001Great. Uh, we are up and running. Uh, thanks so much. We are starting at 7:04 p.m. today. Uh, thanks for joining us. Um, so we're calling the meeting to order. Do we have public comment? >> Yes, we do. We do. And so are there any students for public comment? Not so far. So, um >> that's right. Um >> call roll. Absolutely. I'm going to call roll first. Sorry, we're a little rusty here. I'm a little rusty this summer. Uh let's call roll. Miss Chadz, >> director Anna Vasv presenter. Director Jennifer Shinowski >> here. >> Director Jennifer Korn >> here. >> Vice President A Chang >> here. >> President Kada Brown today. >> And thanks so much. We will now um approve the agenda for this night's uh meeting. Um, at the requests of staff, agenda
002item 12, superintendent comments will be moved to follow the report out on closed session. Are there any other requested changes, board folks? >> Not seeing any. None. >> Not seeing any um other requested changes. Um, seeing as there are no requested changes, is there a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended? >> So moved. Well, that's >> all in favor. Oh, it's a second. >> Just a point of clarification. There's an item I would like to pull from the consent calendar. Should I make that motion now or should I wait until we get to that item? >> Okay. >> Now, >> yeah. So, I would like to pull Sorry. >> Um item 13.8, approval of the contract with the Levo Coast to Coast for after school program from the consent calendar. >>
003Great. So amended with um both what I just referenced uh with regard to the agenda and also 13.8 as director Chinowski requested. >> And just for important clarity, are you suggesting that that become a discussion item for tonight? >> Okay. So 13.8 from consent to a discussion item. Is there a motion to approve? So in a second. >> Uh so moved with the suggested changes. >> Second. >> Sorry. >> Okay. Uh any other requested changes? Uh seeing as there are no other changes, is there uh all in favor say I. >> I. >> Um Miss Charz, can you do you need to take role now? We already took RO. >> Got it. Okay. Um so, uh thanks for coming back and uh spending time with us and sharing this space. Um and I hope everyone
004had a great summer. So this evening um the board of education will address and take action on a significant leadership transition. Um as per board policy, we are required to elect a president, vice president, and clerk annually, a process that's typically completed at our last December meeting. Um, however, the board president, uh, Kada Brown has temporarily resigned from her role as president to go on, uh, maternity leave. Um, we wish her congratulations. Everyone's very happy for her and bond with her new baby. Um, it is important to clarify that Director Brown is not resigning from the board itself, but rather just from the presidency during her leave. Um, at tonight's meeting, the board will formally address Director Brown's temporary removal from the presidency and proceed with electing new officers to serve through the 2025 2026
005school year. We anticipate Director Brown's return from leave in the fall of 2026. Upon her return, she will be reinstated as president to complete the remainder of her 12-month term for the 2026 uh calendar year. Um, is there a motion? And this is the two-part, which sounds a little a little odd, but it's uh per what I just referenced. Is there a motion to remove director Kada Brown as president and Mike Chang as vice president? >> Yes, I'd like to make a motion to remove the existing president and vice president and then I will make a second motion to vote um for new leadership. >> So, should we vote first for the first motion to remove the president and the vice president? >> Board secretary, >> and the clerk We're moving the cler. >> Sorry.
006>> Um, is there a second? >> Three people. >> I'll second the removal of all three positions. >> Are there eyes? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone not in favor? Not seeing or hearing any. Going on to the second motion. Motion to now appoint the board president, the vice president, and the clerk. >> Yes. I'd like to entertain a motion to vote Director Mike Chang as president of the board, Director Jen Korn as vice president of the board, and Director Shinowski as clerk of the board of education until the next organizational meeting with the intent of them being in service for a consecutive year through next fall for continuity purposes. Is there a second? >> Go ahead. I'll second. >> Um, are there uh all in favor say I? I >> I
007great. Um both motions have been approved and um as as stated, we have a new leadership team uh through uh next fall. Um can we report out on closed um Vice President K? >> Yes. Um we have had three closed session meetings since our last open session meeting. So, um, on June 26th, the board met in close session to consider the superintendent's um, contract. We met again on August 4th to consider the same item. And then, um, today we met in closed session during which we considered item 3.1.1. The district provided a recommendation. Director Shinoski moved to approve. Um, Director Korn seconded and the board voted unanimously to approve the item. Um, for item 3.1.2, the district provided a recommendation. Director Shinoski moved to approve it. Director Chang seconded and the board voted unanimously to
008approve. Um, 3.1.3 and 3.1.4 were erroneously added to the agenda. They were actually duplications of 3.1.2. Um, so then we also considered item 3.2, collective bargaining. The district provided an update to the board and item 3.3, the superintendent evaluation. The board reviewed revisions to the contract. Director Schnowski moved to accept the revisions. Um, director President Brown seconded the motion and the board voted unanimously to accept the revisions. And I should say that present should I say who was there uh director Chang, director Korn, director Schnowski, and director Brown were present at today's close session meeting. >> Did you just think? >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Um, thank you. Um, we now have superintendent comments. >> Thank you, President Chang. Good evening, B USD family. >> Good evening. >> Wow, had a whole summer.
009Let's do that again. Good evening, B USD family. >> Good evening. >> I wanted to say good evening and I'm so excited to be able to say happy new year, though not in traditional sense. We are so excited to kick off the 2526 school year with you all. This is my fourth year as superintendent in Berkeley Unified School District. And every year we start the year off with an h with a hashtag. My first year we had Berkeley ready. Second year Berkeley believes last year was Berkeley together. And this year we surveyed a number of our staff members to ask for their input. And we are excited to announce that this year's hashtag is Berkeley proud because we have so many things to be proud of in our district. Things that we have done, yes,
010but also excited and proud about the things that we are going to do together in service of our students and of course of you, our families. Um, Berkeley Proud was actually um, offered to us by Nicholas. Um, Nicholas Williams who is a teacher at Ruth Acti. And Nicholas said that Nicholas he is proud of our diversity, proud of our families and students, proud of our staff, proud of our literacy adoption, proud of our rainbow families, proud of black lives. We are proud to be Berkeley unified. And so Nicholas offered, and you're going to hear me say this a lot, Nicholas said that we should say, "Say it loud." And then you supposed to say >> Berkeley proud. Let's practice that. >> Say it out loud. >> We're really proud. >> Okay, but practice that. Okay,
011you guys. Okay, so we're excited because again, we think it's going to be a great school year. Um we um are also excited and proud to welcome you back officially the first day of school next Wednesday, August 13th. And so we know that the babies are excited. We hope that you're excited. And we know that that entails a lot of getting ready. So as you are getting ready for the first day of school, wanted to share a couple things with you. Um, the first is that this Saturday, August 9th from 10 to 1:00 p.m., BUSD's OFI team will be providing school supplies for TK to 12th grade students at San Pablo Park. This is a yearly tradition. It's a big deal. It's a great time to come out and be in community, and also a
012great way to get your baby the supplies that they need, super cool backpacks and things. And so, we're grateful to the Berkeley Public Schools Fund, Supplybank.org, or City of Berkeley and Covenant Church for the support of the Berkeley Unified students um to kick off again this year's event. Also, I like many of you in the space amer going into seventh grade. So, I know a big part of getting ready for the school year is also understanding the child's schedule and then figuring out how you're going to make sure there is care um before school and after school as many of you like me work. And so I wanted to make sure that folks know that on tonight's agenda, we are preparing a presentation, a discussion item to provide an update on our extended day and
013afterchool care. Um, we've heard your concerns. We want to share some of the ways that we tried to respond to those concerns and to share updates on our ongoing work to do our best to provide afterchool programming for as many students and families as possible. Um, if you stay beyond that, you'll also get an opportunity to hear an update on our budget. You might recall that the end of last school year there was a lot of uncertainty with the state budget and then subsequently in the summertime there was some uncertainty even with the federal budget. We are now a little bit more certain and more clear and so we'll be presenting to our board what our revenues are from the state and a better picture of what we anticipate our fiscal situation looking like for
014the 2526 school year. So a very important discussion that I hope that you all stay um to be a part of and listen to. Finally, as I prepare to close, President Chang, I do want to just take a moment to honor and remember two people who we lost this summer, members of our BUD community. Um, first I want to um acknowledge um Madori. Um Madori was an educator um in one of our schools. Sorry, and I'm not feeling the best. Apologies for my breathing. Um Madori was an educator um in BUSD. She worked for BUSD for almost a decade as a school psychologist. Um and Madori and her husband Andy had dedicated their lives have dedicated their lives to public education. Um Andy as a beloved BUSD teacher and Madori as a compassionate school psychologist
015serving at Emerson, John Muer and Oxford. So Madori had the privilege of working with many of our students in BSD and many of our students and staff had the privilege of being touched and inspired by Madori's life. Madori is remembered as the person who you want in your corner, spending hours off the clock making sure every detail of a child's educational plan was carefully crafted to truly meet their needs. Her work was rooted in deep empathy and a fierce commitment to equity for all children. And so we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge um the life and the legacy that is Madori and the various ways that Madori has impacted our BUSD community. I also want to take a moment to um recognize and honor the life of Mr. Jonathan Dillard JD GUI. Um
016Jonathan was not a member of the Berkeley Unified community in the traditional sense and that he was not an employee. However, he was a member of the construction team that has been working hard in service of our students and families as Sylvia Mendes to give our babies a different um and better place to be each day. Um Jonathan was a construction worker who was working on the modernization of Sylvia Mendes, as I said, and he passed away in a construction accident at the site in July. He leaves behind a wife and seven children. And we recognize and value the many contractors and subcontractors who are involved in modernizing our schools and their families and all they do in the way they give us their time and their heart and their talent and energy to make
017our learning spaces beautiful. The family um and the construction crew remain in our thoughts and we send them strength and comfort in this difficult time. there is um a gofundme both for Jonathan Guided's family again he's left behind seven children and a spouse as well as for Madori's family who is still um her husband an educator here in B USD and she also has a child here in B USD and so information about um how to contribute will be available on our website but also wanted to pause um just in a moment of appreciation of the life of Jonathan Guidi as well I appreciate your thoughts and your prayers and I appreciate all the ways that we'll work in collaboration still Berkeley together to have a wonderful school year. Thank you, President. >> Thank you,
018Superintendent. Um, we will now move to public comments. Um, there are two opportunities for public comments at each meeting now and also at the end of the meeting. And if you do not get to speak at the beginning of the meeting, we do encourage you to stay and to speak at the end of the meeting. Um, you may also email us your comments at boardofedber berkeley.net. Um, the board does not respond directly to comments or questions made during public comment. Board members, the superintendent and the staff do take notes during public comment and may follow up with the speaker after the meeting. This is a hybrid meeting which means that we have public commenters in the boardroom and also online. We have designated 15 minutes to our in-person speakers to be followed by 15 minutes
019for any speakers online. That's not per person. That's in in total for each. Um, each public commenter will have up to that minute depending on the amount of speakers. Please note that the microphone will shut off at the end of each speaker's allotted time. There's a buzzer, so time your comments accordingly. To keep things moving, I will call two names at a time so that the speaker who is next in line can then get ready and come forward and wait near the mic. I apologize in advance if I pronounce anyone's name incorrectly. You can also correct me if that happens. Um, our standard practice is students first, then groups, and then individuals. Um, okay. We will begin first with there's no students, right? Any other students come on in? Nope. All right. Um, and and
020please do correct me for pronunciation. Uh, Rama Ragavan. And secondly, Sandro Olivi. >> Can I begin? Uh, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for for having us. Uh, my name is Rama Ragavan and I am a parent of two students at John Mir Elementary. The first is an incoming third grader and the second is an incoming TKER. Um, I had the pleasure of attending our TK and kindergarten playd date at John Mure on Saturday and overwhelmingly the parents are excited. They were full of joy. The kids were so excited to meet each other. Um we also have a WhatsApp group and throughout both the playd date and on the WhatsApp group there is a sense of um anxiety and frustration at the lack of confirmed afterchool care for our children. I think this is
021across the grades uh a backlog it bears which we're all aware of. This is not just John Mir. This is across the district. But I want to speak specifically on behalf of our TK parents because we've been given a gift. TK enrollment is strong. We want to bring these students into John Mir, show them the magic, get them to be Berkeley proud. And I fear that we aren't doing justice to these families, to these students by not offering them a way not only to experience the the full day of education, but then beyond the play, the care, and the opportunity to connect with with staff and each other. Um, so on behalf of TK parents and parents more broadly, I really encourage you to treat this like a very serious crisis because as working parents,
022we need to be able to guarantee care. Thank you so much. Oh, one other point is um I know that there are some after uh offschool um programs very difficult to put a three or fouryear-old on a bus. Andrew Oliver. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Next up will be Mike Jeff and Mike Vanderman. You can wait for a second then prepare to come on up. >> Buenesis. My name is Sandro Levier. I am the father of three daughters attending John Mir Elementary. Uh my youngest is going to be going into TK this year. We're very excited. She's very excited to go. Um same topic as before. Um, you know, many families in our community, uh, you know, we're part of the tours, welcoming people to the school, were deep members of our
