001just to be sure that the public can hear us can I call again for public comment yes there are members of the public joining us on Zoom we would like to comment on our closed session agenda please raise your hand our first speaker is Adina Flores how much time two minutes please thank you okay our first speaker is Adina Flores Adina you have two minutes I'm going to keep track on my watch um on my phone here go ahead and start uh good afternoon board and superintendent I've now sent two cure and correct letters to the attention of the district so I'd just like to remind you that the deadline as far as business days for a responses this Friday if that happens to be a discussion to take place during closed session I'd also
002like to remind the board that as referenced in my care and correct letter the board president must do an oral reading of the items to be discussed in closed session prior to public comment that did not take place as we just saw that now looks like an intentional violation of the brown act once again so I do look forward to our discussions and mediation regarding my settlement which I hope is being discussed in closed session and I would like to start my own 501c4 to teach minorities how to get involved in government so we are no longer indoctrinating our own people thank you thank you our next speaker is Shelby Pryor good evening board um it's interesting that in order to have participation and for people to understand um you guys hold these meetings during
003the middle of the day when most people are at work like myself luckily I have a hands-free device which allows me to continue to operate and do the things that I need to do it's interesting that you are supposed to announce what are in the closed uh pose discussions and you guys don't do the legal things that you're supposed to do by keeping people informed and keeping us in the dark um I really do hope that you come to some understanding of uh what you guys have been discussing in these private conversations especially when discussing matters of uh pending litigation being that you guys have violated tons of people's rights in the process I think that it's interesting that we are still being ostracized by many members of the board including Miss minieri and Miss
004uh De La Cruz and I think that it's time for a change of faith in people who are in charge because the wokeness is not working you guys aren't incorporating Us in these meetings like you're supposed to be and it's very interesting that these close conversations aren't being uh brought up to the general public as discussed by Miss Flores so if you guys continue that operation you continue to get yourself in more legal matters than if necessary we'll continue to sue you until you guys figure it out thank you very much thank you president manieri there are no other hands raised thank you at this time we will recess to closed session good evening thank you all for attending today's meeting of the Santa Rosa City School Board opening this meeting Wednesday June 28 2023
005we will start our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance please rise and remain standing through our land acknowledgment I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States indivisible with liberty and justice for all leading us today in our land acknowledgment is Vicki zanz thank you I acknowledge that Santa Rosa city schools is on the traditional territory and homelands of the Pomo people traditional territory and homelands of the Coast Miwok people in honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations this land acknowledgment causes to commit to continuing to learn how to better how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit by offering this land acknowledgment we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Santa Rosa city schools more accountable to the needs of American
006Indian and Indigenous peoples thank you you may all be seated before we begin tonight's meeting I want to take a moment to hold some space um a space of reflection a moment of silence this Mo this month our community has lost two young lives much too soon to gun and gang violence it is always a tragedy when a young person leaves this world too soon and a family is left to grieve such a loss I personally feel the need to talk to the kids and teens in my life and in my family and tell them how much I love them and I hope that we can all take some action to create safer spaces for our youth to share with us adults in their lives the struggles and challenges and challenges that they're facing so
007please join me in taking a moment to ground ourselves in whatever emotions these tragedies may be surfacing for us thank you item C3 for this evening report of actions taken in closed session we have nothing to report item C4 items considered in closed session for action and Open Session um we are looking for emotion on student expulsion case number 22 23 39. move to approve expulsion number 22 23. 39. thank you on second thank you that was moved by director Flores and seconded by director Sheffield roll call vote please director Flores aye director Sheffield aye director daily Cruz aye director McNally director Medina aye director De la Torre aye president manieri aye um seeking a motion on student expulsion case number 22 2347. go to approve case number 22 23 hyphen to 47. Second thank
008you that was moved by director Flores and seconded by vice president Medina roll call vote please director Flores hi director Medina aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally I director De la Torre hi president manieri I thank you this brings us to item C5 statements of abstention are there any statements of abstention this evening seeing none we will move to item C6 adjustments to the agenda board or superintendent are there any adjustments president manieri I have one I would like to request that consent item number 11 be pulled for correction thank you we will pull consent item number 11. thank you any other adjustments okay seeing none at this time we will also ask if there are members of the public who would like to give public comment on our consent
009items when that time comes thank you president manieri if they're members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on our consent agenda those are the F items for the ends of the agenda please raise your hand at this time and again this is if you are commenting on a consent agenda item I do not see any hands raised great thank you this brings us to item C7 special presentation for outgoing board member Lori Fung and so I will hand this over to superintendent chernel thank you president many members of the board those who are in person and with me today online apologies for not being in person um and I hope that Miss Fong is in the chambers and if so if she could please come down um to the
010bottom and join us at the table um Miss Fong as we all know has been a dedicated employee and board member of Santa Rosa city schools for quite a number of years and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with her for just a few of those we have two presentations tonight one is a recognition of Miss Fong's dedication and leadership as a board member of this very special and outstanding you rock board and the other is for your many years of dedication as an educator or leader and board member in this district and so there are two things that we are presenting to you tonight and I'm going to hand it back to president manieri as Melanie I think have you provided both of those in front of her yes okay
011there okay and so I are they numbered or in order okay so we're gonna ask Miss Fong if she could please open each one in order and then I will hand it back to president manieri to give the board an opportunity to present comments but Lori love you forever I think this is where you open the gifts Lori okay Lori would you mind reading what's there Santa Rosa city schools Embrace engage in power with our deepest appreciation we hereby honor Lori fong in recognition of your passion unconditional commitment and enduring dedication to the students of Santa Rosa city schools thank you Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education term December 2016. those are the days I'll add foreign to March 2023. thank you very much thank you superintendent Chanel and the second gift or presentation
012it's kind of looking like holiday season here so this is a clear thing that looks very pretty Santa Rosa city schools Lori Fong exemplary service award Santa Rosa city schools 1998-2023. foreign I wondered if the board could go down and take a photo with Lori photo did you say photo Anna yes photo and then maybe some words after foreign I think this comes back to the board if there's anything that we would like to Express to Lori in her special presentation I think we're just going to go down the line yeah director delatorre good evening Lori phone so that glass statue and mentioned that you've been with this District from 1988 to 2023. and uh there are no words to express the Gratitude from my heart for your commitment to this district and most importantly
013your commitment to your students you embody all the greatness that we hope for in each and every educator you embody what we hope an educator is able to bring to the table to connect with our students for those on this board for those in this room for those watching that don't know 1994 Pioneer High School I was that 15 year old student that needed you and you connected with me Fulton Valley Prep that connection has spanned through 2023 and how serendipitous and joyful the opportunity was for me to have this seat for the remainder of your term to help guide and strengthen this community in your honor so thank you for everything you've done thank for you for everything you continue to do and thank you for bringing strength and guidance to that 15 year
014old kid that helped me become the man that I am today Lori Lori and I actually go way back even though she doesn't remember that you know I used to get upset every time I I would meet Lori at an event he said oh hi Lori I'm Castro's friend remember me and she would pretend that she didn't remember but uh soon after that you know I would meet her at another event and she goes like hi I'm I'm you know I'm Laurie what's your name and I'm like oh my God and this happened you know in the span of like I don't know 10 years or so uh and now I know uh why uh we meet so many people so we continue constituents so many folks that you know want a little time a
015little bit of our time right and uh keeping track of all those folks you know it's quite difficult so I I don't take it personally anymore uh Lori um once I got into the board uh she was a person I actually you know um texted and confided with in in terms of you know as a new newly elected official uh thank you for being you know even Kiel thank you for having that you know that astute mind to to help us through you know the most horrific times which were in our covet periods um your candid your your your ability to to you know put a plain and simple and your ability with words uh said you must you must have been an English teacher huh it was no well your your ability you know
016to put everything very candidly was very you know inspiring and at the same time I just want to say thank you because you know maybe I didn't say this but I did look up to you in the way that you were look the way that you were able to look at things critically and analyze them quickly um I envy that in in the trustee so Lori um thank you Laurie it's so nice to see you um we met at a candidate Forum I think it might have been one of the first times we we went face to face and we we um had an opportunity through for those of you back before we had um by District area trustee Representatives it was it was the entire district and this there were a lot of candidates
017um in 2016 and um and we all were so different but you stood out as being um experience and you spoke from your years of teaching and and being a principal and being you know on school campuses um working with kids working with families um and that's when I got to know you and started listening to you um you you're compassionate and and your your experience your expertise um you're a fighter clearly a fighter um and with the biggest of hearts and that shines in everything that you do your love for kids um you you didn't step down in retirement you joined a school board and then and exactly and then you took it one step further um by becoming active in csba and and um taking that leadership brains um that is Testament to
018the person that you are the leader that you are the pillar in the community that that you are um I'm so glad that I've had the opportunity to work with you we've been through so much budget shortfalls and labor negotiations and fires and more fires and superintendent hires and pandemics and distant learning and return to school we really went through everything and I loved being in the trenches fighting with you fighting for the things that we believe in and and your leadership on this board you definitely set um set the tone for this board and in our growth and um I I I love the experience working with you thank you Miss Fong I feel like um I got to know you so sadly late in my time in Santa Rosa and I um yeah
019I just um I very much benefited from your experience being a lifelong teacher and also so deeply curious that combination is so powerful and I love the way that it makes the people around you feel um because it just awakens something in each and every one of us when we're in your presents and you ask these great questions that you probably already know the answers to um but the conversations that come out of that Curiosity and that love for the people around you it's just you can just feel it every time we're in your presence I'm so grateful for that I um I'm also so grateful for the way that you stepped in to a very challenging situation for our district and the school that you love so deeply with kids that you love and
020Educators that you love and just right back into it so seamlessly with so much grace um I love that you jumped into leadership with the Asian Pacific Islander School Board Association being their president and bringing that little organization to Statewide presence in the ways in which we you showed up and we all showed up right behind you at csba every year because you are our leader in so many ways um and I just want to thank you for your badassery for like your fire for um I made up a word I know sorry um and uh and just so grateful for having gotten a chance to work with you and learn from you and soak you all up uh for the little time that I got to do that and I wish you so much
021fun and so much joy in truly being retired um good luck with that um and I just love you so much thank you there's so much that's been said but clear thing to say is thank you for everything to me probably the thing that stands up most is is just you being real keeping it real with me all the time really advocating for what you believe and I know that everything you do is even more than just within education especially after the fires helping families out in the community um you're awesome and and I think stepping up I'm after what happened you know in this district and sacrificing Your Role here to really step up as a leader speak so highly of you and love the person that you are I just want to say
022thank you and and with the good looking retirement I I know that you're just going to be constantly out there working so we'll see each other a lot more I'm sure thank you Lori for um your your dedication and your commitment I had the um the real pleasure of working with you both on this board and outside in our community to support folks that were literally coming to your door um with needs and um any just the way that you show up so presently so fiercely for people and not not just people but people who need help the most and so I I get emotional thinking about um you know the the past few years and you led us through some really difficult moments um on this board and in this District you were the
023president when we were having hard conversations about covid and policies and return to school and um and you led us through that so gracefully and and it's it's a leadership style that I very much admire and and that I think about all the time and for that I'm so grateful to have a role model um that I look up to um and so thank you thank you for stepping in and um this transition felt you know abrupt um because it was and I think that uh your your confidence and stepping into a position to you know um to just um support a community that you love so much is is incredibly inspiring um and I'm I mean I was there when when I saw you make that decision you know I'm gonna I'm gonna go
024back and I'm gonna be the principal and and I know what that entails I know I'm gonna have to leave the board I know I'm gonna have to give up my presidency with um with the Asian Pacific Islander board um and the confidence with which you did that was honestly um it was striking um and Powerful so thank you for everything that you bring not only to public education in Santa Rosa and in Sonoma County but to this community we were so so lucky to have Lori Fong here superintendent tranelle anything else with this item no I just I think it's been well said and um just can't say enough words to express our appreciation for Lori um so thank you again thank you this brings us to item C8 our public comment on non-agenda
025items at this time we will open this meeting for public comment on non-agenda items only speakers are limited to two minutes each during public comment we kindly ask that speakers maintain a respectful and civil tone keeping in mind that deferring opinions are welcome personal attacks offensive language or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated Please be aware that persistent disruptions may result in a warning and if necessary further action may be taken as outlined in our policy guidelines thank you for your cooperation in creating a constructive and inclusive meeting I will start with the blue cards that I have here in the chambers and then we will move to our remote attendees and first we have Karen Wagner followed by Michael hilber good evening everyone hope everybody's doing well so last night I had the opportunity
026to um be at a city meeting that was regarding the gang violence and the crime prevention and it was really eye-opening to see so many Community groups and members come together a couple of our board members were there I see some more people in our audience were there um so it is um really important for us as a city to uh get a handle on this um they're not going to be able to always arrest their way out of this but as we start to bring these groups together we there is a new gang prevention task force going on um and they're working with youths in schools and parents so you know they say it takes a village to raise a child okay and really it's going to take the city the whole city we
027all have a responsibility in this so you know as a school worker I work with these youth and I see them and it's really important that I think like with the start um uh actions that we have in place that we're going to be able to do our part you know and really get a handle on this um this anger that's going on between um the gangs so and then you know I have a grand I have granddaughters that are going to be coming up in the school you know pretty soon and you know I would like to have them protected as well and um the other thing I want to say is that I'm also here to contend for our classified employees thank you next up is Michael hilber good evening Michael hilber Santa
028Rosa the Nortenos were aligned with the Jalisco drug cartel and they're responsible for Distributing uh drugs in this County there's money to be made doing that so that's a lot of the motivation to join a gang people who see graffiti on offense and it says uh Norte and big bold red letters and X4 that's them reason I bring this up is people are coming forward saying that there's significant gang activity in the secondary schools there's harassments and bullying and even recruitment and uh there's been stories from recent graduates and and parents of current students who said things like uh a young person will be approached and asked if the gang affiliation and if not why not and pressure to join and stuff like that and it's even been claimed that that minor incident in um
029and montgomerywood the underlying cause was gang conflict so that raises the important question are the secondary schools infested with gang members and if so what if anything is being done about it I have no more blue cards for public comment in the chamber so we will move to our remote attendees thank you president manieri there are members of the public joining us via zoom and would like to comment on a non-agenda item please raise your hand at this time we have a two-minute time limit our first speaker is Adina Flores foreign good evening board and superintendent I'm deeply concerned by the board's lack of Competency when adhering to state and federal law especially since trustee De La Cruz is former counsel to the County Board of Supervisors it's ironic that I was labeled as incompetent
030by the district being that I'm the only one with a thorough understanding of the brown act I look forward to our settlement discussions next month as you should have cut me a check months ago how much have you spent now on legal services for myself alone the district frequently receives legal guidance from scls yet believes they are above the law scls issued a memo in November 2022 updated Brown act virtual medium requirements also known as ab2449 under this bill video conferencing members must disclose whether any individuals 18 years or older are present in the same room and the nature of the relationship trustees may only participate remotely due to just cause or emergency circumstances a maximum of twice per year trustee Medina's extravagant trips to Dubai to take his wife shopping and dining do not
031fall within either category and this is considered a violation of state law had an emergency taken place the trustee needed to describe the emergency in approximately 20 words without disclosing any personal medical information being that I was illegally forced out in my position for supposedly violating policies or laws I'm confused as to why the trustees are continually exempt from any repercussions as is Governor Newsom and our County Board of Supervisors you violated Mr Pryor's rights under the First Amendment and brown act and ab2449 because you did not give him a warning during the raccoon incident you just immediately removed him from the meeting so again that's a violation of state law I will add that to make your incorrect letter which you have been told this Friday to respond to thank you our next speaker
032is Shelby Pryor good evening board it's always your favorite part of the day public comment this is where I get you to come out of your character and do it moral and stupid things as you usually do um I'd like to touch note on the fact that uh we basically publicly just announced the fact that we have correspondence outside of this meeting about individuals in the community specifically me which is a violation of the brown act you conduct business with one another outside of these meetings which is not okay Miss De La Cruz I love you wearing a mask saw you during the event during uh the festival for um Juneteenth which as usual you know you do your glory standing and try to act like you're whatever um you weren't wearing a mask I
033have tons of photos make sure to go ahead and see that you're full of political theater also there's a great story about how you basically screwed over all of the Latino workers where you're from I will reckon me and everybody to go read that and we will share it um let's also talk about the fact that out of all of you guys the only Brave person amongst you is Mr Medina met with them last week it was really great to sit down have a real conversation and be able to understand where we stand and our differences but yet be uh suitable to do so thank you Mr Medina for being brave unlike these cowards um and finally since we only got about 30 seconds or so let's go ahead and talk about Miss Lori Fong
034her lovely little stint of being on the board caused two children one to lose its life and the other to be in prison probably for the rest of his life or pretty close to there those just one of the bad decisions that are made I love how you guys are talking about gangs when you guys are the biggest gang on Earth you guys are out here doing all kinds of illegal activity and you want to talk about the gangs well guess what every one of you is a gang member you either went to UC Berkeley or you went to some other prestigious College where you guys run rough shot thank you Mr Pryor our next speaker is Margaret Boone good evening board I want to speak again tonight on wages for classified staff at the
