Special Board Meeting - January 7, 2026

001us. >> Mark, are you hear us? >> Yes, I can hear you. >> Can we turn you? >> Um, what's >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, we're I'm just turning it up. Yeah. Sorry. >> Check. Check. One, two. >> How's that sound? >> Little louder. >> Can you hear me now? >> We can hear you. Can you hear us? >> Yep. All good. >> Okay. Excellent. We are live. >> All right. Are you recording? >> We're recording. Call to order the January 7th, 2026 special board meeting study session on strategic planning. Uh we'll start with the pledge of allegiance and then stay standing for the territorial land acknowledgement that finish. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God

002indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> And Tim will present our territorial land. I acknowledge that Santa Rosa City Schools is on the traditional territory and homelands of the Pommo people. Traditional territory and homelands of the Coast Miwok people and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. This land acknowledgement calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit. By offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Santa Rosa City Schools more accountable to the needs of American Indian and indigenous peoples. >> All righty. Today the special board meeting on strategic planning um as such for public comments is for our agenda items only which is the item C1 strategic planning. So

003I'm going to go ahead and we do have a few cards here. I'll call folks um by name and then you'll have three minutes and just um you know keep the comments to what's on the agenda. Uh, we're going to start with um Ethan Cosgrove, followed by Adina Flores, followed by Carol Christensen. Am I standing tomorrow >> at the round table? >> All right. Great. My name is Ethan Cro. I am a teacher at Spring Lake Middle School, which is for those of you who don't know. a 5-year-old going outside right now to be able to French American charter school and two three-year-olds who will undoubtedly go there as well. Um, uh, some of you may know that I've been really pushing for school consolidation because more money means more resources for our students, but

004really like the end goal is always what we're talking about today, just like academic excellence, right? People decide to move here or not based on their perceptions of our school of excellence, right? I was talking to a number of other parents and they were even like it's really something that you have to say like it feels like it's like such a clear thing but I think it is important to repeat right like everyone I talked to and again valuable we have Austin speak a lot right like the opportunity parents like we picked this specific neighborhood because of this specific school I grew up in a place in San Jose with exorbitant house prices that no one would ever move to unless their kid was fine like clockworth no one moved into my neighborhood in the

005entire 20 years I lived there unless they had a kindergartener or like a second grader, right? Because there's no reason to pay for those houses except for the school. They're there for the school. It is really important not only that we have excellence in our schools, but also that you the public knows, right? Perception when it comes to enrollment and parent decisions is essential. We can know that a school is exceptional, but if the parents don't know, then you will not see that enrollment they need. That being said, I've been looking at enrollment numbers. They're going down period, right? We need solutions that aren't just let's cut programs, let's cut programs, let's cut programs because long-term our revenue is going down, right? It's time to enrollment. Uh I'm sure you guys, but our 12th grade

006in Sonoma County right now has 5,400 students. So, the entire county of 5,400 students. Our first grade is 4,200 students, right? You can talk however you want about what's going to happen 15 years from now, but in the next 10 years like we're going to continue to see not just like small enrollment demand large enrollment declines, but we need to have solutions that support our students that we have that are not just like let's cut, right? And I appreciate everyone here working on that today and I'm glad that we are focused on the important things that serving our students even as they're trying to grapple with this fiscal crisis. Thank you. Uh, Dina Flores, followed by Carol Christensson, followed by Brenda Rodriguez. >> Uh, good evening, board of superintendent. I'm here this evening because a

007major part of the board's role is to ensure that the superintendent is doing their job. And one of the most important, the most important aspect of that is to keep students safe. And currently, you're not following mandated reported laws and you're very aware of that. So, children are in danger and there are uh sexual abuse cases that are happening that you're you're keeping quiet. So, you are mandated reporters. So, I would hope that that's discussed today during the strategic governance session because you are partnered and I'm the former executive assistant to this board and superintendent and I was forced out as a whistleblower. So, you are partnered with Losen. We used term in Hernandez as a consultant. And this is his nephew who was raped by Mr. Hernandez. >> Keep it. >> Yes. To act

008as mandated reporters. So when you have a man here who was raped by your consultant and I continue to prove that you have employees in your district that are involved with sexually abusing children and you do nothing about it, Mr. Casten, and I'm in court with your ex-wife, Aaron Carlstrom, who's defending child rape. Why are you a board president? It's not because you're here for the kids. You're here so you can move up so you can steal more money in the cannabis industry. So please, if you're not going to care about the kids, you need to go. You need to be recalled. You're not here for the kids because I've sent you how many emails with documentation that the DA is now looking into with children being raped. So we're going down to the sheriff

009and we're going to file a report because you're you're contracted with consultants that are, you know, raping children. So that's not okay. So God bless uh Mr. Gibble who's with me here today. He is the nephew of Herman J. Hernandez, senior LOM, founder of LOM. God bless you guys. I hope you find Jesus Christ. I pray for you every day. >> Carol Christensen followed by Brenda Rodriguez followed by Margie uh Braden. >> Good evening. Carol Christensen um math teacher career high school. Um dear board members, we'd like to begin with a simple question. If our goal is for all students to reach calculus, why don't we start every freshman in calculus? The answer is obvious. Students would fail. Not because they lack potential, but because success in math requires a strong foundation. And that principle

010doesn't just apply to calculus. It applies to math one, math 2, and math 3. >> Academic excellence is not box checking. by placing students into a courses into courses they are not prepared to be successful in. Excellence must include meeting students where they are so they can actually learn, grow, and succeed. Nationally, math achievement has declined where student disengagement, anxiety, and absenteeism have increased. Magn math anxiety is widespread because math is cumulative. Early gaps and impound quickly and become barriers for long-term successes. The pandemic worsened foundational gaps and technologies complicated the issues further. Rooks like photo map and AI can create false confidence. Students can generate answers without understanding, pass assignments without mastery, and then collapse when independent reasoning is required. And students are telling us clearly what they need. Time to learn, not just

011rush and fail. Hands-on experiences, real world applications, a math class where they don't feel lost every day. This brings us directly to the issue of non AWG math courses. Allowing non A3G math forces is not about lowering these standards. It's about acknowledging the reality and creating pathways that actually lead to success. We want students to graduate with three years of math, not using a waiver to complete only two years. Thanks, >> Brenda Rodriguez, followed by Margie Brad. >> Good evening. My name is Brenda Rodriguez. I'm a math teacher at Ro. But we truly believe students can reach higher level math and we must accept that not all students can follow the same rigid path or move at the same pace. We don't start freshman in calculus because we understand learning builds over time. Yet we

012often insist students stay in academically rigid pathways even when they are clearly not prepared. This is not rigor. This is misalignment. This misalignment is especially visible in how we are currently treating algebra with financial implications. This course was originally designed as an alternative option for a third year of math intended to keep students engaged strengthen qual quantitative reasoning and connect mathematics to real life decision-m is now being restructured to function as an equivalent to math 3 which significantly raises the level of rigor beyond the readiness of many students it was meant to serve. If students are prepared for math 3, they should enroll in math 3. Algebra with financial implications should instead be offered as a math elective taught as an accessible level where all students can be successful. Artificially elevating the rigor to ma

013mirror math 3 undermines the original purpose of the course and reinstates the barri barriers it was created to remove. Please direct that algebra with financial implications is offered as a third-year math course for graduation taught at a level that does not require meeting the UC math 3 standards. We want students who are not enrolling in math 3 to have meaningful accessible options for a third year of mathematics, not to be pushed toward requesting waiverss to avoid taking a third year of math altogether. The two-year introductory statistics course prepares students for community college statistics, which for many non- STEM majors fulfills their only college math requirement. This pathway is rigorous, aligned to real world post-secary outcomes, and should not be viewed as less than math. It's different, not inferior. This raises serious concerns about equity and

014communication. We're being told that students and families must attend a special meeting to enroll in statistics courses to ensure they understand UC eligibility implications. >> Are you braiding along and then other folks are lining up? We'll get the cards in and get you in line. >> I'm also a math teacher at Julio. So we have to ask where are UC admission requirements communicated consistently to all students and families? Where are the required notifications when students earn D's in A to G courses and quietly lose UC eligibility? Why is NAP being singled out for additional scrutiny and barriers? If transparency is truly the goal, it must be applied systemwide, not selectively, in ways that discourage students from enrolling in courses that may actually support their success. Finally, decisions that have been deliberately and collectively agreed upon,

015such as NAP 2 modeling not leading to MAP 3, must be upheld. These decisions cannot continue to change with staff turnover. This lack of consistency undermines trust. We need a decision-making structure that's reliable and enforced. There was a clear commitment to develop a summer bridge course before allowing students to advance to math 3 from the math modeling class. Without the support of that bridge course, students are not prepared for math to read as the course we are. Let us return to student voice because that is ultimately what we're about. Students are asking us to let them learn more slowly so they can actually understand. Let us take math where we don't feel lost from day one. Let us apply math to the real world. Let us succeed instead of repeatedly failing. Let us graduate. Most

016of us aren't going to four-year schools. Allowing non A to GM math courses answers that call. It's not about lowering expectations. It's about raising outcomes. If we want students to reach calculus or statistics or quantitative literacy or career readiness, we must stop equating academic excellence with rigid placement and start defining it by student success. Math should be a gateway, not a gatekeeper. We urge this board to reconsider the A to G practice for all in our district. Please support multiple math pathways, protect the integrity of alternative courses, and give students more than one way to succeed. Thank you. Adrian Cobert. >> Hi there. My name is Adrien Cobert. I'm a parent of a student of French American Academy. Uh I was made aware of this meeting rather late so uh I'm not fully aware of

017the uh the programs specific programs that are being discussed and that have been mentioned by some of the previous speakers but I'll just mention that from my perspective and from the perspective of our household academic excellence is the sole purpose of the school exists and achieving academic excellence and giving students who uh the freedom to choose and excel and achieve to their maximum potential. That's why we exist. And I hope that that's what we're all rowing for. And to that effect, that's one of the reasons why we chose to place our kid at French American uh charter school despite the fact that there is another school directly next to our house. Our house is actually right next to the Kit Street K through6 school. And I had a really nice uh you know interview or

018discussion with the principal of that school. that school's come a long way and they're doing great things there um given you know the hard hand that a lot of those students have developed and it's a pretty inspiring story but for us we wanted to make sure and we optimized for academic excellence and opportunities for our kid and that's why despite you know when I wash dishes at my kitchen I'm looking at the playground at K6 I could be watching my kid at this school but I'll choose academic excellence any day any time and so So that's why we go a little farther to placement French American because of the uh the record that that school has and so we're going to follow that and I know a lot of other parents will do the same.

019So uh thanks for holding this forum and interesting they to hear what other parents say not have any other cards um in the last moment to run. Okay, I'll go ahead and close public comment on agenda items. Uh we're going to move to the um we're going to move to the study session. Uh the study session is on strategic planning. It's in followup to our previous study session. Um for folks that uh up here have the governance handbook are we set five strategic planning um to gold. There you go. buckets um at our previous session. Um academic and enrichment, safety and security, fiduciary uh recruit, retain supports through the center of staff and communication. Over the next few months, we're going to be diving into each of these in order to define uh more clearly

020what they mean. And um today's is focused on academics and enrichment. We've asked Tim to facilitate. I'm let him introduce himself because I don't have anything in the department of asking you to introduce. I don't have any instructions. So, >> no, actually, um, so I'm just going to go ahead and just kind of a little outline for the board of of what tonight's going to look like >> and then I'll ask him to introduce him. >> Thank you. >> And Lisa and I are both intending to participate as participants. So um outside of the need for it will be facilitating um and the gavl will not be being used such. >> So I just want to call our um attention back to as a reminder that um you know I'm really appreciative of the opportunity

021that our board has taken uh for us to be able to do strategic planning this year. We started in July with beginning of those norms. Uh the next session was in September where we did this for work up here. Later on we'll do a gallery walk where we talk where we look at what as a reminder what was written around academic excellence. Um and so this is again as as uh Nick said this is the next step in addressing priority number one on the list which is academic excellence and the opportunities for enrichment for our students. And keeping in mind that all of this is as we are thinking about this, all of it is within the resources that we have available. And so ensuring that we are prioritizing how we how we spend those

022resources, not only the the fiscal side but the resource side. So as we look at capital around people, time all of that. Yeah, I'm Tim McClardy and I've done various things with the district in terms of led committees. I was as the uh school bond person running around helping to facilitate and then I've been most recently working with the board in the county. Um and then I've been working with the ed services department to try to achieve academic excellence. Um I think as was mentioned um it's very difficult to both lead a meeting and to be a participant and Nick and Lisa felt like they wanted to put their hats down about leading the meeting so that they can fully participate as an educator in the reverse. Even though I have lots of opinions on

023lots of educational topics, not for today. So my job is to be a facilitator and let me share with you what's going to be driving my work with you today. One is your governance handbook. I did read the governance handbook and I looked at some of your norms and roles and responsibilities. Um, some of those that really stuck out for me was that uh you have as part of the norms focusing strategically. Guess what? That's tonight. You're having a strategic discussion. And one of the most important elements of the strategic discussion is clear direction. And that's really what tonight is is for you as individuals and and then collectively to come up with direction before the superintendent recture for the staff. Um and there's really important differences between the board and the superintendent of the

