001We're now going back into open session at 7:15. Um, so welcome to the uh September 17th meeting of the Berkeley School Board. If you want to follow along online on our online agenda, it's posted to the district website. Um, before we begin, I'd like to remind you of our decorum expectations during this and all parts of tonight's meetings. Um, no person shall disturb the order of this meeting. Such behavior includes, but is not limited to booing, hissing, creating, or participating in a physical disturbance, speaking out of turn in violation of applicable rules, preventing or attempting to prevent others who have the floor from speaking, preventing others from observing the meeting, entering into or remaining in the area of the meeting room that is not open to public or approaching the dis without permission. Um, that
002is of course in line with our bylaw 9323 regarding meeting conduct. Um, if you have complaints against specific district employees, we encourage you to use, not that you necessarily would, we're not saying that you would, but if you do, we encourage you to use the district complaint process via complaints berkeley.net as opposed to public comment to address these matters. Um, we will now approve the agenda. Um, are are there any requested changes? >> President Jane, would you call the role? >> I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Um, Miss Chavez, uh, may we call the role, please? Of >> course. Director Anavas, >> present. >> Director Jennifer Shinowski, >> here. >> Director Arad, >> present. >> Um, vice president, um, Jen Korn, >> present. >> President Mike Chen, >> I am here. Thank you so much. And
003great, now that we have done the roll call, um, is there an approval for the agenda? A motion to approve the agenda. >> I'll move that we approve the agenda. >> Okay. Vice President Korn has approved. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Director Vasadev has seconded. Do you have the eyes? >> I I >> No. No. Um, great. Um, report out. We have a report out on closed, please, for Vice President Korn. >> Yes. Um, close session was called to order at 5:36 p.m. with um, President Chang, Vice President Korn, Director Shinoski, and Director Vasudv in attendance. Um, item 3.1, there was a motion to approve by Director Vasude Dev, seconded by Director Korn, and the board approved unanimously. Um item 3.1.1 staff provided information and board gave direction. Item 3.2 involved three
004separate cases. On two cases the staff provided information and board gave direction. And on the third case board received an update and item 3.3 the board received an update. >> Thank you so much Vice President Korn. Um, now we would like to hear uh the superintendent's comments. >> Thank you, President Chang. Good evening, BUSD family. >> Good evening. >> It's been a while, or at least it feels like a while since we've been together. So, I have a a couple things to share with you, so get comfortable. Uh, just a couple announcements. Um, so first, we want to just thank everyone who stopped by the B USC booth at Sunday's Solano Stroll. We were happy at the turnout, but even more happy to hear as our students, our staff, and members of our community shared
005to for us examples of what makes them hash Berkeley Berkeley Proud. You might remember that. That is the hashtag for this year. And let me see how well you remember. Say it loud. >> Berkeley proud. >> Okay. Um I also want to ask that you mark your calendars. is the 4th annual Black to School event is happening on Saturday, September 20th. It's from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Willard Middle School. It's our fourth annual Black to School. And this one is a cookout. Y'all ever been to a cookout before? >> Okay. There's going to be food, there's going to be games, prizes, even some school supply giveaways, hands-on activities, and just an opportunity to be in community with one another. Um, we're going to have a school spirit competition. So, wear your school swag
006and come and be loud and proud on behalf of the elementary, middle, or high school that you attend. Bring your energy. It's a cookout, so bring your family, bring your appetite, and do not forget to again wear those school colors. It's going to be a really good time, and we look forward to seeing you all there. That's not all. We're going to be real busy this weekend, B USD. We also are inviting you all to join us at the 10th anniversary of Kimunid in La Placita. It's a familyfriendly festival presented by Latinos Unidos at Berkeley in partnership with BUSD. And this is an all day event. Um, this event is um on this weekend, Saturday I believe. I'm sorry I didn't have the date. From 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at MLK Civic Center Park.
007And there's more information on our district website. We also invite you to check out a story of pride and resilience brought to you by the Berkeley Historical Society and Museum running through March. It actually starts this weekend. Sunday is the opening reception and it's running from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. um at 1 1931 Center Street. This exhibit tells the powerful story of pride, resilience, and activism in Berkeley's Latinx community from 1900 to 2025 through photographs, oral histories, and community art. and it honors the legacy and contributions of everyone from early migrant laborers to student organizers, artists, and leaders right here in our Berkeley community. You've heard me share before that we continue to work to be responsive to our community needs around afterchool care and transportation to and from school and to our nonBUSD
008afterchool programs. I'm happy to share this evening that we have been able to increase our capacity for transportation to our nonBUSD programs. Specifically, we have transportation now for more students to Shorebird after school program and Totland. I'm equally happy to share that our transportation team was able to reinstate the bus stop at Spruce and Vine. So, folks who came out and advocated for that stop to be reinstated, we were able to collect some data and we were able to actually reinstate that stop. So, we're excited to be able to provide access to more of our families and more convenience. Quite honestly, um our staff continues to work with our city partners to figure out how to be responsive to the needs around afterchool care and transportation. And we anticipate being able to come to you
009um on evenings like this and even before to provide you with helpful information and updates. And I'm currently working with the city of Berkeley as well as some other partners to specifically plan a a town hall or community engagement that really focuses on and understands the needs and issues of transportation um and gives us an opportunity to collectively problem solve um towards that end. That's exciting. Come on. Y'all was here talking about we need bus stop. Finally, I want to call your attention to tonight's agenda. Um, one thing I want to highlight, there's lots of great stuff happening tonight, but I want to specifically call your attention to um, tonight's presentation from our business uh, services department. It will highlight the unodudited actuals and um, the unodited actual is really important. So, I'm I didn't
010even count how many of y'all are in this space, but I hope that all of you are in this space um, for that presentation. Um, the unudited actuals is our district's end of the year financial report and it shows us how much money we actually received and how much we actually spent last year and it compares that to what we planned in our budget. Um, they're called un audited because these numbers are final from the district's perspective, but they have not yet been reviewed by our outside auditors. And so it's really important that you stay and you hear where we are financially. Um though it's looking at last year's revenues and expenditures, the report is important as it shows us exactly what resources we're carrying into this year 2526. That allows us to be clearer
011on our fiscal um resources and have a better understanding of how we can allocate those resources in support of our district, including our ability to increase salaries to ensure we can recruit and retain um highquality educators, both certificated and classified. Um they make our district so special. they are our most important resource and so a better understanding our fiscal resources will help us better understand um our negotiations and our conversations towards that end going forward. The presentation also um gives us a sense of where we are financially so that we can have critical conversations and make decisions in informed and responsible ways. So if you want to know what the money looks like in BUSD, who wants to know what the money looks like in B USD? So all y'all going to stay? Um, it's
012the one of several presentations about our budget, but again, it's the one that is important as it gives us a better sense of what we did last year and positions us to get ready for all the amazing things we're going to do on behalf of our babies and with our staff and our educators this year. So, I do hope that you stay engaged. I hope that you physically stay present, but if you can't, we'll also be able to engage you online. Um, and this is an example of our continued movement towards transparency, accountability, and an opportunity for us to truly evaluate um, our stewardship over our district funds. And so those are all my announcements this evening. Um, Director President Chang, I pass it back to you. >> Thank you so much, Superintendent. We're now
013going to move on to public comments. Um, there's two opportunities. uh right now, then at the end, um if you don't get to speak at the beginning, we encourage you to stay on and speak at the end. Um you can also email us, of course, at boardofed.berkeley.net. Um and then if you run out of time, you can also send us an email. So, I'm asking you to limit your um public comment to one minute. Um, we do have a number of folks tonight and there firstly, are there any students who have provided? I don't think so. I just want to double check. Are there any students online? We typically try to allow students to go first so they can go do their homework. Um, uh, how about uh the folks for agenda 12.19? Um, Alex,
014Forest, Dan, Nick, Stephanie. Um, if you don't mind coming up for a minute a piece for a total of five minutes for this group on the same item. Thank you. >> Good evening, board. Good evening, superintendent. Um, as someone who grew up in the Anabaptist tradition, a member of one of the historic peace churches, there's no question that my pension should not be invested in any weapons manufacturers. As a proud employee in Berkeley Unified, and I really mean that. I've never been prouder to be a Berkeley teacher, and I want to thank you all for having my back. There's also no question that you as our elected leaders should support the BFT rank and fileled efforts for calsters to divest from all companies that profit off of mass killing and endless war. So I'm proud
015that this is a consent item and I support you in unanimously voting for the resolution to urge Calsters to adopt an ethical policy which must include forever and always divestment from genocide. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Hello, my name is Alex Day. I teach at Berkeley High School. I'm also a member of Calsters Divevest, a rank and file group of California educators and allies who call on the pension fund to divest from companies profiting from Israel's genocide in Gaza. Unfortunately, there's 2.2 billion out of the $370 billion of Calers's pension fund that's invested in such companies. So, um, I'm here to urge the board to pass the resolution calling on Calsters to adopt that ethical investment policy, which would in turn divest from companies profiting from the genocide in Gaza. And this is an urgent matter
