doing that, you can make connections to that problem that you just did with Jared and where you see it showing up here. So, the state board of education adopted the common core state standards for mathematics in 2010 and then California approved revised standards in 2013. On the right, you see the frameworks which were adopted. The first set of frameworks that were aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics were adopted in November of 2013 and our most current framework was just adopted in July of 2023. The promise of the Common Core State Standards is to prepare each and every student to be college and career ready. And there are really two unique things about the
057Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. There's these two components. And first are these standards for mathematical practice which are a set of eight practices that apply across all grade levels in kindergarten through high school. And these practices describe ways students should think, reason and engage in mathematics to develop deep, flexible and lasting understanding. The second component are the standards for or the mathematical content standards which is outlines what students should know, understand and be able to do at the end of each grade level and course. So right here you can see the standards uh for mathematical practices and these are the eight common practices again that are common across all grade levels and it begins with this statement mathematically proficient students because that is are the beha these are the behaviors that we want students
058to engage in and how mathematicians think and work. Here we have the domains in kindergarten through 8th grade. These are the math domains and in high school the conceptual categories. And you can see here how the domains build on each other from grade to grade. And the color coding can help you see those connections across grade spans all the way through high school. In 2023, the mathematics framework offers research-based guidance for implementing standards through curriculum and instruction practices grounded in best practices. It reflects the idea that mathematics, much like art and culture, provides opportunities to explore beautiful ideas and view the world in new ways as expressed in this quote by Francis Sue. This framework aims to help students become confident, capable, and engaged users of mathematics, fostering deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Equity in
059the framework means all students, regardless of background or ability, deserve access to highquality mathematics instruction. It emphasizes that achievement is built through engagement and that students cultural backgrounds and experiences are valuable resources for learning. Here are the chapters of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practices. You can find them on the California Department of Education website. And they are finally just currently gone into print ready form, which is super exciting because we've been waiting like two years for this. Um so, um they're halfway done with that. Um and so you might be asking, well, we have a new framework. So, what has stayed the same and what has changed? The common core standards remain the same. So both the content standards and the standards for mathematical practice. What has changed is the focus on
060helping students understand why they are learning mathematics to and ensuring the content is both coherent and rigorous. So the first change highlighted on this slide on the right is the drivers of investigation. And that explains why we learn mathematics. It motivates students by showing them that mathematics helps them make sense of the world, predict outcomes and impact the future. The second change there is the content connections which which describes what students are learning. For example, reasoning with data, exploring changing quantities, taking holes apart, putting parts together, and discovering shapes in space. And then the final um change is the big ideas where content standards are grouped together to highlight key mathematical concepts for each grade or course. So here you have the five components for equitable and engaging teaching for all students. These components support
061instructional leadership and mathematics and are key for teachers, coaches, administrators and support staff at all levels. So we start with component one and by teaching through big ideas. This helps reveal important concepts and their connections. This approach allows teachers to build on ideas that emerge from students during instruction, draw out students understandings, and guide the class as a whole to shape mathematical ideas into coherent connected knowledge. Component two advocates for the use of open tasks to engage students in meaningful mathematical experiences, visual, physical, and numerical that use multiple forms of representation and expression. Component three discusses teaching for social justice in two ways. So first, it creates opportunities for students to see themselves and others from all backgrounds as capable and successful mathematicians. And two, it empowers students with tools to explore inequities and address
062important issues in their lives and communities through mathematics. Component four encourages students to ask mathematical questions driven by curiosity and wonder. And while it is vital, it is often overlooked. And these questions sparked by intrigue help deepen engagement and understanding. And then component five and the reasoning and justifying are at the core of doing and learning mathematics and enables students to see math as a tool for exploring and making sense of their world rather than than just a set of rules. So you can see elements of each of these components in the task you just worked on with Jared. And so in conclusion, the California Math Framework offers a comprehensive vision for math education that emphasizes student engagement, deep understanding, and meaningful learning experiences. And by providing all students with opportunities to succeed, we can
063help them see mathematics as a powerful tool for exploration and impact. Thank you. Thanks, Kim and Jared. Um, we're going to so thank you again for giving us kind of that 30,000 foot view of sort of the state's perspective on on math education in the state. Um, and sort of how we've evolved over the last, you know, 15 years since the the development of the common core. We're going to now transition into sort of okay, so what's what is this looking like on the ground in our schools trying to actually, you know, enact some of these big ideas uh that were just described. Um so starting last so we've known for a while that we needed to sort of you know look into our programs and really try try to address some of the kind
064of predictable outcomes that we're see inequitable outcomes that we're seeing among students. Um so starting last year we we uh engaged our teachers uh some of whom are all of whom some of whom are in this in this room and and and folks from all the school sites uh as well as site administrators in a kind of ongoing uh project of trying to kind of dig into our intervention support uh system because we had sort of as individual school sites especially with COVID had begun to take on very different kind of approaches and so we wanted to learn from what people had been doing but we also wanted to um begin to norm of that practice and so you can see here sort of timeline uh that we engaged in um over the last that
065we've engaged in over the last year and a half um to try to get us to this certain point. And so what we wanted to do was to to let from the from the voices of the folks who actually do the the hard work here um tell you a little bit about what the work they've been up to um because we've got lots of different kinds of intervention happening at every school site. Um you know, we're primarily focused on those first couple of years um of high school. And I say first couple of years because math course taking has become so differentiated among students. you know, we used to sort of say, oh, you take algebra 1, you take geometry, you take algebra 2, etc., etc. Doesn't quite go that way anymore. We have students
066who come in taking algebra 2 as freshmen, um, or other things. And so, um, we so so so, so part of that is is some of the approaches that sites have taken to try to try to address these differences among student populations. And so, uh, Neil Dono is going to be the first person to come up and speak, uh, about his experiences of folks at Hillsdale, uh, in a couple different ways. So, come on up, Neil. press the green button. Hi, I'm Neil Dano. I teach math and I'm the department chair at Hillsdale High School. Um, as Brian mentioned, we had noticed we weren't really having much change in our A throughG rates based largely off our algebra 2 students not being as successful as we'd like. What we kind of thought about was students
067take algebra 1, they take geometry, they forget a lot of algebra 1, then they come back and take algebra 2. So we decided we were going to flip the order having our students take geometry as freshman, algebra as sophomores, algebra 2 as juniors. We believe that this would give chance for all students to start in the same place, decide what type of math students they feel they are. If they want to accelerate, they'd all have an equal option to and would also be able to keep the sequence of algebra 1 and algebra 2 and backto-back years. Results for this for our first cohort of students who did this. So from 2011 to thou 2019 our grades were very flat. 82% of our algebra 2 students finished with the A or C making them A through
068G eligible. Our first cohort which finished um algebra one to sophomores this was up to 90%. So we did see a large jump in our students being able to be more successful in algebra 2. The reason we felt this is we were able to make a lot of changes that helped kids to see themselves as math students, math learners, and also increase enrollment in different ways. So for 2010 through 2019, three sections of algebra 2 were always offered for 10th graders, one per house. We threw out the data from the co years, things were a little bit different, but this year we were able to increase that to four sections and next year we're able to increase that to five sections. So about 40% of our sophomores will be enrolled in an algebra 2 course
069which is a large increase. We'd also had consistently had three sections of what was originally integrated math which became data science. We dropped to two sections this year and for next year we only had I think it was 12 students sign up. So few that we're not going to be able to offer that course and all juniors will be taking algebra 2 or higher. This is a really big step for us just to have all students taking a class that will make them A through G eligible instead of just taking a class as a third year of math that will help them graduate high school and not be able to go to a 4-year university. Some of the key shifts we really believe is that starting off as from freshman year, students see themselves as
