001we are now live good evening Santa Rosa City Santa Rosa city schools this is um the December 8th 2021 school board meeting Santa Ros City School District and we are going to begin with our territorial land acknowledgement I want to introduce our speaker tonight while we are bringing that person over to the panel uh tonight's land acknowledgement is offered by our Piner student Aubrey Cordova uh she is a member of the Dry Creek Pomo Tribe and she has honored her family's Traditions by singing and dancing at Big times and strawberry festivals she's a student in the early college magnet program at Piner high school and is duel enrolled at the Santa Rosa JC and she will be graduating this December she's graduating early due to her her enrollment in the um Early College mag program
002so we welcome Aubrey and are you here with us there you are thank you so much um we're going to stand for this everyone Aubrey go ahead hi everyone um I would like to thank the board for inviting me here tonight to acknowledge the land that we're gathering on today I'm grateful to know that the land of my ancestors elders and family is now being honored and respected on their behalf we reside on the land that is currently in historically inhabited and home to Pomo wapo and Co Miwok tribes it is important to note that simply mentioning their presence is not all that we should be doing it is also our job to take care of and honor this land like my ancestors have if it weren't for their efforts and practices this land would
003not be the land that it is today with that being said I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to speak on behalf of my ancestors and honor the land itself thank you again that was beautiful thank you so much thank you than you very much we are now going to say the Pledge of Allegiance together I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Justice for All um I'm going to take a second here just to give us a grounding um in the spirit of our holiday season in the spirit of closing out our calendar year soon in the spirit of the incredible tensions and challenges of 2021 and in
004the strong Spirit of our human spirit that human tenacity care compassion and desire to connect with one another this is acknowledgement that compassion goes a really long way that we appreciate each other's gifts and we build upon each one that we use our communication and alerts to help spot gaps in our systems and that while we cannot control everything we can control ourselves and we can directly and positively affect those around us thank you uh we are on C3 this is reported actions taken in close session by the board um the board has approved the student expulsions case numbers 21 21 22-8 we have approved case number 21229 and we have approved case 222-1 item C4 for there are no items considered in closed session for action and Open Session uh board are there any
005statements of exstension tonight I see none are there any board are there any adjustments to the agenda tonight okay again I see none and um Beth would you please ask the public if there's anyone who'd like to comment on consent items tonight thank you so if there are any members of the public who would like to comment on items in the F section of the agenda those are the consent items um we need to pull those items now for comment later in the meeting so if there is something in the F section that you would like to comment on later in the meeting usually toward the end of the meeting um please raise your hand at this time and then we're going to ask which item it is so that it can be pulled but
006the comment will come come later and Katie Thomas has a hand raised uh this is the public comment correct no it is not that's coming up next sorry about that no worries all right it looks like we have no other hands raised thank you Beth so no adjustments to the agenda that was C6 we are now on C7 this is time for public comment on non-agenda item and Beth I will let you take that over again well here we are again if there are members of the public who would like to comment on items that are not on our agenda tonight this is the time to do it um so that means items that are not going to be coming up later in the meeting please raise your hand and here is Katie Thomas hello
007um my name is Katie Thomas I'm a student at Montgomery High School this year I've become concerned about the school safety and many factors play a part in this for example Katie I am so sorry that was an accident and we're going to bring you back into the meeting you'll be allowed to talk and you have two minutes for your comment we have a timer on there to help you keep time sorry about that yes okay hi my name is Katie Thomas I'm a student at Montgomery High School this year I've become concerned about the school safety and many's fact s play a part in this for example our lack of substitutes in the district this forces the principal vice principal or assistant principal to come in and supervise when the teacher has to be
008absent this means that they can't do their jobs one of which is supervising the campus and ensuring the safety of the students and staff another event that worried me was the armed student on our school last Friday and the fact that there was no school resource officer on campus to take care to take care of this issue calmly and quickly and faster than an officer from the srpd could get there there the response time was probably several minutes whereas an SRO could have responded in just seconds this was several minutes longer that a gun was on campus and several minutes longer that the student could have felt threatened and pulled it out to hurt someone I'm not comfortable with that thankfully this is issue was resolved and no one was hurt but it could have
009been handled faster if we had an SRO even today there was a fight on campus between two students multiple teachers had to break up the fight which put them in danger since they are not trained in combat or self-defense if there was an SRO they could have stopped the fight in less time since they are trained in self-defense and that would have minimized the potential d uh danger for people to get hurt I thought it was important to speak tonight so that you could hear the voices of the students on campus it's my life and my friend's lives that could potentially be at risk please make the decisions that will protect us thank you thank you Katie and I just want to say that um president pong has said that we have three minutes for
010each public comment it looks like Katie didn't even use her two minutes but um everyone else the clock should say 3 minutes um and next is Sam wise K and if you could please State your full name for the record uh my full name is Sam wi kig thank you uh does my time start now oh uh okay my name is Sam we kig I'm a student at Santa Rosa high school and an issue that I think is it's it's kind of scary to me is recently there was a rumor going around at my school that uh a student was going to do a school shooting over there and I'm not really like I'm not really satisfied with how it was handled because instead of like making students aware and possibly letting them make their
011own choices of how they want to handle the situation and possibly stay home if they like didn't feel comfortable going to school uh it I there was a rumor going around that the school was even hiding it and not letting the information go out to the like students and the public until it was too late and like even hiding it from several staff members so that like there was announcement on the PA of the supposed it was going to happen that just told teachers to te check their emails and like everyone knew what it was talking about because information leaks but the fact that there was an effort to hide it from people kind of just scares me like like is there a value on on on on students lives yeah that's that's kind of
012all I have to say thank you next is Cheyenne Cheyenne could you please State your full name for the record sorry about that uh my name is Cheyenne stver stz fous thank you and go ahead with your comments okay okay so yes once again uh my name is Cheyenne St stus and I am the parent uh to a fifth grader and second grader at Santa Rosa French American charter school for the past six years I have witnessed and supported my older child as she struggled and then succeeded in an immersed educational environment her commitment to understand the French language gave her a sense of accomplishment this work ethic is something that she received from each teacher she has had at Santa Rosa French American charter school and now my second grader is eager to follow
013in her big sister's footsteps we are beginning to look into middle schools and realize that we may have to leave Santa Rosa city school district for Ron Valley due to our address this is not the decision we want to make our daughters would much rather continue their French emersion education through 8th grade and that is what I also went for them tonight I'm asking Santa Rosa city school's Board of Education to consider extending Santa Rosa French American Charter School to accommodate middle school students thank you very much for your time and consideration thank you next is Britney Westerman hi my name is Britney Westerman and I am a parent at Santa Rosa French American charter school I chose to school for my kids because I wanted to give them the opportunity to learn another language
014that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to my kids absolutely love this school and to see them thrive in an immersion language setting has been fantastic as a parent I love the diversity and Global Perspective at the school we're our focus is to raise Global Citizens and I think that that's an incredible thing to do I would love to I would love for my children to continue the immersion setting Beyond Elementary I'm asking you to reconsider reinstating the Santa Rosa French American Charter School charter to include seventh and eighth grades thank you so much for your time thank you next is Matthew bany hi I want to thank the board for your time and your service to our community tonight and thank you for the opportunity to speak uh I'm a parent of three children enrolled
015in the French American School uh so common theme here uh I personally came from the middle of America growing up in public schools uh had very limited diversity in that training limited exposure to a truly world view I I want to let you know I was really impressed that I found a Multicultural opportunity like the French American school as a public charter school here in Santa Rosa uh my three children have thrived in that environment I've seen them grow into uh children that have a truly world view uh with the diversity uh exposure that they've received I think it would be uh a very difficult transition for them uh going right into Middle School uh we know that that's a very sensitive time in our children's lives and socially stressful uh if we were able
016to find a way to maintain some continuity and reinstate the charter for uh to continue their multilingual education into Middle School I think it would be an excellent service to our community thank you for your time thank you and once again this is public comment on non-agenda items next is Melissa louu hi yes um this is Melissa can you can you hear me yes we can okay thank you um so my name is Melissa Lou and I've had a child attending as um Santa Rosa French American charter school since 2014 we have been happy with the curriculum that integrates both Common Core requirements in English and math while also teaching the language culture and customs of France for their requirements at the French Ministry of Education another part of the reason we chose to attend
017srfa at that time was a continuity of a k to8 curriculum we were disappointed when the seventh and e8th GR program was discontinued due to space constraints on the existing campus my son graduated in June and we were unable to find a middle school in the district for him to continue his immersion experience we asked for Santa Rosa city schools to resume seventh and eighth grade programs under srfax in the hope that our daughter would stay within the district and build on her language immersion and potential IB certificate she loves school she loves her teachers and her community at srfax as did our son please know that we are supportive and extremely grateful for the opportunity of a French immersion middle school program thank you thank you next is Shelby prior good evening can you
018guys hear me yes we can good evening so a couple comments ago I heard a young man talk about the fact that the the staff at his school decided to handle an issue by withholding information from the faculty and the students I constantly call in every every meeting you have at this point trying to figure out why you guys are withholding information about covid but how these two things correlate to me is this if you're faithful in one thing that's small you're faithful in one thing that's great which means that you individuals tend to to do something small and it affects something bigger um it's interesting to me that this young man feels slighted by you guys and he's actually witnessing this in real time and there's a distrust in the way that the faculty
019is handling situation so if you're doing that in one area you're probably doing it in all the areas I don't know if you're aware that the federal government has issued a stay on all vaccine mandates you guys have way bigger problems and priorities to be worrying about like children getting shot at school versus individuals being vaccinated this is things that are a big problem for me if you're willing to withhold from these children Vital Information that protects their well-being you're doing it in every area possible that you can so you guys need to really get your heads out of wherever you have them and realize that you have bigger problems that are going on in your District now now presently if one child came to school saying that they had a gun and nothing was
020done to alert the people and get people off of the campus you guys are enabled to do your job if my child were to be harmed in this situation how would you handle it it's disgusting to think that a child has to call in and make you do your job and make you think about the pr priorities that you have to them and your obligations you have a lot of things that you do good but in you're doing good you are overemphasizing the things that do not matter in your everyday lives keeping our children safe is the number one priority of every individual on this board and I'm looking at each one of you I think it is ridiculous that we are still in the same place if you mandate these children to do certain
021things and you're lying to them in other areas you need to stick your noses into the priorities and not into the things that are not important to to you and if they are important to you maybe you should recalibrate the things that you are doing thank you for your time thank you next is Karen Wagner Karen are you there all right we are going to move on to Dian alares hi can you hear me yes hi um I have a few things so I applaud the young high school kids that called regarding the gun on Montgomery's campus and I just wish that our board members our elected officials that sit on this board would do what they say they're doing which is which is try to keep our kids safe because this last two years
022after this whole George Floyd thing and all the and the board members decided they wanted to be social justice Warriors they decided that that our sro's are um intimidating and as Omar magina said months ago in one of the meetings do you feel safe with a police officer on campus and this agenda that you keep trying to make it seem like you guys are worried about our kids safety more accidents have been happening at schools in this County that require sro's being on campus and for an example rink Valley Middle School where two of my children go I go there to drop off something from my child their office doors locked because the the staff inside they're scared that apparently I have covid they lock the door I knock this has happened a m multiple
023parents that I've talked to nobody comes to to see me so I start wandering around campus so I am a a parent wandering around campus what if I had a gun and finally I ran into somebody this happens all the time and I find and when they do come to the door a mask is shoved in my face and I don't want to put it on because I'm outside I'm not allowed to go in the office but yet when our kids are in the quad eating or having break if a gun men was to come onto the campus that that those administrators in that office they'd be safe right because they're in a locked room but when children run were trying to maybe run for safety they'd be killed and so I think instead of
024being social justice Warriors you guys really need to think what is happening on campus and how you all visit schools and Anna trell you visit these campuses instead of going around and saying oh the kids look so happy why don't you talk to the parents because we're not allowed at campus we're not allowed at meetings we have a few minutes if we're lucky and so that brings me to another thing cell phones aren't allowed on campus Ryan Thompson the vice principal of our school goes around and confiscates cell phones out of back pockets that aren't even being used I want my kid to have a cell phone if there's an emergency or a gunman on campus I want to know where my kid is because I track them via app and so this brings me
025to another thing this is a nonpartisan movement school choice needs to be on the ballot for November 22 and I'm leading the effort in Sonoma County my name is Diana Olivares find me on Facebook and please sign my petition it's the only way we could battle the unions thank you uh next is Mr Adrien wardz and I believe that we have someone who's going to come over and translate from Mr Waters Mr Wes are you there Adrien Wares SES well Gabriella um perhaps he'll raise his hand again um that could have been a hand raised in error okay thank you for coming over sure if he needs to come off mute on a cell phone on Zoom you have to P press star six I don't believe that he called in because we could see
026his name um so meanwhile um let's go to Anastasia Anastasia could you please State your full name for the record hello my name is Anastasio toar Rose and I hear um The Cry for this Amer uh French American school um I would like for the French American parents to consider maybe um moving their kids into our seventh and eighth grade program that we have at SZ Language Academy I mean it's stated in our name that we're a Language Academy so we should offer French there and then the school district should also work on furthering our education for uh our Spanish speaking um students at SES Trav Language Academy and our French students and a high school and I would suggest that the school district also look into Alan to become a language high school so
027um that's something that the school district you can consider thank you thank you next is Piper bagani Paris and Piper needs to be promoted into the panel to be able to speak so we're going to do that Piper are you there hi can you hear uh we can hear you if there's any way um you could speak closer to the mic I think that would help are you there Piper well unfortunately now we cannot hear you are you guys able to hear me now now we can oh okay sorry hi my name is Piper book and Yanni Paris I am a senior at Santa Rosa High School I am concerned about the lack of safety drills at my school as we are approaching the end of the first semester of school Santa Rosa high school