023community. Lots of families were excited to enroll in TK, uh, with the understanding that there would be an option for after school care. As we and near the start of school, uh like Ramian mentioned, uh dozens of families were told just a few days ago that there would be no available spots. And the only available uh cityrun spot with with busing at the clubhouse that was just built, which is beautiful, has a wait list of over 70 kids. Uh and it's just not accessible. And inaccessible options are just not options. And so, um, it's not just frustrating, it's destabilizing. It's, uh, it's forcing us to make impossible choices about care, uh, work and safety for our kids. And it's it's happening to the families, um, with four-year-olds, you know, kids that, uh, need stability and
024consistency the most. Uh, so this is a crisis. We feel it in that way. Um, I know some of you do, too. Um, you know, there are, uh, I know there's a lot of stuff at play. Budget shortfalls, political complications, red tape, all of those things. Uh, I'm a parent and those things are not my job. Those things are your job. My job is to care for and advocate for these kids. And that's what I'm here to do today. Um, not just my kids, but all of the TK families across the district who who should become Berkeley proud and should be um, should be strong members of our community. Um, you know, I don't want to just raise problems. If there's anything I can do, I can I will do it. Uh, but we need
025the the board and the district to to help us pave the way uh to show us what we can do to to help fix this problem. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um, next on up is Mike Jeff Hefe. Okay. >> Hi. Thank you to the board for uh allowing me to speak tonight. Um, very similar topic here. Um, so it'll be a recurring theme. I'm the father of two kids, a 7-year-old at Sylvia Mendes, returning learns student, second grade, incoming second grade, and 11-year-old at Longfellow. Uh, like many of the parents here, I was told that we were weight listed. Um, it's now one week to go, and we feel this is somewhat of an existential threat. Um, because we are both working parents with commutes. Um, it is insanely impractical to pick
026up our children in the middle of the day. It means that we're going to have to make massive adjustments and potentially impact the security of our jobs. Um, which in this day and age seems like a very precarious position to be in. Um, we've been told that staffing levels are are adequate to support the children. We do not understand why with one week left, we've been told nothing. emails have gone unanswered. Um it seems incumbent on the the program to to let us know like what is happening on day one of school for families that are dependent on this program. Um, I just want to also say that while you did open up or the city of Berkeley opened up uh additional programs without transportation, um it is virtually impossible um to make arrangements uh
027with either some sort of private transportation service or another kind of service to get our kids there that they're the logistics just do not exist. So, if you're going to work with the city to open up care, transportation has to be a factor of that. Um, and uh, and also I just want to speak on behalf of the kids. Like our our children have formed like bonds with a lot of the staff. They love being with the kids at their program. They're very attached. Uh, and we're sort of punishing them saying that they they cannot go back. Now, I know it's not us, but I just think we need to reinforce and make this feasible. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much. Um, is Mike Vandeman here? Mike Vanderman is not
028here. Um >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Thank you. I apologize. Here you are. Thank you. >> Uh the um Berkeley High School mountain bike team is a disaster. I've tried to talk to um the high school principal and the previous principal. They won't talk wouldn't talk to me. the supervisor, the superintendent of schools, the previous superintendent of schools. Um, I've talked to the school board. I got no reaction. And mountain biking is environmentally destructive. It's socially destructive. It drives other people off the trails and out of the parks. Um, that's why bicycles are not allowed on sidewalks. They're dangerous. Um, it's medically very destructive. I've kept a record since 2007 of over,00 serious mountain biking accidents like broken bones, uh, paralysis, um, about 130 deaths in this, uh, about one a month from mountain biking.
029Um, are you waiting for someone to die? Uh, every week I see high school, Berkeley high school mountain bikers illegally riding on UC Berkeley property. Um, I don't understand why this uh club is so sacred. If they want to kill themselves, that's fine. But why is Berkeley High School sponsoring this uh destructive activity? Uh and in line with the theme of tonight, this is nothing to be proud of. Thank you. Next, on up we have Mimi Maine and Parisa. If Mimi, great if you can come out first and then Parisa, if you want to come get ready. >> Hi there. Thanks for having me. >> My name is Mimi Maine and I am the mom of a oh gosh first grader at John Mir. Um we did our first year of TK at Emerson and
030then we moved over to John Mir and we've been exceedingly happy with our B USD experience so far. uh two years ago um to the day yesterday, we were panicking because we found out we did not get an afterchool spot at our TK school and we after total panic um found a place. There were spots in the city of Berkeley after school care programs at Willard. I also tried to get really creative and for a moment there I was thinking about uh driving my kid up to his old preschool every single day which would have been extremely painful for us but they had space for us in the Willard program and that was amazing. So last year our kiddo was in the afterchool program at John Mir which is just bears. They don't have learns
031and it was phenomenal. The pe the staff was incredible and it was just a really lovely safe space. We really did the thing that most parents do and assumed it would all work out. And we still have not yet heard either way uh if our kid has a place, but we assume we will be rejected. And um uh we have since weight listed in multiple places, but it feels ex like way worse this year. Like I'm hearing about full classes of TK parents that are told there's no spaces for any TK. I've heard about a couple dozen returning parents like us whose kids did not get a spot in the program that they were in last year. And so I just I'm freaking out. Um I urge you to consider any and all suggestions that
032come your way. I know the John Mir PTA is sending a letter if they haven't already with some specific measures that can be taken. And yeah, just really any help would be great. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carissa. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Parisa Pmani. Uh, this is my daughter SA that goes also to John Mir. And I want to share the sentiment of other parents that go to John Mir. I am self-employed. I'm a single mom. Uh, so you can imagine the dire situation that I am in for after school program. I don't have any family members. So I'm a first generation immigrant. And um I was told at uh 2 months before the school ends that I can go on the Berkeley Unified School District website to sign up for this
033after school program. I followed the instructions. I constantly uh try to call and check with the members and uh to no avail. Um I found out that the person is in charge got laid off and there's a new person. And despite my numerous emails and phone calls, I was I had to finally go to 2020 Bonar Street on Monday only to be rerouted to 105 um Parker Street to find the person and be told that they have been um 10 kids assigned to one staff member and 10 other kids to another staff member. And um it's just uh they're looking for uh more people to hire, but don't have your hopes up because if other kids have that becomes more uh becomes um goes on the list, maybe my my daughter's name goes further down.
034So again, I'm freaking out like every other every other parent here, what are we going to do? It's just a week before the school. So any attention to this matter would be highly appreciated. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Parisa. Um next on up we have Stephen Finn. Finom and you'll have to correct me and also Eva Chris Chrysante even I pronounce your last surname correct phenom. Yeah. >> Good evening board members. So you may remember several months ago I came to speak to you regarding construction impacts and issues at Sylvia Menddees school project and I asked uh that you would communicate with neighbors. I'm back tonight with a renewed sense of urgency on the same matter. Since my time is short, uh, straight to the point, there are daily hazards and ongoing
035safety issues on the perimeter of the Sylvia Menddees site. If I had time, I could tell you about half a dozen I observed just this morning. U, basically, uh, in my view, the contractor de facto treats the perimeter streets and sidewalks as part of the active construction site. unsafe movement of vehicles, construction vehicles, driving down the street, uh parking violations, blockages of crosswalks, sidewalks, uh and the street, appropriation of parking that the contractor is not entitled to, use of the street for construction activities, including putting uh unattended electric generators in the street, and even setting up things like makeshift uh workstations for welding in the public street. Um bunch of stuff like that. Um, at least two vehicles of neighbors have been hit. Uh, and uh, nobody's been injured so far. Um, but, uh, the
036public sidewalks that parents and students will use next week have been severely damaged by the construction project, and they'll be open for use. Um, when school starts again this week, school staff uh, next week, school staff, teachers, parents, and children will join the neighbors in facing these hazards. Uh, not necessarily within the school campus, but on the public per perimeter. The city city of Berkeley has paid increasing attention in recent months to try to bring the contractor into compliance with city rules and regulations. Are you aware that the city has issued multiple violation notices and fines to the contractor? You should find out about that. Um so once again um I want to ask please talk to the neighbors, find out what's actually going on there around the site and take firm action to correct
037hazards before they turn into tragedies. We seen recently one avoidable death. It's time for B USC to reach out to reduce the chances for another accident and collaborate with neighbors on public safety. And here's my contact information. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um Eva Croissant. >> Thank you. I'm sorry I'm not better prepared. I was walking back from archives and I realized there's a schoolboard meeting. So, I just wanted to share with you um a couple of issues that I've been reporting on at marin county.substack.com. Um, one is the issue of Assembly Bill 715 or 715 which is an anti-teer bill which is opposed by the CTA and it appears to be coming back to the legislature after the recess after August 18th and uh it's very worrisome. It's going to have a very oppressive
038effect on teachers and so I I just want people to be aware of that. A lot of people are writing about it. Nadia Ramen is writing about it on Substack and so is Marcy Winterrad. Uh I think she's been writing about it at uh Counterpunch. Um I also want to let you know that a lot of people in Berkeley don't know that some of the curriculum for the state is now being written um through a private organization called the JFCS of the Bay Area. And this is for a Holocaust and genocide education program that is very racist and omits any mention of Palestinians at a time when they're being forcibly starved. And this is uh they're getting $ 8.5 million uh from the state uh in state educational grants that's being moved specifically through the
039Marin County Office of Education because they could never get away with it. they did it through Alama County, San Francisco County, or even Soma County. So, I've been reporting on that, and I'll still be tracking that process, but it's a very broken system. Obviously, an $87 million nonprofit institution that has no uh qualifications, right? Curriculum should not be receiving state educational grants. So, I just ask you to be aware of that. And of course, that's all available at ranging county.substack.com. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next on up we have uh uh Jennifer House. >> Thanks so much everyone. Um, I actually found out about this meeting just an hour or so before it started. Thank you. Um, and with the afterare issue that you've already heard about from a number of speakers, um, we'll
040be back at the next board meeting. I'm from Washington Elementary, a parent there. Um, one of my children just promoted from there and it will be going to Longfellow and I have another coming in as a TKER. Um, and there are scores of parents in the same situation. So, I'd just like to join the John Mure parents, the Sylvia Mendes parents and I think there are other schools also going through the same issue. This is a crisis. You all know this. Thank you so much for listening to us over and over. It is an absolute crisis. I cannot speak more to what's been going on for us as far as the amount of psychological energy and suffering this has caused. I I cried about this already at least two times today. Do I have to
041quit my job? What can I do? How can I continue to live in this city that I love that I have lived in for 25 years and send my child to a school that I love that I have been at for six years already with the con current situation of not being able to have afterare. So I think as a parent as many of you being parents you understand this predicament. Thank you so much for helping us. I just want to name also we are here to also be be solutions and helpful. I I appreciated the gentleman who mentioned that too. Not only putting this out there as a major issue but also if there is something that parents can do to support this we will help organize it. I'm on the PTA. I'm happy
042to do whatever it takes but we have to come up with some other solutions. I mean I can just put this out there. the um program that opened up at McGee Totland was filled in four hours and every parent, all 26 families that signed up for that have to pick their children up and take them there in the middle of the day. And I know y'all, you had a four-year-old, you can imagine that's not going to work. That child is not going to want to leave me and then go to that other place, right? No matter how good the relationship is with those people. So, please, thank you so much for listening to us and continue to put this on the number one top for the agenda as the school year starts. It is a
043crisis. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And um next on up uh we are going to see if there's any one online. Miss Chavez, are there folks online? And I apologize on my side. I have a web problem. Um, >> yeah. >> There we go. >> So, we got four. >> Um, >> and also Spencer Richard. >> Okay. Spencer Pritchard is also So, does look like Emily Han is first. Am I in the correct order? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, Miss Han or Emily Han. >> Hi. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yeah, we can. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Good evening, superintendent and board members. My name is Emily Han and I'm the parent of two kids at Rosa Parks. Four years ago, I made my first public
044comment on the afterare crisis, and absolutely nothing has changed. The lack of change on this issue is unacceptable and frankly insulting to the parents that have dedicated hours to working with the district on practical solutions, none of which have been implemented. The city of Berkeley stepped in in a big way this year to significantly expand the spots in their after-school programs. But the district cannot meet their expansion with transportation, which renders the expansion useless for parents who cannot stop their work days to transport their children to an afterchool program. My child, despite having an assigned bus seat, is on a wait list to actually get to the afterchool program they need to go to, despite there already being a stop at that program. I and other parents have been told that we have to wait