016for you all to take up here in Berkeley. Um, both because of its legacy, but also because of in this time of international lawlessness, local institutions have to lead by example and stand up for international law when no one else will. um you know the uh B USD and my uh colleagues and myself, we all contribute monthly to this genocide and so we have a responsibility to stand up to end it. >> Hi, I'm Dan Brownson. I'm a clerical assistant at Berkeley High now. Um and um I am glad to see this on the consent calendar. I would only make one amendment to it and that is to call for not only Calsters but also Kalpers to divest from these merchants of death. Um I would love to retire one day. Uh, having a pension
017system is one of the great things about being a union employee at a public school district, but I don't want my retirement money to come from selling weapons to people who kill kids. [Applause] >> Hey y'all. Uh, my name is Nick Woreram. I'm a Jewish high school counselor at Berkeley High School. Um, I've only been with you all for a few years, and I've already, um, been a, you know, a counselor to a student who moved late in the year from the West Bank and joined Berkeley High. Um, you know, the genocide in Gaza has killed over double the amount of children we have in our school district in roughly 700 days. I think it is just deeply heartbreaking that every day when I go to work, a portion of my wages go to supply
018the weapons, you know, support the companies building those weapons that are inflicting this genocide. So, I want to say, you know, thank you for um considering supporting our campaign for divestment. I think it's very important and I think we owe it to the Palestinian families in B USD. Was that five persons so far? Forest, did you go yet? >> No. >> Okay, cool. Um I think do we have some folks who spoke didn't use an entire one minute? Um I'm trying to have we in the past No, no precedent. Sorry about that. One minute. Thanks a lot. >> I don't know unless you ask. Thank you. Um, members of the board, we work hard to retire, um, in a world that is peaceful. So, um, I dream of a world without perpetual warfare or weaponized
019coercion. I'm also a Jewish person and, um, I don't want to pay money into any type of war system. Uh, I mean, just imagine the terror we're putting people through, right? Imagine what it would be like if a bomb hit this building. Um, it would be awful. And yet, like, that's what we're doing. They renamed the Department of Defense, Department of War, but I kind of feel like I'm in that department a little bit myself. So, the CERS board said that they are unwilling to meet with our group, Calsters Divest. So, we're kind of looking to you to support us and giving us a voice for all of that. Um, they're earning mega profits and and they they are getting more than we need right now. And I don't want to retire. Please, none of
020us do um on anything like that. So gosh, did I have a lot to say that I'm not. But um let's just do the right thing. We we can't keep doing this. >> Thank you so much. You can of course >> email us your comments as well. Um so we have uh Stephanie Allen and Leavon Thaxton. You're good. >> Are you sure? How about Leavon Thaxton? >> Okay. Uh, Miss Chavez, is that appropriate? That mean >> Okay, so two minutes total. >> Oh, I'm sorry. One minute. >> Let me let me just double check. Miss Chavez, um, she uh Stephanie said she's >> We don't combine. >> Oh, we don't combine. Guided. >> Yeah, >> that's okay. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Leavon Thaxton, training chief, Berkeley Fire Department. I'm here today in
021strong support of our district's career technical education programs and in particular the BSTEP program uh fire and EMS pathways. I want to underscore the significance of this program not just for students but for the fire department and the entire Berkeley community. First BEP opens doors to good paying stable careers with pensions and healthcare jobs that have rooted right here in our community. Without this pathway, many young people in our community would never know what it takes to be a firefighter. Nor would they know the steps that it takes to achieve such a career. Second, this program allows fire departments to hire right here within the community. Firefighting has always been a community-based profession, but has vocationally educ uh educational programs have gone away over time. Today less than >> Thank you. And you can >>
022finish that topic. But >> you can Yeah, finish sentence. Of course. >> Today less than 5% of our community and our firefighters live within the city of Berkeley. >> Thank you. And if you have more, you can email us, too. Thank you so much. Um, next on up, um, Mimi Maine and Mary Pat Farrell. And then if you can get ready, Carrie Kabat and Josh Ape. >> Hi. Um, my name is Mimi. I'm here again um to continue bringing attention to the ongoing aftercare crisis here in Berkeley. I'm part of an informal group of parents that has been discussing the challenges, sharing horror stories, and trying to figure out how we can help fix the broken system. I'd like to thank Director Shinoski for meeting with two of the parents yesterday to hear our concerns
023and talk about solutions. Um, chief among the concerns is a district-wide communications failure across the Bears and Learns programs. As you've heard at previous meetings, parents were who were lucky enough to get into district afterare didn't find out until the night before school started after silence all summer. Many on the wait list haven't received any responses to questions about their status and are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution. They have nowhere else to turn and the system is failing them. On a hopeful note, Natalie Miller has been reassigned to the Bears's office and is already responding to emails which is incredible. Uh responses are great. Please continue to give this issue your attention. >> Thank you so much. You can of course email with uh further comments. And Mary Pat Farrell. >> Hi,
024I'm Mary Pat Ferrell and I'm here today to raise your attention to a safety issue regarding Craragmont School in the event of a fire evacuation in the hills. Um and to ask you ask to consider closing Craraggmont ski uh school on extreme fire weather days. As a member of the Berkeley Firewise evacuation committee, I've become really painfully aware of how difficult it will be to evacuate the Berkeley Hills during a very rapidly moving fire caused by Diablo winds. These are conditions that occur on extreme extreme fire weather days. A special name given to a rare combination of high heat, low humidity, and very high winds. On average, these conditions occur only once a year in the hills. They've been the cause of nearly every deadly fire. Think Oakland, Pacific Palisades, or Paradise in California. The
025evacuation study indicates that there is really no way for everyone to get out of the hills on these days and the Craragmont students will be in danger. >> Thank you so much. Please email us if you have further comments. Um Carrie Kabat and next up will be Josh. >> Thank you. Um, I spoke at the August 20th meeting about the removal of the bus stops along Grizzly Peak and since that time there have been no actions taken that we are aware of to resolve the issue around transporting students in the hills to school. Transportation has repeatedly claimed in written communications that the CHP forced them to stop running school buses on Grizzly Peak. However, multiple public records requests by both parents and a Berkeley side reporter have revealed that there are no written records or
026communications between BUSD and the CHP about Grizzly Peak. In the past few weeks, parents have continued to see both short school buses and large full-size school buses driving on Grizzly Peak and on narrower side streets. So, clearly there are creative solutions that have been implemented for other students and routes and we remain frustrated that no attempts have been made to better serve our students and families. Um, BUD spokesperson was quoted in a Berkeley side article last week saying that new stops were selected to ensure students had reasonable walking paths without needing to unsafeely cross major roads. But I would like anybody to show me a reasonable walking path for my four-year-old and seven-year-old to get to their bus stop 2 miles and 600 vertical feet downhill from our house. >> Thank you so much. >>
027I'll follow up. >> Sure. Thank you. Please feel free to email us additional comments. Josh Aptith. >> Yep. >> Hi, I'm Josh Apti. Thanks so much to the board for your engagement around the issues with our bus stop at Spruce and Vine for Oxford Elementary, especially to Director Shinoski. Um, I wish that we'd gotten to the point where we have a great solution, but our families are really struggling. Just to recap for the rest of the board, the bus used to stop at our location at 7:40 and our stop was eliminated. We were given a variety of incorrect reasons for why the stop had been eliminated, but the bus continued to drive past our stop at just about the same time every morning, but we were told that it couldn't stop there anymore. Uh, when
028we complained to the board, finally, we got a sort of resolution, which actually seems sort of vindictive and cruel, which is the stop has now been moved to 7:12 a.m. and the bus no longer drives past our location at 7:40. Our kids can't wake up in time to get to the bus anymore. It's they're riding, little kids riding 40 plus minutes around the hills to finally get back down. And the bus still arrives at Oxford Skill so early that the kids are made to wait 5 to seven minutes to get off the bus. There's plenty of possibility to reinstate their stop at the humane time that it used to be at. Thanks. Thank you so much. And you can send u additional comments. >> Thanks. >> Um now we will move on to sorry online
029comments if there are any. Miss Tarez, make double check that I didn't see any. >> Oh, okay. Um, >> so who will be up first? >> Up first is Novare Oaks. >> Okay. >> Promoting Novare. >> Um, let me bring Oaks on up for one minute, please. Hello. >> Hello. >> Are you able to hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you so much. So, my name is Navar Oaks and uh we are a first year family for BSD. I have a student in TK in kindergarten. We're thrilled with our Malcolm X school. We're thrilled with our care. We are not thrilled with our afterare situation. So, um I'm asking the school board to prioritize continuing to discuss afterare. Please prioritize every meeting. have this on your agenda until we reach a better situation than
030we have today. Right now, it's stressful. It's unpredictable and it does not set up students or families up for success. B USD can definitely do better. The obligation to students does not end at 1:30. Um, please include an update on afterare on every agenda. I did appreciate the um brief one at the beginning of this. Um, afterare needs to be available to all students. families need to know before the school year starts if they have afterare and weight list lengths and expectations for availability need to be communicated. I also hope that you prioritize funding for staffing. I know funding is an issue but it's about priorities and we need to prioritize our students after 130 where they're going to be what they're going to do especially our TK and kindergarten students that need higher ratios
031and have fewer options for afterare compared to the older children. Um, I very much believe in our ability to do better. Thank you. >> All right. You can uh email comments as well. Uh, and next on up we who would go next, Miss Chavez? >> Would it be >> Nilofar Shambayati? And apologies if I mispronounce your name. Um, are you promoting them now? >> Oh, you're promoted. Great. Thanks, Miss Charles. >> Oh, they declined. Um, >> okay. Uh, next on up is Nita. >> They've been allowed to. They can still speak from there. Um, if they're >> Hello. Do you hear me? >> Yes. Hi. Good evening. Um I'm a retired um college um instructor um moved a few years ago from Illinois to Berkeley. I like to speak in support of the resolution 26007.
