001okay hi everybody um calling this meeting to order at 5:32 pm. uh convening to our regular meeting we will start with our flag salute pledge allegiance of the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all just FYI I can't hear anything that's happening in the boardroom at least at currently but we'll see if that changes during roll call okay um roll call trusty Brooks here trusty Proctor here trusty Tren trusty Tren here can you hear me yeah the audio is pretty low just FYI but I can uh vaguely hear everybody okay I'll try to um okay um okay uh moving to approval of tonight's agenda motion to [Music] approve thank you trusty Proctor for the motion trusty Tren
002for the second uh roll call vote trusty Brooks trusty Brooks yes trusty Proctor yes trusty Tren trusty Tren yes I think I and I will vote Yes as well yeah it's an interesting experience being on this side so I can uh hear what maybe our audience sometimes is having having trouble hearing folks so I think it's um trusty Proctor I can hear you the best so I don't know if it's like the location of your microphone or what but um I'll keep letting you all know if it's hard to hear um okay moving on to public statements related to non-agenda topics one second here uh the S mono Foster City School Board cannot act upon any matter that has not been included in publicly posted on the agenda except under limited circumstances as permitted by
003law the board May refer matters raising this form to staff for investigation and or action where appropriate please limit your statements to three minutes so we'll start with inperson um public comment looks like maybe we have some speaker slips so superintendent Ooa do you want to call those up in the order that you have them please absolutely thank you president Watkins our first uh speaker is Leia um I some of the spelling is a bit tough to make out so I'm not going to try sorry the last name but um Leia I'm in person where do I speak is it possible to get a couple more chairs in here hi everybody thank you uh very much for this forum it's uh it's nice to see all of you in person um my name is Leia
004I have two uh daughters in this district and I'm here today to talk about the rise in anti-Semitism with the call to action to please ask the district to do something the ADL has reported nearly a 400% increase in anti-semitic attacks since since October 7th Jewish students and faculty I'm sure are feeling unsafe on our campuses and this is not something that's far away from us this is something that's happening right here double Point um at bage there were students who were saying H Hitler to Jewish students at Burling game high school there were reports of students telling Jewish students that Hitler should have finished the job it's a scary is happening here and we need to take action a personal story my parents came from the former Soviet Union they came to this country
005as Jewish refugees so that our families would not have to so that her you know my my parents kids myself and that our children and their children will not have to face this and we can just live our lives freely without any repercussions of hate yesterday my mom asked me why did she come here when this is happening here the truth is is that this is America and that we have laws and safeguards and we need to be using them now our kids have a right to a safe public education our district has a policy of non-discrimination and hate speech is not free speech so what we would like is a statement from the district proactively stating that anti-Semitism and hate speech and violence against Jews will not be tolerated we stood alongside every other
006ethnic group because we know they got their own statement and we know it's important that none of these statements should ever be diluted and we would like for that to happen here now additionally we would like for the School Administration staff and folks who are working with Dei initiatives to actually take some training in how to spot anti-Semitism and how to combat it silence is absolutely deadly in this environment and it speaks volume s thank you very much for your time thank you next speaker superintendent cha everybody my name is Elena and um actually Le and I just met for the first time but we have a very similar um similar story similar perspective um like Leia I actually immigrated from the Soviet Union to the US with my family when I was a child
007Jews faced institutionalized discrimination in the Soviet Union and that's why we came here as Jewish refugees because the US was truly a safe haven for Jews but right now many Jewish families in our district do not feel safe in increasing incident since October 7th Jewish students at multiple Bay Area Schools including in our own District have been bullied harassed discriminated against and threatened for being Jewish Leia brought up a couple of examples actually have heard of of these situations um in another incident at Menlo Aon high school students have reported that a teacher was cracking Holocaust jokes can you imagine how Jewish students feel going to school after experiencing something like this this kind of hate Behavior stands against the Sam of Foster City School District policies um and there has to be zero tolerance
008to this in our schools disturbingly anti-semitic Behavior at school is normalized when teachers promote a political anti-israel agenda in the classroom for example at Berkeley High a teacher posted anti-israel materials in the classroom Jewish students who complained about feeling uncomfortable were told to sit out the class in the library while the teacher was allowed to continue with the curriculum this happened over multiple weeks a biology teacher at Burling game high school put up a free Palestine poster in the classroom following the October 7 terrorist attack and resisted calls from students parents and the principal to take it down um as Leia said this is a really scary time for us we see these incidents increasing we see um the teachers maybe not recognizing what's going on um and we would like to ask I would
009like to ask the board for the following commit to zero tolerance for Jew hate at our schools by publicly speaking out against it such as putting out a statement and taking immediate action to investigate any incidents and discipline appropriately ensure that our educators are not infusing any personal political beliefs into class discussions assignments or curriculum provide opportunities to educate staff about anti-Semitism and how to ensure a hate-free environment for Jewish students ideally conduct principal level staff training as soon as possible and engage with Dei officers about Jew hate this should be part of the Dei agenda I hope that you would all want Jew all Jewish children to know that their teachers counselors and administrators will not allow them to feel threatened or unwelcome for being Jewish or believing in the in the right of
010isra to exist thank you so much for your time our next speaker is my name is Shir melich I'm a parent of students in the district thank you for the opportunity to speak with you recently in badw middle school there have been at least two separate incidents of students doing the H Hitler salute to Jewish students H Hitler salute was used by the Nazi party and government in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century the same government that has murdered my grand my grandparents entire family and my husbands grandparents entire family along with other six million Jews during World War II a kid doing the H Hitler salute at school is exactly exactly the same as if a kid would arrive at school with the KKK costume it means I support those who want
011to obliterate you and all of your kind and you'll do so violently I was shocked and overwhelmed when I heard that the fact that schools are relying this kind of behavior against her children to take place is against everything a love and value in for the city tolerance inclusion and diversity I would like to ask the school district to have zero tolerance for such Behavior I would like to ask the school district to provide opportunities to educate teachers counselors and administrators about anti-Semitism and how to ensure a hatefree environment for Jewish students I would like to ask the school district to ensure School administrators and educator provide a safe space for children for students if they experience anti-Semitism that they would know who to contact at school in such a case thank you for listening
012thank you our next speaker is aair good evening my name is offer I have four kids I I did prepare a speech but with your permission after hearing my colleagues I want to speak from the heart and a bit more spent 10 years I I picked up my oldest g-16 this afternoon and you might have heard there is this Tik Tok thing about people quoting a Osama Bin Laden letter have you heard are you on Tik Tok it's okay not and and I asked her do do you know who s is my daughter she said no I was shocked I remember exactly where I was when 911 happened it's a true story I was younger she knows off in 911 but she couldn't connect the name and I asked her you know you didn't they
013talk to you school about those things and then I reflected back you know when the Ukraine Russia War started about a year ago I also ask her what's happening in the world I'm concerned I don't think this esteemed committee can block Tik Tok it's a different conversation but we can control what's happening in our district my ask is very simple the next time we we meet if something happened it will be too late so when we ask for zero tolerance and all those beautiful words let's stop it when it's young so if we see something if someone is saying something wrong there isn't a second strike third strike it will be too late ask for the sake of our kids and by the way all kids no matter what what side let's contain and you
014know no I'm speaking with my heart thank you next speaker is Richard everyone thank you um so my my um my my main kind of point to to support the the the the point that my my previous colleagues colleague said is um that the Jewish uh population of students are a tiny minority um and it cannot be that they feel such insecurity in a western world of law where we rely on police and we rely on on uh bodies to protect every minority uh and if you have an education body that explicitly um um lead leaves that Minority out because of political views that is utterly unacceptable um the education system and this body has been very vocal about supporting the inclusion of minorities uh and individual expression it is part of the curriculum it
015is something that is supported and explicitly um uh encouraged And yet when it comes to jsh students um this education body has not explicitly supported them they're a minority just like every other minority and yet this body has not explicitly said that they're going to support them um and it is not a political position it is not a government uh policy it is not a uh historical question it is identical to a student having a KKK sign and coming up to a student who is a different minority and saying to they support their death that's not acceptable and if this body chooses not to uh um uh or or accept any behavior that allows that it means they're condoning it and they're supporting it there is no other question and so there can't be a
016second chance there can't be an option it has to be condemned and it has to be zero zero tolerance um thank you our next speaker is Ashley hi everyone thank you for listening to us today um I'm a parent in the district I'm American I'm Jewish I'm Israeli I'm also the granddaughter of a holocaust Survivor she was in owitz she actually went into the gas chamber they ran out of gas chamber and the United States freed asht two days later and that's why I'm here in front of you today on October 7 I woke up to a new terrible world my people my personal friends were massacred and kidnapped from their home and their beds what happened on October 7 in the current war is affecting a student here and now and that's what we
017want to address and that's what important to us anti-Semitism is on the rise around all of us just today there was a pretty violent demonstration on the Bay Bridge um we see graffitti all over the cities around us death to Old Jews death to Israel these are things that our kids are seeing every day and come home and ask why you heard about the incident in B you heard about the incidents in other schools about two weeks ago there was an a demonstration in front of in s Carlos and a 16 years old got pepper sprayed um in her eyes and they pulled it Israel flag from her hand this is scary this is something that we have to deal with in this this is close to home these anti-semitic events go against our s
