001I'd like to call the regular board of education meeting for April 28th, 2026 to order at 400 p.m. Um, are there any public comments prior to close session? Seeing none, I will adjourn us to close session. board is returning from close session at 6:10. >> Um, we will begin with our language access and ASL notice. >> Thank you. Good evening. We have language access. We have Spanish interpretation and ASL interpretation available through Zoom. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Will you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? >> Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tonight in tonight in closed session, the board voted five to zero
002to approve a settlement agreement resolving AOH case number 2026010421. Also tonight in closed session, the board voted 5 to zero to approve a 2-year contract extension for Don Dr. John Becky's employment agreement as assistant superintendent of human resources. That will bring us to the student report. Carlos, >> thank you. Good evening, everyone. Want to start off with the AI town hall. I encourage both students and community members to attend the AI town hall this Thursday, April 30th. Event will focus on exploring different approaches to student use of AI. And I will be serving as a student facilitator, introducing our three speakers. One of the speakers is a student from Dos Pebbles High School and he's actually on the student advisory council uh and he will share a student perspective on this topic. Uh next, the
003student advisory council met on Wednesday, April 15th. During the meeting, uh the students provided input on the instructional continuity plan, helping clarify what supports are most effective during periods of remote learning uh so that the district can better prepare for future disruptions. And we also hosted the principles from Santa Barbara, San Marcos, and Dos PBLO high schools who shared how they are addressing inequities within their programs andmies. Lastly, I am looking forward to visiting Dos Pueblo's AVID class tomorrow with Dr. Maldonado. That is all I have to report. Thank you to the superintendent report. Dr. Maldonado. Good evening everyone and welcome. I want to start off by acknowledging so many uh engagement opportunities that we've had the last couple of weeks and the evenings and I'll talk a little bit about some of them but
004I do want to start with attending uh the science night at Santa Barbara Junior High. It was really fun to see students and parents working with their the science teachers uh looking at how light works, how water works, and just learning a lot about science concepts. Every time I walk into a classroom, I learn something new that I probably should already know. Uh but I do want to thank the staff and volunteers who made the night a success. The same night I walked right across over to the AVID graduation. We celebrated 180 AVID students from the comprehensive high schools during the annual AVID senior celebration. The evening is always full of joy, commemoration, and heartfelt speeches. Students received a certificate and an AVID stole. The colleg's students will be attending from these AVID programs range
005from Santa Barbara City College, UC Berkeley, Calpali, St. Louis Abyispo, Sacramento State, the University of Oregon, and Chapman just to name a few. I want to congratulate and express much gratitude to the teachers, the counselors, the parents, and all the administrators who make this possible for all the incredible students that are graduating from that program. And it was also very moving to see how much they love their AVID teachers um who gave incredible speeches. By the way, you have got to go to an AVID graduation and see the teachers uh speeches. Hear the teacher speeches. Um yesterday we finished our third Armory listening tour session. Um each star each stop so far has had interesting and important discussions around what people are interested in for the career tech subjects. I know some of you have
006joined us. Thank you for joining us as well board members. So far we've received nearly 800 survey responses and as of last night we had about 200 student responses. Maybe that's already increased a little bit. Uh but of course we're not done yet. We have one more stop on May 12th at Santa Barbara Junior High School. I do want to encourage uh anybody who may be watching to please scan the QR code on the screen. If you can make the sessions, you're welcome to give us feedback. And we are collecting uh any and all recommendations that we will be be bringing back to the board in the fall. In anticipation of our upcoming graduation ceremonies, I also want to reaffirm our support for students in our school district to be not only their school district
007but for the state of California uh that they are allowed to wear cultural regalia. We want our graduates to celebrate their academic achievements while fully honoring their heritage and identity. We look forward to celebrating our students and seeing our community's diversity show through our community celebration and see and hope to see many of you at those graduations as well. Lastly, our collaborative spirit award this um meeting goes to Santa Barbara High School's campus safety team. Alandre Himenez, Richard Triggero, Jaylen Robertson, Weston Warer, I hope I said that right. Wes Carlina Gonzalez. This team demonstrates exceptional professionalism and an unwavering commitment to campus safety. Their calm, coordinated approach and strong relationships with students and staff established the foundation of trust. They have been working seamlessly as a unified group to ensure a safe environment and provide
008a vital sense of reassurance in across the entire campus. That concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd like to uh I didn't announce earlier, but if there are any other public comments comment cards uh coming, uh can we bring them uh in the next couple of minutes? Uh and that gets us to um public comments on non-aggenda items. Um before we begin the public comment portion, uh the board would like to thank everyone who joined us to share their perspectives. Your voice is a vital part of our district's governance. Under the provisions of the California Brown Act, the board is legally prohibited from engaging in a back and forth dialogue or taking immediate action on items not specifically listed on tonight's agenda. Because of this, we will not be responding directly to your
009comments this evening. However, please note that silence does not mean indifference. We value your input and take concerns seriously. Following this meeting, the board will work closely with the superintendent and district staff to ensure all comments are reviewed and that appropriate follow-up or research is conducted. We ask that you please adhere to our time limit so that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. Thank you for your partnership in supporting our students. Um considering the number of non-aggenda item comments tonight, we have 11 cards currently. Is that right? Um we'll we'll um we'll allow two minutes per time. Uh if at the end of the 20 minute period we are um still doing it, I will get consensus from the board to move forward on that. uh to assist in time management, please uh make
010sure that the um uh the next two people are in the room and come to the podium podium promptly when called. Uh Vice President Munoz, will you please call the first three speakers? >> Okay. Um the first three speakers are Anne Got, Nancy Burlesen, and Faith Kingsbury. Hi, tall. Hello. Hi. Um, my name is Ann Got. I am a culinary arts teacher at Santa Barbara High School and I'm here to speak on behalf of being pro um armory development into a CTE hub. Um, CTE was developed to help students learn some professional skills so that they could be um a part of a workforce that is supported in our town. and I teach culinary arts which is a part of the hospitality, tourism and recreation umbrella. And um we have a we are in a
011tourist town. We have so many jobs out there that support these students and that need to be filled. Um I teach culinary arts at Santa Barbara High School. There are two other programs at the other high schools as well. And we always have more students interested in taking our classes than we actually have space for. The reason we can't let more students into our classes is because we have extremely small spaces. They were never set up to be a culinary arts learning environment for students in the first place. We do our best. We've brought in new equipment. Students love our programs. They learn a lot of professional skills. But um I'm really looking forward to the opportunity for the armory to actually be turned into something that the culinary arts program can not only just
012survive but thrive and all the students who want to take our classes can. And we have um a partnership already with the city college. All of the students in our programs are already um getting dual enrollment with um the city college classes and so many of them do take their pathway and and continue on at SBCC. We do support a lot of students that school is not their favorite place to be. They don't like the regular academic world. Um but they come to our classes and they thrive and they love it and they are like no way. I can't believe school can actually be something that's something that I enjoy doing and I can actually do it really well and some of those kids choose to go to city college because of our programs. So,
013I just hope that when you are making decisions about what's happening with the armory, you consider the students that aren't the ones that are um on the college track and they need something like this. Not just the culinary arts. Oh, I'm already up. Um but maybe some of the other trades in town that our CTE programs don't already support. Thank you for your time. Um, Nancy Bard Bartlesen. As a slow senior, I might need a little more than two minutes. Thankfully, we have good schools, teachers, and staff in Santa Barbara, helping our students learn academic sports, and the arts while making friends and developing respect for others. Ideally, parents are a team. committed to getting their children ready for school. Sadly, a lot of children have parents that are divorced. These children are deprived of
014the joy of having two parents tuck them in at night. They no longer say joyfully in unison that they are most thankful for parents. Court research has proven that it is in the best interest of the children when both parents share joint custodyly custody cooperatively. The children feel secure knowing when is each parents custody time and look forward to peaceful custody transitions. But in a contest contested divorce, when one parent doesn't honor the orders of their settlement agreement and could be held in contempt for of court by trying to take the other parents custody time, the children are confused, unhappy, and experience a disturbing change of custody. The tragedy of the court system is that a parent making false charges against the other parent has an advantage because the defendant can't present their evidence of
015innocence until after many months of hearings at a trial which is very traumatic for everyone and very expensive. Meanwhile, the children and the accused parent suffer the mental cruelty of very limited contact before a new settlement agreement can be reached. This is contrary to the court's philosoph philosophy of acting in the best interest of the children. How can the school board help? by not by notifying each parent of the reports, problems, and school events for each child so each parent can communicate with the school. Second, there is >> I'm going to ask that Miss Burlesson, I'm going to ask that you wrap up your comments. The time limit has arrived. We would be happy to take the co copy of your written comments and make sure that each of the board members receives them. I'll
016briefly say there's an epidemic of vaping in the junior and high schools. And the junior high at La Kumbra, they the supervisors knew there was something going on in the bathrooms. So, and one of those boys was caught recently at Santa Barbara High three years ago. Okay. My questions are how addictive is vaping? What's it doing to their lungs? >> I'm sorry. You're really out of time. I would I'd be happy to take your notes >> summarizing it up and then the last is it was outrageous to read about the problem with iPods in the independent where a 10year-old was traumatized with a horror story and the children are easily easily get into this stuff and this is supposed to that's out outrageous school board we need to wrap up the comments safe and I
017suggest wrap up your comments. I'm done sending homework home on paper and supervising iPad use to school. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so um after Faith Kingsbury, I'm just going to um name the the next three speakers um real quick. Um Cat Ross, uh John Dent, and Rich Lashwa. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Faith and I'm here on behalf of Healing Justice Santa Barbara. And I just want to begin by expressing our appreciation um for your ongoing partnership between HSB and the school district. Over the past year, we have been grateful for the opportunity to support black students and families through programming, field trips, leadership development, and cultural education as well as community centered events. Um, I would like to highlight some of our events and field trips that are
018coming up and have passed, which was the um, Black Student Alliance Conference as well as Yumoja Day. And we just did a a cook. Okay. Um, we want to uplift students who advocate for themselves and their peers even when it's difficult and their courage should not be ignored. Black students should not have to carry the responsibility of educating others while also being the ones who are harmed. We are asking that the do the district take stronger and more consistent action when hate speech, racial slurs, and antilack harassment happens. There should be a meaningful consequence also meaningful education. Punishment alone is not enough. Students need to understand how this harm or how the history and the harm behind the language they're using affects others. Uh, one recommendation we would like to offer is the creation of
019a educational packet uh or restorative a restorative learning assignment for students to use who use racial slurs to engage in um less hate-based behaviors. This packet can include the history behind these slurs, the violence, the human the dehumanization connected to them and the emotional and social dam damage they cause. It could also include annotated readings, reflection questions, multiple choice questions, and written essay questions as well. Um, the goal would to be to make sure that students understand the words that come from this history or the the racism of the history of racism, sorry, and the exclusion of violence. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. Okay. So, Cat Ross, I'm hoping to help you think through uh the 10 high school staffing cuts for next year. Uh the 4x4 schedule was built
020as a schedule that allows space for students to take additional classes, to retake classes if they failed the class, to access both intervention and enrichment, especially for EML students and students with IEPs. The schedule allows for the space in students schedules, but without adequate staffing, students schedules just have dismissals instead. Do you think students should be allowed to take two science classes next year? What about two math classes? Next year, high schools have been directed to not allow doubling up on core classes. So, students who want two science classes because marine bio and chemistry are both interesting can't. Students who want two math classes so they don't have long gaps in their math learning cannot. Do you think student who fails a class should have the opportunity to retake it in person with a teacher
021and a class of their peers? Our high schools currently don't have staffing enough to offer in-person retakes for students who failed their first attempt at a course. They're instead offered credit recovery modules that happen online. These are precisely the selling points of this schedule. Extra course offerings like more than one science or math who for kids who want it, in-person intervention, including retakes with a classroom teacher. When asked if these staffing levels present an equity problem, the district cabinet administrators said principles need to make choices about how to spend their staffing allocations. They can prioritize in-person retakes or offer electives, but not both. Investing in staffing at the high schools allows for students to take a rich and diverse range of offerings, but it also allows for important interventions. The proposed staffing levels do not
022meet those needs. Consider asking principles what staffing levels they would need to allow students to take retake courses in person. Oh, it's so hard when you run out of time. Well, thanks guys. I appreciate it. >> You can submit the rest of your comments to us. We'll make sure they get read. >> Thank you, uh, John Dent. >> Thank you, board superintendent Maldonado and staff. I want to ground this conversation in numbers. We currently have 39 CTE teachers across 22 pathways serving 2800 students this year. That's 35% of our students getting CTE education right now. That system's delivering real impact at scale. Does every student get with the class that they want? No. But will this new facility fix that? I've seen no evidence that it will. In fact, if we move programs to the
023new site, it will likely decrease access for students, especially from San Marcus and Dos PBLO. At the same time, we're celebrating 800 survey responses in a district of over 40,000 stakeholders. That's 2%, a sample size my own media students would recognize as stat statistically insignificant. And now we're considering a facility that could cost $30 million to build. And if we follow the comparisons to Santa Maria, more than $3.5 million a year to operate. All this happening while our district is shrinking. Enrollment is projected to drop over 400 students over the next 3 years. At the same time, we're already closing classroom, reducing course sections, cutting staff. So, we have to ask simple simple questions. Why would we expand to a new expensive model when the system we already have is being scaled back? I want
