Berkeley USD Regular School Board Meeting - August 20, 2025

001All right, good evening everybody. Um, apologies for the delay. We're going to get started now. So, I'm going to call to order. It's um, we just came out of close session, but we're coming back. It's now what what time is it? Um, 7:09 p.m. Um, okay. Um, welcome to the August 20th, 2025 meeting of the Berkeley School Board. Um, if you want to follow along on our online agenda, it's posted on the district website. Um, before we begin, I think it's I would like to remind you of the quorum expectations during this and all parts of tonight's meeting. It's not specific to you, but I think it's just an important um reminder for all of us. Um, no person shall disturb the order of this meeting. Such behavior includes, but is not limited to, booing,

002hissing, 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. In line with bylaw 9323 on meeting conduct, if a member of the public is disruptive to the meeting, the individual shall be warned that their behavior is disrupting the meeting and that failure to cease the disruptive behavior may result in removal. If the member of the public continues to disrupt the meeting, the board should decide to recess the meeting to help restore order. in line with f in line with recommendations from council. Um this practice the board uh

003we would not necessarily remove the disruptive member of uh of the public from the meeting but rather we likely would take a recess to help restore that order. So I just want to remind everybody of our policies um with regard to disruption. Um so I would now like to move on to our uh regular meeting agenda for today. Um, is there someone number one? There any changes to the agenda? No. Um, any any >> call the role. >> Yes. Call. Call the role. >> Director Onas, >> presented. >> Director Jennifer Shinowski >> here. >> Director Jennifer uh vice president Jennifer Korn >> present. President um Mike Chen >> here. and our student director today joining us, Armana Ardon. >> Welcome. >> That's right. Thank you. We've got a new student uh director today. Um so

004glad to have you here today. And we'll of course have a proper introduction as well. Um so uh do we now have motion to approve the agenda for this evening's meeting? >> So moved. I'll second. >> Great. Do we have eyes? >> Eyes. I uh the agenda is approved. Um is is there a necessity of a role? No, I don't think so. Cool. Can we have a report out on on the closed session? Vice President Korn. >> Closed session was called to order at 5:35 p.m. Um President Chang, Vice President Korn, Director Schnowski, and Director Vasu Dev were in attendance. There were two items. Um, we received a report from staff regarding existing litigation and um, the board received a report from staff regarding collective bargaining. >> Thank you so much, Vice President K. Um,

005and now we have superintendent comments. >> Thank you, President Chang. Good evening, BUSD family. >> Oh, you guys are getting better at that. Thank you. I want to again wish you officially now a happy new year. Um we officially started school last week August 13th and myself and many members here on the deis as well as our staff had an opportunity like many of you to be at our school sites and experience the joy the excitement and the enthu enthusiasm of our babies as they started the first day of school and ability to reconnect with families, friends and of course our amazing educators. So, thank you all who are here for one entrusting us with your babies every day, but for doing all that you did behind the scenes uh to make sure that our

006first day and our first week has been a great week for our students um and our educators. We have our hashtag this year Berkeley Proud and there was so much for us to be proud of as we kicked off the school year and welcomed our students and families back. I want to call your attention to two items on our I'm going to be brief tonight. Imagine that. I want to call your attention to two items on tonight's agenda. The one is our afterchool um program update. Um some of you were here last meeting where we had a presentation from staff about the status of our afterchool programming giving some background about the ways and reasons why there have been some changes that people are feeling in real time this year as well as giving information

007about our next steps our improvements and our weight list that exists. Um this information item that is listed on our agenda is an update to that presentation with the primary purpose of giving some updates to the community around our numbers and to show evidence of progress um on moving uh to reduce that weight list even since that presentation two weeks ago. saying that also um that presentation or that information item also has just a more background for families who are not able to uh be at the presentation on the six as to why we are where we are and also the areas of support and focus that we have to again make sure that we're moving closer to providing quality after school programming to as many uh students and families as possible. Aware though that

008we do not have the capacity to provide um those programmings despite our effort and our desire to to all the families who need and want them. So, please make sure that if you have not seen that update, you take an opportunity to look at that. It is considered an information item, which means we're not going to speak about it publicly in tonight's meeting, but it is there for um your access uh later. The other presentation that I'm excited about and I want to make sure to make mention of because I want you all to stay, hopefully you will stay, is that we have two presentations this evening, both focus on our literacy work here in BUSD. We will be hearing um a presentation from our external monitor George Ellis who will share his final monitoring

009report for the district and then that will be followed by a staff presentation a quarter 12 report. Now the words report and all that fancy stuff is irrelevant. But what you need to know as families and folks of the members of the community is that this is an opportunity to hear about the work that's happening in BUSD in support of our mission towards academic excellence and all of our efforts towards really improving our literacy instruction in our schools and making sure that our babies have access to not just rigorous and engaging literacy instruction but um instruction that is coherent that is researchbased that is informed by best practice. And so we've done a lot of work over the past three years and I'm excited to share that work with you all this evening. Again, hoping

010that you'll stay and as you stay and listen that you'll understand that though these are both technically called reports that what we're going to share with you this evening is a lot is a lot is about much more than compliance. It's really evidence and demonstration of our commitment as BUD, the commitment of our educators, our principles, our cent's office staff and this board um to make sure that again we provide quality instruction to all of our babies. And so I do hope that you stick around to hear that as I think you'll get some good insight about the work that we've done to date and the the strides and shifts that we've made, but also understand the work that we know that there's still left to do and our commitment to doing so. So with

011that, um, President Chang, I'm not going to hold folks any longer, but I'm going to see if people remember how we do this here in Berkeley this year. Say it loud. [Applause] >> Okay, we'll keep practicing. Thank you all for being here. And again, I hope you stay. >> Thank you so much, Superintendent. Um, we're now shifting on to open session public. So, um, we've got some folks in the room here and some of them are students. I'd like to call up the, uh, the group of folks I spoke to previously about transportation issues. Um, Anulius and Aradas, Aradas, make sure to correct me. Kurdika, would you like to come on up? Your your parent can come on up with you as well. Thank you so much. So glad to have you here. [Music] [Applause]

012>> You guys want to tell the school board? >> Yeah. Thank you. >> What do you want? What do you want to ask the school board to do? >> Do you guys like where the bus stop is right now? >> No. Uh, why don't you like it? >> It's too far away. >> Yeah. Last year, could you walk home? >> No. >> Last year? >> Yes. >> What about this year? >> No. >> Why not? >> It's too far away. >> Yeah. You guys have to climb a bunch of hills to get home as well? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Did it is it How long did it take you to walk home? >> 30 more minutes. >> Over 30 minutes to get home. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. And so would you like to ask the

013school board to maybe move something to a closer location? >> Yes. >> Like where it was last year? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Is there anything else you guys wanted? What is Did you like last year that the school bus would stop and then help you cross Grizzly Peak? They would stop all the traffic. Was that good for you? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And now it's scary to do it without the school the the school uh the bus driver stopping traffic. >> Yes. Okay. Is there anything else you want to say? >> No. >> Okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> No. >> You know, it's a big I would just say if I can add like >> we rely on the school like the school bus to help kids obviously get to and from school.

014>> Hi. >> Um especially with like you know the afterare situation is complex. It's really >> we're relying on the school bus to help them get home not just safely but in a family manner as well. So, I really ask that you guys in good faith help us work on solving this problem. >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah, let's say thank you guys. >> Thank you. Great job. >> Next on up, we have um make sure to correct my pronunciation, Maxim L. Hello. It's working. Okay. >> You. My name is Maxim. I'm the father of Alex who just started kindergarten at BAM. He seems to be adjusting really well and we're so excited for this next chapter in Alex's education. I'm here to provide feedback on one aspect of Alex's transition that isn't going

015very well. We live in the hills by Tilden Park. Our assigned bus stop is a 25-minute walk from our house with 400 ft of elevation gain. That's just not walkable. So to use the bus system and adult has to drive to the stop, find parking, and finally walk to the bus stop. We try to use the bus every week every day this week. On Monday, the bus didn't even come. But on the other days, it took the bus about 30 minutes to bring Alex to BAM. That makes it about a 45minute door-to-door trip to go 2.3 miles from our house on a flat road. That's about how long it would take to walk that distance. The added inconvenience to us, Alex's working parents aside, the worst part of this is that unless something changes with

016busing, Alex will miss out on the independence that should have been afforded through the bus system, he'll still be reliant on his parents to drive him throughout elementary school. As someone who took a city bus through a medium-size European city since first grade, I feel sad about that. I see the value in an integrated busing system at Berkeley. I was excited to have my family participate in it, but the current situation of requiring a car to get to a bus stop to receive unreliable and tardy bus service makes it feel like an unfair burden. There's a limit to how big of an inconvenience busing can be. And I believe in our case it's been exceeded. I know there are many families who feel the same way. All that is to say I feel strongly that

017unless BUSD remediates this issue with busing, BUSD will acquire a reputation for having a dysfunctional busing system and we will see future families who are looking to put down roots past BUD for other school districts that are more practical for them. We will see decline enrollment in B USD. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, and just really quickly, I think I forgot to say at the start of this, um, there's two opportunities for public comment. One's right now, one's at the end as well. Um, in addition, of course, you can email your comments to board of edberkeley.net. [Music] And if you have complaints against specific district employees, you can use the district complaint process via complaints berkeley.net um versus public comments, of course. Um, all right. Thank you so much. We have Carrie Kab

018Kabat Kabat. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Um and I do also want to say that many of us that are here have used the opportunity to email the board and and other members um of the administration. So we are using this time to bring the issue up again. Um so my name is Carrie Kat. I'm a parent of two students who attend Berkeley Arts Magnet School and I've also been a school site council member at BAM for the past two years. Uh less than a week before school started, we learned that our bus stop had been moved to a location that is now nearly the same distance from our house as the school is. We live in the hills along Grizzly Peak and our new bus stop is a nearly 2mile drive from our

019house and more than 600 vertical feet downhill. Our former bus stop at Grizzly and Shasta was walkable for us as well as for the majority of the 10 students who boarded the bus at this stop every day last year. Now all of these families must drive to stops that are along Ullet Avenue. Many parents, as I said, have expressed concerns to the transportation department about this change. Uh, in response, administrators have cited new guidelines from the California Highway Patrol that restrict school bus routes on Grizzly Peak. Now, we've requested to see the CHP's report or recommendations, but have not been able to access this information to see what specifically the CHP has determined and how we can work within their guidelines to safely operate school buses in the hills to better serve families and students.

