SPUSD Special Board Meeting 08/02/25

001[Music] Huh? [Music] Good morning everyone. I'm sorry to have you guys here on a Saturday morning at 8:30. Thank you. Appreciate. And the school year hasn't even started. So, I will get back to business and I will start this meeting at 8:36 a.m. And we will start with roll call. Trustee Kumasawa >> here. >> Trustee Rodriguez >> here. >> Trusty Sandival >> here. >> Trusty Fru here. >> Trusty Aoyo here. Okay. And we move on to pledge of allegiance. Can all join us? >> 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. >> Would someone like to make a motion for approval of the agenda? So moved. >> It's been

002moved. >> I'll second it. >> It's been moved and second. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. Uh do we have any public comments? Hearing none. Move on to the topic item three information strategic planning discussion. So So we have it it it's all around there somewhere the p pass out of the some of the stuff that we're going to be going over today. But I also shared it with leadership and the governing board on Google Docs so you can follow along and afterwards we're taking live notes. So afterwards we will you guys can refer back to the notes in case you know you're thinking like well what did they say about this and then we'll have it in the notes. Um, so strategic planning, there is a lot of steps to strategic

003planning, but the ones that we're going to be really concentrating on today is setting our priorities and our goals and how we're going to measure those goals as we move forward. Um, so if if you have the little focus thing, we have first our vision and mission statement. And in case we uh everybody remembers the vision statement committed to serving every students every day. But if you haven't seen the mission statement in a while, it says the Santa Paul Unified School District in collaboration with educators, parents, and the community will prepare all students academically, socially, emotionally for college careers, global citizenship, leadership, and lifelong learning. The district will use its resources to provide all students with diverse, equitable, differentiated experiences and learning opportunities by a highly skilled educational team in a safe and supportive learning

004environment while remaining fiscally responsible. So um as you know we have our learner profile and those of you are watching in the audience uh on live stream um our learner profile is basically a representation of what we want our graduates or children students that have gone through our system. What do we want the outcome to be? What do we want them to have? What skill sets they want to have? What um what knowledge base they want to have? what experiences do we want to prepare them for? Um, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Santaal and we'll go through the learner profile and we could start talking about you know how are we going to get a child to be all those things you know um cooperative

005global citizens compassionate um collaborators and you know courageous communications confident learners and creative um problem solvers I'll take it over. >> Sure. Um, you know, I think just a a couple things, right? Is that, you know, I don't think anybody of us here on the board thinks that we've got the, you know, the answers to all these things. You know, we have our kind of vision of how we should what we need to do and we all have different visions, right? So, I really do see this as a firststep process, right? that should encourage, you know, um, back and forth, right? Because you guys are the educators, you are on the ground, you're going to be implementing, you know, um, what I'd like to see out of this, right, is kind of a for the

006board to say, look at the learner profile is what we're about. And so then how does everything that we do kind of stem out of that? and you know to kind of you know some of these things we know we're already doing like the literacy initiatives right we know we're doing it that's not going to change right but part of what a strategic plan is about is to communicate to to staff right what the priorities are and how we're going to get there right and to the community that this is what we're trying to do right for our students so again like when we look at this like I don't I don't know if you've remember any of these discussions we've had like because the learner profile has been shown you know to um the

007board before you know one of the things that I've always been you know kind of pushing back on is okay right we have all these fancy words right cooperative global citizen how do we know that our kids when they graduate are actually cooperative global citizens you know they can't just be these these kind of buzzwords that we, you know, throw around or whatever, but there's nothing behind it that gets them to there. There's nothing that measures that they are that. And I think that some of these are easier to to to do that for for others. Um, you know, and so like for instance, confidence learn, confident learners, like I think that one's a little bit easier for us to tackle. Maybe there's more things to to put underneath that, right? Um, but like compassionate

008collaborators, like what are we doing, right? What are the kinds of initiatives that we're taking to create those kinds of students? So again I think and anybody on the board like chime in what you think about the learner profile but again I think that that's where we start is there and then you know the idea for me at least right is that if we can come up with I don't know two or three things underneath each one of those right goals right with an objective i.e. how are we going to get there? And then some sort of metric, right, that how are we going to know that we did get there? Um, and this isn't going to be done all the day or else we'd be here for like a week. This is really a

009process, but it's kind of and I don't think that we develop the plan, right? Like you guys develop the plan. How do we get there? But it's really just saying, hey, look at you guys. This is what we need to focus on. And there's going to be all kinds of things that don't get on here. And that's okay because we're not going to be able to do everything. I mean, we can't like we have limited resources. We have limited time. We have limited staff. Um, we understand that we're not going to change this, you know, the way we're not going to change things overnight. But I do think that over the past three or four years, we've made really great progress. We just need to formalize it, right? So that everybody knows this is what

010we're doing. And so when someone's pushes back and goes, I don't want to do that. It's like, no, that's part of our plan. We've all agreed to it. We've all had input. Get on board. Or or go somewhere else because this is what the district does. So, um, go jump in. So, guys, like, >> yeah. And I and I like learning about what everyone's interpretations are of the different terms we have here. Like, for instance, cooperative global citizens. For me, that's like an an easy metric. you know, how many kids are in attendance, how many kids are actually showing up on a daily on the average, you know, and then how does that translate into how actively they are engaging in the classroom or in the school environment such as clubs, sports, um are they

011active in this community? Are they doing volunteer hours? That's an easy measurement. At the same time, again, we all have different interpretations of these terms. So, I definitely would like to know how they apply on your school sites and how you have been det how have you been measuring them and how have you been pushing them? um to your students as well. Um and another thing I would love to know your insights on working with the two most important stakeholders we have at the school district which are parents and students. Um and so I mean when you if you have the opportunity to bring up the learner profile, what does that look like when you're having these discussions with parents and students? Do they know about our learning profile? Do they have similar interests that

012are aligned with our learner profile? So conversations like that are important to me because on the ground we understand how our students are interacting with our school sites philosophies and goals. >> I mean I think you said it uh well um trustee Rodriguez, you know, as an educator I I I think about these are my talking points. you know, if I'm in if I have a a problem with a a student on the playground, which one of these areas am I going to start leaning into to help them understand where our goals need to be, right? How to set goals and and how to measure goals? Um, you know, again, I just I look at these should be in our SST model. Uh, they should be in our school site uh council model. they should

013be our talking points on how we reach you know our at promise students and also how we're celebrating our students that are that are meeting the the you know the needs of uh or you know basically meeting their benchmarks and whatnot but uh but ultimately I guess when I look at the learner profiles it's a vague concept and I get that and and I know as as educators sometimes we look at like okay something else right but as as we've noticed noticed in my short time in three years, I've noticed a lot of change. A lot of new people coming in, whether it's it's administrators, whether it's it's uh whether it's um teachers, there's just a lot of change. And I think my ultimate goal today would be to build a consistency model which would

014be a learner profile so that any person that comes and goes can just picks up and and move forward with our learner profile. Uh and that's kind of what I'm hoping for today. So what we're I'm hoping for is to hear a lot from you guys from our our audience our our our um our the administrators. You know the you guys are on the ground. you're the ones doing the work and and and you know how to interpret this to a seven and eight year old or to a parent who's excited about a situation, you know, that's happening on the playground, right? You know, but anyhow, that's kind of where I'm at is I want to definitely see this back and forth interaction with uh with with with you guys, our our team, um so

015that we can help guide our districts. >> Just you know, you made me think um about like like the as promised, you know, populations, you know, where I I was kind of focusing on the inside, but there's the outside things too, right? And again, with the parents, right? So that we can't we shouldn't lose sight of those things. So everything that we do that's inside that middle, right, is still covering all those other four things. So um I think you guys pretty much said it all. I mean, it's important for our parents, our students, our staff to just understand what we're doing and um what a great education they're receiving. So, just being repetitive with staff, students, parents. Um I I think it's a great start. Are you guys and it's, you know, early in

016the morning. So yeah, I might have a different perspective and you know, not knowing exactly um not to embarrass anyone or myself what the purpose of this morning was going to be other than to talk about strategy. You know, the way I always see something like this, you know, learner pro profile that we have, you know, you could talk about it as a vision statement, you could talk about it as a guiding light depending on whatever organization you you're in. you know, this is if you're going to sum up the goal and and the spirit and the purpose of everything we're trying to do, this is it, right? And then below that diagram, you know, we do have some, you know, I guess expansive language that kind of describes in more detail what those are.

017you know, that could probably be something that could be examined or re-examined to make sure that we're being consistent with how we actually feel, you know, these priorities are being pursued, you know, by the district today. But to take it to a a next step, it would be great and tangible and I think meaningful and valuable to see, you know, even at the program level, the site level, what are we doing that specifically ties to one of these pillars? And frankly, if we have a program um that we can't tie to one of these, I think we should really be asking ourselves, why are we doing it, right? And then, you know, again, my perspective, I can't help it. This is why I do what I do. If we're dedicating resources to that, that is

018obviously a problem, right? And it to me when you start thinking about that you've got the vision, you've got the pillars and those programs below there there should be alignment and if there's not then you know again why are we doing it? So maybe that's some of the the purpose and you know some of the stuff that we can we can work on for the future. >> Well I mean I don't I no I mean I think we need work it is part of what we do or we need to do right because we know that we're fi facing budget challenges. We know that we're facing, you know, decline in enrollment. We know that, you know, there's threats of, you know, withholding federal money and, you know, changes in Medicare, Cal, Medicaid, excuse me, that

019could all impact, you know, the revenue that we're we're bringing in, right? So, you know, we're we are going to have to look at those programs and see like, okay, like what are we spending the most on too? And so, it's not just uh what do we do and what we don't do, but where are we investing more of our money on? And if it is in something that's just like not core, it's like, well, why are we spending that much money on it? Like, because again, this isn't going to cover everything that we do because there's a lot to what we do. And that's not to say that, you know, if it's not completely 100% going to fit in here because you probably could. Most things you can wiggle in. Oh yeah, like goes

020to this, but if it's not core to what we do, then we do either got to disinvest, right, or at least, you know, bring down that investment in that particular program. So, um, but I so I would agree, right? And that's I think that is part of it is that you know because we're going to have to make difficult choices you know in terms of our budget we need that not just this you know vague kind of guiding light but something that says look at this is what we've said are important to us and does that budget align to that you know so I 100% agree so >> yeah and I I I think when we when you look at the the foundation and the structure of the district, you know, through that lens, right?

021Again, where you've got this this guiding light, you've got the pillars and the programs. It's not only validation to the board about, you know, saying, "Okay, this is why we're investing in what we're investing in." It hopefully will provide clarity to staff so that you know why, you know, you're working on what you're working on, why those investments are there or why they're not. I think the the other thing to just keep in mind, right? Um I want to honor the work that's been done for the learner profile. Like there was a lot of time that went into this. There was a lot of thinking, a lot of discussion, you know. Is it where I would have come up with? I don't know. Like I mean there was there's a lot of things that you

022can put in here, you know, but that's not for us to, you know, say, "Yeah, we're going to change this, right?" it's us for us to say okay we're getting behind this now what are the the practical you know effects of this document. So um again which is why you know hearing from you and where that where we land on that that's important right so um you know I I've been one that to really want to push this right we don't have a facilitator um you know so how we go about this is a little bit unclear to me but let's just jump in I think and start breaking this down and let's see where the discussion leads. Let's make sure that we have enough time to hit kind of all the different areas that

023we have here, right? But I would start with confident learners. I think one of the things that that needs to be on our strategic plan and detailed out and again if we think of goal, objective, and metric, right, is is the one that we probably invested the most money in over the last three years, which is, you know, literacy. Like the goal is that all of our children need to read and comprehend what they're reading. Period. Like that's a goal. Um you know the objective right is has been implementing the science of reading at K through two. Now we're doing it three through five, right? I don't know what we're doing after that like on the secondary side of things. Like we should maybe talk about that a little bit. Um and then how do

024you measure right like you know we have a common assessment framework that's being developed that that has to be you know used throughout the district so that we can measure have they hit that particular goal um thoughts from anybody I >> I think also for I know that only four are watching now but I know many stream it after after the back. But to be clear, we have in the audience, we have directors, we have principles, we have uh we have uh administrators. So just so that those that down the road um you understand when we point out to the audience, we're looking to our admin team. So >> I'll get the mic. >> They won't hear you on the live stream. I think I I mean I can speak on the elementary level on

025some of this that you may or may not be aware of programs that we have in place that are touching the inside and outside circle. All of the staff has been trained on project based learning over the last couple of years and what pro those kind of projects or problem based learning as some people approach it touches on every competency that we have outlined. Um I know that I can speak for the site I was on last year. The roll out was kind of grade level projects and then some teachers did individual projects as well. And you can you can look into a lot of that. So so project- based learning. We also have CGI which cognitively cog it's so hard to say cognitively guided instruction in math. It's not a curriculum. It's a method.