024staff and staff is behind. Raise your hand staff so nobody can see you. Um their job is to listen carefully and to clarify your direction. uh their job then is to develop action plans and make sure they're presenting their progress on the action plans and are going back and forth. So that's sort of the dynamics that we have here tonight. Whenever you all decide for direction, they then pick up the ball and have develop an actual work. Four key words I saw in your governance handbook. honesty, open communication, clarity on expectations, and transparency. And in particular, some of you may have passion about your topics. We hope that that passion comes through. The other two words are active listening and questioning. So as you're talking about the passion that you think should be happening for

025the kids, it's then our job to actively listen and to clarify and make sure that we end up with a collective commitment on the part of the board as many of you as possible agree on a topic then that helps the staff know this is the direction we want to go. Uh just as a reminder on September 2nd you established five strategic buckets or five goals. Tonight's focus is on the academics and enrichment. And if you'll notice we brought back some of the artifacts. We're going to do some recovered memory. That was September 2nd. There's a lot of water over the bridge. So this is sort of what you said and there was a group three that did some work and then a group one and then Mark I know that I think that you

026have the screenshots for those so we're not forgetting about you and make sure Mark in my job as facilitator that you holler and make sure that Melanie lets me know that you have uh comments on the topic. Okay. >> Okay. Thanks. Yeah, I got I got the uh the hand the pictures. Thank you. >> Great. My apology if I spin my back to you. >> No worries. >> Notice that also and this sort of emphasizes what Lisa said. You put number one and number three together just as a reminder that when we have ideas, we have to put a calculator to it since we had discussions from the community about math. We always have to be mindful about math and and find out how much things cost. Um I thought that it might be useful

027tonight. I'm just going to throw this out as an option. I know Jeremy, I don't know how good your eyes are, but would you can you all see these from last time and let's just sort of revisit some of the highlights that you remember from the academics and enrichment and those are two areas. One is the academics like we were talking about tonight academics and then the other topic is enrichment. Uh there's some key words that you remember from last time that we want to remind people about and then later on in the agenda tonight we'll drill down into more details. Any key words or sentences that that resonate with any of you. So just for my two cents and to make sure this is said often and heard loud and clear with transparency is

028um the priority of this meeting tonight and the strategic planning. Every single session we have from here forward has to be done with fidelity of the lens of fiscal responsibility. Um, a penny ser save saved is a penny earned and there are a lot of great ideas and programs out there and available how we restructure and strategize to provide that academic excellence to our students. Um, but what I get wary with is a new program or the new car mentality of this is awesome, everybody's going to love it and it hasn't really played itself out yet. I don't want to be a district becomes a guinea pig as we're looking through these opportunities of the the new blackie program. Um and we become spending money working the kinks out that new program. So let's be

029very mindful of the situation we're in financially. Um and we're taking the proper steps to strategize and provide these opportunities that fiscally make sense and that our teachers support and can teach what we need them to teach. Um because if we're trying to put stuff out there that our teachers aren't ready for and they feel our students aren't ready for, then we have to put a lot more financial responsibility into training and getting people up to speed to try and put these things together. So, um I'm going to be the nag in the year of of fiscal responsibility and trying to make sure we stay on the right side of stabilizing our budget and the right sizing our district because I don't want to lose local control anytime soon. So as we get into this

030meeting needs to be on the forefront of our response as we have these discussions. >> So keep things in balance. Okay. >> Are there like in like volume seconds um this what are we supposed to come out of this meeting tonight? >> Yes. Um I'm going to turn that back to Nick and Lisa. um what is the leaders of both the board and and the district what would be the the products of tonight? >> I'll start with um I hope we recorded our last session from to be able to the conversation that led to where we are. So when we left the last strategic planning session, we committed to the new mission, vision, core values, equity statement, and strategic voice, which was actually quite a bit of work. You know, um I think everyone agrees

031that it provided a different direction and clarity. The goal here is to move start moving through a conversation on the five strategic goals that better defines them expresses our intent as a board is what they need mean as staff as moving forward with the campus and the community and as large in taking what we have for our resources and applying it to what we've set are our priorities. Um, and a part of that is going to be establishing measurable outcomes at a board level. we're looking we're looking to hold ourselves to um and and also add more clarity into what each of these very broad statements means. So some of this is continuing a top level conversation and because of our focus on financial matters for the last year. Um this is also an area

032the board as constituted now has not had a lot of time to talk about um and we haven't actually explored it as much as even safety or some of the other priorities. So, um, I think it's less defined where we end, uh, as much as it's important that we're having this opportunity to get better aligned ourselves about what academic programs mean. Um, and and to steal a little bit from your your question, Tim, you know, when I look up there, the words that are standing out to me are outstanding educational enrichment programs. What does outstanding programs mean? and we know we're going to have fewer staff, fewer programs at the end of the process we're currently in on a financial level. So, what does it mean to prioritize those programs that are remaining as being

033outstanding and being present? Um, and that's that's I think what our opportunity is here is we're about to make a lot of very important decisions impacting what an education looks like in the city. Um, and where we end with that by saying that excellence and outstanding is the end goal. What What is that going to mean at the end of that? That's my long- winded version. I'm sure Lisa has something more concise. >> Well, and I'm going to take it a little more literally and and boil it down a little bit, which is there are a few categories that we're looking to get some consensus on to get yes, this is where we're headed. thinking um attendance and enrollment goals, you know, those we have some recommendations around um framing priority one, that's what we're

034going to talk in a minute. Um but elementary and elementary academic goal setting, so a goal each for elementary and secondary related to specifically um academic excellence and then also a goal for each of those related to enrichment. And so that overarching goal then helps us to know okay here are the ways that we get to that. So it's kind of the the first step in that if there are particular things that are a priority that the board can um we have a collective here's something that's really important to us. Um, we'd want to make sure that we understand that as we're moving forward with kind of our next phase as we're looking at how do we winnow what we have or we've been trying for years to do everything everywhere and we really have

035to narrow that focus to be able to do something very well. Um, you know, a few things very well and at particular school sites also really narrowing that the focus that we that we provide. um making sure that each of those opportunities are um you know robust. >> And with these goals, is there a particular time frame of accomplishing them that has been discussed? >> Believe when we were talking in September, I think we talked about strategic planning about a five-year plan. Pretty typical. >> Yeah. Re recognizing that our previous workshops, we've committed to an annual pacing of strategic planning. So rolling fiveyear uh planning cycle where we're we're not just putting the plan on a shelf for 9 year >> where you >> so this is a very well-meaning opportunity to discuss this and

036granted it's overzealous to say where do we want to end at the end of tonight um I think I would like some more clarity on what direction does the team need from the ward tonight for things to get done now because we are in a very now state of how things need to happen. And as well and good intended as having a strategic plan to be rolled out over the next 5 years, we have to make a lot of really important decisions now to make sure we are financially solvent and that we are preparing schools like we've heard from the families tonight that they want to send their children to and that they are neighbors who want to send their children to. Um, so what direction do you and the staff need from us tonight

037which will be helpful for us to focus on to make sure we get some questions answered. So that that's great and it and it really is a good point about changing how we look at things that we do need to be looking not only short term we need to look at the long term to say okay here's where we want to end up so that we are making the steps that we need to along the way to get there. So, I think that that will come out as we as we go through the process tonight and where we need to get some additional direction or really narrow anything down, we'll we'll be working with you asking for some specific feedback where, you know, should the conversation go in a way that sounds maybe a little

038too nebulous for us to be able to to know where to go. Um, and what we want to be careful about is we want to make sure that we aren't being so focused on the near term that we create knee-jerk reactions. And so that's what tends to happen, especially in a budget crisis or also when you have excess funds. And I will say that's we're kind of dealing with the effects of that of having the excess funds and and nature needing to respond to a crisis. We need to slow down a little bit. Yes, we have immediate issues to be addressed with that long-term goal in mind. And so how do we get from here to there? as we heard from our teachers mainly um the shifts and the changes in priorities or direction or

039availability of certain um curriculum. As a parent of children have gone through prek through college at this point um I cannot stress enough the importance of consistency and proper scaffolding throughout that K through 12 educational experience. that we are not providing our children with the proper educational foundation at a primary level and they're not ready for what they need to learn at a secondary level and they're not prepared what they need to learn at a college level. Um and making sure that communication is aligned with our Peter districts as well since we are not the only elementary district down and all of the elementary districts feed into our secondary program. So, um, having those proper conversations of what's really important for San schools and then opening those conversations up to our Peter districts of this

040is what important, this is what's going to be offered at our secondary programs, this is what we're doing with our primary programs to get there and we work together and align certain priorities. And I if I say that, you know, when it says outstanding to me, outstanding in this content of stuff that's providing results and is actually showing students succeeding. Um, I think at the core of like what I would like to see us as a district do is really focus at that primary level that what you said, that foundation of reading and math really early on. like how can we minimize what we do so we really focus on building that foundation. I I mean in the long term hopefully we see the results but like how can we do better? I mean and

041and get rid of everything that we really is maybe too much and focus on that um because I think that's what we need to focus I think longer term um in terms of that because that's it includes English language development but I think language development is really important. I would love for us to get to a point where we offer dual immersion at all our schools outside of the chart. Um, but I think that's longer term, but it starts with that basic English and math um development. I think those are the two core basic foundation setting things that we really need to focus on. I >> think we have returned to the agenda. So, I'm going to pass it back to him. >> Yes. Um, I want to make sure everybody get their comments similar

042to >> I did just want to mention um kind of piggybacking off of what Jerry said originally. Um, I personally have no intention and don't really want to hear about anything new. I'd like to We're doing so many things. Well, they need to be expanded and focused on um so new just as dollar signs and throwing things at the wall and I would like to focus on what we're doing well already. >> I would echo that. I don't actually see the word new up there. Um, you know, so I don't I and and I echo I think a lot of this is about what is it that we are intentionally doing out of what we're currently doing >> versus the good things that we're doing that we're not intentionally doing. And you know when I

043think specifics languages to me um is something that we are already doing very well. A lot of it is behind charters, which is not the right place for us to necessarily have all of our language programs, but it's a place where we're doing something very well that our district should be leaning into. Um, you know, and I think for today, if we I agree, it's not about new ideas and new things. I think the problem is that we've started lots of new things. >> What is it that we're focusing on to do intentionally? So, as we move through these financial decisions, we've laid the foundation for them to be five-year investments that we kept, we invested in, and they truly are excellent. >> Okay, Mark, I didn't want you to not have an opportunity to

044comment. >> Sure. Um so yeah what stand out again uh echoing some of what's already been said but uh the yeah academic excellence and academic educational academic excellence uh for sure um I I just want to make sure that when we're going through this and I think Nick or someone had brought it up uh that we make sure we attach some measurable outcomes and metrics to things so that we can actually see and figure out are we succeeding? And um lastly, I know you know we talk up there it says academics and enrichment and just I guess anecdotally if when I've been in the classrooms you know and actually talking with the students and they while yes they they recognize math and and English as extremely important obviously and those two things are measured by

045testing and whatever but that they it's actually the enrichment programs that keep the students engaged and and wanting to come to school. So, it's also just an important part of that. I know it it yes it does cost money for those programs and but you know the students need we need the students to want to come to come to school and and stay engaged while they're there. That's that's if my comments. >> Thank you Roxan. any comments that you wish to make on this topic before we shift? >> Um, I guess I just want us to keep in mind that even if we're focusing on academics and enrichment, it none of these can really be viewed in isolation. Everything is intertwined. I mean, as a teacher, one of the biggest challenges I see with academics

046is being able to effectively use instructional time, you know, and that means that teachers aren't constantly dealing with behavior. So, that goes to safety and security. Um, and then that also goes to recruiting, retaining, and supporting staff. We need teachers who know how to manage behavior. We need to support those teachers. We need structures um for when a student does need to be referred outside of the classroom. >> Yeah. >> So everything ties together. >> So keeping things in balance is important. >> Um just to give you um um sort of a preview of what we have for focus, a number of you have commented on metrics. We're going to show you some metrics in just a few minutes, but not right now because I think it sort of distract the conversation. And the next

047topic we have is to discuss um the attendance and enrollment goals. So, we're shifting from sort of the general to both attendance and enrollment. And then Stacy is going to make a brief presentation to you um to see if um uh we have enough direction from the board to Stacy in regard to attendance and u enrollment. after that area then we're going to shift to sort of the academic enrichment in more details and we'll get much more granular sacy. >> So I'm going to begin with attendance because attendance is a arguably simpler me in terms of measurement and easy to to kind of take a look at. Um, we set a goal for ourselves for the 25 to 26 school year for all schools to reach toward a 96% average daily attendance. This is a

048goal um that is foundationally built on um the fiscal stability because we know that when you get close to 96% you are generating revenue as opposed to just meeting the needs of the students that are there. Um, all of our schools have created individual goals because each school is starting at a different place. Just like you would think about in an English or a math classroom, you have some students that are, you know, very highly um achieving, there are some schools who are already close to, if not over the 96%. Um, however, all of our schools are working on individual goals about how they are going to move from where they are now, getting closer to 96%. Um, we looked at the P1 ADA comparison because that is a clean way to compare apples to

