09/26/24 Regular Board Meeting

001okay so is a is 6:00 so let's start with okay so it's 6 o' and we're going to start with a regular board meet for tonight and I can see that all our board members are present as well as our superintendent so please join me for I United States of America and to the for it stands Na liy and justice for all thank you good night and with that we well actually we're going to start acknowledging that today by the order of the report we're having a translation services so if the translators can please give instructions hello um there is an interpreting function located on the lower right portion of the screen um press click in the globe icon and choose your language of preference each participant must choose a language of preference whether it

002is English or Spanish thank you thank you and with that we are going to read a brief acknowledgement of that life cville school district is located on the ancestral and unceded land of Thea of tribe who have peacefully honored and care for this land for thousands of years we recognize that every member of the sunal community continues to benefit from the use and occupation of this land we acknowledge our responsibility to learn from the wisdom of the uplo people and to consider how we might work to repair injustices and to move forward together in honorable ways and with that we move to item two which is the approval of the agenda Ser is if there is any who would like to put a motion to approve the agenda approv with the agenda is posted second

003good with that do we have a public comment related to the approval of the agenda see n and please vote I if you like the agenda it is okay with that we have agenda now we move to H item number three which is study session and tonight we're going to have a programs of choice and school focus period and for that please don't thank you [Applause] okay there okay well good evening board uh this should be a fun conversation tonight and hopefully a learning one as well I'm just going to start off kind of lay the ground work for us um this evening um just kind of where some of our schools are and a little bit where they are and what they're going to be doing um that's coming up um so just a

004status update and um and then an opportunity for us to have a deeper conversation and maybe some potential thoughts and questions that you have as a board as we move forward um with our programming and so as that's coming up we're going to and get started yeah all right very good so first I just wanted to kind of start out um talking a little bit about our programs as choice and school focus area um this started about my math might be off a little bit around six seven years ago where we had an emphasis um to try to you know just highlight some of our schools and so we kind of initiated programs of choice um concept and in in that um um transformation and in that process a little bit we kind of were

005relating to all schools as programs of choice but a part of my um discussion tonight with you is just to clarify the distinction between open enrollment in programs of choice and then our school focus areas so just to kind of get those definitions kind of um mapped out a little bit but more specifically as we do talk about um programs of choice um the idea of that is that it's a focused program it's specialized um opportunities for students and it comes with a process and a structure whether it be an application certain criteria that needs to be in place um in order for you to be able to apply to and participate in that particular program and so the purpose of having those uh a program of choic is to maybe meet a key Focus

006area that has come um to the community in some way but more specifically something that we see our student body needing and would support um the concepts that they are coming forth with so tonight we'll talk about some of that so to get us started we're going to start um with our Bishop Elementary School so Bishop um had a focus um previously was a leader in me and um while they continue to incorporate some of those Concepts into their work they have deemphasized the exact leader in me because that kind of comes almost like with a license and so they were noticing based upon feedback from their Comm Community their school Community their parent Community as well as from the community of their students that while that was important um some of the criteria and

007details that actually went with being a leader in me um were not as important and we're not serving the community to the degree that um it once had and so as a result of that um at Bishop while they are still have those Concepts their school focus is to be determined at this time um they have actually started an exploration process they actually started a little bit towards the end of last school year and they've kind of shared kind of their approach to doing that um they kind of have a few parents that they're working with in a targeted way in order to kind of flush out and get um ideas and thoughts um talking with their ptas talking in general with their student council their students and other ways by which to try to

008get as much of the bishop voice into potential ideas that they want to consider um as a School site and so their goal is to bring those Concepts to the um executive cabinet cabinet and then once we kind of clarify a few more details kind of bring forth here back to the board once that Rec recommendation is available and then with the hopes of finalizing a decision and um the steps that would be needed to roll out in August of 2025 so that's kind of a little bit about bishop and what they're doing and kind of where they're headed with regards to their school focus which had originally been one of those um focus schools all right so with Colombia so Colombia um moved into um program of choice with our hunos program is our

009first cohort of students who transitioned from our San Miguel um Elementary program rolled into Columbia Middle School and so um the focus is integrated with of course um what we're doing around the hunos um Spanish um immersion But continuing the concepts that it's been working on with regards to social emotional learning that continues to be at the corstone of the work that they're doing um both within the H program but um throughout the campus as well um continuing to emphasize um safe School environment um is very important to the work that they've been doing and must continue to do as a part of this programming and then um a really um emphasis around strong instructional um practice um and rigorous instruction and so they have been really focused in on some of their avoc Concepts

010and and companies that they're working on um still focusing on you know critical thinking creativity communication collaboration they're trying to incorporate that throughout their entire um programming um at the school site um and of course in The Hil programming as well I wanted to add this piece up here with regards to the Bulldog pride uh Mantra and um as I get to the next slide I know there were questions about you know what why is this important as a part of this programming um it's important as it um aligns with the culture of the entire campus um it has been um um we I would say the foundation on what they've been actually growing with and and producing over the last several years um that is equally and important as the hos program has transitioned

011in to be sure that we have that cultivation and interconnectedness um through that programming um so that um both spaces can be honored to the degree they need to for the work that they're doing in those separate programs I think this um Bulldog pride has really served uh Colombia well and um just wanted to talk about the strong alignment to our students experience inclusive and nurtur environments which directly ties into our um strategic plan um work and emphasis um for us as a school district um out of sight cell phones um I think there was a question like why are we talking about this what does this have to do with programs Choice um it goes back to that earlier um Point um about rigorous um instruction um over the last several years the intensity

012of students on phones um appropriate and inappropriate so it's not just reduced because of inappropriate behaviors just the time that students are for lack of a better word cheating looking at their phone versus doing what it is we need them to be doing for themselves is beginning to have a significant impact on the campus and um not only um is Staff recognizing and administration but students actually are recognizing and I would say many parents while I'm sure all may not agree with this um initiative that they're trying to work through it is significant and we are getting more and more research um with regards to the amount of time that students are own devices that's not really meaningful um to them and then of course realign ing that earlier piece around the safety issue right

013we need what students learning when they're there getting what they need and it's not saying that we don't still believe that tech technology has its place and purpose in our education it absolutely does but we want students to be using it for that um as a tool and what they need we have in the classrooms and so we are fortunate as a district to have that and so really the students actually having their cell phones during the instructional date um is not something that's necessary for them to have access to technology and also have access to technology as an instructional tool so they're going through this initiative now um as a process and preparation for consideration on a more significant level for us as a school district depending on what we learn during this time

014also wanted to reinforce that emphasis um around um the um the Bulldog pride um this is one of their more recent events that they had which was a eat and greet and what made this particular um event so powerful is that it was definitely um a community event so there were um significant parents and significant students interacting on a very large level um it's a way to get parents to the campus at times that sometimes some parents otherwise may not be able to come uh was an opportunity that you know you're not here just to maybe talk about your kidss performance or what a volunteer experience or all the other things that we try to engage our families with but was just an opportunity to to connect be on campus inter interact with the administration

015teachers Etc in a community type of way and that's one of the big emphasis for the campus is really building that community and and building a a safe space for all students um and languages for that matter all right okay so shifting um to Fairwood Elementary Fairwood Elementary actually does fit the criteria of a program of choice um it is a dedicated emphasis that the campus is um um places on family participation and volunteering um it continues to provide inquiry base and not that all of our schools don't do that but with the um added emphasis around the family participation in volunteering it allows them to do it at a magnitude much more significant than some of our other school sites um also um creating that um interconnectedness with the community involvement and um just

016really helping our students to grow as critical thinkers problem solvers be have an opportunity to be Hands-On um with academics but also just overall learning experiences on the campus um I integrated all four of our goal area is here because through this model it actually reinforces all of them very well um and throughout the curriculum and throughout the day and also with um additional opportunities outside of the school day and in the evening as well so it um so at uh Fairwood of course we have a large number of um uh volunteers um the families continue to support a teacher by volunte ering two hours a week um volunteers do a multitude of different activities um I think Miss Roma has done a great job of trying to ensure that everyone has something that fits

017either schedule lifestyle um Etc so that all families do feel welcome and find a place that they can support um the goals of the school um they continue to provide the science um opportunities um history enactments and many more um opportunities and then trying to um continue to cultivate the gardening and cooking and arts programs at the campus and many of these activities are tied to um incer based learning Hands-On learning I think there was a question around um is project-based learning still a part of the programming and what we're doing um it is um in the classrooms um we have a lot of emphasis on some other things as well as now so um so the the Project based learning is tied to kind of the outcomes and goals of different classrooms and what

018they're working on so it's a little bit more focused I would say um in in that we're trying to also be sure it's um supporting our core academic areas as much as possible um when planning um the class units they're trying to see okay what can we Infuse into that into different classrooms how my parents be able to support um the campus or the classrooms to expand the teaching and work that's going to be happening on a daily basis and so so that it's not just an activity like in addition to but it's integrated into the work um that we're working on academically for students and for teachers for that matter so that it it feels more integrated and um appropriate and not just an off so all right moving on uh talk a little

019bit about Lakewood um there were some questions here so I'm sure we'll get to that later when we have our conversation but uh Lakewood has really been emphasizing um the four pillars of the community school um kind of outline those there um I would say for sunale in general many of our campuses are really trying to move this way when we first started this initiative that was one of the things we talked about and um for Lakewood is really important their community Community has talked about the importance of it um students needs have talked about it a little bit and so the idea for it is we had a lot of supports but we've been trying to integrate those supports so that they're more meaningful more targeted um eliminating things that are not very relevant

020or have not been as successful and that's a part of the ongoing programming to be sure that what you're bringing is what you need and that it's also meeting the needs of the students um as a part of this process the other big piece that they're trying to um get in place with that is ongoing ways to get input from both students and families so that they can say yes those were the good things yes those programs are going well and then also ongoing figure out what are other programs that we need um at the school site um number two ties of course to actually two three and four very much so tied directly back to our strategic plan but the four pillars of a community school integrate very well to that work that we

021trying to do and so um uh lakewood's work has been around improving what was there eliminating what's not really working well and then um we're right in the midst of now and say okay what are we going to bring in what what is the next thing that needs to be added and they've done a good job so far of bringing in a few new things so we'll talk about a few of those okay all right so sta staing um fortunate to have been able to be a part of the um Grant in order to bring a Wellness Center to Lakewood so we have a lake a Wellness Center there that Wellness Center um has a specialist Outreach assistant that's also working with it and then a liaison and so they meet on Mondays and the

022primary purpose of them meeting is to talk about how the new initiatives are going what's missing what's the pulse on the campus what are things that are coming that we need to pay attention to and and then just the overall um um culture climate of the campus in general that's also a part of what those meetings are about um with that Wellness Center um we've also been able to um incorporate our Wellness Warriors which is student leadership who are bringing activities and try to bring other supports during recess and lunch and then at this time we also have um Pacific clinics on the campus um as we um go through this year for transition to decide will we continue with that will we be perfectly housed with our own mental health Wellness um Associates that

023we brought on and then just the overall um additional supports that we provided with our kids learning after school programs and some of the extras that we've added um to that and so I'll talk about some of those okay so um some of the things we've um added to the campus um or they've added uh is ongoing Clothing Closet um that's organized by that team to provide that and you know we they try to get donations and things we try to keep it at a manageable level because what we don't want is just stuff hanging around so we try to manage that rotate it through um that's a part of the work for the team um they've also have a mini um food pantry for you know like a few canned goods other types of

024things that they can give to families and kids that they can just kind of take um the dental screenings will be up and coming they've done some but that will be a new service that will be provided and um be there and then we're really trying to up um in collaboration um with Paul Slayton and Vanessa with our um parent education to to provide a few more opportunities there um that are dedicated to that particular community and some of the the ask that they've um requested uh with regards to student opportunities we um expanded our KS to 84 additional students do some of the extra program basketball soccer the yoga um fun on the run those are some initiatives that are in collaboration with the City of Sunnyvale um coding with Legos um Girls on

025the Run um and then the Valley Sports we have actually um added additional ones for that but the the to be determined is on there because we're looking to see what what else could we bring in and do they have the capacity to add more so we don't know yet but we're looking at some of those opportunities um for the campus all right moving on to San Miguel uh with regards to San Miguel um it continues of course to be our hunel Spanish um emerging program um that mission is strong and working with students to be B biliterate and bilingual um classes are doing well um there is crosscultural confidence um that we've been increasing um with our neighbor hood and of course that H um programming and then really trying to press on um

026academic achievement actually in both languages and that's across the campus that's a huge emphasis and so I definitely we definitely see data that supports the bringing that program there I know one of the questions um and that'll be a part of our discussion tonight like how do we begin to measure and um evaluate how effective our programs are and what to do to continue enhancing them and kind of where they are but we definitely have significant number of things to talk about um from a qualitative standpoint anyway um to reinforce um the hos program at s Miguel um at the end of 23 uh uh 24 school year we saw definitely um strong reading proficiencies in Spanish we're always looking for that to be better but we are seeing um good positive signs of that

027um and then in relationship to some of the other titer one schools um they continue to um admin Min pretty well in Spanish and English sometimes it's some things are stronger in Spanish but um but these are the highlights and the commitment to having the Bal education program and I think so far it's demonstrated to be a positive thing for us as a school district and for C Miguel school just a few highlights um um of course they starting with the Hopman award they got in 2223 that was a positive thing um many students who enter our program that are native um Spanish speakers um who leave our school being Bal B that's just a wonderful thing I that we are able to cultivate that um overall both the neighborhood and hutos um programs um

028roughly we have about 367 students in 2020 to now 428 so we've grown um so that's positive keeping um the enrollment and the programming going it still takes work for us to cultivate that and message that like that doesn't go away um but it it it continues to be positive and we we see good programming um and now we have uh I meant to change that so sorry but we also U of course are serving TK through so that's that's a very positive um change for us okay moving to Vargas um Vargas kind of had been one of those programs that we talked about you know the sence um uh emphasis uh really is a school of focus it's not a um program of choice because primarily it's neighborhood schools it's not something different that

029you have to do in order to go to Vargas and so that makes it a school of focus and not a program of choice in the programming that it's doing um Vargas continues to focus on trying to provide engaging opportunities around science um integrating that um continuing to work to um utilize Iz the science lab and so um um our principal um is cultivating that in transition trying to do that with some new programs that I've kind of talked about and so we will get to those in just a bit okay so using standards based Foundation we continue to use that um with the science programming we try to have an engaging curriculum we're going to be looking at um a new programming this year in conjunction with our mystery sign curriculum um which was

030a simply um science and we'll talk more about that in just a moment and then we're trying to continue to be sure we have the dedicated makers lab and then um other um the science lab um to support um in enhancing scientific inquiry and curiosity um with students and so we're trying to this is kind of a year of us trying some new things at the campus um and seeing if that sticks and works and then what else can we Infuse into the campus to support and cultivate the Science Focus at um bar okay so talk about the lab visits where possible we're trying to ensure that all students have um field trips at this time primarily it's K through 5 TK where're um they tried a little bit last year but we're going to

031try to bring things to the TK um versus having them go out and that also allows more potential opportunities more often when we can bring things to the campus um continue to cultivate the science notebooks um as I talked about the integration of Simply science um the science nights and then we you know we're continuing to research because we there is a capacity for the garden at Vargas and we are trying to wrap our heads around what can we do there and sustain there lot of things that we look at um it's it's great uh initially but then it's about how do you sustain it and especially when there's a Break um so we continue to research and think about you know what we could do there and what might be possible so those are

032some things that are on the lookout clarifying question what you when there's aak uh winter break spring break summer sessions yes things grow so yeah so just trying to look at how do you um how do you compensate for that um with people power but also with fiscal resources because it will require significant fil all right so just uh before we kind of um get to um our conversation just kind of want to go back to um open enrollment um want to our put our policy here so we understand that you know our um families do have that of course some of our programs are more impacted than others so that minimizes how much movement is really possible given we want to prioritize who the neighborhood students are to get into the programs where they

033where they live um we continue to though support this process throughout our campus and um so our main focus is to be um half choice of school where it's possible to do so and we do prioritize special situations like of course our students with special needs who need special programming across the campus and um just to ensure that everyone's has um strong um feels good about their school it fits their lifestyle it fits all the things that it needs to for them as much as possible but um you know we're just fortunate to be able to do that and for the most part we I think we've uh been able to be consistent and Equitable in our processes so with that um it's not perfect but I think we do a good job to be

034sure we're um allowing families to be where they need to be for the education of their kids okay and so with that we're going to pause and have more discussion and conversation um these were just some thoughts I had of things that I thought the board might want to engage in a little bit deeper conversation about um but um yeah have some courageous learning okay thank you about that and in name of the board and every thank you then name and everybody that we represent and we're going to start with a comments from the community so I see that we have five cards in person and if any four sorry if anyone wants to put a car that haven't and I think there is one person online good ER okay so with that 's see

