001in us uh at tonight's January 22nd meeting of the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education I'd like to call this meeting to order uh this evening at 7:14 p.m. Miss Chavez did you already had the had the opportunity to give your spill okay would you like to go ahead and do that okay good evening um I just want to give you quick overview about uh public common this evening after a few procedural items the board will hear 30 minutes of public comment so if you have submitted your card already thank you we uh we are not accepting any more cards if you are online now and wish to participate in public comment please raise your hand now so we can queue you up uh the board president will set tonight this evening's time at
002one or two minutes per speaker and may adjust the time for anyone who has any speech needs um and she will also prioritize students so if you are a student who turned in a car be sure you have had indicated that you are a student so we can prioritize your card accordingly um when you are speaking you will hear a beat when your time is up and we please finish your sentence but try not to speak beyond that time we want to give as many people as possible an opportunity to participate this evening um thank you um thank you so much if you're familiar with our board meetings uh you know that that was a little bit earlier uh than when we typically have that update and the reason being is because we have quite
003a number of speaker cards that are speaking on the same topic tonight and when we do that or when we have that rather we typically give about five minutes uh for each of those items and so what I want to do is give you enough time to organize yourself um and determine both for our students and for our adults uh who are speaking on this specific topic um to give you give yourself some time to organize yourself so you will have five minutes um and you all can determine as a group who will uh speak for your group within those 5 minutes that you will be given um so again this is a little bit out of order but I want to give you some time to organize yourselves so that you don't have to
004do that uh at the podium okay all right at this time we will continue uh with our agenda and I will entertain a motion to approve this evening's agenda make a motion it has been moved uh by director Corin and I'll second seconded by director vasu Dev all those in favor please signify with the sign of I I thank you opposers have the same sign abstentions hearing none the motion passes and this evening's agenda is approved at this time I'd like to call on vice president Chang who will report out from Clos session thank you uh meeting was called to order a 605 and with regard to 3.1.1 student a versus BSD the board heard an update and provided Direction with regard to item 3.1.2 o case number as you can see on the agenda
005uh the board voted unanimously in favor of District council's recommendation by a motion by director shinoski seconded by director vasad Dev um with regards to item 3.2 the board voted unanimously for the district settlement recommendation via motion by director shinoski seconded by President brown with regard to item 3.3 collective bargaining the board heard an update and provided direction thank you so much and thank you to you uh vice president Chang at this time please help me in uh welcoming our superintendent Ania Ford Morel who will bring comments this evening good evening USD family good evening B USD family we are so happy to be celebrating the district's second annual disability awareness and History Month this January introduced a year ago by School Board resolution during this month we highlight uplift and celebrate the many contributions
006of those in our community who identify as disabled I hope that all in our community are taking advantage of B usd's teaching guide our family guides reading list and so much more um for this uh month U on disability awareness that can be found on our District's resource web page um in celebration and recognition of disability awareness month um on January 27th I invite you all to a student Le virtual Roundtable featuring Berkeley High School students staff and experts in the disability Fields as they discuss their unique experiences being neurodiverse and physically disabled the event again will be a virtual event on January 2 7th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. the zoom link for this event can be found on the disability awareness and History Month resource web page I will note that January 27th
007is a no school day for our students um and our families also means you don't have school so you should be rested up and ready to attend and engage um this excited inaugural event we're also hosting some other things next week that we want to make sure that you are aware of um we're having an attendance Workshop this Thursday okay this week January 23rd from 6:00 to 7:30 :30 at the temporary home of Longfellow Middle School which is located at 1701 San Pablo Avenue this is an in-person Workshop that will cover the must knows the laws and the policies around how to support students academic success and all you want to know about attendance um to our schools we will also have a chance to oper to engage you in frequently asked questions and perhaps
008for some of you the best part is there will be free child care refreshments and a raffle we hope to see you there we are also in the movie premiere business um as part of B usd's meeting of math Minds M3 initiative the district is hosting a free community screening and discussion on the film entitled counted out on Thursday January 30th from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Oxford Elementary School auditorium counted out is a new hard-hitting documentary that shines a light on math as the foundation of democracy and Economic Opportunity that's what's happening next week I want to take a few more minutes president Brown to speak about what is happening this evening on tonight's agenda I know that many of you might have come out in anticipation or hope to hear our facilities
009update um the facilities presentation was originally scheduled for tonight um but we had to postpone it due to the um unfortunate passing of a family member of assistant superintendent facilities John khis um we do extend our heartfelt condolences to John and his family and we look forward to his return and we'll make sure to notify you when that facility's presentation will be coming back to be discussed in front of the board also I want to call attention to the information item on tonight's agenda that's item 16.5 reaffirming BD's commitment to education of all children and making all BD campuses a safe zone for students and families threatened by immigration enforcement this resolution was passed by the Board of Education in 2017 this is not a new thing this is what we do we are bu
010USD it is agendized tonight as an opportunity for this board to remind you of our commitment to ensure that every student regardless of immigration status is welcome and safe in our Berkeley Public Schools last night the city of Berkeley the first city in the nation to declare itself a City of Refuge in 1971 voted to reaffirm Berkeley as a sanctuary city is essential that we work in close partnership not only with our Police Department nonprofits cbos Alama County city of ber and all of you to make sure that our schools truly are safe for all of our students and their families tonight's agenda speaks specifically to protecting our undocumented students and families or those who are threatened by immigration enforcement but we all know that there are others in our community that feel threatened unsettled
011and unsafe at this time the district is committed to our families threatened by immigration enforcement as well as our transgender and gender expansive students and all students and families that are feeling targeted threatened and dehumanized we're committed to all of our students and families period since November the district has been preparing sending Communications and updating our district websites with resources and things for your information so please again go to our website there's a host of information and resources um for all of our students and our families we've worked closely with our Board of Education to make sure that our policies reflect our values and that our staff are versed on not just those policies but also the procedures to operationalize them tonight I would also like to reiterate that Berkeley un ified School District strongly
012believes that free public education is a free basic human right it's not a privilege it's a right for all of our students um and not that a privilege that's accessible just to some we welcome everyone in B USD schools we take pride in our diversity and our commitment to provide every student with schools and classrooms that are safe and humanizing we reject all forms of hate bullying and discrimination based on wraith ethnicity religion gender gender identity and expression immigration status dis ility and sexual orientation we will face what comes together as a community that uplifts and honors all of its members I've uh been doing a whole bunch of things to fortify my spirit and to remind me of the work that we do that we've been doing and that to stay steadfast and focused