070math learners and this creates a stronger interest to motivate and accelerate in math. We've added more pathways on how you can accelerate. We have a zero period class that meets before school, a summer school option, and an online option. So that way it's not just who can attend summer school that can accelerate in math. Anybody has that option in one of three different ways. Uh we currently have around 60 students attending zero period every morning. So that way they can accelerate better acceleration options. Also a lot more experience learning algebra during geometry. So freshman year when they learn geometry, we mix in a lot of algebra concepts. They learn to graph lines. They learn how to solve for X. They start to learn some basic algebra concepts. So that way it's not the first year
071time, first year learning them when they get to their sophomore year in algebra 1. They also have the same teacher for two years in a row. So they come in that sophomore year with a sense of safness, security, knowing their stu fellow students and their teacher already. And that increased maturity of sophomores is where we see a lot of students just do better in school all around, not just mathematics. And this is really important for a key course like algebra 1. This will set them up for greater success. in algebra 2. They also don't have that year of learning loss where we have to go back and review key concepts like factoring that's often forgot before we students get to algebra 2 and I'm going to go to Samo next. Andrea Rosenthal, you can introduce
072yourself. Hello, I'm Andrea Rosenthal. I'm just going to quickly say that this is not related, but um one of my very great friends became a board member at in Cababrio Unified District and she attended a training at the beginning of the year and Randall spoke and a couple of other trustees were there and she was very impressed and very thankful. So I just want to say yay, I'm so proud. Um so that was really nice. Um, okay. So, you know, it's sort of funny to be like we're now aware of this thing and we're we've been, you know, I've been a math this is my 21st year teaching math and um I think we're always constantly trying to change and move and improve because there's always been an issue. Um, but at our school, we
073had release periods for a few years and we use that time to have teachers on release together as a team. um working to make our curriculum cohesive. And what we ended up doing was for algebra 1, geometry, integrated 2, and algebra 2, we have the same format. We've sort of normed the whole deal. So grading policies, I wrote progressive. That means that as they go through the program, the grading gets um it grows with them. So it gets a little bit more stringent and it so they they see the path through everything. their the way that their curriculum is organized is exactly the same. We have a color-coded system through the whole thing or we vertically aligned all of our content. So, just we really spent a lot of time making sure everything was clear
074for the students as they went through our program at Sanonteo High School. So, they were like, we know all the things that are happening. And then more recently once we like got all of that together with our math practice standards all of that we've been trying to interject more speaking to the framework and UDL training that we went the UDL training was like threequarters Sanonteo High School was there we were very into that. So um we started adding more and more um critical thinking tasks into our program. Um specifically more with algebra 1 is where we're starting and we're trying to grow. It's very difficult to have the time to implement all of these things and find these things and come up with all of these things. So we're working on it slowly but surely.
075Um, but I kind of put up the makeup of what a typical unit in algebra 1 looks like just to make sure everyone understands. It's not like we're doing an open-ended task every single day and that's all that's happening. It's different for every student. Sometimes students really just need to like work on the thing and practice the thing. Um, so we uh I kind of put the breakdown there to kind of talk about that, but the main idea is that we have things to break it up and just sort of specifically to talk about um what uh SMCOE talked about. Um we have students that obviously sometimes they really benefit from like I want to do this step and then I want to do this step and then I want to do this step. But
076then we also have students that are like, I'm not going to do the step and the step and the step. And I also teach a co-t talk class. So there are a lot of students and they're like that's too many steps for me. Like I don't even I can't even enter that right this moment. I need a moment and I need to step back. But then when you add in an open-ended task like recently we were doing um quadratics uh modeling projectile motion and we had a whole we have a seagull issue where they come and they eat all the food after lunch. So we were like seagulls came and stole your AirPods and they're dropping them from the sky, right? So we had a whole thing and they were modeling the situation and it
077was like get it just engaged them right away. Every sing the students that usually are like I hate math. I'm terrible at math. They're like, "Wait, what if seagull stole my AirPods? Like, I want in on that right now." And they're all like working on their whiteboards and figuring out when are they are they going to be able to catch their AirPod or is it going to go splat on the ground? So, um just having more of those um activities built in. That's what we're currently working on. And then the last thing I put on there um has to do with you're looking at a lot of data today and we just started implementing the MAP growth assessment this year for the first time and we really feel like it's an opportunity for us to
078actually look at a students like the same students as they go through our program as opposed to just different juniors every year on the CAST test. doesn't really show what we're doing when we start with the student and as we go through the program. So, it's nice. It would be nice to see this is where they were when they were here with us and then this is what's happening as they go through. So, that's something that we're actually looking forward to doing. Thank you, Andrea. And the third person is Sher Darnell, uh, department chair for co-ep department chair from Aragon and and math teacher. Um, all right. So, we've had our own journey like everyone has. Um, I think when we first started trying to strategically support algebra, we started with SAS, strategic algebra support.
079Um, it was an extra period. So, kids had to do two hours when we had seven classes in a day. They had to do two math classes in a day. um awful. Then we did intensive algebra which was also two periods of math in a day which is awful especially you know they don't like math and you're you're taking away um choice for things that they might enjoy in school. We took that intensive algebra two periods and said, "Hey, let's make it one period with two teachers and then we could break them up, do activities, um, support each set of kids in and with whatever they needed. And from that, we're like, we're doing it with this one set of kids that's predetermined in the beginning of the year that we don't even necessarily know
080if that's what they need. like are they not successful at math because you know they haven't had access to math since the third grade? Do they just hate it and won't think about it? Um have they are they just a behavior problem and don't want to but could you know? So it was never the right group of kids. So, we um took all of our algebra classes and stacked them in periods um three classes in two different periods and we added an extra teacher for all three periods. Um so that teacher would provide um in-class and pull out intervention in the moment in real time. Um, so we had an extra credentialed math teacher uh to support all of our algebra classes and I'm happy to say this year six of our geometry classes. We're
081going to get two there as well. We provide scaffolded support without the tracking, without afterchool programs, without extra periods in the school day. It's all within their math class uh that they have. Green. Okay. Um, so how does it work? We we call ourselves roaming teachers because there's three classes that we roam in and out of depending on the needs, the lesson, the the time in the class period for the hour and a half, like maybe a half an hour in each. Um or we intervene by doing pullouts to retach, clarify, differentiate, coach in smaller groups or individual settings. Um, so what we're trying to do is reduce the learning gaps in the moment rather than after the fact. Catch them before they meet with not success. You know, try to try to get success
082right away. Um, so we have seen um the non-tangibles like we're making connections with these kids that you never really would have expected them to make or us to make with them. Um, they come out saying, "Math is my favorite class now. Um, I can't wait to go to math." They're they're the kid that has been invisible in the back in the classroom. um for their whole lives and they develop a voice, they participate, they question, they persevere. Um you know, it's really exciting to see a room full of students that are developing their math identity that will sit and take a test for an hour and a half and and focus on it the whole entire time rather than not doing it and turn it in. Um so we it promotes growth mindset, their
083confidence, their belonging. Um we create a community of support. Um they float or they come in, they go out. There always is an opportunity to come back for help. There's always the opportunity to we tell them go and fly. You're you're ready to go. You're on your own, which is obviously the goal. Um, so I know you're not going to be able to exactly see this, but this is would just be an example of something that's happening in the regular classroom that we take and put some supports in. So if you're What are we doing? Are we completing the square? No. What are we doing? We're graphing. We're looking at a graph. You know, you need to identify some variables, your axis of symmetry, and the vertex. So instead of just say graph it, we
084put in um what's a, what's h, what's k, you know, your axis of symmetry, this is where your vertex goes. So you know, you create a system. With word problems, we'll put in, you know, this is what you're looking for and how are you setting it up, starting with identifying the variables and then taking it away as it goes. Um, this was our favorite one, uh, was solving one and two variable equations. And uh we had variables on one side um and variables on both sides that you had to move around. So it was sort of like you know we color coded it like this is the kind it is and then you we made check boxes like did you do this is was this the next step? Okay I did that I did that.