026And so that's been rolled out at the elementary level. And again it touches on all of the competencies that we're looking for the the how and the what. And that is partnered with the work that we did with P3CC, which is also math work, which we're trying to extend like P6C instead of just stopping at third grade. And that's been going through. We have teams of teachers that are being critical consumers of the math curriculum that we have going through determining which lessons support priority standards for the students and which don't and revising that. And like you spoke to the common assessment plan, we've identified assessments as far as math concept checks in lower elementary and then we're using the intram assessment blocks and the FIABs out of the CASPs CASSP system to help >>

027whatever any of those initials meant. But >> a lot of acronyms it's education. You know how that goes. Um but it's you know our students third grade and on take the CASP test. That's the state test in English, math, and some grades do it in science, but really preparing them for that as well. Um, >> so hold on one second, right, before you go too too far because I can see you're going to go for it. >> Making my train of thought stop. >> Yes, I am. Right. It'll come back. I'm sure it'll be there. Right. So, look at you. So, so far there's three things that we've tal that that have been mentioned. Right. So, literacy, right? when we say I wouldn't call it CGI math as much that's more of the objective right

028I think the goal is our kids should be able should have you know a math foundation right and then because CGI math like okay so because CG math is part of how we get there right and then the project based learning again is I don't know if that's so much a goal as a as an objective right and so like >> well right that's one of I'm just talking about how at the elementary level we're addressing. >> Yeah. So then so then my So then the reason why I want to stop you is because like we have I think tended to focus on elementary like a lot over the past few years. So what I want to know is okay now how does that feed into what's going on at the secondary level? >> Right.

029>> And I know principal Garrett has a lot to share with you about that. I know but let Julie finish. >> Yeah, >> thank you. >> So, >> um so I would just I wanted to go through just a couple of things methods that we're using to reach these um our community partnerships which do go K12 for example the sea perch program with the Navy. That's another way that we're addressing all of these competencies. And then um part of we we did at Glen City last year, we took something that was built at the middle school, the advisory period that was used to address kind of some of more of the adjectives, the compassionate, courageous, creative, cooperative piece. And we took the parent surveys from the the needs surveys from the beginning of the year

030where parents identified things that they were concerned about their children social emotionally as far as bullying, problem solving, having trusting relationships with people and we built that into the beginning of the day. So the entire school had an advisory period where these lessons were developed and delivered from TK through sixth grade. So there was a common behavioral expectation at the school. So, those are a couple of things that we've been doing at the elementary level to work to address the learner profile. I'm going to have um so one of the things I think that the board to be make the board aware of is that in the last year we've been working with our community schools and part of our community schools is to bring this learner profile to life because Just like um Trusty

031Kumasawa said, you know, that this is our guiding light. We want our students to be college and career ready and we want them to have these competencies. How we're going to do that is by changing the way we do instruction. And the way we do instruction is by making instruction inclusive and equitable, which means that all students should have access to whatever we're teaching. Make sure that we're doing student centered. Right? So that's when project-based learning comes to light in the sense that what do students really want to learn? Because if you ask a student in in math one, math two, why am I learning these? This is dumb. I'm never going to use this, right? How do we make it so that they understand that they are going to get to utilize those skill

032sets in the future? And then of course always looking at competency based like what are our standards? How do we align them to our priority standards? and then making learning authentic. And that's when the again we we utilize project-based learning and that's the vehicle that we use to be able to bring that to life. So in our in our goal for this year for community schools and I know that we only have two community schools, but our goal is to really bring everyone along and we're going to kind of pilot certain things with Isbel and Barbara Webster, but it's to really look at those five competencies, oper operationalize them, right? How are we going to measure that we truly are getting to that? And then when we look at how do we change instruction, you

033know, we had discussed and Melissa will jump in if I um to add uh we were discussing to look at our English language department, right? And then because we have ELA and ELD and they should be focused in tandem. So, how do we really implement all of these? If that's our vision, our guiding light to the process and then changing and adding a performance task either on a quarterly basis or um we're still kind of working on that piece because, you know, we're going to set the goals. We don't want to like Melissa and I and other people in the team sit down and kind of make the goals. We want to really bring everyone along so that they all have uh you know an input into how we design certain things and how we

034want to move forward. So this is all in conversation but this is the goal for us this year in our community schools model is to really look at like AVID is AVID align to all >> okay we got to stop you we're we're that's not the purpose of this meeting. The purpose of this meeting is not to deter tell you know well we're gonna do this type of change in instruction or that type of change. That's up for the administrative team to determine. What we're here to do is to to find out what are the areas of concentration of each of these that will um get us. So when we say project- based learning that's a program that will get us towards some of these goals you know math instruction. But the question is we

035all know cognitive guided uh math instruction is doing well. Our English language arts are doing well. I mean if you go to our dashboard everything's moving in the right direction pretty much. Um but the idea is where are we not doing it and who are we not providing for? I think Dr. Sandal was very uh you know made a good point that you know okay we're doing these things at the elementary school level. what are we doing at the secondary level that's going to increase their competencies and scores too. And then as a a student goes through K through 12, each kind of cohort, how are we in how what programs are now going to be make sense in these grade levels that will allow us to get to to these things? We just don't

036want to get in the weeds. We'll get in the weeds when we're as administrators, but we don't want to get in the weeds today. Sorry. >> Can we can we tack back to that then that question about the secondary level type of thing? >> Yeah, I I I think that that's important. I think we've seen most of our progress in math and English. Let's just take the two basics, math and English, um, you know, at our elementary school level and a little bit at our middle school level. But we really haven't seen um any true large measur measurable increase in our in our um in our uh high schools. One of the reasons for the increase as as we see in the elementary schools keeps going up is because the cohorts now the third, fourth,

037fifth grade, they've all gone through this instruction, right? And so now these kids are going to sixth grade and seventh grade and that will allow them to continue. But we do need to start thinking about the the upper grades too because you know if we stop our priorities at grade seven or eight, we're doing this high school disservice. So I think the secondary level is a good place to start. >> But Melissa will start with discussing what has been done and then >> any of her ideas of the programs we currently have. what we're what they potentially have in mind because I appreciated to hear you know what's the rest of the goals were and what you have been doing because I was not aware of it. I'm not in those committees. So I think

038hearing that there's already plans or ideas of what to do next was um ju just to highlight a little bit at least a list not go into details but just at least saying these are the next steps. So I definitely I would like to hear what has been done and maybe what you have in mind. >> Okay. And then maybe we can Danny if you want to scoot over and we can you want me to take this? All right. >> Well, I think uh one of the things that we've appreciated over the last few years is that we have some wellestablished relationships between the leadership at the middle and high school and at the continuation high school. So, we have been able to significantly increase collaboration amongst staff. Um, we're in year two of the

039ontrack initiative. So, this is a math initiative that focuses specifically on 8th and 9th grade and that transition. What do our students in eighth grade need to bring to ninth grade in order to be successful so that we keep them on that UCA throughg track and the graduation track and that they can pass math one and taking it beyond that to enrichment is the idea that you know it would be great and we haven't done it yet but really establishing the opportunity for a math one option for our students who are ready to do so in in the eighth grade so that then they can also free up their schedule as they move through to take some of those higher level math courses like calculus. Would you like to add anything about on track? >>

040No. Okay, perfect. I I summed it up really well, right? Okay. >> Um I think um language arts is always an area where I think we can well all of all of our content areas we can see growth. Um we have shown significant growth at the middle school level in language arts and so we're excited about that. Um I know that we could increase collaboration between the middle school and the high school in that uh particular department. We don't have any initiatives that are specifically focused on that um at the moment. >> Pause right there. I want and again I don't want to derail you too much but one I want to I want to thank you for acknowledging an area of weakness and and then proposing an area where we can we can grow.

041So I'm asking you all please be be transparent you know be be vulnerable if we're not meeting it. Um let's let's discuss that as well. But thank you for doing that. So I just wanted to point that out. >> Yeah. Awesome. Um, so I think another area of uh growth that we've identified as leadership teams is I I made this no secret, but I'm a huge proponent of AVID and I've seen where AVID has really helped our community and um something that I've said before is that and I don't think AVID is the end all beall, but I do think that it's a really good vehicle for many of our students. And I think that if we really worked to expand upon that, we are going to see increased um completion of the UCA throughg.

042We are going to see more students who are eligible to apply to four-year universities as well as prepared. Uh a key component of the AVID program that a lot of people don't understand is that there's a tutorial embedded in the school day. So the idea is that students who are in AVID take an honors or an advanced placement course as part of the requirement to be in AVID and then the AVID elective supports them with that tutorial process. So I think then we're increasing the rigor for those kids and we're exposing them to what an introductory college level course looks and feels like. >> So can I talk a little ask a little bit? Oh, go ahead. Do you none of my kids were an AVID, but do you think that if they started maybe

043in elementary level, fifth, sixth grade, and through middle school, AVID, do you think by the time they go to high school, they can not do AVID and then start with the different paths of what they've learned from AVID from fifth through 8th >> to broaden it up? I mean, sim similar to what you were saying on the math, if they're already high, why aren't we providing a more, you know, rigorous math? I I recall when my kids were there before we changed the math, kids could go to the high school to take the pre-calculus class that they were ready for. I don't even know if that's been done since it's been switched to math one, math 2. >> So, I I really appreciate, you know, your comments and what you've said because yes, uh, some

044kids are bored. they're not challenged and others, you know, they need more structure as as they start. So, um, and I know AVID does that. >> Yeah. And I think that, um, we do sometimes get caught up in wanting, uh, our kids to stay in one thing because then it makes the data look really good. But I think the idea behind AVID is that you're prepared and you're given that uh that ownership to make some decisions for yourself. And so a focus at the middle school, we worked with Danny this year to really be strategic about how seventh and eighth graders learned about what was available to them in high school. So, you could be an AVID in seventh and eighth grade and then go directly into a pathway course because at the middle school,

045the majority of our elective courses are exploratory CTE uh pathway courses that align to what is offered at SPHS. And the idea is that they get to dabble at Isbell and then hopefully decide which one they're most interested in and then expand upon that when they go to PHS. Not sure if I answered that question. Yeah. Okay. >> Melissa, quick question. I'm sorry, Dr. Cinema. I have just a quick question for you. So, one of the things that I have not been able to wrap my brain around is with AVID and high school, who's taking the course? Is it your collegebound students are the ones taking the course or is it at your most at risk students that need that structure and support and everything that to help them get to where they want to

046go by the time they graduate. >> It's supposed to be your student in the middle. So in your student in the middle is your 2.0 to 3.5. It's your uh socioeconomically disadvantaged first uh generation but eager to succeed. They want that support and they want that help and AVID is supposed to fill the gap. So that's why it's so strategic because your 3.5s and above, they're going to figure it out. They're going to find their way. >> Um your 2.0 to your 3.5 sometimes are a little lost. And I think it's our job to to help guide them to make some of those really good decisions. And and that's where you see a lot of the power of AVID and even our other programs because I don't want to just harp on AVID and everyone's

047going to think Melissa's biased to AVID because she loves it so much. But um you know when a kid is part of a program and a cohort, they do so much better. We used to see that uh when I was at the high school. Your kids in human services, your kids in the a academy, they have a family, they have trusted adults, they have peers who are good friends, and that does a lot for a kid's self-esteem and confidence. And I think that encouraging programs is really the key. And that's what's been happening. Do you want to talk about that, Mr. Visa? >> No, I would agree. uh the level of there's many layers to this learner profile. Santa Paula High School, we're targeting a lot of them. Uh I know this meeting is more

048about like clarity and just kind of outlining two to three things and making sure that we understand who we are and what we want. And in many ways, we have been doing a lot of these things. Um for me, we have a our new teacher orientation next week, and part of that is just kind of making sure we know who we are and what the objective is going forward. So >> So, so let's get to Few comments on this, right? I mean, I think that one of the things about a strategic plan, right, is that it's not about necessarily any given program, right? It's about what are we trying to achieve with that program, right? So, you know, one of the things that I think Avid serves, right, is and I would actually because I

049I think of it a bit more expansively like for me the goal is to make sure that our kids know they have options or and are prepared to take those options which whatever it happens to be, right? And so, like if that's college, great. But if that's not, that's fine, too. And so for me, I think it's just it's important that every kid that we have out there like is exposed to all of those different options, but not but really kind of starting at the elementary school level. You know, I think by fifth grade, every single kid should have gone on a college campus at least once with their families. Period. I think we need to start advocating parents about what what they're going to face over the the 12 years that or 13 years