045until the school year starts to receive updates on whether we have bus seats. The stress this puts on families who already had to scramble to find nonBUSD afterare is intense and untenable. I know that their budget and other considerations beyond our control, but BUD decided admirably to use a non- neighborhood school system to reduce segregation. It must have transportation and other measures in place to meaningfully support that system in the year 2025 when most parents work. I want to stress what another earlier parent said. It should not be the responsibility of parents to figure this out despite the fact that we will. We will help you. We want to help you. But it is your job to figure out solutions. And year after year, we just keep hearing that there is nothing more that can
046be done. I'm for another year begging you to do what it takes to fix this fix this. I know that you all want to stop hearing from me. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um, next on up we have uh Laura Smith. Thank you, Laura. >> Hi. Um, I'm sorry I'm wearing a baby right now and overseeing bath time. But as you can imagine, as everyone else has told you, this is an incredibly important issue. I'm the parent of a Malcolm X first grader who was in Learns last year and is now weight listed. This is the second time we've heard this. And I had to go three times to the Learns office. And I really didn't get any answers. There's been a total lack of communication. Um that has been really hard. It's
047really stressful. My husband's a full-time student. I work full-time and our plan right now is just for him to drop out of school. Um and so that'll be an additional year that we will go without a twoinome household. Um I would say the only other issue that everyone hasn't already said is that the one program, the one Berkeley City program that my daughter got into, the start times don't match our dismissal times. So on Wednesdays, in addition to having to transport her, we're going to have to entertain her for an hour. Um, so obviously this is not feasible. Um, the other thing I would say is that the private programs are too expensive. Like we can't afford them and I'm sure that there are many other families in the same position. So you all get
048it. We want to do whatever we can to help you. Um, I've heard from learns that it's a hiring issue, but I haven't seen a lot of information about the hiring and, you know, they pay $30 an hour. It's, you know, I haven't seen this promoted at all. Um, yeah, we're we're here to do whatever we can to help and we desperately need this to be solved. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Next on up we have Owen Thompson Last. >> Owen, are you on still? >> I see Owen. >> Hello. Good evening board everyone. Uh I am also a parent of one child starting learns at uh Longfellow this year as a rising sixth grader and a rising third grader at Sylvia Mendes. Our kids have been a learns for six years. >>
049Four six total. And a couple things I want to say. Um obviously I echo what everyone else has already said. To afford to live in Berkeley is very hard to do if you don't have two working parents. So, we are all in the same crisis. It is uh very painful to feel like we're back in 2020 when it falls completely on the parents to figure out how the heck we're taking care of our kids and keeping them safe and getting them to educational opportunities. Also, in the Sylvia Mendes community, there are children who don't speak English when they start at Sylvia Mendes and there are a lot of parents in that community who don't speak English. And so I really want to remind you that's very important to prioritize bilingual afterare which Sylvia Mendes has
050and as far as I know no other school has. Um I will just also echo what other folks have said that I'm sympathetic to the resources thing. I really wish this had been fixed by now and I'm not sure that BD has not made some mistakes that were back here again. But the communication part of it just really boggles the mind at this point. I think that it's hard to believe that no one in B USD had this information and couldn't give us this information sooner and we are just going to be back in this same situation with extremely frustrated parents if B USD cannot hire somebody in this position who can communicate adequately with the community. Thank you so much for listening to my comments. >> Mention that mom can't >> Thank you. Lily
051Simson is next. Lily, are you still online? >> Um, I don't see Lily. >> Let me see if she's still >> Um, we're going to move on since we don't see Lily. >> Oh, I see Lily. She missed her hand. >> Here comes Lily. >> That's our last online speaker. Hey, sorry. Hi. Um, I just wanted to add to the chorus of parents that are feeling completely panicked about afterare um and not understanding the change from last year. Um, last year my daughter was admitted to Bears. Um, in July this year we've we heard nothing. Um, I have a rising TK kid and a rising first grader at John Mir. My job, um, includes me being away for long periods of time working with scientists at remote field sites. I'm supposed to spend a month
052in Antarctica, um, in a few weeks, and right now, I don't know who will be able to care for my kids while I'm gone. Um, so yeah, I really um am freaking out and I would love to help spread the word if it's a hiring issue. Like I'm a connector. You have so many parents willing to help you um to do anything um to help support the community. And I love being a part of BUSD. We are so happy with the class sizes, with the teachers, with the principles. Um but you know I don't see this in other districts this dir of aftercare and it seems especially acute um this year like there seems to be a really big change and we we all want to help um so let us know what we can
053do to help um and I won't keep repeating the same points but um yeah we're we're here we're all experiencing a crisis and We really want to help you help us. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Lily. Um, I think we're going to go to in-person committee and then we do know that there is Spencer Pritchard is online for online committee. >> That's right. >> Are there uh Miss Charis said that's correct. Are there in-person committee comments? I'm not seeing any. Um, so, uh, Spencer, would you like to speak on behalf of your committee? >> Oh, God. >> Um, Spencer, are you ready? >> He's joining as a panelist now. >> Hi, Spencer. You're muted. >> Did you hear that? Uh, >> I did. Thank you. I clicked the button but didn't cooperate. Good
054evening board members, superintendent for North and members of the BC community. My name is Spencer Pritchard. I'm a teacher at Berkeley High School, one of the co-leads of the African-American studies department. I'm also having the privilege of being part of the superintendent's African-American student achievement committee or ASAC. Um, so on behalf of ASAC, we welcome you back at the start of the school of the school year, a year that's already marked by both immense challenges and powerful opportunities. We also want to extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to our forever champion and advocate board president or temporary not board president Kadish Brown on the beautiful expansion of your family. President Brown, we hold you in care and celebration as you embrace this new chapter. And we thank you for your continued leadership and presence
055even as you take this well-deserved time with loved ones. As we know, this summer has been one of the most volatile for public education in recent memory um ever for my whole entire career. Um just about from the proposed defunding of the Department of Education to the abrupt holding and eventual release of critical federal funds to our states and the mounting fiscal pressure facing every district across California. This has not been business as usual. We understand the tremendous difficulty of the 2526 budget and an even tougher road for 2627. And yet, despite these headwinds, we thank you. Thank you for your prudence, your stewardship, and above all, your commitment to ensuring that the students who have been most vulnerable in this system, especially black and African-American students, remain a central priority. Tonight, we're proud to
056submit the three-year African-American Success Framework, AASF, report, a document that not only measures progress, but proves what's possible when a community holds firm to its promises. The ASF has been our northstar. It's demonstrated how a shared commitment to equity, when paired with the right structures and partners, can actually move the needle. This report shows that we're not just checking boxes, we're building systems, we're landing supports, and we're doing exactly what we said we would do. Uh, we have momentum, but vigilance is the price of progress. To this end, the ASAC met twice over summer, and they're actively organizing and recommitting itself to ensure that the ASO doesn't become just report on the shelf. We will continue to be a vocal, visible reminder of what this framework was designed to do. Transform, transform systems, not simply
057respond to symptoms. We also know that the success of this work depends on how deeply it is felt across the district. So, we're focused on reaching in to ensure more parents, more students, more educators, and more school communities feel included, informed, and inspired by the work underway. We're especially aligned with the district's renewed for focus on literacy implementation, and we stand ready to support in all ways we can, particularly ensuring that black learners are not left behind in the urgency to improve outcomes. We also must be honest. We can't do this alone. As we begin this new year, we want to ensure that ASAC has the staffing structure and strategic support needed to continue this critical work with integrity and impact. This is not a volunteer endeavor. It's a system level work that deserves system
058level investment by a lot of passionate volunteer members on the committee as well. Finally, we invite all of you board members, district leaders, and the broader B USD community to join us at the fourth annual black to school event. happening on Saturday, September 20th at Willard Middle School. Saturday, September 20th at Willard Middle. This event is more than a tradition back traditional back to school event. It's a moment of affirmation, unity, and of joyful resistance. It's where black families are welcomed, seen, and celebrated by by the entire Berkeley community. Not just not just for surviving another year, but for showing up with excellence and expectation. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the board with Superintendent Ford Mortthell and as our leader and within the entire BSD family. Thank you so much and welcome
059back to school. Thank you Mr. Pritchard. Um do we have union comments today? I don't see any union persons here. And do we have any otherwise? No, we do not. Thank you so much. Um, board member comments. Which of my colleagues would like to go first? >> Vice President Korn, >> I'll go first. Um, I'll keep my comments brief. I'm very much looking forward to the start of this new school year and um particularly some of these exciting events that are coming up like the school supplies giveaway at San Pablo Park and the black to school event that um Spencer Pritchard just um mentioned that I've gotten my calendar. Thank you, Spencer. Um and I'm just grateful to everyone who came out tonight for our first board meeting of the year. um even if it
060is to express concerns and frustrations, we're glad you're here and um I hope that we'll be able to move toward um solutions as best we can. Um I am glad that we'll be getting an update this evening about afterchool programming and again hopeful that we can move towards some solutions. Um, I'm also, of course, really looking forward to tonight's budget update, and I'm I'll be grateful for the increased clarity about both the state and the federal budget. Um, and finally, I would just like to echo the superintendent's comments about um, both of our losses this summer. I knew Madori personally. She was a school psychologist who I worked with when I was a principal and she was really a lovely human being who brought such compassion and wisdom and joy to her work with some
061of our most vulnerable children. Um so thank you for your kind words about her and about the about JD the construction worker who passed away at Sylvia Mendes. Thank you everyone for being here tonight. Thank you so much, Vice President. Um, which one of our colleagues would like to go next? Director Shinowski. I'll >> go. Um, I'd also like to keep my comments short. Um, welcome everyone back to school. Um, I want to announce I have office hours next Thursday at Kasa Latina from 3:00 to 5:00. So, um, yes, mark your calendars, come visit me, um, grab a snack and come and chat. Um, I also want to um express my gratitude to our HR department and our personnel commission staff for a job fair that they held uh yesterday. Was it just yesterday? Um,
062staffing is a real challenge. It's a challenge that I think is really hard to understand um until you really dig into the mechanics of it all. And so I'm really thrilled that B USD is using um some new opportunities and new ideas to really ensure that um we're able to hire for some of our vacancies uh more quickly, more efficiently, and therefore fill more of them. Um I also want to um thank the um staff for putting together the presentation tonight on our afterchool program. Um it is very comp complicated. It's something that we've been really engaged in. Um well, I know I as a board member um on the 2 by 2 committee, which is a city school board uh committee, we've been really engaged in a lot of discussions around it. And so
063um I'm hoping that those uh meetings get scheduled soon and that people keep an eye out for them um because they're great opportunities to come and advocate around how we can better partner and um continue to try to improve things. So um that's it. I also um want to express my condolences for the um losses uh that BD has experienced and also celebrate um the new life of um baby Camden uh Cada's uh new daughter. So congratulations Cada. We hope you're listening from home while you're snuggling your baby. She should be getting some rest. Thank you so much, Director Schnowski. And would Director Asad like to go next? >> Sure. I'll keep uh my comment short as well. Just wanted to welcome everyone to the upcoming school year. I know that we're still working out
064a lot of glitches, but appreciate all the parents that came to share your frustrations and your opinions on how we can improve the situation with our aftercare programs. I'm looking forward to the presentation today and to asking staff um some of your questions as well. Um I also wanted to thank our superintendent for announcing the school supply giveaway this weekend. I'll be there volunteering and I'm excited to get to know our parents and our students, especially those students that are new to the district or that are making big transitions into sixth grade into 9th grade. As a mom of a nth grader, I'm there with you with all the back to school anxiety. So, I look forward to meeting you all um this weekend and please come out and say hi. Um I also just
065wanted to share that, you know, I've been busy. I'm part of another board called the California Latino School Board Association. It's a statewide board where we fight um to protect uh the needs of our over 50% uh student population, public school student population that identifies as Latino in the state of California. And given all of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that we've heard at the federal level, um it's been really hard to do that work. And so I'm excited um that in September where there's going to be our annual unity conference, Unidos and Aion, where we come together with all of our affinity groups. So we invite our African-American partners in our schoolboard world, also our API partners in our school board. So, Capsi and Appisma and also superintendents from throughout the state so we can talk
066about the needs of all of our most vulnerable students and particularly um the impacts to English language learners and funding dedicated to those students. So, I look forward to attending that conference and reporting back to my colleagues and hope that some of my colleagues can join me should your schedule permits because the conference is open to everyone and I think that all all of our students regardless of what their backgrounds are are our students. And so, um, with that, I will say that I just want to acknowledge that there are students coming back who have heard just, you know, very scary rhetoric out in the media coming back to school and parents that are dropping off their kids, not knowing if they're going to be able to pick them up. And so, that's a real
