January 30th, 2026 SUSD Board Meeting at 5:00 pm

001Flowers. Yes, she did. Said she was going to send me a link to uh a better link, I guess. Oh, okay. Heat. Heat. Heat. Morning. Did you have a special breath? 2. They do. Perfect. Good night. Jack. Hey. Hey. Oh. Away. Thank you. Skip the lyrics. Well, you're you're currently on it. You're currently on the Spanish webinar where you're going to be speaking down. Heat. Heat. Oh, hey. down. Hey, hey, hey. Hi. What you What are you doing here? Over there. All right. I get to sit. Come on. Hey. Okay. Oh, it's okay. Yeah. So, it's spicy. It's sweet and spicy. So, it has brown sugar on it and chili chili spikes. So, it's Yeah, it's my favorite. So, anytime you go to one of my events, it will have that. Okay, thank you. Have

002a huh? No, hers was >> No, it'll be on Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. There's nothing. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey. Mhm. Heat. Heat. Hello everyone. Um, thank you. Okay, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order at 5:08 p.m. Christina will read language under public comment. >> You can't control the volume. >> In order in order to asssure compliance with the Brown Act and in order to make our board meetings more effective and more efficient, trustees will speak only when recognized and trustees who speak on a topic other than the agenda item currently under consideration will be out of order. The safety and decorum of the school board meetings are important to Stockton Unified School District and the community. SUSD promotes the public public's right to free speech and we want to make sure

003that all community members, parents, and students are able to participate in a safe environment. We want to ensure all community members have a seat during the board meeting. We will have a maximum number of chairs allowed per fire code 132. We ask that members of the public do not stand along the side of the walls or block the walkway. Anyone standing up during a meeting will be asked to take a seat. If they do not comply, they will be asked to leave. Any accredited news media representative who is standing will have a press credential clearly visible. There is a podium positioned in front of the first row of chairs. No one other than the person who is speaking may be at the podium except for a guardian, administrator, or translator. For safety, people may not

004line up behind the speaker to wait their turn. We want to give the person at the podium the time and respect they deserve. Each speaker will be allowed 3 minutes. Attendees are not allowed to enter the the area past the podium where board members are sitting. No profanity or obscinity during the board meeting. If there is a disruption, the board president or designate will give a verbal war warning to the person or persons causing the disruption. If the disruption continues after the verbal warning, the individual will be asked to leave or be removed from the premises for the remainder of the board meeting. After the meeting is concluded, we ask community to clear the lobby in a respectful manner. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to item 1.2. Roll call taken by Christina. >>

005President Sophia Cologne, >> present. >> Vice President Priest, >> he's late, but she'll be here. Clerk Martin, >> present. >> Trusty Daenire. >> Trusty Perez, >> present. >> Trusty Stevens, >> absent. >> And Trusty Silva, >> present. Thank you. >> Moving on to item 1.3, pledge of allegiance to the flag led by Miss Sophia Cologne, Board President, Board of Education. Please stand. Thank you. Okay. Item 1.4, oral suggestions and comments from the community regarding special board meeting agenda items. Evette will announce the number of public comments and request each person to provide their public comment in the order they were received. Abby will be the timekeeper. >> Thank you, Madam President. We have no public comment at this time. >> Thank you. We'll move on to item 2.1. Stockton Unified School District Board of Education

006to review Brown Act process and procedures facilitated by Miss Cynthia Smith, attorney for F3. Um before before you start, I just want to um call attention to the trustees. We have sticky notes and pens so we can make notes um on on the PowerPoint. So help yourself. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Thanks for having me here. Um I do have a PowerPoint presentation. Is that Thank you. Um thanks for having me and uh I'm somewhat honored to be here on part of your Friday to be able to talk with you about the Brown Act and learn about that with you. Um, I'm going to get started here. Let me just make sure I can make this work. On. Got it. Thank you. Okay. Um, so here's just a a layout of what I intend to

007cover with you. There's actually a couple more topics than what's listed here. I'm going to read this slide for you, but we're going to talk about um hopefully all the key aspects of the Brown Act so that everybody can either get refreshed on all the requirements or learn about it for the first time. I know Trusty Martin, you're you're fairly new here. Um hopefully they gave you a copy of the Brown Act when you were appointed. Great. Good. That's a requirement. Good to know we're we're we're doing that. So first topic is just a quick overview of the Brown Act. And I I'd like to start this part by talking about well who is Ralph M. Brown and he was a legislator here in California. He was at the in the assembly. Uh he was

008the speaker of the assembly for a while. He was actually a neighbor of yours for a time. He lived in in Modesto. Um and he most famously wrote the Brown Act which was passed in 1953. And in 1953 in the 50s and60s was a time when there was a reaction to how government local governments in particular were working which was people would come to public meetings and be providing input and the legislative body would be hearing that input and then the public would go away and then the legislative body would be would go behind closed doors and do the business of the of the body outside of the public's eye and that was not going well. So there was a a legislative uh reaction to that and various laws were passed including the Brown Act,

009public records act as well, um the federal equivalent, the Freedom of Information Act, these laws that's that the goal of the laws was to basically open up government to the people because the people are the ones we're working for basically, right? we're we're dealing with taxpayer dollars, how those dollars are spent, how the policies are being implemented to effectuate uh the the all the things we're doing with public dollars. So, those things should should happen in the public. Um where do where do we find it? It's in the government code, California government code. Those are the sections up there. Also, um districtwise, district board bylaws. So district has passed board policies, administrative regulations available on the district's website. Part of those board policies are what's called board bylaws, which are the 9,000 series. They're all

010numbered. And the ones at the end starting with 9,000, numbered 9,000, etc. are the bylaws of the board. So when you see me come to the the meetings, I have this binder. I have printed up all the board bylaws. So I have those here. I I highly recommend you look at those, read those if you haven't already. Refresh your recollection. Um I do periodically actually read through them today and I found a couple things in there that I I didn't recall seeing. So it's always good to kind of look at those. But a lot of the provisions we're going to talk about from the Brown Act. Um th that's where you will find them for the for the district is within the board bylaws. I'm also going to tout this. I know you all work

011with CSBA. This is a publication that the CSBA puts out. Um, sometimes it goes out of print or it's not available, but if you can get a hold of this, um, it's it's really helpful. It's a it's it's a basically um, summary of the things I'm going to talk about tonight, it's really helpful. Um, it's it's good to have that as a resource as you're, you know, these things come up here and there. Okay. Brown Act covers three main comp uh uh concepts. Um the concepts of making government transparent, making sure that the public has the ability to access uh government and um to be involved in that process through comment, through attending meetings, etc. And also as um as a way of somewhat of a framework to have lawful, efficient and organized meetings. So,

012so aspects of the Brown Act that talk about, you know, when meetings can occur, how they're how they're agendaized, how they're how they're um communicated to the public, those are the things that Brown Act uh does. And also, I just I want to read for you the language from the legislature that's the preamble to the Brown Act because I think this sums up very well uh what I was talking about before, sort of the reasons why the Brown Act was enacted. In enacting this chapter, the legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards, and councils, and the other public agencies in this state exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. The

013people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people in delegating authority do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they've created. So that sort of explains the the real gist of the why with the Brown Act and why we're sitting in a meeting and allowing the public to come in and see it and participate in that meeting. Any questions so far? Okay, who is subject to the Brown Act? You are. As if you did not already know, legislative bodies uh are subject to the Brown Act. And legislative bodies include a whole host of