035okay perfect so H this portion of the agenda provides an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the governing board on this particular item I the three Provisions okay so we're going to have three minutes per person and 20 minutes in general so we're going to start like that 7 * 3 is 21 do you want to still do 3 minutes so what s comments * 3 minutes is 21 minutes do you still want to do three minutes per person yeah we can yeah okay so let's start with no it's still online and for for sorry so let's start with Jess yes oh I'm sorry right hand you were very polite thank you all right hello I'm Jessica jki I am the parent of a student at Vargas and a student at SMS

036um I'm the PTA president at fargus but I'm actually speaking on my own behalf um I just wanted to mention or I wanted to talk about the program at Vargus a little bit um when I moved into the district a little over 2 years ago and I had to think about where I wanted to go and so I went and looked at the public school and I saw that Vargas was a science school and now I recognize that it's a focus and not a school of choice but um I made the choice based in a large part because of that and um we I've heard a lot of parents conc concerned about where the program is heading I've talked to our new principal a lot about this and I am convinced that he is enthusiastic

037about keeping the science program going but I just wanted to emphasize to you all that it's it's definitely uh an area of concern and needs a lot of support and I think our community really really feels that um we would like to see as much support from this board to show that this is something that's important and it is something that we're going to keep going and it's not going to just be it it's going to be something that stands out from the other schools in the district um not just taking something from another school in the district and putting it in ours and calling it an area of focus so we want to make sure that whatever we're doing we keep doing more and have it be truly something that's important and if this

038isn't the area of focus that's fine but we need to whatever we're doing I want us to put our hearts into it and really make it something all right that's all thank you thank you our next speaker will be J R here got an extra minute this time last speech all right uh well I am Jud Ratner and I am here as a parent uh as also a part of the PTA the site Council a third grader and TK individual uh so I am advocating of course for our our our choice exploration so great summary from Dr Dean here our current program happens to be leadership and though I like the idea of that and especially as you get older this becomes an important part of of uh who you are and and how you

039lead uh it is particularly difficult frankly to translate this particular Focus uh or program of choice into the student so the teachers never really fully embraced it ambiguity I think is actually part of its challenge there's a significant Hispanic population as we know which just makes this program of choice a little bit challenging in in my opinion so uh I would be interested though in having some of the kind of participation numbers for schools of choice uh over to Jeremy but I don't is our understanding it's not really serving our community very well so we established a committee to investigate we've narrowed it down to arts project based and I forget the other but Arts is the one that's really showing the most promise now we all know the advantages of Arts in education and

040creativity there's a reason that we went from stem to steam uh and uh much of this though is really anchored in Bishop's unique position in having a full-size Auditorium that really is something special that we have and I think we can Embrace so we've identified local and National examples even though we're still working to get some communication lines going we've talked about doing a physical visit to some in the area because we really feel that's the best way to immerse ourselves and understand how they fuse Arts throughout their entire program so today for me the big ask or I should say on behalf of our school the big ask is to identify uh basically funding and grants and other type of support that we can get for staff and materials I am curious about the

041other Investments that the district makes specifically in the program and not just in kind of your normal salaried individuals um but right now uh we have our starting arts program which is a great drop in type of experience but it does have limited uh time in the classroom and impact to me the best example is having an arts teacher or m music teacher instruments art supplies guest instructors are even in-house uh and uh you know Tri to performances because I feel it's it's quite hard to claim that this is our focus without dedicated resources U being behind us so to close up I mean this is something that my wife and I Arts education both had throughout Elementary School in the Northeast and somehow Arts just kind of got lost along the way I don't

042can't speak for California but at least this is the way it it appears I became an engineer myself but my wife is now a prominent graphic designer at uh one of the tech companies around here and attributes her success to her early Arts uh education so I'm happy to report that we've made some progress and movement towards this program of choice but like any other initiative can't really realize its full potential and educational outcomes without uh financial and organizational support thank you thank you and our next uh person will be a Peggy Shen Brewster you have two cards one for regular comments this is just this say that for later please yeah hi hi my name is Peggy shamer I'm here um as a bishop parent I am fourth grader and a Kinder at Bishop

043um I as I was listening to this presentation um I was I kind of have a point of clarification which I'll just ask openly is um the difference between a program of choice and a school focus um so it sounds like we have two very strong programs of choice at Fairwood and the hunas program and then we at Bishop we're a program of choice but moving towards school focus and so as Jud mentioned we um had identified Arts Performing Arts as an area where we'd want to kind of have programs but I'm wondering if a school focus would actually um be able to achieve like the concept that many of us have in our mind which I think would fit maybe more Under the Umbrella of program of choice I'm just wondering about those two

044phrases and like the meaning of it and um I was on the exploration committee until um I stepped off of that committee um and um so I'm not sure exactly how that process is going although um jud's wife Mayan um is on the committee still um I do want to Echo what he said about um the need for support um I was in a previous meeting here during our governance meeting where we talked about um we want uh any change to be Community guided right Community um spearheaded from our own Community but also it came to my thinking that maybe like the structure that there's to have eight meetings to explore the focus of the school might not be enough to launch it into an actual program um that I could imagine like on the

045level of the hofman type schools that we've seen where children are learning in musical instrument and are leading with really rich Arts education and going forward um so I want to also just Echo that need for support from the district um and from the board just if this is something that that we all believe in um as something that could be a choice for our children I would like to see that support offered to the community or at least made known and um finally I want to mention that um I know that the the the previous um reasoning for having the schools of programs of choice is to like draw enrollment from the south part of the district to the north part of the district and that was um well achieved to Fairwood and to

046to hunos but I want to note that there has been an a negative effect on some of the remaining schools like at Bishop I look around and I see this really really great parent participation at San Miguel and at h and at the Fairwood Explorer and those are people that all live in my neighborhood so that has drawn away from the potential Bishop neighborhood so I would really love to make us a a program of choice school focus that is desirable as well thank you thank you and then we have two people online perfect can please speaker have their name speaker please start now you have a three minute oh three participant okay you have three minutes and yeah whenever Masters are ready H just tell her to close it after the yeah well came

047okay that's okay as we stay in 20 minutes so it's Courtney Json followed by Petra okay uh okay I think that worked yes um okay good evening everyone my name is Courtney Jansen I'm speaking on my own behalf tonight as a parent of two kids first I want to thank the district for providing these I guess programs of choice or areas of focus I kind of missed that because we're trying to do dinner in the background um but what was then called at the time programs of choice when it came time to figure out a school for my kids I guess two years ago uh I didn't look anywhere Beyond Fairwood and San Miguel I didn't even consider private school because the programs of choice at those two schools were so strong and I am

048so happy that today my kids are at s Miguel huna's program we love it so thank you to the district and the teachers and staff at San Miguel for giving my kids such an amazing opportunity I've joked with them that I want to trade places so I can go to elementary school and they can do my day job um as I think about the programs of choice one thing that has struck me is the balance of making sure that kids get in a foundation and all these topics even if they don't attend the school with that area of focus so for example well right all kids need to learn some technology and cyber safety they need to learn science and have time to explore Outdoors they need to learn to lead but also how to

049step back so others can shine um and so even though you didn't ask I'm going to share my couple of thoughts on ways to expand these programs first for a technology School I've wondered if we could include something like a visual reality or augmented reality space perhaps a robotics lab we have intuitive effectively just down the street um could we partner with with intuitive for some of their robotics expertise or doing demos every day intuitive has a great foundation and programs with Outreach I'd happily connect you guys with that U maybe photography an additional coding opportunities or even uh establishing like a first Lego League explore team uh that's specifically focused to kids ages 8 to 10 from a science school maybe something like a pollinator Garden a native plant garden a course on the

050indigenous uses of native plants aing a cooking program regular field trips like were mentioned to even Santa Cruz mountains bins and more or Partnerships and research with Cal Academy of Sciences or monter Bay Aquarium uh maybe even the Science school could become like an outdoor school if I'm doing really wishful thinking here um and then my last comment is I love the idea of an Arts area of focus um I am a little bit biased as you may know in high school I had planned to be a professional the player in a classical Symphony I obviously didn't do that today but the importance of music and art for our kids it cannot be overstated um so an arts program of choice school maybe Visual Arts programming or Performing Arts photography with a dark lab Pottery

051Studio musical bands choir during school hours those are all um ideas so again thank you for having this program my kids love the hunos program at San Miguel and I really enjoyed listening to the ideas that came up today and that's all I've got thank you thank you for your comment and now our next speaker next is Petra house followed by Laura okay Petra house and this start your comments you have two minutes than your comments thank you so much um it's great to be here um my name is Patra HS I have two children uh kind or sorry first and fourth grader at Bishop Elementary as well um and I am actually on the committee that is exploring our different um options for uh program of choice or um uh and what I'd really

052um love to just put out there is that um one we just we really have some amazing teachers and I and amazing community that we're building at Bishop through the PTA through the various different events that we have going on and that what stands out is that there's this huge opportunity to really think about what the potential of our future can be there to work with our community members to decide on that um and then when we think about both the space um and the structure of our schools um considering what funding opportunities there are to fund these as well as how we can be creative around um after school programming in conjunction with our Inay programming to maximize those opportunities is going to be really important one of the things that has come up

053in our exploration is just how tight the school days schedule is and that um you know there's a lot to cover just to get the basics done and so um it's going to be really important for us to really think about how we um how we go about that process and and what we think about in terms of the holistic experience for our students both in school and after school um the after school space is another area that we have drastic need for um in our communities um and so just thinking about that as as we consider the schools of choice and and what the opportunities that might bring for further partnership um I also want to Echo what Courtney said we live in a very resourcer region um but doesn't always trickle into our

054schools and so really thinking about how can we figure out those Partnerships um both with tech industry but also with other spaces like universities um and other Community Partners are trying to address the same issues in the region I know that the county um uh as a whole is really thinking about kind of how share you resources and what things um what potentials there are to serve our community um and so just really thinking about what are the collaborative opportunities here um also just thank you for putting this on the space and for giving us a opportunity to hear from you later um we look forward to hearing that as we also consider uh where we go with the bishop programming thank you thank you thank you for coming tonight and our last person will

055be Laura the so yes you have a three minutes please start with your timer thank you very much hi thank you so much for having um this forum tonight and um my name is uh Laura or eal by Lori and I have two children that went through S Miguel um the younger one is a sixth grader at Columbia now uh thank you for providing the schools of choice um it's interesting to notice that that some are a school of focus that was new for me today too um my daughter started in the flag shops hunos as a first grader in 2016 um the viver community that flourishes at s Miguel um and I see coming through at Columbia Middle School didn't happen overnight over the eight years at s Miguel it grew it changed um

056and as one person said um it's one of two schools that she considered for her kids it would be great to see that all the schools of choice are being considered that all of them are a draw that they're not just a school of focus and I think as someone also said where you have a resource uh a lot of resources maybe in our area and I I appreciate that there is this discussion um and I believe that and hopeful that um some of these changes into place um so I'm glad that that this is here that it's the discussion is been considered um so thank you well thank you very much for coming and it is a great to have so many members of the community and so much engagement tonight ER so before

057we start ER our discussion I think we're gonna try to get it to 7:15 unless we have too much to talk about we can consider because we have a fairly light agenda tonight so yeah yeah I think only one full other discussion so I I I would also say like 10 minutes for all of us to discuss our programs of would be oh I know I I think 75 is great but just it's not a like agenda tonight I don't agree the 75 but it's not agenda well we had this year one so we only have one big presentation the rest is award so let's start with that try to think 7:15 but what I will thinking tonight we can start with one H small introduction for each of us what ever you have something

058planned from the packet reading and then we start our discussion but we can come down the road like if you have any H main questions or observations to start with h each of us has few minutes and then we can start discuss after [Music] that um so I have two points the first point um is that um we always want to make sure that everybody has the core in in this process of the things that we're valuating that we reflect in our strategic plan and so what the difference is is in how this might be reflected through an area of um intent I don't want to say Focus but but intent ality um I don't have a problem with starting out as a school of focus because as it was um mentioned by one of

059the public speakers it's a journey not a destination so you have to have an idea in mind a focus to have something become a school of choice um because you're going to be trying and experimenting and then building capacity not only within the community of resources but within the staff itself because um you want to have staff be able to um support and match the strengths of the particular focus and that's going to take some time to do with training um opportunities for hiring in new people the potential of um staff moving from one site to another if that's their personal Um passion and and um focus Point um so resources which was mentioned again takes time to develop and build as well um within the concept of what as you begin you scaffold and

060you start to support individual projects within a school of focus or other and then you build it out from there so I think that there will be resources you just um you just can't flick a switch and have to have the school suddenly change in the next year it's um I want to emphasize this the journey um the one question that I had as it bubbled up to me um was uh are we going to be consistent with our PBIS and with our seal and how that's going to be looking in our communities now that we kind of have moved away from Bishop having leadership kind of being their focal their their focal point um of how we're how we're addressing those um communities and and choice and interaction and child interaction yeah the PBIS

061and seal are core um and while they don't fit in the the bucket of um our core academics for us in Sunnyville they do like we feel like you can't have one without the other so those things will never go away at least hopefully now why I'm here but uh no it's just the core of what we do it's the foundation of the work it must be integrated it must be all the time and so um when we started some of those initiatives it was something I guess you could say a little new so we put additional in there but really now it it really has to be like English and Mathematics okay Michelle um I don't really have a whole lot of um like specific things to show I'm just excited to jump into

062I think these three questions I really liked them um and like in regards to that one of the question I asked in packed was the um the last one that how do we determine when a school school focus is successful um and um I sent a follow but just that WR so my followup was what are our success indicators well I guess I'll read what the response was so it was we're now using a different definition of success that is we consider a school successful if it is meeting its community's needs and that could be through a schoolwide focus the program of choice or its basic responsiveness as a neighborhood school so I that was a great I love that answer from staff but then the the follow question is what are our success indicators

063in regards to meeting the school Community meets so I'm just excited to like jump in those questions and then that's kind of a specific kind kind of question more specific question to the number three question and while I can't say we have like a program choice or School of focus um indicator that we're using I think as a part of this process especially as we're fine-tuning some and R potentially rolling out new ones um what we will be aligning it very closely to is a part of our strategic planning process one of the things we look at as our metrics our indicators and um our adult behaviors like what are the things that we're doing to ensure that the outcomes and the goals that we're seeking are actually happening so that will definitely be integrated

064into the processes as we move for yeah and my brain was like thinking about because this was in my head this week as you were going through them and getting Le about it ear this week going through each one my brain kind of started thinking through like what could be some success indicators for Vargas with the science stuff right or what could be some indicators with San mcal like you know thinking about connecting punto like something connected to high schooler right so yeah I know it's not going to happen tonight the specific indic haers but just that conversation of as we're doing this right prioritizing that space of right we want to be successful how do we know if we're being successful right so I'm I'm too excited about that and oh and then I'm

065also um I think it was kind of a question that Peggy asked too but I think and again it might not be fully answered tonight because we're kind of diving into this new space of focus areas programs of choice like what it all is going to look like and so right like knowing kind of Flushing that out right and I know it's not happening tonight but just what are those differences what does that look like what does it mean like resources wise or other things when it's a program of choice or a focus area or maybe it's all the same it's just but just um figuring that stuff out in the coming months I have so many thoughts about this like so many and I'm just like struggling to articulate like which one of them

066is like the most important for me I just switched my son this year from Lake W which is you know a school focus has a school focus to Fairwood which has a prr of choice and it's a very different experience um I can't articulate the whole thing one thing that did stand out to me in the presentation is that the stuff under the Lakewood slide is very Community School focused and I question why we still have the te Q label on that school it doesn't seem like it truly is a school focus at this point it seems like the school is moving towards the community school model and less so towards the tech EQ um let's see I would be curious as about the current draw for each of I'm sorry would you like a

067response to that or you just want me to write that question down at this point because I do have a response respon okay so the emphasis of that community school did come from the community and um if we think about the time when Lakewood became the um Tech EQ we were at a different place um from a technological standpoint as a school district and so they were leading way um and that was an initiative and so they don't necessarily want to get rid of that maybe if we need to rename Rebrand we'll get to that and talk about it but they do want to infuse that into that so it's not like we want that to go away it's just that the emphasis around the work that we're doing is around that community and engagement

068um and so getting that grounded the goal is to continue to look at that is that the right combination does something need to happen but they definitely do not at this point necessar want that to go away but we may need to Rebrand name of something that maybe interconnects it in a different way but um that's that's kind of where they are it's not that they have left that some of those things that they were doing then they're still doing and doing better but the emphasis is trying to bring the community and to expand some of those Concepts as a like with parent we only call ourselves the tech e q school when the technology acts up it's like oh the the the power points not working the tech school um sort of thing um