013on the work that is ahead one of those things that I do is to read I want to share with you um a recent uh um poem that really resonated with my spirit and inspired me as we continue on in the month of January and the months to come and the years to come and I hope we can all feel inspired by these words they are taken from Amanda Gordon's uh children's book entitled something someday you make a promise to each other you say this is a problem but it's our problem together so we fix it together this problem is big but together we are bigger the takeaway together bu USD we are bigger that's the end of my comments Madam president thank you so much uh superintendent for your comments this evening um and
014for the beacon of uh light and hope in in such a scary and dark time uh at this time we will move on to public comments Miss Charis has already given her spill um and alerted the community uh and I have as well on how we will um receive public comments this evening uh I am so happy whenever I see um a bulk of comments especially nearly 30 comments um on one specific topic um it is really important to hear from our community members um about the issues that are both uh challenging our communities and issues where uh we as a board can intervene and support and so um at this time I will uh call up the uh Representatives who will speak tonight on uh the Berkeley High tennis courts but I will call
015you up in two different groups so the first group will have five minutes and the second group will have five minutes the first group we will hear from is our students we always prioritize our student voices and so our students all of uh I believe the 19 of you all Who provided uh cards this evening can come up together and you have already organized yourself and we will put five minutes for speaking time on the clock immediately following our student um public comments we will then uh receive our um public comments uh on the tennis court uh receiving those from our adult speakers uh and then after that we will um continue with our next group of public comments and I will announce those when we get to that time okay so at this time
016we will receive our group of student comments and Miss Charis has already put it put five minutes uh for speaking time for you all and the board will receive you whenever you're ready can I start all right hello my name is Max and I'm a senior at BHS and this will be my fourth year on the BHS tennis team playing on the team has not only allowed me to improve my tennis skills but has also given me the opportunity to learn and connect with some of the brightest coaches and teammates that East Bay has to offer Berkeley High has two tennis teams which together account for over 50 kids year-over-year and has been without Court since 2001 when they were paved over for a teacher parking lot at that time we were told it was
017a temporary problem which would be fixed promptly it's now been 24 years as a result we are the only high school team in the East Bay that does not have home courts for the last few years we've been renting courts from Cal but those courts are being torn down this year so they will no longer be an option we don't know where or whether we'll have a place to play next season um athletic D director Ross Parker has been working very hard to solve this immediate problem and our amazing coaches have been so dedicated to the tennis program working patiently with over 20 years of school boards and Facilities teams to find a solution but it is time to fulfill your promise and get serious about rebuilding the Berkeley High tennis courts it is time
018to act now to fix a problem and build a permanent solution so our team doesn't have this kind of instability and uncertainty each year we thank you for your attention on this issue hello my name is Ezra barbanel I'm a junior at BHS and I've played on the Berkeley High tennis team for three years the first day of my freshman year tryouts I went to the courts knowing very few people with little to no tennis skills instantly the players and coaches welcomed me into the community allowing me to quickly grow my tennis skills and bond with my teammates I want future generations of Berkeley kids to be able to experience this not only is our team full of amazing tennis players but also warm inclusive compassionate people it's a place where we all come to
019challenge ourselves grow get better at tennis and be with one another every single day of our season I look forward to practice not only do I look forward to practice but I need practice and this team needs a home we can't continue sustainably or at all if we don't have courts we deserve a place to practice just as all the other sports at brookley high have this past season the girls tennis team made the North Coast sectional tournament for the first time since 2019 we also played second in our league that being said all of our progression is threatened if we don't have a place to play in 2020 Berkeley voters approved me measure g a school facilities Bond measure with part of that money intended to rebuild our tennis courts this is important because
020this year of budget cuts to the district's general fund all work on these tennis courts would come from a separately voted tax bond which by law can only be used for facilities construction the current District budget challenges do not affect the district's capacity to build these courts we need courts to continue this amazing community and team for generations to come thank you hello my name is yanir and I'm a senior at Berkeley High School this will be my fourth year on the BHS tennis team the team has been a super important part of my high school experience not only has it been a way for me to play tennis in a supportive setting but also a way to become part of a whole Community the environment in our practice and matches is always amazing due
021to our team's close-knit community and some of my closest friends are on the team I've been lucky enough to have been on the team in the four years where we've been on Cal courts next year those courts go under construction leaving future Berkeley High tennis teams without courts I'm speaking so that future students and tennis team members can have the same opportunities as I did to be able to play a sport on a team that Fosters development fun and Community with stable courts to play at according to the district's web page when voters approved measure G in 2020 part of the funds were intended to construct a parking structure on the existing parking lot located on milia street parking structure the parking structure was to be multi-level and to accommodate staff parking and include tennis
022courts on the roof to support the BSD tennis program physical education and Community use when not in use by BSD unfortunately this proposal was canceled last year leaving the program without courts there's now a revised proposal to build five tennis courts in a robotics building at the current softball site with softball moving to Ming field where baseball is played unfortunately this proposal to include our tennis courts is now coming under further delay this 24-year problem needs to be addressed and resolved this calendar year it's time the board took this seriously and gave us the home that was removed 24 years ago we need a place to play next season and we need a Perman home for Berkeley Tennis so we're not worried about losing our courts every single year thank you for supporting us as
023Berkeley High student athletes you have about 21 seconds left is there anyone else who'd like to speak no okay well thank you all so much uh for your words and for your advocacy and thank you for being um strong leaders um of your generation so thank you for coming this evening you all may take your seat at this time we will receive our next uh group of speakers who are our adult uh speakers who will be speaking um on the topic of Berkeley High tennis courts um please remember that you all also have five minutes and so please govern yourselves accordingly and then following that we will receive um our public comments um for those who will speak tonight uh in regards to agenda item 16.5 I do only have three uh speaker cards for
024that item but we'll still provide uh the five five minutes and allow you to govern yourselves accordingly since you will be speaking as a group okay we will receive you at this time thank you welcome um good evening esteemed board um my name is coach Tiffany Le um I'm also a Berkeley High counselor um Miss Tiffany um I've been coaching the girls team for the past four years and um as a team we've been constantly displaced um three times in the last four years in my first season the girls had to take a 20-minute bus ride or 30 minute walk to San Pablo Park 1.1 miles away from Berkeley High School um and once they arrived they were regularly stared down by oftentimes grown men from the local tennis community um who were angry that
025all the courts were taken away um because they were reserved to us I was occasionally the only female um the only adult feemale male um and the only one who was responsible for over 20 plus young girls and this was both unsafe and unacceptable for the young players and myself um at the king courts we had to squeeze over 20 players onto three courts on a daily basis um often having to play until the sun set um due to no lights um all of which is neither safe nor productive five girls serving on a baseline is not safe 5 to 10 kind girls standing by the fence waiting their turn because there's no available court is not productive and constantly having to throw away my meticulously planned um practice plans or worth having to ask