014organizations, public agencies, including local school districts, county offices of education, um other cities and counties, state agencies, not so much. They're covered by something else. I think it's called Miller Miller's Meyers something. Um I don't I don't know that act at all. So I don't know for sure, but it's a different act. Local educ educational agencies though must follow the Brown Act. We've talked about committees a little bit recently, so this is a little bit familiar to you. Uh subcommittees of the board like the ones we talked about at the meeting on Tuesday are also required to follow the Brown Act. Um committees form uh created by formal board action. Our standing committee subcommittees with continuing subject matter jurisdiction or with a meeting schedule fixed by formal action. We talked about that um two meetings

015ago. There are some exceptions here. We talked about ad hoc advisory committees which are just intended to be um for a limited purpose for a short period of time. Also our school site councils and other advisory committees like our per uh parent action committees they do not follow the brown act. They follow a um they it's called the green act. I believe it's actually an ed code and it's u kind of brown act light. do follow some of the same procedures like noticing meetings within 72 hours, but it's not quite as complex as the Brown Act. So, who polices the Brown Act? Well, really everybody does. Um, the members of the public that come to your meeting that watch watch what the district is doing. um you all should really be policing the Brown Act

016and in you know how the the board is is conducting its meetings and making sure everybody's in compliance. Media, as we know, get involved. Sometimes um grand jury district attorneys, uh they can they can be informed of potential Brown Act violations and get interested in in things that might be going on. In fact, um I'm going to mention the grand jury because the district in its um not not so terribly recent past um had some attention by the grand jury and some findings that came out specifically related to the Brown Act. So, I have um I I looked at one of the grand jury reports that came out uh not too long ago and and kind of incorporated a couple things within in the presentation that I'll um highlight from time to time. Um the

017the Brown Act also has within it uh policing mechanisms. So there's processes by which members of the public or basically anybody could um call out a process that a board may be engaging in that is not in compliance with the Brown Act and send what's called a cease and desist letter. um there's a process for responding to that and if it's not responded to or if if the alleged violation is not corrected then there can be uh an action brought basically to to um a civil action to to effectuate that. Um, in addition, there's um, you know, for for a specific issue with regard to a a a specific action item, there might be a claim that that action was not or did it was um approved in a way that violated the Brown Act

018in some way, like it wasn't agendaized properly, the public wasn't aware adequately of what it was, something like that. And that might trigger what's called a cure and correct demand to the agency which um then that triggers a process by which the district has 30 days to consider whether that's valid and if if it is then the the board can actually correct that action by redoing it in accordance with the Brown Act. So um those are some of the procedures that come into play if there's an issue with um with Brown Act being followed. Why do we comply? all the reasons that I I shared earlier, right? That that this is our this this is our fiduciary duty to the public. This is clearly a legislative priority and priority within the state. It's actually um

019I forgot to mention enshrined within our California Constitution as well. It um that you know that that um information and what what public agencies are doing should be open and to the public. There could also be um penalties involved, civil penalties. I mentioned potential actions, civil actions, either having actions, um, actions taken by the board being declared null and void. Criminal actions as well. Now, this criminal actions isn't necessarily going to happen because there was a mistake made, right? Like, oh, you know, oops, we we got it wrong for whatever reason. Um, what the language says is any member of a board who attends a meeting of the board where action is taken in violation of the Brown Act and who intends to deprive the public of information the member knows or has reason to

020know the public is entitled to under the Brown Act is guilty of a misdemeanor. So, there's an intent there, right? It's not that, you know, we were we were going about our business and just happened to make mistake make make a a gendizing mistake or something like that. Don't you love to I love the Brown Act that allows us to ver um verbize a word that is not that is not a verb. Agenda is it's agenda. Anyway, um going back to the misdemeanor that it does require an intent there. So, okay, any questions before I move on to the next topic? Okay, what is a meeting? This is where we get into some of the juicy stuff. So, first of all, what the Brown Act requires is that all meetings of the legislative body be

021open and to the public except for some um specific exemptions that we know is the clo or close seed session uh exemptions where we're able to go into close session and talk about things. We'll certainly talk about those in a bit, but the Brown Act requires that any meeting of of you be open and to the public. Um, and that those the the meetings um allow for public opportunities to participate through public comment, through being able to ask questions, for being able to just attend and to hear the information that's being presented to the board, to see the documents that are being presented to the board and to be engaged in the process. Um, and again, purpose of these meetings is to is to further district business. So, what is a meeting? Spoiler alert, a

022meeting can occur when you all don't intend for a meeting to occur. That is the big deal here with the Brown Act. So, um we'll we'll talk about what is a meeting. A meeting occurs whenever a majority of the legislative body um gathers at the same time and place to hear, discuss, deliberate, or take action on any item that's within the subject matter jurisdiction of the local agency. So this obviously o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o occurs within this room. It could obviously occur outside of this room. And that's the part that's problematic because we want to make sure that we

023are not having unintentional meetings outside of this room where the public can come and have an active role in in in the district's business. Okay, just to drive it home, a majority of the board may not gather at the same time and place to hear, discuss, deliberate, or take action on any items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board unless that meeting is notice and agendaized. Okay. So, just briefly, there's uh different types of meetings. We have our regular meetings. These happen two times a month. uh most most months um special meetings as the one we're having today are called outside of the regular meeting schedule. Uh sometimes they are called to you know address a particular timeline or something um or to to have you know a less formal discussion about something like

024this. Emergency meetings are also something specifically uh set forth in the Brown Act. So when we talk about agendas, we'll talk about these uh these different types of meetings in a little bit more detail. These things are not meetings, individual contacts or conversations, public conferences, standing committees. If now let's talk about that for a second. Standing committees are comprised of three members of the trustees, right? That is less than a majority. Now if other members of the board want to attend those meetings, they are permitted to do that. But you cannot participate in any way. You cannot engage. You cannot give public comment. You can be an observer only. And because of you know the numbers of board members as well, you cannot have a subsequent conversation between a non-committee member and a committee member

025because then you have expanded that conversation about district business to four people. So, um, committees, other local agency meetings, if you wanted to attend a a city council meeting, you can do that. Community gatherings, social gatherings, um, conf conferences, public conferences would be like CSBA conference. Um, these are all fine so long as you don't go to those things and come together and have discussions about district business. Um, I'm going to talk about personal intermediaries. So, what we mean by personal inter inter what you are allowed to do is have one-on-one conversations, right? That was something that we covered in the last slide. So, you can you can talk to each other, right, about you could even one-on-one talk about district business if you wanted. You just have to be very careful about that, right?

026because we're going to talk about um serial meetings in a second because those are definitely not okay. So, we'll talk about those. But, but personal intermediaries, you can also talk to district employees, right? Like you have you have one-on-one meetings with superintendent. Um you might want like, you know, Mr. Hessie gave a presentation at the board meeting on Tuesday. Somebody might have a follow-up question for him. You certainly have the ability to ask that follow-up question. What those intermediaries cannot do is take your position on a certain issue and communicate that to somebody else. So, there's definitely some care that needs to be taken with those communications. I'm going to take this moment to take a little bit of a dog leg on this, too, because there was something else I saw in one of

027the uh grand jury findings about conversations with the superintendent. Um, so permit me to just go a little bit off the Brown Act script for a second. Um, and that is it's the authority of the board. So the reason why I brought this up is um, within the grand jury finding there was a finding that um, trustees were bypassing the superintendent when issues were coming to the board's attention and going directly to staff members and having conversations with staff members. And the direction from the grand jury was don't do that anymore. And there's a reason for that. Um, within board bylaws, specifically 9200, which is limits of board member authority, it says this. Unless agreed to by the board as a whole, individual members of the board shall not exercise any administrative responsibility with respect

028to the schools or command the services of any school employee. And then uh also individual board members shall submit requests for information to the superintendent. Board members shall refer board related correspondence to the superintendent for forwarding to the board or for placement in the board agenda as appropriate. And then finally, individual board members do not have authority to resolve complaints. Any board member approached directly by a person with a complaint should refer the complaintant to the superintendent or designate so that the problem may receive proper consideration and be handled through the appropriate district process. I just also point that out because again in looking at the grand jury, it was something that came up and just the importance of making sure that those administrative functions which are the responsibility of your superintendent would run through

