001correctly. Um, so first is hold on just a second. First is item 2.3 um, readmission case 011424. Do I have a motion on readmission? >> I'd move to admit the student readmission. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second the motion. All in favor? >> I I >> thank you. Moving on to case number 2525. >> Item 2.4. Um, do I have a motion to suspend the expulsion? for this case number. >> I'll make the motion. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> And then item 2.5 is case number 091025. Do I have a motion to suspend the expulsion in this case as well? I will make a motion. Do I have a second? >> Bill. All in favor? >> I I I >> I. And then lastly, item 2.6. This
002is case number 091025.1. Do I have a motion to suspend the expulsion in this case? >> I'll make that motion. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I >> I >> Okay, >> that concludes our report out of close session. Next is the flag salute led by Trusty Lopez. Please join me for the flag salute. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic. One nation under God, indivisible. Do we have any adjustments to the agenda? This is item 3.4. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to item 3.5. We're celebrating success tonight. I think if you're in the audience, you may have an idea of what we're celebrating, but I'll turn it over to Trustee Carnation to tell us a little bit more.
003>> Thank you, Stephanie. Uh, this is like Christmas before Christmas. Um, so this has been a long time coming. Our the wrestling team last year um had a fantastic season. It was um in 30 years that Windsor 30 plus years that Windsor has been a school. Uh in 2014, the wrestling team won the whole North Coast section championship. And just to put that in perspective, um like when football or basketball when they win, they're usually in a division. So of the North Coast section, there's two or three or four or five depending on the sport, different divisions. And so what I'm referring to is this is all of the divisions. So when you take everybody in the north coast section all the way up to humble delort and everybody in between East Bay all those
004folks deal all those teams everybody was goes to one big tournament and then they have a champion and we did it in 2014 and then we did it again last year and so and unfortunately we don't have all of our guys here. Some of them are back in school. They've they've gone to different things, but we've got a good cross-section of the guys. One of them's trying to make weight right now. He's getting ready to go down to Fresno um this evening. But anyhow, I I'm just as a as a grandpa to the whole deal. I'm I'm I'm pretty excited and pretty happy. Uh we got some of the best kids in in the area as far as just being people and then uh on top of that being great representatives of our school and
005our community. Um I'm just proud of our guys. We've got Coach Kevin. Kevin's been with us forever plus one day. Um Coach Kevin's our head coach. He he took over and uh has done a a fabulous job. And we've got Coach Eric. He's uh another one of our great little finds that we got. He he was out there um as a an officer of the law and then decided that he would rather uh work with kids before they get in trouble >> middle school >> at Windsor Middle School. Angelus wanted to take credit for that, but and it's okay because uh Eric's he teaches science over there. Does an awesome job. And um he he comes from Bakavville. great uh history of wrestling. Coach Kevin came from Rancho back when Rancho was a good school
006when I was in school. Actually, his dad and I were compatriots. It's just that his dad was a state champion. So, anyhow, and then we've got Coach Ryan. I see Coach Ryan back there. He's always helping motivate everybody, keeping positive vibes going all the time. And I think right behind Ryan, I can't see. We've got Coach Cody. Cody's uh coaching here. He's Windsor's first state placer. So, he started as a freshman, never wrestled before. Uh took third in league his freshman year and by his senior year, he was uh he's beaten the state champion. So, anyhow, and so, and he's back coaching and helping all the guys. So, I'm going to kind of turn this over to Coach Kevin. I see we've got one, two, we've got a few of our uh fantastic four that
007were freshman last year that kind of really uh took a whole bunch of people by storm and by surprise. Um we've got Chase, one of our team captains from last year. He wrestled junior college this year. had a really really good um uh career uh good season this year and uh part of that team that placed higher than they've placed in I think since Kevin was the assistant coach at the junior college about a long long time ago. So anyhow, I'm going to turn it over to coach Kevin if you want to introduce the guys. Basically, we've got some really sharp rings. I I I have to Stephanie uh Clawson who is Windsor's mom to everybody. She made sure that Yeah. Let's give Stephanie some She was not She was not going to let an
008accomplish like what we achieved go without having some hardware. And so she just was relentless on making sure we finally got the good design. And uh this is this is a big thing. And so you guys, every time you look at that, you better go, "Thank you, Stephanie. We love you." And uh because without her effort, uh something like this wouldn't have happened. So, anyhow, uh, Coach Kev, >> thank you. >> Hey, you got to step up to the microphone there. Uh, uh, can you guys hear me? All right. Perfect. Uh, I just want to say thank you everyone for coming. Uh, it's exciting to finally get to honor this group of young athletes that has represented the Windsor wrestling team, Windsor High School, and the Windsor community extremely well. uh these gentlemen are always
009doing the right thing in and out of practice. So, thank you again for being here tonight. Just a quick acknowledgement of the accomplishments that they did uh in this this group. They won the league title. So, there's a pennant over here for that. Uh they went they took second in the NCS duels, lost a a battle of a a dual meet, uh which was extremely fun to be there. Then went on to win the league tournament and then won the section tournament. I think there's 130 something schools in the whole North Coast section of wrestling and this team competed hard over two days uh with just their work ethic, their drive uh and believe themselves and came back with a title. Second time uh that Winters have been able to to win this. Only two
010schools uh in the North Bay have ever won this and we've won it twice now. And it just goes off of this team. Uh their their work ethic, their drive, uh their amazing group of young men. It was a pleasure to be around. uh and just watch them grow and everyone's extremely proud of them uh what they earned along the way not only on the mat but what they learn about themselves off the mat which is just as important if not more. Uh so just a couple thank yous uh to the athletes that came in day in and day out uh and worked worked their butts off uh double days when they needed it uh and just continued to thrive and did the right thing outside the room in the classroom and in the room.
011So, thank you to them, all the parents. Uh, it takes a village and these parents were there every step of the way, five o'clock dropping kids off, staying late, making sure they had the right fuel, the right food, uh, and just being there and then entrusting their their sons with us to to help lead them along the way, which is a great and we appreciate everything. Uh, Miss Jamie Williams, our athletic director, who is always there if we need something, advice, we need to get a room, she's always there. Uh, which is amazing. Steven Summers, uh, we appreciate everything he's done for our wrestling program, as well as all of the Windsor school teachers, administrators, everyone. They're always supportive of us. They're always in our corner, which I know sometimes doesn't seem like we appreciate,
012but we we appreciate greatly. uh the Clawson family who goes above and beyond with our tournament. We have 45 teams that come to our tournament as a fundraiser. Uh her uh Stephanie and her husband are always huge into that. Uh and the Windsor community, like I said, we have fundraisers. We're always out. Our dual meets are well attended. We get a couple hundred people. Uh and it does take a village and Windsor community has always supported the wrestling program. So, but as far as me, the wrestling team, the coaching staff, we appreciate everyone involved in it. Uh, and we just thank you. Thank you so much. So, we will call up our athletes real real quick uh and acknowledge again the hard work and the accomplishment that they've earned through last year and continue to
013earn this year. We have another solid team coming through. Uh, Mr. Lo Sanchez Uh, like you said, Joey Buella are he's not here. He got invited to wrestle in a big tournament in Fresno. He's on his way down there. I know he's sad to miss this, but it's a great opportunity for him to grow represent himself in the school. So, he's not here. Uh, but he wanted to be here very much. Next, Cole Sanchez, NCS Player. >> Coleid. >> Cole Schmidt. I'm sorry. I can't believe that I I got dropped in my head earlier. My bad. Cole Schmidt, who's only a sophomore, and you're going to see big big things from him. >> Uh team captain last year, now to JC, uh a stud for us and led this team, Mr. Chase Clawson, my man
014Caleb Romeo Darosa, Brody Bishop Berger, another section placer for us. Luca Gorinick >> senior this year Max Solario Solario workshop cuz sure hold on I was just starting to hit my stride. Uh, Skyler, uh, Titan Estep, Emiliano Nava, Mr. Taran Roas today, huh? Fernand Fernando Lopez, Finn Bean, and we had about another 10 that couldn't be here tonight. Uh once again, I just want to say thank you to these coaches. Uh Cody How, who is always uh around. He is a student of the sport. He's up early, stays up late, no matter what the athletes need. He is always there for them. uh it is a huge help and he is a just a wealth of knowledge. Uh and then like uh Rich said, Coach Ryan's always there. And then Eric Ol who came over
015from Vakavville, another wealth of knowledge, comes from a great program, has helped leading this program as well. So once again, if we get one more uh round of applause for this team. >> Hey, Coach Kev, let's get let's get the banners. And again, I thanked her already, but we did get her a pennant uh because she's always so helpful. Miss Jamie Williams, >> thank Yeah, there we go. >> Thinking, Bill. All right, let's get a picture. All right, there we go. Smile. You got You got to smile. Hey, see if you guys can sneak in a little bit. Get in between. Uh, know the board wants to go in front or do you want us No, >> no, we're good. Right like that. Just put Lo up in front so they can see him. >>
016Are you on your tippy toes, Stacy? Alumni >> to represent Windsor, gentlemen. Good job. Good job, guys. >> So, your next home match is January what? >> Seventh. Seven. Seven. >> Some of these boys um on the map, come to Windsor High School. We're in the big gym for uh versus Maria Curo for senior night. That night, January 27th. makes me like sandwich. >> I just want to thank the board. Thank you. Hello. I just want to thank you guys for taking this time to celebrate your student athletes. They all work very hard in the classroom. Thank you cabinet as well for yes you uh for giving us this time and thank you all for all of your support tonight. >> Try to get home before >> Thanks for being here. Congratulations to our wrestlers.
017>> Just just one quick followup just so you guys understand. Hey guys, >> just really quick, the thing that I love about this one tournament the most is that it is the epitome of a team effort. The if you scored, we beat Liberty, Kevin, was it two and a half points? >> Six points total. There are about three or four kids who did not place. They didn't get a medal, but they scored team points. And without their effort and their points that they scored, we wouldn't have won. It kind of reminds me, so I'm going to take a flashback real quick. Natalie, when we won it in 2014, her brother Joe, he was in a match and he was winning and then he thought he lost and he was upset. And then we protested the
018call and he came back and he won the next ma he won that match and then because he won that match his next match forfeited to Joe. Anyhow we in that match we only did win by I think a point and a half. We beat D South by a point and a half. So Natalie, so your brother was part of the team that helped us win the very first championship. So every little thing matters. It's amazing how many small little things add up to a to a great historical event. But anyhow, so I just want to make sure that you I got to keep you in your place. Your brother was there first. So anyhow, thank you all. >> Thank you. Let's give him a round of applause. I'll give them a moment to potentially
019head out. Um, our next item is public comment on non-aggenda items. So, anything not on the agenda is subject for public comment. Do we have anyone here who's here to make an a comment on something not on the agenda? We have two. >> Kevin's taking the shirt. >> Hi guys. >> Oh, if you could speak into the microphone, that would be great. You could pull it. Hi guys. >> Oh, okay. Hi guys. >> Hello. Um, my name is Shiden Whiting. I'm a senior at Windsor High School. This is Kai Johnson and this is Hattie Estrada. We are the founders of the first CTE theater club at Windsor High School and we have been working very hard this past semester on a production that actually our very own Rebecca Herman wrote and directed. >> Wow. >>
020Yes. So, we are inviting you all to come see it. Kai and Hattie are going to hand out some of our posters and on that poster there's a QR code that you can scan to reserve tickets for our production in January. And we have also been working very hard to turn our CTE theater club into a CTE theater course which will now be available um on the course catalog for next year at Windsor High School. So, tell your kids to take our theater class at Winter High School because it's super awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> I'm going to shoehorn this in cuz technically it's not an agenda item, but uh my name is John Richards. You all received an email from me. Um I just wanted to put a face to the
021name for those of you that I haven't met. Uh, I just wanted to acknowledge uh about a month ago I sent you guys an email uh and speaking on behalf of the English department and the teachers uh that I cohort with, we feel a genuine sense of appreciation that you took our words with the intention that they were delivered. Uh you respected um our request and you participated in this book adoption process with us. From that email, I had a fantastic email exchange with Trusty Lopez. She's given me a hefty book list uh that I'm diving into as we speak. Uh Trusty Carnation and I had a wonderful, very fruitful conversation yesterday with Miss Buckman. Um so I just wanted to say that in this atmosphere, being a teacher doesn't always feel like the most
022respected job. We're often overlooked. We're often dismissed. We're often told what we're doing is wrong and we need to find our place. And I felt like by you guys honoring our request, you did the opposite of that. So, I wanted to say thank you for that. Uh later tonight, you're going to have one of the best, in fact, the reigning teacher of the year at Windsor High School to come in and discuss that book. Um and I hope that if you have questions and you have concerns and you want to know more about her intention with that book, you ask her. uh and just with that same intention that we came to you, bring that with her. Uh approach it with curiosity. Uh and I'm sure we'll come to a great decision. So, thanks everybody.
023>> Thank you. >> Do we have any other public comment on non-aggenda items? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to move on to item 3.7, which is our report from our student board members, Rebecca Herman and Natalie Valdez. go ahead and take it away. >> Hello, I'm Rebecca Herman. Uh, so we had our meeting in November canceled, so this is kind of a bigger presentation. There's not a lot going on in the future because of the winter break. Um, so this is mostly things that have already happened and just celebrating all the great things going on in our district. Next slide, please. So, first up, we have Mattie Washburn Elementary. They had a really great PTA joathon that I was able to attend. Um uh they got they um they raised a lot of money and
024uh I'm very proud of the PTA there. Like they they are incredible. They're so nice and welcoming. Uh they also had the Halloween parade at the David Smith Park which was also amazing. Also amazing. And all the first grade teachers dressed up as Waldo. I thought that was really funny. And like there were all these Waldos everywhere. Uh and they also had their fall book fair from November 3rd to November 7th. Um yeah. Okay. Moving on to Brooks Elementary. They successfully completed all these things within the past few months. Um first their third grade zunzen assembly on October 28th. The Halloween parade on October 31st. The Ruby Bridges walk and roll to school on November 12th. Are you smarter than a fifth grader on November 19th. the wind the winter scholastic book fair the 8th
025through the 12th and they had their makeup picture day and coming up is their winter art stroll on December 19th at 9:00 a.m. so tomorrow. Uh next up we have Cali. They had their middle school dance which I heard was really successful. They also had some pretty great Day of the Dead celebrations. You can see a lot of photos from that. Uh also on the next slide they had uh a family movie night. Sorry, I need the words. Can you go back really quick? Uh, they had the family movie night, a PTA meeting, the leadership classes visited Windsor High School, and they had a coffee with the admin session on December 5th, which I attended, and uh, I think was very nice, very productive. Uh, they had the middle school movie night December 5th. They
026had an eighth grade sleepaway camp at West M Westminster Woods and a spirit week, which is currently going on. Uh also they have had the ch the early childhood development classes visiting the Cali classrooms which I personally did last year as a child development as a um student in child development. We went to Mattie Washburn. So it's really exciting seeing um them go to the different campuses that might have different cultures so that the students can see that and they also have more visits planned with the um child child development class coming to Cali. Okay, next up is Windsor Middle School. So, their boosters had an open meeting in the library. Um, or is that coming up? And then coffee with the principal on October 21st. Um, Windsor Middle School's leadership program had a field
027trip on October 28th as well as a Yeah, on October 28th. And we had I got to sit in on the speak up room and kind of help administer with the vice president. Um and just seeing the middle schoolers kind of speak up and practice their public speaking skills was super fun and you could totally see them come out of their comfort zone. So that was awesome. And then their drama class had their first performance on December 8th or 12th, sorry. And can I mention about the drama performance? It was amazing. I went to it and I was actually laughing out loud. It was like these four different skits that were put together and they were all really short, not too long where you kind of like lose interest, but they were really good. Um,
028and they they were just great and they had so many amazing actors and I'm really excited to maybe see them in Neweva or in the theater class coming up at Windsor High School. Oh, sorry, my slide. The So, speaking of, we had the honest and true real life story of the Princess Bride um October 23rd through the 25th. There's some photos from that. I was really excited to participate in that and it was a really great production. Uh the we had rivalry rivalry week um which was basically like a um co-spirit week with um Rancho Katy ending in the Halloween football game. It got a lot of school spirit going. It was really fun to participate in. We had Senate Forum on November 12th, the Meta Lori night on November 14th. And for the fall
029sports, we have had a lot of great things going on. The volleyball team is now four-time league champs. Girls golf players participated in NCS, and the cross country runners participated in NCS and are going to CFI. Uh we've also had some toy and food drives and book and sock drives through the clubs and just the overall school. Um do you know how successful that's been, Natalie? I heard there was pretty good um >> Yeah, it was pretty good. Trying to think of the numbers, but yeah, the senior class did win. We made we turned it into a little contest. So, the senior class will get a big movie night in the gym and a pizza. Oh, no. Chick-fil-A. >> Chick-fil-A. >> Yeah. Side note. >> Yeah. >> Um Okay. >> And then we also had
030some Mindful Monday and Wellness Wednesdays that are out in the quad. There was a tribal history presentation on November 18th. I personally attended that. It was really great. I know there's some students here who also attended that. Um it was a really great presentation. I learned a lot. Uh the winter rally was on December 15th and there was also singing gram deliveries on December 9th. So that's when you can purchase a um singing gram where you can send a group of students to another student's class to sing to them in front of all their peers. It's very fun. And then we had our winter formal last Saturday. And coming up we have uh as mentioned the people versus mother goose which is the play that the theater club is putting on. Uh there was two
031performances 6 pm and 7:30 p.m. on January 15th and 16th. And then a couple other things about the high school page is we separated the food and toy drive from the door decorating competition and we just made it staff competition cuz we realized that like all of the staff, especially Brenda Reyes, the nurse, always do an amazing door. And this year she did a gingerbread house door and she won. So, just want to congratulate her. She got her little swag bag. And then also on Senate Forum, we put that on there. And it's just something I kind of wanted to shed a light cuz you're probably like, "What's Senate Forum?" But it's something our uh leadership program puts on for all core programs, freshman seminar, and then Windsor Oaks is able to attend. And it's
032just a way that we communicate all information to students, especially since we're broken up into cores. But that's a great way for um you know students to get more information. So just kind of to shed a light on that. And then these are some really cool flyers that were put out. Um obviously they're passed now, but yeah. Okay. Moving on to Big Picture Learning. Their students made applesauce and apple muffins on October 15th. Um, and then on they had a guest speaker come on November 5th and a mural project with artist Zoe Dinardo from Art Start on November 5th as well. Uh, and now we have Windsor Oaks Academy. They had a bowling trip on October 21st. The Fiesta Fridays, which was their Halloween feast on the 31st, they had I think we mentioned this
033before. They started kind of like a little league of their own uh with the alternative schools in the area. So, they had a soccer matchup versus Ridgeway on October 8th. And I need to check in to see whether they won, but I feel like they did. I just think that they're winners. Um they also went to the Native California Film Fest on November 17th. They also attended the tribal history presentation. They had another bowling trip. Why don't I go to Windsor Oaks? I want bowling trips. Uh and then they had another Fiesta Friday, which was their harvest feast. and now they are currently participating in the North Coast Builder Exchange. Moving on, um just one thing that Bridges and the Best Buddies Club got to participate in kind of a long time ago, but on
034October 243rd, we got to go to Montgomery High School for soccer special Olympics and it was so fun. The middle school was also there and some other schools in the district. So, it's so much fun. And there's so many great photos up there. And currently we're ready, we're getting ready for our Special Olympics track that will be happening in the spring semester later. But just know have that idea on in your calendars. Um it's always the best and we have the best collaboration. So yeah. And now we have the Windsor Unified School District Spotlight, which is just something in the district that we've noticed that we think would be good to highlight. So, the Brooks Elementary Student Council, um, they just had their elections, I think a month ago. Uh, it's led by five elected
035officers, president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and spirit leader. Um, which are chosen through a schoolwide vote. And each class has a representative that they send to the meetings to share ideas and share feedback from the peers. Uh the meetings are every other Friday morning and during the meetings they discuss um activities and events, spirit weeks, fundraisers and they get ideas for um to like improve school spirit uh by doing uh charitable giving and um rewards. They have done things like penny wars family movie night and the glow party dance. There's pictures from that last year and so now they're working on planning more things for the upcoming school year. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> That was an excellent report. And I just want to I've never had this happen where we're told about a
036performance and it's written and directed by one of our student board members. So I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that. That's a huge accomplishment. We were actually together at a conference recently and you didn't mention that. So um this is amazing and I can't wait for us all to go and see it. Um, oh, go ahead. Um, one of the performances is on the is on the night of a board meeting, so you should go to the 16th one. >> Yes, I I did see that and I was thinking about that already. Wheels are turning. >> Okay. Next item is superintendent report. Superintendent Decker. >> It'll be a short one. Uh, so just to touch on a few things. Now, this is we we didn't have a meeting last month, so some
037of this is fairly old, but we're going to go through it anyway. So, we've had two sipping with me. uh allowing the community to come out and I was surprised they were really well attended. Uh we had I don't know about 20 to 30 the first one and probably around 20 to 25 in the second one. So we'll have these throughout the year and it's just a chance to really ask me questions and have a conversation. I come up with no agenda. Something we've been talking quite a bit about. We've had two town halls. Uh we're required to come up with a cell phone policy by the end of the year and we want to make sure we're doing our part in hearing from the community. So, we've had two town halls so far, and
038we are going to be putting together kind of a preliminary plan based on what we've heard and sending out another survey to our families before we bring it back to the board to have a discussion around what our cell phone policy looks like. And just to give a bit of a synopsis, it's pretty clear, elementary, we kind of have a lot of agreement. High school, quite a bit of agreement. Middle schools where we have a lot of conversation in terms of what we do with cell phones. Uh, you know, again, this was for November initially. Uh, Halloween's always fun. Yes, that is me dressed up as a giant cat. Um, I had a shirt for my family that said, "Yes, I'm a black cat." But then I was acting as principal, so I said, "Well,
039I guess I better really do it." So, there we are. But Matty Washurn was a good time. Kids are super cute. We all know that at Brooks. Uh, again, we we try to highlight all of our elementary kids, not the high school kids. Sorry. But we had a good time. Halloween's always fun in in Windsor. So, you know, I want to take the time uh this was a late addition for me, but I want to take the time to address some rumors. There's somebody named Anonymous who continues to put out misinformation about our district and specifically one of our board members regarding our ENA with Gallagher Community Homes. And I just need to explain this cuz I'm kind of tired of hearing it if I'm being honest. So, Stephanie Ahmad and I represent the district
040in those negotiations and we are the only ones who have represented the district the entire time. So, I can guarantee and attest to the fact that Mr. Carnation has never taken place in any has never participated in any of the negotiations. Uh, and out of an abundance of caution, he's he's hasn't even voted in here on any of these items. So, we are reaching out to the FPPC just to make sure uh that there is nothing that we have missed. We've already received written verification from school and college legal services general counsel uh lawyer Caitlyn Schwinman that he would not be disqualified from taking part in the negotiations because he has no financial interest and is not a compensated board member known as a founding director for Gallagher Community Homes. However, what we're asking the
041FPC about is about something called government code 1090 which has to do with remote interest, not a financial interest. And so we are hoping to receive that within the next month. And once that comes out, then we will know whether Mr. Carnation can vote or has to recuse himself. Next slide, please. There was also a worksheet that I saw passed out by Mr. Scandlin that made a statement that all of these housing projects for employee housing, they um nobody wants them. And so I just thought I would pull some data from CSBA, which is the California School Boards Association, of all of the different employee public employee housing projects that have happened in the state of California. They're there on the right. There's nine of them that have been completed to date. It's relatively new.