026coaches from opposing teams for forgiveness because we're missing players due to late buses or Transportation issues is an absolute nightmare um for these reasons Berkeley High has not had a proper competitive girls program because experienced players would often not join our team do its reputation as a messy unproductive and uncompetitive program it's not Equitable and it honestly leads to coach burnout our team has been very patient and I am the only girls coach left I've outlasted four other coaches and I've frankly wanted to leave every year just because because of the stress this year was the first semblance of a competitive functional team even as Ezra shared we made it to the NCS for the first time since 2019 um thank you we will once be once again be homeless when Cal turns down turns
027down the courts um let's please work together to find a solution we have no intention to bump heads with any other sports program but it's about time that our tennis program who robbed of our courts 21 years ago um becomes a priority thank you good evening and happy New Year Year my name is Jeff Jew I'm the boys tennis coach and I'm going into my 11th year I was born and raised in Berkeley had my first tennis lesson on those old Berkeley High tennis court so my Roots Run Deep my late father is in the Hall of Fame at Berkeley High I played number one at Berkeley High my brother played number one so as you could see we have great student athletes well spok the best students they're coachable great people so I'm very
028proud to be the coach but I've been battling through this oh for at least 15 years I've spoken to Mayor Bates mayor aren superintendent Evans Stevens facility director Tim White M John Kalise School Board presidents Josh Daniels Ty Albert Laura babit I could go on all day but it's been 24 years our students deserve the best for me Berkeley I was born in Berkeley Berkeley is a worldclass city so we need tennis courts we're the only High public high school in the East Bay that doesn't have does not have tennis courts uh uh a comparable High School in enrollment is James Logan High School and and that's in Union City they have 11 tennis courts and we don't have any so for me I I probably take it a little personal because I got my
029start on those old Berkeley High tennis courts so please 24 years is long and is long enough and also in terms of using money you know the bond measure and and taxpayers and if you want this the community to keep supporting these Bond measures you've got to come through you got to come through for everybody it's very important so delaying it I think 24 years is long enough so thank you so much for having us this evening thank you thank you so much for your comments this evening uh at this time I will call up um our next group of speakers who will speak on item 16.5 which is the resolution reaffirming B usd's commitment to the education of all children and making all BD campuses a safe zone for students and families threatened by
030immigration enforcement we will receive you at this time and um I'd like to just take this um time of personal privilege uh to welcome back uh into our board Chambers um our beloved former School Board president uh Miss Beatrice Lea Cutler whenever you are ready you may begin thank you uh thank you honorable superintendent Schoolboard president Brown and board of directors as a former School Board member and longtime early to school age executive director of bilingual care here in Berkeley I'm committed to our city and our school district which continues supporting Berkeley unified as a sanctuary zone for our students and families is beyond critical we must stand side by side unanimously with the city and the over 200 31 community members who have signed on asking for you to vote 100% as a school
031board on the resolution at your February 5th board school board meeting your positive Vote for This resolution communicates your position and support of our families and students who make up the fabric of our community we have parents who are nannies to children in Berkeley working Berkeley restaurants and clean houses and are the gardeners and the workforce of our city our state and our County we care for the academic success of all of our students if they are worried about their safety and that of their families and parents they will not succeed and if they don't succeed we have failed them and their families now that the 47th pus has stipulated in his orders that there's no sensitive areas like schools and churches as protective places for our students in their families it is imperative that
032we as a city and a school district push back together and United against racist and unproductive executive actions that only hurt families and traumatize children their parents in our community we respectfully request that the School Board voted 100% to support this resolution as previous boards have endorsed and to join the city and accy in protecting our students and our families as sanctuary School District including before and after school and summer programming our schools are sanctuary in a safety zone for our students and families and we ask the district and the school board to commit to working closely with the city by participating in the mayor Sanctuary uh task force do we have your support superintendent and Berkeley School Board my name is Gladis campost and I'm here on behalf of Latinos unidos at Berkeley we
033are here to respectfully ask the Berkeley Unified School District to adopt a resolution reaffirming the board of education's commitment to making BD campuses a safe zone for students and families we'd like to thank the superintendent for her comments and for the support of the resolution we believe this resolution would be strengthened by outlining your collaboration with the city of brookley reaffirming our city as a sanctuary City and refuge for all including our immigrant families we ask the district to work with the city attorney to protect sensitive sites such as our schools from civil igation in the event of ice raids additionally we urge you to align with the city Sanctuary City protocols and pass an amended reaffirmation with a stronger protections as many other California districts have done so thank you together we we can
034make Berkeley a place where all families feel safe and supported thank you for your time and consideration good evening Schoolboard directors District administrators and everyone present or watching this evening my name is Carol Perez and I am a Berkeley resident a parent of two children who went through Berkeley schools and an employee of B USD today I can say I feel uplifted because despite or in spite of the hateful threats and hostility come from the selected US president and some in Congress our Berkeley mayor and city council has voted to strengthen its commitment to Berkeley as a sanctuary City also today I along with others several other bosd staff received an important and thorough training about how we will protect our schools communities from those threats and in addition and I have learned that two
035of our school board directors are writing a resolution that reflects the city Sanctuary resolution to further protect students at our schools I encourage the school board to pass this resolution so that our immigrant commity will know without a doubt that BD stands in solidarity with them thank you just one last comment you know the tennis courts have been there and I definitely support I was there part of the um the 2020 making sure that that um passed and so it's time so let's let's get down to business and really figure out a solution for our students and our coaches thank you thank you all so much for uh your comments and for your advocacy at this time we will move on to our online comments um and we have four uh attendees who will speak
036to the Board of Education this evening uh we will begin with our first comment from uh Matthew Hurst followed by our comment from Lindsay Noel we will give each speaker uh two minutes hello can you hear me yes we can hear you just fine welcome great thank you so much this is the first time I'm commenting online I'll try and make this brief up my name is Matthew h I'm a long parent with a sixth grader um and I also have a a third grader Elementary School who will join Long Fellow in 2027 um I was one of about 40 some OD BC parents and Long Fellow neighbors who participated in a parent meeting last night to discuss impacts of the workforce housing project due to start soon at longfellow's temporary site at um the
037Berkeley Adult School thanks to uh board member shanoski for joining that meeting all in all um I've had more opportunity to engage with other parents and Neighbors about this project than with the school district which is responsible for providing long fellow students the quality education and safe and healthy learning environment that all kids deserve parents are getting organized I suspect you'll hear plenty more from us um one request I'd like to make tonight is um for the district to designate an UD or an umit's person specifically tasked with listening to concerns about BD facilities issues including impacts on construction at The berky Adult School Long Fellow site the ud should be accessible on site at the Berkeley Adult School Long Fellow campus at least on a weekly basis inevitably parents and neighbors will have concerns
038as construction proceeds we deserve access to information and prompt Solutions when issues do arise thank you thank you very much uh next we will uh go to Lindsay nelt followed by Timothy Burrows all right am just pulling up my stuff OMG LOL maybe Timothy Burrows is more prepared than I am to figure out how to do this on my phone do you guys wan to move to somebody else who's more prepared okay that's no problem Lindsay we will come back to you at this time we thank you I'm so sorry don't worry um at this time we'll receive comments from Timothy buros and then hopefully by that time Lindsay you will be ready to go hi good evening everyone good evening timy buros thank you for the opportunity to to speak I wanted to follow