050or 14 years that we're going to have them and the things that they're going to have to help their kid think through you know so to me when I think of like AVID is a piece of that right but really the goal is to educate our students and their parents about their options after high school And that starts way way early, you know. So, as much and that's why I'm think if we we focus on a particular program, you know, then we're going to miss like a lot of those kids that aren't going to be part of that program, but that still need those same things just maybe in a different vehicle, right? So, um you know, because yeah, I mean, again, that's where like community partnerships come in. I mean and I and I

051think I gota I want to acknowledge one thing right is I kind of started hey let's go through confident learners and now I've realized that you can't just like take any one of these in isolation they all like fit together okay still we need to come up with goals right that are feeding these as well right and so so I just challenge us a little bit like to to to how how does any program that we're doing right now how do we expand that in what ways do we expand that so that it touches as many kids as we possibly can? I mean it touches all right every student every day. Um I don't know how many pe kids are in AVID you know I don't know what percentage of kids that is and then

052it's like huh Because because that was another thing. Yeah. >> Because because like I I used to hear >> Yeah. Because like I used to hear from from from kids, right? It's like, you know, well, you know, before was like or when I went to school, it's like you had to either be an HSA or a or else you didn't have a home. Like we that we got to get hopefully we've gotten beyond that, right? because because I would have I if I were going through the high school again in that situation I wouldn't have had a home. I wasn't interested in human services. I was not interested in a so. Huh. >> But band but that's different though. >> But I think now that's not an intellectual. >> It's been so much more I

053I think it's evolved. Yeah. >> A lot because it did it used to be the big three Avid HSA and agg. And now you have so many other options for kids. And I think that's another great point um that Trusty AO brings up is band and athletics. All of that I think help feel like they belong. >> So, so then there are there two kind of different goals here, right? I mean, you had talked about kind of that community learning community aspect. That's what we call them up at the in higher ed. And I think you're right about those like when cohorts do kind of make a difference. You know, I had a cohort. We were the the honors English cohort. That's the only honors AP we had when I was going to school. And,

054you know, we developed that camaraderie. How do we do that for everybody? you know, how how do we achieve that? And and and are we making sure that every kid is part of some sort of community? Again, whether it's AVID or it's agg or it's um band or chorus or what have you, like every kid needs to be connected. And so, again, just kind of working backwards to what's the goal. The goal is for those kids to one have connection, right? And two, have options. I think some of that is being built at in the advisory periods at both the middle and the high school. I know I can speak for Isbel. The majority of the kids, we have an advisory period. It's 22 minutes Tuesday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:22. And the

055idea is that students are assigned to an adult on campus that they don't have the rest of the day. And then what they do during that advisory period, it's a schoolwide uh opportunity for us to uh roll out mental health initiatives, um academic initiatives, goal setting. Tuesdays are like let's check our grades. Let's make sure our backpack is in order so that we can have these uh confident learners who are ready to tackle the rest of the week. And I know that the high school also has an advisory period and that there's something similar that is happening during that time where that curriculum is being pushed out. And I think that this is such an opportunity uh for that finding a place to belong because that can also be a focus for those instructors during

056those periods is making sure because they're smaller at least at the middle school there's only like 21 kids in every advisory period. So that's an opportunity to really focus on each of your kids and help them connect. And I think there's not going to be one answer that is the answer that solves all of this. I think it's that committed to serving every student every day. Finding those kids who are disconnected and how do we connect them and that's one way in which I think it Danny sorry to interrupt. >> Are is all your staff on board during advisory period to do that? My staff is I don't to speak for >> our staff is also it's led by our TOSA. We have daily themes every single day. The tech Tuesdays, wellness Wednesdays, Thursdays is

057third day or something. So every single day we have a consistent theme across the board all year long >> and for the students. Oh, I'm sorry. >> For the students. Yes. >> And how have our students been responding to those days? or have you measured any type of rating or any type of >> so we've measured because we've sent it out in the form of a Google doc so you're able to see how many are logging in and so out of our 80 or so teachers we get about majority about 50 to 60 uh teachers give or take a couple classes don't have access some of our pees so uh we do get over half of our staff doing it daily there are times when they're taking a test where they just can't do it

058today they need the extra 10 minutes but in general this is how we start today. >> But and then also though, right, which would be most important to me is how are we documenting how are we how are we uh tracking the kids, right, and and their progress and whether or not they're connected or not? Like, and then how are we using our counselors? how are we using all the rest of the, you know, um, social emotional learning, you know, things that we're doing for those kids that aren't, you know, and and again, there's we've had, look, there was one expulsion that we had a couple years ago, right? And I don't know if you guys remember this, the kid did done something dumb, right? And the the it was the kid was going to

059be expelled and they had like a 1.0 No. And I was like, "Okay, what were the interventions?" And we looked and there were none. Like, so we didn't expel him. I'm like, "We didn't give this kid a chance." Like, and it's that kind of like how do we all of these things are great. It's that that measurement piece, right? So goal you know connectedness opportunities like the objectives like Avid you knowmies and however and then measure like how do we know they're connected and then what happens if they're not like that has to be you know flow into those other supports that we have >> absolutely Dr. Understandable there are metrics for us for example what we're pushing out on some of these things we're promoting we're trying to provide opportunity make students aware awareness

060uh we do a lot of stuff with like confident learners uh building up our students recognition but everything leads to something else when they for example wellness Wednesdays our wellness center we have metrics in there anytime somebody comes in we're documenting what it's for and so we have data as to what they're accessing if we're promoting clubs because it's clubs whatever it is, uh where do we stand on enrollment and participation? Is this club nobody's coming? And then we can also look backwards as to why it's not successful or if it's maybe not a need, it's a shift in a pivot. So we do have metrics from what we're doing, whether it's detention, whether it's Saturday school, we have daily attendance, we have our fivestar checking for everything to where we can pull that and

061and raw numbers of participation, see what we're getting for what bang we're getting for our buck. And and I don't think this is this is necessarily a secondary issue either, right? I mean, you guys see it more acutely because you're the final end of trying to prep them to get get out of here, but if they're not prepped to be receptive to what you're offering when they get to you in seventh grade, then you've got that much more work to do. So to me, so the next question to me is also like, okay, how are we pushing this down to the elementary levels, right? And what does that look like? I also I just want to before we do that if it's okay uh just want to make a comment because uh you know the

062maturity piece plays a big role in when a kid becomes receptive to the help that we have to offer them. And so I think it is a long road for some of our kids uh to get to that we call it the magical summer between 10th and 11th grade where they finally decide that they're going to like prepare to become an adult. But um I think that that sometimes we might not see success at the middle school level. We see growth or we see a spark and then they go to high school and then it takes some time for that to develop. So I just want to I just want that to be noted because I think interventions it's hard to measure them because you don't truly know the impact if that data the academic

063data isn't reflecting it. But a lot of the interventions I think are putting kids on a good path to be more receptive to it as they get older. Hard to measure though. Well, and but you know, I think that there are are ways in which we can and and I don't think that it's I'm not necessarily suggesting that everything's going to lead to like an intervention intervention eventually because I I do get that kids are at different points in their growing up, right? But I think like knowing whether a kid is involved in say band versus nothing like I think that makes a that that brings up a yellow flag for that kid. It's like okay what's going on with that kid's life where they don't they're not interested in in all these other things

064and and all you can do is offer at some point and a kid's going to either be receptive or not. But, you know, it's really trying to to me, you know, and this is I'm sure shared, right? Like I have a very, you know, purposeful like there's so many kids that get left behind here in the district, you know, specifically, right, because we can look at the numbers sped, you know, certainly e, right? But then there's a lot of other kids that don't fit into those two categories necessarily, haven't been labeled, right, that that also do. And so, you know, I'm very acutely aware, right, of that that's that's a weakness, I think, of the district, right, that we have a lot of kids that just fall through the cracks, right? And so I'm trying

065to brainstorm when we're thinking about a, you know, strategic plan like how do we address that particular thing? And you have a lot of strategies for doing that, you know, and I'm just kind of like pushing a little bit. It's like how do we how do we identify those kids that aren't doing it so that we can focus a little bit more time on on those, you know? I I mean, I hope that makes sense. Like, and I hope that doesn't seem like I'm saying you guys are doing a bad job, right? I mean, it's just that the it's the you got a lot of kids, right? You know, >> I I definitely wanna want to want to chime in a little bit because we could certainly certainly make this a how well we're doing.

066This is almost like like a presentation at a board meeting of all the things that we're doing well. Uh and we should celebrate that. There's no reason why we can't identify areas of strength. But as you pointed out a moment ago, Dr. understandable I I I think to help us solidify what our learner profile is is how are we also meeting those needs of our atrisisk population. Um I don't know I mean if if I think if the format it it hasn't really been set for today maybe I'd like to suggest this. Um again I'm going to go right back to our SST model because our SST models gets us discussing brainstorming and talking. Uh, I do want to list all the strengths of of our of our of our specific areas. You know, I'd

067like to maybe group our elementary sites, maybe group our our our our secondary education, get our directors together, but discuss what are some really positive highlights as we kind of started out on the beginning and then almost start uh putting a tag. Well, this kind of fits here, it fits there. Doesn't have to go in detail. could be a program, what section of the profile it meets, and then but more so where I'd like to get uh hear start hearing more from is what are our weaknesses? What areas of of concerns that are out there that we need to maybe start looking at and again knowing our political climate, knowing our budgetary constraints. I mean I think we have to you know as we go forward make decisions you know we we have to keep

068those things in mind. Um can it I mean is it safe to go in that direction? >> I mean I I think so right and and I was kind of kind of rethinking about what's objective of today. >> Right. I mean, I I think it's I think it's kind of uh naive to think that we're going to come up with a list of like say 12 things and this is what we're going to do and we're going to move forward, you know, and and I don't think that it's uh I know I don't have like I'm learning stuff about what you guys are doing along the way. I don't feel comfortable saying this is it like but I think that we don't have enough time to and this is really what the purpose was, right?

069to discuss these things out loud like especially amongst the board right because we're I can pick one person right and talk about it and then that's it right unless it's agendaized and we're doing a workshop like this so maybe what we're really trying to get to is just having the conversation about you know what are we doing well and that we know we're going to continue to do maybe even double down on what are the the places where we're falling behind on or have already you know are behind that we need to address that we aren't, you know, I think part of it is, you know, understanding what you guys need from us as well, you know, or what you would like to see the district do. So, so I don't I would agree like

070we should talk about those things, you know, and then maybe what it really is is about just kind of colle thinking about all the things that we're talking about now and then a group, right, comes up with the these were the these are the goals that we think we need to do, right? Okay. And this is these are the objectives. This is how we're going to get there. And this is how we're going to measure it. Like that's not maybe our place to do. It's for us to put input and talk about and listen and learn and then do that coming back in a month or something like that. >> I mean, I definitely want to hear more what we've been doing, what we've been doing well and where we like trustees have mentioned, what

071are our weaknesses and just, you know, brainstorming. So there's no wrong answers today. >> You know, I would definitely like to hear more about our special education program and an overview and what you think we could be doing better. If if you don't mind like just taking the mic and just giving us an overview right now. >> Well, I mean overall in special education, you know, we have a continuum of of services that we provide for students. So we have students that are in general education the majority of the day um all the way to students that are placed outside of our district. So you know a big focus for us in special education is also making sure that students are included in special ed with their peers um you know getting high level of

072instruction um in general ed um so you know but we also believe in a continuum. Some kids need the majority of their day in special ed. Some some need half the day in special education setting and half, you know, in general ed. So, we we've gotten creative um at all of the school sites and just how we develop a program for each student individually because it really is a program for each student. Um and we continue to collaborate on that. um and really look for ways that, you know, students can be successful. And, you know, a requirement um of of an IEP is is um you know, putting goals together and monitoring progress consistently. We have an IEP every year at least. Um but many times we have IEPs more often than that. Um but

073yeah, a function of that is collecting data and progress on those goals. So we are constantly having those conversations with them. By the time they're in special education, they get a lot of support. Um they have a case manager. They often have related service providers that support them um if that's necessary. And then they have their general education teachers, too. Um oftentimes we're bringing parents into those conversations. So, um, you know, but but a thing that we're always kind of working on in special education is that pre-referral and referral process. So the SST process is actually a very important function of special education because what we find is that when our um universal design of instruction, so like our tier one, tier 2 supports um are are really working well and they're targeted to student

074needs um effectively and the progress is being monitored and adjusted appropriately that sometimes kids don't need to be in special education. you know, because when we determine eligibility for special education, there there's two prongs. I mean, do they meet our ed code eligibility? Um, they might, but then also, do they require special education? Do they need um support from special education to um see educational benefit? And oftentimes we do see when when kids have gotten interventions and they're doing well on that tier one, tier two, they don't need special education. So, you know, an important factor for us is making sure we're a part of those systems um from the get-go and that we can provide that support and um guidance for kids even before um they get to the assessment piece. So, you know,