028has yet to administer a lockdown drill there are many new students whose first year on campus is this year and who have no idea of the safety protocols for a lockdown at Santa Rosa High School given everything going on in the news recently and the recent gun threats within the S Roa City Schools district last week it is important that students and staff have a plan in casee of an emergency I am asking the board to prioritize safety drills and protocols in schools by administering safety drills within the first weeks of school to guarantee the safety of students in case of an emergency thank you thank you uh next is Pam Kowski good evening my name is Pam karaski and I am a PE teacher at Brook Hill and Bea elementaries I just have four
029simple points that I would like to make this evening number one bring back sro's take the advice of the committee that recommended keeping them last summer why are we even having a committee if we aren't even going to listen to them number two we need more substitutes we need to make the desire of subbing in our district be more inviting number three please be honest upfront and forthcoming with information that has to do with safety we as teachers need the information to do our job and keep our students safe and lastly number four we need to pay our classified staff a living wage we are lacking employees and it is affecting our students their learning and their safety thank you thank you and once again this is public comment on items that are not on
030the agenda this evening and Sheila Walker's next hi good evening president bong and Board of Trustees and the community um I'm a parent uh with a student in eth grade in this district and um I want to just add my thoughts as well regarding the safety of our students um we do we know if our students are all right um do we know if our children are right we are near the middle of the year uh I also believe that the board should consider reporting back to us the community and the parents about progress regarding attendance academics the social emotional well-being of our children about discipline issues a transparent presentation would be welcomed by all of us um I also want to ask the board Bo how often do you talk to parents I know
031you all get emails from me from time to time um and I copy you on um some conversations with the district office um as I did today on one uh subject but I've asked many times um and I'm looking at um Mr Sheffield trusty Sheffield you're my representative I've asked to speak with you I've asked to speak with numerous um Board of Trustees to tell you my story um why as a parent that I will be at every single board meeting why would you think I would want to be at every single board meeting because my kid was denied an education last year and now I find out that now there's more behavior issues on campuses we've decided to put off our sro's I guess when the board decided um to remove them from our
032campuses we weren't even in school were we now we're in school have you been at the school I had a meeting with the vice principal um uh it was about a behavior issue not with my son but um he was being bullied by multiple kids at the school at the middle school so we had to have a meeting and at that meeting it was at the end of school uh this is at ringen ringen Valley Middle School and um while I was sitting in the meeting with my husband and my son we're talking to the vice principal um there was a fight that broke out the vice principal had to leave the meeting then the bell rang school was over vice principal had to leave the meeting yet again there's a fight right outside the
033door so please revisit the SRO issue keep our kids safe and while we're at it let's look at what we're looking when we have um adults on our campuses whether they're our elementary or middle school or High School let's make sure that we have enough adult bodies monitoring the campuses during their school breaks um for lunch and their uh recess um I mean I'm a creative person I'm willing to work with anybody to help solve this issue and get creative on getting more adults on our campus the last thing I want to add um I have a lot of friends who are Educators but I support Californians for school choice and if you want to join us you can join us at Californians for school choice Sonoma County and all my efforts as a Democrat
034will be made there thank you thank you next is Karen Wagner G to try Karen again hi good evening can you hear me yeah yes okay good thank you I had just switched to my phone um so my concern is along the lines of what I'm hearing and I didn't really realize everybody else was going to be talking about this but you know the sro's um as an employee of the school district and being on campuses um I know that we have strongly had um support from the SRO and it's helped in a lot of um different areas um to keep us safe and in the last two weeks I myself have gotten caught in the middle of two breakout fights um one um I don't know they're pretty scary um our admin I mean
035our um one campus supervisor um that we have we're supposed to have more but we only have one for 1800 students so that's ridiculous but also you know the admin were able to get there quicker but it it's just it's just scary that you know these things happen so quick and then today um an incident happened um where somebody confided on me that there was a weapon um in somebody's backpack on the bus that I was loading students on yes the weapon was found it was you know not a firearm or anything like that however it was confiscated so I'm I'm imploring you guys to please look at our safety make us safe make our students safe make our families feel safe I mean I don't know I don't know what else to say other
036than it's um starting to get a little rambunctious out there so thank you thank you next is U Mr Adrien wattis again um we're going to see see if we can hear him Mr VES Mr can you hear me in the meeting can people hear me we can hear you translator great sure absolutely so let me go back to him [Music] um umong High School um person and Cor uh for uh MREs pardon Mr Wes um Gabriela would you please tell Mr Wes that his three minutes are up and then perhaps you can translate what his comment was thank you of course okay so Mr hes is the president of theak as uh you may know he is saying good evening to all he wants to mention that he is very worried for many reasons
037as everybody has been talking about the safety at schools specifically his son attends Montgomery High School and uh he was there when all this situation happened recently but he's also been um Counting about how many fights um he's learned about in the on the campus and he has counted so far uh five recently um he is asking that we need to take action that um teachers are having to scramble and interfere to break this uh fights uh we need to have more personal more staff to take care of these situations we need to do something um how is it possible that um we're in the middle of the year and we still do not have enough staff um he has mentioned that um he also has attempted to form uh committees deac committees in the
038different schools and there's not enough staff or people are simply not having the time or not possibly interested in informing these uh committees in the on the campuses um he's also saying that it is important that we consider that D could be a good uh way to communicate with students which in a a significant number are English Learners in the different schools in Santa Rosa um he's also saying that it is time to make decisions um he was also reminding us that he has invited uh the board on different occasions to either attend the meetings at deac or just be part of them in one way or another um lastly he was also mentioning about about the concern that he's uh brought up before and it is the fact that in elementary school and preschool
039in kindergarten there are no fences protecting the little kids in the schools and he is very worried that maybe somebody would potentially just walk on campus and take one of those children with him with this person so um that was the last comment that he made and he was asking if we could please take a look into that thank you thank you gracias senor wates uh next comment is from Daniel escucha and it looks like uh Daniel needs to be promoted to the panel hi I'm danielia from I'm a senior from Sosa high school and to go off with Piper said or can you hear me Daniel if you could speak just a little bit louder that would be helpful thank you okay right on uh so I'm Daniel SCA a senior from Santa Rosa
040high school and to go off what Piper had said earlier we need more in terms of like Protection hearing that like our staff knew of a threat yet never told or gave a heads up to any parents or students as a warning until concerned parents and students had to call into school is kind of like concerning for us as students and every year I've been at St ARA High School uh like since freshman year you've had to go into a lockdown besides junior year because of covid well like I think we really need to like have more lockdowns in school as well because it's just not very it doesn't feel very safe and uh I've also like been told by my Woodshop teacher like we have huge windows in that class which brings a very
041big view to like anybody on the outside uh sorry he he told us that he's been asking for curtains from our our school board I believe uh and he has not receive those and it's kind of worrying because like if we were to go into a lockdown in that classroom it's everybody can see us and it's not very uh it it feels very scary and I would like to make it out of high school and go to college and yeah I don't know thank you Daniel next is Haley Perez also needing to be promoted into the panel can you hear me yes Haley we can hear you um my name is Haley Perez and I am a senior at Santa Rosa High School um I am also concerned about some of the safety at our
042school because with the threat against our school last week I personally did not know about it until um a student in one of my classes told me and and I know that if like there is a serious threat I would want my parents to know and nothing was sent out until later in the day and it was very vague not discussing um what the threat was really about or anything like that and so I think we need a better way of communicating with students and parents um and just sending out the information thank you and next is Roman uh Roman could you please State your full name for the record hello can you hear me yes we can uh my name is Roman aosta and I'm a senior at Santa Rosa high school and much
043like my uh fellow students I am incredibly worried about like the lack of safety in our school and how we don't have an officer on campus I I have been incredibly worried and like one of my friends is is getting targeted by by a group of people and he almost got jumped and I had to inform one of the teachers and luckily they were able to get there but I just I think it would be much safer if we had like a campus officer and I just think it's sort of ridiculous that we have to kind of be worrying about our safety at a public school and like I've been through two lockdowns since I've been at Santa Rosa and the first one was on the last day of school and I just I I
044think it's it's ridiculous that we have to like worry about this like every day it's looming in the back of our our B you know our minds as we're we're talking or you know at lunch it's like thinking like what if someone came to school like armed you know and especially with the incident last Friday where um you know they sort of withheld information from us that that was you know concerning and it I don't know I just I feel like I should express my concern to you guys and I don't know maybe do something about it because I don't have the power to do anything about it but you do and you know that's all I have to say thank you and president Fong there are no other hands raised for this item I
045want to very much appreciate our speakers who took the time to speak to us tonight to bring their concerns to the board um particular our students who are expressing their um ideas and and many tonight were fears um I know that our Administration have are is hearing this as well and that uh we'll be addressing it so students thank you so much it is your education it is your environment and we we are listening thank you uh at this point we are at the point in the meeting d d meeting it's reports and we are going to be hearing from the ca California School Employees Association uh Santa Ros 75 uh their report so who do we have here for that tonight if there's a representative president from CSA could you please raise your hand
046and president Fong it doesn't look like there will be a report this evening thank you very much and we are on D2 this is the Santa Rosa Teachers Association support SRTA and they're on their way over so this would be president Howell um they didn't put their name in so we will see that I believe so there she is it's me sorry uh I am more than just the Santa Rosa Teachers Association but uh good evening I am Katherine Howell I represent Santa Rosa Teachers Association uh as as their president more than about 860 members strong we are right now um um the public comments were pretty powerful I hope everyone was listening very closely and want to Echo the same sentiment that we heard from the students and the parents uh to say that
047the teachers are feeling much the same way um the Staffing crisis is adding to the fact that we do not feel safe on our campuses and the incidents at Montgomery and Santa Rosa high school on Friday just sort of brought it to the Forefront and triggered a lot of conversation um about how safe are our campuses really um I know that you know we have the safety plans ready to be looked at and approved by this board this evening um but could we really follow those plans given the huge number of guest teachers that we might have on a campus on any given day the lack of staff that would be just simply not there to do the jobs that have been assigned to them and that is a real concern um do we have
048the training to react to a shooter on campus um most of us don't think that we do and um you know that brings us to the information the communication we know that it was more than four hours from the start of the incident at Montgomery High School to the first parent square that went out to teachers followed by a parent Square email that went out to families um because of the nature of teaching and our teachers not reading email uh my understanding is at least Santa Rosa High School teachers got a heads up to check their email um didn't happen at Monty and so we had teachers at montg gramy high school being informed about the incident by their students and that is unacceptable absolutely um you know a subtle heads up a check your
049email there should be something in place that we know that our administrators are doing what needs to be done we can trust they're making the right decisions to keep us safe to keep our students safe but this lack of communication frankly created a lot of fear it created a lot of anger and it created a feeling that that trust had been broken um first because teachers weren't informed and secondly because the information that did came out come out hours later seemed a little too little too late um no details like someone earlier said um and a lot of just sort of H kind of sweep it under the rug no big deal situation which um you know made us again what what if it had been you know a different school every teacher in the
050district said what if it had been my school would we have been better prepared what will happen next time um how are we going to make sure our students are safe if we don't know what's going on ourselves um that's a tough question and a lot of people were really you know concerned that they wouldn't have been able to answer that question they didn't know what was going on um doors wide open for covid right get the air in there but also you know if no one's saying hey maybe lock your door that's a huge concern so I know a lot of questions a lot of um appeals tonight from the STA uh the community to do something about it um I think we do need to have this tough conversation I think it's time
051to reconsider um the SRO decision did it make our campuses safer um you know on the surface it doesn't feel like it did um we know that the sro's provided services that weren't replaced um we didn't bring in more people to replace their presence we simply took something away so I I would ask that you think about that think about the impact um that this all of this tension and stress and and just complete you know turmoil that we're living through has had on our students and our teachers and please help us find a way to make our campuses safer um for our students and for our teachers and for every single person that visits or works on our campuses thank you thank you president H superintendent tranell it is time for your report thank
052you board president president Fong members of the board uh students staff and Community um good evening um today marks day 78 of school and it is my honor to include in my report tonight um that we are going to be acknowledging and recognizing two of our District's teachers um for their exemplary work serving students and families through the pandemic uh of the last school year the awards are presented tonight by the Sonoma County Office of Education I want to welcome Dr Steve Harrington uh to the panel who is the superintendent of the Sonoma County Office of Education as well as David Williams who is here representing the Community First Credit Union um if we could also bring forward Heather Garcia Rossi an English language arts teacher with our district and and Lisa Peele who teaches
053Career Technical education at Santa Rosa high school and with that I will hand it over to Dr Harrington welcome Dr Harrington thank you it's a pleasure to be here tonight um I just moved the other day so if I have boxes in the background you know what I'm trying to unpack um this is one of the best parts of the job is to recognize those who give back to students there are many exemplary teachers in the center Center a school district and there are many exemplary teachers in Sonoma County uh and it's always hard each year to select uh those teachers who are nominated through the administrators um to be representing somoma County we have had always have quality candidates that have made it to the finalist uh your District had two candidates of exemplary
054qualifications and one was being recog ized in a new category and I want to bring it up because Lisa Peele um I do a lot of business with her buying flowers for um a lot of things for our school district and our schools um and uh she does an exemplary program as the a teacher and she does a great job in the floral situation uh for the county office as it relates to recognition so first of all she was recognized for the public school Community leadership award connecting community and school making schools of value making the community recognize their purpose and how they benefit everyone so Lisa is being recognized and is also a financial beneficiary from the credit union the for as as a recipient the other person that I uh wish to recognize