035last board meeting a young lady from Food Services called in to speak about how difficult it is to live on 16.97 an hour that amount of money sounds insane to be discussing in 2023 as an hourly wage but it sounds even worse when you calculate what she actually makes in a year the job posting which has seven open positions says six and a half to seven hours a day school year length position at seven hours a day for 185 days she makes just under twenty thousand dollars a year gross income for that she could maybe rent a room and a house but she could not afford a one-bedroom apartment unless she qualifies for low-income housing when I worked for Safeway in the late 90s early 2000s it was a really good union job the kind
036you could support a family with part of our training was all this anti-walmart propaganda saying how Walmart has cheap prices because they subsidize their employees paychecks with government programs with welfare in the form of food stamps low-income housing Medicare Etc rather than pay a living wage that propaganda was effective because it was true are we at Santa Rosa city schools doing any better than super corrupt Walmart we have a board largely made up of equity and labor leaders people out there in their daily lives fighting for equity for our marginalized communities and for rights for labor groups that's very honorable work but then and here at San Jose City Schools we have people making less than minimum wage we have people working full-time and taking home not enough money to even pay rent on a
037one-bedroom apartment where is the equity for our employees where are the labor rights for our labors most people won't work for poverty wages and no one should have to those that do now do so for our students and that's the only reason they deserve our support and that doesn't mean raising the lowest paid to 1920 an hour which is still only 25 000 a year gross income we need to do better thank you thank you our next speaker is Lynette Casey Dave newborn and um I wanted to talk about a couple of things one is the classified wage and the negotiations that are going on um I believe tomorrow you meet with a classified our classified Union and I'm just pleading with you to let's just get this done we all know that the classified
038don't make enough to live on most of us have another income in our homes or we wouldn't be able to work with the schools we work at the schools because we love our students we're dedicated to our students we're dedicated to our sites and we need a living wage as I think someone pointed out last meeting in the meeting before my paycheck is less than what we pay in taxes I'm not I'm embarrassed to say that I I make I could never survive in Santa Rosa in Sonoma County on the wage that I'm paid never and I've been with Santa Rosa city schools for over 15 years that's telling you something so please in the negotiations tomorrow let's just get this one to and done it's not one and done I know we met before
039let's just get it done you we all know that we're underpaid please just help us let's stop dragging this out let's just come to the table meet and and and make it work we have so many openings we're going to have more openings we've lost so many restorative we need help second thing is we need help we need our sros back the the gang prevention meeting yesterday only just proved that yes we need a change to our SRO program I know it's not called an SRO program we need big changes we need things updated please help us do that we work the schools with these kids and yes we have gang members at our schools we all know that we need help we need to help them we need help to help them we can't
040do it alone we need to work with our law enforcement we need to work with you we need to work with a whole Community we need them please bring them back let us update the program just like the sart team asked please re-look at it please I'm asking you from my heart we need them you you think thank you Lynette our next speaker is Maria can you please State your full name for the record Maria Posey can I can you hear me yes well employees like the last one that is speaking up for the students as far as their safety those are the kind of employees that deserve a raise as far as people that deserve a raise definitely not teachers and they should absolutely get a cut in funding since they are no longer
041at night De La Cruz rolls their eyes since they since they don't I'm sorry they have proven to not be essential employees um the last one actually is right it should be about the children teachers have proven that they don't care they can't even teach the kids the rather regular stuff they want to jump into gender studies because they don't want to actually teach the kids reading writing and math it's way easier to teach some fantasy stuff you need to get the sros back on campus I'm waiting to find out some more information about Omar Medina and having to be at the meetings so many are not allowed to miss so many on traveling so that'll be interesting to find out more I just heard about that today um I I would love to see
042this whole board have to step down and I hope Adina finds more and more information to make that happen and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you have to apologize because you are all wrong on putting out the one person who was there protecting parents and students all of you should be ashamed of yourself and you're disgusting president manieri there are no other hands raised thank you this brings us to our reports for the evening and we will start with item D1 California School employee Association csca Center is a 75 report and I will hand it over to president Layman good evening can you hear me hi so I apologize to Lori I made her stay because I want to say something about her good evening president Sheffield superintendent tranelle Board of Trustees the
043community and classified staff who are present and those who are listening on Zoom tonight may we join together with the community to end these tragedies a special thank you from CSEA to Lori Fong for her dedication and steadfast support we want to express our sincere appreciation for your stepping in for the students the community and all of us at srcs when we needed you most May incoming administrators principals teachers and staff be inspired by your perseverance and may we learn from your example and serve our students better in the coming year we also want to thank Renee Jackson your positivity and kindness over the last 13 years with multiple superintendent and assistant superintendents has held the District district office together we thank you for your genuine connection you served between us and the administration we
044will miss you during the last meeting an updated Santa Rosa city schools organizational chart was approved organizational change is to be expected and needed at Santa Rosa city schools but reorganization can affect our jobs morale and efficiency in providing for the students we serve we are concerned about the many administrators teachers and classified that will have resigned or retired by this Friday is this the largest mass Exodus the district has ever seen I hope they were leaving personal reasons how many new employees will be coming in will this be an opportunity to encourage a more positive safe and trustworthy culture we see that efforts to improve safety are starting with the hirings of the recommendations from sart with the lcap jobs at various School sites it'll be a daunting task to hire this many positions
045before school starts as currently there are more than 150 classified openings we must ensure that our classified staff is compensated adequately and not below the wages of other jobs that are available in Santa Rosa at other school districts within Santa Rosa and the neighboring communities we look forward to a living wage not a minimum wage we look forward to continuing negotiations let's make the new motto no classified left behind have a good summer with courage and compassion thank you thank you president Lehman next is Santa Rosa Teachers Association report and I will hand this over to president Catherine Howell good evening president manieri superintendent tranelle Juan Zoom members of the board members of the community I know Lori is sneaking out but we did also want to give a big thank you to Lori Fung
046um and all of the things she's done for Santa Rosa city schools uh such a huge loss of institutional memory and knowledge it is going to be you know hard to find that history and hard to make sure that the the knowledge that she has about our schools is kept in the district [Music] um along with that we need to say farewell to Mike Shepard I know he's not on the meeting but um he'll be missed farewell to Kelly Dillon who is also taking a lot of institutional memory with her as she leaves Santa Rosa city schools and to say farewell to Renee Jackson who I personally will miss a lot but she does so much in that office um just always calm always smiling always cheerful always there to help and um back when
047I was on the negotiating team for hours and hours a day she would bring us deviled eggs which we made everybody happy really so um she will be def definitely missed um I also want to say congratulations to Vicki zans for her new position in Human Resources uh I've worked with Vicki for a lot of years and this will be a great um person to have in that assistant superintendent position and SRTA is pleased with that selection so um as we go and look at tonight's agenda we definitely appreciate I think I said it maybe last time but we definitely appreciate the shift in spending and priority that's reflected in the lcaps that you will hopefully be approving tonight I want to add I think it's uh that President Layman said it very well there's
048a concern right there's a lot of new jobs in those lcaps to bring safety and wellness to our school sites and there's uh not a lot of people lining up to take those jobs especially with the breakdown in negotiations I guess they're negotiating tomorrow we need to make sure that our CSEA members are paid a living wage so that we can get them into these positions that are going to be oh so important to our safety on our school campuses when school starts again in August um there we do have a concern about having reduction in suspension and expulsions is one of the primary metrics for improvement when it comes to looking at student wellness um not because these are bad metrics but because we definitely learned over the past year that um Behavior can
049be ignored and administrators can just simply choose to not suspend students for things that maybe they needed to be suspended for so we're asking for definitely to work together to make sure that students have consequences to their actions immediate and appropriate consequences in conjunction with the wellness uh pieces that we're putting into place in the additional restorative people at each of our sites they need to work together to make sure that our students are understanding not just uh how to be restored but also that there's consequences first uh thank you in advance hopefully you're going to approve all of our site-based mousse they're just in the consent agenda um it may seem like a trivial thing to this board but to each School site that has their individual the ability to create an individual schedule
050that meets the needs of the students at those School sites it is a big deal that we're continuing to have these individual mous so thank you for uh approving them tonight and um we're looking forward to looking at the next steps hearing more about the parcel tax uh initiative and because we know that this funding can and should be used for salary increases for what seems to be people at all levels the CSEA employees SRTA and administrative level just because like President Layman said we are seeing a mass Exodus from this District we need to figure out how to keep people here so that we're not losing so much knowledge and and losing so much institutional memory all at the same time every year which is how it's felt for the past few years so
051thank you for that thank you president Howell item D3 superintendent report I will hand this over to superintendent tranelle thank you very much president manieri members of the board those who are uh in person and online I'm going to start with a somber note and that is that the recent tragedies involving youth in our community is very heavy on my heart um on our hearts our youth sorry our youth deserve to live and thrive in this community community enough is enough let our students live please Santa Rosa city schools is committed to working with our Community Partners our staff and our families to understand how we can turn this corner how we can support our youth how we can help them know that this is not the way how we can help them to thrive
052and feel safe in our community I just feel the need to say that um thank you for giving me the moment to do that Switching gears um we are in full swing with summer school and our students are thriving that are participating in summer school with us we have the pleasure of working with them and we're also preparing for the 23-24 school year one of the things that has come up repeatedly is our a through G graduation requirements we know that this is an interest in discussing these requirements and at the last board meeting an idea was shared that we would convene an A through G success committee this committee will be tasked with identifying and pursuing other ways in which to support success to to support the success of a through G completion which
053is a required State measurement and Metric what I'm proposing is that we convene a separate committee at the start of the school year tasked with looking at our graduation requirements and understanding that what we can do to demonstrate that we serve all of our students and their future endeavors perhaps a waiver may be explored at some of some of these requirements for students who know that they are not going to college so I'm interested in doing that as soon as people return from being off contract also we want to remind everyone that we are unveiling updated district and school websites starting July 1st this was a change that We unexpectedly needed to move quickly on as the platform that we were using on our current websites was going out of business so I want to
054commend the team that's been working behind the scenes to make that transition as smooth as possible to that end we are continuing with our parent Square platform as our major line of communication with our families staff Etc we encourage our families to update information in the system to make sure we have current contact information we are tentatively planning to hold a special board meeting on July 19th on the topic of facilities Master planning and so we encourage you to tune in and lastly we are looking forward to seeing all of our students back for our first day of school on August 16th with that I will hand it back to you president manieri thank you superintendent tranelle next up is the board president report I do not have a report this evening so I'll roll
055into board member reports are there directors who'd like to give a rip where I see director de la torre's hand good evening and thank you first and foremost I want to extend our utmost condolences for the young lives lost none of us can speak on this enough and recognize how those tragedies are already adversely affecting all involved in no world should feel common to lose three lives at the Short age of 15. the incursion of violence that we've been experiencing make no doubt that currently our children are experiencing a crisis of Chaos their only hope to pull through is going to take the efforts of our entire community to do our part our children need hope respect Trust structure guidance consistency and for us to mentor and believe in them so they can believe in
056themselves all aspects of our community have to take accountability for our parks every seat at that table has to step up and do better we must come together this is a community-wide issue and it must be okay to ask questions and continue to ask questions what are we investing in and those are those Investments working we understand the why wouldn't understand the when it is right now what we really need to work on the how we need to work better on instilling the love and confidence that they believe in themselves enough to understand that they know they can grow and thrive from personal experience and from coaching youth for the last 25 years I understand there could be no greater resource than a positive role model a mentor a coach a teacher a Community member
057that has made a personal connection with that child going through a rough patch to understand that they're not alone and that they can achieve more than what their struggles are this is too important to not change it's too important to wait I would like to ask how can we change the system to better equip our teachers to connect with our students I want to be a part of any and all solutions I want to continue the conversation I want to be available so I use my reports and I to remind us to thoughts and condolences are no longer enough words will not get through this problem we need to come together and do better please no more passing the blame no more passing the buck nowhere looking for it to make somebody else's responsibility we
058are all responsible for our children let's create a better environment for them thank you director De la Torre are there other board members who have reports this evening okay seeing none we will move on to item D6 csba report do we have a report this evening no report thank you this brings us to our e- items and first we have an action item resolution reaffirming support for lgbtqia plus Community the board will consider the approval of resolution number 2022 2383 reaffirming support for lgbtqia plus students staff and Community I will hand this over to superintendent tranelle thank you board president manieri members of our board those who are with us in person and online uh it is my pleasure to bring forward this resolution tonight in support of our to reaffirm and support our lgbtqia
059plus Community I do want to take a moment to thank trustee Flores for bringing this item to our attention and for the advocacy and for the team that included staff members in our district to work on the language of this particular resolution it is extremely important to us that we demonstrate that we support all of our students not just because it is an obligation but because that is our heart because we Embrace every child every family and so with that I'm going to hand it back to the board because I know that there will be comments made tonight in in support of this resolution thank you superintendent channel are there any questions from the board okay seeing none we will move on to public comment um I have no blue cards for this item so
060we will move to our remote attendees thank you president manieri there are members of the public joining us online via zoom and would like to comment on item E1 please raise your hand as a reminder there's a two-minute time limit and before we call for our first speaker um I do want to offer a reminder as we move into discussing the next item I want to take a moment to highlight a difficult balance we strive to strike as elected officials as an elected body we are bound by California laws that allow the public to express their ideas and opinions on matters before the school board sometimes when people Express their ideas which can encourage unlawful discrimination that can be demeaning and hateful and as we the board sit and listen that does not mean that
061we agree with those statements the board cannot limit speech based upon content that we might agree or disagree with so long as those are issues within the board's jurisdiction in that spirit I want to remind all of the members of our community that we want to have a respectful Dialogue on the issues should your comments rise to threats or hate speech that threatens the safety and well-being of others including our students and staff who are here I will take the appropriate action under the law to stop the disruption at this meeting the district is committed to a civil dialogue and we balance that commitment with our core value of maintaining a climate of inclusivity belonging and safety for all of our students and staff thank you Melanie thank you our first speaker is Shelby Pryor
062man Minnie area you are so cute with all the word solid don't worry I won't hurt your feelings don't be so soft alright here we go so since you want to reaffirm that this religion that you're going to incorporate into our kids understanding of lgbtq Pride let me read for you the law since Miss lawyer De La Cruz is such a nitwit and knows everything let's look at this under puddle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. it protects all religions those religions are to include things that are not just theastic but non-theistic moral or ethnic beliefs as you what as to what is right or wrong which are sincerely held strengths or traditional views or values that means that Pride currently being taught is a form of religion which means I've proven it
063meaning if I can't preach black nationalism if I can't preach Buddhism or Muslim or Christianity you cannot put this into effect so go ahead and make the wrong decision but as a black activist I will tell you I will be sending a lawyer to prove that you have violated the rights of the taxpayers and now have implicated a religion into our school system you want to talk about hey hate the fact that you don't know how to read hate the fact that underneath this Civil Rights Code you guys are violating other people's rights in the process while elevating a group that makes up one percent of the population go ahead this is what you do your criteria for being board members is lackluster we're not losing a plethora of intelligence we're getting rid of the
064people who don't know how to do their job thank you our next speaker is Adina Flores uh good evening born in superintendent as Mr pie expressed and I will be helping put together that language in theory uh pride is considered a religion if we refer to Proverbs 11 2 when pride comes disgrace follows but with humility comes wisdom as a follower of Christ Pride is very much discussed in the Bible and I absolutely support my genuine Brothers of ancestors of the LGBT plus Community I was actually out at the drag Story Hour protest and had some lovely conversations with individuals from all backgrounds although the Press Democrat uh you know portrayed me as now the largest activist within Sonoma County yet refuses to interview me for the past two and a half years uh that
065being said um these initiatives have nothing to do with the best interests of our community based on the fiduciary uh sponsors and uh at the international and National level Behind These initiatives this is entirely about discouraging minority groups from reproducing but we don't teach that history in our schools and I I can actually show it through forensics which is what I do on a daily basis um so like I said I love and support everyone but I don't appreciate indoctrination in the school system we have not acknowledged the entire board has not acknowledged that this is actually a black music appreciation month black lives don't actually matter in Sonoma County Ms Palacios our former Hillsborough councilwoman actually had her engine destroyed recently in her car and a news put on her seat I've spoken up
066about that I haven't heard anybody else on the dice you know care about this whatsoever so I would um encourage us to not continue to indoctrinate our communities but actually stand up for them it'd be great if one one trustee on this board could actually do that thank you so much thank you our next speaker is Noah Lewin hi I'm a teacher and the sexuality and gender acceptance Club advisor at Montgomery High School I'm asking the board to vote in favor of this resolution and specify some ways my colleagues students than I want the board and District to show support for the lgbtqia plus community we need to make sure the district makes information about the legal rights and protections for lgbtqia plus identified staff and students available to everyone School sites should also have
067trainings on how to support transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming students this is something my own students have said they feel is needed and something many of my colleagues have expressed interest in these trainings are a much needed step in creating a welcoming School Community for all students although it was great we were able to have people at lgbtq connection do a presentation on this during our professional development in January many staff were not able to attend because they had department-related sessions they needed to attend I propose that trainings like these are part of all School staff meetings once a year so that they are more accessible to teachers admin and classified staff finally I would like to say that in more parts lgbtq connection and positive images are all local organizations that have resources that