032Um, and the reason is mostly because I feel like our teachers deserve better than having their hardearned money be invested in businesses that profit from murdering, maming children, turning them into orphans, and destroying their schools. Those children aren't any different from the students or teachers proudly nurture here. I urge you to please pass this resolution and set an example for other school districts. Thank you very much. Thank you. And up next, I believe we have Nida. [Music] Who's the last online commenter? Nida, can you hear us? You're so on mute. Hello. >> Hello. >> Um, my name is Nad and I'm honestly not quite sure why we continue to come and ask uh for our school district not to invest in destruction, war, and the murder of children. It must stop. We need you to
033stop making all educators in Berkeley even more complicit in this genocide. Please vote yes on the resolution calling on Calster to adopt an ethical investment policy and to direct money away from corporations complicit in this genocide and apartheid like Loheed Martin, Palunteer, Caterpillar and Israeli banks. This is the bare minimum that you must do after two years of the world's failure to end this genocide. Meaningful action must be taken and divestment is one of them. Divestment was a key that Berkeley used to ending the apartheid in South Africa and it will be the key to ending it in Palestine as well. Please adopt the ethical investment policy and direct money away from the murder and maming of children. >> Thank you. >> Free Palestine. >> You could you could uh send additional comments by email.
034Um do do we have any other online? We do not. Thank you so much, M. Charez. Um now we have committee comments. Um each committee will have five minutes. Do we have any committee comments? Yes. Good evening, board directors, superintendent, members of the Berkeley community. My name is Nicole Harris, and I'm not just here as a ASAC community member. I'm here as a mom. I have a eighth grader at King Middle School, and like so many families, I'm trying to make sure my child and every other child in our district feel seen, supported, and set up for success. Sometimes people say we need to hear from more or different parents. I want you to know I am one of those parents. I sit on the PTA, the parent advisory committee, and several affinity groups. The
035voice you're hearing tonight isn't just mine. It carries the hopes and concerns of families who can't be here. Next Saturday, September 20th, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Willard Middle School, we'll be gathering for our 4th annual back to school celebration. This is not just a back to school party. It's designed to give students and families a strong start to the year with information, resources, and inspiration. We're bringing together B USC departments, city agencies, and community partners from collegebound, gifted, and black, you know, gifted and black to the Berkeley library system, rent control board, and village cultural academy all in one place. I want to personally invite the board members and all the BUD families to join us at this celebration. It's a chance to connect, celebrate, and see firsthand our collective efforts, our
036supporting students. Early this month, ASAC and the district CIM for SIGDIS team held a follow-up community forum on African-American student outcomes. Families and educators review data together, ask tough questions, and co-created solutions. The data showed something powerful. Where we direct resources intentionally, we see improvement. We're seeing gains in literacy, math, and students sense of connection to school. That tells us our focus on high priority needs is working. At the same time, we're still facing disproportionate suspension rates, especially in middle school, and we know we have more work to do. Practices like restorative justice and community and culturally responsive tier one instruction are already making a difference, but they need to be strengthened and expanded. This is the heart of the African-American success framework, making sure policy, practice, and resources line up with what our students
037and families actually need. Thank you for your leadership and partnership. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday at our back to school back to school celebration on and connect as we celebrate connect and set tone for our outstanding school year together. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Are there any other committee committee persons up here to speak? Um, no there are not. So, next up we have union comments. Um, we do have a video and here we go. We're going to upload the video. Thank you, Miss Chavez. We're doing union comments. Are there other union members who are here live to speak? Should we do the live first? Yeah. >> Frank, would you like to come on up? Good evening um board superintendent school board um directors probably should speak into this right.
038I'm here today to express my deep concern about the ongoing and detentrimental misuse of contractors within the Berkeley Unified School District. This is not a new issue. It's a recurring problem that significantly uh contributed to our financial difficulties last year and it is deeply troubling to witness us repeating the same costly mistakes. Throughout this school year, the Berke Berkeley Council classified employees have made diligent efforts to engage in meaningful dialogue with BUSD in several meetings. Our aim has always been to collaborate and solve the critical issues of over reliance of contractors. Therefore, it was with considerable dismay that I reviewed the schoolboard agenda and discovered that the district plans to continue allocating substantial funds to external contractors for work that BCCE highly um capable and dedicated members are perfectly equipped to perform. Instead of proactively
039diagnosing the effective effectively addressing our current staffing challenges, the district consistently opts for temporary solutions. A disturbing trend is our increasing our increasing reliance on agency workers who unlike the permanent employees are not subject to the same rigorous screening processes. Yet they are allowed to work directly with our students. This practice raises serious questions about accountability, consistency, and ultimately the best interests of our students in our community. We must prioritize building a stable, wellsupported, and properly vetted internal workforce that is deeply invested in long-term success of our district. BCCE has pro has proposed simple immediate solutions to solve the current afterchool program staff shortage. We have also offered long-term solutions that could benefit both sped department and the afterchool program. BUSD can reduce a future dependence on contractors. We can accomplish this by utilizing the
040expertise of our existing, dedicated, and experienced BUSD staff to handle tasks that already fall within their scope of work. To genuinely find real, lasting solutions to BD chronic staffing issues, the board must demonstrate leadership and remove this item from the consent calendar. This crucial action will compel the district to move beyond superficial discussions and genuinely seek a sustainable solution rather than simply resorting to the convenient yet ultimately detrimental practice of calling another agency worker. We urge you to prioritize the long-term health and success of the district and its students. Thank you. Thank you. Uh I think next up we have a video with Matt Meyers of BFT. Hello, Superintendent Ford Morell and the Berkeley School Board. I am Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. I am disheartened on the progress of negotiations
041and surprised at what was just approved on the consent calendar. Just for perspective, the Burka Federation of Teachers began negotiations with the district last March. We have met with the district eight times since spring. We have made 22 proposals. We have four agreements and have had no dialogue on anything that has a financial impact. Historically, we would have finished negotiating by the end of May or the beginning of October. This time, it feels like we have just gotten started. This is after eight sessions. All we've been told is we'll have to wait. We have been patient, but our patience is running thin. The district has said up to this point that they can't commit any dollars for our educators. Looking at just tonight's consent agenda, we argue otherwise. The district has enough knowledge of its
042finances to approve $350,000 in general fund expenditures on private contractors this very meeting. The district had enough knowledge to set aside money for the impact of a class and comp study for BCCE and local 21. I think it is great that the occupational therapists are getting a 2 and a.5% increase which has been determined to be hard to fill and not competitive with comparable districts. In fact, the district set aside money ahead of time to make sure identified positions remain competitive. If the district is capable to plan for spending ahead of time for hard to fill classified and manager positions and approved consultants on general fund dollars, why can't they do the same for our teachers? Our positions are also not competitive with nearby districts. Our veteran teachers have the least competitive salaries in Alama
043County. The district data shows this. Our positions are also hard to fill. We have many new hires who have not completed their ed programs on intern credentials, having to go to school at the same time they're doing their first year teaching. This does not set them up for success, and it is not how we should be hiring. We've had some special education teachers that we've hired through private firms. They are not even employees of BUSD. We have many of our top candidates who have gone all the way through the interview process not take a job from Berkeley when they learn of our benefit structure. The USD's hardest to staff positions, which aren't even BFT positions, after school teachers and instructional assistants are contracted out because we don't offer competitive salaries. The district then has to
044pay more than they would need to pay if then to contractors if they would just give them a meaningful raise and enough work hours. When our educators see the district's priorities, they're often left wondering why they aren't afforded the same thoughtful planning and recognition that seems to happen for others in our district. Why isn't a district goal to make healthcare affordable? to provide enough salary to get by on when we're on child wearing leave since we don't qualify for SDI and that is the only income we have during that time. Where is the planning to have our salaries at least be average compared to the county? Why do some of our educators work longer hours per um per day for the same pay? These are some of the questions our members will be asking at
045the next board meeting and the district hopefully will have some answers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, um I think uh that is it for our union comments. Um and Miss Charz, sorry the Okay, someone just said they messed up. I'm looking at the webinar chat. Someone >> committee she said >> she's not committ member. Okay, got it. Farah, you can try to make a individual comment at the end if you would like. We're going to move on to board member comments. Um, do any board members want to go first? Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. Of course. Um, our student board member. Thank you so much. >> Hi, everyone. And so I just wanted to start off by going over some events that we have um coming up at Berkeley High within this