042Um, but if you look at CSBA's website, these are not my words. This is copied and pasted from CSBA. And I'm going to read it. Housing affordability is one of the main barriers to attracting or retaining great teachers and staff across California to address this. Many LEAs in the state are looking into building education workforce housing, homes for their employees on underdeveloped land they already own. And I need to reiterate, this is not just teacher housing. This is our public employees housing, which means our custodians, our food service workers, our instructional aids, all of our employees is what we're trying to address our housing issues with. By using their own land, ELEAs can build highquality and attractive housing to lease to their employees at below market rates. ELEAs who have built workforce housing report significant
043significantly improve staff retention. All developments have waiting lists and they help eleas recruit new staff. Today, over 15% of California districts and county offices are exploring housing as a new powerful solution. I'd like to invite up Sheila if I could because we've had quite a few conversations about this specifically for the employees that she represents and I just want you to hear whether this is needed or not. Surprise for Sheila. >> I'm like, huh? Okay, where's my script? Um, so I I'm really standing by this. I have met with Mr. Scanlin. I and I'm disheartened, you know, because I I see those anonymous things on the Facebook, but I just want to say that um this would mean so much to our workers to be able to work in the town they live. I know
044two employees who travel. One comes from Lakeport, one comes from Yukaya. And you know, our wages aren't they're not that that great and they struggle, but it's important for them to be here. they love Windsor and uh this would really make a difference for them and it just it's going to happen and it needs to happen and we don't need this push back and um from anyone in this community. Let's be a community. Let's build each other up and let's just move forward and and do this. >> Thank you. I just felt it necessary because we we have all seen these things and we have never really addressed them in this room and I thought it was time to at least state this is important to us and I also wanted to you know explain
045that who is involved in this negoti negotiation is not Mr. Carnation, it's Miss Ahmad and I. Okay, that's my board report, guys. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next is board of trustees report. Um, and I want to acknowledge that we have um our town manager in the audience tonight. He's here for a later item, John Davis, and we also have Sheriff Pichanini. So, I want to thank you both for being here. Hello. Um, board report. Next item 3.9. Does anyone have a report? >> I have a real a real quick one. I was uh playing pickle ball the other day and who who comes up? It's Xerxes Whitney and he's having a his uh PE class out there and he's a pretty cool humble guy, right? So, he just happened to mention that
046there was a little article written about him in this publication, and I just want to shout him out. It's in the the Windsor Connection. And in particular, I just want to read one little little section of of what it says. He he's a he's a great guy. For nearly a quarter century, Xerxes Whitney has taught physical education in Windsor, modeling a paradox that has become his life's message. strengths with soft softness, grit with grace. He was born with cereble palsy, a reality he names plainly and lives openly. Rather than hiding it, he's made it his body, its limits, its hard one victories, part of the lesson plan. Being unique isn't easy, he once said, but it's where your power lives. And I I just think those words are so powerful. He's he's run what is
047it six marathons a 50k and written poetry published poetry books he's an amazing individual and I just I just wanted to shout him out >> given a TED talk as well >> and that's right he's given a TED talk so that that's it that's my >> um I have a report so I just have a couple of items and um I'm going to just mention um that the first one is about safety just because I do see our town manager here and then also our um chief of police here. And um I just want to say that I'm very concerned because we have many children, young children that ride their bike to get to school in the morning and then also ride at home. And there's been at least two instances where I'm trying to
048make a right uh you know going towards the shopping center and I just see cars do not look uh to see if there's kids in that bike lane. And uh there was one time when I was driving with my daughter and a huge uh truck kept honking at me trying to force me to make that right even though I was respecting the bike lane and this uh small child comes up and the truck nearly hits him because he was driving very aggressively and just didn't look and I kept honking my horn at him so that he would stop and didn't not stop at all. So, just it was very a very scary situation, but this has happened at least on two occasions. And then also, uh, you know, two of my um daughter's former classmates
049have been hit while, you know, trying to get to school on their bike. And I just feel very concerned because I feel like this is an issue that has been bubbling, you know, up uh over the last year that I can think of. And I feel that as school board members that we should work, you know, much more closely with our town leadership in order to do something about bicycle safety and making sure that our kids feel empowered and safe when they're on their way to school. Uh and then also on the way home. I think that this is very very important. Um so just wanted to mention that. Um the second item that I have is that uh this is a a sensitive issue that I have been giving a lot of thought to
050and but also feel that in our town in general but most especially on the school board and in our school district that we also need to have more regular conversations about respecting cultural diversity. Um I feel that this is not a topic that is visited enough. Um, it's also very important because I had a group of teachers email me to say that they feel um uh I'm I'm trying to sum up their their email in a quick way, but they feel that for example the recent Diados Muertos event was not given the adequate um respect that it deserves and also that it wasn't given the proper promotion that it deserves. So I, for example, as a school board member did not know uh when that event happened until uh after the date that it happened
051and they said, "Oh, you know, why didn't you come?" And I said, "Oh, I didn't know about it. I'm sorry." Uh so I just feel that we need to have more conversations um like that about respecting people's, you know, different um cultural diversity so that people feel welcome. I also want to say that I don't know how many times, you know, when meeting people for the first time uh in our town, you know, my name is Malin Ali. They'll say, "Oh, I never heard of that name." Or, "How do you say that?" Or or why can't it be like Mary and it's like, "No, you don't say that." Right? When you're meeting someone, you honor their name. You try you make an attempt to pronounce it. You know, you don't question them about their name,
052right? So there's these subtle where this is leading to is that I feel like there's these subtle microaggressions that happen a lot which is why I feel we need to discuss more cultural diversity and how to be respectful towards people uh in general. Um so that that pretty much um sums up my report. I will be speaking later in connection to John Richard's uh comment about um diversifying our readings at the Windsor High School. he spoke earlier, but I'll address this later, you know, when our book adoption item comes up. Thank you. >> I just want to remind everybody, in case you didn't catch it, we're basically jamming two months worth of meetings into one night. And selfishly, I am driving to Fresno to coach tomorrow as soon as this meeting is over at hopefully
053before midnight. So, with the exception of maybe one or two issues tonight, I will not be so lequacious. And as Christine can attest, I was accused of being succinct last week and I'm going to try and do that tonight as well. So, uh, anyhow, just in case you guys wonder why we were doing so many things, uh, last month's meeting had to get postponed for for a variety of reasons. So, anyhow, that's it. >> Yeah. Um just very quickly uh Trustee Ahmad, myself and our two student board members as was mentioned uh two weeks ago spent three days in Sacramento at a California school boards association conference which are stupendously useful in in my view having been to a number of them 60 or 70% of it is the amazing ideas that come out and
054we go to seminars there's breakout sections and keynotes and we went to things on as Miss Whitley Whiting mentioned with the the play expand anding career technical education platforms and programs. Talking about artificial intelligence, which just mostly frightened me to the extent that it informed me and how much we're trying to catch up, talking about workforce housing and uh good governance and things of that nature, as well as finances. Um the other 25% is us getting a perspective because we don't really see other than what we might see in the press democrat about nearby districts that are having some financial difficulties. um we we don't get a sense except when I go to something like that to recognize how well we do here. We just do it because we we have kind of a culture
055and do our best and we can always have areas to improve. And I particularly wanted to to la our two student board members who were uh had their own seminar that they went to for a day uh were on panels came back with energy and enthusiasm and and again thank you for my colleagues for going to that. It's a large investment of time but certainly recharges and reminds me uh for some of the important longer range reasons why I think many of us uh that take the time and effort to sit up on this dis. So thanks very much. >> I don't have much of a report this month. I just want to say hello to everyone in the audience. Thank you for coming to our meeting. We have quite a big audience tonight and
056we always appreciate it when people come to participate and watch. Um, part of the reason is that I'm board president and what you don't see is all these stacks of papers and agenda items that I'm responsible for coordinating as we're meeting. So, I just don't have much to report. I think it was covered by my colleagues. Um, and I will certainly appine on upcoming items. So, our next item is 3.10 staff association reports. I believe I I'm not sure if we have them this month >> because we got we had a public comment before close session which covered one of them and >> go ahead. >> I'll make >> So, we'll have our >> classified report. Welcome Sheila. Hi. Hi. Good evening board and district. I'm Sheila Wulmarmac, president of Chapter 673 Windsor. I'm here
057tonight to just share what we're up to. I did create these slides back in October, so some of them are a little outdated. Um, and I'll move quickly through them. So, what is the CSEA up to? Well, we had nominations uh for a president, secretary, and a communications officer. Um, I ran unopposed. I was nominated. Um, and so I just assumed the position. So, I'm going to keep going uh with CSEA as president. I've been really enjoying um being a voice for our people and leading the way and learning so much as I'm going. Uh we have our secretary Barbara Morgan and she will continue on. She ran unopposed as well. No one wanted to be a communications officer. I'm doing my best to communicate with my members. I mean luckily I love communicating so
058it works. Um so we did uh that all went through last night at our meeting. Uh we have a PAR educator conference coming up in March. Um, we were at this point of just being like funding help would be needed and I did reach out to our district. We we have an amazing district. I I'm becoming like mother bear about my district, I got to say. So, but you know, we were just asking if they could help pay maybe the registration fee on the early bird discount and they did more than that. They said they'd fund a person and CSEA is going to fund a person. So we know we can send two people to the PAR educator conference in March and we're very excited about it because it is a very good training that
059CSEA gives and we want our lead stipended folks to come back and to go and to come back and then to teach and train um the rest of our groups our par educators and instructional assistants as well. Uh so yeah that was exciting. Thank you. Thank you district for that. Um, so, uh, CSEA, this one I I should have a big fat veto on this because it was vetoed unfortunately by Governor Nuome. And not that he disagrees. Um, but CSEA works, we work with elected representatives to secure legislation that approves conditions, as many of you probably already know, for classified employees, and we fight off bills and ballot initiatives that would harm our members and our schools. So there was an AB374 which ensured that public school classified employees receive payubs containing critical and clear
060information regarding their wages, their rate of pay and deductions. So this bill would have ensured that our members are being paid, you know, correctly and providing them with accurate and complete payub information. Uh if you worked in a corporate world, you have very detailed um payubs. Um, ours are can be vague and I know some of our members drive our payroll people crazy uh with the many questions and hopefully it it was vetoed because um by Governor Nome, not because he disagrees. In fact, it was a unanimous vote on both sides that this just moves through, but it was vetoed because of the cost uh that it would be to update software systems throughout California to to do this. Uh so we'll come back. We'll be back at the table. CSE will be there. Um
061oh, and that that's CSEA conference. So, I'm just going to say, well, I'll just say one more little thing about it. Well, no, cuz I've already updated you. So, we are that the district's funding us. It's great. We are union proud and we're very excited to be going to this PAR educators conference. I'm going to move on. Um, the other thing CSE is doing is California and seven states are suing US Department of Education over 600 million in cut grants for teacher shortages allegedly due to eliminating diversity initiatives. So, you were speaking about diversity. A temporary halt to cuts was overturned by the Supreme Court and the case continues. CSEA does monitor. We advocate for restoring funds and we champion fair education policy for all school employees. We support legislative bills like AB49 regarding immigration
062enforcement from entering a school site without providing a valid judicial warrant and receiving permission from the superintendent safeguarding undocumented students. And this was signed into law. SB98 requires LEA to alert students, parents, faculty, staff, and other school community members of the presence of immigration on the school site. This protects all of us. That was signed into law. So, we do a lot. CSEA does a lot. There's a lot that goes on behind the curtain and um I'm all about it. Political action is not my favorite thing in CSEA, but it is very important to keep us rolling. So, I do what I have to do. Um if I've got to go rally, I'll be there. Um and I'm looking forward to doing more of that in my internship when I take off in January. Um
063one of the things that we are doing right now CSA here um in Windsor is we are doing random moment stud moments in time study. These are with par educators. Um what is random moment time study? So it's helping schools. So I'm just going to read it fast. By participating in RMTS schools help their state statistically estimate the time staff spend on Medicaid eligible health services. The state then uses its data to claim federal Medicaid reimbursement. And so a portion of the federal funds is then returned to the schools and districts to help cover the cost of these services essentially allowing them to recover money for health support already provided to the students. So PAR educators are now completing these random moments in time. They were very u hesitant to jump in on this thinking
064what is this you know this new thing all new things are sometimes scary but uh we had our medical medicaid medical yeah um classified employee come out and show what they needed to do which really took less than 5 minutes on a commu computer to just state their document of their prompting time with their student if they were feeding helping with mobility their p personal care academic support and this is just collecting money back that goes back to our district And so once they found out it was nothing, we're moving forward and we are helping to collect that money for our district. Um so yeah, I'm very proud of CSEA member. I really we are indispensable. Um we are the backbone of schools. I'm going to say it all the time. Um so every action
065that we're taking, it's, you know, whether it's advocating for our payubs or summer assistance, um maximizing federal funding through programs like the RMTS, uh directly supports the vital work we do. and we want to work with our district. We want to do these things so that we can be stronger together. So, thank you district for working with us and um go team. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sheila. Next item is 3.11, which is approval of our minutes from our October 16th, 2025 meeting. Do we have any discussion on that item or do we have a motion? I'll >> make a motion that we approve the minutes. Second. >> Yeah. >> And then I'll do preferential student board member vote first. >> Yes. >> Other board members? >> Yes. >> Great. Um, okay. Moving to item
0663.12, we have staff recognitions. Pete Sullivan, take it away. >> Good evening, board. Um, so one of the advantages of having missed the board meeting last month is that rather than hear me celebrate our staff, we get to hear from one of our amazing administrators to come celebrate her staff members. So, Angela West, would you please come on up? >> Happy holidays, you guys. It's really nice to see you. And and Rich, like your Christmas before Christmas is celebrating the wrestlers. My Christmas before Christmas is celebrating Windsor Middle School and all that we have. Um, so I am going to highlight three people. I know we were doing two, but I'm going rogue since you gave me the microphone. And um, first off, I'd like to celebrate one of our our classified person um, this
067month, Crystal Pard, actually of the year this stuff. Come on up, Christa. In middle school, we do signs. It makes it fun. Here she is. Come on. I know you really wanted to come up here. This is f This is fun for all. Get up here. You Christa Pard is one of those rare people who makes everything and everyone around her better. She's always cheerful, always helpful, and always willing to jump in whenever she's needed. True team player. She supports our staff and students at Windsor Middle School in every way she can. I just want to say that she does it all with a smile and a sense of humor. Um, so she's a PAR educator in our sixth grade ELA and social science classes where she's patient, caring, and deeply committed to making sure
068students have what they succeed, they need to succeed. Um, after school, she's brave enough to be our crossing guard. >> Yeah. um she's patient um with all those kids running around and she's also supervises our sixth grade lunch whi which takes um a lot of patience and she does that with the same warmth and dedication. She's all around super cool, hardworking, kind and full of heart and Windsor Middle School is a better place because she's part of it. We're really happy to celebrate you tonight. Thank you. >> You want to say anything? You want to say anything? >> No, I'm good. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. >> Okay. So, for our teach our staff voted our classified person and this is for us. I was like, who do you guys want to
069celebrate? They uh nominated and voted for Christa. And then for our teachers, Christine Clemen, come on up. >> Hi, Miss Clemen. Um so, Christine is an exceptional math teacher who gives all of her students um all she can every single day. She's really, really truly student centered, dedicated, and deeply committed to help every learner succeed. Um, the thing that stands out to me the most, she's there for kids all the time. Before school, she gives up her lunches. After school, she's there to support the family, her students and families. Um, I watch her retach lessons. She checks in with students who need the extra help, and she welcomes anyone who walks through her door, even if they're not in her class. Um, she leads not only in her classroom but across our entire campus. She's
070our math department chair. She also serves on our PLT, our CAPS team, and she serves on the leadership team. And I'd have to say you're kind of one of the unofficial IM staff captains. She's always leading the charge when we take on the students in any sport. Um, she's a strong advocate for both of our students and our staff and she's always speaking up for what's best at Windsor Middle School. Um, she's not only talented and hardworking, but she's also kind and funny and down to earth. All these qualities that make her respected and loved by both the students and the staff. Um, she represents the very best of Windsor Middle School and we're lucky to have her and I'm proud to honor her tonight. Okay, so this is where I went rogue and I
071know it's a really late meeting, so I'm going to make it fast, but since I had the mic, I also wanted to take uh the just a quick moment to recognize one of our rockstar parent volunteers, Amanda Dunar. Come on, as she's walking up. If you don't know, Amanda and her husband have four students in our district and we're lucky enough to have Capella Cabela and Eastston with us at Windsor Middle School. DB, you get Cabela. She's wave Cabela. She's coming to you next year. >> Um, so Amanda was one of the founders of our boosters club at Windsor Middle School because we didn't have a PTA. We didn't have a booster a booster club and she from the ground up she was there and now she continues to lead as our boosters president. She
072pours so much time and energy into making our school a special place. I just wanted you to know how much that we all appreciate you and all the ways you make our school great. So, thank you. >> Thank you. If you know, we're big fans of of all three of you. If you could come up and take a picture with us, we would really appreciate it. >> And and any any students who maybe came and they want to be in the picture, >> come on up. One's holding the sign. >> Yeah, we love these guys. >> Bring the sign. >> Do you want to be in a picture? >> Angela. >> Oh, I have to go. >> Come in the middle. >> Here we go. You don't have those NCAA Division ring champions. >> I
073know. >> Oh, yes. >> I know. Where our ring? Sorry. >> All right, we got one, two, three. Stephanie, just real quick, Angela, I just want to publicly tell you that in all the years I've been around Windsor, I've never seen somebody be so popular that the kids want to look like you. >> And I saw a video of Addison Yeah. >> And she is your doppel. >> I know. It's funny. It's scary but funny at the same time. >> It was because >> not creepy. >> Yeah. >> I can just imagine if she does what you've done in her life. Oh my golly. It's going to be crazy. So when I saw that video, I was like, >> that's funny. >> It was She could be your kid. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And And
074the And the hair the hair was your hair. >> I know. >> It It was amazing. But you should be flattered because they say imitation is the highest form. And congratulations. You've done an amazing job at the middle school. The the spirit over there is just is off the charts. Thank you. >> Thanks, Rich. Appreciate you. >> We're moving to item four, which is school board reorganization. >> Okay. Um, they're having a little side conversation. Um um and I just wanted to say before we get started on this that what we typically do and what we've done in the past is we have kind of a rotation that we go through where we each spend a year in the role of president. Typically, it's kind of based on when we were elected and in what
075order we were elected, like number of votes is kind of how we figure it out. And then it kind of cycles through so that everybody gets the opportunity to be a leader. And I think almost everyone here has um and I getting to item 4.1, I am honored to nominate Paul Kagorno for vice president. Are there any other nominations or any seconds of that? All in favor? >> I sorry students, you can vote too. >> Yeah. >> I I I >> sometimes I forget to do their vote first. I apologize. Um and then item 4.2 is the election of president. Do we have a nomination? >> I'll make a nomination. Um, so I just want to say uh, you know, going along with what um, uh, what Trusty Ahmad was saying, you know, that we
076tend to rotate, right? Uh, but I do want to say that it's my honor to nominate Rich Carnation. And I just want to say that I don't know anyone that has a bigger heart than Rich Carnation. U, he's a wonderful person. And one thing I do want to say about him is that there's a lot of work that he does on the side that he does not tell anybody about, but I get to witness it, you know, being his colleague here on the school board. And it has been my knowledge to know that he's helped so many students who are low-income students who uh I don't want to get emotional but who really school is their only opportunity in order to improve their social mobility and had rich you know not stepped in to support
077them I don't know what would have happened like they could have easily not gone to college which changed the whole trajectory of their lives but Rich really has stepped in with you know scholarships and u being a mentor for, you know, talking to families who, from my knowledge, you know, don't even um speak uh English as their first language, right? He's really doing all of this work on the sidelines that are not part of his role, you know, as a school board member. So, it's such an honor, Rich, you know, to be here sitting with you and also just to nominate you and um you're such an inspiration to me. So, I just wanted to say that. >> Well, I'll second that. >> Preferential student board member vote. I I Hi everyone else. Hi. >>
078Hi. >> Okay, I'm done. Gonna Oh, is this Oh, I have a gift. >> You're not done yet. >> Oh, okay. Am I supposed to open now? >> She's not done. >> Well, done with being president. Am I opening this? >> I believe. >> Okay. Let's see what's in here. It's been an honor serving as president for the second time. Second term. Um, this is an amazing district. I think that's becoming more and more clear publicly, kind of public perception of our district. We have an amazing board and it's just such an honor to serve with each of you. I actually could start crying. So, I'm going to stop talking and open my present. Um, and the fact that I got to have gotten to be your leader twice is just such an honor. And
079let's let's unbox this together. And it's a lovely plaque. Thank you. It says in recognition and gratitude to Stephanie Ahmad for her dedication and leadership to the students of the Windsor Unified School District. Thank you so much. >> Thank you everybody. Uh yeah, this is my second time. It's it's it's always nice to follow Stephanie. Um she sets the bar so high that the what is it the limbo or whatever it is. >> I don't even have to I just get to walk right under. It's just it's it's it's pretty cool. So the um but anyhow Mal, thank you. That was very very that was very nice. >> Well, you deserve it. They um they a a lot of for those of you at home who are listening and those of you who are here
080um you guys have no idea uh and you c and you couldn't how much extra work that is not in the job description uh people do uh for our kids and in our district. um countless hours and and and but yet at the same time wouldn't have it any other way. Um we speaking for all of us up here, we are all huge beneficiaries of all those who have come before us. uh parents, teachers, mentors who uh and countless people that we didn't even know were fighting fights for us and paving the way for us to have the opportunities that we have. And so us on the board, we we do the same thing. We're here um doing the best that we can to make sure that our kids have the best opportunities they can
081have so that way they can reach their potential. And and a lot of I don't want to say a lot, most of the things that everybody does, not just us, the elected folks, but the unelected folks do um for for kids. It it's it's really the testament of why our society the good things that happen in our society um are there is because of all the sacrifices that all of us make in our own little ways to make life better um for the people that are following us and then we take all the goodness that we've received along the way. We try to magnify that, amplify that and and provide that for more. So anyhow that that's that's the thing that we try to do. Uh I know that's what what I try to do.
082Uh, I always every time I do anything, it's always the first thing is what's best for the kids and then everything else is kind of secondary to that. So, anyhow, I I appreciate the vote of confidence. Um, I appreciate following Stephanie and everything. Um, the uh anyhow, it's it's it's been awesome. So, anyhow, we're going to keep on going. Again, I want to try and get to Fresno before the sun comes up. Um 4.3 uh we have our meeting minutes. Um is there any questions or any uh thing that we need to amend on that? Anybody? I didn't think so. >> No. >> So can I have a motion to uh approve the tenative u dates for 2026? >> Yes. Oh, >> I just wanted to say I had to move um May to June's
083both meetings and August's meetings. I moved them to Monday. >> So, we have March is on the needs to get moved, doesn't it? >> To before the 15th. So, how about if we a we accept this and then at our next board meeting we make an amendment. Are we just do it right now? All right. Anybody know what the date is? >> It's March 12th is the second Thursday. >> March 12th. So, it's not going to be March Are we going to have two that month, Jeremy? Just one? >> Just one. >> So, we're going to change it to March the 12th, Austin? >> Yes, sir. >> March 12th. All right. So, March 12th. >> Yeah. And I'll just say I know this came up last year and we decided we had to have everything
084finalized night of. So, got it. >> I don't know if we need to. >> Okay. And then also this up here, it's actually it's 20 26. But anyway, um May and both of the June meeting and the August meeting got moved to a Mon Monday so we could have the meeting. >> May 19th is a Tuesday. >> So, do you need to make that the 18th end? >> Must be the 18th. >> Okay. That must be just a typo. >> Okay, we'll switch. >> I checked it all out with the town of Win that they can do. Nobody liked doing it at the minute school last year, so figured it was best to have it here on a different day. And that's to avoid the town the music on the town. >> Mhm. Very good.
085Um, okay. So, with those amendments, can I have a motion to >> Yes. >> I'll I'll make the motion to accept this item. >> Thank you. Second. I'll second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I I All righty. Uh, this pass with the correction. Jen, can you um send us out a new updated one? Perfect. Thank you. All righty. So, let's see. So, now we've got that um 4.4. Oh, the board subcommittee uh and facilities. That's on the page right behind us, guys. Um, we have everybody got the paper. So, we've got a variety of different assignments for this next year coming up. Um, the um is there anything in particular that anybody sees if if uh the board doesn't mind? Um, I'm kind of right in the middle of something with the county
086committee and school districts. So, I'd like to hang on to that if that's not a big issue. Um, and same. I'm right now working with the town and that and so I'd like to continue that process for right now. Or do you want to just go down through each one in order? >> All right. So, so we just did president, vice president. Congratulations, Paul, by the way. I'm excited to get some more of your your input. Uh, secretary Jeremy, you're default, right? All righty. policy subcommittee uh has been uh Stephanie and Bill. You guys, anybody else want to be on that? You guys want to continue in that process? >> I think we'll stay. >> We'll stay. Okay. >> And just to say I'm good keeping my assignments as is unless we want to change
087>> as am I. >> Okay. Um yeah, I'm same. >> We could use another year. >> Yep. So, uh facilities subcommittee. Uh right now it's myself and Paul. Anybody still good? Is that all good? >> All right. Same. Uh, student board members, you guys want to stick around? >> Yes, please. >> Okay, there we go. We got that. The um the the boosters, Bill, you've been you've been doing uh booster stay. >> Happy to stay with all the assignments I have. >> Okay. So, uh unless somebody else wants to jump in there. Bill, uh town council Stephanie and Rich still good. All right. same uh the Windsor Education Foundation is Paul Paul. All right. Windsor Arts Now, Malanelli, would >> you like keep Okay, >> let's go. Same. >> School site liaison. Uh Brooks and
088Stephanie. >> I'd like to I'd like to do Brooks. >> Okay. So, we'll go with Paul. Um >> I can switch with you and do Maddie. Okay. So, you and then Stephanie. Okay. Mali, you're at Cali. Would you like to stay there or Okay. So, Mal, same. Uh, Windsor Middle School is Paul. >> Stay. All right. Same. Windsor High and Windsor Oaks. Bill. >> Same. >> Yeah. I'll stay on all my assignments. >> Got it. Okay. Same. >> And um I think we're going to we'll come back to big picture and what have you, but I'm happy to stay there as well. Uh Paul LCAP. Sure. >> Okay. And Malanelli uh D >> to stay >> and also uh the county committee on school is I'm going to stay the same north of Arata is
089>> no I would move that we vote I think it's important to vote that we disband that north of Arata ad hoc. I think we >> did >> it's accomplished >> when we reach the settlement but I think let's maybe when we conclude this assignments we take that vote real quick. So, do we vote? Is that what >> Yeah, we do. Okay. Dissolve. >> Got it. >> Okay. So, we're dissolve. >> Okay. Windsor Creek ad hoc is Stephanie and Bill. That should stay the same. >> Okay. And then the Indian Education Committee liaison is Paul and Stephanie. >> I'd like to try that one for the first time because I've never had the opportunity to do that one. >> Okay. >> Sure. >> Who >> you h have you take my spot if you want
090to stay? >> Okay. Well, it's Yeah, it's to you. >> No, no. Okay, go for it. >> Coming in there. >> Okay, so it would be Paul and Malinelli. >> Yep. >> Okay. And >> would you accept the motion, Mr. President? >> Okay. Um, so >> I'm sorry. >> Would you accept the motion? >> Yes. Yes. So, >> so J, do we have all those? >> Cool. I move as uh revised and noted in whatever it is that Miss Cox wrote down um that we u move to approve those uh subcommittees in the selection of board representatives um for 44 and 45. >> Okay, >> I'll second. >> All righty. Any discussion? Any public discussion on this issue? All right. Student trustees, any issue? >> Nope. >> All righty. Um, can we get a vote?
091>> Yes. >> All right, trustees. >> Yes. >> All righty. Very good. All righty. >> As a closing, I would make a mo motion to finish that one item that we disband the North Oata ad hoc committee and that that matter settled earlier this year. >> Okay. I second that recommendation. Any discussion? Public comment. All right. Bring it back. All those in favor? >> I I >> Any oppose? >> All righty. Motion passes. So that will be disbanded. Um all righty. And then so right before we move to our next item, we're going to take a one minute stand and stretch because we got a lot of uh >> feel free hands in the air, stretch, potty, drink, whatever. >> Oh, TV. >> Okay, so it's going to be probably three minute breaks. >> Yeah,
092>> three minute break. >> I'm a little congratulations. >> Yeah. Oh, very nice of you again. >> That was a really nice speech. >> You said it exactly the way I wrote it, too. I mean, you didn't even stop. No, I'm just kidding. We just did that selection of board representatives. We did all right. Yeah, we did all that. >> 4 4.5 we just did, right? >> Yep. That was part of it. Okay. So now any >> I'm going to do the consent because you're probably not ready to do it. >> Let me do it. >> Oh, you ready to do it? >> Let me try. Okay. >> It's just it's just I ask I ask >> you make a motion. >> Well, first I ask is anybody want any item? >> Not yet. So
093you get a motion first, a second, then you say, is there anything? Uh >> okay. >> I'm sorry. No, no, you're right. You ask, does anybody need to recuse themselves? Does is there any issue that needs to get pulled out? >> I'm sorry. Yeah, that's the key word. >> Then you go, okay, so I'll make a motion. If there's none, I'll make a motion that we group 5.1 >> through 5.15, I think. >> 5.16. >> You got it. >> All right, everybody. Thank you for that three little minute stretch. Um so we're going to bring it back now and we are going to um start with uh section five consent items and trustee Kagono is bravely going to take his first attempt at the consent calendar. >> So let's cut him. Yeah, it's like huge.
094So let's Okay, so we have >> Turn on your mic. >> We have consent items 5.1 through 5. Yeah. Oh, I'm on. No. Why? Yeah. Well, we're good. Uh 5.1 through 5.16. Does do any of the uh is there any discussion on any of those items or we need to pull any of those items? Seeing none, I will make a motion that we approve consent items 5.1 through 5.16. I'll >> second. >> Go ahead, Kelly. I'm sorry. It's okay. >> Okay. Uh we have a a motion and we have a second by Malini. Uh any any further discussion? Nope. >> Any discussion from the audience? >> All right, bring it back. Uh student trustees. >> Yes. >> All righty. Trustees. >> Yes. Yes. All right. It passes. >> Good job, Paul. >> Oh, yay. >>
09516. All righty. Now, all the consent items are done. So, now we're going to move into Hold on a second here. Discussion action. We got to scroll down all these consent items. >> We're going to go with 6.1 and we are going to bring in it's the solid waste competitive bidding process. This settlement will be presented by John Davis, our town manager, and Christina Owens, the governmental operations manager. Um, just FYI, John, our town manager, his uh son wrestled for me and uh was outstanding. And so I just, you know, just wanted to give John some prop. >> Okay. >> Uh, thank you, President Carnation, Vice Chair >> Korno. >> Kagorno and trustees. Uh, yeah, John Davis, town manager. Um, one thing that, uh, Rich taught my son was to not talk trash, but we're
096going to talk a little trash tonight. Yeah. >> Um really this is uh Christina Owens who's our government operation manager uh baby. Uh Christina has a long history working uh in this arena. She took the town through the process 10 years ago of uh solidifying a contract with a solid waste hauler. And so I'm going to turn over her to talk a little bit about the process we're going through now to set up a RFP uh to gain a new hauler in 2027. Okay. Uh, we have no PowerPoint. >> Okay. So, do I just pause? >> Well, I have my PowerPoint here. But um okay. So I am Christina. The town currently has a total of five solid waste franchise agreements, but tonight we're solely going to focus on our exclusive agreement. So for the
097agenda, we'll go over the franchise agreement, our contractual agreements, and our regulatory compliance. Uh the development of an RFP, the formation of our RFP committee, as well as our community outreach and input that we received, a cost breakdown, as well as the challenges and timeline that we will have in before us. So the town, as I mentioned, has five franchise agreements, but we have one exclusive franchise agreement that services our residential, commercial, and multifamily properties. This contract also provides services to the town of Windsor, the school district, school sites, the maintenance and the um district office, sorry. uh as well as the two fire stations here. Sonoma County Resource Recovery was awarded this contract um for 10 years. It will be expiring as of September 30th of 2027. This contract cannot be extended due to
098town code. So to go over a franchise agreement, what is super important is to realize there is a foundation to a franchise agreement and an understanding with any uh service hauler. These are three major agreements that include fees that are imposed to the hauler that has to be baked into a rate. So the first is a master operating agreement between the county of Sonoma and Republic Services that manages and operates the landfill and the transfer stations. Part of this agreement, the county collects concession fees that goes into a special fund to maintain the landfill and the transfer stations. So that's fee number one that a hauler needs to recognize. The next one is a waste delivery agreement between Republic Services and the town of Windsor and the selected hauler. This basically means that we will
099commit all of our waste to the landfill and the transfer stations and we will approve and agree to the fees that the board of supervisors agrees upon. So that's fee number two baked into a rate. The next is a joint powers agreement between Zerow Waste Sonoma, which is a county entity, and the town of Windsor that says you they will take all of our organic waste, the green carts, the green bins, your kitchen pales, and they will then transload that out of county because we do not have a compost facility. So, this as well has a fee associated with this agreement, and that is approved by the board of directors for the zerowaste son. So with that as well uh the foundation to a franchise agreement is a regulatory compliance. All of us are very
100aware of recycling and trying to divert material from the landfill. The first three assembly bills there are on the onus of a hauler to ensure that they provide the services to our our community. And what happens now is Senate Bill 1383 was a new bill that came forward that is mandatory organics diversion that shifted the pendulum over to the jurisdictions, special districts as well as school districts that we will enforce mandatory organic diversion. I put information on this slide so that the school district understands that this Senate bill has a requirement for the school district to ensure that um mandatory recycling is occurring on school campuses, organic recycling programs are in place and any other uh education components are also included. What's important to realize is that the Senate bill also allows the school district
101to subscribe to the town's uh hauler contract. You can contract with any hauler should you want to or you can do yourself hauling. All right. So, we're in the depth of our development of our RFP. Uh President Carnation is part of my committee. We've gone over the different two components for requiring of an RFP and then from there we're going to start developing and what this RFP will look like and what the franchise uh agreement will look like moving forward from what trucks, carts and bins will look like, what types do we want to have a a hauler here in Windsor? Are they okay being outside of the district or the the boundaries? Um and then from there we have special services that they can provide. So uh to assist the town of Windsor what
102we did is we formed a committee. We have two council members that were appointed by town council and then we have five uh community committee members as well as step staff evaluation and all of us are working very hard to make sure that we get this RFP drafted to meet the needs of our community. And what we did do is we did community outreach and wanted to gather insight and input from our community members of what was working and what wasn't working. And I'll tell you right now, the split cart recycling cart is not working. People don't like it. So we recognize that is a need to change. But overall out of all the survey results that we received, 312, which is great. Uh everyone was pretty satisfied with what that contract looked like and
103what the services that were being provided. we were not focused on the actual hauler but the services that were being provided. So to kind of help understand what a rate looks like because everyone is concerned with budgets, this is a graph showing you based off of a 32gallon cart that residents have to show that the different components and uh regulatory requirements of what those will look like in our rate. So the first part of this graph shows that the disposal cost which I had mentioned through the MOA and the WDA is 23% of any rate that a proposer will probably submit to us. From there 18% is going to be the zerowaste son's fee for organics. Recycling comes at a cost to process the building the staff the sorting all of that will come at
104a cost of about 9%. From there, contracting cost and compliance is roughly 11% and that is part of the compliance for the town of Windsor. Base collection costs are about 29% and that is just to operate in the town of Windsor have the trucks staff every day come through street sweeping and what have you. And the one component that the town has true under uh ways of manipulating or modifying a rate is through the elective programs. And those elective programs can be street sweeping, used batteries, used oil and what have you. That that is an area that we can flex and move around. So basically everything under the pink is all compliance and a basis of a rate that a hauler will have to abide by. So, one of the challenges we have for an
105RFP, as I mentioned, is budget. And so, costs were one of the main concerns our community members brought forward to us. We realized though through our contractual obligations, we can't modify those fees that are collected when a truck drives through the the gates at the landfill or the transfer stations. We do see that we have some little bit of a modification on our elective services, but it's only 10% of an overall rate. Uh, but what challenge that we've see and heard from our community members is the subsidized rates for the town of Windsor, the Windsor Unified School District, as well as the fire district. What we wanted to bring forward is that when we subsidize rates, it does trigger the uh Proposition 218. with that. If we have any protest votes and that's upheld, meaning
106we did not get enough protest votes, uh the town is still exposed to legal challenge and the shift of the burden of proof to anyone that brought forward a lawsuit to the town trying to um basically quantify why it's okay to subsidize rates. It will be very difficult. So, one of the options we may have is to modify elective services or eliminate town services to maintain or reduce cost while addressing transparency priority with the town council. The last is a franchise fee currently in our franchise agreement is that we collect 10% of their gross receipts. There was a Supreme Court ruling with Zalian uh city of Oakland that you the collection of franchise fees has to cover the actual expense of providing solid waste management. So with that while we did an internal audit, we
107met that criteria. We're about 30,000 less than our in collecting of our franchise to our actual expenses. we are going to recommend or the option is to eliminate the percentage fee portion and move to a fixed amount with the potential escalator and this both of these options must go before town council. So with that the timeline for our RFP uh we've been uh moving through this process we are at the final stages of drafting up the RFP. Uh, President Carnation will be getting that draft RFP here shortly with the franchise agreement here in January. And then my hope is I will be going before council in February. And then uh releasing that RFP and then during the time frame of April through July is when we will be receiving submittals of proposals. We'll be doing
108interviews and site visits and then hopefully awarding in early July uh the new contract allowing any hauler that's going to be coming forward ample time to uh source uh trucks, carts, what have you uh before they have to commence services in 2027. So once we award the franchise, we reset the franchise again. town code dictates it's only a 10ear with no extension and then this new contract will go until September 30th 2037 and that concludes my presentation. Any questions? >> I more of a comment first. Um, so a lot of you in our town don't know, but Christine has the patience of Job and she's as sharp as they come. This I'm I'm pretty smart, too. And I had a million questions and she had all the answers. I didn't lack a lot of them,
109but they weren't the answers she it was just the way things are. For example, we're starting off all of our waste has to go down to Meechum and there's a certain fee that we have to pay and that's baked in bread for another what 20ome years or something. >> 25 years. >> Yeah. Another 25 years before that can even get adjusted. So when we're looking at our our costs, we're already paying twice as much at least money to just per ton to just deposit our material down there and meet them as they are in Fairfield. And that's something that has been that was 20 years ago. That agreement was made not even Windsor. It was a master agreement that was made. So we started off with one hand tied behind our back to start with.