055is Heather Garcia Rossi and she is a teacher in your system and she teaches English language arts and I met her the other day when she came into my office and uh one of the things she pointed out to me was she doesn't like to be recognized and I said she's lucky this year because it is a a zoom situation we normally go into the room with flowers noise makers balloons and we videotaped the whole presentation so for somebody who doesn't want to be recognized she's getting off pretty easy this year so she realized that um and uh was appreciative of that but you have two quality individuals that represent all the quality individuals that you have working in your schools for this year's nomination and I just wish to say thank you to both
056of them for the hard work that they do for you I know you probably want to say thank you to them as well um so congratulations ladies uh you you represent your District well and you represent the county well thank you congratul proud of you thank you Dr Harrington and Mr Williams would you like to say a few words please yes first of all uh like Dr Harrington said Heather you're getting off easy uh we had a live presentation in Petaluma back in October with dector Harrington and as I usually demand when it's live I had one of those cheesy four foot wide checks that I presented to Danielle Kennedy who was the teacher of the year in uh poroma County in Petaluma and demanded that she take a picture and it was in the
057PD and all that so you are getting off early uh very easy I should say but uh both Heather as uh the finalist for teacher of the year and then Lisa for the new category this community involvement award uh they also have received checks already from Community First Credit Union and why do we do this well we were started by teachers in 195 59 because teachers back in those days had a difficult time getting mortgage loans from Banks they weren't paid during the summer and uh loan officers wondered how they would make their payments so we've always championed uh teachers uh we think it's the most important job there is they're raising our next generation of workers critical thinkers entrepreneurs voters uh and this is vital to our society so in our way we're happy
058to do these checks and we've been doing them for years uh for worthy teachers all teachers are worthy but the the best of the best teachers so it's our honor and again congratulations Heather and Lisa for great careers and being recognized like you should be for your exemplary work so Community first honors you honors teachers and thank you um Sonoma County Office of Education and uh the Santa Rosa board for allowing us to take part in this yay thank you so much David Williams Dr Harrington Lisa way to go Heather Way To Go awesome thank you for being with us tonight and congratulations again Heather and Lisa um just exemplary thank you so much for all you do and for the school sites who support you all right so um we can go ahead and
059excuse Our Guest yes uh thank you so much I do want to end um around the issue of safety um you know I really want to reiterate that the safety of our students and our staff is our highest priority it can sometimes feel like oh I'm sorry am I your channel yes ma'am it can sometimes feel like lifp service I understand this um and I also understand that we need more staff um we have positions open and we are looking for the best candidates to join our team and so if there's anyone here tonight who's interested in doing that a selfish plug that we would love to meet you and see how you can join our team um we have an amazing uh group of students amilies and staff um in our school district Community
060um and I really want to acknowledge and appreciate the comments that were made tonight which I know are really at the heart of it focused on the safety of all so I do just want to take a moment to do that um when we work together when our students and our parents our staff and our community Community um work together to ensure that incidents are reported immediately we're able to take Swift action and we have been able to do that with past incidents um I want to take a moment and recognize um those individuals who in recent um recent cases including the Montgomery incident um because something we our students and our our families our community followed what we asked which is when you see something say something and that is what happened which allowed
061us to take even though it felt prolonged we were able to take take Swift action um I welcome the opportunity to meet with stakeholders on this matter and I will be doing so um I'm grateful that people are willing to meet with me uh on this issue we do take these matters very seriously we will continue to listen and we will continue to take action on Safety and Security measures for all um and board president Fong I'll hand it back to you thank you Superintendent trenel at this moment we're going to take a minute to change interpreters so I'll just take a second thank you president Fong we're all set thank you all right thank you it is time for wood president report and um tonight we were to be um actually next week we
062will be reorganizing the board and reorganizing the board means that we are going to be electing new officers of the board and the officers of the board are the board president the board vice president and the board Clerk and that will happen at a special board meeting next week uh per Ed code in terms of dates but I have chosen to give an end of end of my tenure as the board president report tonight so um I have been privileged to be the board president for two years and it has been a privilege and it's been um it's been eye openening um I'm very grateful so here we go and uh this is to all of you including especially my board colleagues and our and our stakeholders um it has been an incredibly tumultuous two
063years as we all know we have lived through it and it's the most tumultuous years I've seen in my 40 plus years in education um which includes the year we actually had Furlow days like many I think maybe eight six or eight uh due to do a recession and also the school closures during um fire and smoke um so here's a quick overview of two years of what we've done together in two years as a board um we said goodbye to a six-year superintendent um Diane kidura who helped us oversee our move to diversity equity and inclusion and also the first half of our covid response um we have welcomed and are relying on superintendent Anna trell our former assistant superintendent in human resources and and a former assistant superintendent in curriculum instruction elsewhere and
064who I am convinced on a weekly daily basis that we did a good job in selecting her as our superintendent ad missst a very strong slate of candidates truthfully um we entered this 2020 2021 school year ready to tackle our new initiatives and we are now in our 22nd month of covid who's counting um in all of its iterations and we've spent about a Year's worth of school time in distance learning um and then a few months in hybrid learning and now iners learning this full past semester um including an expanded independent study very different all to provide education during this pandemic with safety at the Forefront and covid hitting our community in very disproportionate ways our school and District staffs they have worked incredibly hard to keep connection with students they actually became new
065practitioners during the pandemic their learning curve was you know just Steep and they actually were educating entire families during Zoom not just their own student yet too many students just did not have the wherewithal uh to stay connected to their learning for all different reasons not their fault the pandemic showed schools to be the canaries in the mine uh we were the early warning system that indicate many things falling apart in our society and when schools are structured on the very thinnest of scaffolds that being our economic system and how we take care of human beings which means health and shelter and incom inequality it's tough the economic toll that the pandemic has taken everywhere is presenting itself in very personal ways to each of us to each of our families and we see it
066as school districts in our role as board members throughout the country they all have systems that are challenged U from a scarcity of personnel that we heard of tonight which had rip which have Ripple effects up and down our system to a brand new pivot for independent study to an abundance of one-time dollars that we must plan for immediately it's almost like fire Ready Aim almost it's it's that much money so quickly to different beliefs about vaccinations and how we keep our schools safe during covid or face in all of that and doing education our staffs are classified our certificated or administrative staffs they're doing more than just standing up they they are coming to work every day to provide for our students with heart and soul we have strong leadership which has pulled in
067so many directions it's like changing the wheels on a 1980s bus while it is flying down a super highway also changing the engine the care and love in classrooms when we're there when we see it and on our campuses the care and love from staff to students it's it's visible it's palpable it it looks and feels the same it is always has that kind of connection it that is a complete testimony to our shared purpose and Mission and the adults that work in our in our district in the past couple years our board we have passed a record number of resolutions um in addition to our beloved annual appreciation weeks the board we have made demands for the government to be clear about covid when it was so uneasy and so confusing at the first
068we've advocated for school funding during this uncertain pandemic time we have stood for ethnic studies we have stood for black lives matter we have stood against anti-asian hate we have stood for the $15 minimum wage in Santa Rosa city and we are working hard to get there ourselves we began to do land acknowledgements in order to recognize and honor that we exist now in another people's land who lived and worked and loved long before here before most of us were here and these resolutions very much show what this board values that we value people and how we should treat each other and while there is no mandate in these resolutions the board believes that words are powerful and intentions are powerful and that we are strengthening the human environment for students to thrive we did
069not get to move forward very much in our initiatives we've been busy Co sucked up all the air in the room almost literally we are thankful that we have maintained School in person this full semester five days a week open completely thanks to our safety protocols and monitoring and care and work by folks in our system we have spent time on reshaping Ing and ensuring the future of our school on Sebastapol Avenue the cook ccla campus and the growth of this charter school when I took a look back at at all the meetings we had was Co or ccla almost kind of exclusively and also some on SR sro's um you know we extend this energy and expend this energy in how we serve our students in these neighborhoods as they matriculate to high school
070and we ALS also work to support LCL in high school and being a school that keeps providing strong support for students in in College and Career Success all of our schools are valuable but we grow at different times we have different challenges at different times and I'm thankful for the incredible energy brought to our students by the parent community and staff at these schools it's all recognized the board does recognize that completely an important decision that we made this year in in fact almost a non-decision but it was a very strong decision in a way was to allow our school resource officer program agreement to lapse to to stay lapsed and this was made with input from a dedicated ad hoc Committee of staff and community members including students and this decision was not without
071controversy tonight we are hearing that that as well with the continued calls to resurrect SRO program now and in the final analysis the board stands by this we have strengthened our positive supports for well-being for intervention for identification of our kids in classes and our kids in distress we have become more asset based as opposed to deficit-based where too many students believed that the police on campus there to catch them doing wrong family histories and lived experiences of a fear of officers despite our school resource officers best intentions and their own heart for kids each of them had that we believe that a new relationship with the police department in Santa Rosa new ways to specifically support and relate to Youth and youth of color is what we must work on police on campus is
072not the answer to safety as partners in community we all need to be there we all know we can get there safety on campus is knowing our students well and it means bodies on campus and as superintendent chel spoke about those bodies we are trying to hire this is this is Across the Nation not just here so we are working on that and we understand it and we hear you the equity work in our district remains at the Forefront of this board's efforts how do we ensure access to high level high quality instruction and curriculum with the supports for Success I'm going to name an area that I firmly believe needs more of our laser focus and that area is math math specifically grades 5 through actually 5 through 10 we're going to really narrow
073it down I am convinced that math success is an Arbiter of student of a student School self-esteem a predictor of school Success and ultimately an adults economic success I believe that Ma Math Makes too many students believe that they can get through school or not get through school ask any adult about their school experience and math will Factor in uh no pun they're intended math will factor in as a characteristic defining characteristic and this isn't to criticize our math departments or teachers far from it it is to ask ourselves ourselves board ourselves as policy as a district to look for and explore barriers that prevent success barriers that stop both teachers and students alike and remove and our job is to help remove these barriers whatever it takes as the board trustee as the president
074as a longtime educator the key to Student Success ultimately are the connections that they make with their teachers rubber meets the road bottom line teachers make or break the environment in the classrooms they make or break the relationships with their students they make or break whether that student wants to continue learning or wants to stop learning they are the healers they are the social workers they are the OE fixers for kids of all ages while we hear so many stories of being overwhelmed right now with good reason with good reason I continually count on the vibrancy and the creativity the care and the Heart of our staff and they show up all the time they do and all the while we know that school systems cannot run on Goodwill un volunteer efforts cannot a promise
075I make and it is in our mission and vision as a board is that I will continue to Advocate at the state level for the kinds of assistance the funding the dollars the matching grants everything and the attention that districts need to do their work we all know schools are undef funded and we're being asked to do more and more I am grateful to have had a full career in education at different levels of responsibility my favorite position though has always been of a classroom teacher I appreciate the different Lanes the experiences and expertise of my colleagues on the board and together this is a group of people who bring incredible and valuable perspectives to what we do at Santa Rosa city schools I want to continue to learn and to teach I am more
076than thrilled to continue my tenure on this board as a as a trustee so I'm going to share this one last thing with you it's the model that I've used for a long time um and it's one from Maya Angelou at the end of the day I know you guys have heard this at the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did did but they will remember how you made them feel and this is how we will be successful as a district as we make the path by walking together thank you thank you president pong all right so we will have an election next Wednesday um we have board member report time now hands up do I miss you just shout out because you know I can't see you all okay
077I see director Sheffield um well first I just want to say I um had a great time with all of uh all of you my colleagues at um the csba conference last week um many workshops um to attend um workshops that I attended on equity on school measures um really interesting one on Outdoor Learning environments um I also attended a discussion um by Napa Valley Unified um on reopening schools safely during the height of the pandemic um the speakers were great Dr Ros um was uh energetic and inspiring and and Senator Richard Pan um um um he was really great always always is great um so I I just want to say it was it was was nice to to to see all of you in person and attend this really um worthwhile and and
078amazing conference um and we weren't able to do it um um earlier because of the pandemic but it was great to um to do a lot of catchup uh last week I do also want to say I I had a meeting yesterday with Santa Rosa Police Chief um Navaro and we discussed um School site safety we discussed Behavioral Health um and we also discussed the city of Santa Rosa's reauthorization of measure o um Public Safety Services that'll be coming up next year um a lot of discussion um Anna he shared meetings at you ongoing meetings that you've had um um and that's great and and you know and you know as we continue more discussions we get input around campus safety um you know it it it um you know hearing from students tonight and
079and how they feel it's really impactful and um we just need to let our our students and our school Community our families know that that we we hear you um and we want to do all that we can to to ensure that our our our students are safe while they're on campus thank you thank you um um vice president Jill MCC Cari and then trustee Omar Medina thank you president Fong um first of all I just want to say thank you to you president Fong um for your report and just for your leadership during an incredibly challenging time for any school board any school district um and you Rose to the occasion and let us um and and I just I just cannot thank you enough I'm full of gratitude for the work that you
080have done um and I'm excited about the work that you are going to continue to do so thank you very much um and then I just wanted to report out uh just a little bit about the csba um annual education Convent uh conference as well and yes it was really great for us to be together in person as a board um we have been together so uh seldom during this time because of just Logistics and public access to our meetings um so it was really great to just um physically be in each other's presence um especially after the last two years that we've worked uh together so I was very appreciative of that for that opportunity and um I think the two things that stood out the most to me um at the conference one