069this isn't super urgent but I would be curious as to the enrollment numbers for this year that people who are um who are enrolling into and into um Fairwood Explorer I think that Fairwood Explorer is down in enrollment and I'm curious as to how many people are going to the school because of the program yeah bring that we're crunching those numbers now we tend to bring that as part of the enrollment presentation so yes I've already noted um that piece and we'll make sure we highlight that metric when it comes to okay thank you um and I'll wait for the discussion us okay so a couple of things um for I just want to say that this meeting should probably be two hours and it should probably be or maybe like its own meeing like

070this this portion of it because I feel like we can go we have lots of questions about data we've had other presentations like on the hunos program in the past like where we've gone through and we've looked at the hunos versus the neighborhood programs and the performance of the students and we we have lots of measurable things that we could discuss um that might be part of the conversation for whether or not um like Sam Miguel for instance would ever become a kto only school um for a couple things I wanted to say for fair wood um we talked about it in packet revie you I mentioned it in my um in my questions in my questions it was more of a question my thought is is that for fairwoods program description I'm I'm really

071concerned that it's focusing on what the parents do that it's a that it's a parent participation school because when I look through the other answers not even from my question but from other people's questions about Fairwood it was like they do each class each classroom does three Project based learning projects per year on average that's extraordinary that is a lot of Project based learning to do they go on one field trip a month that's extraordinary so these are handson um different kinds of experiences different ways of delivering our curriculum um that we uh that we're offering at Fairwood and it's just not described in saying it's a parent participation and through the parent participation they get to do all this cool stuff so I I would I would like to see that fli personally and

072see what the board thinks on that um and then the other thing is about Bishop you know we as board members have gone on like lots of different um lots of different excursions and gone to attended conferences about just how fantastic Arts performing arts schools are and integrating the Arts and there's so many different models and ways to do that and I would love to I mean I really hope I mean I'm really hoping that because I really do believe that Fairwood is a Project based learning school and Hands-On learning school I I would really hope that with their Auditorium and just because of the family engagement that and because of all the great things that music does for your brain and the opportunities that would offer kids in general I would love that if

073we had a performing arts school artist School for the Arts and then my very last thing I want to say is I just feel like with Vargas um you know the simply science as a carryover for this year is a great idea but I think Catherine Armstrong only had one year of that position that was the assistant or like that partial position where they were it was someone who was a teacher who was the science teacher for the school and did all the prep and did all stuff and I think that's what simply science is doing I've heard that from Cherry Chase that it actually having that program actually encouraged the teachers to kind of Shame them into doing more experim experiments themselves in their own room so got the kids excited got the teachers

074seeing that they do it and so then when they went to the lab the kids were actually getting like multiple doses of science experience so I think that that's great but I think to say things like you know Gardens grow inconvenient times of year like I think all we need to do is build the infrastructure and you know if we if we would agree to something there's funding resources out there that um like the Ed foundation and other people can apply for but they can only apply for it if the district Buys in so I just I'm really hoping that this meeting leads to some concrete commitment from the board to support these programs in ways like in financial ways and um you know ex allowing Innovation and experimentation within programs that have already been

075established and to kind of pick them up a little bit because I don't think it's really fair to say that varus is kind of lagging in the science areas because it's just been kind of underfunded we can't have the teachers try to do everything so that's my te okay thank you and yes we could we could expand this conversation as much as we need so some of my general comments some of I put them on package review ER well we are all in a open enrollment so in a way as I understand people can move from one school to another and we don't have any impacted school right now do we uh we do um I would consider we consider Ellis Cherry Chase Cumberland and sville middle to have I think we word it extremely

076limited space the reason for that as you discussed is that we're we're not trying to move students around so we're just trying to um uh make sure that it's a robust program but there's still choice this was a CH uh about three years ago when we opened up the rest of the schools prior to that cherry Chief Cumberland and SMS were not even H list um but with your declining enrollment we um have started to open that up okay so I like the I mean if if I well going to go backwards this was my last comment commentary but is the one about how or when a school of focus is successful or when we are really successful I I don't think this is a like it will be the only reason but it will

077be like each of our schools are so wonderful and are special that if a parent like each of them will have the possibility of people coming like if a parent put more weight on arts or on science or on language they will be able to move and all of them will be the best choice ever for that particular family so that all of them will be on a high standard high quality that we all wanted to to have for our kids so other than the Open Enrollment um I I am really looking forward to retake this year the focus of Science and hopefully we can give enough funds for science for um for Vargas and yes commit to that program it is I mean we are in in Silicon Valley this is a spectacular opportunity

078and there are so many amazing things where you know my kids have been I've been part of every Museum in in the Bay Area I've been extremely busy just driving my kids around from one adventure to the next one those are the kind of things that we want for every and we there are so many possibilities as Corney was saying so many state county parts around with amazing programs for learning and it shouldn't be impossible for us to figure it out how to do it and you know we have such an amazing curriculum already amazing staff very smart people who have come up with all these programs that we already have I I bet that we can do something amazing there I love well we've been talking about this I think since I came and

079and it wasn't already a new idea but yeah I I do love the idea of Performing Arts the we all have heard over and over what art H do for the brain what music do for the brain what how we can have real scientists and mathematicians if they are creative enough and the way to you know move moving the muscles of create creativity are of course very good when when we involve s arts from the beginning and there are so many programs close by that we can go and explore and I think the school have been telling us and people from the school have been telling us for a while that they want that and people in the community and I think this is an amazing opportunity if we are focusing on having this well

080school choice or or Focus or whatever we call it is too bad that the national meaning of schooling school of choice is different than the one we put but still is is great people have a choice to to work with the public education system and yeah I when I saw the also the the description of fairw and I I remember like every time like a lot of times we we get told in the board that we are not to talk about the how about the why and what and I think Fairwood is a the why and what is not the parent participation as it is described is the Explorer program and it's the Hands-On learning ER my kids went to Fairwood and when I explained to everybody what Fairwood was I was explaining to them

081that it was a school full of Adventure where the kids learned through the adventure and joy of learning where which is part of our strategic plan the joy of learning the adventure they they learn while doing and why well the how is the parents because we have extra adults in the room that can help the teacher make it happen otherwise it will be extremely difficult ER we have Project based learning which were very you know long weeks projects that came to fruition after you know with some Exposition or after experimentation we have Hands-On learning with all all the amazing programs that we had we had because of the how because the how that was the part participation we had things like the passport program for example that we did with Miss price in first grade

082where a for about seven or eight weeks each parent took one week the last half an hour of every day during a week and did a passport to a different country because we have diversity we have we went to eight countries and one day was food the other day was dancing the other day was whatever that happened because we have the parents and that was an experience or we have the the parent who who work at Lo Martin and did rocket science and then we did rockets in the classroom that happened because of the parents but this is more about learning and because it's more about the experience of learning and the joy of learning and all the amazing things that we did and how we did it because we had the ex Volunteers in

083the classroom but it's not the center the center was going to beig basing going to ER one field trip every week going to sorry every month going to all the stuff that were happening because of the how like we we were able to do it but I I feel like it was you know it's I would love for this to keep happening forever like we we actually have these Amazing Adventures where the kids are you know having one Adventure after another doing like bri did the the was like a theater Museum that the kids were Museum The Living Museum that's another Project based learning hung Museum like they were acting whatever person for the one full month and then they did a full Exposition and dress up of the historic character and that's amazing I

084I I mean my kids still remember that and they will always remember that I will always remember that I have thousands of photos of themes this person and and with and that that's that's the kind of ER I mean the kind of dream childhood that we want for every kid in our in our district you know dancing d f clorica having science doing rockets doing amazing adventures and and really enjoying and being a plus in everything they do what whatever it is that the parents want to have and I think that will be a you know a measure of success like people really are you know moving from not moving physically but H choosing like oh I would love my kids to be you know an actor or or a musician and I will go

085even though I live in this other corner of the town I will drive to Bishop every day because I think it's amazing that they have a symphonic orchestra or something like that and that happen with everything oh I want my kids to to field tricks or I want my kids to learn Spanish or or whatever that will be that the schools are so good that they are a driver of the community and and and everything is an adventure and I think that's and and yeah with that we can start the discussion so we're at [Music] 715 yeah let's keep moving let's keep the we could discuss one of the questions right yeah okay um so I think it I I think number two is a good question but I think because we have a strategic

086plan Vision we can make those connections as as programs evolve but I'm more concerned about the overarching goal for developing a focus because that's going to give us direction of where we need to go next I agree so that's where I would like to spend time um and one of my overarching goals for the process of developing a focus is in design thinking you have to begin with the end in mind so from my experience if you don't consider where this child is going to be going in high school because we're only concerned with this you know or even Middle School how are these transitions going to be translated with this idea of pass or concept as they grow through this system so that to me is is like an overarching goal to help Define

087this if we're if we're engaging the community they want to know what an outcome might be so we need to start to with intention plan how is this going to impact our Middle School well I I love that idea Nancy because I love that um for the like for example Bishop students go to CMS CMS has a robust music program they we just increased it I think they went up by another like 100 students or something because of the additional funding right so I think that um you know maybe there will be other El you know other kinds of electives or other Integrations of whatever model they use at CMS but I think um you know and they have a a pretty awesome Art Exhibit Every Spring right like the art teacher is you know

088does they take over the entire library and quad and everything so I mean I think that for those schools I think hos we saw that like the articulation to middle school was a little bumpy the first year and then the articulation into high school was a little bumpy the first year but I mean that was the that was the first program where we're going for right and right now the um the high schools come and recruit from the middle schools for music kids right so to give more kids an opportunity to be there would be better I actually think one of the overarching goals should be not since it's no longer a geographic move I think one of the should be to actually bring more opportunity to kids who might not otherwise have those art

089music classes and theater you know or their their parents aren't taking them to the Museum every week you know like I think I think that should be I think that would be a really great part of the goal so for example like I talked to a Cherry Chase mom and she's like we should just make cherry chase a School for the Arts let's do it and I was like hey you know I'm not gonna I don't I don't think that's really necessary here and I like it was articulating in my mind like because Bishop has this community where it would just um it would just be so so engaging for bringing all the parents in you could do so many different things with culture and arts and opportunity right so not that Cherry Chase can't

090have and they already have a bunch of music and after school programs there so so what I think I'm so what I'm I think I'm hearing is we want to support Bishop in next steps we want to support Vargas in further developing or continuing their science program and making it stronger and then that for me leaves up in the air what Lakewood is doing because if we have these really strong programs of choice at every other school then this is something Peggy was saying but when you have that draw for children and for parents to go to other schools what ends up at your other schools is everyone who's left and if you have everyone who's left at Lakewood which is building a community school that's going to have around Services is that what we

091want like maybe that's the best place for them but is that what we want so my tag is a community school is a philosophy once again it's where they're beginning but that doesn't do we want lwood to have a draw like do we want it to have a draw should it have a draw like if the other schools have a draw should it so yeah what I I guess I would this is just my opinion right I guess I would say draw number one is serve your immediate Community right and I think the community school model does that very well yeah so that's that's job one that's job that's job one at actually any of our schools right most again this is my this is what I think is true others might disagree I think

092most families would prefer that their neighborhood School met their needs that's not that contr right so U yeah and and part of this where the reason we are where we are right now is because we have this trajectory out and all of these schools and then it was interrupted by Co right so what's exciting is that we're finally at a spot where schools communities principes staffs feel like yeah we can we're ready for the next step I think L I think Lakewood was offered Mandarin program at one point oh I was there you know that was that they rejected that idea and it's interesting the reason again I was I was there the reason they said that was like that's wonderful we're not against a language program if there was going to be a language

093program we would not choose for it to be Mandarin that doesn't serve our immediate community's needs um and it gots back to that same philosophy which is another challenge that as a district like we kind of focus with at at that time what if there's a district need and it doesn't quite fit someplace um discussion because Ellis also has said like you know the previous leaders at Ellis have said we're not a we're not a program of choice or anything like that we're just a regular neighborhood school you know and like really proud of that like we're just that's our neighborhood school and I think the community school model actually like the neighborhood School model but like pumped up even more like more supportive so I don't think you know I mean I I understand

094what you're saying because it sounds like you're saying like we don't want it to be we're not being aspirational enough for Lakewood right no I mean there's that but also as a Lakewood parent I am constantly aware that the PTA struggles because parents with money and time have sent their kids to fear with or or S like that's the the the parent community their struggles it's it's hard because the the the the people who opt into Lakewood aren't drawn there usually by techq they're drawn there because they're in the neighborhood and they like the school but that often means that they don't have time to participate in the same way as fairw parents and so it's a big lift to do fairly basic things that other schools are able to do very easily exactly exactly

095can I interject something here as you're in your discussion which I think is very important and something we're working on and have been as a district which is why we've been emphasizing parent engagement we really don't want to emphasize that PTA is the only way that our families can show engagement um they can where we really want them showing engagement is with their own children to be very honest and so our cultivation is around giving them tools resources that they need to reduce stresses and that's not just at Lakewood but that's throughout our district so that they can focus on being the best parent that they can be for their children um PTA is great pto's are great all that is great but that does not fit every family Dynamic for multiple reasons you know

096aging parents at home or whatever the case might be so we're more around the parent engagement aspect and defining that campus to campus situation by situation and we see that at our responsibility to cultivate that and that is why Lakewood is emphasizing community school because it's up to us to figure out what are those resources that are needed and how do we bring them to Lakewood so the families and students are getting not only what they need but trying to add as many bells and whistles as we possibly can thought about ptas because I I sort of think that PTA fill in a big gap for school campuses like you know even in terms terms of like funding the stuff that the school district isn't buying you know whether it's supplies or you know fi

097trips or things like that like I mean they do fill in a lot of gaps and so I think that it's that opportunity piece of it like it's not just the um you know getting a wathon going to to or getting a um Fall Festival going but it's it's kind of those other things that just are supporting the whole thing so I I appreciate that the that there are many different ways people can be involved and even volunteering in the classrooms is something everybody can do but um you know I do understand your point and you know maybe that's something for I mean like for me I would want to put something upon liewood like you're going to do community school and you're also going to do this because we want you to have a

098draw like I I think that that is something where maybe I I would I think I would like to see L would either commit to Tech EQ or not um that's that's my perspective I think that one of the big things that PTA funding helps other schools do is is field trips like my son went on one field trip last year at Lakewood um they just didn't have the funding for for buses for every for that to happen frequently and that's something that you know as a district we want kids to be able to do that we want them to have those opportunities and yes that people can participate in different ways but two years ago L had raised less than 300K as a PTA and that's sorry not less than 3K as a I

099was like wow was it was l so I feel like I don't feel like it's fair to ask staff to step in or the district to step in to fill in those gaps that other schools are able to cover Through robust PTA funding even the foundation like there is a u there is um room in our Equity model for PTA funding but but the foundation can't make up that Gap either there's there's just a loss there that is hard to make up I I think that my what my understanding is that lwood is taking the time to fully Embrace a community school but they will sooner or later come back to get to the next get back to question and I think I I I I I I love Carly and I think one of

100her superpowers is um grant funding and especially finding grant funding for community school and she's working so hard at that right now but I guess is is that is that where we want to go and I hope that we're aware of potential Downstream effects of that I I think the community ER idea is very good for lewood and I think you're right that it's just a starting but it could be the tech that would be very very good for also for the area Silicon Valley but also you know last year or or right after pandemic we were discussing again the language programs and one of the things that came well was that you know like we were too small to start from scratch another language like do we put Spanish also there in at lwood

101and then we have two programs or if we can put one fully school so there was a discussion about doing it through language and I think at that moment ER we came back to well it is it requires a lot of focus to make it work right now as a community ER College sorry as a community school to start with ER and once we get there then we can talk about refining what it means to be parl well they or not and she if they want to let go of te Q for now they they can I mean there's no penalty if they if they if they want to if it's too much to hang on to it doesn't mean they can't do something else later and I guess the leader in me was the

102the name was there but the program wasn't the same it wasn't robust and there we I think there'll be a Natural Evolution to this and I I want to be additive not just practive if they don't see as a problem just continue on if if it's um and as I said once once the students needs are met through the community and families are met through the community school then they'll have the the um ability to focus on where they want to go next we have a high number of Mak kids that liid an be a study next year after they feel that they have reached the point of community school like making another exploration maybe there what is it that they want to be about if they want to have something extra I want to

103also integrate Community School is not a school where there's problems um I'm hearing some themes in our conversation that may give that impression so I want to be sure for anyone who's listening that is not the case it's actually strengthening and enhancing the assets that come within that Community um so I just wanted to reemphasize that so it's not a negative by any means um that's why we did choose it um and it comes with exceptional benefits and those who do it well um it is a draw so and that's not our goal for doing it um but it is also a draw when you do it well so I just wanted to reiterate that as well yes um so I know we're we're over time so it's maybe not a discussion for um tonight