024to be clear. A centralized CT facility could be incredible if we had unlimited funding, if we were growing, if we had the staffing to sustain it long term. But that's not our reality. We're in a structural deficit that continues to get worse. Instead, invest in the programs already serving thousands of students. Expand access by building at all three high schools. We can support and retain the educators who make CTE possible. Or we can build something that we may not be able to afford to sustain. We shouldn't build a facility we can't afford to fully operate in a few years. We owe it to our students and our community better than that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, um after Rich Lashwa will be uh York Shingle, Melanie and Melanie Ruiz and Bali Sund
025Sundarum. I'm sorry, I don't know. Not sure I pronounced that right. Good evening. Why am I here? I wish you didn't know. I would love for you to have no idea. I'm here because I've tried everything in good faith to the best of my ability to address issues that affect my students. I've conferred with six principles in authority over me for the last 10 years. And as the problems persisted, I've had conversations with district arts coordinators, TOSAs, cabinet members, and two superintendent. Still no solutions. So, here I am. I'm here tonight because systemic barriers prevent me from doing my job, let alone doing it effectively. Ladies and gentlemen, at this level of the conversation, we are the system. Nobody else is going to do the work for us. Yet, we can claim every good thing
026that happens under our care. And every injustice we allow to continue falls squarely on us and our legacies. If you're thinking to yourself, I'm here about a seventh period for the junior high schools. You're mostly right. I encourage you to think about how if you know I'm here about a problem and the problem is in your purview, yet I've returned to address the same problem so many times that you know what I'm going to say before I say it. Doesn't that fall back on the people in this room at some point? Two months ago, it was announced that we couldn't move forward with a seventh period next year, but one more year sufficed to address barriers suffered by the most affluent families that we serve. How's that going? Really, I I want to know because
027principles and district cabinets don't report to me and I think we all prefer it that way. We are one6th of the way to extending injustice for our neediest students for just one more year. For the 21st year in a row, there are important words in let's go change the world. Let's is short for let us. And the verb, the action is change. >> Please wrap up your comments. >> Then let's go change the world. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh York Shingle. >> All right. Good evening, board superintendent and cabinet. Uh pretty similar message. Uh board. I'm going to ask you to agendaize and discuss what needs to happen with the seventh period day. We've been pushing for action as SPTA and steps that should take place now to make sure that the roll out
028of this is as thoughtful and comprehensive as it can be. Uh we asked over a month ago if it's possible for a committee of junior high teachers from each site to get together to help steer this implementation. Uh we got the classic Santa Barbara Unified response. It's not a no, but we need to check and follow up and that hasn't happened yet. Um, in our not so humble opinion, we think it's important to bring folks from each site together to talk about how this should occur. Seems like there are two big chunks to talk about. One is courses, one is schedule. For courses, what new courses can be created? What already have course descriptions? What can be supported with Prop 28 funding? How are interventions and supports going to be embedded? How is health going
029to be incorporated? uh is it going to be different at each site like it has been or are we going to get those aligned? I'm not arguing one way or the other, but we need to talk about it. We need to figure it out. Um the second piece, schedule is tricky. How long are periods? When does the school day start? How does that work with late starts and busing? How should we gather input from all of our partners, uh parents, community members, students, staff? uh is there a way to gather this input so it's aligned with the data we gather from all those different groups um it's not an impossible task I don't think it's actually an especially difficult task but we need to get started because if we're actually going to use that year
030of time that we built into the roll out um if we're going to do this well we can't wait until summer to engage with SBTA and csea as you heard from Rich two months down a sixth of the way through that time um let's make things happen. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to have um Melanie Reese followed by Bali Sundaram and then uh Will Rodriguez. Um good evening. My name is Melanie and I'm a junior at San Marcos High School and I've been a part of the AHA program since the summer after my seventh grade thanks to my mom who wanted me at the house and spending time with people my age. Um, when I first joined, I didn't like the idea of socializing or talking about my emotions since I
031struggled with being vulnerable. And four years later, that's what I love most about this program is learning to open up and to trust the process even when I didn't fully understand it in the beginning. Through AHA, I've learned to express myself, listen to others, and build a strong support system in the span of a semester. And that's why social emotional learning is so important in schools. Programs like this give a unique and important experiences to individuals who have never been taught or lack these characteristics. Finding your group of people is something that never fails to disappoint me. Despite constantly seeing new faces in every cycle, joining a new environment can be intimidating. And through my time at Samaros Ally, I've seen people grow and over overcome challenges that wouldn't be possible without a friend or
032person supporting them along the way. I find so much gratitude in knowing that this program is accessible and welcoming to every student here and across various high school campuses. and my experience alone is one example of how impactful this kind of learning can be. I believe every student should have access to the same opportunity while not having to feel judged. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And um Baldi >> uh my name is Bali and I am speaking on behalf of uh AHA and I am a senior at San Marcos High School. I've been in AA since 8th grade and it has transformed me into being a completely different person. Um I joined um I join I moved to Santa Barbara at the around the towards the end of COVID. So, I did not
033know that much people in this small town and getting um nominated to join AHA has been an honor and honestly I'm really glad that I got to be part of it since uh everyone I met there has been really friendly, really open and not judgmental at all. I mean, there's still comments here and there and it's still good that you're supposed to improve when you're in in space. So, it's it's a really nice group to be in and being a part of it has helped me create like this own separate family. Like I've met a lot of people in 8th grade and to this day I can talk to them about any issue I have and they're like, "Hey, we do not judge and we're here to talk to you if you have anything going
034on in your life." And being a part of this group has taught me that um social emotional learning is very important to have in any schools because at at a young age it's important to tune the human mind to um be in tune with your emotions and being able to manage and control it. Like adults, not a lot of adults nowadays do not have that sort of thing of like that sort of control or like mentality since they did not grow up with the accessibility of having social emotional learning. And with the access of it, it can lead to higher academic results as well as pushing out um uh better people in society. and I firmly believe that AAHA should be a permanent group in any high school and junior high as well as social
035emotional learning. Thank you. >> Thank you. We've we've reached our 20 20 minute time. Are we okay with finishing? I think there are a couple more comments. Yeah. All right. Thank you. >> Hey, and then >> good evening everyone. >> My name is Will Rodriguez. Uh I'm a sophomore at Santa Barbara High School and I'm a student involved with AHA and what and was one of the youth participants in seeing it out which happened uh April 19th. Uh being part of AAA and especially seeing it out has been a really transformative experience for me. Uh knowing that I've shared that same experience with my siblings has been really really special to me. Uh so at first I saw it as just another opportunity to get involved with AA which I love. Um but it quickly
036became so much more than that. It gave me a space where I felt supported, heard, and just genuinely valued because I I was sharing that space with people going through the same experience. Through seeing it out, I was able to build a a really strong and tight-knit community with with people who encouraged me to be myself and just helped me grow in ways I didn't expect. Uh so I'm very thankful for them. Uh the support from the facilitators um behind me and just the coaches and just everyone in that group was beyond my expectations. Uh it created an environment where I felt comfortable being vulnerable which is something that I've struggled with. Um voicing my knees I something I wanted to improve and it's it was really evident that seeing adult helped and just aha
037as well. Um and most importantly stepping out of my comfort zone. Uh because of that I be because of that I've become so much more confident in who I am and how I carry myself in just a short span of 15 weeks. Uh which is just crazy to me. Uh, I've learned how important it is to have a strong community around you and how much of a difference programs like this can make in a young person's life. Uh, that's why AHA is so important to me and just important for the community. Uh, it gives students opportunities not just to participate but to grow, to lead, and to feel like their voices matter. Uh, programs like Sing It Out create real change by building connection, uh, vulnerability, confidence, and belonging. And I'm really grateful to have
038had that experience with them. So, I'm just sharing my gratitude for you guys to that you guys continue to support AAHA in our in our schools and our students. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, next we have a virtual comment. Uh, Simone Ruscamp. >> Oh, go ahead. Hi members of the school board. This is Simone. I'm one of the >> Says you're talking but we're not hearing her. >> Oh, are you all able to hear me now? >> Are you all able to hear me now? >> Hang on. We're trying to correct it. >> Okay. It sounds like I'm getting messages that some people can. Should I wait or can you hear me yet? I think. >> Okay, we're working on a cable problem here. This Hang on, please. >>
039Okay. Try it again. >> Hi everyone. Can you hear me? >> Yeah, there we go. Thank you. Okay. Um, greetings school board. Um, I'm so grateful for Faith for speaking before, but again, I'm Simone. I'm one of the co-founders of Healing Justice Santa Barbara and one of the executive directors with Leticia of Healing Justice. As Faith said, we are super grateful for um our completing our third, hopefully going into our fourth year of partnership with the district. Our membership has grown in our Black Student Alliance to over 70 students across the three high schools. We have different projects supporting black students across those high schools as well. Um, we've done and just completed our college field trips for the year at City College and UCSB, which I got to chaperon. We hosted our black trolley
040tour for Santa Barbara High and also got to meet some of you all at our black family cookout. So, thank you for joining us for that. Um, I really wanted to call in today mostly because as we're listening to students, part of that is also us agreeing to take action based off of what they're saying. And we never want to push our students to do things that we're not willing to do ourselves. And so with that, I just want to name out loud that in particular, Dose PBLO's High School is really needing support um for black students there. I've shared this with some schoolboard members. I'm really grateful for the responsiveness of Art Nelson, Sonia, and Ish as well as Superintendent Hilda because specifically um some of the members of our BSU there have been
041consistently naming that the racial slurs have been used against them and they're not actually getting followup of when those students have been spoken to. And I would also say it's not just asking students to do better, it's also wanting instructors and teachers to intervene as well. So, Faith already gave some suggestions on whether it's trainings, whether it's different follow-up, just another way to actually measure and make sure that black students are not just being stalled out in the reporting process, that they're not just filling out complaints um and not being listened to and then seeing meaningful change because still having to go to class, still having to do activities with the same person who called you a slur two weeks before is not equitable. And so we're hoping that in this next year of partnership,
042oh that's my time, but we're looking forward to be a part of some solutions to make sure that black students are served. We don't just want to do these field trips. We want to make sure we're impacting the climate and where they are every day at those schools. >> Right. Thank you. Appreciate the comments. >> Okay. >> That is that is the end of our public comment period. Uh which brings us to our board correspondents and comments. Anyone have comments for tonight? Okay. Trusty Beal. Um I would just uh repeat what uh uh student member um Carlos mentioned, which is that we have this Thursday night a discussion of how AI may look in our educational space and that we also continue to have our balanced tech meetings. The next one is May 11th and
043so I encourage people to attend if they're interested in hearing what the discussion is. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> All right. Um I'll just um very briefly tell you that I I took over um the board representative role for the Santa Barbara County School Boards Association. and I went to a a dinner meeting there where there were um numerous board members from all over the county. It was nice to to have that kind of a a gathering. I know they provide some good services for us and I'll I plan on bringing back some more information once the we I start going to their meetings regularly. Um they they did have a representative from Capital Advisors Group who was uh talked a little bit about what's coming with the May revise and and expectations on
044that. Um, I also wanted to uh note that uh I think several of the board members attended the um Santa Barbara Education Foundation 40th year celebration. Um it was well attended and I think did a nice job of raising some money for for great programs for us. Um I've been to one of the Armory listening uh sessions. I know other board members have. I will be going again on May 12th. And uh um that's it for my comments. Thank you. That will bring us then to um our report and discussion agenda. The first item is um the only report item is student outcomes report number three. Dr. Maldonado, you want to introduce this? >> Yes, we have brought we're bringing you today a board report that combines academic and well-being outcomes because we know that
045in the past we have a lot of questions about it. I do want to preempt the board to know that at the next board meeting, we will bring the math implementation report as well. And to bring us along with this report, I have Dr. Wilson. Yes. Uh good evening, board president Banning, Superintendent Maldonado, board trustees, district staff, and members of the community. Um I have the priv privilege of introducing our executive director team, Denise Alvarado, Dr. Maryanne Hugh and Maria Christina Fernandez and they will be presenting on our student outcomes report this evening. Um, as a district, we use a system of measurements aligned to our LCAP goals uh to monitor progress, support our continuous improvement as well as to ensure accountability. This presentation and the accompanying report um offer a comprehensive review of those
046multiple measures um some of which are new measures that we're actually reporting on. And so we're going to begin with El Cap 1. Good evening. I'm going to begin by uh sharing a little bit about our approach to data and looking how we look at implementation outcomes and sustainability to ensure that our decisions lead to meaningful impact for students. Uh this framework helps us move beyond isolated data points to understand what's working for whom and how we sustain and scale effective practices over time. SB unified leadership road map roadmap that you have seen in previous presentation outlines how we move from leadership actions to improve outcomes by aligning people practices and progress. It highlights that strong systems and clarity in roles paired with evidence-based practices are what ultimately drives measurable gains for students. As a
047district, we are shifting from using data only for accountability to using it for continuous improvement. Focusing not just on outcomes, but on what actions we need to take next. Accountability tells us where we are and whether we are meeting expectations and improvement tells us what to do next. It allows us to look at our system, instruction, PLC's and supports to determine what's working and where we need to make adjustments throughout the year. This work here is our uh LCAP goal number one, building educator capacity and administrators um to strengthen teaching and learning and student outcomes. The indicators uh here listed reflect both student performance and student experience providing a more complete picture of impact. Before we share information about Panorama teacher survey responses, it is important to understand the difference between percent favorable and percentile.