110Anyhow, as I've gone through the process and I my brain's going, well, what about this little workaround? what did that work around because he was well the state law is this the state law is that there's so many state laws that this is calculus trigonometry and some other higher form of math that I can't even do and she's got it mastered and and um and and I appreciate your patience uh when us regular people ask you these questions and you're going instead of saying once again you didn't hear it right here it is and so you'd have been a great teacher actually very very patient and very smart. So, I know that us just normal people in town, we get frustrated when we see our bill and go, "Damn, there's got to be a way
111to fix this. The town of Windsor is doing the best they can to fix it." Now, here's the good news. In one regard, the state is giving us all these things that we have to do that really just we don't have a choice. We just drive up certain costs. But the silver lining is that school districts are kind of a carve out for some reason. I'm not which is fantastic. So at this point we're going through the whole RP process we actually have if you can put the time frame back up on the thing somebody whoever. So if you look at it basically the RFP the proposals all the people that are going to bid on this is going to be that April through July time period. So when that comes in, the district, we
112can all meet and we can either be part of that or we've got time then to then go out and we can see if we can improve on all of that agreement, part of that agreement. So we could take, correct me if I'm wrong, by the way, I'm just regurgitating what I think I know. >> So we could take all of it, part of it, some of it, or we could do it in house. um and and everything in between. So, we have a lot of latitude maybe um but but we have time to look um and and see how we can do because there are certain things that the school district um has options that the town and other folks don't have. And so that that's a a really good advantage for us. and
113we have time to to see what our situation is which I think we budgeted for that uh based on uh so so I had to sign a confidentiality agreement so all the people that are in that little that committee we're not supposed to report out certain things until so that way all the RFP people that apply they're all getting the same exact information so can I say tell us what our estimate is of what our school district's kind of been spending. >> We built it in the first interim. So, and we're going to explain it. So, we're going to need to >> Yeah. So, I want to make sure though you guys didn't send, but I want to make sure I don't send. So, >> so currently based upon the services that are being provided
114to the school district based upon the existing rates, it's 680,000 per year. >> Right. So, >> excuse me, sorry, 657,000 per year. The town of Windsor is 680,000. Got >> okay. So, so 650,000 plus, right? And then every year that goes up with CPI. It's actually they have their waste has its own CPI type of an increaser. Um so it's going to go up, but um and I just lost this very important point. >> So you can potentially leverage >> Yes. Thank you. >> other contract. >> Yeah. So, we can actually take that 650 and we can actually we could go and say, "Hey, Jeremy, how much will you take our solid waste for?" "Oh, good. Austin, how much will you take our organics for?" So on so forth. We can we don't have to
115have it as one thing. We can we can break it up or we can work with the down the recycling thing. Here's the most silliest thing that you guys have to understand. The re the garbage trucks when they pick up our recycled material, they get nothing out of it. It's an expense to them. If we take recycled material and we recycle it, we can actually make money. So, you can take your own recycling stuff, take it to the redemption places, and you can get redemption for those recyclables. But when the trash hauler picks it up, now it was my assumption that they just took it and they just aggregated it all together, and that helped lower their cost. That doesn't work that way. They just have to do the work and they don't get anything
116for it. in the state of California, their little secret is they keep that money that was all in the recycling. So, there's going to be some opportunities I believe that are there for us to be able to take advantage of some things that the town and the waste haulers can't. So, there's a lot more to this over time, but >> Mhm. >> could ask you a question, Christina. I know John and I spoke about this. We've been speaking about this for a few years now and I know there was a question of whether or not it was legal to include us in the next contract and I I don't know if that question has been answered. Do we know for certain yet uh what that answer is? >> Yeah, it's the Prop 218 process, meaning
117that we would do a Prop 218 notification to the community. Uh through that process, we would have protest votes. And if we did not get enough protest votes, then that means that it would pass. But the town still is under the scrutiny to be sued because of the violence inclusion of us. >> Exactly. >> Understood. So, and that that would be a decision council hasn't made that decision fully yet. Correct. >> Correct. Correct. But that is still something that basically there's a few different hoops that have to be jumped through still before we know what our outcome is and whether this is a $700,000 or $650,000 cost or it's still included. I just wanted to make sure I was still understanding it. >> And to Rich's point, you do have the ability to seek contracts
118that have already been executed through other school districts. Uh negotiate with any hauler. Currently, I have 37 haulers. Wow. >> Uh, which is mindblowing that we had 37 haulers, but you can negotiate any contract with them because you're under the umbrella of the state. >> Understood. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Bill. >> Yeah. I in the current contract that we have, thank you, Miss Owens, for coming on this and I hope that we will see you again. >> Yes. Um, as I understand the current contract, you you you your presentation used the word subsidized. And in full full disclosure, in my day job, I work as general counsel for the Sonoma County Fire District, which was one of the three public entities that was listed. But as I understand it, as a
119resident of Windsor, I pay a garbage fee. And as part of my garbage fee, that includes the 600 plus thousand for the town of Windsor amortised for the 30ome thousand of us, the 650 for the Windsor school district. then I probably is less with only two fire stations. I don't know what that is. >> 27. >> Um is the proposal moving forward with the RFP that that changes and that citizens would not be able to lump together into their bill payment for the public sector garbage services or just that it's risky under 218 and we haven't decided yet because I think that's a very important thing for us to know. It >> it is an option before council. >> Okay. and and and this this body is one of the elected bodies as well as
120the other the third governmental entity. I imagine the Soma County Fire District may want to have input and participation with the council on that. >> Absolutely. Because the fact of the matter is is right now I pay whatever 30,000 divided by $650,000 AQ dollars or whatever where if the school was paying for that that would be $650 or $750,000 of discretionary general fund money >> which you can say probably programs and staff which is where the lion share of our spending is right now that's spread amongst the student the the population. Okay. I just I'm I'm I'm concerned and I don't necessarily agree right now with the the 218 analysis, but I think we need to have further conversation about that because that's a that's a risk benefit analysis in addition to maybe the town
121might be sued, particularly if we have a successful 218 vote and the the the opportunity of the citizens to share that cost across everyone is found to be palatable to the citizenry. Right. So I just I it seemed as if we were leaning towards that's just a given and we need to find 3/4 of a million dollars for our garbage contract and I certainly think sitting for this seat on the dis that's nowhere near a given at this point that we need to collectively talk about that. So I appreciate the distinction and >> but that's a material change that is going to affect school programs at something slowly eating up to nearly a million dollars a year. So >> absolutely understood Mr. President. >> Yeah. So, I just want to make sure that I understand
122it. So, 218 the town council votes to whether they want Could you explain just a little bit better for everybody? >> So, it's for the populace. So, the populace has to vote on that item. It would be a public hearing notice that goes forward identifying the the scope of the requirement and the request for those services. From there, the voting populace then would vote and would put in protest votes. Um, and then whatever the outcome is from there. So, it could be that we don't have enough votes. So, it's the number of people that are voting, 51% of them if they protest then it doesn't pass, meaning then that item then basically dies. So is that something that would be like in the November or like a normal election cycle type of thing or we
123just mail in all the rateayers would just mail in a vote or >> No, it's through a normal council item through public hearing. It's not through general election. >> So is it the number of people who come to the hearing and vote at the hearing? >> Yeah. Well, yes. >> Or send in votes. Correct. >> Okay. If I might, outside of the 218 process, I think the important thing to recognize is is that we've heard from the rateayers that they want the rates to remain as low as possible. The major concern from the rateayers and the residents in the community that is driving the rates that we have the ability to work with is the inclusion of ourselves, the school district, and the fire station. So regardless of whether or not a 218 opposition vote
124was to pass or fail, as expressed by Christina, there is still vulnerability to the town if the school district, ourselves, and the fire department were included. Regardless of that, we work for the residents of the community. And the thing that we have heard clearly is that we want to investigate ways to give the council options to entertain different formats that could keep those rates as low as possible. So it's a little bit of the same, but it's a little bit of different view to look at. It is that would be one of the main driving factors is how does the council make the best decision should they choose to to keep those rates as low as possible. >> Absolutely. And the rub is that nothing is free. And if that million dollars or more, million
125and a half of public sector garbage service isn't paid by the individual rateayers, it's cuts from our programs and staff. It's cuts from town >> $680,000 to the town, not so I think I think that's and I think that's part of the public education. And I'm not weighing in one way or the other, but I think it's complicated, right? There is some risk, but >> keeping my garbage rates low, I would like to know. And so what's the consequence of that? Does the parks not get mowed every other week and science X Y and Z doesn't get offered or something like that? So but thank you. This is I appreciate you coming. The last time we had done this there was not this interactive dialogue and I know we talked about this in our joint
126council uh board of directors meeting and I think this is very helpful to have this conversation publicly. >> Great. Thank you. Step one, Stephanie had a question. >> Okay. Can you remind us when Prop 218 came into existence? Like when this requirement came about? It's been a while, right? >> It's been a while and and this is the, you know, we have just recently entered into the Prop 218 analysis as it affects the solid waste arena. You know, this is something that we usually deal with in water and wastewater rates anytime there's a change or other things. I couldn't tell you uh former President Ahmad when it actually I want to say 1983 perhaps, but that would be a total gift. >> So So it's been around for a while and we've been kind of
127doing things a certain way for that for that time and now we're kind of thinking about whether we want to do things a different way. >> Yeah. >> Um I think what one way to Yes, that would be true. Um, one thing to remember is that when the original contract was entered into, there was um a different environment in the solid waste franchising fee arena and the hauler may have at that time agreed to include services which truly nothing is free as you said. So those are being subsidized by the rateayers and so it is it is a true statement but we're just looking at it in a little different lens. Okay, great. And I wanted to say one more thing, which is I I want to talk about why it why from our perspective
128it makes sense to include this in the in the bigger bill because I think it's just sounds like a lot of it is a lot of money. It you know 600 700,000 we've heard kind of a million maybe we've heard a really big numbers and so I think it you can look at that and say oh let's just how do we cut that out? But the reason why it kind of makes sense as a community to cover that together is because we are housing most of the kids in our community from age 3 to 17 18 years old almost every weekday of the year. And when they come to school, they tend to throw things away. Most of this is food waste from breakfast, lunch, snack time. So, it's just if they were home at
129their houses, they would be throwing that in their home garbage, but they're not. For half of the year, they're in our house, you know, our community's schoolhouse, and they're throwing the garbage away there. And that that's kind of the way I think about it, and it's kind of easiest for me to kind of understand like, okay, this kind of makes sense that we would all be in on this together. Um, but I know there are many factors that we have to consider, but I just wanted to put that out there of like why from the school perspective we think about it that way because we think we're just kind of all in this together and the kids they leave their houses, they come to us and then they go back home and we all make
130a lot of trash. >> And and to be clear, there's there's no categorical funding for trash services for school districts. It's just general fund money that could be used for anything. Uh that's what this would come out of. >> Yeah. Got it. Just real quick. So the way back when like 30 years ago when we first had the garbage stuff, what Stephanie just articulated was exactly the reason why the it was included with the um rateayers because the rateayers these are your kids that are are doing this. Windsor's evolved over the last 30 years to where you know we've got a you know it's we're bigger. So the percentage of families to residents isn't quite the same as it used to be. So there's a lot of just, you know, people whose kids have been
131here and they're already gone. They're out of school. So the dynamic is a little different. John, just point of clarification. So even if we do a vote and let's say the vote came back 7525 that the people that voted said, let's just keep it how it is, it still could somebody could still sue that decision. Is that right? Did I understand that correct? Uh we believe there's still vulnerability under the current arena of the waste solid waste franchising fee agreements that there could be a potential for litigation. >> Got it. And then and then lastly just for everybody I know I'm going to come out to the public but one other thing with 218 also we have commercial rates, residential rates, multi we have these different rates, right? and they used to kind of here's
132your cost. But with 218 it also those rates you can't really one rate can't subsidize another even inside of the RFP because someone could say hey wait a minute your commercial rates are 40%. A commercial person can say our actual cost should only be 30%. And so, so even so it's not even just 218 doesn't just affect the town, us and the fire folks, it even affects the different rates inside of the RFP as well. So this is really very complicated, but um does anybody else have any questions before I go to the public? >> I just have a quick question and I just want to say I'm not an expert on this subject at all. Um, but I was just curious if um does that save our school district money when we have a
133more robust recycling program in place because that saves us on landfill costs like you were mentioning the, you know, having to dispose of the garbage in the landfill. >> I took it at a really bad time. Um, >> I'm sorry. No, it just not under our current agreement. But to Rich's point, if we were to go through without extending it, we would have options to where it possibly could. >> I'm sorry, I missed that last little piece of what you said. >> We would negotiate a different agreement potentially where it did depend upon how much waste we created if negotiated with somebody directly. Right now, we don't have that in place. >> Okay. Just curious. Thank you. Yeah, I think that's a if I may through the chair or president, I I think that's an
134important point of clarification. If we ended up in a place where the different municipality, the municipality, the school board and fire weren't included in the contract, if that was the decision that was made. I do believe that the school district will have a strong position and we've talked with Jeremy and Austin's superintendent Decker um about that and there would be an ability there to leverage state contracts and piggy back on other contracts with other school districts to drive that cost down. So when we use that number of 657,000, you know, that's kind of a starting point based on the way the current structure is, but if it ended up coming to fruition that we all had to go outside of this, we couldn't go outside of it. You could, there would be an ability to
135drive that cost down. We're fairly sure of that. So >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I'd like to open this up to the public if there's anybody in the public that has some comments they would like to uh share with us all. See, nobody wants to talk trash tonight. Thank you, John, for leading that way earlier. Um, any other questions? This just for >> Yeah, just information. So, thank you both very much. >> See you again. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Um, thank you very much. The next would be 6.2, too. But we would like to, if it's okay with the board, take 6.4 and move that up and and do take care of 6.4 first before we get to 6.2. So then that way our law enforcement folks, they can get back to their
136work. Um, since this is going a little bit longer than even the longer part. Um, does anybody have a problem with us going to 6.4? Anybody in the audience have a problem with us going to 6.4 first? All right, let's let's go ahead and jump on to 6.4 consideration of approval of the adoption of the personal transportation safety board policy and administrative reg uh regulation. This will be uh presented by superintendent Decker. So before I knew the chief was coming, I was doing this presentation and now I'm nervous that I'm going to make a mistake and he's going to call me on eBike definitions versus e motorcycles and all the things, but I'm going to do my best. We touch base, just so you know, the chief and I touched base this week. uh what
137we kind of learned, not kind of learned, we started to talk about how we could implement some of the things we're going to propose to you in this board policy. And so he very graciously offered to come and support conversation and potentially answer questions for you guys. So just uh just to go through this and please correct me, I want to give you kind of some definitions on what we're talking about. So, you've got e scooters and you have to be 16 years old to operate an electric scooter, which not not everyone knows cuz we see these being ridden by 9, 10, 11 year olds all the time. Uh there are you're supposed to have a valid California driver's license or learner's permit. You got to wear helmets when you're under 18. So, just so
138you know, when we when we made our proposals for this policy, we considered this because obviously nobody at our middle school is 16. can't be mad. Ebikes, they're they're really a lot more difficult to manage because you got class one and twos, which you know, as long as you're wearing a helmet, you can ride those like a normal bike, but once you get to the class 3, they go faster. And at that point, riders are supposed to be 16 years or more. Uh this is where we're hoping to partner because we have to we're proposing that we inspect these bikes to issue permits later on. I'll explain that. And we don't do this every day, but they do. So, we'll talk more about what that could potentially look like later on. But these things can
139go over 20 miles per hour. And if you mud them, they go a lot faster than that. Mud is called, right? Mud them. Yeah. All right. One of those. See, I knew I knew I'd need somebody. What is not an ebike? That is not an ebike. It's got no pedals. That is called an e motorcycle. And we do have these at the high school from what I've been told by principal Buckman uh and principal Christensen. So, this is something that um I just want you to know this is not an ebike. That's something different. So, for all ebikes, regardless of class, uh what we're worried about is well, everybody under 18 must wear a helmet. But really, the biggest issue that we're worried about is mudding. And these bikes can sometimes travel up to 50
140miles per hour if you take up and you got to explain this one, chief. I couldn't tell this one. >> Thank you very much. And I would actually refer back to the experts in this, which is the traffic division, uh, Deputy Nick Mars, who's with me tonight. However, it's a simple transfer of battery from a 750 watt battery up to a 1500 watt battery, which can be done on the bike without anybody really knowing. And then there's also a full connection of a brown wire on that bike. And there's some other technicalities that can be done, too, that would we classify as muddying the bike outside of its classification than it was originally sold for, making the bike more dangerous. So, this is where it it's going to be really helpful to have this partnership.
141Um, Chief has offered to assist us with inspecting these ebikes so that we can be sure that this hasn't been done to them. And if it has, then they're not going to get registered. You know, we're we're proposing to put little stickers on the bikes to make sure that they are have been registered with us. Uh, also just to note, ebikes are prohibitive from many and most sidewalks in Windsor. They're supposed to be in bike lanes and roadways. So, some key policy changes. Obviously, you have the board policy fully in your packet, but just to highlight some of the key things. So, what we're saying, you can't ride these these devices on campus during the school day. So, you get there, you walk them. Uh we're require all students to follow the state laws if
142they're on our campus. Remember, we're only in charge of our school sites, not not anywhere else. Uh this we're asking you to authorize me or my designate to implement safety permits or or training or enforcement systems. uh and and like I said, registration basically. So, it's also allowing us to restrict certain devices from being parked on our school sites if we know that the the proper aged student shouldn't be writing them. So, this is what we're proposing. This is done by Gemini. I was very proud of myself. You see that WMS in black and gold? It's a sticker permit. Used Gemini once, it was today. So, there we go. Um, so we're proposing that a peritting process take place at Cali and Windsor Middle School so we can really inspect these ebikes to make sure
143that they are not a class 3. Uh, and we know that we would we would essentially not allow e scooters at Cali or Windsor Middle and obviously Brooks and Maddie, but it's harder the high school, right? Because we have multi-age students. So this would be much more difficult to manage there. So really our focus is on Cali and Windsor Middle. And I just want to make clear uh because you know we're we're kind of venturing into a weird space where we're talking about stuff that's somewhat out of our control and it's it's the police departments um with within their kind of jurisdiction. So we're really focusing on what we can control which is only when students are on school grounds are we looking at policies and then you know the chief and his department would
144still be responsible for maintaining roads and and whatnot. So obviously we're going to collaborate with with law enforcement, but I don't want us to get into the realm of trying to, you know, overtake what you guys are doing. So and and I'll let you and if I may really, this is we could add ordinances all day long, but there's a vehicle code that is already out there that actually allows law enforcement to provide traffic enforcement on a lot of these bikes. there is um look in the 2026 year about how legislation can update that law and actually increase um capabilities for law enforcement. So an ordinance that at this time and my staff would sometimes disagree with me. I don't think it's a necessary and right option. Really what we're trying to do is say
145that there's already illegal items that aren't allowed on school grounds. A scooter for a kid under the age of 16 is illegal. That shouldn't be allowed on school grounds. Unfortunately, as technology has been at such a fast pace, it takes a long time for parents, for law enforcement to catch up to what this is, what is happening, right? And so, we're kind of seeing a lot of those growing pains. Our solution is not just through enforcement, from law enforcement, making law enforcement the enemy to youth. We are looking for that partnership of the solution in other ways to work with the school and also to work with the parents. After tonight, tomorrow, the law the Windsor Police Department, we will be posting social media again to the parents and to people who follow the Windsor
146Police Department social media about exactly what we're talking about tonight so parents don't make more continued bad decisions of purchasing illegal electric scooters for kids under the age of 16 and type three e motorcycles because that all we're doing now is then the parents unknowingly for most of the time are putting their child in a place where law enforcement is going to have potentially negative impact, negative contact, which is going to be negative impact. We don't want law enforcement to always be the bad guy. I think this is a great way to start that solution to fix this problem. Thank you. And just a couple more points about the policy as it's written. We we left it open enough to where we could move with technology. Uh, and you give you've given me or my
147designate kind of the right to to enforce things because who knows what comes next, right? There there's hoverboards, there's a million things. So, the policyy's written so we don't have to come back to you with every single different type of personal transportation device. Yes, sir. Okay, I want to jump in here. First of all, thank you for for getting this policy together. I know I I talked back in August about this as as a as a uh concern that I was seeing out on the streets taking, you know, my life in my hands when I would drive around at times when kids were getting out of school, scooters going by, bikes going by me illegally on the wrong side of the street, running over pedestrians or very close to that. So, I want to thank
148you for getting this policy out here. And at first I thought maybe it wasn't specific enough, but I I understand your rationale now going through this. And I do feel better with the police being involved in especially classifying the bike cuz it is difficult. It's it's difficult to tell tell the difference. and the thing like this sheet that you passed out. And also if somehow the parents can get a little handout too about the the different things, the scooters and the and the and the bicycles. >> I'll just the other day, like two days ago, I was talking with someone where that I work with and she was thinking about getting her her kid an ebike. And I said, "Well, how old is she?" And she says, "Oh, well 14." And I said, "Do you
149know that she's she can't ride? You can buy it for her, but she can't ride it." And she's like, "What do you what do you mean?" I said, "The the law is that they have to be 16 or older to ride that bike." And you know what she did? She thanked me. She said, "Oh, you just saved me a bunch of money." So So I think we could get some goodwill with putting this information out there in all the the parents' hands. And thanks thanks again for for getting this out. Thank you. >> And I think we want to work together on that, Paul. I know that we were worried about our timing cuz our November board meeting got cancelled. So, we did send out a letter to families to try to explain some of
150this and what what we were bringing to you so that wouldn't potentially go and purchase something that then wouldn't be allowed to be written. So, we we did think through that and made sure we sent something out to our families. I believe we shared that with you. Okay. >> I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. >> All righty. Uh trustees more. >> Yeah, I do. Do we have anybody from safe routes for schools here? I know, sorry that John Davis the county ed. So I know that's a partnership we have through parks and wreck and the safe routes for schools and I would anticipate that they'll be integrated into that too. That's you know they say muster up the bike caravan vans coming from the town green and um I think this is a matter of
151education. I mean, there's been none of us who either walk or ride around, drive around town has not seen a close call. Um, and we've just been very fortunate. We've and we've had some bad accidents. Not there's one that I can think of with one student here, but some particularly bad ones down in Santa Rosa. And so, um, I appreciate this rolling out. It's going to be maybe a little bumpy in January when we start to educate people, but I think we're catching up and that's always good. So, thank you very much, G. Yes, sir. And again, my motto for being here for the past 19 months is always education before enforcement, right? And so, uh, one of the issues that I had with staff was, "Well, then chief, you're telling us to go out
152there and sight every 16-year-old with an with an e scooter." That is absolutely not the course of action, right? when we do see the individuals and also the the topic I want to talk about earlier too is I've really made it a point to have law enforcement at every school during drop off and pickup. So that kind of takes us off of the roadway but I want to ensure that our pickup and drop off times are safe and the kids feel safe going to school and they also have the opportunity to actually maybe have the opportunity to work or meet a deputy right there. Right. So getting back um I just lost my train of thought. Um, when we see the underage 16 year olds on the scooters, we're not just going to go out
153and sight them. We're going to stop them. We're probably going to get a hold of their parent, educate the parent, get the scooter back over. Now, if we have that third, fourth, fifth interaction with them, there there's going to be consequences, right? Maybe by the second, depending on how this person was riding that scooter, it's going to take time. This is not something we're to solve overnight. So, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate you talking about building rapport with students and younger people because I think that's really wonderful that that's a priority and I've seen it lead to positive results in our community. So, I I just think that's great. And I wanted to call out something that Bill mentioned, which is that we've had some accidents to just involving our students.
154and we always get notified whenever a student is injured and we're thinking about them and it seems to be kind of we hear about it in other areas too. So as much as it's bike issues, it's also distracted drivers and phones and as much as we can remind the community and remind drivers to not look at their phones while they're driving and to be responsible. I think that's another education campaign that I think we'd appreciate because we want to protect our kids. >> How many of those did we do a year? kids eight this year. >> Yeah. So, eight or 10 times out of this year alone, we are strictly enforcing that specific law through a grant that we received. We're on our third year receiving that grant through the office of traffic and safety
155and we are I'm in the process right now of completing that grant for the 26 27 year in which I look to increase that. >> Thank you. Can I also mention as a student that you like what you said of education over enforcement, I could see that every day and like going in freshman year, I was a scared JP. Honestly, I had never like I had never had an interaction like that with a police officer and there was just one walking around on my campus now. And then two weeks ago, last week, I got stopped at like the DUI license checkpoint and I was relaxed. It was chill. I shook my license and like I just want to say that has been very successful and I've seen that and I've experienced that. So, thank you.