104but maybe as we dive further in I would love to get the staff's opinion on that first question like what is the oring goal I'm sure staff has had lots of conversations in cabinet and and they go out to the team so I just would be again probably we don't have time right now unless we want to take longer right now but I would really love to get staff's perspective on that first question as some point we're moving forward in this Cas and I would also really like as far as um the you know sharing of Link sharing of practices between you know schools um the idea of the the hunas program last time we got data on it the data for the testing was that students in the hunas program didn't like were performing

105on average like less or just like at below grade level until they got to fourth grade and then when they got to third or fourth grade then all of a sudden they're proficient and above and it was like far higher than the than the neighborhood program which is now down to one class per grade level which is where Fairwood was at when they pulled the plug and they said we're going to pull the Band-Aid off this thing and we're going to go whole school and because you get those same that same one class there's no you don't get to mix classes with other students there's a behavior issue like we don't get along we're going to be around from kindergarten to fifth grade forever as long as we're at that school so there's no opportunity

106to like you know even just deal with issues by changing that so there's that issue and then the other issue is you know what about if hunos as a program could like could we have a Spanish speaking satellites like kindergartens or other other strains at other schools I mean I don't know if space is a huge M if space is a huge issue but the program is so successful in terms of test scores and outcomes we what is our opportunity or is there an availability of expanding that even in a satellite form where you know it just takes on as a hub instead of just a single site so that's my that's my followup plan question so I I think that maybe we could I think maybe we can come back a in few months

107before the end of this year to know what is the status see if there is with the exploration for Bishop and with the maybe we can well we we're going to at least give it a year to to see how the new the new program put on in the Science school is working out and see how we span on that ER but maybe we could have a second part sometime during the year to see how we're going with the with the new possibly School of Choice and what are the plans how what is the how now if we if we finalize a why and what then how are we going to implement it and what's the dream wish list from the schools like if Vargas just said like hey we can get you grants we

108can get you stuff like what what is their vision of what it would be because we all think different things you even Courtney's calling in with like a robotics La I mean like oh that sounds really cool but like what do they thinking at the at the site you know now they're thinking about robotics Labs yeah because because then after they do the they they feel that they are fully committed to the community school maybe they can start doing the exploration that Bishop is doing now um okay I want to give a quick plug to myself um um I got this really cool pollinator Garden Grand at Lakewood for our pollinator Garden that I want to implement so if you want to come and help me pull leaves I need need to get plants those

109weeds out of the ground so I can uh plant a pollinator Garden at like I need to pick up the plants on October 23rd so I need to there a whole ton of weeds before then um so as part of the community school I I kind of want to see um uh plants like food plants like last year I made a big effort to like grow tomatoes and a culturally responsive Garden so that kids know where their food is coming from and what it looks like because asparagus looks really weird growing out of the ground like you buy it in a bundle but it actually grows in like a sphere like this and so I I I I personally need help with that at Lakewood and so just like as you know a gardening person

110if we if we are going to commit to supporting Lakewood in this community school model I'm just going to say that I need help in the garden okay and that could be also part of your comments both comments absolutely one more thing um as I knock on doors in liquid what people tell me they want to see like because I say like I'm I'm on the school board I I hear either another Spanish Immersion just like from the neighborhood right or Tagalog those are the Tagalog the Filipino language yeah and so uh I looked into that a little bit there's not really a robust teal curriculum um but that's what generally I've heard okay thank you and with that so we're going to have a little break as we normally do after the study session

111is 7:36 we are going to try to restart at 7:45 so for those online be back in 10 minutes and thank you that we'll have a [Music] break e e e [Music] dancing [Music] I'm not4 start and with that we're gonna start moving to item number let's see four comment from the board and superintendent and as us we're start all the way down with nany it's a busy it's a busy time and um things are starting back um it was exciting to be um looking into the uh challenge team today like it it was exciting to listen in um here at of the different school districts um that challenge team today um I'm looking forward to um getting some more exercise in the next couple of weeks doing block walks for um measure y and

112and um measure ke and for individual candidates um so um thank you very much since it's so late I'm G to pass we're going to be talking about um special months later in the meeting agenda but I did want to talk about this real quick it's um lgbtq History Month in October and I wanted to tell a short anecdote about that which was that when my son was in TK he really liked unicorns he really liked unicorns and he really liked the color teal and it's really difficult to find boys clothing that have unicorns in the color teal so he got this dress it was a cute little unicorn dress that was teal and had unicorns on it and it was his dress and he loved it and one day he wanted to wear it

113to school and I texted his teacher and I said oh my God my son's going to wear a dress to school today and she just texted me back it's okay I am too and I just loved how chill she was about it it was just like yeah sure of course he's wearing a dress I wear a dress and I I love that our teachers are like that you know that they can just kind of roll with a kid who's going to be wearing a dress that day in school um there are places where that is not necessarily the case and I'm glad that Sunnyville is one of the places where where he could do that he is a cisgender child he just really liked that dress and it was just that one dress it was

114just that one dress um he outgrew it and then I got in the next size but then he wasn't interested in uniforms anymore there was a study that came out in um nature uh today that said that states that pass anti uh bills targeted ant trans youths have seen suicide rates where these teams grow as much as 72% um and so it's so important to me that we are a district that supports this thank you okay um oops I sent in my activities uh I just wanted to remind everyone that there's a um block walk for measure Y at either Cherry Chase or CMS on Saturday at 9: um and then for my fellow trustees um the scsba ledge action survey is out for your legislative priorities um you're not responding on behalf of the

115board it's just your own personal perspective and um in the minutes you'll see some other notes um for scsba activities teacher of the year um fall dinner registration is open now and um the association meeting and then also something really exciting is CMS and SMS are the music programs the bands are going to play together not just in Anaheim but they're going to have a performance looks like at the Sunnyville commun Community Theater so on Tuesday um May 20th 6: PM the bands and Orchestra will play and then on Wednesday the 21st 6:00 p.m. it'll be like choir and the other groups so save the date for May 20th or 21st and we'll be to our families thanks thank you well with that um locally and the town yes I wanted to remind about this

116Saturday BL walk to everybody where we're going to be supporting our teachers and our wonderful staff that is going to be doing everything we talk today and every day everywhere in uh we're going to be on Cherry Chase and CMS from 9:00 a.m. waiting for our committee to show up and so we can spread the information all around town about what measure why is er County wise next week we're going to start the Hoffman are going to be publicized and the next year for the hofman awards is coming so I hope that we can show off every wonderful thing we do and yes it's very important H to fill up the survey for legislation act committee so we know what is important for us to talk to our Senators and our leg ERS and statewise

117um I hope everybody goes to our lunch on for California Latin School Board Association in the aec and we're all signed up we're all signed up we're all signed up perfect and yes and then later we have some something also coming statewise related with delegate assembly csba and yeah it's funny because just today after I pick of my son we normally go out for a coffee and we were talking about that and how he was telling me that even here he feels that some of his friends have certain suffer C Bing and discrimination because of their gender identity and I was telling him like well but how do you feel about Sun School District because I feel that we are doing pretty well like even though they do have the flags and we still don't

118we're fixing that but he was telling me that no even at Homestead and even at Freeman High School even in Hof is is doing better but that they feel their friends feel some discrimination in the area because well actually two of the friends in his five people band have non-conforming gender identities in his Dr and he was telling me that they do feel somehow bully or discriminated so interesting and other than that well no I think that thank you okay just um two quick things one I just had to mention super exciting this week we kicked off The partnership with Foothill College where they're offering um I think it's called ESL not ELD ESL classes for our families um right here in this boardroom sold out absolutely full also absolutely over full was McKinley where

119we had 21 kids that was fun they were good the kids were great but 21 kids in McKinley for child care was tight so um two nights we had it this week um it's obviously just going to be a really successful program it's just the first step we're going to look at it and evaluate it and see what we might do in the future um it all you know a lot of it depends on Foothill because it's really their program and we're partnering with them that was super exciting just to see all those families here and we know that and it's the very beginners so that's how we had to distinguish it like so our Outreach assist um called the family said do you have a little bit of English yes okay I'm sorry this

120isn't the program for you so it was like very beginnner so that's exciting the second thing is um as you saw in the weekend update we need to add a December meeting sometime December 13th or later we have a regular board meeting on December 12 and the next week is the last week so that's super uncomfortable so what it's kind of leaning towards is likely a meeting December 13th either at like noon or 4 where all it would be would be the organizational meeting so the 12th would be uh Thursday the 12th would be nany's last meeting the 13th would be Peggy's first meeting and the 13th would be where we um uh you know just voted on the organization the different communities and stuff like that so it does it have to be evening

121or afternoon or could it be a morning meeting like we you at the other ones or it really should be a meeting the definition of a regular meeting it needs to be a regular meeting is one that's accessible to the public so that's kind of the the challenge there so ideally it would be at 6 o' um you know like our normals so anything different from that is like stretch the farther you get from that is a stretch so um whatever we do I want to make it fun because why not right it's an extra meeting um and we can celebrate a new member and a longtime serving member thank you okay yes that so Peggy isn't sworn in until that day correct the okay okay y okay with that and yeah there was a

122law that say like it needs to be two weeks after but not before the 15 something like that yeah but then the 13 yeah two or three days yeah okay so with that we move to the next item in the G which is number five comments from the sunal Education Association if there's any member here or online or see anyone here online that wish to speak from this body okay signal then we move to the next item comments from the California School Employees Association if there is any member of this body who to speak now okay seeing none we move to the next item which is comments from the public I already have to call cards and if there is any this is a moment to put them in and this portion of the agenda

123provides an opportunity for members of the public to directly address the governing board on any item of interest to the public however provision from the brown at forment code 5495 4.2a and3 preclude any action been taken on any item not appearing on the posit agenda time limits allocated for public testimony are 2 minutes per person and about 20 minutes uh per public comment speakers are asked to keep their name and affiliation so that an accurate record is reflected in the minutes and still we do have Al we don't put it anymore because we are a great Community but we do have a someity rules that need to be followed and thank you with that if there is one member online Okay so we're going to start with the people in person we have two in

124person we're going to start with p and Ruster hello everybody um I am here in two capacities and this feels very Deja Vu of like earlier this year but first of all um measure why we have our block walk on Saturday please come out to either CMS or cherry chase you can go to support sunv schools.org there is a place to RSVP there um we really need Community Support here this requires two-thirds vote to pass um that's a much higher threshold than before so let's get the community out get the word out get a button and um please join us on Saturday for to distribute flyers for measure we okay secondly I am here um as the vice president of the Sunvale Education Foundation and I am pleased to present the first of um what

125will be many checks to the district we are um presenting a check for $188,000 these are first two School Grants um one uh well they're actually both for starting Arts musicals so um 6,000 of Vargas is a partial Grant um will be spent for to produce aliceon Wonderland um as well as 10,000 all of all of s Miguel's um grant money has been um Chosen and approved to be use for Alison Wonderland again so we'll be having that um two times in the district um I am very excited to have this continued partnership with the district um we are doing great we are fundraising and strong and we we have a new board member that I would like to introduce and um she can continue her comments as well uh so this is G golata

126um thank you so much she's a a board member at large um we she's a very instrumental part of our fundraising committee and um we're all very committed to equity and to supporting the district's programs um so thank you very much um there is one more check to present and then may I request a picture please so we can raise more money after perfect okay and with that we have our next speaker isot please you have two minutes uh thank you for the opportunity to talk today um I'm excited to be uh joining the board of uh s Education Foundation we are very proud of the partnership with the S school district and uh sharing uh and supporting the goals that we have uh similarities with and uh one of the some of the programs

127that sun Education Foundation funded uh for example Dana for glor and Pier connect have been expanding um to the the community like you saw Dana being displayed at the state of the city giving it a very wonderful feel to the community as a whole representing as as sun and we've also seen Dana FICA coming to Alis at the international night really fabulous uh we are excited that uh the startup grants that sun education found Foundation provided is expanding and one of the other programs that have that we have seen expanding is a peer connect program that was initiated initially at SMS we are grateful for the partnership from the district for uh being able to do that it was a fantastic program um I just uh pulled up the definition of a friend is uh

128those who offer support improve your quality of life promote self-confidence provide honesty and unconditional love and help you progress mentally and some of the children that this peer connect program supports is a are kids who struggle in these areas and they need that kind of friend and this peer connect program is providing that kind of uh opportunity to make friends and uh now we are excited to extend this program to uh s um Colombia middle school so we also have a check for that and uh we would like to present it to you thank you for the opportunity and uh before do we do okay let's let's do the last person online please go ahead you have three minutes for comments start with your name and app yes uh okay I guess it's me so

129um okay so I'm Courtney Jansen again I have a very short comment which is that this weekend we are working on replacing the kindergarten beds at San Miguel uh if you are looking for a way to get your hands dirty literally we would love to have you join us we will start Saturday probably around 9:00 a.m. and go until 4 so after you do your measure wi block walk we would love to have you by uh the Kinder Gates will be open so if you have time and interest please come join us uh thank you so much okay thank you and now we're going to take a couple of minutes to receive the check and take a photo it's not a giant check so do you want to we're we're going to get a giant

130check we but it's we just had these there're $35 do this [Laughter] right a big I know but we have a dry' talking it yeah is okay just sneak on in good ready one two three one more all right ready one two three got it Paparazzi I'll oh I think we got up him a little bit maybe in the other picture we got it showed up on your I got um this one too I can please I don't know what happened it looked good on the screen okay it's okay yeah thank you so much perfect and with that we move to consent agenda items thank you very much consent agenda items so do we have oh we start with a comments from the public if there is anyone in the public who wish to speak

131about the cont agenda items this is the moment say no we move forward er do we have any motion to approve the consent the consent agenda items as they are right now I Mo to approve the consent agenda items as listed second oh second okay if everybody is okay please say I with that we approve the consent agenda and we move to item number nine presentations H we have a presentation of Staffing and hiring update please Jeremy n is here to tell us more about it thank you for coming thank you for presenting to us you're always here that is correct um good evening board audience members um yes we're here to PR um present the annual Staffing and hiring update my name is Jer Shahara as you said Isabelle and presenting with me tonight

132is very be director of we're not going to do that all right Director of Human Resources all right so tonight um we'll be running through um the very important work that our human resources department does we kind of view ourselves as talent management and our daily work is to hire and retain a great staff um that basically buys into the Strategic plan speaking of the Strategic plan um our goal alignments this year are the same as the two goal areas um presented as the rest of the district and how we're manifesting this is really kind of having our department take a look at what this means from Human Resources in addition then um adjusting um our onboarding to make sure the Strategic plan is prominently displayed as well as adjusting our questions for management and

133classified as certificated staff to really align with the Strategic plan so that work is ongoing and just in time as we start to prepare for the 2526 hiring season don't freak out yet so because we're talking about 2425 all right so I just wanted to show you the faces of the human resources department so you can keep those in mind as we start to talk about some of the work that we've been doing but also because we have restructured our department a little bit and um tried to make some real focused um areas and one of our new areas of focus where we've dedicated a person to is for leaves and workers comp um with the intention of trying to be a little more proactive and preventative to prevent injury and prevent um people from

134being out uh for lengths of time so that's really our Focus there um this is a wonderful staff to work with and um keep like I said keep these phes in mind as we go to the next slide which is to update you on our hiring season our most our 2425 hiring season snapshot so from July 1 to last week we'd hired 48 certificated staff and that included three formerly classified staff that had moved into certificated um we' hired 71 classified staff and that included 15 internal promotions um and four management staff and that was just a huge amount um of wonderful staff that was hired in a very short amount of time which required a lot of work on the team's [Music] part according to Arthur's timer or right on time thank you sir

135um District Staffing snapshot this is just a way of how we kind of view our entire Workforce so individuals are the number of actual humans um and then the FTE represents 8 hour or a full work day so for example classified staff we have 391 individuals filling the equivalent of 34.0 625 8 hour shifts and you can kind of see how the district breaks down classified certificated and management um nades is a separate um item they are considered classified but unrepresented in our district all right and this is um chart that we're excited to bring back this is feedback that the board provided to us last year so happy to bring back our district demographics um the we wanted to make sure we're comparing against the City of Sunnyvale versus the community that we actually

136serve which is the proxy is our students and then of course our um Dem demographics of our staff so our sources are the 2022 census um for the City of Sunnyvale so you'll notice that the the national census doesn't consider Filipino as a standalone subgroup which we do and interestingly the um student and the census does not allow decline to State our employee SSD demographics are self-identified and so some of our employees um have indicated that the declined a state so um these numbers are here for just for you to take a look at and you can kind of see the different makeup uh in the Asian subgroup Hispanic and white of the City versus this the the students that we serve that's just something I wanted to call out um I do want to

137caution um caution the board and us as that we're we're trying not to hit any any one particular ratio because this is kind of a a three body problem to slite a Netflix out of time um issue where each of these variables are constantly moving so it's just something that we're never going to be able to fully align we are not sponsored by Netflix all right and I know um the board is also going to say well Jeremy let's staff is such a broad category drill down for me what the classified certificated and management um demographics are so you can kind of see that here and we're kind of better in alignment as you can tell and I yeah there's this is just the the the data we wanted to present to you today all