048Percent favorable tells us how our teachers feel and their lived experience in our current system. And percentile shows how those responses compare nationally, helping us understand where we stand and where we can improve. This is our panoram panorama data uh on educating all students. Teacher responses show a steady upward over time uh upward trend over time indicating growth confidence in supporting all students. Current results reflect moderate strength with room to continue building staff on staff knowledge and access to resources. This data helps us target where additional support and professional learning uh is needed for teachers to better meet the needs of our diverse student population. This is feedback and coaching. Feedback and coaching remain an area a significant area of need with results below national comparisons despite a slight recent improvement from um 35 it's
049a little blurry to 38%. This indicates inconsist inconsistency in the quality and frequency of feedback teachers receive and strengthening coaching systems and administrator feedback is what will be key to improving instructional practice and also student outcomes. Uh, one of the questions and it's a little hard to read. Um, there um, but we will move on to um, there we go. Thank you. At your um, one of the questions regarding feedback and coaching is at your school, how thorough is the feedback you receive in covering all aspects of your role as a teacher? And the responses were 46% favorable. It is a slight increase of three from 20 uh the spring the fall of 2025 um uh data and we're in the 20th percent um percentile uh nationally but this uh tells us this is an
050area of growth for us on coaching and providing feedback. We're going to move on to the star assessment overview and the purpose of the star is to measure achievement growth um toward grade level mastery. It is uh you um done on the computer. It's adaptive uh computer um testing. The dynamic uh benchmarks provides us with uh thresholds to increase from fall that that increase from fall to spring to reflect instructional growth. And administration windows are different for elementary, junior high, and high school. In the elementary space, it happens uh three times a year. junior high, fall and winter in high school two times a year because of the block schedule with one group and then two times again for the second um half of the year. And this instruct this is used for instructional for
051for us to inform our tier one instruction moves, PLC data cycles and targeted interventions. Um to begin uh we have uh grade one star early literacy results. Uh there's a strong growth from fall to winter with students meeting or exceeding standards uh increasing from 28% to 53% when we combine the blue and the green which is meeting or exceeding standards. This indicates a positive movement in early literacy while also highlighting the need to continue to accelerate progress for students still approaching that standard. Um and one thing to note is that uh once we have fewer students taking uh the uh early literacy test because once the students in u in this grade level test out they no longer take the uh early literacy test they now take the reading star test but we saw a
052significant growth there. Um and if you look at also the bottom uh tier which is level one standard not met it was significant uh significant decrease there. For this data, we'll look at uh all student subgroups uh that show a significant growth from fall to winter with notable gains for EMLs and Hispanic Latino students. While progress is strong, gaps remain across groups and the need to continue target supports to accelerate outcomes for students. Star math results strong growth from fall to winter with students meeting or exceeding standard increasing from 33.9% to 55.5% and a notable increase in students not meeting the standards. There is also a significant reduction in students not meeting standards indicating that more students are moving into and through proficiency uh for math um grade one. And in terms of our uh
053subgroups, strong growth across all student groups with overall proficiency from 34 to 56% uh for overall students and gays are gains are evident with continued targeted support needed for student groups uh of EMLs in our special education students that you see at the bottom uh area in green with 22% to 33. There was a significant growth, but they're still at the bottom tier, both EML students and special education students. Star reading for grades through two through six. I think I lost my page. Uh we have a modest growth with proficiency only from 42 to 45% uh increase uh not met decrease from 40 to 3 33%. So although we didn't increase significantly for uh the blue, we want to make sure we note that uh the uh students in level one standard not met was
054significantly reduced uh from 40 to 33%. Here we also have a star reading by subgroup for grades second through uh sixth grade for star reading. There's a modest growth across all student groups from 43 to 45% and gains are gains are consistent with continued targeted support needed to accelerate outcomes for student subgroups again for special education and our EML students. Star math results for second through sixth grade. Uh we see uh modest growth with proficiency increasing from 35 to 37% and not met from 41 to 33%. So we're seeing some growth there or moving out of which we want to see in order for us to continue to grow. We definitely want to reduce that area level one for standards not met. And uh now uh for standards met or exceeded for uh star math
055for student subgroups grades second through six most growth across all student subgroups uh with overall proficiency increasing from 35 um to 38% gains are consistent but once again our our most vulnerable population that we need to focus on and provide that targeted intervention it would be for our EMLs uh and special education students. And now um Dr. Hugh will present the secondary data. Thank you. And next I'm bringing up the junior high uh star reading data. This is our seventh and eighth graders who take the fall assessment uh in September and then they take the assessment again in January, February. So as Miss Alvarado explained with the star reading the test uh the thresholds are dynamic. So the idea is that there is an expectation of growth from the fall to the winter. So you
056would expect to see students growing by a certain amount and that's nationally normed. So we can see that for our students uh they are moving from the fall to the winter. Sorry bit ahead of myself here. From the fall to the winter we see overall our students are uh slightly gaining in the met or exceeded grade level. Uh and then you can see at the bottom there that orange uh met uh not met. So level one is shrinking and that is something that we do want to see that more students are moving into other tiers. And then at this uh this look of sorry why is it wrong way? Sorry. So then looking at our grade seven eight student groups you can see here again as the grade level expectation goes up some of our
057student groups are kind of meeting that same standard. So they're moving up at the expected and then some are not quite meeting that expected. Uh what's really nice to see is that our EML group is actually moving ahead of that curve. So that is something that we want to continue to see as our students are being supported. Grade nine, this data is from the fall semester. So students who were in English classes in the fall took it in September and then they took it again in December or January. You'll notice that there is an increase in the students meeting or exceeding grade level here. However, I do want to point out that we do have fewer students taking the assessment in the winter or in that fall two than we did in the fall one.
058That was due to some confusion around when the exam was when we were taking the assessment before the break or after the break. And so that's something that we are working on. We've made some adjustments to our testing windows for the spring semester so that we don't have that confusion in place. And again, we see that red or orange down at the bottom, level one is shrinking for our grade nine student groups. Again, uh from fall one to fall two, there is an expectation that there is a little bit of uh growth uh according to that national norm. And you can see that our students are for the most part keeping up with that or slightly ahead of that. So we see a little bit of increase in the students moving from the fall to
059fall one to fall two across all student groups. Now we know that star reading is only one data point and so we wanted to bring in another data point to help us understand a little more about what's happening in the ELA space for our secondary students. So this data, this is the first time that we've brought this to the board. This is ELA grades. So English language arts grades for the fall semester. So which ended in January, mid January. This is the percentage of students in those English courses that was earning a D or an F in their course. So you can see across the board uh for the district, last year's students in the fall versus this year's students in the fall, the percentage of students uh with D's or Fs. And you can
060see where for the district it is going up. So we had more students this year earning a D or an F than we did last year. And then by school the breakdown. So fewer students at Galita Valley and Laalina and then increases at Lumbre and Santa Barbara Junior High. We've started to talk with our uh principles about this data and so each of our principles has been going back and talking to their English departments and doing some factor analysis about this. And then this is the data for our ninth graders. So our high school ninth graders in ELA classes in the fall, all versions of English, so English 9, English 9 ethnic studies, etc. And again, you can see the difference of students in the fall semester last year versus this year. Again, an increase
061district-wide, an increase at all of at all three of our comprehensive high schools. You don't see data here for Laquesta because they don't have ninth graders. We have a few ninth graders at Alta Vista in our various programs, but it's so few students, we don't report this data because we want to protect the privacy of our students. Uh but as a trend we do see that there are more students this year that are meet earning D's or Fs than we had in last year. And this is something that our principles are going back and talking with their staffs about talking with their English teachers and doing some factor analysis so that we can determine what appropriate strategies need to be put into place. some evidence these practices that we are putting into place or or
062that are currently in place or in progress this spring around our ELA data. So star reading as well as our ELA courses. Uh we know that we have these small tests of change and I'll talk a little bit about that a little more. Uh we have a cohort this year going through resultsbased leadership in this in literacy. And then you can see a number of the other pieces that we have talked about uh and reported to the board about earlier this year. One that I do want to highlight is that there is a consistent focus around our PLC work. We really feel that that is an area that as we build stronger PLC's and they bring they build strong processes for looking at data and using that data to inform instruction that is going to
063pay off in what they are doing with students and then we will see that impact in students and in student outcomes and then some plans for next year kind of building on that work with PLC's strengthening that and systematizing it across our district across our schools One of the other areas that we are looking to implement uh in broader terms is our support of IEL and inclusive practices in the classrooms. And that is to support all students. As you can see with the grades data, there are a number of students who are not um having their needs met in our English classes. They're not being successful. And so, how do we build in the appropriate supports for all of our students that they're able to access the curriculum and be successful in those classes? And
064then in our practices for improving student progress, uh these are some of the areas that we've reported on before. You've heard us talk about letters training, the universal screener, our STAR assessment tool, really trying to build in more processes for the monitoring and use of that data as well as CASP IAB data. And then some plans for next year. A couple just to highlight. There is some work going on in our English depart in our English courses in the junior high around intervention and small group instruction. Some of that is work coming out of our resultsbased leadership work. And so those are areas that we are looking to expand upon next year as well as with the factor analysis of grades that our principles are starting to engage with their staff in. Some of the
065things that are coming up is um a need for more robust training of secondary English teachers around reading. Secondary English teachers, I'm one of them. We weren't trained in how to teach reading because that was considered elementary, but we know that students still need help learning how to read and building strong strategies in secondary spaces. So that's something that we are exploring and looking to implement for next year as well as looking at what curriculum we need to put in place that will really support the needs of all of our diverse learners in the classroom. And then as I mentioned earlier, our results based leadership work. You heard from cohort one earlier this year. Each principal group came and talked about what they are doing in the math space. Our cohort two is focused on
066literacy. And this is what each of the teams elementary, junior high, and high school have determined for their small tests of change. So some of these are projects that are currently starting to get underway and this will work will continue into next year as well. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to executive director Fernandez. Thank you, Dr. Hugh. Good evening. So I want to just bring the attention to our integrated wellness approach. This is the whole child approach and we're going to focus on sense of belonging where every staff member in the district holds a piece of their wellness in our school and the sense of belonging. So these are the all cap goals and the board priorities that really push us forward into the work and make sure that we're setting
067the appropriate um benchmarks to meet these goals. I want to remind you that our district commitment was to h create all to have all adults be a trusted adult and for students to be able to identify at least one but hopefully five right in their school and that we have a framework for it so that everyone is speaking the same vocabulary and have the same understanding as to what a trusted adult is. So if we look at the data in Panorama it looks like we are meeting that goal. we're at 87% and looking at the trend of longevity, we're hitting it's keeping the pace, we're also at the 70th percentile. Um, when it comes to nationwide, similarly 7th and 12th, we're at 89% and 80th percentile. So, I feel like we're we feel pretty confident