068would be very helpful for implementing these suggestions thank you thank you our next speaker is Margaret Boone good evening I just wanted to reiterate what Lewin said about having trainings for all staff that all staff have to go to and are able to access I think it's super important there's so much to learn about this community so many things that many of us don't know that it would be great to have that opportunity my sister works at Sonoma State and they do allyship training I'd love to have something like that in our district as well thank you thank you Margaret our next speaker is Deanna oliveras hi superintendent tranelle on board um this this I just keep reiterating this month after month when these items come up um it's it's great virtue signaling that we
069adopt these resolutions but what are we actually doing are we really putting our money where our mouth is are we really doing these kids you know are we doing our due diligence are we doing what we say we are um allowing a school to you know raise the pride flag for the month of June that's not enough and I feel like month after month when we do these resolutions I feel like they seem like they're just getting passed down from the California School Board Association as a thing to do and it's it's almost doing a disservice because I know personally this year two students high school students in the Santa Rosa city schools were bullied they they weren't technically quote unquote out as being in the lgbtqa plus Community but their family knew they were
070and they were getting bullied and they now are driving to Roanoke Park and some parents some parents and some children and high school students they don't want to wear it on their shirt or their sleeve or they don't want to carry a pride flag around but they're still a member of the community and it's not being addressed because they're being bullied and unless it's considered a hate crime that sometimes the person the victim is also prosecuted and it's really alarming that we're not doing what we need to do to make sure that these kids get what they want emotionally physically and mentally and so you're actually you're you're almost doing reverse of what you're hoping for and you're pushing some of these kids out of the district these are the kids that we claim to
071want to protect but you're put you're pushing them the administration is pushing them out of their District because they don't have enough time to spend getting to know them and know exactly why they bullying is taking place and know exactly who they are and what they stand for and so they decide to leave the school and it's very very sad thank you president manieri there are no other hands raised thank you Melanie um this is an action item so this comes back to the board for any further discussion or emotion um and director Flores first yes I like to address the public um you know as a school board Trustee of Santa Rosa city schools I stand here before you to express my unwavering support for this resolution presented by our district on my behalf
072this resolution represents a crucial affirmation of our values and our commitment to supporting our all lgbtqia plus students families and staff within our educational community today we rise to renew our commitment to our lgbtqi plus students staff and Community we cannot and will not tolerate homophobia transphobia bigotry and discrimination within our schools it is incumbent upon us to take a firm and Annapolis Unapologetic stand against these destructive forces hatred and discrimination have no place in our education institutions every student regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity must feel safe respected and celebrated within our schools we must recognize that our schools should be sanctuaries for our students staff parents and community members no educator or student regardless I repeat of their sexual orientation or gender expression should have to live in fear it is
073essential that we create an environment where all individuals feel secure and respect it no student should ever have to fear for their well-being or experience a sense of insecurity simply because they're trans or their gay identity furthermore we must address the harmful effects of discrimination against our lgbtqia plus families it is unacceptable for any student to hold to be told that their family is inappropriate or the discussions about their family should be silenced because they have queer parents inclusive education means acknowledging and respecting that diverse family structures of our students we must Foster Foster and the environment of acceptance and understanding where every family is embraced finally I want to emphasize that sometimes the loudest voices that we often hear hear In This Very Chambers spewing hate intolerance and racism are not a reflection of
074the majority of the Sonoma County residents we must not let their actions of a few we find us instead we stand here United against these divisive forces and declare that they hold no power over the values we hold dear our commitment to creating an inclusive and accepting education environment remains resolute and we will not continue to end we will continue to Champion diversity respect and equity for all of our community I stand here today as a proud School Board Trustee of San Jose City schools advocating for the resolution of reaffirming our support and commitment to our lgbtqia plus Community let us Embrace this opportunity to demonstrate our unwavering dedication to the well-being and success of all of our students by supporting this resolution we reaffirm our commitment to the fundamental values that underpin our district
075together we will continue to build a safe inclusive and welcoming Community where every individual can Thrive thank you I was very beautifully said director Flores thank you director De La Cruz um whatever said times two thank you uh I just wanted to add my gratitude for the bullet points after the now therefore let it be resolved with some very clear actionable um work that we are holding ourselves accountable for that is laid out in beautiful language for our community to understand the ways in which we will live our values and we will act our values every day in our systems and um you are loved you are seen we serve you um and we will do everything we can in our power to make sure that you are safe and you are cared for thank
076you thank you director De La Cruz director Medina thank you well Echo now times three um but um I think for me you know growing up and going through school through the system you know and growing up as a Latino Mayo within like a very machista household like understanding lgbtq issues was something that I did not gain until like my early 20s even in understanding and I know that when I went to school in our district homophobia was rampant and I don't think it was a safe place for anybody that was of the lgbtq community so I think it's really important that we you know reaffirm our dedication to having a safe space it's about a safe space and about people being allowed to exist being themselves um so thank you uh trustee Flores for
077really bringing this forward and um I think my question to uh superintendent tranelle in terms of the follow-up to some of this is uh you know especially like in the curricular materials and resource review and all that stuff is there a timeline when we should be expecting to like see follow-up on some of this stuff and uh the bullet points around the different like uh dates to be celebrated um is that stuff that can go in our calendar that we could highlight in the calendar uh future um you know calendar that we have for the district um I can answer es our team will be looking at this there is work that we've already done in our district through some of the way that we've adopted some of our curriculum um given the timing we
078are happy to bring back an information item to share with the board the act the activities and actions that we take upon our district um to support this work and I also think it's an opportunity to highlight uh as has been asked for us in other measures to ensure that our students know the resources and services that are available and supports that are available so excuse me we can bring back some information for the board and and just to follow up on that I think any work that we do it would be cool if we could do like uh some sort of manual guide or even a web page that was dedicated to show what that work has been done that could serve as a resource for both staff family students whoever um I think
079that it's constantly updated and and also has resources you know our different partners and organizations that exist thank you this is an action item so we are looking for a motion uh director Sheffield so for inclusivity for acceptance for safety with love and strength with unity and pride I move that we approve this resolution reaffirming support for our lgbtqia plus Community a second my second thank you that was moved by director Sheffield and seconded by director De La Cruz roll calvo please director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally director Flores aye director Medina aye director De la Torre aye president manieri hi thank you item E2 is an action item approval of Santa Rosa city schools El Cap the board will consider the adoption of the Santa Rosa city schools all cap
080for 2023 2024 based upon the public hearing conducted on June 14 2023 presenting this item is Dr Roger Castro hi good evening president maniere superintendent tranelle members of the board and the community of Santa Rosa city schools as you mentioned in the initial public hearing on the 14th we shared in detail and discussed the lcap for the 23-24 school year I want to thank the input from the community from the classroom all the way through to the administration and community members parents we are going to continue to work on increasing the amount of input that we do receive on this but I did want to say that without that input really we wouldn't have the document that we have before us right now which I think is a great representation of making the best out
081of a tough school year and looking forward in a very positive way to that end then we procedurally have to Circle back and approve the document so the requested action tonight is at the Santa Rosa City Schools board of Education adopt the Santa Rosa city schools lcap for the 23-24 school year thank you Dr Castro are there board members who have questions on this item I'd like to move to approve the adoption of the Santa Rosa city schools lcap for 2324 thank you for all the wonderful work in bringing it forward for such Rich discussion a second and I just have one I'm hoping that maybe we can take the time as I've been moved and seconded it you can share with us some of the input share with the public from the input that
082we received that all went into this because there's a lot of things that we need to give out um um so so give some examples um so we held um uh Community meetings um both while hybrid and in person we had meetings with our bargaining members um a good reminder or not a reminder for me but learning in terms of timing how to best present that information something that we're going to continue on a work forward work on next year there were some things this year that caused some interruptions in terms of the planning and the writing of the document obviously in the spring and just a number of different meeting slides like I said we had using building cohorts of schools so feeder patterns um like I said I think one of the things
083as a learning for me is how we can get more Community input but those are some examples right there and then what we did is we took the input from those meetings and we created themes themes that then helped us look at how what we had originally really plan in this second year of a three-year document was really starting how that was settling in and how the community was feeling about that like I shared last time around it also tended to coincide really well Eric did coincide really well with the work of the sart so um it all came together at the end there um and that's why you have I think a document like I said is a pretty good representation of some of the work that we need to focus on moving forward
084absolutely thank you may I add president manieri excuse me along with what Dr Castro has shared we also worked intently with our d-lac committee as well as the new superintendent's advisory network I'm sorry I feel like I'm going to start losing my voice but there was such a robust way that we reached out and created cohorts as Dr Castro mentioned that lent itself to this work thank you and before we bring this back to the board for April call vote we do have to take public comment I have no blue cards so we will move to our remote attendees thank you if you are joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item E2 please raise your hand at this time our first speaker is Adina Flores good evening Borden superintendent I have
085concerns surrounding the actual metrics used behind the lcap I briefly reviewed the documents and I do see that much of the measurements that are based off of the youth truth survey the youth through survey is Under the Umbrella of the Center for Effective philanthropy and if you read through the terms and conditions Mr Bill Gates is one of the original founders of that in theory 501c3 or C4 however our data of all of the participants was sold to that entity and so why Mr Gates has personal interests in the social and mental health of our youth I'm not too sure but again this ties back to the funding of indoctrination through the public school system it's been this way for essentially since the establishment of the public school system and so when I'm asking why
086we cannot continue to trace the funding such as I have and have no interest in it and this board Prides themselves uh Pride for a lot about Awards um on the fact that they are not indoctrinating the youth you are absolutely indoctrinating the youth I can show it through every single essentially contract that comes forward for approval that's backed by a corporate funder so um these metrics and the overall outcomes from uh that have been reflected from those they concern me Gravely because we are preparing our youth for failure um I'm as smart as I am due to trauma so I've had to learn I was not uh given these social and emotional learning tactics in school our kids grow through life experience not by babying them and not focusing on actual curriculum which is
087math English and I think a lot of parents have covered these basic areas that we all learned in school we need to get away from feelings we are not doing our kids Justice we are setting them up for absolute failure and indoctrination thank you our next speaker is Shelby Pryor good evening board it's funny how we talk about hatred selling our data to this youth truth survey and releasing our child's personal thoughts and ideas to an organization that utilizes AI technology in our current basis with little understanding of how that affects brown and black people's outcomes we're being indoctrinated through systems some of us don't live in the same quality of life and have to still live in subpar conditions as a youth uh myself if I would have been participating in these type of
088things when I was young My outcome probably would have been even worse because the metrics would have had me in a position where I'd have been locked up and imprisoned probably permanently um so understanding that we now have not talked to the constituents or the other parents in the group that their child's information has been pandered to this youth truth survey against their knowledge you guys go ahead and continue to approve things without their understanding the fine print that they haven't gone ahead and read well we read it for you that's what we're telling you these individuals up here are pandering your child's innermost thoughts and giving them away to someone else and excluding you from a part of what is rightfully yours as a parent say you're not thank you our next speaker is
089Deanna oliveras hello superintendent and board um I have a little bit along the same lines on the reservation on the metrics for the Youth truth I've been speaking up about the youth truth and the Panorama survey for a few years now and I don't necessarily have an issue with the lcap in general but I think that using just one survey that is kind of skewed because none of these kids have to take the survey so about what 70 to 75 percent of the kids do take the survey uh K through two second grade I believe the teachers take the survey for the kids um some teachers there's a link there's an English a Spanish barrier and so some of the kids don't even really know what taking the survey means uh some teachers give the
090survey as a class assignment which actually goes against Ed code so there's a lot of things I have issues with about the youth truth so the fact that we're giving a youth true survey so much weight to gauge contracts personal Personnel transactions as well as lcat money I think that I think we're doing ourselves a disservice I I don't trust many of you on the board but I honestly trust Santa Rosa city school district and the board I would rather trust the metrics of a survey you all gave to the community honestly because this is a third party and we know our kids and we know our families and we want to do right by them but a third party doesn't necessarily want to do that so I've looked you know I read everything I
091read the agenda minutes meetings whatever and it's generally always because the youth truth survey says so so who's taking the youth through survey not the kids that are through it not the kids that are gang members that don't show up to class not the kids that really need help right so we need to really look at what we're doing thank you Deanna our next speaker is Ashley Bell my board happy almost summer um I uh I'm really happy about this all cap because I feel like some of the FTE increases we're seeing or things that we heard directly from community and students and staff for things that we need so I'm excited that we're trying to add more adults on campus um but I want to reiterate what a lot of my colleagues have already
092said tonight that this increase in FTE is only going to be possible if the wages that we're paying are livable whether that's for SRTA or CSEA so I hope that as we lead with creating safer spaces for our students and adding more adults on campus that we are also focusing on in on those negotiations with our labor Partners to make sure that we are creating jobs that are sustainable for our staff members so that we can have people who are invested in our students in our community and able to afford to live here so thank you thank you Ashley president manieri there are no more hands raised thank you Melanie this comes back to the board for a roll call vote unless there are any further comments from board members okay well before I I
093call for a roll call vote thank you to the team who made this possible and for conducting all of the um Community meetings and really necessary conversations to get to this point where we can have conversations about um increasing our FTE and how um what what our school year is going to look like so thank you to the team uh who made this possible roll call vote please director De La Cruz aye director Medina uh director Sheffield aye director McNally I director Flores aye director De la Torre aye president manieri hi thank you this brings us to item E3 another action item approval of Cesar Chavez Language Academy El Cap the board will consider the adoption of the ccla lcap for 2023 2024 based on the public hearing conducted on June 14 2023 and I
094will hand this over to Dr Castro and principal Diaz thank you very much I believe principal Diaz is available um over Zoom if necessary but once again this is an item that was brought before the board on the 14th of June and tonight's requested action is that Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education adopt ccla's lcap for the 2324 school year okay are there any questions from the word I wasn't sure if principal Diaz was gonna show up on screen no no no okay only if you need okay are there any questions from the board for this lcap okay so we will move on to public comments I have no blue card so we'll move on uh move on to our remote attendees there are members of the public joining us on zoom and would
095like to comment on item E3 please raise your hand present manieri there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for a motion I'd like to move to approve the cclal cap second thank you that was moved by director De La Cruz and seconded by director Flores roll call vote please director De La Cruz aye director Flores aye director Sheffield aye director McNally I director Medina aye director De la Torre aye president manieri hi thank you now item E4 approval of Santa Rosa accelerated Charter School El Cap the board will consider the adoption of the Santa Rosa accelerated charter school lcap for 2023 2024 based on the public hearing conducted on June 14th handing it back to Dr Castro and principal Schluter or I'm sorry yes principal sugar it's just me
096that's just you okay um thanks again president Manor Area um superintendent tranelle and members of the board in the community um the only uh item that's changed here is that there were as an issue with the graphics showing the budgets last time that's been corrected um so as it stands the requested action again is that the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education adopt Santa Rosa cities Santa Rosa accelerated charter schools lcap for the 2324 school year thank you are there any questions all right we'll move on to remote public comment members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item E4 please raise your hand president manyary there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for a motion move for approval of the San
097Ramos accelerated Charter Schools lcap second thank you that was moved by director Sheffield and seconded by director Flores roll call vote please oh I'm sorry director De la Torre thank you motion by director Sheffield seconded by director de la three director Sheffield aye director De la Torre hi director De La Cruz hi director McNally I director Flores aye director Medina aye president manieri aye thank you item E5 approval of Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts El Cap the board will consider the adoption of the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts elk cop for 2023 2024 again based on the public hearing conducted on June 14th Dr Castro thank you very much president superintendent tranelle members of the board and the community of Santa Rosa city schools again the only change to this lcap
098was the same graphic issue and that has been corrected so tonight's requested action is at the board adopt Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts El Cap for the 23-24 school year thank you are there any questions okay we'll move on to remote public comment members of the public joining us on Zoom would like to comment on item E5 please raise your hand there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for a motion hope to prove second that was moved by director Flores and seconded by vice president Medina Royal convo please director Flores aye director Medina aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally aye director De la Torre aye president manageri aye thank you item E6 approval of Santa Rosa French American Charter School El Cap
099again bringing this back to the board based on the public hearing conducted on June 14th Dr Castro thank you president marinieri superintendent trennell members of the board and the community of Santa Rosa city schools this um lcap also needed an adjustment to the graphics that described of the budget that has been corrected so tonight's requested action is at the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education adopt Santa Rosa French American charter schools lcap for the 23-24 school year thank you any questions okay we'll move on to remote public comment s first of the public joining us on Zoom would like to comment on item E6 please raise your hand president maniri there are no hands raised thank you seeking a motion from the board the approval of the center of the French American Charter School