067fear that's happening throughout this country right now. Um, there's a book called Thingo Meo that's been published for little kids, um, created by several therapists to talk about deportations and the fear that there's out there based on what's out there in the media. So, I'll be sharing that on my personal websites. Um, but just wanted to to make sure that folks know that if that's something that could be helpful to your child to please reach out to me and be happy to be in touch. And with that, I look forward to tonight's discussion. And I want to congratulate I'm going to clap for my colleagues who are all stepping up to leadership roles. We have a clerk, a VP, and a and a president. Um, look forward to working with all of you and supporting
068you in those roles. And thank you for stepping up. >> Thank you so much, Director Vasadev. Um, and I'm going to keep mine short as well. Um folks have noted the challenging times that that we are in currently. This summer in particular has felt like an acceleration of um the attacks on education and public education in particular. Um you know we're we're here with you. Everyone's um uh figuring things out uh in a way that Oh, that's a book. Oh, cool. Thank you. You're disrupting my train of thought. It's okay. Um uh these are very challenging times and um I think personally for a lot of folks here too and as as Anna noted there are some uh we have some of our um community members that are directly impacted in in in manners that
069are um very very visceral as well. Um so I I appreciate the the call outs for um transformative education. I think this is a a moment to um to be really uh to carry on but not necessarily be calm so to speak. Um transformative education is something that I think Berkeley is uh part of our Berkeley proud uh value system is transformative education and um also we heard from a lot of parents who um are very concerned about their ability for continuity of their day with um afterare etc. Um, this is something that I I personally was impacted as well, my family and my spouse and I. Um, so we understand how challenging that can be. So, we're working to try to figure this out and I'm willing to hear from you as well. Um,
070ping me on email. You know, uh, you all have my email office hours to set up office hours. And of course, again, um, congratulations to Director Brown. Um, so looking forward to, um, meeting her her mini mini me. Um but please do get lots of rest. Um thank you and we are going to move on on I think everyone's done to our um next item. So we're on the consent calendar. However um couple of points we we are number one uh 13.8 8 a reminder is going has been shifted to a action item and on 13.19 >> sorry for the interruption discussion item right and then or action item >> discussion item >> are we're voting for it action item yeah action item yeah discussion item action item okay good more um it'll be right
071after 15.1 as an action item thank you so much the ELO contract um finally with regard to the consent calendar before we vote on um the board committee assignments that were posted that they they were a little off. We just revised them. They've been reposted. So, please look at those so you're you're sure of where um the board members here land on the various committee assignments. Those have been revised. Check it out, uploaded. Um do we number one, any questions on the consent calendar? I don't think anything else is moving, right? >> I don't think so. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar and a second? I move that we approve the consent calendar. >> Okay. Vice President Korn has moved. >> I'll second. >> Director Vasadev has seconded. Um do we have
072the eyes? >> I I >> I >> so moved consent calendar and we were already at the discussion 14.1 um update on the afterchool program which many of you I'm sure are very excited to hear about. Thank you so much. Okay. [Music] >> Huh? No, you're fine. Good evening, Board of Education, and good evening to the families who are still with us here in the boardroom and for those who are tuning in remotely. Um, we are excited to be uh here with you this afternoon uh to present to you an update on our extended learning um before and after school programming with a focus um on the afterchool programming for this evening's presentation. You might recall that staff came before the board at the end of the school year last spring and provided an update
073to you as well. Um and we anticipate providing um additional updates as we go through the first several weeks of school in the form of information items, presentations and also updating our website. So with that of course I am the superintendent and I'm here with Joe Hoganike our assistant superintendent of ed services um and Brazil McIntyre who is our afterchool program supervisor. I wanted to take this moment to introduce to you all Kelly De Torres who is our um manager of extended learning. So, welcome, Kelly. Um, and thank you for joining the B USDC family. You can clap for Kelly. It's okay. Thanks, Mom. And so, as you all know, we always start um our time together by grounding ourselves in our district mission, except for we can't because the clicker is not working. And
074so, that mission is to enable and inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world. And we do so by lifting four values. values and those values are excellence, equity, enrichment, and engagement. Though we will be spending the majority of our time this evening talking about a engagement specifically around after school, we're also lifting and highlighting equity as you will hear throughout the presentation that it is one of the guiding principles that we um use but are required to use as we think about afterchool program placement. Um our goals for this afternoon is to share um our vision for expanded learning. We're also going to give you an update on some of the things that we heard from the community and from you, our board, in terms of
075challenges and how we responded to those challenges or attempted to do so. We're going to give an overview of the enrollment process, clarifying some things about how enrollment is decided and how placement is assigned. We're going to also give an update for the fall enrollment, giving you a sense of how many students we have on the waiting list still and why. and then an update on program structure and support. Give you a preview of how we've restructured our program for the fall 2526 as well as how we intend to continue to support the program um in the time in weeks to come. And then finally, we're going to give you a highlight on our partnership with the city of Berkeley as well as other afterchool partners to expand capacity to make sure that we can
076serve as many students and families as possible. Next slide, please. And so our mission so our vision here for extended learning is to provide expanded opportunities through our before, during and after school educational enrichment programs to connect learning and extend the school day. Go on back please Liz. Um and we we put that up and we are um committed to making that happen. Um also really clear and honest about the fact that we likely cannot meet the need and the demand that exists in our community. though we um many of us sitting here are are caregivers and parents ourselves and have been in education for a long time. We understand how critically important it is to have before and after school options for our families. We are clear that Berkeley Unified alone cannot meet all
077of the need. And so you will hear throughout this presentation how we've tried to um enact a community approach again with the idea of collaboration and partnership being key to us for us to be able to expand the reach that we have for after school programming but still even with that being limited in the number of families and students that we're able to serve with that. On this slide you also see our four our five pillars for our strategic plan. Sorry can you go one back please Liz? And the reason why I want to show you these is because it does highlight for you all and for the public our goals for our afterchool program. We are very much intent that our afterchool programs have clear alignment with our school day learning and that they
078continue along the lines with access and equity. We also want to make sure that in our afterchool programs our students and our families feel safe, included and supported and that we have both enrichment and expanded learning opportunities. We understand how critical it is to not just communicate but to collaborate with our family and community members. And so every year we set goals to improve our community and our family engagement. And then of course we understand how critical it is that the folks who are in front of our babies both during the school day and after folks who are caring and skilled. And so we continue to focus on making sure we have qualified and well-trained staff for our afterchool day programs regardless of the position or role. We also know that our afterchool programs are
079funded um by various sources and so we want to be intentional to make sure that we are complying with the guidelines of those funding sources and as we think about after school programming that we're consistent in our structure and making sure that we are able to sustain um both with funding resources as well as with compliance. And so again, we share that slide because we want you to know that we have goals and we know that we are um not there yet in either in any of all of these categories, but that we are continuously focused on trying to make those realities for our students and families. Next slide, please. And so just for those who want go back, please who are new to the BUSD uh family and community and our afterchool extended learning
080programs, Berkeley Unifi has two programs that we offer for after school. It's the Berkeley learns program and the Berkeley Bears program. Our loans learns program um supports children in reaching their full potential by providing academic support, recreational activities and enrichment classes in safe and structured environment. Um it's 180 school days plus 30 days and it prioritizes serving our unduplicated students and we'll talk more about who those students are in the slides to come. Our bears bears program is also an afterchool program that also seeks to create safe and nurturing environment for our students. Um um many of the staff here for the Bears program are um ECE credentialed staff. That program is 240 days and enrollment is based on income, family size, and CPS referrals. Again, we'll speak more about that um in the slides
081to come. I just wanted to go back to um a conversation that we had in our presentation to the board last year. In that presentation, we share with you all some of our strengths and some of our challenges around those uh pillars that I shared with you a few slides ago. What we're going to highlight this afternoon is the are those areas of focus that we have been really focused on. We've been thinking about all of them and trying to address all of them, but really wanting to lift for you all this evening the ones that um directly impact uh fall enrollment and the current weight list that you've heard about. And that is both our communication challenges as well as our ability to support the need for extended day. Um though I opened up
082this presentation saying that we are we are we're we're honest with the fact that we do not have the capacity to meet all of the need and demands for after school and extended day programming B USD alone. We do continue to try to provide as much care as possible aware that staffing is an issue and available space is an issue. So this evening we're going to talk to you about how we've been trying to address that. We also know and you've heard from our members of the community that communication continues to be an area of focus and development. So, we're going to share with you um how we've tried to improve communication um between the spring and for this fall enrollment process. So, in terms of communication, um again, none of this is to say
083that we've done it all well, right, and perfect, but just to show that there has been a lot of intention around addressing some of the common themes and challenges that has existed in the program across years. And so, one of the things that we heard loud and clear was that notifications often came late. You might recall those of you all who've been on the deis for some time that in pre previous years many families did not find out until August and sometimes days before the school year began what their placement was. Um we tried to make it earlier and again feedback we can make it earlier than this but um an area of improvement is that we uh did two rounds of communications this summer letting um the first round of families know um around
084July 6th and the second round know um towards the end of July closer to August 2nd. What we also tried to do was hear the feedback because previous communications said things like you're on the wait list period and family said it would been helpful to know what is the likelihood or the chances are that we would move on the weight list and so we tried to update communication to say things such as you're on the wait list and we do not anticipate you coming off the wait list um anytime soon or we don't anticipate um any spots coming available. So again, areas of focus, but definitely an intent to try to respond to the feedback that, you know, it was not clear if families should look for alternate um forms of care. That said, we
085also tried to in those communications note and give families information about some of the partnerships that we established with the city and some of the schools in the area and other programs to let them know that there were spaces identified um for Berkeley Unified School District students to have those slots. And so just wanted to highlight for you all a couple ways we tried to make that communication not just more timely but also more clear and explicit about the likelihood and other resources for our families um to have if they were on the wait list. We also in those communications really tried to be clear around our um rationale meaning the criteria that we use to identify students to be in our afterchool programs. And we're going to talk about that in a lot more
086um detail again in the slides to come. for space. Um I I heard a couple folks give plugs to the city of Berkeley and we too want to give plugs to the city of Berkeley. They've been awesome partners and collaborators and a lot of that is an outcome of our 2 by two conversations um last fall and last spring. But we actually have been doing this work together. Um we've been sharing with our with our city partners um what types of spaces we need. And so what you might notice um is that there have been more TK spots opening up over the last several weeks. And so in a lot of communication and collaboration with the city to identify where spaces um can be made available and where there's room for actually new programs. What
087we said to the city um this second round when more spaces were open and we also just heard this in the feedback is that we cannot commit to transportation at this time for those for those um locations. However, in our conversation, we did have to go back and forth. Is it better to not offer space at all because we don't have the transportation yet confirmed to go with those spaces or do we want to open up spaces for those families who might see that as a better alternative? And we made the decision to open up space knowing that we were not able to guarantee or promise transportation to those spaces at that time. So, it was not at all to try to be irresponsible. It was it was a it was a kind of a
088a catch22, if you will. We thought we want we thought it was best to open up spaces for those families and then continue to work on transportation if that is um available and an option. We've also partnered with um folks outside the city of Berkeley um partnering specifically with the Burkewood Hedge School to provide afterchool programming. Of course, all these are for a fee, but specifically offering programming for our TK families um our parents of TK um students. And this is in addition to the other afterchool programs that we have in the city of Berkeley who we also partner with. Again, not enough, but we've done a lot to increase space. And in the as the presentation continues, you'll see how in partnership with these folks, specifically the city of Berkeley, we were able to
089open up 200 more slots to students than we had in the year past. In terms of staffing, we continue to see staffing and understand staffing as an issue, um, a barrier and a constraint. And so, um, we came to you last spring to share with you information about plans to restructure after school. We have been able to do that. And in that restructure, you'll hear more about that. We've been really trying to make sure that all sites have similar um supervision, care um and support in terms of staffing. We also have actively been focused on recruitment um and retention. Um and you heard many folks talk about the hiring event that happened just yesterday. At that hiring event, we had about a hundred folks come through and though those positions were not just about afterchool