081was I went to several work workshops that dealt specifically with burnout um that is facing our administrators and our teachers and our staff um in light of where we are and reopening the schools and playing catchup and moving forward and changing the world we function in and um and the the short staffing issue up and down the state and the sub issue up and down the state it was powerful to hear the statistics it was powerful to hear from teachers administrators and staff about their experiences um and I know that it's out there I know it exists um I'm an educator myself I feel it myself and so I just wanted to publicly acknowledge uh the work of our faculty administrators and staff um and I know that the burnout is uh real and I
082also know um that uh we do hear a lot of the challenges uh that our students are facing right now um and those are acknowledged and will be addressed however many of the people I talk to or most the people I talk to um are just so thrilled to have schools back open and access to be on campus and um working with their teachers and seeing their students and so just as we are embarking on a couple week off with the winter break please restore and rest yourself um and I know that you're burnout and tired and um just thank you for the work that you're doing to find a way to recharge because our community and our students need you desperately and we will do everything in our power to continue to support you
083um and then the last thing is uh I heard two different um went to two different sessions that dealt specifically with uh the um some effective use and the power of a student School Board trustees and so truste beard I'm really excited to talk to you more about this and what I heard and what I learned and just um to Echo what director sheepfield said about the power of hearing directly from the students tonight and um at any other time um when we have direct uh connection from the students to the board um and getting their feedback and their input and their thoughts and their needs um is extremely powerful and it was exciting to hear from um School uh student trustees um former student trustees and current student trustees up and down the state
084um in all these districts and the power that's having especially right now in light of dealing with covid um and just the direction and some um thoughts on their behalf from the student perspective so I found that powerful I'm excited to share that with superintendent tranell and um our board as a whole and of course with um trusty beard so um thank you that's my report thank you Jill um director matina thank you president pong um first of all president Fong thank you for your report it was a good report um I wanted to just add in terms of the conference that we just attended the California School Board Association one of the things that was addressed that in one of the workshops that I attended was was around math also and it was about
085barriers that students face and it took us to motivation how often times students are lacking motivation because of barriers that they face and if we take the time to really understand what are these barriers what's holding them back what's providing fear um to them succeeding that if we address that remove that barrier that students can achieve and much greater levels and are motivated to succeed and do really well so I'm interested in in maybe us looking more into that and the other point of that was the importance of collaboration and teachers collaborating to come up with different ways to address these issues because part at the core of me I truly believe that our students are capable of succeeding and achieving to Great levels but we all face many barriers life throws so many things
086at us and I think us as a district especially these last what is it five years whether it be fires power shut offs now covid we have faced so many things our students and our families have dealt with so much impacts from that housing crisis uh cost of living all that is impacting our famili so much creating so many barriers are making it so difficult now we Face a shortage of Staff short of teachers which is going on throughout the state and I think collaboration internally but also as a community is critically important we have many barriers that make it even harder to do things to get people on campus to get people to help but there's Solutions if we work on finding them I think we can work harder at doing that I encourage
087us to collaborate more to find ways to Solutions and engage our community I help people step up and we find ways around all these obstacles um for the sake of our students for the sake of our community so thank you all and and I just like to add that you know I've been engaged in this community for a long time since the time was a student and I am so proud to be a part of this board an amazing board with amazing people diverse board that reflects our community that reflects many experiences and so I just want to say thank you for all of you for serving and and really to our community um appreciate what we have because it's something that's hard to find in many places and it's also a reflection of the
088community's confidence to make the decision to elect these people to elect us to serve you thank you thank you uh director DEA Cruz adding my voice of thanks uh president Fong for your leadership and your kindness and the way that you walk through the world um as an educator and a Learner in every opportunity it is just such a pleasure to work with you um to learn with you um I feel really grateful uh that you've spent the last two years of some of the most difficult times in our district um giving your giving your all um to us you know as your colleagues and as as your um and as your as your people um I'm just really grateful to you thank you for that and um I loved being at the at the
089conference um so much gratitude for the energy and the creativity that continues to come out of California's education um educational thinkers and movers and shakers and listening to best practices and listening to you know what people continue to do to innovate in the most difficult of times was was truly inspiring I loved listening to um you know what Math teachers are doing uh to come together and to support each other um with a particular focus on ensuring that um you know when you when you design to the margins you actually ensure outcomes are um are improved for everybody in that classroom and so really loved hearing you know about the ways in which districts have done that um really appreciated um the powerful voices at the California black um Educators Association that was just an
090incredible place to be in and to hear those words of of love and pride and joy and celebration in the face of such challenges um across the state um it was also reassuring to know that we're not alone in the challenges that we face um but also recognize that we are special um in that we have a board that um really enjoys working together that can um with lots of love and um and with lots of care disagree with each other sometimes um but continue working together for the good of our district as a whole um so it was just a really beautiful moment um to reflect together about um you know the strengths that we have in front of us and the challenges um that we have that our strengths allow us to make
091sure that we're addressing um in the in the same way that we bring the joy to this work every day as as board members um thank you students for coming tonight to share um I think we still have lots of work to do to truly Define safety for all people in our district and in our school systems and to make sure that we're reaching that shared understanding of what safety feels like um and so you know I uh Dr Sheffield cheer point I too have had you know great conversations with Chief Navaro and feel like we have um excellent Partners in Santa Rosa Police Department um to continue working through the challenges that you know our institutions together have the responsibility of solving to make sure that everybody is safe on our campuses um so
092students thank you for coming please please continue to engage with us please continue to lift your voices so that we can we can hear you we can work with you and we can work for you um and to all those kids out there I know that this this next couple of weeks are are finals and you know you're ramping up and you're feeling the the pressure of you know what it feels like to really really be back in school um to have things be you know feeling slightly normal at the same time that they feel so wacky um so for all of you who are doing that I would say you know be gentle with yourself elves um we are here to love and support you and to make sure that you are successful that
093is our job um and we are doing everything we can to to make sure that you get through you know this first semester back Anna did you say 78 days 78 days you guys right this is what you've been able to do in 78 days um so heads up um heads High hearts heart forward um and we we are here for you thank you um I'd like to say in 78 days our student board member Georgia accomplished something incredible Georgia can you say what you say she just won Okay so you're breaking up badly okay George if you can still hear us can you put it in the chat and me we can read it for you while she's doing that I'm just going to say that there is no csba report tonight by the
094way which is the next thing and I'm looking at the chat okay hopefully she's typing okay so she is a tennis star she's a very young tennis star and she and her sister are tennis stars and they just won the North Coast section doubles uh in the whole North Coast section which is like I think over half the state of California so um and I think she's been champion before and she's probably on her way to the Olympics or or something like that so when she's not at the school board or doing homework she's hitting the tennis ball I will I will say that the North Coast section is one of the most competitive sections in the country for high school sports um so to win a championship there is an honor and quite an
095accomplishment so thank you for representing us at the highest level congrats can I can I do one one more quick announcement speaking of NCS yes um so freshman Hannah Thompson from Monty took um North Coast sectionals or or state champions as a freshman in girls cross country um a couple weeks ago um so go Vikings Go Hannah amazing amazing accomplishment for a freshman to take States um it was an awesome race lots of cool um s s rosa city schools amazing girls runners in that race um you guys really um you made us proud so thank you so much Delante and the last thing I want to say about George is that she and her sister are usually competitors I think um but they decided to team up the last time they could possibly do
096it in their High School careers and they just trumped okay so thanks Georgia all right we are finally moving on at 7:35 to our e discussion action items and the first one we have tonight is an action item it's a public board meeting via teleconference in per um AB 361 we've seen this before and this is meetings during covid and uh superintendent thank you board president Fong members of the board staff and Community um this item is to be brought forward every 30 days to the board for consideration if there's going to be a continuance of our board meetings in a virtual setting um with that I hand it back to you board president Fong we need a motion on this we do public I'm sorry Tristy Medina it I said do we do public
097comment first we do let's open that if there are any members of the public who would like to comment on item E1 please raise your hand there are no hands raised any discussion Bor I'll go ahead and move move that we approve the continuance of conducting public meetings virtually as specified assembly Bill 361 a second all right so that was motioned by director Medina and seconded by Stephanie manieri let's have that V roll call vote please director beard director Medina hi director Maneri hi director De La Cruz I director Sheffield I director mccormic I director Flores no president Fong I okay that passes six to one uh we're moving now to item number two it's an action item School site safety plans um superintendent thank you board president Fong and I welcome um our let
098me actually get to the item I welcome our assistant superintendent of Human Resources Mike Shepard to speak on this item thank you superintendent tranell board president Fong members of the board and staff and Community uh for your consideration tonight we have before you the comprehensive school safety plans for the 2122 school year and briefly California ad code 32280 through 32289 requires that we develop and review annually and update our comprehensive school safety Plans by March 1st we are taking these plan bringing these plans to you far sooner than March 1st and our goal every year is to bring them to you in November however this year we had some logistical things to work out as these plans are also reviewed by the city uh the police and the fire department so for uh we have
099those uh have had those meetings they have looked at these plans and um they are here for your consideration and so with that I will take any questions that you have board questions if I don't call any you because I don't see your hand okay I see no questions we are going to take public comment on this safety plans and actually we are going to now be uh limiting comment to 2 minutes so public comment so if there are any members of the public who would like to comment on item E2 School site safety plans with a two-minute time limit please raise your hands and our first comment is from Micah Carlin Goldberg uh good evening everyone my name is Micah Carlin Goldberg I'm a teacher at steeling elementary um the plans look good on
100paper but I don't see them being effective in reality um I've read our safety plan every year I've been in the district we don't have the people to do what it says in it and you know we words and intentions are great but when it comes to action we have to be prepared for the actual actions that we need I'm particularly concerned that in the co section of the safety plan for my school it says nothing about testing students asymptomatically so we know how many kids we actually have who are sick I have a student in my class who recently stayed home the whole 10 days of quarantine without testing with symptoms which means they probably had covid but they don't count on our records and because they never tested we never actually contract Trace
101we never look to see if anybody else in the classroom needs to be informed the families are not informed that there was a student with symptoms in their classroom we need to have testing so when a kid has symptoms at school we test them on the way out the door to home so that we know that we are keeping our students safe I am disturbed that we're four months into school and we have not provided a single asymptomatic test districtwide to every student I know that was contentious there were parents that said that their kids would be scared of having something put in their nose and so we shouldn't test the kids and I get it public pressure is hard and there was a lot of public pressure both ways but how can we keep
102people safe from covid if we don't know if it's in the room we need asymptomatic testing of every staff and every student every week we need to get it done the state's paying for it it doesn't even cost us money please thank you thank you next comment is Sheila Walker hi good evening again um I did read the the site plan for the school where my son attends at ringan Valley Middle School and also some of the others um just to kind of get a comparison my question is how do you determine how many campus supervisors are on site I guess that's what they're called campus supervisors or people who are there when they're at lunch or their the kids are on break um is it per student population or is it does it mirror
103Ada because um at rvms at least I mean it's a it's a big campus I don't know um the exact comparisons to others but um just curious if it's if it's based on um students uh attending the site or um some other method or metric um as well um I know that we've talked about the sro's but uh I didn't see that the sro's were they included in previous plans um because I know that that program was put on hold by this board but um I'm just curious if that was um something that was in the plans thank you thank you next is Moren Cecil hello um my name is Morin C and I am a teacher at Piner high school as well as a parent of two children in the distri district um I
104too am going to Echo what Micah said we really need asymptomatic testing I am a high school teacher and on a daily basis I have students who are out sick but are not getting tested either because it's not convenient and as a parent I've tested my own students multiple times every time they have a cough I'm like got to get tested because that's the model I want my own families to follow at school but I think that most of the families are not because it's too complicated and as a teacher it's really hard to find a place and a time that I can take out of my day without having a substitute called and creating sub plans for my own children to go get tested that's a huge barrier and I'm trying really hard I'm
105very tech savvy and I also have the funds and a health care plan so it makes it a lot easier I think that having asymptomatic testing on site will take care of a bunch of those problems and also really tell us how much covid is in the community Omicron might not be here in Sonoma County yet but it will be and if it's more contagious than the Delta variant we're going to have a a lot more students and staff who are sick I would also like to um put forward that we also do need to have campus supervisors and other classified staff and we need to offer them more money the reason we don't have good candidates is because they are at $12 an hour that is not a livable wage in somoma County thank
106you thank you next is Anastasia toar Rose hello can you hear me yes um I'm assuming that we're still doing isolation tents and I just want to report that our isolation tent was stolen at Caesar Chavez Language Academy and it's been over a month and it's still not replaced so I like the S District to first thing tomorrow that our isolation tent replaced thank you thank you next is is Matthew Perez thank you superintendent trell president Fong directors uh I teach music at Montgomery High School and I told my students they need to be here tonight to see how our leadership talks about their safety and I'm proud that many of them heed the call to be here uh I told them they need to report to their friends about what they see in here
107tonight in the aftermath of an on-campus incident back in October I asked my students whether or not they feel safe on on campus I found their comments to be insightful Illuminating and heartbreaking and I know students on other campuses have similar feelings our students need help and they know they need help several said they do not feel safe going to the bathroom on our campus perhaps it's because of the students taking a vape break or the students sitting on top of stall staring down at them others have said that they're afraid they will have students stolen from them while it's or uh being stolen from them while at school excuse me small supervisor staffs on on bigger campuses sometimes make it difficult to adequately monitor every square inch but I think we can do better