018FASA City School District policies the district that we all chose because we believe in this district and we want to be part of it it goes against What We Believe As Americans to leave free and be free and be okay to be whoever we want to be and so we need your help to help us fight against anti-Semitism and to make our kids safe and here's what we're asking number one is we want to appoint a safe person in every school so if there is an anti-semitic event they know who to go to and they know it's their safe person number two is we ask a safe place in every school so if something like this happen they know where to go and they can take a breath we're talking about kids here they need
019that certainty that someone is behind them they have their back number three is we want to train the teachers I know that two years ago there was a training of anti-Semitism in the director level I believe in the district we want it to be to everyone so everyone can know what is anti-Semitism how do we recognize it today it kind of goes underneath the hate crimes or hate speech but Jewish or 2% of the US population and 60% of all hate crimes are anti-Semitism and so we need to understand what those anti-Semitism look like what do you do when it happens in your class and how do you behave and how do you act and how you make sure the kids feel safe after that and empowered versus fright and scared and don't want to
020go to school and lastly we want to suggest that we create a committee um that will work on all of the above we're here to offer our help as a community leaders we can help work together to create this committee to know what we want to accomplish to make sure that in our Dei when we accept everyone and we forget to put the Jewish people there we also put them there as well and we we protect all of our kids no matter what religion they're coming from or what to believe in or who they are just because they're kids in our district thank you next speaker is Kimberly you and I'm still a samero resident and it is just very emotional to see what's going on to hear these stories and it should touch all
021of us in this day and age I cannot be acceptable I am just I remember how I felt during Co when there was so much anti-asian hate and it can't spread to our schools I'm sorry I really didn't plan to speak actually I just what I'm hearing what I'm seeing on the P Bridge what I'm seeing posters in schools and teachers you know telling children to leave the classroom and go to the library this is just so unacceptable there are instances of anti-Semitism and hate feel texes being sent to Jewish students here in Foster City to hear Hil hit their salutes to Jewish children it's just I'm sorry just heartbreaking I I just can't believe how unacceptable this is in our community samito High School I heard was hosting a fundraiser and was planning to
022sell palestini flags that could leave our these children of Israeli fames Jewish students it could really leave them feeling isolated unsupported fearful I'm so sorry I'm crying I really didn't plan to speak I just literally wrote this in the last hour I just I can't believe all these actions are happening and we can't not do anything and not take action to keep our and we have to just keep our schools safe it is our responsibility as a community and to this board and this District to ensure there is no anti-Semitism there is no hate there's no islamophobia there is no anti-asian hate no racism no the LGBT Q Community feel safe like this is our responsibility it is unequivalently unequivocally unacceptable and we have to make sure that we take this responsibility on and I
023am asking that the school district use the policies that we have and that it shouldn't be necessary really I think I hear these people asking I feel like they should we ask that superintendent Diego and the board or the student the teachers union that they all take action and make sure that this is known that this is unacceptable in any form any form at all there should be zero tolerance for this um and hearing more stories about what's happening that I didn't know is just really upsetting we can control social media but we can set a precedence to keep that our schools are safe and all the children feel safe that's all thank [Music] you is that it for the inperson speakers yes okay um let's take our speakers that are on Zoom Joe do
024you want me to do it or you you good um I can get it um thank you president Watkins um good evening I'll be calling on speakers during public comment in random order to our attendees if you would like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in can dial Star n to raise their hands speakers will have three minutes to give the remarks and once time is expired we will move to the next speaker the moment we have one raised hand uh Amir prant I'm sorry if I Mis pronounce your name please go ahead hello uh logged in from my husband computer this is Ken presentant good evening uh and thank you for the opportunity to speak uh can you hear me yes I'm
025a a mother to three kids in the school district and I would also like to express my deep concerns regarding the rising issue of anti-Semitism in our community and specifically within our school districts uh my son also attends bich Middle School when coming home from school today he told me that during PE while running labs a classmate was telling a joke that included killing all Jews and this is a couple of days after my son learned that his friend was insulted and humiliated in school for being Jewish I sent my kids to school every day scared that they would experience hate incidents only for being born Jewish and mostly afraid of physical violence if this will be allowed to escal to escalate further there is a big problem that is not appropriately addressed in California
026is not new it was always alarming but now it is critical uh we and unfortunately our kids witness in the past months or so like never before anti-semitic remarks flooding the streets as well as City councils and academic institution and as you just heard it it infiltrates our schools and uh affect our children on a daily basis it is important to acknowledge that each hate incident have a traumatic impact on the victim as well as on the community at large and I believe that there is more that can be done to raise awareness educate students and staff and Implement policies that explicitly condemn and address anti-Semitism I urge the school district to take proactive measures to address and prevent such occurrences within the schools I appreciate your attention uh to this matter and look forward
027to hearing about the positive steps the district will take to address anti-Semitism and the safety of our children within our Comm Community thank you thank you next speaker is Emilia shipiro let me reset my timer okay please go ahead hi there my name is Amelia Shapiro I've been a resident of San Mato for the last six years and my son is a kindergarten student at George Hall Elementary and I know the district has a long history of supporting marginalized communities I was overjoyed to receive an email from principal dagio at George Hall around the Jewish High holidays recognizing the importance of these holidays to the Jewish community and I I thanked her personally this was the first time that I had seen something like this come through but to hear practically nothing or a corporate
028Villa version of nothing from the district since then has concerned me as a parent as a member of this community and while thank God my son has not encountered anything himself hearing what other students have gone through at other schools it breaks my heart as a parent it is not fair that while my neighbors can decorate for the upcoming Christmas holidays I worry about putting muua on my door I have not bought any sort of Hanukkah decorations to put outside because I don't want us to be targeted unnecessarily it's something that we live with all all the time it is something that any of the adults speaking today have gone through when we were children as adults we deal with it in the workplace and now we call upon the district to just do something
029to protect our children we know that the district has spoken up on behalf of other marginalized communities I came across a beautifully written Facebook post from 2021 when there was a rise in anti-asian hate and the district beautifully supported the community at the time and so I ask for the same thing for a different group of students who is being marginalized attacked threatened and just going through a terrible time right now thank you for taking the time to listen to us today thank you president Watkins there are no other public comments at this time okay thank you so much and as I mentioned on setting up public comment the board can't act upon you know any any public comments but I did just want to say um a thanks to all the families uh for
030sharing your experiences and just you know to express um um you know are sorry really uh sorry that any students are feeling unsafe or unsupported at any of our schools and um you know I think a couple of folks said that this board is really committed to equity and ensuring safety for all of our students and that is absolutely true um and superintendent oo will be following up with with folks that spoke this evening superintendent oo anything else to add I'll be in touch with these folks if you some of you may not have left um your contact information and you can do so Dennis Hills is assistant superintendent of student services he's um seated there at the at the de and he can uh connect with you in the lobby here in just a
031couple minutes and and grab that information thank you um moving on public statements related to agenda items persons will be called on at the appropriate time we'll be moving on to Foundation committee and PTA Council reports starting with any board member um committee reports seeing none okay do we have anyone from the Ed foundation on I guess I can look to I'm not seeing anyone but feel free to raise your hand we have Sanja in person oh okay great hello can I start now hello my name is Sonia cin and I'm the proud representative of all the volunteers and the board members of the Education Foundation the Ed Foundation Works to support every child in the school district with a quality education we are thankful to our community for all of the support because we
032can't do this work without you this year we received generous support from the following local businesses water all Industrial Electric Supply Julie saon who's a realtor hkit Architects amichi spitza Atkins Atkinson Anderson Loya red and Romo Law Firm Michael Kai realtor Kato Paving Jack's Pizza PF reading program and Rost dress for L the Foster City's Council supported us with an $8,600 Grant to support programs such as outdoor education the woodlon foundation supported us with $25,000 Grant to ensure that we have art and music in our schools we received an amazing Grant from the measure K fund of $150,000 which supported our playground improvements and also uh equipment we are thrilled to receiv received over 750 um separate donations of school supplies from the Gilead uh medical Affairs Department which went to all of our Title
033One schools in support of ensuring that every child has the equipment they need to um Thrive at school and we received an like overwhelming donation of $500,000 from Gilead this year to support our College and Career exploration Readiness program to extend it to the fourth and fifth grade this year which I will applaud the school district for the amazing work that they did in bringing col and career Readiness exploration to sixth seventh and eighth grade last year and then expanding it to the fourth and fifth graders because it is essential that these children understand that there are so many ways to be um whole in this community and we want them to know all of the choices that they have to make um we continue to make great strides we have uh upcoming events which