020In California, there is a shrinking proportion of public school students who receive transportation services. And this trend mirrors the expansion of school choice, both of which could continue to drain public school enrollment. Making transportation harder for students to access could push more families out of public schools, worsening the already challenging budget crisis that we know schools like Berkeley are currently dealing with. Our integrated school system often sends children to schools that are not within walking distance of their home. Instead, they attend schools all over the city, which is wonderful in many ways, but the system only works if there's adequate busing. Therefore, I urge the school board to push the transportation department to reroute buses in a way that will more adequately serve students in the Berkeley Hills as soon as possible. In addition, I

021ask the board to create new policies around transportation, including the maximum distance each student should have to travel from home to their stop and a protocol for reviewing and approving school bus routes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next on up we have Nick Yarovi Deravoy. >> Um, yeah. Hi everyone. Um, sorry. Um, yeah, I'm Nick Yarvoy. Um, I'm a Berkeley resident for about four years now. I live on Shasta around Grizzly Peak. I'm a neighbor with these wonderful people. Um, and uh, I'm originally from Ukraine, uh, by the way, where we're pretty, uh, used to fighting for our rights. Um, I'm just surprised they have to do it in Berkeley, uh, you know, where we value like equality and fairness so much, but um, here I am. So, um, the problem is the same

022as uh, my neighbors. Um my children is unable to use the new bus stop and we have been using it uh before for 3 years and it was fantastic. Um now it's located too far and um I'm not sure if you've been in the Berkeley Hills but um you can't actually like many streets don't have sidewalks so you can't like walk safely to the bus stop. You can't walk back safely. We tried biking. My daughter is unable to bike up such a steep hill back. So the only way is driving. And driving, we tried it. It takes 5 minutes to drive to the bus stop, 6 minutes to drive to school. And at school, I don't have to wait for the bus. So it just doesn't make sense uh for us to do that. Um

023and before I went here, we have a spreadsheet where we have impacted parents who live in our neighborhood. Uh 35 kids. So uh what we've done, we've almost eliminated the bus system for 35 kids in the North Berkeley Hills. Um, so my ask for you is to look in this urgently. Um, find an alternative solution and um, there are any problems or you need any help, let us know. We're more than happy to volunteer and work with you to find a solution. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, next on up we have um Lindsay Noel. >> Hi, my name is Lindsay Nofelt. I'm speaking as a member of Reading for Berkeley. This meeting reflects the end of an 8-year legal process to reimagine literacy in Berkeley. The changes that have been made are

024important improvements, but they are in their infancy and we have to nourish them. It is our assessment that while big positive changes have been made, Berkeley Unified has not completed the tasks required to fulfill the terms of the settlement. Specifically, we're concerned about the diverse experiences at elementary schools where in some cases only 13% of K through2 students are being taught phonics. We are concerned that the middle school English language arts curriculum has not been addressed in a systematic manner. Instead, patchy training and one-off techniques are supposed to fix a non-existent curriculum. And the agreement requires oversight on implementation. Since the adoption of diagnostic tools, a new K through5 ELA curriculum, and new ways to identify students with reading difficulties were delayed until this academic year. There was no implementation to oversee at all. Everyone

025here in this room agrees that work toward our common goal of teaching every student in BSD to read and write proficiently is not done. Each of the reports for discussion tonight present ideas on how to achieve the goal. We urge you to read each report carefully and consider the gaps between the two. We can only benefit from another year of help to oversee the success of our program. Please accept an extra year of targeted court monitoring with someone who can visit the classrooms regularly at a cost that is reasonable to our district. We're in a budget crisis. It only makes sense to make sure that the person who oversees the success of this and make sure that everything goes smoothly can actually visit the classrooms. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next on up we've got

026Emily Han. Then after that be Diane Nullins. >> Good evening superintendent and board members. My name is Emily Han and I'm the parent of two kids at Rosa Parks. I'm here to talk about after school surprise. Um, first I want to note that the enrollment numbers for learn cited in today's information item are exactly the same as they were on August 1st. It looks like a copy and paste. So either that's an error or nothing has changed since August 1st. Thanks to the responsiveness and hard work of our learn specialist and moving through the wait list as fast as she could, my family received a spot in learns on Tuesday night. But the process at the district level continu continues to be inexcusably slow and disorganized. My child is neurodeiverse and the start of a

027new school year is always a challenging transition in the absolute best of circumstances. Not knowing what the plan is for after school until moments in advance of the first day of school is incredibly destabilizing and gives us no time to prep my child. For children like mine, changing after school providers multiple times in the first couple weeks, which I've heard from families have had to do, having a midday pickup by a parent only to then be dropped somewhere else because there's no bus transportation makes the transition 100 times harder and longer. Responses from district offices like, "Give it a few weeks and things will settle down and work out min minimize the real challenges that families face and the real children on the other end of those conversations." If there's not enough time for staff

028to get back to work and iron this all out before school starts, then we should be paying staff to come back earlier. Moreover, in 2025 in the Bay Area, we should be able to automate and systematize processes like registration and enrollment. AI can be a good thing and we should use it to our benefit here. Please don't let this slide for another year and start taking action on this now. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. I'm Diana Mullins, the Craigmont parent. Uh I'm here again because a terrible situation we warned about last year has come true. Last year, parents, union leaders, students, coordinators fought to save the nine learns coordinator positions. We asked, "You wouldn't run a school without a principal. How can you run afterare without a coordinator?" Yet, here we are. Our Craigmont

029coordinator is out on leave. And on just the second day of school, a TK child walked off campus. Learns didn't know about it and the parent found the child on Regal. Ah, this is unacceptable. We are begging you to make this the highest possible priority. Restore a full-time Craig um coordinator at Craigmont. Bring in management staff if you have to. That's what we do in business. Put the CEO there. I don't care. Just put somebody in leadership at Craigmont. Present a clear sustainable afterare plan. No more task force, just leadership. Include the coordinators. Fix the transport gap for at least the other afterare programs that do exist. We can't even get our kids to those programs even though they cost twice as much. Fix the chronic issue, the glaring staff shortage. Hire people full-time. Stop

030that we're not the seasonal contractors. It doesn't work. Let's let's do it right. There are ways to do this. Many of us have done it in business. Let's do it this way for the for the school as well. Berkeley families deserve safe, reliable, enriching afterare always. We ask you to step up, own this, and deliver a plan that we can all trust. Please. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next on up, we have Peggy Scott and then after that, Nat Bins. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Peggy Scott. I'm the parent of a 31-year-old with dyslexia who was denied resource by BUSD a long time ago. I'd like to point out that the children in the lawsuit for which this reading curriculum is a legal settlement are over 25 years old now.

031That's how long this has been going on. It's time to really push for overall acceptance and adoption of the science of reading and put it actively into place all over the district. You are the school board. Who's your client? According to the CSBA, and this is a quote, "Bards are advocates for students, the school district's educational programs, and public education. An effective board will better serve their communities and the children entrusted to their care. So district efforts result in improved student learning and achievement. Those are both quotes. And here's one more. An individual trustee, that's you, keeps learning and achievement for all students as the primary focus. So I'd like to advocate for those students now and I hope you will join me. We need another year of court monitoring. I hope it will be

032George. He knows what he's doing. He's right here and it will provide continuity. You need to address the Tier One middle school curriculum, which at the moment doesn't even exist. And more than anything, our students need you to allocate time and resources to teachers to make the ELA adoption shift. Teachers are going home at the end of a long day and going online to find resources to help their kids. They should have it at school. I know that it's hard. You often want to do things for the teachers. This is for the teachers as well as for the students. So many teachers want this. You are the school board. Your client is our kids. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Next up, we have Nat Bins and and then Kira Bins. >> Thank you

033all. >> Um I'm here to talk about after school. Um uh Madam Superintendent, you talked about the the joy of returning to school, and I think for a lot of families in Berkeley, coming back to school is not met with joy. is met with like deep anxiety about how they're going to be able to work and take care of their children. And nobody who we've talked to, and we've talked to a lot of families who have been in the same situation, uh disagrees with the idea that we as a community in Berkeley must prioritize the students who are most in need. We we all agree with that. But so many other communities who face the same challenges are able to solve this problem in a way that Berkeley has not been able to. And it

034is impossible for us to believe that Berkeley is incapable of this. Berkeley is capable of this. We're sitting in the the shadow of the greatest public institution in the in the world. We can do this. Um, and you know, it's it's just troubling, I think, to to feel like the concerns that are voiced and the problems that exist are not being prioritized or being dismissed as something that we don't think they are. Um, so I at the end of the day, the the thing that everybody is looking for is just like honest and transparent communication about what's going on and at the very least making sure that the the families that are uh, you know, uh, impacted by this feel like they have something to go on and that their voices are being heard. So

035I I would just ask that this be taken more seriously than it has been so far. >> Thank you Kira. And then after Kira Aaron Egan. >> Hi everyone. Thank you so much. Uh my name is Cara Bins. I am a parent of a Malcolm X first grader. Um I can share from personal experience that last year I eagerly signed my child up for learns. received one email on June 30th that the wait list had existed but that we didn't know what was going to happen and have never heard from learns again. I registered again this year literally zero communication. So I'm asking you I really feel like I want to be Berkeley proud. I'm fourth generation Berkeley. I really believe in our public schools. I believe in you all as leaders and I'm asking

036for your leadership. My understanding is that it's been at least 10 years that parents have been coming to you all saying that this is an issue for working families. This is something that we really need. We need trusted care for our babies so that we don't wander if they're wandering off into the neighborhood so that we know that they have enriching social experiences that really add to their school experience. And I'm looking for you all and specifically the superintendent to present a plan. tell us what you're missing and we will rally around you. We will do a bond measure. We will get funding. We will get I don't know what we need, but we are ready to step up and partner with you. But I have not gotten a clear answer about what's missing. And

037so I'm looking for leadership from the people who know what the challenges and the limitations are. Do we need to bring in outside agencies as some of the schools have, but not every school gets them. Um, I'm just looking for not only equality across the school district of the opportunities for afterchool care, especially on-site afterchool care, for transportation, and for ensuring that our children are safe. 98% of ch of families with children under the age of 13 in Berkeley have two working parents. This is an issue that affects so many of us, and I really want to see our safe children uh at their schools as much as possible. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um Aaron, thank you. >> Hello, Aaron Egan. I have a son at Sylvia Mendes and I'm here to talk

038to you about the aftercare program. We come from a family of two working parents. Just like the parent that spoke, I got very little communication on learns. My son was in learns for kindergarten and first grade and there was no email communication. We were put on a wait list and so I didn't get notification until the beginning of August, two weeks before school starts that my son was not in learns. I discovered there was some type of technical error because I was on the wait list. I then madly emailed Brazil who was put on the email that we were to email. I then called her. I left voicemail messages. I wrote multiple emails. I got no response. Just for a data point of one, our family was in complete panic. We are two working parents.

039There is no way we can pick up our son. It is California. There's no way to find additional afterare two weeks before school starts. I then started telling my boss I had to step out of work and I personally went to the building where Brazil supposedly worked. Nobody was even in the building. I then finally got into the building and I waited it. I went two days in a row 3:30 and 10:40. No one was there. I was given information of who I was to talk to and there was literally absolutely no response. We have to do better. I really believe in public school. I believe in you, superintendent. I think you do an excellent job, but you've got to help these working families. It is total panic and there is no alternative option. In

040my family, we were discussing who has to quit their job because I don't have child care. There has to be a better way to do this. And like the other parents, I want to support you. Thank you very much. Um, next on up we have some online public commenters. I believe Liz is Miss Charz. Is that correct? >> Two hands. And folks online, you you raise your hand. I think there's a question in the chat about that. Um, who is first up? I'm just trying to see on here. >> Matt J. >> Uh, Matt would go first. Uh, Matt Jay, would you come online, please? I think we can do two minutes a piece. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi. Uh, thanks. My name is Matt Jarvis. My son's a first

041grader at Crackmont and I live in the Berkeley Hills. Um, like some of the other commenters, we lost bus service this year entirely because our school bus stop was moved from a short walk away at the edge of our neighborhood to a mile and a half away, 600 ft down the hill. Um, and only a block from school. So, we just don't have bus service. It's just not a viable option for us now. The bus for us last year was amazing. It gave our son a sense of independence. It got him out of learns, which was a program that made him feel like a bad kid because the undertrained coaches didn't know how to deal with four and five year olds and their normal behavior as they learn school rules. And it really was life-changing

042for our son and we lost that this year. We found out about this a week, less than a week before school. We scrambled to get PTA enrichment classes together to get to 4 or 4:30 at best on most days. and my wife and I don't have nine to four jobs. We need school buses in the hills. We get that CHP has cited some probably valid safety concerns on Grizzly Peak. It's hard to swallow when you look at Uklid or Spruce or other streets where the bus does run, but we get it. We just need other solutions. There are other routes. There are other types of vehicles. As Mrs. Ben said earlier, I think a lot of parents would engage with the board to try to find solutions, even if that means something as ambitious as

043a ballot measure, but we need solutions for transportation and afterare or some combination thereof. It's hard to solve these problems if we don't even acknowledge them until days before the school year starts. But we're asking the board now to put whatever pressure you can on the superintendent and BSD transportation to come up with solutions, not simply throw their hands up at the first barrier that they encounter. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Miss Charles. Who do we have up next? >> Andre. Andre, would you come on, please? Andrea, can you hear us? >> You have to unmute yourself, Andrea. >> Okay, >> great. >> I Are you able to hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Thank you so much. Um, I appreciate the opportunity to to comment. Um, so I'm a parent of a

044a seventh grader at King Middle School who is in special education. She's um autistic and has multiple um challenges and um she is a very intelligent and capable person who is eager to learn and has proven that she can learn. Um, I wanted to comment about the literacy improvement plan report and the prog and the um monitoring court monitoring report, which I haven't had the chance to read all of, but I wanted to let the board know that um for students like my daughter who are in special education classes that address literacy that I when I read these reports, I really don't see any um how do I put it? Uh they they do not reflect our experience um on the ground. I think there are challenges that we're having for tier three students like

045my daughter who have identified um reading challenges um that really are kind of slipping through the the cracks so to speak. I know I'm going to run out of time here. Um there's different things. One, the assessments that are supposed to happen for Dibbles. Um the the dibbles has not been happening. Um in fact, there is no assessment data that the school has taken that is in any way comprehensive or usable on which to base her IEP goals. And um so that the IEP goals that reading instruction is supposed to be based on also um therefore are have not been improved. Um, so basically I'm just trying to point out to to the board, I'm hoping to raise your awareness and I hope maybe we can have a chance to discuss this separately that for

046students who really need intensive reading intervention and sometimes that's oneonone um we are not seeing what is being reported in these reports for example the dibbles monitoring every eight weeks the improved IEP goals nor are we seeing the consistent implementation of Wilson reading system in tier three sped classes. >> Thank you. >> So, I look forward to an opportunity to speak. >> Thank you. I'm sorry. We've exceeded the two minutes by about 10 seconds, but thank you. Um, who's on? You can also email additional comments. Who's on up next? >> I'm sorry. Say that again. >> Jalila. >> Oh, Jalila. Um, Jalila, can you come on? Oh, >> Jamila. Sorry. >> Hi there. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Hi. Um, my name is Jamila Dunn. I'm a parent of two students in Berkeley Unified.