100El Cap second moved by director De La Cruz and seconded by director delatorre roll call vote please director daily Cruz aye director De la Torre aye director Sheffield aye director McNally hi director Flores aye director Medina we yes president manieri hi thank you item E7 this is another action item um thank you well first of all thank you Dr Castro for being with us for those action items and now we're going to switch gears a little bit um item E7 adoption of Santa Rosa city schools budget for the 2023 24 school year the board will consider approval of resolution 2020 to 2382 for the single adoption of the combined Elementary and Heist and height High District budgets and to adopt the districts 2023-24 budget that includes a statement of reasons for excess reserves with the
101understanding that revisions may be necessary once the 23-24 state budget is signed by the governor and I will hand this over to associate superintendent Lisa cabin and executive director Joel dontos thank you president manager maniere superintendent trarnell members of the board and our srcs community uh we are bringing to you the budget uh proposed for next year for adoption we are requesting that a couple quick items to give you an update on the board the legislature and the governor did come to an agreement on the state budget and so that will be enacted over the next week and the way that that affects us there's a couple things right off the top which is that the reduction to the one-time block grant looks like it will go from the 8.5 million that we had expected
102down to about 3.9 million so that's definitely good news and more changes will be coming forth as well and the actual impacts will come back to you in August through the 45-day revise excuse me at this time we are requesting uh approval of the budget as presented Thank you Lisa are there any board member questions okay we will move on to public comment I have no blue cards for this item we'll move on to remote attendees there's members of the public joining us on Zoom I would like to comment on item E7 please raise your hand our first speaker is Ashley Bell hi board Ashley Bell Santa Rosa High School um the budget is always a sad conversation we're always like Boo we wish that there was more money and I think oftentimes we see
103the projections and it makes us think that things aren't possible or the things that we want to pursue can happen and I haven't been teaching for decades and decades but I've been teaching long enough to have heard many of these meetings and it is always bad news and somehow we always make it through but the purpose of this comment is not the rah-rah the purpose of this comment is that 55 of our budget has to be spent on the people who are working with our students and consistently despite numbers changing in the unknown Santa Rosa city schools is at like 55.04 percent like somehow our math is impeccable when it comes to being as close to that number as possible so I hope that like many districts in the Bay Area who prioritize their staff
104who pay well above the 55 of their overall budget to their staff I hope we can move in that direction I hope we can pay 60 of our budget to staff 65 of our budget off and get the best quality highest quality most dedicated staff members working with our students and staying in our district thank you Ashley there are no other hands raised thank you Melanie this is an action item so this comes back to the board for any further discussion or emotion director Flores um in light of what um Ms Bell mentioned so I'll question to you um what would it take for our district to spend 60 percent of our total budget to salaries and what would that do in in terms of um of our budget um so um because I would
105like to explore explore that option so a a clarification and that is that the 55 minimum threshold is actually for instructional salaries only so that is only those um employees working in the classroom directly with students so teachers and instructional aides so the overall percentage of our budget that actually goes to Staffing is over 80 percent of of our budget and so everything else is how we you know keep the lights on do our facilities which we're required to do three percent there are many different factors I can definitely look into that to tell you what that number is that that it would take to raise our instructional salaries um the thing to consider is that when you do that you actually depending on the way that our bargaining agreements work it would be that
106for every dollar that we increase we have to put 60 cents of that dollar into instructional salary so it's a very interesting calculation to to get there we can come back with that information for you though um so just a follow-up are there any other districts like ours you know I'm thinking like Southern California I mean I don't know uh around our size there aren't any here in Sonoma County where you know the biggest District that have the same sort of or similar sort of budget um with the expenditure of 80 or not 80 or 60 of its budget going to salaries not that I'm aware of what is put out by school Services once a year they typically give the percentage or the number of school districts that are having difficulty meeting the the
107percentages and that number is actually growing especially with all of the one-time funds and the investment in one-to-one technology and things of that nature that actually makes it very difficult to increase that percentage so two things so it would be nice to have that comparison if we have those numbers you know uh for the next budget episode of presentation and and if you can look at comparables to see um what sort of other districts around the state that are similar in size and you know unduplicated you know people counts um do have that and how do they do it I mean that would be in you know good for us to have um in light that I think we're going to start negotiations for one of our marketing teams for next year right another one
108of our bargaining teams um thank you absolutely thank you are there any other questions or comments or emotion move to prove second thank you that was moved by director Flores and seconded by director De La Cruz roll calvo please director Flores aye director De La Cruz aye director Sheffield aye director McNally hi director Medina aye director De la Torre aye president manieri aye thank you thank you Lisa thank you next we have item E8 this is a discussion item parcel tax survey results the board will receive information regarding recently completed public opinion research assessing the feasibility of placing parcel tax measures on the 2024 ballot the board will also be presented with information regarding the timeline and next steps for placing measures on the ballot next year and joining us for this conversation our superintendent
109chernel associate superintendent Kevin and our friends helping us with this feasibility study thank you thank you very much president manieri members of the board I would like to welcome Charles Heath and Brian Godby as our guest this evening who will be presenting some information to the board foreign thank you I will also be sharing screen on over here for you and thank you Charles go right ahead okay thank you good evening um so I was here back in uh I believe it was April and we talked about the potential for a parcel tax measure um parcel taxes are one of the few opportunities for school districts to generate locally controlled supplemental funding in addition to what you receive from the state other school districts in Sonoma County including Petaluma City Schools uh Cotati Roanoke Park
110Unified School District most of the districts in Marin and many others throughout the Bay Area do benefit from voter approved local parcel tax unlike the bond measures that voters approved here last year which can only be used for facility improvements and capital Investments parcel taxes have the benefit of being available for any general fund use so it can support teaching positions staff positions instructional programs Etc so that flexibility is uh particularly valuable to school districts the challenge with parcel taxes is that they require two-thirds vote so that vote threshold is really high and after our discussion in April you gave us direction to go out and do some research in the community to evaluate the feasibility of a potential parcel tax measure here and so over the last couple of months I've worked with staff
111and with Brian Godby who's on the line here tonight to conduct an opinion survey of local voters where we tested potential parcel tax proposals different tax rates different potential spending priorities in order to bring back some data and recommendations uh regarding the feasibility of measure so with that I will turn it over to Brian Godby to walk you through the data that he collected in the community and then I'll come back and share some conclusions and recommended recommendations for next steps great uh thank you very much Charles uh members of the board pleased to be here this evening to present the data to you um as Charles described uh we did a survey of the community and we looked at a variety of different things we looked at the perceptions of the district at a
112high level we looked at support for uh partial tax measures both for the high school and for the Elementary District and then we looked at different kinds of parcel taxes and you'll see that in a minute and how we dealt with that methodologically we looked at a variety of things that you could spend the funds on uh and rank those items in terms of the voters preferences we looked at both informational and critical statements uh and to check and see how that would impact support for the measures we also looked at different rates as well as there's a wealth of demographic and behavioral characteristics that we know from the voter file that we use to stratify the sample in advance and then to weight it on the back end to make sure that it is
113in fact representative of the likely voter universes that we're interested in uh next slide please uh drilling down a little bit more into the methodology the survey was done by uh phone meaning landline and cell phones and you can see the number of responses for each in the parentheses there in the first bullet uh it was also done online with text invitations and email invitations and what that means is that people get to choose how they want to respond uh to uh to the survey uh the universe that we looked at was the November 2024 voters with a subset of March 24 uh the general election is the larger turnout the primary election in March is the smaller turnout uh our goal was 800 interviews we completed 865 so a little bit better uh and
114we were in the field from May 8th through the 14th the average phone survey which is still our metric for determining the length was 25 minutes long it probably takes somebody a little less time to do it online uh then in terms of the sample size again uh 865 overall that represents the high school district but because the Elementary District is a smaller geographical unit uh we have a smaller sample size there 363 which gives it the margin of error at the overall level of plus or minus three point three two percent for the November voters and then that subset of March voters is 5.12 next slide please and next one after that so jumping into the first section which is the rankings and perceptions of the District of the whole uh the first question
115was uh do you have a favor or unfavorable view of the job the district is doing to provide quality education this was asked of the entire sample in in this particular chart at the high school level uh and as you can see uh in the 2023 survey when we add the Varian somewhats together we're at 44 favorable uh the 21 somewhat unfavorable 16 uh very unfavorable 19 don't know uh and they're telling us that uh when we compare that with the 2018 survey that we did um for parcel packs uh for the district you see that that was at 49.7 favorable uh obviously it's down a little bit it's not statistically significant based on the margin of error that I mentioned earlier uh but it is also down basically at the same level we're seeing
116across the state in this similar kind of question uh and the bottom line is during the pandemic school districts took a hit in public perception of the quality of Education um and that's reflected here uh next slide please uh the next slide switches to uh a favorable unfavorable on the district's management of public fund uh and you can again see the 2023 data we're at 34 favorable uh what happened almost always with this particular question is the number of don't knows and that gray bar go up uh and you see that going on here uh and then you can see when you compare that with the 2018 survey we're really a little bit higher statistically not significant but again across the pandemic we've seen that this doesn't change as much as the quality of Education
117uh this per day is generally pretty flat and that's what you see here uh in center of the city schools uh next slide please uh the next slide is an agree disagree question and we ask them do they agree that the district needs additional funding to do its job providing quality education uh and when you add the strongly and so much together you see we're at almost 71 percent uh agree with that statement just 20 percent disagree it's a 3.5 to 1 positive negative ratio and there's also nine percent that don't uh agree uh that's of note because the 70 71 rather uh in round numbers uh is above the two-thirds threshold that Charles referenced earlier for a parcel taxpayer next slide please so at this point in the survey we switch gears and uh
118what you see here are the next two questions these are both for the high school district as I mentioned we did a high school measure and then we did an elementary measure these are the high school versions but we split sampled each of these uh they're virtually the same question except uh in the first one the flat rate sample it's a 75 dollar parcel tax per parcel in the second case it is the 3.7 Cent per building square foot parcel tax so it's variable depending on the size of the building whether that's the single family residence or a commercial property it depends on the number of square feet of that building essentially they raise the same amount of money you see that that's in there at 4.9 and 4.93 a little bit of difference between
119the two because of the complexities of the per square foot but essentially the same and both of these questions meet all the requirements for state law they're not longer than 75 words they have a tax rate they show how much it raises annually and they have a term which in both cases is eight years uh next slide please so this shows you the response to those questions that we just looked at the flat rate is at the top uh this is for the likely November 24 voters uh and when you add the definitely and probably yes to get the green blue sections of the bar uh which is what we do to determine whether a measure is feasible or not you see that the flat rate gets 64 whereas the square foot gets 58.6 59
120and round numbers again not a statistically significant difference given the margins there but um it is something you're going to see throughout the presentation that the per square foot doesn't do as well as the flat rate our next slide please so these are the ballot questions for the elementary and you see the same uh methodology as we did for the high school the flat rate is 75 per parcel it raises 1.6 million dollars eight years uh the square foot is 3.6 cents per square foot raising the same 1.6 million dollars uh and would be eight years long and then you see some of the things that we might spend the money on uh next slide please and here again is the responses to those two questions again adding the definitely yes and probably yes together
121for the flat rate you see we're at 72 which is exceeds the two-thirds threshold so that's pretty encouraging since all they know is the ballot question uh and then for the first square foot approach it's 61 so a sizable difference between the two of those again the same pattern that we saw after the high school where the flat rate does better than the per square foot next slide and so the next set of question uh is a whole long list of different things that we might spend the money on and these were all presented to the respondents in a random order so nobody got them in the same order that you see here for sure or in the same order in general uh what we've done here to order them is we've assigned numeric values
122to the response categories so much more likely to get to two is somehow more likely it's a one a somewhat less likely gets a minus one and a much less likely gets a minus two uh that creates this intensity scale uh that we rank the items by and it's hyper accurate way of doing that the reason we do it is because if you added a much more likely that was forty percent to uh somewhat more likely that was 20 you'd get 60 but you could have the opposite it could be 20 much more likely and forty percent of the more likely still sixty percent but an entirely different 60 percent and terms of the intensity and so that's why we rank them using this somewhat obscure steaming scale but we also do add the much
123more likely and some more likely together after we've ranked them uh and we that puts it in context of that two-thirds threshold that you need to be successful uh we also group these items in what we call tiers and basically those are statistically tied groups so everything within a tier is essentially the same there's some numeric differences which are certainly important in terms of ordering these items but they are really grouped together so in tier one at the top of the list at almost 71 percent you see attract and retain excellent teachers uh then the next item is enhanced science technology engineering math programs and instructions the stem uh spending then improve quality core academic programs including science technology engineering math just really a different way of saying the same thing but words do matter
124and that's part of what we test in the survey but that's at virtually the same level as well uh then we have provide student counseling for mental health support uh attract and retain excellent teachers and counselors and other staff and then provide outstanding math and science programs all of those are in our top tier and they range between that set almost 71 percent at the top uh to 69 in round numbers at least somewhat more likely to support the measure so that's all above the two-thirds threshold necessary to pass a parcel tax so that those are important things to the voters and their priorities uh next slide please the next slide continues that top grouping uh although we started at a lower point in this particular slide uh and you see we're at 69 so
125right around the same spot as the bottom of the previous slide but when you go down to the bottom of this slide you see the reduced class size is at 64 uh at least some are more likely which means it's below the two-thirds threshold necessary to pass a parcel bags so at the very top of this list a couple items that are at the two-thirds threshold but as we move down we split below that two-thirds level uh next slide please uh and this is the remainder of the items I promised this was a very long list and you can see that proved here but you see here that everything is below the two-thirds threshold uh the intensity is dramatically lower these are well they're important educational goals uh they are clearly not something that are
126voter priorities next slide please so the next set of questions looks much the same in terms of the methodology it is a little bit different in that it is just much more likely to somewhat more likely one no effect zero there's no negative side of this qua equation uh but it still works the same way you can still rank things really accurately and then look at the percentages which you can compare these percentages with previous sets of percentages to get an idea where these are Visa V the two-thirds in each other at the top of this list then every penny from these measures will benefit local elementary middle and high schools and cannot be taken away by the state at almost 75 percent uh that's a really important item it's an accountability measure that we
127see in this district and in other districts always does well uh next is another accountability item no money can be used for administrator salaries uh then our third item many Santa Rosa teachers and School Employees had to take on second and third jobs in order to support themselves these measures would help uh address that problem uh the measure requires independent citizens oversight in fourth position yet another accountability component uh nationally California places uh 46 out of 50 States on one of the many uh Educational Funding metrics uh that's an important fact for people to know uh the measure will help improve campus safety uh and then finally uh during the last three years Santa Rosa schools have lost more than 40 percent of their teachers and School Employees this measure helps reduce the loss the
128important finding here is that all of these things are in the 70s on this for your slide ranging as high as nearly 75 and as low as 71 which is again clearly above the two-thirds threshold next slide please and the next slide continues uh still at a reasonably high level 70 percent to start with the top this list having a great teacher in the classroom is the most important element in providing a quality education but as we get further down this list we get closer to the two-thirds threshold uh and so while these are important things and and positive arguments they're just not driving the voter support at the level that we would like to see it for a two-thirds measure like is being composed uh next question yeah thank you uh so the next
129slide is again more of the same art list of arguments again ranked um in terms of their importance to the voters and you see here that we are at 65 percent of the top but by the time we get to the bottom we're at 57 and round numbers obviously not the two-thirds threshold next slide so at this point in the survey we've introduced the partial tax measures uh we've talked about what we might spend it on we've talked about the positives uh why people might support it and we come back to our ballot test a second time and this again is for the high school the top being the flat rate and the bottom being the per square foot and you see for the flat rate we've gone from 64 which is where we started
130the 68 so that for the high school now exceeds the two-thirds threshold uh for the square foot we started at 59 in round numbers we've moved up to 65 uh so a little bigger increase but still not to the two-thirds threshold so same pattern that we've seen before the per square foot approach is just not doing as well as the flat rate next slide and this is the second test for the elementary school again you see similar things going on for the flat rate we started at 71.7 we're up to 72.6 not as big a jump as we've seen for a couple of the others but there's a cap and how high you can go and this one started pretty high to begin with uh then for the per square foot we started at 61
131and we had a pretty good jump because there was more room for improvement essentially uh to 70 so both of these for the Elementary uh meet the two-thirds threshold but the flat rate is clearly doing next slide so the next set of questions the methodology is the same as the informational items uh but these are the negative statements so this is the other side of the coin it's important to test those because we want to be fair and look at both sides of the issue and so that's what this is designed to do the methodology again is the same as the informational items we don't put minus signs in front of them to make them seem bad the higher they are the worse they are so at the top of this list we have the
132state has the surplus of billions of dollars that could be used to provide school programs we know that has largely disappeared but it's still an argument that people might make against the measure and that's 53 percent at least somewhat more likely to vote no so that 53 is pretty high uh and obviously larger than the one-third necessary to defeat the parcel tax uh District passed two Bond measures and the city renews the sale uh tax um in 2022 enough is enough we can't afford another property tax too at virtually the same level uh the school district has a history of mismanagement of public money an argument that can be made and has been made uh again we're not really validating whether these are accurate or not they're just things that you might hear uh that