085I did that. And then when they're looking at something else they're like oh that's the orange one. Oh that's the yellow one. Right? making connections with it in a different way. Thank you, Sherry. Um, and SH will be back in just a second. Um, but we're going to So, the last piece of this uh presentation is really like at the course level. So, we've been talking about practice changes that people have been doing. We're now going to talk about a couple of course um new courses that we uh would like to start offering and we're putting them on for approval tonight. Um and so we're going to start with Jeff Sporing, department chair from Berlingame to talk a little bit about the first class which is which is going to be uh piloted at both
086Berling game and Aragon algebra 2 with financial applications. Hello, good evening. Um so in addition to the the hard work we're all doing to increase engagement with our curriculums and make our curriculums more engaging, which is two separate but important things that kind of work together. Um, we've also really recognized that, you know, not all students are the same and they're not on the same life trajectories and it's important to honor that that difference and provide people with opportunities that don't limit their future success because they they weren't the best abstract mathematician out there. And within algebra 2 in particularly, we have that long history of just not being able to crack that that for everybody. And uh what we want to do with this new course, the financial applications within algebra 2, is to
087provide a more concrete setting for them to do this abstract higher level math. And you know, it's going to be just as rigorous as regular algebra 2. Um, we're being very clear that this is not for STEM students necessarily, but it does hit that A throughG requirement and provides a path to finite math, probability, AP stats, and and other more concrete applied mathematics. And just because somebody's not really strong at the abstract levels of mathematics doesn't mean they can't take and appreciate math and something that's important in their daily life. and the added bonus of having uh more students graduate with a deeper financial literacy which I know will be rolled out in different courses. This course is not meant to address those needs but rather add to and supplement it. Oh, one more sliding
088just with maybe one more side. Oh, there we go. Yeah. So, it it does have you know we've looked at the alignment overall. there's highly aligned with algebra 2 in a lot of ways. And it's important to note too that like the textbook that we're using for our adoption is not the limit of our curriculum. We're constantly pulling from different resources to to supplement where we might only have partial alignment. And areas that have limited coverage, those are some of the more abstract concepts that might not be really that necessary for the applied mathematics phase of things. Um, so, so that's kind of what we we're aware of what we're doing and we're not doing it lightly. We're being very deliberate. Um, as far as specific supplemental activities that we've looked at, this is just
089so far, but we've got a couple of really talented, excited, motivated teachers that are taking on this new pilot course and uh, we're really excited to see what it can offer our students who might otherwise not have the success they deserve in algebra 2. And then lastly is our probability and statistics class at Aragon. Um okay so um so uh probability and statistics uh is a nonAP statistics course. Um it's a requirement for the majority of majors in college. I've got one that just graduated, one that's in um they took stats for life science, there's stats for um liberal arts, there's stats for business, there's calc for business, there's calc for life science. So I kind I just to go back because you know I'm also advocating for the algebra 2 and and financial applications.
090Um that's sort of how I consider this class to be. It's a a math class for specific um majors, business, social studies, economics. Um not everybody wants to be an engineer and I don't think being able to identify a fosi of a hyperola should not allow you to go to college. Um, so this is also like um I think one of the one of the questions that were asked of us is why probability and statistics and not finite math like all the other schools have. And I guess I I I would kind of ask it the other way. Why not probability statistics? Like why finite math? Most other districts um offer a college prep statistics class for their fourth year. um and only three out of the four chapters in the finite curriculum uh are
091related to probability and statistics. And so our idea is we want to prepare them the best we can for that stats class that they're going to take when they get to college, when they get to a four-year college. That's great. Um so we've come to the end. Um thank you all of you who uh presented. Um, you know, just some quick conclusions. You know, our our teachers continue to work hard uh to to figure this this very challenging uh nut out. You know, we there's been there was b in the last uh couple of weeks, the New York Times published an article about the um math achievement among our lowest performing students is at its lowest in the in the country that it's ever been. So, we are struggling with math across the country. There's
092actually a new documentary out that the county office folks have been promoting. I'd encourage folks to check it out. What's it called again? count it out and it's all about the the impact of our lack of math achievement. Um and so I really appreciate the folks over here in particular who do this work every day to try to make math accessible and and engaging for students. Um we continue to norm our instructional materials. Um that's been an ongoing process for us like what is exactly the stuff that students use across all of our core classes. Um and we're seeing some really signs of progress as they described. Um, and so now we're um open to board feedback and um and I hope you can uh approve these new pilot courses uh once we've answered some
093questions. With that, here we go. Okay. Before uh you have a com No, before we uh ask the board if they have any questions, uh we need to get a a format for this discussion so everybody weighs in accordingly. Um, now we've tried telling people you get to ask two questions and and uh and get out of the way. That doesn't work. We've called on people one at a time. That doesn't work. I'd like to hear and you know it's this is even if I'm I'm making light of I think it's important because uh when you have a discussion people often really want to weigh in and sometimes they're just not able to. Matter of fact, I'm sometimes not able to get the floor back. But that's a different that's a different topic. So I
094that's my fault. No, you know, I mean, and you know, I just want to um have everybody get an opportunity and have a say so, maybe get a second helping, but nobody gets to eat everything at the table before anybody else gets a, you know, gets even a morsel. So, does anybody have a suggestion? Trustee Land, I really appreciate how our mathematics department has chosen to think outside the box sometimes. Okay. And they've come up with unique ways to have things happen. So rather than just the formal one person talks, I I'm hoping we can build off of each other because I learn and and I want to figure out a way where I can contribute because of something that maybe one of the other trustees said that I want to build off of because
095I didn't think about it. I don't know how that can work because again, if we all just take a turn, we're staying in our lane and we're not having an iterative conversation about developing and commenting on what's happening with that. So, I'm hoping maybe the second round is the reaction to somebody and if there could be that kind of genuine conversation. You do realize while you're speaking, I'm carefully looking at you. There are two board members over here that are probably trying to get my attention so they can speak. No, I'm saying that to demonstrate clearly difficulty in trying to manage the meeting. Oh, because you want to see and you want to pay attention. Yeah. And while you're focusing, it's it's difficult. Uh anybody else want to um um follow Trusty Land's lead? Sure.
