001Saychech. identific Forew. All right, we are reconvening the South San Francisco Unified School Board into open session. Can I get a roll call, please, Joanna? Student Trustee Hersana here. Trusty Richardson. Trusty Sha here. Trusty Lamb here. Vice President Murray here. President Anthony here. Uh, Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Anakah Tuazon, the fifth grade student at Sunshine Gardens Elementary School. Can I get an introduction, please, Principal Gonzalez? Thank you. Uh, I would like to read a few words from Mrs. Hefner, a fifth grade teacher at Sunshine Gardens about her student and our pledge leader, Anukica. Anuka is a phenomenal young lady and in her 17 years of teaching, she is definitely one of the most hardworking, passionate, and talented students she's ever had the pleasure of working with. Anukica approaches learning opportunities with an
002open mind and attacks every assignment with everything she has. She is the best role model for her peers and is always willing to lend them a helping hand. She has fully immersed herself in all things fifth grade this school year. She was one of the stars in the annual opera performance, plays the clarinet in the school band, and volunteers to help our school librarian in the library during her recess time. She participates in Gan Academy and will be a student speaker at the graduation ceremony this year. She's known in room 18 as the LL queen because she consistently crushes the EXL leaderboards. She has answered over 20,000 questions this school year and mastered 465 skills. She is also just about 13,000 words shy of reading 1 million words this school year. Yeah. And in her
003free time, Anakah enjoys reading, writing, drawing, and doing art and crafts, editing videos and photos, and listening to music. She writes stories that turns into books. Anakah has such a bright future, and we are so proud to call her our stallion. Now, I'd like to introduce Aneka Myrtle Chuazison as our Sunshine Gardens pledge leader. Everyone, please stand for the pledge. Ready, begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Item D, land acknowledgement statement. We acknowledge that the South San Francisco Unified School District is located on the unseated unseated ancestral homeland of the Ramyush Aloney peoples who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. We wish to pay
004our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramy community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. Item E, reporting out from close session. Nothing to report. We didn't have to report on the settlement. Sorry. Yes. There is one item to report out on under item number one. And by a 50 vote, the board did approve a settlement um for O case number 2024120645 and 2025020605 one case. Thank you. Thank you so much. Review of agenda. Any changes? No. Okay. PTA council remarks. Who's here [Music] tonight? All right. I didn't get the notice. You'll have to say your name. Just kidding. My name is Cat San Philippi. My kids are Mason and Stella San Philippi in Sunshine Gardens and Parkway fifth grade and eighth grade. So soon to be El Camino.
005Good evening, President Anthony, Trustee, Superintendent Moore, members of the cabinet, and members of the community. I have been a part of the PTA at Sunshine Garden since my son was eight, probably seven years almost. Um we work really well with the school and we are appreciative of all the staff, faculty and Miss Gonzalez who leads the way. So a couple of things that have happened this year is Sunshine Cardons turned 70. We had a wonderful little birthday bash for them. Um we invited the kids. We had a little bash on a Friday and it was a good time. Uh we also have done multiple movie nights, a holiday shop, and just this past Friday, we were able to do a booster fund run for the school for a fundraiser, and we earned over $19,000 for
006the school. So, thank you so much for listening and hope you guys have a good evening. Thank you so much. All right, staff association representatives remarks. South San Francisco Federation of Adult Educators. Wow, it's um nice to have fans. Okay. Um Oh, too much of a clutch to leave that there. Good evening everyone. I'm Elizabeth Bale Studes, president of the South San Francisco Federation of Adult Educators. Our IET or integrated education and training computer skills pilot program is going well. Ms. Vase, our teacher, has 11 students and the class is halfway through the curriculum. We're pleased by the success of the pilot and our IET team is on the job to make further improvements for the fall. Alternative ed students continue to make us proud this semester. Approximately 15 adult ed students have transition to
007Skyline. They've worked hard and I'm confident they'll succeed. And you know, I don't usually cover news from Ben, but I hear from Miss Jackson, our assistant principal, that a student at Ben has received a Chamber of Commerce scholarship. So, congratulations and well [Applause] done. I've spoken here before about the mood among our ESL students in light of current events. The most telling thing I can think of to share tonight is that one of my students, a United States citizen who was born here and brought up mostly in Mexico, has gone to Mexico where he has dual citizenship to get a passport. In the face of everything happening on the national stage, I frequently remind my learners of our district's policies on protecting our students and let them know that they are safe in my classroom.
008an immigration lawyer, I'm not, but I'm at the ready with red cards and a listening ear. Thank you to Mr. Hanan for including me on one of the interview panels for new district leadership positions. It was an interesting process and the AOT appreciates the recognition and inclusion putting us on equal footing with our much much larger sister unions. Finally, I understand from Miss Yusti that good things are a foot for the CTA. As always, we stand in solidarity with the CTA as they work to finalize contract negotiations. Thank you for your attention. Thank you so much, Miss Boots. Uh, South San Francisco Classroom Teachers Association. Good evening, dear members of the cabinet, President Anthony, trustees of the board and SSFUSD community. I would like to mention that May 17th, CTA is having a rally all
009over the state of California to protest federal cuts to education. And I have here a flyer um that explains how many dollars we'll lose annually if these cuts come to fruition. We will lose over $5 million in total revenue for our district. We will lose over $2 million in funding cuts to provide meals to our students. We will lose $800,000 annually in cuts to ed uh educational services and we will lose over $2 million annually in cuts to students with [Music] disabilities. Here in SSF, we plan to have a group travel to SF on BART at 10:30 at the El Camino High School parking lot. From there, we will join educators who will rally together when we get off at Embarcadero Station. Please reach out to me if you are interested in joining us. My
010report tonight touches upon educator appreciation. Since May is the time in school culture, we reflect on the hard work that our students and educators put in each year. I know it is a little early, but I will miss our next meeting uh due to open house. I am grateful for so many things in my position, but I would like to call out a few specific things at the moment. I appreciate our classified staff who help keep our schools running efficiently. They are often undervalued. Just recently, by the way, Monvery lost another wonderful night custodian due to our school being unsafe at night for one person. She will move on to Burberry Bur because she will work on a team of two rather than work alone. I wish every school had a had two custodians teaming
011up together at night. Thank you, Trusty Lamb, for signing up for our new school board member event uh with CTA. I was planning on being there, but bargaining lasted a little late last night, and that could be right why my speech is show so much shorter tonight. Thank you also to all of the trustees uh for giving us so much of your time for our schools. Speaking of bargaining, I want to show my gratitude to the bargaining teams for putting in a 12-hour day yesterday on an to work on an agreeable tentative agreement. I am hopeful April 30th will go much more quickly as it seems we are 99.8% finished. And thank you, by the way, also for allowing me to be on an interview panel for the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. It
012was a very enjoyable experience and you have a tough decision to make. Finally, thank you SSFUSD teachers. I am so proud to call you my colleagues and I appreciate the amazing work you do every day with our children. Please continue to stand by SSFTA, CSEA, and AFT as you advocate for yourselves and the contracts you deserve. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Thank you so much. California School Associ school employees association chapter 197. Good evening, President Anthony, board members, Superintendent Moore, and Cabinet. When negotiations come around, I always survey our CSEA members districtwide, asking them to submit bargaining suggestions and information pertaining to their jobs. One job classification, our campus security staff rose to the forefront when describing their challenges and information that was very concerning to me. So, I would like to
013share that information with the superintendent and cabinet board members and hopefully develop solutions together on ways to support our campus security staff. So, I'm hosting another CSEA communicates meeting on Monday, April 28th in South San Francisco Library at 4:30. the whenever I go to the district this school year especially Mr. Hanan and the district has been so responsive in assisting our staff. I appreciate that. I was so happy to see a posting for a new um campus security staff member um replacing FIA. So that was very promising and I appreciate that. And last, I'd like to give a shout out to Wes Pedis for his dedication to our district. After nearly 40 years of service, he's retiring the end of this month. So, you have that. Yeah, you have that when when management is helpful
014and supportive to staff, you have those long-term people that work here for 40 years and are proud to do so. So, thank you all very much. I hope you all had a nice Easter weekend. And again, uh CSCA hopes to see you on Monday at 4:30 at South City Library. And I appreciate your support. Thank you. Thank you so much. Item I, Personnel Commission. Our next personnel commission meeting will be held on Monday, May 19th, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. in the district office boardroom. Thank you so much. Items from the board. Item J. I have Thank you. I have one announcement. uh the ASB president 2020 to 2022, Abigail Verino. Probably you guys remember her two years ago. So Abigail is in her third year at UC Berkeley. Abigail has been elected uh a week
015ago as UC Berkeley student body presidentelect for the 2025 2026 year in the associated students of the University of California. Um thank to my great neighbor who shared this great news with me through her daughter who is also attending UC Berkeley. So we are very proud of you Abigail. Thank you so much. That is great news. Um we had the facilities subcommittee meeting last week um and got some updates on some ongoing projects. Uh we do not yet have a timeline on um any updates for Los Certos and we will come back with that. So that's just something I know people have been asking about. All right. Uh item K, superintendence report. Thank you very much, President Anthony. I'll start with youth and government day. Last week, the city in collaboration with the district offered
016a youth and government government day program to our local high school students. Uh both juniors and seniors in addition to students from Ben El Camino and South South San Francisco High School, we also had one homeschool student who participated and one middle college student who participated. And the purpose of this program is to provide our learners with the opportunity to engage more deeply around the positions and responsibilities of elected officials and to really understand what they do as well as key city staff to provide a hands-on opportunity to learn how local government works including facilitating a mock city council meeting which will be on April 29th. Uh it's also to educate our young people with the hope that they take an interest in career in local government andor school district operations and to educate students
017so they can have basic knowledge to become informed voters and active community members. A luncheon was held in their honor last Tuesday and there were board members, district representatives and city staff present and Mayor Flores, a former board member hosted a panel discussion with city staff members to share their insights and experiences about civic engagement and leadership. So just a big thanks to the city of South San Francisco, our social studies uh Tossa, Mr. Gasaway who coordinated the students participation with the city and thanks to Mr. Capitan who I believe is here this evening and Mr. Shereesta who chaperoned along with Mr. Gasway for all of the program activities. It was a wonderful event. The next item is Chamber of Commerce scholarship lunchon. Most of the board, district, cabinet, and school principal, high school principles
018and I had the privilege of attending the South San Francisco Chamber of Commerce scholarship award ceremony. There were this year there were 34 students from Ben El Camino High School and South San Francisco High School seniors who received scholarships at a celebratory lunchon. We wanted to congratulate all of the students including student trustees Josephine Harana to my left and Jamie Wong, both of whom Yes. earned a wonderful scholarship honor. We want both both of you as well as all of our scholarship recipients to know just how proud we are of your accomplishments. We also want to thank the uh South San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and all of the people and the organizations that provided the scholarships to our scholars. So, congratulations. We're proud of you. Yay. All right. Item L, student trustee reports. We'll
019start with Josephine Harana, spring student trustee and ASB president at South San Francisco High School. Good evening board, cabinet, and community. My name is Josephine Harana, and it's my pleasure to represent South San Francisco High School. It sure feels like the end of the school year is approaching way too quickly, but before we start looking towards the end, South City has a few more events up their sleeve. This week is Earth Week, and our Earth Club has been hard at work rallying all the SSFHS climate warriors. On Monday, they held a protest during lunch and marched around the school to demonstrate that they are fighting for a change. On Wednesday, they held a weed picking competition. And today, they held a campus cleanup after school. Tomorrow, they will be creating a human banner on the
020football field spelling out the words SSFHS Climate Warriors to end off Earth Week. The SSFHS Earth Club reminds everyone to be green and keep our planet clean. And as they chanted around school on Monday, "Hey, hey, ho ho. Climate change has got to go." Introducing the grand premiere. This coming Saturday, South City will be holding our prom in Redwood City's Fox Theater from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. The theme is Old Hollywood, and pre- purchased tickets will be passed out tomorrow after school ends by the cafeteria. Last Friday, the ASB Tech and School Communitys held a joint fundraiser selling strawberry Dubai chocolate cups. They sold out in 5 minutes and due to the success of the fundraiser, they will continue to sell more Dubai chocolate strawberry cups at a later date. Next week is senior week.