029her instead of directly through you and and frankly y'all have enough to do anyway. So um you know certainly use her for for that support. Any questions about that? >> Yes. Can Can I offer expertise? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Yes. What we're talking about because you you all are great people. Your constituents like you a lot. They they and and you're responsive to them. Constituents come to you and say, "Hey, this employee, man, this thing happened and this is really terrible and I need you to do something about it." And honestly that you know that's fine but the process would be instead of you to go talk to that employee to filter that through the super superintendent so she can make sure that it gets help uh handled through the appropriate ch channels but

030yeah sharing your expertise and your experience certainly your experience with a program that you were an alumni of is is valuable. So yeah that's fine. Okay Brown act in the virtual world. So I mentioned that this this law was passed in 1953. We didn't have email then. We didn't have social media. Sorry I need to of all the technological things that we take for granted and it's interesting how these laws like the Brown Act and the Public Records Act as well they how little they've changed over the years. and the changes that have come into play have addressed these issues of technology. So, we're going to talk about um first we're going to talk about serial meetings and then talk about how technology has expanded the opportunities for serial meetings and and caution about those.

031So, let's get into this and talk about serial meetings. What is a serial meeting? Excuse me. A serial meeting is any use of a series of communi communications directly or through intermediaries such as telephone, email, text, social media, a third party conversations by a majority of the members of the board to discuss, deliberate or take action on any item of district business within the subject sorry item of business within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. These are improper and violate the Brown Act to be clear because these meetings are not agendaized and public is not participating in them. So, let's talk about the the kinds of serial meetings we have. Um, there's two kinds. Daisy chain is where I, trustee Smith, I'm going to talk to Trusty Jones about this issue and talk about,

032well, gosh, I I don't really like that issue. I think I'm going to vote no. And then trustee Jones goes and talks to trustee um uh Anderson and communicates my position and then talks about their position as well and on and on and on. That is a serial meeting and if you get to a majority of members it is an improper Brown Act violation. The other possibility is the hub and spoke where I as trustee Smith I talk to trustee Jones and I tell them my position and then I go and talk to trustee Anderson and then I go and t talk to trustee Warner and now there's a four four members of the board that have talked about this issue and a Brown Act violation. So those are the um those are the possibilities.

033Uh we we talked about individual meetings with dis district officials uh already and again those conversations can occur. They're meant to again not convey positions and have those positions be communicated to other trustees. Again those communications are intended to talk about like well what's happening with this matter? You know how can I help? You know what what is being done to address this kind of thing? and letting the superintendent, you know, do her work and making sure those items are taken care of. Um, so, um, back to Daisy Chain and Hub and Spoke emails, regardless of whether you're using your district email or your personal email, these these you you should not be forwarding emails about your position on items to each other. There was a 2000 attorney general opinion that came up out about

034that and and specifically said, "Thou shalt not do that. That is a violation of the Brown Act. >> Um, let me just say one thing just real quick. So that is why um often you'll receive an email from someone and they'll put every all board members on there." So there's quorum and so if you notice when I respond I put you as blind CC because then that way you one you know I responded but then two um there's not the danger of then you responding to my response. Um and so I just want to you to know that that's why I purposefully blind CCU. If you've ever wondered well why does she do that? it so that we take ourselves out of the possibility of you responding to the whole group because you can respond

035back to me if you wanted to. That's why you're blind CCD. You can respond back to me, but we don't want you responding back um to the group as a whole. Um because then when you're all on there, there's quorum and that would become a Brown Act violation possibly according to if it comes to the board, the jurisdiction of the board. >> Right. Thank you. Um, yeah, I mean th this this is now expanding. I mean, it seems so quaint in 2000 that when I saw that in the in the guide actually that I read today that the AG opinion came out in 2000 about email, um, it seemed a little quaint to me because we're we're moved on to text messages and social media and blogging and all kinds of things which we're going

036to talk about. Um, again, any communication electronically, whether it's text like that, A to B to A to C or A to B to B to C, all those serial meetings that we talked about are impermissible regardless of the form, whe whether it's um one-on-one communications, telephone calls, text messaging, emails. Also, um there was some legislation that came out in 2020 regarding social media. Um so there was some clarification made about your all all your ability to use social media in the context of you being board members. And so this legislation uh sought to clarify what you can and cannot cannot do and what would violate the brand Act and what wouldn't. And basically what you can do is you can use social media to answer questions, provide information or solicit information from the public.

037That is that is permissible. If you use uh social media as part of your uh work with the board, that is totally fine. Here's what you cannot do. You cannot discuss board business among yourselves when a majority of of you is present in the conversation. And you cannot respond directly to any post by any other board member uh regarding any district business at all. So if if one of you posts something about a matter that's up before the board, you as another board member cannot like that post. You cannot respond with a heart emoji or a frowny face. You cannot do anything. You can't repost it. You cannot retweet it. You cannot comment. This is what the legislature has clarified for you that if if these conversations happen then there is a possibility that a

038Brown Act violation can occur and specifically if this what they have said is we don't want you doing this because we don't want you violating the Brown Act in this way. Um okay any any questions about that before I move on? Okay. Yes. >> So I would have this question. So how would you know if um there was a majority of them within your pre within your conversation? So let's say they put something. How would they know if there was a majority? Is it who follows me or is it like how how would you known the um second bullet? I think that's one of the reasons why the second bullet is in place because if if one of the trustees posts something, you as another trustee may not know, right? Like, well, it's if it's

039just trustee priest posting it, I can I can respond to that, right? Like there's not a majority there. But what what the directive is, you cannot at all regardless of whether another trustee has responded yet or not. So I think that's the reason why they have specified that if if it is a post by a trustee no other trustees can interact with that post. I think the first bullet about um discussing board bajority is present. I think that might have to do with like a member of the public for example posts something and then a trustee jumps in and interacts. I think it's up to you all to to make sure what is happening and if another trustee is involved then then maybe you want to step back to make sure that you know you

040you're not leading to a Brown Act violation. Did that answer your question? >> Yeah, I was just um double checking. So in reality it's not majority present means not that I viewed it but that I engaged with it. I was trying to quantify what present meant. Yeah. So it means so I can scroll. I mean, I I purposefully don't follow any of you social media for that reason, but um but I could I could well I'm not board member either, but I I one could scroll and see it and as long as I don't they don't engage with it, then it's not counted as being present then. >> I think I think that makes sense. Yes. Yeah. >> All right. >> Yeah. Clarifying for you. >> Thanks. Okay. Meeting location. This is going to dovetail

041in a into a conversation about teleconferencing. Before I leave, before I go into this though, any question any other questions? >> Have a qu. Can you hear me? I have a question. Um, so I guess back to uh serial meetings. So, uh, let's see, how do I word this? So you said that A, B, and C cannot have conversations about our position on a board topic, an agenda topic, or just anything to do with the board in general. >> Well, we we caution the conversations outside of public meetings generally. If three trustees are talking about something, that is less than a quorum. So that is not a Brown Act violation. But if there's a fourth one that's brought in, that's a majority. That is a meeting that's not happening in the public eye. So that's

042why we're I I we just need to be very careful, right? Like if you know you have a one-on-one conversation about something that's fine, but you know need to realize you shouldn't then go to another one and then another one and then we're in a situation of of having a Brown Act violation. So it's a majority of the board members. That's where we get to a meeting. And so if the if the serial meeting expands to a majority of the more of the board members talking, then that's a problem. >> Okay. So, if I have a conversation with Donald about something on an agenda topic and then I tell him, "Hey, I already talked to Shauna about this too. So, we probably shouldn't have a we we shouldn't have a conversation about it with anybody