039up on uh Matt's comments I was also at that meeting uh yesterday 40 40ish uh parents in person and some uh online and I would say that um most if not all of the parents at the meeting are you know feel proud to live in a community that's advancing a Workforce housing project like the one bosd is is leading and has hired some affordable housing developers to develop and uh and build it's difficult to pull a project like that together and it's an important project that needs to move forward the concerns in the room were not necessarily with the project itself the concerns were with the insufficient communication with the Longfellow community about the project many families remain unaware that there's even going to be a massive construction project on uh on the site those
040that are aware of the project are not confident that plans are in place to maximize student safety and health during the uh during the construction uh and it's also clear that the facility itself right now especially the outdoor space that the students have access access to is at a disadvantage compared to the other uh middle schools in our in our community and there's a lot of concern that the project is going to exacerbate um that uh that inequity especially if special care and planning is not giving to uh ensuring Strategic investment in the site and also lots of communication uh there was one uh webinar a one directional webinar a week before Christmas that was held to provide information about the project that is not proactive transparent communication again many parents didn't know about the
041webinar have not listened to the webinar uh I understand that the superintendent plans to come to Longfellow soon in February to a PTA meeting and a School site meeting I think that's an important step but I also want to note that that's just weeks before um before the project is set to break break ground and we're six months into the school year and I think it would have been nice for there to be more proactive transparent communication long before weeks before the project is about to break break ground so there was a good deal of frustration at that meeting you should you should know I would advocate for Matt suggestion that there' be more ongoing communication and also clear mitigations for some of the risks associated with the project and I appreciate my appreciate the
042time tonight thank you thank you so much uh we appreciate your comments uh as a reminder anyone online uh it is very difficult to hear uh when the buzzer goes off and so I don't want to interrupt uh anyone but if you could pay attention to your clock uh you will get about 2 minutes of speaking time and then whenever you hear me say thank you I'm going to ask that you just do just as Timothy did which is conclude your uh sentence and we will invite the next speaker to speak thank you so much Timothy for your comments Lindsay are you ready at this time yes thank you okay thank you and you I can't see the buzzer so you should just interrupt me I'm glad we have that relationship I will interrupt you
043my name is Lindsay noeld and I'm speaking as a member of reading for Berkeley on discussion item 15.1 the court monitor report for the literacy action plan George Ellis highlights the excellent work this year and and that is wonderful I agree with all the points that he made however he does not put enough emphasis on the importance of alignment at all School sites which would result in improving literacy instruction and outcomes for all students we families bear the burden and the personal cost of weakness in Reading instruction and intervention it's born in the reduction of our children's learning potential and it's wasting time that they don't have we feel the urgency this is an emergency that must be met with a change in habits the result of complacency is that some classrooms still Level kids
044using the A through Z Running Records which has been shown to be inaccurate and time consuming in some classrooms nothing is done to address alarming assessment results in some classrooms teachers have a not my job mentality and expect interventionists to come in and solve learning struggle in some school sites principles do not know what teaching looks like in their classrooms in some school sites literacy coaches offer reading recovery on the down low after school in some school sites literacy coaches spend all their time helping students directly instead of multiplying their effect by helping teachers do better and in some school sites this pilot year is not a bridge year it's just another year of Lucy cofins forarts and all our children pay the price of these M learning opportunities and unequal outcomes across School sites
045the pain is real I urge you to continue the work with an extended year of Court monitoring so that all actions as defined in the plan can be fully implemented and we can be certain that BD is doing the best for our children thank you perfect timing thank you we will receive our final uh online comment this evening from decoding dyslexia you also have two minutes hi can you hear me yes we can hear you just fine welcome uh good evening my name is Megan potente and I'm commenting on the literacy Improvement plan agenda item I am co-state director of decoding dyslexia California we are a Grassroots group made up of parents and professionals dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for students with dyslexia and all struggling readers and we have paid very close attention to
046the happenings in Berkeley unified since 20121 when the federal class action dyslexia lawsuit claiming that the district failed to identif ify students with reading difficulties and provide the necessary support was settled and while the district is in its last year of monitoring as defined in the settlement the reality is there is much more work to be done an extension of the monitoring by an impartial outside expert is warranted Mr Ellis's work has been critical thus far and needs to continue the district delayed starting the implementation of the literacy settlement the district took two years to train teachers on the why which is very important but this means that teachers have not been trained in how to apply their learning to a new curriculum continued professional development for teachers and administrators is needed and an extension
047of the monitoring is urgent in ensuring sustainable cultural shifts and system change please continue to focus on Literacy for all in bu USD thank you thank you as well we will now uh continue on with our uh committee comments this evening uh I believe that we have a number of committee comments that we will uh receive at this time and so if you are going to make a committee comment please uh join us at the podium as a reminder um our committee comments uh committee commenters will have five minutes to speak um for each committee that they are representing and we will begin with our committee comments from our audit committee thank you uh good evening members of the board and superintendent Mortel colen and colleagues I'm lri Snowden a member of the audit committee
048our other members are Isaiah rer Dan lindheim and our board members kadisha and our newest member Jennifer shanoski uh I'm here to give you an overview of the audit of our 2023 2024 financial statements and our independent auditor Charles Ry will give you the full report later on and answer all of your questions um the main takeaway is that for our federal programs we received an unmodified opinion that means there are no audit findings no questioned costs or control issues no modifications to the financial statements were required so an unmodified opinion is the best you can do for the state programs we did have three findings although none of them Rose to a material Level but they all Rose to a level where they had to be reported uh the first was in attendance accounting
049at two School sites one student per site was improperly claimed for apportionment with a cumulative overstatement of two days of attendance with a total effect of 02 or 2100s of an ADA the error was below the 05 Ada so there's no fiscal impact uh but it does have to appear in the audit the cause was clerical error the remedy is additional training for staff which management will provide the second finding was in the independent study program it has some fiscal impact but still minor for two of the 25 people selected in the traditional long-term study there was no teacher signature on their agreement but Ada was claimed for them for one of five pupils selected in short term uh the agreement lacked other information required by the Ed code but Ada was also claimed the
050total impact was an overstatement of 1.93 Ada with an impact of about $25,000 uh the district will revise and resubmit attendance reports to reflect this in addition management will Implement overall controls to ensure independent study uh agreement sorry Inc compliance the third finding was in the Asus program Afterschool education and safety at both sites selected discrepancies in the pupil counts were found between underlying documentation which consists of the student signing in and the total report the impact was an under report of6 16 days uh you may remember there was a similar finding in last year's after school although it was smaller it was 10 days and after school one day and before school the fiscal impact was uh pronounced to be undeterminable so there's no restatement required uh uh the cause again was clerical error