021On Tuesday, April 29th, all seniors are invited to participate in the senior lip dub after school in the quad. On Thursday, May 1st, seniors are encouraged to wear the merch of their college that they are planning on attending. We are so proud of our seniors and their hard work throughout their high school careers. Senior class hoodies are still available to purchase for $40 through the link on the senior class Instagram at SSFHS_2025. Our folkloric program is holding their annual spring concert next Friday, May 2nd at 7 PM in the auditorium. There will be an additional show on Sunday, May 4th at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students and children. Additionally, the band and choir will also be holding their spring concert on May 8th at 700 p.m. in the
022auditorium. Last Friday, the ASB school community held an Inside Out themed dodgeball tournament during lunch in the big gym. Congratulations to the senior team for winning the highly coveted prize of a $125 Roblox gift card. Tomorrow, the mock trial team will be attending the L lunchon to celebrate their accomplishments this past season. Congratulations, Warriors. Next weekend, South City's National History Day State qualifiers will head to Sacramento and compete in the National History Day State competition. Good luck to the students participating. We know you'll make South City proud. Our spring sports seasons are beginning to wrap up with our boys golf team celebrating their senior night yesterday against Half Moon Bay. Our baseball team is 8-1 right now and first in their league with another win tonight against Prior Priary 9 to0. The bminton team recently
023won against Jefferson and Sano on Monday and Tuesday and tonight is competing against Mills. The swim team will compete tomorrow against Cappuccino in South City's home pool at 3:30 and will al and will also be celebrating their senior night. The boys volleyball team is also celebrating their senior night tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. against Cappuccino. Finally, with AP exam season right around the corner, I would like to wish all students taking exams happy studying and good luck on their exams. If there are no further questions, this concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. And Jamie's not here tonight, but we are happy to welcome ASB chairperson for El Camino High School, Michaela Lavine. All right. Good evening board members, cabinet, audience at home, and audience present. My name is Michaela Lavine, and
024I'm currently a senior serving as ASB chairperson at El Camino High School. I will be taking Jaime's place as she is out today, but she wishes her best regards and hopes all of you are staying warm in this chilly weather. As part of wellness week, our students and faculty have been taking on the USC mind challenge where participants pour a bucket of ice water over their heads to raise awareness and support for mental health, particularly among students and young adults. Participants document the challenge, nominate others to join, and donate to Active Minds, a nonprofit organization focused on mental health advocacy. The goal is to normalize conversations around mental health and break down the stigma surrounding it. Be sure to check out our school Instagram to see teachers and staff who have taken on the challenge.
025Here's what we've done throughout the week. Monday, we launched the stories of content consent exhibit in the cafeteria where students could read testimonials on all forms of consent. Tuesday, we held an Earth Day LTA in the courtyard. Students de-stressed and celebrated Earth Day by potting plants and flowers to bring new life to campus. Wednesday after school, we hosted a community resource fair with over 15 local organizations sharing valuable resources to help students support themselves and others. Thursday, today we had an affirmations and coping LTA where students shared affirmations and coping strategies to create a beautiful collaborative poster. Friday, we'll close the week with an ending the silence assembly during flex featuring speakers from NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and ECHS peer counseling, focusing on mental health awareness, coping tools, and building resilience. Last
026Friday, APD auditions were officially wrapped up, and we're excited to announce that the new cast for the 2025 to 2026 school year has been posted on our Instagram account. Additionally, we had several students who were bumped up, and we couldn't be prouder of everyone who gave it their all. Thank you to everyone who came out and auditioned. Your courage, passion, and dedication did not go unnoticed. Congratulations to our new team. We can't wait to see all that you accomplish in the year ahead. ICC will be hosting an end of the year potluck to celebrate all the incredible accomplishments our clubs have achieved throughout the year. I'll be co-hosting this exciting and meaningful event alongside Joey Lee, our chairperson elect. This potluck is a chance for us to come together and reflect on all the hard
027work, creativity, and dedication that our clubs have poured into their events and communities. We're so proud of everything they've done, and we look forward to honoring our outgoing officers for their service while giving a warm welcome to our incoming leaders. Rhythm and Moves, our annual dance show, is showcasing next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Pre-sale tickets are on sale now and will end on April 30th. They're just $15, but prices will go up at the door, so don't wait. Our dance department kicked off their tech rehearsals today and will be working hard all week leading up to the big night. Come out and support our amazing performing arts department. And don't miss the chance to cheer on your favorite dancers, especially our seniors, as they take the stage for one final unforgettable performance. We can't wait
028to see you there for a full night of moves, rhythm, and memories. Decision day for our seniors is right around the corner. On May 1st, we'll be celebrating the class of 2025 by posting where they're headed after high school on our main Instagram. So, be sure to check it out. This is our chance to recognize and celebrate our amazing seniors, highlight their achievements, and cheer them on as they take the next big step in their journey. We are so incredibly proud of all they've accomplished and can't wait to see all the incredible things they'll do in the future. Congratulations, seniors. And lastly, AP exams are starting next next week and I just want to wish every student the best of luck. Take this upcoming week to prepare. Study hard, but also take time to rest
029and recharge. Remember, your grades do not define you. What truly matters is the effort, growth, and resilience you've shown throughout the school year. Be proud of everything you've accomplished. I'm rooting for you every step of the way. You got this. That concludes my report. And unless there are any other questions or concerns, I'd like to thank you all for listening. I hope you all have an amazing rest of April before we approach our last month of the school year. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, public comments. Uh, public comments for items not on the agenda should not exceed 30 minutes. We will go a little bit longer than that tonight um because we are really excited to have uh several Spanish speaking parents and we will need to do um interpretation uh for
030them. Uh public comments are limited to a maximum of I'm going to do two minutes because we have 15 speakers. Uh so that's just a note. Um public comments are limited to two minutes tonight. Name and address cards are placed at the back of the room to be completed and given to the secretary. The board president will call upon individuals in random order who have requested to speak. Each person may only speak once and is required to address the board from the podium. The meeting is recorded and streamed live. Individuals may address the board concerning school business not on the agenda, but public comment cannot be acted upon or discussed by the board unless unless placed on the agenda um in accordance with the law, the Brown Act. Uh the board may request staff to
031respond orally at the meeting or in writing at a future time. Tonight we have uh five comments that are about topics not on the agenda and we have 10 comments that are about a topic that's later in the agenda that we are taking now um in order to uh honor folks time. So I'm going to start with the items not on the agenda. There are five. Um Melanie Bingham Good evening, President Anthony board, Dr. Ma Cabinet, teachers, and the public. Our SSFUSD community has been given several buzzwords to think about and focus on over the years. Some of the most recent ones have been shifts, growth mindset, and equity. Today, I'm asking you, our school board, to make a shift in your thinking. It's time to challenge tradition and re-evaluate how we value those who
032are shaping the next generation. This is not just about giving teachers more money. It is about investing in our children and making our public education system more attractive. If we don't do this soon, there won't be any teachers because no one will want to go into the field and those that are there now won't be able to afford to stay. I'm asking you to have growth mindset. As a district, we pride oursel on fostering growth in our students. We encourage them to dream big, be creative, and think critically. How can we expect our students to excel if we are not willing to invest in the professionals who support them every day? Be the district that leads by example. Growth starts from within. You have the opportunity to set a precedent to be the ones who
033recognize the value of your teachers. Show everyone else that you know that teachers are an invaluable necessity. The last word is equity. Show equity to your teachers. We talk about equity and the fairness all the time. We talk about equity and fairness all the time with our students, but it should start from it should start with our educators. Teachers come from all backgrounds and we work in a variety of classrooms, but we all have the same goal to help our students be successful. How can we continue to do that when we don't feel like we are successful because we're not valued? All teachers deserve financial recognition for the jobs that they do. Teachers deserve equity. Thank you so much, Amy Lampanila. Good evening, board trustees, Dr. Moore, members of the cabinet, and members of the
034community. My name is Amy Lamb Bonola and I am here again tonight to advocate for a TK spot for every child that has applied for this fall. I appreciate and understand that the school district is trying to find solutions. Our kids, however, deserve more than trying. They deserve a spot. The summer is just around the corner and we need to see the changes now. I have been a proud parent to a kindergartener here at the district and a big proponent to public education. The the district's mission emphasizes being equitable and accessible when TK is evidently not. I have even considered transferring to another school district for one year for TK. But neither is that fair nor realistic for my child or my family's circumstances to endure this undue burden when we live three blocks from
035the school. If there are schools with underenrollment, how is space an issue? If teachers could be paid a fair salary, would there be less teacher vacancies? As you are aware, children only have a few years before third grade that determines much of their future success in school. Schools now have TK to give all children an extra year to get them to where they need to be. They all deserve an equal chance. We as parents want to partner with you. But how do we if we do not know what has already been explored, what can or cannot work or how we as parents can help. There needs to be better communication from the district with the parents. Parents are told that the district is trying and to wait for a call and explore other options. I'm
036not asking for other options and I refuse to sit on my hands and wait. TK is what my child needs and deserves. Will you as the board enforce this law now or will you be choosing to leave children behind this fall? Please stop kicking the can down the road. Thank you. Thomas Blackberger. Good evening board and cabinet. My name is Tom Blockberger and I'm a science teacher at South San Francisco High School. I wanted to make some comments on the state of education in our school district. As you know, we have a significant shortage of teachers throughout the district. We need to remind ourselves that our sole core mission is to provide as high a quality of education to our students as we can. With so many vacancies, this is impossible. We all know how
037poorly distance learning worked. There needs to be a teacher in every classroom throughout the district. The fix is very simple. We need to pay teachers, counselors, psychologists, staff, and classified a lot more money. The board may think that there is not money for significant increase in raises, but there is. I'm also asking the board to rethink a lot of things. It is not okay to say,"Well, we spend 80some percent on salaries and benefits. That's what other school districts do, so we are doing fine." Keep in mind that for other districts with larger budgets than us, 80ome% totals up to much higher salaries. In the latest contract offer made by the district in year two, they are only offering a 2.5% increase. This is not enough to survive in this very expensive area and will not
038attract new teachers to come into the district. Remember, the education of our students is the district's sole main mission. Equity is not our northstar. Education is. Thank you. Thank you, Lucy Bradshaw. Hello, I'm back. Um, good evening, President Anthony, board, cabinet, and community. Um, I do feel like you're hearing us and you're listening and you're responding appropriately. And I feel like as a team, the board, the cabinet, the teachers, I feel like we're really on the right path. You know, I feel it's moving in a direction. It makes me feel hopeful and positive and I'm starting to see some, you know, hear rumors of some of the outcomes that we were hoping for. And I appreciate you. I appreciate the time that's gone into bargaining on both sides of the table. Believe me, I I
039I can't imagine all of the the details that are going into that work, and I do appreciate it. Um, but unfortunately, I'm just here again just to talk about equity. The teachers that have been paid incorrectly are still waiting for that to be resolved. So, we're, you know, the end of April and I understand that that's a lot to to deal with, but it should be dealt with quickly. And also our our pay scale, you know, let's we should have a big big raise. We should get it resolved. We should have it on the website so that we can hire teachers. You know, that's how we're going to get them in the door. It's the end of April. We got to get moving on this if we have spots to fill. And speaking about spots
040to fill, there's a rumor that there's going to be another TK class. And I thought, "Oh my gosh, that would be amazing. one more TK class um at a school that already has one, which made me feel a little sad for the students at JS who don't have an opportunity for TK. Um the brain development before the age of five is crucial. The only opportunity we get is TK. So please let's try to add more classes. Thank you. Thank you. Carrie Miliseri. Hello. Good evening, President Anthony, trustees, Dr. Mora, cabinet, educators, and community. My name is Carrie Muliseri and I am the secondary math teacher on special assignment, and I'm here to speak about salary placement and raises. I've been a part of this district for 11 years, serving in a variety of roles, including
041middle school teacher, high school assistant principal, parent, and five years as a district-wide TOSA. I'm grateful to be a part of this community of dedicated and passionate educators, and I truly love being here. That said, the work is challenging and as part of my current role, I visit school sites for department meetings and check-ins. It is disheartening to hear from teachers about the impact of our current situation, especially the uncertainty many feel about returning next year due to our comparatively low salaries. Math teachers in particular have noted they could earn significantly more just a few miles away. I was also struck by a math teacher's comments at the last board meeting regarding her incorrect placement on the salary schedule. And I hope issues like this get resolved quickly. These issues place tremendous strain on our
042teachers and make it even harder to ask them to take on additional responsibilities such as implementing a new curriculum. While it's true that requests for raises are common in any district, if we genuinely believe that our educators are invaluable, we need to show it, especially in the way that matters most to them, compensation. I was excited to hear about the updates from yesterday's bargaining, and I'm really hopeful. We all want teachers to feel valued, respected, and supported. And please demonstrate your commitment to this and help us keep highly effective teachers and in turn positively impact all of our students. Thank you. Thank [Applause] you. Okay. The next set of comments are on item O, presentation one, regarding the math pilot. Um these parents have and co commenters have chosen to go now rather than wait
043for item O. Um so Crystal um are you going to be doing the interpretation or we've got you're going to be doing the interpretation? Okay. Um do you want to just alternate or how would you like to do it? We've got five comments that need interpretation or six and then five that don't. comments. Okay. And and for us too, right? Okay. Super. Okay. So, we'll do the English comments first. Um first I've got Ruby Rivera Lopez. I'll just give you the There is a step if you want it and thank you for taking the plunge to be first. Hi, my name is Ruby Rivera Lopez and I am a seventh grade student at Parkway Heights Middle School. Out of 20 students in my class, my teacher says many of us are struggling with math. Math
044is important to me because it will help me succeed in life and reach the career I want. But right now, too many kids are being left behind, and that's not okay. We all deserve to have the same opportunities and resources as other students. Our current math curriculum doesn't challenge us. It's sometimes too easy. And instead of helping us move forward, it holds us back. That's why this new curriculum is so important. It would help level the playing field for students like me who are often overlooked. This is urgent. We shouldn't have to wait for equality math education. This affects our futures and we the students should have a say. Please vote to adopt the new math curriculum. Kids like me can't wait any longer. Thank you. Thank you. and Helina [Music] Molina and Helina Molina.