043else except the three of us." >> Correct. But the problem is you don't necessarily know what Donald is going to do and you don't know what necessarily know what Trusty Priest is going to do either. So, that's where it gets really complicated and why we recommend don't engage in those conversations because you you could be unwittingly starting a a Brown Act violation. So, so you can talk to three two trustees, but you shouldn't. That's my recommendation. >> Okay. Okay. Would you start? Can you hear me? >> I can hear you. >> Can you or would you or using that same example, would you say, um, Donald, I wanted to ask your opinion about this topic, but have you talked to anyone about it yet? Or would you >> like that be a way you could

044try to say before we talk about this, have you talked to anyone else about it? And I guess you would want to make sure like who the other person has talked to, but Right. Yeah, I mean again I would just caution all of those conversations where you're talking to multiple board members about business of the board. But yeah, that could be I mean that could be one way to try and address it is well have you talked to anybody else to try and get a handle on who's talked to who and how many. But it it just we don't recommend that you have those conversations those A to B to A to C to A to D and then A to B to B to C to D. more. >> Um, no, I think that's

045it. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> Um, you should bring those questions to the board meeting would be where we would recommend you would bring questions. >> Sure. Oh, if if there was an yes, if you had a question about something um to try to take out that issue that you're talking about, the superintendent would be a good source to go to because she certainly knows who she's talked to, right? And she is the superintendent of the whole board. So, if she she can't relay your your positions amongst you all either, but she it would be in a good position because she meets with all of you to know that well, yeah, I can talk to Frank about that issue. I haven't talked to any other trustees and even if I had she she wouldn't

046share that with him. So yes, >> exactly. >> That's right. She doesn't she doesn't have she's not a member of you all. So that but she where she comes in is is that she's that intermediary, right? She can't talk to trustee Cologne and then try talk to trustee priest and then talk to trustee Silva and then talk to trustee Perez to gather um the positions of the board on a particular item. She is prohibited from doing that but she is not within the like you know you can have that conversation with her. Absolutely. Thank you for that clarification. Yeah. >> So she so superintendent can talk to all of us about the same topic. Yes. So long as >> they don't share, right? Yeah. So long as she's not sharing the positions of the board

047like she Yeah. Frank has a question. Here's the information about that, Frank. You know, talking about whatever it is, but she can't say, "Well, you know, I talked to Trusty Priest about this and she really thinks this is a problem." That's that's what she can't do. Could if I talk to superintendent about something and then another trustee talk to her about the same thing and then me and that trustee are talking. Can me and that trustee talk about what we spoke to superintendent about >> and A and B. >> Yes. But then when you're it's the conversations between you all that's where we start getting concerned about the serial meetings even even if you're see she's just limited to your positions right like she can share information but you're more limited than that because you

048can't hear discuss deliberate or take action. So those are the parts about the dis of of any conversation that might be a meeting within the Brown Act. So hearing and discussing. So even if you're just discussing background information about a topic with with each other that could lead to a serial meeting that would be problematic. >> Okay, I think this is my last question. So, um, if so, if I'm reviewing the agenda with trustee priest or vice president priest every Friday, we're reviewing it and discussing it together. We shouldn't be doing that. No, actually because agenda setting happens with multiple board meeting board members. >> Not not agenda setting >> the two of you. Yeah. Right. Because >> well just just to kind of clarify last year Yeah. Right. Um because it was just you

049two but now because the agenda is being discussed with three already. Right. Now that's the change this year. Yes. Or trustee Daire or Trusty Stevens. >> Yeah. Unless, which we're not we're not trying to kick you out, so don't worry. Unless we unless we decided to go back to just two So nor in the past year and two years we've for the most part we've only had two people on agenda setting which allowed for a little bit more flexibility. Now we have three. So that technically if any of the three of them talk about the agenda with with the other four then now we have quorum. So we because we're trying to be a little bit more inclusive it it causes some challenges with Brown Act right >> last year >> because then there would

050be a meeting and you can't you can't all be involved in agenda setting. Okay. Oh, um I'm going to talk about teleconferencing meetings. Before I do that, um the Brown Act requires with some exceptions that dis meetings of the board should happen within the boundaries of the district. And some of those exceptions in include like if you were going to interview a superintendent candidate, for example, who was located outside of the district's boundaries. um or for some reason if you all had to beat meet at my office in Sacramento to talk about a a close session um litigation matter or something like that. But those meetings have to be noticed and agendaized just like all of the other meetings. Um but I point that out about district boundaries because it comes into play with teleconferencing

051requirements. This is another area where we have the intersection of um of te technology and the brown act. So teleconferencing is the ability of a a trustee to participate in a meeting via teleconference and that ability has existed in the Brown Act for a very long time through what we refer to as traditional teleconferencing. And it's a little bit cumbersome because um you can do that right you can participate in the meeting via audio or video. Again at least a majority of the members have to be in the district boundaries um for the meeting. But each of the locations have to be accessible to the public and identified in the agenda. So sometimes, for example, if somebody is laid up at in in their house because they've had surgery and they want to participate in

052the meeting, but they can't leave their house for whatever reason, they can participate from their house. They just have to notice that the meeting is happening in their house. And if a member of the public wants to attend the meeting at their house, they have to let them in and they have to allow for them to be able to participate in the meeting at their house. uh including giving public comment at at that location. So that's why it's a little challenging. Um sometimes people board members have used this when they've gone on vacation to I I heard of somebody on a cruise that posted notice of a meeting on the cruise ship and had a notice on the outside of their room door. Um, so this this does happen, but this is what we've dealt

053with for a long time for teleconferencing options until the pandemic. So, um, there was some I know there's silver linings out there about the pandemic. This this might be one of them is that it opened up uh the ability to use teleconferencing at public meetings. And I I don't I don't know if you were all on the board at the time during the pandemic, but a lot of meetings were happening through Zoom. Um that was triggered by a um a bill by the governor that allowed for teleconferencing requirements through a because of a uh an emergency circumstance as declared by the governor. And there was processes that had to be gone through to do that. There had to be resolutions adopted every 30 days. It was it was quite a process and um there had

054to be the uh ability of members of the public to participate remotely as well through giving a public comment. Um there were some issues with at first districts were requiring public comments to be submitted in writing ahead of time that it was clarified no you can't you can't do that. Um, so we still have that. We still have that state of emergency uh teleconferencing option. There's also another teleconferencing option that was put into place and it is um it is specific and there are specific requirements that have to be set up in order for it to occur. specifically that the public if if you're going to have any trustee participating in a meeting via remote means, you have to also offer that to members of the public by not just call-in internet-based and in person.

055So, all three you have to have you have to have that ability set up ahead of time if a trustee is going to um participate in a in a meeting remotely. It's it's only a limited number of meetings. It's based on your schedule. Um, this, by the way, this law was set to sunset on January 1, but there was a bill passed AB2302. I'm sorry, that wasn't the right one. AB H I lost the board, the bill number. Anyway, bill passed this year, extended that sunset date, so it is indefinitely an option. But there's there's specific reasons why the teleconferencing can be allowed and these are these are the option or these are the reasons why um child care or caregiving needs contagious illness physical mental condition travel on district business specifically not vacation vacation's

056never been a part of this immuno immun im amino compromised child or other close relative or some sort of military service. So those are the circumstances allow uh that would permit that. But again, there's there's I I I really just pointed out the main one which is the public access to the meeting if if this is an option. There are other requirements as well that have to be set up if if that's going to happen. Any questions about teleconferencing options? Am I okay on time? I didn't I'm I'm about It's about six o'clock. I didn't know if you had a specific time you were looking to start the other pieces. >> Uh we've got we've got some significant um I can breeze over agenda requirements pretty quickly, but then we've got close session and public

057participation. So try and wrap up in 15. Does that make sense? Okay. Agenda requirements. Um, oops. So, we we are required to put together an agenda for all of our meetings and and part of this is part of the making sure we have public access and involvement in the meeting, communicating to the members of the public what the meeting is, what's going to be on the agenda. Um, we talked about regular meetings. Uh, again, these are all addressed in our board bylaws. Um the uh agendas for regular meetings have to be posted within 72 hours before a meeting. There's a a provision within the Brown Act that allows any individual to ask for copies of the agendas and the materials that are given to the board at the same time they're given to the board.