075I think some things that we're doing really well is is working together on improving those systems at really all of our sites. um you know, we have a long way to go. We're trying to develop some district um guidance on that, but also knowing that each each site, you know, is different. Um so we're, you know, we're trying to lead that work. We've we've kind of um led that through our special ed committee and created a kind of a subcommittee with SST, but certainly there's a lot of work to do with that. Um but you know I think we've made and even looking at our data I mean looking at the the percentage of kids in the general ed setting um has significantly improved um over the last few years and that's really a testament

076to our principles and our our site um leaders and our teachers um that have really taken that that philosophy and ran with that that you know kids need to be included. It's just it's what's good for them socially. It's what's good for them academically. And you know, our our kids that are in specialized classrooms, I mean, we also make sure that that instruction is high level and aligned with standards. Um, but you know, often in those classes, you have, you know, many different kids with different needs, different grade levels, too. Um, and that can be challenging. So, we're continuing to work on those programs as well to make sure they're high level and that the academic instruction is is continues to be high level. Um, for some of the classes, the the functional curriculum continues

077to be aligned with, you know, their their goals um as adults and and we start thinking about that in special ed. So, kind of hearing some of the alignment with college and career and um independent living and and what kids want to do when they become adults, we really start talking about that in special ed very early. Um sometimes as early as elementary because a a huge focus for us is the interest that the kids have. we really see a lot of motivation when we start aligning um their program to what they're interested in um and what their preferred um you know activities are. So we start doing that and we're now required um you know through IDEIDA and the state of California to start putting transition plans into the IEPs before they get to

0789th grade. So, we're going to start doing that um with eighth graders um this year and aligning um those plans to, you know, what the middle school does in advisory and what what they're doing as far as their college and career academy. Um but we've always done that with our high school kids. So, we're always putting a transition plan together for them. We we do assessments for that every year. We collect data on that. Um but but you know, the we're starting to do that now earlier and earlier. Um, so you know, we just we continue to bring the kids up. I mean, I think another great thing that we did this year through our special ed committee, too, was we worked with Barbara Webster, which is um where our extensive needs program is for

079elementary. So, all three classrooms for our extensive needs students is at Barbara Webster. Um, and we started small, but but we did create um a program where they're now a unified sports school. So, they're a sports academy. Um, so we thought that would be a great opportunity for us to get started on something like that where um you know, the kids are are really included in their in their sports academy and sports program. I mean to the point where um Special Olympics did name name that school um a unified sports partner school. Um so we hope to expand that as well because um you know it just it empowers all of our students and I I just always take the um the philosophy that you know students have an IEP but they're you know they're

080all of our students. They shouldn't be you know excluded or looked at um any differently. I mean, other than, you know, providing the unique supports that they need, you know, in order to be be successful at the school. Um, I always try to say that I'm working myself out of a job. We're trying to less and less >> students who require that because we we're doing that just we're doing we're putting those kinds of supports together for all kids is what what I mean for that by that. So, >> you know, I hope that helps. >> Just kind of going back I mean, you know, that sped is close to me, right? I mean, I have a son who has Down syndrome, 26. Is he 26? Yeah, he's 26. Um, you know, he got most

081of his schooling in Connecticut. And I can't help but compare, you know, how Connecticut was versus how California was. Um, he's moderate, right? Um, but he took general ed classes as well, you know, to his level, right? He um he was in unified basketball which he loved. Uh and if you've ever seen a unified sports activity there they'll you'll end up crying the first time you get used to it I guess. Um he was in unified theater right which was a new program they had done started you know and he knew peers you know typical peers you know he was part of the school um and so were all of the kids that were in special ed it wasn't sectioned off and I think one of the things that like and I think that yes

082for my son that was great but I think Something that we don't realize is how much that benefits other kids. I had a parent that came and said, you know, I want to thank you for your kid. It was like, uh, okay, that's kind of odd or whatever. She's like, yeah, my daughter like has been struggling to fit in and she's just grown this friendship with Eric and it's like night and day. Like and so, you know, to me that absolutely has to be like one of our goals on our strategic plan is the inclusion of of all of our special populations, right? Specifically what I'm in this context, but also like how are we including our English learners? um how are we including you know those kids that are you know maybe further behind

083uh not but don't necessarily fit in either one of those groups like >> or both groups >> right some >> or they overlap or you know are fosters or are you know unhoused right I mean there's like this is a community of need you and how are we focusing what we do right to make sure that those kids are as valued as those kids we celebrate, you know, on senior awards night, right? Which which is a great thing, too, right? I was one of those kids, you know, I'm glad I got celebrated. I got an award, right? Did you guys notice Roger Bulls? Like, cool. Anyways, um >> Well, thank you for for saying that. I agree with that, too. And yeah, it's, >> you know, spending over 20 years in special education, I've seen

084a lot of um successes like what you described, and I just hope to bring more of that that here. it's a benefit for all kids. And you know when we did that um we did some activities at Barbara Webster and you know we went we we pushed back into the general ed classroom and had gave the kids an opportunity to really talk through um you know some of that and just hearing what some of the kids had to say like for example just saying well what I learned is that you know autism isn't really a disability it's just a difference in how you know kids think and how they um communicate and it's not a disability. I mean, just hearing that without even really being prompted, just because of the experiences that they were having

085with other kids at the school and just the opportunities we were giving them. Um, it was just really nice to hear. And there were several other kinds of comments like that that just um made us all feel really proud of of of the kids. And knowing that even just some these are we were started very small. So just just small opportunities like that, you know, change the mindset in our kids and and really affect all of the kids involved. Um, but teaching teaching advocacy too for our kids with IEPs and not I think is an important part of of this as well. All right. Where do we go from here? Anybody want to you want to you want to segue into to other special populations. >> I think we have staff that wants to >>

086Oh, are there Oh, no. Sorry. Okay. Good morning everyone. Um as I'm hearing the discussion this morning and um perhaps to offer um a suggestion or recommendation to the governing board today. Um I'm hearing a lot of from the audience and from the from the governing board um a focus on the importance of connectedness and engagement, right? And there are a lot of programs and activities that we've been putting into place in our schools that help students become connected. And once students become connected, they start forming a sense of belonging at sites and they start to flourish within our school system. That raises a question for me. Okay, so what happens about the kids who aren't connected and how do we connect those students? So if we can identify which students already are connected, perhaps

087one of our priorities in these discussions is to identify strategies and perhaps the strategies and the goals are more for like the administrative team to focus on and figure out after this, but just proposing perhaps a priority um as we move forward in improving connectedness and engagement for students. um especially for those who currently are not um like I heard Melissa speak about the AVID program and how it focuses on the 2.0 0 to 3.5 kids. Um, and that the 3.5 plus GPA students are already on their path and AVID is perhaps a strategy to help provide support to those middle that middle um range of students. So then what are we doing for the 0.0 to the 2.0's, right? Um, we have a lot of interventions in place and we are hearing that perhaps

088we might not see the academic benefit of those interventions right away, but that those benefits may start to manifest later in the years as they metriculate through the system. But just again going back to perhaps um thinking about establishing a priority for um connecting those who are not connected. >> You know I I would like to see or get an example from Miss Lopez. Um since you are a principal of an elementary site, how have you connected to those who are not usually connected either through parents or through students? Hi, good morning. So, um last year I started um as principal the Friday before school started and I had the challenge of connecting with parents, students, staff, faculty um in a matter of days and it was our Blanchard. It it was ours. I say

089ours because I've learned to say ours, but uh the work that Dr. Donahghue did with her staff before identifying who Blanchard was, is and what they do. Um, made it easy for me to come in and continue the work. So, they the staff had already identified um and it made they made it made sense. They had academics, they had social emotional, they had tiered interventions that I had I got to walk into. And for academics for example it was CGI core Hagerty done check. So when I had my first faculty meeting I was like that's who we are and I got all the yeses. And then for social emotional it was wellness centers it was wellness peers. It was attendance incentives. Yes. Faculty and staff. Yes. Done. Check. Right. And then it was tiered interventions.

090What are we doing for our students in special education or at risk SSTs uh every Wednesday. it was um reading inter our two reading intervention teachers. It was our universal access during the day. So I was lucky enough to come in and have a system that was already set up. Um and that's because of somebody else's like work, but what I like what I'm hearing here is that we want to continue that work. It shouldn't change because there's a new principal. It shouldn't change because we have a new assistant superintendent. Right? So um this piece allowed Blanchard to identify who they are and what's the work that we need to do for social emotional. So I can just go to my Blancher profile which I did and it is our wellness peers. It's our leadership

091program. It's our afterchool um art clubs and uh uh different like you know what um our well our new wellness activities during lunch. So, it's already established and I will share it with the group. And so, yes, hopefully that helps answer your question. >> No, it does. It does. It's literally a copy and paste from what we've originally talked about. And that's like I understand that everyone's working on very complex and and very sensitive subjects, which I love to hear. Um, but I also want to see what the work that we're continuing to do and see how the investment is paying off because like our trustee Kumquaza has said, we need to figure out what our resources are invested in and to see what the payoff is because we are entering a time of budget

092sensitivity um and we need to justify this justify how resources are invested. So examples like that help the board understand okay we have created a learner profile we have invested x y and z and the outcomes are a b and c. Um, and so I don't know if any other board member has any comments about that kind of example or uh I don't >> no I I sorry I appreciate I mean that you just it's right on point and so from from that data I mean do you see what your weaknesses are or what needs to be worked on? I mean if you feel comfortable sharing >> 100% >> and um and like I said it's it's our learner profile. It looks exactly like this. It's listed out. it's easy to read and when um

093and for example I will just say that I know that attendance is one of my big ones and I'm glad that Andress is here because I I'm not embarrassed to say that our attendance struggled and I reached out to uh Dr. Santa Maria and he helped us with fund our positivity project which gets kids connected to school and making them want to come to school. I worked with Dr. Ramirez to ensure that we had an outreach specialist um And that that's funding. Those are things that like cost money. I work with Dr. um Santa Maria for incentives for our students for attendance. Um Kona Eyes, uh Puns will say with your parent because they helped you come to school. So I know that our attendance continues to struggle. We are not the finest in the

094district and we're aware of it. And so um because of that, because our schools identified that that's an area of need, I can go to Dr. uh Santa Maria and be like I need help. Please like support me financially, emotionally um and it becomes a focus for our school. So our school has already identified in our learner profile the things that we're going to work on and it's not all like unicorns and rainbows. There are things that we do need to work on. So attendance is a big one, reading intervention, and our CASP uh ELA and math course, which I'm hoping over this summer because we did so much work, you're going to see a huge improvement. So just to follow up on that, just from our last board meeting um on the programs and

095adding the extra hour before, Gina, would that help Blanchard? >> So you know, interestingly enough, you know, we had Mike mic. So, interestingly enough, we had a meeting on Friday, you know, um the three of us to try to really look and see how we can support all our principles because we believe that the district office, we're here to support whatever they would need. So, yes, that one hour and we're always exploring to see, okay, if you need more supervision, how do we make that happen if that's, you know, if that's truly a need, right? So yes, we definitely are looking at ways to support Bianca and all our other principles as well. >> Gina, >> so the question was how does the hour before school um or after school, how does that integrate with

096what their weaknesses are and how it can help them? So with the reading especially at Blanchard with language arts right we are going to implement the RAS kids reading and so actually at her site because we did have summer school at her site her teachers were like oh my gosh this program is amazing how do we get our kids to do because kids were saying how am I going to level up what do I need to do to level up and so kids went up a level or two during the summer and school so implementing the RAS kids program in the morning for those kids from 7 to 7:45 5 it will definitely support that piece of uh the language arts and the reading component because it um the RAS kits also works on vocabulary

097writing and it's not just and it works on comprehension so it really addresses all the the reading of sc of science of reading here's my takeaway um your presentation was about five minutes long I loved it you talked about strengths and weaknesses. That's kind of how I would like to also see schoolboard presentations throughout the year from from all the school sites. I mean to the point because we all we all get the information. We all can look at websites but again same same with you know isbell and the high school to the point short and sweet because there's always there's always a lot going on. So we want to make sure we avoid the the 30 minute 40 minute long presentations. >> We can give them a little more than five minutes. No, no,

098no. I'm I'm just giving example, but but here's my Danny my main takeaway. What I loved was that you incorporated your staff. You're you're you're you're only presenting because as you as I pointed out earlier on and you kind of reiterated, it started with with uh Dr. Donnu, you inherited, but you're carrying on, but obviously you're going to put your own spin on things as you should. Um, let's say another change happens because they're going to happen. I'm not talking about Blanchard, but I'm talking about any school site. That's the idea is that when anyone comes on campus new, they look at a school culture. And that's kind of what I'm looking at. This learner profile becomes our school culture, how it defines us. And I think you said that best. Um and and and

099I I appreciate that because what that tells us that this discussions are taking place and we have to celebrate that. Okay, that doesn't say that we're perfect because we all know that we're not there. Nobody is, right? We we we can't we can't keep giving that message that we're doing everything right. I I I want the the truess and I think we all do of here's what's not working and then reaching out to Dr. Ramirez and saying look this morning program is going to help us with attendance uh recovery possible rec credit recovery at the high school. Those are the brainstorming discussions and the supports that we need to make known to to everyone at our school sites. I mean, you're the only elementary principal here today. Um, former with Miss Burgerer, you know. So,

100but that that that being said, I mean, I want to make sure that that uh that we one we do celebrate because there's so much to celebrate, but that we leave room for areas of concerns that we can discuss and bringing our our teams together to to overcome those challenges. Just I was just going to add that I for my welcome back letter to my I have six new faculty members because of the the retirements. I sent them out our learner profile. I'm like this is welcome. Welcome. And this is who we are. We are a CGI school. Welcome. Get on. Right. If you're not on board, get on board. We are a county collection school. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. I expect to see it. So it was these are the this is who we are.