045Um, hi, good afternoon. I am an eighth grade student from Parkway Heights Middle School and I had the opportunity to participate in the pilot program for the new math curriculum this year. As a student, I can tell you that the difference is clear. The lessons are more interesting. They helped me think more deeply and I felt more motivated to learn. When I learned that the district had been teaching the same outdated math curriculum for over a decade, I was very frustrated. How can we graduate prepared for the future if our curriculum isn't high quality? But with the new curriculum, I felt that I was truly learning and can proven in math. It's important that all students have access to this curriculum that changes, motivates, and prepares them well. If I was able to improve and
046feel more confident, other students can too. It's not fair that some of us have that opportunity and others don't. I'm asking you to improve the new math curriculum and that that our classmates need. We all deserve an education that prepares us for a good future. Thank you. Thank you so much, Summer Lopez. Hi, good afternoon. My name is Summer Lopez and I am an eighth grader from Parkway Heights Middle School and one of the students from the advanced math pilot program. We are here to tell you to change the curriculum so that all students can benefit from this program. It is an investment for the students future. With this program, we can ensure that all students have access to these opportunities and can make a long-term impact on them. The skill and material given to
047us in this class has helped us in other classes such as science. Math also helps students open doors in future in today's technology-filled world. Math plays a very big role in getting in high demanding and highpaying careers such as computer science, engineering, and many more. Math is essential for the students who want to um accomplish things in these fields. Thank you. Thank you. Um Alejandra, I can't read your last name. Maybe Kumz Alejandra. Yeah. Good evening everyone. My name is Alejandra Kumz and I'm currently a junior attending El Camino High School. For as long as I can remember, math has always been a subject I struggled with. I've sat through classes where the lessons felt very confusing, which always left me feeling like a failure. As a result, I gained quite a disdain towards the
048subject, which continues to affect my mathematical performances. I always thought that I was a problem and I although I may just need some extra support when it comes to math, I also wonder if the outdated curriculum was a contributing factor to my struggles. Our math curriculum is 12 years old. That means I've been learning from the same type of lessons since elementary school. The world today is not the same it was 12 years ago. Like technology, our curriculum should advance as time goes by. This is urgent. The current current curriculum has been rated not meeting standards by ed reports. There's no time to wait because students will only fall further behind. Every year that goes by is a year too late. We've been told that this district is committed to equity and preparing us to
049be problem solvers. But you can't expect us to live up to that promise if the tools that we're given are outdated. As a student, this is extremely exciting. Like me, I've seen many of my peers struggle and completely give up in math simply because they believe that they're not intelligent enough for it when really we have been let down by our education system. However, in life, mistakes are made, but that does not mean that they cannot be fixed. Change is always possible and we need it now. Please vote yes to adopt a new math curriculum. Our education depends on it. Students deserve to be shown that their education is prioritized and valued. We matter. Please vote yes tonight. Our future and the future of every student in this district is counting on it. Please do
050not hold us back any longer. We deserve a better education. Thank you. Thank you. Alma Luis S. Yeah. Good evening, board members and cabinet. My name is Alis Sto. I'm a proud parent of three children's next year and one of in elementary, one in middle school, and one in high school. I've been a parent in the district for 13 years and I'm also a former student of South San Francisco district. I've been a parent in the district for 13 years. Sorry. Uh myself, I have been an advocate not just for my own children's but for all the childrens in our district. I am a parent leader with Padres's Unidos and I serve our local PTA and I'm currently sit at the board at South San Francisco Foundation. I am deeply committed to our community and
051to ensure that every children has access to quality education. And yet, I watch my own children struggle with outdated math materials just like I did when I was in school here. Not enough has changed and I'm worried every day that they are not receiving the high quality grade level instruction they deserve. Our current math curriculum is 13 years old. It doesn't meet national standards for quality. It does not work. and it's the data shows it especially failing our Latino and bilingual students. That's why I urge you vote yes tonight to adapt a new high quality math curriculum our students can wait. I had followed this process closely over the past two years. Last year there was a little to no parent engagement. Why weren't why weren't Title One families notified about these major decisions? Parents
052deserve a seat at the table, especially when these decisions impact our children's future. This year, I'm glad the district made more effort to include us. I attended presentations at ELAC and other district committees. And my fifth grader at Spruce is part of the current math curriculum. I have seen a re a real change in her. She used to come to me and say, "Mom, I don't get this." Now she tells me, "Mommy, I like math." And her teacher has confirmed her progress. This is what possibly when a child gets the tools and support they need. Please vote yes to adapt the new math curriculum. Our students desire better and they deserve it now. Thank you, Evelyn Cruz. [Music] is Evelyn Cruz. Mathematic. Good evening board members and cabinet. My name is Evelyn Cruz and I'm
053a proud grandmother of two three youngsters who attend this district. One at Sunshine Gardens, one at Parkway, and one at El Camino. I'm here this evening to ask you to vote in favor of adopting the new math curriculum. Our children can't wait. They are already falling behind because the current curriculum is obsolete and does not meet standards. This should be unacceptable for all of us. Our children deserve more. Our young people deserve an education in math and a curriculum in reading that provides them the tools they need to have a bright future. Last year, this board voted against adopting a new curriculum. Please don't allow that to happen again. We have a responsibility to provide the our children with the best opportunity so they can prosper. Let's not wait any longer. Vote yes to adopting
054a new math curriculum. We have to make sure that we have a curriculum that is highquality in all our schools. Thank you for your time and thank you for doing the right thing for our children. Thank you, Jose Molina. Martin. and mathematic. Miguel. Foreign [Applause] Good evening. My name is Jose Molina and I'm a father of two daughters who attend Martin and Parkway. As parents, we we want our daughters to succeed both at school and in life. We have high expectations for both of them. And that's why we have high expectations for a curriculum that will prepare them for the future. I'm here because I believe that all children deserve a curriculum that's strong in math. When I look at achievement in the district, especially at title one schools, I worry that the curriculum that's
055currently being used is not preparing them to be ready for college or their future. We have waited too long. Our children can't continue waiting. My daughter at Parkway participated in the pilot program for the new curriculum and she had a positive experience. I want her to continue with that curriculum, one that challenges her and gets her ready. And I want all kids to have that same opportunity. I trust that you will make the right decision tonight in favor of our children, of a new curriculum, and in favor of our community. We are united and we're ready. We can do it. Thank you, Carmen. Vega Wes is reports. Latinos fores. instruction. Good evening. My name is Carmen Vega and I'm a mother of a student in second grade at Spruce and a parent leader who participated
056in the creation of the portrait of a graduate. According to ed reports, the current curriculum for math is antiquated and inefficient. It doesn't meet national standards of quality and it shows a lot of gaps in achievement especially for title one schools. This curriculum is failing our students particularly Latino students and bilingual students. My son likes math and he has potential. I don't want a weak curriculum to cut short his opportunity to stand out and a future in where he could take advanced placement classes at South City and in college. That's why it's urgent that you approve a new curriculum for math. We can't continue teaching with materials that are obsolete for another three years. Our children can't wait any longer. We know that changing the curriculum is a big challenge for the community, especially educators.