058Um and I point this out because I want to talk a little bit about the attached materials. This was another issue that came up in the grand jury report in that um there was a situation where a consultant contract uh did not get shared with the full board. It was shared apparently with just part of the board and when the board members got to the meeting that evening it was there. It wasn't provided to the members of the public uh ahead of time either. So there was a a big concern that this agreement had been shared with a majority of the board ahead of the meeting outside of the meeting and not shared with the whole board. So the Brown Act requires that when uh documents are attached to an agenda that those oops that

059those also be provided to all of you and and also the public at the same time they're provided to you. Now, there are times where we will post an agenda and a and an attachment, maybe a presentation isn't quite ready yet. So, it might be posted a little bit later. That is permissible, but as soon as it's made available to all of you, and it should be made available to all of you, not just some of you. Um, it has to be made available to the public. And if the the item is is made available to you at the time you're sitting down at the dis, it should also be over there with the other materials and be made available to the public. Any questions about that? >> Okay. Special meeting is >> sorry. >>

060Yes. >> Quick question. What about when um public comment and they're giving us um you know >> documents, things like that? >> Good question. next day those if some if anybody they should be mailed available to the public. If anybody from the public is interested in getting those records then they are subject to production the next day. Special meeting is um meeting that is uh that only requires 24 hours of posting of the agenda. the the public comment for a regular meeting as you all know is open to both all the items on the regular meeting agenda and then also there's an opportunity for the public to speak about any other type of or any other item of business within the board's jurisdiction. Special meeting is not that way. Special meeting is limited to only

061public comments for the items that are being considered at that meeting. emergency meetings. Um, these are meetings where things are really not going very well, something is happening. One one example that always pops into my mind is down in Santa Rosa when they were having really huge fires, there was the need to have emergency meetings. And when that happens, um, there is the ability to have a meeting within an hour. um uh no agenda is required to conduct the business to address items that are impacting that emergency. Um so there's specific roles about those types of emergency meetings. There's also dire emergencies that have to do with timing of when we're supposed to inform uh the media or not or inform you all. I'm I'm going a little bit fast, so if there's something that

062you want to you want me to focus on, please let me know. Agenda descriptors. This is important because this is what uh this is the communication to the the public about what you all are going to be looking at on and and dealing with on the agenda. So the agenda descriptors need to be um unambiguous enough to allow the public to determine what it is you're going to be doing and to allow them the opportunity to say I'm not really interested in those topics so I'm going to skip that meeting or wow I really want to talk about that I'm going to attend that meeting. So, um, generally not to exceed 20 words. That's why we like to be really, um, sort of clear. I know there was a situation not too long ago with

063the with the committees where we wanted where we were appointing the members and then we also wanted to talk about maybe mixing them up a little bit and that hadn't really been agendaized to do that. So, that's the whole purpose of that is to make sure that the public is aware of those items that are going to be discussed. Close session. I I mentioned safe harbor. Uh the Brown Act is great because there's a part of it that says here's here's the close session topics and here's agenda language that you can use that meets the law. So that's really helpful for us. Okay. Close session exceptions um closed sessions uh are are discussions of things behind closed doors and there are there are those options for us to do that. These typically deal with things

064where we've got confidential information, confidential personnel matters that are being discussed, um, attorney client privileged information that's being talked about, or there's something being discussed where there's a bargaining strategy or some sort of strategy that to have that discussion within the public would would basically undermine the district's ability to do its business, like labor negotiations, for example, or real property negotiations. um we have to identify these items specifically and again that's where that safe harbor language comes in. Um we can only consider those items that are agendaized for close session. We can't talk about any any other items in close session other than what we've agendaized for that. Here is a list of the most frequent ones that we deal with in close session. Our personnel matters negotiations pending litigation. Sometimes we've talked about real

065property negotiations. I don't know that we've ever talked about security ma matters, but that is an option. I'm going to go through these pretty quickly. Personnel matters. Again, um uh discussing appointment, employment, evaluation of performance, discipline, dismissal of a public employee. Again, the concern here is that um that these are personnel matters and they shouldn't be discussed in public. >> Uh I can't I didn't I'm sorry. Sorry, I didn't hear that. >> Are there any consequences if they do? >> Uh, that is it would be a a privacy violation, right? If you if you were to discuss those matters in open session, you mean >> like if one of the board members discussed what we were talking about in close session with anybody, >> FBI, you know, police. Well, yeah, you're generally you are prohibited

066from discussing close session matters with outside of close session. Um, there are a few exceptions. Um, whistleblower is one. >> Well, I I don't know. I mean, we would have to look at the facts and circumstances of each situation, but but there are provisions for whistleblowing or like if somebody uh believed that a there was a Brown Act violation, then they could discuss that with law enforcement. Um those types of situations. >> So, do we have to allow a whistleblower if we know there's a whistleblower? Do we have to allow them to stay or can we kick them out or what? >> I don't know. Um I mean we >> is there a whistleblower they're exempt from certain rules? >> I wouldn't say that. No. But I it there would have to be processes put

067in place to address like oh if that if that was a if that was disclosure of confidential information in close session then there would have to be a process to address that through some sort of like reporting or censure or something like that. I I'm I guess I'm not exactly following what you're >> like like if we found it maybe they were discussing it on social media or something like that then it would definitely be a violation and we get in trouble. >> I don't know. I would have to look at that particular situation. >> Yeah. I guess it's just um just for clarity to know like what are the consequences when somebody um speaks of close session items outside of close session. We will get to that in a bit. >> Okay. >> A

068couple slides down the road. Okay. Um, if there are specific complaints or charges against an employee, then there's what's called a 24-hour Brown Act notice that's required to be given to that employee, and they have the right to try, sorry, they have a right to have that complaint heard in in open session if they wish. um pending litigation. Uh we have addressed this in close session, existing litigation and if we're trying to determine if if there is anticipated litigation back based on the facts and circumstances of the situation, whether we might be exposed to litigation or determining whether we want to in initiate litigation. So those again those are that those would be within the um the presence of legal counsel who's giving you attorney client privilege advice. Um and and there are times when

069you can reach a agreement and settle litigation um and and adopt that in close session, but those decisions have to be reported out. Negotiations and collective bargaining. This is uh to allow again allow the district to discuss um the position of the district in in negotiations and to do that in open session would undermine the district's ability to to you know have those frank conversations to be able to prepare itself for negotiations. There's also provisions within what's called the Educational Employment Relations Act that allows other aspects of negotiations and bargaining to be discussed in close session. I'm again going a little bit fast. Security matters to discuss threats to public building security, public services, water. There was a recent clarification to this law that allows us to discuss in infrastructure controls or cyber security issues

070as well. Real property negotiations. This one's a little tricky. Um, we can have these discussions to instruct negotiators on price and terms of payment, but we can't get into like, oh, well, what are the environmental concerns with that? And get get into items that are not about negotiating the price and and terms of the agreement and more about general stuff related to land that should be talked about in open session. So, there are some limitations with the real property one. And then finally, student matters. Our suspension and expulsion matters. Um, these are discussed in close session obviously due to the sensitive uh information about students. Um, however, this is there's an exception to the final decisions related to expulsions have to happen in open session. There's a specific education code about that. And also students