049apples. And so we pulled up the average daily attendance from August of 2024 through the end of November 2024 and we compared that to August of 2025 to uh you know November the end of November 2025. What we see is that our elementary daily attendance is pretty level. there has been a very slight decrease with the elementary when we're thinking about A3 and uh 46 but um it's a very small little bubble they were at 94.5% in daily attendance last year this year it was 94.09 09. So, a slight bubble, but less than um you know, not a huge amount. Um the seventh and eighth grade average daily attendance actually improved from last year. P1 last year was 93.5. This year it's 94.2. And at the 912 level, we also saw an improvement this year

050where last year it was 92.9. This year it's 93. Again, very tiny little bits of improvement, but the improvement is there. Individual schools are making smaller or larger gains. And we are supporting those schools with their goals and looking at not only working individually with students and families, but also working with the school itself, trying to create a culture and an awareness of the importance of attendance. Can I just ask real quick in in aside from just knowing that there's an absence, I assume we collect data that indicates why there's an absence and are the schools using that to better improve their >> um the information that is available to schools includes not only looking at average daily attendance and the reason for absences, but it also includes an attention to students who may be

051falling into chronic absenteeism or truency. All of this data is used strategically at the school level either at their tier one or tier 2 meetings. Different schools will call these different things. They might call it their cost or their SIT. Um, but these are strategic teams of educational leaders on campus who are trying to identify students who might be at risk for either starting to struggle or falling into areas of greater struggle. And they use that information to identify and prioritize different kinds of services for different kinds of students. Um Stacey, we have a robust enough plan at the district level that we're providing to our sites. I know we had a really heavy emphasis on um attracting and retaining high attendance at the beginning of the year and we seem to see some pretty

052good numbers when school started. Um are we sending out a district level plan of here good things to do and keep doing and reminding them to keep doing them because we know consistency is key. um or is it kind of that at the site level sort of to figure this out? >> Um the focus on attend on attendance does shift throughout the year. At the beginning of the year, it is really about helping families develop um healthy relationships and understanding of the importance. As we go into this time of year, we shift our focus a little bit. There's a um a lot of attention paid right now on when you a family might want to call their kid in sick. What are the criteria for is my child sick enough because it's cold and flu

053season. So we kind of shift the focus to helping families understand is this is this the right moment to call their child in. But right now rather than focusing on the um the challenges, we are also looking at the um uh trends like do we have families who are seeing um behaviors that are um unexcused or unexplained absences or excessive medical absences and each one of those have different responses. So that's really the focus at this time. A little bit later, the attention shifts to um those kinds of intervention programs that might be needed if the lower level interventions aren't working. Has there been any gains in um what we received last year from some great parent recommendations of evening with uh local medical community as far as appointment setting and um having appointments for

054students outside of school hours? Have we had any connections on that front to date? >> More through families having families ask for those appointments. We have not yet had an opportunity to set up the appointment with the Kaiser and the Sutter and and those programs. We have not had the opportunity to do that yet. So, that is still a a pending task. It has not yet been done. >> So, I appreciate the shifting of the strategies. I just ask that we stay aggressive throughout those shifts because 96 is a great goal. We're not quite there yet. and whichever part of the season you're in, you remain um aggressive with your approach to help families get booked into school. >> Fancy question. Um since this has been our goal for two years and we're flat in

055our in our data, is this the right goal for us to be looking at as a board to spur the types of innovation and action to get change? >> Um let me clarify two things. Number one, um it was not our goal for 96% last year. Our goal was to improve. This year we did name the the specific target. Um and while the overarching number when you average all of the schools looks relatively flat, we have had schools who were low who have made pretty significant improvements. When we remember that a 1% improvement is about a million dollars, we have individual schools who have made more than 2% growth in these areas. So, it's difficult when you're looking at data of 20 different individual sites. It might look flat. It's really not flat. There's a

056lot of dynamic change. So us moving this from a cabinet goal to a board goal could continue to spur the positive. So we looking at the right figure. >> Yes. >> You have a question. >> Yeah. I think um so um it's not clear. So is that or are we as a board looking to establish a number like that 96% or something? And my other question, you know, because when I look again at academic like enrichment and excellence or whatever, um, we don't know what's going on outside of the classroom and students lives impacting how they succeed there. And, um, I know that we've been working on this idea of the community school model. Um, I don't know if that's been stalled given our situation. I know we got grants and stuff like that, but

057we talked about right now like doctor's appointments. And for me, my understanding one model of that is like there's doctors on campus as part of that model where students don't leave school, right? They get their appointment there on campus through partnerships. Um, are we still working towards that community school model that could impact attendance? >> Yes, the community school model is being implemented right now. Um, this is year one of the implementation grant at four of our elementary schools, but this is year one of a five-year implementation plan. >> So, only in our correct um when you look at to be eligible for the community school, you needed over 80% you an unduplicated group count. And when you look at our secondary schools, we we're not going to be competitive, but four of our elementary

058schools are. >> And I'm just because we'll need to make sure that we're staying within our time frame, but just with community schools. You don't have to have a grant and it doesn't have to be formalized. There are other ways that we can address this. Well, >> let me just say the value of us as a board spending less time on the macro goals strategy. Then was the ability for each of these individual tactics and programs that can lead towards them to be prioritized by staff as they're talking about what to bring to us for funding or proposed cuts or proposed grant writing. So um you know the community school model granted versus the community school model if it's achieving these goals and it doesn't have a grant but still the right thing to do

059is first solved by us setting the goals that would lead to the ability to make those decisions. So, I know I know our desire is to talk about the detailed specifics, especially the last year of having to be be really in the weeds on those details, but using this time to be give that macro and big direction will help everyone's ability to make decisions as we're moving forward over these next few months. And I think I think just just to add on on this specific um academic goal, I think that community school model could really help towards achieving that. And I think there's a lot of agencies and organizations in that community that have resources that share the goals and interests that would help us and our community in in this. and they just working

060to better collaborate and build those partnerships at hopefully little to no cost to us um would be great. Earlier there were some comments about the purpose of tonight and I mentioned about strategic direction and one of the reasons that we brought attendance up is that I could ar argue that attendance isn't a really strategically important thing for school districts because when you don't have students in the seats they're not learning and we're not making money for their money. So the reason that we brought attendance up is it's you know it's sort of an easier topic and um maybe there was a clarification that last year there wasn't a strategic metric of 96%. So as the facilitator I'm sort of calling for the question uh do you want to set a number a district line for

061attendance rates and then are there some additional metrics that you want to know about particular programs that are being effective. Uh this also gives staff the opportunity to know what further information do you desire to hear about regarding this attendance area. >> Yes. >> Um so my personal opinion is is that I think that we should have a goal. However, um I think like the work to that goal is so incredibly important. Um so when we talk about the partnerships with for medical offices and um specifically therapy offices also um making sure that kids have access to those during school hours because that's when people work. Um that's not been taking a hit on our ADA numbers. um parent meetings because it's not only about educating the school but also parents do want to support

062the school environment that their children are in and if they don't know how to best support that then we're we're missing too. So, it's constant education about ADA and about uh independent study projects and what it means. The I was a little bit concerned when there when Stacy made a comment about the like the the conversations with parents about when to send your kids and when not to send when they're sick. Because as a parent, I'm like, "My kids's sick. they're if they're not going to be at their best at school, I would like to keep them home if I can, but that's not always a possibility as a parent. Also um the other one was oh there was one other thing on oh what was mentioned by the teachers earlier during um public comment

063it is so incredibly important it all goes together but for the students to be succeeding and hooked at school or else they're it falls flat like they're not going to show up if they can be hooked somewhere else and succeeding but the comment about ag was um spot on earlier. >> I think for me our goal >> should always be 100% attendance, but I think the the way that it makes sense to me for both says maybe like improvement like school should improve by two or 3% per year I think would be more realistic because like our goal should always be 100% in my opinion. So, so I think how we frame what the goal is I think maybe might be different. Sure. >> I'm in full support of a percentage number as a goal,

064but I really need to know what's stopping us from getting there. What's stopping those families from going to school? Are there hurdles that we don't have the ability to help them overcome? Are there things that we can be doing differently and offering to help that that I'm all for setting a goal. That goal has to be achievable. So, I feel like there needs to be a little bit more information of what do our families need to get to that goal and do we have an ability to offer assistance on that path for that to be reachable? 100% yes, that's a great goal. And of course, we want all our kids showing up to school every day, but why are they not? I need those questions answered. And is there anything we can do as a

065board and as a district to help bridge that gap? Um, so I think it's important for us to set a specific number today to spur that very analysis. I think if we say our goal is 96%. We're spurring a gap analysis of what are the programmatical changes that are going to get that next 2%. If we say 98% that could that analysis could be different in what it comes back. I I feel like 96 is achievable because we're we're in the 93 94s. We're a little flat, but we're seeing progress in places. A 2% gain when we're looking one, two, three years in the future feels achievable, but also a stretch, which was the sign of a good goal that spurs the very analysis we ask people for that could then lead to us figuring

066out if there's innovative things. I think for me, everything that's been said is important for looking at that and I put a huge exclamation mark next to independent study. Uh I think educating on both the short-term and long-term elements of independent study is a huge opportunity towards this goal for us to explore. And I'd also add in our the importance of our enrichment aspect of this. I view this as a goal that is contributed to both from the academics and the enrichment. Students who are succeeding academically are going to be motivated to show up. students who have enrichment opportunities that motivate them on the campus are going to be motivated to show up. Um so I I I like this school because it speaks to both the academic and enrichment component um of the strategic

067priority. >> Would it be easier in terms of numbers if you had sort of a response from uh from Stacy regarding maybe the action plan? In other words, not all the number, but you're looking at some kind of an action plan because I know that there's a strong action plan. Stacy showed it to me today. It's a school by school. Um, it's it's intentional. And so, if that would be a useful board presentation coming up, that might help us come up with a number if the number is what you're looking for. I'm not necessarily concerned with the number, especially this is our we're four months into a year with a number. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath squatter in the middle of the year. Like, let's see where we end

068up with that. If this is the year we've set that number at the goal and what did we do well and what did we miss? What mark did we miss to get to the number? So, I don't mind I don't think we need to go back and forth on what that number is. We said 96% this year. That's what it is this year and we're going to say she's doing a great job. Yes, it would be good to see that action plan. It would good be good to hear is there anything the board can do to support that action plan. Um is there any community advocacy we can be involved in um to support pieces of that action plan and how we show up and how we communicate and how we help educate our community

069and parents so they can, you know, really see the highlights of what's important about that plan. um and have those the more you educate us, the more we can help go out and educate the community and ultimately get those students into the seats u where we all want them. So, I mean, as far as a number, we don't have to go back and forth on it. We set one, let's stick with it, see where it lands. Um and continue to be really aggressive with that action plan and ask for help where needed so we can be fully supported by it. We don't have anything. Um, say somebody misses a bunch of school at the beginning of the year. Is there any way they they make up those things after the fact? I see a nod

070and a and a shape next to each other. >> Yes. Laws have changed to allow attendance recovery programs. We are not currently running an attendance recovery program at this time. And I think that's part of the Yes. No. Um that is a growth area that we can pursue. Is there a reason why we have not or are not? >> It's a compliance issue that we have programs that we've established but realizing the um there are pieces that we're missing to be compliant to be able to claim that. So it's again with the planning and the rolling out for next year what we know now some oh okay we thought that we could do this as we have in the past where we had our night school for example as one area that we thought that

071we could do that with we would have had to start it earlier in the year. So there are pieces >> we've learned some stuff exactly exactly so new legislation there's we can now address it better as we move forward. So, >> and not to like go into, >> you know, a new program and more money, but is that something that is feasible? Like, is that something that >> that's something that we've done specifically with restricted funds for at for students who are at risk? So, that's what we're trying when we're doing this. That's what we have to be really cognizant of is making sure that we're providing something that is going to be of value to students academically and also of value to the district that we're going to get that bang for the buck

072as far as where we're where we are concentrating those resources. So that's part of our you'll see when we get into our next piece with how we do sunflower met trucks. And I'd also say that by us setting this as one of our priorities as a board, it's going to define our agendas, >> right? >> So we're going to get into all these conversations because we're setting as a priority today. >> So that's that's a part of our goal too for our work plan is >> we're this is a priority. So now all of these are the things that priority for space on repeat. >> So it's it's a facilitator. I just want to remind you that it's about um 6:30. We've been going for about an hour minus our opening conference. Um we're on

073our first item and um I wanted to see knowing that we're not going to, you know, we're not going to finish everything tonight. Um but I did hear some possibilities. Uh one, uh stick with the number whether it's 96 or something like that. uh we need to maybe in future meetings hear something about the action plan and current uh three talked about future programs that might be available because part of being strategic is once you hear information from in this case Stacy you're going to have a response to that and almost what you're setting up by the time you hear board agenda you're setting up next year's program the earlier you address this. So, is this is is the staying with the 96% having Stacy come back with some kind of an action plan which