034is um samto main library will be sponsoring next week the 20th through the 27th a shoe Drive so if you have old shoes please be sure to donate them there and we are also doing a readathon again this year so January 17th through the 2 please encourage your students to read as we will continue to make that a priority this year we are off to a great start please visit our website if you haven't already and know that the Ed fund is here for our students because together we can make sure that their dreams come true thank you very much for your support thank you so much and do we have anyone on from PTA Council or in person okay we will move on to SMA csca and SM fcaa updates who wants to kick
035us off uh good evening everyone I just wanted to go ahead and do a quick update here uh first of all we have hit 60 days it is the or tomorrow will be it will be the third of our school year we have finished um our first trimester by the end of next year and we are or by the end of tomorrow and we are definitely uh working on um working with our students seeing the improvements that they've been making throughout the year a lot of our especially our middle schools but a lot of our other SCH skites have also been involved in conferences and we're ending out the term so ending out this term and meeting parents and making those connections um so it's been a very busy time of year in addition to
036of course all of the holidays that are coming up we uh as a a group of SMA members we have completed six different listening sessions for special ed um of our special ed staff we have received an immense amount of data and information that we are need to take together and sift through where we're going to be able to share some of the things that we have found um during that time uh thank you to all of the uh counselors and SDC teachers and RSP teachers and psychologists and um speech and language Pathologists that helped gave us all of that very interesting data um more to come on that I want to in mention that SMA members definitely continue to advocate for emotionally and physically safe schools where everyone can feel safe to be in
037their in their school and not be judged by their race their color their background any uh anything and that we as educators are striving to have that and want our district to make sure that those continue to that our schools are emotionally safe um I'm thankful for all of our teachers in the spirit of Thanksgiving thank you for teachers and all of our SMA members um educational professionals that continue to make a safe spot for students to come and enjoy their learning all year I do hope that they enjoy their everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving and that's all of my report for today thank you Kathy um do we have CCA in in the audience or oh awesome Miss Bishop there we go can you hear me now yes excellent okay so I am Brienne bishop
038and I'm the current Secretary for the cssea chapter 411 which is the uh Union for classified staff of the sananto Foster City School District on October 23rd our membership uh ratified uh um an addendum mou to a previously passed mou concerning uh the annex staff um we passed uh ratified anou regarding positions in the technology department which uh was the very much needed and anou that continues uh the handling of sick days um and covid um those were the items that were put forth uh for the board's consideration uh last last uh meeting and uh we thank you for your continued support uh it's greatly appreciated um since the last meeting our president of our chapter and our Union steward have um and our local rep have entered into negotiations with uh the district Representatives
039uh in pursuit of our our future contract this is a standard operating procedure so um and uh with that uh we thank you very much for your time your support and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving time off thank you so much and um I'm seeing double here I saw double of Miss Bishop I'm seeing double of myself now too um smfc AA your folks in the audience greetings esteemed school board members and superintendent AOA my name is Dale isers and I am the principal of Meadow Heights Elementary School at Meadow Heights Elementary School the Strategic plan is Alive and Well if you know our little school you know that we are a school full of kind caring hardworking adults who are serving extraord AR children in every single grade level our students are
040experiencing our engineering legol lab program at high levels in addition to that um at the end of last year because our teachers care so deeply about our students we screened every child in foundational skills and our teachers work together to align supports to each student's skill level to ensure that all children leave Meadow Heights learning how to lift the words off the page if they hadn't already because of interrupted education you may be asking yourself what is next for Meadow Heights Elementary School well I would like to invite you to our first ever knowledge Fair it is happening on December 1st from 5: to 7: it looks a lot like a science fair except that students can share any knowledge that they want to share with their community in partnership with our PTA we distributed
041trifold boards to all students uh small medium and large and depending on their their age and their proficiencies and um if you come you will learn about soccer you will learn about ants you will learn about Aviation you will learn about Guatemala and you will hear these presentations in multiple languages so oh and there'll be pizza so please join us things well good evening president Watkins members of the board superintendent Cho and all our distinguished guests thank you for inviting us here tonight to share some of the highlights from our schools Abbott Middle School so uh so far this year as you are aware Abbott has seen considerable change over the past year and I am happy to report that though we've had some challenges we've also seen a great deal of Positive Growth strong
042encouragement and support from our school Community with the district's support and the efforts of our classified and certificated staff our school has been focused on a real team approach to creating a safe and supportive environment where all students can feel sense of belonging and have the opportunity to thrive both personally and academically with the specific additions of uh assistant principles ronel Fernandez and Fernando Figaroa um and our tosa Diane Hoka the Abbott uh Student Wellness Center the school has really worked hard to set clear expectations and consistent support for our students and our students have responded extremely positively to these efforts for just some of the highlights from this fall I'd like to specifically recognize the efforts of our Abbott leadership teacher and our and the students the Abbott leadership students Miss Marone who have
043organized the following well attended events some for the first time a welcome back dance with about 400 students Friday Night Lights two two different uh Friday nights a fall festival and several student uh spirit activities a few other highlights I'd like to just recognize our PTA and elac um parent groups have demonstrated incredible support um a full house in the library Library uh and it's just been tremendous to see the the outpouring of support in both those parent groups we recognized um last week during advisory 168 students who had perfect attendance through the first quarter and we just wrapped up three days of parent and family conferences again with significant and positive turnout from our families when we return from Thanksgiving we have grade level assemblies scheduled with Ashanti Branch a former East Bay Public
044School teacher and founder of ever forward um and the assembly uh kind of Workshop is called taking off the mask it's a workshop focused on engaging students in open and honest dialogue to connect with each other and create more meaningful relationships healthier communication and deeper engagement in addition to these events we're very excited to partner closely with Hillsdale high school tonight our Abbott music students will be participating in hillsdale's instrumental instrumental music concert and next month we'll be starting our collaborative efforts uh with the empowerment through Action Program program which supports 8th grade uh students transitioning to Hillsdale high school next fall in close I would just like to share my optimism and excitement for our school and for our students and families I would also like to take a moment and thank my fellow
045Middle School principles for all their support and collegiality we have as you well are well aware exceptional School leaders and I've been grateful for the support um that I have received in transitioning uh this year um as Roland bar former public school teacher and principal and the founding director of principal Center at Harvard University once wrote the relationship among the adults in the schoolhouse has more impact on the quality and character of the school and on the accomplishments of youngsters than any other Factor if Professor B's statement is accurate and I agree that it is then I am even more optimistic in our school's continued growth as I am confident with the district's support in the commitment and support from our entire staff and from our larger School community and with that on behalf of
046the administrators in the Sano Foster City and the district administrators Association we wish to uh wish the entire School District a restful November break thank you thank you both so much for the updates and sharing more about the work that's happening at your school sites always such a joy to hear more about that moving on to board announcements any board member announcements just wanted to say that we as the district um celebrated Ruby Bridges walk to school day this past Tuesday um I know that at several schools it was extremely well attended so that was a really great Community Building event as well as an opportunity to reflect on our pretty recent history um and to you know recommit to anti-racism and um inclusion for everyone thank you thank you any other board member announcements
047okay moving on to superintendent report superintendent no choa give this a try here um uh kudos to all of our schools that participated in the Ruby Bridges event um just absolutely wonderful to see our young people and our families come together our staff come together um a very important group of visits that we made this week also uh I want to thank our board for joining me at first at Highlands Elementary School um we went into classroom after classroom at Highlands and saw um that Joy spark that you see when kids many classrooms were doing music and art at that time um and our teachers were engaged and our our students were just having a blast um kids on the edge of their seats and then we got a chance to go and visit um
048uh principal Bower over at Abbott Middle School um and if you spent any time at Abbott Middle School uh you would understand the kind of transformation that the staff and our school administrators have orchestrated at that school it is remarkable and it's a credit to the whole team he and I talked to our board members during the visit about teamwork and just seeing it in everything that the staff does at that school we also just saw wonderful teaching we went into a couple of sixth grd classrooms into a dual immersion classroom and just saw just flat out really strong teaching um going on and so that that's always uplifting and then our last visit was to Laurel elementary school and get a chance to see the Continuum of of Early Elementary grades Kinder all the
049way up through fifth grade got a chance to tour some of their new facilities that that are really making a difference at that school um while there we had an opportunity to visit with a a teacher that was uh doing a really interesting math lesson and just seeing how in our our math instruction seeing how kids go through the struggle of sense making really work through the um you know the decision- making that we're teaching kids in this District in math and it's a credit uh to all of our classroom teachers and our teachers on special assignment who facilitate and support that work um so those are my remarks for this evening is just many thanks to those three schools that hosted us this week and uh and then closing out with uh wishing everybody