108our students have noticed that we need more bodies almost every one of my students has noticed when one of our principles has substituted for their classes this year we talked the other day about how a principal's single most important responsibility is to keep our campus safe and my students agree that they can't really do that if they're struggling to teach something outside of their content areas with no prep sometimes though the school just runs out of bodies there are no more teachers on prep there are no more substitutes and there are no principles to cover classes no adult shows up and 15 to 30 teenagers are then just supposed to stay quietly by their class for two hours and not cause trouble again our students have noticed that we need more bodies I also have
109several members of the lgbtqia community and they notice when adults don't make an effort to stop expressions of hate towards them they very much notice when a passing adult just walks by without saying a word and I find this particularly appalling there's so much more that I could share but I offer that all of us the quote unquote adults in the room should hear something that we have the power to improve from the small sampling at the end of the day better is better and we can do better if we choose to make no mistake though our students are watching and they've noticed that they're not getting the educational environment that they deserve thank you next is Carmen Molina good evening I come here tonight as a concerned teacher and parent of Santa the city
110schools and I want to discuss how unsafe our children are at school I speak tonight in defense of my co-workers and across the school district many of my colleagues deal with situations that unimaginable from elementary to high school the same narrative is being shared we call down to the office and our staff are not answering because they are Manning the isolation tents we call our admin and they're not answering because they're subbing in our classrooms what are teachers supposed to do when there's a dangerous situation and no one is there to pick up the phone if teachers are unable to get a hold of the office and admin how are we supposed supposed to protect the children tonight you're approving a safety plan for a number of schools and these documents are just a general
111document we need more from the safety plan we need staff to be there and be able to implement these safety plans we need a way to communicate and we need to be trained on what to do because frankly your staff do not know what to do we are begging for your help president Fong you spoke about the SRO and how we do not want our kids to be fearing that they are going to be caught but yet we have students on campus with guns with knives who are making it unsafe for the rest of the kids and we need to have the sro's there making a stance and making it safe for our kids so please help us protect the kids and your staff thank you thank you next is Nick Nick could you please
112State your full name for the record yeah hello Nick Casten I'm a parent at Caesar Chavez Language Academy and I volunteer on campus each week in my son's classroom um and I wanted to just comment on the campus supervisor positions and kind of all of the additional staff positions for safety um I want to Echo what was said earlier about these positions very much needing to be paid in a higher rate the challenge isn't that you haven't approved the positions is that you can't fill the positions with people that are able to stay in them for an extended period of time I looked at the most recent job posting for a campus supervisor for our campus and it was $16.10 cents an hour anything under $20 an hour in this city is absolutely absurd now
113I don't know what the bargaining units been doing for these positions they've clearly been sleeping on their job during negotiations so I suggest that you as the board take the incredibly um bold step of proactively raising these uh positions pay so you can fill the positions with people that are going to stay in them get to know the students and help support these safety plans thank you very much thank you next is Shelby prior good evening it seems like I keep hearing and echoing from parents and staff and every individual regarding champ their safety it is ridiculous again that you're taking resources away from the kids safety in order to enact your covid policies I think it's ridiculous that the children don't feel safe being a minority growing up in a school where kids brought
114guns drugs and God knows what to school I understand what the process is most of you people haven't lived a single day in that kind of an environment now I have no clue what your backgrounds are but I can tell you that where you are currently living in somoma County you guys are not sitting an urban environment like Oakland or Richmond or valo but I can say that you're getting the same content that we have already been exposed to your imbecilic idea of taking off campus security because it's racist or something of that nature makes absolutely no sense none at all you're saying that it discriminates against minorities I am a minority I watch kids get beat up as a kid I watched all kinds of things happened that were inappropriate and we had those
115police officers on campus your teachers are incapable of reacting to any kind of school shooter or anything on a campus to keep these children safe these children are bringing guns to school more than likely because other children are bringing guns to Cool School bringing threats to them this is a everyday life in an urban setting now that it's out here in your suburban settings now you guys are trying to ramp up your IDE and figure out what you're going to do to get your heads out of your areas that I don't want to say it's interesting that you every person on this board wanted to go ahead and say hey get rid of the rsos that makes a lot of sense look where you are now all the parents are having the same same same
116issues and same wonderings if you guys are competent enough to do your job again you work for us we don't work for you Mr prior I apologize but it is 2 minutes now I think the wrong timer was accidentally started for the beginning of your comment but thank you for your comment our next comment is Deanna Oles twom minute comment please hi there um I Echo what everybody else said about the SRO issue and I think it's really alarming that so many people are calling in and now addressing the fact that campuses are unsafe because there had been um the gun at Montgomery High School and such and within the last year or two you have this board has created an a a committee for the SRO program and no parents weighed in then because
117it didn't affect your kid but now it's affecting your kid and now parents and teachers are now weighting in and this is why it's really important that you need to pay attention to what our school board is doing not when it's convenient for you and not when your kids affected I called in a year ago about this same situation I'm still calling in a year a year from now and I think that I'm glad that this is recorded and it's on YouTube and I think that parents and teachers and administrators need to realize that Redwood Empire schools Insurance Group um in the county are the ones that insure our school and we need to hold them accountable contact their insurance group use the stop it app and let them know send them video clips of
118these board meetings where parents teachers administrators and even Santa Rosa school teacher Association president is pretty much begging for SOS to be on campus but because you want to be social justice Warriors and because George Floyd got killed and you don't agree with it we have to pull the cops off campus because they're racist it's disgusting what is is it going to take for you to take care of our kids our kids will end up dead by a gun before they even die of covid but you're not going to do anything about it and you're going to vote on stuff and you're not going to listen and it disgusts me that you don't take your stakeholders opinions into consideration there's been no Town Halls not for any of the trustees in any areas you don't
119respond to emails file former complaints against the school board they'll ignore your emails if you file a former complaint they cannot ignore your emails go to miss alas I have to cut you off there I'm sorry your two-minute time limit was up a little bit ago and president Fong there are no other hands raised for item E2 board members any discussion on um School site safety plans I will say this schoolside safety plans do no good when they are in a binder on a shelf they need to be active documents we need to be drilling we need to have incredible communication um they're incredibly comprehensive you cannot plan for every single scenario but we need to make sure lines of communication are open that includes not just with staff and students but with parents as
120well so we're hearing that I understand that uh entertain a motion you got two hands up president Fong since I can't see it because truste Medina um trusty matina yeah just I was gonna ask if staff could maybe uh uh share what the process is for parents to get engaged in the future development of School site safety plans so that you know people that are really active and passionate about this know how to get involved as parent are part of the process yes um director Medina the School site safety plan must be developed by a committee that includes Community member so that's either the site Council or the P the principal May designate a Safety Committee but uh the at least one Community member is required so I'm I'm sure if a a Community member
121wishes to take part in their school's safety plan they could reach out to their principal truste McCormack were you finished trusty Medina sounds like you cut out okay yes okay um I uh have a question um since um uh D director da Cruz and director Sheffield um both have spoken with the chief of police and um we are speaking about school safety plans this evening and we've heard a lot of comments regarding SRO um I'm just wondering if either president Fong or um superintendent trunell can remind uh us and the public um what are statuses so to speak with um collaborating uh revisiting that discussion um where we are on those decisions I know that our uh agreement had lapsed during covid um but I'm just wondering where we stand with that and where we're
122going with it um superintendent Chanel the only thing I have to say is that uh it lasts before Co actually we were existing without anou um and that the next thing was that the Santa Rosa city schools was going to uh partner continue to have conversations with the Santa Rosa Police Department as to our forward partnership and what that might look like in a new iteration thank you board president Fong yes um so since the decision to not continue SRO the police department I do not speak on on their behalf however in conversations with them they had to make some decisions about the SRO program that they were funding um and so you know in that case myself and chief Navaro meet regularly um we are doing research on um other ways that we can
123partner that provides the opportunities to have the additional support um between us and at the same time take into consideration um the um the reception of having uh additional individuals from law enforcement on campus uh and ensuring that we are paying attention and listening to the feedback that we receive which led to the decision of the board to not continue the SRO program but we do have a very strong committed partnership um with the Sena Rosa Police Department to uh continue to explore what that could mean for us in the future um anything else vice president McCormack no thank you okay we do have some more hands up we do we do um uh trusty Flores yeah just going back to what some of our students mention from Sosa high school that they haven't had
124a um you know a safety drill yet looking at these uh safety plans it looks like uh for example Montgomery it says that uh these drills are only done once a year and then in the Santa Rosa one it says these uh drills are scheduled six times a year so so my question is one actually have a few questions about this one um don't we have a uniform sort of policy in terms of how many drills per year do we have and shouldn't we have had drills at least you know IA high school already since they're scheduled to have six a year so um um and I can I'll I'll take the you know I'll take that from anyone who can answer those questions thank you director Flores um I will actually defer to Dr
125Armstrong um on the site practices around um these drills great thank you good evening um so what I know about the drills is that they're often um rotated and I know that Santa Rosa High School recently had a drill um not a lockdown drill though and so what I can do is if you're interested in particular schedules I can gather that information and get it to superintendent trenell um and that would list out when their lockdown drills or the different schedules when they're actually uh performed and then so what's the difference with between you know maybe I'm reading this wrong but in bu it says there they're scheduled to have one you know drill and it says one locked up one of these following drills right could be a nqu lock down per year versus
126Santa Rosa having six per year so I guess um I like to see some continuity across all high schools in terms of what's expected at all high schools and a timeline also because you know if we are hearing from our students saying that they haven't had a drill by now I mean that is you know a little bit alarming maybe he missed it or or whatnot I don't know but I mean if this is what our students are reporting I think we we need to listen to that and make sure that we do have that um you know lock down ourselves no pun intended uh to make sure that these are set throughout the year in in a in a scheduled manner throughout all our high schools and middle schools and elementary schools so um
127thank you and and I'm looking forward to seeing um that report thank you yeah absolutely the only other thing that I'll add to that is I I believe the student was referring to the lockdown drill because drills do happen quarterly and there's also some expectations coming out of Ed code for what drills we offer and when and so um we will have that conversation with the principal team and and get something out that we'll have available thank you thank you Dr Director D Cruz thank you um I my question was really also about making sure that we continue the conversation about what resources need to be put into place um to ensure social emot safety to ensure that there are additional resources to support kids who are feeling like they're in a crisis while they're
128at school um because that those are the additional resources that we really heard from our community and from our students that were needed in schools um to really support right student safety um with a with a different set of skill set that can typically be um represented inside of a law enforcement agency um I think that's one of the things that Santa Rosa PD is also doing so beautifully is really with the introduction of its Cahoots program recognizing that those are skill sets that they're bringing to their law enforcement um responses to ensure that there is community safety with some of those those resources in place so I just I think those are those are excellent areas that we really teed up in our conversation as a community um that I would love to see
129come back right what are those alter what are those alternatives to a law enforcement presence that also really do support student safety campus safety and Community safety overall um the other the other question um that I that I heard here and I'd love to just hear how we're we're we're working these things is the interplay between the covid safety plan and the school safety plan so I recognize that right Co the covid safety plans kind of sit next to or on top of um the underlying school safety plans um can I just get some clarity on how those two plans interact with each other thank you director DEA Cruz I've actually asked that U Mr mazera be brought over um to be a part of the discussion um so that we have continuity um and
130I will open it up to Mr Shepard as well as um Mr maera when he's brought over to make those comments thank you yes uh as part of the as part of the comprehensive school safety plan adding a CO the code safety plan into that document is a new requirement so it's actually lives inside of that plan great and I think just you know with regards to the ways in which we can really bring Community Resources inside of our schools like I know that there are excellent organizations like the one that director manetti works for that provide kind of Suicide Prevention Services and that have hotlines and warm bodies for people to reach out to um and times of Crisis and I'm just wondering how we really build in that sense of you know Bridges
131to Community Partnerships that bring some of those skill sets that have been really transformational in many communities throughout um throughout our our community I say communities like the lgbtqi community the youth Community communities that have have experienced under representation and relative lack of safety um during the pandemic due to just heightened concerns just generally and so I I think these are all conversations that I I'm hearing really need to be continued right how are we building those those systems right into place here in our schools um director maera thank you so much for for coming on and talking about the the covid work on top of all of this and I think just um if I could T you also addressing uh the ways in which um we are you know what the status of
132our testing in in our schools has been um are there additional resources recognizing that the state has has has unlocked a lot of resources but I think I'm also hearing that there's a relative lack of uh service providers to use those resources so I just wondered if you could talk a little bit about the challenges in um you know regular testing as symptomatic testing um available to our to our district right now sure will um so going backwards uh the regular testing that we're currently doing of course is for asymptomatic at Lewis for anybody free of charge Monday to Thursday 2:30 to 5:00 and that's where we have a lot of families that want to just be extra safe um and you know they're welcome to go there and we do that every day every
133Monday through Thursday uh in addition in addition with our County partnership we have symptomatic testing that they're doing at Lewis on Monday and Friday from 9: to 11: so those are the testing things we're doing the only currently the only kind of screening testing we're doing is through Athletics right so we've been doing the wrestling and basketball programs we go out weekly to them um and we're testing those because as as part of the designation there are some athletes that are that are are performing without masks in what's a dangerous either you know physical situation that's wrestlers and now high school basketball and so then we screen them weekly in addition to that we haven't set up the weekly screening of nonsymptomatic students we had kind of begun that process in September as you adequately