133certainly has an impact uh if the district managed its current funding better they would not need to raise taxes uh residents and businesses are suffering from high inflation gas prices grocery prices now is not the right time uh increasing property taxes makes housing more expensive I mean the story here is that all of these negatives do have an impact uh the the last one is 45 at least somewhat more likely to vote now so that's you know above that 33.4 threshold that could defeat a parcel tax measure so there's clearly a challenge uh it's not uh put it on the ballot and you're assured of victory so the next slide comes back a third time to our ballot question same methodology before we started at the flat rate for the high school 64. we went
134up uh to 68 we're now at 63 percent after the negatives and the survey is designed to tell us what the positives do and what the negatives do and that's we can see that very clearly uh the per square foot doesn't do as well we started at 58.6 we're at 58 after uh these tests and clearly there's um you know a challenge ahead of us next slide uh so we didn't know exactly where we were going to wind up on these measures so we had some fallback question and basically what a fallback question does is it says instead of 75 what if it was 49. so pays for the same kinds of things but it's a lower rate and you can see here for the flat rate we're at 68 or I'm sorry 62.8 uh
135so that is just a little bit um lower than we were in the first measure so it really isn't helping us the intensity in the green bar is a little higher uh and that's the change here for the per square foot we were at 58 on the third test this lower rate brings us to 60 percent statistically it's really not much different uh but again the intensity is stronger it definitely yeses are Hunger next slide uh this shows you this third test for the elementary measure we started at 71.2 we went up to 73 in round numbers but after the negatives we're down to 63. um so again the negatives do have an impact uh that's the flat rate the per square foot we started in 61 we went up uh 10 points in the
136middle test and we're now at 63 on this final test again same same result and about the same there's really not much difference between the two of these next slide so the next slide shows the fallbacks for the elementary school and this one again first one was the flat rate instead of 75 when it was 49. now here you see a big jump so there is some tax rate sensitivity where it's 73 percent after the negatives and after that third test uh essentially a fourth test you could call this when we bring the rate down there's even a rate increase at the per square foot but we don't get over the two-thirds threshold um so there is clearly some rate sensitivity and that completes the survey data I'm going to turn it back to Charles
137to sum it up and then we can answer questions if there are uh I guess thank you Brian um appreciate that summary so that's a lot of data to absorb so I'll try to boil it down into what I think are some key conclusions and and where we might go from here so what we saw consistently throughout the survey was that voters prefer the flat rate proposal as to the uh compared to the square footage based proposal that's a finding that we see in plenty of other school districts as well you know the flat rate is very easy for voters to digest and understand the square foot requires you to do some math and try to figure out what it would cost you as a as a property owner it appears to us that a
13875 dollar flat rate parcel tax for the high school district and a 49 flat rate parcel tax for the elementary school district appear viable for an eight-year duration and we think that those are worth uh pursuing in terms of the funding priorities there was key groupings of programs that were the highest priority for voters attracting and retaining teachers enhancing stem related programming providing student counseling and mental health support enhancing Reading Writing programs and increasing campus Safety and Security so we would want to build a proposal around those priorities so it aligns with the voters priorities we are seeing that support is marginally stronger among the higher turnout November 2024 Universe of Voters compared to the lower turnout expected in the March 2024 election so we think that's the optimal election date to Target we saw
139that the fiscal accountability protections really resonated with your voters we would want to include those similar to what we included in the bond measures last year and we also saw the impact of information over the course of this poll right we saw some significant increases in support when we were able to provide more detail about what the measure would do and the reasons to support it we also saw the influence of opposition statements so one critical component to success with this measure is going to be building broad consensus in the community trying to organize well-funded organized opposition to the measure that would undermine support and make it difficult to reach the uh the two-thirds mark um so in terms of timeline if we do want to place a measure on that November 2024 ballot um
140the board would have to act uh likely at your July board meeting next summer basically a year from now to adopt the resolution placing the measure on the ballot that's where all final decisions about the tax rate the duration those types of details would have to be made but between now and then we would want to make use of the time to educate and inform both your internal stakeholders within the school Community but also all those non-parent voters in the community that probably have less awareness of what your needs are tell them about the state of your budget you know the impacts of losing one-time coveted related funding what that means for attracting and retaining teachers and staff in your District you know all those issues that the parcel tax would uh would seek to
141to help address that process would unfold over the coming months and I'll provide a little more detail in a minute and then as we approach that deadline to qualify for the November 2024 ballot we would bring back a resolution for your consideration to uh to place the measure on the ballot and then lastly here just a little more detail on that timeline so most immediately we would want to use the summer months to develop informational messaging based on what we've learned from this polling and be prepared around the back to school time frame this fall to start beginning that informational communication effort also conducting Outreach among key internal and external stakeholders uh to begin talking about the potential parcel tax and collecting input as we get into next spring we would recommend conducting a tracking
142survey to measure the impact of that informational communication and see what support levels look like after we've had an opportunity to engage with the public and that would also help us understand where support lies based on the economy and other conditions as we get into 2024. based on the findings from that survey we would again develop that resolution bring it back to you for consideration and we would complete our Communications efforts once you adopt a resolution calling for that parcel tax election we make an important transition from the district driven planning effort to an independent advocacy committee so again similar to what we did for the bond measures last year School District resources can't be used to advocate for these measures so we'd have to form an independent Campaign Committee raise private funds recruit volunteers
143to run an effective campaign to reach reach that two-thirds mark so that's a summary of what we have to share with you tonight and uh Brian and I are both happy to answer any questions thank you I see vice president Medina's hand thank you I have a lot of questions for that um first I wanted to ask on the second to last slide uh prior to the conclusion when it went down to 49 I think the high school district and the 2.4 cents these these were questions being asked to the same people right after it wasn't like a question that was just a new question to individuals it was people that had already been asked about the 75 then went down to the 49 is that correct yeah that's correct yeah double answer there I
144think the other question that I have is in relation to the March versus November voters it's you know things have changed in California now people have basically 30 days to vote is that looking at historical March voters not counting for the current changes where not people have from like February 5th to March 5th to vote in March yeah um we uh well of course that change was effective in March of 2020 so we've got that presidential cycle where we've got data it was also in effect for the June Primary in 2022 so we've got at least two cycles that fit into that and and what we have seen is that those Cycles don't differ from the previous Cycles dramatically the primaries are always lower turnout proportionally speaking and there hasn't been that much of a
145difference both are up a little bit uh but that's factored into their our estimated turnout and if we were to put something on the ballot for March instead of November funding would come to the district one year earlier correct that is correct yeah you received funds a year earlier but the the deadline to qualify for the March ballot is December 8th so we would also have a much shorter period of time to do the Outreach and education in the community well stop with questions for now are there other questions from the board AC director flores's hand um thank you for your thorough presentation a couple questions um fundraising um is that four months um once the committee is created to fundraise for it for for it um it's not a little bit you know uh
146short in terms of raising uh the amount of money that we need for something like this yeah you have a big District so it takes a pretty significant budget to um communicate with all those voters and particularly you know in a presidential election cycle you're going to have pretty high voter turnout so you know there's there's big targets there you have to reach um typically for a parcel tax election you know we would want The Campaign Committee formed you know four to six months prior to election day to make sure they have adequate time to both raise funds and also recruit volunteers and build an organization to be be successful so you know again if we're if we're thinking about the March election you know those efforts would need to start now essentially for November
147we have a little more time and it would probably be as we get into early 2024 that those efforts would need to kick off okay so the committee will be four to six months okay all right all right so I don't want to make sure that that happens if it were to happen and then um uh I've mentioned this to you many times um in terms of passing a partial tags that by default it's it's a regressive tax measure um in a community like ours how would that affect or or was that even thought of when we were doing the um the survey well that's why we conducted the split sample approach here where we took both the flat rate option and this per square footage tax and kind of presented them side by side
148to see how voters reacted to those you said that people don't understand the difference you know so well I think the I think they understand the difference I'm not sure they can easily calculate the cost of the square footage tax which is why some voters are hedging right we saw about a you know anywhere from five to eight percentage point gap in support between the flat rate and the square footage rate my guess is that's largely people that are saying I'm not sure how much this is going to cost me so I'm going to say either I don't know or maybe I'll vote no now with education and Outreach there's certainly an opportunity to kind of close that information Gap and try to help people understand what this would cost and also explain the benefits
149of a more Progressive you know tax structure where larger more expensive properties pay more than smaller less expensive properties and you know that that may be the advantage of going out and doing some of the community outreach and education process and then coming back and measuring support and seeing if we've been able to move the needle and see if that square footage option is uh but I mean ultimately you know the the taxing methodology is a policy policy decision of the board what we're sharing with you tonight is based on this initial survey you know the flat rate seems more digestible and understandable to voters okay um is there a way and I'm not asking for us to do another survey um so for two things now one to make sure that you know people
150understand you know regressive set of tax measures that you know municipalities Implement and two you know um I do see that at the end you're you're bundling all the high uh rated you know questions uh to make sure that you know we are beyond the margin of error in the um you know threshold is there a way to actually you know measure that or have a survey for that to see how well it will do in tandem of a um you know per tax uh per partial tax um and you know and I I understand that explaining the regressive tax will be very cumbersome and and you know convoluted and you know and a lot of folks will just lose interest because of it uh but I I think we have a board that understands
151what that is and um and we're a little bit apprehensive about this right especially when we have to go and ask for funding and the folks that will will um contribute um we'll see that as a regressive tax so you know I'm just looking at the same folks that contributed for our measures right I mean they will question that and they will ask us as to why we're dealing with this and and we just want to make sure that we um we have data to to give I mean I know you gave us enough data here and I think I mentioned this in your previous report that it was I'm conflicted and I think I said that already um to you um about this so um but thank you um but it would be nice
152to see how a server would be uh how different of a result will be if we were able to actually bundle those things at the end uh you know like you know and it's like 12 he had questions c m and Q and then in the uh in the accountability items you had questions EP and O and you already battled those in your in your last I think next last slide uh to see if that on slide number 23 in your conclusion to see if um if we hit the thresholds margin I mean above and beyond the threshold of you know the margins are three percent you know for it for a November election I don't know there was a question there somewhere so um I I think I hear what you're saying in terms
153of you know trying to tease out if there is a way to you know get the more progressive tax structure which there are very good policy Arguments for how you should be pursuing a more progressive tax structure um and I think we can do that I guess you know process wise what I would recommend is that we start that engagement process we start having the conversations we see what kind of reaction we get from the community presenting both potential methodologies for how we might structure attacks then once we've provided that education to the public we can come back do some more focused survey research to try to see if there's a way to make that square footage option exceed the two-thirds Mark there may be um but this is a it's a pretty common finding
154as I mentioned in other school districts that you know there's good Arguments for the progressive approach but it is more complicated right at any time a political proposal becomes more complicated there's going to be inherent challenges thank you um well I saw three hands come up so we'll just go down the line director Sheffield director then I could go down the line all right um so my understanding is that the um the Bay Area region um its area with the most partial tax initiatives on ballots for a whole host of reasons and a lot of it discussed and fleshed out in the survey um cost of living being you know one one major component um and the region also has the highest success rate for partial taxes um but is that are you aware if
155it's broken down if these successes are done in the general election or in in in an off year election or or a primary and the reason why I ask is because probably anticipate a number of initiatives being on the ballot in the fall of 24. definitely from this community it's also probably very high for the Bay Area as a whole yeah and I certainly have all that data about the passage rates in each election typically the high water mark for passage rates is the high turnout presidential general elections every four years and the reason for that is it's just the most favorable demographic group right as turnout Rises you have more younger parent age voters voting more Progressive voters typically it's more diverse electorate and it's just it correlates with the groups that tend to
156be that the most supporters um but uh you know I'm happy to to bring that no no and I'm I'm saying that mostly kind of put it out there for people who say well what about ballot fatigue um you know as we have go down down the ballot and people are confused or complicated with a number of initiatives when you flood the the ballot with with the number of proposals and then you put in something that might be depending on how if we choose to put this forward and how we choose to put it Forward um um something might be a little complicated and when we're looking at the at the numbers the results of the survey we have to be really careful um because every every tiny half a percentage point is really going
157to count in the areas that we focus on thank you um I thank you so much for your briefing earlier and really helping us walk through this um I like director Flores have some real concerns with the flat tax um essentially that means that doesn't matter what size house you live in everybody's going to pay the same exact amount which is a much higher burden on people who live in smaller homes um it means that it's a much higher burden on typically families young families kids who are in our schools and so I'd love to hear a little bit more about which jurisdictions were successful in a square footage tax and what were the successful strategies that led those jurisdictions to being able to pass something that is much more inherently Progressive and friendly to
158families I love the kind of background information around being able to put this on um you know in a time during elections where we will get that more diverse that younger crew that combination with a more progressive tax feels like there's a possibility here and so I just wanted to hear a little bit more about those those strategies and and those places where such an approach was successful sure well first of all the vast majority of our taxes in California and the Bay Area are just a straight flat per parcel rate methodology there are a handful of districts that have square footage based taxes uh the three that come to mind that are closest to here are West Contra Costa Unified School District and the Richmond San Pablo area Berkeley Unified School District and Alameda
159Unified School District um let's see we've worked on two of the three of those measures and uh you know I mean the the you know West Contra Costa is kind of a unique situation because they have a lot of commercial and Industrial properties in that Community with a lot of square footage and so they can make the argument that those folks pay a disproportionate share of the cost which reduces the cost to homeowners um and uh you know similar arguments have been made in Berkeley and Alameda just about the you know Progressive nature of the tax um so you know again we can go deeper into that line of argument and see if that resonates here and if there's a way that we can make that proposal work because I certainly hear the board that
160there's a desire to take a closer look at that approach um I think for me I'm I'm really just I really just want to support like the square foot um version I you know I look at the numbers the fears that are proposed and you know I was thinking that you know at the high school level we'd be like maybe like a five five cents per square foot and then at the elementary maybe three cents or even two and a half cents because the elementary folks are going to be tax place right they're in tax at the high school and the Elementary District um five cents a 1500 square foot home would be the equivalent of 75 dollars um I think at the 3.7 I think a 2 000 square foot almost 74 dollars so
161to me the the square foot at a little higher level for the high school makes sense I um feel a sense of urgency given everything that's going on and our needs especially for teachers and staff and and I know that everything in this says March is not good um it's much more difficult to do uh I don't know maybe I'm too optimistic but personally I feel it's possible and I guess um I'm wondering in terms of your thoughts as as voting becomes easier do you think there's the possibility to do things differently in terms of increasing that voter turnout I think you you mentioned that usually it's like a younger boat that doesn't necessarily turn out in those earlier elections um are there things that we could do differently that we could do better that
162could potentially change that especially given everything that our community is dealing with and what our community is asking of us and everyone yeah I mean certainly with get out the vote strategies campaigns can increase voter turnout and you know a strong increase in turnout would be you know marginally three to five percent on top of what you would consider natural turnout so it's not dramatic um as Brian mentioned earlier you know California has been using you know all mail ballot voting now since 2020. we really haven't seen significant increases in voter participation because of the availability of the mail ballot I mean first of all a lot of Californians were already voting by mail before that um but also the same people tend to vote they just vote via a different mechanism so um and
163all I think you also have to consider that you know turnout in any election is driven by the interest in the top ticket race right and so in March that's going to be a presidential primary where it's looking like there's going to be some competition on the right there's not going to be a lot of competition on the left there will be competition for our U.S Senate seat on the left so that may drive a little bit of turnout but I still don't think that turnout's going to get anywhere near where it's going to be in November where it's you know all it's everything's at stake for the presidency um so you know we can certainly take a look at that but I think there are some inherent advantages to November both in terms of
164turnout but also the planning timeline that's available to us to do a better job getting the word out before we ask people to vote on this and the other thing is I guess the question around the square footage method um who do you think do you think there there's groups that would be more like organizations and groups that would be more opposed to square footage versus the just flat parcel we've certainly seen opposition to square footage parcel taxes from large Property Owners you know because when you maybe you're on a large uh you know Commercial Warehouse or something like that that's a significant amount of square footage so that would be part of the Outreach effort is we'd have to look at who those largest property owners are and have conversations with them and see
165if this is something they can support thank you director Flores um thank you and um just to reiterate I think I'm in favor of a November election um especially if we're thinking about tweaking the uh the ballot because that seems to be like the most favorable in terms of the uh the threshold uh the one thing that I want to mention in our last election was the timeline and I'm going to go back to the timeline it was uh very rushed right getting those endorsements I was in charge of getting you know Michael McGuire's endorsement and uh he did not appreciate or his staff did not appreciate the fact that it was very very rushed right so um the one thing I'm going to ask you is um if we choose to do this I
166mean give us at least six sorry give us at least six months to do this you know especially if we're gonna go to other partners to work with because they have their own internal um ways of doing things and it may take a month two months for for endorsements to happen and when we have a four-month turnaround it's just insane uh in terms of endorsements and and and and and fundraising so that's it thank you other questions okay we will move on to public comment at this time before bringing it back to the board for further discussion I have one uh blue card here in the chambers and then we'll move on to our remote attendees and the blue card is from Michael hilber foreign whatever you put on the ballot um you're certainly going