096try it. Yeah. I think Can I say something, please? Okay. I appreciate what what Trusty Land said because we had a discussion. I don't know if it was at the last board meeting two weeks ago or the week before the prior board meeting, but as a joke we call it a fireside chat because we were all chatting and we were all It was great because we could chime in, but we weren't talking over each other. I think that's great. There there are times such as when we do our board um report board communications at the beginning. I think that's something like that. I think we can all agree that that's you know everybody has a chance to report out something where it's a discussion. I do appreciate hearing sometimes trust Andra Zuniga or Trusty Jacobson
097or Trusty Land sometimes you you'll say something I'll say yeah I want to that's great. I'm just joking you actually you say a lot of things that makes me make me want to say something else because it spurs that other thought you know. Okay. Well, I was afraid Trusty Lan had hijacked the comments when he started talking and I was, "Oh, here we go. Trustee Andradi Zuniga, you get the first crack at this." Um, I guess some of my questions are um how do you um like how do you understand what all of how all of the different students learn? I mean, there's so many different types, right? And even in the way that um like depending on what your family structure is like I know when I was in school um my mom learned
098certain concepts before I learned them in certain bra. And so the way that she was helping me wasn't you know necessarily how I understood it. And so how do you deal with that? Like how do you how are you able to to consider all of those students? because I know like it said you know you're you're teaching like job is hard. Yeah. Um yeah it takes time obviously a lot of time is spent I mean in my classroom especially I have like I said this year I've taken on co-teer so there are two of us in the room going around but a lot of time is spent I love I'm just going to like shout out this one for a moment. I really love having a class of 24 so I can have eight groups
099of three and there's an open seat for me to sit at each group and I can actually So I do spend oftentimes um students will come in with a pass and they won't be able to find me. They'll want to give it to the teacher and they're like where's the teacher is because I'm sitting with the student. So you spend a lot of time sitting in a group of students talking to each student. It takes time, but honestly, it doesn't take that much time. It might take a few weeks to a month at the beginning of the school year, and you just have to really work with talk to all of the students. But it does help me that I do have another teacher in the room right now because, you know, he he sees
100things that I don't always see. And it's it's nice to have that happen. But, um, no, it's really challenging. And it and it I'm not going to say I've got them all completely figured out even right at this moment. They always surprise me. I'm like, "Oh, wait. Where did that come from?" And I realized that, "Oh, you've just been um not sleeping for the last three months." And so that's why you weren't doing anything, but then you decided to start sleeping again. Something happened and now you're super engaged. And I didn't even know that that was in there, you know. So it's they're always changing and so to keep up with them is definitely Well, their circumstances are different, right? So yeah, so is learning. Yes. Yeah. No, I appreciate I appreciate your job. It's
101not easy. Um, thank you. You know, I'm going to invoke some sort of multivariable variable equation here because I'm going to ask the student board member if they want to weigh in. I Johnny slipped out before I could uh Oh, darn. You know, he I was trying to get his attention and he was just heading for the door. So, you want to you want to weigh in here? I know you have other, you know, other obligations and things you probably want to be doing. So, yeah. Well, thank you for that. Um, you came last time too talked about CTE courses. Now you're here talking about math courses and before there you were here talking about AI. So, thank you. Um, so I would say I like math. Currently I'm in algebra 2 and learning anything
102related to like business market or that might even help us with personal finance or anything to make sense of the world like you said is quite helpful cuz math is all around us when we're going to Starbucks and buying a coffee and then something takes an extra 50 cents. How much would that be? Would I be going over budget? Well, math is helpful. No one can deny that. And I did want to say you talked about changing the order of how math courses were taken. So like um geometry, algebra 1, then algebra 2. I got to say I took geometry over summer. So I got more of like a really like a small gap. So I'm like algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2. And that was quite helpful cuz I noticed that mostly whatever was taught
103in algebra 2 was literally mirroring the same things we learned in algebra 1. I'm like, I see that. I just saw that a few months ago. Yep, I see it. So, I think that would be really fun to know that you actually remember the topics instead of having to forget it and then be like, yeah, I'm probably just not cut out for this. It I think it could demotivate students because they're like, I remember I learned it. I got an A and now I just don't remember. Well, what's the use? Personally, I'm doing pretty well, but most students like I was a peer tutor for algebra 1 in my freshman year while taking the class itself. I wasn't allowed to go into geometry cuz I had most of the information but not enough to go
104to the next level. So, I'm like, well, that's fine. So, I tutored anyways and it was good. Most of them needed like um basics and I could help them with that cuz back in India, we were taught like pictorial diagrams and all that. So I'm like, "Okay, I can help you." And that was pretty fun. And teachers nowadays, for now, I have a student teacher teaching my algebra 2 class, and he's really, really good at it. He should be a teacher now. Yeah. So, thank you for that. And those are just like a few inputs I had. Nothing much. Okay. Um, Trusty Jacobson, you got the textbooks there. I do have the textbooks there. you know, they weren't there at the start. I don't know. They start they were lent out and I returning them.
105Anyway, do you have any comments? I do. I have several. So, should I just start with one or Please start with one. Okay. Well, first I want to thank you again for the presentation. We haven't talked about math a whole lot and so I've actually have been really looking forward to this presentation for a long time. Um, and I also want to thank you for um, giving us a peak into what practices you're using in the classrooms, especially with the the the innovative interventions and for the work done by the um, the intervention task force. And I want to also thank the district for introducing and administering the MAP assessment. Um, I guess that's my first question is what are we going to do with that data and how often are we going to repeat
106that exercise? Yeah. So, we're still in sort of talks about the frequency. I mean, as it currently stands, it's going to be twi twice a year um with our with our uh algebra one and geometry student. Those are our core subjects, right? Um, we don't anticipate using it beyond that like at scale. We would it's it's available to any teachers anytime. So they can use it for their own personal like they so all teachers have been rostered in the in the system so they can use it in in the in the upper division courses. We're really focused on using it in the in the early grades to see if we're seeing growth in student uh performance just as was described by Miss Rosenthal for example. So you you said you haven't decided on a frequency
107yet. I think twice a year is the current thinking. Yeah, twice a year. Okay. Um I was concerned about you know over a third of the algebra one students are struggling with um I forget what the three things are arithmetic fluency arithmetic fluency um it's on the slide numbers and bas basic algebraic thinking like these are like elementary K through eight standards so how are we remediating creating those. I mean, certainly these folks can say more about that than I can. I would just say broadly speaking in in working with them and and listening to them. There's a lot of one-on-one support. There's a lot of tutoring. There's a lot of uh honestly a lot of technology. We we have the most technology platforms in any subject are in math. We have 10 unique platforms
108and that's a lot of self-paced, you know, practice, if you will, because a lot of those things are done in class or outside in class. Mostly in class. I mean, that's part of their in-class time. Yeah. Okay. Um, anything you want to add? I'm sorry. In terms of remediation of skills, you know, four. Yeah. So, the idea is what do they need today? A lot of times that unlocks a box that to something else and they gradually remember we do our best. Do you want to add? Um, they might have you should come up here because they can't they can't hear you unless online if you're not. Um, you're working with a group of students. Everyone takes algebra. There is nothing lower than algebra. So, they come in to algebra. So, we'll have classes with
109ability levels from here to here. Yeah. And we have to meet all of them where they're at. So you can't because they miss the content in the fourth grade. Don't go back to the fourth grade and work from there. You're never going to move forward. A lot of times these kids have been subjected to the same class over and over again the same topic because you know as the standards grow through the curriculum, they build on each other. They build each other. Yes. But, you know, if if if they're not going to be able to add 1/2 and 1/3 and they haven't been able to do it in the fourth grade, the fifth grade, the sixth grade, the seventh grade, you know, to you can't spend two two weeks a month talking about fractions. So,
110I at Aragon, uh, we rely on the calculator. We teach them how to use the calculator. You know, like there's a problem, it's like, don't guess, use the calculator. You know, what do you see here? Use the calculator. Order of operations, use the calculator. So, you know, it it's it's hard with a with ability groups that wide to try to get them through algebra content. And so, you know, we do our best with our pullouts. um try to address a few things there, but we want to keep up with the curriculum so that they can have that access to the curriculum just like their peers. Thank you. I I was really intrigued and impressed with that just in time intervention strategy. I think that's I want to just also be really clear because we have