134identified we're beginning to identify a vendor um and what that process would look like um there were concerns about doing that across our district uh whether or not we would have enough staff from from them additional staff without using our existing staff and I think the issue had always been our existing staff was not prepared to do symptomatic testing um it may be possible for asymptomatic testing but um the the test both a number of tests if we were to do weekly testing of all 16,000 students you know uh the availability of the BX test was in question back in September and October I have not asked about the availability and are they still having supply shortages around it so I can't say that we could weekly screen 16,000 students if you remember at one
135point in our in our conversation uh Public Health kind of described depending on the cases that we had there may be a variable that we could look at screening maybe we didn't need to do weekly but we could do monthly and that would slow the rotation and the number of students down and that was of course depending on case cases in the area as we publish every week you can see that we still have a low amount of covid cases uh in our district we publish every week we publish the elementary school cases the staff middle and high and we still remain in what the dist uh the state calls very low priority we haven't jumped to that highest level and we've remain pretty consistent with the safety standards and things that we have currently
136um the last thing I think just to address is the overlay of the safety plan and the covid plan you know I I I have to admit I uh we are focusing on the covid thing and it is separate from drills separate from active shooter uh of of uh assemblies and classroom visit and so I I think if that's an area that we need to do better on I will certainly work and take Direction on that um you know currently we are trying to keep our head above water with our our we're doing weekly testing of Staff as you know with this current people that we have and if that's an area that we need to improve on certainly take that feedback and work on a plan thank you so much Dr maer of course
137uh director Medina do you have another comment I would just like to move approval of the elementary middle and high schools's comprehensive school safety plans for the 2021 2022 school year a second and before we take that vote uh director beard had a comment and she put it into the chat and I am going to read that to you uh my audio is not working but I would just like to add that as a student at Montgomery we did have the student with the gun there's a bit of comfort with the idea that there were sro's on campus I know that that has been cancelled but this is just what I have heard from a lot of students all right so we had a um a motion made by director Medina and second by I
138think trustee manary let's take that vote let's take that vote director beard thank you director Medina hi director Maneri hi director De La Cruz hi director Sheffield hi direct director McCormick hi director Flores hi president fun all right thank you that passes uh 70 we are moving on to action item three E3 and that is um we're having a public hearing right now on the naming of the Caesar Chavez language Academy so the public hearing is now open on the naming of the Caesar Chavis Language Academy and we could take public comment at 2 minutes each Beth thank you so this uh public hearing if there's anyone in the public who would like to comment on the naming of caar shabas Language Academy now is the time to do so please raise your hand and
139our first comment is Willow oh not Willow our first comment is Nick and Nick is this Nick cast yeah Nick Caston c t n thank you yeah thank you and I commented previously um at the last meeting with this on the agenda so I'll keep my comment short um I'm a parent at Caesar shavez Language Academy I was a member of the transition committee um of Caesar Chavez with the cook campus and I'm just really glad that we're at this point and that this will continue on I think the one thing that was missing most from the uh discussion at the last meeting was a discussion around the path that our teachers and community of the Cesar Chavez School has gone through since being placed at commstock and then moved to cook and never truly
140feeling like we have a home and I think this action that you'll hopefully take here tonight um will give us the ability to move forward and I hope that all the teachers and family and the people that came before me and my son at the campus um view this as really giving us a permanent uh community and a way to continue building the culture that we've built that's made it so that we have lotteries and more demand than we have spots for so thank you for solving this uh and solidifying it and giving us the ground beneath our feet thank you and president Fong there are no other hands raised for the public hearing all right public hearing is now closed uh we are moving on to uh item four an action item it's resolution
141number 2021 22-20 it's the naming of the Caesar Chavis Language Academy campus think I'm going to turn this over to uh superintendent junell thank you board president Fong members of the board uh staff and Community we bring forward to you tonight um following the public hearing a resolution um at the pleasure of the board um for the naming official naming of the Cesar shabas Language Academy campus uh but before I hand it back over to the board I do have a friendly Amendment um I appreciate feedback that we receive on agenda items um and I would like to turn your attention to the resolution itself um and I'm going to share my screen hopefully I can do that I cannot so um what I do want to turn your attention to is the um one
142two three four the fifth and last whereas in the resolution um the feeling of the language it currently reads whereas the board upholds the recommendation through the work of the merger committee to name the campus Cesar shabas Language Academy and and after further um feedback the uh sentiment is that um that the actual name of Cesar shab's Language Academy uh while the work of the merger committee was happening wasn't the direct recommendation of the merger committee was by but was by um additional Community participation um that the name was brought forward as an additional item of consideration so therefore I would like to offer a friendly Amendment um that that that fifth where whereas excuse me would read whereas the board recognizes the official and unofficial school name recommendations provided through the work of the
143merger committee and Community member participants and and uh and I can put that in the chat so that you can see it if you are a visual um uh person uh but that would be the friendly amendment that I would suggest to the overall resolution uh and with that I will hand it back to you board president Fong so I'm going to ask you to say that one more time official unofficial something something she put it in the chat for us whereas the board recognizes the official and unofficial school name recommendations provided through the work of the merger committee and Community member participants and so instead of upholds as recognizes yes okay um board questions um trusty Medina thank you I would like to move that we approve resolution number 2021/22 D20 with the recommend
144Amendment to the fifth FL as is suggested by superintendent jell officially naming the fat Chavez Language Academy campus I second all right moved by trustee Medina seconded by trustee DEA Cruz any other discussion board seeing No Hands we can take that vote director beard director Medina hi director De La Cruz hi director manieri hi director Sheffield hi director McCormick hi director Flores hi president Fong I thank you and I will say um can I can I what can I ask one question yes what's the process for choosing the mascot is there are they going to keep their mascot or is there going to be a whole another process with the Mas gosh please anoun that tonight we're going to let them figure that out I have an answer but I'll I will yield to another
145opportunity um for that opportunity okay I want to appreciate and thank every single person who has worked on this for a very long time and that includes everybody on this campus um that we honor the cook Legacy and I think that we are going to be hearing that cook name come back to us we honor this the staffs who have really worked hard to merge these campuses with all the growing pains that happens with this kind of thing um and we will continue to keep our eye out and hearts open to um this incredible work so thank you everybody congratulations all right we are moving on now and we are now on uh E5 it's an action item it's coming back to us tonight for a vote the educator Effectiveness block grant funds allocation for
1462021 22 superintendent jell thank you board president Fong yes this is a um two board meeting process as you'll recall at the November 10 meeting we brought forward to you Draft plans with allocations as placeholders um with the understanding that we would continue to gain feedback from stakeholders as well as for the charter specifically uh working with their teams to consider reallocating funds um in the various of the 10 areas um so what you see here tonight presented is based on that additional feedback taking into consideration um collaboration initial collaborative discussions with both labor groups as well as revisiting uh feedback that we have received from various surveys um we bring forward to you tonight updated plans um with the understanding that these plans are very flexible so therefore we will continue to monitor need
147and adjust accordingly while it is not necessary at each adjustment that we bring these forward for board approval first we will continue to update the board on the actions that we take uh and with that I will hand it back to you board president and Bor questions on this um I just have a quick question I can't find the S as a high school attachment uh I know in the um summary uh the expectation I mean we're going to spend 2.2 million uh but in the attachments I mean am I missing it I just couldn't find it the um what you're look what you'll be looking for is the general Santa Ros the city schools plan which comines Elementary and secondary okay so it's a districtwide plan and then the four Charters yeah that one
148has a total of 3.1 which is a total that you get that it's on the um on the summary right but in the summer you also have santosa high by itself and I I I just couldn't find that in the attachment so um and maybe I should have brought this up oh that is not Santa Rosa high school that is Santa Rosa High the district district got it all right that's what than for the question right I see no other board member hands up so we are going to open this to um public hearing public comment public comment thank you so uh public comment for item E5 educator effectivess block grant funds allocation um if you'd like to comment on this or member of the public please raise your hand at this time there are
149no hands raised any other discussion board all right so we can entertain the motion to approve this um director matina I'll move to approve the educator Effectiveness spund plans for the 2021 to 2026 school years all right so that was moved by Omar Medina and second in I think I heard more loudly a director Sheffield's voice and we can take a vote now director beer hi director Medina hi director Sheffield hi director manieri hi director De La Cruz hi director McCormack hi director Flores I president f i I think that this is a great thing for our district and as superintendent Jenelle as you work through it with our staff um that it continued to be beneficial to all of us and kind of bring us all the way to 2026 that's a that's a
150while with a lot of things to do and hopefully we're going to get to some spend some um energy on math but we need to discuss that further okay um we're on item E6 is an action item it's an improval of a memorandum of understanding reach with the Santa Rosa city schools um and the Santa Rosa Teachers Association regarding Mand at atory trainings all those really great trainings that we get to do every year yes um with the board president Fong I will hand this immediately over to assistant superintendent Shephard thank you superintendent trell board president Fong members of the board and staff and Community uh we have reached agreement with SRTA um we worked collaboratively on this issue as you well know um we have mandated trainings that over the years have increased we
151it started with mandated reporting and then you know these are very important trainings and uh our desire was to come together to over the years we've had various ways these trainings were completed some you know during staff meeting time during other various things so we wanted to consolidate it have a time for staff and we we settled on the teach the principal directed teacher workday uh before the start of school and uh before the first instructional day so this will this mlu provides three hours of dedicated time for staff members to complete these required trainings and so with that I will entertain any questions you have okay bard no questions see no hands we're going to open this to public comment if there are any members of the public who' like to comment on item
152E6 please raise your hand now and Lynette would like to comment Lynette could you please state your name for the record yes hi this is Lynette I'm sorry Lynette Casey thank you Lynette sure I just want to ask um is it for all all staff members classified as well usually public comment uh Lynette is not a question and answer did you have a comment no I guess it was a question comment thank you very much and there are no other hands raised um this is for Miss Casey it is it was an mou with the Santa Rosa Teachers Association um board any other discussion let call for the motion I'd like to move that we approve the approval of the member rendum of understanding reached with Santa Rosa city schools and Santa Rosa Teachers Association
153regarding mandatory trainings second okay so that was moved by uh vice president McCormick and seconded by clerk Flores and we can take that vote aena director beard director McCormick I director Flores I director Maneri I director De La Cruz I director Sheffield I director Medina hi president fun hi thank you very much to um all who participated in thatou um to work it out and we are moving on to our final um discussion action item tonight it's a discussion items number seven we're on E7 and this is the requirement to conduct assessment of trustee area map using 2020 senses data and next steps um it's kind of an announcement I believe yes thank you board president Fong members of the board staff and Community I'm actually going to read the background because I think it's
154really essential for um this requirement and helps to explain why we're bringing it Forward tonight so in 2018 the Santa Rosa city school district transitioned to a by trustee area election system to ensure compliance with the California Voting Rights Act following each federal census school districts that have transitioned to by trustee area election systems are required to review their existing trustee area Maps using the new census data per Ed code section 50195 section A in late September 2021 following a delay due to the covid-19 um the 2020 census data was approved and released by the California Department of Finance since the district is in a by trustee area election system it is required to conduct an assessment of its existing trustee area Maps using the 2020 census data to ensure population balance if the population
155remains balanced then the board can designate the existing map as the district's trustee area map moving forward beginning with the 2022 elections if the population is no longer balanced then the board must make adjustments to the boundaries of the existing trustee area map to achieve the required population balance the process of conducting an assessment and making any necessary adjustments to the map must be completed by March 1st 2022 per Ed code 5019 .5 so what we are doing tonight is alerting the board that this work is underway and we do plan to bring forward information to the board at a January board meeting um and with that I will hand it back to you board president F thank you um board members questions and I see one question from uh trusty Ben Erie thank you
156um my question is um so I heard you say superintendent Trel that um we will be seeing this again in January so I is that are we expecting to see an assessment already completed by January like what the outcomes of that assessment will be thank you for the question I would like to welcome Mr Edson um to assist with that response sir good evening uh Board of Education superintendent chel uh president Fong uh yeah currently right now uh there is work being done on that assessment um with the demographer uh through legal councel uh at the January meeting we will be bringing back the results of that assessment uh along with uh proposals if changes need to be made for for initial discussion uh that then will subse subsequently be brought back based on uh
157feedback uh and the actual results of the assessment okay um are there any requirements to this process that include Community input or Community engagement to help us um determine what proposed boundary changes might look like I I don't know if there is the requirement I will find out for sure uh but that would be part of the discussion uh if it is determined that boundaries do need be changed because of the shift of population or demographics okay so then after January we'll have well this has to be done by March so after January what do we expect our timeline thereafter to look like uh depending on what comes back from the assessment uh it could be something at each board meeting the two board meetings in January as well as the two board meetings in
158February uh depending on what the assessment shows and if there needs to be changes thank you all right um truste Medina yeah I'm just curious if we since this is I think our first time going over it since we actually became districts it's the first sensus that we've had I'm curious if we've looked at what other districts that go through this process do in terms of Community engagement Community imp yeah that that is something certainly being discussed with with legal counsel uh fortunately if you will uh they're doing this with many school districts right now uh most of for the first time because of cvra uh so we'll be able to to gain information from them for discussion uh seeing no other hands up from board members we are going to open this up for
159public comment if there are any members of the public who would like to comment on item E7 please raise your hands at this time and Dianna ales would like to comment hi um I know you guys can't answer my question but I would I'm kind of I think that a lot of parents may be confused about this agenda item and if it is linked or if it's a separate issue then the Sonoma County redistricting that's happening right now so I'm just wondering you know I like I said I know you can't answer but I'm just wondering if there is is any transparency because there's not a lot of information the agenda item you guys have a lot of parents don't really understand what this means and sometimes I don't think you take it a second
160step to maybe try to explain it to parents that are confused by it so then again it makes us it makes it hard for some parents to ask questions about it and like even on the website and I don't see like it even in Spanish maybe it is but I feel like there's a lot of stakeholders that don't really understand what's happening and then it's brought on the agenda and then you guys make a decision and you don't really get stakeholders input all the way um and I know Stephanie and Ed are both on that committee Ed's the chairman of the Soma County advisory redistricting commission and so I just wonder if there's a conflict of interest or if that's the same entity or different ones and if they will if it becomes a situation