074includes future programs. Would that be useful as a summary for this topic or are there some other things that I miss? >> I like staying with the 96%. I like the action plan. I also want to hear data on why students are missing school, especially the ones who are missing school because school sucks and they hate it. Maybe a breakdown of why it sucks and they hate it and that can go into the action plan. >> Concurrens on that vision. Yeah, >> I think in in the secondary especially, you know, disengagement. Um I don't know if we're able to see, but like obviously students miss the grades drop sometimes is it when the grades drop and then students start to miss because they become disengaged if that could be somehow looked at to see if

075that might be a cause. >> There are some wonderful evaluative groups that are looking at addressing barriers. So, yes, >> as a facilitator, I'm sort of visualizing myself as the net on a tennis court. And so, I'm gonna sort of turn this way to Stacy. Um, what is it that you need from the board when we're talking about an action plan? Do you need anything uh refined, clarified? No pressure. Um I think that um a couple of the things that we have seen this year is the attention to the alternative educational models that allow students who may be facing some of the specific types of barriers that are preventing school. Um that has been very helpful. the attention to um independent study, the online independent study program and the um freedom to be able to

076develop those types of programs. >> So you put that in the action plan. >> Yes, that would need to be in the action plan. >> To clarify, >> um just so that when we leave this topic, >> do you have the information we need from the board about what would be an action plan based upon the conversation? I believe I have enough. Okay. >> Did you have another topic beyond attendance enrollment? >> Yeah, we were going to do a very brief discussion of enrollment. >> Mostly based on I think you know your concurrence on it. Um we didn't catch Mark. I'm sorry. >> He doesn't have his hand raised but we can check with him. >> You're good Mark. >> Sure. Yeah. I just quickly I I'm I'm in agreement on the 96%. I would

077just add a caveat that those schools that have already reached 96% maybe say 96% or an increase of 1% uh for their attendance goals. Also, uh yeah, really I know I brought up the attendance recovery program probably two months ago, so I really want to see that in our action plan. And just as I I went back and reviewed the California Attendance Guide, the CD website, you know, they they really stress the importance of uh trying to track down the chronic absenteeism causes and then, you know, pre presenting solutions to get those students back in. Um that's all I have on today. Thanks for the thing that that I'd like here is like you know we could be like dictating this down but I think what are our sites that asking for in terms of

078support like if we're just saying do this but we're not providing support what are they asking for how are we providing or what others that they need to help achieve these goals very >> okay um just quickly about enrollment especially as we start thinking about our true goals of academic excellence and um enrichment activities to think about when we think about enrollment we are capturing between 50 or 60 to 40% of our students uh that live within our boundary and that depends on you know elementary, middle and high school and that is mostly due to a family choice to attend the charter schools outside of the district and you know like we can go a little bit more in detail but you know like if you can think about which charter schools we don't operate

079right and they are operated by our you know neighboring districts um all those students you know families decide to apply and attend these charter schools um and those are outside of you know like an interd district transfer process and so on and I think our interd district transfer process accounts for very minimal number of transfers out, right? Or students that don't attend our district. >> Just clarify, >> I'm hoping I heard you wrong. Um, did you say between 40 and 60%? We're only capturing 40 to 60% of the kids in our area for our schools >> depending on the school attendance area. Yes. So there is >> so we're missing >> half of our students >> close to this number. But you need to understand these districts and we're not we don't have a very

080heavy footprint in the primary districts in the city. >> That comes into >> and it all depends right. So you know like if you think about um you know Rosland and their middle and high school offering they retain a lot of their students. So if you look at that attendance area you know like we are not able to capture a lot of students that decide to attend you know Rosland accelerated and then the Rosland University right and so but then you know if you look at a place like Ron Valley for example we are able to capture you know close to you know 85 90% of the students live within the boundary so there is variation across the city and depending on where the charter school offerings are right you could you know like kind

081of like imagine like which schools pull more from our attendance boundary. Right. Right. >> And then what we can start saying is like why is a family choosing right to attend and apply for a charter school and what should we offer instead as an option right on our side. So to just to clarify what and for tonight I'm really thinking of district aggregated members because I anticipate the numbers that we talk about turn into specific campus plan. >> Exactly. We all figure out what's appropriate. So what is what would the district aggregated enrollment attraction and is that inclusive of our dependent charters capturing students that would have leaked otherwise? >> No. No. So those count as separate are going out from our traditional sites. When I'm thinking of a goal number here, I actually think

082of our independent charters as one of our best ways, essentially as a safety net, to make sure we actually keep our students that are looking for those alternative opportunities. So, I'd like to have a number that is inclusive of the charters, our dependent charters that were that's enabling us to stretch and address this gap. And it's sounding like a much bigger gap than I originally thought. >> Yeah. So >> this is now like I mean this you just turn this into like my most important >> goal on the strategy. >> I just don't see enrollment as relevant to this specific issue like I think enrollment is a whole separate issue. I think we focus on academic excellence and enrichment that would then serve as enrollment but enrollment doesn't apply to this. So that's exactly why

083enrollment is such an important indicator and measurable is because if we focus on the academic enrichment and the um academic enrichment opportunities and we're doing those things it should lead to higher enrollment because we're doing the things that are motivating. So for me this is clearly a important measure of whether or not we're succeeding. >> Yeah. And and I think that when we had the conversation in September I think that enrollment was included as one of the conversation pieces that we had. don't remember if it got captured up there specifically, but I remember it being part of we kind of lumped it in with the academics and enrichment for for that reason. Um, so just wanted to point that out and I think that's a a really good point that maybe we come back with

084a more specific um enrollment goal as as far as what that looks like. I know we had talked generally about wanting to make sure that we have that net of, you know, an equivalent number of the students that we believe live in our district boundaries, but it sounds like that's a real stretch goal. >> And that neutral is what I was hoping we could set, but yeah, it doesn't sound like that'd be realistic. And so like I think I mean I think it's really important for this to be a goal that we're setting to judge how our academic programs and enrichment programs are attracting retraining students. >> I think if we set net neutral we setting a realistic goal based on that >> but I I do think it's important for what we're doing to

085be a district-wide goal that you're then able to translate into the site goals and I think it's important for it to be inclusive of the innovative programs we have in our dependent charts. >> Yeah. Well, I also >> I also think that in order to truly contextualize this piece of data, we have to um take the time to look at that over time longitudinally. >> Is this 40 to 60% something that has always been the experience or is this representative of a decline? and is a 40 to 60% relative to what other districts also experience. So I think that just looking at this without the context of what were we doing 3 years ago um I I think it's it's not enough information yet. >> Well, do we have that information? It seems like we

086should have that >> not historical. And also the other thing you also to keep in mind is that post pandemic we know that a lot of families have decided to um homeschool more just because after that experience they figured out that they can actually do it more and that's you know across the country right there is a declining around an increase in alternative to traditional inerson education >> but don't they still have to be linked to something so >> they don't have to really difficult because um the only people that have this data is pretty much the state >> if the data is reported to the state and they don't share it back to us. So the data this one is based on the demographic study that the county uh conducted as part of our

087demographics projections. So that was the closest that we have a county census of where our students that live within our boundaries are. Chairman, >> another key piece I'd like you to focus on when you get into that work is um geographical opportunities. So, when you're talking about students within our boundaries, you had brought up Rosland >> um and you had brought up Rink Valley, there are different geographical institutional opportunities in the Rosland neighborhood that are not available in the So, it's very important that you looked at those factors as you're deciphering this data and information. And we're being realistic with our goals and with our opportunities. Um, if there are two different high schools to go to in the same neighborhood, those students in that neighborhood have a choice of which one they want to

088go to. When they feel best fits their family opposed to Rita Valley, there's eight in a school where you live, then you may want to go there. >> I'm just curious if we have um a core analysis of why we are having such has anybody done any in-depth analysis? I know through the county sponsored some surveys of parents, but was that one of the areas that was looked there? >> I think there's some >> there was some data, but I want to actually would like to sorry to moderate button, but >> I I'm hearing a need for all of that to come back fully contextualized. >> Yeah. And and I the the importance I see in this goal is like if homeschooling is a notable thing, our work on our ISP program becomes a huge

089priority. If Rosal University thinks having a collegic is I mean there's a lot of strategy decisions that come from us being able to establish what this goal is sooner than later. But um there quick answer is yes but not everyone seen it you know because I think it was done by you and >> yeah I I just um I must say that as a facilitator I did feel the barometric pressure from the right of me including myself changed rapidly when you gave the numbers and that sort of means to me that maybe there's some attention to the core issues that might be leading to that remember for all the factors that you talked about. So strategy-wise, is this a topic that you wish to come back to with a fuller analysis sooner rather than later?

090>> Absolutely. I mean, >> it challenges the very nature of the narrative that demographic trends is our sole declining normal child. >> Yeah. Um I mean it's the you know and I feel like some of us instinctually have talked about it but this is the data we need to understand >> but unless we know the wise I don't think we can prioritize that conversation on enrollment unless we know why they're leaving >> right so is it because we our schools don't offer what they need then that's something else to prioritize. Would the recommendations coming back to you be about is there any lowhanging fruit that one would act upon to try to change that opportunity? >> Yes. >> So is there any other focus that you want on that enrollment now that your attention has

091been raised? >> Well, I do kind of feel bad for cutting you off um mid presentation. Was there was there more that you were going to add? I got really distracted by the numbers. >> No, that's that was that was pretty much it. Like the focus at the work as we as we, you know, think about our programs and these programs that we want imagine and burning off, right? It's like looking also at what happens in our, you know, neighborhood, >> you know, on on the, you know, on the other lawn. Mark, how are you doing on this topic? >> No, I'm I'm good. I mean, well, I'm not good. I not happy with the number, but yeah, I'm concerned as well, but looking to looking for the numbers to come back more defined. Yep.

092>> I think I think that district, it's just so integrated. They're feeding those people. It's like as a family the understanding is yeah that's the next step that's where you go right it's not like they're choosing it's like that's what's kind of like being ingrained into the language so I just I think it's it's a unique situation there but >> that's sorry I didn't mean to cut you off but that's often times what those unified districts do right like you go to an elementary school you go to the middle school and then you go to the high school that's just what you do but sometimes when we're like broken up like we are. I'm not going I'm sorry. I did not mean to start that tangent, but like I see that I see that thought

093process and other districts as well. >> They're not a unified district, >> right? >> Let me um let me call your attention to the fact that it's about 10 minutes to 7. The next item that we had is sort of a bit of a shift, but as Roxan said earlier, everything's integrated. So as we look at gosh we're not capturing as many kids as we could possibly what could that be one of the reasons would be academic excellence maybe people are not perceiving things as being as excellent as they would prefer and that enrichment opportunities and so we're sort of segueing into that spot. One of the things that I'm going to suggest is that when we look at academic excellence and we look at um uh enrichment opportunities, when we're talking about a strategic

094plan in a district, you also have the local control plan that you worked on, the staff has worked on. And we were talking earlier about not having metrics. And so Lisa has a number of metrics that we currently have that if you actually had Stacy pull up all all the metrics that we capture um all the student data it would you'd lose the will to live. There are so much data that we have on so many schools on so many types of kids. We're not going to get into that tonight but we think that you should be familiar with these metrics and All right, Dr. Castro, we will give you a quick overview. After a quick overview, we might suggest a break and then we switch into um the elementary achievement part of this. Um

095um so Dr. Tastro giving us just an overview and let me tell you the purpose of this. The purpose of this is to make sure so this is a little homework task for you I think as Dr. Castro is going through the list. If you have an interest in knowing more about these topics, how we'll be doing what is um if you could mark that for us, then we're going to collect them for you. Uh and what you mark might do things that come back to you in the board report, whether it's the LCAP revision coming forward or any other uh uh interest. So, um, Dr. Pastor, if you could give us a quick review, that'd be great. >> If anybody, I'm sure all of you have heard of the California dashboard and, um, and

096some of you may have heard of, which is the the federal law and at the state level, we have a response to that which um quite simply looks at the California dashboard and that is the other half of the LCAP. The LCAP actually is um are the metrics that are used actually to build out the um LCAP. So um every year we sit down in educational services and we review these metrics. It's something that's very important to us and it's actually something that's required. So when we I was listening to the conversation about the importance of metrics and educational services is something that drives our work every single day. Um when we build the LCAP, actually when we build a three-year LCAP, we actually have to identify metrics and then set yearly and then um

097three-year um goals. And so each one of the metrics that you're looking at down the left side, 1.1 all the way down to 1.21, has an established metric for the year and then a a three-year goal. This LCAP then is not only something that we hold ourselves accountable to, but our county office of education actually reviews. Dr. Heft, if I could also interrupt, and I apologize. It's important to note, I am putting on my educator hat. Um, in one of my last positions, I was responsible for collecting all this data. This isn't just data that the state collects. When they collect this data, third-party vendors then use that data and then they rate schools. So if you've looked at online and you say how do schools rate that data comes from here and so this

098is very important for us to this is as much an accountability plan as it is a marketing plan and the better we do with the students the better our schools are characterized in these third party web >> absolutely talking about the dashboard this is something that any individual that's looking to shop around for a school is going to can pull up and see whether or not school has um a designation for example or what they look like um whether or not they come up with blue, green, yellow, orange or red. And if any of you remember when you were on boarded, I may have spoken about how when I came on board, 20 of our schools had a designation. 20 of our 24 schools had a designation. As of right now, we've just received our