051possibly compounded by staff turnover and the inherently more casual nature of the after care um the overall takeaway is that we had a very clean audit these last findings were um minor ones of low to no fiscal impact the district is fortunate to have a conscientious and talented people in fiscal Services headed by Pauline who has been keeping a solvent for years and the auditor particularly called out Emily for her hard work in moving the audit forward and you'll notice that it was delivered on time this year so uh we would also like to thank Vivien who seamlessly supports our work and we' like to thank the board for your continuing support and attention especially those of you who are currently serving or will serve or have served thank you thank you as well for
052your comments uh just to point out to the community and to the Board of Education we will hear a little bit more um about uh that uh audit report when we uh reach item 13.1 on this evening's agenda but thank you for that very um thorough and important update uh it is always great news uh great to hear good news about um our audit and so thank you for that tonight we will receive our next committee comments thank you good evening superintendent and school board members I'm Rita Smith this is Diana soy two members of Berkeley PTA Council EX executive leadership team we're here to highlight some of the issues we as a collective PTA have been discussing and working on uh the B PTA Council hosted interim director uh Yousef Aletta who spoke at
053our September meeting we felt optimistic about the commitment to find practical and useful solutions for our Berkeley working parents including informing parents of registration in the spring for a fall enrollment um which will alleviate the stress for parents of not knowing until two weeks before school starts um which is what's been the pattern um allowing parents to plan better for Alternatives as needed another practical after school solution involved working with the city of Berkeley to expand their after school programming to increase adding an additional 100 students while 100 student students is less than 10 students per Elementary School it is a step in the right direction expanding access to after school care for families in need um there's several issues of trans parency Outreach and communication that have come up as a concern for the
054relationship between many families with US USD um we are grateful for transportation options provided by the district which supports schools with diverse populations and helps with a uh with school Afterschool Sports communication and Outreach regarding bus transportation needs Improvement do parents know the policy for who qualifies for bus transportation how are families experiences with registration is there sufficient information or Comm communication feedback on our end is that new and returning families experience inconsistent Outreach and information is limited we're told to ask the principal principales have no information we're told to email Transportation emails are sometimes answered uh we're told to call after not receiving response via email for example one parent with two students had no idea about the Long Fellow bus and was paying out of pocket for bus Fair uh for her child
055we've heard parents just give up the website has a fax page which these are helpful but many families find not sufficient we would suggest a survey as a means of better understanding family Transportation needs and then ongoing on an ongoing basis to have effective Outreach and communication and support for families to get information sooner we ramp up support at the end of the school year and again during the month of early August and September for communication on PTA adding information to weekly newsletters um in addition to current would be a helpful way to get this information out additionally we can can we publish bus schedules um can we provide Outreach to our most vulnerable families similarly with the looming list of capital projects scheduled for many if not all our schools communication and and transport
056or communication and transport transparency sorry is vital we understand that we are stakeholders but we are not decision makers in the process of these projects many parents are concerned concerned with how buusd has administered uh the facilties upgrades to ensure that safe the safety of our students the most recent enormous projects um and concerns have been the renovation of syia Mendes and Longfellow though necessary for project completion it's not ideal and maybe not even safe to have construction completed near children Outreach continued Communications status updates and Town Hall meetings are a must to facilitate transparency and build trust parents want to know what the changes are and how it will impact their children what is the safety plan what is the protocol to voice concern these plans should be provided to families before the project
057starts town halls and continued status updates be standard and not a reaction to a concerned Community why do we ask for outreach to build trust while there's been significant change in Personnel over the last several years many decisions made in the pandemic lacked transparency leading to waning trust in the system the bpta offers solutions to improve communication between the district and families the superintendent monthly A+ newsletters and videos are helpful keep websites updated with relevant information use a multi-prong approach School principles provide weekly newsletters our ptas have strong e trees use the PTA as a partner to disseminate information rebuild the trust based on transparency and being true to your word anxiety is likely to build as we as parents anticipate a national political narrative that is going to try to split our community apart
058we need to anticipate this and be proactive with leadership from the superintendent messages to principal letters and to ptas lack of response is a response we advise that we stand together and help lead our ptas across schools are still fundraising to plug oh plug holes that school budgets cannot meet and can with continued budget cuts to the general fund we expect there to be more holes I will stop there thank you thank you PTA for your comments this evening thank you we will move to Union comments are there any Union comments hearing none we will now move to board member comments is there a board member who would like to start us off director vasudev thank you president Brown good evening everyone um just want to thank everyone who came out for public comment tonight
059I'm sad that our students left CU I had a message for them but hopefully they'll watch the recording later um are you from the tennis gr uh thank you thank you for staying um I'm especially grateful uh to have heard from all of our students on the tennis team and I share their frustration waiting for the new courts um to say that this is an inconvenience would be an understatement uh you have my commitment to push for for your new courts and I know that uh coach Julie and I met recently and I'll continue to follow this issue I also am serving on the facility subcommittee so will be happy to follow up there as well I also want to thank our Long Fellow families who spoke on the phone um spoke on Zoom uh
060for also attending our meeting and expressing their concern about the construction on campus I know that this has been uh a sore uh point for a lot of our families and uh we'll also be following up with our facilities director about that finally I want to thank our immigration advocate who are here tonight speaking in favor of our undocumented students and their families I also want to thank the Committees for your comments tonight and your requests for improved Transportation I have been meeting one-on-one with families who share those concerns and with the superintendent to see how we can streamline and improve our transportation on the district side and at the same time we and collectively the district and in general all school districts in Alam County need to do a better job working with AC
061transit to make sure that our students that are eligible for affordability passes the student transit pass program are signed up for those programs particularly at the middle school and high school level so I want to thank uh the ptas for your comments as well thank you and I know I think you sent those in writing as well to the board so much appreciated yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking at a community rally outside of the Berkeley city council meeting right outside these doors in support of historically significant vote from our city on the resolution reaffirming Berkeley as a sanctuary City I want to publicly thank mayor isi council members bab and Luna and the entire Council for their support of our our undocumented Community my concern for undocumented students is that with mass deportations