057But the district in their strategic plan made a commitment with thousands of students, families, and educators to empower teachers, offer exceptional instruction, and to build systems based on equity in order to make the portrait of a graduate a reality. We can't allow these promises to just stay on paper. It's time that the decisions that the district makes and the way that resources are appropriated reflect this com this commitment. Adopting a rigorous curriculum and aligning it with standards is a clear step towards educative justice. All students deserve a quality education without care to what their race, language, or national origin is. Our children deserve to be well educated. Our students can't wait any longer. Thank you, Sandra Blanco. assistant. Mathemat Mathemat. Mathematic. Mathematos. Good evening. My name is Sandra Blanco and I'm a mother of two
058children. Sophia, 11, and Ramito, 8, both attend Spruce Elementary. I've been a parent leader in the district for two years, supporting families advocating for a better education for their children. Today, I speak to you as a worried mom who is anguished about the current math curriculum. My daughter has had a lot of difficulties at math and she's going into middle school. And if we don't see a change now, I worry that she will fall further behind in math. How can we meet the requirements in the portrait of a graduate if our math achievement is so low? This portrait of a graduate represents the vision that we shared for our children that they be creative thinkers, problem solvers, and strong communicators. As parents, we were part of the creation of this vision. You invited us to
059participate and a lot of us that are here tonight help prepare this vision. The portrait of a graduate also includes a commitment that's very clear to provide our children with a strong curriculum that's modern and rigorous. How can they be problem solvers without the foundation math if that is broken? Please, please do what you promised. Vote tonight to adopt a new curriculum in math. Our children deserve it. The community did their part. Now it's your turn. We need strong leadership. Our children are counting on you and they can't wait. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Rosa Sales. San Francisco. Francisco. friend. Good evening. My name is Rosa Salas and I am a parent leader who has been working in the community for three years and I was part of preparing the portrait of a graduate. As
060a mom of two daughters, one who goes to Parkway High Middle School in the seventh grade and has an IEP and another at Sunshine Gardens who is in the third grade. During these years, I have seen the level of math in our schools. It is really low and is not at grade level. I think that each child in our community deserves the same. and my children deserve that. We need to develop their potential so that they can reach their full potential and be successful. But I am worried because our schools have been working with a curriculum that's more than a decade old and does not meet with grade level expectations. It is not preparing them. We need a new curriculum that can help our children reach their goals, not one that stops them and slows
061them down from reaching their success. I hope that each one of you voting tonight can help our children achieve that success and not stop them. Thank you. Thank you so much. We have two more. Uh, this one's hard for me to read. Dorca isurriculan. Ospech. Our kids can't way. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dorcas Argetta and I'm a mother of a daughter in the 11th grade at El Camino and I'm also a parent leader for about and I have been doing that for about three years. My daughter has been waiting for this change. The math curriculum has not been updated in order to respond for the real life needs of our students today. We continue using a curriculum that's more than 12 years old and one that doesn't align with this era of
062time and it doesn't prepare our children for the future. We can't talk about academic success. We need a curriculum that's modern, rigorous, and fair to really help them advance forward. You made a promise to educate our children for success or today. We ask that you follow that promise and our kids so that our kids can become the strong leaders that this community needs. We trust that you will vote yes for the new math curriculum, yes to the future, no to the past, yes to success. We trust that you will also understand that our kids can't wait. Our children need to this to be successful. Thank you. And finally, Salvin in San Francisco. Yes. Good evening. My name is Selvin Orana. I'm a father of three children. Two of them at Spruce. My daughter is in
063the fifth grade and my other daughter is in the fourth I'm sorry, my son is in the fifth grade and my daughter is in the fourth grade. I'm also part of a parent leadership group that's committed to improving education in South San Francisco. I'm here tonight because I'm concerned that a lot of our children, including mine, are not performing at grade level in math. The current curriculum is not preparing them for the future. My children and all kids in the district deserve a curriculum that prepares them for life, one that provides them an opportunity to achieve success and to achieve their dreams. It's time for a change. We can't continue using math materials that are outdated. Our children are falling behind. The new curriculum is an opportunity for improvement and leveling the playing field for
064all students, especially those who most need it. I trust that you will make a courageous decision tonight. I ask you to vote in favor of adopting the new math curriculum. Our children can't wait. Thank you. And that concludes public comment. Um we would ordinarily come to item Nformational only presentations. And we've got Sunshine Gardens up, but we also have 12 minutes before we need to take a break. Uh, Principal Gonzalez, can you do it in 12 minutes or do you You want to Yeah. I mean, and then we can take a break and then we can come back and answer ask questions. Oh, all right. 12 minutes for the presentation and then we'll do questions after. [Music] All right. Good evening, board president Anthony, board of trustees, Dr. Moore, Cabinet, South San Francisco Unified Community,
065and Sunshine Garden Stallions. Uh, I'm Lisia Gonzalez, proud principal of Sunshine Gardens. Now in my fourth year serving this incredible community where we create a supportive and thriving learning environment where students feel valued and empowered every day. Uh oh it's it's on. Oh no it's on. Okay. Happens every time. Sorry it's a dark screen. Um imagine a school where every student feels seen, every educator feels inspired and every family feels connected. That's what we're building together here at Sunshine Gardens, a community grounded in a shared mission. Our portrait of a graduate, core values, and strategic priorities, all working together in service of students. Our portrait of a graduate is a promise to every student to help them grow as curious learners, critical thinkers, compassionate citizens. We focus on building the mindsets of students to navigate
066challenges, thrive socially and emotionally, and positively impact their world. Our strategic plan keeps us focused on what matters most, student success. And we're bringing it to life by prioritizing equity, strengthening transparency, and using data to drive change. At Sunshine Gardens, we equip students with success by fostering strong character relationships, a positive school culture. Our 2024 25 priorities focus on learner centered education, social emotional wellness, data chats in math and English, partner talks, writing and attendance. As a title one school, Sunshine Garden serves 40% multilingual learners, 26% students with disabilities, and 49% socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Our care team meets every two months to collaborate on strategies and interventions analyzing academic, social, and behavioral data to help all students succeed. To support these efforts, one of the key areas we closely monitor is student attendance. We are
067actively monitoring students by providing positive attendance reminders and messaging for families on the importance of coming to school every day and on time. Our attendance data over the past three years shows positive trends. Our efforts of our front office staff and our teachers who consistently communicate the importance of daily attendance to parents have made a difference. This year we started at 95.8 per 95.8% in August and have remained strong in the mid 90s reflecting an overall upward trend. Chronic absenteeism has also improved starting at 12% and most recently reported at 14.5. So great progress. And building on the momentum from improved attendance, we now turn our focus to California state testing outcomes. It's important to review these results from preandemic to now to track student progress. The color-coded cohorts highlight both our gains and areas
068for growth. This data shows we're getting back on track thanks to our teachers collaboration and efforts to engage students and improve instruction. A closer look at our math data reveals both areas of achievement and opportunities for growth. 24% of students in third, 26% of students in fifth met or exceeded standards, which is lower than both the district and state averages, highlighting the need for targeted intervention. Fourth grade performed more competitively with 42% of students meeting or exceeding standards, just below the district's 46% but above the state's 40% demonstrating amazing progress. And Sunshine Gardens is moving in the right direction. Our commitment to academic growth is reflected in the California dashboard where we've increased 9.4 points and moved from red into yellow category in math. and we recognize there's still work to do to ensure consistent
069improvement across all grade levels. Our English data, sorry, our English data shows that we are continuing to work towards improving student outcomes. 35% of students in third, 33% of students in fourth, and 39% of students in fifth met or exceeded standards, which is below the district and state, but showing some progress and still leaving room for improvement. And according to the California dashboard, we've maintained and remain in the orange category. And to continue strengthening student achievement, we're focusing on academic discourse and partner talk strategies to increase engagement and comprehension. Additionally, we're implementing targeted writing instruction through structured routines and write tool strategies to build stronger literacy skills across all grade levels. 19% of our fifth grade students met or exceeded standard on the science assessment, an outcome that highlights the need for stronger science instruction.
070And we're addressing this by deepening student engagement through our hands-on inquirybased Twig science curriculum and incorporating academic discourse to build critical thinking and collaboration skills. Two of our teachers, one who's here tonight, is also part of our science instructional innovator cohort, bringing new strategies and leadership to our campus. Recently at a staff meeting, they introduced scientific modeling to staff, a practice that supports sensemaking and language development. and we're committed to continuous growth in science so every student can engage, explore, and excel. We're closely monitoring progress for multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students as outlined in our SIPA. Through targeted supports and a focus on engagement and academic discourse, we're addressing their unique needs. Our multilingual student population continues to expand, now representing 11 languages. We're proud to share that last week 10
071students were reclassified as fluent English proficient at um the ceremony the RFP ceremony last week and our bilingual paraprofessionals continue to support and designated EL with our teachers working closely to meet students language needs. Our multilingual learners are making progress. 17% scored proficient on ELPAC which shows the impact of all the hard work happening in the classrooms. And we're seeing this growth in the dashboard data, which is a good sign that our strategies are working. At Sunshine Gardens, we are all about using data to support student growth throughout the year. Tools like Dibbles and EXL Math help us track progress, and we're excited to see strong gains from beginning of middle of year um with 50 to 79% of students meeting or exceeding Dibble's benchmarks in each grade. So, take a look at that. Wonderful
072news, Sunshine Gardens. Next up, we use my Math EXL to track student data all year long. Thanks to Title One funding, our math interventionists support students in grades 1 through 5 twice a week using EXL to guide instruction. Six teachers also run math academic centers before and after school. We're focusing our and strengthening our tier one instruction using strategies like academic discourse to boost engagement and learning. And our EXL growth data shows that we are moving in the right direction. And we also monitor data in various ways, ensuring that students have opportunities to learn, navigate, impact, and thrive in all aspects of the school experience. Our co-curricular activities play a crucial role in helping our students become not only better learners, but better citizens and peers. Students are exposed to diverse opportunities like theater, art,
073gardening, recycling, respecting cultural differences, and becoming better readers. These activities foster an inclusive environment where all students can thrive. And we're incredibly grateful for the partnerships that help enrich student um student learning and support success at Sunshine Gardens. Over 150 students benefit from our afterchool programs through Boys and Girls Club and Leo J. Ryan providing uh safe and engaging spaces with growth beyond the school day. Programs like music for minors which was funded by Prop 28 and Lagarsa PE continue to inspire creativity, movement and engagement. Our partnership with Janentex Gene Academy offers fourth and fifth grade valuable mentorship and academic support. And one of our key partnerships this year has been partners in school innovation through their coach coaching and support. Our instructional leadership team has strengthened its ability to identify schoolwide focus areas and
074align strategies to improve student learning. PSI has helped us build stronger collaboration among staff, encourage meaningful use of data to guide instruction, and supported peer observations so teachers can learn from one another. This partnership has helped us continue fostering a culture of shared leadership, reflection, and ongoing growth at Sunshine Gardens. And uh our school community thrives both in and out of the classroom. PTA, as you know earlier, Cat mentioned, they support students and teachers with various events. Um organize things for us for our school so that parents are connected to school. Uh, one item I want to bring to everyone's attention is we do have our Kent award-winning multicultural talent show tomorrow at 6 PM and you are all invited. So, come on by Sunshine Gardens. And this year, as you know, uh, Sunshine Gardens
075turned 70 and we had a birthday party where we dressed in 1950s attire, which was kind of confusing. But a huge thank you, I want to say to my amazing teaching staff for their dedication, advancing students um, and supporting all the students in Sunshine Gardens. It's an honor to work with you. Um and also to our wonderful classified staff who constantly um provides wonderful customer service to our students and families. Um and as we near near the end of the school year, I'm excited for what's to come in the future and I continue to be so proud to serve the Sunshine Gardens community. It is an honor to be part of this wonderful community of uh teachers, learners, and families. Um now I'd like to invite my volunteers up unless Okay. Um, so I'd like
076to recognize uh Sunshine Garden staff here tonight. Some of them did have to leave. Um, but I just want to mention again every year we have we have a lot of wonderful staff. They've been here for a while. So out of 40 staff members, we have 16 that have been with us over 15 years. And yes, and that builds a strong relationship with our community and our parents. And it's wonderful to have an experienced staff. Um, and I'd also like to recognize our parent volunteers who do multiple things. They are part of PTA. They are the Scholastic Bookf Fair organizer. They do the talent show. They do career day next week. Um, and starting next year, I will be PTA vice president. So, um, I but I would like to call up my wonderful volunteers
077for this year. Um, Magdalena Landa. Um, she is not here today, but I want to honor her. Justine Cresensio, who's not here as well. Cat San Felipe. All right. Come on up. Cat is still here. Thank you. And Erica Sanchez. Allison Santa Maria. I don't think I saw her, but Erica Sanchez, come on up. All right, let's give them a round of applause. All right, we are going to take the break and we're going to take a photo with you on our break. Um, and then we'll come back and have questions. Reconvene at 8:40. All right, Principal Gonzalez, are you ready? Hi. Hello. All right. Um, I will start uh by asking Dowy to help with the echo here. I is maybe it's gone. Okay, it seems to have gone. Um, Trusty Lamb, do you
078want to start us off with questions if you have questions? Um, oh, sorry, I'm not prepared, but um, no, I I not much to say, but just thank you for uh being here. It's a pleasure to meet you, Principal Gonzalez. Sorry about the echo. What else? Wait, is that good? Okay. Yeah. Um I I actually grew well I when I first moved to South City um god over 17 years ago I did live in Sunshine Gardens briefly but so you know I would take my son walking and walk by the school and sort of wonder oh what's what's happening there. So um thank you for your leadership. Uh thank you for sharing um you know a little bit about the school. I look forward to visiting, you know, formally at some point and um yeah,
079I just love hearing all the ways you're supporting the kids and um yeah, just look forward to hearing, you know, what lessons learned from uh those kinds of uh interventions and uh supports. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice meeting you. Thank you so much, uh Trusty Shay. Thank you so much for your amazing presentation. is very uh positive and a positive energy there and with your leadership with a great team. So, thank you for uh helping our kids. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. And I will see you tomorrow night. Um yeah, great report. You have a wonderful school and school community. I love it. And uh and thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you so much for supporting us. trusty m thank you so much for uh bringing this
080uh mini report to the to us. I always enjoy uh reading all the all the languages. You have 58% of uh Latino children, but or are they all is that 58% English learners because that would cover a larger uh group of 40% um Okay. So the English learners will be children from other uh cultures. So yeah, correct. And I see and I asked you already, you have 11 different cultures that speak different languages. Different languages. Yeah. That's that's amazing. That puts on a very nice uh talent show because we get to see all the costumes from around the world. And I I confess I have not I don't know where who which those languages are. So I'm happy to um at least witness some of their customs. So, thank you so much for your great
081presentation and you're a wonderful uh principal. You always have a smile. I know, but you have your running shoes cuz you're always going somewhere in a hurry. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you. All right. Looks like we're going to have a quorum of the board at the at the talent show tomorrow because I will also be there. Um so, uh I just want to say thank you so much for your progress on um attendance. Um it is really good to see that you've kind of stayed in the green all year. Um I hope that continues and continues because the more students are in school, the better uh the outcomes are. I know um that you are doing a lot of work around math and literacy intervention. I I
082trust that that'll continue to work. I think you've got really great tier one instruction, too. Um, I just want to call out the fact that two years ago you guys won the Kent Award for your uh your interventions with students with disabilities, right? That's correct. You want to talk about that a bit? Our care team. Yeah. Two years ago we won the award for our care team and we meet every like I said two months to discuss strategies. So we meet with teachers. We actually have a a meeting tomorrow. So it's a full day meeting. teachers come in, we talk about strategies, and then they implement them and then come back to the table and see what worked and what didn't. So, it's a great way to be collaborative to really get everybody at the
083table um who can help support the child um not just the teacher but you know we have interventionists, myself, our counselors, parents um and so it's a very collaborative group and it's all about making students succeed so and giving them what they need. So, I appreciate that. Um I think it's a really good model um for for all of our schools. So I hope that you know we each one of our schools is doing some really interesting things around um advancing uh the core part of what we do the core part of education with spruce and their uh flooding pilot with you and your care team. I think it's something we can all um share and learn from. So I just want to talk about that. Thank you. Um also impressive ELPAC results. Really really
084great progress. Yeah. Thank you. Um and finally the fact that so many of your teachers have been at the school for so long. um you know, leadership changes. I know you've been there for four years, but leadership changes can often cause folks to leave and feel like this isn't the school that I signed up for. And so, the fact that all these teachers are still saying here um speaks a lot to your leadership. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a great evening. All right. Thank you so much. Moving on to O presentation with potential action. This presentation is educational services math pilot. Um I am I we do have one public comment. Uh if you want to comment now or if you want to wait until after the presentation after. Okay.