047My younger child is dyslexic. And for years, I've pushed for stronger literacy instruction and better support for struggling readers. This fall in fourth grade, I saw something I'd never seen before. Excitement about reading. After the very first lesson in the new fish tank curriculum, an excerpt from Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, he came home eager to keep reading and retold the story in detail. That moment gave me hope. It provided it proved that the right curriculum makes a real difference. But many teachers still have not received sufficient training on fish tank and without support implementation will be uneven. students who are already behind cannot afford that. I urge you to ensure full adoption of this evidence-based literacy instruction in all Berkeley elementary schools and to adopt a similarly effective curriculum for middle schools. Please

048provide ongoing training for teachers and continue engaging with Mr. Ellis through 2026 to monitor progress and equity. His reports revealed extreme disparities among elementary schools that Berkeley must not allow to persist. I also would like to hear what support systems are going to be in place for students who need that extra instruction through tier 2, tier three. Um myself, for example, we I know we I we have a new case manager this year. I have not heard from that person yet. I still don't know what the plan is for my kid this year and I don't know what's in store for the new MTSS model and what that might look like. So, I just want to thank you again for your commit commitment to improving literacy for every B USD student and I hope that

049it uh you engage and persist. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jima. I think we have is it Owen Thompson? Is that right? Am I looking at this correctly? >> I'm sorry. Yes, thank you. Owen Thompson lasted. Can you come on, please? Owen, can you hear me? You have your hand raised. Can you come on? Oh, great. I see you. You have to unmute yourself. Thanks. >> Yeah. Sorry, I just took a sec to join. Good evening, everyone. Uh, thank you, members of the board. I'm one of the many parents commenting tonight on the learn situation. What I wanted to add tonight, a lot of people have already made a lot of great points. I want to add that I think the district really look the leadership at the district really needs to be looking to

050the school coordinators. Um, I will say I'm a parent at Sylvia Mendes and the coordinators are really the people I think anyone who's worked in a large organization knows that the managers who are closest to the ground often have the best understanding of how things really work and are the wisest when it comes to using resources efficiently. Um, I really see no leadership coming from the district and a lot of leadership coming from the coordinators. And my sense is that the coordinators have not been involved in the past in these kind of planning decisions. They're not given a voice. And now and especially in the future, I want to urge you to look to those coordinators really to be uh you know important really important key actors in this process because as other parents have

051said this keeps happening. It's not acceptable. It's not okay. It's going to push parents out of the district. that's going to decrease the resources available to our district. And I love this district. I'm sticking with it, but I don't want to see a downward spiral in which the most privileged parents opt out. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Um, Miss Char, do we have any more? >> Is there one person? Do we have enough time? >> Okay, we've we've exceeded our time. >> Um, thank you. others uh you can come on at the end of the um meeting today as well. There's another opportunity. Uh so next on up we've got committee comment. Do we have any folks from committees here for comment? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Oh, you came on person. Cool.

052Great. Do you want to um come on up? Yep. Good evening board directors, superintendent, and members of the Berkeley community. My name is Par Fischer, and I'm here tonight as a mom of two daughters in the district, and one in middle school, one in high school, and as a proud member of the African-American Success Advisory Committee, also known as ASAC, or goes by ASAC. Um, I love this district. My girls are second generation B USD and um as so many of you, I've been right there along with them with the excitement of new schools and the challenges of transitions and all the ups and downs that come with raising kids. Um I know firsthand how much our children depend on all of us, parents, teachers, leaders, to believe in them and to lift them up

053and to make them feel like they belong. Um, I also know what it feels like as a parent to be trying your best and still feel like you don't have all the resources and support um that are out there. And this is pretty much why I joined the uh ASAC. Um, not just for my girls, but for families who don't always have the time, the connections, or the energy to navigate the system alone. Um, these families are working hard, sometimes working multiple jobs, and they deserve to be seen and supported as well. I want to personally invite each of you to two important opportunities events coming up. Um the first one is our next um ASAC meeting which is on Wednesday September 10th right here in the boardroom. This is a space where we want

054to hear directly from families your concerns, your joys, your ideas so that we can make sure that um they're shared with the right people in the district. Um we serve as representatives and liaison and your voices are what guide our work. Um second um event I want to invite you guys to is the 4th annual B USD black to school event Saturday September 20th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Willard Middle School. Um it's not just a gathering, but it's also a place for families to come together and get resources. Oh, did I only have two minutes? >> You should you should uh five. I'm sorry. You got three minutes. Okay. Um, it's also a place for families to come together and get information and connect with other families um and get resources just

055so that we could uh ensure that our kids are starting off and our and our families are starting off really strong. Um, we know we know personally that um that when you invest when we invest in our black students and families, it lifts everybody up. Um stronger support for one group means stronger schools for all. That's and that's what this work is really about. Um so our ask tonight or our ask is um to all of you on the deis all of the principles all of those listening uh when you see these flyers please um when you see these emails and flyers and things that come out regarding um our mission um you know to to put the work forth um say yes, show up, spread the word, join us in the work um that

056makes sure every student in Berkeley knows that they are valued, they are brilliant, and they are a future worth fighting for. Um, thank you for your time, your service, and most importantly, um, your commitment to our kids. >> Thank you, Kar. Um, do we have other committee comments? I'm not seeing any. Uh, any online? Nope. So, u, next up are union comments. Also, um 5 minutes per union. Any union comments in the crowd? Great. Some coming up. Good evening board members. Um, and superintendent, welcome back. I'm Yoja Sher. I'm the vice president for BCCE. And standing here with me is Frank Hernandez, the the president for BCCE. Um, I hope you all had time to rest and recharge because this year Berkeley has important work to do. As we begin, I want to ask something

057simple of this board. When BCCE speaks, truly listen. Not just hear us, but listen, ask questions, and understand because the decisions made here shaped the lives of our members, our students, and our community. The superintendent introduced a new hashtag, Berkeley proud, and I want to give credit where it's due. Superintendent, you did good with that message. It's powerful. But hashtag and banners aren't aren't alone aren't enough. If we are truly Berkeley proud, then it has to show in our everyday actions in how we treat classified staff, how we treat our teachers, and most importantly, how we serve our students. If we don't live it as leaders, how can we expect our students to carry it into the classroom and beyond? That is why tonight I want to revisit the four A's. Availability, accessibility, accountability, and

058advocacy. because they represent what Berkeley proud should mean in practice. Availability means being present. Classified staff show up every single day before school, during school, and after school for students and families. This is exactly why we need those administrative assistant tools back in the Bears program. Without them, families lose stability and students lose services. If we're Berkeley proud, then we recognize and invest in that availability. Accessibility means ensuring families and students have open doors to the support they need. For many students, the first person they see in the morning is the bus drivers. For others, it's the custodians who's been on on site since 6:00 a.m. The administrative assistants in the office or nutritional service assistants already filling the cafeteria with the smell of breakfast. Nine times out of 10, the first face you see

059is classified staff. We are there. Classified employees are the foundation of accessibility in our schools, making them welcoming, safe, and ready to serve. If we're Berkeley proud, accessibility can never be compromised. Accountability means owning the impact of decisions. When choices are made without input from those who work the best, students pay the price. Accountability means asking questions, listening, and partnering with the people doing the work on the ground. Representation matters. If we're Berkeley proud, accountability must guide us every time. Advocacy means standing up for what is right for staff, for families, and for students. BCCE will continue to advocate for our positions, for our members, and for what is right. Advocacy is who we are. If we're Berkeley proud, then advocacy has to sit at the center of every des every decision in this district.

060The 4 A's are not just union values. They are community values. They are the foundation of Berkeley's reputation as a place that cares for equity, justice, and education. So when you see us step up to this microphone, don't see us as opposition. See us as partners. See us as advocates for the same families and students you serve. Respect our voices. Respect our work. And if we can lead together with these four A's, then we won't just say we're Berkeley proud, we will show it. And finally, I will leave you with this. After 33 years here in Btown, I don't just believe in Berkeley proud, I live it. We are Berkeley and BCCE, the Berkeley Council of Classified Employee is Berkeley proud. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next on up, I think we have a

061video for Union from BFT, our union president. Try to get the the audio. The video was on, but the audio wasn't. president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Our educators have started this year. Superintendent Ford Morell and the Berkeley School Board Directors. I am Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Our educators have started this year off strong. >> Is there a way to get William out of their summer to day training for the new ELA and phonics curriculum? Every elementary educator was trained with only a few recent Superintendent Ford Morell and the Berkeley School Board Directors. I am Matt Meyer, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Our educators have started this year off strong. Our elementary school teachers took time out of their summer to participate in a two-day training for

062the new ELA and phonics curriculum. Every elementary educator was trained with only a few recently hired teachers remaining. There was collaboration between BFT and the district office to make sure that schedules could be accommodated in order to hit the ground running the first week of school. This has been quite a journey. I remember back at some of the first literacy progress reports years ago thinking what a big lift this was going to be with so many benchmarks in the red. Here we are at the last progress report with a new curriculum, a fully trained staff, and some exciting new practices happening in all of our classrooms. As with all new implementations, this year will be a learning year. Things will be tweaked and improved on, and our district will continue to make strides closing our

063equity gaps. At the heart of this work are our educators. They've gone through a lot. Some have had to move into new buildings. Some have moved, taught for one year, packed up, and moved right back. Some were implementing new curriculum like ethnic studies and science on top of the ELA and phonics adoption. The uncertainty of federal funding and the very real roll out of a a police state has everyone on edge. I know that Berkeley will stand strong, but we can't ignore that our institutions and our public education system specifically is under attack. This impacts everyone in our school system and our community. Our educators are also struggling financially. Our expenses continue to increase, especially our out-ofpocket health care costs. We're still expected to volunteer our time for tasks that are essential to the functioning

064of our school sites, like legally mandated IEP and 504 meetings. There's little motivation to continue to enable these practices, especially given the other lifts happening right now. More continues to be added to our plates without workload changes or compensation increases. We've been waiting for the district to respond to our proposals on these topics. We only have so much patience. Our first negotiating session of the fall is next week and another follows soon after. We hope to hear from the district. I need to give a special shout out to our educators at Sylvia Mendes. They work for six days in a row amongst construction and cleanup crews making sure their classrooms would be welcoming to students. They enlisted family members and friends. And even with all that, there's still much unpacking and setup to do. BFT

065and the district are close to a resolution about how to make sure our educators that have to move classrooms because of construction are compensated fairly now and in the future. Without the extra work of our educators and the various crews at the site, there was no way school would have been ready for students. By the time the first day of school came, this was the seventh day in a row of furniture building, classroom, library setup, bulletin board creation, learning new technology, physically cleaning the space over and over again, and figuring out contingency plans for all the little things that weren't quite ready. The entire classroom had to be built from scratch. Our teachers each had over hundreds of boxes that needed to be unpacked or they would just be sitting in the classroom. I should