167to have some opposition and the sales tax in some California cities is now over 10 percent it's very regressive tax but you know leftists they like the regressive taxes the taxes that punish the honest people because they want to drive them on to welfare dependency aggressive taxes that hurt the lowest income the most to drive them on to Public Assistance programs this idea that the smallest home would pay 75 dollars while a mansion and found Grove Pay the same 75 would be that's offensive and even worse you know a high-rise commercial building or even you know a large apartment building or like The Cutting Town Mall if it's on a single parcel the same 75 dollars the the smallest home would pay that's horrendous I also want to put something else on the records is
168that uh Santa Rosa has a lot of gang members living in Section 8 apartments and these apartments are most commonly owned by non-profits which claimed exemption from any and all property taxes so they're free to vote for it without any effect whatsoever so partial tax rewards welfare cheats it punishes the the lowest uh hardest working lowest earning hardest working people trying to make it it's good for the wealthy and it's also good for the welfare cheats so in in all regards is bad and like I said last time you're also going to come under attack for being a board that's disinterested and establishing School discipline thank you thank you so much another point is brought up that is the only blue card I have here in the chamber so we'll move on to our remote
169attendees thank you if there are members of the public joining us via zoom and would like to comment on item E8 please raise your hand our first speaker is Adina Flores uh good evening to Echo the concerns brought forth by Mr Hilbert I agree and there should absolutely in no way shape or form be a parcel talks applied to the stakeholders uh as the former executive assistant to the board and superintendent of this District I have immediate answers to solve the district's financial crisis uh it's concerning the amount of funding going towards legal matters that could have been avoided if we simply abided by the law as I expressed for the past two and a half years as a protected whistleblower just this past month about almost a million dollars were spent towards legal firm
170F3 towards the bonds but with all the increase in violence due to removal of sros we're seeing astronomical expenses and that is concerning I've requested an audit a forensic audit of all Charities operating within the county of Sonoma since the majority appear to be doing so illicitly I write about this as a journalist for the California globe and it's just interesting because some of the individuals had the dice they're currently under investigation with the fair political practices commission as there are many elected officials in the area per my research and my writing and can be confirmed per their government agency website as well so I'd presume we could get the government in order in answer to the people before um you know applying additional taxes and essentially driving them to be homeless which is why
171we have all these low-income apartment buildings bring it up which I also wrote an article about thank you our next speaker is Deanna oliveras hello superintendent and board um there is a lot of information just presented and I'm sure as intelligent as the current board is it's still a lot to take in so my question is what is the board doing to make sure that the community members stakeholders and parents understand the information that's being presented I have seen yet no you know question and answer series from the board no Town Halls um I'm curious if if any representative shows up at the at least the high school elac meetings to explain in Spanish what all of these things mean it's overwhelming and I feel like it's a political stunt and it's disheartening because the
172school board is supposed to be a non-partisan position but yet you're sitting here and trying to strategize on left and right and presidential and McGuire and all this and it's just that's what that's what leaves parents with a sour taste in their mouth that and that's why a lot of us don't trust the school board because there's not enough transparency I would like to see you all do everything you possibly can to explain to the parents what all of this means because nobody knows but politicians and I've asked Time After Time year after year and it just it continues to fall on deaf ears and it's it's why people are leaving because you're not building those relationships generally only the school board member the school board trustees asked for relationships or meetings when they're up
173for re-election and they ask for support when they're up for reelection but between those times generally there's no asking for parent input unless you benefit to get re-elected thank you Deanna president manieri there are no other hands raised thank you this is a discussion item so this comes back to the board for any further discussion or questions director Flores um briefly um will this affect the district um in terms of uh taxes and how so uh well government agencies and non-profits that don't pay property taxes aren't subject to this tax so they're accept okay thank you director Medina I'm just in terms of uh timeline I guess um so today's a discussion item I imagine this would come back at a future period for us to actually decide what we want but I think today
174we're looking for like guidance on something I just want to be clarify clear on what is the guidance that is being looked for today we are seeking um basically consensus or guidance uh it sounds like we would be planning to move forward or continuing to plan moving forward for November of 24 based on the survey results and so we are looking for kind of guidance or consensus on on if that is the right path um I'd like to know what um our superintendent has written down in terms of what she understood about our guidance because I know we're we're kind of all over the place let me go to my transcripts um so from what we've heard this evening um there were questions about which would be better for us whether it be March or
175November there's definitely an interest to provide an opportunity of time to be sure that we are getting information out and campaigning um so far I haven't heard any comments that would be against us moving forward uh I think it's where the board would need to give us guidance on whether we truly would be moving forward with a March or a November because I've heard nods for both I I'm hearing from the board that November would be a better timeline um but board members please chime in if that's not what we are saying yes I see nods I think particularly if we're doing our best to see whether or not we adopt a square footage tax rather than a flat tax yes director Medina as much as I would love for it to be March I
176think realistically November makes sense and I think mentioned that by the end of that following year is when we have like one-time funds that end so we could probably make it through that year um and I think it'd be 2025 where on November ballot funds would if it passed let's reach the district yes we would start receiving funds in the 25-26 fiscal year well it would be wonderful to receive them in 24.25 I don't know that that that's feasible and our one-time funds yes will absolutely have to be um spent and they will run out in that year possibly sooner than that but that is our deadline for spending I think for me you know I I think we have to come to some sort of consensus on to me I'd only be supportive of
177a square foot I don't know how we decide the amount if that's something that comes up at a different period I like I said I personally think five cents at the high school district Michael's easy easy calculations um but something lower at the elementary that's just my thoughts but I don't know at what point we would decide that if that's some direction that we give now or if that's something that comes later point something that gets researched more not sure yeah that decision can definitely come later at this point we just need direction do we want to continue with the planning and Outreach process and then the board will make final decisions about amount and that would be subject to further research as we get closer to the qualification deadline I would also be supportive
178I think of a square foot option um I know that the data shows that that might be a a big lift for us but I think that with education and a good campaign um anything is possible so that's what I would be supportive of as well I just can't express enough how important education on this topic is going to be we want voters to go the polls with as few questions as possible we don't want them thinking about this in the polls we want them knowing their decision before they go into the better we can educate and how it creates to the community um the sooner the better to put us in a better position um both options appear to be viable just depends on how the community reacts and if we can take those
179questions away earlier it's really going to put our best support um one last thing um you know I've I've been asking some districts where you know where they where they have this and you know districts that have failed you know and I would like to look up both options at this point you know um just because I I think we have to have that information I'm leaning towards the square footage right but I also want to make sure that we have a viable sort of election you know that we don't go to the voters and and then have you know spend you know I don't know two hundred thousand dollars in in a in a campaign that is not successful so um you know as much as I I like this great footage I like
180to see both options uh and then and then we can decide okay I think that's I think that's incredibly Fair um I think you know our values of equity are at the Forefront of this conversation and as it's been stated that a regressive tax measure is inequitable by nature and so um thank you for that perspective I think we should understand these options a little bit better and make a decision at a later time but it sounds like November is our timeline I guess in terms of determining that what is it that we're looking at are we looking at like another survey are we looking at like a survey of like organizations and stuff like what they support one or the other or or how how do we determine that well I I think it
181will be a campaign with I hate to say this it will be informational right because it's not just going to be a you know a partial tax you know it's going to be a partial tax and you know and the informational partial tax and and for that to work to be successful we need to do a lot of ground work now right to uh to to start educating the public as to why we're doing this right I think it's doable I mean it's it's it's with thin reach right uh but it will have to do a lot of work um you know we could take the easy route you know the one that seems more more able to to to pass uh but but at what cost okay so um but I still like to
182see both right and make the decision later uh but I want to see if we can have that information before brought it to us to make sure that we have a a clear guidance as to okay if we're gonna go with the with the uh square footage what's what sort of Grant work do we have to do now to make sure it passes right what do we have to do you know that we need that and and I know it's not going to be easy but I like to see a path to victory in terms for that to pass I just want to say there's there's some particular detail too of the square footage tax understanding who might be exempt um you know to whether it's non-profits or AG or um and then also I
183think it's going to be really important for us to recognize that we can't set different square footage rates for different kinds of right we have to do the same across the board otherwise we run the risk of unlawful tax so I just I would love to have a deeper conversation around kind of the ins and outs of square footage tax um and see how other jurisdictions have structured that and then make that decision between you know flat tax or square footage tax depending on what it is that we learn together um Lisa and Charles and superintendent channel do you have what you need from the board okay thank you thank you for your time thank you Charles thank you Brian all right we are on item E9 this is an action item revision of the
184English learner master plan the board will consider the adoption of the Santa Rosa city schools provide English learner master plan and presenting this action item are Dr Castro director yamas and Elizabeth Salinas Jimenez from hemas Consulting thank you very much president meniere superintendent for now members of the board and the community of Santa Rosa city schools we're pleased to present tonight the revision of the El master plan I believe it was last revised in 2017. this uh plan is um simply a way the way that we identify our English Learners we analyze their needs and how we are going to continue to move forward and support them as a district um thank you very much to all the work by director yamas and the team of the task force and all members from the community
185that provided input I'll go ahead and turn it over to director yamas at this point thank you [Music] good evening president board members and our Santa Rosa city school community tonight we present to you with pride the overarching master plan for services support success for English language learners for Santa Rosa city schools our English learner master plan is a required plan for school districts that receive title III funds um it should provide clear statement of policies related to development implementation and the evaluation of English learners it should be a guide to assist all of our schools and our staff in providing every identified student an instructional program that includes daily designated and integrated English language development access to the Core Curriculum and promotion of self-esteem for our students So the plan the revision process this
186work began in 2021-2022 school year with members of our department conducting empathy interviews with students at Elsie Allen High School we also did the Recruitment and identification of community members from dlac certificated and classified staff members parents community and higher education Partners always keeping our students at the core of our work during the 2022-2023 school year the revision committee reconvene and reviewed the current plan chapter by chapter and provided comments suggestions and questions that would guide the revision work during this time we began working with Miss Jimenez Salinas and conducted site visits and focus groups with stakeholders our committee met regularly and deconstructed the data and information that was gathered throughout the process and informed our revision work as the plan was revised the committee met to review the revisions again chapter by chapter and
187continued to provide input and feedback a multilingual Services subcommittee collaborate collaborated regularly with Miss Jimenez Salinas to finalize the design of the plan we are presenting to you tonight in accordance with Loyola Marymount Center for equity for English Learners and the English learner master plan Playbook the completion of this plan was within the timeline they suggested for this important work and I wanted to note that there are some revised slides we tried to condense and really put together the information that originally was presented oh thank you good evening I'm Elizabeth Jimenez Salinas and I want to thank the board and the community and all of the Educators in the district for working through on this plan uh the slide that you're looking at right now is called Collective responsibility and it is one that is
188really important for us to take away with this plan it says really that it is not just the multilingual Services Department that administers all of this but every single department and site and individual who works here parents students are all involved and have a collective responsibility so throughout the plan what you will see is that when different departments whether it's HR or the education department or any of the um District departments sites they are is spelled out so that you can see how there is this tremendous crossover that every single entity has a responsibility this is not just a separate thing and I I was sharing with vika that when I came back to the United States at 18 from Costa Rica I was 18 I wanted to become a teacher and I went to
189my local school district to get a job so that I could pay the tuition to go to school and the they hired me as a bilingual aide at 18 years old okay and the principal at the school told me he said Elizabeth you're going to work with the Spanish kids and I was like wow they have kids from Spain I was kind of amazed by that but they were not they were speakers of Spanish in the community in the neighborhood and what I took away from all of that is at the time 50 years ago there was not terminology there were no programs there was no guidance from research that told us what to do we have that now and your District actually so much has changed over time um you are not relying on
190the bilingual Aid to administer whatever helped to all of your English learners but every teacher here has a clad which stands for cross-cultural language and academic development certificate every teacher and that English Learners are not relegated to the aid for their teaching and support yes they're there to support the students in the classroom and the teachers but that is not the only way as it was for me the Santa Rosa city schools English learner master plan brings together all of the many excuse me aspects of learning uh teaching and supporting our English Learners who make up almost half of the Santa Rosa student population it's a big number and so it is important for every Department every site to be well trained to have the support and guidance that they need and this plan does
191that it gives that kind of guidance and goes beyond just the multilingual Services Department okay the next slide shows you something that since the last plan the last English learner master plan in 2017 this is a state policy that was adopted by the State Board of Education who understood the critical importance of that Collective responsibility and what they've done is to put together a very very strong policy but also lots of tools that go along with the policy tools like checklists and readings and articles and examples that schools and the district can use to look at what you see here are the four stop signs on this road map and the four stop signs are four principles number one says assets oriented and needs responsive schools and number two principle number two says intellectual quality
192of instruction and meaningful access three talks about system conditions that support Effectiveness and four is the alignment and articulation within and across systems so this goes from the very uh closest to the student to the larger picture but what I want you to notice is that the teams working together on this plan took the districts the boards MVPs your priorities and we're able to then mesh them or to connect them with the state policy so this is not one more new thing that we're placing on the shoulders of Educators this is taking what you've got and really merging it with what the state has um called their English learner roadmap policy yeah briefly this slide is showing that the percentage of students in our district and their language proficiency designation based on the home language
193survey nearly half of our students or 46.4 percent come from my home where another language other than English is spoken so 46.4 percent of our Santa Rosa city school students are considered ever Els and the state of California defines an Ever El as a student who is currently a multilingual learner or an English learner or who has formally been designated an English learner and now has been designated as fluent English proficient this next slide we wanted to provide some data in what I wanted to point out in this slide is in the last three years we have seen an increase in newcomer students enrolling in our district what we know from speaking with our students our family and our staff is that our newcomer students are experiencing trauma some of our secondary level newcomers are
194unaccompanied minors some have interrupted or limited formal education we also know that our students and their families need orientation on how our U.S schools operate and our students need specially designed academic instruction in English or as we know the acronym sadai if courses are not taught in the student's primary language this slide speaks or shows a reclassification over the last three years for Santa Rosa city schools and as you can see there has been a steady increase in the number of students that have been redesignated or yes redesignated as English proficient and in order for a student to be reclassified and become what the acronym we refer to as rfep they must meet criteria of an overall lpac score of A4 that there's objective teacher input parent consultation which encourages our parents to be part
195of the process and local assessment criteria when a student is reclassified the state of California tells us that we must monitor our students for four years from the day of reclassification to ensure that they continue to thrive academically for duly identified students or students that are English Learners as well as serve through an IEP depending on what that IEP states there is criteria where they now can take the alternative elpac and there's different criteria for that so uh briefly at a glance the revision of the English learner master plan was centered on aligning our plan to our District's Mission Vision and priorities as well as a California English learner roadmap the development of our multilingual service department was included now in the plan we have updated our current state terminology and look forward to continue
196to move towards asset-based terms the work of our department has also been included in this with regards to our newcomer intake process and our monitoring procedures for our English Learners and reclassified English proficient students has been revised and included we also included the information on elevation which is our English learner platform that has been incorporated into the plan we have included information on the alternative reclassification for our duly identified English learners through the collective work of our committee we have advocated um for the awareness of the wellness and the mental health of our students and the importance of translation and interpretation services and guidelines we also have noted that our classified staff should receive professional development we know the importance of training our elac committee members as well as our d-lac committee members so they
197know how to actively participate in those committees and lastly the important and crucial work that has begun to happen at each of our sites with regards to our language acceleration review committees now in the plan and in the work of the discussion of the advisors and all the stakeholders that participated came up with some recommendations to augment the existing plan and bring us forward even further the first was to develop some content courses and an ELD course that is what they call a saddai course a sadai course is not separate different content it's the way it's delivered and these are a through G courses so for a student who's still learning English they can take that content but it is delivered in a way that makes it much more comprehensible to them so that was
198one of the recommendations for the committee and for the plan the second was mentioned by vika and that is the social worker having a social worker or mental health specialist to work specifically with students with displacement trauma or other serious needs so when your students who are newcomers come and if they arrive as unaccompanied minors they may have gone through some very traumatic experiences and wanting that knot to impact their education nor their behaviors or anything else we want to give them support and do that through the multilingual services department so they can be accessed right away the third recommendation is one that came from the committee and and from myself and that is because we know how important it is for kids to improve their reading for them to be exposed to language that's