085So we'll do the presentation first. Director Jason Brockmeer and Mathtosis Satia Seagull and Carrie Miseri will review SSF USD's math vision student learning results in the math adoption progress and curriculum recommendation. Welcome Dr. Brockmire. Mr. Mr. Barkman, thank you. Uh good evening, President Anthony, trustees, Dr. Moore, rest of cabinet, and uh community. And thank you community for showing up tonight. Uh great presentation from our community. Um and so I know it's late and uh so we're going to get to this. So again, thank you all and tonight will be our uh update on our recommendation and adoption process. So, this is uh what we're going to engage in tonight. Again, we'll keep it pretty brief. Um we will uh Carrie will lead an engagement activity. We'll do a quick overview of the process. Again, um
086a big thing that's been asked around implementation support and then we'll bring forward a recommendation to adopt and then give an update on our grades three through five. And so, I'm going to hand it over to Miss Miseri, our secondary math tossa. Okay. I learned I can move this now. All right. So tonight we're going to do a which three go together. And I don't know if you have seen it or not, but I'll give you a second to look at it. And while you're looking at it, you're going to think about three of them that go together. And then I'm going to ask you to share which which three you think go together and why. And if you're ready, we can start. But if you need a minute, take a minute. Yes. Thank you.
087Or pract me on that. So I can start. Yeah, please. So I get it warmed up. So the A, C, and D because they are all parallel. And then the other set is Okay. Pause. Pause. Okay. So you said they're all parallel. What do you mean by that? Can you explain what you mean by that? Well, parallel is like this. So this all parallel. So it's not like this. So what do you mean when you when you go like this? What do you do? You know, then they are hitting each other. They There's intersect. So, oh, wait. What did you say? Intersect. They don't intersect. Oh, they don't intersect. They don't intersect. And what does intersect mean again? Can I say in Chinese? No, I'm kidding. Please. Actually, I would love for you to say
088it in Chinese. It will eventually. Oh, so it's two line touch each other. Okay. So, they don't touch. Intersect means they don't touch each other. Intersect mean they touch. parallels meaning they don't touch. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. Great. Anyone else? Which three go together and why? Um I would say A, B, and D because they all have slopes. Have slopes. What do you mean by slopes? Can you explain what you mean by that? They have a rise and a run. That's that's as deep as I'm gonna go on this today. But they have a rise and a run. Like a rise and a run. And this one doesn't have a slope. I think it only has a run, not a rise. It It doesn't have a run, not a rise. Um, isn't the
089slope zero? Am I? Or this one? This one's one like Well, let me ask you. You said it has a rise and a run. Does this rise at all? No. Okay. But does it run? Yes. So, it's up how many? Zero. Up zero and over one or however many. And do So, zero. So, zero. So, does it have a slope? No. Ah, it does. It does. The slope is zero. Ah, but not a zero slope. Not a zero slope. Ah, okay. Thank you. Awesome. And then I guess we'll take one more because we are limited on time. If anybody has one more to mine, so Oh, she took yours. They all took it. I can't think. I know Miss Blackhead is raising. She's really eager to join in this math problem. Why don't we ask
090Yeah, why don't you join us? I love this. So fun. Um, I said the what is it? A C G. Which one's supposed to? The the top one. That one below. This one. And then that one. Because they have non uh negative. Oh, no. Sorry. The this one. That one. Non- negative slopes. Non negative slopes. How do you know? because I was doing a similar rise over run thing and then I saw oh they have zero or a positive slope so they have non- negative slopes. Awesome. Or they all go this way. They don't go this way. Great. Thank you. Thank you everyone for sharing. Um I really want to say thank you for building on each other's ideas and learning from each other tonight. Um I hope that enga like engaging in these has
091made you feel more comfortable with math. and all of the ones that we've been doing together are from the new curriculum and that's part of what it aims to do. Um, and we just had a very deep conceptual understanding talk and I didn't do I didn't tell you any of that. That all came from you all. So, I want to thank you again and just remember our students come in with assets and we want to build on their thinking and build their confidence. Thank you. math teachers getting applauds. It should happen more often. So, um yeah, we got our community together and through that we came up with our strategic plan and right and that community input with uh within our our entire school community and now we you know we have established our core
092values, our strategic priorities and really developed our promise. Tonight we heard um from our community that it is our responsibility to keep our promise to our community and so uh that is grounded and here is our promise that we are trying to achieve. Um tonight's outcomes kind of went over that with the agenda. So um just present the overview of the process really talk through the implementation plan uh that's been developed uh co-developed with uh our ILT and give a quick update this year uh um the identification of highquality math materials is a key priority in our district. Um up there is a bunch of actions that we have taken throughout the year to keep us on track. Um, and we are on track and here we are tonight presenting uh to the board. I
093did include these milestones and really what I just want to I've already shared this and a lot of this information you've already seen that's why I'm going quick and just to remind really the public um that we've had two board study sessions where we have went deep into the process into the adoption. Um and so that is why tonight is rather brief and that we are going quick is because we have spent extensive time this year um really talking about uh the entire process. Uh here is our math vision. Uh this vision was actually created by our math educators um and reflects our commitment to our students. uh really want to you know highlight the fact um to focus on the ability to collaborate to think independently um to think critically and to persevere through
094mistakes right it's so important um that is how we actually learn is through struggle um and that is something that we are trying to promote within our students and our staff that in order to move forward in order to grow we must struggle I've showed this a lot uh here is our the opportunity that lies in front front of us, right? So, this is 10 years of of cast scores. Um, and again, there there is just a big opportunity gap that persists in our district. Um, and the reality is there's a large group of students in our districts that are far below beating our standards. Uh, you heard a lot of that community speak tonight and they do deserve, as we all deserve, highquality education. Um I mean what this continues to tell me is
095we need to fundamentally shift what we are doing to change these outcomes. So this is a decade of outcomes. So our math pilot outcomes last year I think it was right around this time. I was actually trying to think I think I wore the same suit. I actually was leaving today and I'm like you know what I had I think I had the suit on last year. But ultimately uh we were tasked with really making sure um we are able to demonstrate um the ability to sustain support with our staff. uh that was a key concern that was raised last year and something that I think the team did an excellent job of doing this year. Um also making sure that uh going through the individual recommendation process which again uh we continue to iterate
096the process to make sure that all of their voices were heard and recorded and to something that we added is ensuring clarity and transparency to the adoption process. We've met with family groups. Uh we've done study sessions. Um and actually went through a consensus process with our piloting teams to make sure every single voice was heard and recorded. This is the process that we've engaged. This has been over oh man two years at this point about um so a really lengthy process that we've been engaged in. Um a lot of work for our educators in this district and ultimately tonight here we are at the recommendation process. Um again and this process is really just carrying forward the recommendation from our secondary pilot team uh that reached consensus. I know there's been a lot of
097talk around alignment and rigor. Um and just we've uh again pointed to this a lot. Um it did uh IM does have was rated a perfect score with the secondary curriculum around uh usability, coherence, rigor. Um and so just again a reminder that we the bar that is set the minimum bar is it must meet uh criteria in order to move forward with the pilot. Um and IM has met that bar. Okay, I'm going to take it from here for a little bit. Um so the next I just want to highlight some of the supports and collaboration. So um the pilot group this year represented 33% of our middle school math teachers and 41% of our high school math teachers. Um all of these teacher engage teachers engaged in about 45 hours. Um and this
098is something we are really thinking about for the implementation plan and supports for next year. Um again a reminder of the process. So we um this was a very rigorous process. We had student survey data, teacher survey data, strengths and challenges, protocol and student assessment data. And then the pilot teachers um ratings. Um and this year we also added with student survey data or student focus group data that we looked at. Um so we shared some data previously with the preliminary. This was the MARS task that was given to students uh pilot and non-pilot in um August or September. And then again in January it was the same task. Um so this is the first graph is the overall scores. This is for the pilot groups. Um and then the second one is the depth
099of knowledge three which focuses on strategic thinking and complex reasoning. Um so part of what we're looking for is improvement in student understanding especially in adept of knowledge three. Um it is really hard to use data to evaluate the quality of a curriculum. Um but even with that this grow this shows growth um and that our support for implementation is working and we're seeing lots of positives in the second administration and this a reminder that this was only six months after piloting this curriculum. So um sorry 14 weeks have been corrected. Thank you. Um and then again uh this is the non-pilot data again overall scores and then depth of knowledge three uh for students who were not in the pilot. Um again this is baseline data that we could use um again but there
100is some growth there and positives. Another part uh of what we wanted to do this year was really support our educators. So this is just some uh feedback from a teacher survey that we did. Um we asked piloting teachers what they found the most useful this year. Secondary team the secondary team highlighted the trainings before school started that all the materials were prepared and given to them. Um and the lesson labs and demo lessons were some of the highest rated supports from this year. This is our secondary piloting team by school site. You can see we have fabulous 20 20 teachers from all six sites and Megan is here tonight. So, thank you. Um, and I think a lot of them are watching at home. Um, this team worked tirelessly all year and then at
101the end we spent three meetings spending lots of time. We reviewed lots of student data and focus group quotes. We reviewed all of the teacher data. We conducted a strengths and challenges protocol. We reviewed preliminary student data that you saw. Um and then we consent uh conducted a consent protocol where 100% consented to recommend this program aligns with the priorities identified in the landscape analysis. And then we shared all of that information with our EDS team. So this was the team that reviewed the data. You can see all of their names on the left hand side. These were all the things that they reviewed along with the 100% consent from the secondary pilot teachers. Um but with that said, um we do know that this is not going to be easy and we are going
102to need supports, lots of supports. Um so um there was we I've been consulting with some other districts and using that information um and been informed by their plans and also the needs identified by our teachers throughout this entire process. Um during our very last meeting where we did the consent protocol, the preliminary implementation plans was shared with the team. Um, since then, a team of pilot teachers, the TLT, has met to determine our goals, our metrics, support from different entities, a timeline for trainings and professional learnings, and how to build capacity at sites. Um, we've also addressed the issues that have come up during the pilot, including building in supports for our honor students and special education. We will continue to meet and iterate even during next year to to ensure we are providing
103support needed in the long term. So some of the things on here were things that was identified that we need from our district leadership communication access and support for technology iPads um ensuring materials are ready dedicated professional learning and collaboration time um and offering uh of differentiated support. Um we also identified on the site level um things that staff are requesting um so some staff support, some protected time um and ongoing communication to ensure success. Um and then there is a much larger plan behind all of this, but this is digestible. So, um, this just outlines some of the different areas we're going to focus on like professional learning from the publisher, the PLC's, principal engagement, coaching, family engagement. Um, we will continue to dive deeper into what each of those means and what that
104looks like as far as like meetings and things like that. Um, and just another reminder before I turn it back over to Jason is that we are going to need time and patience and a willingness to be open and engage in this work. And I believe that we can make it work. So, thank you. I told you this is going to be fast tonight. Um so when we move forward with implementation just the reality is with the shifts that are needed to to really challenge that opportunity gap and significantly change the outcome of our students and really support our learners. Um change is hard. We often think it's going to be a you know very easy straight line to get to where we need to go and it's actually going to be extremely challenging. I
105have told the team I often uh actually one of my mentors told me about this process is like a marriage right so tonight is the wedding however the next 10 years in front of us is the marriage that's going to take a lot of lot of work to make it work. Um a lot has been said about the curriculum but true success is going to go far beyond what this curriculum is. it really comes to the ability to us to support our educators with implementation um and with that long-standing relationship. So, um we know we need to make significant shifts in our classrooms. Uh we know um that we cannot continue to do what we're doing because it's not working for the vast majority of our students in our classrooms. um we need to lead
106and support the shifts that we can sustain and get to the outcomes and the promise that we gave to our community and a lot of those community members that are here tonight. Again, uh this work is going to be super challenging. We see those districts that are outliers and that's what's so unique and weird when we, you know, we talk about outlier districts. These are the rare districts that show significant outcomes for learners. Um, and I do believe we can be one of those outlier districts when we look at what the change that we can do and with the supports that are provided. Um, and with the staff that we have, uh, we can do this. We can be one of those outliers where people come and study us to see what have we done
107to positively impact all of the students in their district. And I do want to make it clear that, you know, it's with the people that we have currently in our district. So, it all starts with a simple belief that the answer's in the room, but it's going to be hard, but if we persist, we will positively impact all the learners in our district. Uh, tonight we're bringing really just forward the recommendation from the secondary pilot team that reached consensus to move forward the adoption to you all to make this recommendation. Unfortunately, uh we will have to wait uh with our grades three through five adoption recommendation. We met yesterday. We were unable to unable to reach consensus. Uh the uh educational leadership team met today to discuss next steps. Uh and we are reviewing those,
108but we uh we will not be bringing forward a recommendation to adopt for grades three through five. Uh and unfortunately, we will need to wait. I do want to express some appreciations uh to uh the folks that have helped all along the way. The Sanonteo County Office of Education uh specifically Miss Kim Bamba has been with us for the last year and a half supporting it. She actually led the consensus process with our elementary team uh and hope uh when from the secondary uh led the consensus process with our secondary team, the Bayad fund uh they are doing a lot of support uh with us uh with all of them. Thank you Bayed Fund. uh and even just you know providing means for us to take out and celebrate with our adults uh these folks