161where you have to vote on if they will stain from the voting because I think that it's not very transparent and it looks very alarming to um some parents so thank you thank you and president Fong there are no other hands raised um board any other discussion Deputy superintendent uh Edson any other comments director Maneri has her hand up sorry Stephanie that's okay um I I know technically we're not supposed to response to that but I I really do appreciate the call for understanding this process um and I would just like to clarify that though um director Sheffield and I were a part of that commission for the county that commission is now dissolved um and that process has ended um so I just wanted to to clarify that that is not um there is
162no intersection in Timeline with those two processes um and and actually and I had something to say before that too um that if if we do um or when we um make efforts to engage with the community just kind of coming from my experience on on the County's commission um I just want to make sure that um that that process is done thoughtfully and meaningfully um and you know two months between January um when we are expecting to receive kind of the first um set of information on this process and and then the end of or the the beginning of March March 1st when this is supposed to be completed is is a really short timeline um and I just want to kind of um call that out um so that when you know if
163we're feeling rushed in the process or um it just feels like there there isn't a lot of time it's because it's not and I know that a lot of it is outside of our control with the census information coming out um a bit late but just wanted to um to to say that you know we don't have a we don't have a lot of time um and we need to take that into consideration I think uh president fog might be frozen so I'm going to call on director De La Cruz thank you director Manti for raising those issues um I think it's also important for us to pick up the thread um of the last time our our district talked about our boundaries um and some of the efforts that we were trying to make
164to desegregate our schools um that was one of the efforts so I I think just connecting some of those dots and giving giving folks a timeline um that shows the ways in which we've been thinking you know about the ways in which our institution functions within a structural um within structural challenges throughout our community um is going to be important for folks to just have that context and the way that we you know we've worked to really understand um how best to address some of the you know this the desegregation efforts that I know we've been we've been driving at so um you know a lot a lot of a lot of registrating is really this question around representation and around you know equity and representation and making sure that folks who have you know
165generationally experience under Service as a result of their underrepresentation in in seats of of power and authority um have the opportunity to really weigh in on the ways in which we're drawing our boundaries um and so you know just just to Echo director manetti's like points here I I do think it's going to be really important to bring our community along um in this process and and to be as transparent as possible especially during during a tough time for people to really want to be engaged in um you know technical bureaucratic work that also is really important and does does underscore the importance of of an Engaged citizenry and I use the word citizenry like in in the sense of like folks who are here in our district um not just folks who have the
166ability to vote um so any ways in which we can really help to do that um superintendent tranell I just want you to know that it sounds like you we definitely have folks who are experienced in this work and who have just been through um a process in which we've learned a lot um about how to behave as leaders and how to run a process that is reflective of the needs of our community um as we listen and and make sure that people's questions are addressed in in a way that's transparent and um and open and um and that you know really helps to develop that shared understanding of the importance of this work so I'm super grateful for this update you know being brought um with a little bit of time um but you
167know to make sure that we make the most of it is going to be really really important and so um if if you need any support and you know from from board members and helping to draft um and share ideas around how to message some of this important work and how to connect the dots between some of our past work um I would love to help and I think um like I said we have folks who um have deep experience in in um in a different um that will surely bring you know they they can bring here thank you and um uh Deputy superintendent Aton I believe you have um an invitation yeah if we could bring over Milton Foster please uh our legal council was in other meetings and was able to uh just
168momentarily pop into our meeting so I'm asking to bring him over uh he will be available to uh talk about the process uh and answer any questions uh that you may have so as he's I see him popping on now so we'll give him just a second think ever has his hand up this and Milton Foster joining us all right good evening everyone good evening hello hello excuse my delay as uh Rick was saying I'm uh juggling multiple uh board meetings because the every many districts are going through this all at the same time um I do have if we have the time a brief kind of PowerPoint uh presentation that I can share if we have the time uh do we have the time I should ask we we do okay all right so
169let me go ahead and share that okay can you all see yes all right hold on just a second all right so um we're here to talk about uh of course the process that the district has to undergo um that was initiated due to the release of the 2020 census so just kind of a a brief recap the district underwent a transition from at large to by trustee areas in 2017 if my memory serves me correctly just as a recap by trustee areas is where uh the school district is divided up into trustey areas uh in this instance seven and uh governing board members elected from each truste area and only the members of that area can vote for the trustee in that area so we're here now because there is a requirement under cvra
170and Education Code 9.5 that uh for all truste area election systems following the release of a federal census the governing board must do an assessment uh to determine if the population in each area uh in the truste area map across the board is still balanced and we do that by way of a demographer uh and so we are working with a demographer who is in the process of completing that process so I'm going to walk you through just kind of different the different scenarios uh that could happen depending on how the assessment uh goes all right so so the requirement is that the population um the variance must be in compliance meaning 10% must be a 10% variance between the seven trustee areas when we say variance what we mean is what we do is
171we take the 2020 census divide up the total population within the district you come to an average of how many people need to be within these seven trustee areas then uh you look at the existing map and based upon the number of people in each area you calculate how uh how much over the average that each area is or how much under the average that each area is and what you're looking for is the between the largest trusty area which is above the average and the lowest trusty area which is beneath the average between those two you can't have more than a 10% variance between the two okay so there's two different paths if the uh demographer conducts the assessment and determines that the population is balanced using the existing map with the new numbers
172because realize the existing map was initially drawn using the 2010 censes if they do the analysis and determine that the existing map with the 2020 census uh is still in compliance meaning the variance is within the 10% from the largest trustee area to the smallest one and compared to the average then no change to the trustey area map is necessarily needed uh because that's what this process is meant to do it's meant to ensure population compliance as compared to the original process which is meant to transition from at large to by trustee areas so in the event that the population is balanced then the board could certainly elect to essentially pass the res resolution redesignating the existing map uh to be the trusty area map and plan moving forward until such time as the next
173census which of course would be okay now if the demographer does the assessment and determines that the district's truste areas are out of complains meaning no longer balance uh and using the terms I've been using meaning that the VAR ience is greater than 10% 15% 12% 25% because of the changes in population throughout the district if that is the determination then uh that will trigger a different path in which the board must adjust the boundaries in order to get the map back into compliance meaning the 10% or below variance so that is what the demographer is presently doing and we will know later on this this month uh whether or not um the assessment will be completed we'll know whether or not the district's present map as constructed is in compliance if uh it's not
174in compliance then what would have to happen is the demographer would then take the next step to prepare draft map options uh to present to the board for the board's review uh would also we would also do a um a a public hearing to also to allow Community input and the board would consider the options that the demographer comes up with of course the the board has input and uh can certainly comment and recommend or advise as to different changes or iterations of the maps but essentially the demographer would take a first stab uh and his his his task would first initially just be about rebalancing the population uring and ensuring that we maintain the 10% variance that is what the initial options would look like we would present those to the board uh that
175would be I guess your January meeting uh and get comments feedback uh and then then the board could determine if they wanted uh different looks of maps or if those maps are sufficient and then ultimately the end of the process would uh conclude with the board selecting map uh the the the options of the maps of course would all have variances that are less than 10% and again this process must be completed uh before March 1st 2022 now importantly this process is different uh in many respects from the initial process uh the initial process had a number of numerous Community meetings uh public hearings that were all legally required uh that is not the requirement of this process that we're undertaking now it is a much more reduced process uh and typically contemplates a lot
176less meetings in fact you know usually maybe only several meetings uh and public hearings simply because the uh the emphasis is not on completely redrawing the maps but on rebalancing the population with the existing map if that makes sense so uh as far as our next steps of course today I'm giving my brief presentation the next time uh I see you which will be in January the demographer will have completed his assessment and depending upon whether or not the district is out of compliance uh if if the district's map is out of compliance then when we come back in January I will like also be presenting you with initial uh draft Maps options for you to just review and those again will just be based upon his initial emphasis of balancing the population and so
177when we come back in January I would be giving an update on hey we if we were out of compliance uh here are additional Maps if we are in compliance then uh I would give that review as well and then uh be asking the board as far as Direction in terms of whether or not the board wants to just redesignate the existing map as the board's trustee area map moving forward okay so that would happen in January uh and then uh depending on how many meetings you have in January uh between January and February in the event that we had to select or adjust a new map that is when that process will be completed uh all of the steps must be completed uh in uh in advance of the February 28th 2022 time frame
178okay so that's that ends my sort of brief presentation and uh at this time I'll take any questions from the board if there are any so that gives us four board meetings um uh clerk Flores had a question okay yeah thank you president F so I guess I'm a little bit concerned because I did let the district now back in October 2nd about the urgency of making sure we did this because uh you know there there's seven of us and you know um the Democratic process is it's a bit messy as we have seen at at the county level so I'm just I just want to rate that we're pressed with time at this at this juncture and and I feel like I I just don't want to be pressured to go into something that
179you know it's have ply made uh having said that I appreciate your presentation because it gave me a a sense as to what it is that we're looking for we're not redrawing the boundaries we're not R drawing the entire map we're just making sure that we are within the variance of 10% uh but at the same time I just want to reiterate what both uh director maner and ala lauz mentioned that we um we should have um started this process a while back um in in in in in a case that that we find an excess of of a variance um with your experience uh U Milton how long does it usually take if we you know if we see really lopid up sort of you know districts uh let's say a district has has
180grown you know exponentially and then there's a district that has shrunk exponentially uh what will that take in terms of redrawing the maps and and making sure that they're balanced uh that process uh does not take a significant amount of time honestly the longest process is the assessment and I can tell you kind of going back to your comment uh the process was started but what because uh just to kind of set the background here all of the districts and not just school districts but all public entities uh who went to BU truste areas are all undergoing this same process uh and the census was basically released uh uh almost at October uh of this past year and essentially there are only a handful of demographers unfortunately that do this type of work and so
181uh they have been kind of literally uh they have each of them has hundreds and hundreds of clients that they're all doing this for uh and everyone unfortunately is kind of jammed up that would really put everyone back when the senses was was not released last March and instead was released in the end of September but in terms of the time frame of how to uh quickly get maps together that is not a uh long process at all especially because they're going with the existing maps and they the iterations initially that they're taking is simply imbalancing the population they're looking at those areas where as you put it there was significant population growth and red redistributing uh the population in the adjacent areas and their basis is to have the map look close as possible
182to what it looks like right now with changes of course along the borders because they have to exchange population between areas that have decreased and areas that have increased so uh once the assestment is completed which we should uh have uh shortly then the maps I expect to have Maps as well uh by the end of this month in the event that the assessment demonstrates we uh we are out of compliance so um in terms of I also address your concern that will be kind of jammed up uh there is the ability of course uh to have special um uh board meetings if necessary uh if we find that the board uh would like multiple additional iterations of The Proposal Maps uh we certainly can make that accommodation and uh uh look that route if
183necessary uh but I will make sure that your meeting in January you will have multiple different looks and uh uh you know so that you can consider and then we can quickly uh make any changes or suggestions or that we can need to incorporate in order to make sure we complete this in a timely fashion and not feel like the board did not have sufficient time to provide the input that it wanted thank you and I appreciate your thorough answer and uh my next question you did answer but I just want to say for the record was I was going to ask the district to give us an idea as to why uh it uh why it it why the delay and and I appreciate that you were able to answer the that question uh
184that the there was a shortage in demographers uh thank you and those are all questions I have thank you m okay so let's see uh director Medina and then director manary thank you um so just my quick question is uh first uh in terms of the assessments of like population does it look at it by or in terms of the borders right now is it by Precinct by census track do can you elaborate on that yes it's by census blocks the census uh data is given to the demography ER and they have um technology and computer programs that breaks the data down into census blocks and they have to Overlay the census blocks onto the existing map uh and then they use the census blocks with the new population uh using the existing map and
185then decide based of where the lines are drawn now uh whether or not the areas are out of compliance or within that 10% variance and the second question uh in terms of this timeline it says options posted on District website is that assuming that there's uh a variance above 10% and and and are those options prior to any board meeting or any Board review or yes so uh that is assuming in the event that uh we do have a variance Beyond 10% and the district must make a change then the new propos adjusted Maps uh in advance of the board meeting would be posted on the district website uh and we would have a notice of public hearing that would allow the board and the community an opportunity to look at the maps in advance
186of the meeting so that uh everyone could come prepared to discuss uh the maps themselves uh we would also give a presentation at that meeting just elaborating hey here's the Census Data you see here is out of compliance uh as a result we had to draw new maps these are the new maps and going over the uh the differences and where the uh changes in the borders were due to the population that is what would take place at that board meeting but in advance of that we would provide the maps and coordinate with District administration I would send them to Rick and they would be posted in advance of the meeting and the only other thing because I don't think I saw this attached to the agenda um could we make sure to get a
187copy of this presentation so that it could be attached for the minutes sure yes and uh director manier and then director De La Cruz yeah um thank you Milton for the presentation um I'm wondering if you can speak a little bit to how demographers might go about adjusting bound Aries if that is necessary um like you know I just I kind of think about like a boundary and think about you know you can take some from here and some from here and some from here so like how are those decisions made how does a demographer just make those decisions so one of the things that he is keeping intact is the uh the initial trusty area map that was approved and adopted so he's looking at that the other thing that he is looking at