156>> All good. Uh, just before I I just want to thank Paul for originally bringing this up. He he had some uh personal relationships with some uh things that didn't work well and it kind of and often times that's what happens. You know, things come to us um and and then we realize that there's a problem and we need to address it. So, I I appreciate you bringing that forward. Um, any is there anybody in the audience that would like to uh come up and talk about this issue before we bring it back? Okay. Yes, sir. >> No. No. Oh. All righty. Very good. I'm bringing it back up. Is there um a motion to >> Yeah. I'll make an a motion to adopt the uh policy for personal transportation devices. Can I have a
157second? >> I'll second. >> All righty. Um student members. >> Yes. >> Rest of the board. >> Yes. >> All righty. Motion carries. >> Thank you, Ch. Thank you all very much. >> All right. So, for in case anybody was watching, that was 6.4. We're going to go back now to uh 6.2. All righty. And 6.2 is consider here. Let me move this. Wait. 6.2 is consideration of approval of novel adoption by um Yeah, that's going to be a good one. Is that here? >> Here. >> Oh, there she is. This is going to be presented by Annette Sone. This has come up uh two months ago and then we missed our meeting last week, so we're coming up again. So, >> yeah. Good evening. It's actually my pleasure to introduce Julie Forest who submitted
158the uh novel adoption form to my department. Uh we uh reviewed it as a teaching and learning advisory committee and moved it forward to the board for consideration and uh we wanted to create an opportunity for you to read the book. So we presented it two months ago and here we are. Uh Julie Forest has prepared a presentation uh to give you some background on her experience as well as rationale and um commitment to bringing this novel to the build core. Julie, hi everybody. Um may I drop these off with you? Okay. And these were with the deck and with the proposal. I just want to make sure because it was a was >> Hi everyone. People I know I'm know most everyone I think at this point. I'm Julie Forest and I wanted to
159come here tonight to address this book adoption and to thank you for your earnest uh your earnest response in reading this book and taking it seriously and and really thinking about it. I appreciate that. It means a lot. Uh on behalf of not just me but for our whole English department, we're pretty strong uh and connected. We respect one another and take our job very seriously when we're in the classroom with our students. I wanted to thank you, Rebecca, for your warm endorsement of this book back at the beginning when it was brought forward by Annette. I know you've read it and you appreciate it. I also wanted to thank you for your time. I can say that I absolutely understand the sacrifices you all make to be board members. My husband sat on the
160board for two terms and I would I actually knew Bill before, excuse me, Trusty Adams before uh before he probably knew me because I would turn the TV on so I could hear my husband cough when I was raising our two, you know, young children at home and my husband was here on on the board and and Mr. Adams was here in the audience and now I feel for you and kind of worried about you actually when you decided to run. So I do know how much time this takes and how seriously you take it and how much time you spend outside of sitting here in the deis. I understand that personally and for the families who have to support you in that. All right. So, Scythe, I wanted to introduce myself to you and
161I'm not really good about promoting myself. It's not something I do readily. I have a very long and I'd like to think prestigious career ahead of coming to teaching as well. I wanted you to understand that I have a uh national project directorship for youth safety and health. I have worked with the CDC. I have worked for um the FFA. I have worked with gun rights. I have worked with multiple entities and universities and take my students safety extraordinarily seriously. I protect my students. I may be one of the most protective teachers I know on campus and I love them greatly and I have many of your wrestlers which are here tonight. I was very proud of them and be careful with going to see Joey. I told him I'd come to president but I'm
162not going to go to president too far. So I just wanted to introduce the fact that I have a BS and a master's degree. Um I have worked in journalism and agriculture and science and again in occupational health for a very long time. I have taught kindergarten, preschool, uh, sixth, seven, you ready? Sixth, seven, seven, eighth grade, high school, all levels. I was originally at the high school with 9, 10, 11, 12, STEM before I left to take our youngest to go to school in Michigan. The big sacrifice for our family. Came back, Pete. Thank you very much. It was just a question and then pretty soon I was getting a call from Yeah. Uhhuh. And then I'm back and when I've come back I have uh been assigned to some really interesting course and
163I work with students who I love again very much. They are reluctant readers. They are uh reluctant academicians. They are largely athletes. I have a lot of athletes in my my group. Um and I want very much I think from what I hear we all want the same thing. and we want to make sure they have as many opportunities as they can. And I have the great challenge of teaching English to a group of individuals that don't always love it. So, with that said, uh I'll move on from that. Anytime you have questions, please ask. That's more than fine. Uh I was teacher of the year last year. I just want you guys to know I was recognized the year before that uh under Mr. Williams when he was my principal was up for teacher
164of the year there as well. I take my job very seriously and I spend my time on their behalf uh pretty much 24/7 to my family's you know demise sometimes. Okay. So see if I can get this one right. I ran my own business all that stuff. Okay. So Bill Core the question I heard last time was what is Bill 10? Build 10 is a new core that goes in tandem with a CT program that's 1112. It's a new curriculum. There's nothing that's been there before. Um I have designed something for them with the intention of understanding selfidentity and community and responsibility and safety and and what community means to them and how they play a part in that and who they'll be serving ultimately when they move on. I feel like I'm in a
165place where I can reach them in 10th grade. They either going to decide to move forward or hold on, I'm really tall. I'm the short one in my family, by the way. Um whether they're going to move forward with intention in their program, you know, intention and their professionality and professionalism and uh I don't know, just seeing their own worth and where their place is in things. This is something I started when I knew I was coming into the build 10 core. It's 90% male. I have seven female students. I have one class. It's all guys in the morning. Uh again, they're reluctant readers. I have developed a curriculum. We started with seed folks. We looked at building community in a in a community garden basically and how that moves forward. We're working with uh
166Native American folk at the moment. It ties in with a tribal the tribal presentation we saw and working closely with uh with that group. Trying to stay awake you guys. I'm sorry it's been a long semester. Um what else do I need to tell you? Post adoption. Oh, okay. So, this is important to note too about this program. This book would be purchased with with grant funds and once that happens, it only stays within my program. It is not to be taken home. It's something we deal with in class. It runs with audio cuz that's really the only way I can get my students to read. And I mean that truly. I could even give you multiple examples this year. They have bought in. I'm trying to get them to think about, well, okay, so
167all stories aren't like the classics that we had before we were forced to read. Um, I can put things in my car when I'm driving to work that I find interesting. It could I want them to know they have a library card. I want them to know that there are worlds beyond what they think they know about English. This novel works with community, morality, ethics, responsibility, and it is like many books, especially dystopian books, has some some big themes in there, right? Okay. So, that's part of it. I wanted you to see the research that they're worried about right now. I presented this to you earlier. There's a bunch of different things, but boys are at a deficit for reading enjoyment and it's true across the board that they're seeing these numbers drop nationally and
168it's a true worry for education like making sure that people are are reading and understand reading and can critically think with that reading. So, I am trying to reinforce this and trying to make sure that those numbers don't fall for my students. Uh, and I working with the with a library here in spring, we were looking at books that might pertain to this group that I have, what might work with them, what looks good. And we looked at at multiple books, and this one seemed like one that was accessible to them, that they could read, that I think I can get them through, and it has all the themes that we can talk about, that they can process the things that are going on in their world in a really safe environment. And that was
169important to me that I have someplace that they can express themselves with safety and a teacher-led discussion which I think is very important. Right? That's my point of view. Uh research will also show and I had this conversation with my bills this morning that were coming in saying, you know, Horus, you know, why don't we read books that we like when we read them and we like them. We really like them. And it's true. If they have an investment in what they're reading, they're more likely to read and enjoy it. This makes a common sense for me kind of thing. And reading motivation decreases if they have if it's not relevant to their lives. It goes up if they get to choose. And this is something they were, you know, they've all expressed interest in.
170I've only had one one thing I've the one thing they have not liked about this book when they've seen in my classroom is >> the thickness that that's like oh forest that's really long you know kind of thing. So I want to try and get them through this. This is a book I'm getting dry. I should have brought my copy up. Anyway, so I haven't done this in a long time. It's been a long time since I've had to do this. It has won the Prince Honor book for juvenile literature. It's won the Alexandria award which is from the University of Notre Dame for teaching in parochial schools the right to life. It has won multiple uh YA awards. Ah thank you. Hold on. Okay. Um pen all these things I wanted you to see.
171library associations, um, religious organizations, things have seen value in this book for our students to be able to understand what what life means and why it's meaningful and why you should invest. And I think that's kind of the point of the book. I know there's a little romance in there, too, but it's not that's what you mentioned. There's a little one, but it's very benign. All these things are are important and relevant to the lives that they're leading. Uh this is just a summary but you guys read it so I don't have to worry about it now you've looked at it. Uh which makes me really grateful and I hope that you're seeing the themes of the morality and the justice and the value of life which is the point. It's not the other things
172that go around it. that I know that have been concerns and I will say that again I'm protective and there are things that I that I always worry about with my students and I go in I make sure that I evaluate them first and wonder if I can manage it and I absolutely am convinced this would give so many opportunities for me to reach them and help them feel uh in control of their own world. They're getting all these messages that they don't necessarily understand and they're seeing some really scary stuff without the ability to process them in a in a safe environment. And and I know I can provide that to them and I would be in very deliberate in my um my development of a curriculum that supports them. It gives me opportunity
173to work on their writing skills. It gives me uh it gives me opportunities to bring in guest speakers. It gives me uh all kinds of educational opportunities to support my students to navigate these complex issues in a in a world around them. Uh educational purposes. I think I just talked about them. We talked about how there are cross-cultural uh opportunities. More than anything, it's selfidentity and how they fit in understanding their world in a way that's relevant. It brings in AI. the um the government that's in this dystopian world is driven by this benevolent AI that has control over everything. And the only thing it doesn't is this psyche which is responsible for gleaning because they don't have there's no more death. There's no more sickness. There's there's nothing there's nothing left that causes the
174the things that um that stress a human in a normal situation. That's gone. And there's this there's so many discussion points in here. There's a meaning of life. There's a boredom with life because there's nothing that they can there's nothing that that that challenges them anymore cuz everything everyone can live. And there is this responsibility for one group of individuals who do not want this. It is not glorified. It is something that is honored to try to keep the population in control. It is so similar to the giver. It is very similar and I think less violent at least in terms of its glorification than the um hunger games and hunger games we teach in seventh grade. The giver we teach in eighth grade. They're both at the middle school. They both already been adopted.
175Kids respond to them. They can I trust my fellow teachers to be able to navigate this with their students. We are professionals. We do as we've been trained to do. It aligns with AB 1078. I know this is a something that will be a discussion point tonight and I want I've heard the word murder and that is not a single point of this book except for the corruption part of it and there's always the corruption part of human society and that's what you talk about and what is your there's even there's even commandments that these individuals need to follow and we talk about commandments and responsibilities and what that looks like and what you have to do to live up to your your purpose and your expectation. It's a gleaming and it's not a it's
176not considered a murder by this particular author. Uh something that he took very seriously and it's in there for purpose of discussion and thought and not glorification. And I want to make that point that it is not something that's considered murder in the book. It's considered a responsibility called gleaning. and they're trying to control a population and replicate in a way that life would have normally managed when when life was really life before this this utopian world. Uh I have again it engages readers at every level. Uh develops trust and respect for me and my care of my students. It encourages empathy and ethics and purpose. We can talk about deescalation. We can talk about what they're seeing. They're very physical. We can talk about the physicality of living as a a young man in
177the world. There's so many things that we can look at with this book under the right under the right um oversight. And I feel like anyone in my department could do that, not just me. It's not something I'm taking on because I think I can just do this. I trust my department. I trust that there'll be a curriculum in place if I ever leave. It isn't something anyone else in the school can read. If a if a if a CT program adopts a book, it stays with that with that group. I can't loan this out to anybody else. It stays in the build program. It would stay in Bill 10. Um, that's what I have for you. I hope you have questions for me. I'd love to talk to you about it. Um, I would
178love your support. I would love your open mind in this case and your trust in my ability and my expertise because I come with a pretty good set of them. I guess I open this up to you. If there's anything I could address, I'd like to do that. >> Thank you very very much. Um you do you have something you want if you have some questions or >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> You said trust my fellow teachers, >> Miss Forest. Um I trust our students. I trust our voices. I looked at our board policy and our administrative regulation about how we develop curriculum. We have everyone and our that's not sitting at this dis um yet from the principal the English department our student representatives the assistant superintendent just help me with your title and
179then what Annette does for educational stuff and and um it just is striking to me that we seem to be in a micromanagement of we know better. I have not sat here in the nearly 10 years I've been on the board and heard a better presentation about why we have amazing English teachers and teachers in general. >> So, I would start with that. I know there were comments made two months ago by people who had not even looked at the book or had not read it and that concerned me a great deal. But, um I'm not going to make a motion to approve it, but when we get to the point for a motion, I'd like to be able to make that motion or perhaps have our student board member make it. Um, so I
180think we need to think about what it is we're talking about. Are we talking about a particular piece of literature and how this fits into build core or something broader than that? Because it seems to me we're talking about something broader than that. And that's a different discussion for a different day. >> I have stuff I want to say. Um, so I reread it and I reread the whole series. I thought it had some really good connections. um like rereading it through the lens of this specifically, I look back at what I said and I was like, I wish I would have said that differently. But I still agree and stand by everything I said. I think it's an amazing book and um something that I will definitely reread again and recommend to people wholeheartedly.
181Um I think it has as you like you really keyed in on the themes and I agree with every single one you said like as I was going through it just as someone who loves books, I was like, "Oh, I would love to have a discussion on this." Like I wish I had someone who had read this book so that I could talk about this for hours. Um and and then also like with the violence I did see that and it is it does get intense and like >> um I don't think that it should be like dismissed in any way and um but then also I was thinking about it and you know I've had friends and experiences and through this I've talked to a lot of students about how they would feel about
182having this book and kind of given them the rundown of it or asked them to like maybe read the first chapter or something and said like what would you what would you would you want to read this and things like that. And um some of the students actually said that they would not be feel comfortable reading that and that they wouldn't um they just they didn't want that in um they didn't want to put so much of their time and effort into a book that had some of those themes. And I know that there's a protocol, I guess, for that when a student doesn't want to um read the same book or isn't comfortable reading the same book as everyone else in the classroom. I wanted to ask you like what is your idea if
183that happens? like do you have a alternate book that would still fit in with the same theme so they could be part of that discussion? >> Correct. And now we're doing that already. And I think of you uh Trusty Lopez, one of my students right now, the book we're reading is too close to home for this student and they had a great loss in their life and the book is too close right now. They're reading House on Mango Street. I mean, that is the alternative piece for them. Uh it happens. It's one of our policies at the high school. If there's any concern about a book by the student or a parent, we come up with an alternative. Now, the problem I'm seeing right now is we have such a limited and this is again
184we talk about discussions for another day. Windsor High School's book collection is very antiquated. Um there are not enough books for everybody to use them at the same time. They're old. Many are falling apart. uh we have this very complicated structure of what you can teach at any given time because we have 910 we had 9 10 cores and we had alternating years and we didn't want students to read the same book and then you can't teach something from 112 because that's 112 you know space so it's actually pretty complicated um there's one book that's close to this I think is more offensive I don't think that I could have my kids do that I told you I'm extraordinarily protective of my students it is I don't know if You guys are reading it. Maybe
185you have not brave New World Alice Huxley. It's got this promiscuous sexuality. It has drug use. It has, you know, child abuse from systematic. There are things in that book that are really heavy. I don't feel I don't feel comfortable bringing that down to my 10th graders. I don't think it's pertinent to my students. So, yes, I could use that. I would have to find something else that doesn't fit that. And I could say, "Okay, Hunger Games would be a perfect fit." But they teach it in the seventh grade. They've all read it already. They've all read The Giver already. And these are I mean, this book is a kind of a mirror and a combination of them both, which makes sense. If they could do it again, I could offer that again. My only
186concern is that with a student like I have right now, that's it makes it easy cuz she can come to your class. >> Oh, yeah. So, I can make arrangements with my local cohort, right? And they can go there and listen to the same time that we're listening to. I have to play the books out loud. That's the only way I'm going to get them through it. So, I would have to make sure I have alternative placement for students while we're reading it and then they could be the discussions would be more than fine. I think we could talk about the discussions. There are some things because it is so long. There's some things I think I could do without in here that I could pass right over that aren't pertinent to the story. We
187could do it without it. So, I mean I I would talk to the student. And I would always give them the opportunity to say yay or nay. If it's something they're uncomfortable with or their family's uncomfortable with, we come up with a solution. We come up with an alternative and make sure everybody has placement. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I have a long list of concerns. I I feel I just want to say, you know, first of all, I feel deeply disappointed in our curriculum offerings and I think that this was confirmed um by the study that I received from Mr. Richards about how the literature selections, they're overwhelmingly white. So, in in the study that he sent, uh it says that 75% of the authors that students are reading are from uh white male
188authors. So, I feel deeply disappointed about the lack of diversity. Um, I also feel disappointed by the fact that I think that if you are a person of color, then violence is not just a metaphor. >> Mhm. >> Right. If you um talk about, you know, um metaphors, you know, that are related to this book, it's one thing, right, if you're not personally associated with a situation of violence. But like let's say for example if your family crossed the border has experienced you know significant violence has uh suffered a loss a death of a loved one for example if you have been and had a relationship that is intimately close to violence and death you know this book is going to have a completely different meaning than if you have not had those experiences. um
189as you said, you know, you offer an alternative. You offered the House of Mango Street, you know, for students that felt this is too much for me. I'd rather read something else. But even within that, you know, you use this word alternative. And for me, um that makes me sad because it makes me think that you have to put the pressure on the student to select an alternative option uh rather than having a more diverse curriculum just across the board. Um if I I you know usually when I when I think about a book because I I love books you know I majored in English in college um I always think about you know why do I want to read this book right that's what what my first question is to myself when I read
190a book and I think about this picture of what has been painted here in our curriculum and I think about you know where does one ever have a book that is more close to their identity if we don't have diverse offerings because to me to think, you know, 75% of the time I'm going to read a white male author. Um, that is also, you know, most likely from a straight white male author, you know, when do I get the opportunity to learn about other people's cultures and other themes, you know, other places that are part of our world, right? That is not just a white space. Um, and then the other topic that I think about in this book offering is we also happen to live in an age of Trump. You know, we are
191in a Trump um, presidency and I think about all of the diversity initiatives that are being repealed or just completely dissolved and being a student of color in the world, if you're seeing all these programs radically cut, when do you get the chance to have that enrichment, right? So, I think about that context. also think about ice in our communities. >> Absolutely. >> And you know this is too close to me for what ice represents. You know this uh this this book uh this this metaphor of uh gleaning, you know, I think it's too close of uh connection of somebody just showing up at your door, right? Because I I know I, you know, happen to be terrified, you know, of ICE and what that is doing to our society at this time. And so
192I just feel like that the reality, you know, of violence is too close to that. Um, and then also, you know, you there's also a metaphor of population control. >> Uh, that deeply concerns me as well because also for lots of people of color, you know, population control has been a deep issue, you know, from sterilization um, in different parts of our country uh, of women without their consent, you know, especially Native American women. This deeply concerns me as well because again for you to say you know this is the key offering but you have alternatives a available you're putting the pressure on the student to have to you know process all that and to think well you know maybe this is uh not the right book for me maybe I'll have to choose something
193else right but that's putting the pressure on them I I just don't see why we can't make more inroads to having a more diverse curriculum you know then considering again you know the context of the times that we live and I think it's really really important. >> Can I address >> Yes, I would love to. Uh, first of all, this is in a a utopian world where there is a concept that race no longer has been an issue and they talk about this this person, this main female strong character is of appra descent, if there's such a thing anymore. they have a strong discussion of what happens or the ideology of what happens when it's supposed to disappear but in actuality we have questions about does it really disappear and how does that pertain to
194us and when I see with my 90% male students that I can bring something a issue where I can bring a strong female character in who has background and understanding I feel pretty strongly about that and I I absolutely agree with you with our with our book collection. I'll be the first one to say I agree with you and I think I did kind of already that we have a dismal collection of books that we can can choose from. This is merely a class set, not a not an adoption by a whole school for something that's important to all of them. My personal classroom library has probably 75% of the books that you send out to us. So they have opportunity to read all of those books and I have offered them multiple times to
195multiple people both in my VA soul. Build build doesn't like books. I mean I'm gonna bring something to them and the thing that I'm going to get is hey I like that Steph Curry book you have down there. So this is my way of kind of trying to bring in that discussion with them. And I do I appreciate the violence of of the ICE agent showing up on a door. I am I am a opponent and a and an ally and a supporter of my students in every way if I thought it would be something that would trigger them. It wouldn't be something I would be considering and I I appreciate your your view on this and I value your great expertise in this. I think I can do it is what I guess I'm
196trying to say. I think it would be an okay discussion. I think there's room for that discussion and how we bring this forward. So, you're very much heard. I appreciate you. I appreciate the comments. I'm hoping I can address those as we teach them. I think there's room for it. Maybe that that you don't see that I hopefully see. I'm hoping I can support them. >> I just think that there has to be at least one step forward, right? Like there has to be some diversity in what already exists. >> We're working like I I can't wait. >> All right. Um, so I'm going to take a little bit of time on this and I don't care if I have to get to Fresno at 6, >> okay? >> Because this is important. I I
197I want to start off a little bit because I have a lot of different thoughts on this and I've been I want to say evolving learning. So I I want to start off with yesterday I was able to have a meeting with a couple folks in our in our right. It was an excellent discussion. >> It it was I I learned a lot. Um I smiled when I left the meeting and the reason I smiled is because I said to myself, we got some freaking great people in this school district, right? We I don't I'm a face guy. we don't know each other. Um, I know of you. I know that you're well accomplished. I know you're a really, really good teacher. And so, I want to I need to put a couple things out
198there so everybody understands. I'm actually pretty libertarian. And what I mean by that is I I kind of like people to do their own thing. You know, don't don't get into my lane. I'm not going to get into your lane pretty much. You know, let's let's go ahead and do our things. I'm not a book banner. Um, it was funny because after our meeting a couple months ago, my wife who loves to read and she went up to Oregon with a couple of her friends went to the big this big book fair and she actually happened to take a picture of of a a case that was like banned books and here's all the ones, right? And and uh one of the books that was banned was one of the ones that we approved, let
199me phrase that. It was one of the books that the board approved a year ago, which my wife reminded me that we only go on a trip for sure once every year in December. And when I had this with me down in the Cayman Islands, she's going like, "No." She goes, "You read that other damn book the whole time you were here and I didn't get to do whatever." She go and I'm going, "You're not You're right. I've already this this book's already in. So, I'm not super fresh on it, but I Yeah, I'm not going to take my vacation and I'm not going to go through this again. So, I'm going to hit some higher points, but before I get to that, >> I just want to un explain that there's a differentiation between
200the quality of our teachers and the good job that I think they can do in teaching. You're professional teachers. You guys are really, really experienced at taking something that us parents want our kids to learn, taking that and and ingesting that into them. And that's and that's and I appreciate that. That's a skill. I don't have that skill. I'm I'm I don't have it. So, one, I'm I'm marvel that you guys are so good at it. Um, and and I appreciate that. So, one of the good things that came out of the meeting yesterday was that let's say for example, I can't stand this book. >> Just an example, I can't stand this book. And and you think that there's some things that are good in it, right? And and just to kind of give
201everybody at home, I actually had quite a few other people read this book because I wanted to not just be me. I go, "Hey, how do you feel about it?" I learned that there's some different things. People that listened to the book took away certain things. People that read the book took away certain things. And then people that listened to it and then read it took away more things. So even how you how you take the take it in was different. I had one parent that read it only got halfway through it. She goes, "I can't do anymore. I'm sorry, Rich. I this is just too I can't do this. This is too There were there were some things that was just too offensive to her. I I could be offended by this book very
202simply. Um there there could be a whole bunch of trigger points in here. One, as a coach for 30 years, right? And I I I hate the fact that in there, they're talking about killing the star quarterback, right? And I'm thinking to myself because because again when I go to any book my first question is is this the best we can do? Right? That's my number one question. Is this the best we can do? So I'm going through it and I'm thinking uh and and I went through it and to be honest with you, I had a little Mary Poppins song in my head. You know, just a spoonful of sugar >> help the medicine go down. Right. Well, this thing is written really really simply. You you I understand the the and to your
203point, this is something that anybody can read pretty pretty quick. I know so quick, but the it's not a hard read, right? the concepts in there and uh overwhelmingly I mean just just look >> can I can I address the one point where you were talking about the star quarterback because John talk to me about that I think it's really interesting that that's what you saw because you addressed the quarterback >> what I see in that moment and what the discussion really is is the the kid that went in there who's going to become a a person of sight >> holds that boy's hand >> and is there for him and he is ostracized. It's more of a of a something that relates to them is more ostracized by everybody else. There's this whole bullying
204thing that starts and that's relevant to them right now. And so I think they read at age 15 and 16 to your point is very different than what we read as an adult. It's a very different read. >> You you're 100% right. That's another thing >> when parents, us trustees, we read things, we're adults with minds that are >> warped or whatever, but but it's pretty baked in the cake at this point. And sometimes I think when adults read something, say, "Oh, how would I think my kid would deal with this?" I think they forget. They think how they think, not how did they think when they were 15, 16, 17 years old. And for some of us, that's a long time to go back to think about that point, right? But anyhow, you're you're
205right. But nonetheless, we're we're talking about uh killing him. Now, I don't want to get into euphemisms, but I know what gleaning is. >> Gleaning is what I did as a kid when we would go out in the field >> and we would pick up the fruit and the other vegetables cuz we were really super poor. And in our church, we had a bunch of we were clean. We were picking out the leftovers that the other guys didn't want. >> Mhm. >> That's gleaning. >> Oh, I know. >> Okay. Gleaning. This is not This is This is killing somebody. >> I'm going to just and and I know, look, I don't want to get into a tat type of thing, so I'm not going to do that. >> But I am just going to go
206like this. The very first line >> of the book starts off, we must by law >> keep a record of the innocents we killed. >> Mhm. >> Doesn't say glean. Doesn't say any other euphemism that we kill. That's how the goddamn book starts off. >> The innocence that we kill. Part of it is, you know, sometimes you can do things and it's okay, but then there's other times when you're going like, you know, you got to look at like I might crack a joke and sometimes that joke might be funny, but then I've had it where a lot of people say that joke wasn't that funny, Rich. Because of what's going on around at the time, I'm in the Cayman Islands for eight days. And in that eight days, we had a mass shooting in
207Australia >> and where >> we had some we had a whole bunch of stuff. We had people get stabbed and killed. We had a tremendous amount of violence. And so my whole thing is again remember early in the day, what is my thing? What's best for the kids? >> Almost all of these murders that you keep hearing about, right, are who generally male. Mhm. >> Your class is 92% male. >> 90. Mhm. >> Where do I I told my >> I'm sorry. I thought you >> I told No, I'm not even Nope. We're not close yet. >> I just would really like to be able to respond when you have a chance. >> Okay. The If I was a I I told Danielle and them yesterday, if I was a defense attorney >> Mhm. This
208is all I would need to get almost anybody off who did something horrendous because all I'd say is, "Hey, why did you do that?" I don't know. Didn't you think that was wrong? I don't know. I was Dude, I I had to read this book when I was in school. No, no, no. You You can't not Let me I'm just going to put it this way. You're a teacher and you're an excellent teacher. >> We have people that are excellent bakers. >> And if the ingredients that I give that baker is certain things, they are not going to be able to necessarily make things as good as they want to. When you take we work harder at making sure kids don't eat junk food here in our state than we do with what ingredients we're
209putting in their mind. We put a little salt, a little flour, a little bit whatever. We kind of have a general idea of what we're going to get. But we start putting ideas in their mind of, hey, you know what? They went into a classroom and they killed all these children. Why do we need to put that in our kids' mind? Now, with that, if a kid wants to read this on their own, and this is where we kind of came to our meeting yesterday, like, and this is why I want, and I'm sorry, I should have said this earlier, I want us to be able to get together with the board, have a a workout, a working session where we can get with the English folks and everybody, and we have a sit down,
210we just talk all these things through about what is our goal because right now we're talking about utopian, dystopian, right? You talk about things being current, not current. We're in declining enrollment. We're in birth decreases. A couple is not even having they're not even keeping up with two kids per couple. We're having declining yet this is talking about killing people because we have too many. And yet that's not reality of life anymore. And so there's there's so many things about it. I'm just saying this. You told I think you said earlier there's other books that kids could read, right? So, one of the things that I'd want to bring up in our work session is if you have a book that's edgy, right? And I would say this a little bit more than edgy, but
211let's just call it edgy for right now. I don't necessarily I'm not opposed to that, but I don't want to have it where we opt out. I want to say, hey parents, here's two or three books. >> Let us know which one we can whichever one you want is good. some I mean you even mentioned some kids don't want to even ingest this right and so but my big problem is that we're requiring them to read it unless they voluntarily come and say I don't want to read that I would rather read something different that's opting out I would rather have kids opt in say I'd rather read that or you just say hey folks here's two books here's three books you guys can read whichever one because we have the same kind concept. Some's
212a little bit more edgy, some's a little more milktoast or something in between. I could probably get along with that better. >> I hear you. >> Does that make sense? >> Oh, absolutely. >> And so, so again, so to my point, is this the best that we can do? I think it's one of the most benign. If you talk about band books, the one that your wife saw in 1984, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, this Romeo and Juliet, every book that has any edge to it has been opposed by somebody because they find the the content too alarming. >> Mhm. >> I mean, so we could go across the board. All of our at some point the classic was considered bound. One of the books we're reading right now for um for part-time
213Indian, it's much longer name that talks about diversity and and dealing with bullying and all those things is also banned some places. I mean there are all these things that go about it. And if you have a book you know is controversial, could be a triggering moment, you don't walk in with a triggering book and say, "Okay, let's just all read that first line and let's go." You work on preemptively discussing the book before you even start. You talk about the themes that could be coming up. You talk about those all of the issues that could be alarming to somebody. And and yes, if it's something that's alarming to someone, you you don't force them to read any book. But sometimes, is it impossible that a person wouldn't even know that it's alarming until they
214actually get into it really deep? >> Not if a teacher does their job. There's I'm not going to put this in someone's hand and say, "Okay, here you go. Just jump right in. Let's talk about it later." It's it's too heavy for that. And and we're talking about why does a an author choose to do this? Utopian, dystopian. Utopia is the idea that we're creating a perfect world. And we all try to get rid of struggling and pain and violence and all those things. This has become the perfect world. But in the perfect world, it's also still corrupt. That's the point. And you learn that in having a perfect world, you have a boredom for life that can never happen. So these are all the things that are I think are really essential and you
215do all those things to address them. >> I can't give you brave new world because I think it's I think it's worse. >> Let let me let me hear from some other >> Sure. I'll jump in here. First of all, I I find found the book very disturbing. >> Okay. Um it it hit me like even our student trustee said there would be some kids who start reading and say no that's not for me. That's kind of where I was. This is not my kind of book. Not something that I wanted to read. >> Uh it's specific but I did. And in chapter 35 it talks about gleaning a whole classroom of little kids wiping out a whole class of little kids. Then the one who did the gleaning was so upset about that. >>
216Yeah. >> Gleaned selfcleaned himself. >> Corrupted. Yes. >> So whatever the term is my point is I would choose not to read this. Okay. >> So I I sort of piggyback off of what Mr. Carnation was saying about why can't we have alternatives? I I I think the problem that I have and by the way I was very offended by uh trustee Adams when he said that we're micromanaging this is our job is to is to approve or not approve this this for for an entire class set or entire teaching to an entire class that's what we're that's our job it's not micromanaging but it's not this is what we're we're tasked to do and I take it very seriously >> I I and and what I would suggest is rethinking this and how we
217want to present this this book to kids cuz I'm sure I'm not the only one. There are other kids who start reading this and it might trigger them. >> Mhm. >> And I and I get that you're you're an expert in it and you can you can handle those and you can talk to them, but you're not a psychologist. You're you're not you're How would you feel if this did trigger a kid or in chapter 2 where the kids have this sport of splatting? >> Yeah, that's the that's a problematic version for me. That's probably the most problematic. >> That is super problematic for me having had a teenager as a teenager, >> my older teenager, my cousin commit suicide >> and I had to catch him three times and I had to experience that
218as a teen. I find that very triggering that that chapter. And they and they're playing it as a sport and he's even saying, "Oh, did I leave a dent in the in the in the marble when I fell. I mean, the kid thought it was a game." Well, what if one of your students decides, "Oh, I want to play this game." >> I'm just saying. >> I hear you. >> It is It is a possibility. You you you kind of downplay it, but it is a it is a possibility. And I can't I couldn't live with that. So for those reasons, I would like this book to be a choice, not mandating that a whole class read this or be exposed to it. And that's that's my point of view. >> Can I make a
219suggestion? We shift the focus to be a conversation amongst you guys and let let Julie sit down. I don't want I don't want her to feel like she has to debate. I think she made the presentation and that that way you guys can have the conversation. >> Yeah, 100%. I this. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank Thank you, Julie. >> Mhm. >> Oh, >> okay. >> Natalie has a question. >> Okay. I just wanted to bear with me. I have very messy notes. It's the end of finals week, so my brain is all over the place. But as we kind of discuss deep topics and whether it's appropriate to discuss in classrooms, I want to reiterate that in my personal opinion, not speaking for like anyone else, in my personal opinion, you know your students
220best. My English teacher, my English teacher knows me best. M, you know, and I've heard this from several of your students. In fact, one of my great friends, I've never even had you as a teacher. And I was like, I wonder who's going to read my college essay. and they were like, "Well, I have someone in mind for you." I'm like, "Well, well, that's Anyways, that's a tangent, but to reiterate, I know you know your students best." And obviously, you know that. Yes. But I'm going to like kind of to discuss like my opinion of it, a very like opposite opinion, but there there's nothing wrong with that and everyone has the right to their own opinion. But I've also dealt with, you know, suicide. One of my very best friends committed suicide when I
221was 10 years old. And in my opinion, I would rather I had to deal with those on o own thoughts by myself. I was homeschooled, so I didn't go to school. I was a figure skater. I would have rather have had this safe space of conversation with the teacher talking about these things that are already going on in the world. It's not a time that we can close them out anymore. And in my opinion, I think that opening up that safe space is so important. And I think that yes, they're scary. They're really scary things. And of course, no one wants to talk to talk about them with a 10th grader, but at the same time, we've come to the point in the world where it's already happening. And do you do we want that?