068that we're kind of staying in this area solid and having good relationships. But if we look at the sense of belonging, we're still kind of in the low area and but nationwide we're still at the 70 70th percentile. So this is a harder area to address 7 to 12. Now I split it up because when it comes to middle school and high school, the experience looks a little bit different. So in uh we are at 49th percentile and in junior high places nationwide is about 60th percentile and then for high school is 70%. So then we analyze the data. it is not anymore right trusted adults because that's in the high level. So once we looked at the data we recognized that's actually our mental health area. So if we look like at emotional regulation
069we're at a 47th percentile for the third through sixth grade. I'm sorry, percent, not percentile. We're at the 60th percentile for 7th and through 12. We're at 53% for our students. And then 80th percentile for junior high, which is still pretty good when it comes across the nation, but it's still a need for us at Santa Barbara. And then for high school, it's a 70th percentile. So, we looked at everything that we're doing when it comes to the mental health area. And a lot of these should look familiar that we're working through like the wellness coordinators, our mental health clinicians, incorporating SEAL in our everyday instruction. Something that we're doing that is new, we're really focusing on our culturally responsive professional development. This year we started the curriculum of Hov. We had counselors, um, mental
070health clinicians. We had campus supervisors get trained on just the training of how to address and support our Latino boys. In the report, you also saw a little bit of a breakdown in of these areas, but within our most burden population, and the Latino boys would be one of those populations that we're struggling with. Next year we would like to bring over for the female version of that so that we can have more of a culture responsive of how do we address how do we build relationships using their culture and how how they feel seen. Um so and and a lot of these are areas that we're going to work with ed services because they overlap like curriculum instruction roadmap and also they are just as invested in the culturally responsive training for teachers and
071all staff. Thank you. at this time. Any questions? >> Oh, >> so we've shared with you a range of measures that are aligned to our LCAP and they've provided insight into student progress related to literacy, math, as well as uh wellness and belonging. The data highlights our current progress and it's also informing how we're improving our systems that support student success. Then, as Dr. Maldonado shared we will be bringing with to you a math implementation report that will also highlight additional measures that we're reporting out on on both tu student experience, teacher experience and leader experience and we'll bring those um next month. Uh and that's all in partnership with WestD. So I'd now like to open it up for any questions or comments. >> Board member questions. >> Oh no, I'm sorry. There are
072no public comments for this item. >> Board member questions. >> Thank you very much for this presentation. Um yes, I I appreciated the clarity of the presentation. Thank you very much. Um so one my first question is basically we saw the instructional coaching data and at the end of the report it mentioned we're going to improve our instructional coaching or feedback for teachers going forward that's a um one of our goals for next year and I'm curious how are we going to improve and is there a certain model is it instructional coaches and principles deans how how do we improve feedback >> so we have already worked uh in our elementary space with our instructional coaches and we I think felt pretty confident in their work. Um they're using a specific framework um Dr. Elena
073Agular we had some training a couple years ago where uh we really built their capacity to do that work and they engage in uh cycles of improvement around that or coaching cycles. Where we still want to um continue to support is the development of our administrative team. So as we build capacity around curriculum imple implementation in both the math and the literacy space or in in letters, we recognize that um we're building capacity of our site administrators to then be able to give that feedback and what does it look like in a math classroom to see those shifts in practice and how does that coaching and feedback look like? And in addition to that, same with um letters or early literacy uh implementation, what does that look like? And we have done work with Whiten
074Wisdom um to provide that and continuing to deepen that practice. So the emphasis is really on our administrative team. >> All right. Other question other board members with questions? >> Yeah, we'll go one at a time and then come back around. Anyone? Mr. Esco, >> I have a few questions, but I'll just start with the first one. Um, and follow the trend on on feedback and coaching. Um, so for me, this is a big area where we hear, we've heard on my time on the board about this being an area of improvement for us and an area we've made strides, I think, of trying to really shape some of our PD days and build capacity and our ability to coach. I feel when looking at the results, it's clear to me and it makes a
075lot of sense why we're seeing big growth in early literacy because we've made a lot of investment and we've done a lot of training and focus on that area. I also think that I'm getting my question, I promise. Um uh as I'm thinking forward, we have a lot of veteran teachers and we are going to start introducing newer teachers into the system. And my question is as you think about and maybe starting with you Dr. Wilson, as you think about feedback and coaching and how important this is going to be as we start to integrate new teachers into our schools, how are you tackling this this area of focus for us? And what have you learned in some of the changes that we've made recently? So, one of the emphasis or things that we're going
076to emphasize is is in our professional learning and making sure that we have a more robust way of providing uh professional learning to our new teachers. So, we've talked about traditionally we've done potentially like a single day or we've done uh sessions to uh implement a specific item or a curriculum. We're looking at expanding and doing multiple days so that there's a deeper sense of onboarding for new teachers. So that's one shift that our professional learning community has really advocated for for and our principles have advocated for. So rather than put this responsibility on sites really do it collectively and more comprehensively at the district level. So okay >> in in the elementary space uh we have created a system. So when we first adopted our widen wisdom curriculum we started with guided observations for
077leaders two times a year that happened and it was a group of three uh principles and their coaches at three different schools. We visited um conducted classroom observations, provided feedback and worked on the curriculum uh expectations or our implementation expectations and uh we did that year one that was directed by uh our WID and wisdom partners. Year two was a little bit more of a collaboration. This was year three and our coaches and principles were now more handson and really leading that space. in year four which we no longer have that uh contract with wid and wisdom our coaches and principles are now ready to implement that without um outside support. So we have a system in place uh for us to continue that work and and then our our goal is to also do
078the same with foundations which we got some coaching as well uh for um the early implementation um time timeline. To add on to that, at the secondary level in the mass space, we did some similar observations with our amplified Desmos coaches who came to support uh cross observations of classrooms at the junior high level, high school level, and being able to see one another. And we are going to expand that work and deepen that work as we move into next year as well. And then Dr. Beckio will share a little bit more about new teacher orientation and professional learning. >> Thank you. Um, so I did want to remind the board um and the public that we do have our own teacher induction program. So that's a really robust program that focuses on professional learning
079for our new teachers um mentorship and coaching by veteran teachers who are their mentor teachers and um planning around the um implementation of the California teaching standards. And so that's one area that um we'll continue to do. That's a two-year program for our TIP uh teachers. The other thing I want to mention about veteran teachers is what we know from the data is that they they one um they know their job is extremely important. So we see that in the data. They actually want feedback from their administrators. They actually trust their administrators. So, um, when we see this, uh, one of the things that we have to continue to work on is the type of feedback that we're giving our, um, veteran teachers or even our new teachers, but in particular, our veteran teachers, that
080it's um, really consistent across sites and how we're delivering that feedback. That it's very precise and concise uh, feedback that they can actually take and utilize to make themselves better. So presumably already very good teachers, veteran teachers. How do we give them something, a second set of eyes that's coaching for them to improve? Not looking for things that are wrong, but looking for what is it that they could do to stretch themselves. So that's some of the stuff that we're going to be working on with our management teams. >> Thank you. And just a quick question, then I'll pass the mic, but um do we incorporate a feedback loop? So getting feedback after uh any sort of PDS or PLC's or when we implement new strategies, it would be nice to hear back what was
081helpful, what was not as helpful. It's all helpful, but um so that we're refining and we're meeting the needs, right? Because they're all going to have I think Dr. Beck just pointed it out, different cohorts of teachers are going to have different needs. different teachers are going to have different needs. >> So, we do have a feedback loop for all of our professional learning and we've done I think a real comprehensive job of analyzing that data systematically this year across all levels. So, elementary, secondary, we have a committee that actually reviews it. Our instructional support specialists review it and then the committee provides recommendations. So, we've been able to make those shifts and and corrections and adapt to that feedback even midyear. and we actually just met today um to continue the design of the
0822627 professional learning and um coaching cycles or training administrators um was also part of that um doing things where they can continue to deepen their capacity around feedback. >> Thank you. >> All right, Dr. Beal um do you have a question? All right, thank you. >> So I have a question that is about the system. So I know some of them already been answered by my fellow board member questions. So I have one specific question and one kind of general question. The first question is is where are we at um and like with the letters training K through three with our general teachers like I know that we had a cohort that started in the spring and we're expecting in August. So what percentage do we see of our K to3 teachers being involved in
083some level of letters training or have already trained um over the next one to two years? >> We completed our cohort number one. We're currently uh have started cohort number two about a month ago. Okay. >> And that's another group of about almost 40 teachers as well. And we have about six two more cohorts. So about 60 more teachers to still train in in that space. And so we have a cohort that will start at in August I believe >> next school year. Our goal is to start with the the next two cohorts and they will start um around the same time. >> Okay. And then is um so we we'll get like we have this what two to threeear plan we think hopefully 100 100%. How um if we have a new teacher come
084in are we if they are not letters trained are we keeping them out of the K to3 space until they are trained? Uh all of our principles, we've had a conversation and also a commitment that anyone plays for next school year and moving forward in our K3 space has to be letter train. That is our goal and to make sure and we know that they either have to be letter trained or in um or um signed up for training which is cohort number two or ready for next school year to have everyone train in cohorts three and four. >> And may I ask a quick system question? It relates to what what what we talked about. So, I did hear in your presentation something very interesting. This idea of a district-wide PLC and so that
085seems like an umbrella that looks over the individual schools is so this is something that's not in place that's maybe going to go into place. >> We we have in elementary space we have uh and I'll let um Dr. Wilson and Dr. Hugh explain about the secondary space how we do districtwide PLC's. >> Oh, so this is not an elementary thing. This is just for secondary. >> No, this is elementary as well. >> Oh, this is everybody. Okay. >> So, we have had um district-wide PLC's for and I Dr. Rebecca, you may be able to help me um maybe look at the numbers uh how long we've had it, but for the last four years since I've been here, uh we've had district-wide PLC's and um we have worked on making these uh PL district-wide
086PLC's meaningful for our teachers and our growth in terms of the teachers uh feeling the efficacy of these uh PLC's or the the meaningfulness of these PLC's have grown from uh three years ago 23 3% of our teachers felt that these PLC's were effective and meaningful to we're at the 90 uh about around 93% of our 95% of our teachers stating based on the feedback that we provide. So they receive a feedback form which is also their sign-in sheet and they provide us feedback on the PLC effectiveness and so we have grown tremendously over the last three years and they have become more effective in a system. So every grade level team, so about 15 to 25 teachers meet for that specific grade level across the district five times a year. >> Thank you. >>
087All right, Trusty Munoz, do you have a question? Carlos, >> I have one I have a few questions. Um couple or just one thing to clarify. Um first of all, thank you for the presentation. Really appreciated it. uh when in the earlier in some of the earlier uh you know star reading um star reading graphs it shows a pretty significant decrease in student surveys like sometimes more than 100 students less than in the fall. I'm just wondering if that's if there's any specific reason for that that you all know of. Yeah. So I think you're talking you're referring to the ninth grade data fall one versus fall two was 700 something versus 600 something students took the star assessment. So that is where like we have a a challenge with our participation rate for the