071have the ability to request an expulsion hearing be held in public session as well. So again, discussions in close session are limited to only those items that we have agendaized for close session. We cannot veer into topics that are not agendaized. So sometimes like if we're talking about the discipline of employee A, oh well, employee B was disciplined for that same thing two years ago. We can't talk about employee B, right? Because we're we haven't agendaized employee B for that discussion. So just want to emphasize that that we are limited to what we have um agendaized even if that item that we want to veer into is a close session item. We are in close session but we haven't agendaized it. Um we've talked about safe harbor already so I'm going to skip that. Reporting

072out requirements. The board must reconvene in um in open session and report the actions taken in close session including the identifying the vote or abstension of every member present which we do. Um I want to take a second to dog leg. Uh there was a subject that came up from the grand jury report that I found to be interesting and it juxtaposed with something that one of your colleagues did. I want to give some shout out to trustee Perez for what she did at the meeting on Tuesday. So in the um grand jury report there was a finding that a trustee had been a an officer of a consultant and there was an agreement with that consultant that was brought before the board and that trustee did not disclose their association with the consultant and

073they voted on the item. didn't recuse themselves, anything like that. And that was found to be a problem for the grand jury, obviously. Now, this is more of a conflict of interest issue as opposed to a Brown Act issue. And conflict of interest is well beyond what we're talking about today. But I just I was really struck by what you did on Tuesday, which was there was an item that came up that you felt maybe you didn't necessarily have a financial conflict of interest under 1090, but your um association might lead to the perception of bias. So you disclosed that on the dis and uh indicated that you recused yourself and as we would recommend you left the dis and allowed that item to be disclosed or to to be considered without you there. So

074that's how we would recommend that that be handled. So I wanted to say good job to you for that. >> Thank you. But also thank you to Sophia cuz she did give me some little bit of guidance >> on how to follow through with that right before um we went back out to open session. Good. >> But thank you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Confidential confidentiality of close session. Again, the information we're talking about in close session is confidential. That's why we're in close session. So we are prohibited from disclosing that information to any persons except those entitled to get it. Um unauthorized disclosure could wave the attorney client privilege for example. Um it could violate privacy rights of employees and it could potentially impact um collective bargaining agreements. So there is a prohibition of this

075not just on you all who are currently sitting on the board but any former trustees as well. And you could be personally liable if this if if there is a disclosure. Um if there's there could be a civil lawsuit. There could be a civil liability for unlawful disclosure of confidential information. There could be an injunctive relief. Um, this could go back to what I I mentioned earlier in the uh presentation about um a a cease and desist and potential uh uh request that there is been violations and to cease and desist those violations. And if they don't cease and desist, then there could be a civil action brought including injunctive relief. Um and then there could be criminal liability which uh allows for a misdemeanor if for every willful omission to perform any duty enjoined

076by law upon a public officer. So as a public officer your duty is to keep confidential close session information. Does that address the question about liability that came up before? Okay, I have very little time left so I'm going to talk about public participation. Um, public comment. We mentioned this already. Members of the public are permitted to comment on any agenda item for regular meetings. They can also uh comment on any item within the subject matter of uh jurisdiction of the board. These are subject to the the comments are subject to regular regulation by the board which is within your board bylaws, right? We allow for three minutes um for each person and up to 20 minutes per item. Um they have to be neutally applied. We can't give one side extra time and not

077give the other side extra time. We can't prohibit a speaker from criticizing us or our employees. Um this is first amendment rights of individuals to get up and express their opinions about what might be going on. Uh board responses. So people come up and they talk about things that are not on the agenda. We cannot consider things that are not on the agenda. So that's why we generally let the comments happen and we don't comment back because that would be discussing a matter that's not agendaized. Um we can refer the matter to staff for handling. These are the things we are permitted to do. Um ask staff to place the matter on a future agenda or ask a a question for clarification, make a brief announcement or make a brief report of of your own

078activities. We we again we generally do not do uh we do not provide responses to new items that come up. Recording meetings. Uh meetings are allowed to be recorded so long as they're not disruptive. I'm sorry to be going by so quickly. Uh conditions of an attendance of a meeting. There are none. We cannot require um folks to sign a sign-in sheet. If we do, it's optional. uh we can't require them to provide their name if they want to give a public comment. Um so yeah, there's no there's no conditions on attendance. In 2022, there was a clarification to the Brown Act that allows us to uh remove individuals who are willfully disturbing a meeting. This is what some of that language is that you hear about disruption and giving a warning. That's essentially what

079the uh provision specified is that yes, you can remove disruptive individuals, but you need to give them a warning. Um, this is not intended to interfere with anybody's first amendment rights. Again, if somebody wants to complain about uh what might be happening or or raise a complaint about an employee, they can do that. It's willful dis disruption of the meeting, yelling, you know, just impeding the ability of the board to move forward and to to engage in the the um the actions of the meeting. And then I just want to say a brief I believe I'm at the end. I'm sorry to have gone so quick at the end there, but public records act is also related to this. any of the agendas that we have, all the records that we have that are attached

080to the agenda except those that are exempt or discussed in close session. Often those are those are not public records, but everything else is subject to production in response to a public records act request. Public records act um also um I mentioned like the email communications, those are also subject to production in response to a public records act. And it doesn't matter whether those emails are on your personal account or your um your district account. There was a case that came out in 2018 17 I think the San Jose case that clarified that it it doesn't matter where those records are housed if they're about district business. They're related to district business and they're subject to production. So um so yeah and this is about just the the records distributed to the board has to

081also be distributed to members of the public and I have reached the end and I apologize for going so quickly. Any other questions as we get to this end here? Any other any thoughts or comments? >> Thank you so much for this presentation. My question is, how often um are we supposed to get this training? Is it every year? >> That's a good question. I'm not sure if it's specifically required every year. I know it's recommended certainly every year. I know that out that what came out of some of the grand jury findings were the training had to happen after that, but those that was back in like 2021 and 2022. Um but certainly every year would be great because Trusty Martin for example is new and um getting refreshers even for you all who

082have been on the board for multiple years I think I think would be helpful. Whether it's required I'm not sure. I'd have to look that up. >> So, the grand jury response from 2023 said, "Do you do it every other year?" >> Ah, thank you. >> Well, thank you for listening to me on a Friday evening. >> Oh, sorry. >> Can you can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, would it be possible that would it be possible that we get a refresher every year just to have it just to make sure that we have it everything? >> I would be happy to come and talk to you every year. >> We like we like Friday night. >> Oh, thank you. >> I know. Well, thank you for the for that and and

083again apologize I had to kind of rush there at the end. Um but I hope that you learned some stuff and you know where I am if there's follow-up questions. Thank you. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you also for the really good questions and and comments. Um that will take us to item 2.2. two where we will participate in governance team building activities and that's led by our vice president trust uh priest but before I also want to just oh can you hear me okay I'll repeat um so that we'll move on to item 2.2 to governance team building activities led by vice president priest. Um and so I want to thank uh vice president for putting together some activities for us and something to keep in mind um is that we would like

084to plan a a longer retreat something where we can really um go through whether it's more training or questions answers or just some more um building up of our team um that but that'll come uh later. So take it away. I'd like to maybe take like a five a five minute little break for us. Um, okay. Thank you. Okay, the time is 6:34 and we'll go ahead and call the meeting back to back to order. So, we're moving on to item 2.2, governance team building activities with Vice President Priest. I'm gonna sit here and pretend to be Cindy because they said I have to use a microphone. All right. So, you all have a blank >> you all have a blank blue piece of paper uh in front of you and there are some different