090positions, there were a number of folks who had interest in after school. And so we're hopeful that that event and events like those will bring more staff to our after school program. We also um heard fe feedback loud and clear not just from our board but from our community members that we really want to prioritizing prioritize employing BUSD staff and not um outsourcing after school with contractors. And so this evening you do see the contract on the consent calendar which has now been pulled for discussion. But you will notice that even though we still have that contract because again we wanted to be able to offer some spaces at the start of the school year that contract has been significantly reduced. And then finally we are um in the process of um collecting after school
091fees those that were passed due to support the program as well as the increased fees that were discussed and approved um last spring. And so again, wanted to open up the presentation to say that we know that there is still a lot of work to do, but want to make sure that our families and that you are bored here and understand that we understand the importance of this and have not been doing nothing. We've been working hard to open spaces and though you know you heard that there are several families who still need after school care, we have been able to provide afterchool placement for majority of the families who have applied and still work hard to figure out a plan for those for whom we have not been able to. And so with that,
092I'm going to um transition to Brazil. Um I I mentioned that there's a lot that it goes into determining and identifying which students are placed um in our programs. And so Brazil is going to give us more information about how those decisions are made and what informs those decisions. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um so this slide here um is directly from the Alama County Office of Ed and it um clearly outlines our top priority students. And so those are the students that are um prioritized again and uh served first in our after school program. So those students um are identified there. When we go to the next slide, you will see like our um priorities for Berkeley Learns. And so with this pyramid, you'll see at the very top are those same um
093top priorities that were mandated from um by Ed Code again that was linked in that slide. Uh so that is our top tier and then our sec uh second and third um tiers are for incomebased lighting scale families as well as students that attend um five days a week. Those are per our uh ASUS grant funding. And so the top three tiers overall are our mandated priorities. Uh so students falling in those top three tiers um have a significantly higher uh chance of getting in the program. Uh we also as a program and district you know are trying to support our fellow BUSD employees in offering that as a priority. Um, again, returning students, siblings of returning students, um, that attend the same school as well as part-time students that are also at the same
094school. Um, and so those again are how our uh program priorities are aligned with ed code as well as our our own BUSD um values as far as the students that we uh want to prioritize. So with again um this uh slide it does explain our ASUS grant funding and so with that um that is a 2 million roughly um each year foundational grant. So our programs were really founded on these grants. Um and that again illustrates the top three tiers um are directly um mandated by our ASUS grant funding that does serve our um kinder through 9th grade students. Uh this grant also is the what requires us to um again operate program every school day along with a 3hour per afternoon u minimum. So we want our students to be in the program
095for three hours so that they can take full advantage of all all that we can provide. Um and again we do also as the superintendent mentioned we provide academic assistance as well as enrichment activities as a mandate of our ASUS grant. Um when we go to our next slide it will um represent our ELOP funding. And so for the ELOP funding um the very top tier is our mandate. So by ED code that has been updated and this is something that um is about e the ELOPP funds or program. It's our expanded learning opportunities program that is about four years old. Um and you all of approve our plans for that. Um that is reducing every year. So we're getting reductions in that grant funding. It started at like o well well well over uh
0962 million and so now we're slightly under and that's coming from um just the change in our cities or not our city but our district's uh demographics. Um however this funding is also um mandated with ed code as far as we must prioritize those top tiered students in order to uh to operate using that funding. Uh that funding does cover TK through sixth grade students. Uh again primarily unduplicated uh pupils. And so with that funding, it also requires us to uh operate 30 interession days. So those are 30 non-school days each year. We have um initially, again, this is three years into these new requirements. Um but we have been running that during the summer. Uh and so this this program also is focused on enrichment opportunities for students. um and expanding their learning opportunities
097um in general and in countless ways. Um so that is our both of our funding streams. Um and then I wanted to just um go on the next slide, please. Thanks. um to just review and to kind of have the opportunity which I'm very happy for um the opportunity to explain our weighted uh ranking system. Uh I think there are a lot of there's a lot of confusion maybe about how this uh works in each individual case. Uh so we prepared a couple of comparisons so that you can sort of um hopefully visualize or or kind of see how this weighted ranking um system works. And so what happens is each of those tiers that we just discussed um is um allotted a point value. And so as uh families register for the program, regardless
098of the time that they register, um they are asked which priorities they qualify for. And so based on that information is how we then enter that into our ranking system and it again assigns those points, does the calculations and then will let us know um down to the time stamp. I know that there's a lot of misconceptions about the timestamp um you know uh whole question I guess and um although timestamps will at some point come into play for most of our fee paying um families it also is still based on these priorities. And so um the beautiful thing about the ranking system is that it is very um not only equitable as long as the information that's being presented to us is truthful and um you know verifiable um that it gives us a
099very clear and fair ranking of the order in which we offer space and so this is different from what we've done traditionally and I think that is also part of um sort of the rub here, you know, of of us kind of needing to shift to to better align with our our grant funding and our our um requirements and and sort of the data that we need to produce and submit to the state for to to qualify to continue this funding that we def desperately need. Um so hopefully again you can see in student A this person was is an unhoused student. They uh selected that they were wanted full-time care and they are returning student. Um this person registered late. Um and late would be um after round one. So round one is a
100typically about a month or so time window where folks were notified and um they had the opportunity to originally um enroll this particular student here registered late um but again their priorities took them to the number one ranking spot. the student be in this first scenario um registered early. Um they do qualify for the sliding scale. They do want full-time care. Um they are a returning student and they may even have a sibling, but that does not like even with all of those, it does not necessarily put them in the front of um those highest prioritized students. Um so um student C and D similar circumstances um student is eligible for free and reduced lunch um full-time student and they may be a sibling of a returning student that student even though a sibling of
101a returning student gets a pretty low um point value in the in the ranking system um it because of that um their eligibility and their priority status I should say um they would be ranked number one the other uh student D full-time student B USD employ or student of a B USD employee um sibling of a returning student this may be like a TK or um you know someone that is hasn't been in the program before and unfortunately in this case um they also would still fall you know they would be ranked so again it would based on all of the people that are at that particular site. I think that's also a little bit of a a nuance because different schools have different demographics which will result in different ranking. So that's the ranking.
102Um yeah, thank you. So Brazil just tried to walk you all through understanding um how we prioritize students and how we decide who gets placed um when. wanted to just highlight a couple things that that she mentioned in that it is it is school by school. And so I think sometimes folks think about it as just B USD after school as if it's one pot and that we're comparing students or these weights are comparing students to other students across the district. Um and so we've heard families say, "But I know this other family who's in this situation and they got in, but my family's in a different situation that maybe should have been ranked higher and I didn't get in." So it is again by your school sites community. Um and um she also mentioned
103this idea that we're doing things differently and just wanted to pause and acknowledge that um in the spirit of really wanting to provide afterchool programming to as many families and students who need and wanted in Berkeley. Um for for quite some time we have just allowed and assigned spots um to families regardless of the criteria that you see outlined here. Um and again we wanted to highlight and stress that um the majority of our programming is funded through grant dollars and those grants have requirements and restrictions and those grants dictate um how we enroll students but also who we prioritize. We recently had an audit finding that called Berkeley out for not complying to with that. And so I we want to just acknowledge that um it's not just in people's heads that there is
104something there's something different about how we're doing um after school assignment but wanted to provide some rationale as to why that different exists. It is no mal intent. It is really so that we can continue to get this essential funding for our families um and continue to follow the the guidelines that these grants um are asking that we do and prioritize the students that it has asked for us to do so. Um so with our next slide, we're going to now bring us back. You kind of had some background and foundation. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> No, I just want to add one more point just as a reminder. Um we are also coming out of time where we had significant resources that were funded through the COVID recovery dollars which all expired in September.
105So there had been some level of flexibility coming out of COVID to um expand services to to to other groups and Berkeley for a long time has been doing that both for after school program and our summer programming. um with the expiration of the co dollars which were pretty significant for us. I think we were using a little over a million dollars a million and a half dollars last year um there has been no replacement funds um for those dollars. So we're talking about some um significant budget constraints in addition to the the staffing constraints and enrollment um enrollment requirements that Kelly is going to be talking about next. Thank you and good evening. So with the additional understanding of our enrollment process, uh we present here a snapshot of our numbers for Bears and
106Learns programs as of August 1st, 2025. Uh these are very dynamic numbers that are updated regularly. So overall, you'll see to the left um the Bears program has 96 students enrolled with a weight list to be process a weight list to be processed um of 138. The learns program is significantly larger serving 117 students in the morning and 1557 students after school. On the weight list, we have 497 students. >> One second. Just want to pause. I see some folks I don't see but behind me by my teacher eyes um I know that there's some folks who are taking pictures and you're welcome to do so but wanted to let you know that the entire presentation is also available online if you go to board of education >> we need this information >> it's available
107that I know that's what I was saying it's available online if you want to get the entire presentation >> thank you next slide please so it's important to clarify that our enrollment process is guided by specific speific guidelines. As Brazil stated, uh the guidelines on studentto staff ratios combined with current staffing challenges are impacting our ability to enroll all interested students into the program. Next slide, please. >> You want to highlight? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Could you go back, please? Okay. Please let me point out for the learns program uh the ratios up there are um 20 to1 for first through 8th grade and 10:1 for the TK and kindergarteners. Slightly different for the Bears. Uh it's a ratio of 14:1 for K through 5th and 14:1 uh sorry that's a typo and 10:1 for
108TK. So let me reiterate 14 to1 for K through 5th and 10 to1 for TK. Okay. So to better understand staffing, balancing studentto staff ratios, needs and resources, uh we present three different scenarios for staffing based on a hypothetical enrollment of 200 200 registered students, 50 TK and K combined and 150 first through fifth graders. The goal is to show how different staffing ratios impact the number of students that can be served with the number available spaces. So, I'll draw your attention to scenario one. The focus of this is to maximize TKK enrollment. Um, you'll see that there are seven staff members, the larger people up there. Um, and the little people are are TK and kinders. Um the result of this is it serves all 50 TKK students with a 1:10 ratio but leaves
109only two staff for older students the first through fifth students who can only serve 40 students because it's two staff um at a 1:20 ratio. Um so the impact as you'll see in the bottom of scenario one this leaves 90 available spaces and a significant weight list for the older students which is at 110. Looking at scenario two uh the focus is to maximize first through fifth grade enrollment. Uh it uses all seven staff for the older students to serve 140 students um at a 1:20 ratio. But since the TKK students require a lower lower ratio ratio only 10 can be served. So the impact is that is it results in a very high number of available spaces at 130 and a weight list of 70 from the TKK group. And scenario three the focus
110on is balancing for TK through 5th. This results in 20 TKK students, which is two staff at a 1:10 ratio and 100 first through fifth grade students with five staff at a 1:20 ratio. So this impact, while it leaves fewer spaces um compared to the other scenarios, it also results in a smaller weight list and likely feels more equitable, although it doesn't serve all registered students. So some takeaways um in regards to these scenarios is this demonstrates that there's no perfect solution. Every choice we make about staff allocation has a direct impact on which students we serve and who must remain on the weight list. Um the final decision on how to balancing staffing needs to consider more than just numbers. It must also factor in the specific needs of each each site and the
111prioritization requirements and ranking systems we have in place. Um so ultimately these scenarios highlight the trade-offs we face when resources are limited compared to the demand of of student need. Next slide please. Thank you. Oh, >> we'll be back. Um, we're I'm just gonna over the next two slides going to talk about the extended learning programs um staffing um for our coordinators and our sitebased specialists. When we presented in the spring um we had been talking about a couple of scenarios um to address those staffing structures. Um we want to recognize um that we have 12 program sites, nine elementary and three at the middle school. And we have been making some staffing adjustments um for our coordinators and sitebased specialists um with the few criteria that you see um on the slide here. As