222Do we want kids to be educated on these topics on social media or do we want them to be educated with a safe adult that they trust, you know? So, that's kind of where I stand on it and I just wanted you to hear that, too, cuz Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Uh, I just had one last quick thing I wanted to say. I I for me, I think the major issue is um not even so much the book as the landscape. And I wish that you could appreciate the power differential if most of the faculty uh at the Windor High School are white and most of the authors that are being assigned are white and most of our student population is Latinx and obviously there there is a problem with that picture and that
223is to me what I have biggest amount of concern with. So I hope you can appreciate the full landscape of that. >> Absolutely. >> Great. I'll go. You can have a seat. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking all of our questions. Um, I'm actually really surprised by how this conversation is gone because I'm just thinking about some bigger questions. And I mean, life is kind of brutal. Like life, it ends in death for all of us. We are living in an incredibly tumultuous period of time when things are changing incredibly rapidly and it's creating a lot of unease and uncertainty and I think that you know I I really hear what everyone is saying but I feel that we do have a responsibility to teach our kids about the world as it is
224and the world has really wild things that happen. Things that like they're probably even more wild than what happens in fiction at times. And I think everything in this book um that is shocking is based on real events that have happened even in like some movies that would maybe be like PG-13 or even you know it it so I I'm kind of thinking like what are what is our goal as a board because I don't think anyone will come to ask to get a book approved if this is what we do. when someone comes to ask to get a book approved. I mean, a tremendous amount of work went into this. So, do we just want to stop teaching anything new? I mean, that's the real question because I, you know, I'm not even like
225upset about it. It's just like is that where we are where we're like, this is just too bad like we don't want anyone to know. Like, we don't want to be responsible for teaching people about this. Um because I I don't see how we're encouraging the adoption of curriculum with this like and it's kind of by design the way we do this. It creates a very slow adoption process especially for novels, literature, fiction. So, I feel like we either need to completely overhaul and open up the amount of literature, novels, whatever that we're adopting, or we need to make a decision that we just don't feel comfortable teaching fiction because to me, that's where we are. And I I think that if we took that position as a board, it would be quite precedential, you
226know. I mean, I think it this is an award-winning book. I know that it has themes that are kind but I don't know that this is banned in any like or that this wouldn't be adopted in other places. So I do wonder if this is the pl like I feel like are like is it about this book or is it that we're frustrated about different things and like what is the goal we want to accomplish? If it's about this book then you know I'm probably going to lose this vote. Um, but if it's about So that that's kind of what I'm having a tough time figuring out is what we're trying to do. Um, and I I will this book make it more likely that our kids will do something awful that's described in the
227book. I don't know. And I totally hear the point about like but we're teaching this, we're requiring it. That is a really good point. Um, whereas we're not requiring kids to play Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty or Fortnite or all of these games where they shoot each other all day long after school, but it's pretend and they all like because we're not sanctioning that. That's not a school sanctioned activity, but that is what kids are doing for the most part. So, I just I don't know. I don't know. Um, and you know, speaking of kind of the time we're living in, like I'm an attorney. I work in the corporate world. We can do public comment soon. Um, and you know, I work with a lot of tech companies and I my focus
228is employee benefits. Like I know a lots of things about health plans that you don't want to know and or too much about them and I write them and do all these things. But I work with a lot of tech companies and a lot of people are losing their jobs right now. They're just being eliminated because we have AI kind of coming into existence. we have, you know, a forprofit system where obviously you want to minimize your expenses. So you when you can replace someone with technology, you do that. And so there's a lot like that's jobs that when I came on the board, I would have said like we need to have our kids learn computers and learn how to program because they need to take these jobs. And now I'm like, oh, I
229was not correct. Like that's not necessarily the field we want people to get in. And I'm I'm almost done. And I'm just trying to make a bigger point that there's just a lot that's changing and I think there's a lot of potential like AI is probably all as government that government should be talking about right now and people don't even understand how it works. Like there's this AI is like pretty good in this book. Like it's a good we don't know that AI is good. Like these are real concerns. Like it might decide that we're not useful, we're not good. Like these are real things that we are going to have to grapple with as a people over the next 10 years. So I think that is a lot scarier than what I read in
230the book. And maybe that's why I feel more open to it because I just feel like I see scary things all the time. Um, but yeah, that I'm just seeing in my notes if I have anything else. I mean, we talk about corrupt. It talks about corruption, which I think humans are kind of inherently they they veer towards corrupt. And I I I hear what you're saying too, Rich, about like is it good enough? I don't know that we talk about like anyone who's been covered by the Press Democrat, you're like, "Oh, it's not good enough." That's not really what I meant. not that, you know, but it's never good enough. Humans are not good enough. Um, we just do our best. So, on that note, we'll stop talking. Thank you. >> The How about
231if we'll take a half pause here, get some and let's get some folks from the audience. >> Yeah. So, if there are some folks from the audience that would like to come up and and talk about this, that'd be fabulous. >> Hi. >> Get my little >> I'm since we since people are going to talk. So, just you got three minutes. >> Uh supposed to be about this topic and I don't need to read a whole bunch of the stuff, but that's >> Thanks, Rich. I'll go fast. >> All good. >> Okay. So, my name is Diane Hardy and I have been a social studies teacher in this district for 24 years, which is longer than most of you have been here. And I've never ever seen a teacher be treated this way publicly ever.
232Ever. Um Julie is trying to provide a safe place for her students to talk about violence, which is happening everywhere, all over the place. I have a teenager. Um I know what he's seeing in the media, and I don't want him to learn about it from his friends or the news or the current administration. I want him to be in Julie's class where he can learn that these things are wrong. Um and that he can discuss them safely. I don't care what the book is. I wanted her to talk about that. I want our teachers talking about what's happening in the news. As a history teacher, I talked about Augustus Pinocha, Hitler, the Holocaust, Stalin, eating your own children because you're starving. Um, human experiments, twin experiments. I mean, you want to talk about horrible.
233The state of California dictates that we teach those things to our children. This is nothing. This is this is nothing. Um, the district has whitewashed our curriculum. We have erased global studies. There's no more talk about genocide except for European history. We now talk about only world history and United States history. There's no place to talk about these things anymore. So, I just can't believe that we're limiting our teachers ability to bring books to our students. I would never come here for a book adoption. And I came here to you guys months ago and said, "This is too hard." And here she is. at 9:00 at night. This is too hard. Nobody's going to come here. And I really would like to invite all of you to come to Windsor High School to see what
234we do to teach diversity because we teach diversity. Unfortunately, she's stuck teaching about Tom Robinson in Makeum County from 1930. Okay. We'd like to talk about diversity today and what's happening to our students today, but we can't because those courses are being taken away. Julie is the one that came to your classroom at Sonoma State last year. So our our entire freshman class could learn about Chana and Chuco studies because we felt that it was important for our students. Um now since our students have no place to talk about these things, they're memorializing, you know, white supremacists in their in their projects for us because there's no place on our campus to talk about what's right and wrong. And yes, what you're talking about is wrong. It's horrible and it's happening all around us. Parents
235are too busy to talk to their kids about this or they don't know how to or they're not educated enough because people don't read the news. But we are educated enough and we're professionals and we care and Julie cares more than most. That's what I wanted to say. Thank you. >> Thanks Diane. >> Hi there. Jodie Piscatello just a parent um but a parent of young adults and as I I haven't read the book um but good points and everyone who spoke I'm like I relate I relate I relate I relate um but I specifically relate to you too and and this is why when my kids were growing up through the school district I had those parent the parent what I wanted my kids to be exposed to and not right we all do
236that And then what I learned is I didn't know everything. Now that my kids are are adults and they're telling me about these band books that they actually got to have a piece and what it meant to them and how it shaped their view because they saw it from their six-year-old view or their 10-year-old view and what they got out of it. And having teachers that actually know how to speak to that age and what they're going through. I feel like like I was going back and forth on this, but I feel like there's a real missed opportunity because what I was drawing from the presentation was that these are kids that could be at risk because reading is something we're all going to have to do. It's going to be a part of our
237life, but they don't want to for whatever reasons that is. And what I was getting out of it is there's a book that might have a lot of excitement and stuff that would would be meaningful to them. They'd be like, "Okay, that might keep my attention." But then you have a teacher that is dissecting it from the author's point of view, which my daughter has to do for me today because when I was reading, that's not what we did. But now having teachers dissect this is what this is what the author means by this or this is what the you know so being able to have this where they're listening to it then having the discussion takes away I'm reading these horrible points and it validates these feelings I have that I'm going to and
238I'm not saying there aren't going to be people out there like that but hearing from you two what you got from it and just learning from what my adult children have now taught me from there and they they went through kindergarten all the way up and now one's getting his master and the other one's um going to to Berkeley and this education was what got them there but I'm now learning that the parent brain that I had was awesome because we want to protect them but really the teachers they knew they knew and and listening to your presentation I was just thinking my gosh here's an opportunity for these life lessons that these young impressionable people like you said they're going on the internet and it makes me crazy but to have someone break it
239down and if they can go I can get this out of books and then they've got a trusted advisor a trusted adviser for life that when they're reading these books and they're starting to get into it now they want to know what it's really about rather than a comic book like with the pictures and the wham bam. So anyways, I just a parent but that's kind of my takeaway with this and and I would suggest that if you are reluctant about doing this make it a pilot just this teacher just this year take a poll. How how did it do? You say required reading not forever see how it goes. I mean, I I think it's a brilliant idea if you have a teacher that's that willing to be involved and really break it down.
240And it sounds like she's going to protect >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> As a student, >> Could you give us your name, please? >> Bianca Uribe. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. As a student, as a Latina student, I see where the book is coming from. I see the diversity. I see all of your guys' point of view. And as a past student of Windsor High School, Miss Forest has always always has opened doors for anybody. Um, like Natalie said, only the teacher knows the students. And I 100% believe in that because I have friends who have gone to her classroom and they are in really good steps and I really think they would um relate to this book a lot. They're not going to go killing people. They're not going to go
241doing other stuff at all. But it will open their eyes even more and see that they're not alone. And what I mean by they're not alone is some of them don't even go home because until late because they're scared of getting jumped. They're scared of um getting chased by other people. I've seen it myself. I've seen kids running because someone that's chasing them has a brick. Like it's just real life stuff that I feel like it will it will bring a lot to a student. Uh, my mom has also showed me movies as like Coach Carter, uh, The Freedom Riders. Those are all really good movies. And it has gang violence. It has real life stuff. It has a lot of things that has opened my eyes as a 16-year-old girl. And I feel like
242maybe try to give Miss Forest a chance in letting the students read a book because only she knows her students. Only she knows what they're going through only because those students open up to her and that's probably why she wants to give them a book that they can relate to. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else that would like to come and speak? All righty. I'll bring it back to the the board. I just want to if I can take like one minute and summarize some things I think and that is I don't think that well no matter how the vote goes I I really hope that we can do a what do you call them? Breakout sessions or a workshop a what? study session because Stephanie or somebody made
243the comment about um I don't know what is going on here with my computer. Anyhow, made the the point and and it's a valid point that this book has gone through a certain number of layers and a lot of work to get it to this point. And so I would hope that the um we could have that session so that way we could get kind of a little collaboration of of what kind of things are we hoping for to get out of what we're teaching the kids and those kind of things. So that way let's just pick any I don't know pick ABC book, right? And everybody hates it but a teacher wants to to to teach it. If if we could have a little work session, we can talk about it. That way there
244are some kind guiding principles, guiding ideas, thoughts that everybody kind of has a pretty good understanding on. So that way I'd be irritated if I did I'm irritated that I had to read 430 something pages, right? Just just to be 100% blunt. And you know, you talk about triggers and different things, right? A lot of you guys don't know this, but do you know that up until just about little more than a decade ago that if I was in certain states in this country that it was legal to kill me, it was because of my the religion I am. >> My religion also. >> Yeah. And and so so when you talk when I read stuff about things culling, taking this group of people and that's wiping them out and whatever, that is my history.
245That's my family history and that's my history. So and and so and that those things kind of go really this is the best. So anyhow I don't know how this vote's going to go but what I want the positive thing I want to get out of this discussion is that I hope that we can have a study session where we can get together with all the people and let's talk about not a particular book. Let's talk about what we're hoping what we're aspiring for for our kids. The difference between utopian dystopian you know dystopian is anyhow I don't want to get into all that stuff because this is a bigger issue than this my the thing that I talked to with Daniel yesterday was if this would have came to us with this book and
246one or two others and said here this is what the concept we're trying to get across this is one you may not like this one here's the other one here two or three there were options options, not opt in, not opt out. I'd be more inclined to say I don't like this book for variety of reasons. But if that's what somebody wants to read and it's their choice, fine. Cuz I'm all about the choice. I want us to have the choice to read or not to read. So if you wanted to modify this or if you could tell me that, hey, I could take this book and they could read this one or pick another title or two. Um, I could probably be persuaded to have that be so where there's options for the families
247or the students to pick from. Um, and so anyhow, but sucks. So, >> Mr. President, would you entertain a motion? >> Uh, sure. Okay. I think we can do both and. >> Okay. I can hear diversity of curriculum and perhaps substituting our judgment for the curriculum process we have now that could be called something different but I think that could be a workshop. I would like to echo on what the last two speakers said. I believe we can concurrently say to Miss Forest, let's have her teach this in the community that guided she is the number one teacher at our high school. Let's do that. Have her come back. Perhaps we visit the classroom. But we don't ban the book, which is what it is when we're saying, "No, not this one. Get another one."
248We have a pilot program with her. Let her take advantage of her expertise that we've not heard anybody say. She doesn't know what she's doing. She can't guide the students through. It's the nature of the literature. >> I don't think anyone has said that. No one has said that she doesn't know what she's doing. >> I didn't say we we didn't hear that. That's what I said. I said we did not hear that. She doesn't know what she said. I think you said it differently. >> All right. But I believe it's both. And I believe we need to have a workshop on these broader issues in redefining how we do curriculum. >> Right now, we have a group of 10th graders that I don't know what they're going to read starting in January. I think
249we should honor the fact that we have spent months with our professionals coming out of the high school and let this teacher who came for the inquisition that she was forced to endure up there for half an hour say let's try as a pilot program and we'll get feedback as it goes. We may find that some of the folks who said absolutely not don't threaten our children and that's my words be exposed to this and that was played out. We may find that perhaps that wasn't their experience. Perhaps we can get some of her students to come back. But I would suggest make a motion that we do both and that we have a pilot program for you start in the spring. >> Yeah. >> Any time now. >> Oh, anytime. >> That we do
250that and we do that broader much deeper dive into a into a you know the diversity of our curriculum and opt in versus opt out and a lot of things which changes our policies and that sounds like it's a consensus. I certainly would support that, but I believe it's not either or. I think we have an opportunity for both. And that allows us, every person who's not sitting on this board that works for the district is nodding at us saying, "Let's give this a shot." If not Julie Forest, who is going to come in front of us next time to say, "I have I have a thing. Let's try a a pilot program and we'll see how it goes." That would be my motion. >> So, thank you. >> You're welcome. as a a point
251of discussion. Um, I could maybe be persuaded a little bit and that if you could modify that a little bit, Julie, what was the other book that you mentioned that >> worries me? >> The other book worries you. >> It's called Brave New World and it's meant for 11, but it's meant for more mature kids. Okay. I think it has more horrific underpinnings than this one. >> Yes. Yes. So, I'm not I'm not as I'm >> She also mentioned the house on Mingo Street. >> Yeah. So, what is Okay. If this is edgy, don't think it's wrong. What's a little bit more milktoast? >> Well, there's something with Hunger Games. My my worry is, and we talked about this, you know, John talk about this. If I offer Hunger Games, my student who don't want
252to read will say, "Oh, I want to do the Hunger Games." Because they've already read it in seventh grade. They've already seen the movie. This book will be a movie within a year and a half. It's >> Oh, what about the House on Mango Street? You also mentioned that book. house management could be more appropriate for MBA class than it would be for my build. And I I honestly believe that. And so, well, no, that's not true because it is a build student, but she's also female. So, >> something that is more it's identity that matches the book that we're looking right now. >> Yeah. I I just I I I just want to say that I'm very >> back to the board, too. >> I'll second Bill's motion. >> Well, that's what I was
253trying to respond to. Yeah, I was trying to respond to Bill's motion because the the issue that I have is I'm just very surprised that no one seems to be concerned at the fact that our, you know, curriculum is just not diverse and and I I'm surprised that that's not I'm very concerned, but we don't we will never approve anything. >> Like I I don't really get mad, but like this is crazy. Then that what's crazy. Are you volunteering to be the parent, the board member that talks to the press and everybody else when we have a problem? Are you volunteering to do that? >> I think that's a bit out of order. >> No, I Okay, you can feel that's out of order, but Bill, we are the people that are supposed to be
254representing the parents and their wishes. And so I'm trying to find that place that is that happy place for everybody. And that happy place is I believe that we allow a edgy topic that I believe that Julie probably is very very well uh capable of discussing those issues. But there are people in this town that I know or parents don't want their kids to read it. They they they don't want to. And and again, we're here for what the parents want for their children. It's the parents children. And so if the book that Malini just said, so if if you want to get a yes out of me, you say, "Hey, the kids, you can read this book. You can read the other book. One one or two of those books. Pick pick a couple
255books." That way they're not mandated. I like the freedom. They're not mandated to have to read this. They could pick one or two. I'm okay with that. That's my issue. I don't want someone to have to read this. If they can if they had a couple options and say, "You can pick this, this, and this. The concepts. We can discuss all those concepts you mentioned with those other books." I'm okay with that at that point because then there's freedom for the kids and the families to have a little bit of of uh >> options of what they're ingesting. >> So point of order, Mr. President, there is a motion and a second I believe in front of the >> and this is the discussion that we're having on that motion. >> I want to apologize
256for raising my voice. That's out of character for me. I just my point is all about the process and what we're kind of the process we're creating. I just am really seriously concerned that we're creating a process where things can never get approved. Like I'm very very concerned that we will not be able to teach new ideas because that's my concern and I >> I acted out of character. So I apologize for that. >> Well, I and I hear your concern. You know, I respect you all. a ton. That's why the options of having two or three options for the issues that are maybe uh tough to go over, that's the good thing. You have options to go over those topics and then you have good teachers that are trained to teach things and answer
257kids questions. That's good, too. It's just but when we're only giving them one option I that's that's my issue. >> Can I make one more small point? This is my last thing that I will say. It's just that in no other class do we give students the option to learn different things. >> That's why I want to have us get all together so that way there are options. I I just but I think and let's talk about that but I would just say that when we have a teacher teaching to like being married to a teacher and we have we have a teacher here it would be really hard to ask someone oh teach this curriculum while also at the same time teaching someone else this thing that maybe has different themes and is not
258exactly the same. So I'm just we'll save it for a study session but I think that could be very very difficult to implement and asking a lot of people >> agreed. Um, is there more discussion on uh, Bill, would do you want to >> I would suggest that we approve >> scythe as a pilot program just for the semester with Miss Forest with some manner of coming back to talk to us about how it went and we schedule the study session to get to the issues about diversity and and and the process and having multiple options. I think that is a separate thing because we so I I I have both of those in emotions two part that addresses the pilot program for the forest build 10 core and a study session to be set
259up sometime this spring. >> Thank you. >> Okay, my what was the name of that one book? >> The house on Mango Street. >> Okay, I don't know who I ask this question. The House on Mango Street. How long would it is that a book that's already approved? It is, but they're not at all alike. >> It It's very difficult as a teacher to try to have a discussion with two completely different books. I don't even know. You're a much better teacher than I ever was. I don't know how you do that as a teacher. >> Yeah, I could weigh in on that since I'm also a teacher. And I just want to say, you know, once again, I do appreciate all of the work that you put into this and also appreciate your, you
260know, teaching mode of offering the one student, you know, that this book was too difficult or a different option, right? Because you mentioned that as an example. So, I just want to say I appreciate that because I have a similar system that I use in my classroom. You know, obviously I show uh more films, you know, than novels. But I I did have a situation where I had one movie and I had one scene, you know, that was somewhat violent and I had to have a talk with one of my students because, you know, she had been the victim of an assault. So, I gave her an option to watch a completely different movie, you know. So, it is possible. Um, but I I do want to say I am thinking very carefully about your
261idea, Bill, and I I think that I I like it because you're right. You know, there's only so much time you have when you're preparing for the semester that's coming up. So, I I understand that, but I think I just wanted to feel like I was heard because by your own data, right? You know, most of the authors that are read are white. And the thing is, you know, the high school years are such a special time because it's really when you're forming your identity. So just imagine the incredible amount of pressure if you don't have a faculty that's diverse and also the curriculum is not diverse and you're forming your identity and you're having to think about all these things in the world and not having that diversity is tough and the next thing
262that I wanted to say is that I've been now a professor at Sonoma State for 10 years and in those 10 years the overwhelming comment I hear from my student is I'm really angry because when I was in high school I did not get diversity in the curriculum in my curriculum. And I'm angry because now because I'm in college, that's the only way I've been able to get this, you know, diversity. And I should have learned this sooner because that would have helped me to be a better person if I would have learned all of this history about various, you know, groups of color in our country. If I would have learned this sooner, I would have been a better person. And I overwhelmingly hear that over and over. Why didn't I get this in
263high school? >> Thank you, Julie. What was the name of the book that you said that the student that you talked to was going to have an issue? There was a different book you were going to have new. >> What was that book? >> The one they're reading right now. >> The house on Mango Street is what you were talking about. >> The house on Mango Street is what they're reading as an alternative. It's something it's it's where that person is or I can't divulge their personal >> Sure. No, that's all good. >> But it's something that's softer and kinder and still looks at selfidentity and looks at you know your moving forward all the things you're not in the place. Yeah, it's also by a very celebrated author who happens to be Mexican. >>
264But I will I'll say this. I looked it up. I've never read the book. But I'll say this. It also says because the novel deals with sensitive subject matter such as domestic violence, puberty, sexual harassment, and racism. It's faced challenges and threats of censorship. I don't know if we're going to find a book that hasn't. So, I I I haven't weighed in, but I think that we can find something like this for every book we bring before you. And um to trust you my point, I think we really do need that study session to think about our process. Um so anyway, I just it's going to be very hard for for Mrs. Boris to teach two books at the same time. I I don't know how that happens. I understand the alternative, but I I
265don't I don't want to put that on her. That that job is hard enough as isn't expect to teach two separate books in parallel. But she is going to be doing that, right? She's going to give options for other students, but that's almost like an independent study option is what I heard her describe versus her trying to in parallel teach two books, 45 on this book and 45 on this book. That is not what I hear being offered. It's more one student is kind of on independent study that she's supporting. Can I just have one thing that just beyond even the fact that I would spend all of my Christmas break and beyond preparing for this which I'll be doing anyway regardless of whatever decision happens tonight. I'm worried about if I know I need
266to have as with John Richard's class and many others have the audio going at the same time as we read them. I don't know where I would put the other students who are reading another book. It's just not possible for me to have two things running unless they all have earbuds and we're not having discussions and separate it. It kind of nullifies the process if we're working in tandem. I can have the same discussion, they can come back, but I cannot send a a book home, a novel home and expect to be read. They won't. I have a hard enough time getting homework my students, right? It's a it's an issue. It's a it's a real thing. It's very um current and expected and likely. So that I keep thinking of course I love a
267discussion as a English teacher even as a a person in the world as a parent is everything else I am very discerning you know I had my my own kids you know partake in but never never a book because I knew that they could handle it I knew that they would talk about it I knew that they would talk about it with me I have to trust that that's true of my students and they're not going to do anything >> you got what I can do I can do what I can I would do whatever it sounds like something that comfortable just I just don't see how that's possible. So until that answer my question so legit think it's not possible. So good. So we'll go ahead and we'll have a >> Yeah, we have
268a >> Yeah, we're going to have a vote. No, >> thank you Julie. So yeah, you already you second it. So Bill, just one last time just reiterate so that way we're all >> motion is that we approve sites for a pilot program with Miss Forest's Oops. Excuse me. with Miss Forest's 10th grade build class with some sort of feedback coming back to let us know how this adventure went and and concurrently in the spring we have a workshop about diversity of the curriculum literature about the process to approve um about alternatives and number of the things that we've we've talked about at length today. >> I I I think we need to break those into two different votes or two different suggestions or whatever. >> Okay, >> study session doesn't need to be voted
269on. That would just be a scheduling. I'm kidding. >> So, we need to vote on time. >> Excuse me. >> We're all going to need to vote on time. >> I'll make a motion to extend until midnight because we have six more items. >> Do we have a second? I'll second. >> Yes. >> Okay. The uh everyone. So the motion is from Bill and seconded by Stephanie that we will accept this book as only this book not no alternatives um as a pilot program for this semester and that that's the motion at this point basically correct >> I mean the the study session we're going to do anyway or it sounds like we're going to do but >> we do have >> right so um so we have a motion and we have a second.