138right so our theory of action in terms of our talent acquisition is um we have a wide reach but also we're working more towards targeted um and targeting our local community to make sure that or to help our community serve our own Community if that makes any sense so we do go out to job fairs and eded join um and Frontline which is our application process and we look to our volunteers um we also um I Conway one of our team members goes out to PTA meetings and recruits from our PTA um look and we look to Our Community Partners so we really look locally as well as as wide to um staff and then our goal is to kind of encourage those folks to maybe dip a toe into if they are not quite

139sure they want to work for the district starting as a substitute start as a nade is one potential entry way and then we often have folks from our subpool or our nade pool move into some of our classified or certificated positions or some go directly into classified or certificated positions we also are providing those Pathways for classified staff to move into certificated positions and we also have had certificated who have moved into classified positions um and then we are creating more Pathways for growth to move into management positions um so this is just kind of our overall theory of action for um Talent acquisition professionalizing the profession is a Jeremy term um for what we're really working on again um providing those Pathways we're really focused on like I said here committing to ensuring that

140public education jobs remain a viable career option um we are really focusing on classified um as well and promoting career growth um there are a lot of new grants um and opportunities within the county that the county is providing to obtain credentials um to obtain your bachelor's um scholarship opportunities programs at San Jose State for males of color to go into the teaching profession and so we're just partnering with these organizations and making sure that these opportunities are made a uh that our employees are made aware of these opportunities and helping them wherever we can to um to access these opportunities um to promote their career growth in addition to those opportunities things like um uh courses so we'll offer we'll periodically share links to courses at our local community colleges that um could help

141support their um their professional career um by promoting uh further education um and then also providing opportunities within um our internal organ Organization for um upward Mobility so we talked about the pathways to teaching program which offers our classified staff up to $4,000 a year um towards tuition in a teacher credential program so that they can get their teaching credential um and we've had folks successfully move through that program and are currently teaching now in that program um so we have a also creation of classified lead and classified management positions or just really trying to build again those Pathways for upward movement within our classified staff um effective use of training and feedback to improve practice so part of what we do is provide the time and space for that so looking at our calendars

142we had all of our um we expanded the calendar for most of our classified staff to have them start on the same day that the teachers start so that they can be part of profession development opportunities and then teaching and learning does a great job of providing that targeted professional development for our parz and you know other classified staff to U make sure that we're ready for the first day of school um and then updating and making sure our job descriptions are accurate as these jobs have shifted over time in terms of what we're asking of of our staff in order to appropriately serve our students I wanted to take a moment to talk about the classified school employee summer assistance program um this is born out of this is actually a state program that

143csca approached us several years ago to participate and it's essentially free money for classified employees so that's that's not on the website but that's what it actually to translate and so um we were happy to kind of um uh pick this up and surprisingly not all County not all districts in the county are participating so we're happy to offer this uh in partnership with csca to our our members um bottom line is every year that the uh State decides to fund this $90 million is basically set aside for this program it's designed to benefit 10 and 11-month classified employees because they're not employed the entire year it's designed as a kind of a small annuity that they're able to um uh set some money aside and then the state will match at a predetermined amount

144so what happens is every year they'll there's an application period they'll take the number of applicants divided by um the amount of money that they're going to withhold out of the 90 million and they come up with the match so that's why years ago it was 69 cents last year um it came out to be a dollar and then this year we're projected to be at 64 C there are some um caveats uh it you can't withhold more than 10% of your salary if you're a 10 and 11mth employee and there's a um income maximum cap of $62,400 so if anyone's listening out there from the state that does disadvantage some of our employees since we're coming from a higher cost of living area um that is pointed out to me every year because when

145we uh uh uh put this program forward um several of our employees because of the their advancement on the salary schedule and our um increased compensation actually become ineligible for this sometimes in the in the tune of even a $100 so they let me know that that's not fair of the $62,400 so but we continue to put the word out and as you can see the participants grow even though more and more of our employees as U the salary schedule increases are falling outside the uh income U cap one other um item that we wanted to discuss from last year that we're happy to bring to you is the geographical distribution of our staff this is not an earthquake seismic chart that's what it ended up looking like I apologize for that should have ran

146That by Mary Beth beforehand um but we decided we what kind of divided the Bay Area into these sectors and so I must have been in some sort of space mood so sector zero is sunny Bale sector one 1 to 10 miles is you can read cerino Los Altos Mountain View sector 2 etc etc and you can kind of see they're getting larger and larger um rings as they go out is because we have luckily fewer and fewer employees living in those outer Rings um knowing what you were going to already ask we broke it down already by classification so classified staff certificated management and nades again nads is because again that's our entry staff and obviously these are 90minut positions sometimes and so there is obviously a strong draw um to be close to

147be in sector zero so 97% live actually 94% of them live in Sunnyville um and there's two individuals that live outside when you look at this though small caveat is that um we utilize the information we have in our human resources system but it's mailing address so there was one individual that says Sacramento I don't think they commute from Sacramento they use that as their mailing address so um there might be a little bit of W room but for the most part um 62% of our classified staff live within 0 to 10 miles as you can see 41 of our certificated staff 26% of our management live in sector zero and sector 1 and 97% of our newat live in sector zero or sector 1 so we'll continue to watch this and I know there

148were some questions about F retention and and potential housing issues we are definitely trying to work with partners because um Regional Housing is too big of an issue for sunville ourselves to solve but we are definitely trying to think creatively uh especially with our work with the Westside education Alliance as well or Association Alliance Alliance I'm on the board I should know that I apologize um but yeah so again it is a regional aspect and we're definitely trying to keep an eye out for different opportunities and to bring us home Mary Beth so just to go back to those large number of hires that we had and kind of what where our recruitment efforts are shifting a little bit um again some of the things that we're doing to align to strategic plan and to

149our our values is to update our job descriptions for outdated and non-inclusive language and updating our hiring processes and we're in the process of inter updating our interview questions again to reflect the Strategic plan and to make sure that we're um asking the questions to get folks that this will be a good fit for um increasing our neighborhood visibility and again really looking at our community um to seek seek folks from our community to serve our community um maximizing our recruitment Fair opportunities so we used to just go to the Santa Clara certificated hiring Fair uh we've gone to the Sunnyville Community Services Fair we've gone we're going to the classified fair at the county we held our own Fair here which we're going to talk a little bit more about um and then also

150just utilizing or maximizing our opport unities with our partners so for example we provide some interview professional development or participate in mock interviews with Stanford University teacher Ed program and we're partnering with San Jose State this year um to help them set up um mock interviews for all of their applicants which is you know great for the applicants it also is not a bad recruiting opportunity for us to show ourselves and to identify some Talent early on um so uh those are some of our recruitment efforts and just to kind of put a spotlight on one of those efforts is we had our uh classified uh hiring fair this past May 30th um and a shout out to charmila Velar rugan who was in our department at that time who spearheaded this effort uh it

151was a huge success um so again our recruitment we really focused locally we still posted on all our regular areas but I think we had up to, 1600 views on our next door um Nova we contacted our employees and got employee referrals uh charma went around to different local retail areas and put up um information there um just to get the people in the door we had on-site support we had a laptop Bank to make sure that people could apply onsite and could get assistance to apply on site the focus is really on removing barriers to applying and to getting into our system so this was one of those ways to remove those barriers was to provide that on-site support and then provide on-site interviews at that time so that we could get them in

152the door and then hold on to that Talent not let them leave until they had um fingerprinted and signed on with us pending reference checks um so um the results our goal based on our previous um attempts was to get 50 attendees and we'd be really excited if we had 10 hires and our actual was we had 65 attendees and from that I think because of who we were targeting and making sure that they were good you know the questions we were asking all those kinds of things we ended up hiring 50 out of the 65 attendees um which when you see our our overall hiring numbers from July so it's a huge success again shout out to charmila for um spearheading this and then also to the team for supporting this and then processing

153all of those all of those hires um so yeah it was great and if you wanted evidence please look back at the last board meeting I believe there was a 12-page Personnel action report so there we go um in closing again I wanted to just recognize our partners um in in the sense that we have continued ongoing conversations uh SDA csda and Scamp do a great job of representing their members and again it just makes our job easier to kind of get a lay of the land and know what's happening out there and how to better meet the needs of our employees so with that that concludes our presentation and am happy to answer any questions you may have thank you very much before we go to questions from the public I just want to

154say thank you for such a wonderful way to easily explain and show all these complicated for H do we have if we have any comments from the community this is the moment to raise raise your hand electronically or real one see n then well there's nothing to approve a presentation so with that do we have any comments from the board love the mind reading love it you listen to enough of these I mean it's like we ask the same we ask a lot of the similar questions and it's like okay you're like we are going to ask this so yes that's what that is or we heard you ask this a few months ago and we put it in this presentation so I just I mean I I know you're calling it mind reading but

155I just really appreciate that like the questions that we might have asked several meetings ago you wrote down and like this is an appropriate time to have it in front of us and it all fits together so I just I do appreciate the follow through and and the information so thank you yeah very clear and the the way how ER yeah how everything smoothly come together and congratulations it was a great ER you know 50 hires in one days is mind blowing yes um just going to Echo what everyone else said I really enjoyed the geographic distribution it was really good to know and um one of my friends was actually hired during a career fair and she has the cutest job she's TK Pera and I'm just like you get to hang out with

156four-year-olds all day that sounds adorable that's all should we record you for a recruitment video i' just like to just real quick you know I've worked in human resources for a long time and they just mentioned sort of in passing the numbers that they hired and Jeremy mentioned in passing the size of the Pao and like we all appreciated that but I just want to like put a pin in that for a second and just think about so he showed the staff that works on that um it's a tremend mendous um amount of focused work with the vision of for the teachers kids are going to line outside of a door on the first day of school you open the door there's a teacher there because of the work that they did there's a par

157educator there because of the work they did and I just think about like walking upstairs the last um month or so walking by I'm just going to pick on Suzanne Chavez who does our benefits and she's amazing and she's been doing it for a long time just her no to the grindstone making sure everyone's benefits are done correctly and it was more than ever more people than ever that we've hired so um just a fantastic job and and we have been talking a lot lately about H housing and so it was very good to see where like What proportion of our staff is having to commute so I think some of those bands like they're not like particularly like people who are going over the hill to Santa Cruz or L like they're going up

158to Boulder Creek and stuff like some of those bands like not that far but it's really takes a long time so I mean maybe maybe one day will get a commute survey or something yeah we'll apply some route Logic for next time is there when you talk about housing is there any thought to like um do a survey about whether whether our employees would be interested in staff housing or yeah I think think so the the Westside education Alliance is is talking about that we did One two years ago um we actually were able to as an association passed that all along to the joose medians um that that that uh that group that's working on that development and it was helpful that the three districts had already collaborated on it we were able to

159hand some good data over so yeah we're discussing that I think it's time to do that it's it's three years in we want to re resurvey just to see if housing is a thing right because we don't know if if home ownership is with this generation coming up if it's as you know whatever I know I don't want to misspeak but yes we will definitely um be asking that and if it's not ownership at least affordable affordable rent correct so if there is just real fast uh I just want I mean everyone said appreciation but I really especially appreciated the breakdown of demographic right because I think that's one of our areas right if we want to create more inclusive welcoming spaces right we want staff to look like our students so I just really

160appreciate having that there and I know we're being intentional right we have some spaces where it's not going to happen overnight but we need to try to get to that more and so I'm grateful that it's there for all of us to see it yeah I think the theory is what we're Hiring Our Community to reflect our community to serve our community yeah I write that down okay thank you thank you okay with that we can go to the next item which is review on action I 1010 and with that we'll go to 10A adopt AOS on support of measure e for the city of Sunil B measure yes so as you know the city of Sunil put measure e on the November 5th ballot this is to build a new uh Library um and

161it's going to pair nicely if this gets passed with the Lakewood uh Community Learning Center out Lakewood Village um this is very important to the city it requires a 2third vote unless the measure that lowers that threshold for Bond projects it wouldn't affect parcel taxes passes and then it would be 55% so um the city believes this is very important and um we should really only be taking um positions as a board on measures that um have to do with education and I can't think of too many more um aligned um uh efforts than supporting a library that would serve our students in families so for your consideration so no support for proposition five which is related to E uh well that's another topic this is yeah okay and with that er do we have

162any comments from the community before we vote on this okay say not do we have a motion before we can talk about this I mooved to approve the support of majure e second okay do we have any comment regarding this from the board okay see not we're ready to vote everybody who wants to approve this position please say I I okay with that it pass we adopt a position of support measure e and now we move to H item can be nominate and vote for call for nomination for the csba directoral large of Hispanic and Asian Pacific Islander so yeah I'm the I was the least familiar with this particular thing but so directors at large um they're calling for nominations now for either or or both Hispanic Andor um Asian Pacific Islander for csba

163um it says in the agenda item there U what the process is and so any school district can nominate people's either members of their own boards or members of other boards and so that this item is for your consideration okay and we will be well I I propose and we can open the discussion after that I will be nominating myself for the I think that's yes for the Hispanic and I already have the support of frean Union High School and the California ltina School Board Association ER for the delegate assembly and I will also propose the support for Sylvia Leon from the cotino high school as she's going to go for the reelection of her Pacific Islander position elementary elementary yes and with that do we have any comment from the community refering this item

164see none do we have a motion before we start talking about it I I move to what my second team did you you a motion you made a motion I'll second good so comments and uh uh s wants us yeah cool yes siia already currently is school also nominated it's um it's every two years I don't did they do it last night yes okay so um it's every two years and they did last last meeting I don't think they did yeah I don't remember she okay then they voted because they when they yeah so um I I texted her and she said yes that would be great so um but she's she's been doing it for two years it's the the seat is up every two years you don't have to be a delegate to

165run but it's a they're both very competitive positions and um there are Statewide um seats at the board um at the board of director's meetings so it means like probably I think three or four meetings a year it's quarterly meetings um and I think it'd be great for someone from our board to have that level of you know discussion basically a policy discussion at C at csba um so I'm I'm excited about it and I think Sylvia has done a really great job so far like she is really um she's really uh supported um students and allies and and she's also having the support of [Music] right comments um yes so I think it's important in in um having the package be presented to the delegates that they see that there are more boards beyond

166the member board to um uh create interest and and um validate because there are people from throughout the state that are voting who may not be as familiar with the candidate so I'm supportive of this motion I think she was she was also nominated in Southern California and she said oh it' be really great to get someone from my County to support us yeah and I support as well so okay so more comments ready to vote okay uh so everybody in face of the motion please say I okay that it passes thank you very much fig and with that we move to 11 ER review and discussion and the first item in review and discussion is 11a a sunny middle school modernization project review and for that we have our Direct of facilities and operation

167all right good evening board members um my name is brant director of facilities and operations and I get the pleasure to give the board updates on the Sunnyville Middle School campus modernization project it's not often there's a lot of topics I got to come up and just smile about the whole time and this is this is one of them so I want to start by sharing a story about the process so on August 29th we had our first steering committee um we got that early uh Aon myself and Arthur and set everything up we had all three of the final design plans set up on the table 15 minutes before the meeting started we had Ella Maxwell Luna and Josephine come into the room they introduced themselves and they immediately started looking at the designs

168and by looking that's probably selling it a little bit short because because they instantly started talking about logistics they talked about phasing they talked about architecture engineering they started asking questions about how does this work what building codes can we apply here it was one of the most sincere genuine energetic experiences I can say I've had in this position and was one of the most reaffirming for Arthur and myself and Aaron and why we love doing what we do like phenomenal experience so now getting to that point I want to I want to start start at the beginning so back in April we had our report to the board facility Master Plan update and bond report during that report we shared information about an overview of the funding that we had for measure C we

169talked a lot of specifics about Sunnyville Middle School the two-story classroom building project as well as the campus comprehensive modernization project that was a focus of the board at that time we ended up taking look at all the Scopes of work we developed a budget from all those scopes of work and then escalated it forward to develop the $55 million construction budget for the Sunnyville Middle School modernization from that point on we went forward with a request for a proposal process to bring an architect on board in relatively short order to make sure that we were maximizing the amount of time over the summer to design this project in June we brought on qka in Aon team um with the EMP to focus on the summer of reviewing 8 to 12 design options going through

170multiple meetings probably 100 emails um many hours lots of time with Aaron's team lots of time with Arthur myself and Sunnyville District staff and we finally at the conclusion of the summer we proud to present three final design options to the steering committee each one of those options options two and three I should say were all rooted in research they were rooted in alignment with our strategic plan and something that we are extremely proud to present at that meeting on August 29th now I mentioned data and research one of the things that we want to maintain and focus on is being good stewards of the taxpayers dollars um we wanted to make sure that we're designing a campus not just for today but for tomorrow 5 years from now 30 years from now so we