062and raids in communities there will be irreparable trauma inflicted on innocent generations of children we've already seen these impacts this year in counties such as Kern County and tari County where due to the recent immigration raids families are terrified to send their children to school and there has been a decrease in school attendance actually called a supervisor in too County and spoke to them this weekend about the impact that these raids have had on the students in his County it's pretty heartbreaking this past weekend director corn and I had a similar interaction where we met with immigrant rights advocates in Berkeley and that same fear and anxiety that's being felt right now by undocumented families in the Central Valley is being felt by undocumented families within our Berkeley Community immigrant families need to feel protected
063by both their school district and their City our children participate both both in school programs and City programs and these programs need to talk to each other about how how they will ensure the safety of undocumented students and the safety of their loved ones the board has received a petition from over 200 community members asking us to better coordinate with the city to keep our undocumented students safe director K and I have been in contact with city leaders since December and are working in collaboration with our city leaders to introduce our own resolution for B USD reaffirming the district the district's commitment to making BD campuses a safe zone for undocumented students and families and will strengthen this resolution by outlining our collaboration with the city of Berkeley as a reaffirmed City of Refuge and
064Sanctuary many other districts including Oakland Unified Al unified San Jose Unified monter Peninsula unified and many others are calling on additional protections for their students in light of the hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the federal government on the February 5th agenda you will see a resolution strengthening our District's work with the city of Berkeley to protect our undocumented students and their families and I want to thank my new colleague director Jen Korn for her Ally allyship and Leadership co-drafting this resolution with me next Monday director corn and I will be meeting with City staff mayor isi and council members blacka and Luna to discuss how we will coordinate more closely to protect our undocumented students and incorporate any of these high level coordination agreements from that meeting the meeting on the 27th into the language
065of the resolution the director K and I will bring forward at the February meeting I want to remind the public that BC rejects any legislation or action that dehumanizes marginalizes or violates the rights of our immigrant students and their families in our community and beyond our classrooms will be safe welcoming and humanizing spaces for all of our students thank you for coming tonight thank you director vasev director cor would you like to go next yes thank you very much um I want to Echo all of director vasu dev's um gratitude to the many folks who showed up um to make public comment both in person and online tonight thank you for your participation and your advocacy and I hope that we can work together to solve um the tennis court problem um and yeah anyway
066I will continue um I began my week on Monday morning at the 14th annual city of Berkeley Martin Luther King Day breakfast with the superintendent and president Brown um it was a beautiful celebration of our community and our schools were particularly lifted up as be SLA Cutler former School Board president was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award win and several other students in middle school and high school received awards for their leadership and their community service it was a really lovely way to start this week and it was one of it was the first of many times this week that I have been grateful for and proud of our Berkeley Community where we are leaning into caring for each other being courageous we are leaning into mutual Aid committing to protect one another in spite
067of the chaos and cruelty in Washington on that note as many have already noted tonight tonight we will be voting to reaffirm our protections for our undocumented students and families after our city council last night unanimously reaffirmed that the city of breley is a sanctuary city after reaffirming our existing protections for undocumented students tonight at our next meeting as uh director vasu Dev said we'll be bringing back an updated resolution with even stronger protections written into it as we've been preparing these for these votes we have heard from community members who are understandably afraid for themselves and their children during this time of heightened threats and uncertainty for our immigrant communities the main thing that I want to say to our community tonight is that we will take care of each other our district is
068committed to doing everything we can to keep all of our children and our families safe additionally I want to say to our transgender students who are also under attack from the new Administration in Washington that we are here to protect you as well our policies are clear each School must ensure that all students stud including lgbtq students are provided a safe and supportive learning environment that is free of harassment discrimination intimidation and bullying our policies regarding students right to be addressed by their chosen name and pronouns remain in place along with our policies regarding restroom access participation in sports and much more I am thrilled that I will be the board liaison a board liaison one of two board liaison to gack this year and I look forward to working together on lgbtq and student
069transgender protections lgbtq and transgender student protections um and as the superintendent mentioned we are also celebrating disability awareness and History Month in BD this January I have been very proud to see my former Oxford student Cleo and Eli and Matthew who were Superstar volunteers when I was the principal at Thousand Oaks featured in some of our district Communications about disability awareness this month all three of these young men are amazing and inspiring leaders um I am very much looking forward to the MonDay disability awareness month student L panel discussion and to celebrating the many gifts of the disabled and neurode Divergent young people in our Berkeley unified Community I am also excited that I will be working with the newly formed DCC disability Equity special education advisory committee this year and I look forward to
070strengthening our Partnerships between BD and the families of our students with disabilities um I'm looking forward to tonight's report regarding our literacy Improvement program and to the update from special education and I'm pleased that tonight we will approve committee assignments and I'm eager to get to work thank you director Korn a student board director Clark all right good evening everybody um before I begin I want to wish you all a belated happy New Year and merry Christmas and I hope everyone had a joyful and restful holiday season um and for the students I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and are feeling ready to continue the new semester and all all the all the opportunities it brings um it was really great to see so many familiar faces from Berkeley High at this Sports board
071meeting um and hearing about the challenges our tennis team faces without courts was um eye openening to me especially regarding the safety concerns it raises I'm also very encouraged by the support shown tonight for undocumented students educational safety and Sanctuary through the passing of resolution 16.5 um the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of events projects and New Beginnings um and tonight I'd like to reflect on some new recent milestones and acknowledge the incredible work happening in our school Community uh first and foremost I want to highlight today's achievement Gap panel um hosted at Berkeley High School in the library which I had the honor of co-moderating alongside a fellow student Eva levenson um and hearing from the inspiring panelists and watching students actively engage by asking thoughtful questions and exploring concrete um next
072steps was very encouraging um and addressing the achievement Gap is no small task at all but this event was a strong first step and I'm really excited to continue collaborating with all of you on meaningful Solutions um I'd also like to take a moment to reflect on the Wildfire still affecting Los Angeles um and my heart truly goes out to everyone impacted especially those here in our community with families and loved ones in the area as someone with family in La I know how deeply this resonates and I wanted to say that we're all holding them in our thoughts and prayers as they navigate these incredibly incredibly challenging times um and finally as we reflect on the significance of Martin Luther King Jr day which we observed this Monday I wanted to leave us with
073a reminder of his powerful words which is life's most persistent and Urgent question is what are you doing for others and so as we move forward into this year I challenge all of us to think about how we can answer that question whether it's advocating for equity in our schools supporting those in need or finding ways to uplift our peers our actions have the potential to create lasting change and so thank you for all your time and continued commitment to our community and I'm looking forward to everything we'll accomplish together in the months ahead thank you thank you director Chang thank you so much um good evening and happy upcoming Lunar New Year which starts one week from today um while the New Year provides an important time for self-reflection uh over the past year