050here a really wonderful break next week thank you superintendent Ooa okay we're going to move on to the proposed consent agenda all items on the consent agenda are considered by the board to be routine and will be enacted by the board in one Motion in the form listed below there will be no discussion on these items prior to the time the board votes on the motion unless members of the board staff or public request specific items be removed and discussed from the consent agenda superintendent and staff recommend approval of all consent items movement of any recommended consent item is appropriate at this time so starting with the board um any board members have any consent items to remove uh any inperson audience members and any Zoom audience members Watkins yes oh sorry um Can can
051I pull um 4 A7 briefly yes any Zoom members I'm just looking now I don't see any hands up but Joe do you want to make your announcement yes thank you president Watkins good evening I'll be calling on speakers during public comment in random order um to pull any consent items off the agenda if you would like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in can dial star9 to raise their hands speakers will have three minutes to give the remarks and once time is expired we will move to the next speaker I will pause a moment for any raised hands president Watkins there are no speakers at this time okay thank you um okay so we will need a motion for the consent agenda
052with the removal of 4 A7 I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda you can just specify what with removal of 4 A7 when your motion please with the removal of 4 A7 thank you trusty Brooks for the motion trusty who was that Tren for the second yeah okay uh roll call vote trusty Brooks yes trusty Proctor yes trusty Tren yes and I vote Yes as well okay uh 4 A7 uh trusty Tren did you want uh District staff to provide some sort of update did you have a specific question so this one is um in a renewal of our contract um buying for for the child Nutri Child Nutrition services and so I was just curious on um have update from you know commodity buying and and trying [Music] to create more you
053know local streams of um our supplies conversations about the upcoming year and opportunities really excited about that our director of Food Services is engaged in that process as well too um this enables us for Commodities we are going to buy to um leverage from a pricing perspective as best we can but we are absolutely having active conversations about changeing menus um you it's an involved conversation too so we're really super excited about it so thanks for bringing that up great thank you so much any other board questions or comments on this all right this is up for vote as well we need I'll move to approve 4 A7 I'll need a second I didn't hear if somebody did I'll second sorry um okay Watkins okay uh trusty uh thank you trusty Chen for the motion
054trusty Brooks for the second uh roll call vote trusty Brooks yes trusty Proctor yes trusty Tren yes I'll vote Yes as well okay um moving on to 5A after school program update good evening Board of Trustees and superintendent Ooa tonight I'd like to invite um Nancy Buie our director of equity and inclusion and Tiffany caneras our principal on special assignment for the annex they're going to share an afterschool program update with you uh including a video at the end so very excited about that so go for it TI and Nancy hi good hang on hi good evening superintendent Ooa president Watkins and the Board of Trustees we're gonna do a screen sharing give us one second do this um oops is it showing up okay so I wanted to introduce myself I'm Nancy buy director
055of acre inclusion and my partner is Tiffany caneras principal and special assignment anx we are so excited to share all the wonderful work that's been happening in our after school programs by our fabulous Annex staff and our e Partners we wanted to share some overview of The Proven benefits of after care so we know that when children attend high quality programs after school they experience a sense of belonging they are given academic support and expanded learning there's Improvement in social skills and coping strategies which lead to promotion of cooperation and flexibility um and research-wise students who attend after school are able to have higher grades in school improve work habits and they're more willing to attend extracurricular activities beyond their um K8 setting um we also know that after care provides safety and supervision after
056hours we're really proud of our Partnerships which are continuing to grow just wanted to highlight the programs that that we work with we are partnered with Newton homework central YMCA the Bo and Girls Club pil Bridge Champions um and new this year is we are providing outdoor education for all fifth graders using elop funds there's been a lot of questions about elops we wanted to provide information from our California Department head so expanded learning opportunities program is what EOP stands for and it's funding for after school summer school for TK to sixth grade and expanded learning means anything before school after school summer or intercession learning programs and the focus is on academic social emotional and physical needs of students and really through through Hands-On engaging learning experiences in order to qualify for elop students
057have to be considered unduplicated which includes free rued meal program Foster youth homeless and English Learners all righty in addition to elop funding we also uh you have some grants our Asus Grant which is continuing for 416,000 annually last spring we received a new Grant the aser three Grant which is onetime money for 24 $4,000 and today with the boys and girls club we submitted uh another Grant U for $790,000 so decision [Music] pending with our Partnerships we've been able to increase our enrollment um since the pandemic so we're getting and surpassing where we were pre pandemic to offering um after school care to students um just right around the corner we're starting our second Camp of the Year Turkey Camp uh next week for three days we're looking um about we have actually 380
058students enrolled uh for Camp next week um an increase from from our fall Camp um and we can we'll continue that for Spring Break and summer camp as well uh location will be at College Park serving TK through second grade students um and champions are partner will be um working with our third fourth and fifth graders of siblings to TK and second uh there will be daily enrichment Project based learning um footstep sibilance ST Math um some Ela and math intervention PE everyday Lego lab with a dedicated teacher um students are selected based on academic and economic need and the camp is at no cost to our families we're not finished we have a wonderful video to highlight um we wanted you to hear directly from kids from Annex staff from our our El Partners
059so we interviewed several students and staff and wanted to thank them for giving us their time hang on one second can we see that okay the things I think is most important about after school programming and why I love working in it so much is it's an opportunity for students to engage with more trusted adults who can help them build like interdependent self- advocacy figure out what they need we focus a lot of our daily learning activities highlighting group problem solving leadership focus and self-regulation skills with our inclusion connections curriculum seal activities as well as Stanford Harmony and when it comes to meeting the academic needs of the community we really focus on each child as an individual through daily homework support and tutoring I like working for the adex because it provides a space
060for kids after school to come and build their confidence have fun be creative work on new projects while developing and learn new skills and also build a sense of community between staff and families I really enjoy working with Sano district is uh the community that we get to build and the partnership that we can work with on different programs like the biggest one is booknook something that we help them out to do within our program and that we're implementing while we're doing all our stuff and all our curriculum so it's great to have the partnership to work together and come with ideas to support the community working closely with principles and the schools we're so excited to be working with the S F City School District uh at our program we deepen students math and
061Ela skills through Hands-On activities and culturally responsive book disc discussions uh and my favorite part about working with the district is um being able to work with the team to support all students te my favorite thing is working with other people I like the annex because it gives me time to do my homework I to be a student that um they help me get a scholarship and get into college and they take care of needs and I hanging on with my friends here [Music] s that they really welcome and that they always help you whenever you need like Stu you have a problem okay it in one of the things I think is most isn't that wonderful we loved it so much we wanted to see it a second time okay I think it's stopped
062okay right thank you for the presentation awesome thank you guys so much okay turning it over to the board for any clarifying questions um one question I had was in terms of um number of students that we are serving for after school care um compared to I guess number of students on a waiting list are we meeting the needs or is there a um a large waiting list of students that are not being served sure um it's it varies by site on on how many are on a wait list um I can speak to the to the annex that we're continuously going through our weight list um and we have um at the schools um and Remar Annex is at a cost we do not have very large weight list um in the program for
063peninsula Bridge we don't have a weit list for boys and girls club they are actively working to respond to the weight list so anytime we go over the expected number we meet with them every week we review the enrollment numbers so they're constantly meeting that need so since we've opened they've hired more staff opened more classrooms so we're really lucky to have Partners who are they they want to make sure we don't have a weight list so we're hoping by January to eliminate the weight list for boys and girls club um and again prinal Bridge it's a program that operates out of Highlands and Laurel um if there are a families who are interested in the princip program there are openings at the moment board clarifying questions one quick question I had um I know
064that we've talked about this with preschool and I'm not sure if the same applies to after school in terms of just like any sort of financial um barriers I know that we are offering after school for free for some of our programs and then it's paid for some of our programs and just wondering like if there's any one that doesn't qualify for free that then is not able to kind of afford that the paid program and if there's I know that we had talked about like the possibility of like sliding scale for preschool etc for that and I was just wondering if the same applies in our after school program kind of how the fee structure works there so for elop all the sites that were on the slide deck it's 100% free for the
065annex um we offer scholarships and we offer financial support yes um based on economic and again academic need um we do offer um support so I guess just to clarify do we feel like there's anyone who is not able to access are we certain there are not there are not kids that are unable to access after school due to like any sort of like Financial barrier there there are I only have so many uh there's there are there are going to be people who cannot access um but we do our best to accommodate when when they when we find out and we can accommodate the situation if the site is full then we work with them we refer them to 4C's um we keep them on our weit list we don't turn people away um
066for not having financial means we do try to work with them um if when possible but I won't say that it's completely eradicated but we do um work on sighting scales and um working with our um fores in the county who also can help subsidized um Care at are three Title One schools to the Boys and Girls Club so we have lead Sunny Bay and park um cost is not a barrier it's 100% free for all families and at Laurel we have um partnered with um ny's the elop team and Peninsula bridge and offered care Peninsula bridge is only two days a week but we've offered Care at no cost for the other three days in the annex um in order to help support that program as well so we are working together to to