099scores. Um actually four of them have. And I can actually congratulate LC Allen that actually this last um report has exited completely out of any designation whatsoever using metrics like this that schools then translate into their their school plan their SIPs. They use this information and these metrics to actually identify what their um school plans are going to be. So metrics is something that drives everything that we do from educational services to the support that our directors when they meet with principles then sit down and identify particular um goals. So everything from an academic goal to a social emotional goal and that extends to chronic absenteeism. So that extends to everything that we're talking about attendance and engagement. So what you're looking at here are a combination of scores that are on the ESVAC which

100are the the tests that students take in third, sixth, eighth grade and 11th grade. The LPEC scores which would be scores that English um learners have to take every year to test um their level of proficiency. Reclassification which means whether or not they can actually test out and be put into mainstream English. Of course, you can see A throughG completion, CTE completion, and a number of these that are used between 1.8 and 1.14 that are used now as a new indicator on the dashboard for um the college and career indicator. It's a new indicator on the dashboard. And then as you see um toward the end, some of these others that have been locally identified by us as important to Santa Rosa City Schools um with respect to what we and educational services felt were

101um important points of data. Um I'm wondering if there's anything else I've missed right now. But you can see how all these data points are intertwined and um we feel are important not only academically but with respect to academic excellence and how we market ourselves because we know that this is directly going to be um reflected in how the community and externally how people are going to see our district. Anybody right now can go in type in California dashboard and type in any one of our schools and it it's something that that's comes up very easily interpretable to the regular um individual with respect to colors on a regular basis. The CDE is making this um easily digestible for families to be able to determine whether or not they want to go to a school

102or a district. Do do does the se of civic engagement on the college and career readiness dashboard for >> it's it can be >> but we don't have we don't have it >> it is not one uh I don't believe it's one of the eight identified because it's it may be right now it's not >> it's if that that indicator is evolving it's it's been finalized it's currently not an data point Dr. Tensfield U are the vast majority of these required yes metrics from the state but we've made some choices about the percentage of D's and S per subject grade level. >> Are there any other areas here that are choices >> uh that I can identify for sure 1.18 which is AP IB access 1.19 AP1 um IB pass rate 1.20 to zero seal

103of bi literacy recipients progress toward graduation may be no service. >> The reason I asked Dr. Castro the question about these metrics is notice that these are the metrics that come from the state generally they're fairly well accepted as good indicators of academic excellence but does not prevent the district from having their own. So if there's this is when we're really talking strategy when we're thinking about are there some really fabulous things in our district that are not on this list that we should be promoting then that's a communication issue. So be thinking about that not just tonight but in our future strategic meetings and as you're visiting school sites or you're hearing about things there's no reason for us not to add our own metrics. So do do keep that in mind strategy. >>

104But I do want to reiterate that we have yearly goals and then goals for every single year. They are reviewed by uh county office of education. As a matter of fact, we've been told or we have too many goals, too many measures. >> So and one thing that you know to reiterate is that it's actually become a requirement within the LCAP that we include lo local metrics in addition to the >> Sure. So, I really appreciate these metrics being listed out and detailed a little deeper for us to have a better understanding. Um, but when you're just looking at this, it's hard to get an understanding of grade level, primary or secondary. And as a few of us have brought up tonight, um, we really encourage the focus on primary um, literacy, whether it's English,

105math, reading literacy at an early level for consistency. If we're not building those foundational blocks, then none of these are going to hit at the secondary level. didn't just aren't going to be ready. >> So I when we preparing we didn't want to list them but if you look at the first one is 121. >> Yeah. >> I cast performance. We actually track performance at third grade, fifth grade, eighth grade and 11th grade. I just and then for that we have a bunch of subgroups. >> Yeah, we break it down even more >> and so you know like under this is a header under within each you there are like 25 or 30 metrics that we actually track. So this is kind of like a very big overview of it. >> Otherwise, it would have

106been like a few pages, but then I want to ask it out loud and make sure that the forefront of our um >> it's so important that we get kids what they need early and consistently so that they're ready for all the amazing things that are available for them later. >> You're right. >> Sorry. So the way I think of this is there's all those submetrics that you're that you're tracking, measurable that you're looking at that are daily decision. If there's this list, we sound like thing that we're working towards at like a cabinet director level. This list is more detailed. What are the three to five things as the board we're calling out when we're really focused on it's going to make the most impact in the most number of these? What what is

107it that if we're focused on it, it's going to drive progress across a lot of these indicators. Um I like the call out that API seal of literacy are things that we've chosen because those all seem like really core things. some of the strengths we've acknowledged um that if we're daylighting those from board perspective of looking at results there that seems important to me um but finding things that are a little bit more leading to these outcomes whereas what are the activities that we can track what is our goal of what we're going to do to make these numbers better not just throwing one group um you know I think it' be important for what we're setting up the board because if we are focusing on three to five things you're going to have to

108focus on 10 to 15 and the folks at the sites are going to have to focus on 50 to 60 to make those three to five things that we're talking about actually happen when they're doing the work because it's all those little tasks that are happen. So, how do we make it so that what we're looking at it's the three to five that makes this list for you that makes the work, you know? So, that's that's where I'm hoping we can lead this conversation to. I also see one gap for me and that is um an ability to see the learning and academic pro progress for our uh students who are both um well our twice exceptional students who have both natural academic capacity that may mean that they're actually not learning how to learn.

109And what I don't see is a detailed indicator in here how we're tracking their learning progress um in order to make sure that that community of folks that have disabilities that don't show up specifically in test results is being served. So, um, two ends to that. That's more of a lagging indicator, but also hoping that we can move to what are the things that us focusing on the most of these. I don't know where this falls into all of this, but I think one thing that I would really love for us to do is a a focus on encouraging and motivating reading. Um I I've mentioned in the past read on Sonoma, right, which is focuses on the elementary level which incentivizes students just to read families, whatever outside of the classroom. One of my

110favorite classes that I've ever took was I took was an elective reading for pleasure. You just sat there and read whatever you want for a whole period. I don't think we have anything like that. But I figured collectively throughout the whole K through 12 period if we could somehow focus on providing some sort of incentive program or some focus on having students just read more no matter what they're reading. I think what I used to tell my niece is like me talking about the gym is probably like weird but that reading was like the gym for your brain, right? It it helps you work out and build your strength of your body in so many ways. And I I feel like that would help us in our goals so much, but I I would really

111love for us to develop some sort of goal around that just or focus a bit. I I don't feel that we do it enough, especially in this age of technology with so much technology. You know, we don't go there. I want kids to grab books, read books. You know, it's there's something so different about that that I think really would benefit our our goals and our outcomes. >> We do have a big focus this year though on third grade reading, right? She's like our name your focus for elementary is >> yeah third grade literacy actually as the county all the all all the elementary districts are focusing on >> but I do want to um I think that something we don't always do is highlight some some areas like that we do have some women

112some successes the partnerships with the support that we get from um made in Santa Rosa actually is huge around the elite program for reading as well as the book vending machines and the rewards that are given out around that. Um, >> but how do we are they reading a book? Why would we be serving? >> Yeah, I think there I think there are ways for us to build on that. Yeah, maybe on they do have our element literacy and this is the tennis m that we're trying to to go back and forth with. One of the things that we shared was uh metrics and we're really really heavy on metrics for secondary which is great but we seem to be light on elementary metrics let's say for literacy and math on this list. Are there

113more things just detail they're in here. There's a reason for that. So sorry on the technical part is that these metrics were developed three years ago and we had a very specific elementary assessment program that was changed midstream and we couldn't put it back. And so like once you start the LCAP you're kind of locked into the metrics. And so there was a whole set um of what we call the let's go learn assessments that fell off the ala just because we stopped doing it and we went with another vendor and we couldn't do like a hot replace. So that's just what you don't see on the list. This is but we do have a lot of assessments in in elementary that we track that will be added to the list next year when we

114can update them. So I do want to clarify that we do have an assessment um for program well but directly for the elite program is we do the kids are tested in liberals before and after and it's a nineweek program and it's after school and so kids um are tested before and after so there is a you know you do see progress monitoring as well and >> what are they tested on >> um they do divibbles which is a reading um assessment so you're you're you're assessing phological awareness, uh, letter formation. It gets to it gets to where you get to comprehension. And the elite program is very unique because it actually is really using um culturally relevant books which are so important. So that is um very different and I I know you I'm

115just going to say I know you bring up um Soma five years I've tried to be part of it and we never were accepted. So, I just want to clarify that. And so, read on to Nova, if you're listening, and I even I called the director um and it is through a program called Accelerator Reader, and it's actually quite um expensive. >> They don't. >> No, we have to. So, I mean, yeah. So, that's the problem. So, they do the prizes, not the program. Sure. >> Well, we know those programs are out there and we know what our students need >> and we have very talented team putting that stuff together. So, >> what can what like we talked about what our priorities are within our resources. What can we do? >> We have aligned

116and with our other feeder district um Ranken Valley that they use the I Ready program and so do we and so that actually is wonderful because kids get something called my path which they take an assessment and it's uh differentiates. So the my path actually puts the student exactly where they are and what they need. And so they take they can do individual lessons. They have gamified ways to do it, but it also is great for teachers because teachers can pull small groups and they're provided for lessons directly. So it's a lot, you know, we ask a lot of teachers. So they can do this in reading and in math and they can do group lessons or individual lessons to support kids. They could also use it at home. So there's a family component as

117well and parents can see that. >> Um, in terms of getting kids excited about reading, are we utilizing the county library, which is completely free? Do we invite the librarian in? >> We do, which is great. This is the first year and I want to thank thank you Lisa because you really got that um that we actually get to um take books home from the public library before it was only online and actually you brought it to our attention. So thank you um and we were able to do that. So yes and the library um came and talked to our elementary principles. A lot of them do field trips because we sign the forms to walk over to the various ones close to their schools. Do we do anything at secondary? >> For secondary for

118libraries, we do have >> for reading. >> I like just pleasure reading. >> Yes, actually um for pleasure reading. I sure hope so. Uh but they also have that opportunity with the library. Um as well, it's for everyone in our district. They just use their student ID. Nothing is taken. No information is taken, which really important. Um, and if a book is lost, they're not, you know, >> them knowing that they can use it, but we don't have any like developed program on campus that measures how many books they're reading or anything like that. I think school >> Yeah, that's a yes. school. And so what I'm saying is that I'd like for us as a district to have like goals around that's what I'm trying to echo that is it sounds like we should

119be looking at adopting a goal around reading >> and we need to figure out how to articulate it. So we're actually looking at it and then you'll have your 10 goals around the R1 goal. Uh, and just to clarify, that means that whole article I just read about Napa school students will use their card at the libraries and something we already have. >> Yeah, I've been here three years and every twice a year we share a list of our IDs and the students with our student ID can check out books, which is what we were saying. I I was uh at a counselor's meeting at one of our secondary schools and there was the librarian there sharing with the counselors like all everything that this partnership gives them. So I know that um the counties

120librarians are going out and interact directly with schools and they get you know to share you know just with your ID they can check out books uh you know participate in you know access all of these online resources and so on and so we have been part of that program at least since I've been here for three years. So >> glad that Matt is catching up. >> Yes. Oh, I had a thought. Um, and just because we're talking about enrichment and academics, and I know there's not enrichment stuff on here for probably very good reason. However, um I would be very interested to see the numbers that colle that coordinate with these numbers as far as kids um mostly secondary, but kids who are engaged in enrichment programs, whether that be athletics or arts, um

121something that is at the school that's again a hook, an enrichment hook, and how they're how that um goes with how they're doing on their test scores. And I apologize. We actually do have that is part of two. It's all about it's not part of the list because we didn't include it because of getting too long. But we do track students that participate in um athletic sports at least. >> Uh we don't do VAPA because that's part of what it was. >> But what about like the extra extra VAPA? I don't know what the extra BA is >> like band and the stuff that's outside of school hours. >> Yeah, I see what you're saying. >> Yeah, >> that's not um tracked as part of Ryan's work. So, yeah, I see what you're saying. >>

122But the question is >> back to the board is that something remember my comment was most of this is state driven. >> The question for you as trustees is do you want some more locally driven and Lisa said we're supposed to do more of that. Is that one of the topics that you would have liked to see more of things measured? DAPA sports uh free reading those kinds of things. Um do you have enough direction Mark sitting by his microphone? >> Yes. So uh regarding direction on these metric you know since we're talking about metrics are we looking to establish example I just I don't know are we looking to increase these percentages by x amount per year like 2% a year I don't know what would be appropriate that because I don't see any

123I mean I I guess you can find them I don't see the metrics on where we are currently percentage-wise with all these obviously we want to increase most of them except Except for the uh D's and Fs, suspension rate and absentee absism. We want those to go down, but the others we want to go up. >> Mark guilty is charged. We made a strategic decision not to bring that forward tonight because we did. We'd probably be here for three or four days, but >> nothing prevents us in future meetings or any of these metrics to bring them forward. And that's why we were wanting you to circle metrics that are were the most of interest to you so that there could be presentations on those uh like by literacy. Oh, that sounds cool, but how