066also mention that they are also expected to teach a completely new curriculum the first week of school. The good news is that with all the extra effort of the BUD facilities team, Maria the principal, and our educators, school was ready for students this week. It was quite an accomplishment. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Matt. Um, do we have any other union members here for comment? I don't think so. Um, next on up, we're moving on to 11 for board member comments. Firstly, we do want to introduce our new student director. >> Um, and must make sure you correct my pronunciation, Armana Ardum. >> Good even good. Good evening everyone. My name is Armana Ardum and I'm a senior in the international balora program at Berkeley High School. I'm a track athlete. I play

067the saxophone and I've had the privilege of serving in a number of leadership positions across our school community. Tonight, I'm honored to join you as a student representative on the school board. This year, I look forward to building upon the work of Winter Clark, who I worked alongside with for three years in the Black Student Union. Like Winter, I want to make sure that student voices are clearly heard in the in the decisions that shape our district, and that our board stays connected to the real experiences of Berkeley High students. My goals this year are to strengthen the communication between the board and the student body, to uplift underrepresented voices, and to ensure that students feel engaged in the policies that affect them. I'm excited to work with you all and to continue moving our

068community forward. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Amanda. Who would like to go next? >> Director Schnowski. >> Yeah, I have just a a few comments. Um, while board directors can't comment on particular issues, I had prepared to start with a comment on continued stress over afterare specifically. So, I'm a single working parent of two without any family in the area. And this is an issue that I've grappled with as a parent and I have worked really hard alongside my board colleagues and administration in this district to tackle over the last couple of years. Uh it's a really complicated issue for a district that has limited funding and also a collective bargaining agreement with our learns educators in Berkeley. We believe that we should provide um job security um benefits and living wages to

069our afterare providers and that means that we have a collective bargaining agreement that we honor with BCCE for those workers. Uh we have continued to look for creative solutions and we'll continue to seek partnership with the city with private programs and with parents um to identify ways to support all families within the constraints of a system that really is not built to support us all. Um I encourage folks to continue to reach out. Um I am happy to engage with uh anyone over the issue. Uh, switching gears, I have a couple of facilities um, issues that I'd like to talk about. Um, first I want to highlight an item on our consent calendar regarding the Longfellow uh, modernization project and um, vast construction. I want to thank and appreciate the creativity of staff in the

070facilities department to keep the job moving forward and keep it on track and on time while we wait for DSA to um move on the more extensive scope of work. And finally, I want to give a shout out to Shenita Stevenson in facilities for giving me a tour of Sylvia Mendes earlier this week. And a big huge shout out to all of the educators that worked on that and our facilities department and our um and our partners in facilities for showing up really around the clock over the week before school started to make sure that those classrooms were ready and welcoming. And they're so beautiful and I can't wait to see the rest of the school. Um, but it's amazing and I'm just really grateful for all the work that uh your team did. So,

071I hope you'll share that. Thanks. >> Thank you so much. Um, who would like to go next? >> Um, yeah, I'll just be really brief. I and know that schoolboard directors typically don't respond to public comment, but wanted to just respond a little bit to the transportation issue because it's something that I'm following up really closely, particularly the parents on Grizzly that live near Grizzly Peak or in the Berkeley Hills. Myself live in the Berkeley Hills and just wanted um to just thank the staff also for looking into this issue. I know that there's a lot of frustration around transportation in the hills in general and for a lot of families. Um, you know, my my sons went to cra to Craigmont and crossing Marin and crossing some of those streets is incredibly dangerous because

072they are high injury streets. They are among the most dangerous streets in Berkeley. And so, it's not just the bus service, it's also just the general safety of the area, the blind spots, the number of collisions. It makes it very, very tricky for school children to navigate those streets. So, the issue is complicated. I know it's not great to hear that CHP has given the district recommendations and out of an abundance of safety, we can't move our large buses around there. I know there's work happening in the back end to see if we can get more clarity from CHP on the right sizes of the buses. This is a very common issue in transportation in general. Sometimes it is unsafe for sizes for buses of certain sizes to navigate certain streets. So getting clarity on

073that guidance is something that's really important, something that I'm pushing for. I know the superintendent and the staff will be responding to. I'm working with council member Black will be on this issue. But in addition to the buses, right, how the children walk to their homes, how the children walk to the stops, those are all issues that we broader, we as a community because the school district doesn't have purview over safety improvements on city streets. Um, but something that the local council member and the district have to work out very closely. So there's a lot of moving parts to this. It's not a great situation in general, but for all the parents whose children are navigating the streets in the hills or high injury streets in the city, it's a very complicated issue. And please

074note sometimes it responding to these things can be a little slow, but it's because of the abundance of caution that we have to take with how children move around. So with that, um I just want to say that I also feel frustrated that the situation's not solved. It's the beginning of the school year. Um, but do know that there's a lot of work in the in the background to try to make sure that your children are safe. So, and that's it. And I look forward to a good meeting today with my colleagues. >> Thank you so much, Vice President Corn. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, I will also keep my comments brief. I want to start by just saying a big thank you to everyone who worked so hard to open school. It's been one

075week. Um, last a week ago, today was the first day of school. And as a former teacher and a former principal, I know the tremendous amount of work that goes into opening school. And um I want to echo Director Schnowsky's comments, thanking the facilities team and the Sylvia Mendes staff and families for all the hard work that went in to getting Sylvia Mendes ready to open up. And also to echo a comment from the public commenters, the elementary teachers who are implementing a brand new literacy curriculum this year and all the work that goes into that. It was I know I'm not supposed to comment on things that the public say, but it was so exciting to hear a story about a student coming home from the first day of school excited about his literacy

076lesson. Um, so I know that a tremendous amount of work goes into a good first day like that for a student and I'm I want to express my gratitude for all of it. Um, I'm also very excited to welcome Armana. Um, and I also just want to say that our current theme this year is Berkeley proud, but that does not mean that we have forgotten our theme from last year, which was Berkeley together. There are some real challenges that we are trying to address at the start of this school year. We heard a lot tonight about both transportation and after school. We all understand how difficult these situations are for many families. I too was a working mom who had to scramble year after year to figure out child care solutions for my children. Um,

077we are committed, all of us, to working collaboratively with families to support your children. Um, and as many of my colleagues have said, these are complicated, um, challenges that we aren't giving up on. We aren't throwing up our arms. We are committed to working with you. Um, but we haven't solved everything yet. Um, and with that, I would also like to say that I'm very much looking forward to receiving the literacy report tonight. and hearing from both our monitor and the BUSD staff about the progress that's been made and what the next steps are to support our children learning to read. And many thanks to everyone who's here this evening. >> Thank you so much, uh, Vice President Korn. Um, I'm going to keep mine short as well. Um, it's good to see everyone tonight

078and, um, really appreciate you bringing your hearts and minds. Um, we've got Berkeley Proud, Berkeley Together, and also I think I heard Berkeley strong. Um, all are amazing. I'm very proud of these new fans you've got up here, which I just noticed. It's keeping us pretty cool moving the air around totally silent. Um, so, uh, as reflected by my colleagues, we we are thankful for all the hard work, um, of district teachers, staff, and administrators to open our schools successfully. I know it was a lot of hard work. um really much appreciated and successfully done as well. And we know that transportation and afterare um are really important to the functioning of Berkeley families. Um myself uh and my family and my wife are also part of that uh that experience with the importance of

079transportation and afterare. So we are hearing you and we are working hard to consider the best options. Um and we appreciate you coming to us and and uh giving us your hearts and minds. Um without much further ado, I think we want to keep moving. Um so next on the item our agenda, next item on the agenda is the consent calendar. Um so uh we now move on to approving the consent calendar. Firstly, is there a motion and then a second to >> I'll move. >> Excellent. A second. >> Okay. Director Shinowski moved and director Vice President Korn then seconded. Um do we have the eyes? >> I I >> I >> Okay. It's uh unanimous. Thank you so much. Uh motion um um successfully moved. So um in terms of our action items um

080it's a our first item this evening uh is a request for approval of public disclosure for initial proposals for successor agreement between local 21 of our unions and the district. So I'm going to turn it over to assistant superintendent uh Tobias Espinosa. Oh, there she is. Thank you very much. Um so this is a quick action item. Um we are asking for approval by the board of these um initial proposals um so that we may begin u negotiations with local 21. And so, um, our request tonight is for the board to vote, um, on whether or not they approve, um, these initial proposals. >> Is there a motion and a second to approve the public disclosure for initial proposals for successful agreement between local 21 and the district? >> So moved. I'll second. >> Excellent.

081Um, moved by Director Schnowski, seconded by Vice President Korn. Do we have the eyes? I >> I it's >> unanimous. Um the motion has has succeeded. Um we have two discussion items uh 14.1 and 14.2 uh with the monitoring report on literacy action plan settlement and literacy action plan 12th quarter report. Let's start with 14.1. Oh, sorry. Yeah, come on up. Uh, good evening. Can you hear me? >> All right. Good evening, President Chang, uh, school board, Superintendent Ford Morell, Associate Superintendent Hoganike, and, uh, the Berkeley community as well. >> I'm sorry. Do you mind speaking in a little closer? Volumes. Is it on? I think. Yeah, the volume was slightly low. >> Gotcha. Um, thank you for the opportunity to present the final monitoring report on the literacy improvement program prepared as part of

082the 2020 dyslexia settlement agreement. Over the past three years, I have held the privilege of serving as the independent program monitor. Uh this evening I will share highlights of BUSD's progress, the current status of compliance, and make some final recommendations for sustaining this work long term. It's a very long and detailed report, so my apologies for the length. Uh my hope is to be able to take you through key ideas, synthesize key points, and point you in the direction of any items in which you may want to read further. So we will start with the objectives. Perfect. Uh which can be found on page two if you're looking at the PDF. The first goal of this report is evaluative. You see it there on the screen. It also provides a final recommendation determining whether further

083monitoring is necessary. And my greater hope is that this report can also serve as a roadmap for school districts looking to implement a similar redesign of their literacy program in the future. With those objectives in mind, let's uh review progress in each of the four goals of the settlement agreement. Starting with goal one, which was to improve general education reading achievement. And if you're following on the PDF, that's page 4 to 13. So on the left hand side you see the highlights of progress starting with year 1 uh the audit of the general ed curriculum that you were using teachers college reading and writing project uh followed by the development of a curriculum department which was something that was missing and has been a wonderful advance in literacy work in general here at Berkeley. followed

084by year two, the professional development program. You partnered with core learning for a comprehensive uh reading boot camp. You also had a review of different options for an ELA curriculum followed by the pilot. And last year, year three, there was implementation support for implementing the strategies learned in the core professional learning series as well as the textbook adoption for the new ELA series, which has been mentioned a few times um tonight. These changes that you see here on the left ensure that all K through five students now have access to research-based core reading instruction. Um and that's a huge difference than when we started three years ago here. So based on the evidence gathered over these three years, uh Berkeley Unified has fully met goal one of the settlement agreement. Beyond core instruction, which was

085the focus of goal one, goal two of the literacy improvement program was designed to strengthen tier 2 and tier three reading interventions primarily for general ed students uh experiencing reading difficulties and you can follow along on page 13. So some highlights from year one include uh the Orton Gillingham training for the tier 2 interventionists that helped to create some consistency in tier 2 and tier three supports across school sites. In year two, you had the creation of the expanded implementation team which was a key milestone. Before that there was a very small core team that did not include collaboration between general ed and special ed interventionists. So by expanding uh we were able to do a lot more work. Let me see. In the second year, it also included some work at the middle school

086looking at an audit of the reading interventions for tier 2 and tier three followed by a revamping of the middle school intervention programs. And the final piece here related to tier 2 and tier 3 intervention systems that I think was unique was this notion of creating reading goals for general ed students receiving reading intervention support uh in the same way that we do for students receiving special ed. So, uh, some coherence across how goals are written, how goals are tracked, and that's part of an MTSS system that tends to be lacking in most school districts, goals for tier 2 and tier 3 general ed students. So, based on um the evidence, I also found BUSD to be in compliance with goal two. So, we're going to skip ahead now to goal four, and we'll come

087back to uh goal three in a minute. So, this is on page 30. Goal four focuses more specifically on students receiving special ed services. Um, and this was hugely important for the literacy improvement program. That's where the settlement agreement started. Uh, and that's the focus of goal four. Year 1 got off to a pretty slow start when it came to special ed improvements. Uh however, the student services department performed a full audit of 504 accommodation plans as well as an overhaul of how 504 reading plans were written for students with reading difficulties. education specialists in year two were trained in the Wilson reading program and this was coupled with improved transparency with me. I was able to access much more data around IEP goals um that I was not able to access in year 1.