101Welcome. And then I said, "We're going to discuss our learner profile again." And so it just brings everybody back together, our new people to know who we are. Welcome. And then our people who are already here, um, our veterans, uh, just a refresh and we can all just like nod our head and shake and say, "Yes, this is who we are." And if I need anything, let me know who I should talk to. Thank you. Bye. >> Okay. I just want to speak out also on we all know that we are in this time where we've cut a lot of money from budgets and so just on behalf of my principal colleagues just know that they are getting very strategic with how they are going to try and address all of the things that you're

102asking them to address. And so I don't I I want that you know we've made progress in attendance because there was money. We've made progress in reading intervention because there was money. So the principles are getting down and dirty with their budgets and the staff and what they have available to continue the work and make it happen. So just keep that in mind when metrics are coming forward. >> And just an idea I mean you can also reach out to parents Julie as to well the principles as to like when they make a list of things to um donate towards the classroom sometimes gift cards. I mean, I know I've done that when my kids were in middle school for ASB as prizes for kids to participate. So, sometimes parents are willing to donate like

103gift cards or something for incentives. You do a raffle. I mean, just to push. I mean, it worked very well when my kids didn't want to go to school or didn't want to do something, you know, there's just bribing them. >> So, that might be something you might want to add. you know, this kind of segus into I think uh some of the things that you were touching on um into a different conversation that I think we should wait I think we should have a break. But just so you know what I'm going to suggest, right, is that we talk about district culture. Um there's some been some things about like collaboration that we've been talking about. Um communication, right? uh that I think we need to address. I think they need to be part

104of any strategic planning on you know are what are we doing well right in terms of communicating with the board you know the DO site parents students you know what we're not um I think there's some fundamental kind of cultural things that we've already talked about like if we talk about inclusion you know and making that something that we stand for. Um I think there are you know I don't know how many of you are familiar with the EL roadmap framework. Um but within there there are four principle guiding principles that I think relate to this whole district right they're not just for ELEL's that I'd like to at least talk about a bit. Um, but how do we function as a team I think is an important thing to to kind of talk about

105to see if there's things that, you know, what do we need to do to make it uh more effective. So, but I think we should take a break. We've been at it for an hour and a half. Um, maybe everybody can gather their thoughts and if they have any suggestions before the break's over on what direction we should take it into. But that's what I would suggest to or at least at some point I want to talk a little bit about that. It's really like five minutes or you want a 10 >> 10. Okay, everybody. >> Okay, it's 10:01. We'll take a break. Back at 10 Seven. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] heat. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat.

106Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Welcome back everyone. It is 10:18 and we will continue our discussion. Take it away. >> Okay. So, we um talked about learner profile So we identified things that we're doing in sped and some of the things we need to improve um attendance we need to improve. So um let's talk about uh something near and dear to my heart. Let's talk about uh our EL population because we we seem to be putting supports in but we haven't really been seeing the success that we would like to see. I mean that's the improvement rate is far below um all our other um subgroups. So Gina, would you like to just kind of start the discussion off? So, as you know, last year we had um one

107ELD TOSA and that ELD TOSSA uh we piloted working with our um we were very focused on our sixth grade students because the goal was to make sure that they could move and reclassify by the time they get to middle school. Um we've um so and then also so we because at the middle school they uh they needed one more section of um ELT that could not be put into the um master schedule. She taught that class. And so at the end of the year, we realized that in reality, where where we're going to get the more bang for our buck is in first good instruction because the students that she worked with in eighth grade that she had every day. Those kids, the majority of them grew two levels. We were able to reclassif

108they were she worked with the levels ones and twos. We were able to reclassify out of her class, I want to say five students that went from a two to a four in that time. So, we knew that instruction is the key. So, how do we adjust that? And so, um this summer, um we have two teachers now. Glattis went full-time, uh to the middle school, and um Miss Deandia, they're going to be focused on just teaching ELD. And so, we went to a training which is ERWC, which is expository reading and writing. And that's going to be what we're going to implement along with our AVID Excel at the middle school to ensure because what we notice is that a lot of our students are struggling in the writing component, right? And so how

109do we then um improve that piece? Uh because when we look at their scores, you know, in the four domains, we realize that um reading and writing is where they struggle the most. So then um the goal again is to be able to um really look at that data. And so what I'm going to do uh with those those two teachers um is we're going to meet every quarter to review um data, see where the kids are and then support that. And we were also able to um implement a um a sore period I want to say at the middle school where those two teachers are going to really focus on those emerging bilingual. So, they're going to be looking at grades along the way and last year they struggled um with math was one

110of the areas that they needed support with. So, Glattus would stay after school with them and work with them. So, that's going to be the goal. So, instead of just having one person, this year is actually going to be embedded in the way they in the in the master schedule where they're going to be doing it during lunchtime with those students to really provide that support. Now, I have one um ELD TOSA um that I'm very fortunate to have uh that applied um and she's going to be working again with our fifth and sixth grade teachers on really developing strong uh designated ELD lessons. And we know that because you know we tried um Julie and I were looking at um the professional development calendar. Um there's really uh it's very limited in the amount

111of time that we can provide uh professional development for our teachers around integrated ELD and designated ELD. We do do a lot of integrated ELD training when we talk when we do math. I've had the pleasure of working with math for the last three years and we've really developed a really strong program in math where we really look at integrated ALD and bringing in out all those language um convections that need to happen during lang during math to accelerate their language acquisition. So, we're doing that. And then at the um we don't currently um I think we're looking at our newcomer. We lost our newcomer teacher. She retired. Um so, uh right now I believe that the reading teachers are going to be the ones um providing that support to the students. So, we're going

112to see how that's going to work out. Um and uh at the high school uh and again that Melissa and I every year we work on trying to ensure that um EL is part of the master schedule and um you know it's been a challenge but I think that this year um you know we added another teacher so I think that will definitely support and at the high school you know I'm working very closely with Dr. Fabula and and you know we have the ninth grade um EL uh ELA class where it's an A throughG approved course where the students are getting nth grade English but the focus is really around like reading and writing and we really monitoring those students and then supporting them. So um that's where we are currently really looking at

113um first good instruction and then how do we utilize how do we help our principles right utilize those data days to really look at our emerging bilingual and where they are and how they're making gains because the goal is for them to grow one year every year and if they're not growing why are they not and we know that adolescence kicks in right sixth grade seventh and eighth grade even though then how do we support them, right? And I think um I go back to uh because I am a sole believer in school connectedness, right? And so the whole idea for the summer that we did with our long-term English learners is that we combine our long-term English learners with our nonpromoters and created a Cardinal Success Academy to ensure that our kids had that

114basics um of self- belonging, right? because if they want if we want them to self-actualize, they need to realize that they're the ones that have the power to make the change. So, we needed to create a different program for them in the summer to support them. And we did in the summer as well did the AVID Excel bridge for seventh and eighth grade students. So, um the both of the middle school teachers work with those kids to prepare them for um seventh and eighth grade. So, that's what we're working with them currently. Okay. And we have our ALD task force that's going to start right in August to be able to really look at reclassification and look at our um strategies across the way. Uh what are we implementing? But um I'm really excited. I

115have to tell you that we have the the our new ELD Tossa Myra Lopez. She's working on um on the fifth grade um like 20day starting strong for EL uh putting really aligning um the language functions needed and during ELD time that will support their ELA. So it won't be just um something different but it'll be in conjunction with which is what's supposed to happen with integrated and designated EL. >> Thank you. If I can add to that too, in addition to what Dr. Ramita said, um at the high school, uh we do have a designated assistant principal specifically focusing on special populations. In this case, Dr. Favla does a lot of work with our ELS. Um we have data in that she ensures 100% outpac participation. Uh on top of that, we've also deployed

116what we call intensive intervention teams. It's overseen by our outreach person, Dr. Zamaripa. Um we have data in which uh our students our criteria is three or more three or more DRF students our EL students population we place them uh strategically with a staff member in which they have daily weekly supports somebody that they can go to on campus uh any it's intensive intervention exactly what it says in in the on the title outside of everything we offer this is in addition to uh to support our populations. So um my big question I guess one is I heard one weakness we're not giving enough professional development in EL strategies correct but what obviously what we had been doing is not being as effective as we would like my big question on something like this is

117do we keep doing what we're doing but throw more resources into it or or do we need to switch away to somewhere do something different. >> So one of the big things is that you know we um we've struggled as a district to really have that designated EL time um um and make sure that every school site is really looking at their group of students and giving them that designated time. I think this last year we actually got to a level where everyone right I know at the middle school they had to change a lot of things right but um in the sense of like we got to make sure that every student right has EL and Melissa made sure that that happened for this upcoming next school year so that's something that we've changed

118that had not been happening and so that's um something I think in the right direction especially like just like what um you know Danny said for the high school we have a laser focus right at the high school Renaissance has been a little bit of a challenge just because of how do we do integrated I mean designated EL for the students who are at Renaissance but we are trying we try to do it whether you give them a um 30 minutes during ELA but then it just becomes ELA not designated EL so we have to strengthen that because we haven't had that happen and so now I feel like we're in the right in the position where we have to strengthen tier one and we need to have data conversations and so we are changing

119that and I know that um Julie and I are talking like how do we support our principles in being able to have those data conversations where they're focused on how are the emerging bilingual doing are they making the gain so that's something new and so one of the things that because we don't have profession we don't have a lot of time during the school day we are going to offer a Saturday academy. I'm going to send out a survey to the teachers to see would they like to come to a Saturday academy where we are going to learn because our focus this next year is going to be to um administer the interim alpac assessments. Um, and we want to start in third grade all the way to 12th grade for those kids because we're

120gonna we know that that makes a difference because when you know what this when the teacher is aware of what the students need to do. For instance, a great example, they don't have to write a five paragraph to be able to do in the writing. They have to write three strong sentences with little errors to be able to get a score of a four. So, if you don't know how to squ the word beautiful, write pretty. It's okay. Right? So, but knowing having teachers understand those nuances is what's going to help our students be successful on the ELPAC. >> Um, couple things I want to chime in regarding ELD. One, because I'm I'm on the ELD task force uh as a committee member. Um I I I think you know designated and integrated time uh

121I think we need to take the ambig the ambiguity out of it and just name it. Um if if it's designated time it needs to happen and I don't and I I guess I just can't understand why there would be any push back. I I think that our teaching community needs to know that this is a a a um a high-risisk population and because it is I I I think we need to call it for what it is. I think we need to make sure that it's happening. Um, and so I think that needs to fall back to you, Jeff, that that our principles know that that they have to enforce it because when you when you do give good first instruction, um, obviously you can do whole group instruction, that's the integrated portion of

122it, but designated times, meaning that I'm going to work one-on-one or small group with with students that need that support. too. Um I through the the ELD task force, I have to be very honest and and again it may not sound um completely positive, but but I noticed that in that process just through the the three meetings that I've participated, I I I wonder about and I worry about uh sensitivity from staff working with with students. Um, if our kids are learning a second language, then our students have to be supported and respected in that fashion. Um, that goes with our newcomers. I think I just heard a little bit something contradictory. So, I I definitely want to talk to you about that, Jeff, maybe on the side or maybe we can do it now,

123but I thought we were going to hire a newcomers teacher. Uh I I just you know again hiring or having people on staff understanding what our students barriers are kind of helps moves the needle with them. So um I I I I just you know it it's not a it's like the way I look at it from and I'll be a little bit more specific about um the the the the professional aspect of working with kids. It's not a them problem. It's an us problem as the adults. Uh how are we reaching them? How are we connecting with our students? I think that if we if we started to do more of the um alpac and and CASP interim assessments that that might be really helpful because then then it's exposing them it's exposing our