112we approached the restructure, we were considering the size of various programs, um the distribution of responsibilities, the complexity of the programs, and we worked to address some of the challenges um that we heard from staff last year that we had some schools with no coordinators and some schools that had both a coordinator and a specialist. So, we really needed to think about how we were going to be able to assign based on that existing need um with the staff that was available. So, we have three scenarios that we're actually going to be applying um for the school year mostly based on these criteria of size, program complexity, and wanting to make sure that we don't have any sites that have that imbalance of some not having any coordinator support. Um, and we wanted to make
113sure that that was consistent. So, at uh some of our uh some of our larger programs, we're going to have sitebased specialists at each, as you see in scenario A, a sitebased specialist at each of the sites and a program coordinator that will um split their time across those two sites with some of the administrative abilities. In addition uh to the audit that uh our superintendent mentioned, one of the other components that we really have to be paying attention to is our recordkeeping for attendance, which was another audit finding. That's a significant impact on um our uh our budget. We have to keep appropriate records. They have to be validated. They have to be done correctly. They have to be submitted on time. Um, and we're working on structures to make sure that that's happening
114at a regular basis because our funding is dependent on those reports and accurate um, attendance taking. At some of our smaller schools, we're looking at placing uh, we won't have a sitebased specialist, but that might then the program coordinator is going to split across sites. And you see that example there for B. And then we have a couple of schools where there will only be a single site coordinator um, that will spend their the entirety of their time there. Um so we're hopeful that um our uh hiring fair that we had yesterday will result in um filling some of the staffing vacancies that we have for our IIA and our IT. So those are our instructional assistants and our instructional technicians um that also uh work to help um uh approach the staffing ratio. But
115in the meantime, we do have the Albo contract um which I know the board has pulled for consideration and discussion. So on the next slide, we want to make uh it clear to the board and our partners that we have done a lot of work to reduce the ALO contract. Um we reduced the contract midyear last year from 1.5 million to a million dollars. Um the contract that's before you this evening is for $470,000 which will cover about 10 10 ALO coaches. So also want to recognize the work of Dr. Bondurus um in working with ALEO um to reduce the amount of time to make staffing adjustments in case we had to have to adjust down. We have a shorter window to do that. So in the event that we can hire staff we can
116reduce the dependence on the Albo contract. The Albo contract however still remains important for us because we do have vacancies in the IT and the IT positions for our learns program, the IIA positions for our Bears program. Um and so that will enable us to add um additional capacity to serve more students. Um the implications of a reduced contract also mean um that we're going to be enrolling fewer students at the start of the school year. Um and we will still be able to add students as staff are onboarded. Um that reduced contract from the 20 Alabbo coaches last year to 10 mean that means that we have fewer coaches to cover some of the vacancies that we have. Um, so we're happy to entertain discussion um on that contract, too. Um, I'm going to
117turn it back to Kelly um for an update on the work that we have been doing with the city of Berkeley. Thank you. So, as Preily stated, we have been working with the city of Berkeley to ident identify after school programs available to families um at a fee. Um the slide in front of you are two of those offerings. one at Shorebird uh directed for grades 1st through 5ifth and the other at Willard TK through 5th. Um next slide please. >> And on this slide uh we were pleased over continued collaboration to identify new um new afterchool programs to be offered. Um, Totland will serve our TK and kinder students where a big need is um, in addition to the West Campus pool um, and the Harrison Park, but that has been collapsed as of
118just an hour or so ago. And I'll explain that to that in the next slide. All right. So on this slide you see a breakdown of the city of Berkeley after school offerings. Um they gave us our their last year's max capacity. Uh you'll see that there are three new um that were up there. Harrison was up there but they had a lack of interest from families. Uh so they collapsed that at this time. Um, but I want to point out that from last year to this current year, additional spaces have been added at 155. That's without the Harrison numbers in there. Um, and it's serving our TK students all the way through fifth grade. Um, and let me highlight this that all of those students are BUSD students in those programs. In addition, this
119is not a city of Berkeley partnership, but it's the Burkewood Hedge Hedgeh extended day opportunity um called Xcare at Burkewood Hedge School. Uh they are offering space for families as well. Um and then we were able to continue our partnership to open up an additional TK program for families. Um so board directors, that is the end of our presentation. We're now ready to engage you in questions. But before doing so, um I just want to reiterate that our intent this evening was to provide um more context. Um was to hopefully provide a little bit more clarification around how decisions are made and why. Um and also be really transparent and note the constraints that we have as we try to enroll and build these after school programs. But hopefully that context clarification nor constraint implies
120to anyone in this room or anyone listening that Berkeley does not continue to have a commitment to try our best to provide um afterchool programming to as many families as possible. And I understand of how critically important um being able to know where your baby is and be able to work etc is to so many of members of our community. So, we continue to be um determined to to ask how might we to work with our partners, to work with our families who actually were really instrumental in some of the solutions that we came up with for this year. Um and to figure out again um how we can do different and better. Um but again being really honest about the constraints that we're under and hopefully um giving you a little bit more information
121about the context in which these programs operate. And so with that, we'll take questions. >> Dr. Schnowski. Yeah, thank you. I have a bunch of questions. Um, first I want to welcome you, Kelly. Um, I know it's not an easy job, especially to come into in the summer. Um, and and hit the ground running. So, thank you. And Brazil, thank you always for all the work that you continue to do. And, um, yeah, I know it's a ch it's a challenging time of year um, in your office. Um, so I have a few questions. One is I wanted some clarity on the audit finding. Um, it's my understanding that not only did we have to adjust the way that we were prioritizing registration, but we were also required to do additional outreach to our unduplicated
122families. So letters had to go out to specifically state that folks were eligible for free child care, which also impacted the enrollments. um and the enrollments for those particular classifications of students. So I I would like at some point I don't know that you have this off the top of your head but at some point to know how the enrollment was impacted uh because of that outreach with those particular populations because I think that's a piece of the puzzle especially on this year's stresses despite so much effort that's gone into trying to expand uh what we've been able to actually expand. Um so that's one question I have. Another question I have is on one of the last slides um where you were listing the city of Berkeley extended day opportunities um you listed the
123different programs Shorebird Nature Center and Willard Clubhouse as being um prioritizing particular schools um and I'm just wondering how that coordination is happening because if we are co if we are prioritizing particular schools that allows our transportation piece to be a little bit less stressed because you're transporting to programs from fewer schools. So, I do see that there is a comment about prioritizing enrollment from those particular schools. So, I'd like to know what that coordination looks like and then I have two more quick questions. So, uh, in regards to the transportation, those sites, um, had already pre-existing, um, agreements with our transportation to transport students from those particular schools and, um, to the the sites that are, you know, that they are joined with, >> right? But if I'm a parent at well Malcolm X,
124right, and I want my child, for example, to go to Francis Albbrry because it's close to Malcolm X and my home, right? How if I go on the city of Berkeley website to just sign up for afterare, what is the coordination piece that says, okay, you're at this school, right? and therefore we're going to prioritize placement at this afterare site. Does that make sense? So almost like thinking about ways to zone some of the city of Berkeley programs with the school zones so that we can maximize transportation and minimize impacts on families. >> Yeah. And I what I would say is the the conversations that we've been in with the city of Berkeley and our transportation department um we are at capacity and so those particular schools again had pre-existing routes and so it wouldn't
125prevent someone for to uh from registering for that program. It's just saying we they the city has not arranged with B USD transportation to get students from wherever they're coming from to that location. >> Okay. I feel like maybe that's a piece that we can continue to explore with the 2 by 2 as another opportunity to try to just maximize the limited resources we have. >> That's what I was going to say. We we've um I would say that I can't say that it's been as intentional when assigning those spots from the city to say, "Hey, what school do you go to? Here's the closest program." it did come up in 2 by two um and it's something that we're definitely thinking about exploring. You have to get ahead of that for for future enrollment
126seasons. Um but what we have been doing is seeing where babies are landing now. Um and and it is true as Brazil said that our transportation department right now is stretched and is not able to guarantee transportation, but we're trying to get creative with our city partners. Think about what how what other ways might we support families to transport those babies to those programs outside of um the B USD bus. So a little bit backwards. Um we're we're trying to respond particularly as we open up new spaces to fill slots, but that is definitely a conversation that's that's been ongoing and that zoning piece something we'll keep in mind as we prepare for um the next enrollment season. >> Great. Um one more quick comment really for audience is another thing that was explored in
127the 2 by two and that actually was in a budget referral is having city um city of Berkeley contract out with some busing services to expand that those opportunities. And I'm not quite sure where that is at this point, but I think we should return to that as well. Um, two more quick questions. Um, com communication with the city of Berkeley. So, we have heard reports that like timelines are not being coordinated super well. So, families are finding out that they're not on the wait list or that they're on the wait list and then they go to City of Brookley, but those programs are already full. So, um, I'm just wondering how I know there's been a lot of turnover and so, you know, I'm wondering how we are trying to make sure that those
128timelines. I I know that we're working closely with our partners in the city. So, um, are there spaces for growth there or opportunities there that we could explore? And then finally, communication. My last question is about communi communication with families. Um, and I know we're always trying to improve that. Um, and I know that your offices are super impacted with the work of getting kids enrolled and and trying to do everything, but um, what opportunities we see that, you know, we have maybe for a centralized information system on an a website that's updated once a week for all families or something like that that we could explore. >> Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge the timeline um, uh, for the first round of communication. That was the intention. Um, and uh, we were late in
129getting those letters out relative to when the city of Berkeley opened up space. When it came around to the second uh, round of communication that went out last week, we were in communication pretty much daily with the city of Berkeley so that they could coordinate that timing. Their space like ours is also limited, right? So, it is hard because we have heard from families that, you know, I called and yet and there's and there's a wait list. Um, and as you saw, you know, we have um we have a number of families on our waiting list and they're not that m they're not the equal amount of open spots in the city of Berkeley programs. And so um that but we were super intentional about that timing for the second round. So I think those
130are that's a good example of area we've learned and that was an area of improvement. Um you know we're trying to get communication out. Um we're also trying to get numbers. Um but there are also a number of of steps uh that have to be taken to get students through the en enrollment process to process the weight lists. I think the other thing that I would add is just since we are on public record is that we do have families that have been offered space but they need to complete their registration. So, we don't know whether or not they're going to be in that program and they may or may not be looking at other options, but the extent to which families can complete that registration process will enable us to understand if we have
131more spots to open up um for other families on the wait list. >> And then I think just in terms of your your question about communication, you are right, it is always a area of of focus and development for us. Um, as Miss Hogen Djke said, we are meeting even more frequently with our city partners and really trying to align on communication. And so thinking about how we can leverage the fact that we both have um outlets, if you will, and and tell the story, tell the the same story in in a similar sorry, the example being that when we sent out the letters to our families about weight list, we did make a point to note what the city programs were and where they're located. So trying to do more coordinated communication is um
132one area of focus. And then as you mentioned um updating our website more frequently to have really accessible um and accessible meaning also um information that is not hard to understand and read. And so thinking about visuals etc in addition to just regular updates and then leveraging our coordinators as we shared we now have a model where every site will have access to a co coordinator um who very much play an administrative role not just support the students and staff of the program but to support communication with families and think about how to leverage the fact that they're there on the ground every day where families can come and ask them questions and they'll have those answers in real time but also where they're an opportunity to get information out to um our families um
133more quickly um as well. So, we continue to focus on communication. We also, as you all know, had a uh task force with our uh with members of the PTA last year that actually was kind of where the think tank um occurred that led to some of the ideas that you see um before you this evening. And so, we do intend to continue to partner with the PTA. I'm actually scheduling a meeting with them in the next two weeks to figure out how they could also be um a resource to get information out to families, but also a resource to help us get feedback and information to from families around where we can improve um in real time. Are there other questions, Vice President? >> Yeah, let's see. Where do I want to start? Um,