199more academic and more um you know broader terms um what the suggestion here is to consider piloting at several School sites opening the libraries before school after school so that parents can come in with their child check out a book learn about reading aloud to their children and make sure that the books that are there in the library are of diverse content and that nature I guess and the fourth one is to increase current Staffing as identified in the earlier English learner master plan and continuing on in addition to the social worker that I mentioned also El Specialists for each school that has 15 percent or more English Learners so that they have that on-site um support guidance help that they need the the next one is to provide professional development for classified staff and
200having mentioned to you that I started as a paraprofessional and not having any training at all not understanding who is an English learner and what do you do and how do you help that was a very very important piece to add into this plan is to make sure that those classified staff are getting some training and finally to include in the next round of revision so this plan will each year be revised and there will be a systematic approach to reviewing it making sure that it's revised to include student representatives in the annual plan revision process and we did a lot of inclusion through the focus groups and through the um the empathy interviews and writing a plan like this that's very um how shall I say very policy driven and so forth is not
201something you usually have students engaged in but we think it's important it affects them it needs to include them so that's something we'd like to do and lastly I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the advisory committee members for their commitment and dedication to the work that they did and for our students to our translation and interpretation team for their support at every meeting and also we heard just this afternoon that the Spanish translation of the plan was completed so you will see that soon uh thank you to miss Jimenez Salinas for the consultation and the support sorry thank you to our multilingual Services team as I say we are not where we used to be and not where we want to be but your passion commitment and dedication does not go unnoticed gracias
202and without questions thank you director yamas and thank you to the team who made this possible um before we move into questions we do need a motion to extend tonight's meeting from the board I'll move to extend the meeting to no later than 11 55 pm second thinking that was moved by director Medina and seconded by director Flores all those in favor say aye any oppositions any abstentions great we'll extend the meeting until no later than 11 55 pm thank you and with that are there any questions from the board director of De La Cruz thank you thank you so much um I had a couple of questions about one of the slides that showed um just huge increases in the number of Els who are reclassified over the last couple of years I wondered
203what um what that actually makes up of the population right so is there a percentage of the population that has been reclassified and what does that look like especially with the newcomer proposition coming in so do we see eels growing every year do we see them kind of staying flat so I'm just curious about you know the again the percentages of the population I don't have that information right now what I do know is the state of California normally we are provided with that um we just had a um launch um committee that's called uh District through Californians together District English learner um administrators advisory network and what we heard is the state of California has on their list of data to provide us the actual number of reclassification as a district that hasn't that
204report is not out yet but I will work with our data information Department to be able to have um percentages in terms of what percentages year by year that actually makes up of our student overall population wonderful I mean those you can see just the jumps even in the last couple of years how much how much change you've made and I did want to along those lines I did want to know a number of things beginning in 2021 we have seen an increase in funding towards our multilingual Services Department our department actually it became a department it's steadily beginning to grow some of the work that we've been doing with our elementary director and executive director has really been intentional around the grade level release days and our team presenting for our teachers and sharing
205strategies and information and we also have at the elementary and at the secondary level monthly multilingual service collaboratives where teachers come and they collaborate and they can work with other teachers district-wide so there's a number of things that we know has been happening but I think the most important one to know is the intentionality behind the funding and the support towards our staffing and our department um the the second question I had was around um is there any Trend with regards to when newcomers are coming or what what like what grades they're coming in do we see them younger do we see them you know in middle school and high school I know especially during you know kind of from 2014 on the numbers of unaccompanied minors and those kind of like the young teens
206were really going through the roof but I'm just wondering if we see any Trends with regards to when newcomers are coming into our district um with the data that we have we do see a small number of newcomers coming at the elementary level but definitely we're seeing it at the secondary level and so um we the slide that we presented tonight really shows um there was a slight decline right after covid but it's beginning to increase which definitely tells us that we need to continue to work on the development of um a program for them both at we've identified Language Academy and Elsie Allen and really developing and ensuring that it's sustainable so that if they choose to attend this program you know it's very specialized for them and um that there they will possibly
207receive courses in their home language um the last question I had was I really appreciated the kind of additional information about the ever Els and the corresponding sorry I'm assuming that there's corresponding state uh support forever Els is that is that that's a misassumption um not necessarily something that would be targeted for that because it's a term that's kind of overarching for us the students that have well and have ever been Els right and I think an important way to understand the importance of that or um is for me I have this metaphor of like a backpack that you prepare for your son or daughter to go off to school and that's the reclassification you go off and hopefully you're best prepared to access you know Ela mathematics over the last 10 years at the
208state level the reclassification criteria has been a little bit different from one year to the next from you know replacing the CSD with the S back the pandemic so reclassified students over the last 10 years don't always look the same and you can actually see that when you look at the scores of a district overall and where if you like drill down students that had ever been Els continue to need support and so I think it's more about calling out the need to carefully and intentionally modern monitor those students so for me I think it's important that we see that and that's something that I was very insistent on in this presentation and in the process because really that's what we're looking at when we're looking at our students that are struggling across the board
209it's really um it's a lot of students but a big component a big portion of those students are students that are now or have ever been English Learners so it's an important category and we have to intend really keep in mind I really appreciate that kind of recognizing the impact of at some point being treated differently inside of a system and how that even if you'd then go mainstream that Association and that those challenges can follow you through your educational experience um one last question and then just a comment um do we have any data on how long it typically takes us to reclassify a Neo um traditionally it should be happening within the first five years um there should be a steady increase year by year um we can look at that part of
210what we also are seeing is now the state of California is giving us um the um designation of at risk and so it used to be we were beginning to see students of at risk of being a long-term English learner as they were transitioning into seventh grade now as we have added transitional Kinder we're beginning to see some of those students or were identifying students of being at risk third and fourth grade so there's um there's definitely a focus at the state level and for us too but um we need to really look at the data and be able to follow the cohorts of students to be able to to see which elevation does for us excellent I I so love the kind of the data Rich approach here um one last comment is you
211know I I love the holistic way that we're addressing this challenge because we recognize that this is everybody's responsibility the end that typically what can happen is that you have bilingual kids in in classes who are holding that responsibility for their companies and that's not fair and we see those same kids falling behind because they're trying to teach something that they haven't captured yet so this is happening every day in our schools and we are placing the responsibility in the wrong places right this is not on a sixth grader who happens to love her company who's just here helping him along but she's struggling at the same time um and so you know this this work of understanding the holistic responsibility throughout our entire system is so critical for many other kids who may not
212even be designated to yells but because they're bilingual um that value is being taken advantage of by folks who may not have that value in themselves of bringing you know that language to to the classroom so I just want to say thank you because this work does impact many kids who are bilingual as well as those who are English language Learners thank you for acknowledging that because I've been in many school districts across the U.S and in several places what they've done is actually provided a club at lunchtime that is a translators and interpreters Club to teach the kids about the skill of doing that kind of interpretation but it isn't really something that they're prepared to do and it's not their responsibility and they can't pay attention to the content that the teacher is
213delivering when they're put in that position so it is possible to make it asset oriented when you look at it and think you know what it would be great for them to learn something about translation and interpretation and to have your District interpreter or translator come and speak with the kids and show them what it's about it's really great I love that um the last thing that I just want to say is one of my first experiences as a school board member was going to LC and participating in an ELD class taught by the amazing Miss Annie um who shared space with the imaginists and the goal was in an ELD class to teach kids how to you know do a theater piece and to lean into you know that vulnerability that we all experienced
214when we're on stage for the first time in another language as well as in your own language and there was just um there was so much joy and so much coolness in that moment and it was not just English and Spanish it was Vietnamese and it was Mandarin and it was Khmer and it was gorgeous and so just the richness that can come from this kind of programming and that allows kids to be seen in that Spotlight of love and understanding um it just it still it still hits my heart in all the right places yes yes foreign Flores and director Sheffield um but before you go direct first I just have to share this before I forget it um this conversation is is bringing up a lot of memories for me and it's actually
215really validating because I was redesignated in the third grade and I was one of those bilingual kids who had to you know support you know Teresita who like had just arrived with her family and um so it's I just want to share that and say that that this is like you know really really validating and really healing and I loved what you said director yamas that um you know we're we're we are um not where we used to be but we're not where we want so I really appreciate that that's really beautiful director Flores well thank you this is a very very comprehensive report and and I had a wonderful time reading it it looks like you've implemented a lot of the uh uh issues that we've brought forward before here as a school board
216I just want to commend you for that uh I just have two questions um in in terms of um our newcomers right uh slide number eight it says newcomer students may have interrupted or limited formal education uh we see well at least in other districts in the district that I work for uh we're seeing a trend of um a lot of our newcomers having that interrupted schooling What specifically are we doing because I mean sometimes they have three four five years of interrupted schooling what are we doing here to make sure that they get caught up and and systemically right that's one question then I have another question thank you for that question um it allows me to share that our students we are seeing students that are coming with uninterrupted um interrupted education and
217so I'm really excited with what superintendent Channel shared today about the committee of really looking at um courses and what are we doing for the a through G because that there are districts that we visited where they've been very intentional about some of the courses really needing the foundational skills um but in the meantime what we've done um is a lot of our our multilingual Services team and other teachers secondary as well as Elementary um they began attending the um OG training I cannot pronounce it Orton Gillingham training that is really supporting with regards to those foundational skills that the students that we're seeing the students need and so um as we work on this we are being intentional and we are being strategic about the trainings our team attends to be able to then
218go and support and Coach the teachers that are teaching the newcomer students and providing them not only the training but coaching so um right before the school year ended one of our our El specialist Annie Scully did a cycle with one of our teachers at Montgomery High School where during the day our El tosa Rocio Michio and our Elementary chosa Rosie Muldoon were going and um coaching and actually showing strategies and he was there observing as well as a teacher and then Annie was using that learning that she had to go and work with students in an actual newcomer classroom so it's about learning and coaching our teachers along the way and being right there with them to be able to know that we're in this together we're learning together and all keeping the students
219at the center of of this so um we anticipate more we're looking at training the OG training specifically for our secondary teachers to be able to have these skills and be able to use them daily in their newcomer English courses I think I would like to know a little bit more about that you know in a different presentation I'm sorry I mean I just wanted to add to that that we have to think about with newcomers using primary language not necessarily creating a whole bilingual program but using that and there are many different programs that I'm familiar with and that you know we visited some that um do that where they're utilizing the student's primary language to help raise that foundational level of skill in Math Science Social Studies Etc thank you and then my
220second question in terms of I think you uh touched on that um a through G courses so um I think it's page 26 on the actual um uh plan uh long-term English Learners it looks like there is a development of a new ELD course for ltels right that will be implemented for next school year school cycle uh that is a through G so um fascinating I I would like to know and I think you've already know that this board we appreciate data right so if there is a cohort or if there are numbers that we can actually see uh and see into their engagement not only their engagement but their growth in in bilingualism right uh because I mean those are kids who have been here for you know over six years and uh this
221is our pretty much our last ditch effort to make sure they become bilinguals right or you know they they become English proficient um so I like I like to see how that class does in the future okay thank you thank you and thank you for the for the great presentation as well I had a question on fiscal impact and and for the El Specialists um implementations embedded in the district lcap and Title II um does this include title three I'm sorry does this include charters what we are serving Charters so um for the 23 24 school year we currently have three El Specialists um that are serving both secondary and Elementary next school year that will increase we will have a total of six not coming out of their budget but coming out of I
222guess so they're not paying for this this is coming out of yeah right now um the supports that they're providing is coming out from our district El Cap as well as our title three perfect um funding great thank you director Medina thank you again thank you for all this work it's been needed for quite a while um my question is in regards to the recommended augmentation augmentations um is there a timeline or looking like when we would know like what would all this cost and I'm like I don't know if any of this will be part of what our previous sport item might fund but um alternative funding sources for this so um in in the presentation we included a link for the um like for our next steps implementation timeline but with regards to
223um the supports we have not at this moment identified um like funding for the social work that we have had conversations with um uh director loftgy in terms of what supports can he provide for the needs of our students knowing that they all there are students and um really being specific about the needs of our students that are coming to us with trauma so there's definitely conversations really looking at outside of the lcap funding and title III what supports are available this year the 22-23 school year for the first time in a few years we had not as a district tapped into title III immigrant funds and so um for the first time we received those funds and that is part of what we're looking at um how much of that funding we have actually
224received and how we're going to be able to allocate those funds to be specifically addressing some of the needs that are identified thank you it's really great any other questions okay at this time we will move on to public comment and I have one blue card and then we will move on to our remote attendees and this is from Miss Annie Scully good evening no Santa Rosa city school members uh as has been stated we submitted the last email master plan in 2017. and a significant difference between what was true then and today is the existence as you've heard for the last two years of the multilingual Services Department um other than really the study and immeasurable support of Sandy Garcia who's right here in all my many years in Santa Rosa city schools despite
225that English Learners have long established somewhere between 35 40 40 percent of our students we haven't had a we've had minimal consistency or support however we now have as you've heard tonight the Indie fatigueable uh supportive directory Amish for two years and dedicated folks are Castro um Samuel Martinez people are in the classroom in a way that they never were before uh Rocio Michio was the head of so much PD that happened this year at the secondary level we had more PD El directed PD than in the last 10 years put together for for our secondary staff it made a it was a huge leap forward um uh director you almost mentioned the Larks which are site-based committees who are getting more Adept at being able to look at data and to change systematically what's
226happening at their site in response to their site data these are significant changes we we have a more robust newcomer enrollment program and hopefully um that will continue we have our first newcomer summer school program happening as we speak um I'll just really quickly add an anecdote I I could tell you so many um last year last week we had three folks from glad training our teachers in 17 or 18 teachers in Glad strategies for the newcomers with the newcomers there um they presented a kind of an um abbreviated story or abbreviated version of Anne Frank two of the girls in the newcomer class are from the Ukraine they were asked to go home talk to their parents about what they were studying and and make any connections to their lives one of them came
227back the next day with a picture of a um building where her grandmother lived and showed how it was bombed on the uh a floor um this girl's sister's name like Ann's is also Margot this girl had to leave her cat I mean it just in that same class where I am uh and that was two minutes I'm sorry yeah no I understand please if you will just not let this new master plan get Dusty like the old one thank you so much thank you I think you at this time we'll move on to our remote attendees they're members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item E9 please raise your hand president manieri there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for any
228further discussion or emotion vice president Medina I just want to add a with scully's comments just recently just really moved me right now just thinking back you know 20 years ago at LCL we were like really fighting just to keep a bilingual person just in the front office and have that taken away like you know it felt so horrible and to be like where we are today and just the DraStic change within this district and the work that's being done uh it just feels good just wanted to see that I'd like to move to approve the revision of the English learner master plan second thank you are there any last comments before we do a roll call vote thank you that was moved by director De La Cruz and seconded by director Sheffield roll call
229vote please director De La Cruz see director Sheffield aye director McNally I director Flores aye director Medina hi director De la Torre hi president manieri yes great this passes I feel like we should really celebrate this moment can we give the team a round of applause foreign may I share something yes I just want to thank the team and and our guest uh who has been working very intently Miss Elizabeth thank you for your partnership uh in this work thank you to edavias who I remember just a couple of years ago she and I having a conversation of a dream and um sister we are here and we are moving so I'm so grateful and excited to be a part of this work and to push this work forward in the support that we give
230to our students and our families and I'm so proud of this work that you all have brought forward kudos to the team gracias item E10 is an action item educator Effectiveness block grant for 2021 through 2026 the Board of Education will consider approving the educator Effectiveness funds otherwise known as eef block grant plans for the 2021-2026 school years and we'll hand this over to Dr Castro good evening again president manieri superintendent tranelle members of the board and Santa Rosa city schools Community again this is one of those items that we presented on on June 14th extensively um but procedural requirements are such that we bring it back to to the board this evening for final consideration and approval so tonight's request tonight's requested action is that the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education approve
231the educator Effectiveness funds block grant plan for the 2021-2026 school years as revised thank you are there any questions from the board seeing nanua move on to public comment I have no blue cards for this item so we will move on to our remote attendees there are members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item E10 please raise your hand there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for discussion or a motion director De la Torre so Dr Castro is a reading through this are these funds possible funds that could be used for um ideas to be considered of how educators across the sites can effectively reach our students in need I see social emotional learning as one of the possible options reaching that