074it is an opening to New Opportunities beginning with cleaning your home um firstly I want to support the superintendent and my colleagues call and their efforts to continue to provide programs and services equitably to all of our students regardless of citizenship status in a public education Mission focused thus non-disrupted manner rights that were established in decades old Supreme Court president thank you former board U president Bia Cutler student staff and teachers for speaking your hearts and Minds in public comment at this important public forum BHS tennis courts seeking home courts and congratulations to girls tennis um I also appreciate the got courts meme um previously serving on facilities and currently s on the civilian Bond oversight committee is a very complicated long cboc um along with director shinoski there were a lot of conversations about
075where the courts would go and I encourage you to continue working with ourselves up here and uh those members of the cboc and the facilities um to ensure that your courts will be in place um which I support and also um uh condolences and thoughts and prayers to Mr Kalise who uh is in uh so involved D in um this important monitorization work and for his recent loss um and um thank you again to uh board former board president B Olivia Cutler Latinos Udin unidos de Berkeley and parents and staff on their support for the safe Zone resolution again uh to provide Equitable and non-disrupted delivery of programs and services to all of our students regardless of CIP status as established in many decades old US Supreme Court president um in addition uh we do
076hear of course the concerns and feedback raised about Communications efficacy and concerns of impacts of District construction um I know that these are um uh events that are of course have to be done and um we have the benefit of measures in uh Berkeley that were passed to support the building and renovation of our schools and sure that they have um safety and Longevity uh through the future um we I we are also hearing your your uh concerns and suggestions and feedback for best way to engage with you Communications wise um please also look out for those many um Communications portals uh that were raised by the PTAC committee um that are currently available as well uh from the superintendent through principes at schools um all parents uh are able to access them in a
077timely fashion but I do believe that a lot of information is deemed through there that doesn't mean that we don't need to work further to ensure that there is that transparency um finally thank you for the committee comments and much appreciation for all the hard work uh in the audit committee as well the PTA executive uh leadership team thank you thank you uh director shansi almost last but not least um I I don't want to belabor or repeat the comments that have already been made by my board colleagues and many of you in the public um but I do want to State my own support especially for undocumented lgbtq plus aapi and other communities that are really feeling um a lot of stress and um anxiety this week um we're there with you and um
078you know as a white woman in America I stand as your Ally and whatever I can do to be supportive um I'm I'm here with my colleagues um I have a few things to report out on the first I want to start on a real highlight um Craig's rolling drop off so cgma is a school or one of our elementary schools up in the hills uh drop off has been tricky to say the least it's something that people have been complaining about for years um the roads are windy um everybody's in rush and there were a lot of complaints at the start of the school year uh one parent Jay king um came to me and we met up in the morning with the superintendent we looked at it all and we said let's do
079rolling drop off they said it couldn't be done but it was done so um the first week of school in January they rolled out rolling drop off uh with the support of Jay the PTA and principal Candy Cannon and put out the cones wore their yellow vests and rolling drop off so far has been a smashing success so when they tell you it can't be done just call me and Jay and candy and we'll get it done um literacy I just want to um I know we're going to have a discussion later on um but I want to just take this moment to shout out our very own Jill hogendyk Chris albeck Rose James and all the staff and teachers who have really buckled down and made some huge shifts in a district that many
080people said would be unwilling to shift um it is huge to try and move that Boulder um and so I'm just really proud of the work that bosd has done and I am optimistic that it will continue and that this board will ensure that the work continues um I was happy to attend my first audit committee meeting yesterday um and again it was great to see the great work that's happening under our very own Pauline fenby um and I wanted to just raise um to my board colleagues um some attention to the concerns that are in the audit report about our after care programs um this is the second time that those concerns have been raised and I'm hoping that perhaps the policy committee can really dig into some of the issues um with the
081attendance there so that we can avoid future findings and also potentially solve some other challenges that are associated with our after care programs I um as was mentioned by a public comment I attended the Longfellow parent meeting last night um and I know that people have a lot of anxiety and are feeling like oh this Workforce housing project you know is a big Blindside on top of the the the move to um fellow on San Pablo uh the workforce housing project has been in the works for many many years it was voted on finally by the board in 2020 and there are a number of really complicated working pieces to that project including funding both state and local public and private uh permitting policy development Etc it's a partnership um between BD who is leasing
082the land and the develop ERS who will actually um do the project and manage the project um it's one of the first in the state and it is really allowing our district to provide an option for housing for BD staff many of whom grew up in Berkeley but have been priced out they'd love to come back they'd love to stay in the district but they simply can't afford it uh nobody could have anticipated the significant extent of the work that was going to have to be done at Longfellow uh necessitating a larger budget and a longer construction time um but the workforce housing project really can't be shifted um because of that um or in lie of that um I want to commend bosd staff for working really tirelessly to shift priorities to make the
083moves necessary to try and keep things moving as seamlessly as possible and I know that I I can speak for myself and I believe I can speak for my board colleagues and the staff within BD to say that student safety really is always top of mind it is number one um and we will do our level best in every way to ensure that everyone is safe and we can construct some really fabulous housing for our deserving staff uh I'm almost done tennis courts um so a recent search of our yearbooks by our very own yasmina vites did I do it right I try hard um uncovered the first mention of any girl sport in a 1903 uh yearbook and it was about their interest in tennis and I quote although as yet they have no
084court of their own nevertheless they have played together so it's been been since 1903 that our girls tennis team has been looking for a home uh the facility subcommittee special meeting um in December in late December we assessed all of the projects all of the bond projects and tried to reorder things and figure out where our priorities were considering the extent of Longfellow and other project changes and costs um and we look forward to that coming to the uh board in February so that we can give you all an absolute construction and completion date for Berkeley High's very own tennis courts which um we are have committed to before and hopefully will commit to again and finally I just want to thank uh win and Ava uh levenson for the panel that they hosted today
085it was really an honor to sit on the panel and be with Berkeley High students alongside our superintendent and and uh former director babit and talk about the achievement Gap and what we are trying to do to address it um and I look forward to continuing that conversation with this group so that one day when Ania say can the kids all read we all get to say yes that's it thank you director shinoski you are thank you it's always so difficult to go last because everyone has already said what you're going to say and you said sound like a broken record so er rer here we go uh good evening everyone and thank you for joining our board meeting um I would especially like to thank those who emailed the Board of Education and those
086who spoke tonight um in regards to uh the Brickley High tennis courts uh and ongoing uh commitment that we need to actually commit to um the resolution to reaffirm our commitment to the education of all children and making B USD campuses a safe zone for students and families those who spoke tonight on the literacy action plan uh and the need for uh ongoing work those who spoke this evening on Workforce the workforce housing project um as well as our committee comments from the audit committee and PTA first and foremost I'd like to say happy New Year to everyone it feels a little awkward uh to be saying Happy New Year uh 22 days into the new year but because this is our first board meeting of the calendar year I will say again happy new