124students to what the requirements are. Um I I and I and I can speak from from clarity when it comes to at least at the elementary level as a fourth grade and I've I have administered alpac for uh for um for third grade and fifth grade level as well. Uh I think when the students know what does narrative mean? It means a story. What does informative means and and so on and so forth. What does an opinion mean? Because those are the three styles of writing they have to understand. So I I think good instruction, as you pointed out, Dr. Ramidz, good instruction has to be when the writing piece is is hammering down those three levels of writing. Um, you know, uh, poems and whatnot, those are good. I'm not not negating that. But

125if we're looking to g move the needle when it comes to CASP and alpac, those are it. It's narrative, informative, and and persuasive writing. And so our teachers have to then be aware of that and teach to that. It's not teaching to the test, but if we want to move the needle and we want to see our kids, you know, find success in this because it goes to confident learners. No student No student is going to be like, "Ah, who cares? I didn't do well." That's not that's not how it works. They're hurting inside when they out front tell you, "I don't care." No, really, they do care. If you get to know the true makeup of what what students are, they care. And if you help them see why it's important to care, building

126up testing environments, giving them all the the right practice, good instructions, putting them in with teachers that that really care and understand what our students are going through. We're we're moving the needle. So, Gina, first question with that. So, we have we had one teacher TOSSA last year and how many TOSAs will we have this year? will have one TOSA. Okay. So, again, that's not going to move the needle. If we're talking about strategic planning, I don't know how that's going to work. Um, our our EL task force, uh, we have our our first meeting in in in August. Uh, I want to put it out there. I think what if we're talking about uh good first instruction, I think our teachers as a whole and and I'm talking about some of maybe our newer

127ones or maybe those teachers that just don't want to get on board, they probably need a a uh a resource with strategies on how to support EL students. Um, you know, it's it's teaching students to to get out of the the uh the the tier one vocabulary and get into tier 2 target specific vocabulary. Um, you know, getting away from um, yep, that you cannot say that anymore. Nothing wrong with having those high um level of uh, um, expectations because they'll they'll rise. So, if you got a student that's that tested alpac one and they tested two the following year, that's success. We should celebrate that. We should let them know that that we're we're showing confidence and they're learning because if they're moving along that trajectory, then we're going to we're going to redesate

128our our students and we have to give them that, get them to believe in that. But, um I'm excited to hear that Dr. Fabula is working um with with our high school students. That that's important. Um I think I look forward to hearing what our reclassification rate uh was for for this past year and how many students maybe not just reclassifications but how many students moved a level because again then that means that we are doing good things you know but I want to definitely can't wait to see that but strategic planning can't wait for our ELD task force to to actually put together something tangible so that our our teachers ers have that are ready readily uh imp impleable in in our in our classrooms. Um and then maybe you can talk to that

129Jeeoff about newcomers teacher. >> So um I'll talk to a couple of things. So we have 13 intervention teachers and when we looked at who they were serving the population they were not serving was our EL students. They did have some EL students, but for some reason teachers weren't referring EL students who were struggling to the intervention teachers. Not sure why. So what we decided to do was we decided to split those intervention teachers in half and have half of them dedicated. So, two at each site, half of them dedicated to um working with EL students and newcomers and the other half continue to do what they've been doing, which is just our general ed students uh main population. So, the idea was to um and and when we talked, the idea wasn't to say

130that we weren't going to have a newcomer teacher. The idea is that we were we're doing everything we can not to go and hire a teacher that doesn't have a classroom. And since we have 13 of them already here in the district, we figured we can reallocate those resources to cover some of our e issues. >> Okay. So, I just want to make sure that we're not, and again, this is to you, Julie, um that we're not stuck in what we've been doing. Uh we've got to definitely reinvent the wheel because I mean the the the research tells us too that when we do redesate okay I know that's the ultimate goal outpac when we do redesate those students tend to beame become our higher achievers in CASP. So there's an ultim um within the

131district and also one for for the the student as well. So yeah, sure. I'll speak to that and how ed services and Dr. Ammeris were going to partner together on this. I can just kind of tell you the process that we used at Glen City when we were creating the master schedule. The first thing we did was block in our designated ELD time across grade levels. Um the process is then we look at the ELPAC levels of the students. We don't group more than two bands together. Um the staff then they work together to create those class lists. The teachers work to their strengths. This so when I was still in the classroom I always liked to take the level ones and twos because part of our language arts curriculum it does have an EL

132piece but it's not robust. And so we have to go back to the four domains and build lessons that are supporting those domains. So teachers are doing a heavy lift on creating curriculum that's going to support or creating lessons that are going to support. There are some strategies like the glad strategies um that we do have some staff who's been trained in and some that haven't. But my understanding as a principal has always been our design designated ELD time is protected time and I know that is the message that is given out. Um when we have our leadership retreat, we will ensure that that message is driven home even more and that there is a very um deliberate and specific way that the rosters are created because again we also have to stay within class

133size limits at the different grade levels. So at Glen City last year we did some crossgrade level. So fourth and fifth would work together because just because they're in a different grade level doesn't mean that their language needs are different. So to support that um but we are we are also working on the the strategies to to provide we're creating an educational services Google classroom so that we'll have resources in there and I'm excited to work with Myra to bring a place where teachers can go and find sample lessons and I'm sure Myra would go and model lessons. Um so it definitely is a piece of our puzzle >> and that just goes to what are the areas concerns and how do we overcome that and I I know it's going to take some time

134but I I appreciate that because yeah just >> yeah and also I do want to talk about the home because you know the school district can do a lot we can give as much money as we can we can identify what students are in need but we're not in control of a student's home life and our e population having been a reclassified e at the seventh grade in the Santa Paul Unified School District. I also know my friends who were never reclassified and who were stuck in that system for a long time. And that's because while the school district can intervene and pull children out and identify what their needs are, not all needs can be met because the home life is something that the school district may never be able to touch. Um and

135so I really want to know especially we have our director of elementary here we have our principal from ISBO here you know how have we seen the home life um come in intersection with the learning at the EL classroom you know we're finding the home life is becoming um more strained given that we see a rise in a rise in cost for rent a rise in cost in living in general um especially given this political climate you know we have folks that are not returning back to work because of deportations or forced removals you know what are we've seen um and we just we do have to name it. We do have to acknowledge that there are some problems in this timeline that we cannot resolve because we're not in charge. Last year at Glen

136City, we did do um coffee with the principal, parent workshops for all of our student population, some in the evening, some during the day, and had a good number of parents come and learn strategies that they could use at home to support their students learning. Um to support, you know, we incorporated math, we incorporated reading strategies. So, we were trying to bridge that gap and make a, you know, lower the effective filter for parents to come on and learn how to support all of those students. There also were some schools who did parent workshops on the ELPAC specifically. This is the ELPAC. This is what we're working on um school sites. I mean, I'll keep going back to Glen City because that's where I was, but we worked with our EL population on test tip

137Tuesday. So, on Tuesday, this was a tip that was going to help you perform to your test on the alpac and using the road to reclassification meeting with the students one-on-one. I know we did that at Isbel 2 to show them this is where you are to give the students the ownership of that. This is where you are. This this is an area of weakness for you. And for most of our students, it's the writing. It's the writing piece. And so here are some strategies, some tips to help you. Um, I'm probably not answering your question because there's so many pieces floating around, but >> no, I just want just to acknowledge the writing in the wall, which is that yes, we do want to improve e like again, it's one of our hardest hit

138populations, but unfortunately in this climate, it things h are becoming more difficult now. Um, >> agreed. And we want to really and I think >> I will say I did see on social media that the community that watched the meeting last week, they really appreciated that the board is addressing that and the superintendent is addressing that and that we have a plan to try and help our students who their families are struggling right now. We're not ignoring it. It's there and we're trying to be out in front of it. And I think, you know, that that transcends down to the school sites as well. Uh, Trustee Ramos Rodriguez, I want to thank you for uh, bringing up that point that uh, there there's only so much that we can control at the school site and

139that the home life is um, it's another variable that we uh, can do our best to support in the school setting, but ultimately we don't have any control over that. And um I think that one of the things that we need to continue to do is establish the trust between our families and the schools and um focus on making our schools welcoming environments for everyone. Um that has been a focus at Isbel for the last three years. Um, and I also want to say, and I I wanted to bring it up earlier and I didn't because I didn't feel like it was appropriate, but you know, we talk about like how is it possible that we have kids who are have a 1.0. Well, some of these kids don't come to school regularly and despite

140attempts from outreach or maybe going through the SAR and SAR process, they are still not coming to school regularly. And for them to have like a 1.3 or a 1.4 is actually showing improvement or for them to come to increase their attendance rates is actually showing improvement in for that particular child. It doesn't look good on paper though. It doesn't look good in the data because you don't know the background and the context of that. Some of the things that we're trying to do across the board um is take care of basic needs. So, we don't ask a child really to bring anything but their Chromebook to school. And that's something that we've already given them. Please bring your Chromebook. We will give you pretty much anything else that you need. Um, and at Isbel,

141we establish the Condor closet and we actually have a lot of visits to the Condor Closet so that basic needs are met. And I think continuing those initiatives with our community schools. We're working on uh establishing a parent resource center this year, a brand new little area for our parents. It's going to be staffed by Ralph Reyes, our new community schools outreach coordinator. And we're also going to put our EAOP, assuming we continue with that, in that room as well and make that another space for our families. Um, you know, that's safe and welcoming and informative and finding out what they need. Did that answer I don't know if that answered question. No, it did because again, we're excited for these new projects to roll out for our EL community. And I understand that we've

142been trying to move the needle, but we also have to acknowledge that there are outside factors now working against us. And I value everything that the school district's doing, and I don't want to water it down, but we also need to understand this given time, you know, we may not be able to move the needle given the current circumstances. I think that continued PD with our teachers also on that sensitivity piece and understanding like where where our kids are coming from and going through and um that's not a knock on anyone. It I can speak from personal experience that the first time I really realized how some of our kids home lives are and uh their living situations are was during COVID when we were doing home visits. And uh you know I grew up

143in Santa Paula and I had no idea and I think that that's an important piece just for all of all of us to remember is that uh we are receiving children who are coming from very uh difficult albeit loving in many cases home environments and how do we best support them. I am super excited. I just want to uh piggyback really quickly on something Dr. Ramirez was saying. You know, this is the first year in a couple years that um I have had an ELD teacher that um is just doing EL and not a teacher who is teaching an ELD section on their prep period. So, I think that we're going to see some growth there. Glattis Orosco and Gloriana Dandia are my ELD teachers and I know like they do rock it and they're

144going to rock it even harder next year. Um, and we have a lot of new things, targeted supports for our kiddos. So, I think that that's gonna move the needle for sure. >> Yeah. And the Sorry, you just hand it to Gina too. I It's not towards you. It's just in general, but I think the important aspect for our EL population is providing the unsaid skill which is case management. we do ELD teachers or any part anyone part of the ELD population that's serving them has to have a level of case management because they're navigating their home life and their transition to the school sites um and having to bear witness. I mean Dr. Ramirez in 2018 you gave us a report of the unhoused population. The school district has a different definition than the

145city on the unhoused population. Um, and that is there are multiple families living in a household um that cannot sustain multiple families. You know, being cramped into small apartments. And we're seeing that happen with this EL population as well. So, have that unritten, you know, skill set for ELD teachers of case management is so essential for student success. Um, and it's it's essential because it helps change the population of the school site because these ELD teachers can communi communicate it out to general teachers that may never come in contact with um the EL population, but they can give them an insight on what's going on in the community as a whole because it does feel like two separate communities and we know that school culture plays an important role in success. If a student, like

146you know, trustee Feder says doesn't feel welcome, doesn't feel supported, then they're not going to want to succeed. I just wanted to add and I was contemplating um stating this but you know um it yes we have no control over happens in the household of our students whatsoever. However, we do have control of what happens in our schools and many of our students and I can tell you that I was one of those students that love going to school. I didn't I didn't want to be home, right? I wanted to be at school. So we have to So and even during the summer which was like um I know of a student that was going through a lot and and just to think of him waking up every morning and having to come to school.