111a representative from one of our elementary district partners that this could start to sound like us piling on our elementary partners and I appreciate that our our teachers are are they're not they're like this is they are who they are. Our ninth graders are who they are and I will say that we we put the math pathways in our of the elementary districts in our in our um memo and we we are we've been we've had an ongoing engagement. We didn't do so well this year with engaging, but we've been we've been working in small bits and you saw uh in in one of the um slides the the work we did last spring to actually have our our elementary partners come to the table with us and talk at least we talked a little
112bit about what are they doing for intervention, what are we doing for intervention. Of course, there's a lot of similarities and some differences, but the point is I think we yeah, we're it's challenging that we've got we are a system of five, you know, school districts. So, so we we um that that part I think doesn't do us a lot of favors, but we are where we are. Yeah. Got to work with what you got. It's true. Well, we can move on to somebody else. I don't want to take up too much. I want to thank everybody for presenting tonight. And I'm going to give a shout out. I don't want to embarrass him. I'm going to give a shout out to Mr. Neil Dono, my one of my neighbors. Uh he's he's the mathematician
113of of the Rollingwood neighborhood in San Bruno. But I wanted to give a shout out to all of our math teachers. Um, I think I have wrote down a couple notes here. Um, critical thinking is so important and so is making math relevant. I was going to say relevant and fun because I do like math, but not everybody here would think it's fun. You might with your taxes and stuff. Um, but I am a numbers geek and I wasn't always that way. Now I work with numbers every day. So, um, uh, growing up as a kid, I saw my father writing down all the sales, prices of things on a note card, like apples are 39 cents at this store and they're and then this has 79 cents and everything. So, I growing up, I
114we we didn't have, we were financially challenged. We had financial struggles. So, I saw firsthand the importance of calculating the cost of items. Now, it's not smart to drive miles to save, you know, 50 cents, but um, I lived in TWM County and there was stores right there. Um, they were next to each other, but I just got a kick out of my dad writing I won't even say the store names, but three different stores on an index card and I I was just I mean I was kind of intrigued by it. Does it really save money? It did. And every dollar counts and I think that's what our student rep was talking about. So, I wanted to mention how important it is to um make math relevant. Um, and I will just say a
115story. um uh as a parent chaperone, as we all have done after a sports event at one of our local high schools, uh some students piled in my car to go to I'm not going to do an ad for um a fast food place, but it's the one in Milbury where there's a long line of cars hanging out. So, we uh were in the drive-thru and one of my daughter's friends says, "Get me um meal number three." "Well, what drink do you want?" "No, I I'm not don't want any drink, but so it doesn't really matter. I'm just going to throw it away." I said, 'Well, hold on a second. I said, these were they were three juniors in my car. So, I said, um, how much do you save by getting that meal versus
116adding up the three items, you know, the the the burger, the fries, and and the beverage? Well, we don't know. Well, can you just So, they didn't really ask for a ride from another sports event again, but I'll just say So, I asked them to add to add that up. You guys all are on your cell phones, so just add it up. How much does it cost individually to add those things? Do you even save a penny? So why would I will I'll buy I'll buy you whatever you want, but if you don't want that drink and I if I was giving you money to spend, you would not get that drink. You would not order that drink because you would save yourself a $150. That's true. So I think it helps just to just
117to make it, you know, relevant and and fun. I didn't give them the$150 because I was just paying for their food. But I think it's fun uh to like ask those questions and um but I I think it's about making it relevant and I think you guys are doing a great job. You you've definitely found some examples there in your slides about making it relevant and and uh it's hard to make it fun for those that don't like math. But to what you were what you were saying a few minutes ago about students coming at different levels. you know, as a parent, I had a daughter who loved math and I had another daughter who didn't like math and wasn't interested at all. So, they had different classes in middle school. Um, and one of
118my daughters said that about a third of their their time in their class is spent um making sure the students were behaving. My other daughter who was in advanced math, she said, "We don't spend any time making sure the students are behaving. We just get right to it." So you already you can see the achievement gap widening just amongst my two girls for math because you know the teaching time it it depends on do you are you teaching advanced math to students that are sitting there and they want to learn or are you teaching math to students that there's some issues in the class and they're spending time behavior you know the teacher needs to stop the class and and you know so teachers have multi- they're always wearing multi- uh a lot of multiple
119hats right So, I just want to give a shout out to all of our teachers. Thank you for that. I guess my question is how can we make it more fun and more relevant, but we'll get there later. Trusty Lan, you can unload now. No comments. Thanks. No, I'm just kidding. Um, so funny. Um, no, I actually really want to compliment all of you on thinking outside the box. I mean when we were starting the conversation about how to have these conversations you are really thinking about the just in time the geometry first. I thought that was genius because I hate math. No offense but I really struggled and the only class I thrived was geometry and so putting that first to show success. Wow that's genius. um the just in time, the breaking it
120up into groups, the co-eing with two credential teachers in the room to be able to work in small groups rather than two classes and taking up. These are all just amazing amazing ideas that I think are going to help in the long run with our students and and just getting them to where they be they need to be. Um I do agree, you know, with what Trusty Chavez was talking about. I mean, trying to get them enthused, putting it in the real world context. I think and what you guys are talking about with financial literacy and connecting it to algebra 2. I think that's amazing. So in all those senses just thank you. Um I do have some thoughts and questions about certain things especially about that article that you were just talking about with
121the times with the higher it I think it's important to have pathways. I think it's important to differentiate instruction. I think it's important to let kids excel if they're really good at what's something and they need to keep going. I don't want to hold them back. I think that's my philosophy. By the same token, how do we get the kids who are just going downhill and downhill and downhill and how do we motivate them? Um I I look at, you know, Joe Bowler and her whole idea of mathematical mindset and the whole Carol Dwek, you know, fixed mindset versus and how do we get because again I started with I had a fixed mindset. I can't do this. I can't do this. This is too hard for me. And um and I see a lot
122of people like me just struggling in math um because they're they they think there's a magic key. Going back to what you were saying there there's something I missed and I didn't get it and I don't have it and I think a lot of students are very similar. So I don't have the answer but I know you're seeking it and I hope you just keep doing what you're doing. So thank you. Mhm. I will just quickly because this I think is connected to both what both of you were talking about just to say the two key sort of takeaways that that resonated with all of the teachers I think during the the the intervention task force was really taking on issues of mindset. So actually one of the things they did last summer was they
123some of the planning that some of the teams did was around whether it was leveraging the Joe Bowler stuff or other resources to help kids begin to shift their mindset because I I think we all know and I think these folks would certainly say like we're not all you know endowed by our creator with the math gene but somehow we figure out that we think we don't have it and I think they're part of what they've been taking on explicitly is this issue of mindset. So they're not just sort of like well let's just slog through this because I know you're going to hate it forever. they actually are also trying to take on this issue of mindset. Yeah. And I can see that really. Yeah. Thank you. You know, I got a question on
124this kind of what we're trying to do is engage students, right? I mean, you get them apparently, um, we're going to come up with a course that gets them out of high school and into college with, you know, and I'm trying to figure out this the equity approach, you know, that slide just kind of stuck in my crawl because I always thought, well, equity means that if you want to learn or take trig or calculus, we get you the support to get there, you know, and it may take a bigger lift for some people than others. and um you know the the business applications a lot of the stuff you're talking about I guess it is engaging and it's necessary and I think most people will catch on and we're going to have a financial
125literacy component coming up and we're sticking this financial literacy application in this class and I'm not sure how all this is going to fit together and I'm kind uh thinking this al this algebra 2 the new algebra 2 with the applications is kind of given up how many you know I'm thinking we're probably giving up on some students who could be who could achieve more um if they were put you know and I appreciate taking two hours of math is probably you know you know may seem like torture to some people uh I I happen to like math And it's not debits and credits, it's patterns, it's projections, it's solving problems. I mean, that's the stuff that I I didn't like it in high school. I wish I had paid more attention. Um, but you