046next week and some of the things that we've been working on on student leadership and across organizations. So this week Berkeley High um at Berkeley High are student leadership organizations are preparing for Unity Week, which is a celebration designed to bring students together across backgrounds and identities. And the goal of this event is to create a safe and inclusive space where students can feel seen, valued, and celebrated. our associated student body presidents uh Sophia Shioka and Tamar McKe have been working very hard to ensure that the voices of our entire student body are well represented and this year we are also very committed to reflecting our school community positively um by putting in measures to make sure that we are preventing harm and hate speech during our well-known Berkeley High Rally Day to make sure
047that our students are well represented. I wanted to speak to the black family engagement night that's happening on Thursday, September 18th from 6:00 to 7:30 in the Berkeley High Library located on 1980 Alston Way. This will be hosted by our African-American studies department and it will go over the unique courses that we have in the AFAM studies department uh throughout the year and also provide information on how to navigate the resources at Berkeley High including counseling, CTE, leadership and more. There will additionally be a lot of student club leaders in attendance and all the black affinity clubs on campus. Um, and support will be provided to families about how to navigate Berkeley High and best uh support students for success. So, thank you all for listening to the measures that are being worked on at
048Berkeley High and I look forward to sharing more as we approach this important week of celebration and togetherness. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um, do I have another board member who uh, director Vasadev? >> Hi, good evening. Thanks everyone who came to give public comment about our aftercare program, our CTE pathways, our ethical investing policy resolution, transportation issues, um, ASAC committee updates, labor comments, and fire safety um, information at Karmon or concerns for Karmon. For the folks still concerned about transportation issues, as our superintendent said, I'm collaborating with her with our city manager and council member Blackb on a transportation focus forum with more information to come. So, I know that some of you have emailed, I've responded. I don't have the information yet to share with you, but know that there's work
049behind the scenes on that, and this is something I care about very deeply. I wanted to say a couple of words about Latino Heritage Month, which we celebrate from September 15th to October 15th. In California, Latino students constitute the largest ethnic group in public schools, con accounting for 56% of the student population in our public schools. We are also the largest minority group in BUSD. I along with my board colleagues should celebrate the success and needs of our Latino students not just during this month but every day. California. My spiel is better in Spanish for those of you that missed it. Um, I just returned from a couple of days in San Diego for the California Latino School Board Association annual Unity Conference. Um, I'm part of that board as well, the statewide board. were
050the largest affinity based uh board in the state of California where I joined over 370 superintendent, district staff members, and board members throughout the state to discuss issues not only impacting Latino students but also impacting our ai students and our black students. That's why the conference is called the unity conference. It's where all our affinity groups come together and we talk about our shared values, reaffirm our shared values, especially in light of this very difficult political time that we find ourselves and reaffirm our commitment to serving our most vulnerable students. One of my favorite panels at the conference was led by our AsianPacific Islander School Board Members Association of Pisma who facilitated a timely conversation on building solidarity through the shared histories of AAPI and Latinx immigrant communities. They shared an open-source curriculum entitled Foundations
051and Futures, which will be the most comprehensive collection of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders histories that's funded by the state of California's commitment to combat AAPI hate. And this uh curriculum is being adopted in partnership with UCLA and it will be available in January. And I look forward to sharing it with our superintendent who I'm sure will make sure it gets to all our educators that are interested in it. They also uh we also talked about a platform called Worldly and discussed the responsible uses of AI which was very fascinating to do with other schoolboard directors and superintendent. Uh Worldly is an AI powered translation service that costs about $12,000 but can provide simultaneous translation in key languages that our monilingual population speak. So it's a way to make sure that meetings like this are accessible
052to people that speak different languages. And so um I will be sharing with you superintendent a contract from Fremont Unified so you can see what that looks like. We also heard from the superintendent of San Diego Unified who kicked off the the retreat uh the conference, Dr. Fabi Bagula and her district's response to a recent deportation of a parent during the pickup of a 7-year-old student and the pain that her experience that her community experienced, but also the aftermath of that that resulted in a really positive change in principles coming up with a very strong response protecting the other students from seeing what was happening and um just the unity. It was really really great for me to see the unity between the superintendent and the board president on really making sure that they're protecting
053the well-being of their immigrant students. So something for us to model after and to learn from. I also uh learned from various school districts about how they've been more stringent than we have in implementing their policies to limit the use of cell phones in schools. And so this is something I'm very interested in. Um and also understanding the mental health improvements for students particularly at the secondary level and uh one of the districts shared how students were involved in co-creating that policy at the secondary level and also expressed an really fun anecdote that because high schoolers were spending more time talking to each other at recess, they actually requested uh from one district that they build them a playground for high schoolers. And so that's something that their facilities department had not envisioned. um but
054it but just the benefits of connecting and the mental health benefits of having a responsible cell phone policy that's co-created with students. In short, it was an amazing conference and I feel strongly that especially given the urgent need to safeguard our immigrant students and to lead with clarity and courage in this challenging political climate that we as a board should explore board level memberships to the AsianPacific Islander School Board Members Association Appeisma. They'll be holding a Northern California mixer with Assembly Member Mudas Sushi and I will be sharing information about that event with my fellow directors. It's happening on October 6th here in Northern California. The California Association of Black School Educators. I love that we have an ASAP committee and love our work with the African-American Success Framework and know that we can also
055learn from other black school board members throughout the state that are doing this work too and so we can unite and uplift them in shared best practices and also join the California Latino School Board Association. conference and I know that we've taken part before in the in the unity conference, but that the ongoing work, particularly right now, becomes so important, especially as we're thinking of standing up and defending our amazing ethnic studies program. Now, now more than ever, our most vulnerable students need us to lead with courage. On that note, as our superintendent announced, I hope to see many community members this weekend at the 10th anniversary of Kona La Placita, a family-friendly festival that we're celebrating in partnership with Latinos of Berkeley, our city partners, and many other organizations. It's happening this weekend. I'll
056be there. I look forward to seeing you there. In um schoolboard news for for Berkeley, I'm really excited that we're resuming our policy committee meeting soon. And um I don't know when we're going to agendaize the cell phone policy, but I'm very excited about that. And uh also look I'm looking forward to our upcoming facility subcommittee meeting later this month um where I'll be there with director Shinoski and Mr. Kiss superintendent Kiss and I look forward to tonight's meeting. So thanks everyone for coming out tonight. >> Thank you Director Ambassad. Um do we have another board member who'd like to speak? >> Vice President Korn. >> Good evening everyone. Um, I too want to acknowledge Latinx Heritage Month, which started this week. Um, and I just I I can't compete with all the wonderful comments
057that Director Basuv made, but I do want to encourage everyone to visit the district's Latinx Heritage Month resources web page. I had a chance to look at it today, and there really are some fantastic resources there. reading lists by grade level, family guides, um just lots of really good, rich stuff that we can use with our kids this month to celebrate um our Latino community here in Berkeley. Um and on that note, I too am planning to attend both the black to school cookout on Saturday and Kumidad and La Placita on Sunday. And I'm really looking forward to both of these wonderful community events that I attended last year and I'm excited to attend this year. Um, the last comment I just want to make is that like some of the commenters tonight, my pension
058is also invested through Calsters. And I'm really proud that tonight we're going to be voting on a resolution in support of Calers's adopting an ethical investing policy. Um, for those who may not know, Calsters is the state teacher retirement system. They've had an they've had a statement of investment responsibility in place since 1978. And tonight, we're going to be voting on a resolution that calls on them to strengthen that policy by guiding Calsters to devest from assets and companies that consistently and directly profit fund, enable, or facilitate mass incarceration or immigrant detention, weaponry of any kind, artificial intelligence and surveillance technology for military use, or in companies with a consistent record of direct involvement in severe human rights violations, violations of international law such as slavery and prison labor, war crimes including genocide and ethnic
059cleansing, illegal military occupation, racial racial segregation or aparttheid. Like many of the commenters tonight, I don't want my um retirement funds invested in these um in war crimes or genocide or weaponry. And um I'm proud that we're going to be passing this resolution on consent this evening. Thank you, Director Schnowski. >> Uh yeah, I will um I'll jump right off of those comments. Um I'm really proud of uh the resolution in support of devestment. I'm proud to be an author on that resolution and to have worked um in collaboration with Berkeley teachers for the last I don't know year on getting that passed. I'm proud of the uh California Federation of Teachers represents uh both our teachers and classified staff in their work on divestment and I hope that this is just the first of