109that are working extremely hard some of them over the last two years with this piloting process which has been pretty brutal. Um and then again just to all of the expertise uh from uh both uh our mathtosas and to all of those piloting teachers uh that have put in a lot of hard work uh and also all of our students. Uh we have been out to almost every site talking to the kids, really trying to get their perspective and really to the community tonight that showed up to really speak on behalf. Um yeah, so thank you and thank you to you all for uh engaging in many board study sessions to really learn about uh the adoption process and about the the framework and and the shifts that we need to make to serve our
110kids. Thank you. And that is it. Any question? Thank you so much. All right. Now, I do have a public comment. Uh I'll let you do that first and then we'll do questions. Megan Connory, I will call your name. Huh? Uh to Yeah, I guess it's to everybody. We did to everybody for everybody else. We'll talk fast. All right. Megan Connory, El Camino High School math department chair and algebra 2 honors teacher at El Camino High School. I am giving my final public comment on the math curriculum adoption. There has been tremendous support from the ed services and from the math tosses to help us make this important decision. We have received unwavering support this year. But what's that saying? You can't put lipstick on a pig. Indeed, we received support through the entire year
111as we piloted the IM curriculum. That wasn't the problem. It is the IM curriculum that is the problem for algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2. There is just not enough. The level of support for our multilingual learners is inadequate. Not enough support for our special ed students. The students are not provided with adequate practice questions. There is a shortage of assessment questions making it difficult for teachers to compile a comprehensive test bank. Not enough plus standards for the algebra 2 students to be properly prepared for pre-calc. I need two weeks in May to fill in the holes from the IM curriculum for to prepare my kids for pre-calc. Literally holes. The curriculum doesn't teach holes in rational functions. Yes, there was a 100% concess consensus from the secondary teachers in the math pilot, but that
112didn't happen right away. During the first vote, the three algebra 2 teachers voted no. Two voted a score of two out of five and one teacher scored one out of five. Guess who. One of the only reasons I changed my vote to a three out of five was because Mr. Blackberger uh assured me that he would do his best to make sure that all of the math teachers would receive an iPad to assist in the teaching of this curriculum. There is no way to teach this curriculum without an iPad. Uh with our current limitations of our MacBook uh errors, you have to run attendance, make bathroom passes, enter grades. You need an iPad to simultaneously run the curriculum. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Questions from the board. Trusty Richardson, do you want to start?
113I would like to I would like to respond to uh Miss Megan's uh concerns. Can How can the board hear her uh concerns and not uh give her the you know the the support that she needs to to for us to be convinced? I'm convinced. I've been through a few uh schools and I've seen what sixth graders can do and I've seen that math uh is beyond the numbers. It helps kids write and so this is this topic is very important to me. But I want to make sure that our teachers, the ones that are that got the advanced placement, are able to navigate through all the concerns that I hear tonight. Can you respond to that, please? Well, first, thank thankfully Megan has a an iPad. So, so we got that box checked. So
114uh what you know so what we will is make sure that we have a process and already we have a group of uh teachers educators that are there. So as we go through the process no no curriculum is perfect. We know there's going to be needs. It's about how do we respond to the needs. Again this is highly rated curriculum. You know we can bring in ed reports. We can have them you could debate with them. Like that's that's not my role. Um but what we can do is make sure we have a very sound process that as we are going through the challenges that we will face and going through the struggles that we have a group of educators together that are responding quickly to do the best that we can to resolve those
115issues as quickly as we can. Um again no curriculum is perfect. Um but I do believe as long as it's supported well that we can see significant success with implementation over the next several years. Thank you. Thank you for that. But I had one more question quickly. Do we have to change to a to this to an IM program? Are we compelled by the state or are we do we have a choice not to do this? Yes, you have a choice. But we do need to adopt a new math curriculum. It does not have to be the current curriculum that you have in front of you. Trusty Murray. Sorry, you I don't have any questions. I just want to thank you for all of your outreach and and um what was what's being presented to
116us this year after a year of of going on field trips and learning about the the the actual program. You guys have done an amazing job and I appreciate it. And um well I'll wait to vote questions. Trusty Lamb, Trusty Shay, you have comments. Okay. Okay. Thank you for the great presentation and all the effort that this entire team put with our pilot teachers and I really appreciate that that uh flowchart that you put that helps us to remind all of us what is the process which is page seven. So you dated all the activity that you have been through that you report to us. So this is amazing work. Thank you. And I also have couple acknowledgement I want to share is I want to uh begin by expressing my deep appreciation to our
117pilot teachers who have engaged with the new program new problem based math materials over the past two years and our teachers dedication and honest feedback which we heard uh almost every board meeting uh the public comments all that and day-to-day communic uh commitment to exploring new ways to engage students in math learning have been incredible and truly valued and we also hear from our students and parents and also this exercise math exercise in public it's not easy but it's really help us to understand a little bit of that and I also want to uh acknowledge the concern brought brought by teachers we heard you a need for more support uncertainty about the impact on students and lake of confidence that implementation will be done in partnership with our students and want to acknowledge that fears
118and also um despite everyone's hard work and effort our current current math outcomes we all recognize that has not cons consistently reflected what we know and believe our students are capable of and that hurts the something need to be done. I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you for the great work. Thank you so much, Trusty Lamb. Yeah. Yeah, I have some questions and uh some comments after, but um so I just uh you know I just have some questions uh just because I am you know late late to the game in a sense. Um but um and it's really just for you know those Yeah. who also perhaps late to the game but um uh I also just want to acknowledge um you know my son is in the math pilot in the eighth
119grade uh class for Mr. Law's class in Westboro Middle School. So if he happens to be watching thank you uh Mr. Law. Um and um so first uh just to confirm um this um uh IM curriculum um is aligned with the California uh common core math standards and the the California math framework. Uh that is that correct? Uh yeah that is correct and was uh one of the co-authors was actually a co-author of the common core state standards. Okay. So the author of the curriculum was a co-author of the common core state standards. Okay, great. And um and I guess the so this is uh considered a know a grade level curriculum like they call it tier one curriculum and um what does that mean exactly in terms of you know and I I've heard
120you know from students and parents here who've talked about needing a high quality grade level curriculum. Could you speak to what that means? So, it's our tier one instruction. So, this is the um what is establishing the grade level expectation and rigor for all of our students. And so, tier one is what all of our students should be getting access to at their grade level. Um anything a tier 2 curriculum would be curriculum that we are adding in to support those students uh that are needing support to access tier one. So tier one is grade level expectation, grade level rigor that all students should be getting access to. And it was um that also is why um for an honors curriculum, you may have plus standards that are not embedded in a tier one curriculum
121because again a tier one curriculum is designed to meet grade level standards and an honors course um is designed to be additive and take students, challenge them um with additional material beyond the grade level standard. And then as far as you know, there's certainly a lot of students who are um you know behind in math as we've seen from education like the our achievement gaps and what not. Um what's our approach to maybe help them catch up and then how does how would this new curriculum um fit into that approach? Our first approach is to make sure that getting grade level content like I think that is the thing is making sure that they are constantly being exposed to to the grade level rigor and that then we are determining how do we scaffold those
122students learning to get to that grade level rigor. Often what happens is we are we are often teaching below grade level um which is then why we see that gap persist. So we need to ensure all of those students are getting access to the grade level expectation and then again that our teachers are being supported because we do know students there are going to be uh times where we're needing to support and scaffold them up to that grade level rigor but is just essential that they are getting access to the expectation of the grade level. We know we believe students can do it. It's just how do we help support our educators and uh with the differentiation in their classrooms. But again, it all starts we have to guarantee that students are getting access to
123grade level rigor. Anything? Um yeah, and I I just to echo back on the the comments from um our you know our parents and students here today um you know that many of you from title one schools thank you for being here. Um, I guess do you have any particular insights and um I we've heard the powerful testimony from folks, but like um how this the pilot so far has supported like title one students, our special ed learners uh and and so forth. Again, getting data to say, you know, have we seen this tremendous growth? We've seen some promising things. Nothing that I would, you know, say that we have enough data to support that. I can't say we've had overwhelming support from our title one schools and from our special education teachers. Uh again,
124we lean into our educators. They are showing um both even last year and then into this year overwhelming support. And I do want to say through the consensus process, you know, we are nobody's forcing our educators to determine where you know they they place their vote. And when we say 100% what they are all committed to is that they would not undermine this process that they are committing to support it. Um and again overwhelming support and again overwhelming support even in our elementary uh through that process we had a lot of support from our title one schools. Um and so when we look at those educators at our title one schools and they are big advocates uh for this curriculum and then when you're hearing from the community and the success that they're seeing in
125their students um I mean it's just clear we have to do something different. I mean, I don't, you know, we can continue to do what we're doing. Uh, I've spent hours, um, over the last several weeks, you know, focused on how do we support, you know, those students that are, uh, showing extreme success. How do we continue? Well, you know, we can figure that out. There is a solution. However, we have a much larger problem we need to figure out. What are we going to do with all those students that are not? And this is our first step to say something needs to change. We need a radical shift so that we can support these kids because it's not working. Um, and again, I do believe that we can and it starts with making sure
126they have high quality curriculum. Yeah, please. I just want to add into I know there were some written in public comments from some of our pilot teachers that couldn't be here tonight. So, if you are able to read through those, there's testimony from some of our special educators who are in the pilot. Um I know during the the consensus process there was testimony from the teachers who were three, fours and fives about how this is, you know, such a positive impact to their students and they are seeing them engaging in ways they've never seen them engage before. Um and then also um we did a lot of focus groups and there was you know I know Dr. Moore joined us on some and Mr. Brockmire was on some of them. So, just hearing the testimonies
127of the students um and what they're they're seeing in this curriculum and then you heard some students speak tonight. Um so, yeah, if you if you want those quotes or if you want any of that, I we're happy to get that. But there is there there are people who like it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Thank you. Um, yeah. I guess, yeah, I'll just in terms of questions, I'll just leave it there, but I I certainly have other thoughts. Um, any other questions? Okay, then I'm going to close this part of the item and I'm going to move on to action educational services approve uh the imagined learning curricula. Staff recommends the approval of the imagined learning curriculum and professional training for grades six through algebra 2 as presented to the board. um comments uh
128and discussion by the board should address now what we think about the curriculum and whether or not we want to adopt it. So moot I have comments so we're not ready. Okay. Any comments about this? Okay. Okay. So trusty Lamb please share your comments. I'll just Yes. I have many thoughts and comments. So I um first um before we make a motion I I want to thank everyone who um has been engaged with this math pilot process over the past two years. Superintendent Moore and cabinet um my colleagues on the board um and my predecessor um uh former trustee Dana Luhan um our leaders in the math pilot uh Jason Brockmire our maths uh Satia and Carrie thank you uh thank you to all the uh pilot teachers who have participated uh and taken this
129opportunity to explore um this curriculum and and try the new ideas and new approaches um I'm very very grateful for all of your hard work on this Um, and I'm really encouraged by, you know, all the testimonies that we we've heard from, uh, you know, students, parents, and and teachers. And I did read those, uh, public comments um, from online um, those who have shared success stories um, uh, with u, the pilot team. So, as I mentioned, I'm a latecomer to this. I've been catching up on all the work that you've all have been doing uh, behind the scenes and learning about the new California math framework that was adopted in 2023. Um, this framework, let's be clear, is grounded in data and research over the past two decades about how our students uh best
130learn math. Um, and this new framework causing us to change our approach to teaching math because only about 35% of California students meet or exceed math proficiency standards and our district is not fairing much better with only 38% of our students meeting or exceeding standards. Um the curriculum we're being asked to adopt tonight is aligned with the California math framework uh and is highly rated by um Ed reports as our staff has mentioned. Um it's more engaging uh deepens learning and critical thinking by encouraging curiosity, exploration and collaboration. And I feel like that's the kind of classroom that we want to see. Um you know more engagement. um other schools in California and the United States who have successfully implemented the IM curriculum have seen their math assessment levels rise among their students. So, you
131know, this is something I've thought about a lot um and kind of gone back and forth because, you know, I think a lot of us growing up were taught math a certain way and and grew up thinking that math can only be learned a certain way. Um, and maybe that kind of sort of worked for some people. And you know, I know, you know, are like, you know, for some who are able to maybe do a little better than others. You know, I know our teachers have always done everything that they can to make it work um the best that they can. But, you know, as we've talked about, we look at the big picture. It that what we've been doing is not good enough. It's not good enough for our kids. Let's be clear.