126never you never know. But I'm just like I'm, you know, I'm looking for rigor. I mean, how many times have we said rigor in this district and this great tradition of rigor and we're sort of kind that word in a long time. Oh, I guess I've been around too long. I overstayed my welcome. But I mean, you know, and and I was just reading uh in the Daily Journal about people being dissatisfied with with the levels of performance and how we rank worldwide and math and science. I mean, you know, and I I'm just I'm kind of torn here because I'd like people I'd like to see, you know, engagement at a higher level. I'd like to see more people getting fulfilled, but I guess on the other hand, everybody's not going to be a
127stat statistician. Everybody's not going to be an actuary. You know, there's a lot of things that that there, you know, all the world of occupations and opportunities that the math they need is on their phone for those people. And uh I just I I just wish there was a a better answer to the question cuz I just feel like I'm looking for a better I mean what I like that I heard and I'm like the you know the sequencing I think is great. So is the the on time what was it on just in time just in time support. I think those are things that I, you know, like we should probably be doing more than that or doing that and doing it on a broader level. Yeah. Can can I can I kind of
128build on what you're saying? Did you um because I've been I've been struggling with the same dilemma of feeling like are we dumbing things down with this class? And um now that I see this data with the that you're getting at Hillsdale, you're getting more people enrolling in algebra 2 with the change in the sequence. Is that another is is that an option? Should we should we take that sequencing practice and try to get more kids in algebra 2 that way? for and I also want to know uh with the Aragon just in time intervention, do you have any measurable data that that is showing that that is increasing in terms of how many kids are taking algebra 2? Can you speak to that at this point? Okay. But and yeah. Okay. um what what
129you're looking at with the students that we're working with in algebra, the ones that need our support. Mhm. They need our support in geometry. They need our support in algebra, too. We don't have it. So, when And I hassle Brian all the time. Section section sections like we we get nothing. And when you have if if if if you're going to expect a student, we can't we can't what is it like the grade level they're not going to gain four, five, six, eight grade levels, you know, by the time they hit algebra 2. And to to assume that they are going to be successful in algebra 2 after they've needed the support, yes, their confidence up. Yes, their connection is up. Yes, they have um a a greater love for math. Some people learn to
130love it. Um but that you can't they're not going to be successful on their own. So when you throw them in a room with 35 kids and say good luck, that's that's not going to work. So if we want to build the model through algebra 2, you know, so you can support as many kids as you can, we'll take the sections, but I don't see the algebra 2 with financial um applications as dummying down the curriculum. It's replace it's replacing, right? Yeah. It's replacing a course that we thought was was giving them another year of preparation for algebra 2, but it wasn't. It wasn't. And so we want to we want to give them an opportunity to experience the math to to um work with the standards in not such an abstract way. You don't
131have to develop the quadratic formula to use the quadratic formula. You don't have to um know every form of writing an equation of a line. Can you write an equation? Can you look at a graph and write an equation? Who cares if it's this one, this one, or this one? You know, can you solve a system of equations? You don't have to do it in four variables. Can you do it in two variables? I mean, so there's just you can you can hit the standards, but you don't have to be so abstract about it. So I understand very well who this is targeting and why and I think that it's a better replacement. I think this is a good solution for the problem of kids who are not ready for the abstract algebra 2. I
132think it's a good solution for that problem. And when he was saying this is not meant for um you know people who are going to be STEM majors, that's fine because not everybody's going to be a STEM major. I get that. How are you going to communicate that to make sure that people know that, you know, this isn't this isn't a pre pre-calculus class. This is not a STEM pathway class. So are you going to like like all of our classes we have, you know, we our counselors, our our teams educate students on all their options, right? And honestly, this is the spot in the international pathways where kids make choices about what they which pathway they're pursuing, right? This is 16 is that is that spot in sort of the international pathways. So just
133say on the big on the sort of big picture level, this is when kids start to make choices about the paths they want to take. So it is, but absolutely we we explain to students all of the requirements starting in ninth grade. Like they make four-year plans. They sort of figure out what their path's going to be and then they make adjustments to those plans year-over-year based on how it goes and and what they what their new interests are. So I think this is uh this is a real opportunity for us to to create a co-equal pathway because I will also say this is also UC eligible. There's over 65 schools in the state that this is on their portal. This is accepted for the same level of credit as as as traditional algebra 2.
134So it meets the same requirements from the UC perspective in terms of your being UC A to G eligible, which is the other metric we're trying to work on here, right? Which is that that right now we have students who don't who either get a D in a math class and never make it up because they don't have to because they're maybe they're not interested in in making it up. Um but but this really and that place that it often happens is that third year of math. Um, I will just say quickly, historical reference, the reason we teach geometry second isn't because it was like the most genius idea. It was because we had a two-year math requirement and everybody needed to take geometry and so it was algebra and geometry and we've just we've
135sort of had that legacy forever. That's how we got to algebra and geometry. I don't think anybody ever thought it was a great idea to split the class with something in the middle, but maybe some of these folks think that now, but I don't think that was actually the original plan. Yeah. Okay. Hey, I want to There was somebody who took time to write us and it's I got a public comment card. Well, will we get time for more? We will come back. We can sit here all night as long as everybody behaves himself. Stay here all night. I get up tomorrow. Anyway, I'm I'm going to um I I I want to hear the public comments so we can come back and finish if we have uh David Kristofferson. You want to make a
136few comments? I I think what you're trying to do is fantastic. My only concern has to do with whether UC is really going to accept this or not. I know we've heard that 65 courses have been approved, but the one thing that was not mentioned this evening is first of all, the California math framework was a really contentious adoption. Yeah, there were people fighting over this and the amount of resources, teachers being pulled out of classes and the rest to go and argue over this tome that unfortunately I think 99% of the teachers are never even going to look at once it gets printed boggles the mind. It bothers me that every time California decides they have to upgrade their curriculum, all the lesson plans that teachers have been working on for years out the
137table, out the window. Basically, part of the reason why people are signing up for data or for algebra 2 at Hillsdale now is because the academic senate at the University of California changed the data science program that Joe Bowler tried to get through in the math curriculum framework. In fact, in the report from the academic senate, they mentioned that the U cubed data science program was the weakest of the programs that they looked at. That is concerning. It's also concerning that they turn overturned those programs and they are no longer acceptable. Just this month, as I mentioned in my report, there was an intersegmental comm committee of the academic senates. This included people from the University of California, from California State University, and from the community college district. They sent out 2,000 questionnaires and they
138got 1,800 responses back, amazingly enough, from professors throughout a variety of academic disciplines, the arts, music, humanities. To be honest, I don't have the foggiest idea why the art department at UC Berkeley gives a dab as to whether anybody loses algebra 2 or not. You know, it astounds me. I would think that the faculty would be revoling because they wouldn't get enough people entering into their majors because of the math requirement. The curious thing is though at the University of California level 95.2% of the applicants have passed that requirement. I don't know what the number is for CSU. The community college people had input in this and the result that they said when they put this document together and just released it says section 4 uh presents the core material that every student should know
139after successfully completing the standard first three years of high school courseworks eg algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2 or integrated mathematics and the material contained in the KA curriculum. Now, I know how hard this problem is. I taught in the San Francisco Unified School District. I had students in my class who were on parole in algebra 1. I had students who had IEPs, 10 of them, in a single class of 28. And my geometry problem was don't sit these kids next to each other. I attended multiple counselor meetings where kids who were on the verge of failing were given a last chance. I know how difficult this problem is. What I'm concerned about with the algebra 2 thing and as of the beginning of this week, I got my report out early as possible I could.