060many resolutions that are passed in the state of California to really push for a change at Calsters. I also on in sort of in the same vein um want to just make a quick comment on the passage of AB715 and my disappointment in the way that uh Berkeley Unified was incorrectly um called out at some of those hearings and also that um we believe that we can't trust our educators um in the work that they do for our kids. Um, so I look forward to seeing changes to that bill in the year ahead and advocacy in support of changes to that bill. Um, I want to make a quick comment on anformational item on tonight's agenda regarding a new classification for a um, personnel commission appointment um, or personnel commission position. Um, so I'm interested
061in understanding why that is not coming to the board for approval um and a vote and um would just like to go on record to make sure that we bring that back um with information about uh the rules regarding approval of a new position like that, a new classification like that. Um next week on Thursday I have my office hours. So, please come and visit me at Kasa Latina from 3:00 to 5:00 next Thursday afternoon. I'm happy to sit there for 2 hours and work and eat pastries, but it's much more fun when people come and visit. So, please come and visit. Um, lastly, I would like to also celebrate Latinx Heritage Month. And I would like to make a quick announcement about another event that's taking place at the Berkeley Historical Society. Um, starting
062on Oh, jeez, I don't have my dates written down. Starting on September 25 1st at 2 p.m. at 1 1931 Center Street and it is an exhibit of photographs celebrating Berkeley's Latino community. Um, and I've seen some of the pictures. Many of these are labor activists and community activists in the city of Berkeley that really um sparked the free speech movement and really shows us our roots. So, I'm excited about going and I hope others will go as well. And I want to just close by mentioning that September is suicide awareness month. >> I was swear to myself I wasn't going to get upset. um as a suicide survivor um or the daughter of um someone that did that died by suicide, I want us all to hug our loved ones and make sure that
063we watch out because it just takes a moment and one bad decision. Um and we should pay attention to the people that we love every day. Thank you. Thank you so much, Directorski. Um, I'm going to keep mine short. Uh, we we do have a uh upcoming um red eyee for for our super that we want uh her to get to. Um quick quickly uh happy Latinx Heritage Month. Um also and of course it always sounds kind of funny saying something you know in terms of happy like happy birthday. It's a serious event as um director Vasadev noted in the sense that it's a celebration and it's a recognition of contribution. Um and I also look forward to policy committee uh starting up again. We've got uh lots of great work ahead of us. um
064proud of our consent item on divestment also and also share the concern that's been raised here around the language and characterization of BUSD associated with AB715. Um and just a quick shout out to the folks who came out here and some some some of us have already uh done so. Um, thank you for speaking your hearts and minds um on ethical investment, Berkeley fire um and USD program uh linkages uh afterare concerns, Craigmont fire evacuation safety concerns um the various transportation concerns around the bus stops um and also thank you so much for the committee comments um from the unions and the African-American advisory committee. Um please do reach out to me again for office hours um and uh I'm always available to chat with you. Uh thanks so much. Um so this will end
065the board comment portion and moving on to agenda 12. Um it's now time to approve our consent calendar. Um can I have a motion and then a second? I would like to pull something from the consent calendar, please. Um, so I'd like to pull item number nine, and once that's pulled for discussion, then I will approve or make a motion to approve the rest of the consent calendar. >> It refers to 12.9. >> I second the motion. >> Do we have the eyes on the Do we need to do a Yeah. Do we need to do a roll call or do we need to Okay, do we have the eyes? >> You can uh make a motion to approve the calendar as amended. >> Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Charles. Uh do we have
066a motion to we uh do we have a eyes to approve the uh agenda item as amended? >> I I >> I >> no. Okay. Thank you so much. Um great. So, that item has been pulled off 12.9. Um, how about now? Do we have a motion to approve the consent calendar with 12.9 removed to an action item? >> We just did that. >> That was everything together. Okay. Good. Good. Excellent. >> Can you just specify um what order you would want to address that item? >> Okay. Absolutely. So, um let's see. >> We'll we'll do it after the What do you suggest? Yeah. After 15.2. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we're going to shift 12.9 that's been removed off the consent calendar to action down to essentially 15.3. >> Copy. >> Got it. Okay.
067Great. Okay. Moving on. Um 13.1 on of our public hearing action item with regard to approval of resolution 2604. So it's 8:15. >> It's approved. >> Oh, so Oh, there they were. Yeah, that's all right. Next has been approved. [Applause] That was that wasn't clear. Thank you. It It says on here uh by 8:00. So, apologies for 8:15. We're good. Okay. Thank you. >> Should we go? Hit the button on the on the >> You don't have sound. >> There you go. >> Okay, cool. >> Can you hear me? >> Good evening, everyone. So, for the staff recommendation for this is to approve the resolution 260004 for grades K12 textbook and instructional materials compliance for fiscal year 2025 and 2026. >> Are there any questions? Director Chang, uh, uh, please open up the public hearing
068for this for this item. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh, opening up public hearing for this item. >> No. >> Is there anyone here to speak to this matter? >> There any folks who would like to speak to this matter? We're in public hearing on 13.1 now. It appears >> Nope. Nobody's coming up. Okay, we're going to close it. It's been closed. >> Okay. Is there a >> I'd like to move to approve. >> Great. Motion to approve. Is there a second to approve? >> A second. >> Excellent. Um, do we have the eyes? >> I I >> I >> unanimous. So moved. Um, thank you. Next on up, we have 14.1 uh teaching and learning updates. I love that. [Music] Good evening, superintendent, board directors. As the director of curriculum instruction, I am happy
069to join you this evening and my colleagues to present our fall teaching and learning update to you all. My colleagues will now introduce themselves and their roles within our organization. >> I'm Lauren Combmes. I'm the visual and performing arts manager. >> I am Benjamin Goff, program supervisor for garden and cooking and windskills program manager, CTE, career technical education. It is our organization's proud mission to enable and inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world. While much of our work f focuses rightfully on learning, rigorous instruction, and equitable outcomes, we also want to elevate the ways in which our BSD students are being supported and inspired to step into their full selves as artists, innovators, environmental stewards, and community leaders. That is why our presentation to you this
070evening is grounded on the second half of our district's mission, which is to make positive contributions to the world. This evening, we'll spotlight three programs that uniquely cultivate these contributions. Visual and performing arts, VAPA, gardening and cooking, and career technical education, CTE. Although we can do an entire presentation on all the amazing that is happening each of these programs to uplift and inspire our B USD students to become their best selves. Tonight, we will focus on specific programs and people who embody the latter half of our mission. As you will hear, each program offers students real world identity affirming and purpose-driven opportunities to engage deeply with themselves, their communities, and the world that they are inheriting and the world that they will surely shape in the future. On the slide before you is a snapshot
071of each of the three programs that are being highlighted this evening. Collectively, these three programs serve thousands of BUSD students from preschool all the way to 12th grade. In our visual and performing arts program, over 4,900 B USD students engage in the arts across 40 plus courses, learning to express, perform, and reflect through music, visual arts, media, drama, and dance. In our gardening and cooking program, over 6,000 students get their hands in soil and their minds around sustainability, food systems, and wellness. In our career technical education program, more than 3,200 students are being prepared for college and career readiness across 12 CTE pathways through coursework, certification, and industry aligned mentorships. To see and hear how our arts program is shaping lives, I will now hand it off to VAPA manager, Miss Combmes. Thank you. Remy,
072when I'm done, after I'm done. >> Good evening. My name is Lauren Combmes. I serve as the visual and performing arts manager for the district. It's now my second year at BUSD. And in that time, I've walked through classrooms, attended events, worked alongside our incredible teachers, and one thing has stood out really clearly. Berkeley deeply values the arts. Across our schools, students, teachers, families, administrators, and community partners come together to create arts programming that is not only vibrant, but also a model for public education in the Bay Area. Our programs embody the heart of BSD's mission, empowering students to make meaningful, positive contributions to the world. In addition to our core Vapa programming you see here, such as instrumental music classes for fourth and fifth graders, we offer specialized programs that serve as a supportive
073framework, enriching the standard curriculum while also amplifying underrepresentative creative voices. This year, we're excited to bring back the Aloney Sisters through the Golden State of Song, who lead engaging, interactive fourth grade lessons focused on musical traditions of the California coastal native communities. And tonight, I'm honored to introduce someone who reflects that mission in action. Remy Ashley, a 2016 graduate of Berkeley High School. After BHS, Remy earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Manhattan School of Music and just recently completed his doctorate in jazz performance in musiccology at USC. Even with these accomplishments, Remy remains connected to Berkeley. He gives back to the very music program that helped shape him, now serving as a clinician at BHS and other sites. Remy's journey is an example of one of the powerful impact arts education can have
074on the kind of future that we're helping to create for our students. Here he is today and he would like to play a little bit for us. [Applause] [Music] Thanks. Thank you. >> Good evening, board members, district colleagues. My name is Benjamin Goff. I'm proud to have served this community as an employee of the district for the last 25 years. And when asked to present something about our program that supports the district mission to enable our diverse student body to make positive contributions to the world. The first thing that came to mind was the work going on at Berkeley Technology Academy and Willard Middle School through the growing leaders program. And what better way to illustrate this connection than through the student experience. So, what I've done is I've created a video at these programs
075and I'm hoping that it does just that and I hope you enjoy it. >> Oh, go back. >> Nope. >> Can you play that video for us? [Music] you get to experience being around more peers, especially when like you're not used to being around people or working with people like that. It just gives more experience with working with others and communication. I like to roll the dough, make the dough and stuff. It's very fun and at that it's hands-on. I like that it teaches you the fundamentals and a bit more of cooking and so that you can like you can take care of yourself. >> Um, I get to learn how to cook. I wasn't very good at cooking. >> I get to try new things and like build new bonds with people in the