067ensure that kids get care that need care I have a question regarding [Music] um I guess well I seem like you uh are feeling really supported in the program are there any um things that you have identified on maybe a wish list that you would like to uh have us consider for supplies or any needs to help support the kids more well I love that question Tiffany I you know for us we just people we we we need people um you know the more people we have the more um kids we can support so we're we are actively recruiting every uh single day um we're at job fairs we have added high school students to come support so we can add more students and that has been a great addition this year um but more
068people would be um but as far as monetary you know I don't supplies we are we are set we just we need more people so we can serve more kids yeah I think we we we we really grateful to the um Tiffany's team Tiffany has been amazing um we have guidance from our superintendent in terms of the Outreach that we're doing I think in the past after school has been through a first come first lens kind of a model and now we're using data to do Outreach to families and saying hey we've identified your your student you've met academic and economic need um and one of the highlights and I mean responding to that is we actually I think compared to last year our turkey camp we have a lot of staff for are signed
069up to to teach and to serve so um I think the more Partnerships that we can can involve it's it's it's going to make people want to come and work in the annex and the after school program and I just want to plug that for our turkey Camp our third fourth and fifth graders um the program is being supported by Champions which are serving our students at Bayside and and at Abbot so when we've asked Partners to step up to help with any kind of need they've said yes and we truly believe that Equity is about having a culture of yes um and so we're really fortunate that when there's been a need it's been filled but in terms of like an ask I think would love to have people come visit we are open
070next week the kids are having a magic show right on Wednesday on Wednesday There's a magic show assembly for the fall we had a animal assembly for the spring I'm trying to work on an author visit maybe even like a musical assembly so if if you're around um next week if you're around for spring break if you're available after 3 o00 please come visit and kind of see and we made that video to kind of show you if you can't come that there's joy happening we have Innovation happening and the after school is kind of the place where we've been trying a lot of our stem curriculum and our literacy curriculum it's been very successful Lego lab Lego lab yeah thank you I have a question about um summer programming um do we have I
071I know that a lot of families struggle with that big long break that seems to stretch on forever um do we have any plans like if we get this grant money are there plans to use any of it to provide more summer learning opportunities so the grant doesn't impact our summer programming for this year I think it's about getting securing funds for consecutive years um the really one of the things we did with planning for for the for after care and for um for these camps is we actually recruited staff in the fall for the entire year through the summer so so we actually have staff who are signed up to teach who are signed up to um be onboarded for we so we've already had a list of people to work the spring camp
072and the summer camp um and Camp will start the day after school ends we'll go through June 28th and then we take a week off in honor of July 4th and we come back and then we have summer school so in totality um starting from the first day of school until um ju July the summer there's only one week where there's no any kind of programming so the fact that we have this kind of a year round model is really exciting are there any other board clarifying questions open it up then for public comment at this time is there any in-person public comment someone can just give me like a thumbs up thumbs down since I can't see okay uh Joe if we want to check with the zoom audience please yes thank you president
073Watkins good evening I will be calling on speakers during public comment in random order to our attendees if you would like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in can dial star9 to raise their hand speakers will have three minutes to give the remarks and once time is expired we will move to the next speaker I'll pause a moment for any raised hands president Watkins there are no public comments at this time okay sounds good uh so opening it up for any board comments discussion at this time I just want to say thank you for the presentation um and just want to highlight uh the importance of the care that you provide for our Scholars um it is very important uh not only for
074them but for the families to um feel like their students are supported and um receiving the Quality quality care that we're providing uh and to also uh help in there um after school academics uh I'm just feeling really supported thank you um also wanted to thank you for the presentation um I really appreciate this information and I I appreciate the data that you shared about the um enrollment over the years especially by um by provider as well and also um appreciate the breakdown of the the funding and the grants that we receive as well so I um I like receiving all that information um one thing that I am curious about is just kind of getting some feedback about the programs themselves and I I appreciate the the the layout of The Proven benefits of
075after Aftercare and I'd love to hear more about kind of like like how we kind of grade ourselves on how we're doing with the um we know the benefits of Aftercare but how how do we rank kind of our our after care um how are we seeing the outcomes of these programs that we're are we seeing that um our students are having improved academic outcomes or um improved social skills and stuff from from our programs that we have on our campuses and I'm just curious um because that would be great to know but otherwise I'm glad that we're able to provide care after school care for students that need it and that we're able to provide it at a at no cost for families that need that and um that there's not a huge waiting
076list so all great news so thank you we have really good data and we're happy to bring that back at a future meeting to kind of share with you the wonderful progress that our students who attend our camps who go after care making thank you you are the screen so you just like came from ceiling or something I that's how I feel about Tiffany she's an angel thank you there you are oh there yeah we see each other oh are hi Tiffany thank you all so much for the present tape thank you and again we have magic show next Wednesday if you really like magic come on by on Wednesday we'd love to introduce you and um and the kids would love it thank you so much have a wonderful evening oh I wasn't done
077with my thank you it was there was more to it than just thank you um no thank you all so much for the update um I mean I'm I'm you know just like echoing what um what some of my fellow trusty shared but I just I'm really excited about um just the Partnerships that we've created over the past couple of years and our ability to provide more after school care you know free of cost to more students and I know it's taken a lot of work in terms of just building those Partnerships and then also I'm just really impressed with all of the grants like I think um I don't I don't know maybe I'm just like not remembering but I feel like we were not going out for Grants like of the size in
078the past to be able to kind of you know engage in this and so the fact that you know we just submitted a 700 plus thousand Grant proposal in collaboration with some of our partners I think is just like really incredible so thank you all I know that it's not easy it takes a ton of work and a lot of time but it's worth it um and so just like a lot of gratitude to you all for you know just thinking innovatively about how we can continue to up the kinds of supports um that we provide to all of our students so um you know I think it's it's really exciting um I I think that we saw something like this um last year maybe this fall or something but I do think it would
079be great um you know if we're track tracking are the 300 kids that come the same kids sorry if you said this are they the same kids that come for each or is it different kids each time they're the same students every time and we go through our list of those who didn't respond right so that the lists that we generated from the fall are going to remain the same and the strategy and I have to credit our superintendent was we want to give students as much consistent academic support as possible it's not a one one hit wonder right so getting 25 days of intercession camp matters more than getting just a drop in so we consistently have the same students coming coming back um so for the Thanksgiving Camp our Baseline hasn't changed but
080more people the word got out um they heard about the animals show the magic show that we're doing a we're going to Pilot a math program that you the board approved at a previous meeting called lever we're going to be bringing in Paxton Patterson for third fourth and fifth graders in our spring and our summer camp so I think keeping the the the Baseline the same and just kind of adding because I I do think the um the strategy is about adding versus starting over every single time um so the Staffing is remaining consistent this the students are consistent the facility is the same so to have a kid come back to the same classroom at College Park and have the same teacher have the same students so they almost gets it's almost like um
081it's like a a school within a school um so they get to build relationships and they get extended throughout the year um which I think is really really special and that's why anex the annex is so special is because the same kits go every single day so they get to build a second Community yeah no thank you that's super helpful um yeah I I was asking because I'm you know looking forward to seeing kind of the data that we're getting around like how this is kind of supporting you know our our students um you know that are identified here and how that kind of Compares right because we of course want to see like we've invested all of this time and all of these resources into providing like these additional kind of intercession camps and
082so you know wanting to see wanting to see that translate into how they're doing in school so looking forward to that um yeah thank you all any final comments thank you again it's been wonderful to see you know so many more families get the support so many kids um will be able to access the joy of learning um for more hours in the day and you know getting to play with their friends and you know but also getting that academic support so thank you so much for all of your hard work thank you Al righty thank you again moving on to ad services our review of professional development activities and data assistant superintendent chamblas over to you yes good evening uh Board of Trustees uh superintendent Ooa um it's my pleasure to provide you with
083an update on uh the professional development activities of our district over the last year give me a minute here I'm gonna pull up my screen for presentation uh just to give you a bit of an overview of what we're going to discuss this evening uh we'll talk about the work as it's aligned to the Strategic plan and our broad goals for professional development uh we'll drill down particularly into the professional development we've been doing in the summer both uh two years ago in 2022 in this past summer 2023 and we'll also talk about some of the other um l or strategies we're pursuing for providing professional development for our uh teachers and staff just to emphasize that um our strategic plan of course called out building block number two um that any improvement in our