140I worked all last weekend. I tried to get it out to the board early. I looked at your detailed course proposals. The detailed course proposal on Google Docs said nothing about the supplementation that was in the slide uh program that I just saw this morning. Slide 33 agreed with my conclusions. The textbook had significant gaps in the algebra 2 material. Slide 34 mentioned how they're going to solve that. If that's the case, that's great. I will be happy for you. I like the idea of algebra 2 being used as a motivational time. Yes, this is important. Can I have a few more minutes? No, you can't have a few more minutes. You can wrap up. I mean, okay. The bottom line is if they're going to do the supplementation, that's great. But we do not
141know how this is going to wrap up at the University of California. There is a battle going on there. Now, there are four bills going through the Senate where a social equity wrap it up. It's already past 9:30, please. Is trying to overturn some of this stuff. Thank you. You know, one that that relates to the polit politicizing of education. Okay. Does board have any last comments? Uh, yeah, I do. Okay. Um, I just wanted to ask further about um kind of this this the new math framework with the open-ended questions, the inquirybased approach um because I went to a conference before the CSBA conference and and attended a math presentation and you know I I thank our guest for coming and mentioning that the math framework was very contentious in getting adopted because, you
142know, I guess there's two kind of camps. Um there's sort of the traditional camps that that want more of a direct instruction and procedural um approach to teaching math. And then there's this more um progressive open-ended inquirybased approach, right? Can you say yes or no? What can we What's the point of I'm not sure I would frame it quite that way, but okay. Well, what I'm saying is we don't have to align ourselves to the California state framework. And my concern is that there is significant research on cognitive load theory that suggests that the groups that are struggling the most in our district, multilingual learners and students with IEPs, um I don't think that that approach is the best for them all the time. I think they need more direct instruction um and task, you
143know, ordered tasks um and You know, I think it's it's hard for a a a student who isn't that proficient in English to access the problem that was demonstrated for us at the beginning of the presentation or a student who has executive functioning deficits to access that kind of material. That's that's I would like to understand what um how you're going to make sure that those kinds of students have the appropriate direct instruction and scaffolded inquiry when they're learning math if you're if you're going with the California math framework. So what I'll just quickly say is Oh, you want to you you want to respond please? Yeah, go ahead. better for the teachers to I mean I'm happy to so the idea of teaching math it's it's a balance of all those things I hope
144so yeah of course it's not all here just figure it out yourselves if if it were only that easy we like you know we are constantly scaffolding material we're providing explicit instruction where that's needed. But we need to give students ownership of their adventure in math. Because if a student's job is to sit in a desk for 90 minutes and for the first half hour we talk, for the second half hour they try and remember everything we said and do it and then we check back in and they do some more of that, nothing's going to stick. So we we have a balance of these things and especially students who have IEPs and our co-taught classes, they get that proper balance of extra explicit instruction with the additional special education teacher who's in the classroom.
145And so it's it's not just it's not as simple as saying do all of this or do all of that. It's constantly seeking the balance of what the student needs for the topic that we're trying to teach at any given moment. That's helpful. I'm also curious about the order though because like I said for like a multilingual learner, if you start out the class I and I'm not saying I know what's right. I'm just this is why I'm raising the question. If you start out the the class with the big open-ended question and how are you gonna get from Tracy to Bakersfield and write a story about it. I think if I were not proficient in English, I would be overwhelmed. I think the other flipping that might be Okay, go ahead. Um just because
146our school has the most multilingual learners and students with IEPs. Yeah. Um it's not just one way. So, like being a math teacher for as long as I've been, I really I've been doing a lot of this. I know a lot about teaching math. That's like the one thing that I'm more than a B+ in in life is teaching you. Okay. Um, but it's not just like that. So, I also teach an ML geometry class as well. Um, I also teach an integrated two class as well this year. Um, so you're a great person to ask. Yeah, exactly. I have a lot of knowledge in this uh department, but there's a there isn't we don't just open up a class of if you're going to that's actually not what it looks like in our classroom.
147There is a lot of scaffolding that goes along with it. There's intention and that's actually a lot of why we don't no uh curriculum or textbook is going to cover a whole class and there's always alterations because you have to be intentional about the language that you're using. you have especially with ML students, you have to think about like is this too many words on the on the uh page. Yes. So, it starts with a slide that is going to have very limited lots of pictures and we're going to stop and break everything down, allow students time to ask questions before we just say go. Right? And it's not always the opening. That's why my slide had like this is the breakdown of typical unit. not like that all of the time. And sometimes it's
148used as an introduction into a topic. That does happen depending on if you just want to like it's we kind of read the situation and the type of activity we're doing. And like we said, there's a lot of um opportunities for jumping in at different levels in different places and there's different ways to think about a problem so that you are addressing all of the different students and one student might think of it another way and one student might enter another way. start with a multiple multiple abilities launch where we list off um not everyone's going to bring all of these things to the table to the group but hopefully you can bring or look pick one thing you can bring and we list off different skills that would be helpful in the activity and
149sometimes it's like there was an example we learned in UDL was there's like a well actually we did the seagull situation it was like have you had experience with seagulls at lunch right so just having that knowledge and being able to picture that situation in your head was a skill that you could bring to the table or um being able there's like I you have to be specific to the actual situation but you there's a whole launch that goes into it before they jump into an open-ended task so that students can find where where can I contribute and then there's also group roles and group norms and you're getting students to be able to say you have a job of you're in charge of making sure that everyone in the group is talking. You're in
150charge of making sure that um there's communication before a teacher is being asked a question. So there's always something for everyone to do and everyone has a role that's going help with the executive functioning and the simplified slides helps a lot with the cognitive load issue. I'm talk that's th those were the answers I was trying to understand. Thank you Trusty Lan. But just to to react to to what you're saying too, I think it's important to ask the question, but from and you're right, especially multilingual learners, there's entry points. And I think I'm so glad you talked about balance and you talked about differentiation, just what you're bringing, what values are you bringing to the table because all of those things help kids succeed. And so I know that's what you were asking about.
151It's like, but inquiry can also get them excited and engaged. Yeah. And so it's a balance engagement. It's a balance. And so I just love hearing what they're saying because it's not just here you go. But discovering learning has a curiosity to it and that can be exciting. But there's only so many instructional minutes. Totally agree. And you're not wrong. That's very teacher of review be in my mind because that's very true. They're not going to always do all these discover. They've got to do some explicit direct instruction. And it's going to be, hey, this is it. And it's going to be different for each kid. And they're going to be in there in the at what in the moment. Sorry, just in time. Sorry, just in time. Because they need that and certain kids
152will need that. And so I'm just really trying to applaud this kind of thinking because it's not true of all schools. I mean, if you look at, you know, go back to the article that they were talking about the one there, there's just this gap that just keeps spreading wider and wider like and so that's why I'm looking out for those particular and I'm saying and I'm saying I think what I heard was some really concrete good answers of math teachers are working really hard at making it different and making it exceptional for the kids that are struggling. Okay. Well, you know, I think we're gonna Okay. Sorry. No, no, no. I was going to say the fireside chat, the fire is about burned out, but uh you have a quick comment. I I just
153want to applaud everybody for your responses and and uh your presentation and and I want to echo um what some of my colleagues here say. There's not a one-sizefits-all for every student. And you guys meet every student where there and you help them. And I was just thinking, Rhino, just one funny example is if if you're if you're using measuring cups and you're cooking, there's different ways to get to the same result. Somebody might use a one one cup measuring cup, one cup, and then one half. Where somebody else might use the one half, and they'll just take three of those. You might say, "Do you know that you could have done the one cup and the 1/2?" But then somebody might say, "Well, I'm the one washing the dishes, so I want to minimize
154the dishes, and I'm going to use the one half three times. That way, I have one less dish to wash." Now, somebody might take the 1/4 and do that six times. Why are you doing that? I like measuring water, and it's fun. You know, there's just different ways. And it's it's fun to like listen to the why. I think it doesn't mean that it's wrong to do the six times the 1/4 or the three times the 1/2 or the one four one cup and then one half. That's all I want to say is that there's different ways to get to the same um result and there's not a one-sizefits-all and you guys are amazing for helping to each student is individual, you know, and I know both my girls, one really liked math, one didn't