076kitchen. >> Feel people. >> It's super creative. You get to have your own mind, but also it's about like leadership and following the rules and being with your friends. I love great news. It's a great space to really kind of meet new people and also kind of find your community. Not everybody comes from the same background and you don't necessarily know everybody, but you really get to understand that cooking is a really great way to bring people together. [Music] cooking skills and learning skills, communication. >> Um, I think I'm learning how to work as a team and how to cook a lot better. >> I want to cook for my parents and I'm still not that good, but I hope I'm communication and leadership. It's teaching me how to work in teams and how to
077be good when people telling you to do something. >> I learned like teamwork, working with people you don't really know and just communication skills, >> leadership, communication, cooking skills, >> skills like taking care of others and then also taking care of yourself. >> It's not only cooking. It can affect like other jobs like if you're in real estate. We also do like make sales and it could teach us how to be like better at selling and spokesman skills. I think that working with other people is I think a really really good life skill. It will definitely serve me well in my future when I need to like work in a group or have a meeting and learn how to talk with everybody and stuff. It's going to help you like when you turn an adult
078and like you're you live on your own and stuff and you don't have to just rely on like fast food. [Music] >> Thank you. >> Good evening board members and my esteemed colleagues here. Uh I'm here to talk about the career technical education program, but what we mostly do in CTE is do and not tell or show and not tell. It's experiential. Um uh wanted to talk broadly about the program. As uh director Albeck said, we serve over 3,000 students in the district, 12 pathways, 51 courses. It's really, really broad. But when it came to thinking about a pathway that really embodies our value of um achieving academic excellence and making positive contributions to our world, I could think of no uh better pathway than our BSTEP pathway. An next slide. And so I chose
079this picture here on the left very intentionally. I don't know if we can blow that up a little bit. There we go. Um on the picture on the left very very intentionally um we have if you look to the person the third from the left Edgar Chavez please come up. Class of 2017 BTEP uh program EMT graduates. Um if you look a little bit over maybe third from the right you also see another one of our graduates not here today but um Edgar is going to do do the presentation on this pathway. Edgar is not only a Berkeley Fire Department paramedic. B Edgar is our graduate. He was an EMT. U Edgar is also our teacher. He is BFD and BFT. He is a CTE credential paramedic. Um uh EMT teacher. >> Yeah. So, like
080Win said, my name is Edgar Chavez. I teach the BTE program. Um and I've been a paramedic here at Berkeley Fire for about two years now. Um, and instead of just like telling you guys what my program is, we'll just show you. So, let's just say right now we're having a medical emergency. 911 was called uh for a 35-year-old female who's having some chest pain. We're going to have our recent graduate Eden come and be the EMT, as well as our graduate Ya Schwarz, who was our graduate for 2019. And we're going to have let Eden over here do our assessment now. >> Hi, my name's Eden. Can you tell me your name? Can you tell me your name? >> Are you okay? >> Can you tell me your name? >> 911. >> My name
081is Anikia. Oh god. >> Okay. Can you tell me where we are right now? >> Oh Jesus. >> Are you having some pain right now? >> Yes. >> Where's your pain? >> Oh. Oh Jesus. Oh gosh. Right here. I was sitting there. Oh Jesus. >> Okay. Can you tell me where we are right now? >> Oh, we at Berkeley. >> Okay. And what year is it? >> Oh god. >> I don't know. It hurt. Oh Jesus. >> Okay. Oh god. >> My partner here is going to start taking your blood pressure. >> Okay. >> Um I'm noting that her airway is open, clear, maintained because she's able to talk to me. Her breathing seems okay. a little bit labored cuz she's stressed. And ma'am, can I take your pulse? >> Is that okay? Thank you.
082>> Okay. And her pulse seems strong. Her circulation seems good. >> Oh god. >> Okay. Ma'am, I'm going to just ask you a few questions. Okay. >> Can you tell me what symptoms you're feeling right now? >> It hurt. It hurt. I don't I was Oh, God. I don't know. I never felt nothing like this before. >> Okay. Do you have any allergies? >> No. >> Do you take any medications? Uh, >> no. >> Do you have any past medical history? >> Uhuh. >> Okay. When's the last time you ate? >> Huh? >> When's the last time you ate? >> Uh, at a bagel this morning, but that's it. >> Okay. And then what happened when this started? >> I was sitting up I was watching the board meeting >> up there. >> Okay. >>
083And I just had this this I don't know. It hurt. It hurt. I ain't never felt like this before. And did it come on suddenly or >> you saw me sitting there and it's like >> Is there anything that makes it better or worse? >> Can you describe it in one word for me? >> It hurt. It's pain. >> Okay. >> It hurts. >> Can you show me exactly where >> on your body? >> Does it radiate to anywhere else on your body? >> I kind I feel like here too. My It's all this side to my jaw. >> And then if you had to rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10, where would you rate it? back at 15. >> Okay. And then how long has this been going on? >>
084I mean, you was here. I was sitting there and I was okay and then 15 minutes. I was trying to be quiet about and I'm sorry y'all to disturb the meeting, but this hurt. >> Okay. So, we're going to give you 324 milligrams of aspirin. >> What's that? >> Aspirin. This is going to help with your chest pain. And then we're going to transport you code three to a semi. >> What's code bring me? What does that mean? That means like >> Oh, no. I don't want to go to the hospital. Okay. >> Well, thank you, Eden. We'll we'll give you the aspirin and we'll take you on down to the hospital. >> Um, so Eden just demonstrated how we run a call. Um, she just graduated high school. Um, she's ready to be >>
0852025. [Applause] >> 2025 graduate. She is ready to respond to actual emergencies. Uh, she is ready to be hired at local EMS agencies. hopefully one day be part of Berkeley Fire. Um Eden is one of many. Uh we have approximately six uh previous students that are now in the ranks of Berkeley Fire. Um and then we have many others that are working for other agencies such as Alama County and other ambulance providers. Um I just want to state how important this program has been for many of us, not just me, that I went through that program in 2017. It was absolutely life-changing. Um I'm not going to stand here and say I was an excellent student. I wasn't. Um I did not like school at all. I was not doing well in school, but this
086program absolutely changed my life. I'm a firstgen student. My my parents are immigrants. They came with nothing. We had nothing. And because of this, I have a stable career. I have a really good pension now. And I was able to provide for my wife and mom. So, I just want to say thank you to Win and everyone else that makes these uh CT programs possible. Thank you. So again, Eden just graduated in June. Uh NRMT passed uh EMT certified Yale who was helping her class of 2019. Uh sitting next to him, Gayen Taro, class of 2021. There's a weird connection here. We know this. Yesterday we ran into I was talking to Gayen Farmer Ben Goff came by. uh the food pantries that we have at BTA and AMPs. Gayen was one of the founding
087members of the food pantry and is now a Berkeley firefighter medic. So, there's a lot of uh of community and a lot of interaction between our students here. >> Next slide, please. Perfect. So, as we close out this evening, and Oscar goes to our superintendent, uh I want to briefly acknowledge a more serious tone, and that's the funding landscape that makes these powerful programs possible. So, you'll notice that each of our programs we highlighted tonight, VAPA Gardening and Cooking and CTE, is supported through a complex blend of funding that includes grants, partnerships, and voter approved local measures. While this speaks to the incredible resourcefulness and collaboration across our district and Berkeley communities, it also underscores an important reality. These are not programs built on consistent ongoing funds. They rely on braided funding, much of its
088soft money, to thrive. As we look ahead, we need to continue to ask ourselves the question, how do we ensure the long-term sustainability of programs that are so deeply aligned with our mission and so clearly impactful for our students? We're grateful for the investments that we make to make this work possible and we are committed to working together to sustain it tomorrow. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. That was great. Beautiful. Um and oh to be 35 again. Um, [Laughter] >> next on up we have >> sounds old to me. >> Sounds old. >> Oh, wow. Look at that. We're seeing some uh pickle. >> Oh, wow. Thanks. Amazing. Oh, wow. Look at that. Thank you. Granola. >> Berkeley Unified Granola and pickled. I love going. Thank you so much. >>
089Um [Music] >> the the bounty of B USD students and programs. Um thank you so much. That's uh so nice of you and beautiful presentation again. Um we are on to action item 15.1 uh approval of the 2024 2025 unodudited actuals. Huh? >> I don't know if it's going to work though. If it doesn't work, you can Oh, stop it. >> I'm so sorry. It's >> okay. >> I'll talk to her tomorrow. >> So, good evening everyone. Um, this is a very tough act to follow. I am not sure if the budget is going to actually give anyone a heart attack, but we're going to talk about the unodudited actuals for 2425. Um, next slide. Oh, you have it. You can I never get it. I can never get it to work. Oh, there I
090go. Who knew? Um so tonight's presentation is being um presented grounded in our mission and also our four E excellence equity engagement and enrichment and this is hit or miss Liz. >> Okay so the presentation objectives um we're going to review how the district closes books for the 2425 year. We're going to look at the budget or estimated actuals to the actual expenses or the unaudited actuals. And we're asking the board to approve the 2425 unawudited actuals as well as the GAN um limit resolution. And again, the focus for the of this presentation is the district's on the district's um unrestricted general fund and the GAN limit resolution. Next slide. So, um, highlights of the closing the books. Um, we did meet the 3% state required reserve. It's actually in our fund 17. Our undesated
091ending fund balance was almost a,974,000 and it exceeded the projections by 6 million. Um but we do need to to note that the estimated actuals or the budget we um we adjusted that when we adopted the 2526 budget um um and we took pre-savings at that point. So when we're comparing the budget to the actuals, the budget numbers have already been adjusted somewhat for anticipated savings and um and also when we did those savings, there were um there were overstated some of those savings were overstated. So when you're looking at the budget to actuals, the budget actually has already been adjusted somewhat um when we adopted the 2526 budget. So the variance report um explains the difference between the budget and the actual and significant variances. Um we did have overspending um from the revised