084district uh must be tied to providing significant and sustained professional development to our staff and we are dutifully and and very um seriously implementing um that block you can see here just a general statement about our goal is is to reach every staff member um with the necessary or what we might describe as foundational tools and resources and knowledge um as laid out in our strategic plan to better serve our students and uh we're going to spend some time as I said talking about several uh what I call levers of um professional development um you can see there's a wide range of efforts that we have to um reach deep into the classroom and into uh the various support spaces that we have in our district so let's start with Summer PD um I mentioned
085that the uh the emphasis on summer PD that began two years ago was to um ensure that every teacher in our district um had the opport opportunity to learn and plan around the key foundational practices that are outlined in the Strategic plan and we have done that now for two summers 2022 and 2023 and one of the Hallmarks of that work I think is uh the way we've engaged in um our stakeholders uh We've really uh particularly led by our director anab Ben kazmi shano uh We've we've really leaned into the continuous and Improvement model and you can see there a list of folks Who provided us feedback and a lot of guidance and advice as we were reflecting on the summer 2022 professional development and what improvements we wanted to make for summer PD
086in 2023 and you can see listed on the right side of um the slide here uh some of the um priorities that were identified going into uh the 20 23 summer PD so uh this is a um an attempt to just give you a a range of um what were the various activities um the on the left you'll see the professional development that was provided um for elementary teachers and on the right you'll see what was provided to our Middle School teachers uh important thing that you hopefully can capture as you look at these two uh menus of professional development is the opportunity to go deep around the priorities that we um were uh uh were identified in the Strategic plan but also to provide a lot of options of of differentiated moments where teachers
087could choose into uh certain learning activities uh as you may have noticed on thei prior slide that that was a a big priority that that teachers have some more choice within the frame um of priorities provided by the plan to look at some of the data what we're I'm going to spend time is looking at um 2022 um you'll note that in that first summer we had 415 staff who attended the summer PD and then in 2023 uh 505 which is approximately a 25% increase so we're very excited about the uh engagement and re of the professional development um in its second year uh you can also see there then the um feedback that we got um what you're looking at is uh uh six questions that we ask in all of our PDS and
088we're identifying here the percentage of participants who agree or strongly agree um that for example um that they felt comfortable uh and welcomed in the professional development space and I hope you can tell that um there was some pretty dramatic improvements from 2022 to 2023 um particularly around um opportunities to practice content um and the ability to develop new ideas that will help um teachers support students and families um this feedback is critical to us improving um even as we go forward but we're excited about the um the the uh quality of experience that we see our participants um expressing to us then um beyond the summer PD that we provide um we have for many years now had three days each school year uh that we call professional development days these are um single
089days where students do not come to school and uh staff participate in professional development uh we're going to talk a little bit here about the three PD days that occurred last year in 2022-23 so that was on September 9th January 17th and April 3 and then the fourth is of course the October 9th day that we uh we had just um a month or so ago and uh one of the things that's notable is um the the fall PD day actually is professional development for all of our staff so that includes certificated teachers uh Etc as well as our classified staff so we're interested in looking particularly at how the two fall days in 2022 and 23 um compared to each other and you'll note that we had a very dramatic increase in the number
090of Staff who participated um on that that PD day um we did a lot of work as you can see on the the right hand um window there um providing opportunities particularly differentiated opportunities particularly for our classified staff um and for our um certificated staff you you'll note we're continuing to pull the threads of content that we worked on during the summertime so um we we felt that this was um a strong um Improvement um this past fall compared to the prior fall and here's some data that will help to show that so what you're looking at is the same questions uh we're asking for feedback on this is the percent of um staff again this is a mixed certificated and classified group uh the percent who agree or strongly agree um the morning sessions
091had a certain coherence around similar primarily academic top topics and so you're looking at the feedback that we got um for our morning sessions um again I want to call out for example um the opportunities to practice content which is an important engagement um point of feedback uh improved from last fall where it was 73% who agreed or strongly agreed to 93% this past fall um and you can look at the other uh points of improvement that occurred um between the two fall PDS and then here is the same questions applied to the afternoon sessions which were focused specifically on restorative practices for our Middle School staff and for inclusion practices for our Elementary staff and again you can see some of the very dramatic improvements um we made between last Falls PD and this
092Falls PD turning now to some of the other levers that we um we pull to support staff learning um one of the key um developments that's occurred around all of the teacher PD is the development of a group of teacher leaders who really are taking the lead in um in both facilitating and designing and facilitating uh the PD that goes out to teachers so at the middle school level in particular there's been a Cadre of teacher leaders across the various content areas that have worked closely um with our um director kenetta cook and um actually facilitate the breakout um the individual breakout sessions that teachers experience both in the summer and um during the the the school year PD days and so this is a a very important development um obviously we're going to get
093there um we're only going to get there um through uh building that teacher leadership and um we we feel that you know we are doing that um at the elementary level um there's uh the Cadre of language and literacy toses multilingual toses and math toses um so it's more on a teacher on special assignment model that's working out um and again just their leadership has really been essential to driving the improvements we've been making in um our professional development and then of course um you know any Improvement that uh happens uh must be supported by and led by um our instructional leaders site leaders um and so there is a series of activities that we're doing there um you know at the elementary school we have what we call a principal professional Learning Community um
094they meet uh fairly regularly to do walkthroughs and um you know lean into how is uh inclus how are inclusion practices being implemented at schools um our path foundational literacy program the middle school it's similar uh it's a principal instruction leadership team um they also work closely with the teacher leaders and do regular monthly walkthroughs and again this is really building the capacity of our site leaders both to um to understand what high quality instruction what high quality teaching and learning is um and also to be able to give good feedback um to um our staff and teachers about the work that they're doing and finally uh we have always always had a a teacher induction program at least over the last 10 to 15 years in our district this continues to be a very
095important lever for bringing on um our new teachers and grounding them in the foundational practices that we see uh that we think are essential for our district you'll see that the photos here are mentors with their mentees um um and that relationship um you can imagine is is essential as teachers are getting started in their career years um I would just note um some of the data that we have um had a 50% increase in the number of um induction candidates that are participating this year which um means that we are reaching into more class rooms with more support um and um grounding them in um you know the the Essential Knowledge and practices um aligned to the Strategic plan just a few photos and quote uh quotations from staff as they've given us feedback
096um about the the PD work that they've been engaged in so I'll give you just a few seconds to read through those and I appreciate the opportunity to update you thank you so much for for the presentation open it up opening it up to the board for clarifying questions at this time no clarifying questions um is there any audience public comment in person we'll start with that see none Joe if we can check on Zoom please yes thanks again president Watkins good evening I'll be calling on speakers during public comment and random order to our attendees if you would like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in can di star9 to raise their hands and speakers will have three minutes to give their
097remarks once time is expired we will move to the next speaker and we'll pause a moment for raise hands president Watkins there are no public comments at this time okay thank you so much opening it up to the board for any discussion comments just really good to see that so many teachers are so engage or all the staff are so engaged and feel like the professional develop is a worthwhile use of their time it seems like so great job um I agree thank you for the information that you've shared today um I really like seeing the feedback and I think that that's great that you're using that in real time to make um to tweak the program for the next session um especially seeing where there's kind kind of like maybe dips in the feedback
098and and being able to tweak it and improve on that is great so um thank you for sharing that and appreciate it thank you for sharing this presentation and I just would like to say um that it is really great to see thank you thank you so much uh David for the update I know that um you know this is something that we've um talked about over the years and it's something that you know I think about um as trusty practor was saying like it's so great that we're like tracking this and making adjustments in real time and it's like when we think about what we're asking Educators to do in their classrooms right it's the same thing and so really thinking about how we're modeling adult uh adult learning practices um as well in
099terms of just really you know using data and listening listening to what's working and what's not working and making adjustments here um and just really intentionally continuing to build in professional development in into you know the way that we work um and I know that we've added more professional development days Etc um I'll just give like one more plug for us continuing to think about if there are additional creative ways that we can provide addition professional development teacher collaboration particularly as we're um you know asking everyone to really think about how they're leveraging how they're utilizing data responding to data adjusting instruction are there ways that we can um get creative about providing additional support and pull out time and collaboration time and so would love to see that as something that's a consideration for
100something that we do moving forward um in addition to all the incredible work that's already happening in the space so um I'll continue to put in a plug for that thank you okay anything else not we will move on to approval of approval sorry of the mou between city of Sano and our district regarding uh police engagement and collaboration so I know that we reviewed this last time um and this is up for a vote this time but superintendent choah anything to add uh thank you president Watkins there are no changes to the document that was presented publicly I I do want to share um over the last month the number of conversations I've had with community members and stakeholders who have said um some who have emailed or called and said you know you're