132I understand there's many reasons why some kids, you know, may not excel. Um, but, you know, there's 62% of us in the district whose kids have found math difficult. It is heartbreaking. Heartbreaking to watch your kids struggle to understand math and to feel like they're totally lost from the material because it it just doesn't come naturally. I I do not accept that. It's just the way it is. I don't think that we accept that doing what we've been doing is just how it has to be. So I believe as we've talked about this is an opportunity for us to take a new approach that will raise the understanding in math for all of our kids. You know to paraphrase our math vision. We can foster a community of lifelong learners who collaborate think independently and
133critically and take risks and persevere through the challenges. And you know, I recognize this, you know, for our teachers out there. This is a big change. I get it. You know, it's and it's going to take time. Um, you know, that's why I've been, you know, I want to know that we're holding ourselves accountable. It sounds like we've got this, you know, imple implementation plan that's being co-created and uh and I'm very uh you know hopeful about that and um you know I'm going to be uh definitely you know pressing for that to continue um and you know to see that we you know are measuring our progress in the months and years that it takes to implement it. So you know it's going to take time um but I do believe this curriculum is
134going to help us close this achievement gap. So, you know, I know it's it's hard to ask our teachers to to to do something that's, you know, different and a little bit uncomfortable even. Um, but we we have to ask because, you know, our our kids are counting on us. You know, you're we we need you to succeed because your success is their success. And I for those who are maybe a little bit skeptical out there, I I please ask you to keep an open mind and an open heart. Um because, you know, our kids need this. um you know and I believe in all of you and want us to be able to support you in order for you to be successful. And then finally to our kids out there, especially those, you know,
135who came out here tonight. Um, you know, for those like my son who who has found math difficult all, you know, all of his school career, you know, please keep trying. Please keep doing your best. Don't be afraid to ask for help. And I believe in all of you. So for all our students who've shared the comments, um, thank you. Um, I know you're all capable of learning and understanding and thriving in math and I believe you are eager to learn and and I am I think we're going to be amazed at what you can do. So, thank you and I urge all of us to please please support this uh adopting the math curriculum. Thank you so much, Trusty Lamb. Um, I want to say something. Okay, Trusty Richardson. what she said. What she
136said. I like it. Um, yeah, I I wanted to spend some time writing comments tonight, too, because I I didn't want to speak off the cuff, uh, as I usually do. Um, and I wanted to make sure that I said the things that I really wanted to say about this. Um, I think one of the things that's really hard as a board is that there are a lot of competing interests and a lot of competing opinions. Um, and what we have to do as a board is to balance feedback from those parties. And it's really hard to weigh all the opinions, especially when those opinions contradict each other. So, my goal is to ground myself in what I know. Uh, and I know four things. Uh, number one, our students are on the whole not
137succeeding in math. And those who are are often getting outside supplementation from home or from programs like Kuman, especially at the elementary level. Number two, our students deserve high-quality math curriculum and instruction so that they don't need to supplement with outside work because not everybody can afford that. Number three, we must focus on educational achievement, especially in math. And number four, we must believe that our students can learn math and give them the tools they need to do so. Uh, and most importantly, I'm I'm hearing some cheers in the back. I think everybody in this community wants the same. Whether you think that this is the way you get there is is up for debate, but I think we all want those same things. Last year, uh, we chose not to adopt because we wanted
138to learn more about implementation. We wanted to know that the implementation was going to go successfully. We wanted to expose more teachers to the curriculum before we adopted and we all ourselves wanted to learn more about the curriculum. Um we have done that through study sessions and hearing uh many things. Uh we wanted to test it in more classrooms. Um because here are the facts about IM. Number one, it's one of the top three math curricula. I mean there's just there's a lot of good ones and this is one of the top three. Number two, it focuses on using math language and building competency at the core skills, not just the ability to remember and apply formulas because, oh, we're doing this right now and that's the formula I'm supposed to use when I do
139this, right? And number three, it does have flaws that can be overcome with strong implementation plans that include professional development and yes, supplemental materials for some students who really are advanced and need more. How do I know this? um not only the research that our teams um our implementation teams have brought us but research that our board members did on their own by visiting schools by doing real research on the internet. Um I want to say thank Dr. Sheay uh for doing some real in-depth knowledge work on why uh what are the good things what are the bad things uh for many different student groups. It was really helpful for me to understand um the the different opinions out there and um Dr. Moore sent it to us so it's not a Brown Act violation.
140There was also no opinions. It was just facts. Um the opposition that we have heard from stakeholders centers on this. Number one, why did we decide to go forward with piloting this curriculum a second year versus going with something else? Um, my answer is I believe this is a good curriculum and I believe that it's our own mindsets um in many ways that are holding us back. Number two, why aren't we listening to teachers who think this is a bad idea? Um, my answer is I ask why they think it's a bad idea and it's usually one of the two following things. Option A, I don't think it's rigorous enough. And option B, well actually I think it's too hard for students who don't have the foundation. So we're hearing that they're not ready for
141this. Oh, but also it's not rigorous enough. So, I'm trying to figure out how both of those things can be true and I'm sitting with that and I'm thinking, okay, well, what does that mean? What does it mean that these students aren't ready for this? But also, we need to do more. So, I think that both things can be true. Uh, I also think that what it means is that the more more we build and the more we build these skills earlier, the better it's going to be both in middle school and high school. What I read in those comments today is that our students who have not had success in math are saying, "I get this. Oh, I'm starting to learn this. Oh, I feel good in this." And I think that's pretty awesome.
142Um, change is necessary. We are seeing students who have not been successful in math starting to like it to understand it and the students who are advanced will get a deeper understanding of the why not just the how. Um we know that even our advanced students have gaps and how do I know that? Because despite having eighth grade algebra available in our district and the concerns that by adopting IM we're somehow doing a disservice to advanced students. I don't believe it. We're still seeing really low scores in eighth grade math outcomes and in 11th grade math outcomes. And so I'm voting to adopt. Um I believe our adults can do something better for our students by implementing with Fidelity and I really look forward to co-creating this and making this happen for us. [Applause] So
143those are my comments. Uh we have a recommendation to uh approve the imagined learning curriculum and professional training for 6 through 12. Can I get a motion? So move. Can I get a second? Second. Okay. We've got a motion from Trusty Murray and a second by Trusty Lamb. All in favor? I I I Any opposed? Motion carries 5-0. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item P, consent agenda. Uh the following items are submitted for board approval. One motion will authorize action for those items. So designated. Do we have anything that we need to look at, pull, discuss? Okay. If not, can I get a motion? Second. All right. Motion by Murray, second by Sheay. All in favor? I I I. Uh, any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. 50. Uh, information, discussion, human resources. Uh, Williams
144uniform complaints for third quarter ending 33125. Uh, do you want to introduce this, Dr. Moore, or do you want me to just read it? Okay. Okay. Mr. Hanan, thank you. Uh, the passage of legislation in the wake of the Williams case settlement and code, education code section 35186 requires all school districts in California to prepare a report summarizing data on the nature and resolution of all Williams uniform complaints received by the district in the past 3 months. Districts must submit these reports even if there have been no complaints received during that time period. The information is to be reported publicly at a governing board meeting and submitted to the county superintendent of schools in April, July, October, and January. No complaints were filed during the third quarter, January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2025. Thank
145you. Okay, moving into the second part of our action. Um, administration A, resolutions number 2513 through 2541, retirements. Staff recommends the adoptions of resolutions 2513 through 2541 honoring colleagues for their years of service to the South San Francisco Unified School District. Any comments or questions? I think we heard one from uh, Miss Mati earlier that Writes is retiring after 40 years in this district. That's incredible. So, thank you for your service. Um, can I get a motion to approve these resolutions? Second. Second, uh, first by Murray, second by Shay. This is a roll call. Can I get the roll call, please? Trusty Richardson. Trusty Richardson. This is roll call. Trusty Shay. Yes. Trusty Lamb. Yes. Vice President Murray. Yes. And congratulations to all of our retirees. President Anthony. Yes. 29. It's amazing. All right. Resolution
1462542, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Staff recommends the adoption of resolution 2542, honoring Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Um, Trusty Richardson, will you read this into the record? Thank you. Resolution 2542, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, May 1-31, 2025. Whereas the month of May was designated as AsianPacific American Heritage Month by the United States Congress in 1990 and it was officially designated as Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 1992. And whereas this year's theme is a legacy of leadership and resilience recognizing the contributions and influence of Asians, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders across the United States. And whereas May has was chosen to commemorate the im immigration of the first Japanese to the Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843 and to mark the anniversary of the completion
147of the transcontinental rail road on May 10th, 1869 where the majority of the workers who had laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. And whereas Asian-American and Pacific Islanders have overcome many challenges and have for generations significantly contributed to all aspects of society and American history. And whereas Asian-American and Pacific Islanders represent a rich cultural diversity and include leaders in education, government, science, and the arts. Whereas in the 2020 census, the Asian-American and Pacific Islander population represents 21 million US and 6.5 million California residents. They also account for 45% of the South San Francisco population, 44% of the district's students. And whereas California Education Code section 51204.5 specifically calls for instruction in the social sciences to include the study of the role and contributions of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders with particularly particular emphasis on portraying these
148groups in contemporary society. Now therefore, be it resolved that the South San Francisco Unified School District Board of Trustees hereby recognizes the wishes to honor Asian Pacific American during Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month regularly passed and adopted this 24th day of April, 2025. Thank you so much. Um, can I get a motion? So move. Second. All right. Motion by Trusty Richardson, second by Trusty Lamb. Can I get a roll call? Trusty Richardson. Roll call. Trusty Richardson. Trusty Richardson. Yes. Trusty Shay. Yes. Trusty Lamb. Yes. Vice President Murray. Yes. President Anthony. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. All right. C. Approval of board members travel proposal. Staff recommends the approval of Trusty Richardson's request to attend the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials 42nd annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, July 21st through 24th, 2025. Do
149I have any questions or comments? Yes. Um I'm not in favor. Um she has not attended any of our board workshops or board self-evaluations for the last couple of years, few years. I believe that's in one of our um policies that if you want to travel, you need to um attend our board workshops and board self-ealuations. Um she has gone to the California u Latino um schoolboard association conference over the last three years. That's in California, not outside of California. And I think if you read the section that says what we approved last year, it says if there's a conference that's closer that you can attend, that should be the the conference that you attend. Um so just just for clarification, Vice President Murray, that um the board policy that you're speaking of doesn't necessarily
150say about outside travel. Um it talks about attending conferences in terms of holding a role as the board president on the board. Not necessarily that. Okay. Yeah. Um well she has not attended the the the school board uh our school board workshops or self-evaluations which are um which are meetings that we have twice a year to make us a more coherent board to make us a better board. and before you go out and get that, you know, find someplace else to to make you a better school board member. Um, I think that you need to start there. And um as I said the last few years, the California Latino um schoolboard association is the conference that she's attended outside of CSBA and and uh outside of the um South or CSBA conference that we go