088So that made uh my job much easier. And finally in year three, this actually started in year two, but in year three, there was a systemwide creation of coherence and clarity and writing IEP reading goals for students uh receiving special education services. In addition to that, an internal system created by BUSD to monitor these goals. Uh to look at which case managers had written goals using your reading system and which case managers might have needed some additional support too. So based on the evidence here, uh B USD was also found to be in compliance with goal 4. So now I'm going to take you back to goal three, page 20 if you're following along. And I'm going to slow down a bit here to spend some time reviewing the progress on uh goal three. So

089while goals 1, 2, and four reached their full compliance, what you'll see in the report is that goal three remains a work in progress here at Berkeley Unified. In year 1, Berkeley Unified created a strong infrastructure uh to monitor and ensure that there was fidelity with the implementation of the literacy improvement program. This included the creation of the implementation team, um a system to be able to track from a project management perspective who was owning what tasks, where the documentation lied. It seems like a basic piece, but um it was much needed and it was very complicated given the 35 actions that spanned across the four goals and education specialists were trained. Um I'm sorry, I'm going back to the other one. Uh year two also saw formal internal systems created to monitor the IEP

090reading goals. And uh in year three, principles began classroom observations to document the structured literacy practices across schools. Uh and this is where the evidence was lacking of implementation. So what I saw was that classroom implementation was inconsistent across sites and two schools in particular were found to be out of compliance and we'll look at that uh next. So based on this evidence, BUSD has not successfully fulfilled its requirements under goal three, fidelity of implementation. So let's take a look at the classroom observations. If you're following along, that's page 26. In grades K through two on the left hand side, 81% of classrooms showed clear evidence of explicit phonics instruction. And what that means is classroom teachers were trained in a six-step phonics instruction. And I was looking for evidence of those six steps in

091my 15minute observations. It's a 30-inut sequence. So obviously I was looking for three of those steps uh based on the timing of the lesson. You'll notice in light green the two outlier schools there that had lower percentage of implementation. When it came to third through fifth grade, we were looking for structured fluency instruction because that's what teachers were trained in in the core reading academy. And what you'll see here is around 73% of the classrooms um showed evidence of implementing this structured fluency instruction. And the same two schools, as you'll see in the light uh green color, demonstrated significantly lower implementation, prompting concern around consistency across sites. So based on these gaps you just saw um in those two charts, uh here are my recommendations moving forward when it comes to compliance with goal three.

092So the first you see on the bottom right hand side here is one additional year of formal specific monitoring uh for those two target schools also conducted by an independent monitor. I was listening to some of the comments earlier from the public and um when I first signed on to serve as the independent monitor, I recognized that recommending continued monitoring and then having me do it and getting paid to do it was a bit of a conflict of interest. So, I committed to the 3 years knowing that if I was going to recommend continued monitoring that there could be no conflict of interest seen since I won't be doing that. However, bringing someone new on board would be terrible. It would be hard to get someone caught up quickly um especially if we want to

093keep the momentum going on the new English language arts adoption. So through conversations with BUSD and the attorneys for the plaintiffs, um there's been an informal agreement to continue with Dr. Gibbons as a monitor. She knows the work very well. She is trusted by the Berkeley community. She's shown some great results when it comes to her special ed work and she can hit the ground running as well. So that was an informal agreement. Uh I hope that the board makes that a formal agreement so there is continued monitoring by an independent monitor uh preferably somebody who has been agreed by both sides Dr. Gibbons and knows the work very well. So it did um make me sad to hear some of those comments um about my continued monitoring. However, it ethically wouldn't be right for

094me to do that. The second piece here was general monitoring of the new English language arts curriculum. This is really just based on the timeline of when the new curriculum was adopted, right? It was adopted, teachers just got trained. How do we know they're using it? So by having systems in place internally for BUSD to track who is using the curriculum, if they're using the curriculum, how they're using it, and having someone independently monitor that would be one way to be able to get full compliance here with this third goal. It's one thing to have a new curriculum. It's another thing to know that everyone's using it, right? and that would bring this literacy improvement program back to a full circle implementation. So those were my recommendations around the continued monitoring with goal three. Um

095it's probably the most significant piece of the report and I hope the board will take those recommendations seriously. The next section of the report, uh, page 35 to 39, provides a more detailed table of the 35 literacy improvement program actions. A little bit of clarification, sometimes you'll see in the reports 35 actions, sometimes 37. Um, when I wrote the final report, I went back to the original 35 which were written into the settlement agreement. But here's how we got to 37. There were 35. We realized that two of the goals that were originally written were duplicates. So we took those away, which took us down to 33. And in those 33 goals, we saw four goals that really needed to be separated by elementary and middle school. So we had a goal A and B,

096which gave us the additional four. So that's how we got to 37. So whether you see 35 or 37, we're referring to the same goals. It's just that they evolved into 37 from the original 35. I wanted to keep 35 in my report since it was consistent with the settlement agreement, but what you'll see in the next report uh by BUSD staff is it'll reference 37. Another piece Oh, can we just go back one slide? Thank you. On the table is think of it as a report card or a scorecard on the actions that were written in the settlement agreement. My job was to look at compliance with those actions. Some of the actions uh were written in a very vague manner. Um so for example, I'm going to take you through one action 30.

097Um which is on page 38. It says, "Develop a plan with the outside consultants to increase the use of MTSS as part of the comprehensive evaluation to identify students with SLD, including dyslexia." Um, I saw evidence of adequate compliance partly because it just says develop a plan. The action was never implement the plan. Um, would I love to see the plan implemented? Yes. Do I think it's important? Hugely. However, based on what you agreed to in the settlement, uh the wording here was just develop a plan. So, when you're looking at that table, I encourage you to look at the verbs used at the beginning because that was kind of the litmus test for how deep um I thought the level of implementation needed to be for compliance. All right. So, finally, my concluding thoughts

098here, taking the hat off of an impartial monitor and just giving my opinions um around what this work has meant for Berkeley Unified, I work with many school districts across the Bay Area when it comes to literacy, particularly long-term literacy plans. And what I saw was the biggest outcome of this work was a shift in culture around literacy. Um, which you won't see in a report. You won't see those in any actions. When I had started, the Berkeley way with literacy tended to be an ad hoc um depending on which teacher, which classroom, which school uh was what informed the literacy instruction that the student received. So where BUSD is now is that instruction across classrooms looks more similar than it does different. And that that's huge. Um, the second piece is I'm just reporting

099on everything that was accomplished by the BUSD staff. So, this work was the district administration. It was the dedication and perseverance of teachers who had to shift uh a major shift in their practice, principles, and then all the support staff, the TSAs, the case managers. This speaks to all their work. And then finally, the community, the families, the advocacy groups, and um the students who have had to weather these changes in curriculum, someone piloting a new lesson in their class and just going with it, giving their opinions. I think this says a lot about the Berkeley community and the willingness to embrace change and evolve as well. I'm going to stick around. Berkeley Unifi's going to present their quarter 12 report and then we'll have time to answer some questions after that. >> Thank you

100so much. >> Moving on to 14.2. Thanks. Good evening. Thank you. All right. Um, good evening, uh, President Chang, members of the board, superintendent, members of the audience. My name is Jill Hoganike. I'm the associate superintendent of the educational services department here in Berkeley. Um, and I'll say the proud associate superintendent to be joined alongside um of my colleagues and teammates um here at the table. We have uh Dr. Lena Sweeney who is our director for Brea. We have Sheena Stumpig who's one of our program supervisors uh for special education. We have Rose James who is a literacy coordinator, director Albeck um from our curriculum instruction department and Dr. Philip Shelley who is our director of student services. Um and with us in spirit could not be here this evening is Sean Manziger who's our

101director of the special education department as do we have a clicker or you have to do it. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Um uh we do want to ground this presentation in particular in our district's mission to enable and inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world. access to achieving academic excellence is grounded in the ability to read. Um the work that we have been doing and the progress that we've made to date to strengthen BSD's uh literacy system um to build an infrastructure to support um our teachers and our students and our site leaders um is work that we definitely uh want to acknowledge and celebrate. This evening we are going to provide an update on the literacy action plan and then we're also going to share uh

102our literacy focus areas um for this current year and the year ahead. Um in very many ways we are at the beginning of a new chapter um because there was a lot to do to get to this particular point. Sorry I don't know why I'm getting the feedback. Okay good you can slip. um want to uh I want to ground this work in the alignment that we have um really tried to achieve across our district strategic plan pillars. Um starting with academic excellence and equitable outcomes for all. Um those are directly aligned to our first two LCAP goals which really are on uh focus on our tier one instruction and the tier 2 and three supports we provide to our students. This work has also included uh partnership and engagement not just with our uh

103progress monitor as you saw from Mr. Ellis's report and our outside consultant Dr. Kim Gibbons but really in the community engagement that we have had and with other learning partners as we have built the skills necessary um to deliver the instructional practices that are required for students to learn how to to read. We have invested tremendously in the learning um and capacity building of our teachers and leaders. Um and we are um proud of the the journey that we um have ahead as we have shared before in a number of presentations not just focused on literacy. We have a an a theory of change and improvement to our work that's grounded in these three key insights for organizational excellence. We know that in order to achieve ideal results that requires ideal behavior. Um and for

104purposes of our instructional work that really means that we have strong tier one instruction. Um and it also means that we have systems and structures for collaboration, professional development and the opportunity to observe and provide feedback um not just for improving our instruction but for understanding the supports that we can provide um through professional development. Can you move the mic back a little bit? >> Back. >> Okay. >> All right. Um the second one is purpose and systems drive ideal behaviors. Um we know that we have been working on building a data-informed culture. Um we have a clear assessment system and Dr. Sweeney is going to be sharing some of that work ahead. We also know that we need to appropriately identify students for additional supports through an MTSS system. Um and as you heard

105in Mr. Ellis's closing. Um there really is to be a mindset shift to get to those ideal behaviors and we recognized that the beginning of this um it had been nearly 10 years since we had had a curriculum change in literacy. Um and we knew that there was going to be a lot of foundational work that we had to do in order um to get people all on the same page and moving in the same direction. Next slide, please. Our literacy system has really been focused and grounded in ensuring that these three components of a system are in place. That we have the infrastructure which involves the collaboration, professional development, um reliable assessments. That we have intentional capacity building that includes not just professional development but coaching, observation and feedback. and that we also have

106the instructional resources that are not just about the um curriculum that's aligned to the science of reading but how we use other resources like our time and personnel that are dedicated to this work. Um as you all are aware um through BUP um our uh our BUP funds um allow us to provide uh literacy coaches at each of our school sites and they've really been instrumental in this work. >> Next slide. So with a with a district strategic plan and a theory of action and a framework for literacy systems, uh we come to a vision for literacy that really is talking about literacy as a fundamental right that we commit to providing rigorous research aligned uh instruction so that all students develop the skills to thrive, challenge inequities and contribute meaningfully to the world both

107in English and if you turn the next slide in Spanish. Right. So we've been doing the work um with our TWWI program at Sylvia Mendes. Um Mr. Ellis's monitoring report and our core and our quarter 12 report are both aligned to the four goals that are in the literacy action plan. And I wanted to try to attempt here to put this in a ven diagram because you're going to see comp some components of our work in maybe goal two where they showed up in Mr. Ellis's report in goal four. Um and I think what's important to know here is that um the this work across the four goals have a lot of intersections um which really do come down to the to the infrastructure um the capacity building um that we are doing to support