085um no never um colored markers and all that great fun stuff. So we're going to take approximately two to three minutes and on this paper you are going to put something that describes you that you would feel comfortable enough to share out with us. Okay? And that's the only limitation I'm going to give you. It has to describe you as an individual. All right. Do you mind setting three minute timer for us? >> Wait just just one thing. I mean, >> totally up to you. >> A drawing. >> No words. No words. Okay. So, there's two things. No words. >> Yeah. Okay. You should have threw that out there. >> Represents you as an individual and no words. >> All right. Here we go. And don't worry, we won't zoom in on your pictures or

086anything like that. All right, that's the end of our three minutes. Do we have anyone who wants to volunteer and go first? first. What would you like me to share? Explain what my picture is. So, I drew a tree and I feel like Do you want me to explain why I drew a tree or just tell you what I drew? >> Explain yourself. >> How? Okay. So I feel that throughout my life I've met a lot of great people and everybody has instilled planted seeds in me and those seeds have grown within me and I'm rooted by so many great people. And with what I've learned, I've grew into a tree of knowledge in a lot of in a lot of different ways. And I sew positive fruit. I sew positive seeds and I bear

087beautiful fruit. >> Thank you for sharing. in the wonderful tree. I love that. All right. Do we have another brave soul? Come on, Frank. Okay. Well, I guess I drew a picture of me with bunch of students and just in the past years I've I've coached basketball and I've become a mentor to a lot of kids. Like when I worked at the Boys and Girls Club back when we had the after school programs, I was still involved in that. And it's just the mentorship that's just I like giving to the kids. I like helping the kids. I like, you know, whatever I can just to be involved and if they got problems, I like to, you know, share what I know about life and and, you know, to a certain degree and then just, you

088know, project that to them, too. There's a lot of kids, they had a lot, they had a hard life over there where we were. And and to this day, um I have two or three that actually um did some good, have jobs, have families, are being productive in the community, and one's even trying to become a uh police officer. So, it's like that's where I get my fulfillment. All right. I'll go I'll go next. This this thing um so I made um two fishies. This is my um I'm a Pisces. So um it just came to mind. I know we could have been could have been any picture but I think this came to my mind because um I am often thinking of uh the two different sides of everything um and looking at situations

089and trying to find where is the balance or where you know what is one end and the other end and how how do we find compromise or how do how do we think about all of these different things whether it's be my family or work um I am always trying to look at the balance of things and looking at one side or or another. Find my balance. All these artists in the room. I guess I'll go next. I don't know. All right. So, I'm not Picasso, but I drew me and well, not me. I drew my daughter and uh the students that I represent um in South Stockton. You know, just picking back off of what Frank said, u we were, you know, just being able to grow up in an environment u where a

090lot of my friends didn't make it. A lot of um students who are in our community are having trouble uh or troubled youth. Um when I sit on the dis it's I feel like a sometimes I feel like a little kid when I sit on the dis because I represent those students in South Stockton you know I represent um my daughter and it makes me proud to go to my neighborhood and be able to mentor and the students are running up to me um putting on events in the community and they see a representation of them on the dis and showing and I'm showing them that they can be whatever they set their trying to, you know, when I set out sought out to be on the board um in 2022, you know, I never

091dreamed of doing something like this because I was the one that was always in trouble and I didn't have uh certain outlets other than playing basketball or, you know, wanting to be LeBron James or, you know, in our neighborhood, everybody wanted to rap, you know, so doing things like this, it makes me proud of myself. It makes me proud to be to um be where I'm from and um makes me proud to just see where I'm at. So when I sit on the das these I represent these kids. I represent the have nots from our neighborhood. And so um that's why I drew this picture. So I don't want to go on. All right. Come on, Donald. Hello. Okay. I started with a heart. Um, home is where the heart is. So, it's pretty much

092where my family is from. That's why there's the Philippines sun here. You can see the Bay Area. That's where my family settled. And now we're here in the Central Valley. That's why you see Mount Diablo. Um, and I put a star here where Stockton is, cuz that's where my home is now. That's where my heart is now. and I'm very tied to uh my family, um my homeland, ethnic studies, um solidarity with other uh people of color and people who also call this place home, whoever that is. Um so it's I I like to think of this as like a symbol of everything um that would I would like for this home to be. Thank you. That was beautiful, Dr. Rodriguez. >> I realized I needed to take more art lessons as a child. So,

093I um well, I'll show you the picture quickly and then I'll I'll put it away. So, I did a scene from my childhood actually because I think it speaks to why I'm the way I am. So, um, in the picture is my father with a whistle and I'm in a pool swimming and my father used to make me stay after and swim extra laps because he wanted me to be the best that I could be. But down below is all times all the times because he taught me to be goal really focus on goals because he always was asking me what's your next goal what are you doing next what are you doing um and then there's a bubble over my supposed body swimming and um he taught me self-t talk and that because as

094a swimmer you really you can hear some things but you really can't hear much and um when you're swimming hours and hours um you have to be able to self-t talk and then I was always I made it to the junior Olympics so I was pretty good so generally I was ahead of everyone and so he taught me you can mind over matter you can determine your destiny um by what you say to yourself so um it taught me to be tenacious and um goal Awesome. I love that. All right, so I will go quickly. So here I did my best to turn my paper into an actual domino because dominoes are are a huge thing uh in my family and it's really fun to see the generations play with each other and it becomes

095really competitive. Um and we won't go down there, but it's really really fun. Um, and so on top I have I won't say the name of my sorority just because we're on this platform, but on top I have uh 19 dots and on the bottom I have 20 for the year that uh we were founded because that's something that's extremely important to me to be a part of a historical black sorority. Um, and so we know that we weren't always allowed, right, to join other sororities. So being able to show this legacy here in Stockton um that's a lot of our students are not necessarily um able to see on a regular basis is really exciting and important to me especially for the work that we do here uh in the Stockton community. I wanted

096to share a little bit of that. All right, thank you and I'll turn it over to Dr. Rodriguez. All right, so great. So, um, so I had the honor to be able to be with Apple, uh, about a week and a half ago, and something that they were talking about was that, um, the World Economic Forum, which was in Davos, just gave out what students need to be able to do and be like, um, in 2030. Um, and so, um, I'll just name there's 10. Um but then I'll just um focus on afterwards the first um three. Um so the very the skill that they say that students need the most is analytical thinking to be able to analytically think. The second one is which surged up um which is resilience, adaptability and agility. So

097being able to have that resilience. And then number three, um, which really made me think of our, um, Skills USA, our plus students, number three was literally jumped from number nine just two years ago to now they are saying the third most important skill that a child can have in 2030 will be show knowing how to take leadership and social influence. Then it's creative thinking, motivation and self-awareness, um technological literacy, empathy and active listening. And this was actually for the first time on the chart. Um curiosity and lifelong learning, talent management, which was new. Um and then service orientation and customer service. So if we think of even just the first three, so analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility and leadership and social influence or you could pick some of the other ones, but what

098would be some priorities that you would want the district to focus on or things that you think of what you campaigned on, you think about what you talked to your community about um what would be some things that you think that we should focus on and I'd love to hear from you and we'll chart So I'll give you an example. So for instance, if we were focusing on leadership and social influence. Um so one example could be that um remember we were talking about expanding our HBC our HBCU um tours, right? So that would be one example of that. Um so what are some things if we are trying to get analytical thinkers who are agile and take leadership opportunities what would be some things that you would want um us to prioritize um what