088fall we experienced and that was due to in large part some confusion around when the testing was when the testing window was uh was it before the break after the break. So we did extend it but by the time we got to by the time it was communicated that the assessment window had been extended the semester was pretty much over. So uh we made some adjustments and recommunicated for the spring semester what the expectations are for those testing windows. So we expect that the participation rates will be much more consistent from spring one to spring two. Then was >> can I clarify on your on your question? Um were you indeed talking about the nth grade numbers or there also in the one and two the the um star early literacy results there was a
089difference of 353 to 239. >> That's one another one that I saw as well. >> I want to make sure that yeah >> thank you. That is a difference of 114 students less. And the reason for that is because once the students test early literacy at the beginning of the school year and they test out of early literacy, they no longer take early literacy for the second period of testing. They now take the reading um star reading instead. And so that's the the reason for that difference. >> Would that >> So it's a good a good um it's a good indicator that we're making progress in the early literacy. I would I would ask isn't that a good indicator because if those students were in the results that 53% would be even higher. Is that
090right? >> That is correct. >> Good. Thank you. >> Um >> yeah I know there's some other question Oh yeah. Yeah. >> Everybody got two except Celeste and I know we'll we'll get back to you. Uh my other question was what exactly happens to the students who remain at star level one or when they don't meet the standard um for both math and literacy between fall and spring. Is there any sort of intervention or followup? >> So I'll share a little bit just at the secondary level of some of the the work that we're doing which is also part of our resultsbased leadership work. So there's some intersection here. One of the things um we're recognizing is that we want to really help teachers understand and value the STAR assessment in a way that will
091help inform their instruction. So rather than it just be being a measure that they're doing because the district wants them to do the measurement, but doing the measurement because there's actual value in the reports. And so we recognize systemwide that both monitoring part participation is important and then also providing them with professional learning and how to utilize the tools because it's actually been a while. the last time since the whole system really provided that professional learning for them so that then they can target some specific skills that are identified in those reports and whether those skills are for students at level one, level two, and then moving forward how to use potentially at the junior high level that small group instruction to differentiate there. So, it's a it's a system that's moving and developing so
092that we can value and use it and then provide that instruction to students. >> Celeste, did you have another question? >> Um, I had a question about uh D's and Fs in 9th grade. Um, so parents take grades very seriously and when their children come home with D's and Fs that can actually be galvanizing like, oh, my child needs more help like the grades are a stronger indicator for parents than test scores. So basically what I'm wondering is when you're going back and doing the root cause analysis with principles, are you I think it's very helpful like how do we grade? Do we grade in a way that actually reflects student learning? And then when a child gets a D or an F, we realize, wow, this child really needs additional intervention. Basically, I'm wondering,
093I don't want less DN Ds and Fs if children really need them. Do you see what I mean? Um like as as an indicator of what they actually know and then what we as adults need to do. >> Yes. I mean in an ideal world we would have less D's and Fs certainly but grades do tell us something right so one of the things that our principles are I had a couple of conversations with principles who have started to go back and some have had their conversations some are planning on having their conversations with their English departments some of what's coming out is that there is a wide range of reasons why a student might have a D or an F in an English course it might be due to low attendance. So if a
094student's not there, they're not learning, they're not turning in work, that would make it pretty challenging for them to pass a class. Uh there are also students, as you see in the STAR data, who are struggling with reading. And if they are struggling with reading in a novel-based curriculum, they are going to struggle to meet the expectations of that class and be successful. So there's supports that need to be put in place there for students who are struggling with reading. Uh and so those are just a couple of examples of some of the factors that our principles are teasing out with their teachers as they are looking at that grades data. We also want to make sure that we are disagregating that data by student group because we, you know, for example, there are trends
095where if we see a lot of our EML students are struggling to pass an English class, maybe there's additional supports and EL strategies that we need to put into place to make sure that our EML students are able to access the curriculum. So, that is some of the work that they are doing. Now, what's going to come out of that work are some strategies that we can utilize at the school site. So, it might be a site PLC deciding here's some things that we've noticed with our students and our data and here's our plan of action and creating like a small test of change around that and others might be more systemic. So, we might be doing some things at the district level to intervene and provide some supports there. Grading practices is another area
096that has come up as a potential area to explore. There are lots of things that go into grading. There's waiting, there's calibration, all of that. And so, those are all different pieces that they are starting to tease out. It'll take them some time to really get to what is the root cause for all of their different students and all of their different student groups, but we expect that that's work that's going to continue this spring and to our professional learning plans uh and PLC supports for next year, as well as our support for our leaders in developing their ability to give feedback and coaching. Thank you. M >> I do want to add this and I apologize Dr. H if you said it and I missed it. The reason in ninth grade we want to
097monitor DNFS is the kids will be off track to meet four-year graduation rates. So, I appreciate the that yes, they get these grades, but our job is to make sure that we don't have them stay in that grading level, particularly in nth grade, because any core class that they fail becomes a barrier to graduation. And we heard it in the comments earlier, like how do we create a master schedule that prevate provides that that ability to recover >> and oh, may I just follow up on >> Did you have a further comment? That is also an area where we are looking, we've been working with our high school administrators also to think about interventions and scheduling strategies to help support that. So, if a student fails a class in the fall, is there a way
098to put them back in the spring and making sure that we're making that a priority for them so that they are not falling off, you know, off track for graduation? So, that's another area that we're really looking at. Is it that they need more reading supports or you know some other intervention or is it just you being able to put them back in so that they are able to recover that credit. So again looking at what does each individual student need and then making a plan. So >> can I just >> we've all we've all had two. If you're going next that'll be your your your one. >> Okay. Well, it had to do with the last clarification and I think that that is wonderful that we're tracking students in nth grade that that's a
099phenomenal indicator and um yeah, I just wanted to clarify it's wonderful that we're using D's and FS to figure out how to support students and I think um you know, York Shingle has talked in the past about our assessments and our grades really reflecting what students know. So, I I'm curious to hear more about grading practices and how we make sure that students who may be like just well behaved but may not know the um material that they don't get overlooked. You see what I mean? So, yes. Thank you. >> Okay. So, any any further questions or are we moving on to comments? So, okay. We'll go on to Mr. Esco. >> Sure. >> Yeah. I I have questions about like two different areas. So, I guess it'll come back around. The next one is
100really on math and I know we are going to have a big math um presentation on the 19th. >> So, um if there's going to be a lot more that's going to be talked about, I don't need to hear everything. But I know that in um secondary we're using Math EXL to look at our students and look for at gaps in learning. And I'm just curious with the STAR data. I know that when I've gone to meetings, the star test isn't just one um big enormous test. It actually identifies areas of deficiency and that's what's looked at during the PLC's. Um I am hearing this discussion that in secondary students have big gaps in knowledge and that's what is identifying. But it seems to me very clear that that starts at at the lower grades,
101right? that they end up in secondary. So, what is the practice using the STAR data, especially as you get further along in the elementary school levels to look for those real gaps? Um, because math is being taught differently than it was 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. And how are we addressing that? Like the idea, the the question is math fluency. I think you've probably heard that term, right? The ability to retrieve math facts very quickly so that you can deal with higher concepts. So is that an area of focus math fluency in our elementary students to build that capacity in elementary the math has been uh an area of focus for the past three years as well that before the um uh language arts adoption we started with the um implementation of mathematics. So
102about three years ago when we uh our illustrative math uh math uh curriculum that was adopted about seven or eight years ago was not being utilized and it was not being implemented across the district and um curriculum materials were not being used. And so we started with how do we support our teachers so that they get the professional learning or the or the support that they need in order to implement. And so we started with that year one. Then we also started with an assessment, a self assessment from teachers so that teachers could determine um where they're at in their implementation. Are they in the awareness stage in the or are they down the road into the I'm fully implementing and making it my own? And so we've been doing that. This was year three.
103And so we are making some progress. I have data uh multi-year data for the last three years of what I've been keeping for from all of our teachers across the district over about 200 of them um with information about where they're at. So that's one one area. Um also we use the STAR assessment as one indicator for us to determine where our students are at. We also utilize our district-wide PLC's to share best practices, areas of concern, areas of focus. Um we also the one of the largest big things that we did is as a we we did the small test of change and we saw significant growth in in the area of mathematics for elementary and uh with a focus on sixth grade. This year we're focusing on third and fifth grade and one
104of the practices that we all committed to across the district in elementary was the math language routines. we uh across the district, every grade level team decided which two math math language routines should we focus on that are appropriate for this grade level and so that was chosen last year and that was the commitment that we started towards the end of the year last year and we continued on this year and we have partnered with Dr. Roberts who is doing research on math language routines from UCSB and has been doing a project here to determine the um the use and also the effectiveness uh in the implementation of math language routines. Uh since our focus in math has been for third and fifth grade for this year on the small test of change. Um we
105provided two days of professional learning on math language routines with Dr. Roberts. Um and um we will continue our collaboration with Dr. Roberts as well as math games with uh Dr. Lambert from UCSB from the math department um there as well. So we have a robust um now implementation plan in terms of professional learning supports and best practices that we are all committing to the coaching and feedback will really come in handy and make sure that we are um improving our student outcomes um with um for next school year when we continue on this work. I gave you a lot of information, but I just wanted you to know that there's there's a lot of things in place, but it does take time. >> I'll just respond to my comments. >> Further questions, Mr. Escob.
106>> Yeah. Uh, I'm going to go back to the DNF um topic just to ask when I look at the data and I look at the STAR reading data and it's between the two tests, it's trending in the right direction, not as much as I think we would like, but it's not moving in the wrong direction. Yet, we look at the D's and the Fs and that is trending in the wrong direction. And so I guess my question to you is what should our takeaways from that be? Because uh I imagine that there's going to be different strategies to address what's happening in the star data versus what might be happening in the DNF's category. Is that right? And I just want to pick your brain about making sure that we're all interpreting this information
107within the right context, right? So I do want to acknowledge um that we see what you're seeing in terms of we see the star data showing some increases um and we are sharing a concern a mutual concern around what and question around what is happening in our grade data which is why we wanted to both bring it here and report out on it and engage in that resultsbased sequence in this space so that we could continue to build our district capacity and alignment around both the implementation of resultsbased leadership but also now seeing how grades may be impacting um student performance. And so what we don't know is the exact answer and the exact reason yet. So as Dr. Hugh shared our sites are teasing it out. We're we're on the phones with principles even,
108you know, last week, this week, really continuing as we've met with them multiple times either at PLT or our district-wide leadership team meeting as we're engaging in this process to start to build like a common understanding of what those factors are so that we can develop both districtwide uh responses as well as support sites as they're doing their site analysis. So there is no um exact answer yet, but it it really does show how our how we're using um that inquiry process that we now have systematized across the district with resultsbased leadership to help us get to that answer and have our sites continue to engage with our professional learning communities because really it's the teachers who are going to know, you know, what is shifting, what is h what is happening in the classroom.