124are we doing on it? So, that was sort of the the reason we showed you the metrics and we can do the data uh in amazing ways. There's amazing amounts of data for every school, for every subgroup, for each of these metrics. I think the issue on bi literacy to me um is I mean obviously you have to be able to have like at least two languages right um and one you have to have English is obviously one of the required ones I feel that there's we don't have necessarily um enough obviously there's a graduation requirement around having two languages right but um I think there's also like to me there's the issue of like not all of Our schools offer the same options. Like my example, you know, is for example, Lion, I think

12585% Hispanic. They only offer Spanish, but like I go back to me as a student. I did not want to learn Spanish, which I already knew. That's why I took French, but they don't have that opportunity. Students don't even realize that other schools have it at some point. We're like, "Oh, I would love to take French when I talk to the students, but we don't do that, right?" And and so to encourage this, I think we need to offer them what the students want to do. Um I know students that just don't engage in the Spanish class because it's so boring to them, right? And it's just they have to take it, right? So you want to engage students, you know, get them to just think that's really like exciting to them. So I I

126just would want more equity in that like what we offer for students. So, real quick, before we move on to the next thing, um I have this $300,000 idea that's springed. I'm looking at you, so if you can make a little mental note, we're going to bring back reading a rainbow. We're going to do free videos. We're going to include Omar and we're going to encourage bilal reading to primary students and other trustees to put out videos and encourage reading and have reading programs that we're reading for fun. >> Let's go. I love reading. Okay. >> Yes. >> But first a technical question. Are we also writing enrichment um goals on here or is that a separate section of the agenda? >> It's separate. >> That's I won't I won't start writing it myself. Uh

127and then I think to build off what Elmar was saying, for me the importance of having a goal at our level around bioliteracy recipients is exactly to address a focus on those programs and needing to expand them and and do it. So even if we're not able to establish a goal that's as high as we'd like it to be in years forward, if we don't start actually making more programs that create my literacy opportunities um available, then we're not going to do it. We don't as a board set that as a goal to to be tracking for our focus. So, for me, that's when I have a check mark and a star next to it. Um, in order to be able to specifically make it so that we're fixing everything that we're just talking about.

128>> And I mean, I think the other thing is awareness. I don't think a lot of know this is a goal that they can work towards, >> right? >> I see our district being able to be seen as a place where your kids come if you want them to know at least two languages. Like, I feel like that's a brand that we're already invested in with what we've been doing. I I it it just feels like a really important place for us to be focused >> and I'm I'm going to agree and also say and we have to keep things within the resources that we have and so if that is an area that the board wants to focus on board expansion for making additional opportunities that will come at a cost of other of

129other opportunities. So, just something to keep in mind as as we're thinking about that if that if that is absolutely a priority that we've and I agree that that is absolutely one of our strengths and we need to to make sure that we temper any expansion with the contraction somewhere else that >> just to be clear right now the word expansion probably doesn't apply to anything. is more preservating >> that that's I think important with respect to next year's what are we going to start to maintain >> yeah just as a timekeeper comment >> not that this influences us stopping but um we have about an hour and 10 minutes left of our scheduled time there is a 10-minute break if we're to take a 10-minute break for various reasons um this sort of is

130the end of the metric section unless you have additional input and I suspect that as you're going through the other sections you might be adding more metrics that you'd like to see. Um so if if you want to sort of take 10 break and then come back to the next section and if we come back to the next section we're going to be asking you as trustes to come up with um can you give us an elementary goal? You know you were talking about the board gives one goal and staff has 10 sections to it. So be thinking about for the elementary goal, what would that one goal be? And when you come back, we'll ask you to sharers and see if we can come to the consensus on what that one goal was. Or

131if it's two, that's fine, but not too many. Does that seem reasonable? Come back in 10 minutes. >> For people who put their name on their formula. Yeah. I'm going to get small of the things that you want to know more about. Yeah. And then you might want to keep those forms because couple sections there might be other topics that come up that you go I would like to see the data set on second grade reading or third grade reading level something how many of my kids are proficient at second grade how many third grade have a bearing on the strategies we're using to get those kids to the big Um our next section we have a different format and uh we'll get into the format if you look on your agenda with uh number

132three and number we're going to do number three four six and seven in the same way. So we'll learn how to do things uh this next format on the third number which is elementary academic goal setting. We've allocated 30 minutes. I bet it doesn't take us I bet it's not take us 30 minutes because we've actually talked about some strategic parliamentary goals and highle goals that you would like to see us. We have a volunteer to your ideas for the >> do we set a realistic goal now to try and stay on time or >> Well, here's what I was thinking about doing one doing one there's two charts there. Do one quick whip around the room. Each one of you have an individual idea of an elementary goal and then you look at that

133list and can you come up on the second chart with an overarching elementary goal. That was sort of the thinking. Does that seem reasonable? Okay, let's give it a go. Jeremy, we'll start with you. >> Um I would like to see the benchmark for reading um emphasized younger the younger grades in third grade like that benchmark. if it's more strategic scaffolding, but something to >> just get hard and wait for four years to see if they are on. >> Okay. And Alisa, since you're going to have to do all this work in reality for your job, this is a good time for you to clarify any individual board comments. >> So, okay. So I do want to put so benchmark for reading in second grade. It usually is you know that the goal for third

134grade that because you're learning you know learning to read and then reading to learn. So are you saying that you would like the goal to be the reading to learn that they're ready at second grade and at least leave second grade for that? Like I you know does that make sense? So right now we have state standards that are set and we've got those benefits and third and fifth are kind of those >> yes >> where we where we take our metrics and see how things are measured >> as a district as these educators is there anything we can do with earlier intervention that we're not waiting for the state >> yeah so you're do you want to see you want to see the data points >> I want to see I want to see

135a plans for better scaffoldings to ensure we're reaching our students earlier what do they need in an earlier age to get where they need to be. >> We spend so much time and resources if they're not there by third and fifth trying to get them caught up that if there's anything we can do earlier, >> we're going to save so much more money on the enterprise later. >> I think the the third grade level that's like the metrics like if you're there by third grade that kind of dictates whether you'll succeed or not. That's kind of like where that come from. Um I think our goal should be to have everybody there by their grade. But the goal that I would ask is that for students that aren't at that reading level, but by the

136grade that we make sure that we're providing supports that they get there by they they get to the reading level that they should be by sixth grade. There are those that aren't at the birth. >> But you just highlighted and emphasized the problem that we said we it's known if you're not proficient by third grade, you you do have a higher likelihood of struggling >> and to extend that to thick to make sure that interaction that was still expensive. If there's anything we can do earlier to help them, that's what we should be. >> Well, yeah. And doing what we need to do to help them get their that's what we can do. That's our goal. Getting them all there at that point. But to me, the secondary goal is to for those that didn't

137get there that we make sure that by sixth grade they're caught because if not the gap keeps getting further and further ahead. >> And unfortunately, we know what happens if they get to secondary and they're still not there. They get very disent disconnected. Keep in mind as we keep layering your ideas, sometimes we can combine things and it could be that we have a second grade benchmark and a third grade benchmark and a sixth grade because we do something different each time to remediate the problem. So, keep thinking about adding two things. Um, Mark, I'm going to so that we don't forget about you. I'm going to get you right now and then we'll go to Nick. mine uh that one I wrote down it's fairly general and maybe we can dive a little deeper

138on it but is to target improvements in algebra 1 pass rates and numeracy for grades 3 through 8 to bridge achievement gaps. So if we were looking at all the presklls in elementary that would contribute to successful algebra one, what would those be? And then measurements. >> Correct. >> Okay. So what we're saying is math is a progression. Where are our math teachers in the back of the room? There you are. Definitely is a progression and we'll want to make sure that we're have a progression and we're measuring benchmark levels along the way. >> Yep. >> So getting to algebra one, >> right? >> How to get there by early learning. >> What's the road maybe? What's the road map >> in elementary to be successful in algebra one and to take a one time

139and be successful? Does that do it, Mark? >> Yes. Yes. Sorry. >> So, for me, it's how we're meeting each and every student in their math and English learning. And so not just looking statically at have they reached their grade level, but how much have they actually been challenged to learn from where they were at the beginning of each year. So are they making progress? Are they actually growing from wherever they started? So essentially a measurable for how well we're differentiating these supported students whether they're below, at or above grade. I would love it if every student was able to verbalize what they like to read. Like I like to read magazine. I like to read comics. I like to read about sports. I could read. I don't know. That would make it a thousand

140times easier for teachers when they're trying to get the kids to pick their independent reading books. Tell me what you want to think. >> Any answer other than I don't like >> a little bit like Omar was saying earlier is passion. >> Yeah. in in some ways >> or in the culture as well. >> Like if we had consistency of these library field trips and like showing kids all the different things you can read and having that just be a consistent part of the culture so that by a certain point, you know, every kid knows they need to be able to tell their teacher they like to read about this or this, they like this kind of text. Well, there are reading motivational programs. So, those can be explored looked at that maybe are not

141expensive. >> Yeah. >> Like family reading for instance, you know, the family comes in and does reading together. >> Family and those are inexpensive, but they build the culture. >> I'm a little bit surprised. Are we not doing that? I don't really >> like literacy nights or like are teachers going on field trips even to the school library and being shown like are the students being shown all of these things? >> Students get time in the school library. We um do not have school librarians so it's very different. It looks different. That's right. >> Um so yes. So it's Yeah. Um >> and then field trips. Yes. But that is more it's it's an individual choice you know to take some some like to take them to the library some take them you know other

142places you know it's it's dependent and >> I was thinking more like just field trips from the classroom to the school library to pick out books you pick out your book you go back you take the book home you return the book to the I mean I >> and the reality of is that they go to the library they two books, you'll then take them home and you read them. But there isn't that I guess in the olden days for me. So, but you know that library that really can support that. >> I'm taking a risk in word smithing. Is it possible for you all to come up with some kind of a synthesis of the ideas that you put up there or combine as many as you can into a larger idea? you know

143it the larger idea will be supported by >> so I'm not sure about heading in that direction but something I really like about what Roxan's said is that it's to me a very leading measurable that's not in what's mostly lagging data because if if we're able to measure students being able to express a passion towards reading that logically then can flow to a lot of these other things which are inherently going to be lagging to activities that we're not measuring. So there's something about that that the concept of how she worded that question to me that makes it more strategically useful than just looking at end results >> um because it really is you know are are we spurring the passion in the learning that's going to lead to actually doing the activities that then

144create the skills. And some of that goes back to early interventions though, just flat out early interventions with giving kids communication skills and figuring out their hooks again to figure out what they like and then continue to push them in that direction. >> Yeah, >> we all want our kids to be able to read. We all want them to be able to read early. What can we do to encourage opportunities and make it positive for things they want to read and something they want to work towards early on? And >> we're all saying the same thing, like how can we get to them earlier? How can we get to hear what they want to do and how do we put that material in front of them that makes it accessible and enjoyable that they're interested

145in. >> I do want to just say my goal though is I think that the um the academic goal for elementary, we've most of us have talked about the reading piece, but I kind of think it needs to be meet the third grade no matter what. >> Yeah. is my goal. Wherever you want to put >> I don't think you're limited one goal for sure. >> Yeah. >> We have to be really careful that no matter what because >> why >> I'm sorry but out of my three children there's two that no matter what didn't work for them. They no matter what happened they weren't reading. So it's like to that puts pressure on a student to try and get there no matter what because some students just doesn't work. We got to be careful

146if we're putting that definitive statement on their ability. Um I think um one one of the things that I feel is like obviously teachers have a lot of students and there's only so much you can do like I'd like to I don't know if we can sort of go around like better engaging with parents to be a part of you know these reading goals or helping to write them to help engage students. I think when when Rossan talked about um knowing what they want to read and it made me think of okay how are they writing how are they communicating that some sort of like writing goal but but then that took me to thinking about like storytelling and how can we um have students I think about it from the ethnic studies perspective of

147sharing their stories and then and that connecting with their families amilies and telling the stories of their families. That's something that they know and they can relate to but as a tool for them to communicate to us with writing. So I think um beginning at that very early level to connect reading and writing with that ethnic studies component of storytelling um as a tool to meet these goals of briefing and writing. Um, so I'd also aside from like these methods of data like well know when when students aren't meeting these goals like how can we put like supports like what are the supports that we're going to be providing for staff and teachers to to do this right? I don't know how that falls into this. So I think that's something that we need to

148like address. I contemplating the ability to have multiple because I do agree that focus on being at third grade level at third grade is important and should be a goal but I also feel like you need to have something that makes it clear that there is an academic goal that is in that is pushing and ensuring there's progress in the education for all of our students wherever they were at your So you can go sit over there nicely in the room and you get disengaged. You're not learning to learn. So you know I think there's a way for us to have both the kind of floor. We know that third grade um level is is important um and it leads to all this other success but also making sure that we're tracking and focusing on

149the students who need to be push pushed at a different grade. They're at a different way level and they need to be getting that education to continue being pushed. >> Can I clarify? So, I'm hearing what I think you're saying is students grow at least one year. >> Yeah, exactly. They need to if they're spending a year in school, they should be a year advanced from wherever they started. >> All students should be growing, >> right? And you wrote a dissertation on this. What's the language? >> All students should be growing based on what their potential is. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. in how we track that like you know I mean and we need to be tracked >> because otherwise if we're just measuring how many made it to third grades then >> we're going