171can have generations of students come through the buildings we wanted to focus on alignment with the Strategic plan this year we have two goals you know talking about decreasing chronic absenteeism um increasing student achievement amongst all students so we take research from the California school facility Research Institute into all the designs that we brought forward we wanted to make sure that we're investing the taxpayers dollars into the classrooms making sure that we're maximizing the educational experience for our students and our staff and committing to the community we are investing in the classrooms uh with those as our guides we wanted to make sure that we were developing a campus that is going to be around for decades to come now after all that I mentioned we brought our final three design options to the steering

172committee on the 29th along with the four students that I mentioned we had repres representation from teachers of each grade bubble we had site administrators including Vince Giovani we had representation from the P Department we had representation of the elective classes we had a parent we had a Community member and all of the feedback that we got we took should we all took Aaron and Heather took back to the back to their offices after a couple more meetings between the two steering committee meetings we developed option four which molded everything together um into the design option that we're extremely proud to present today um which I will now turn it over to Aaron so we can go into details a little bit more um I do want to emphasize um that at the end of

173this we'll accept we'll take all the questions we're excited for the questions but again we um we're proud of what we're presenting tonight so with that I'll turn it over to Aon who'll go through the slides thank you brand thank you all for having me here today we're really as you said excited to uh present kind of what we've been working on for the past few months for um so we went into this with some pretty clear goals as as Brent really described already really wanted to evaluate many options to look at what we're always looking for in all of our public school projects is how do we maximize the educational impact of every dollar that's spent and what looking at that from different perspectives to make sure that's what we're doing we pretty much

174only work on public school projects we've been doing this for more than 20 years we've never had a project where we had enough money to do everything that should be done and everything want it to be done so that that's kind of always the emphasis um and we want to focus on those those five areas that we saw there we know there's some cic retrofit that needs to be done to the existing buildings uh those that we want to keep and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute we want to make sure that we're not that we're right sizing the campus we we again maximizing the impact that's not by spending that money more classrooms than we're going to but we need to make sure that we have enough and that

175we have a little bit of wiggle room there too so we looked at that closely we wanted to improve the sense of entry in the connection to the community it's not the most impressive school when you drive up to it it's not the most welcoming school when you drive up to it and so that was something that we wanted to make sure to address in all of the options as well uh and then wanting to improve the outdoor space between the classroom buildings that was something that you know hav worked on this campus for a while with the two-story buildings but also in talking to the the team just the quality of those spaces but also the the challenges the supervision of the kind of outdoor hallways for lack of a better term between the

176buildings wanting to improve those situations and then we need to think about how are we actually going to build this and what does that look like to live work go to school on that campus during that time and how do we make sure that you know there's a campus that can operate during construction all the way through so for each one that's kind of what we're looking at so to talk a little bit about the stru siic Retro it um we have a lot of experience in this having worked on a lot of public school projects us and our and our structural engineer in fact these buildings as many of you probably familiar with are very similar to ones at Homestead High School that we did uh we worked on Homestead High School for like

177the past 10 years on a series of projects and and some of those were renovating their two-story buildings so we're very intimately familiar with the large amount of work that that requires um there are a lot of very so the the state of California the div vision of the state Architects regul regulates and approves all School construction projects and they take seismic safety very very seriously uh which is great and so we need to think about how they treat these projects and what that looks like to so that really um gets us to sort of two options um we're going to call our light modernization option which is a voluntary seismic upgrade and what that means is the structional engineer has reviewed these buildings and recommended some improvements to address any deficiencies and make them

178safe uh and that's what's included in that voluntary seismic upgrade uh it's going to also include in that light motorization renovation of the existing spaces upgrades to existing uh finishes uh improving the Building Systems including adding air conditioning which we definitely heard and understood as a high priority uh especially this week probably right the last couple weeks especially um so but that's really kind of just fixing what's broken and not reconfiguring the spaces a lot not changing the character of those faes right it's really just kind of upgrading what's there uh and we the cost for that cannot exceed more than 40 to 50% of the replacement cost or that kicks it into the upper Next Step which is heavy modernization and that includes a full upgrade of the existing building to meet current building

179codes and we have to prove at every step that the exist the existing construction needs current building TOs and that is not just by looking at the drawings it's by doing testing of the concrete of the rebar of every aspect of that project as if we were building it and inspecting it now we have to prove that at every step and what that means uh based on what our Structural Engineers review and our our um experience with similar buildings is essentially tearing the buildings apart down to the bones and then putting them back together so that means we can also put the walls back in different places because it doesn't really matter at that point uh so we can do much more renovation and much more moving things reconfiguration in that scenario but for these

180buildings that's going to cost 89% of the cost that would just cut to tear them down and replace thems because of the type of construction so going into it we had the three initial options which I'll just kind of go over quickly because there's sort of a means to an end of the of the fourth option we want to show you so this one is really starting with the master plan which is let's modernize everything kind of in kind in place um understanding that we can need to kind of balance where we do do heavy modernization and where we do light modernization so starting with building a that was looking at reconfiguring some parts of that building in each of these options you'll see for building a we're showing kind of where the main office

181is now actually opening that up and removing the the windows and doors from either side and making that a pass through and maybe adding a new uh kind of a higher roof structure canopy at the front of it to give it a new sense of entry and so you'll see that kind of that's the little teal rectangle there in the middle um so you'll see that kind of on each one of those modernizing Building B to expand the library and provide some new uh you know better configured educational spaces Building C really just that light monetization so kind of touching up as what's there and the same with building D and then in building F uh looking at a major monetization of the northern part of building F building f is actually built in two

182phases the multi-use room part was built with the original campus and then the gym was built later so they're structurally two separate buildings so we can treat them differently uh and then and then the gym gets a relatively light mization one of the issues that we need to address too is the locker rooms because the locker room building was uh does not appear to have been built as a school building essentially so that needs to be dealt with long term as well uh so this really looks at doing all of that monetization for each of these we have a little capacity calculation down in the corner so this keeps our exist in classroom count which is around 50 which is about 1300 students worth of capacity uh option two we looked at what if we

183removed essentially uh buildings uh what's that that would be BC and d and replace those with a new twostory classroom building and a singl story new library building that also provided some admen and restroom space uh and then we'd also be providing a new in this scenario a new locker room building so this opened up some more space in the quad between the two buildings and we had some good discussions about whether that was too much space and whether it was too open that would be too big of a quad uh and thinking about that and also kind of the the opportunities for two story buildings and what that might mean in that location as well and then the third option looked at kind of similarly but what if we tore the northern half of

184building a down building a is also built into different structural sections uh and repl that with a new admin building and single story classroom buildings and then that kind of similar new library uh building as well and then we showed some room here for additional up in the kind of top right if we needed to add more classrooms in the future there' be space for that too um so we we had disc gu this to this similar number this is a few less classrooms so now we're at I think it's about 43 I can't quite read that from here but 43 classrooms which is a little less than 1,200 in capacity so building back a few less classrooms but still quite a bit more capacity than the projected enrollment as well then as bran said

185we had a couple of amazing meetings uh is definitely one of the more uh like you said rewarding and engaged meetings that with with students that I've had in a long time too especially the last few years it's been a little harder to do that it's not quite the same over Zoom uh but we had a lot of really good input from them my favorite part was when one of the students said told me that they they used to want to be an architect and I was like you know it's still there's still time you know and what do you want to be now and then they said an astrophysicist and I was like all right I'll take that so but they they came up with their own old designs with Post-it notes and and

186everything uh so we we got a lot of good feedback and you know one of the things is really important to understand too is like how the spaces are used for phys physical education how the multi-purpose room is used primarily as a physical education space um what that looks like how that could be how we could how that's used now how it could or couldn't be used differently in the future that was something that we didn't really quite understand uh before that meeting um and then talking through the Capacity Analysis and the number of classrooms and kind of working at that from both directions as well uh and then we' use the the little chart there uh on the bottom as a way to just kind of get a general feel for prioritization and what's

187most important so we kind of identify different trunks of the project and then ask folks to we kind of sort them in on the X AIS of low medium high cost and then we kind of as a group talk about are they low medium high impact and that gives us kind of just a rough sense of what's most important and what's going to be most impactful kind of getting back to that overall goal so the thing in the top right uh is the classrooms so that's classroom modernization or replacement so that was clearly one of the highest impact things the locker rooms are also really important um and elective classrooms multi use room as well and then some of the things that were not as important were the admin the fitness center um front entry

188was pretty important as well um and you can kind of see the rest there so some of the things kind of sort out is not quite as important as others you know I think we we'd love to have all of them but it's a good good to get a feel for what the relative impact is so then as as brand described we came back and kind of really thought about how can we think about this problem a little bit differently based on what we heard and we came back with this option for um which takes building a and kind of dows back the level of investment in that keep that at a light mization keep it mostly admin which it is now so we can reuse a lot of the the way the building is

189laid out and just make a few modifications to that um but still add the canopy at the front and open up that front entry those are actually relatively easy um things to do and so starting with that in building a and then showing a new twostory 10 classroom building as the sort of new be building at the top that and then one of the things you know hearing that um the primary use for the multi-purpose room is really PE most of the time but that there could be other uses if PE didn't need to use it so much there are other things that we'd like to be able to do there that it is used for but could be used a lot more one of the things we we showed here is like instead of

190trying to have that multi-purpose room be there and expand to the kitchen where it is now which has some uh kind of flow and dely challenges right cuz locked in the middle of campus and kids line up and take up a bunch of space we came up with the idea to have a new building in the top right that would have a new kitchen and servery in it have a new multi-purpose a smaller but new multi-purpose room and a new library as well that was also a little bit smaller than was in the master plan but we talked about some different examples from other schools and how much space was needed and seemed like it would be plenty of space for what's what the library is used for uh and and then it would also

191have some admin and restroom space in it and have a large covered area kind of opening into the quad from that as well U we talked about you know having a covered area on the back side of it that kids could line up under so that that kind of you can see that dashed Arrow there that's the sort of flow of students lining up getting the lunches and then coming into the quad so kind of thinking about all those things but then that frees up the north part of building F to be a dedicated fitness center PE space that's that can be configured for them and use for them all the time and then turning the existing space where the kitchen is into the boy locker room so that we're not building a new locker

192room building uh and we're renovating the girls locker room in place uh and then we can just remove the old locker room building so this really puts concentrates the funding more on the classrooms and then the other primary spaces that students sech every day so the kitchen I forgot to mention there's a food and nutrition classroom that goes with that too that's with the kitchen um and that that puts the kitchen backing up to the service road which makes the deliveries a lot easier makes a trash a lot easier a lot of logistical leads for that it also means that we can build that first and then keep the kitchen where it is until there's a new kitchen because having a temporary kitchen not great either um so there was some good logistical advantages to

193that setup as well so a lot of things came together in a good positive way which is what we always like to see and why we kind of put different options out there and talk about them not because we need to pick one but because hopefully there's a better one that comes together from all that feedback um so I think that's kind of all of the main pieces on the on the S of right side of the upper building f is a music classroom and that was constant really between all of the options that we needed to kind of improve and hopefully expand that space as well um and this provides uh 45 teaching spaces so 44 classrooms plus the gym which gives us a capacity of just over 1,200 which is kind of what

194we're shooting for somewhere in that 11 to 1200 range overall uh and gives us the key elective classroom spaces that we were looking for as well uh and really kind of met all the needs and so we had a great second meeting where we brought this back we talked about it um everyone was in support of that we made some tweaks to it based on the comments that we had and uh then we're moving forward um and bringing that to you all so we had a couple of design Inspirations that we talked about too so these are some schools that we worked on around the Bay Area that we thought were good examples and that the committee responded to to the bottom left is a kind of what we're thinking for something like the what

195those outdoor covered areas could be like um this is Elementary School in Fremont uh that we worked on so kind of something you know nice and big and open and colorful um the kind of middle one at the top there is is Homestead High School and that's their quad soon after it was built it's amazing how much different it looks now the trees after 10 years probably eight years of them growing in but has the sloped Turf areas and seat walls and different things so it's not just a big open expansive concrete right it's broken up into places where small groups of students can gather and be comfortable um things like that and then the one below is a middle school they worked on that's kind of similar where there's some shade sales and some

196sloped artificial turf spaces and different paved and landscaped areas that create Gathering spaces uh and then the one on the top right is the kutino high school library and student union and we looked at that as an example of Great Library space but also has a lot of flexibility one of the things we want to explore and design is if there's opportunities for connection between that multi-use space and the library to be even more flexible and accommodate different types of events things like that so those will be things that we'll explore as we go forward and this is that overall capacity that we talked about a b already but so this is the number of classrooms that we need uh to support current program and programs going forward so the pros for this option really

197are around F almost all the classrooms will now be in new construction between the two buildings that are under construction now and the new classroom building that we're proposing here which is great that will really improve that learning environment quality uh and it will have a high degree of equity across the campus Because almost all the classrooms will be that way there won't be one won't be sixth grade in the old buildings and seventh and eighth grade in the new buildings or something like that um we talked about the kitchen and servery the NPR space in the fitness lab um the new food nutrition classroom and then a lot of opportun for flexibility there too and the only cons are that by doing new construction in phase one it's going to take us a little

198longer to get the review and approval for that so construction will probably start kind of towards the end of 2025 but we can start some of the Demolition and abatement of the existing buildings before that sometime in the fall probably um and we'll be diing that in obviously as we go forward but it's all contingent upon DSA so we only have so much control over the directions of that process uh we did talk a little bit about potential you know the the fact that we're putting a two-story building on the north side of the campus but it is still pretty far from the um the neighbors houses it's still there's still like the service road and then there's kind of a whole strip of land there that we're uh proposing to improve for parking and

199trash enclosure and bike parking but there's still quite a bit of distance between there and uh where the buildings are so we felt pretty good pretty good about that but that's something we'll just want to make sure we're communicating about clearly do you have a question oh well it was the Neighbors when are you going to communicate that and have you already anticipated what What U blocking may do for their um uh sun shade impact um and cell phone receptive impact it shouldn't really it won't really have any significant impact on the shade it's far enough it's twice as far away as the building is called so only like you know at sunset or you know like late late in the day H so that I don't really think that's going to be a significant

200issue I don't really consider this the cell phone reception thing hopefully that's not a challenge uh but uh I don't I hav never had that problem up over sure the years would constructed not just at school sites but in the community as a we can come in question to the community they'll be communication is part of the process as you guys do with every project as we did with the the two story building that are under construction now okay are you I think the only other piece of the schedule which is that we start phase one on the new classrooms like we talked about we'll working on design kind of through uh late spring early summer of next year and then DSA approval will take up probably most of the rest of 2025 and then

201construction would be a fall late fall 25 into winter spring at 26 and then we' roll into construction of the monetization piece after that and that's it perect thank you very much to both for that presentation and now we need to first ask the community if they have any questions or comments related to this particular item this the moment there any okay since we SE on we need to start with a motion with these discussion Okay so with that we can start with our comments and questions and thank you very much the presentation and all the work that is behind this and and all the graphics any so who wants to start okay you have more questions um I guess the only other um questions that I had um do we have now um a

202profile of a environmentally friendly um Santa clar County appropriate plants for for the Landscaping that will be able to not wait 10 years for shap you know yeah um we'll be working through plant selection we'll be you know building off of the work that's already been done on the on that for plant selection for the the courtyards and the project that's under construction now and that's always balancing that concern we want to obviously select things that are regionally appropriate both climatically and from a native plant standpoint um that are going to not require a lot of long-term irrigation and then um the size of the trees is a is a cost benefit calculation the bigger the tree the more it costs to get it in there uh and so that's something that we'll work through

203as we go through we try to put as larger trees in as we can afford and is the right kind of value for that but that's something we'll be working through as we go through design um yeah you want those to to like it'll get there no matter what right it's just kind of about how much of a head start can we get it um and that'll be that'll be definitely part of that process for sure and any comments M we might wait for to come back because I want the my questions right I'm a little bit going to be a little bit nitpicky because I have kids who have been there and then the kid who's there so maybe we can gra people and then when J comes back we can the map pop

204the map back up yeah we want to see the might be able to figure it out but anyways go on um I'm so and good and we'll be we'll I'm sure we'll be back to make other presentations as we go through design so don't feel like you have to remember all the questions ask screen you pop up option four yep thank you um okay so my first question um is the first one's on with it you said right now there's 50 classrooms so this would drop it by five I think I'm not 100% sure about what the current is but I think based on what we had in the existing well you right does that sound about right yeah wait when we had an option one I think it was 50 so yeah yeah okay

205I just I mean numbers always fluct I just remember a few years ago SMS was pushing at the scenes and so dropping five classrooms makes me slightly nervous but I also like trust I trust staff to like know that if it's good then I feel fine about it too yeah so that was one of the things that I was was kicking myself for not bringing up earlier but when I was talking about research so we we use the demographics report and we look at projections and then we built a pretty pretty comfortable buffer to make sure that we could handle both the influx of students if we were were to come across it um okay so my first kind of getting into like little weed sorry so with the lunch line space when you said