109room um with student performance andor engagement or attendance that might be impacting that >> and yeah >> board members I want to remind us that our third board priority is alignment of achievement academics and I let me say it again alignment of academics which is our curriculum the the products we buy for teachers assessment which you're hearing about tonight the star the CASP the pan panorama, the screeners, and the last one is achievement. And that what we're what I'm hearing now is we're moving into the conversation of what does achievement mean to every single one us at every single one of us at every level of the system. So the inquiry that will be unfolding will be when we look at nth grade English scores in STAR, how do they match to actual report card
110grades? And do we all define achievement the same way? And I think this is the beauty of this board priority and I'm breaking it down in this way and I think it is an important conversation for us to continue to have but we have to get down to what are teachers even within the same department are all nth grade English teachers aligned on their grading practices for example and that needs to happen as a conversation right so I just want to point it out that is a lot of that intention of that third board priority and we're now getting to that third piece thank you >> precisely And I think to tease out one other point and I'm glad that you made the connection to the goal is I look at this and I see
111that the conclusion I walk away with is a DNF doesn't necessarily mean capacity. >> So I'm happy to hear that we're investigating not only what's happening with the student but what's happening with the adults too and how we're operating in the system. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Questions before we get to comments? Okay, one more and then we'll go to comments. >> One more from each of you and then comments. >> Carlos, are you done with questions? >> One quick question. >> This is a quick question also on the topic of the FS and DS. Is that um I appreciate the factor, you know, the directions to do the factor analysis at each at each site. Um but is that number that percentage something that off the top of your head um has
112been increasing and that we're only now noticing like when it says, you know, our district for seventh and eighth graders is, you know, was at 8.8%, now it's 11, you know, the 2023 was it at 5%, you know, is this something that we're seeing repeated each year? And yeah. >> Yeah. So we started with a comparison of last year to this year. That is also something we want to um look back on is over time maybe multiple years. You'll see in the board report that we've actually um done that um for our other metrics. So that is what we want to continue bringing is not just in the presentation showing you within the same year but multiple years so we can see um yeartoyear how that is um changing or fluctuating. So we do have
113a commitment to to doing that in the future but then also looking at that right now um related to multiple years. >> Celeste your question to comments. Um, thank you. I really appreciated that in the report that we had multi-year data. Um, one question I have is basically if we have a plan to support students who are identified with reading difficulties like um, with our MClass screener, if we have a specific plan for dyslexia identified students. Um, and if we have reading specialists, do we have reading specialists in the district who who specialize in dyslexia or other reading struggles? We do not have a reading specialist who specializes in dyslexia. Um, but what we do have is we have nine coaches, instructional coaches across the district and we also have um um Dr. Mallalerie Price
114who is a literacy expert as well. And uh we have other team members across the district that support in this area. Uh we also work closely with our special education department so that if a student is diagnosed with dyslexia then um most of the time not always a student would be um may be referred for an IEP and qualify for um special education services. Um the other thing we're doing this year is we are uh building our knowledge and capacity about uh dyslexia. So we started a um chapter review. The state of California developed a dyslexia guidelines which is about 11 chapters uh over 100 pages and we are chunking it and we're doing about three chapters every time we meet. So we started with coaches they reviewed uh we we read the three chapters
115divided up the work and then explained it to one another as a team. So all the instructional coaches myself Dr. Mallerie Price. And then once we did that, we I followed up with principles who did the exact same thing. We finished chapter three chapters. Uh coach's meeting was just last week and we finished chapters up to chapter 7 uh eight, excuse me. And by the end of the year, all of us will have knowledge and information on the resources and the guidelines for dyslexia for the state of California. >> I did you have one more question? I did. So there were three subjects, right? So we love talking about outcomes. Um so this is my third question. It has to be that panorama data. And so um the question I have is is um it's
116it's what question are we asking about mental health? So I know that whenever we talk about mental health, the first thing we ask are about supports and what supports we can put in place. But where are we asking the question about the environment in the school that also contributes to mental health? And we always talk about things that can be negative, but where's a discussion about what actually improves mental health? And I'm talking about like we're hear hearing about class takes and things that encourage students to feel like students and that they can explore. So, you know, as a person who deals with mental health, maybe my most frustrating thing at UCSB is wondering how much the environment at UCSB, the academic environment actually contributes to the mental health issues I see. So I I
117would like to see if in this discussion or future discussions really talking to the students and the teachers and saying what do you think might be creating a mental health problem that we don't just have to treat and support right so I think kind of flipping that mental health discussion around and that actually leads to two good outcomes which is an improvement in mental health and an improvement in like an actual success in what we do right and so that's that's the question I'd ask is I mean do you have a thought on that that's my question for you >> that's a really good question thank you for turning it around and again once again putting it in the teachers that there is strands that highlights the experience in different levels especially academics we do
118have that in the panorama um and the mental health clinicians do a at the end of year report to see what are the impacts and the trends that we're seeing in individual class I'm sorry schools And then we have that conversation with a kind of like an SST team in the in the sites so that we know how to next year be proactive about the common themes that we see in the school. The other thing that we're connecting to is the youth day that we're doing um countywide which is going to be taking some of our students and a lot of them are going to be from Santa Barbara and they are facilitating a conversation over just a wide need and one of them being mental health and how is their experience in our schools
119and what the experience in the community and how they're being impacted and they're giving the questions and facilitating that conversation but we're also getting their feedback as to what are the areas they think we need to focus on and so We bring the panorama data kind of to life when they get to ask us the questions of how we're going to approach all the different various topics and mental health was one of them. >> But do we ever turn around either through panorama or other other types of surveys to ask students just maybe one question like if you went to school, what one thing could exist in school that would make you completely happy, right? or would make the experience better or make you feel like you want to be in school. And maybe the
120answer would be that school ends at 12:00 noon every day. Maybe not realistic >> or pizza and ice cream. >> Right. But maybe some people would say there's a class that I'd like to take and I never have time to take it or something like that. I mean, just really getting that very direct feedback from the people who are we're assessing for mental health and where can we ask that question? So, I don't know if this is going to get to your question, but I do want to read some of the questions on this category of sense of belonging. And I know that tonight you just got, you know, the high level, and that was one of the ones you heard about, but the questions the kids are answering under sense of belonging are the
121following. How much support do the adults at your school give you? When you are at school, how much do you feel like you belong? How well do people at your school understand the kind of person you are? And how much respect do students at your school show you? And that's that comprises the questions that um our students in grades I this is all the grades. These are the the 3 to 12th >> grade get in terms of measuring the sense of belonging. And then you got the high level where we are with sense of belonging and I think we do need to continue to increase that. that gets to the culture because your question talks about how does the climate impact how they're feeling and so I don't know if that necessarily directly correlates to
122then therefore if this is not happening then I'm going to have a mental health issue but there's the impact of the climate and how they feel in it and then the other category was emotional regulation and how they learn to regulate first identify their emotions and then regulate their emotions. >> Yeah. And the third one was around trusted adults and people that they feel they can go to. So the the the survey does kind of get at some of those things uh in a way that I think you're asking the question. >> Well, yes and no. It actually asks students how they're feeling and what contributes to their feelings, but it's not actually asking them what they think might make them feel better, right? Like students can be very concrete and I'm where are the
123concrete questions >> there? There is some questions that are free so they can answer individually. So again like uh Dr. Maldonado said is we're doing the focus questions for you. There is those questions that they are able to write out. I believe we talked a little bit about it last time when they said what would make it better and you know high school said boyfriends and and the the younger kids had a different category. So we did review a little bit of that last time we did the outcomes. But maybe you're also talking and I'm hearing you like the in-person conversations. There's different checking points like our counselors, our wellness center coordinators, our mental health clinicians, our deans that are in charge of climate culture. They are also having those conversations. There is also the
124framework of a trusted adult and that is part of that having those conversations. Panorama is the one place where we're guaranteeing every student from third to 12 are being asked that question and have the uh freedom to respond. But there is those human interactions added too. And then the high schools and middle schools and elementary gather their data and you'll see some of their responses in the safety plan, right? Or in their goals. >> So maybe I will put our student board member on the spot, Carlos. >> So let me ask you, do you you I mean I'll presume that you answer Panorama surveys and do you feel that there are questions that could or should be asked that might help with this mental health issue? I mean, I look at the data and I
125always wish it were a little bit better, but I feel that many school environments these days, it's complex, but do you feel that the questions that are being asked get to the root of the mental health issue for our students, at least at the high school level, which is what you're at? >> I think that the data and how we see it here shows kind of represents what we're mostly being asked. as I can remember, there are definitely some, you know, as parts where you can fill out um free responses to what you kind of that um work towards the goal that you're talking about. But I think in terms of like actually finding what students want, not just measuring um measuring where they're at, um it's there definitely could be um a more targeted
126way of doing that. And so, uh, I also think that when you're giving these students, uh, 30 minute, hourlong survey, whatever it is, um, and they come to the very end and have to answer what's your suggestions, it usually just and they're in the middle of or at the end of a school day, it's usually just I don't have any suggestions, what and and they submit the form. So, I think in in terms of working towards that goal of of students actually having a voice in how does that get better or how can you know the district do better? I think there definitely could be a more targeted way of doing that. >> All right. >> Uh to build to build on um Dr. Beiel's point, I'm curious. So, what I hear from you is
127how are we creating environments that are very positive for student health? And what I'm curious about is, have we looked at surveys that are out there about the environmental determinants of student mental health? What kind of um environments promote positive student health? You know, um what else we can do to make our schools really >> basically evidence-based ways to support positive student health and mental health indicators? Have we looked at things like that and do surveys like that exist? I think maybe you're talking about the tiered levels of support. >> I guess what I'm talking about more is like there's so much evidence about exercise being super important, non-processed foods, and I know there's surveys out there that that really measure kind of the environmental all the environmental aspects of a school and how they
128are associated with >> mental health. So, h have we also thought in in that um vein? a survey that analyzes the environment of the school and how the physical aspects can impact the mental health. Is is that what >> not physical but basically when I say environment I mean um like the conditions we create for students. So, do they have I and I'm spitballing here, but like daily exercise, how much access to screen time, social, you know, um very specific like evidence-based pieces that promote positive student health. >> Yeah, we definitely work on strategies to incorporate in our schools. Um we do have exercise every day like PE and and recess and that also is implemented and thought of as within the mental health lens or social emotional lens I believe at that point. Um
129but not an analysis of all all of that. Um the panorama survey really focuses on the student versus um just the situational part of it. But we do incorporate strategies um and we have roles that help all of the environment such as mental health uh clinicians and wellness coaches um as needed in in the school. >> Okay. >> All right. Um I'm going to transition to comments um and I might include some rhetorical questions as part of that. Not looking for specific answers. I want to tell you that I appreciate the data that's that's before us. It unveils new information every time we see it. One of the problems we have is there's no such thing as a question that doesn't lead to more questions. And we have to be very careful that we don't
130turn ourselves into a surveying organization. That all we do is is take tests and surveys. Um because that alone can create a mental health environment that's not good. Um I want to talk about the grades for just a minute, the D's and Fs. And I did a little scratching on the paper here and kind of figuring out what what was going on. First of all, it's absolutely critical that we understand uh you were saying what is achieve how is achievement defined? How is a D defined? How is an F defined? It it may not be um surprising that different schools are standing out because teachers work together and they decide how they're going to do things in different environments and that may be a factor. But there's something I haven't heard from anybody tonight. The
131ninth graders, the eighth graders that are now ninth graders that took that as compared to the ninth graders, those are students who were in early elementary school when COVID started. When we talk about not being ready to move forward and keep up with the work that they're doing, those students have been off track since they were in third grade and they were getting different instruction than what is normally happening. I think that's a really critical thing for us to keep in mind and it's it's it's probably among the most difficult things to put quantitative data on about why but we can't forget that that's a part of what happens and we also know that even before co as students went up in grades there is a exact opposite correlation with going down in terms of
132engagement early kids are excited to be in school it's wonderful it's great they're learning to read they're learning about dinosaurs or all it's great. They can't wait to go to school and it just peaks and then goes down to low points in in 11th and 12th grade. Some of those low points are not just because kids are older and there's a different kind of of environment. It's because they've been failing since they were in second grade. because in that first moment that they didn't get the right reading instruction and felt behind because no matter whether you call um no matter how you name a reading group, a kid knows the difference between the group that they're in and the group that someone else is in. And from that point on, once they've realized that they
133may not be as as successful as their classmates, I can't imagine that there isn't a direct correlation to how their test scores go and their attitudes and the whole mo movement toward mental health. So one of the things I I don't know the answers to that but I just want to make sure two things that we don't don't get wrapped up in paralysis analysis paralysis and that we don't think that we'll solve the problem by changing to a different set of questions about a different part of the environment and secondly that we look very carefully at what happened in the two in the 2020 20 years. Those are the kids that are now probably in the worst place they possibly can be relative to being ready and overcoming the losses that they had. I know
134it wasn't a great idea to talk about learning loss during that time because boy, you know, the teachers don't nobody wants to to acknowledge that kids weren't learning learning during that time. But not only were they not learning, but they were in environments where the the work in the social environment, the structure of working with classmates and playing together and working together and collaborating, all those things come up. I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. I just want to make sure that that we're not looking at the numbers and things in front of us as anything other than a snap a snapshot of what is right now. And it's a challenge to look and see what were the precipitating factors that may have something to do with that beyond
135curriculum alignment all of those kind of things. And I will finish by saying the hope that I see the optimism that comes from me looking at this is a remarkable results that are happening with the kids that started when we started with the changes and the alignment and all the right things to help them. And that's the celebration that's in all of this. If we can expand that and figure out what to do to help those students that have gone on and gone down that pathway of of disengagement for whatever reasons, uh, if we can bring those two things together, it would be remarkable. But we we're doing really good work and it's showing where the work we've been doing has been consistent with the same students without interruption of COVID or poor uh poor
136curriculum or poor um scope and sequences. I whatever that's enough. That was my comment. Anyone else? Who's ready? Okay. Dr. Real. So um so I am pleased to see those improvements in the early grades and I think the hard work is there in literacy and so I'm really excited about that and um I'm curious about the math report because I feel that we made a very directed change in literacy with the letters training and and the interesting thing for me in math for elementary not secondary is we've had the old curriculum and just I I understand that Um, we, you know, we're talking about, I know that, uh, that Miss Alvarado said that we are trying to tighten up our coaching and our PLC's for math. Um, but I feel like there's something else going
137on there. So hopefully we get more information next week. Um, because I think it's the system and we have to look at the system because we already have the curriculum training there. We've been doing a couple years of review. So the the fact that the scores are still kind of stagnating is to me a very interesting question. Um and um I will say a little um thing about COVID. You know, we've been talking about COVID for so many years and I think that if we are going to keep asking the question, is there a cohort of students who continue to be affected by COVID, we do need to look at longitudinal data and not just wonder about it. We should just be tracking this group and just yes, if they are a little bit behind,
138just you know, basically see that. But at the same time, I feel that um kids are resilient and our low expectations are their low expectations. And so we're we're a couple years out from COVID. And if there is a COVID issue many years out that we're still trying to address, we may have to do more. Is there a CO issue we still have to address? We might see it in longitudinal data. But I I um I I agree co had a huge effect. But I it can't be the reason why we expect a couple years of students to continue to have low performance. Um and and once again I just really feel that I even hear that from students and it really pains me for me to hear them say, "Oh, I was in COVID
139and I still carry this big weight on my shoulders." I feel that that's a discussion that's been happening that that needs to be reframed um to build a resiliency. That's just a comment I have. That's probably a very big opinion. Um and I am curious about um what we c how we can ask and whom we could speak to in other ways to understand student mental health. Um, again coming from the idea of yes, we need to address mental health issues, but the mental health experience they're having is the end product of what comes before. And I think of speaking to teachers. I think of speaking to school counselors. Um, and I'm like, should the school counselors be telling us things their students are asking for that maybe aren't available to them in the schools?