101on the right track this is this is the right Next Step um many kudos to um our colleagues who help draft theou um a special thanks to our board president um she has been instrumental over the years um in in Walking us through a process where we arrive at um at agreements written agreements that uh that truly reflect the vision of the board and the desire of um of wanting to have the kinds of schools that we want our children to attend um and um and an extension of that is the continued collaboration and involvement of our school board members um many of of whom have spent um time pouring over the details of theou and um making those those key recommendations for changes and um and it has all been a part of the
102process that has has brought us here um and as superintendent I I strongly recommend that the board um approve this mou great thank you superintendent Ooa uh we'll open it up to the board for any questions and want to make space for any public comments so we'll start with inperson public comment and joee uh Zoom public comment please yes thanks again president Watkins good evening I'll be calling on speakers during public comment in random order to our attendees if you would like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in kend star9 to raise their hands and speakers will have three minutes to give their remarks once time is expired we will move to the next speaker again I'll pause a moment for any raised
103hands president Watkins there are no public comments at this time great uh if there are board comments happy to take them um but this item is up for vote coming back for the second time I'll make a motion to approve this mou second thank you trusty Brooks for the motion trusty Tren for the second roll call vote trusty Brooks yes trusty Proctor yes trusty Trent yes I'll vote Yes as well thank you everybody uh moving on to Communications Department update good afternoon or good evening sorry about that let just start sharing my screen and I'm just sure uh everyone can hear me iar see it perfect thank you so much so uh good evening Board of Trustees superintendent OAA and members of the public I am Diego Perez serving as the coordinator of communications for
104the San Mateo Foster City School District in today's Communications Department update we'll delve into Data that's crucial to our strategies to engage with our diverse stakeholders um we'll also explore the intentional Communications Guided by our strategic Plan before sharing some upcoming projects within the Communications Department in 2021 our Communications Department embarked on a journey to connect with our families and our community members um culminating in the initiation of the layered communication strategy in 2022 through this strategy we've continued to analyze the data to refine strategies and something to note this year is um our YouTube live Tal Halls were replaced with super salad lunch visits um and that was due to um an additional approach to provide staff voice where we have an informal setting with our staff uh where superintendent Ooa Tatiana his executive
105assistant and myself um join our our staff members at a school site over lunch and and these lunch visits don't have any fancy presentations or or canva visuals we um just show up provide a space for step to join in the conversations that our community members also have because they compl our board Community Workshops the Cafe Con Diegos the podcast social media and the weekly and monthly Communications with our community and families via parents square and our MailChimp account um with that uh we now have access to um internal and external data analysis looking at our internal Communications data since the implementation of parent Square uh we have been empowered to utilize data like we haven't had before so on um our parent Square um average views uh per month are just under 10,000 um
106which is something that we weren't able to see before so it's noticing that families are engaging with us more reading the newsletters clicking on certain links provide us the ability to refine what messages should go on certain occasions so with that since last year we have seen an increase of 24% of app downloads so now families have a much easier method of accessing the District School site both the principal and teacher messages in one app with of course the provided translation and through this we have seen an uptick of um overall usage of direct messages appreciations and comments since the beginning of this school year so and on the external side uh we have seen our efforts increased since March 2023 the last communications Department update we have seen 175,000 users on our website a
107177% increase increas from the same period last year through organic searches direct searches referrals and social media this has allowed us to see that uptake in our website as a whole but something to note is that our referral and social medias have increased by 1% which was um pretty substantial because we're talking in the thousands of of users utilizing both the social media like LinkedIn Instagram and then utilizing referral Acquisitions like Ed join or um Niche and great schools for example so these positive Trends do stem from the digital communication strategies that we've added this year um we have increased our video communication capabilities now which has allowed us to engage even more with folks on the digital realm but at the same time we have purchased the utilization of a social media management platform
108called HootSuite which now released an AI data analysis tool that gives us real-time tracking of followers on our Instagram Facebook and Linkedin pages and they they recommend us optimal times for when to post to get the most engagements so specifically utilizing these two strategies we have seen a 38% increase in Instagram and an overall 88% increase in our following across our social channels but of course it doesn't stop there um another impactful strategy that we've initiated this year is the teaching and learning review which is our District's very own online editorial the first volume focused on restorative um uh practices and it allows for those folks who want um to read and and dive deep into the data that we share to have that opportunity to do so um this has garnered over 550 views
109um since we've released it and in an average of 20 minutes of times viewed across all of the Articles and the page itself uh providing us the ability to see how it is that um this audience interacts with us in this format and how can we make it better for more substantial data sharing and another topic for volume two and of course as we sustain these strategies it is vital to assess their impact so from a birds eyed views on our social media channels we have experienced an overall growth particularly in engagement and something to note is that we haven't actually been posting as much as we did last year which is um you know my like to say quality over quantity um we do see a lot of different um organizations just bombarding feeds
110with posts on The Daily but we want to be really intentional about the messages we put out there so we have seen an increase on Impressions reach and again overall engagement but then we want to see the impact in person so since the beginning of the school year we have initiated about three board Community workshops um thank you to our board members who have been attending these it's it's great to see you all participating with our families since then we have seen over 60 families attend across the board and with our Super Salad lunch visits we have been already um at three School sites we've been lead um George Hall and bar no not beiser lead George Hall and um another School site that I totally forgot right now but um these provide again our
111staff the ability to be able to engage with you know superintendent choa with no fancy um visuals to have a conversation and bring them in to the topic but also we invite any other topic as we do at our board Community workshops Cafe Diegos um something interesting that I saw in this data analysis that I like to bring to the board is um our LinkedIn page and particularly as it relates to conferences so while we do have an effort in communicating with our community um as a school district and as um a leading a district in our County it's important to also see the impact we make when we go to conferences and participate so I did some data analysis as to see the um participation from last year's act the Leadership Summit to this
112year's act the leadership Summit and that's the association of California school administrators I presented this past early November with my colleague uh Dr Christian rubacava on Innovative communication strategies for Equity um through the Community Schools framework and in this corresponding date of the three days that we were at the conference in comparison to last year we did see an increase of 144% views on the District page itself and um we did have presenters last year and we also had presenters this year um but something that I wanted to be more intentional intentional just to see the impact it would make was have QR codes and links and website accessible um presentations for folks who are listening to our corresponding presentations to be able to see us and view us so um it was great to
113kind of like see the impact that that made in this corresponding setting and and look forward to seeing the more increases we make as we continue on sharing the story from the district's uh strategic plan which of course takes to our strategic Journey um we do want to be intentional about the communication we have to our corresponding stakeholders and um I utilize the Strategic plan as a compass when it comes to our Communications campaign um it helps align um Communications with um actionable um strategies that are going on across the district so in today's example I'd like to highlight some behind the scenes of what we're currently doing with our path reading program campaign um of course we want to begin with the landing page this is where it's a it's the page where a
114community parent teacher um can go in and learn more but while we're actively shooting the interviews with our corresponding tosas teachers um students principles we also want to share the the the curriculum in action and bringing it to life so in this corresponding project I'm working closely with our director of curriculum instructure and for elementary schools Pam bartfield um to highlight the impact that the pap reading program has made made through K2 in our district um so again utilizing our stories to do a quick snapshot for families so they're in the know of what's going on um and then of course relaying the video later on through a layered Communications approach but this initiative does align straight with our strategic plan it reinforces our District's commitment to Excellence and to having um students reading by
115third grade um and of course setting ourselves as a role model in the county so in addition to the communications campaign we want to expand the reach and we're going to be hosting I would say second annual but this year we have a more specific approach to the literacy Summit which is corresponding to first grade instruction so what we'll be doing in this corresponding literacy Summit that'll happen in February 8th to 9th it's a two-day Summit is we'll be utilizing our corresponding first grade teachers with a collaboration of of of AD services to invite other first grade teachers across the county to the literacy Summit so they can come in and visit our classrooms see the work we're doing see the students engag and how we're doing it so that way it expands further the
116Strategic plans goals visions and how it is that we want to um expand not only for our students but for students across the the county and of course the state so as we move forward we are going to continue the stakeholder engagements I do want to knowe we did have already our first board um partner visit ations um and I did have feedback but we do have another one in January and I want to come back to the board to provide you more detailed approach so that way we have at least two visitations to provide you with more data on how it is that they're going with our corresponding partners that are visiting with us at the same time we have finished our second meeting of the empowering student voices Council and there's a lot