134I guess one question that I would be interested in hearing you talk about is the the slide with all the weightless data that is school by school. Um, it looks like some of our largest schools like Malcolm X and Washington are particularly impacted by weight lists. Um, so I guess I'm I'd like to hear your your plans for is is is there a way to address those most impacted schools first? Is there is there anything we can do? >> You want to talk about that? >> Um, yeah. I'm looking at the the I'm looking at the the data that see you're saying Washington. So Washington we've enrolled 129 and have 81. I guess most impacted might be slightly relative um >> and I've recognized the display >> because those there's more students. >> Yeah. I
135don't know Sam if you want to chime in and help us or or you Jill. Um I am not privy to how we decide when we do add more capacity to programs how we decide which site to add capacity to because I think that's kind of what you're asking and I don't know if there's some um guidelines as to how we do that or if we just have the discretion to look and see which schools um have more uh students on the wait list and then assign it that way. up anybody from the team [Music] >> uh in June I believe it became it came before you where we did increase um Malcolm X and um I'm so sorry the other site escapes me at the moment but we increased um two sites with um
136new positions the new positions are not >> u filled yet so I mean It's a little moot but um so yes we are doing that and I think that that's something that um we all have you know acknowledged will happen as as people get hired like we will be able to enroll those people that chose to stay on the wait list. We know it's not the best timing but it is the timing the best we can do. >> Thank you. I think also I may have missed Did you mentioned that the Harrison Park program was open and then it was closed? I think I might have missed the explanation for that. Yeah, it was open Harrison Park for enrollment, but they had not a lot of interest. Just a less than a handful really. Um
137so they closed it. >> That's a bummer. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, D Vice President Kor, when we met with the city and talked about even opening these additional spaces, the the city has a threshold, a minimum threshold that that they have to meet to justify the expense, for lack of a better way to say it. And so, um, we were excited and um that we were able to hit that threshold and actually exceed it for all the other placements, but that was the reason why and they were really clear about that. And as we open up or if we open up any other sites, um, that's going to be the case as well, which is why we try to communicate it as soon as possible. >> Great. Um, my last questions are in the spirit
138of sort of creative problem solving. I've been thinking about the partnership with the city of Berkeley and how to make that more accessible. Um, have we t have we thought at all about some of the programs that are located relatively close to school sites like for example the new program at TOAland is pretty close to Berkeley Arts Magnet. Could we have a walking group that where a City of Berkeley employee comes and meets a group of kids and walks them to Totland? Is that something that's been considered in order to free up spots on the bus to get more kids to more programs? >> Deathly was a part of a conversation not to free up spots on the bus, but to provide uh an option for families who could not get a spot um on
139the after nonBUSD after school uh transportation buses. Um that said, that's an idea that was early in exploration and is still being explored. um because I know it's not what folks want to hear, but similar to us, uh the city of Berkeley is constrained uh in terms of staffing um as well as uh fiscal resources. And so as they staff programs and have people at the sites to take care of the babies, it's harder to figure out who can be the um ones transitioning the students. That said, it's still um an idea that we are exploring and again, we are committed to asking ourselves how might we um and getting really creative in how we respond to that question. >> Great. Thank you. And similarly, in the spirit of creative problem solving, I'm thinking about
140the partnership with Burkwood Hedge. And um I guess I'm I'm wondering about well I'm also thinking about schools like John Mure where we have several families here tonight that has a program called Kids in Motion which is neither a learns program nor a Bears program. Have we considered any further partnerships with community based programs that might be able to provide programming and staff but might not have space? Could we rent out space in our schools to any of those programs in order to provide more um access? Is that something that is a possibility? >> I mean I would say that it's a possibility. I think we are running into a few issues around supervision um of students after a certain time. So there are some of those constraints that need to be considered as we're
141looking at um at at those at that as a possibility. >> Thanks. Um I'm glad you covered my CBO question. That was going to be my question about exploring partnerships with community- based organizations. I know that formerly in the 2 by 2, we had received many like Yep. updates on like the recipients of their various grant programs to support our unduplicated students. So, I just wanted to know if there had been any possible conversations with Yep about the CBOS that they're funding as potential partners for after school providers and wanted to just echo support for what director Korn said. I think potentially with safe routes to schools, it might be a good partnership to organize walking school buses to these after school um providers. So, I think that's an opportunity for Alama County safe routes
142to school and if you um need support on any of those connections, happy happy to support. But I think that's that's another venue to explore. And I had a question for Associate Superintendent Hoganike. I know you talked about the timeline, how it's a little tricky to move on to the next potential family when we're still waiting for folks to complete registration once they're invited. I just wanted to better understand that process a little bit like what's the how much time do we give them? like once they're they're given notice, how much time do we give them to complete that and how could we expedite that so we can just move on quicker to the other family? I just want to understand what that process looks like. >> I'm turning it over to the expert. >>
143Not hardly. Um, so with the the enrollment the first round, um, I'm getting the quotes wrong. I I believe we opened we had a couple of snags with the beginning the opening up of of registration. We offered it started on April 15th and then it reopened for the older grades on the 21st. So people were able to enroll from the 21st until um June or I'm sorry May uh 25th. They got about a month um to enroll. And those were all of our priority um students that were notified um as director Shinowski um stated earlier as well. Um and so that was the first round if you registered before May um 25th and then the second round um opened on June 16th. And so on June 16th, anyone that hadn't registered in that first period,
144it's now open and it's open ongoing. Um for round two, we had to pick a day to, you know, stop. And so we chose July 18th in hopes that we would be able to um you know, kind of translate all of those priorities and contact people that may have didn't have, you know, like the proof documented, things like that. And so that's why there's a little bit of a I mean we need that time in order to process the priorities and do that piece with Fidelity. Um and so that's where it is at this point. And so we we processed um the round twos that enrolled up until July 18th. Um and so they had another month open. And so those are the ones that were like at capacity with that. And so like folks
145that registered after that, they're on the wait list. Um [Music] we just haven't had um like we don't have any more capacity. And so again, we're waiting for those people to respond to the first offers that we um sent out um in hopes of um you know, filling them of course with those people because those are the highest priority folks. So, it gets a little bit um you know of a challenge to kind of take a space away. We do have um at this final of round two um folks have until the 8th to accept their registration. Again, that's basically the end of the road so that we can have we can be prepared for Wednesday. Um so, I hope that answers kind of your question. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. Yeah. >>
146Can I just clarify one thing, Brazil? >> Um, are you are there spaces that are currently being held open for high priority unduplicated students? Is is that what you're saying? So I am saying that I think that we in this particular year we are in this strange situation of we have again offered with fidelity and we are um offering you know extending those offers with that same you know notion of these are the most um highest priority students um you know they won't stay open forever. So again, like those spots, regardless of your priority, um if no one shows, you know, we're going to reach out to all of those people and make sure they saw it and you know, make sure that they have the opportunity. But if they opt out, then we are
147100% going to um you know, go straight back to our weight list to you know, consult and and offer accordingly. >> Thank you. Um board colleagues, are there other questions? >> Yes, there are. >> Yeah. No, that's >> Oh, that's it with uh thank you so much. I I I I don't have questions myself. There have been asked here. Um yeah, I know that this is something we will have ongoing conversations about. Uh thank you. Next on up um is we have the 15.1 action item approval of the 45day revision to the 25 25 26 budget and I will turn it over to assistant superintendent Pauline Pollinsby. Thank you. I'm I'm sorry. Um, associate superintendent, can we take a quick 5m minute break? >> Oh, >> yes. >> Yeah, sure. >> There's a no and
148then there's yes. >> You you you can of course everybody can take a break. Excellent. [Music] say, "Okay, great. You can start co-ops whatever we last Byebye. I can show you our You can ask heard anything. [Music] The whole grass. >> Yeah. I know the light is >> I'm so sorry. Yes. [Applause] >> But I remember you were all super friend. I got [Music] it. Not so kicked out my second rest. It does not matter. It's not justhere. This has impact I do remember. [Music] like a human, >> but it was by our last year 200. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hello. Hello. If you want to be back home before 11:00, you might want to come back up to the front. >> I'm going to present with my mask on. >> Hope you guys can hear
149me. So >> one minute count >> then we'll start up again. Should I get started? So um this evening I'll be presenting the 45D revision to the 2526 budget and um all our presentations are grounded in our mission and um we aim to enable and inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to our world. objective of of um tonight's presentation, we're um seeking board approval for the impact of the governor's enacted budget on the district's unrestricted general fund. The agenda, we're going to review um some background information on the 45day revise. We're going to look at the summary of the impact of the unrestricted general fund as well as on the unrestricted general fund's multi-year projections. Take a look at next steps and resources and a quick update on
150federal funding even though technically it's not part of the 45day revise. So um this slide goes in um describes why we actually have to do a 45day revise and what ed code section this rel re re um applies to. And it also states um that the governor actually signed the budget on June 27th which means that we have until Monday, August 11th to revise the budget. And uh of course by doing it tonight we're actually meeting our deadline. So there's no requirement for us to actually do another sax update and a formal update of the of the budget. We can present um a summary um in an Excel spreadsheet and that would actually meet the requirement for the 45day revise. As a reminder, what I'm presenting tonight is just the impact on revenue. We're not
151looking at expenses at this time. We'll be bringing back the um the information on expenses when we do the first interim when we bring it to the board in December. Um and when we're looking at our revenue, of course, we have to focus on the importance of our core values of allocation, which is on the next slide, please. Um so, of course, um you've seen this before. or we've presented it every time and we're looking at budget balancing solutions and looking at our resource allocation. So of um the the section that resonates with me is equity to ensure that we're allocating resources to realize our district's mission and to address in inequities and remove barriers and of course sustainability and stability. We're trying to find ongoing solutions to our budget um questions and not just
152one-time solutions. So the state of our budget um I had presented this with the adopted budget. So um we are in a critical financial situation and without additional revenues or reduction in expenditures it's unlikely that we will maintain or receive a positive certification and at that time this slide was again with the adopted budget. We were um hoping that the enacted budget would provide additional expense um revenue for the district. As a reminder in the next slide, um this is what our adopted budget actually looked like when we adopted. Remember the the county had advised us not to add in any revenue that was uncertain. The only thing that we had was the um was a cola and that actually gave us an adopted budget with an undesated fund balance of $104,000 which is less
153than the cost of um one teacher. So it was very very tight. It was barely balanced but it did not have any additional revenue. Well, now we get to the 45day revise and um in the governor when he um finalized the budget, he approved $315 per ADA onetime discretionary block grant. When we factored that in, that's going to give the district 2.7 Oh, sorry, Liz. Next slide. I'm looking at this. Um that's going to give the district an additional $2.8 million. And the caveat is that this is one time. So we cannot put ongoing expenses or we should not put ongoing expenses on one-time revenue. And yes, it's a sizable amount, but unfortunately it's one time. We also got additional funding for the TK LCFF add-on and we got an additional 2395 per student. That's
154giving us 819,000, but that's on an ongoing basis. So, with these two additions to the um unrestricted general fund, that's adding another $3.7 million. And that's taking our revenue from 122.4 to 126 well 127 million. And at what does that do to the bottom line? So, we would go from $104,000 to 3.7 million. But I get next slide, Liz. Sorry. um that would give us um $3.7 million um but with the understanding that 2.8 of this is one time. When we look at the multi-year, what does that do to the multi-year? So you can see the the the um the8 million comes in as part as the LCFF funding that's ongoing. So it is in all three columns, but the 45day revise is actually only in the first column. So on the next slide, what
155this means is that our undesated fund balance goes to $3.7 million in 2526, $4.5 million in 2627, and $6.6 million in 2728. But it's important to remember that this does not have in any um expenses for negotiated increases at this time. A little bit more about the block grant. This gives you a little bit more information. Um we talked about it being $315 per 88. It's giving us $2.8 million. Allowable uses are discretionary. State priorities are highlighted. And in that box to the left, it kind of looks at what the state priorities are, but for the district, it's totally on um it's not it's totally discretionary. So, we can use it as we see fit. And we do have until September 30th through 2029 to expend these funds. It's not um included. Um, as a
156reminder, we did not include it in the adopted budget based on um, information from the county. And also, we need to remember that when we adopted, we were $1.6 million short of our target. So, yes, the 2.8 is positive, but remembering we were $1.6 million short of meeting our target. A little bit more about the 45day revise. Um this is a little bit more um background information. The additional 2397 per student per pupil um will give us will bring the add-on to 5,545 per TK student. Again ongoing funding of $.8 million caveat we do not have negotiated increases in the outear in 2526 and the outears. So this is um a reminder of where we um were with our budget balancing solutions. We had um had a target of $7.6 million. We did find 6