147He was only supposed to be there 12 days and all the kids were supposed to only be there 12 days, but we offered an extended 12-day program for them and they all chose to come even though their home life is so difficult. And um I know I don't want to get emotional, but we as a school can do so much for the kids. And I would tell when I was a middle school administrator, I would tell the students, you have no control over what happens with mom and dad. You have no control over what happens with but you have control over what happens to you and how you choose to react to that. So you are not an atrisisk student. You're at promise. You have the opportunity to make changes and you're the only one

148that has that control. And so I am a true believer that as a school system, we can create a safe place for them where students truly are connected and families know that we're there for them and their kids will thrive regardless of their home situation. >> Dr. Donahue. I would also say that given the current political climate and um some of the um fears that some of our families may be facing, I do think that we should also look at our um independent study program and make sure that we're providing a really robust instruction in for EL um integrated EL and designated ELD within independent studies also because that that population, you know, I know that our families are are concerned about coming to school and I'm sure that that's going to be um a

149big reason why we may see a boost in the independent study enrollment numbers. I would also say that um it may be a good idea to also look at how we um how we are going about parent engagement right now and maybe even shifting some of parent engagement to likeformational videos or recording meetings so that they can access it and without having to come to the um district office or the sites to make sure that we're providing that information and those resources um to parents who can't be here as well. I think we have um our media outreach, our media um specialist uh Hulysa is really talented at making veryformational and approachable videos and um informationational sources. And I think we should, especially right now with this current political climate to support our parents, we

150should really tap into that. >> Um just one thing about uh EL that I've been thinking about. Um, and I think this kind of goes, you know, throughout like all the things that we're doing, you know, um, and it's just my bias, I guess, but how are we measuring our success? Like, how are we measuring how well our students are doing, you know? I don't think that I've gotten a great understanding of because we see statics, you know, counts and that's not good enough. Like, I want to know how long has someone been in the EL program? are they where they're they should be right to make progress to be reclassified. What's the percentage of students that are being reclassified on time versus not? Um, you know, there's a whole lot of metrics that go

151around this this set of students that we need to see. We need to see those trends, right? Not just a snapshot in time, right? But are they making the progress that they need to make? Because then, you know, kind of going back to, you know, you throw a bunch of things at the wall and you see, you know, hope something sticks, right? Okay. Now, if we don't have the data to back up, okay, we've made these particular interventions in this kid's, you know, life in their academic life, this is what we've gotten or this is where they are at now. Like, we need to know whether, you know, that success, right? Or lack thereof. Um because again, it's you know, doing a lot of programs or throwing programs at something or spending a lot of

152money doesn't mean that we're going to have success at all. Like it's important to know though like did we have the success that we needed. Um and again that's not just for ELEL's, right? It's also for you know for SPED. It's for you know Foster and you know all of our special populations, right? Um, you know, and I think that that just goes on to like I want to talk about district culture. I don't think we're get time to, but one of the things that we need to do as a district is take data seriously, right? And not just one of my favorites, right? Is, you know, uh I'm not picking on Well, I am, I guess, right? The the how many kids like got into a UC grade metric, I guess, right? But I'm

153more concerned about well how many actually went you know that's that's where I want to know like and so for any of these things like I want to know like I don't want not just want to know how many cl were reclassified but I want to know how many were reclassified in a timely fashion. Did we do them the service right? Did it take them four years or did it take them eight years? you know, um that's important for us to to know to be able to gauge whether our programs or and our interventions are successful. Um because going back to Mike had said ear right at the beginning like we're going to have to make decisions. You know, we're allocating budget money that is scarce um or at least limited. Uh are we doing

154in the right places? Is it effective? you know, the only way we're going to know is if we're measuring these things and coming up with true measures again, not just counts, but like you know, what's the measure of success and measure that um so there's that. Uh I wanted to ask a question because we should start kind of wrapping up because it is getting you know to be it's already 11 o'clock. Um we have talked about a lot of things and not that we want to go into any depth on anything that we might bring up right now but what are we missing? What are what are what are some things that you're like oh we need to address this? It's critical for our district to move forward. Um, you know, it's got to be

155we got to talk about it. Oh, Danny's got something. You got something? I I guess I'm going to regret that question. >> I mean, uh, secondary number one, uh, I think, uh, continue articulation with the middle school. I think when I became principal, that's one of the common themes that I kept hearing from everybody. uh we have taken some steps more so I think than we have in the past to work together not just with Isbel but also just the entire secondary just more opportunities built into some of that uh would be I think beneficial in aligning our strategies our resources and then just also uh data sharing um to improve also in line with our profile so that's something for us also um we've been working closely with Mr. you can just kind of

156overseeing our systems. Our systems have been what they've been because that's what they've been and just start evaluating kind of what are the the needs of tomorrow, right? >> Systems, what kind of systems? >> Systems like one thing that we uh we met with Mr. Danny would be more of like a just our admissions and placement process to renaissance. Uh we've done it in the past. The needs of then were what they were. Where we're headed now with the additional supports that we have in play, they're slightly shifting. So those are things that we also kind of got to adapt and adjust to ensure that we have the right students, right opportunities for everybody. So just kind of revisiting some of those things. So uh from the secondary that and for us secondary would be

157just continue dialogue um higher level secondary deepening uh what we've done. Our focus uh last year was kind of re uh our culture shift uh where we were coming from and trying to align that and get everybody in play and we're there now and just now taking the next step going forward. >> You okay? Some water. >> Okay. >> That's what you get when you try to talk so much, you know. >> Uh I just want to uh highlight that academics are important. That's why we're here. But we can't forget that we need to continue to maintain uh safe schools and in order to do that we need our support staff and uh I know that we are going into this time of uh budget cuts and you know what can we live with and

158what can we live without and I just want us to to always keep at the forefront that in order for us to have quality instruction and schools that kids can come to and feel safe at and are happy at. We need our uh support staff as well. So, our, you know, our instructional assistants, our uh campus security officers, our office people to be able to receive those phone calls from our parents. And um I just want us to make sure that we're keeping that in mind as well. I think as a um a a director who's only this is my second year coming into this position. I think well one of the things that I think at the district office we are experiencing a lot of shifts and I do believe that the people we

159have coming in are really willing to dive in and work hard and and and support the schools. I I think that as we hopefully we get our secondary person on board um we can all meet together and work to be really strategic and be on the same plan um and um also be sure that we are in communication not only with each other but that we work to continuously communicate to support the sites because I know that's always a goal to try to support the sites but sometimes we're all going in a million miles an hour and um you know they're scrambling to try to get a hold of people to get communication sent to them and um I think that's something that as we complete our departments you know all of our department directors

160and everything comes into play I do think we will work to strengthen our own systems as well >> you know there's two programs that come to my mind that we haven't touched on and I think maybe that's maybe it's telling I don't know um I'll be provocative like that. The first is no one has mentioned preschool. That's okay, right? I mean again look like the idea is to have a targeted list. We can't be everything, you know, and it's not to mean that if it doesn't make the list, we're not still going to do preschool, right? But it's the question of how much do we focus on that, right? So that's one thing. I just throw that out there. The other thing that no one talked about was CTE and career pathways, which I thought

161was a little bit interesting. Did you bring it up? Did I miss Oh, I missed that. I did. I totally tuned you out, Melissa. Sorry. Okay. Well, I put it in anyways because this is where Yeah. This is Huh. >> Yeah. So inadvertent. >> No, no, necessar. But again, but well because I did because I want to make sure that we're not missing anything that's important and I want to make sure if it's to to >> preschool's important. Okay. Well, just >> Yeah. And just my two cents on that, it would be nice to see the data on the kids who did attend our preschools, the growth, um, and where they're at when they start kinder. Um, I believe they're already being tested, but just to bring that up, always celebrate all the achievements because

162I believe there there is data, right? And then we also they do the DRDP but we also have been really working with our preschoolers preschool teachers to implement CGI strategy. So we do counting collections coral counting and um if you were to see our little uh preschoolers doing coral counting. You would be amazed because if they um if they can do onetoone correspondence and they have the conservation of number at three years old. Can you just imagine what they're going to do when they get to >> T? You present You presented that. So I I think the data will show and it's probably at this point we don't really need to focus on it, but it's important because I think everyone's doing a good job to celebrate it. I think what I if I may

163um I think you know as when we have this meeting for the strategic planning is I think um for us it would be helpful to know what are your goals as a board so that we can then be able to truly focus on those goals right so if that's okay you >> well I'll look it all I've been taking notes and I've been doing some organizing and I'll at least take a shot at trying to like give some structure to that, but that's not really I don't think the point of it is to necessarily say at the end of this, okay, now the board is going to tell you to do X, Y, and Z, right? Which is why we wanted to listen to you guys and take what you're saying and, you know, just

164help come to that like consensus. Yes, these are the areas that we're focusing on because like you know I mean while Tommy can talk about EL all day like I don't know what the right answer is. That's not my expertise. I wouldn't expect to chime into to that discussion right to offer that. um you know that doesn't mean that that we don't all here have ideas of what we should do right and I think we um you know we'll kind of we'll come up with that list but I think it's in collaboration with you guys so >> I mean >> it should be right >> if I may if there is still time I would like to hear on you know what your thoughts are on our CTE you know what's going well what's not

165so I mean you don't have to be or what you've observed of being a longtime employee whether it's Lori, Gina, the principles. >> Take it, Melissa. Just take it. >> I think that I mean they have uh what I love is that I think now we've really tried to align and I think the alignment piece is important. We need to work on our alignment with our elementary schools. Um I think the collaboration has been much more natural just me having been at Santa Paula High School for so many years to uh understand what a middle schooler needs to be successful at a high school. Um, but we have established exploratory CT pathways at Isbel that specifically align to many at PHS, not all because it would be really challenging to have that many elective courses

166and our size of school. And we still want to offer other electives that kids love like art and um, you know, ASB. So, you know, we do have limited uh, amount of time. anything you want to add? >> Um, last year we did do a small pivot, a small shift on uh parent education, parent involvement. I mean, we hear CTE, nobody knows what CTE stands for. That goes for the students. We did do um we will go down to our middle school to recruit and so when we're hitting the students with CTE and these pathways, that's that language can be kind of uh it kind of in one year out the other. So our shift last year was more parent involvement, more focus on them educating the parents because if the parent says the students

167are going to take this class, it's going to happen. So we've shifted on that. As you guys know, we have expanded uh we added buildings and construction. We were able to fill three sections. Uh so we're in the process of getting that off the ground and going. Um very excited about those opportunities. Our facilities are amazing. uh if you haven't had the opportunity, we do have a uh something planned for like a grand opening uh once we get it up. But uh we do have six focus is uh we there's been so much work that's gone into the CTS beyond my time just taking it back. Now it's making sure that we we already invested in it and ensuring that they're successful and high quality and they have what they need. So right now uh

168our focus has been uh the completers um getting uh students filling sections and getting everybody in the right place. >> Give us give us one uh and again thinking Pandora's box, right? What's one thing we can do to support you more if there was one thing because we know the success but what's one area that we can grow in? >> In my meetings with Mr. Weinstein uh throughout the summer was just kind of discussion on aligning our CTE with like our A throughgs kind of aligning our curriculum and then also aligning that down to our our our middle schools uh streamlining everything to where it it all lines up uh right now uh completer courses right uh one or two where where we're at with that. So, uh, we anticipate growth, right? We anticipate expansion.

169And so, when you start adding students to these classes, you also know that there's a ripple effect that there won't be in other classes. So, there could be a shift on kind of our focus on what we're trying to do. >> Yeah. So Danny, sorry Danny, when you when you're talking about aligning our A through G, are you saying like >> a math class can be focused on accounting or more business related or a science class can be more on horror culture or what do you mean by aligning with our CTE like where they're learning part of their CTE within their A throughG or am I not what do you mean? So, so what what what I mean by aligning our CTS with our A throughgs is making sure that maybe some of these classes

170are getting college credit. Uh I know there's a lot of discussion even on dual enrollment. Um and so if we're able to start moving in some of these directions, maximizing the opportunities of what the students are doing, uh it's a win-win times three for our students. And then also, I mean, I've heard just because I do have a child in the high school where they want to take some of those engineerings or the new course, but they're already in ASB or they're playing uh or in band. So, is there a possibility of zero periods? I mean, because I already know like jazz is probably zero period, but that trades, I mean, there might be so many kids who would want to take it, but they have to take other classes. have is are they like

171on a waiting list? Are you guys tracking all the kids who wanted to do something but they could only do it zero period to provide more opportunities and are teachers willing to do a zero period? >> Absolutely. I mean, >> especially with the CTEs, >> so much opportunity that the uh high school offers. I know we're talking about make sure that we offer something to all students outside of the arts and the the athletics and those extracurriculars, the clubs. So, it does get to a point where a choice has to be made. Uh zero period. We do have teachers interested in picking up a zero or a seventh uh to provide more opportunity. I know we have a traditional with zero uh periods one through six but that would give us flexibilities that we can

172uh offer to our students. I mean, I know you there's a lot of of our students who are entrepreneurs and when my middle one was in high school, they had a zero period business class and he he got all his certifications for Excel, all the different programs and that helped him tremendously in the job he has now and going into university and we don't have that. So, I I you know, is it funds? Is it not having the staff for it? And also to add to that Dr. just a lot of these inter like some of our CTE with that we're aligning to industry and partnerships that kind of come with uh maybe some internships and so there is times where we got to align strategically on how we can give them their academics but