232promise youth are these things that our district can funds that our district can use and identify as ways for um training or opportunities for all of our Educators certificated and classified to connect with our students yes absolutely and uh as a reminder because it was two weeks ago in our right we had a lot to present back then as well these actual these uh the revision actually is a representation of bringing together a conversations and from surveys from different individuals throughout the district whether it be teachers from the professional development day or other stakeholders with respect to what our Focus areas were going to be but yes to answer your question it can it's to support both certificate and classified staff and another thing that I mentioned last time around I think is important to
233reiterate is that really this and title II are the only things we really can count on in terms of being funds that are you know we can dedicate towards professional development nowadays thank you thank you any other questions or comments if not we are seeking a motion on this item motion to approve second thank you that was moved by director De la Torre and seconded by director Flores roll call vote please director De la Torre hi director Flores aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally I director Medina aye president manieri hi thank you item E11 action item acceptance of the safety advisory Roundtable strategic plan the Board of Education will consider accepting the recommended start strategic plan I will hand this over to superintendent tranelle thank you so much president manieri
234members of the board those who are in person and online um on at the June 14 board meeting we had representatives from the safety advisory Roundtable group present elements of our safety advisory Roundtable strategic plan um this is now formally agendized for the board to consider accepting this strategic plan with the caveat that there was also an ask to look at specific Financial impact features of that plan which have been listed here it's not an exhaustive list because some of the work is yet to be done as far as specific types of professional development and others that will um and which will duly be reflected in our future budgets and reprioritized of course um but I wanted to share some of the things that we've already accomplished some of the things that the board has
235already taken action now through the lcap for example and some of the facilities work that we've already got underway which is a demonstration that we are taking immediate action on many of the elements that the safety advisory Roundtable group has proposed for this district for this board to consider um and so with that I will hand it back to the board if there is any comment or question thank you superintendent chernel are there any questions from the board director Flores so uh just that clarifying question so that the financial impact doesn't necessarily impact us right that's what I'm hearing so many of these decisions have already been made um via other decisions perhaps for example when we look back at the item for example the increase of FTE for campus supervisors for school-based therapists for
236the family engagement facilitators for the mtss counselors and for the restoratives the board just approved through the lcap process so these are not costs on top of the things that the board has already just approved they are matches to what the board has approved same for the remodel of some of our high school bathrooms the board actually took action earlier this school year for those adjustments all right that makes sense thank you thank you sure director Medina my question is simply um at what point do we expect to see like a follow-up in terms of like where the progress is in terms of uh these uh recommendations on the plan that's a great question the committee is going to start meeting regularly this coming school year and we will set a timeline for you so
237that we can set progress and understand um based on the metrics that we've provided how we're going to go about getting the data so that we can monitor that progress so I expect to bring back more information in the fall other questions director De la Torre I just want to make a comment to again extend our gratitude to the entire team for the exhaustive efforts that were put into preparing the Strategic plan and bringing these items to the board's attention um and thank you for continuing the work that needs to be done director Medina I think just a follow-up um superintendent tranelle um there was several students that were part of this Farm are we going to be adding more students to that work since I think some of them graduated yeah sorry I locked
238my screen um so yes we will be looking at we actually accepted all of the students who applied and interviewed with us so we do have a few that graduated so we'll be looking to add more members to the team thank you Richard De La Cruz um this is just beautiful work and many many thanks to community that that showed up in so many ways um I do feel like that is one thing that I didn't see captured in the Strategic plan was the kind of very immediate response of our community-based organizations Community leaders parents who really just showed up in you know at Monty with so much love and so many resources and I'm wondering like it doesn't necessarily fit perfectly in some of the um the ways in which we're capturing things like
239it's a little bit like mental health and counseling it's a little bit in terms of like supporting facility cleanup it crosses over into um it's just there's multiple places there and I'm just wondering how we can make sure that we capture like what it felt like to have Manny and Erica and Trey and Ruben and Lucero and you know racist and just people really on that campus adding to the number of grown-ups who were there to provide um just some additional love and support in those moments and how do we capture that initial reaction from our community and something that feels more sustainable and long term um so just and this is incredibly beautiful detailed intense work and so I don't want to like have this and right take away from anything that is so
240beautifully presented here and so clearly um reflected uh you know the gratitude for community and showing up in quite this way to get to this so quickly I'm grateful that you brought up that question uh it's actually been a goal over the past couple of months that we would actually do a community recognition of all of the organizations it first started out with the idea of everything that happened after March 1st the number of organizations that immediately jumped in to start helping us and it has actually expanded because um we have outside of of the tragedy that we experience so deeply we've had these organizations working with us prior to that so the plan is that on August 9th we're going to to do a full celebration of all of the community organizations who partner
241with us that help us throughout the school year to acknowledge them before our school year gets underway because we know that we can't do this work without them and we definitely saw our organizations and the number of Partners dig in with us and and be a part of that fabric with us in the last few months other questions from the board okay at this time we will take public comment I have one blue card and then we will move on to our remote attendees and this is from Michael hilber I'd like to uh say that bullying should be recognized in an expellable offense in any uh violence or threat of violence or bullying should not be tolerated and I'd like to see uh staff yard supervision the understanding that uh they need to recognize bullying
242when it's going on and be receptive to complaints and not afraid to act on it because um you know it's uh it's a all too common and deeply uh troubling aspect of going to school for a lot of young people thank you there are members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item e 11 please raise your hand our first speaker is Will Lyon will are you there you can unmute go ahead uh good evening members of the board and of the community I'm will Lyon of uh in my 24th year of teaching I'm a Santa Rosa High English teacher the number one way to support site admin and staff in making our schools safe is to re-establish reasonable and appropriate discipline for unsafe and disrespectful student Behavior restorative
243practices deserves a very strong place in our district safety plan and we should not over suspend or over expel students but the pendulum has now swung too far in the other direction site admin are reporting that they are afraid to apply meaningful reasonable and appropriate consequences to students even when the students are engaging in unsafe or disrespectful behavior that makes every other student and staff member less safe our students our children and their prefrontal cortexes the part of their brains that are used to make good decisions about the future are not fully developed until they're about 25 years old to prevent unacceptable Behavior the student needs to know three things one what is the rule two what is the consequence for breaking the rule and three will the consequence be enforced if any of those
244pieces are missing it isn't a rule or a suggestion we would a little bit rather that you stop bullying your classmates if you don't mind that only works for kids who are going to be good anyway the rest of them need consequences for unacceptable Behavior we should not evaluate school safety with suspension and expulsion rates only it is easy to disallow admin to super uh to not disallow them to suspend or expel students but it is much harder to make schools actually feel and be safe for all students and staff the board should vote Yes and add all of these adults to our campuses as proposed which I believe you already have but unless those adults are empowered to enforce the rules that we already have our students will won't be more safe thank you
245president manieri there are no other hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for any further discussion or emotion make a motion to approve thank you that was moved by director De la Torre and seconded by director Sheffield before we take a roll call vote I just want to add my voice of gratitude to the start committee that who put this together with so much intentionality and care and thoughtfulness so thank you to each and every one of those members with that roll call vote please director De la Torre aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally hi director Flores aye director Medina aye president manieri I thank you item E12 first read and possible waiver of second read of board by law 9250 the board will consider approval of
246a revised board by law 9250 increasing the stipend for board members by five percent to 510.51 dollars per month and presenting this action item is superintendent for no thank you board president manyary and members of the board those are with us in person and online with the adjustment to the board's meeting calendar that we no longer have formal regular meetings in July um that's initially where this remuneration request would come I'm bringing it forward to you now in tune for the board to consider an increase in stipend for board members by five percent which is written into our board bylaw 9250 which would bring an increase to the board per month to be a total of 510.51 per month the financial impact of that increase would be a total of six thousand one hundred twenty
247six dollars and 12 cents per board member with a combined total for the year of forty two thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars and 84 cents um with that I have presented to the award a draft and clean copy of the board bylaw which would reflect this adjustment board bile on 9250 and with that I will hand it back to the board thank you superintendent tranelle are there members of the board who have any uh questions seeing none we will move on to public comment I have no blue cards so we will move on to remote attendees thank you if there are members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item E12 please raise your hand there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board
248for any further discussion or emotion vice president Medina I'd like to move to wave the second read and approve the revised board by law 9250 increasing the stipend for the board members by five percent to 510 51 per month a second thank you that was moved by director Medina and seconded by director Flores roll call vote please director I'm sorry I hear it in this on this side it's just hard okay that was moved by vice president Medina and seconded by director delatorre director Medina aye director De la Torre aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally hi director Flores aye president manieri hi thank you superintendent tranelle we are now in item e13 oral recommendation regarding assistant superintendent of Educational Services salary and French benefits discussion and board vote on assistant
249superintendent employment agreement the proposed contract for Dr Roger Castro as assistant superintendent of Educational Services is being presented to the board for approval and I will hand it over to superintendent Cherno thank you and because I am not in the room is Dr Castro in the room yes okay if you could come down to the center it gives me great pleasure um to bring forward to the board this recommendation um assistant superintendents positions are a year-to-year contract and I would just like to spend a moment to share my deep gratitude for Dr Castro as a member of our team as a person I consider a colleague and development as a friend um and I am just so proud of the work that he has been doing digging in especially around data uh he and his
250team and as at his Direction have been at school sites at a moment's notice as we've had a variety of experiences that have required he and his team to be on school sites this year um it is such a pleasure to work with Dr Castro not to mention he is so funny and brings great humor to the group as well um and has such a deep knowledge and respect for the work we are doing uh here in Santa Rosa city schools so it gives me great pleasure to present this oral reading to you this evening the oral reading of assistant superintendent of Educational Services the assistant superintendent's contract states that the assistant superintendent's salary for the 23-24 fiscal year will be 187 696.63 this does reflect a 4.5 percent increase from last year um the
25123-24 work year for the assistant superintendent shall be 225 days the contract provides the assistant superintendent with the same Access to Health dental and vision benefits as other management employees and finally the contract provides for 3 600 as annual reimbursement for auto automobile related expenses it is my honor to present to the board the potential of this contract for Dr Castro to be able to continue to be with us as a team member for the 23-24 school year thank you superintendent tranelle are there any board member questions seeing none we will move on to public comment I have no blue cards so we will move on to remote attendees for members of the public joining us on Zuma would like to comment on item e13 please raise your hand at this time our first speaker
252is Margaret Boone good evening um I I appreciate that of course everyone deserves raises but our our highest paid employees already make so much money and our lowest paid employees make so little money and it just seems like so far as Equity we would want to start paying more money to people who make no money and not continuously give more and more and more money to people that are already making so much and that's it thank you thank you our next speaker is Ashley Bell hi board um if I recall correctly the salary for this position in June of last year was 172 thousand dollars in October the board approved a four percent raise which I came and protested at the time I'm feeling it was inappropriate that means that this is approved by my
253understanding in one year this job has gone from a hundred and seventy two thousand dollars to a hundred and eighty seven thousand dollars and that this job is getting a fifteen thousand dollar raise at what point are we going to stop rubber stamping the salaries of the people who make six figures in this District at what point are we going to say enough is enough fifteen thousand dollars in one year that is completely unacceptable that is so far from the idea of equity and how we are treating people it is wild that we would even consider asking for four and a half percent more for somebody who just got a four percent raise in October I well that for this agenda item and the next agenda item and all the increases that are coming up
254when we look at the pay scale for people who are making 150 170 180 almost 200 000 that we really stop and we hesitate and we think about what we are doing because we have no problem giving four percent here four percent there multiple times a year but we have people working multiple jobs in our district it's just it's it's it's I can't comprehend it and frankly it's disgusting thank you Ashley uh president veneeri there are no other hands raised thank you uh this comes back to the board for any further comments or discussion or emotion director Flores sure um um super into the internet could you address um that concern that that just came up in terms of the percentage uh being raised twice in one year yeah so it's actually not being raised
255twice in one year um the position the position actually received no raise during the 21-22 school year and when that contract was brought forward in June it was still a zero percent raise so we actually held off on and actually uh the position itself was working without a contract until the board actually approved the contract in October remember that these contracts are year to year so technically the person was working without a contract until October where we were able to bring the commensurate four percent that our other certificated staff received for that contract this request is for 23.24 that four percent was for 22.23 and again the position had gone two years without an increased previous thank you any other comments from the board or questions or emotion vice president Medina I'll move to accept
256the contract that's presented all second thank you that was moved by vice president Medina and seconded by director Sheffield roll call vote please director Medina aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally I director Flores aye director De la Torre aye president maniari aye thank you the next item is item e14 oral recommendation regarding assistant superintendent of Human Resources salary and French benefits discussion and board vote on assistant superintendent employment agreement the proposed contract for Dr Vicki zanz as assistant superintendent of Human Resources is being presented to the board for approval I will hand this over to superintendent tranelle thank you and it's Dr Zan's in the room yes okay if she can come down and be in the hot seat for a minute um so with uh Mr Shepard who is
257currently our assistant superintendent of HR taking his leave from the district it is my pleasure to bring forward Dr Vicki zans and recommend her as the next assistant superintendent of Human Resources uh as such I can share that Dr zans has a long history of being in our district in multiple capacities and most recently has been serving as the Director of Human Resources for our district it is such an honor and pleasure to bring her forward in this role to the board for consideration I very much value Dr zans as a new member of our team and look forward to working with her as a member of cabinet going forward will you get to see her more at board meetings now in the work that we'll do in negotiations and with that I would like
258to present the oral reading for the assistant superintendent of Human Resources the assistant superintendent's contract states that the assistant superintendent's salary for the 22-23 fiscal year will be 187 696.63 the that which also reflects the 4.5 which is commensurate with our other certificated employees um the 2324 work year for the assistant superintendent will be 225 days the contract provides the assistant superintendent with the same Access to Health dental and vision benefits as other management employees and finally the contract provides for thirty six hundred dollars as annual reimbursement for automobile related expenses and with that is my honor and pleasure to present the contract and potentially welcome Dr Vicki zans as our new assistant superintendent of Human Resources thank you superintendent tranelle are there any questions from board members seeing none we will move on to
259public comment um I have no blue card so we'll move on to remote attendees there are members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on item e14 please raise your hand president manieri there are no hands raised thank you this comes back to the board for any comments discussion or emotion I'll move to accept the contract that's presented oh second thank you that was moved by vice president Medina and seconded by director Sheffield roll call vote please director padina aye director Sheffield aye director David Cruz aye director McNally aye director Flores aye director De la Torre hi president maniari hi thank you welcome Vicky all right we are now on our consent items these are F items item f11 was pulled for a correction um before I ask for a
260motion we will ask if there are any members of the public who would like to give public comment on these items they're members of the public joining us on zoom and would like to comment on any of the consent agenda please raise your hand at this time there are no hands raised thank you so we are looking for a motion to emotion on items F2 through 10 and 12 through 36. I'm up to approve items of two through 10 and 12 through 36 second thank you that was moved by vice president Medina and seconded by director Sheffield roll call vote please director Medina aye director Sheffield aye director De La Cruz aye director McNally aye director Flores aye director De la Torre aye president manieri hi thank you item f11 superintendent I'll hand it over
261to you thank you president maniere members of our board those who are with us in person and online there was a discrepancy on the cover of the board agenda under fiscal impact that I do need to correct um the fiscal impact should be that the position has been reclassified to range 34 not 31 effective July 1st 2022 which will become a retroactive raise from July 1st 2022 and that is the correction that I need to make thank you seeking a motion on item f11 with this revision move to approved updated item 11. second thank you that was moved by director De La Cruz and seconded by director Sheffield from please director De La Cruz aye director Sheffield aye director McNally I director Flores aye director Medina aye director De la Torre aye president maniere aye
262thank you now we are on item G1 approval of regular board meeting held on June 14th 2023 seeking a motion for approval move to prove second second thank you that was moved by director Flores and seconded by director Sheffield roll calvo please director Flores aye director Sheffield aye director daily Cruz aye director McNally abstain director Medina aye director De la Torre aye president manieri aye thank you item H board member request for information are there any requests this evening director Flores yeah so um I think I made this request a while back um and I did not see this reflected in the budget representation so um and I forgot my apologies to bring that up during the budget presentation but it would be helpful to see uh the uh budgets that were presented by the
263district right uh and the estimation that I get it there the estimates for the for the current budget or the you know the following Year's budgets are pretty conservative but I'd like to have a historical you know um Viewpoint you know three years in the past of the actuals that came in versus the uh budgeted you know to to give us a context of um the uh you know how much money we're talking about it when we budget and the actuals that come in a clarification question sure yeah the microphone sorry are you asking for estimated actuals to unaudited actuals okay perfect okay thank you thank you director of the electros um I'd love to receive a report on the Santa Rosa violence prevention partnership and the way it interacts with our disciplinary systems in
264terms of referrals and then what kinds of programs are available to students who are being referred to the VPP thank you other requests for information director Medina and I'd like to report on our discipline policies and the different stages of discipline okay other requests all right this brings us to our information items listed in our packet um I will just read them quickly future board discussion items Board of conduct and code of ethics educational acronyms and abbreviations and Facilities Master Plan update before we adjourn superintendent Chanel any last announcements thank you so much for your time and I see 10 50. p.m so good job good job thank you the meeting has been adjourned