150to be oh this is all successful >> and maybe it wasn't >> I heard a lot of comments about kids need to love to read that seem to be one of the themes how would you express that on your on your chart culture of establishing a culture of >> it's trick like so I got your kids are obviously younger than mine but mine went through all of elementary school the most recently and I we literally the only thing they had for homework was reading every night every single night either being reading or being read to for 20 minutes a night that was literally homework for all of elementary school Um >> well I mean for my son and it was the he loves reading and that homework was the boringest thing ever because then it

151was write one paragraph about what you read >> and you know and when when differentiation happened and he was then able to be challenged and a teacher who gave him the ability to okay take the take the because you're clearly comprehending take that reading and now turn it into um a comic. strip, which is what worked for him. All of a sudden, he was really interested in the homework >> because instead of writing a bland paragraph after reading the same book three times because he's like, I need to get to the book I want to read, you know? And so it's like and that's kind of what I'm trying to get. It's how do we inspire that differentiation? You're talking choice choice in pro >> by differentiating it led to more challenging reading which led

152to more growth versus him being totally disengaged and just mostly getting reports if I'm not turning in if I could add just that. I think for me I feel like this again goes back to that parent engagement culture because a lot of that success in all that depends on what's happening at home. How effectively our parents engaging with making sure kids do the homework or not eliminating other distractions that maybe keep them from doing that or not doing that as effectively. And I think really it you know it's not the same for not everybody has the same person as parents how critically important it is at that level and I think to get the outcomes we we need that's going to be critical I know that could be partnership with other agencies and stuff but

153but that's really a personal component to get the results I mean that's an additional support that are students at that very early age reach. >> And as beautiful as that is, we still do have a lot of students that don't have that opportunity regardless of home. Families that are not engaged or families that won't engage due to other obligations or needs. Either they don't want to or they have somewhere else to be that's incumbent on them riding a roof over their head that they can't read to or sit and have the student do the homework. Um, so what can we do on our campuses to encourage and light that intuition in the students that it's something that is self-driven by whatever it looks like, whether it's comics or different books um or different short stories.

154And my huge emphasis on reading is the comprehension of um I tutored and coached several students that were great with numbers and new math, but once that math involved words and word problems, the numbers didn't make any sense. So, it was being able to adapt to that. So, if you're not able to comprehendly read at the proper level of your retention, you're not getting the math at the level you needed as well. Um, so it's why it's so important. It just comprehensive whole academic experience. >> Anything that goes to supports like if a teacher for example identifies that, hey, this student's not getting support, what supports available for the teacher that make sure that student's getting that support. So I mean, you had it coming. >> Um, well, what was it? Just yeah, just going

155back to making sure kids can choose a book that they that they like. You know, I see so many kids, they pick a book that is long and complicated and they sit there and pretend they're reading it. >> I would so much rather they read Calvin and Hops or an eyewitness book about dinosaurs. So just that like culture and positive attitudes about like read what you want to read, read what you're actually going to read. And I agree, a lot of kids, you know, they're not going to get that support at home. We want them to. We want to support that, but we need to make sure that teachers are modeling that, showing kids different kinds of books. Um, just I think teachers modeling like talking about what they love about what they're reading. Um,

156yeah, the culture, the positive attitudes about reading. I think of like I've seen a lot of requests for graphic novels from teachers and like it's like pictures but to me it's it's still that engagement of the mind and the brain that they're using by being on a book versus a device right and media and everything. >> I don't want to get into words smithing but I I'm just wondering if this is like a placeholder that at least could start with like creating a literature loving culture something like that. Well, >> well, we could spend probably the whole night going through this. >> Oh, it's interesting that you say that. Um, >> did I steal your idea? >> No, but I know that you've mentioned this a couple of times and it's interesting because more than

157GPA, more than grades, the research shows that reading for pleasure is the strongest indicator of success in postsecary education. >> And that's I mean, we go back to that measurable of them being to express what they're passionate about reading at a certain grade level. That's also now we're moving into a leading place. And Michael, >> I like that. >> If you were in one with a group of teachers and principles and you sort of conveyed this discussion, you know, the board was thinking about these ideas, could they come back with something that might connect all these ideas? >> I 100%. >> Okay. Would that be a good something to come back to you that tries to incorporate these ideas and then we could move to the next section? >> I actually have a meeting the

15822nd with a reassessment and um curriculum committee. >> So what she just said was on the 23rd >> 22nd. Yeah. But on the 23rd she'll write a report for you. show you. >> So I just I and I want to articulate one thing about the the reading because for me in my mind I I can I bring two concepts together because my English classes were like pretty classes. But I think it's important that when we talk about the reading passion reading we talk about comprehension but we're also using that to talk about critical thinking and problem solving skills talking about issues. Um, >> thank you. When we're talking about pushing folks, we're making sure everyone's getting at least it's like how are we making sure we're getting the critical thinking and the problem solving skills

159that is kind of also like Jeremy's example >> lead into the math of being able to solve >> like Jeremy's you know, you know, we're talking about this not just because >> reading, but it's like that's the >> quote my friend Dr. by um so we could we could say that this is all for literacy for reading and >> yes >> literacy and numeracy >> to be corporate >> well we could also say the critical thinking across both of those >> exactly like I want to make sure we're capturing because it's these are in service to that >> yes >> the inclusivity is completely comprehensive of all subjects >> you can't hit for one without >> Yeah. >> And then that gets to your academic excellence. If you're a critical thinker, >> if they're in

160a science class and reading about geology and volcanoes is the thing that makes them passionate about reading like, you know, we're not it's you know, they don't need to learn they don't need to gain their passion for reading in English. They can gain it in science. Mark, are there any final comments on your end about I don't know the degree to which you can see the writing that we have on the wall. >> I I can't, but um to Nick's last point, yeah, I mean, one of the metrics we were looking at on that other list, you know, regarding the CAST test that the elementary students have to take in the fifth and eighth grades, um just want to somehow, you know, not forget about the science portion of it. also similar to where we

161were talking about the math just you know I'd like to make sure that we are somehow um uh not even sure how to word this similar to the math math uh um sorry it's getting late past midnight here um you know just that we're following through on the science science end as well you know and trying increase the metric scoring for the CAST test for the fifth and eighth graders. >> Mark, at least I added across all content areas to make sure we're encompassing that. >> Okay, great. >> I think I'm correct on this, but staff correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that there's groups of teachers K12 in both mathematics and in science that can give us a lot of input on from year to year from grades span to grades span what

162would be the critical skills they what would be the academic vocabulary that kids should master at each level. I think I think that there are those groups of teachers that could give us that kind of input. Is that accurate? >> Absolutely. Essential standards and academic language that is necessary. >> I don't know if I mean to me this this feels important. I don't know if it falls more there than all of this. But you know when Mark brought up the science and and from that early stage to me what it makes me think of is curiosity and wonder like how do we you know that passion to just that hunger for knowledge that comes from like the wondering how things work curiosity. For me that was me like I love learning. I'd like to know

163for it, but just regardless of what it is that build a curiosity and a hunger to learn, can we can we do that somehow in some way through what we do? I don't know. That's something we can do, but I'd love if our students came out, but then I think that that also leads to the things that like pushed in everything. >> Then it changes grade level to grade level too. Kind of falls off around fifth grade. Let's just leave out questioning things at home. >> So, so if if we've gone far enough along on this and remember that you have this little sheet that has metrics if you want to add something in general that you'd like to see as a measure for what we've talked about. were then on the agenda on the

164secondary academic goal setting and obviously there's a number of the metrics that were here for secondary academic goal setting but when we're talking about academic excellence in secondary what does that look like to me and if we use the same format um we have a fabulous recorder transition. Um I said that we reverse >> so you get to go first. >> Yes. >> Or you can pass what was my question? the secondary academic data set. For instance, if you look at this list here, there's tons of, you know, there's A to G, there's CTE, there's, uh, uh, AP, IB pass rates, uh, sealed by literacy, um, dual enroll. There's tons of them there. But there might be other things that or there may be some of these that you think we need to emphasize more

165than others. >> I think for me one of the big things that stands out is um is just success for our students. Um not everybody is super successful in the A to G trap. Um and I want kids to be successful in their education. >> Okay. Um, next >> um I think something that is not necessarily captured in the ESBAC is uh research skills and that's becoming >> Yeah, I mean it's always been important but now with AI I think of the way to combat AI is to teach them how to research correctly um and sort of scaffolding that through the grade levels. I don't know how to capture that clip >> but it might you know given AI that might be a universal skill but not just the secondary well certainly from middle school

166on that maybe there might be that progression if you talked about K12 when do we start because you know my granddaughter who's dem is all over she knows more about how to do research than I do >> yeah but I mean like they need to be taught that you do the Google search and then you scroll down click on the link >> peer review of that >> um because what I was going to talk about is related um we talk about HP right but most schools at all levels now also have the information literacy required which I think is we need to have that some form one of the biggest pet peeves that I have from having so many students um is simply not even knowing what MLA is and referencing and saying when when

167they're start taking these college classes when dual enrollment they they don't know >> the formatting like MLA >> citation formatting >> but but I think I feel that maybe like within English maybe teachers assume that the prior teacher maybe talk to them, but so many students at such a high level, they have no clue and that really bothers me because then they get to college and it's so required. But to me that goes back to research information literacy and making sure that that's something that this is you know by ninth grade if not earlier they're appropriate sources and >> you could get kicked out of school if you don't do that right at college right so that's really important >> um well I'll echo that one as far as research skills I think I mean

168it's not just Google anymore right now. It's being able to discern hallucinations in AI. It's understanding what the differences between grounded and ungrounded AI generation and uh prompt and I mean there's a lot around research that's even gone past just Google searches. So um and they're going to use it whenever we have it when we teach them how to do it or not. So it should probably be better to taught them how to do it right. I so I like something in there. I I had a fundamental one from the last one which is how are we tracking with every students advance in a year from where they were at the beginning to the end. Like again how are we actually making sure that we're differentiating um at the student at the individual student level

169so that wherever they started they actually grew that year across whatever we're providing the education in. So, you know, at a macro level secondary, I want to make sure that is something that we're tracking in a way that we know we're doing it. Um, >> is that possible? Tracking annual progress on the cast is the standard of error measurement such that >> I don't think it's not possible and me asking for it leads to good innovation. Um the reason I'm asking is if just technically if the standard measurement is so off so you might not be able to say that the year's growth on that >> specific to secondary the biggest issue with CASP >> is that it's just offer three and one similarity. So I may be asking for something that requires us to

170change what we're doing. And from my perspective, that's the part of goal setting >> because if if we don't have the capacity to know that when a student enters >> on day one and leaves on the last day and that they made progress wherever they were at, then then we don't have a way to know that we actually did anything, right? >> So if whether we have the infrastructure for the tracker or not, it's what I want to have as a goal. >> Yes. >> No, exactly. >> Do we have other Do we do star reading? >> not in secondary. We do at the elementary level. >> Well, I I don't even know the deficiencies. I'm expressing the goal. >> You have to worry about that. I mean, here's the thing. We need to know

171if someone learns something this year. I If we don't know that, then I don't have a way to get more specific. >> There are tools. They are expensive and we need buyin from our staff. um with implementation. So there it's something that we have explored in the past that we can that we can continue to to explore maybe some options >> and then and then I would just echo the things that were actually already on here by choice the the API access participation pass rates and the seal or by literacy. How do you see as trustees ease and apps by subject area >> because uh that is an existing infrastructure and just to put on a hat >> we measured these and at our high schools and did two board reports every year. >> I

172think they're important because it that again goes to the A to G stuff. So, you can graduate with a D, but you don't get your ADG certification with the D in certain classes. And so, I didn't really understand that as a parent coming into this district. Um, and the students certainly don't understand that as they're exploring what happens after um after high school. So, I think that's a very important thing to have presentations on as well as get information out to the community. Well, more than I think Sherman on that point, one of the reasons that I'm very supportive of A350 for all because again what's historically happened people don't understand like you said and then people make decisions that put people in non2 classes and then when they would get to find money and

173want to go to college, you know, it's kind of like these investing, they would realize that they weren't able to go where they thought they might want here. Um but um the thing that I was going to um bring up is that in terms of schools, I really want us to go all into um successfully successfully like um going to the California colleges implementation from the seventh grade forward. So, so that students are really early on exploring careers and figuring out what they got to do to get where they want to be based off that early career exploration that I just met them that still we haven't we have access to but we haven't implemented effectively. But I think that begins that maybe potential drive and motivation for students to get to set their own

174goals and understand what they need to do to get there. I would really like that to be a clear goal. You know, for me, D's and FS can be um debilitating to students socally and emotionally um because they don't have a full comprehension of what that means. And our teachers are inconsistent on how these events are assigned. So, if it were consistent on what that meant, I'd be more supportive. But when a student gets through K through six without that experience, now they get to seventh and eighth and they can keep getting by with E's and Fs. And now when they get to nth grade and it's like, oh, it matters. They didn't have that full comprehension of what that means. And the teacher's grading policies throughout that experience were not consistent. So I struggle