270Um, how do we do this? Do we just >> Okay, call for call for a vote. Do u >> all all in favor? >> Yes. >> No. So feedback um on this issue um is no. So, if we're going to have a different book that is going to get taught this next semester, um I don't think it's fair to Julie or any teacher that they have to now go and create a different curriculum or a different whatever for this next semester and not be compensated for that. So, um whether they were going to do it for free or not, I I don't think that's that's right. So, if there's going to be a different book that's maybe a book that's already accepted or acceptable, um, then, um, I'm okay. I would even be able to
271revisit this and say if you wanted to use this book and Hunger Games, even though it's already been done in seventh grade or whatever, as a test pilot only to then get feedback and have our meeting, I could see us doing that. But when you can't give me any alternative, I I I I can't I can't do this. I can't have Okay, just me. I can't have us having our kids ingest the murder at this rate. If they want to do a different book, I I'm surprised honestly that seventh graders are reading The Hunger Games to be toothful. I don't know when that got approved, but anyhow. So, I'm trying to find an alternative right now. >> Can I make a mot? So, I'm thinking this through, too. where >> I want to be respectful
272of Julie's life >> because we we permit opt outs right that's different than an alternative an opt out is where a student would come and they would say you know what or a parent would come and say I don't and maybe we even send out something to the families before they read this book and say just letting you know this is what this book is going to be about if you want to opt out you can and they will have a different experience but I think maybe we can do that. But >> that's the best I can come up with. >> There there's some possibilities to that, too. I mean, well, people can opt out. I I I like the opt in more than the opt out, but that's a semantic thing that we can
273go over later. I'm my biggest number one concern right now. It's been voted down. I want to be respectful of your efforts and time and and I don't think it's fair for you to have to spend your holiday thing even though you said that you were going to be doing something anyway, but to not be compensated for putting together a different plan for a different book that's already on the that's already approved or whatever, I'm looking for a solution. >> Rich, I think Stephanie made it because the motion didn't carry essentially is what just happened. It doesn't mean the vote is dead. It just means that motion didn't carry. You can make a second. >> I'm making a second attempt to try to find a solution for her class. >> Okay, say it again, please.
274My motion is that we are proactive about the opt out and that there is an opt out option. It's not a true alternative. She's not teaching two curriculums at the same time, but that it's an advertised opt out. Would we be comfortable with that? That is my motion. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> And and the discussion part would be the opt out looks like what? It looks like a notice going out to the families before the semester starts or at the beginning before the teaching of that. >> So let's say I opt out. >> The opt out process is already laid out in ad code. We're required to notify parents of any kind of controversial material. We would include the opt- out process which is on our website and we would
275include that in the notice. Any parent who requested an alternative would be given it. We do that. That is our current policy and that's what we would do every single time regardless of the novel. Well, if we would have approved this tonight, then a notice wouldn't have went to the home to the parents about a controversial book. >> Yes, it would. >> Is that right? >> Yes. No. I mean, >> when when games go out? >> Yes. We're we're required to send out a syllabus. We're required to inform parents of everything that that their children are going to access. We're required to tell them if it's controversial or not. And we're required to give them the policy for opt out. And that typically would would happen at the beginning of the year. In this case,
276she would have to send out some sort of supplementary syllabus updating parents of what their children are going to be doing. >> So all that's great. So if the kid the parent and the family opt out opts out, what is that book that they would opt out into? >> It it doesn't have to be defined now in terms of of approving, but it it would be that that policy already exists in ed code and we would find an alternative assignment. um whether it's the giver, whether it's the Hunger Games, whether it's whatever the the issue that the Miss Forest is referring to is they would also be opting out of the process in the classroom of being able to to listen to it communally and be able to have those discussions. So, they would be
277essentially be going on independent study in the same way that when we teach sex education in classes, we have to find an alternative location and provide alternative assignments. >> Okay. So it sounds like we do provide what I was asking for. It's just we have to go through another process. >> It's it's the process outlined in ED code. >> So it's already in ED code. There's a process. So when I'm asking what's the alternative that we could give them this and that, >> it's whatever Miss Forest decides that's already approved by you. >> Right. So that's what I was asking earlier. What is you know that's how I was trying to get emotion do this and the other book so that way the and send the notice out family hey here's the two things >>
278I think micromanaging >> I think I misunderstood >> no it it it feels like well anyhow >> I'm not trying to micromanage >> hey >> we have a process to opt out I mean I'm sorry that that wasn't clear in my motion what that is is there is >> I don't think you advertised that at the beginning to say here I don't know but >> my my issue bill from the very very beginning has strictly been that we are mandating that somebody has to read this that is the only option they have unless they're savvy enough to understand that they can opt out can I say this it may not be that they read another book it may be that they do a research project on artificial intelligence and the effects it could have on
279humanity. One kid may do that. It could be that some other kid creates a PowerPoint presentation about what it could be a million. It's like independent study. That's what we're saying would be under her purview. It's not that we would say it's this or that. It's this and then a million other things that she would probably look at the kids strengths and what would motivate them and say do that thing to get this not the exact same experience but some aspect of the experience. Okay. Is that fair to say everybody who does this for a living? It's okay. >> No, we were looking at alternatives and most of the dystopian jobs are industry. >> Why does it have to be just Never mind. >> So anyway, that's what it would look like, Rich. And I
280think that's when the micromanaging thing came up. It's very individualized at this point because that's what a teacher does. They look at a student's strength and say, "Well, you're not going to do well in this area. I'm going to give you this assignment." So it's very different than like it's that book or this book. >> So here here's a suggestion I have. How about if we stop right now and we continue on and let's come back to this in about a half hour and let ourselves think and let our brains kind of let some things maybe we'll come up with a good idea >> better. You guys got to decide that. >> Yeah, that's just kind of a thought. >> You mean to go on to a couple other items and maybe come back and
281see if there's another thought that somebody might have on this issue or or or not. I don't know. So, >> do you want to do a straw poll or do you I mean you got a motion in a second. >> Oh, well, >> I made a motion with about just recognizing the opt out which I think probably would have been helpful if we had talked about that at the beginning of the conversation. I just don't think it was top of mind. So, I was thinking I Yeah. Any who, I did make a motion so we could take that vote if we want. So can you >> the the motion is just that we follow our opt out process as outlined in ed code that a notice goes out that it and it goes out at
282the beginning of the semester before this is taught and it details the topics controversial topics in the text and that families have a full opportunity to notify Miss Forest if they'd like their students to >> not read the book and do a different alternative assignment. >> But isn't that already in place? >> I was going to say that one's already in place. So, right, Brian? >> Yes. We just didn't know if everybody understood that when they they voted. I guess >> it didn't seem like everybody may maybe knew that. >> Um, so the I so there's motion Do we understand that there's an opt out process >> basically? >> And then a second. So um I'm not >> Yeah. >> You're you're making a motion to acknowledge that we already have a opt out >>
283to approve the book >> to approve. >> Okay. So approve it. >> Okay. So you're making a motion that we approve the book >> that we have. It's just Okay. And I mean it is really similar. >> It's the same that we already just voted down. >> It is the same thing we voted down. But I think my thinking of what you meant by alternative was like two things happening like half the class could do this, half the class could do this. And I think for opt out it's typically fewer people who take advantage of it. Like realistically it's like maybe one or two usually. That's just me generalizing. So I think it's just acknowledging that we would that that process would still be available >> right for the board's consideration. >> Sure. >> Thank
284you. Um yeah, my only discussion would be that's why I wanted to have the other thing because I I believe that there's a big difference between opt out and opt in. But um anyhow, you made a motion. It was seconded. So let's go ahead and and have a vote on that. Um, anybody who wants to approve uh, this book with the acknowledgement that there's an opt out uh, provision that's already in place. Uh, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> And opposed? >> No. >> Okay. So, the motion doesn't carry again. >> So, let's move on. >> Um, let's Yeah, let's let's move. >> Can I ask Mr. President, if we take a fivem minute break? >> Sure. Yeah. Um yeah, we'll come back at 5 5 after 10. Thanks. >> Thank you.
285like I'm 18 so I can officially drive after >> yeah for less than a year since taking >> another hard item >> 6.3 Okay, we all good to go. By the way, for those of you at home that were looking, every once in a while get somebody looking at my phone. I don't know if it happened to everybody else, but power went out up in the north part of Windsor. So, I'm getting all these messages uh about not having any power. And if you live in the country, no power, no well, no water. Well, I've got the generator, but anyhow, so um power's back on. Um we're going to jump to 6.3, uh consideration of closing big picture learning, uh following the 202627 school year. This item will presented by Superintendent Decker >> and I
286may lean on on a few others as we go. You know, I thought about I thought about this and we've had a lot of discussion around big picture learning and I just want to say that there are a number of people who love the model of big picture learning, me included. Um 3 years ago, we kind of set out to see if we could really bump up our enrollment. Uh and and we've tried. We really have. Uh we've done a lot of advertisements. We've we've talked about different models. We we worked with Heather the staff. Um, and big picture learning as it's currently constructed is not proving to be a a a model that we can or is attracting students. I don't know how else to say it. Having said that, so here's here's the
287deal. We're proposing to close big picture learning as it is currently constructed. I'll state that. However, we're also talking about how we can implement or still use some of what big picture learning is within Windsor High School. And so there have been conversations between principal Buckman, principal Christensen to see what we can do because we know that this is a model and Shannon tells me this all the time. This is a model that we that kids need. And so we I think we recognize that there's a there's certain students who this model simply fits. Um but in its current construct, it's not it's not fiscally solvent in the way we're operating it. So, what we're proposing is that we let our current juniors finish out their experience at big picture learning. In parallel, we continue
288conversations between principal Buckman and Principal Christensen to see if there are aspects of big picture learning that we can put into the high school Windsor Oaks. Those are ongoing conversations that that we haven't finalized or settled anything yet. But before you tonight is that we do close big picture learning as is as it is currently constructed. We allow the juniors to finish out and we do not enroll any new students into the current construct of big picture learning. And if there's anything that my my staff wants to add obviously um or Danielle um I mean please feel free or I can just wait until you potentially have questions. >> Well, I for one would like to hear from Heather. >> Sure. I >> Hello, Paul. Do you have a specific question for me >> or
289would you like >> I want to know how you feel about this? I'm no I mean I I know that's that I know that's a tough question and it's a very emotional thing but but to me I saw how valuable your program was for for kids and I am very torn to to uh prove this be because I saw the the impact that you had for those for those kids. So that I'm sorry. I'm not trying to upset you, but I I just would like to hear from you. >> Sorry. It was that it was that question of how do I feel about it? >> Well, >> I'm heartbroken. Our entire staff is heartbroken. Our families are heartbroken. >> I can't believe that we've reached this point. For my part, what I will say is
290that traditionally when we were North Bay Met and even we our student ratio was about 18 to1. That was our max. And then I two years ago when we started looking at uh lower numbers and what are we going to do um Jeremy and I had a lot of conversations and we kind of sat with well can we do 22 to1 and we're like yes we can we can make that work. We switched to the independent study model where students are coming one day a week instead of three days a week which is what they were doing before. And with that change, um, I think we lost some of the families who would have had their kids coming because they weren't really comfortable with them only coming one day a week. Even if they had
291an internship two days a week or if they were attending the junior college, they really wanted them to be in school more often. So, it kind of limited then the the potential students that we could have. And then earlier this year, um, I'll say very transparently, I became principal 2 and a half years ago. And those first two years, it was my first time as an administrator. There are lots of extra expectations when you're doing induction programs. It took a lot of my time. I was learning how to do SIPS, all the all the things that you have to learn to do as a principal while running the school. And so I came into this year and said, "Okay, I'm I'm ready. I have a plan. I want to, you know, I'm I was starting
292to go to like farmers markets." I had met with other administrators and directors from other big picture learning schools. Had a game plan for how I was going to really start working on bringing in kids this year. Um, but it shifted because last year we really didn't bring in a lot of students and so we weren't seeing that growth. I had a lot of faith that we were going to start bringing them in but then the numbers also started to shift and we were given a number of 30 to1 students and there that's not tenable that is not tenable in this program you could do an independent study program with that number um but you can't have an advisory you can't have somebody supporting the kids to get out an internships there's no relationships which
293is the foundation of what we're doing so when we were faced with that number. We're like, we we can't do that. And so that was pretty much the death nail and we stopped recruiting. >> Do you feel Windsor High will be able to address the needs of those students? >> I think that if Big Picture Learning were at Windsor High, it would address the needs of some students, but I don't think it provides the same thing that we were giving them. Because while I think it would be great if we were able to continue it, if we closed Big Picture Learning, if we had it at Windsor High, at least there would be that opportunity for students to have some more interest based learning and for them to be able to have internships and get
294supported in that way. But it's really not the same because what we create is a small community and we really bring in families and mentors. We're inviting them to exhibitions and I don't know it it's that where students can really be seen in in their entirety. >> How many students >> right now? Um we have I was I was looking at the numbers today. So between we have three freshman and we have eight sophomores, excuse me, seven sophomores. >> How many juniors and seniors do you have? >> We have 10 seniors, although two of them just graduated at the semester and we have nine juniors. One of them is my daughter. This is Do you feel like this program was promoted well enough? I mean, how did you reach out to to families to even
295know that this program existed? >> Did we do a good job with that? >> No. >> So, can I answer that question, Paul? >> Yes, please. So we invested significantly in trying to promote Big Picture Learning Windsor. So I think it depends on what you're asking, right? So did we run social media ads? Did we do all of those things? Absolutely. Uh were there other things that could be done? Probably. Um you know, I know Heather has talked about, well, she didn't she wasn't always making the visits to do the presentations to certain schools. Um and then I think when did didn't when did we stop Heather because you had talked to me about this at our last meeting where we had two students interested and we kind of shifted course was o October roughly.
296>> Yeah. So October where we did talk through all of these things. Listen this isn't this isn't brought before you lightly honestly I came here and advocated for this program 3 years ago uh strongly. Um, and and I know I know these individuals love this program and I know that they're they're amazing people. Uh, when when I came before you last time and your direction to me frankly was to make sure that this was costneutral. And when we did the analysis, which actually we modified, the analysis back then was that we'd have to have over 100 students to be costneutral. based on the the new analysis and we stripped down some of the different supports if we could get 22 students per grade level then we we probably could have finished this because SOA has
297taken off so much that it it takes over a lot of portions of of Heather's position so that it offsets the costs right so I I think the issue and I don't want to be seen here trying to kill a program that's that's not why I don't want to do this but I think the issue is we only had nine students you said n correct other we had nine students for sophomores and at the time when we really started to make this decision we had two students that had that had shown an interest as freshmen and so when looking at those numbers you know it's hard but felt like the direction from you was to make this costneutral or close to it and those numbers weren't going to do that so I'm going to say
298that that we I'm going to say that from my perspective we we didn't try to kill this thing on purpose purpose. We really did try to advertise from what we thought would work. Um, now there's other things we could do. I think to Heather's point, she wanted, she said, "I can get out there, Jeremy. I haven't had this opportunity. I can get in front of people. I can do a better job of selling this and maybe I can get people." But, but I said, "Don't do that because we're coming to you with this recommendation." So, after October, she kind of stopped. And so, I mean, it's that that's really everything I would say, Paul. And again, it's I mean, it's a loaded question, right? Did we do enough? It's a loaded question. We really I
299think that we really tried. Um, could we have done more? Sure. Probably. How much do we do? I don't know. I It's a hard question for me to answer. I know that we really wanted this thing to be successful. I could tell you that. Um, and we came up with a plan and we tried to execute that plan. I I I think I think a lot of us think that this program should be selling itself. And that's kind of my disconnect. I'm like, why is this not selling itself? Um why do we not have I mean I I So two thoughts. One, I don't understand why it's not selling itself. Why? Because I know that we've advertised. I know people know about it, but I don't understand why it's not because I like it. I
300just don't know why it's not selling itself. So that's number one. But then number two, since it doesn't seem to be selling itself or even if we're giving extra, why can't we, and there's a very simplistic, why can't we just make it kind of a core type of thing in the school? But I want and so that's why I want I know Daniel >> and and I just want the audience I know some people in the audience who raise their hand. We're going to make sure absolutely you guys are get feedback. >> Danielle and Heather, I know about different ideas. >> Yeah. So, Heather and I met um kind of to brainstorm, right, what it would look like if we were able to to maintain the big picture model and and bring it to Windsor
301High School. And and during that conversation, we discussed how a lot of continuation schools, right, have use the big picture model because it's it's just a way for those students to connect. They have the internships, right? It's really supportive and it's that small environment. And and then from that conversation kind of grew this idea, well, what if what if BPL on Windsor High School campus was kind of that in between for students who maybe the big box of Windsor High School isn't working, but continuation school isn't where they need to land, right? They need somewhere in between. And so we discuss having kind of a core, right, a BPL core at Windsor High School where students still have the advisory, they have their English class, they have their history class, and they're getting that, you
302know, 1:20 ratio of that that attention from that teacher who's building those relationships and connecting them with the internships. And then they also have access to the Windsor High School classes obviously, right? Like math and science and all that good stuff. So it's a little bit best of both worlds in a sense. And so we've been talking about, you know, what would that look like? How could we make that work? You know, I've been talking to Jeremy. How can I make that work with my FTE and what does that look like? Um, you know, it it takes takes movement, right? We've got to move around teachers and all that good stuff. But really, I think it could be awesome because going from Windsor High School to Windsor Oaks is is a big jump for some
303students and it's not necessarily the jump they need, but that's what we have to offer. So, if we have something that's maybe in in between, right, that that could be a great opportunity for kids. Thank you. >> Be the same. It won't be It won't be BP. >> So, right. But it but it could be something that maybe Gle can't believe what you said that that utilizes the the best of what is there and and try and preserve as much of that best that we have. Is so I I know Oaks has a lower number of requirements to graduate. is BLP is it also lower the same? >> I I think that's part of the logistics that we still need to talk through, right? Because right now BPL has it's it's 200, right? And so
304if it were to become part of Windsor High School, would it now be 220 rate credits, which is what the high school has? Would it remain its own, you know, school code? I think those are all things we have to to work out. >> So So that that was the exact question I was trying to get to. Jeremy, do we does the board have a can we have a policy where we have and actually you could almost do it for almost any core and just say hey this core or this core these are the requirements >> you're in control of graduation >> so so we can have >> the minimum that you have to >> yes but yes >> a very yeah we okay thank you >> I have a comment um so first of
305all you know I just want to say Heather my heart breaks for you because I know how hard you worked on this um effort uh and this program. And I was just wondering um because Jeremy, you and I mentioned in just very casual conversation, oh, what if we had this really cool entrepreneurial hub, right, where kids learn how to, you know, build their own small like microenterprise. And I was just sort of floating that out there as maybe like one more thing to add another layer to this potential core. So, I don't know if you would entertain that at all, but it was just an idea that sort of like bubbled up. that exact design. >> Again, I just want to mention because uh when my daughter was in her last, I think year and
306a half of high school, she did a hybrid, you know, inerson online program. And during that time, because she was in hybrid, that gave her time to start her own little small business. And I feel like that really helped her confidence just shoot up and it just really helped her thrive to know that she had something that was hers. So ju just an idea. So I just want to mention that and we we do have students in big picture learning who are starting their own businesses. So you know that's something they could look at continuing there too. Um, do you have a question? Willer, do we want to go to the public for a second? Um, you guys, okay, I'd like to open this up for the public. I know there were some comments that
307some folks wanted to share. um Shannon Johnson and um you know I just was looking through like all the elements of really high quality um education and the the trends that we're going to in the future um the things I wrote down you know learner centered education personalized individual learning plans real world learning advisory systems interest driven projectbased learning authentic assessment community connection and smaller class size I know that it takes away from other people when you have some kids that seem to need more or you want to do something that's really really unique and special. Um, we're doing some really groundbreaking stuff at Bigure Learning. I just found out that um the international big culture learning credential that I've been working since 2022 um with the first cohort of um of United States students,
308we have 15 kids now that may have earned this credential. They've worked with UCLA um to analyze the learning frames. They're covering the same types of assessments that we do in our um you know our standardized testing for math and ELA as well as socioeotional learning and they've kind of matrixed them together. So the frames for this international big picture learning credential are really really um acceptable in the academic community and um there's work they're working right now with you with um the CSUs to actually get this credential an alternative kind of assessment to be allowing um students to attend CSUs by 2027. So this is pretty amazing stuff that we've been piloting for the last three year four years. So we need to keep on this stuff. It's it's the future of education. Instead
309of just ch testing our kids on a very narrow measure of what they're good at, we're we're looking at how smart they are on two tests instead of how they are smart. And until we do that, until we really look at what kids can do, we're losing we're losing them. We're losing them and it's only going to get worse. So if you do decide that this is not tenable and you're not going to do it, even though we know that we can do continuation school with 15 to1, um at least can we give one person a full-time job next year to continue this program for those kids? If you're going to keep it open for the juniors, you need to have a person that's not doing oh this is not a part-time job. It's just
310not to run an internship program and to create personalized learning that's for every single kid you're working with and create a really cool in school environment. That's a big job. It's a and and I'm retiring. I'm not going to be here. You're going to lose you're going to get rid of one old CTE or FTE that that was expensive. It's going to get cheap and you leave it. We don't and we also have an LTI coordinator that's a halftime position. if you at least make it one position if you're going to do this because it needs to be one person and then then keep brainstorming. You're not done yet. You can't This is the big picture schools that we went to. We went to see one in in the 30 um in Providence, Rhode Island.