157million of which 5.5 was ongoing and.5 was one time. I can hardly breathe through this thing. So sorry. Um so that that um so we're actually short of the target by the $1.6 million. Um next steps, we're going to be closing our books um by September 15th and that will inform the ending balance for 2425 and the beginning balance for 2526. So that will help us determine just how much money we will have available for spending in 2526. We will be bringing the first interim to the board for approval um which will include the revenue from the 45day revise as well as additional expenses for programs and operations. We don't know what that's going to look like now, but be aware that this funding should could also possibly cover increases. We continue to face near
158and long-term challenges including Russell on this risk to the state revenue um forecast or reduced um ADA compared to preandemic um period. Our ADA is actually trending up slightly um after the pandemic. Um, we have expiring one-time funds and grants. Um, our increasing program costs are outpacing revenues and contributions. And of course, we have uncertainty with the federal funding. We have to remember to continue to to develop comprehensive plans to maintain fiscal solveny and preserve the integrity of our educational programs. Um, as a reminder, we have our resources. Um, and I lift this from our superintendent's presentations. Um, we every budget book that we have is actually posted online. It's linked in the section that um in on our website and um and it has like a lot of information in terms of detailed expenditures
159by object codes by with different funds. So, we do have a lot of um um budget and actual information online and we encourage people to actually refer to that information. Quick update on our federal funding. Um the Trump administration announced on July 25th that it will release over $5 billion that was previously fro frozen. And the impact for us is that we had thought we would reduce funding for our adult school program. These were the programs that were impacted. Next slide, please. These are the programs that were impacted and you can see the adult school education um is listed here. However, with this um release of funds um we would our program is not in jeopardy at the moment. But of course, we don't know what the funding is going to be like in the
160out years. And this is just something that I pulled from um the workshop I went to in terms of the federal funding um in context and federal executive order. So, next slide, please. So, um this is just um by way of a quick background and a quick update on federal funding. And at this point, I'll take questions with a reminder that we're actually presenting this um with the Berkeley Proud um logo or whatever it is. Whatever it is, hashtag Oh, say it loud. Right. Right. >> Berkeley Proud. That's right. Hash Brow. >> Um thank you. Thank you so much. Are there um board colleagues? Uh do we have questions? Just a quick comment. I'm super excited that we received all the funds that we were anticipating we were going to receive and have a positive
161fund balance and I want to thank you for all your work. And next time you say say it loud, say it proud or Berkeley proud, we want to see a little cheer. >> That's right. Thank you so much. Anybody else? >> We're calling. Thank you so much. All right. Great job. Thank you. >> Thanks. We have to vote. >> Oh, we have to vote. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. It's approval, actually. Yes. So, >> I move to approve. >> I'll second. >> Okay. We've got Director Schnowski moved and director Vidv seconded. Um, do we have the eyes? >> I Any. >> Um, the motion is approved. Approval of 15.1. Next up, we have 13.8, 8 which was formerly in our consent calendar to Eloh contract has been shifted over to action having a >> okay since
162I pulled this um I just have a few questions first I want to um really compliment the district on the work to uh reduce the amount of contracting that we're doing um and while I understand the members of the audience might not understand why that's important our contract contractors are very expensive and therefore the number of people that we can actually serve is reduced by the number of contractors we use because we don't have the resources to hire additional staff. So, um I'm just really thrilled that in a year's time we've reduced it um down to a third of what it was. So, I think that should be applauded. I'm wondering um how many vacancies we currently have. Um, I see that the Levo contract right now is um for almost half a million dollars
163for 10 coaches. And so I'm wondering how many vacancies we currently have. And I'm also wondering what is the process and um associate superintendent Hoganike did mention that there is a way for us to reduce our contracted positions if we fill additional vacancies, but I'd like to know what that process is. So if say we fill our current vacancies which I think is somewhere in the 20s >> 16 okay so close to 20 so >> so uh as of yesterday morning we had 23 vacancies um but we have at least two people in the um plans to be starting next week um and hopefully more than that so um as it reduces and then um Jill Will you do you know the specifics of the timeline for the winding down the contract? >> Just that
164we've been able to reduce the amount of time that we can do that because u prior to last spring's negotiations I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 days. >> Yeah, I think it's at least half of that. >> Yeah. So, as soon as we decide to hire somebody and we know that they're going to start, we can reduce the contract um with 14 days notice or something around that point. >> Wonderful. And one more question I have about those vacancies. So we have 21 vacancies currently for our afterare um team and if we fill all 21 of those vacancies then we would work on filling the 10 additional spaces that are currently filled by illegal contractors or are those part of the vacancies? >> Those are considered part of the vacancies at
165the moment. Um, but we would come back in terms of looking at do we need to expand and do we need to add FTE and how are we funding that and all of that would be a discussion we would bring back >> um if that ends up being where we go >> and then with the goal of course of then if we're able to fulfill fill all those vacancies and then potentially add more spaces with our new fee structure. It could be we could potentially start to to do that and expand >> potentially. >> Pro potentially. Yeah, it's a slightly more complicated answer because as you saw from tonight, we have to prioritize spaces with the existing grant funds for very specific populations. We have to demonstrate that those we have done extensive outreach to
166fill those spots before we think about before we're able to take that step. Yes. Great. But those vacancies are currently in our budget, so they are positions that we can fill. Thank you. Um, yeah, I just I did want to understand the vacancies and I wanted to um also just call out the continued need to reduce continue to reduce those uh contractors so that we can continue to uh expand our BUSD family and make sure we're using our resources to leverage those spaces as much as possible. Thank you. And thanks again for that job fair. >> Uh thank you Director Shnoski. Are there other comments or questions about this item? So um that was a good conversation about this. Now we have it's an it's an action item, right? So we need >> I move
167to approve this item. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Um seconded by Director Korn. Are there the eyes? >> I I >> I >> Are there any nazs? And Miss Charz, none of this has to be done by roll call. Okay, good. Thank you. Um, great. And so we are um moving on to our extended public comment. Just note that you have an information item there. The stuff is in your online pack. So, I'm going to call um two folks to come on up just like last time at the start. I think these are these are all in person. I will double check to see if anyone's online, too. First, we're going to go in person and really make sure to correct me if I mispronounce your name. Sid Hearth um Verma
168>> will be on first. Great. With Crystal Williams waiting on on um >> I'm sorry. >> One minute. I'm sorry. Yeah. And Crystal, just please wait on the side there. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to speak. I know I don't have very much time and I know there's a lot of other parents who feel the same um as we do, but I just want to let you know the personal impact on what this situation has resulted in. My wife and I, we both work in healthcare. We both have many, many patients who we serve in our community. These people are Malcolm X families. These people are people who we see around in our community. These people are people who need our services too. And currently
169with the way things are going, we are both going to have to reduce our services to make sure that our youngest who's 6 years old coming up to first grade is going to need child care. We have two older sons who go to Berkeley High. And today I was even thinking, what else can I do? Can we have the kids pick up our youngest and bring them home so that we can keep providing for our community? This is really hard. We're here to support you too and we want to be included in the process. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next line up with is Crystal Williams and then Mimi Maine can come up as well. >> All right. Thank you. I'll try to keep this quick. Um, no pleasantries. Um, I know everybody understands
170the gravity of this situation. Uh, I'm a Sylvia Amendas parent. I have a rising fifth grader and second grader. We've been in the Learns program since coming out of CO. Uh, my fifth grader was granted a spot. My second grader is weight listed everywhere. And so, this has impacts not only for this year, but future years as she will no longer have sibling preference or returning preference. We're just going to be impacted on this for the long term. Uh we've taken every action possible as quickly as possible. We've gone in person. Uh echoing what's been said. The lack of responses and communication is absolutely stunning. Stunning. Dead silence and a lot of miscommunication. Um because when we went in person as in even as as instructed trying to be as proactive as possible to sign
171up for other programs, we were told that they had no idea what we were talking about. So, thank you. Um, I know other folks share this concern. I hope we can do better in the future. >> Thank you. >> Um, Mimi Maine and next on up Jennifer House. >> Hi. Um, just to read into the record, um, at John Mir, I'm, um, on a WhatsApp group with the majority, if not all of our first graders. And there's another parent here who's representing a similar group for all for the TK and K classes. And not one person on these threads has received any notification, any communication about whether we're in bears or not. So that's not like bad communication. That's just non-existent communication. Um so make of that what you will. And um I I had
172been looking out at the job at the B USD job postings. Yesterday an afterchool post was post a job was posted continuous ongoing that hasn't been there previous to yesterday and so I know there's job fairs and there's other routes that people are hired but I'm just like why? >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thanks >> Jennifer House and then next up Mike Jeff. >> Thanks so much everybody. Um, so couple points. I want to thank the creative ideas that were trying to come out. Um, that was interesting and some of those I felt like cheering and applauding. This is great ideas. Um, I wanted to put out there, someone mentioned this, the um, private options are going to be absolutely cost prohibitive for many parents. Just naming um, we're a Washington family and I was
173excited about the Burkwood head hedge option. It's $1,200 a month and I just put this out there. We thought, well, you know what? Maybe we just do it for a month, we make it happen, and then we figure out something else. It's a it's a 10-month contract, and they actually would prefer $12,000 upfront. So, I just want people to like just to put this on the record that those are great options um in theory, but in reality, it's going to be really difficult for most families to swing that. We are the kind of family that's been so excited to get away from preschool costs for so long. Um, one other quick point, the CBO, I would love if we could continue to pursue that. There is a middle price point somewhere that I think could
174work. We just have to figure out what it is. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, Mike Hefe was formerly here. >> Um, then Lou Rearen. >> Hi. Uh, thanks everyone and thanks superintendent for speaking one-on-one with me. um and some of the other folks here. Couple things I just wanted to point out um as we these discussions continue. Um just how did we get here? What did we know when and why wasn't this shared with families? Um by my count from the data that was presented, 96 students are currently enrolled in Bears with 138 on the wait list. In learns, that's 1480 enrolled, 526 on the wait list. At John Mir, we have 18 students enrolled and 52 on the wait list. Why weren't families that were 40th with 18 enrolled? Why weren't they notified?
175Hey, you're probably screwed. Find another option months ago when they saw these applications coming in in April and May. They could have done some outreach and said, "Look, we have a problem here. We have a crisis. Instead, we're finding out about it now through back channels and now tonight." So, I just hope you guys can keep pressure on to have better communication when there are enrollment challenges like this and hopefully solve the enrollment challenges. Thank you. >> Thanks so much. And still checking, Mike is not here. Mike Cafe. Um, and we have some folks online, I believe. >> I'm sorry, one person online. >> Katie Reese. Katie, are you ready to >> Okay, you're being promoted now. Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Okay, thanks. Um, on the after school topic,
176like everyone else, um, superintendent, I really appreciated your presentation about after school tonight, but you presented to a nearly empty room. So, I'm going to urge you to take this issue outside the boardroom. All families in the district deserve to hear this information directly from you across multiple platforms along with a heartfelt acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation. Doing so would be a signal of your respect for and partnership with families and desire to address this crisis. I've heard no such acknowledgement from any higher up in the district and my four years that I've been encountering this challenge. Funding and staffing issues are hard to solve, but communication should have improved yesterday. Um, I'll just end by saying I'm a public school teacher and I spend a lot of time defending the public school
177system to folks who have the privilege to look elsewhere. And on this issue, I'm just really at a loss for words. It shouldn't be so hard to send a child to school for the average length of an American school day. Okay? We need to fix this issue. Please demonstrate that you take this seriously. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Char. We have any anyone else popped up? Um, >> Lily Simson. >> Lily, are you you're being promoted now? >> Again, um, I just wanted to mention also, yeah, none of the John Mir families, including myself, have received any communication at all that I know. Um, there was no first round, second round, anything. Now, I also know that everybody in this room works really hard. I don't want to like have this sort of us
178versus them mentality. I know that you're dealing with funding crisis and staffing difficulties and we all understand that it's really difficult and I just want to say like we're frustrated but we are on your side and we know you're everybody in this room is doing the best with what they have. Um but I just wanted to say that some of the parts of the presentation didn't really add up. Um especially the piece about communication as others have mentioned. I don't know if that was specific to learns, but with bears, there hasn't been any information that anyone in our um rising TK or rising first grade class has received. Um and thanks, >> thank you so much. Um see online is that that's it. Okay. >> Um thank you so much for your um sharing your
179comments tonight. Um are there extended board member comments? If there are not um a motion to adjurnn. >> I move to adjurnn. >> Director Schnowski moves. Do a second. >> Second. >> Director Based seconds. We have eyes. Eyes. No nays. We are adjourned. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.