108literacy improvement in our in our schools where we started um now three years ago uh October 2022 if you'll go to the next slide we had outlined um the 37 actions that were in the literacy settlement and we had um were sharing progress at that first report. Um you can see that a number of the actions were roughly on track or approaching um but we did have a couple of barriers and there were a number that had not started from the very beginning. We had said that not all these 37 actions were going to end up in the complete column. Mr. Ellis had shared in a uh some of his previous reports that some of these actions have multiple parts. So an action like hire a consultant is very concrete. There's a clear beginning or

109end and we can move that into the completed column. There are other actions like train teachers on your assessment system that will continue to be ongoing. So in some cases we those were complete. In some cases those were on track but I think if you click uh one more time you can see that we have moved all 37 actions either into the complete or on track. Um and so I just want it to be clear that on track doesn't mean that we aren't doing it or that it's not done. It can signify that we are considering that this is work that will continue to be ongoing. And I hope to reinforce for our public that out this is work that we would have been doing outside of a settlement agreement. You can't get strong instructional

110gains without having strong foundations for literacy. Um and this is work that we're committed to and will continue to be committed to um as we move through the adoption process and into implementation. Um, and with that, I'm going to turn it over to Director Albeck and uh, Rose James uh, to talk you through uh, some of our accomplishments and the work ahead for goal one. >> Good evening. Um, so I'm very honored to be here with you and kind of celebrating the progress that we've made and looking ahead to what's next. Started this work as a TSA in the district and now as a literacy coordinator. And um it's very important work and I'm proud of of where we are in goal one specifically which is tier one instruction. So that first teach um goal

111one develop programs to improve general education reading and language arts achievement for all students especially those students with or at risk for reading disabilities including dyslexia. So in our work in improving tier one and you can just click through because it's animated. I was hoping to talk alongside it, but that's okay. Um, so really we had sort of a two-pronged approach to improving tier one and one was really around um adult learning. So part of creating that sustainable literacy system is that we needed to create the right conditions and mindsets for for an eventual curricular shift. Um, and we did this through adult learning on the science of reading. Um, as well as building proficiency in data, right? and becoming that dataformed community, ensuring that we were using valid and reliable assessments to inform instruction

112um and to inform instructional decisions. So um our professional learning started right really kicked off right after COVID with the book study the year-long book study of shifting the balance followed the same year um where we trained all of our our literacy specialists with Orton Gillingham and that was RTI our some of our sped practitioners um and that impacted tier 1 as well because it allowed those specialists and practitioners who were out of the classroom to support our tier one instructors Um and then this was followed and I would say deepened as we engaged educators in the curriculum agnostic training with the core reading academy. Um and that was a year-long training. Um this past year we began to define our systems for continuous improvement. Um building our systems around observation and feedback which is

113another part of that adult learning piece. Um, parallel to all of this, if you don't want to keep clicking through, there's more at the top. There we go. Um, we we started in that first year by doing the curriculum review of our current practices and our current curriculum or now our former, I should say. Um, and then followed that up with a year-long pilot and adoption selection process. Um, and then last year began a lot of planning for the implementation that is happening right now. And with that, I'll pass it to director Albeck. We might have to switch. >> Next slide, please. Liz. >> All right. Good evening board. Um, so along our hashtag of Berkeley Proud as it relates to literacy work, we are Berkeley Heekka proud, as the kids would say, Armana. Uh

114I think you'd probably say something different, but we are incredibly proud and the whole hashtag of Berkeley proud uh came from a a pilot teacher from our literacy program and they mentioned in there why they believe Berkeley proud should be the hashtag in addition to being proud of our community and what we stand for and the values that we stand for. It was intentionally point out that they are Berkeley proud specifically for our literacy adoption. So this isn't something that is just here being presented to you. This is a felt experience for our educators and that is a huge accomplishment uh for us and for our school district. So we are Berkeley hecka proud about all the work that we have uh done through this process as well. Um we could go on and on

115about the accomplishments specifically as it relates to tier 1. Uh I put a few of them on the board. The top left one is a feedback survey as it relates to our pilot team. So we had a collection of stakeholders across all of our school sites um across special education, general education and that question was really overall I'm satisfied with the curriculum recommendation made by this committee. So you all sit on a board uh you know how hard uh potentially consensus can be made at times but that graph really stands out for our community and our educators really were behind this decision. they guided this decision and they feel strongly that it was the right decision to make for this set of instructional materials to come to Berkeley schools. So, we think that's a huge

116accomplishments. Um, the other accomplishment is is getting this uh core reading uh core reading program into our schools um and the process that it took, the the time and commitment to go through different curriculums to test them out um and to make that decision process and to land on functional phonics and morphology um and fish tank. And then at Sylvia Menddees, Ariba, and Espiranza. And like one of the callers that spoke earlier today, they talked about where the mountain meet the moons and how their students coming home and they're talking about reading and they're talking about their interest in it, which is the benefits of a knowledge building program. Uh you see implementation of that at Thousand Oaks Elementary School. In that picture right there, today was first day of fish tank. They're talking about

117where mountain meets the mood and they got the billboard set with the key concepts, the key principles, and to what Mr. else was talking about. Instead of that spotty what's happening here at this school, what's happening at that school, we now know that this is happening at all Berkeley schools and regardless of what teacher they have, what school they attend, they're all receiving the same highquality instruction, which we're very proud of and we see as an accomplishment. Um, the last thing that I'll point out is the pigraph on the bottom left and this speaks to the comments that President Meyer had at the beginning of tonight's comment specifically around the training where we uh have we have trained all of our teachers on an initial launch. That's not to say that it is done. We

118know there's a whole lot of work that needs to happen. Um, but that that comment was specifically around how confident folks feel after this initial fish tank training to go ahead and implement and we see a high degree of confidence. Um, all that to be said and in addition to all the elements of the the goal one, if we were to pull out and we were to take a look at what all this means at a broader level, uh, what we know and what research shows is that guaranteed viable curriculum, collective teacher e efficacy and instructional coherence are some of the highest effect sizes on changing outcomes for our students. And I believe that all of this work has led and is going to lead to that in BUSD. Uh next slide please. The focus

119for 2526 was shared with you at the end uh when we when we presented our curriculum adoption recommendation to you all and it maintains to be our focus for this year as it relates to goal one. So we have distributed materials. We can start crossing some of these off and we provided initial launch PD for our for our teachers. Um the second piece is launch full implementation in all K5 classrooms with ongoing coaching and support. Third is to establish cross district grade collaborations uh with for implementation support. Fourth is to implement curriculum embedded districtwide benchmark assessments to track student progress. And lastly is to collect early implementation data through teacher feedback assessment data and student work. In addition, I would add family feedback on their students experience as it relates to goal one. Thank you.

120>> All right. Uh next, uh Dr. Sweeney is going to share with us um the work that has um has been completed for tier 2 and tier three as along with the work ahead. >> Thank you, Jill. Um good evening, board of directors and superintendent. I I want to echo what my colleagues have said and and what my my boss here, Jill Hogendike, has said. Um I'm I'm incredibly proud of and passionate about the work that we've done over the last three years. Um, I sit here now as the director of Berkeley Research, Evaluation, and Assessment. And actually, this is my 20th year in Berkeley. Um, I'm incredibly dedicated to Berkeley as as um first a teacher, then a special education teacher, and also an interventionist and and a special education administrator. So, I've been

121lucky to work with the implementation team for the last three years, mostly on goals four and and goals two. So I'll be reporting um on goal two and then a little bit on on goal four. Um okay, we can go to the next slide. Over the last three years, one important shift that we is that we've moved from having tools to really using them consistently. For example, we now have over 95% participation on our universal screeners and our diagnostic screening assessments, which means that nearly every student is represented in the data that we're using to analyze We've also refined how progress monitoring works. Instead of a one-sizefits-all approach, we've now moved to students who are in tier 2 being progress monitored every 2 to 3 weeks and students who are in tier three being progress

122monitored weekly or bi-weekly. This level of precision helps us to identify challenges earlier and to respond more quickly. The work is not just about programs, it's about culture. We've built cross teamam trust, created shared monitoring routines, and trained staff in evidence-based practices. What you see here reflects a shift from isolated interventions to a more coherent dist district-wide system. And at the heart of this progress is shared responsibility. Using Star, Dibbles, and Edgic Climber to make student growth transparent and ensuring professional learning and coaching keep our staff equipped to do the work. This represents a fundamental shift. Tier 2 and three are no longer reactive or inconsistent. They are becoming reliable, intensive, and equitable supports for our students. Next slide, please. So here we speak to our accomplishments and and I also want to lift up

123the work that u my team members teachers on special assignments and data analysts have done in the brand department. What stands out about these accomplishments is how much our practice has shifted from a more fragmented system to greater coherence and alignment. We now have developed shared routines and a level of consistency that gives practitioners a clearer picture of student learning. We've invested in staff expertise, expanding Orton, Gillingham and Wilson and rewards while ensuring teachers receive targeted training. Intervention is not just about pulling a program off of a shelf. It's about equipping teachers with knowledge and confidence to use it effectively. This means training and also means retraining and coaching. Finally, the work here reflects greater collaboration across departments. Assessment, special education, interventionists, and classroom teachers are no longer working in isolation. There is a more

124shared responsibility for student growth. All right, next slide. Okay. Finally, our focus for this year and beyond. Our focus is on strengthening consistency and alignment and MTSS fidel fidelity to ensure practices are applied reliably across systems from district leadership teams, school leadership to school-based intervention teams. We also are working on expanding edge climber to identify trends and guide next steps. We are clarifying expectations for tier 1 assessments and their use in reporting progress to families through report card communication. The strength of tier 2 and tier 3 depends on what happens in the core. Ultimately, the goal goal, excuse me, for the next year is to translate these systems into measurable sustained literacy gains for students. And I will now pass to Jill. So goal three, as you heard in Mr. Ellis's report, is an area

125that we um are working on and continue to work on. Um but as I come into this work, I really stand in the space that that of the philosophy that what you monitor matters and we've been doing a lot of work to build and align the infrastructure to support that the monitoring system. And Liz, I'm going to apologize in Vance because there's a bunch of clicks, but I was trying to visualize on this slide for everybody like where we started was with the implementation team and the three-dimensional way that this has grown across the district. Um, we started with an implementation team, but really turned quickly to looking at where were all the places in our system that we had an opportunity to leverage for uh alignment and coherence. Um, we expanded an implementation team

126to include other administrators and TSAs again to bring in more crossf functional conversations recognizing that the work that a special education case manager was doing was interrelated to what the classroom teachers were doing and that was connected to the support that RTI or literacy TSAs were providing at the school site. So how we were thinking about the use of time that already existed from our principal meetings to our lit coach and RTI meetings um and how that grew into alignment around um the Wednesday staff meeting days and bianual PD days and then in this last year the 2425 school year um the beginning of instructional rounds which really is sort of setting this framework for how are we monitoring this at the district level. How do we have that uh vertical and horizontal monitoring happening

127so that we're getting information that's helping to inform both how we're using these uh precious amounts of time that we have um with our teachers and leaders, but also how we're allocating resources. Another component of accountability and commitment was a way that we have aligned both the LCAP. So in the middle of this three-year process, we have initiated a new three-year LCAP um again aligned to our emerging strategic plan pillars, but um calling out the literacy work that we're doing. Relatedly, we have a number of other initiatives. That second box that you see up there is our SIM for SIGDS work um relative to our overidentification of African-American students for special education. And a key component there is what are we doing to improve the academic outcomes of our African-American students with a specific focus

128on literacy. Um that last box there that you see is policy. There were a number of policies um so hats off to the uh policy committee members um over the course of the last three years that we have updated many of which were last updated in I'm looking at Miss Anvina 2006 2013 and so we're bringing all of that into alignment because policy then drives the action um that we can hold uh hold expectations um for completing um some of our accomplishments um in this next slide. side and you can click through again. Uh that you'll hear similar themes around assessment and progress monitoring. That assessment and progress monitoring is not just about delivering the assessment or um completing the progress monitoring, but how our district teams and our principles are looking at the evidence

129for what do those assessments look like? Are people entering information to educ? How are we tracking that students who should be progress monitored more frequently are being monitored more frequently? Um we have uh implemented cycles of data review that are now expanding not just to include impact data but implementation data um which includes you know classroom observations um and getting um some qualitative data from our practitioner which uh uh Lena and her team have been doing. Um we have worked uh last year and over the summer to better refine, define and support our site leaders in these cycles for observation and feedback. And that work will continue again this year. That's an important loop for us to have um as we also bring in literacy coaches, RTI, TSAs, and our special ed case managers so