092actuals for classified salaries and for operating expenses and we also saw an increase in BP contribution based on the actual cost of teachers and substitutes. Next slide. Um at this time we always also look at the year-over-year um unspent balances in LCAP. So this is going back from 2014 to 2015. So this first slide takes you from 20145 to 201920 and the next slide Liz. Um oh back on. So that actually takes us through the rest of the year. So you can see that the unspent balance year-over-year was 1.6 million. But interestingly in 2425 we actually overspent the budget. Um so that's actually reducing the year-to- date balance and there is a board policy where we limit um the spending. The $1.1 million um is set aside um but we have identified about $200,000 for
093the bridge program. So we would normally set aside about 800,000 but because our budget um we have insufficient fund balance we're not able to set aside that 800,000 in the presentation that I'm sharing with you. Um this is a an um this is a summary of um unspent balances and I think this was from a prior year because as I mentioned earlier we actually overspent um there was no unspent balances by goal um for 2425. Next slide. So now we're going to look at the variances um with re on our revenues. So overall the bottom line um we saw an increase of about $500,000 um over what we had estimated and that's primarily due to the fact that um our fourth quarter estimates for lottery came in about two $300,000 hack dollars higher and then
094our actual revenues that we got for leases and rentals um exceeded budget by about 300,000. So the question may be well why didn't we actually adjust the budget? Um a lot of this information came in like at the fourth quarter for lottery and then actual um amounts gained for leases and rentals. Sometimes that's chewed up after we have adopted the budget for 2526. This other slide um has a a total variance of $1.3 million and the budget was 111 and we actually spent 112 million. And usually um those of you who have watched our presentations in the past year, we're usually leaving money on the table. So we're actually spending less than the budget. But as I explained, we have already adjusted the estimated actuals for projected savings. So um kind of like a moving
095target um when comparing budget to actuals. So the focusing on our actuals um we can see that the total that we spent was 112 million and significant variances um were in classified salaries, services and operating expenses. And that's because not a factor of actual expenses but our budget being understated. I don't know if that makes sense. So the budget number was already adjusted downwards. Um when we adopted the budget, we took anticipated savings and that was overstated. Um and then when we look at um our direct support and indirect um cost, this is the money that the unrestricted general fund receives from other funds and restricted programs. And that amount was less than projected because the other funds and other programs did not spend all of their um projections um projected expenses. Um and when
096we're looking at transfers in um this is um this is actual transfers out to the self insurance fund based on actual expenses and claims. We did not need to spend the entire $600,000 that we had set aside in the budget. So that's actually a positive variance for the unrestricted general fund of $300,000. And then when you look at fund 20 and fund 17, fund 20 is our postemployment um retirement or benefit fund. And that's the amount that we've been using to supplement the unrestricted general funds expenses. the $319,000 was a budget balancing solution that was not budgeted at that at that at that time. And then fund 17, you can see we transferred funds into the unrestricted general fund and that's because fund 17 was overall allocated. So this is right sizing fund 17 um
097to show the actual their share of the 3% and we returned a $179,000 back to the unrestricted general fund and as I mentioned back back one this and as I mentioned um in the highlights we realized $487,000 more as a contribution from BP um because of the cost of actual teachers which includes leave of absences and um the total number of teachers that we actually paid um exceeded budget as did our sub cost. Um next slide. So um the contributions out and this is an anomaly as well for Berkeley. We're actually spent um less than budgeted for our special ed and we'll talk about that a little bit further. Um the budget kept on being adjusted like I said and it was adjusted um when we adopted and um that that explains basically why we're
098we're essentially the same. The budget is the same as actual. Um and then if you're looking at um our net increase in fund balance um the overall difference is the $538,000. And if we go to the next slide, we can look at um how we're designating the um the ending fund balance. So the undesated ending fund balance is $600,000 more than we budgeted and as I mentioned the budget was reduced. At one point the difference was about $500,000 and now it's $338,000. Um and then we're designating from that ending fund balance um for our labor adjustments um economic uncertainty. You can see that we no longer are taking any of the share of the general fund because it's now all in fund 17 and our undesated ending fund balance is $974,000. Next slide. Um and
099special education, we want to kind of mention um what happened here. Um, we need to point out that when we adopted the 2425 budget, we anticipated our expenses were actually $4.9 million less than we ended the year with. So throughout the year, I've brought variances at first interim and second interim to explain the increase. And these increases are predominantly due to um the cost of existing services increasing but also the increasing cost of our one-on-one services to our students, our IES and nursing. Um that that tends to be an area that's still being increased. So whereas the variance when we closed the books was only5 $50,000 um we have put an additional $4.9 million into this program to meet increasing costs. Um next slide. Um and then another thing that we want to bring to
100your attention is a form CA which is which is a current expense or formula and minimum classroom compensation. This slide explains um what that form is about, why we do it, the legal compliance requirement. Um and then we're looking at the actual expenses and we monitor deficiencies. So we're looking at total expenses divided by our ADA to get the estimated cost of classroom education if you will. And on the next slide, key components, the current expense of education, the denominator in the calculator is actually the um the dollars for educational costs and then that's and then the numerator includes salaries and associated benefits for certificated teachers and par profofessionals. So as a unified school district our percentage required percentage is 55%. And um with in our district we have had to make adjustments to meet
101that 55%. And why is this important? Um it's important because if we don't meet the percentage that percentage is an audit finding and it's also an indication of how much we're actually spending on classroom um or or instructional costs. if you will. So, it's impacted by our certificated expenses um how they're coded. So, we have found that some of our certificated expenses are being coded to non-certificated functions. We also have to look at our increase in certificated management levels. So, they're coded to the correct object code, but they're not like an instructional function because they're not in the classroom. Um, and of course our sitebased TSAs are coded or should have been coded to an instructional function. So we find ourselves having to tweak that formula and make adjustments to the underlying data to comply
102with the rules of the CA and to make sure that our classroom expenses expenditures are actually being coded correctly in the um in our accounting system. Next slide. And then the GAN limit um in along with the unodudited actuals represented the GAN limit and this explains what the GAN limit is about. Um and it basically um it was established in 1979 and it's it's in a a way that we limit the growth in state and local government spending. Um, no adjustments were needed for us to meet the GAN limit and the board is being asked to approve the resolution along with the unodudited actuals tonight. Next slide. Um, this is this committed reserve. For those of you who know Josh Daniels, this is known as a Josh Daniels reserve. And in years where we have
103a lot of um excess um ending fund balance where um we're required to set aside an additional 1% um when certain conditions are met. Those conditions were not met in 2425 and we're not required to set aside an additional 1%. Next slide. And I want to acknowledge um our fiscal team. um we're working without an executive fiscal director who's no longer Emily is no longer with the district. So staff stepped in um to help. Um so I want to recognize Craig Kaufman um and all our budget teams. Craig um helped with the budget, helped me with the budget, and it was refreshing to get back to basics being a fiscal director and um working closely with the team. So, I just want to acknowledge everybody who's on this slide and um and all their hard
104work that made it possible for us to close the district's books and present the unudited actuals to you tonight. So, at this point, I'll take questions or um anything that you'd like to discuss. >> Thank you so much, board members. >> Director Schnowski. >> Hi, Pauline. Thank you so much for your work and thanks to the whole team. Um, I'm sure it was a heavy lift with the loss of Emily. So, um, I just have one question. Back on the slide when you were talking about the classified salaries and services and operating costs, what you said is that we didn't overspend in those areas, but that we we are yeah, we reduced the budget too much. I >> I'm not sure I understand why did we reduce the budget if we knew we were going
105to spend more. >> We didn't know. We didn't know. So what we did when we adopted the budget in June, um usually we wait until we close the books to kind of see what was what would happen to the unudited actuals. This was the first year that we said, well, we don't think we're going to spend as much um to close the books. So we're going to take down um various expense items by a certain ratio. And in some cases were spoton and in some cases we um took it down too far. So in those two areas, we reduced the budget too far. So it looked as if we're overspending, but it really was the budget adjustment that was causing that difference. >> Let me ask the question in a different way. Why was it
106that we didn't realize the savings that we thought we were going to realize? Is there a reason that we our estimate was too much? >> Well, the estimate would have happened when we adjusted the budget when we adopted um the 2526 budget. So when when we actually closed the actual expenses exceeded what we thought our projections were going to be and it's not a fact a factor of the the um the actual expenses it's a fact that we move the goalpost in the budget. >> I understand that I'm I'm just asking why do we understand why >> I have no >> those projections were incorrect? >> No. um um because I did not make those projections. >> Those projections were made um just based on um a trend just in those two areas. So >>
107okay, I would be curious to know I don't know if who to direct it to but curious to understand the basis of the projections and why they were wrong just because it's such a large amount. It's over a million dollars. Thank you. Okay. Members, are there other questions? >> I just have one question about the um special education costs and the increase in the budget of $4.9 million >> between the adopted budget and the adjusted budget at the end of the year. Um, did the budget that we adopted for reflect those increased costs? >> Um, we what we adopted for 2526 is in line with what we ended 2425 with. >> Okay. >> So, we're realizing that it is a is not like a one-time explainable increase. It's an ongoing increase. And do we expect