206you would come on the backside my initial the first one I was like oh this is so close to the sixth graders that's great because right the line is often long and kids like my son's one them like he often won't wait in the line so then he's not eating food and so when I saw that I was like oh my gosh we have to walk all the way around like was there discussions about that can will they be able to walk that backside so it's not a super far walk like has there been any discussions about the logistics of actually walking all the way to the back of the school to get in L there will be at this point it's really a super high level so we're just talking about we could do

207something like this and that might make sense as a flow but we'll get way into the Weeds on but we haven't yet oh yeah one side the other side from like I'm a little sixth grade kid all the way around I was like oh that could be rough um then sorry it's closed out um um this isn't actually that but just those pictures I really loved which I say this I everyone around here knows like I love natural light and so I really like I know we're just we're not of high school but that that Cuna one with just the huge windows of tons of light and the SMS Library currently has pretty much no windows and no natural light so um I know it won't be as big as Grand but natural light and

208anything I think is just is so is so good for so many reasons absolutely um okay another like silly logistical thing so and clearly things can change right but as the kids have their dances and and maybe this is like a vincing he's thought about it right A lot of times the dance is in the gym or it's in that old multi which is the fitness room but like the dance might be in the gym and then they have activities or games or food in the old multi with this current new setup like with the fitness room could that Fitness room still be used as that side space or will it be designed so you couldn't use it I think you probably still could use it we also talked about potentially having like a partition

209that can separate it into two spaces so if you wanted to use part of it and have like the part that has more of the fitness equipment not accessible make we give you that head yeah too so I'm just I'm thinking about like my kids and the things they would ask and the things they' be concerned about um and then my last one which was also what I talked about with the old building too is and I think it was in my questions when I look at and again I know it's just like rough but those shade structures seem very small for that huge open space and so again that's just a big concern like having having enough shade space right because the students generally want to be in the shade and so there's not

210a lot of shade yeah guys already aware of that but that was just my kind of one concern when I like initially looked at that was didn't feel like that was enough shade in that Opening space we'll be looking at that and we you know it may make sense to put some shade sales kind of in there in addition to this or you know and we'll look at trees in the same way that that the team did for the the new building where we looked at like what is that those trees going to look like in 10 years and what does that shading look like and how much shading do the existing buildings you know do the buildings provide and things like that too and we also want to break that up too right like

211we don't want that to just be again like one giant open space it needs to have um some division to it to create different spaces so it's comfortable yeah great thank you sure no problem um could you go to those inso photos again the next slide I think tell me more about yeah um also thinking about the shade could you tell me more about where that picture is one which one the one with the sun shades on the bottom so that's that Brit Middle School which is in uh Morgan Hill those Shades look very small shad and that's right after it was that's right after it was built it'll those trees and stuff will grow into the sun sh the sun well it looks really cool it does it's actually doesn't shade much of the

212thing yeah it's a same same sort of concern just like especially with them um climate variance especially within the next 10 years as we're watching trees grow in I would appreciate sure having these kids having more shap hang out in um I'm also curious because this is always on my mind nowadays is this natural or artificial turf uh those two Turf areas are shown as artificial and generally in Quad areas that's what we like to do because they don't get muddy uh and and they don't wear out right and it's much lower m but those are conversations we can have as as we go forward and I know there's been some of that already uh so but that's that has worked really well and and students love being able to just lay down on them

213and and sit on them and things like that too I forgot one other one the current trees in the quad right now will any of those be able to be saved or is it all going to be we'll definitely save as many as we can I I I don't know yet how many we have to get hopefully should because that's gonna that space Stay gr you think it's all going have to go oh you're just make going to ask you which quad the the main quad like the original quad there just are some pretty good maybe they're dying I don't know but there's some fairly big trees that I know kids will sometimes sit under like there's benches by them yeah if we can if we yeah we have mature trees that we can save

214and that are healthy definitely face we we don't know we don't know yeah but I like if we don't have to wait 10 years for a treat gr because it's there already that's that's a win forever Maps we're more talking structural design I just right soon as speak know I also went to this campus okay so like talking about decades I was like those Portables that we just tore down I was in those Portables and my two older kids were in those Portables so um I was looking on here so is the staff room still going to be in the awing yeah is Edmonds okay um for the outdoor spaces I will just kind of echo like I we've talked a lot recently like brand and like previous when we've talked about other Elementary spaces

215like the idea of like Greening up our Greening up our outdoor spaces yeah so even though artificial turf counts is Greening things up in some checklist or something like I'm I'm really interested in like how how we can push that more like living green like living green or like more recycled materials and kind of making that visual to the kids because like that's the that's a big interest for students is environmentalism and sustainability as well so like kind of making the um the learning and the intentionality around that more visible to them I think would be really cool um I had a question about the um music court near the music room is there going to be some like seating there or some places for them to perform or they just like open so they

216can set it up with chairs or that's the kind of things that we were talking about about wanting to create like an outdoor performance space and and and how exactly that happens we have to figure out and Design but that was the intent behind putting those words on there that hopefully there's some way to create kind of a place for there to be outdoor practice and performance that's maybe a little further away from classrooms than it is now uh as well and then for the quad area even though like I mean I am really put the math back up I am saying like let's green it up but I I do actually like the idea of having a big open space because in part because of promotion ceremonies yeah and you can it can kind

217of be both too right like it can be if you want to have a bunch of people you can see across but you can have seaing and different surfaces and planting and stuff to break it up so that it's also not just kind of overwhelming okay and then the last thing I want to ask you about is um about the bathrooms uh so we we had this facilities master plan we had this strategic plan people were come anytime we got a parent group in they're asking about the bathrooms um so there's the idea of like where are and like there's boys locker room girls locker room we've got some kids who are non-conforming gender right so like AB where are the gender neutral bathrooms and where are the bathrooms in general and are you Jing

218them up a bit Yeah so we we are including uh in this plan in that in that kind of what we'll call like the Student Union building with the the kitchen and stuff we're including a large set of Staff bathrooms or staff student bathrooms uh and exactly how that gets configured and what that looks like and how we address uh issues you know gender issues and safety and all all those kinds of things will be things that will work out design and we kind of started talking about that already and some different strategies that that we've been using in a lot of different schools and I think we'll kind of plan to come back and talk about that more once we get into design and we can kind of have some options and and talk

219to Vince and the students and things like that about them too and and come back with some recommendations about how we do that and that'll be true of locker rooms too understanding How We Do gender neutral locker rooms or how just how that works and what that looks like is something that we're working through with a lot of different schools and it's it's a process to to talk with everyone about what is going to you we want to have the right balance of uh of safety and privacy and supervision and all of those things to make it so that everyone's comfortable as possible because right now for the um like the awing students typically will go and use the bathrooms in the locker rooms right like over on that side and then they are going

220over to what was the I guess where the music court is now or wherever there were some buildings there right like there's some there were more Portables and building D extends much further south than that building still currently there think that and we're intending the new bathrooms that we're putting in that building that has the library and the NPR in it to be like kind of the primary Street bathrooms especially like during lunch and breaks and things like that because they'll be kind of right there in the middle at the Hub of the campus and have a lot of uh good you know accessibility to students but also ability for Vince and his team to supervise as well oh I think they they took out the they took out where the that one bathroom that

221always overflowed outside of f Gone Gone probably a good thing sounds like it yes okay um and then the culinary arts um class or the F nutrition classroom is there going to be like like are you thinking of um are you think the new sewing that's one story but it's going to be tall yes um so are you is that going to be designed for like a food nutrition classroom like is it it will a little more spef yeah absolutely yeah but I I think we also want to make sure it's flexible enough if the programs change over time too um so that's that's we wanted to be kind of an elective classroom uh that that is definitely can be set up for food and nutrition that works well for that but that isn't like

222as locked in as like your old school home acrm right where where it's kind of set up and it can really only be used for that meaning to make sure it's more flexible not just be to a brand said at the beginning about it needing to work for 5 10 20 30 years where you could you could teach something else in there with with relatively little modification to like don't they have they have hoods and they have well they have stoves and they have like more like a washing machine or something I they have like a lot of stuff in there C draws a lot of power yeah well like it's a lot of electrical infrastructure and plumbing and that kind of stuff too but in a way that's more flexible okay well I'm I'm

223really excited this so okay let's just start tomorrow so yeah I have few questions to I I like the idea and yeah we love the idea if we had such a big structure like in the inspiration like that double height it would be great I don't I don't see that we're going to be able to afford it but if we could that would be wonderful I'm talking about a big outside structure with double Heights in the in that patio but other than that I see the it does worry me a little bit the big cord when I'm thinking about the section there and you know just that in few years it's just going to get get hotter and hotter every year and the six quad and the pla I can imagine you know two one

224floor buildings well three from the three sides is just one story building the only shap will be from that second story building it looks like proportionally very big and hot I'm thinking that in the other in the new building that we are doing right now is not big enough apparently to put the sales because they need to be more than 20 ft apart from any structor for new fire codes so we're not going to be able to fill up that one not able to fill it up but we can definitely create shape with that there so maybe at least some more if not s some more permanent structures spas or whatever concrete metal whatever that we can put to make that more livable more Greener that will be great if we need to make it

225that big ER because yeah proportionately and that the other the new sea building is going to be like U just one story that you say like double height or big height yeah at least kind of story and a half height you know those are bigger spaces they don't you know you know in a library that's 3,000 square feet to have a 10 foot ceiling right like it needs to have some more height and and some daylighting and things like like we saw on the images and and you guys mentioned already for sure yeah and I'm I'm really I I think that yeah we can make it and I don't know if there is like you might know better how how other districts are handling that but if already in middle school we can have some

226a gender neutral bathroom that would be great I you know how everybody else is doing in the area yeah we're working with a lot of different schools on this right now and we have some strategies that are that we think are working really well that that we weren't going to get into too much detail on today but we've talked about a little bit with uh with the the team on the side already and that that'll be one of our first kind of tasks get into scha design is kind of flushing that out and what that looks like and having some examples and walking people through that yeah my my son just moved to the dorms last week in UC Santa Cruz and it's a brand new building and every floor the the rooms per se

227are one gender but the floor is has everything gender and the bedrooms the shair bedrooms are gender neutral and they have showers they have everything gender neutral inside the main bedroom per floor so it was like that one in the in the dorms of Berkeley in the '90s when I went that what but yeah college kids is different yeah college kids is different well and then you know the big difference is that you don't have spaces between the floor and the yeah and then the so that was one also well I I think we say this many times but again like bring the building as much as possible that means operable windows and as much as natural lighting as we can I see that we have a very skinny building down there so there is

228it looks like a perfect opportunity to have double cross natural ventilation as much as we can there and uh yeah so if we can lower the temperature in that big core with that would be as many structur so we can put in there probably we won't have big trees for quite a few years but we might have something else whatever it is structurally because those buildings are going to be low yeah the buildings AR going to provide a lot of shade in that space the shade's going to come from trees and shade structures yes shade structures also a the music building the music area well it would be great to have a lot of outside for big ceremonies and to have concerts and practice in the afternoon for after school music and theater but the

229the classroom right now I mean we have we expanded a music program there we expanded a we are talking about bringing kids from elementary school with a new music program so it's it's very important to have an A+ building area for them to practice and right now is one of the worst well I don't know if the worst but it's a pretty bad classroom dark humid not particularly amazing for the program that it deserves a lot of attention absolutely and I see that it's not a building that we're going to do brand new which is okay but you know needs to you know make very nice and cool building absolutely so so the temperature The Greening ination lighting uh yeah and I like the mod structure and yeah if we can do gender neutral bedrooms

230and I'm sure the kids will behave well to they that RAC affirmations yeah um so one other thing was um I've heard a number of teachers always ask for more seating outside and I know it was like a low Post-It note for creating outdoor seating spaces but even if it ends up being like a Furniture option or something like that places where places where they can do that and um and to make sure that the people we we talked to about the gender neutral bathrooms might be some you know I know there's a gay stade Alliance at the school and um you know there's some parent and Ally groups out there that could maybe be part of the process absolutely that would be great yeah and I still think that those opportunities about flexible classrooms

231I just remember what the when the pandemic started that there were coming some images from buildings 1800 1900s that were you know concrete buildings from universities around the world that they had completely open doors like you could take out the doors in both sides and make it completely vent ated and and you know like again thinking who knows where the next big thing is coming ventilation and and flexibility in classrooms to go in and out that's always very appreciated absolutely one quick one the front entry space like so is that be like an open so I think what we're thinking it's not fled out but what like in a general yeah so the idea is that we're essentially just taking the windows and doors out from that space and allowing it to be like a

232Breezeway okay essentially there'll be there'll be like a fence in there too so that we'll configure it so you can kind of come in under the structure come into the office and check in and then be let onto the campus so we have better Access Control now too right now you come in the doors and then you're kind of already inside and we want to have a little bit better control on that too so there's some opportunity to improve that there too I think that actually is how the school was originally set up is for that to be a Breezeway and at some point that was closed in to be part of the office so we're just going to kind of go back so you said that you're going to be doing your all more

233of the design planning when will that be coming back to the board yeah so I would say the next the next checkin with the board would be when we bring on the contractor for the project which right now is slated to happen the January 12th board meeting okay so that's probably going to be a pretty good check-in time for okay thank you project update and as a contractor before you go into H the whole DD or you're going to do the whole no yeah so it'll be the same approach that we're using currently where we'll do a leas Lee back um design approach it's worked really well so far um and we have no reason to believe we should deviate from it for this project and then on the bathroom topic I think at some

234point Dr gallager is probably more near but like a study session between now and December would probably be a pretty good one before we finalize um plans y okay thank sure thank you guys really appreciate it you're welcome well we're only 25 minutes after so H we definitely need to approve H we could do that what we always do we just approve half an hour more and if we don't make it we'll just table everything for the next meeting but I think we're gonna make information and yeah anything else is just fast so I put out a motion to extend the time from 9:30 until 10 okay if everybody is okay with that say I okay with that Michelle Michelle so with that we have a temporary extension until 10 should be more than enough

235and we move to item 11b which is review and discussion on policy 0410 non-discrimination in these two programs and activities uh thank you Bo I'm going to go through these a little bit differently since all of them are directly or indirectly related to changes that have occurred um with Title Nine so I'm going to go into depth um for initial for these because they're all based upon those principles and then I will um for each of them if that's okay then give a um the emphasis as it relates to each of them individually does that work for the evening all of them except for I right so all I so that means from all the way to H yeah okay I'll go through each of them but I just want to kind of give context

236to the to the background so what we're going to do is that we're going to hold our questions comments and Community questions and comments on 11 11 B Al together until we get to 11h and then we'll have questions and comments after that all okay with operations and procedures there yes okay okay so uh based on Title 9 UM there are new regulations that have gone into effect those were um uh in effect starting on August 1st 2024 uh the emphasis is kind of looking in this first initial policy is on non-discrimination in District programs and activities um there are five key elements that are tied to um all of these um different regulations that we will be reviewing the first is um um and this is about the grievance procedures um trying to make

237it easier to follow actual compl PL if someone has one um and so there's some elements um related to that uh for um anyone who wants to bring forth um um a complaint the second big area is with regards to baring the the definition of what hosle environment and sex based harassment look like under Title Nine and so emphasis about those particular um entities are outlined um here in the cover um regarding those particular Chang Es as relates to the definition of sexual harassment um and just kind of making that statement even more broad as to what that means um the third um particular um area um that is outlined in these is um it adds protective characteristics um including gender identity um to the new um protections on the title 9 um so you

238know um questions or details with regards to prohibiting um discrimination on the basis of gender um and looking at those particular um entities under TT M as well uh the fourth area is um looking at Title 9 and it's um protect protections against um pregnant pregnancy and requires accommodation accommodations excuse me for pregnancy um for those who um are are um under Title 9 as well and providing that support and then the final element um that's outlined in these changes is just requiring training for all employees on certain topic topics and no longer limits training requirements to employees involved in title n complaints and processes so um it's just trying to strengthen the um our Behavior as it relates to um discrimination issues um and in this first um policy which is focused on in

239District programs and activities so that would be the first policy 0410 perfect so do we have any comments from the public ER from items 11 B through H this will be the moment to talk about it okay seeing on then H do we have a motion no we don't have a motion here is so do we have have uh comments from the board referring 11b to H Isabelle and I went to a um title n uh event that Cindy Chavis had with the women's commission and it was cool and they had a whole panel discussion about it and um it seems like this is still something that's in progress It's in the journey so uh it's not over so it's it's good we're updating the policies I think I think we should bring them back