140And that could be an interesting conversation. So really, so many so many things. So that's my comments for now. I always have many. >> I I totally agree with Trusty Beiel about expectations and having high expectations. And I heard also from Dr. Hughes that basically when we're seeing D's and Fs, we're asking how do we support students more. So it's not we can't give up on students. And I think there's so much in mindset in all of our mindset about what is possible and and I mean so much so much research that like half the battle is mindset. So um and then what I would say about oh letters training. So I 100% support letters training. I think it's a fantastic investment. Super important. I also think like as a board we could perhaps pass
141board policy that requires incoming teachers to already be trained in some way in the science of reading based on um based on and and that could be part of the process of writing this board policy. We know that there are many universities and colleges that are preparing students to um teach reading using evidence aligned uh techniques. And so to me the idea that we have to train every incoming teacher in letters just is like when when will we stop? We need to we need to build a pipeline of teachers who are already trained and that definitely exists. So basically what I would love to do is to write board policy um uh and bring it back to the board like work with a team but basically how do we ensure that our K through six
142teachers have the training that they need coming in to our district so that we don't continue to spend and I I I'm a huge supporter of letters. I'm happy we're spending the money right now to ensure all of our teachers are trained, but that teachers coming in have the skills that they need to be able to start on day one. So, that is one thought. Um, and then the other piece having to do with engagement. I think engagement is huge. Um, and I would love to be able to have a discussion of um, and I I emailed about this, but um, board parameters for the budget, which includes a discussion of high school course takes and what uh, so that before the the the budget is brought to the board, there are no surprises to
143the board. The board sets expectations um for what we would like the budget to look like. So those are my two asks in terms of um future agenda items related to the outcomes report. >> Mr. Esco, >> I'm going to start by saying thank you. Um this is a very good presentation. The supporting documents were very thorough. I especially appreciated you bringing a point of concern with the D's and Fs at the new set of data that we haven't seen before. I appreciate like the conversation about what's going really well, what are we focusing on, what do we have curiosities about. This should be a very safe space to have those discussions because I think that's really yes, we want to focus on what's working well. How do we scale that? We also want to
144focus on where are the areas that we want to improve. We also want to track where have we made investments and how is the implementation going and all of this is just information for us to have conversations about how do we serve our students better and it's not about who's doing what wrong. And I just really appreciate you bringing this conversation to us and we're spending so much time having really deep conversations because these are the decisions that end up or these are the conversations that inform the decisions about the budget about curriculum about where we invest and it's just it's very um dense information but it's very powerful. So I will also underscore early literacy is where we have made a very intentional investment and we are seeing the fruits of that labor and
145not that far from the initial investment. The question I hold and I think that we all hold is how do we scale that so that those um increases in early literacy that we're seeing, they're sustained beyond just first grade and that we're seeing it carry through their time in elementary into junior high and high school. And that's a big question because it's a very complex one and the cohorts are all different. um the needs for in elementary are different than the needs in junior high and the needs in high school. But I think one takeaway that I walk away with from the early early literacy gains is alignment in approach and strategies in assessment in definitions of what it looks like and what it doesn't look like. um we have been unapologetic about what we
146want from that space. I think making the decision as a board to invest in letters and make that a requirement for K through three is a really big deal. So how do we figure out how to do that across the spectrum? And we talked about it. It's one of our goals. It's going to take time and that's unfortunate, but if we want to do it effectively, it has to be intentional. It has to be well thought out, and it has to have a lot of alignment. So, I'll transition into one of the questions I asked about feedback and coaching. And I think that is a place where we have really thrived in the early literacy space. And it's a space that I think we're going to have to lean on as we introduce new teachers
147into the system. And one way and I was happy to hear it is building capacity in our site leadership. District staff cannot be the only folks that are providing feedback p professional development. Um it has to be the site leaders and building their capacity to really support those new teachers and also support our veteran teachers as well. As Dr. Beckio had mentioned, we ask our teachers to differentiate for our students. we need to differentiate for our teachers as well. And I think part of that is asking for feedback, earnest feedback, incorporating that feedback. Um, there are going to be times where I think that teachers and educators are going to understand what their needs are. I think there are also times where that's where the coach comes in and is able to see something that
148maybe when you're in the weeds and you're in the thick of it, you can't see yourself, but you need that outside perspective to help you along and help you grow. It's going to be both. And so, we're still going to have to refine our our PDS and how we support teachers. But I say this earnestly, get the feedback. Sometimes the feedback sucks. Sometimes it hurts. you put in a lot of effort and to get that feedback is not great when it's it falls short of what your goal was, but understand it's not about a blame game. It's about how we serve our students better. And we do it with humility and we do it with the understanding that we're all on the same team. So that's my challenge for you all. Easy for me to
149say up here, but um it is something that I think we need to take really seriously as we look at how we support our educators and sustain these gains. the I'll make a couple of other points. Um, one, I'd like for us to separate out junior high panorama data and high school. And the reason being is I think we're going to have some really interesting conversations coming up about the junior high space because I it's come up in our conversations over the years and I have a hunch and it's not like a profound thought but like there is something happening in the junior high space where we need to really think about how we're supporting our students and that sense of belonging and that environment that we're creating for those students because they're only there
150for a couple of years. I imagine it's probably pretty hard to build a sense of belonging when you're only there for a couple of years. Seeing that broken out, I think would inform the conversation a little bit better, but I still appreciate it being included nonetheless. Um, the last piece that I would say I have feedback on is on the second to last slide when we're talking about what's next. um scaling up our current programs for the black African-American student experience. I imagine this is going to happen, but just make sure that CABA is included in that process as we're scaling up because there is very helpful feedback from that group. And you want that group's buy in and you want that information and that feedback because that group is representative of a far larger
151community and um you need their buyin for these things to be successful. And so I just I have confidence that that was always a part of the plan, but I just wanted to explicitly say that. So thank you >> Carlos. >> All right. Firstly, I wanted to point out an aspect of the cohort 2 resultsbased leadership um you plan for going forward that I really appreciated and that was the early intervention in all the targets the target populations starting at second grade for the elementary school students um seventh grade junior high and nth grade for the high schoolers. Uh just because I think that that's something I've I've seen across you know with within my high school experience is that that where that's where that change the long-term change happens is when you start with
152the younger students and I think that that principle can be applied to a whole host of other issues that we have in our district. um whether it's you know someone earlier mentioned um not not just literacy but with uh you know using you know bad language and um uh offensive language in schools and stuff like that that you know the solutions to that I think really come um most effectively when we we target the younger students and so that's just one aspect that I appreciated of the uh of that um that plan and then secondly I wanted to talk a little bit about sense of belonging. Uh this is something that I I think I have a lot of opinions about just because I've seen firsthand um how you know my sense of belonging at
153my school has um developed and you know how I've come to like come to really appreciate um my school and you know how work that happens from you know so much good work that happens from students and faculty directly affects that sense of belonging. um you know whether it's all these types of you know fun events, cultural events where students get to embrace their heritage on campus. Um all of those boost the sense of belonging so much and make um yeah and then I think there was one of the or there's one other part of that sense of belonging that I wanted to point out. Um and it was actually something that Mr. Hauldron said at my at the student advisory council meeting a couple weeks ago and it's stuck with me since. um which
154is that smaller communities within the larger school populations are what make students feel like school is their second home. And so h where when a student has that smaller community whether it's theater or their sport or you know their their art class, wood shop, whatever it is, it's those kind of you know not just going to school for math, English, science and you're done but having that sort of flavor in schools that makes that makes it um feel so special. And you know, I think that that um makes that sense of belonging increase. And so that's why I'm really not surprised to see um to see that number go up for the percentages of students um from 7th to 12th grade over the past couple years. And I think those, you know, ideals or principles
155are are um definitely could be implemented elsewhere. I see that, you know, when it's decreasing at the elementary school level. Um, and making just making sure that that's spread all across our district. So, those are the couple things I I had to mention. >> All right, just um a couple of things to to wrap up. Um there's a lot of wisdom and experience in this room and at this and at this board table and a lot of different perspectives that um it this is a difficult job for everybody in this room. But the one thing that we all have in common is the desire to see things get better for all students and um it's always a pleasure to be part of that and to work with a team that feels that way. I want
156to just make a clarification because after I made my comments about COVID, the next two comments talked about lower expectations and I want to make sure that there was not an intent on my part in any manner to say that I have lower expectations. Um, one of the things that that one of the problems that we deal with sometimes when we look at what's happened over the last 20, 30 years of um, increasing expectations about curriculum and standards and frameworks and what kids are supposed to learn. When we changed from the state standards to the common core standards, we overlaid an entirely new set of standards on top of an old one. And that wasn't so bad in first and second grade. But when you overlay standards that have gone up faster all the way,
157the kids at the top are expected to be learning things based on stuff that they didn't learn because they've skipped those levels. And to some degree that same thing happened in COVID that students in math in particular reading is probably an area where where it's easier to recover. But in math because it's so sequential and it's based on learning this and taking the next step that if we have kids that didn't learn the next step because whether it was COVID or because it was higher standards or a combination of those things suddenly not only are they behind because they were not in school. They're behind because the standards have grown to such a high degree. And I don't know that high expectations can counter a system that asks kids to suddenly be walking up a
158ladder when the rungs are now four feet apart and they used to be a foot apart. So that's just that's just a perspective that I wanted to offer. And I will say um we're trying to work on on keeping our board member our board meetings efficient. And this was the longest conversation since I've been on the board that we've had about achievement. and I think it's one of the most valuable ones we've had. So, thank you for your participation and for the the staff's work that allowed us good information to go from and to be able to branch off and have what was a very productive conversation tonight. Thank you to everybody involved. Our >> our 10 minutes are up. We're going to we're going to move on to our action agenda item. Item G1
159is board action on student discipline education code 48918 case number 2025-266-17. We have any public comments? We have no public comments on this item. Do I have a motion? I move to approve board action on student discipline education code 48918 case number 202526-17. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Moved and seconded. Any questions, comments? All in favor? I >> item G2 is the approval of resolution number 2025-2026-32 recognizing May as AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. In recognition of National AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we bring forward this resolution to honor the rich histories, cultures, and contributions of Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. This month provides us an opportunity to celebrate the diverse cultures and experiences and reaffirm our commitment and to equity, inclusion, and ensuring all students feel valued and
160supported. Are there public comments on this item? >> No. >> Uh, no public comments. >> Okay. Any board questions or comments? Do I have a motion? Dr. Beal? >> I move to approve resolution 2025-202632 recognizing May as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. >> Is that in a second? Second. Member Taff Vosquez, do you have an advisory vote? >> I. >> All in favor? I >> I. >> Motion carries. Item G3 is approval of resolution number 2025-2026-31 recognizing certificated classified management and other education professionals of Santa Barbara Unified School District. >> Thank you. Good evening, board president Banning, board members, Superintendent Maldonado. this resolution is brought forward as you know May is a um uh it is in general a c celebratory month as we end the school year and have a lot of ceremonies.