188is making sure uh when he is redrawing or adjusting the boundaries and if you'll notice even the language is diff different they call it adjusting the boundaries because the concept is to keep the map the same and making Minor Adjustments to deal with the population but one of the things he is keeping in play is he's still uh keeping the federal and California voting rights principles in play meaning that he any adjustments he makes he is being mindful of not decreasing significantly the power of any specific minority group uh he's trying to maintain the in the um the integrity and purpose of the initial map while also meeting the new requirement of rebalancing the population so typically what they will do is they will first look at all the trusty areas and then it may
189not be all the trusty areas that need to be adjusted there may be a trusty area that has decreased because of population outflux and one that has increased and if that's the case and they're right next to each other and there can be a very quick and uh you know straightforward exchange then they will go to the border and then they will look at the border and simply try to uh exchange the population between the two while maintaining the Integrity of the rest of the map everywhere else so usually when you see the changes uh it will be okay we had to change this map in the southwest Co corner here and we did a small exchange here between areas two and three and then we did another subsequent exchange between areas five and six
190up at the northeast corner and then everything else you know between the every all the other areas uh have been maintained uh intact and of course that depends upon the variance uh sometimes you know you get a variance that is slightly over per se you know 12% 15% which is not much then there won't be very significant changes if you happen to see a variance where now we are at for whatever reason you know 30% well then that would require a more a little bit more of a drastic change because you have a severe imbalance and so if you have a variance that high then you would see necessarily more significant changes uh though those are usually kept to the uh outskirts and the boundaries and really their task is to find those gathered very
191large areas of population and rebalance those so those are the principles that they use while keeping in mind the original map which uh in original principles which had you know there was an emphasis on making sure so many school districts and School attendance boundaries we're going across multiple areas all of those principles uh would be observed it would solely be about trying to rebalance the population in the um you know as least an intrusive manner as POS thank you I appreciate that um I don't have any other questions but since we're in discussion I do want to say um just from the experience I I just had that um that there are different ways like that piece right there that like part about um looking at the borders and and making decisions about where we
192place um individuals to to balance out map and how we make those adjustments there I just that that part is the part that needs to be really transparent uh and that is the part that we really need to have Community input for um and so I I just want to name that and um and I just I don't feel comfortable with our board like I I know that we we are going to post it on the website and there will be public hearings but I I don't feel entirely comfortable with our board um having these big conversations about these adjustments if there adjustments are necessary um and not really bringing in the community in a meaningful way into our process um I I just don't feel comfortable with that so I'm um maybe this is
193more of just like a a a thought for our Administration like how can we start to plan for the events that we need to make adjustments now um how can we start to plan for that now so that we we have a plan for engaging community in that process um again I just I don't feel comfortable with our board with just having these couple of instances where the public can make um Can can provide us with their input and and the majority of that just work being just held with this board all right thank you director um director Taylor Cruz thank you president Fang thank you Milton for this amazing presentation a couple of questions that I had is you know uh we are a community that has been Frau With Disaster with natural disasters
194and with you know two years of the pandemic I know that we rely on census data to really understand you know at the census Block Level the changes in our population geographically but what what are what are typical ways in which um you know population centers would shift dramatically and do you see any of those things having happened in our community well typically what you've seen often times in in the 10 years because the census is every 10 years is if you have had um for example large uh new communities new housing communities or apartment communities that have been built in the past 10 years in any particular location that is where you would potentially see there was vacant land there and now we've seen you know uh two three, homes built in this area
195and all of those are new people that are now being counted by the new census in that area that's usually uh what you will see uh that causes the the uh the variance to increase and the distinction the other thing that sometimes you will see if if is just uh if you've noticed a decrease uh in the population and I bring that up for you all um because I don't have any specific knowledge but because of the fires for example if you if the district suffered a decrease in population from residents who moved out of the area or had to make other living arrangements and then had not returned so I don't know if that's the case or not but that could be another instance where you had population there in the 2010 senses and
196now you have a decrease because of that you know natural disaster that occurred but Ty typically you're looking at housing booms new development booms those are the drivers uh uh that have you know change or cause the variance and then have necessitated an adjustment to the boundaries yeah I I I can say with some um security that building large amounts of housing in our community is not something that has happened um but I do think that you know um the impacts of the fires will be interesting for us to be to look at um while the impact the actual kind of physical impact on our community was largely outside of our district um from the 2017 fires we definitely had impacts within our district um our high school district in particular high school areas um
197in 2019 to 2020 um so you know Stephanie I really I really appreciate you making sure that we are being creative and thinking now about the ways in which we engage our community um um Milton could you give us an an update in terms of [Music] um you know ways in which you've seen other jurisdictions kind of just kill it when it comes to community engagement and sharing information like where where have you seen best practices and and what are those best practices what what do they look like what do they feel like sure so I I can tell you the first time we went through this because I was the one that assisted the district with the initial transition Santa Rosa did a very great job of getting out the word and the way
198in which we uh the district did that uh by was by public hearings uh uh you know sending out public hearings putting notices in the paper ads for the public hearings uh having a u uh a presence on the district's website uh so that you know there was you know and an ability for people to easily go to the district's website and to see the maps there and to view them there was also the ability to have electronic communications and feedback directly uh with the district uh there was I'm not mistaken a designated email or a designated contact where people could communicate electronically so that Communications were not limited to Simply the public hearings but there was the ability to have that Dialogue on an on basis uh we also um last time if I
199remember uh the district sent out uh I believe uh letters home to uh through students uh in both English and Spanish notifying um the the parents and community members um um of the upcoming public hearings uh in order to encourage participation so so those are some of the methods that uh we use used last time and there was a fair amount of participation uh by the district Community more so than than uh other districts and I've I've done this you know numerous times with other districts as well Santa Rosa had a a fair amount of people who participated um so those are some of the examples of U the Outreach efforts that the district did uh that are effective and that many other districts uh have used in order to outreach and encourage participation of
200the community thank you thank you so much and I I do think that um one of the things that we have the benefit of in our district is a very active deac um thank you so much to the you know the leadership of seor hes who we heard from earlier tonight and from all the parents who really engage around you know issues that face the English language learner Community um and just to just to note right we now have um the 2020 Census Data public and for folks who want to go take a peek at what the county looks like um the County's redistricting website actually has a lot of that information up and accessible and I will just say right some of the things that we could think about um in terms of you
201know the languages that um are spoken in Santa Rosa include like English Spanish Chinese talag um ilocano Vietnamese orah German right like we have a of oops my FR sorry you are so there's there's lots of um all all of is in the ways in which we engage them so grateful for your work Milton thank you all right all right so we're going to hear from um we'll hear from Omar who's got his hand up for a while and then we'll hear from uh director Sheffield thank you um so I just wanted to touch base on the well first off I think uh 2010 to 2020 I think there's been a lot of changes in our community I anticipate there there might be significant changes but I did see I believe it was on the
202last section of your presentation that it says even if there's not a 10% variance we could choose to adjust the boundaries um right as long as they're within the population I ask because some of the sections that in particular to my district seem like there's in some interesting lines in terms of how those borders were decided but is that correct yes that is true I will say though that uh I just have to say that there is a difference between the these two processes meaning the initial process to draw the map and then the adjustment of the boundaries what I mean by that is um if there is a significant change in the boundaries then there is uh the ability of someone to say look you are now essentially sort of overhauling the initial trustee
203area map and there is an argument that you are are going beyond what is uh what is required and then you are you are going back over into the initial process which was much more rigorous uh had much more uh you know uh requirements uh and steps for example in this process here the adjustment process it does not go before the county committee for approval right and the idea is because it is simply supposed to be a boundary adjustment that they didn't feel the need to have that amount of oversight and approval needed by the county this is completely a board control decision uh the other the initial transition uh some of you may know or remember that it had uh so many public hearings that were required uh it had oversight by the county
204committee uh there was just a lot more structure and a lot more requirements uh because the overhaul and the change to the district was so substant and so as we go through this process in the event that boundary adjustments need to happen we have to be mindful of staying sort of within the framework that is contemplated uh as opposed to uh a complete redraw or significant changes to the original map yeah so I think maintaining kind of the General District as they are is kind of the main focus around that um I think the the only thing other thing that I'd like to ask and this is um both to trusty Maneri and and Sheffield maybe um given from your experience if you have maybe suggestions as to community outreach or or how we can
205engage Community best within the timeline that we have um if maybe youall could like come up with some proposal for us or ask staff to help with something like that that draws from your experience given the process you went through I know I'd appreciate that that's all I have thank you Dr Sheffield um yeah you know I think that there there is a lot that um that dror manier and I can can share um from the experience that we just had at the county um there are some parallels but you know the process that we're um about to undertake is is significantly different and the public should know that as well um from what the county just did um um but I you know I think it would be helpful as we go into um
206our meetings um in in in the weeks ahead is just at every opportunity to make sure that the the school Community the public who's following along um has complete clarification throughout the process I mean that includes definitions um you know I was looking at some comments th this evening on this process um and we just have to be really clear clear because the the public might not have the Insight that that we have or that we will have as we go through this process and just to be patient um terms are used throughout the redistricting process like Jerry mandering and we just have to have clear definition of what you know so the public knows what Jerry mandering is knowing that you know things that look a little bit odd or a little bit strange
207it's because of a census track and that's something that we don't have a whole lot we don't have any control over how you capture a certain population so something that might look a little funny it looks a little funny because there's only so many people that live in that population and if you're trying to capture that you don't have control over how you do that there are things you know little things that that might not make a lot of sense right now but as we're doing the process we have Milton on board to help us with clarification so the public gets an understanding um and then the question that I had for you Milton was who's the demographer oh we have our demographer with uh Cooperative strategies it's uh it's not Larry the demographer anymore
208Larry has uh moved on but it is Larry's company Cooperative strategies who uh uh who is uh still servicing the district in this fashion and and conducting the uh uh doing the assessment and if necessary we'll be assisting with the boundary adjustment great and for for um colleagues on the board uh we have good relation with these guys so this this is a good one twoo punch that we have thank you uh thank you director Sheffield and I see no other hands up uh Milton thank you so much um any other comments superintendent tranel or Deputy superintendent uh Edson I just want to say thank you Mr Foster for joining us this evening and providing that additional information um thank you to Mr Edson for assisting in addressing the agenda item and it's very clear
209that we have our work um set forward for what we need to do so thank you so much all right all right thank you okay you all have a great evening you as well all right we are now moving on to consent items and we are I'm looking for approval of consent items 2 through to approve items F2 through F6 second okay so that was motioned by director Medina and seconded by clerk Flores is director beard still present yeah director beard I Amor the connection turned off my camera thank you director Medina hi director Flores hi director Manti hi director De La Cruz I director Sheffield I director McCormick I president Fong I thank you so much we are moving to approval of the minutes is item G1 uh of the regular board meeting held
210on November 10th 2021 I'll move to approve the minute to the regular board meeting held on November 10th 2021 as presented second thank you that was motion by obber Medina and seconded by Jill McCormack director beard hi thank you director Medina hi director McCormick hi director mon hi director De La Cruz hi director Sheffield hi director Flores hi president F all thank you are there any board member requests for information tonight okay seeing no hands if I missed anybody speak up I do have one request for information and um superintendent Jenelle you may already be bringing it to us but but I want to make sure that we are going to get math data for uh the first semester of the school year um and that would be the math data that would include everything
211that you think would be informative to us of course including um students who have uh taken integrated one more than once and also by demographics as we generally ask for and can I just add to that President Fong that I would really love for us to also hear about what supports are in place um and what support what additional supports may be needed as identified by Math teachers um an idea I also have superintendent is an just an idea um we have been really we have um centered student voice and this and I don't know when might be a good time of course anytime could be a good time but I'd like to get data I'd like to hear what students say about math I'd like to hear what students say about their math courses
212about how they understand math um and what supports they are looking for or what they're getting that are effective I guess in a nutshell student voice on on math classes on a math education um I have something on the to can hear yes kind of barely Georgia I'll put this in the chat okay so do that right away we will wait for you um Bard any other request for information okay let's see what George is asking for George I take it you are typing in the chat right now yes this is in regards [Music] to okay we did not understand that she said I think she said this is in regards to math classes okay so I'm going to read it out loud basically the students in international Balor higher level classes that are only
213at Montgomery are pretty behind in math in my grade she's a senior that I'm aware of distance learning covered only the necessities for the IB tests and now a lot are struggling to learn new Concepts really quickly all right thank you for that comment [Music] um all right um superintendent tranell are there any is there anything else for the good of the order tonight thank you um for all of the diligence this evening um certainly some really good work ahead uh for us as we think about safety as we think about um engaging our community as we think about student achievement all right so we will see each other at the at the special board meeting on December 15th for the reorganization the board and I think maybe another thing or two don't know can't
214remember um and let's point out it is 9:30 p.m. I call the meeting closed thank thank you so much good night everyone good night thank you