240on consent or please do and with that H thank you we move to the last item uh for discussion which is 11 I discussion of the value purpose and impact of recognizing commemorative month and for that the will [Music] be okay this next item is just kind of focusing on our emphasis on commerative months um what are the histories contributions um looking at celebrations and the emphasis um coming from the district here is just we want to Foster um a place of culture inclusivity um ensuring that Collective observances are continuous and reflected not just at a particular time of the year but really throughout the year and across our instruction in our centerdale community and so this item is intended to provide an opportunity um for our board tonight um to kind of discuss the

241value and purpose um with regards to Comm commemorative months um and then the board will kind of explore the why um behind um board resolutions that recognize the commer month and then so um this is kind of tied to our goal um strategic goal of um student um experiences and inclusive and nurturing environment and so we come in with a recommendation to the board to kind of engage in a discussion regarding the value purpose and impact of recognizing commemorative mons with that um we can engage in forther conversation thank you do we have any comments from the public either in person or online if this is the moment regarding this particular item Cas see known then we can start our discussion was to start well I had a question about it in packet review um

242in packet review I asked you know what are some commemorative months already celebrated at some of our school sites Maybe perhap perhaps not all of them but it's some of them and what commemorative months have we already already have activities or events going on at schools um you know what do our neighbor what are our neighbors doing around commemorative months and I think the answers I got was that there's quite a lot of commemorative um months or celebrations happening Multicultural things um at different School sites not at all of them uh Hispanic Heritage Month Black History Month um Asian-American Pacific Island Heritage Month women's History Month um Dali Caesar Chavez Day autism awareness and pride month so those are all in packet review of things that we are already doing and it's already in our

243grade level standards and you know my thought on the commemorative month board is that it's I don't believe that if the board um or we as a district adopt commemorative months that it's tokenism if we already are doing the work and you could say well why aren't we why do we need to adopt it as a board or as a district and I would just say it's sort of like you know um staff appreciation or birthdays like everyone else is like celebrating birthdays and then or staff appreciation and then your school or your District doesn't at that commemorative time when like everyone else is I think it it doesn't really show the support that we're intending to support by not having a commemorative month it's like really it's really frustrating right because we're trying to

244say Hey you know we're going to celebrate Black History all the time not just in you know February or whatever it is we're gonna we're going to do this all the time but then only a couple schools are celebrating it or it's kind of like there there aren't materials over time to support it and it's it's like like well maybe your teacher is supporting it maybe they don't get to it so just by by stating it it's just um it's I mean I sort of feel like I mean I do feel that [Music] um it's it fits in with our it fits in with our overall plan and goals so wa I would I mean I would I would like to take the ones that we already celebrate or the ones from the Harvard list

245or the Yale list that um was in the in a previous packet and I would like to discuss specific ones and talk about like calendaring them into commemorative months for us I mean me too I would like to commemorate a at least recognize somehow and give some general directions because again not everybody does celebrate they you know we get very busy and is as you say it's like why do we do Mother's Day at all if we love our mothers every day why do we do Christmas if you are from certain religions you will you know celebrate your religion every day you don't have to celebrate on Christmas time etc etc so is okay it's not as important as somebody's mother or or religion or you know maybe even the Teachers Day but somehow we

246acknowledge them and without acknowledging them just thinking that we're going to acknowledge and every day is like then you know it's like not giving a mother say to the mom because we love her just the same every day every day of life I really appreciated the um attachment to this um the uh respectfully celebrating University months Dr Galler attached here and I I think it's it's really great about how to do this respectfully and I appreciate that especially um in conversation with um what was impack it with the things that we already do um on a personal note I just want to say that my son really hates autism we in his month like it it bugs him he doesn't like it and every time it coms up his teacher has been very um respectful

247of that I am curious though like if we feel it is even if some of these months aren't celebrated at every school I feel like there's it's somewhat reflective of the community right like there are more Asian kids in some certain schools and I feel like they're more likely to do the New Year celebrations um I don't I I feel like it would be prescriptive to say that all schools should do that but there are some of these months especially Black History Month where we just don't have a lot of black kids in the district but I feel like it would be important to celebrate that any way even though we don't have a lot of black kids um at each schools so um I have a lot of feelings about this I have a

248lot of thoughts about this it's very nuanced to me like whether um how we should do this but I do feel comfortable um generally with these resolutions um I feel like we're doing the work um I don't feel like we're making this a a tokenism thing and um and I appreciate it again the the attachment here yeah the attachment actually came from Dr Benson didn't it I would say my question as I was like reading that attachment and maybe they did I was like trying to figure out like so do they like them do they not like the people who put that attachment together right I was like right my brain always want like what so do they oppose them not oppose them or are they open it it's more like if you're going to

249do them be careful and then it has all those good questions do you like gather combin supposed to be open-ended like this to just get us more confused who knows what we're supposed to do it's a combination um there's a few things that come with that and I'm um thinking just for talking about your St because that's a perfect example um and that would be the case for some of these other um areas that we either celebrate or want to highlight or however we want to talk about it but some of the questions and I'm going just kind of ask questions that will kind of help us to discuss more what happens when we get more requests I'm not looking for an answer but things that we need to think about um are we empowering

250the voices that we want to if the list becomes essentially very [Music] Lon what about if something comes that we decide as a board we don't want to add and most importantly whatever we decide it's about the action plan of the revolution of sorry other resolutions and and um and what is our behavior um not just during those times but over the course of the year so those are just some additional thoughts and considerations for having so I wonder um how I I wonder how we're going to be embracing the concept and sharing it out with the community such that it doesn't it isn't viewed as tokenism that it's my month it's their month that why aren't we doing x y and z um my my my biggest thing is that it cultural proficiency happens

251over time and in multiple different Arenas and this is just a way of possibly doing things but I also need to be respectful that there are some that is culturally competent to not celebrate so I'm in that tension as well about um how do how do we balance about what are the most important things during the course of the entire year not just what's happening um at a particular um month and how do we bring this forward such that it allows um staff parents and Community to be able to have input in on this on this what whatever we're choosing to do as a part of this that talking about the plan and so it's like I'm I'm looking for a little bit more infrastructure than currently exist because it's just like I I don't

252want to become the flavor of the M it's interesting that it needs to have some intentionality of thought beforehand with the plan to move it forward to have me in context for me it's interesting that you said flavor of the month because I was just thinking about Isabelle's example of Miss Price's um cultural um project passport project right and I think like if you asked most people I think they would be it would not surprise them that we like as a district celebrated like we Hispanic Heritage Month right we 40% of our students are Hispanic we have a large Asian population we're super diverse we could we could have there's some nationally celebrated months and we see it in the news we see it in all the education we things I think if we're if

253our if Our poise towards it isn't we're shoving this down your throat and you're all going to celebrate immediately right now if our if our if our thing is if our if our position is more like hey this is this this great celebratory month we we celebrate each other all the time but here are some things that we can do to celebrate this month um and as resources I think teachers already share resources with each other anyway we just sort of formalize things and um I appreciate what you said Tasha about the challenges of like deciding like which which groups right like which groups are we acknowledging and I don't really know how to answer that other than like you know there's some standard sort of standardized nationalist ones that are out there um but

254I think I think that we could I don't think I don't think we should say we're not going to do them at all because too many people might want to be celebrated like I just think I just think like it it might become overwhelming like I just feel like then we celebrate no one um and we or we just do it kind of school by school depending on like what's happening at the school and I I just think that it's a missed opportunity you know like to say because we have um you know there's pride month and there's [Music] um there's just all these things where if we I I sort of feel odd that where I see I kind of see other board members say oh we went to this great commemorative event in

255our district or we um we're celebrating this month as a district and it's like I sort of feel like gosh I kind of feel like we're um neglectful by not doing that because we're we're responding out of fear you know like we're we're afraid we might offend someone if we celebrate somebody you know it's just um so yeah there's a tricky space for me here with some religious holiday where if we are going to be celebrating well we don't it's not winter pray it's not chrm it's winter break and there's a lot of different holidays celebrated within that time period similarly there's like Persian New Year which often oh and I'm not I'm actually not suggesting we celebrate lunar year I'm actually talking about like the cultural heritage months where you talk about like the

256diversity that's what I'm talking about I don't really I don't I don't even I'm looking at the calendar and I'm just like okay if we're going to get into like the nitty-gritty then there are some like I don't know how many of these that we can like reasonably holiday just the bigger months that were on that har yellow one we sent a while ago so you're more interested in recognizing cultural group so I'm going to just read off the list so um January it doesn't have anything February um Black History Month March natur uh women's History Month April is a fun one it is both Arab American Heritage Month and genocide Awareness Month um where are you it's in the attachment oh okay it's it's linked from the attachment um it's ADL it's from the

257ADL um May mean in the P not package no it's in the attachment on the agenda the agenda okay attachment on the agenda OB servant is that one that link uh it's on it's take action on the bottom yeah yeah oh take action for and then you go there and then you click on on the second page calendar observances yeah andage there and then in the column there you scroll down on the left side a little bit is a download what is ADL Anti-Defamation oh okay and then one of those here is this attachment calendar OBS okay so ail has a lot um so you have Arab American Heritage Month genocide Awareness Month National poetry month I guess that's not just culture um May International workers day um is there also Asian-American Heritage Month Jewish

258American heritage month we get to share um June is lgbtq pride month and then I guess we're off with the Summers there was a different there was a different um it was on the ad there was a different um thing that we had talked about the last time we talked about this there was a different attachment that was much more simple and it had like six months yeah one two three four five six seven eight eight and nine with June but the the one that I yeah that I I proposed this again this year was based on jail and Harvard calendars they and they you know again there are like my com so you know when you talk with Larry when you talk with Larry he he does he every time he tells I don't

259know how many hundreds of nationalities do we have in our town that we we go and and share spaces and and services every day when we go outside you said half the people in sun or from somewhere else interal so and you made a a good point like oh yeah it would be nice to celebrate africanamerican even though we just have like 2% of the kids like well for me it looks like very obvious I don't see why wouldn't we but if you if you go back to the least well to a general Le like a har jail when is like when you have Native American Heritage Month africanamerican Heritage Month ER Asian yeah that's pretty much I see except for Europe that's pretty much the whole planet I I see the list now and

260this list is a lot more Tighter and a lot easier to get behind from the really long there will be very few you and they could actually go into somewhere else and and then when you go to well the the thing that I I was looking at is that jaay and Harvard have different type of disability month and they even have one for employees disability month that we we want is just to create awareness in our community so maybe we will attach our disability month to all this awareness that we have a bigger special education but I think it's important is it's an important thing somehow to adap because we do have a very big special education I want to point out that the displ pr month is July yes so that would probably have

261to like during summer school or something but we have yeah but that's what yeah that's what maybe we can use instead of that do out thism awareness month that is April and attach it all together because the other one is July and the one that harbard and jail put [Music] excuse me I want to bring us back to the question I asked earlier because I think it determines what we do and why we do it so I want to go back there again um and I guess it's the why is is the why are we trying to elevate particular voices that we feel like we're not elevating is it just so we can have some celebrations but I think we must get back to what our why is because then that will determine what we're

262elevating are we elevating particular voes that we feel are absent um the other reason I'm asking that is um kind of since you've asked this question done a little research and there was one example that I saw that I really liked and what it did is it went back to um the Strategic goal or plans that they were doing and the emphasis was around being inclusive and celebrating the community that we have and so figuring out yeah these celebration months but also being intentional through other experiences so whether we three times or four times a year celebrate who we are in Sunnyville or whatever it is but I think the why he is really important because then it will help answer some of the questions that I've heard so far this evening and it helps

263us as staff and ultimately gets down to the classroom level like if we know clearly what the why is that helps us go staff as so what they're actually going to do so it's a matter of like the board every month is going to do a resolution that's fine but there's no impact to that the I don't think that's what the ones on the Harvard list the reason why I like those is those are all underserved groups they're all people who are regularly discriminated against um that the politicians voices that they're targeted completely and you know like black history women's history um Arab Americans Jewish Americans asian-americans Mental Health lgbtq Plus um Sexual Assault Awareness Month like those are all um disability pride month like te next months all those things are those are our

264groups that I I feel like this is a a statement of solidarity and it's an opportunity to celebrate so it's not like oh anyone who you know this is this isn't like a poor baby kind of thing this is a like Hey we're standing with you you know we see you and you know we're here for you all year long but we're going to celebrate you because this is your month so that's just my personal so I guess my would be like so what's the expectation of these with these resolutions right so the resolution is passed and what well for example this is a month where you may put together and read a particular book instead of reading it in July sorry in June you read it in April because what is asking teachers to

265do more in their classrooms they we already already asking like what is the what if you want something to happen with the resolution what what is the what you're wanting with well it's not it's not only the classroom we're asking staff to are we asking staff to celebrate employees it is how it's just a fra it's a framework and so yeah it is a framework it is a framework of recognition they you can go as far but as least as minimum we are going to ask for a minimum like for example I think right now we do Diwali in every school even if not in every school we have a majority of Indian kids but it's just a fun thing to do well that's separate from what Bridget is talking about and yeah but why

266why do we do that like because it's an awareness in the community that they are important so for me it aligns with strategic goal number one of creating an an inclusive and nurturing environment and it provides a framework and the thing I keep getting back to is that it's the least we can do like this is the least we can do the rest of it can be filled out like and I am comfortable leaving it open to staff or to teachers or to schools to fill in the framework as they will but this is the least we can do as a board to acknowledge that this month happened that it's exist that we recognize you we see you and we're sorry about everything the US has done to us and we appreciate you appreciate I

267think that's a good way to put it so I'm neither here nor there on the resolutions like I my general would be like whatever our community and our staff feels as best but so I'm good either way but I think that the space that I care most about is less about the resolutions I think you guys are probably agree in more about I think this is what Tosh about like doing the work year round right so an example the resolution we had last month that was about celebrating you Hispanic her right so when I was reading through the resolution there was a piece towards the end that I really left I don't think it got into packet review because I was out of town that week but I had a little bit of it back

268and forth with staff on it so the phrase that I loved was encourages all schools within in the district to engage in activities and initiatives that celebrate the culture contributions and history of Hispanic and latinx communities and so for me what I care more about is like the resolution to me is here neither here nor there um I mean there's pros do it there's cons do it whatever right but to me like I I care less about whether there's a resolution or not and more about like I love that phrase and I would love to have like instead of talking about resolutions I would love to spend a half an hour let's talk about how we can actually do that in our schools throughout the year and then let's go do it right so that's

269what I care about more than resolution I think that's the resolution which put that phrase I mean the resolution didn't do anything is what I'm saying right the resolution is encouraging is is that that's the resolution it's at the end encouraging therefore because this this and that we're recognizing all this stuff the from this community so we the resolution is that we encourage each school to do something about this they recogniz and when we did the one about lgtbq Community last time it it did have a call to action that was to put the not just to encourage every side to recognize this and do something about it but also those AR it has to be a policy like having it in the resolution doesn't actually mean anything right so that's what I'm referring to

270if we want to do these things yes so that's what tonight about this will be a policy that we are going to be doing this because then we come to the thing oh well the resolutions just die and and if we did one last year it doesn't mean anything this year and say okay so now we're going to create a policy that there is a number of minimum stand this is our minimum standard of of care that we're doing this is the minimum that we're going to do we're going to do I don't know six seven eight whatever it is and we're going to recognize this I mean it's a part of a de Dei that we're doing already as an equity and and two minute warning yeah I'm I would rather spend that time

271on policies that actually change as opposed to resolutions but I'm neither here nor there on the resolutions yeah but this is about this is about the policy the resolution they're separate you can't say it is okay I thought that was a discussion about but okay so do we want to move I suppose we have to mean so it so I think we have the majority the we have the majority that is interest in in having take action on celebrate three months so I so it's not an action [Music] item so I would like to I would like to see um what it would look like in other words what what we might choose to identify and make a policy around around that um resolutions I think are more action oriented based on something that is

272happening and there's an action call to action related to related to that well sometimes I mean sometimes there's something happening in the community like whereas you know people are being attacked on the street or whereas you know people are getting killed and whatever yeah like there's supporting something but there are also resolutions that are that that I've heard other boards give that that seem like they're just very they're just they're recognitions and it's just it's really a recognition so so that and then there are policies and I know policies and resolutions are different but it's it's just a it's just a direction and you know a direct moving forward that maybe they'll they'll come back to us with a draft of what they think is a first pass and we'll give feedback on it so

273with that is 10:00 so we have an information agenda so we don't need to table everything else but I think that it will be a good direction as we have a majority we actually either do it now or in January but we could bring back a list of of proposition for talk mon possibilities possibilities for months why yeah we we already discussed the why so we we could just bring how it will look a proposition how it will look we we'll process what you said and see if there's some direction there that we could take some action on but it's 10 o'clock so we have to stop Yes okay so yeah I think it was yeah it was kind of clear okay with that our next meeting will be on the it's not opening on

274oober on October 10 at 6 p.m. it will be a governance meeting Bas on data it's 10:01 and with that we close the meeting Mee govern meeting yeah