130that we understand, you know, what are the instructional practices that we're expecting to see? um how is that being delivered and then are the students who need the intervention receiving that intervention? Um those collaborative structures that um you've heard across goals one and two already really have involved too time for specific goal setting. So again, not just student targets, but goal setting relative to um what percentage of our IEP goals contain star um and dibbles data and you'll see that in goal four. Um and also time and opportunity to calibrate and align. We've heard loud and loud and clear from our labor unions in our labor groups in particular how important it is for us as leaders in the organization both at the district and the site level um to be aligned and how we're

131giving feedback and what we expect um so that um we can all move forward together um in this work. Um one of the things in the next slide in uh Mr. Ellis's quarter or sixth monitoring report which he delivered in June um and then was uh surfaced again in his final monitoring report um were uh were areas that needed attention relative to these three specific action items in the settlement agreement. Um develop and implement a monitoring component which is the work that we're doing now. Um and then uh honing in on not just implementing a targeted uh professional development plan which we are doing for general education teachers and our sitebased uh specialist which we are doing. Um and providing training for their chosen reading and language arts tier one curriculum which we have done

132but this uh coaching observation um to provide feedback on implementation. Um there are a number of shifts that we have been asking our uh sitebased specialists, our literacy coaches and principles in particular to think about how um our literacy coaches time is allocated in order to prioritize that coaching um support which is going to be a shift um but Rose has been working really carefully with the team um and our site leaders um as we are moving into this implementation phase of the curriculum. So as we look ahead um into the 2526 school year and belong and beyond, we really are monitoring what matters, right? How do we track, calibrate and then learn for improvement through feedback cycles um that are happening both centrally as we implement instructional rounds that will be conducted by monthly,

133which will give us an opportunity um as district office leaders to be in classrooms alongside of our site leaders. um for our principles to be making regular observations and providing feedback um that can help inform both coaching um our professional development um and our grade level release days for um our for more upcoming training on the new curriculum. Um there still are a few more policy updates and then always monitoring um for implementation. Um and I'm going to turn it over to Shana and Dr. Shelley for goal four. >> Okay, great. Good evening. Thank you for having us and listening to our report. Um we're going to talk about special education and 504s for uh goal four of special education programs. Um the goal was to increase reading achievement by improving the quality of IEP

134goals and section section 504 plan development progress monitoring and use of appropriately intensive research-based interventions. Um the big thing that we focused on with special education, we talked a lot about um the professional development and routines. We talked about that about tier one, tier 2, but tier three was equally as important. Um part of tier three is writing specific goals that are observable and measurable so we can monitor progress and determine if the student is making adequate progress. So while we want to write goals that are are specific, we want to also use a a um a tool that can measure those goals. So our goals are now written using dipples and star data so we can accurately reflect students progress. Um staff are trained in Wilson OG things that are the science of reading.

135And um for the school psychologists um we want to expand MTSS for SLD um identification. So looking for a specific learning disability. If you're familiar with special education, some of the difficulty with that has been a wait to fail model that and now we really want to use data that we are not waiting for students to fail that we are accurately supporting students as they as they need support and we change intervention based on data. Progress monitoring does that for us. So when we progress monitor, we want to do this with the students with IEPs weekly, bi-weekly. We want to use valid tools to see if the students are making progress. Um not just based on feeling or you know somebody said this, somebody said that. We want it to be datab based and we

136need to make adjustments um based on that data. Transitions. We don't want to lose students in the transition from elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school, even preschool to kindergarten. What we want to do is have these really robust transition meetings so that every student can have a a warm handoff to the next team um as they continue through their education. So, we're streamlining those. Um and sorry. Oh, okay. Great. Um All right. And then, um we'll be talking more about the MTS shifting the MTSS SLD model of eligibility uh for special education with the school psychologists. >> Okay. Thank you. in the uh in the key areas for section 504 around professional development, progress monitoring and trai uh transitions and routines. Um we engage in professional development, annual professional development

137for the section 504 leads um with additional sight specific training throughout the year. So an example would be providing uh PD for staff on implementing the IEPs, implementing uh section 504 accommodations. again uh for the 504 leads um doing assessments, writing those assessments uh and then the accommodations that support the students um in the area of progress monitoring um using educia in areas of attendance, grades, behavior and assessments done quarterly and then of course the improved use of educ uh the section 504 data I'm thankful for Lena for actually teaching me in educ how to create a data wall where I'm able to look at the all the data at one time on one sheet. Um and then providing feedback to the school site leads section 504 leads to continue the progress monitoring ensuring that

138our students have access to the uh the best um support that they can receive. >> All right. Um, so in just two years, we've gone from fewer than 3% of elementary school students with IEP reading goals linked to STAR and Dibbles to over 77% today. This represents not just a change in numbers, but a fundamental shift in practice from goals that were often broad and subjective to goals that are now rooted in reliable, valid measures. with 72% of middle school students now also having IEP reading goals using STAR and Dibbles. And that's up from 1% when we first um we first started this change process. We're now seeing a level of consistency across grades in schools that that we're proud of. Um this progress means that our our teachers, leaders, and case managers can make

139more precise decisions. they can track progress more effectively so that they can make decisions that that impact student outcomes. >> Okay. So, we're not done yet. Uh when we know better, we do better. And so, we are going to continue to focus on this work. Um our focus for this year specifically is to solidify and strengthen these practices. Uh we want to continue to strengthen high quality IEP goals using dibbles and stars. We want measurable, pre precise and targeted goals so that we know students are making progress or not so we can change the intervention. Um we want to continue to strengthen section 504 process and accommodations so that all of our students with disabilities are served. Um expect and support implementation of progress monitoring. We want timely actionable feedback u that makes sense based

140um to support the student to make progress. We want um continued in um investment in training for our teachers using evidence-based uh interventions um the science of reading. We want those interventions to to match need and to expand the use of MTSS to identify students with um specific learning disabilities. Um that is a focus for my group. Um we are really looking at using database decisionmaking to inform um u eligibility under the category of specific learning disability particularly in literacy. All right. So um we are proud we're we're hecka proud hash Berkeley hecka proud uh of the work that we have done over the course of the last three years. Um I'm really proud of the work of this team. Many of them started in other positions um at the beginning of this journey and

141are in new positions as we sit before you now. I'm proud of the work that our principles have done to lean into the challenge and guide their staffs um through this process um and really um hold themselves and us uh to high expectations. I'm proud of the learning that our teachers have done and for the work that our pilot committee did in particular. I'm proud of the community uh advocacy and uh advocacy that we've had and participation in the many community events that we have had over the years. Um and I'm proud that our students are coming home and being excited about reading. Um, I think Rose shared a story this morning that she got a text from one of our educators who said, "Happy fish tank day." You you know that you have achieved

142some level of success when you've got teachers that are texting district staff um about a new curriculum roll out and it it sort of continued into the principal meeting. Everybody knew that today was fish tank day. Um, and that says a lot about the alignment that we have as a system. That says a lot more about the commitment that we have to this work. Um, and yet we know that we have more work to do. So, it's easy to stand before you and tout our accomplishments and I don't want that to feel like we don't recognize the work that we have to continue to grow and improve. Um, in the report you have, um, data slides that show our fall to spring data from last year. And I just pulled a sample from first grade.

143Um, and Liz, if you can just click that next slide. Um, we have a district 3x5 target. So, this is just first grade, but we saw a similar trend in kindergarten. Um, and I will say a little more flat for our upper elementary grades. Um, and some mixed for our star scores in our middle schools. Um, back one more, Liz, because I don't want to lose the punchline. Go backwards. There you go. So, from fall to spring of last year, our first graders went from next click, one click. uh 68% at or above benchmark to 84% um at or above benchmark which is well beyond that 3% goal. When we look at our student groups by ethnicity, which is the next slide, we see an increase um for our African-American students, one more click, from

14444% to 67% and one more click for our Hispanic Latino students from 42% to 66%. Which is well beyond that 5% goal. when you click into our um student program groups. So, next slide and then one click um you see um also significant GR gains for our students um with IEPs, our English language learners and our students experiencing housing insecurity. For first grade, where we did see a dip from 15% to 0% at or above um benchmark was with our Spanish-speaking eelss. And so we know that that is an area that we will need to continue to focus on. We have a lot more work to do to close the achievement gap, but we uh are really poised today um to do better um to implement a viable commit uh curriculum um to support our

145teachers and leaders and to monitor um our um ourselves in that work. So the last slide there is just back to # Berkeley proud. Um because again there's a lot to be proud of and again a recognition that we're not satisfied um because we still have a gap to close. So with that I'm going to invite Mr. Ellis back up here and we will happily take questions. >> Um thank you so much uh you know hecka proud team here. Um I you can tell that amazing lift has been done here and over a relatively short amount of time. I want to reflect that it is um 9:20 and perhaps we could do a quick 5m minute break. Do you want to do a break or do you want to keep moving on? >> I think

146he's doing it for a student director. >> Yeah, it's a student director. >> Okay. Okay. We'll proceed until till we're done, I guess. Yeah. Thank you. >> Director Schnowski did have a question. >> Yeah. I more had a couple of comments and then a hope for the future data cuz I love data. Um first I want to thank Mr. Ellis. Um thank you for your commitment, your collaboration, and your integrity really throughout this process. Uh personally I really appreciated the couple of times that you took to meet with me. um and provided me the support that I needed to really learn about what was happening. Um not only in the settlement but throughout the work that B USD is engaged in. Um I was excited to see you calling out the coaches because that's something

147that we did talk about um at length and and I'm excited to see how that progresses. Um but you're you've been so honest and so patient with all of us. Um, and so thank you so much for all the work you've done with Berkeley Unified. Um, as a teacher, I want to highlight um, that slide that you showed about the PD. I think uh, Director Albeck pointed it out um, with the PD and the, um, teacher engagement because I know that you're never going to have these kinds of changes without teachers really buying in to the whole process. And I I think I heard somewhere that like Berkeley would never change their reading. Um and that's just not true. And it's really a testament to our teachers. Um and I'm so excited that there's so

148much buy in because it's really like lasting change. So um I'm excited about that. I hope um that we can be really specific and targeted in some of our future data presentations, especially as we compare compare not just like fall through spring, but fall through spring this year as compared with last year. So we can really look at how this curriculum shift has impacted our students. Um, so I would love to see that and I'd love to just see highlights wherever we can about how this huge shift has impacted students and student outcomes. Um, finally, I'm really I have a lot of confidence that our team, our BUSD team here, um, specifically headed by associate superintendent Hoganike in partnership with Dr. givens uh can provide that classroom monitoring and that we'll continue on them this

149like path to some incredible work for our kids. So, thank you all. >> What colleagues other questions? >> I'd want to echo all the gratitude to our team and to Mr. Ellis. Um thank you all for the amazing work. Um, I have some questions that were coming up for me around I I was very excited to hear so much about the emphasis on database decisionmaking and to see such a strong assessment system and I know that every time I've been a part of adopting a of of implementing a new curriculum, those curricula always come with their own assessments. So, I was finding myself having lots of questions about how the existing assessment system that you all have worked so hard to build um will interact with the new the assessments that I assume are part

150of the new um reading adoption and how that all kind of comes together to form an assessment system that's going to really support teachers and kids. Rose, do you want to talk about the diagnostic? >> Um, that's a a great question. Um, and it's definitely something we were thinking about, you know, as soon as we made our selection, um, the committee made their selection is what are the embedded assessments in the curriculum and how do they interact with the the current assessments we use? And uh luckily you know the the assessment system we've been building is really on our screeners right dibbles and star and it's also a progress monitoring tool right for reading difficulty and for making sure that students are um they are responding to the intervention that they're getting and the curriculum

151embedded assessments are very much formative assessments. Right? So there those are the ones that are really going to be informing teacher moves on a daily basis. Um so really they kind of go well together. Um I would say and we've re sort of we revised the diagnostic plan from last year with a few changes. We also got a lot of teacher feedback about the flowchart and just how it was quite busy. So we tried to pair it down and we tried to really think about you know what are the diagnostics. There's one diagnostics that's provided in functional phonics and morphology that we selected to embed in the diagnostic plan, but other than that, it's not changing a whole lot. But the instructional implications, one of the great things about functional phonics and morphology is that