117of fun stuff happening with that but at the same time more more data to come so that way I can provide you guys with a more um substantial update on those two corresponding projects that are new this year um but one thing that will be coming fairly soon is our initiation of the shift in our un smfc podcast which uh will essentially be serving as a weekly update to our monolingual Spanish speaking families and the goal for this is to provide our uh monolingual speaking um Spanish families um that are emergent readers in their native language to also be able to access our corresponding information in a format that's accessible to them but at the same time it doesn't stop there I have already messaged parents squar to see if they can provide an accessibility
118feature that reads the newsletters to our families right then and there so it's embedded um I did finish a meeting with it was like a they do monthly webinars with parents Square yesterday we had one and they were talking about this section so we're getting closer um but in the meantime we want to be able to provide our families with ample information as um soon as possible through our our channels that we're utilizing already and then moving forward parents were uh feedback survey is forthcoming it's something that we'd wanted to share with you all at the last board and we did but this year since now it's districtwide including Middle School teachers and students we'll have more data to share as to how students are interacting utilizing groups and engaging with their own corresponding peers
119on on on campus thank you so much thank you so much for the update and presentation here um opening it up to the board for any clarifying questions and you said it at the very end so I didn't quite hear you um did you say that you already know how much um students are using parent square or you're gonna oh sorry um we know how many students are using it the goal is to find out um what we can do to better the the platform in our district so we have the data and I can bring that with you but I wanted to bring it with the overarching feedback from our community as well okay cool thank you any other board clarifying questions we'll open it up for in-person public comment and uh Joe if
120we could check the zoom audience please thanks again president Watkins good evening I will be calling on speakers during public comment in random order to our attendees if you would like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in can dial Star n to raise their hand speakers will have three minutes to give their remarks and once time has expired we will move to the next speaker I will pause a moment for any raise hands president Watkins there are no public comments at this time okay thank you so much opening it up for board discussion comments um thank you Diego for this presentation um a couple comments one I feel completely inadequate on my PowerPoint skills um while watching this presentation I don't know um
121where you learned how to do these presentations but I need a tutorial um I don't I don't know how to make the these things come alive but I have to learn um but thank you the other um my real comments are around one I'm really glad that we switched to parents square and that we have one like one formal way of communicating across this District because it seems like people I don't know the general feedback but it seems that um people have gotten on board and we all kind of know how to use it in general and um there's not a bunch of different ways that we're all communicating so we're at least we're all kind of in one boat um it was kind of confusing when um some people used I don't know different
122different ways to communicate so at least we're all doing the same thing and I do now that I have high schooler it's nice that the high school district also uses parent Square so I think there's a nice transition for once we once you do move on that you already are going to know how to use parent Square so that's nice um and then having different if you have students in different schools there's no um it's all nice that it's all one thing one thing I did notice is that because we don't use school loop I have no idea what my kids grades are in Middle School like I'm I'm not getting that daily thing so it's actually um in our household it's a lot more less stressful that's a plus I don't know how other
123people feel um it's not a daily constant stressful reminder that grades are going up and down so I don't know if that's a plus or a minus for other people but one less thing to have anxiety about um but also it could be something that I need a reminder about um but thank you for this information about the communication um just in general I'm happy to see that engagement All In All Around is up um I can I am on social media all the time so I see the posts I get tagged on LinkedIn so I I'm getting emails all the time that you know we're we're on all of these platforms so it's great to see that people are engaging with our district I see I see other districts posting things and I always
124think oh they're they're trying to be like s Foster City School District I can see that they you know are also doing what we're doing so I think we're a leader in the communication area so I just want to commend Diego and everyone on in our district that's um that's lead leading the charge here so um thank you for your work and um you're awesome and just keep up the good work thank you yeah I'll Echo that I really appreciate the approachable and accessible um um approach that you have to communication um and thinking about ways that we can reach our families and you just um I've Just Seen A a really big improvement from the time that we started in the district so I I I'm sure a lot of that has to do
125with um you and and your team so thank you so much I want to say thank you Diego for putting this presentation together it is um very well done uh just sitting here watching the presentation I have signed into several of your chins um so that I can uh now follow and uh be informed about a lot of the communications that are going on without me having to initiate it they will come to me uh thank you this is great I I just want to say I'm not ready for Tik Tok so don't do that yet thank you so much for the presentation um and just all of the work that has gone into all the communication updates and just you know really thinking strategically about how we re reach a wide range of stakeholders
126and how we track what we're doing and make adjustments based on that so um you know there's like a common theme here around like how we're um you know using data to to inform next steps kind of across the board which I think is great but also just um yeah this is just I mean I we've come a long way in our Communications um so I I really appreciate um I really appreciate all the engagement in work here um and it seems like it's paying off so thanks so much for leading the charge here all right there's no other further comments we will move on to eight board member statements and requests for future agenda items anything no um I do want to say a couple things one I just wanted to wish everybody um
127a Happy Thanksgiving since we're going to be going on a little break and um just circling back to the comments at the beginning of the board meeting I just wanted to make sure that um well I heard some comments about some specific incidences that have happened at some of our schools or a school in particular um and I just wanted to reiterate that I do believe that we our schools should be hate free and that students should feel feel safe and be safe in our on our campuses adults as well um and so um you know whatever we can do to ensure that our campuses are safe um physically safe mentally emotionally safe um I support that but um you know if if there are incidences that are happening I I hadn't heard about them
128particularly at a school site where my kids go to school and um you know I want to make sure that those conversations are happening and that we're not just being silent and that we're not um you know if especially at a time like this where um you know emotions and um everybody you know things are emotions are charged and um students are not feeling safe it's important that I think parents are having conversations at home as well as um conversations are happening on campus so if there are things that are happening it's important that we all know about it um as a school board as a school district as families that are part of a school Community um and so hearing about it for the first time at tonight's meeting was a little bit um
129disappointing to me um and I am you know I immediately texted my son who goes to school there and was like I didn't know about this you better not have been involved but um we will be having a conversation when I get home and um I hope that everybody we have a week and let's all be healthy safe and um you know spend the time that we need to recharge and come back uh being kind human beings that can be this the Sano Foster City School District that does what we say we do on the wall and on all of our Communications and I wish everyone the best so thank you thank you that was um really well said um I you know I think that something that we as people strug with is separating
130people from entities or groups that they're part of right and so um separate you know there's and there's so much overlap and so I think that it's really important to talk about um the difference between criticizing structures and governments and organizations and and you know kind of Charing people that belong to those groups or organizations with the same brush and with a wide with a broad brush um and I I do thank all the all of the speakers who came here tonight to share U their experiences and and the things that they had heard had that have happened in this community and they're not okay and so um those those things are not okay um I se separately I wanted to um from for request for future agenda items I wanted to check in about
131um the I think we were going to have a collaboration or or meeting with the various cities Sano and Foster City and so I just want to check in on that for next time as a future agenda item I know we had talked about um an update on the North Central School um so would like to make sure that that's um upcoming anything else okay future meeting dates are listed I hope everyone has a great week off um and we will now open up for any public comments on closed session items before we recess to close session any inperson public comment on close session Jo if we could check Zoom please yes thanks again president Watkins good evening I'll be calling on speakers during public comment in random order to our attendees if you would
132like to speak please use the raise hand feature on the zoom meeting platform now attendees that have called in can dial Star n to raise their hand excuse me and speakers will have three minutes to give their remarks once time is expired we will move to the next speaker again I'll pause a moment for any raised hands oh excuse me president Watkins there are no public comments at this time okay thank you at this time then we will recess to close session thank you everybody I'm sorry president watkins's one hand just went up will you entertain that yeah us can talk because we with kids on actually come to the school yeah so I'm G to give you we may also am I is the rest of the board coming in or am I good
133to they're making their way in right now okay sounds good okay I'm GNA unmute and we'll be live on Zoom just let me know when we're ready to go Joe I'll set as it okay great thank you all right everybody we are reconvening to open session with one thing to report out of Clos session um the board took action um to approve settlement agreement uh with a three Z vote and one exstension and with that we will move to adjourn the meeting I'll make a motion to adjourn second thank you trusty Brooks for the motion trusty Tren for the second roll call vote trusty Brooks yes trusty Proctor trusty Tren I can't hear you guys but um I think your mic's not on um okay and I vote Yes as well thank you everybody we
134are adjourned at 8:45 Happy Thanksgiving everybody Happy Thanksgiving Happy Happy Happy that