175with the DR um parameter because it can be very debilitating to students um confidence of their own buying on if they want to continue their education or not. It's very easy for them to to throw in the towel once they see these and there's no way to get past that because they don't have a full comprehension of what that meant or what led up to that. >> Just to clarify, are those two separate issues rating policies and consistency? >> No, it's the same issue. Well, what I'm saying is, is that an issue for the board? >> Absolutely. >> The the perception that kids grades may not reflect their academic achievement depending on how much homework is counted, how much building up what J saying, it's part of why I think where my focus is is

176what is the progress of a student from where they started to where they were versus D's or Fs. But I've also I mean I've had several teachers sit down with me and talk about equity based rating and thinking actually uh Britney over at Rio and Emma over at LC and and that like I I would be interested in tracking these if I knew that they were all >> measured in the way those teachers and and they've been participating a lot of learning programs through SCO on it. So there's a way for us to be embracing what they're doing in a way where we understood what the B's and Fs meant to Jeremy's point. Um I think that would be an important way for us to go. But >> but just measuring B's and Fs for

177me is not it's not clear to me that >> what that is in the same way that prognosis. >> Yeah. Yeah. If I can give you an example, right? And this is this is not based on reality, but let's say that um P1, the first year of PE is a state graduation requirement. So every student that receive a gra, you know, a high school diploma in California needs to pass P1. And let's pretend that that 50% of our students fail P1, right? Regardless of why they did, like in aggregate, 50% of the students end up failing P1. Those are the kind of metrics that we want to track because those are the you know the red flags that we want to keep track of right if there are patterns of you know high percentage of

178Tnf in a specific course that gives us you know the board and us as the district kind of like okay what do we need to do to change right and it's not to the particular student because you know the student might have failed because of this because of that but this is more like big picture and we are then that's how we're using this method more than looking you know like it's basically um in like before you get to graduation like how do students get to graduation right and so >> well yeah there may be a goal that's here that has five goals there. >> Yeah. And this is one of but you know and you're then better able to look at the data to make those >> determinations versus us looking at a very

179top level measurable or like you know so because it sounds like there's a lot of nuance to that. >> Exactly. But I think also when you look at it from that whole equity base, right? Like you can see that a lot of those are all one teacher versus so that maybe that department could start looking at okay how do we >> so for us that that is programmatically right you know like when you think about a micro goal that tell us kind of like more than just looking at 11th grade class because that is so broad that we can wait three month you know three years to know how we're doing math. I have Roxan and then >> Mark and Mark. >> Um, yeah. So, I want to see the D's and Fs, but I

180also really am interested how equity grading, mastery grading, standardsbased grading, point grading, whatever you want to call it, whichever version it is, how that's being implemented in our district. Um, and then also at the opposite end of the grading scale, I hear a lot from college instructors concerns about grade inflation in high schools because kids are showing up to college >> and they cannot handle it. Um, so just wonder about our grading practices if they are truly reflecting students mastery of the skills >> on both. journey. >> So there's a lot of merit that I've researched into the equity grading um model. Now we're only two years into the educational opportunities that have been provided through SCO. My daughter is an eighth grade science teacher with a separate district taking a part of that program.

181So there are some good things about that. We just it's new and we need to learn more about it and see how it's being applied and can it be applied the correct way. Um, the main thing with education is we need to provide opportunities for growth and redemption. And when you have that F, that's a fail. And it's a big red F that everybody sees in their head. And some students don't feel that once they get that F, there's an opportunity for them to redeem themselves and grow out of it and learn through it. So, there has to be proper conversations for them to truly understand what that means and that they can come out of that situation or there are opportunities to do that. As far as my secondary academic goals, um I really

182like to see opportunities for um age appropriate real life math applications being taught to students. Um because if you can make math relatable to their lives and to the need to survive and be self-sufficient, it's going to make math that much more interesting to them and make it more sense to where they now have a buy in and they're working on it because it's something they want to learn more about, whether it's video game metrics or sports metrics or other metrics of how math can be applied to their life, things that they enjoy. Um, and I think we need to find a way to focus on um, social emotional health with our students for self- advocacy and understanding what they need and why they need it and that it's okay to ask for what they

183need and how they need to be taught so they can achieve their goals. I think but the communication around these DNS um I think it sounds like that's something we need to do more work on like communicating what that means both to students and parents not just in terms of like okay you didn't well this class but what it means whether towards graduation towards getting to college I think a big one is towards uh scholarships for financial aid as it relates your GPA, how retaking a course could, you know, affect your GPA by eliminating that first class, right? It's then the first one wouldn't count. I think most people wouldn't know that. Um, but I think communicating all that information so that people are aware, I think, um, and maybe even before we get to

184the FS, making sure that people learn this right from the get-go, right? So parents aware, students aware, whether it be part of like the syllabus um if teachers have that, but then also every time that it happens that we have some standard template of communication and maybe parental engagement with the student to really focus on doing some daily meaning. >> Hey, uh it's getting late back there. Yeah, it's like 4 hour time difference. So, um >> I see the sun coming out. >> Yeah, pretty soon. Um so, just to bring it back to some of the secondary um stuff, the um the college and career readiness. Um, I wanted to make sure we touch on the CTE uh programs and the way we're uh I want us to continue to to build those and particularly

185uh you know we started some of the CT uh I think uh I think it was Omar Jeremy one we're talking about the CTE or getting exposure early as seventh eighth grade we started the CTE wheel um project at a couple of the um middle schools through help with the CTE Foundation. So, I hope that we can expand that to all of the middle schools to give them some exposure, some of our kids exposure early to see if perhaps they want would like to venture further down that CTE path. And um I just want to make sure that uh additionally that we're we're able to I know we're in the process of perhaps um uh getting certification on some of our um classes, the CTE classes to count towards a TOG requirement. So, I just

186want to make sure that we're um I I believe I hope the the rest of the board feels that that's a way for us to proceed. Um I I thought we were trying to to do that. I hope we're trying to do that. Um >> okay. Um and then just one thing I I know a couple people brought up the equity based grading. I I I just want to make sure that we're we are I I've had trouble finding that in our board policy. I don't know if the previous board approved it or or I don't I don't know if it's being uh applied across all of our campuses. I just I guess I want further clarification on that and and how that's >> it's not >> a few teachers are exploring it Mark at

187this time through an opportunity through SCO but it's not something that has been fully implemented or brought to us as a board or as a district yet. is something that's being newly introduced and a few teachers are exploring it to see how they can apply it to their classrooms and to their courses in the past but it's a side phase. >> Yeah. And if I can just frame something and and I appreciate Mark talking about it and I've heard it in a lot of the different pieces that something we need to think about is college. It's college and career. It's not college old career. CTE and college pathways are not necessarily separate. They align in a lot of places and that is our our goal. One of the things that we measure on on there

188through the dashboard is college and career readiness. And so it's just something to as we're looking at what captures all of that, we have it actually as a note as a recommended goal is that that kind could encompass many of the things we're talking about tonight as an overarching tying something Mark's saying also about the CTS. I think there is an area of academics that also has enrichment qualities to it. So when we think about BAPA, when we think about CTE, I think in some ways they actually fall into both categories because they are can have an enrichment capacity and interest, but they're also core academic programs. The arts are not optional. They're core academic program. CTE is not optional. It's core academics, but it also has enrichment value and and outcomes in the way

189it can trigger interest. Same thing with STEM. you think about the Spark Center like those core academics but you know when you think about the the enrichment um and additional engagement the students can go further into it so it's like how do we capture some of these opportunities where it's not enrichment or academics but it's enrichment and academics >> and if I can just do it we have eight minutes left >> I wanted to I want to test an idea Dr. Castro, I'm going to ask you a really difficult question. >> Okay, if I can. >> Um, this is a very long list of important items and I'm wondering if um the ed services team could look at this list and figure out where you might already be doing these things. um and then come

190back at the next retreat and maybe give sort of a mini report. This is where we are because if we I think if we try to combine all these things then we'll be here till midnight and then we have other items that we have to decide if we want to tackle tonight. But um I didn't know what's your confidence that staff could respond or what Lisa. What do you think too? >> Well, I mean just some quick comments is the understanding that we are going to be reducing by more than half our staff next year. That needs to be understood. >> Um and then some of these are new. I mean um some of these are new and would be um new investments especially at the secondary level. Um some of these we are already

191doing and I think it's that you um all really highlighted some really important things that we are already doing. Um, but we're going to take a we'll take a good look at these and see how we could um capitalize on some of the efforts that we're already doing and double down on how we could fold some of maybe these new ideas into and then draw upon some of I think you have um come up with some of the ideas that are out there that other people are thinking about. And so like I'm thinking that like county offices may be coming up and offering some of AI trainings that we could take advantage of that wouldn't cost um anything to the district that we could capitalize on and prioritize next year. Um things like that, right?

192That we could take advantage of that wouldn't be an additional cost, but now that it's a priority for the board, it could be something that could become a priority for us as a district as well. So that sort of thing. Um and then we'll take a we'll take a good look at it and and come back and um and uh share um and I and this might go to the information literacy and research component. I think one thing that some folks were talking to me about was about also simple technology literacy like people not knowing how to use like word for example right effectively and even just knowing how types like skills like >> maybe to that. So Nick, I'm sort of looking into you for guidance you enough. >> Let me taste that. So

193I think this gives an ability to go back come back with some actionable the next tier of it. I think one of the things about this conversation that's important for recognizes this is an area the board's had the least opportunity to talk about of our five strategic priorities because of the nature of the emergency things we've had to deal with in the last 12 months. So us not having the time to get through it all is not surprising because we it's our first time really getting to have this type of ranging conversation. So I think this gives staff and ability to go back. I don't want this if we stopping here. I don't want to leave the impression that enrichment is not at the same level of importance with this priority. Um it's just the

194nature of the time and the ability to go back and then we'll we can the rest of the planning is instead of trying to figure out how to get us together for three days. The nature of this is going to be to find two three-hour chunks of time either attached to board meetings attached to other planning things or a special study session like this in order to complete this as we're going but also recognizing the urgent and important nature of the business that that we're dealing with right now. So we'll look to schedule the at least enrichment part of this conversation soon influences preservation and spending decisions and then start to figure out how to pull this together and say come back to us for action versus things that really informing and helping guide um

195at at a level that we don't actually need to take action on. But I do feel like this is a good stopping point and that we achieved a lot. So if my colleagues are okay with that and say >> I thought Dr. Patrick said something really interesting. >> Yeah, he did. >> I said a lot of interesting things. I want to give him more time agenda item to go further. >> As you said, we we haven't really planned for some of the which is the whole goal. You brought some feedback from yourselves from your experience in the community say we'll look at that. What I'm wondering in your next session, whenever that is, is could there be a two-part? Could there be like a response to this so you can get a response to this

196and then pick up on the next layer? and it may be in the same session or multiple. So I think that's exactly the >> the I think there's and I think the important thing is that folks have now had a chance to hear where our thoughts are at within this as to to pre-inform all the decisions that'll be coming to us. So you can take that and go. >> Let me uh just give me just a second JY. Let me just uh take off the facilitator's hat on your discussions about grading. I worked with our board and our teachers union for four years on our grading policies. And it wasn't just the policies, it was the educational part with the teachers. And there are serious educational concerns teachers have about zeros, the percent of homework.

197I mean, it was like every month for four years. So, I'm just saying that some of those things you have up there are really big deals, but they require effort and they're important. They're important to teachers and parents and kids. >> And at least for the ones that I they're what I'm hearing from the teachers. >> Yeah. That's why they're up there. So, Sure. And I think that's important part of is getting an opportunity to go back and talk to teachers that talked to us that resulted in them being up there in the first place. I guess hit the nail on the head, Tim, is the interpretation from the teachers and from the district. We need to be in better alignment on the interpretation of how that is going to be applied. >> Yes. >>

198So there's more consistency and once there's consistency, then it's understood. I have the utmost respect for our teachers. That's the only reason we have this gift to provide guidance to educate these students. But when there is a varying level how to grade and why to grade and if they're all across the board we have no ability to work together and collaborate with their fellow. So yes, it is a big deal. It will take a lot of time but that is follow >> and I co-f facilitated with our teacher union president because it gave a response I mean there was a very methological way we did it and there wasn't any step we took it didn't first go back to the school site for any response from the teachers and then come back to the committee

199and so if you it's just some of these things are long term they require effort but they're well worth it >> yeah and everything we do is student driven and nothing can happen without teacher your input because we can't put expectations out there that they can't meet. We need to know if they can meet them or not, but if not, what do they mean? It's a very robust conversation. >> I think just the the one thing I have time is that I want to make sure that um I know in a few months the state supposed to provide the guidelines for financial literacy requirement that we're on track to work to make sure that we the facilities. Mark, in terms of the late hour going on, any final comments to everyone in the room and

200thanks for hanging in with us. >> No, I appreciate everyone's input and uh yeah, I um I look forward to, you know, the the cabinet coming back with information and then continuing with the enrichment uh portion for sure. >> Perfect. Hopefully, I want to thank everybody for giving me the the chance to sit in this chair. And hopefully I help your conversation and Nick at least I'm I'm hoping that this takes one's burden of facilitating meetings off your plate and you got to participate in here 8:32 at 8:32.