099I'm thinking about um just want to throw it out here with the leadership and social influence um is prioritizing maybe what other ways all the various ways that this could show up because um often times when I think like the first thought is an officer position or like you know a team captain position but I this actually makes me think of my grandmother um who uh wasn't necessarily I mean when in her younger days she you know um you know did things in her younger days but as she got older with her family um you know she became more introverted but in the home she was a leader in her home and she um so I wonder I want us to think about various leadership activities and and social influence as far you know in

100the in the home maybe in the in the neighborhood. Um, you know, think of how can all the various ways that that could be, not just the common positions. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. So, empowering those voices, right? Thinking of unique ways that leadership shows up um in both not only the schools but in the family and community. Great. Um, I think fairness across the board for everybody starting from the top um as board leaders on down to the cabinet on to our staff, our administrators, and um, you know, of course to our students. making sure that everybody has a voice and everybody is able to express how they feel without consequences or retaliation. So I think fairness and respect I want to piggy back off that you hear me? Um because it made me think right

101off the bat is if we're gonna um if we want to have people who are analytical thinking, we need to make sure that they're able to discuss like objectively. Um and we have to build that fairness and respect so that they can feel comfortable to analyze to discuss what they're looking at. So if we're not if we haven't built that foundation, it's going to be really hard to have some of those discussions. Um so that's a good >> and then also we have to be open-minded. You know, I think we we've had a great start uh so far being openminded and letting our voices be heard. So being open-minded and building trust. You can write trust on there if you like. Yeah. So I put down fairness and res respect across the board from the

102board to cabinet administration to staff and then kind of linking that to be able to discuss and have those authentic discussions um by being open-minded and building that trust. Yeah. So creating additional opportunities for that to happen. Yeah. and and then um accountability and integrity. Oh, wait. Wait. One more. And honesty. >> Okay. Uh, okay. So I'm thinking um along the lines of like social emotional resilience students are navigating constant social pressure from peers, social media and um we should work to equip them with critical thinking skills, confidence and emotional literacy so that they can make healthy choices. And with that, we should focus on or provide trauma-informed practices and culturally responsive supports on campus. Um, I wanted to add, I think building off of what Trusty Martin said is that we're making sure that

103we're trying to build trust intentionally, right? And then elevating all all of our stakeholders as leaders. um because there's so much great opportunity and many things that um all of our families and stakeholders are able to do that would be a benefit to the district. And as we know that influence of course is built through, you know, um relationships, right? Not necessarily authority. So, it'll be really exciting to work together to see how we can kind of raise the voice of all of all all of our stakeholders as well as um being able to adapt um in service of our students and not not our systems. And hopefully I'm not talking too fast, Dr. Rodriguez. >> Okay, I'll slow down. Okay. Is and start with the next one. That one what you were just saying.

104>> Oh that um we adapt in service of our our students and not for systems. Was there anything that I missed? because I was trying to write and listen. Anything that you'd like me to make sure I wrote? >> I would think formulating new and exciting things to, you know, to preoccupy students. Like when I was working with them, I was like, "Pick up a tool, put down the gun." Because a lot of them were gang members or their families were gang members. So that really they really enjoyed that. And I would take them with me on job sites and we would do things. I would teach them things and they enjoyed it. I mean, and these were some pretty bad kids, but when they got away from home, they're totally different. And they just

105you just need to give them some something exciting, something that you know peaks their mind as to doing what they were doing or what they know all they know to do I guess from home in life how to do concrete work, how to set forms and stuff like that. really, you know, branch off of later. And I'm glad that we offer a lot of stuff in our high schools now, too, because that was very exciting to see when I went to visit my schools, like the shops and especially over academy. I mean, all these things are great. Really doing a good job. A >> Awesome. And I think the last thing that I would add is when I look at the analytical thinking, it makes me think of um being able to um empower our

106students to know that we value their thinking, right? Not just reacting, but really being able to value the thinking process as a whole. Hello. All right. I have a couple of ideas. Um I was thinking about what you're sharing about the top three things that students are um going to have to learn. Analytical skills, adaptability, resilience, flexibility, leadership, all that. Okay. So I was thinking it would be really cool to have some kind of conference or symposium or like a day full of like workshops, panels. Um and it all be studentled. Um students are the one who are choosing the topics. Students are the ones who are deciding what they want to share. Of course, they're going to get guidance from trusted adults, but I would love for the students to actually, you know, plan

107the logistics, plan everything. These are things that college students are doing. Um, and I feel like a lot of our students already in our schools are doing that too. So to do that at a district-wide level and the the target or the the audience would be us, it would be adults, it would be community leaders, it would be organizations, um, folks who want to see better schools in Stockton. And so I think the best way to do that is to listen to the student leaders who want to create the policy proposals, create the workshop lessons for the adults to really hear their voices out. So that's what I'm thinking. Um uh I think just thinking about all the conferences that we go as schoolboard members, it'd be cool to like see more studentled things like

108that. Um, I'm also very inspired by Assembly Member Ransom's program around um, uh, like a policy proposal link. Um, it really lists out like, okay, why do we need this? How do you see it being implemented? All these really useful questions that go into um, policy implementation. Um, and do that from like a something that's open to the community. and then really have like a very diligent serious process of how we evaluate that and like you know if we implement that at the district level. Um so I I know that I said that it's open to community but I would actually really prefer students to submit policy proposals or uh families or school sites. Um I'm also thinking about internships. I know there's so many internships here at the district. I I'm thinking about the

109one that Dr. Murphy is leading at the research department. I know he has students there. It'd be cool for more students to go come into different departments. I would love a student to be a part of the executives. No, if if they wanted if they wanted to intern at the superintendent office. That'd be cool, too. Um but yeah, just really integrate our students into the district's work cuz um it's work. It's it's lessons that they can learn. It's things that they can carry on into the next um position, whatever they get into. Um I'm thinking about social influence as one of the main things that was mentioned in the list. I'm thinking about how many of our young folks are really into social media and like really becoming an influencer, but what does that mean

110here in Stockton? Like how do we grow homegrown influencers that do good for the district, for our community? Um, so not just like an influencer who's just trying to get money and sell merch, but like really trying to do and push good. Um, and influence younger people to like really start thinking about these things that they can change. Um, because I think that's a big thing. It's how do we really combat the nihilism, the the doom scrolling, all these things that I think young people and adults alike think that pos it's it's hard to imagine change and to really implement change. Um, but I think it's it's, you know, the will for us to do it together. Um, I'm gonna So, yeah, again, expand social media comms. Like, if there was more interns at the

111communications department, that would be really cool if they were covering sports or like citywide news um, at the district level. I know there's many like school site level news casting going on, but um, I would love for like students to join um, Melinda and you, Dr. Rodriguez on. >> We have our four. >> Oh, it's coming. It's coming. >> No, we have four right now. >> Oh, okay. >> That come to all of our events. Those are our four interns in Melinda's office. >> Okay. Okay. See? >> $2,500. You guys approved it. $2,500 a year. >> See? Okay. It's already happening. >> Okay, cool. >> That's important. You didn't know because >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um I'm also thinking about uh at the city level like how do we um expand entertainment and like sports

112casting. I met a student at the Native American Indian Center who was casually just making sports edits, sport video edits on his phone and he's like, "Yeah, I'm trying to get really big on social media. How do we foster that kind of talent? That super casual everyday type of thing. if he had like more technology to do that or more guidance, imagine where he would be. >> So that's that's where I'll end now. Thank you for listening. >> I love that. >> That was a great start. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> I will um I will type these up and send them to you so that you have them. >> Thank you. Can I read it? >> Can I read it all? >> That's why I'm going to tape it for you so that you

113can have it reference back and I can. >> Okay. Well, so thank you everybody for participating. Um, so we covered a lot of ground and we will circle back on our information here that we just shared. So at this point I'll go ahead and take us to item 3.1 adjournment and we will adjourn the meeting at 708. I'm going to keep this forever.