161Uh this uh resolution is for the board to formally adopt May as the employee appreciation month. You'll see that in this resolution there's numerous um listed dates for specific um different types of appreciation for specific employees. Um, and so I give this to the board tonight for consideration and adoption. >> We have a public comment on this item. >> Yes. Um, York Shingle. >> Just one. >> Good evening. York Shingle, SPTA president. Um, I'm pretty indifferent about this resolution. Uh, they are words. They aren't actions. What I would rather have instead of a resolution is not making us get to the edge of arbitration to resolve things with specials. Uh not having us have to fight year after year for salary increases that keep up with inflation. Um not having to go through so many
162grievance processes to try to get our contract honored. Um so pass this resolution. That's great. But like I've said for months and years, actions speak louder than words. Let's change some actions. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any board questions or comments? Is there a motion? >> Trustee Caffrey. >> I motion. I motion to approve the resolution. Um >> recognizing May as employee appreciation month. >> A second. >> Second. All in favor? Oh. >> Student advisory vote. >> I. >> All in favor? I. >> Motion carries. Item item G4, adoption of California School Employees Association resolution number 20. Am I in the right one? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Uh resolution 2025-26-37 recognizing May 17th, 2020 uh 17 through 23rd, 2026 as classified school employees week. >> That's correct. And just wanted to um mention to
163the board that each year the CSEA Chapter 37 president submits this resolution to my office uh for me to put on the board agenda on his behalf. Um Ken wasn't able to make it tonight, but he um usually does come to state to the board the importance of our classified um employees and what they do in our schools. And this resolution is brought before you for your consideration and approval to recognize classified employee week. >> Questions or comments? >> Do I have a motion? >> I will move to approve resolution number 252637 classified school employee week. A second. >> I second the motion. >> Student advisory vote. I >> board members. All in favor? >> I. Motion carries. Item G5 is approval of resolution number 2025-26-34. Resolution ordering the reduction or discontinuation of particular kinds
164of service and the final layoff of certificated employees pursuant to education code sections 44949 and 44955 for the 2627 school year. >> Thank you. And this um resolution in um section one will demonstrate to you the um still positions left where we need authorization from the board to to issue final layoff notices um before May 15th. This these numbers could change as we continue to um have attrition and and um work with our labor partners on negotiating the bumping of employees. And so, um, at this point, we submit this resolution to the board to authorize us to be able to, um, issue the, uh, notices that we might need before May 15th. >> There public comment on this item. >> G5. No. >> No, there isn't. >> Do I have a motion? I move to
165certify the um uh let's see me just say the >> item G5 >> the resolution number two 025-2634 which is the reduction um in certificated staff >> second >> a second >> Mr. Esuo. All right. Student advisory vote. Oh, wait. No, not on this one. Sorry. Board member votes. >> I >> opposed. All right. Item G6 is approval of resolution number 25 2025-26-35 resolution ordering the elimination or reduction of classified services and the final layoff of classified employees pursuant to education code section 45117 for the 202627 school year. >> Great. Thank you. And this is the um resolution authorizing us to um be able to issue the layoff notices before May 15th. You will notice the bulleted list here is still divided by district funded and site funded positions. We are um the list is
166a little bit longer than the previous um resolution. We are still um in negotiations with CSEA over the next couple weeks and we will be um we will not be needing to issue all of these that are on this. We need the authorization to to do so, but we will be finding placement for these employees as the the weeks um pass prior to May 15th. >> Good. So, I I just want to make make that clear that this resolution does not require the elimination or layoff of the listed employees. It gives us the time prior to May 15th to get that straightened out and and and do the the the right the agreed upon that's correct reductions. Okay. Do I have a motion? >> Wait. Oh, public comment. Sorry. >> Yes, there's public comment on
167this one. Um Elaine Bryce. Hi, I'm Elaine Rice. Thank you for um hearing me. Um myself and my co-workers and student and family services um have received rift notices for the lack of work or lack of funds. Our positions are basically being retired and we have been told that there will be a new job title or description that would only be for three people. Three people to do the work of four. As classified staff, we are an integral part of the operations of the district, especially at the district office. If we could do the work as three people, it would have been consolidated long before this. This is not for lack of work. As the secretary of CSEA, I know that the process to change, update, and rewrite a classified job description must go through
168a rigorous process, including being ratified by the school board, the CSEA union, and the Santa Barbara Chapter 37 membership. None of these steps have been taken for this new job description and there is no reason to reorganize the department as the current assistant superintendent of student and family services will be leaving at the end of this school year. She won't be here to facilitate the change. This is not for lack of work. Questions that need to be answered before we are officially laid off and essentially fired for no reason. If we do not need these four positions, why add the admin secretary one to the department just this past October? If the assistant superintendent is leaving at the end of this school year, why does she get to reorganize before she leaves? Question number three,
169why does the new job description require a degree in social work or psychology or health or sociology? We do no work with students. We there is no direct work with students. We work for the students, for the families and the vulnerable populations by processing paperwork and data consistently, accurately and timely. Why replace four people at a monthly salary totaling $18,635 with three positions at a rate of $18,891. This is not for lack of funds. This is not for lack of work. You have no right. You don't have to approve. Reduc removing my job. Our jobs. We're doing our work. We're doing it right. And we're still needed. Now, I'm all for raising our positions to the level 50 what the new job description is, but I'm not elig I'm supposed to not be eligible for
170it. I actually am. I have the degree. It's not in one of these in one of the sections that it's supposed to be. I have the experience in the department of more than three years and I have done all of the jobs in my job in my department except for the admin secretary for who's leaving anyway and they're keeping that position. But >> thank you. >> Um but this is not for lack of work. It's not for lack of funds. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Are there questions or comments from the board? I have a question. Um, I'm trying to track the exchange you had with Mr. Benning. So, we approved this resolution. Are you then going to issue the notices or you're going to continue to negotiate with CSEA and
171then once you have that final list, issue notices before May 15th? >> We will continue to negotiate with CSEA. Each session what we do is um we identify positions for um the people in in the affected list here. Um and then we have to contact those individuals and see if they want to accept the bump down. Um and once we know that we can take that off the list because that person doesn't need a notice. So, we still have probably a couple sessions worth of work left to do and this list will get whittleled down further. >> Okay. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Dr. Beal. >> So, I I guess my question that that relates to that is I believe we have a board meeting on May 12th. >> No, May. >> Oh,
172it's May 19th. So, that's after the May 15th date. Okay. Other questions? >> Yes. I have a question about the um you know the admin secretaries um admin secretary positions. Is it possible that they will be offered another position? Uh yeah, that that's what when we meet to negotiate um with CSEA, we look at um the any previous positions held in their seniority and then we determine what placement those individuals would have in that new classification. That could create a situation where they bump somebody out of that classification. And then I and then we need to negotiate around that person, what they previously held, what their seniority in that classification is. And then we kind of keep doing that until we find positions. We do have uh vacant positions in our organization that um we
173also look at as potential placements for people before we go out to hire for those new positions. So that is also something we're doing in the negotiation process. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve resolution number 2025-26-35 um ordering the final layoff of classified employees pursuant to code education code section 45117. Is there a second? >> I second the motion. >> All right, board members. All in favor? I >> student. Oh, no. I'm sorry. I >> Okay. All right. Um, that brings us to our consent agenda. Are there any items requesting to be pulled from the board by the board for the consent agenda? Seeing none, uh, is there are there any questions or comments? I guess there are no public comments on
174this. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> I'll move to uh approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Is there a second? >> All right. Moved and seconded. Um student advisory vote. >> I. >> Board members, all in favor? I motion carries. And that brings us to remaining sections if needed. Uh we the board will be returning to close session at the uh we'll be adjourning. Are there >> future agenda items? >> Yeah, I'm I'm getting there. Okay. >> Uh coming events, future agenda items, anything on this? Okay, >> Mr. Escobo, >> I'll send um Mr. Banning and Dr. from Aldonado an email about it. But I do I know it was voiced during public comment, but I do have an interest in agendaizing the topic of seventh period
175day implementation and um talking about the process or yeah the process on how we're going to get impact input and um we identified in our conversation some real challenges and making sure that we're staying on timeline so that we're not leaving until the last minute. >> Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Dr. Beal, >> I support the addition of that agenda item. >> Okay. Is this a >> I just want to clarify. Are you um >> I'm trying to think through this. Uh we could bring you a report of the project management plan that we want to put together so that you can see and I've already doc Dr. Ros and I have talked about the milestones that we want to reach by when with the different decisions that need to be made. Uh, and we
176could basically give you a report on that. Would that meet the need of what you're asking? So, a project management report on how we're going to address seventh period. >> Yeah. >> And I will work with doc with Dr. Bing. I just gave you a new title with Mr. on whether that'll be May 19th or June uh 8th, whichever those two dates are that are coming up. >> Uh given all the other things that we have. Thank you. >> Okay, >> I'll just add a comment. It would be nice to um with the project management to have a timeline because there may be some summer work and we would want everybody to be aware of the summer work since it's a different time for the district. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other items
177for consideration? Um I'm hoping that we can agendaize setting board parameters for the budget including a discussion of um course takes in high school kind of putting a framework expectations for the budget from the board. I need more information and I would imagine uh board members would need more information on how we would want to accomplish that. I'm not sure that that can be accomplished between now and the budget which is coming. The first one's coming the first week in June. Um so I think that I would need more direction to understand what we need what data we would need and whether the other board members agree that that is something we can engage in between now and that time. >> Okay. >> May I ask a question? Is this for course takes coming this
178this fall? >> So So basically many boards they set parameters for the district which basically say these are kind of the priorities that we would like to see in the budget. And I'm happy to send a sample from Spokane um or Belleview. They have very good um examples of how boards are setting expectations for their budget development like um you know keep cuts farthest away from the classroom. We want to see effectiveness data. I mean there are lots of different things but I think for example um on course takes for high schools we have not had the opportunity to weigh in on as a board on whether we would like to invest in a full full school day at the high school level. So um that's why I'm hoping that we can agendaize this at
179our next meeting and next year I'd love to do it in the fall so that there's much more time for Mr. Jedeski. But um by the time that the June budget is presented, basically the board will have had zero ability to give input on expectations for the budget unless we agendaize it for the next meeting. >> I'd like I'd like to suggest that um Miss Caffrey connect with Mr. Banning and Dr. from Maldado offline to talk I think talk more about the specifics of what that could look like. My opinion is and I feel like it's well informed is it's too late in the budget cycle for us to make drastic changes like that to this budget. That's more of discussion about the development of next budget. Um, so that would be my suggestion because
180I'm not ready to voice support or disapprove of the idea of having that discussion. I need more information. >> Okay. Dr. Beal, >> do we not set our next budget at the basically at the end of June? >> Yeah, that's what I'm saying. it it wouldn't be I think if unless I misunderstood Miss Caffrey was talking about the budget for the 26 27 school year and that budget is approved in June but it's pretty much baked right now like this they're making final changes right now >> I I guess like in terms of role of the board it is our role to set expectations for the budget like that that basically that the district presents a budget based on on what we are expecting versus the district driving the budget without any input from the
181board and I mean board as representatives of the community. >> I won't get into too much of back and forth but I will make one more point is >> we do get input on the budget one. >> The second is about 85% of our budget is people and we've just met we're past the March 15th deadline. So to make drastic staffing changes is impossible right now um because we've already made the decisions that have kind of put guard rails on the the personnel changes that we can make. So um I think realistically as we're looking to the next budget cycle absolutely we can change the the process for developing that budget. I think this budget it would be irresponsible to make drastic changes like that because we don't really have the ability to make staffing
182changes in that way to provide dramatically increased course takes. We're in a structural deficit. We would have to shift personnel from one from another area in order to put it into that one. So, um, for that reason, I stick with my original suggestion of, okay, >> connecting with President Banning and Dr. Maldonado. >> I will I'll commit to meeting with with Trusty Caffrey and the superintendent to get more clarity around what the expectation is. If if we're uh not at a point of agreement, we will bring it for a formal vote of the board at the next meeting. >> Did you have a comment? Um, >> no, that would be great. >> Okay. >> I have one more. I'm also wondering um about uh whether we could agendaize board policy on creating expectations for incoming
183student uh incoming teachers um being trained in evidence-based reading instruction whether that is a possible policy that we could look into um as board. So I don't know if that's agendaizing it for the for the next meeting. Yeah, >> I think we need to uh probably research that a little bit more in terms of the viability and the impact on hiring teachers that our universities are producing and or are coming from other districts with already having completed science or reading training because I think that's what I hear you saying like letters or something equivalent and I don't know how much of the pool of teachers that we could hire that could eliminate and if there's implications with the union. So, I think there's more research that I would need to conduct before I can agree
184to committing. So, let me do some research and bring that back to the board instead of us committing to bringing a policy first. Does that work? >> That that works for me. I guess one thought is that universities definitely exist out there that are training I mean in California that are training teachers in evidence evidence aligned reading instruction. And I wonder where we're hiring from right now. And also if a board if the board passed a policy like this if it would also inform kind of where our feeder schools kind of the preparation that our feeder schools provide for teachers. Because to me it just does not make sense to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year retraining teachers. Like we should be um ensuring that our teachers are prepared when they come
185into our district. >> I I appreciate the intent and the interest on that. But I also have a question about whether what you're talking about really resides in board policy um and and within the jurisdiction of the board or whether that's something that is more administrative regulation. Um I'd like to get some some legal opinion on it. I don't mean to be making less of it. I just want to make sure we're we're heading down the right way road. Thank you. >> So, we have requests on the seventh period day, a request from uh a commitment to meet with trustee Caffrey and the superintendent and with me uh to discuss the budget parameters and perhaps get some more background on the the other policy issue that you've asked about. We'll bring results back at the
186next meeting which is May 19th. All right. >> We are going to adjourn to close session at 9:04.