151to every single year and that offers us um workshops as well and classes as well. May I just interject one more time? I apologize. I think um something for the board to also consider is that you all have an allocation for things outside of CSBA, masters in governance, our board governance training. And so it, you know, of course, at the pleasure of the board, if you approve this, she is um would like to utilize those funds in order to attend the NE 42nd annual conference for NLEO. Um, and she has gone to CSBA in the past, but you are correct that the last few years hasn't come to the South San Francisco Board governance workshop. So, we get an allocation of $2,000 a year. Has she used hers at all or I mean, she used
152it last year on the CLSBA, but this would be for like next year or our our Oh, the new fiscal year. Yeah. So July 1st is Oh, and this is July 21st. And um so she wants to use her $2,000 allocation. Okay. Um I'm still going to vote no because I believe that before we start going to um professional development outside of our district that we should be going to the school board workshops, our board workshops and board self-ealuations. Um I do trust Shay. Oh, go ahead. Uh, I do support it. It still follow our board policy. So, um, it's it's using the the what we um regul regulatory that it's allowed. So, I will just say I would like to see you come to our board workshops and leave it at that. You know,
153I have something to say because California School Board Association encourages professional development. This is professional development. I don't think I see see another board member can uh uh decide for another board member what she needs because that's equity policy. What she needs when you need it and um th these are all uh uh all the things that I've attended outside who are sometimes uh funded by foundations who are being free and I have full ride because they realize that this is what some board members do. I do not have a a background in education. My my uh background is basically as a community involved member for 40 years and I bring that to the table and everything that I can understand by the school uh the California school board is through these workshops and I
154have learned tremendously and I brought back insights to the district. I remember California NLEO the uh realizes this and we I've brought back safety um uh protocols that they've put on excellent trainings and uh some of the things that we don't even hear at the yearly conference and which is sometimes encompasses uh things like uh uh self um how do they call it uh self u awareness and self um uh appreciation which you don't you're not going to get at the uh California schoolboard association. I mean yeah in that CSBA conference. So it it is it is really uh doesn't help the board when when we have these types of comments as if it's contingent upon what another board member say. You can say what you want Pat, but you know what? you you've never
155walked a mile in my shoes. So, you don't know what I need to learn and when I need to learn it. So, uh I appreciate your comment and I I have tried to go to those meetings and it's it's one of those types of meetings that uh people never did came out of those meetings uh better. We have respect. we have and I've been disrespected on this board by you and and so forth on and I'm not going to go into that. Okay. I do what I can very would love to have you there. Um can I get a motion to approve this item? So moved. Second. Second. Okay. Motion by Trusty Lamb. Second by Trusty Shay. All in favor? No. I opposed. Yeah. No. Okay. Motion carries 41. Thank you. Number two, educational services
156B, approval of reallocation of funds for special education non-public agencies. Staff recommends the reallocation of funds for special education non-public agencies from Tilly to Row Health and from Adroid to Green Cab. Do we have any questions or comments? So move. All right. Motion by Murray. Second by Shay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 50. Um, moving on to three business services. A, approval of contract with Meguire and Hester for Westboro Middle School Field and Pavement Improvements. Staff recommends the approval of the contract with Maguire and Hester to provide construction services for the field and pavement improvements project at Westboro Middle School in the amount of $5,800,000. Any questions or comments? Just a comment. Um just I'm very excited to see um the Westboro Middle School Field finally get an upgrade. So that is
157something we talked about at the facility subcommittee subcommittee meeting and we may actually even do a groundbreaking with the shovels and everything. So that would be amazing. Can we invite Dana as well? Yeah. Yeah. Let's invite everybody. All right. Can I get a motion? So move. Second. All right. Motion by Murray, second by Sheay. All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. 3B. Approval of contract with better building construction for temporary meals support space project. That's a handful. Uh staff recommends approval of the contract with better building construction for construction services related to the temporary meal support space project at the district office in the amount of $169,000. Any questions or comments? like I can make a motion. Okay. Motion by Lamb. Second. Second by Sheay. All in favor? I I. Motion
158carries. 5-0. C. Approval of selected firms for commissioning agent services pool measure T bond program. Staff recommends approval of the firms selected through the request for qualifications RFQ process for the creation of a commissioning agent services pool to support the measure T bond program and the facilities department. Any questions or comments on this? Question. Are these u all approved by the depart DSA department state department of architects? Mr. O, do you know? Because uh I I it's my understanding that they have to have this approval before they get any work. Yeah, some of them are required by DSA. Yeah, I'm not sure which one they are, but then some of that is required in order to to make sure that we're doing the project correctly. We don't know about these. I think so. We'll have
159to get back to it. Yeah, we'll have to get back to I'm not sure if uh uh if Calvin, our uh project construction manager is online. Yes, I am here. Yeah, this is Calvin. Good evening, members of the cabinet and the board of trustees. I can answer that question. Uh so, typically, you know, there's certain consultants that will require uh DSA approval. mainly that'll be the uh DSA and um for this here, this is the commissioning agent. They will not be required to be DSA approved. They just needs to be uh they just need to be properly licensed for what they're doing. Oh, okay. I learned something. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Motion by Murray, second by Shay. All in favor? I I I any opposed? Motion carries 5-0.
160D. Approval of selected firms for construction management services pool measure T bond program. Staff recommends approval of the firms selected through the request for qual qualifications RFQ process for the creation of a construction management services pool to support the measure T bond program and the facilities department. Any questions or comments on this? So move. All right. Uh motion by Murray, second by Shay. All in favor? I I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 5-0E. Approval of selected firms for moving services pool. Measure T bond program. Staff recommends approval of the firms selected through the request for qualifications RFQ process for the creation of a moving services pool to support the measure T bond program and the facilities department. Any questions or comments on this? I'll make a motion. All right. Motion by Lamb. Second. Second by
161Shay. All in favor? I. I. Motion carries. 5-0. All right. One more. F. Approval of 5-year agreement with final site for website services. Staff recommends approval of the 5-year agreement with final site for website services in the amount of 14,000 per year totaling 70,000 over five years. Any questions or comments on this item? Uh, I just had maybe one question that uh Oh, yeah. I do. But it's it's fine. We can make a motion first. No, no, no. Oh, no. We do we do questions first and then we'll take the motion. Okay. No. Um, I I think just for uh in case any web designers out there are interested. I just was wanted to ask how long it will take to migrate our old websites to final site. Assuming that we approve, assuming that the
162board approves, it'll take approximately 8 weeks to migrate the site. Okay, great. And then um and I think uh we in the contract there was mention of um that there would be a new uh some new websites in addition to the ones that we already have. And what what would those be? because it's kind of I'll invite Miss Blackat up and she can share a little bit more about this particular website or you can take the right here Josephine's that works too. Yes. Thank you so much Trusty Lamb. That's correct. In addition to our existing sites, we will also get a bond site, a dedicated site for our bond program and a site for our early childhood education programs. Okay, that's great. Yeah, I know we mentioned that in the last board meeting that there
163was a need to kind of have a more well a place to talk about our bond programs. So, that's exciting to hear. And then I just um more of a comment that uh I'm excited that there's more uh timely and responsive tech support as part of the service and uh staff training. Um because I think our websites well it's always very stressful when websites go down or have an issue. So, uh, yeah, looking forward to seeing what our websites will look like. So, move. All right, we got a motion by Shay, second by Murray. All in favor? I I I. Motion carries. 5-0. Review of future agenda items and meetings. Questions or comments? All right. We'll see you on May 8th. Uh, summary of board directives. There are none. All right. Good and welfare. We've
164got 15 minutes, so a little bit of time. Trusty Richardson, can you can you got to talk into the thing? South San Francisco auditorium of students from all districts who are recognized by the state and reclassified as English proficient RFP, which allows them to participate in regular class courses without uh additional help. Many languages from our diverse student body were respon represented as uh known by seen presented by uh the principal at um Sunshine Gardens. There there's all kinds. It was really a wonderful gathering. It was a proud moment for families and staff. They were given certificates. Parents and families shared this proud moment. Trusty Lamb was there too as well enjoying the moment. Yes. I attended the subcommittee meeting for the barn project as a bond director delivered her report to the committee on
165the status and plans of future remodeling as phase one is completed while some projects are stalled waiting for division of state architect approval. Uh we had lunch at the Chamber of Commerce where nine district uh sta staff with students with trustees cheered our students who collectively received $52,000 in scholarships from the business community that included the Janentech Kaiser the Rotary Kowanas and various businesses in South San Francisco. Our own student trustees Josephine Arzan and Jamie Wong received scholarships. It was a proud moment for our students. We also attend the city of South San Francisco student government shadow day lunchon attended by supervisor Noelia Corso. Former South San Francisco student James Coleman and city council members mayor Eddie Flores joined in a panel discussion on the rise to be public servants. Mayor Flores held an insightful
166panel discussing discussion for a glimpse into the minds of the young politicians. It was refreshing to hear the commitment to housing and social responsible programs of diversity and equity and inclusion. On April 23rd, that's just yesterday, four of us met Greg Francis for from the CSBA and his team of experts for the third workshop of the education workforce housing cohort at the historic restaurant at Beachlet. Appreciate Mr. O uh taking us carpooling us. We covered the importance of taking a survey and how to craft the survey message which I found helpful. We heard experiences of the long road to actually building workforce housing due to the steps it takes to offer below market rate housing for school educators. We visited Shirley Chisum workforce housing 5 minutes away and was pleasantly surprised to see how nice
167they are and integrated in neighborhoods and near Ocean Beach. Our next and final workshop is in May and look to more helpful information as we embark in our journey here in South San Francisco for workforce housing. Thank you. Thank you so much, Trusty Lamb. Yeah, we've it's been busy, isn't it? Uh first of all, happy uh um Easter and Passover. I know that's a little bit past, but uh yeah, um just happy spring. Um as um as as our CTA uh president uh Sher Juicy mentioned, I did attend a virtual board member training uh hosted by the CTA and uh so that was uh great to learn uh some new things and uh just learn how we can be partners with our unions. Um I uh visited oh I I should have mentioned during the
168the math pilot discussion I did visit some classrooms at the Altoma Middle School. Um, and that was uh great to just to kind of get a glimpse of how um just our classrooms in general um are doing and uh get to know the teachers better. Um that was my first time on campus there as well. Um and yeah, we all went to the the Chamber of Commerce scholarship lunchon. That was pretty great. uh to and um also the RF RF ceremony. Um that and I didn't realize that was the first time we were doing a district-wide um celebration of our reclassified um English language learners. So that was um just really inspiring to see everyone um just kind of celebrating their cultures and their languages and um just encouraging to keep you know both our
169you know kind of the the home language and uh you know as well as learning keep on learning English and I expect that we're going to do this every year right so um and um and now I was there with um uh Pat and Mina as well and and Dr. more. So, um, yeah, I I feel like there's probably more I'm forgetting. Um, you know, honestly, the only thing on my mind right now is the eighth grade dance that's happening soon at Westboro. Uh, so shout out to my fellow eighth grade parents who are trying to organize a dance. So, thank you. Thank you so much, Jesse Shay. Jesse Murray, I forgot my phone, so I don't know what I did. My calendar's on the phone. I did a lot of stuff. over the last
170couple of weeks. I think they talked about some of the things you were at. So, yeah, there are I um I want to say that I appreciate all the work that you guys did for the math uh in the math pilot and bringing it to us this time. And other than that, thank you everybody. All right. Thank you so much. um with