311That school's been around for 30 years and it's now a magnet for the whole the whole community. I mean there this is it's possible. We just haven't done it right. And I know it can be done. I know it's we're doing it well for our kids, but we haven't scaled it. And we just kept being told it needs to be smaller and you have to do it different and you have too many people and and let's try it this way. And you know, we haven't given our best go. I think Windsor's better than this. Thank you, >> Bianca. Ube. Um, first things first, I am really, really sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Um, I was a Windsor High School student and I wasn't the best in school. I would talk to my
312counselors to see what else I could be doing because I was failing. I went on independent study and the vice principal told me if you go on independent study I think it was my third quarter. If I go on independent study now my grades that I have will turn into Fs and then I will start a new for the for the fourth quarter is the new grades. So for the third quarter I had all Fs independent study all Fs. I asked if there was any other way I can do anything. Nothing. They didn't mention SOA. They didn't mention big picture at all to me. They mentioned Sakova when I said I wanted to do an inner district transfer because I felt like I was not getting the support at all. I love Windsor High School,
313such an amazing school. a lot of opportunities as well, but when it came to me needing help and me asking for help with my counselor, I did not receive that help. Um, Big Picture Learning, I found out about it when I joined Sakova. Uh, Sakova was the one who said, "Oh, well, we also have big picture learning. We you come to school a day a week. You get to socialize with people." Um, and then we have one-on- ones, which is most likely why we can't have 30 to one. Um, it's better for minimum like students in a way because I can talk with my teach with my teacher one-on-one and she will walk me through what to do. She will actually pay attention to me. If I have a question and I raise my hand,
314she will put her whole like her whole eyes on me and hear me out. At the high school, I never felt like I had the chance to raise my hand to a teacher because they have so many other students to take care of. Here, we can have 15 to 18 students. And Terra, my adviser, she will be like, "Okay, guys, can you guys please be quiet? I'm trying to hear her out." or okay everyone quiet can you guys please listen to this one and at the high school you you won't get that and it just kind of sucks because it's 30 students in a class with one teacher um back to um him feeling like we got a lot of um like advertisements and stuff I didn't know what big picture was um I I
315found out about it my sophomore year I am now a junior and I have been struggling at the high school since I was a freshman. So, it I feel like there was no one told me about Big Picture until I joined Sakova. Um, but yeah, that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. >> I think that's a fair point. That's we didn't start advertising until her sophomore year. >> Thank you. Is there any anybody else who would like to chat? Thank you. Bringing it back to the board. Um, thoughts. >> This one is really hard because I really love the big picture learning program. At the same time, like we look at what's going on in Santa Rosa and like in neighboring districts and there was a decision that was made that was basically
316we don't have enough money, but we're going to keep paying for things that cost a little bit more because we're just going to hope that someone gives us more money eventually. And that is kind of this program costs a little bit more. It's a wonderful program. It's amazing, but it costs a little bit more. And so for the last 3 years, we've been trying to figure out how can we make it balance out and fit in the budget. And we have not been able to do that. And that is that sucks. As we heard before, it sucks because it's a great program. It's like I've been to the graduations every year probably for the last seven or eight or seven. Anyway, um for the last few years since it was a brand new program and
317it sounds like there are some opportunities to continue the model, but it's not going to be the same. Yeah. Okay. the the my my thought on this is kind of the same as I've always thought like if we have some super high achieving students STEM whatever you want to call it and let's say there's only 12 that we can put in a class and they're super high achievers I've always thought they shouldn't be penalized because they're high achievers and we should offer that class for them even though we don't have as many kids in that classes we ideally want to for whatever. And and I look at this in the same light. They're super high achievers, but they might be super high achievers in a different vein and they learn different and they're they're just
318they have different gifts and and so and that's just as important to me as as the other kids with the other gifts. And so that's why I, you know, we we have, you know, people say, "Hey, what do you do on a board?" And I say, "We get a chicken and we have to figure out how to divide it all up." Um, I'm I'm hopeful and I have a lot of confidence that we can figure out how to merge this program and at the high school. I'm going to call it a core. overly simplified, but I believe that there's a way that we can bring the all the best parts of big picture over into the high school, have a big picture core, try to honor that culture and that the um and still do
319as good as we can in in in that area. I don't know how to make that work for sure, but I have confidence that that we can do it. >> Could I clarify my ask if that's possible? >> I think really what I'm asking for you to take action on tonight is allowing our juniors to finish out their experience in big picture learning in the model that they would have experienced had we taken no action tonight. That's my first one. that will cost us more money than it would have otherwise because that's a smaller class size. I'm asking for that. And then what I'm asking for you to take action on is for those freshmen as sophomores who are currently signed up big picture learning to let them know that they won't be continuing with
320Big Picture Learning next year that we would be sitting down with them to find them a different placement. I think that's actually my ask because knowing now that Danielle and Heather are working together to kind of think some of this through. I think the the ask isn't to close big picture so much as what I just said is to let the juniors finish, tell the freshman and sophomores that they're not going to be going to the program next year and let us continue to work on something else that we haven't figured out yet. So, just so I understand, um, everything that you just said right now could potentially turn out to be that in the future, you know, Heather and Danielle work on something that's like the new configuration of this and maybe even change
321the name, for example. >> It could be it could be a million things. >> I see. Okay. >> But I think that's that's really more what I'm asking for and we overly simplified it with the topic. Is there a trademark with Big Picture? Um, do we pay a franchise fee or some sort of a licensing thing to have that in? So, we could have a core that's called Big Picture Learning Core. >> I don't see why we couldn't. >> I'm just prohibited legally. >> Yeah. >> But but is it is a name trademarked or whatever like that? So, okay. So, so I think so. I I mean, I think it's important that the kids have been here already for two years. I I think we have to honor our word to them. I think that's
322the moral thing to do. >> And I'll be honest, I told them we would and I spoke before you and I shouldn't have, but I said I think the board will honor it. So, I shouldn't have said that, but I did. >> Oh, you should know that. >> Um, and I have a question. We well we we've closed open uh we've closed public comment but as a president I can make an exception can I >> look I I I have so much love and respect for Shannon that if she wants to raise her hand and she wants to come up and talk again I would like to open public comment back up. I I just wanted to mention that there's only nine juniors and so I don't think you're going to get an FTE for
323nine juniors. Um and so I would suggest if you're going to do this that you allow any student who wants to with with the understanding that it probably won't be there because Tara won't have a full-time job next year um after next year. But if you if you try and make it a half-time position and ask somebody to do that job, you can't just pull somebody off the street to do this work. We've all worked for we've we've we've we've spent summers. We've spent so much PD. You you need to make a position if you want it to be to to honor the juniors. You need to give it a figure out a way to call it an FTE one. Okay. Thank you. >> Can I ask Brian to speak slightly if if you want
324to hear about next year because he's worked more closely with Heather than I have on on what this looks like. >> I just have a question after you speak. >> So I I I do believe we made a commitment to these students and and we do need to make sure that whatever experience we promised them when they signed up that they get to finish. um with uh the majority of the overhead um with we're talking about you know the principal salary and the front office salary and the counselor salary um a lot of that is taken up with SICOA you know because SIOBA is is quite successful now and um and so if we're thinking about in terms of being able to make this financially solvent um allowing these juniors to finish out um even
325if it requires that we dedicate one person to do all of the jobs and that is everything from being that intern uh coordinator uh to developing all of their curriculum for you know for six of their classes. So that that is a massive job and I I do agree with Shannon. Um where or I would also continue to argue is is we would we would we do need to draw the line somewhere because thinking about the structure of Windsor High School um from 10th grade to 11th grade they're picking up brand new core and that 11th and 12th grade core is going to be their new identity. Now, we may during this time develop a system of what a big picture core could look like and those current 9th and 10th graders could have the
326opportunity to be in that big picture core um once they transfer to Windsor High School. And so, um thinking about the core system, particularly uh I know the staff at Windsor High School has put together, um a draft of a fixed schedule, so it's not that rotating AB schedule. Um, so it would be, you know, the same schedule every single week, which would work much better if you're trying to plan internships and you're trying to develop that. And so the idea is that you would have your core day, which would be your BPL day, and you have that whole day. Your other day is when you're taking your math classes, your science classes, your elective classes. And so Heather's not responsible for having all of those extra staff to be able to provide those courses
327because they're already part of of Windsor High School. And so there there is a a method to get to this, but I just think we need to make sure that we're not bringing on any additional freshmen until we have our system fully in place. And and the question in terms of like the recruiting, this may not just be a good freshman recruiting program. This might be a wonderful junior recruiting program when they have cars and work permits and job aspirations. And we may be able to once we have them into our system and they understand what a core is and they see in the catalog, oh, this is the big picture learning core and this is what it offers. They're like, that's fantastic. Let me sign up for it cuz I'm not leaving schools. Um,
328I'm not leaving my friends. Uh, and I still have the same experience that I was expecting, but my core is completely unique from anything else Windsor offers. And this is why I advocate for for this model. It will not be big picture learning pure. Absolutely not. It will be some version of introspace learning with you know with the staff that understands students. They could have still that that same identity that that all cores have. And that's the great thing about Windsor is we do have this core program. Um but it won't be what it is now. And I think we also have to acknowledge that it's not that small school community. So I have a question which is if if we're looking at making it into a core that is more permanent then why do
329we have to notify the sophomores and the freshman or like at least the sophomores why do we have to tell them that it wouldn't exist? >> We don't we don't it also takes a certain number of students to make up a core and we don't we don't have any of this built. >> Okay. I don't think we're I'm not ready to commit to saying that this is operational next year and I don't know if you are >> and if it's 1112 the freshman would have to have a home in 10th grade before they could even reapply in 11 if it's 1112 core >> she was talking about the sophomores right now >> the sophomores right now um yes if if we decided well I think what we're asking is one let's make sure we're not
330admitting any new freshmen while we do this process because they would only be enrolling in Windsor High School. Between now and when we do course selection um working with the superintendent, we may find a viable model uh to make this a core. Um but I think immediately we just want to make sure that we're not with that families know what the possibilities are and they can start planning accordingly. Um and not wait until late in the spring and then say surprise, you know, you you don't have a school to go to next year. And we also have to make sure the core is wanted by other students as well, right? But we would commit to I think we always committed to a teacher. We were never planning to have a part-time position. In my mind,
331that was never a part-time position next year. >> So Shannon's question, >> we have nine nine juniors. Is that correct? >> That's what And then how many sophomores? >> So it's it's fewer. >> What happens with the existing staff? um they they they're guaranteed a teaching position and so they would they would go to other positions within their credential. >> Okay. >> Terra, are you staying if this get if we vote? >> No. >> Yeah. I mean currently I think up as an optional person to finish up these juniors that I might considering for that job. >> It wouldn't work without Terra >> Terra's who we've discussed to finish out the role. >> Yeah. And I Okay. Also less quick but anyhow are all the kids this this all the kids that are in big
332picture right now they're they may live in all these different places they're are we guaranteeing them admittance to the high school >> because they might be interd district things and stuff right >> so yeah they're they're already they're they're already >> I just wanted to make sure this has been discussed or maybe it hasn't it's been an oversight but that goes back to that honoring kind of a thing commitment for me that you know that if they're if they came and took a chance on us, right? What our program is, then we should they in my mind, unless they were somebody you guys were going to boot out of your program anyway, we should let them in and then let them prove whether they stay in or not. Um, at that point, I think >>
333we weren't planning on kicking anybody out. >> Well, no, I know. But I mean, but it's we hadn't discussed it. If these are kids would be otherwise on inter they may have to do interd district transfer right some schools aren't >> they would already have their inner district transfer approved we would just from having a district release them so they were already set to be rolled into Windsor high school the only reason as as Mr. Decker said the only reason we wouldn't do it is if they didn't meet the same criteria that we that we hold all interd district students to which we'll talk about at a later board item. >> Right. Okay. >> I had a question. Okay. I was just curious like how many people does it take to solidify a core? Like
334would there have to be a minimum of and also with that since we got rid of freshman's in cores would this be a all four year core? Would it be 11 12? Would it be 10 11 12? Like and obviously maybe you don't know the answer of that yet. But >> it it seems that that this would be a program that could work best for 11th and 12th graders because of the the independent nature of it. the fact that having the ability to drive uh or at least the knowledge to be able to get yourself to a location works and so I think we certainly would start with 1112 and then if popularity was there they absolutely could go down to 10th um but that's kind of where we have to see um and I
335and I think once the perhaps if this was always called big picture learning at Windsor High School there wouldn't have been such the fear for parents to to take the leap into the program and That's all the things that we've considered. And so, you know, once once we have the students, they're familiar with the process. They know that they're going to have to pick a core, it's much a it's a much smaller decision to pick the big picture learning core than it is to pick your entire different high school. And I think that's why we think that um you know, and it's one one teacher could do, you know, we'd figure out the ratio. Maybe it's a 1 to 18, 1 to 22, 1 to two. We don't we don't know yet what it would
336work. Um we do know that if they're responsible for three of their courses, you know, that's a considerable amount of work and we need to make sure that we're respecting our teachers. >> Thanks. So J, do we need to make a motion on this? Um I think I kind of made it for you in in that let the current juniors finish out the their experience. >> Okay. Hire a full-time teacher. It would be Terra. and then tell the current freshman and sophomores that they will not be continuing Big Picture Learning Windsor and that we would enroll them at Windsor High School or Sinkova if that was a preference. That's the motion I really am asking for from you. I should have clarified that better in the item and I apologize for that. thinking your motion
337is a also a an implied intent or a more than even implied that we're going to do some pretty serious um >> well not not recruiting not recom I think >> just exploring >> exploring together I I think if we go ahead and we have a 112 big picture core I think it's going to flourish I think some of the things that Brian mentioned I know I've heard that those are some of the >> AG was a problem as well that we struggle with and that won't be a problem at Windsor High School. >> Okay. So, with what you just said, I make a motion that we go forward with that plan >> and I'll second. >> Is there more discussion? Do we deal with the public again or no? Um, okay. Can we vote
338on this issue? Students, >> yes. Yes. Trustees. >> Yes. >> With a heavy heart. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you all. Okay. We're going to be moving on to We already did 6.4 earlier. 6.5. Uh here. Hold on a second. Consideration of approval of the 2627 Windsor High School course catalog. Uh this is going to be uh presented by our principal Daniel Buckman. >> Hey Daniel. >> Hey there. >> Let's talk about a course catalog. >> So I'm not sure if you've read through it and kind of check. So I'm happy to answer questions. I don't know if there's anything you want me to speak to. Um there's not a ton of changes. So I'm going to kind of lean on you for what you're interested in. >> Daniel, you just the red
339right when I read it. I scrolled through and I looked for the red. So maybe just if you give that to the board that won't take too long and maybe they can questions the changes. >> Oh. >> Yeah. So we're we're in the process of phasing an individual health class out and we've worked in those topics into freshman seminar. Um that's a conversation that we've kind of had for a little while is getting health um accessible to our freshmen and just kind of with the structure of freshman seminar. It's a great opportunity to to meet those needs. Um there's a a couple of the red are just course name changes, right? It's not intro to robotics anymore. It's an introduction to um engineering, right? So that's part of it. Um there's the addition of the
340theater classes which I think is really awesome. Um it's something we we've had in the past and we haven't been able to offer and through a lot of requests just through like the perspective mentors and hearing from students, you know, who are like, hey, I'm not part of Nova, but I really want to have access to this type of class. I think we're going to meet a lot of needs there by bringing that back. Um, and then just looking at a couple of the courses that we're not offering. Um, for next year it would be computer science, uh, game design and, um, psych 2. And those are really kind of based on a decision of of low requests and wanting to save that FTE and and maybe a lot that to something else. Um, especially
341thinking about the teacher that that covers um, computer science and game design. He's a math teacher. You know, math scores, we need to work on that. I have some ideas for some some support classes for next year and so quite frankly I'd like to be able to a lot that FTE to to supporting math and focusing on that and then especially with the low interest in those courses it seemed like it wouldn't be a big hit to our course offering. So I mean we still have a huge huge variety of you know for students and um you know especially if they're interested in STEM they can go the robotics route and still get the kind of the game design and the com the computer science embedded within that core. So, it's still available um just
342not as a singleton and again it opens up our FTE to go elsewhere >> and that's it. Those are all the changes. >> I think that this is all really fantastic work. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, looks great. >> Okay, >> any questions? >> We all good. >> We move we approve the 2627 Windsor High School course catalog is presented. I'll >> second. Okay. All Oh, I'm sorry. Is there uh any public comment on this issue? Seeing none. Uh all right, let's move forward. I mean, let's vote is what I'm >> Yes. >> Okay. Unanimous. >> Thank you. Good to see you. >> Hi. >> I wonder if we get Denny's or somebody like sponsor a late night meeting or something. uh or maybe get the onlet express. Um let's go to 6.6
343test results and response presentation. This is going to be presented by Annette Zakonei, director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. >> And and I'm going to propose that we have a study session. I'm just going to do it ahead of time so that we can do a deeper dive into what Annette's going to present because this is a large topic that we can have many, many hours of conversation on. So, just so that we're all aware that that I will have Jenny schedule that if we wanted to have greater in-depth conversation. >> Thank you. >> All right. Good evening. Um, I'm here this evening to share our CAT 2025 results along with our initial preliminary analysis and next steps. Um just want to share that our MTSS and PLC processes are developing and they guide our
344work in creating learning opportunities that serve all learners. Um the data provides us an opportunity to acknowledge our progress and to identify the areas where our system needs some focused attention. Um on a personal note, this is my first time in my current role reviewing and analyzing districtwide data. It's been a significant learning process and I just want to say thank you to Jeremy for um his support and guidance. I feel like we birthed a director last week in uh creating this. So here are our overall district results. They represent 3 through 8th and 11th graders across the district. 40.72% students met or exceeded the English language arts standards. And in math, that number is 27.69%. So from here, we're going to look at individual school performance trends followed by some subgroup patterns over the
345last few years. And as we do so, I'm going to encourage district leaders um and the board of trustees to think system system systemically systemically systemically this is a systems approach that I'm going to be proposing what might be contributing to the patterns or questions that we're always thinking about focusing our attentions on the variables that we know through the MTSS structure we look at instruction teacher strategies we look at curriculum we look at the learning environment and then we look at the learner um also really understanding uh it's important to understand that this data is one piece of information um and that our PLC and MTSS processes provide us with evidence-based frameworks to move taking the data moving into understanding and then into action. So I always like to start with the bright spots
346to affirm our staff efforts and our student achievement. The PLC process includes reflection like what is working? What is it among teaching teams that's contributing to gains in different spots in the district and how can we replicate them? That's our work. We're seeing momentum in English language arts at the fourth and fifth grade level at Brooks. So while the overall growth as a whole school doesn't reveal that as I took a deep dive into grade level by grade level by grade level data fourth and fifth grade are showing significant growth and it represents the efforts they've spent the last two years dedicated in their PLC's uh PLTS on English language arts. We're also seeing Windsor Middle School showing momentum in English language arts and we're seeing high performance at Cali Kamecca 8th grade level and
347Windsor High School 11th grade level and I want to celebrate some signs of growth in secondary math which has historically been challenging. These are our CASP results over time. ELA has a gradual upward movement while math remained relatively stable. Looking at our elementary and middle school students at Cali, we see growth and stability in ELA and a little decline in mathematics. At Brooks, we see stability in ELA and a decline in math. These patterns are under our current, you know, we're looking and analyzing the root causes for this using kind of those four areas of instruction, curriculum, environment, and learner. At Windsor Middle School, where ELA has been historically higher than the district average, they are seeing a slight decline. And in math, we're seeing upward movement. Looking at our high school students, I just
348want to highlight Windsor High School's consistent strength in English language arts and a notable jump in their math this year. SOBA has strong English language arts and math performance relative to district averages. The high school trends are outcomes of accumulative systemic rep um effects from the earlier grades. We're seeing this. we're seeing it show up at the high school level. So to look at our specific subgroups, the first group there on the left is our students with disabilities. And we can celebrate some meaningful upward movement for students with disabilities in both English language arts and math. The other subgroup are socio-economically disadvantaged students. Performance there has remained relatively stable with slight improvements in math. And then looking at our multilingual learners, which is always a focus. So we want to ensure equitable accessible learning. Um,
349we can see that our students that are reclassified as fluent English proficient, that's this the table on the bottom right. These students are consistently performing above the district average. This is a powerful success story that we should highlight and celebrate. Our English language students excluding the group that has been reclassified performs significantly lower. This gap is predictable and it underscores the need for rich languagerich tier one instruction and consistent scaffolding. Something that is requires um additional professional development for our teachers. And finally exp um I want to share that parent education is historically correlated with achievement in schools and school districts and this pattern appears in our district as well. MTSS and a strong tier 1 instruction designed to mitigate these predictable effects of socioeconomic and educational background are in their developing stages in our
350district. I want to highlight the importance of instructional clarity of our teaching pool, our teaching group and our academic language support across all classrooms. And I'll share some ideas about where we go with our results. We have the transition from data to action. This is the MTSS triangle. It shows you tier one, which is universal support curriculum for all students. This is all students in a general education classroom getting what they need and when they are showing in increase in needs that we accelerate them in a way that dictates we provide intervention at a tier 2 level significant intervention at a tier three level. We still need to go deeper in root cause analysis with our data. I've spent significant amount of time in the last month digging deep looking at our subgroups. Now I
351get to do that with our principles. It is a systemwide effort. It's not isolated to any grade level or any school. So the story that's emerging from our preliminary analysis, zeroing in on those four areas that I talked about, we can confirm that the story is not of inadequate effort or lack of care of our staff. It's a story of a system in motion. We're learning. We're building. We're recalibrating in real time across schools and grade levels. We see dedicated teams working hard right now to implement the PLC process. We're also seeing signs of a system that is still developing the coherence needed for consistent predictable student outcomes. One of the findings that we came across was that there was a mismatch in our RESSAR predictions and what actually showed up in the spring assessment.
352It didn't reliably uh forecast their performance. And what I found in investigation is that the assessment accommodations were not administered consistently across our school sites. There are things you can turn on and off on the Renaissance Star assessment that can be done at a site level and we had not calibrated across the district about what was going to be turned on and turned off. And so for example, the CASP's assessment is not timed. a student can take it and take as long as they need to. And so decisions were made at different school sites that we would turn off the timed feature of the STAR test. The STAR test is only 24 questions and part of its ability to predict is the ability of the learner to finish the test in a certain amount of
353time. So when the timed feature is turned off, the predictability goes down. Uh we also examined the development of our current professional learning community. The teams represent a major cultural and structural shift. Um and we've already already created a lot of momentum, but the work is still very early. Not all grade levels at every school or departments are represented in our current professional development series. So what what can result in that is that one the ones that are in the training series are still developing their expertise and their leadership confidence and there are some communications that may not be making it to every one of our PLTs. So this is all very normal for year three of a professional learning community that we're still building shared instructional practices. They take it takes repetition. It takes
354communication. It takes clarity and it takes coaching. Collaboration itself is a learned skill. And so we're building that here in our district right now. So through this lens, our data tells us a story about adult learning. Our teachers, our administrators learning that whether for students or adults, it's never linear. It requires background knowledge, skill building, opportunities for practice, for reflection, for trust. And what we see in the data is not a lack of effort. It's actually the predictable developmental stage of a system that's still strengthening its foundations. So, my investigation confirms a few things. We have the heart in our district. We're building the expertise and now in my role I feel it's responsible to strengthen these systems. So what are we going to do next? What I'd like to do is engage site leadership
355teams in learning root cause analysis processes consistently across every site. deepening their knowledge of how to facilitate this at the site level employing that ISIL framework instruction curriculum environment and learner so that we can build some leadership addition strengthen the leadership because the site teams drive the coherence it's not me from my office in the district it's the site teams and so I feel a deep responsibility to support them in doing the process that we know is needed because it's easy to to look at data and go, well, it's probably this or it's probably this. But to engage in significant root cause analysis requires hypothesis. It requires gathering extra data. It requires hard decisions about how we're teaching what we're teaching and that takes time. Point two on there is to strengthen tier one instruction.
356We need to strengthen this because a well-implemented MTSS framework expects that about 80% of our students will achieve standards if tier 1 instruction is evidence-based, has clarity, teachers are confident, and we're using evidence based strategies to make it happen. So, currently our data is showing that about 40% of our students are meeting expectations in ELA, about 20% in math. that tells us tier one instruction is where we need to put the medicine. It's where we need to put our energy. And so some of the key instructional training and topics that um I'm envisioning for the next 3 years are strengthening our elementary primary teachers in their understanding of the science of reading for foundational K23 literacy. Our math framework is new. It's only 2 years old. Sonoma County Office of Education is just now developing
357a series for teachers and administrators. I want to take our teams there. Universal design for learning builds access for all learners. These are strategies and a framework that allows for access for all types of learners. These are skills we can teach our teachers and our teachers can implement. they're happening in every classroom around the district. Just the full spectrum of these strategies are not happening in every classroom. So that's a point of an area where we can grow. And then finally, culturally responsive pedigogy, understanding that the students sitting in front of us, in order to engage them in learning, we need to create and ensure the curriculum is representative of them. So point three is to cultivate a PLC culture that honors and develops our teachers and I'm deeply committed to that. These steps my
358hope is to create and strengthen our cohesive coherent system not isolated initiatives. Teachers are tired of isolated initiatives. They have a feeling of one more thing. We are deeply committed in our uh district administrative team in making sure that we strengthen and support the development of a professional learning community with our educators. So that concludes my presentation. You can see we have a lot of work still to do. >> Thank you, Annette. Um are there some realizing that we're going to have a work session. Are there questions, comments that we want to do now or we want to save for our work? Is this going to come up quick? >> Our work session like in the next >> I think we better make it as quick as possible cuz I could talk about a half
359hour right now about what's going on here. But I think it's we're better served >> if we do it in a session, >> right? >> But I but sooner rather than later, right? And that that was >> can you do this for me? There's certain things that you'd likeation on or questions you'd like answered so that I we can develop that and be prepared for the study session. That would be >> well what are you thinking? I mean >> if there's certain data you'd like to see if you want to see grade level data or popo data or >> I' I've already looked at all that data so I don't for me that's maybe for the other board members might want want that. Um, I I I more want to look at solutions. I I
360I'm really not wanting to point fingers or or or anything like I just want to start working on solutions and and how if we talk about tier one instruction getting better. It's going to be very challenging when half of our students are more than a a grade below. So, so how do you have instruction with how do you get good curriculum when half of your class is a year behind or more? I mean, these are conversations that that we need to have and and discuss what's that going to look like. I mean I think yeah it's an investment in early education which this is we've done that right and so we'll hope to see that later but >> I think maybe we just have a good conversation >> I think so >> uh and we'll
361put together probably three hour meeting I'm assuming that reasonable >> that seems reasonable >> yeah I just have one question um there is a section here that's called key content training topics and I would just like more yeah more explanation on what these are. You know what these mean? Like for example, what does it mean to have culturally responsive pedigogy and also like new math framework? I have no idea what that means. >> I can send that. >> Yeah, that would. >> Okay. >> Yeah, but that that specific section >> that makes sense. >> So when we have this workshop, are all the math teachers going to be invited? >> Well, open meeting is different from them inviting. And the reason why I'm asking >> that would not be what I would do. That's not
362my first first step to get that conversation with you to identify you know your understand your perceptions of what the problem might be some of ours have more of a conversation versus presentation that's >> okay >> you want to go further after that meeting then I say >> okay that that's fine it's just the uh I I'm frustrated because I'm not seeing the movement that we need to have. >> It depends though. I want to make sure we say this. >> Okay, >> we're frustrated too because we want to jump 10% every year. >> Let's not forget that the high school jumped 5% in one year. >> Okay, >> which is that's a lot of kids if you figure 450 student class. >> A lot of kids that didn't meet and now they're all a
363sudden. So I think that what we want to do is pinpoint where our problems exist and make sure we understand why those problems existed and solve those specific problems and not make a blanket blanket statement about all of our because there there are some areas we did well right and there's some areas we really did not. So if we don't understand why we didn't do well I think that's the greatest problem. How do we solve the problem? We don't really know what problem is. >> So that's really where I think our conversation should lie. Okay. >> A deeper analysis because this could be a three-hour really if we're doing this right. >> So it's a I would say it's a greater >> analyzing of our pressure. What's going to do? We have some specific areas
364where struggle you know talk through those. >> Okay. I I it's just I I really want to someday when I'm not on the board go away feeling like we made some significant improvements in mathematics that has become systemic and that it's going to continue to incrementally get bigger small increments big increments but in the same in a direction and I know everybody I think wants that it's Um, this is one particular subject that I'm I I'm frustrated because I don't know the answer. I have to lean on the professionals to to get us there. And so, cuz I don't really have I hear you. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah. Generically, I think we're struggling with reading, which when as a teacher, as an early education teacher, Paul, when you had a student who
365couldn't read and maybe couldn't do math, you're probably going to prioritize getting that student to read before you prioritize getting them to do their math well. And if you look at our scores, we're struggling with students being proficient in language arts. So, I think what's happening, and we've generic, we've talked about this a little bit, is those teachers are saying, "I can't dive in as fully as I'd like to on math until I get them to a certain level of reading." So, I think that we're making some good decisions. An early investment in Mattie Washburn, I think, is a good decision. Okay? >> Um because you know our trend, right? We're starting at a pretty low point and then trying to build. But I think these are all good conversations to have in a study
366session. We go deep. I just wasn't sure what the study session >> and you this we're all good. >> No, but you sparked some sparked an idea in my head too. I would like to get an update from what's going on at Maddy Watch because you're right. We have invested a lot giving them aids. We have a educational coach now over there. So I would really like the board to get an an update on >> progress at Matt Wash. For sure we can do that. >> Bill Bill had a comment. So for things to study in the work session, I have two and then just an observation. Um I'd be really interested to take a little dive into the quarter of our students in both ELA and math that were standard nearly met. >> Mhm.
367>> We can get disagregated there to say where are their where are their close ones. I know that can be a very broad range. The other the second piece then is to harmonize how we have 27% proficiency and it's different but let's talk math and why 3/4ers of our students are not getting D's and Fs in their math grades to say what's what's our grading period and how does that look like on classroom performance-based longer term year termtoterm and yet we have a snapshot right and those seem to be inconsistent. So, so we can talk about that. Uh the third piece, I'll just go to the third point and just an observation um of what's next was to cultivate a culture that honors and develops educators. I think we swung a missed in 6.2 on
368that with our educators and I think we need to think about if that's something we're doing. It could be inconsistent from a message that people got earlier in the meeting today. I understand there's a lot of different reasons for that, but I absolutely agree with that and I think that is is conveyed in small things and large things and we just need to be aware if we expend our credibility capital and that say well that's going to be one of the key cores we'll get these people who are going to be our culture you know our educators they know what they're doing we'll we'll empower them so I think a workshop is very good I think you know Here's another one just if you could look at I'd be interested pedagogically how we're chasing our
369tail in a system where the statewide medium is 50% you know and half the people don't make the standard. I mean well I don't even understand statistically how that works. Um but >> anyway those those would be my thoughts and I think that would be good to help us construct this. >> I just had two thoughts. Um, and this came out of these are not even my ideas, but I it came out of a conversation that I had. I met with some teachers in our lower grades, >> and they said that one of the challenges that they see with statewide testing is that somehow their curriculum in the lower grades needs to be revised because the language that they use in the classroom does not match the language of the questions. >> That's called tier
3702 vocabulary. Malini. Yes, ma'am. And and again, you know, these are not my ideas, but um that was one. And then the other idea that I thought that they brought up that was very interesting is that I mentioned, you know, what if we had some sort of um for lack of a better term like a reward system, you know, for teachers that are like, you know, overperforming or really helping their students to jump up right in these uh in these tests. And the teachers uh that I met this little group of teachers they said no that would not work because uh I didn't realize this but I guess in some grade levels they actually choose their students and they said what would happen is that the students would try to choose the best students you
371know so that they could you know meet that requirement. So I said okay I'm sorry I didn't know that but I just thought I would mention like two interesting ideas that came out. >> Cool. Thank you everybody. Um >> I wanted to really quickly comment. >> Absolutely. >> Tissues. >> Yes. Um I had something to say. >> It's getting late. >> I just I had it will come back. Um just when we were having our workshop, two things that I wanted to think about. one is I think it's interesting kind of what's happening around us because I think there's so much um upheaval in some of our neighboring districts that maybe the expectations of what people expect out of public education what it can provide has actually lowered a little bit and that if it
372can be stable that's good enough. Um so I do worry about that. The second thing is I I feel like there is kind of a lack of motivation among our families to increase test scores. I don't feel this is a priority for them and that's just what I'm seeing from our constituents. >> Yeah. >> And if they're not driving this, then it will be really hard for us to move it forward because families do matter a lot in driving this type of momentum. So maybe there needs to be a broader conversation with our bigger community about >> That's a good point. >> This then that's all I have. And I did order McDonald's for everyone in here. >> You did not. >> Yeah. >> We have a little snack. >> She's the top vote getter
373every time. >> If our president will let us take a little break, there's a little snack for everyone. >> So Jeremy, on this issue, this is just information. >> Just information. >> Yeah. >> So unless there's any other Thank you. Unless there's any other uh stuff, we're going to we're going to attack this at at our >> in January. Time in January. >> Yeah. Number number two, Stephanie was gracious enough to do some little snackies for to give us a little maybe a fivem minute break. But three, um we send these girls home. We have our students over here. Okay. Our student trustees, >> I know you guys might have finals or something tomorrow. Uh, and if you so if you would like to leave, there will be no uh whatever. And if you want
374to stay because you probably heard there's McDonald's snacks, huh? >> Yeah. >> I want to stay for the rest of the meeting, but I will leave for McDonald's. >> And so anyhow, so we're going to have a five minute little break real quick and then uh and if you guys stay leave, I just wanted to make that option for you guys. So I was getting Oh my god. I asked him I asked him if he had he said no I must but um yeah I was yeah she was like I didn't even know anything about Oh, this I actually eat dinner for you. I don't normally eat dinner, but Right. Okay. All right. We're going to be back in session. Everybody at home that's watching, if you see us eating something, it's because it's 11:30.
375We're starving. and Stephanie Ahmad gave us a parting gift as president by feeding us a little food and we're going to snack on it while we listen to Pete and his wonderful jacket. Uh talk about 6.7 uh consideration approval of the uh provisional intern permit pips uh for uh Donna Carol. >> Thank you. And thank you Stephanie for the wonderful food. >> Appreciate that very much. Uh, so we're going to spice this up. Bring the energy with the PIP. So, this is a provisional I'm seeking approval for a provisional intern permit for Donna Carroll. Uh, she's supporting the legacy program at Windsor High School. Um, and she is being additionally supported by North Coast School of Education uh through the permit holders program. >> I'll move approval of the paper. >> I'll second that motion.