152every teacher, all of our classroom teachers have access to that curriculum, K5. So that means if I'm a fourth grade teacher, I have access to the K2 phonics lessons as well. Also, if I have a student that needs morphology, but they also have some unfinished learning in early like phonics concepts, they can access that. Um, so that is now all built into that diagnostic plan. And I've shared we've shared that plan um with our lit coaches and we're going to share it with RTI and and more of our teachers. But that is the one that we will be going through this year and we have four sessions planned on Wednesdays to um do our continue our our data protocols. I think I just also wanted to add that um in I think you mentioned database

153decisionmaking and part of the work we're doing is around data literacy for for our staff and um and with that teaching people how to not rely on a single metric and making decisions but rather to learn how to triangulate evidence-based data data points in order to make decisions. So not to we we're keeping with our screeners and our progress monitoring tools and also adding in reliable standardbased formative assessments that are that are aligned with our curriculum. >> Yeah, thank you both. That was informative and great to hear. Um, I also want to echo the comments about a lot of excitement about coaching, observation, and feedback. And also just um, as a former literacy coach who moved straight from the classroom to becoming a literacy coach, often literacy coaches don't really have any specific training in

154how to coach and how to observe and give feedback. So, I'm hoping that there are systems in place to make sure that people have the skills that they need in order to really do that work well, which I assume you're all thinking about already. Um, and then the last thing that is just um that I just want to name is Jill. you used the terms learning and capacity building at the beginning and there's just a tremendous amount of evidence of of how our system has really learned and built capacity through all of these years of work and I'm hopeful that we can apply those same learnings and that same capacity building for example to the work director Albeck that I know you've started around math um I think there's a lot of opportunity to take

155all of these um all of this growth and and continue to build on it. >> I think that just goes to what we've been talking about. It's it's a liter literacy system, but really it's an instructional system. Um because these components of assessment, datadriven decision- making, uh uh setting a vision, coaching and monitoring would apply to any content area as we're doing that work. >> Thank you. Uh, director Vasad. >> Yeah, I just wanted to echo the appreciation that my colleagues have, you know, already stated. Um, especially the buyin, I think, from educators is always really important. My question is about some of the subgroups that you presented on. So, I really appreciated hearing that you're not waiting for failure for special education students because a common complaint that we hear, at least that I

156hear from that community, is, well, my child is doing well, so they say that they no longer qualify for special education. and maybe that child might overall do well on, you know, math or the grades seem fine, but they're kind of treading water a little bit when it comes to literacy. And so, I think when we have these presentations, I um love hearing what's happening with our educators and I'm so appreciative of the work that the district has done. So, I hope you take this um with knowing that. Um, but I also think it's really important for parents to understand what does it mean to be proactive? Because I really love something you said tonight, which is we're not waiting for failure to intervene. So, what does that exactly mean for a parent? It's like,

157you know what, my child is still, you know, they're in fifth grade, but they're writing at a third grade level or they're in fifth grade and they're reading is still not strong. They're still not feeling confident. So, can you explain to the parent that's listening, right, who may want to understand how this new curriculum will benefit their child who might be struggling, like what does that mean to be proactive and to not wait for failure when it comes to special education? And also, I would love um to get more data in the spring. I know we always get data in the spring. Really appreciate that. um but get more data in the in the spring about our Spanish speaking eelss in particular and how they're doing and what we're doing between now and the spring

158to make sure that they're not falling through the cracks and so um yeah, thanks. >> Thank you. Are there other board member questions or comments? >> Well, I I still wanted an answer to the special education part >> before you move on. >> All right. No, for so what we're doing is in terms of literacy is that everybody's getting a comma screener for now. So we're we're getting the the dibbles and I I did this 20 years ago and when I was an intern in Tahhe County and you've learned up the kids and you do this screener and everybody gets screened and it's really nice to see that now is that everybody is like okay what do you need and based on these this data how do we serve you where you're at and how

159do we help you improve and I see that mindset shift versus like oh well they're not that low then they can continue you know and so I I'm seeing this this proactive approach of people saying well I see this student and you know looking at the dibbles or in the the red or or in the yellow and oh you know what we're going to do we're going to do this we see with the dibbles you can identify where the student is struggling based on reading you can think about this is it phonics is it you know comprehension is it the fluency piece and then you can match an intervention to the need and so with that tool we can further kind of target where the student needs support and if that intervention doesn't work and

160we're progress monitor turning we can decide do we need to change the intervention. So you're intervening and you're attempting to support based on the data you have. So just for me to understand with parent hat on so if that student has like a three or four right but their dibbles marks them as having problems then you can have that interactive conversation. >> Absolutely. I would say why well why is that? I would ask a lot of questions like well why why is that dibbles like that? Was it a bad day or you know what we progress monitored again it's different. So I think I think but I hear you because I think you know having a grade can be a little more subjective than the database decision. So um I think it's important to ask

161a lot of questions. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Any more comments or questions? And I just want to really quickly say thank you. Um, again, you've obviously done a tremendous lift over the past three years and I really appreciated the professor's comment that um, there's been a clear shift in culture around literacy in the district. Um, and also um, social superintendent Huggen Dyke's comment as it's really it's a literary it's not just a literary system, literacy system, but it's an assessment system. Um, and we all know that um, system change is is challenging and uh, once you get there, it's challenging to keep it in place. And I I'm I'm looking forward to seeing um, the next year of work and continuing multi-yearover-year um, s sustainment of this uh, uh, important

162system and culture change. Thanks again. And uh, there's no other comments. We'll move on to the next item. Thanks. [Applause] >> Yeah, cuz it's just anformational item. >> It's justformational, right? >> Yeah. There's no presentation. >> Oh, there's no presentation. Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. So, um, thanks so much. We're just double checking with each other on necessity of a bio break, etc. Um, so 151 is is just anformational update. You'll find that information up online. Um, are there extended public comments here in the room? I don't see any. I think online we have Oh, I'm sorry. >> Oh, one person here and two online. Do we have a [Music] >> Yeah. What's your name? >> Mimi May. I have to get my book. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Mimi Maine. I was

163here two weeks ago. These meetings are long. I don't know how you guys do this. I'm worried about our our high school representative. This is only my second one and I'm I'm burnt out. Um, so after care crisis, um, two weeks ago, I didn't know if my kid was going to get care. He did. We did get confirmation. We got confirmation the Friday before school started that we could send him to school to the afterare program pending confirmation. So that was just our coordinator reaching out I think on her own time because I don't think they started till the Monday before school started to be like, "Hey, I know you parents are freaking out. You can send your kid here the first day of school and we'll figure it out with enrollment." On the Monday

164before the first day of school, I got an email from Kelly confirming my kid had a spot in Bears. Um, it was hilariously signed, "Enjoy the rest of your summer." Which I thought was really funny. Um, so all that is to say, this level of panic and insanity, it's my third year going through it. I'm pretty I'm in a place of privilege. I have a lot of support locally and I'm at John Mir which has a lot of care in one of the two private programs. But this level of panic that's happening across the elementary schools is not sustainable even though it has been going on for like three decades. Um I really encourage you all to include the coordinators. I want to echo everything Cara said and the person from Craigmont who spoke about

165the situation they had with their TKER. I thought she had a lot of really great suggestions. Thank you all. We're going to keep coming back here and um bringing this up. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um thank you. Got some folks online. >> Yes, we have three hands. We'll start with Elizabeth Becker and end with Katie Ree. Uh >> Miss Becker, can you come online, please? Uh, hi. Can you all hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi. Sorry, I'm trying to turn my video on. Um, so welcome back. Um, I am taking this opportunity to speak out to um, kind of reiterate several common threads that I've heard throughout the evening and throughout my years at BUSD. Um, as a parent of a seventh grader and a fifth grader at BUSD schools, um, I'm once

166again just going to please express how much that I need, everyone needs B USD's data management and enrollment policies to be updated. Um, the enrollment policies include emailing sensitive documents in PDF form to an address with undisclosed attachment size limits. Like it's a cyber security nightmare. Um, the blindsided transportation changes, which I know everybody is feeling really hard and I absolutely sympathize with everybody. um the afterare application and weightless program issues that were just spoken on again just now. Like all of it, the common thread is that working families are left to na navigate these monumental impacts year after year with no notice. Um, I just it it's 2025 and it still strikes me as wild that B USD hasn't overhauled so many of these programs, these like datadriven software things. And there's been so

167many comments not just from like community members, but also from like board members saying how much like Shinoski, director Shinoski specifically says she loves data and I know she does. She's a chemist. Of course she does. But like we all love data. We all want to know where we stand. So like what can we as community members do to help encourage BUD to come into this century to actually know where we stand to be able to plan. We're not saying that we need all the answers right away, but I think that it's reasonable to expect that we give we get at least minimum month planning to be able to plan for things like transportation and childare. Um, that's it. Again, my name is Elizabeth Becker and I'm just commenting on our Drake. >> Thank you.

168Um, and if you have more to say, you can always email us. Uh, Lily Simonson, I believe, is up next. And then we have Katie Reese. >> Lily, are you are you ready? There you are. >> Yes. Hi. My cat really wants to speak as well. Um uh my name is Lily Simson. My daughters um are in TK and first grade at John Mir. Um I spoke at the last meeting regarding the aftercare crisis. Um at 11:00 p.m. the night before school started. My TK kid was admitted to Bears. Um, but my first grader still has no afterare placement. Um, and um, you all saw the numbers. It's something like 57% um, of placement was made for Bears students and 70s something for learns. Neighboring districts have much higher hit ratios. I one council member

169mentioned so I know districts can do better. I appreciate that we are in a budget crisis. I'm very grateful that Berkeley is supportive of its union members and that learns, you know, staff are part of a union and um and I think that should mean that we can build the program even better. It's not a constraint. It's a feature, not a bug. So, um, I just want to continue to urge you all to keep it as a priority. Um, and I know that maybe to some people it seems entitled, like, aren't we doing enough by having these classrooms be so amazing and having the school day itself be so wonderful? And that's very true. But as a society, we have to support working families and it should be part of making an equitable public school

170system. That's just the reality we face and I as many parents have highlighted with all these issues with transportation with afterare um we fear that enrollment will decline um continue to decline if this continues to be a problem and we all want to see you know good enrollment in our amazing Berkeley school district and we know you're understaffed and trying really hard everyone's doing their best um but we'd love more communication transparency and to keep this a priority. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next on up Katie Ree. I think Katie is last. Is Katie, are you still there? I see Katie now. >> Hi there. I'm I'm here. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Great. Um, hi everyone. We've communicated recently about the after school crisis. Um, but I just want to make

171one more literacy related comment again tonight. Um, I think we can all agree that we're we're really only at the beginning stages of the implementation of some pretty dramatic shifts in pedagogy and curriculum. Um, this is a really big deal and so I appreciated all of the comments around suggesting further monitoring by an outside expert. Um, and specifically tonight, I just want to advocate once again for teachers. You know, I'm a teacher. Many of you are teachers or have been teachers. And we all know that for teachers, there's never enough time. There's never enough training to do the job as well as we all want to do it. Um, so I just want to urge the district to be really thoughtful and honest about what amount of training and support we consider to be sufficient

172for our educators to feel fully equipped to do the job, right? Um, just as one example, like Thor and Gillingham Academy and Wilson Reading System don't consider someone fully trained to even do the most basic level of intervention until they've had 60 hours of training in a year-long practicum supervised by an expert. So, while the training that our teachers have received and our coaches have received is fantastic and we should celebrate it, like please know that it's just an introduction. It's just the beginning and they deserve more. I just want to ask BFT and the district to be creative in this intense budget atmosphere and to try to get our teachers some more professional development days at the start of the year, at the end of the year. We need more time. Teachers deserve more

173training and more learning and more time to collaborate and work together. Thank you. >> Thank you. I think one do we have time for one more? I think Dan has just raised his hand. Oh, we'll do one more and then that'll be the last person. >> Dan, can you come on? >> Dan declined. Okay, so uh we don't have any more public commenters and um we will adjourn. Thank you so much.