155and and they they took different they, you know, they took different classes at Cappuccino and they needed to and it it was it really helped them. So, thank you for the variety. I want to thank you for your presentation. and obviously figured a lot of thought on on everybody's part and everybody wanted to weigh in and uh we used up all our good time and all our good energy. So, I'm going to look for a motion to adopt um these two courses, these two courses of study. I make a motion. So, move and I'll second that. Okay, we got a motion in a second. Any comments left? Any comments? Sorry, there are none. I'm just honestly I'm super tired today. I just want to go home soon. It's like I'm right there behind you. I'm
156I'm not kidding. I'm in a lot of pain today. So, I'll say all in favor I I Okay, passes and what happens at 10:00 and and we'll get a report on how these pilots go, of course. Right. Yeah. Well, you'll ultimately have to also approve the the formal courses when they're they come up in a couple of years. So yes, but certainly we'll check in next year. We we will keep talking about math. Great. I want to keep talking. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thanks neighbor the mathematician of our neighborhood. Have a good night you guys. Thank you for being here. All right. Okay. Now I'm sorry I couldn't I my brain froze up. So what happened? We have to We're not quite at 10 o'clock yet, but at 10 p.m. the board needs to
157decide whether or not to take a break or to keep going or or to stop the meeting. Yeah. I'm just going to remind everyone that I knew this was going to be a big topic. This is why I wanted this to be the only topic. So, I'm just reminding you. I hear you. Okay. But there's times also to ask questions before the meetings. That way, we don't have the situation. Okay. And this is that's part of the problem. We're going to plow on at least till 10:00 and okay see how much you know. Yeah. No, it wouldn't it would surprise me if we don't magically get this thing going. So, um division what is it? R construction. Yeah. The ne the next item is to approve closing the sports complex projects at cap and Brillingham
158High School building HVAC replacement project. Two, transfer the remaining budgets of the projects back into the measure L contingency. and three, approve a budget augmentation for the Sanonteo High School new gymnasium project. Do we need to do these separately? Uh we can do one motion for all three of them. Uh so as Superintendent Booker noted, uh there's there's three actions that the staff is recommending. Uh we are closed down. We've paid the final DSA fees. Um, we've cleared out all the uh we've used our math skills over in the uh construction department uh to clean out uh the projects. Um we would like to transfer those remaining budgets back into the measure uh L contingency. Um but we also are going to request budget augmentation for the San Mateo uh new gymnasium project. um uh
159that project was in DSA longer than we wanted. Uh so it has extended uh the time on that period. We did have extensive uh underground uh fixtures that were not in our asbuilts and uh we did not know about um and caused additional uh and then there were additional security camera uh and uh some other uh requests by the site team uh to update uh to some uh to the district standards. So with that I'm happy to open it up to questions. Any questions? Any comments by the public? Is there a motion? That was the motion. I took the first second. No, I when you when it came came whatever came out of your mouth. We got Sorry, I'm trying to go faster. Yeah, we have a motion in a second. Seconded. Okay. Yeah. All
160in favor? I I Okay. Uh item S, Division of Human Resources, the consent calendar. Yeah, we have uh six items on consent. The personnel actions, American fidelity contract to help us with the affordable care act, student teacher with San Francisco State, an agreement for mental health services with the National Alliance on Mental illness and twous with the CSCA. Is there any discussion or comments, questions? If no discussion, I'll move second. Okay, we got a motion to second it. Were there any comments online? Okay, all in favor? I I Okay, Division of uh human resources, Dr. Black. The uh first item is an approval for a contract for the director of budget and fiscal services position. Before the vote, I need to read out the contract terms. Okay. The following are the compensation terms for Yel
161Sal uh director of budget and fiscal services. Uh salary $26,419. There's a moving expense reimbursement of up to $1,500. The contract is for 221 work days and includes health and welfare benefits of up to $33,551.90. Also included are transportation and cell phone reimbursements for $275 a month and various subscriptions and memberships and reimbursements for approved district expenses. So, we recommend approval of the contract. I move to approve. Second. You got any comments? Okay. Um, we got a motion and a second. All in favor? I I um personnel action addendum. Yes, we have the personnel action addendum and one recognition. Oilia and Gulo. uh vocational transition assistant has submitted her retirement effective July 31st and Miss Agulo has been with the district for 26 years and 6 months. We recommend approval. Any discussion, questions? Is there
162a motion? I move to approve it. Second. Okay. Okay. Any online comments? Okay. All in favor? I I thank you. It passes unanimously. Uh item three, the next item is the district successor contract proposal with ASME. We the district has an excellent relationship with ASME and we have a good contract. We don't anticipate a long negotiation process. On the district's proposal, we have five articles listed for bargaining. uh those are recognition health and welfare leaves wages and the term of the agreement with reopeners and this item is just for information before the public hearing. Okay, then we're going to move on. Um item four, the next item is ask me successor contract proposal that has eight articles and that's for information only before the public hearing. Okay. We're going to hold a public hearing uh
163Santella Union High School District successor contract proposal for 2526 and the American Federation State, County, and Municipal Employee Successor Contract Proposal for 2526. We'll open the public hearing. Are there any comments? Okay, close the public hearing. and move on to item six. The next item is for approval of the district successor contract proposal. Okay. Any questions or comments or somebody make a motion, please? I move to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I item seven. The next item is for a job description approval. This is for the data integration specialist job description and this replaces the form the uh data control analyst job description. So this doesn't add to personal account, but the revisions do update the position to include a list of essential functions that require
164higher technical expertise and a deeper analytical ability and will suffice for our um student information system. So it's an upgrade to the position that we had. Okay. There a motion? I move to approve. Second. Here we have a motion and a second. Any comment, Miss Cle? Okay. All in favor? I um item eight. Yes. This So, this item is an annual requirement uh by the ED code where the district um asserts that it'll make reasonable efforts to recruit fully prepared teachers for all assignments before seeking emergency credentials. And the form asked for a list of possible areas where we think that we could possibly seek, you know, emergency credential after the um recruitment process. And we've listed special education resources, library, clinical rehabilitation services, and English language development as areas that could pose a challenge
165for recruitment. Uh so we recommend approval of the declaration of need for fully qualified educators which certifies that there may be an insufficient number of certificated persons for our 2526 school year but we haven't had to uh have an emergency credential for a couple of years. Okay. Any discussion? Is there a motion? So moved. I second. Okay. Any online comments? Okay. All in favor? I item nine. This item is the district seeks approval for the creation and hiring of two full-time positions for two years. These positions are number one multilingual learner teacher support coach for STEM and then a multi-learner teacher support coach for humanities. These positions are would be teachers on special assignment and will serve all of our uh six comprehensive high schools. For the funding, the curriculum department will use the general
166fund uh portion that they have, but they will backfill that with lottery instructional material resources to cover these two positions, the cost of these positions for the two years. We recommend approval. just to make sure like there's no like we're just this isn't costing us extra. We're backing. We have it in our budget for the two positions for two years. So the the individuals that we hire for the positions would be aware that it's a you know two-year commit. It's a temporary position. It's temporary. Okay. Yeah. Good. Okay. I move to approve. Second. We got a motion and a second. Any comments? Okay. All great job. Good thinking outside the box. All right. All in favor? I item uh this is approval of special education curriculum adoption. We had a public hearing at our last
167meeting on this for the alternative pathways to diploma and the unique learning system. So, both of them had a public hearing last time. That's right. Right. Thank you. So, moved. Second. I'll second. Got a motion, a second. Any comments? No. Okay. All in favor? I I instructional services. Uh, that was it. That was it. Mhm. The business services. That's moved to the board. Yeah, it's under board operations. Board operations now. Yeah. Okay. Y board operations. Uh so this is part one of the March legis legislative updates. Um there's a lot there, but they're all part of the legislative updates for March. So, can we put it on consent for next time? Yeah. Yes. And if we have a problem, we'll let you know. Okay. Well, I do have a question. Okay. [Music] Um, it's it
168brings up the we have to approve a cell phone policy by July 2026. Do we have a an idea of when we're going to form that policy in the fall? Okay. Okay. Every district has to do that. Yep. I know. I just wanted to know what our and Yeah. the timeline. Got it. Yeah. Good point. It's a good question. Okay. Any uh future board items? Everybody see them? Hurry up because it's 10:03. I know. Okay. Look up if there's one. Okay. Well, doesn't matter if it's 10:01 or 10:03. I think we're done. Meeting a journ. Thank you. Thank you.