376Is there any discussion? No. >> Any discussion from the audience? >> No. >> Thank you. Bringing it back in. Um, all those in favor? >> I I >> I >> All of 70. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Now, we're going to move on to 6.8, consideration of approval of revised board policy 5117, interdiction transport policies. This is presented by Assistant Superintendent Brian Williams. So this is an update uh to our interd district policy. Um and what it does is two things. One, it specifically outlines the reason why students can be removed from our district for non-performance. Um the original language just said that the board shall direct the superintendent to create policy. And that policy was on our web page. the superintendent felt that it was important um that that the board
377vote uh take action on the actual policies um since there's been some interest in um reasons why we would ever remove a student from our district. Um so this policy specifically uh uh lays out the requirements that you must maintain to be able to remain in our district. Uh this policy also um specifically identifies specialized programs. And the reason why we're calling out our specialized programs is that when you fill out the interd district request form, one of the reasons that you can select is a specialized program and that should in theory give you priority for being not only admitted to our district but released from your home district. So what we doing on our website as well as in our board policy is specifically enumerating all of our different policy all of our different
378programs the core systems our CTE programs. Um Heather Bailey went through every single course catalog in the county and made a comparison and then highlighted the areas where um Windsor has programs that no other schools have and we have quite a few. And so this basically just takes what's from our website and puts it in uh into board policy. So at the point that we do interact with the county office, the first thing they ask us is send us all relevant board policy and this is what we would send them. >> Very good. Thank you. Um is there any questions for >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I just had one. Oh, we got to hear you. >> I'm sorry. >> I was just wondering if this uh board policy um is available in Spanish for
379parents that need that. >> Well, the website, yes, is is translated. Um in terms of the actual entire board policy in Spanish, I don't Jen, do we have that? We don't. >> But everything on our website is translated. But you're talking >> that'd be the real >> we should we should bring that up to CBA the CSP. >> I think it's important. >> We'll check >> because I think the issue with having it on the website is that I know often uh Google Translate is what translates it and it's not anywhere near being as accurate as it should be. So everything that comes out of my office is translated by a native speaker and so all of those forms are are translated. Um so when when Claudia, my secretary, sends all the information to the
380parents, she's translated it. >> Oh, that's awesome. Amazing work. >> Want to mention that employment. >> Um so there is also the Allen bill. Um that's something that we're still considering. Um it's included in there just uh as a as a first reading so the board is aware um that it exists. Um but it's still not totally we're u Mr. Decker's working with council to make sure that that's an an area we want to explore. Well, I chose we really need to I mean this is we're trying to get this in place because there are certain districts today but because our specialized programs is so strong it doesn't feel like >> so when we bring this back in January there's there could be a likelihood that the the section of the Allen bill is is
381taken out um But what we didn't want to do is spring it on you in January without having in in the this version of the board language >> just so you know essentially allows you uh to treat somebody who works in Windsor at least 10 hours per week. >> Oh >> that's what it decision but we don't necessarily need Cool. Is there any other questions? We want to make a motion and then take it out to the public. >> I'll make a motion that we adopt this in our district transfer board policy. >> I second the motion and if I can any discussion before going to public. Uh any public comment on this item? Nope. All right. Bring it back to the board. Um, we've got a motion and a second. Any more discussion? Are
382we ready to vote? >> All righty. Can we have a student trustees? >> Yes. Yes. >> Trustees? >> Yes. >> All right. Motion carries. >> Um, thank you very much, Brian. >> Sorry. We were voting to approve this. This is just a I should have stopped you a lot a while ago. >> Oh, no. It's an approval. >> It's for approval. >> The next one is approval. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. 6 uh >> nine >> discussion. Got it. Yep. So 6.9 uh consideration first reading of the proposed vote board board policy updates uh presented by Ryan. >> So this is uh this is two months worth of updates uh for you guys to to take your first reading. Um working with the board subcommittee uh there was a request to pull out one specific section
383on course of study um because that it will actually significantly impact the curriculum that we offer. For instance, uh the new law requires that cursive be taught from uh first grade through sixth grade. Um so um so the the the request was is that when we bring this back to you in January um to be able to have a separate discussion and presentation on course of study to make sure that the board is aware of everything that that's in it um so you can make the most informed decision. So just so the new law is that you have to teach cursive. >> Yes. >> Got it. >> Because they want you to be able to write a check out by hand. >> Anyhow, okay. Thank you, Bri. Um >> is there >> I disagree. >>
384We'll have we'll have a discussion. >> Any any uh questions by anybody? Okay. Um want to go out to the audience. Is there since it's the first reading any Nope. Doesn't see anybody jumping up. Bring it back to the board. Anything we want to do besides just take the first reading and >> move on. >> All right. Thank you very much, Brian. >> All righty. So, that's so 6.10 consideration of approval of school plans for student achievement also by >> Yes. >> superintendent. Um, so, uh, we have historically in in the last year or two switched this over to the scorecard presentations, but we still have the formality of the board approving the school plans. Um, so these are the formal school plans and then you will be getting uh your scorecard presentations either at
385the board meeting or as part of the study session, whatever we decide um in January or February. Okay. And this is consider we have to approve this one. Okay. Any questions amongst the trustees? Uh any public comment on this issue? All right. Bring it back to the board. Can I get a motion and a second? >> I'll move to adopt the student achievement plans. >> Okay. And a second. And okay. Uh, student trustees. >> I just always say yes. So, I thought maybe you should say yes first. >> Yes. >> Trustees. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we have 25 and got it. All right. So, that's 6.10 10 and then 6.111 consideration approval of the 2526 first interm financial report presented by Austin M. You know how to say it. All right, first interum. So,
386as you you might remember me talking about adopted budget, uh what's the more years I've done this, the more I've kind of been interested in adopted budget because the state views adopted budget as being the budget. It's a budget that goes to them. It's your budget for the year. It's the big one. But the more I've done this, you have the least amount of information at adopted budget. You're guessing on not guessing, you're taking educated assumptions. Um but at first interim we know a lot of the assumptions. We know what our certified enrollments at. You know, we know what attendance was for the previous year. We certify our duplicated accounts in the first week of December. So we have a very good understanding of what they're going to be when we're creating the budget. And
387then the stirs and pers rates are set for the year. So by the time we roll around to now, it's kind of a it's the first checkpoint where we go, okay, we got this much enrollment, we have this much staffing, it's it's a good um it's good checkpoint. So as we looked at this year, truthfully, a lot of it aligned with adopted budget, but there were some little tweaks um and they just happen to balance out. So as you look at colas, those were set in July. Again, we didn't know that um at adopted budget, but those were set and adopted in July. Enrollment projections, we gained 45 students. So, that's phenomenal. Um and in previous years when we saw a gain of students, we also saw a gain in special education students, which typically
388costs more. Uh we didn't see that this year. We saw it stay flat. So, that was, you know, an enrollment gain is always positive. attendance was the one uh negative. So last year we actually certified attendance a little lower from what we kind of thought we were on pace for and a lot of that had to do with summer programs and and summer programs are so small that they don't really get taken into account. So what you guys know as board members is that we are funded based off P2 which P2 is certified April 15th. So, we should know what our attendance is come adopted budget when we're building it in May and June. The one piece that's not talked about a lot is there's a lot of programs that were actually funded based off
389of annual which goes through June, but those are usually smaller programs. So, those are our non-public schools. It's community day schools. Um, and we have roughly about 40 kids in those programs. And those attendances, something happened from February to June where they came in much lower than what we were expecting. enough to drop us about.3% but still something. Um, and so we use the same attendance percentage that we had in previous years. Obviously, we have hopes of going more, but I do have to say that attendance percentage is historically very high for us. I mean, 94% is um I don't want to say the highest in Sonoma County cuz I don't know that for sure, but I'd be shocked if anyone was higher than that. Um, that is phenomenal. That's well above uh even precoid
390uh level eras. >> We bumped back to 95%. >> Yes, sir. >> It's that $500,000 million. >> Yeah. Right now we're So this year if that goes up a percent, it's about 300,000. We recognize the full amount. Yeah. Uh and then um the biggest thing though is that unduplicated percentage. So if you look 55.9% uh and I have to give a lot of credit to Mr. Williams sitting over there. So with duplicated, you know, we're identifying students based off what they certify at the beginning of the year. You know, we're collecting information on them. Um, and while we can't, you know, control whether a student is low income or whatever it may be, what we can control is how we're well we're doing when it comes to documenting the information. And we were roughly 75%
391last year of our parents have filled out the forms and this year our numbers skyrocketed. I mean, we were almost to the point, Brian, you don't by chance know off the top of your head, do you? 95%. So to give you guys an idea and the reason why it was so important for Brian to get on board was the previous year when I was going through it all, we had kind of developed a task force to kind of start diving down into it and we were getting blocked at the secondary levels. At the middle school and high school, we were seeing that most parents weren't filling out the forms mainly because at the elementary grades we have before and after school care where there's a significant impact in order for them to enroll in the
392program, they're filling out the forms. So that's where, you know, Mr. Williams' brain worked wonders and we got that up to 95%. So >> yes, sir. So um the way supplemental funding works, so within the local control funding formula, we're funded based off of attendance, but then we also get additional funding for students that are are classified as low-income uh foster youth English learners. So the more students percentage that we have in those areas, we get additional funding for to help support them. So um by once you hit the 55% mark, that funding starts to go up significantly and the more you go into it, the more and more funding you get. Um hence why it's a formula. So and that's per student. So now that we've hit that threshold, the more and more that
393we go, the more and more we're getting per student. So that threshold was a huge number to hit. Um, and it also unlocked a few different program changes. So before and after school care was just changed from 75% down to 55%. And um, and what that did is because it was changed down to 55%, it unlocked a new rate for us. So now we get $2,700 a student that's been before and after school care as opposed to $ 1,700 and well actually it dropped down to $1,592 and was projected to continue to drop. So we were very concerned about it but the 55% and up hasn't dropped. Used to be 75 but that number has stayed consistent. >> So now we're in the consistent number luckily. >> Austin I have a question about that. Do
394you track the funding the extra funding that you're getting? Do you track uh what resources are then given to the student? >> Uh on a per student basis? >> Yes. >> Uh no, but what we do is within the LCAP, we identify all of the different actions we're taking to make sure that we're addressing the needs of those students. >> Another byproduct of being over 55% is the LCAP. You no longer have to call out every individual subgroup because at 55% it's assumed, not assumed, it's implied that when you're doing a strategy, you have such a high percentage of unduplicated now that it applies to everybody. So, it should make Brian's job much easier now that we're over 55%. I guess do we have language uh to address how we talk about students that are
395getting that extra funding of how um I guess how should I say this of how they're getting that extra support like >> yes the outcome >> it's all in the >> all of that is the >> it's required to talk through what were we successful in our strategies were we not talk about each significant subgroup yes that's where it's at Um, the one thing I do want to talk about with unduplicated pupil percentage, and I'm glad that we're having this conversation cuz I didn't know if we ever would. It was always a hope, but I didn't know that we would. The unduplicated percentage is actually funded based off of a three-year average. So, it's your average of your 3 years. So, last year we're at 51.9. This year we're at 55. The year before we
396were right around 51. I think it was 51.2. So, this year we're funded off the average of that. So, as the next three years progress and we if we can hold that, we'll continually get more and more funding and that's built into this budget. And then the next big piece you heard uh a long time ago tonight, that trash service. So, we've built that into this budget as well. If you notice, it's only 500,000. The reason it's only 500,000 is because we have Cali Calm Act that has its own budget and so their portion is built in. The Windsor Unified portion is 500,000. So this is our unrestricted budget. So again, uh I'm going to beat a dead horse here. We have two budgets within our budget. We have unrestricted and we have restricted. Unrestricted
397is kind of our core budget. Um and it does include all the cap expenditures as well. And then restricted are going to be all the additional grants we get before and after school care, special education, uh all the title funds, medical. I'm trying to think of all the things we talked about tonight, right? just a ton of grants and that's one of the things that's great about our district. We have great CTE programs uh which generate a ton of funding um that was talked about tonight that there's special funding for the build core that's restricted funding right that can only be used in the build core. So you know as we look at unrestricted I always have you guys look at unrestricted and restricted separately because it's important to kind of know where our core
398budgets at away from the grants. But one of the things that I have kind of come to to realize is even at the school sites, they don't necessarily know, hey, this counselor is paid for with a grant. And so sometimes I think that's a good reminder for you guys as well that even though we're looking at the core, there are positions that are grant funded at our schools um that you know they may not realize and deem necessary. So that's just a good reminder for you guys. And then of course the biggest thing with this budget of is that our largest um dollar-wise union we're not this year or for the outy years. So that will have a significant impact uh hope you know when that time comes and this is combined. So this is
399looking at everything together and I have to say uh we receive a lot of grants in this district. I've learned that kind of as I've had to look at other districts budgets. Um, we are very fortunate in this district to receive a significant amount of grant funding. And I know Bill always talks about it, but that revenue figure, we're consistently over 70 million a year, whereas it seemed like 3 years ago we were in the 60 millions. Um, over 300 grants uh in this district. So um again when we looked at combined what has been the trend with this governor and that might be changing with a new governor changes with every governor is this governor likes to give block grants. He likes to give a grant where you can spend it down over the
400course of three or four years. We develop plans on it and then we execute those plans. So, as that happens, we get all this money one year and then we spend it down. And that will be a big change going in from first interim to second interim is in January, we'll get the governor's new budget. So, we'll know what those one-time grants are for next year if there is any, which we hope there is. So, this is our fund balance. Um, reserve for economic uncertainty. We have a board policy of 5%. So that 5% is built in. Uh we do meet it each year. Restricted, committed or assigned. So again, restricted is the restricted funding because we're looking at a combined budget here. So that includes, you know, different grant funds as well. Uh we
401currently don't have anything committed in our general fund. Uh and then for assigned, we have assigned a few things just in case we need them like possibly additional buses. Uh that would not be used buses. They'd be gently or they would be gently used buses, not new buses, but things that What's that? >> Like a BMW. >> Yeah. >> Uh and then there's our ending totals for combined. And this is the Cali multi-year uh projection. Cali doesn't actually break out unrestricted and um restricted like the general fund does. So we always look at it combined. One thing that's interesting to note about Callie's is if you notice on our combined there's negatives all three years. Cali actually uh spent most of their grant funds early on and so those are going to start coming to
402an end. Um and then those will be conversations that we have and hopefully we get more grant funds in the future to do the things to to continue doing the things that have been going well there with those grant funds uh or possibly look at doing other things with those grant funds. and we'll obviously get the principal involved with those conversations. >> And then any questions? >> Bill. >> Yeah. Could you go back to the district combined slide, Austin? >> Um, so I'm pleased to see on the excess we have the structural deficit that 1.7 million dropping to 800,027. But as I think I heard you say, we we don't have the additional expense if there's an additional expense over and above the assumptions of the CPI of the WDEA contract, but you don't have
403that additional revenue of what grants might be coming in out of the January budget. >> Yes. Right. um on this and I asked you this question before the meeting. A number of people have asked me, well, what is Windsor doing differently than, for example, our sister high school district and one of the elementary feeder districts in Santa Rosa that gets them in such hot water and budget and serious cuts were made and now they're facing those again. Is is there a few things that you have in our budgets or the way that we're looking at things or the assumptions that have helped us stay out of those troubles? >> You know, I I'm glad that you mentioned it before the meeting u because it gave me time to kind of think about it and my
404answer is actually going to be a lot different than probably what you expect. So, you know, I've now been around long enough where I've seen the multiple generations of administrators come through Santa Rosa, and I think a lot of people will place blame on prior uh administration. And I'm not placing blame on current administration, but one thing that I feel like we would do a better job of frankly is when I look back on their historical, they did not certify qualified at all in first or second interim of this last school year and then they ended the year at unodited actuals with a negative balance and unrestricted. Um, so for us, you know, one of the things that I think is important as admin is that if we propose a budget and we believe that
405it's it's a qualified budget and that it's truly qualified, we're going to tell you we had that issue last year where we said this budget is qualified and then we're going to go through that tough conversation. And I think at times people are scared of that conversation. and they don't want to certify qualified. But there are good there's there's opportunities within being qualified such as you know we create a fiscal plan if we don't execute that fiscal plan there are more steps you know it could be hiring a fiscal adviser to come in you know there's a ton of different options that are in there but I think it's important to give the board that opportunity of those options um and make sure that they're aware of it if you get to that point. So
406when I look at Santa Rosa and I think about the the biggest mistake they made, frankly, I think it was in this last year of not certifying qualified and even having the board go through those conversations. And frankly, you know, one of the things that I commend you guys for is you guys have tough decisions and I think it's our jobs at times to give you guys the opportunity to even have those tough conversations instead of hide them. and they come to light later when it's too late. Um, and I go back to, you know, a couple of the conversations we had tonight were really tough. I mean, Big Picture Learning is a program that every single person in this room believes in. Um, we had to make a very tough decision that ultimately I
407think we all would agree is in the best interest of students districtwide. Um, and that just a really tough decision. >> Can I slightly expound upon that? Not much, but we've made cuts over time, which we we had a plan. We made Yes. And sometimes they were big. We cut 14 FTE one year, >> right? I mean, we did that and that was when the CO funds ran out. We made that decision 3 years ago. >> Yeah. >> And instead of waiting until you're had fallen off a cliff. Also, I'm going to say we don't just make cuts when we're running into problems. We'd look to see how we can improve our revenue by getting 95% of our families to fill out the form by opening a preschool so that we can provide more resources
408to students because we can have dual roles for our instructional aids. I mean, there's we're we're creative and I think I take great pride in that and the team and that we're extremely creative with how we try to find money because we are not a wealthy district compared to anyone, right? We're one of the lowest in terms of the way we're funded and yet we maximize every single strategy to to create revenue. I I think we're very good at that. >> Yeah, I agree. I think that we're a very scrappy, you know, district, >> uh, you know, that is always looking for different opportunities. Um, so I think that our team, you know, does an excellent job, you know, in Austin, you do an excellent job. >> But I think out of fairness, um, I
409don't think that our school district is comparable to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is incredibly complex. A lot of uh where those schools are placed are incredibly dense neighborhoods that are very multicultural and diverse. And I think that they have because of that a very complex district with many different issues and challenges that I think where we benefit is that because we're so so much smaller than they are that we can easily pivot when we need to. And I think it's very difficult to pivot something the size of the Santa Rosa school district is really difficult. >> Any other questions? And Jeremy, thank you for jumping in. >> So, do we need to make a motion to accept this or this? Okay. Um Oh, yeah. Before we do, do we get a motion first and then
410public? >> Oh, yeah. It's midnight. Anybody in the public have any comments or questions? >> And okay, I'd like to make a motion that we You want to go ahead. >> I'll make a motion we extend the meeting for another till 12:30. >> I'll second. >> Those in favor? >> I >> Okay, 12:30 it is. >> Um All right, cool. Um, so I'd like to make a mo Let's see. Make a motion that we accept these first initials. >> I'll second. >> Any other questions? All those in favor? >> I >> Okay. All approved. >> All righty. Very good. So that's 611 uh 6.12 resolution number 2026-10 declaring the property located at 8955 Condi Lane, Windsor as surplus. This will be discussed by Austin. I am going to Some of you guys may have missed
411Jeremy's discussion earlier. I'm going to recuse myself of this discussion. So I'm going to go sit out there for you guys. I'm going to turn this over to Stephanie. Normally I would turn over to you but since she already is more familiar however you guys want to do it. >> So ad hoc. So anyhow and then >> we'll come back. >> We'll be here. >> All right. >> So Austin, you're going to give us an overview of why we're >> doing this right now? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, the history on this project um is, you know, Windsor Creek was a school site and they went through the 7-Eleven committee process and then they decided in 2020 that they were going to close the school. That was in the
412spring of 2020. One of the things that's kind of been interesting as we now move toward surplusing this property is um we some of the laws have changed uh and so AB130 was passed as of July 1st which no longer even requires the 7-Eleven committee process. Um so in this resolution if you'll notice I've actually referenced the 7-Eleven committee process and then I've attached the full report. I feel like for the sake of it being an item that's public, um it we should show the historical relevance of this item and everything that went into it in the past. So all of that is in there. Uh by declaring this property surplus, I do kind of, you know, it's the actual item isn't too complex, but I do want to talk through some next steps. Um,
413in the event that this item is passed, the the process is that we then notify a few different agencies. So, we notify the town of Windsor, uh, the parks and reccks department, uh, Sonoma County, and whatever parks agencies might be within Sonoma County, and then we also notify the, um, state department of housing and community development. Uh so then the housing and community development will then develop a list of all the uh different agencies that might be interested in them. We'll go through and notify everyone. Um so they will have 60 days to submit a letter of interest. Um so that is our what they call a notice of um availability. So we're saying this property is available for surplus. Uh they'll have 60 days to submit a letter of interest saying that they are
414interested. And then 90 days after that, we will go through and negotiate with with each of them. Um, so I just wanted that process to be out there so that you guys kind of know next steps in the event that this was approved. So with that, is there any questions. >> Just to be clear before we vote and maybe ahead of public comment, um while we've had discussions for potential marketing or negotiating agreements, as far as I'm aware, we have not entered into any fiscally binding agreements with any party to dispose of this property or transfer ownership. >> No, sir. So, I'm I'm glad you asked that question. So, >> what can kind of get confusing at times is we do have an ENA right now with Gallagher and that's simply to explore opportunities at
415Windsor Creek. So, we haven't settled on anything. We're just simply seeing what's out there. Um, and I know Jeremy and mentioned that him and Stephanie are in the meetings. I've had the pleasure of being in a few of those meetings. Um, and as of right now, there is nothing uh set and final at all about it. So, while we're talking about what that could possibly be, um, and frankly, it's kind of an honor to even be able to have those conversations with a big company like Gallagher that's done a lot of projects. So, that way we can see all the different possibilities that could be there. um you know it's kind of lended itself to where we can go you know is this a road that we might want to go down you know what
416are you know we'll know more once we submit the surplus and get the letters of interest and then we can go through all of the different options um and maybe there's something with Gallagher there but yeah as of now we are not in any binding agreement with Gallagher >> thank you do we have any questions from the public or comments from the public. I know that you've stayed the whole meeting if you want to take an opportunity to speak. >> Okay. >> Want ice cream? >> We do have a McFlurry left. All righty then. >> You know the drill. Three minutes. >> Yes. >> Um, anyways, uh, good evening board members and the Wor Unified School staff. My name is Kevin Scanland, currently a 28 res 28y year resident of the town of Windsor, Windsor
417Creek Residential and Elementary School Neighborhood. I've been in the government realm for 40 years and educator for 27 years and um was a volunteer for 16 years at Windsor High School until this popped off. Uh since the beginning of me coming to these meetings, I have advocated for the children of this community and families uh to be able to use WCE property. We have enjoyed the school for 28 years knowing it was a thriving school until its closing and also supporting Windsor night football and cheer, Windsor girls softball and many that use the property for outdoor activities. Plus, we as a neighborhood have uh been watchful stewards of the property and uh of the in your absence uh in the May in May of this year uh you superintendent uh Jeremy Decker, which I I
418do appreciate you. So stay stay steady, buddy. Uh and some uh some school board members showed up at the planning commission meeting begging to see things your way concerning the quilacres project. Uh superintendent Decker, you said something to the effect that we rely on you planning commission you the planning commission to see the bigger picture which is needed for the um amazing town. He went on to say our students deserve the right for fields to run and play on. Please don't uh tell us that you're willing to put our children on the back burner so the builder can't uh can line his pockets. That one's going to bite you. Just think when the uh superintendent goes to press for the next bond cycle, wouldn't be wouldn't it be outstanding to speak to the opportunity that
419the Windsor Unified School District made the right decision to take care of the students and community welfare by providing a space for the students to thrive as it is listed in your mission statement. Many of the school districts have done the right thing and sold their alleged surplus property to their cities and counties or co-opted the property to be turned into sports complexes and meeting centers. Uh which is putting students and community first. Uh plus the California Teachers Association advocates this type of turnover for the good of the community. Just a few more paragraphs here for Stephanie. Wor Unified School District. you decided to seek a builder and lo and behold the controversial builder Gallagher was chosen. I'm sure this will have no effect on the town of Windsor and their decision about the overall
420decisions concerning Windsor Creek Elementary School property. Yep. Since you won't admit it, it uh instead of working with the town, you secure Gallagher knowing his unfortunate ill-advised influence will provide angst. You're willing to sacrifice all the positive items on this property. Your job in the community is to educate our youth, not be landlords. Here comes Jeremy. Remember that because of your insistence and action actions, I guess the students won't secure the right for fields to run and play on. You have now just put the children back on the back burner so the builder can line the district's pockets and his pockets. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kevin. >> Thank you. >> I live in the same neighborhood, Jody Piscatello. Um I live right across the street from the fencing where there's four houses in
421each um in each little it's not a cold sack, but it's shared driveway. Um, I'm the original owner of my home and it we forfeited our backyard because there was a big school across the street. Uh, my kids went to it and we we loved it. I was very sad to see it go. Um, one of the things that we struggled with and we did with the school was parking on the street. Um, there's the new I can't remember what it's called, but it's going to be 106 units that got Okay, with that, the concern is is that the overflow of parking because there's not even one car spot per apartment. They're going to go out the the um the exit of the fire lane and pour out into the only street that is doesn't
422have non-parking signs. that's as it is right now with this with this project with this land. I would hope that that would be taken into consideration. I am all for the like someone did a presentation, I don't know if it was Sheila, about the workforce housing and I love that. Like I love that idea. Um I love it beyond just the school though. like our community members that work at within the fast food, within the grocery store. We have people who um are independent living that are courtesy clerks, right? They can live on their own and it would be great if they could live in Windsor and walk kind of a thing. I'd love to see it us extended out to the further community. With that being said, I'm concerned that it will be filled
423up. You know, there's a waiting list. We hear about that. Seniors have been on a waiting list for years. I'm really concerned that when we open it up to such a wide net that we're going to lose the point that we're trying to achieve by having our community members that work in the place where they live. Um, so there's that. And then when we are looking at those units, I really hope that we focus on giving them ample parking so that they don't have to walk way down the street. You know, you got single moms, you know. I I just I really care about the safety of of the people, including my neighbors, you know. So, those are like the two main things that I just wanted to bring up to in hopes that you
424would take into consideration. Okay, thank you. >> Thank you for staying tomorrow. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Hey, Stephanie, can I actually add a point? >> Go ahead. Um, you know, for some reason I I think this information might have gotten lost at some point, but we were actually in ENA's built before Gallagher as well with a couple different developers. >> And um, and I believe I can share this, >> but as we were looking at options, there were several options. And again, when we're talking about options, it was opportunities for what that could be. there were several options that we looked at and went, "Oh, our community would hate that." >> Yeah. >> And um we ended those ENAs. It felt like they weren't able to provide options that uh or not even options,
425but opportunities like they weren't even able to creatively think about it. And so I just think that's worth noting as well um that it's not like we immediately went to Gallagher and said, "We'd like to explore opportunities with you." we've already explored opportunities with other developers as well. Um, and I just think that's good. >> That's a great point. And I just to give a little bit more historical context is this is something that was an idea that I started being interested in and working on right when I joined the board 7 years ago. So that was when I started working on this and going we went to a conference similar to the one that we just went to way back when and attended a workshop thought it was really interesting and just started the
426process. We had already closed the school at that point. We because we had declining enrollment and we have we're a district that makes really hard choices. When we feel that there's some kind of fiscal issue or something that's not going like in a positive direction, we try to make that decision early even if it's a little bit painful. So that school had already been closed. We went through the 7-Eleven process and then we were really just investigating many different options of what we could do from selling to entering into I think multiple ENAs before we got to the one that we're in now. And now going through this process so that everyone is on all the agencies are on notice and we're receiving all letters of interest like it feels very comprehensive and like that
427we've been really thoughtful about it but I totally get that it can feel when you're not part of this group it can feel very different like that that's not what's happening but that's what it feels like from my perspective is just a really thoughtful long process where we really considered and weighed lots of different options of what is the best thing we could do for our constituents in the community. What would be the most fiscally responsible thing? Like that's how we've approached it. So, and heard all your points on the parking on like how we prioritize um occupants to the extent we're able to under the law. We've thought about all of those things like really extensively too. So, appreciate you sharing that. Is there anyone else? Can I just I just wanted to make
428no misinformation, right? So, we've only entered into one other ENA. So, two total ENAs. However, we engaged a number of other people and then decided to enter into an ENA with one other company before we entered into this one. >> That one expired. We didn't like what the deal would have been. >> Yeah. >> Thank you for clarifying. So, we entered into one other ENA. We have talked to other developers though about potentially entering into ENAs. Correct. >> Okay. Any other questions from the board? Okay. Then we will move on. Do I have a motion on this resolution? >> I'll make a motion that the board approve resolution 2026 uh-10. >> Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Great. And then Jen, could we have a roll call vote starting with our student
429board members? >> Rebecca Herman. >> Yes. Natalie Valdez, >> yes. >> Oro, >> yes. >> Melani Lopez, >> yes. >> Stephanie Amard, >> yes. >> Bill Adams, >> yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Done with this item and I'll hold off for our presidente to come back and conclude the meeting. This is a record. I feel like I got set up to have be the president and take the hit for the longest meeting in my seven years in ours. I know that when Bill was gone one time, we got done in an hour and 15 minutes. Oh yeah, Malinelli was president that time. That's he's going to jump on it. All right, cool. Um, thank you guys. I think we're done. Um the uh just Oh, it's a joke. >> Just to kind
430of recap and maybe we can give Jeremy a little direction. We have the workshop on CASPs and scores and the things that came up. We have the curriculum development piece that came up. I think it might be helpful if we said which of those might happen first. I don't think there's uh another one that at least we're prepared to talk about publicly just yet. So, we may want to just talk before we go off into the dawn. I had planned >> how to how to sequence those. >> I had planned to prioritize CASP first and then move on to the kind of book adoption the whole conversation. Is that okay with everybody? Yeah. Okay. I was going to try to do probably mid January. give us a little bit of well, you know what? Maybe
431give us a couple weeks to put something together. So, it might be mid to late January. >> How about like maybe super early February? The only reason why I know that January is already almost >> I mean, that's a lot better for us, but I want to honor I want to honor that Paul really asked us to get it going sooner. So, can we maybe late January? Would that be okay with everybody? >> Yeah, I can we can work with that, I think. >> Yeah, they the um Thank you, Bill. Um I I just want to two two things. One is I know everybody in this town knows that I respect the most Stephanie about the death and I and I just have to apologize a little bit when I kind of turned my head
432and kind of said you're going to be the one talking to the parents because >> I she did yell at me first. But anyhow, but I've been married long enough to know you're not supposed to yell back. 40 years of learning u and I broke that rule anyhow. And so I apologize. I hate it when we aren't a 50 vote. It just it it bugs a snot out of me because I think that a lot more people watch the way we uh govern and I think we're a good example for a lot of other entities on how to do things. And um and so anyhow, I I appreciate everybody up here and and all the gifts that we all have and how we all share them with our community and we treat each other. And
433I feel like maybe I wasn't my best um in the way I whatever. And so for for that um you know still learning, still growing, trying to be better. I I do want to just bring up one thing. I feel really bad that Julie is going to have to go and come up with some other curriculum or whatever. I really want to make sure that we compensate her for her extra time. I don't and I'd like to just have you, you know, hope. >> Okay. >> Yeah. You check in with her and and and um and so on that Yeah. the book thing and all that stuff. I want to get that because I really want a message to go to all our teachers that we do value them. We do recognize them for their
434expertise. It's just sometimes we got to be able to also at the same time Bill says some and >> both. both and yeah I'm trying to learn that that phrase but uh both and that sometimes we can respect them immensely but just not necessarily agree on a particular avenue or whatever and I and I and some of the ideas that I got I I got a lot of ideas in our meeting yesterday I was very encouraged and uh because I think it's going to my discussion yesterday I wish you guys could have been there too but I want that's what I want I want to have that discussion I think it takes us two steps ahead u of everybody else and where uh we don't have these issues anymore. I don't want to read any
435more books on my vacations. So, um I don't even want to have these discussions to be honest. They're very uncomfortable for me. But, um and and I'm sure for everybody. So, anyhow, the main thing is I just want to make sure that Julie is taken care of in that regard for her time. All >> okay. >> And merry Christmas and happy holidays. >> Yeah. And and all that to all of you all. Um just think of Bill's sweater in my stomach. So merry Christmas. >> God bless. >> Thank you all. >> Stay with us for >> Oh. Uh make a motion that we adjourn the meeting. >> I'll second >> at 12:23. >> How do I fill this up? Another one.