108that that increase is going to be sufficient for 2526 or are we going to have more millions of dollars that we're going to have to adjust? >> Well, what we did um when we adopted the 2526 and Sam can speak more to this, we converted um was it like 30 IA positions um to staff positions that were previously consulting or um contractors. So, we know that's going to result in some sort of a savings. So, I think it's a um it's a work in progress. Okay. >> And as we see areas where we can um make a difference, we're we're um moving in that direction. >> Thank you. Are there other questions? Um do we have a motion then to approve the 2024 2025 unudited actuals? I move to approve. I second. >> And do
109we have the eyes? >> Eyes. >> I. >> No nazs. Unanimous. So moved. Thank you so much. And 15.2. The gun limit resolution 2605 which associate superintendent Finsby had just referenced in one of her slides. >> Yeah. >> So um I would need a separate approval for the GAN. >> Okay. Um, do board members have questions about this? I think it's slide 18. Is that correct? 18/19. No questions. >> I move to approve resolution number 26-5. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Um, first on a second. Do we have the eyes? >> I It's unanimous. So, passed >> and thank you so much. Okay. So now we have the amended action item that got pulled off of consent as you will recall at the start of this meeting at 12.9 has now pivoted into 15.3 and
110that would be approval of memorandum of understanding between emerges educational staffing and Berkeley Unified School District. >> Sorry, distracted. Um director's not >> signatures. Um, so I pulled this because the contract is um for $500,000 and I understand that it is for um hourly services. Uh, but as we just heard, we get quite a cost savings when we use um our own uh BCCE employees. We also um pay those employees better and provide um job security benefits, pensions, all the all the good things. Um and so I hesitate to approve such a big contract. I understand that we want to ensure that our students have the services that they need um and that we may have to backfill with contractors when we're not able to hire people. But such a large contract for me um
111means that there's not going to be as much of a drive to make sure that we continue to do the work that we've been doing over the last couple years to fill those positions internally. And so um yeah, those are my concerns and I'm I'm wondering if there's a possibility of uh reducing the contract significantly and if there is a need then we come back and we have that conversation again. um if if we need to have more hours, but I I personally don't feel comfortable approving such a large contractor um contract for contractors. So, thank you for that, Director Shinoski. Um uh of course, this was not our our first strategy. As you um and members of the board know, we opened the school year or tried to kick off the school year with
112a uh recruitment event specifically for IAS and its thinking about both our afterchool program um and our special education services and our students who need additional resources in our afterchool programs. Um and though we were successful in hiring some folks actually a good number of folks from that as well as a good number of folks from our partnership with Alama County Office of Education that had a program for instructional assistance. we still have a significant need. I think the number when I last checked was about 40 vacancies and so we did start the year off um attempting to address those vacancies and those needs by hiring staff of our own. Um but as we move into the month now of October soon realizing that we didn't have the capacity. So this particular contract unlike the
113contract is for services up to 500. So, we definitely hear the feedback and and and welcome the feedback from the board around reducing it. Um, as long as the board is aware that to your point, should we need more, we will be coming back for more. We were just trying to cover bases, if you will, um, to just get the approval now with the intent though to continue to try to staff uh, programs and serve our babies with stu with folks who are BUSD employees, not with contractors, but wanting to have that flexibility. So, we received that feedback. We can definitely reduce the contract um as long as the board is aware then we would be coming back should we need more than the um 9,000 hours over 41 weeks that this contract allows us.
114>> Board members, we have a recommendation for um the ceiling thus amended ceiling. >> I have a question. This um so this 9,000 hours for up to 41 estimated program weeks, what does that look like in terms of services to students? like how much of the school year do you anticipate this would cover? Is it the entire year that would give me more direction or more an ability to give better direction? >> Yes, correct school year. >> Yes. Yes, it's a school year. >> So, I would like to see us reduce it to 100,000. I realize that that may mean that we have to consider it again um in the near future, but I think it's a conversation we need to keep having. >> Thank you. So it's a 100,000 then just like a very
115rough rubric we're looking at would be about a a quarter of that time >> 20% of that time frame and how many weeks would that roughly be 20% of 41 weeks >> 8 weeks two months until we're hitting when's now >> so this is for services that began in August so I this is not eight weeks from now so I would want us to I would recommend commend reconsidering that number given that we are at almost 5 weeks into the school year. So I don't have the estimate about how many that we're using right now off the top of my head. But >> so you what you mean is that um >> a little bit >> those 9,000 hours go backwards since August. >> Yeah. Till the start of the school year. Superintendent, would it
116be okay if this came back at the October 1st meeting with a stronger rationale from the associate superintendent on what a reduced number of hours could be if she doesn't have the information for us now? So, we need the coverage now because we do have So, as a reminder, this is different from the ALBO contract because we have students with um special needs that may require that additional assistance in order to participate in after school. So, I don't want to hamper our ability to provide those services. Can I ask one other question? Is it possible to offer overtime to the instructional assistants who are serving those students during the school day? >> Um yes um it is possible and we are working on a plan. Uh we actually um have been meeting with the union
117leadership. I know Frank uh had to take off, but um we've been meeting with the union leadership about it and are planning uh to roll out um a trial um to offer the overtime to make sure that we actually have consistent people showing up to take the overtime before we um rely on that completely. But that is our plan. >> Thank you. And yes, Director Schnazi, >> I guess I'm willing to say 125,000, which is a quarter of the contract, but I really would like it to come back to us and for us to keep having that conversation about how we're staffing both for the sped IAS and also our afterare after school physicians. >> Think I think associate superintendent volsby has her hand raised. >> Your mic's not on. Oh, I was >> this
118one. Is this better? >> Yes. >> Yeah, that's good. >> So, um I understand when staff are when they're actually preparing these contracts, if they're um replacing IIA positions, they have to put the position numbers um beside the number of staff that they're um replacing. So, I don't know if that happened um with this particular contract. >> So, they're usually replacing um employees, but obviously it's at a higher rate, right? So, this one is ours. It's a bank of hours for after school program as opposed to the PCNs that exist during the day. We are working towards creating PCNs for the after school program for these um positions. Um but we have not um gotten a hold on what that would look like yet and how that would work. So we are um this would
119be just a bank of ours at the moment. So no it's not offsetting positions at the moment but that is the plan is to create positions. >> Thank you Vice President Korn. Did you >> just wanted to respond to the proposal from Director Shinowski to do uh 125. We are we are fine to do 125. Just want to again keep in mind what associate superintendent Hoganike said. this is going to be uh back pay if you will. And so what we would do is start with that 125, come back to the board with clarity around what and how much that 125 covers or if it's sufficient to cover us to this date. But there is a possibility for us to come back on the first again to ask for additional dollars for this particular um
120contract. And I want to say again so the public can hear, this is not about people and positions. This is ours and the contract was up too. So very very different than the contract. And even with that contract, um we we agree with you all wanting to staff uh with with folks that are part of our Berkeley family. And so we've worked it out for many of our contracts going forward that we can make modifications and changes in real time with a shorter turnaround time than there was um in the initial contracts. >> Thank you. And um Oh, go ahead. Would you like to speak? >> I just want to say I do appreciate that and I do appreciate that we were informed of that and so thank you. >> Yeah. I just want to
121add that um for members of the public, of course, the board here is very much invested in um only using contract labor as necessary and it is sometimes necessary. In this particular case, um there are statutory uh compliance issues engaged, of course, with IEPs. Um but uh we're working hard to move our um our labor costs to uh employees in the district. Um but this is a one of those cases where it's a challenging circumstance with statutory compliance. Um so is there a motion then? Is that how this is going to work? Do we do need to do a motion to amend this? Would this be an amendment or >> I move to approve a contract that would be rewritten? not to exceed $125,000. >> I'll second. >> Okay. So, we have a um motion
122and a second motion. Do we have the eyes? >> I I >> I >> that's unanimous. Thank you so much. So, uh moving on. Um sorry, I didn't spaced out there. Uh we are now on to uh 16.1. >> No, >> just information items. >> Oh, that's right. Apologies. Information items. So, we're now on to extended public comment. Do we have any member of the public here who would like to speak? Um how about online? Double checking here. >> Nope. >> No one. So, I I guess that means we're adjourned. Thank you so much. No. Oh, >> extended board comments. >> Oh, we got extended board comments. Uh, in this circumstance, we have an extended board comment. Thanks, Danoski. >> I think it's always on the agenda. Um, I just want to give a big
123shout out especially to uh the illustrious wind skills um who works tirelessly to get a lot of the grant funding that allows some of those CTE programs to go forward. Um, so in a different capacity, I work with winds from time to time and know how hard those grants are to secure. And so I'm just really grateful that we have the um the approval of taxpayers to invest in these programs, but also really hardworking individuals within the district who chase those resources and make sure that we get to offer those amazing programs to kids year after year. So um, just a quick shout out and that's it. I'm done. Thanks. Thank you so much. Um we are adjourned. Thank you. [Applause]