173also provide the opportunities that also come with some of these which would mean students either leaving it's going to happen before or after school and that strategic master schedule planning and freeing up sections to make that happen. And it all comes down to again understanding the budget crunch, ensuring that there's a need, the numbers are there supporting uh these changes that we're trying to do as opposed to we're just going to fly a class, there's only nine kids and so that that doesn't help us either. So, thank you. >> Well, I mean, I think that's a couple things, right? One is that, you know, that that that does need to be looked at, right? Because again, and to me, I feel like we've already kind of established the priority, right? you know, general ed, of

174course, right? The basics, um, but, you know, CTE and then other, you know, electives like we're putting a focus on CTE. So, how do we how do we offer those classes, right? So, that means choices are going to have to be made, you know, and that's just the way it is. It's not going to get easier. The high school's still shrinking. We can't afford to have 20 kids per class on average. We just can't. Um, so I don't envy that and I think that we're just going to have to come to what's the right balance, you know, because we won't be able to do everything, which is again CT is a whole other thing that needs to be looked at like more in depth than we have time for. Um, you know, but trying to

175strategize how much how can this overlap with the A throughG requirements, you know, is important. How can we offer a CTE class that could um potentially count towards two different pathways instead of just the one, right? I those are the kinds of like do we offer a capstone class, right? That is like an engineering cyber security, you know, a right like where they work on a project that's in common to all three, you know, and then you can keep those numbers up. I mean, I think though that's the kind of creativity we're going to have to get to so that we can, you know, offer um what we want to offer, right? How does business align into all of those? Like maybe there's a a fundamental business class that goes along with the the CTE

176like I don't know. I'm just I don't know what the requirements are and all the different um things involved there. Right. So, >> I was just going to say at the elementary school, having worked at the high school and the middle school and knowing how big robotics was and how like a thriving program they have, um I wanted to bring robotics to Blanchard. And so, I did my research. It was like a $100 per kit per student. So, that um we had 30 kids sign up for the robotics class during lunch. Um and then Dr. Ramirez helped me pay for uh 15 students to get to be able to participate. So, we had students on the waiting list, but students came every day um for robotics uh during lunch. And so, I think it has

177to do with understanding what the CTE pathways are at the middle and high school for other principles. And then it's that funding piece as well because they're not cheap. >> Well, and actually that segus into the comment I was going to make um which is, you know, we need to be introducing these ideas like not so like, hey, you're in fourth grade. Have you thought of your career? Right. That's crazy. But, you know, something like like we did with Se Perch, you know, that's a cool program after school. It introduces them to a lot of those principles. Now, when they go to the middle school and they say, "Hey, we have an engineering pathway at the high school and they're doing their own kind of C perchy thing, right?" they have an understanding of what

178that looks like and they buil they're just building on that foundation that they've had since middle or since um elementary school right we have to so you know the other thing is too is that you know I know there's a lot of contracts being floated around for afterchool activities right those programs should be aligning to what's happening in the middle school during the day and they should be aligning they should be aligning to the as much as they can depending on what academy that is and it should be aligned to what we're doing in the middle and the high schools right so you know like for instance that robotics program can that be done as an afterchool activity you know through that you know that um STEM contract right I mean that's another way of

179of utilizing the afterchool money right the elop money which that budget isn't quite so although we need to look at at and see where we're at because I think we're spending it in many different ways, but maybe there's still a little bit flexibility there where you can do bring in some of that programming. Um, which I love because it's also project based learning type of activities, right? So that we get that component in there, too. So, Dr. Sanval, you um had asked a question about um is there anything else that we're not um considering? you brought up preschool. I would just like to um perhaps bring forward just the idea of um our eighth grade students from MUO and Briggs. Um in terms of our articulation efforts transitioning, are those students at a disadvantage for

180entering into our CTE program pathways because they're not exposed to any exploratory pathways within their districts? um how are those students perfor when we get those students as ninth graders? What does their data look like compared to our students, right, who have been through um our schools? And is there anything that we can learn from those districts in terms of informing our efforts um because they become our students now in high school? >> It's a really good point. Okay. Did you have Did you want to go for it? Maybe because you're talking so much may uh look it. I I did want to have a a conversation about desert culture because I think it's foundational. All I'm going to do is just kind of highlight this so you know that you know that we as

181a board are thinking about these things that are engaged right um but to to go into a discussion is is beyond our time but you know certainly we've heard a lot of things about collaboration right and how we're doing it right but we also need to get better at it. I think we need to, you know, continue to foster better collaboration, especially I think with the the principles um in the DO, you know, because a lot of times I hear like, oh, as a principal, I just heard this, right? You know, when I saw it at a board meeting, you know, so we got to continue to work on that. Um, which goes along with communication, right? And I did that's if there is one thing that I hear about the most right it's about

182that communication right I didn't know blah blah blah right so that's another thing that we got to continue to work on um you know I still think those e principles right and then inclusion right we're not we need to become a district where all of our special you know vulnerable populations are welcome you know and and and we do that and in kind of but it needs to be part of our DNA. Uh I think professional development I heard a little bit about that right um that we need to be more systematic about how we're doing that maybe um you know we need to be able to share best practices that are happening at the sites because I know the sites do their own things sometime um but are we learning from what you know

183one particular site might be doing really well and is that being funneled right to the other sites uh we need to be data driven right we need to be data driven and not just counting, right, but trends um you know and really thinking about what it means to be successful, right? Especially as it comes to this. And then finally, like there are so many different initiatives and there touch so many different departments sometimes, but we really need to be very clear about delineated duties. Who's going to be in charge of this initiative blah? And that might involve other people, right? But there should always be a point person and everybody should know who that point person is. It should not be a question. Right? So I think those kind of cultural elements help us implement

184what our strategic plan is. Right? And so again finally I think maybe if I can we can wrap this up. I mean I think that within what we talked about today there really is like a framework for a strategic plan. It's not completely fleshed out, right? But I think that there are a lot of things that really aren't surprises necessarily to to us, but just need to be articulated, I think, and to the rest of the district, right? Because when they say, "Oh, why are we doing this?" Right? Well, it's because of X, Y, and Z, right? There's kind of four buckets I think that we have, right? First, instruction is huge. you know, within that literacy, math, and I would say science as well. I know there's been a lot of work on the

185NGSS, you know, um, standards, um, and project-based learning, right? Those are kind of key pillars of what we're doing in first instruction. I think connectedness, right, making sure that our kids feel like they belong here, right, which is, you know, those making sure they're involved in something else other than just showing up, right? a kind of a learning community, quote unquote. Um, focusing on our special populations like EEL and SPED and those, you know, underachieving students, right, to make sure that they feel like they're connected to every the the whole thing, right, which underlines that inclusion piece. Uh, I think engagement, right, is another one of those buckets, right? Themies help provide that, right? We're not going back on themies. I think the advisory example was another way in getting uh kids engaged. I think

186our community schools um and our parents engagement is still key. And then independent studies, right, to try to capture those kids that don't show up all the time, right, or have reasons why not to. And then finally, just like opportunity, you know, what opportunities are we giving to our kids? We know we want them to be A throughG successful if they can, right? So, you know, whatever we're doing through AVID could get them ready. Uh the CTE, you know, programs, not just college, but also career for sure. You know, all of the afterchool programs that we're providing should be lining up towards them getting better and more enriching experiences. And then finally, preschool, right? Sending them off at the the foundation. Um there's probably other things that could be added. They could be rearranged. We

187could go more in depth, but I think that's the beginnings of a framework of what we're about. I think I mean, and I'll shut up now because I talked too long, but any Where's sponsor? I'll just say that I I really liked how Bianca presented um from what Dr. Donnie had done and that's something to share and I'd like to see what each principal has and that something very simple and that all staff can follow and and parents just by seeing oh okay this is this is the framework of how my how my kids are being taught at this school and definitely um yeah it's I mean I have one leaving the end and a grandchild starting. So with him, I'm I'm looking at, you know, what are all the enrichment parts after school? Um,

188and how Dr. Sandival mentioned, you know, if this is a a steam academy, will he have robotics um after school, does he have to only be in Aspire? Can a parent just have a child an hour for enrichment? And what are all the opportunities? and how does it align um with our budget and so that you know we're all being equal to all our campuses but it's a great start and thank you >> just I'll be real brief um first of all again there's just so much that we have to celebrate we really are doing the good work uh that that we we could probably do spend more time acknowledging all the things that we're doing well and each of you should feel really good about that and please take that to your your staff

189and your support staff and uh and your colleagues because that there we are an amazing school district. Um you know our our kids are valued here. We know that. Um that being said, we know that we're also talking about uh some underserved populations and we we have to talk about that. Sometimes it's not fun. Um, so I do apologize if I am a little bit of, you know, a little bit brash at times about being forward about what I see or some of the areas and concern. It's primarily because of firsthand experiences, you know, being in in the field, being a parent, being born and raised in the area. So again, it's it's not personal. It's just what I what I see personally for me, but I'm not trying to attack anyone individually, but I

190do appreciate um us being vulnerable and at least trying to um acknowledge where our areas of concerns are because when we do that, then that that puts away uh you know, it it it just takes a lot of the guessing out and it just really helps us stay focused and and really trying to reach our goal. So, thank you, Isizo. Yeah, it's exciting to see all of you. All of you I've seen at the school district as a student. I'm happy to see you on this side as well. I just want to say, you know, while the board is asking for data, we keep throwing terms around like data, data, you know, that's great. Um, but also remember to have collect your qualitative evidence as well. You know, we may see a big purchase on

191certain items. Please let us know if it's for basic needs. Please let us know if it's to get the student through a troubling situation. Please always just try to keep track of anything that can't be documented or translate well through a you know a presentation through an Excel spreadsheet. Try to have some sort of evidence to supplement that because I I know our board members are talking about you know cuts or cuts are coming soon but there are critical areas where we may not be able to translate data to very well. Um, it may not look like something we can't justify, but make sure you maintain that quality or quant qualitative evidence for us to reference when we want to justify the cost. >> So, I guess we're going down the uh the table here.

192So, I'll try to um yeah, I'll I'll just go ahead and acknowledge I know I've been very quiet today, but I've just been taking a lot in. It's obvious that there's a lot going on and you all are doing, you know, amazing work. It's very obvious that you're passionate and you care about the students, which is great to see. Um, I do want to bring it back to kind of where Dr. Sandival left off and and kind of reemphasize those sort of five I'll I'll call them pillars that he said instruction, connectedness, focus on special populations, engagement, opportunity. You know, I think a lot of what was discussed here today were, you know, obviously the the programs and all of the great work that you all are doing kind of at at that lower level.

193We've got the guiding light up on the screen. I would say and I would argue that those points that Dr. Sandival uh detailed are the are the intersection of that, right? And so maybe as sort of a next step because I I feel like this is maybe a first step in trying to formalize and maybe memorialize um maybe a more structured strategic plan. Start thinking about, you know, those things that you're doing and how they fit into those buckets. And you talked about too some of the the things that we didn't necessarily dive into as deep today, the CTE or the preschool. Yeah, they're important. inadvertent or not, they didn't rise to the top. I would think about that as well and think about, you know, why, you know, that necessarily wasn't a priority for

194someone to talk about today, whether that was because that was the direction that the board guided the discussion or, you know, again, for whatever reason, there were the things that you felt were important to talk about. Not to say that we want to neglect those things, but again, I I feel like it is important to have some introspection and think about, you know, why were those things at the bottom and and why were the things at the top that we did want to talk about. Um, yeah, I'm it's been said a couple times that there is a budget crunch. Um, yeah, and always thinking about how we're going to fit those priorities into the limited resources we have, I think, is just goes without saying, but I'll say it. But I do want to thank

195everybody. Um, every every time we get together, I learn more and more about the district, learn more more about what you all are working on and what your priorities are, and I'm just very very excited to move forward. So, thank you. >> I just wanted to say one last thing to the staff, right, that thank you for coming on a Saturday. you know, we don't get a lot of opportunities as a board to discuss these things amongst each each amongst ourselves and even less time to to discuss it with you guys and hopefully like it wasn't a complete waste of your Saturday morning, right? But I mean, the spirit is that collaboration, right? Which again, you know, we could tell you do X, Y, or Z, but what the hell do we know, right? I

196mean to be completely honest, you know, we're we're here representing the community and our roles. Um, and we each have our own expertise, but we're not the experts, you know, on on the whole thing. So, anyways, just wanted to acknowledge that. >> Okay. >> Well, this is this was a great start. Um, and this is one of a few more to come. We're going to next step form a committee, schedule more meetings in possibly another Saturday to discuss further if we can't roll it in into a >> or could it be during the week in the evening? during the week. >> Yeah. >> But yes, I that's that's first last resort would be a Saturday morning. But again, thank you for being here. And with that, um I believe there is a few more items

197on the agenda that I need to go through. just >> future meeting. >> Uh August 13th. >> Yeah. So, our next board meeting would be August 13th. And with that, we will adjourn at 11:33 Yeah. Heat. Heat. [Music]