087year and I still believe it is appropriate to say uh a new year is a time for New Beginnings a time to pause review and renew our core values a time to reaffirm our beliefs and a time to embark on new commitments for ourselves our loved ones and our communities during what I identify as scary unsettling um a bit familiar but in some ways unprecedented times um we are currently standing and living in those and as we embark on this New Year let us not live in the paralyzing walls of fear here but let us do something to liberate to support to cover and to protect our community members during during the most important times I'd like to thank director vasudev and director Korn mayor isi the members of the Berkeley city council uh City
088staff Bud staff Latinos zenos de Berkeley uh and members of various Faith communities and countless other community members for your work and efforts in reaffirming and solidifying our on commitment to stand strong as a Berkeley Community by making our campuses safe zones and supporting our Sanctuary City status it was a pleasure to be in community with so many people last night um during the rally that happened just before the city council meeting um it is just a a reminder that um we are united together as Berkeley and that um being united together is the most important thing that we can do during this time tonight you will see it agendized as an information item however I'd like to uh invite all of you to our meeting on February 5th where the Board of Education will
089see this resolution uh come back to us as an item that the board will actually take action on so please come out in February you will uh see us reaffirm that resolution as well um as be introduced to a new resolution and so thank you again director kin and director vasudev for you're working for your service on that uh Monday the nation paused to identify memorialize and celebrate the Life and Legacy of the late great Dr Martin Luther King Jr I like many of our community members uh were intentional about dedicating our time Monday to focusing on the birthday the dream and the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King and not much of anything else many of us spent this day participating in community service project Ed projects educating ourselves and others about the work
090of Dr Martin Luther King and other Giants in the fight towards civil rights this year I along with superintendent Ford Morel and director Korn did as I do every single year which uh is to attend the uh Berkeley Martin Luther King Jr breakfast this has been uh one of my favorite EV events bringing our city together to celebrate a great man uh and those in our community who are continuing his dream but for obvious reasons this year felt much different and it felt really necessary as as we gathered around to focus our energy and our attention on the positive work uh that is happening in our community work being done by our amazing students in our own District who we honored like our very own School Board directors winter Clark and School Board uh director
091Armstrong who are doing amazing work at their um respective School sites and doing amazing work here on the Das if we can pause and give them just a little bit of love we also spent time recognizing uh Community organizations that are really the pillars of our community and help to support some amazing initiatives that um that are so necessary and needed during this time um as well as uh celebrate and honor our Lifetime Achievement Award Honore Mrs Beatrice Lea Cutler please give give her a hand as well uh although I woke up Monday morning uh in fear nervous sad frustrated scared for what uh was to come I actually am so happy that I spent time at the MLK breakfast because I left Monday's event reflecting on my favorite uh quote by Dr Martin Luther
092King that rigns true during this time now more than ever and I want to remind everyone that despite what ERS are put in place despite who sits at the seat despite what scary Clips we see on the news please let us remember that Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that my favorite quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr I am going to actually skip all of the things that you all have already said uh and I would like to finally call your attention to some important items that will be discussed this night by the Board of Education as as well as voted on um while I'm excited to engage in all of our agenda items this evening I'd like to call your
093attention to item 15.1 the monitoring report on the literacy action plan in the past this has been agendized as a presentation but due to the advocacy from our community members as well as collaboration between our superintendent and staff and uh board leadership uh vice president Chang and myself it is agendized tonight as a discussion item so that uh each of you May uh see publicly uh how the board uh how the board has the opportunity to engage ask questions and provide Direction on this specific item so please continue your advocacy um and we will put that advocacy into action thank you very much we will now move on to item 12 which is our consent calendar is there a motion to approve this evening's consent calendar so moved moved by director vasu Dev is there
094a second second second it by director shinoski all those in favor please signify with the sign of i i i opposers abstentions the eyes have it and the motion passes this evening's consent calendar is approved at this time finally we will receive our presentation which is the independent audo report for the fiscal year ending in June 30th uh and we will receive your report at this time all right good evening uh my name is Char I know you have um a a pretty long report and so if you'd like you are more than welcome to take a seat those microphones work well but if you would like to stand you're free to do so as well I'll keep it relatively brief only because I know that um Miss Snowden did speak on some of that
095and so I'll keep it uh fairly concise for your sake um uh so my name is Charles rley as was mentioned before um I'm a senior manager with Crow LP and we conducted uh your financial and compliance audit for the year end of June 32 2024 and so uh you know we discussed earlier this evening as was mentioned by Miss Snowden some of the uh kind of results of that audit I wanted to just briefly talk about uh the scope and what that really entails between our objectives and our responsibilities and management responsibilities a little bit so um ultimately the financial statements uh are the the main component of the audit so that's kind of piece number one piece number two is your state compliance audit because you're here in the state of California you
096have an obligation to have um a separate audit over compliance with many different aspects of State Education Code uh and uh then your federal compliance audit which is where we audit your uh federal grants and entitlements because you spent more than the $750,000 threshold that the government says uh would require an external audit for compliance uh this year the federal audit included the special education cluster and the Child Nutrition cluster so they sort of rotate depending on how much is being spent on a program if there's new or different types of program like that Esser funding that we had for a number of years so we had to audit that um and so uh in this particular year um the special education cluster and the Child Nutrition cluster became of elevated needed to be audited
097hadn't been audited by for a couple years it needed to be audited as was mentioned previously we gave unmodified opinions over the financial statements and over over your federal programs and we had those minor relatively minor uh State compliance uh findings that we had identified and I'll say this you know there's been um there's an aspect of State compliance that is sort of one or the other it either is compliant or is not compliant and the way that it is written in the audit guide says that if it is not compliant whether it is a insignificant amount or a big dollar we have to say so in the report and so considering there are 30 approximately 30 different components in the audit guide that we have to audit um we have to um we have
098to do a lot of work into with regard to these uh Education Code Compliance areas and to have only a few minor items is uh quite an achievement so I would um you know kind of reiterate what was said before management being able to get us what we needed that it was correct and that it was on time allowed us to do our job and get the audit report completed and submitted on time as well so quite an achievement um the responsibilities piece that I mentioned so even though um management retains responsibility for the financial statements themselves so the auditor is there to give an opinion externally over those financial statements as to whether they're fairly stated in all material respects so we give um we give um not absolute Assurance but reasonable assurance that
099the financial statements are fairly stated and that's because we don't look at every single transaction and every single balance in those uh financial statements so um if you're looking at the audit report and you wanted just a nice easy takeaway of the results of the audit i' like to direct your attention to page um 93 of the PDF document or if you're looking at the physical page it's 85 um and that's our summary of auditor results so if you're ever looking at the audit report and you want to to sort of have one Cen clean quick takeaway of how that audit came about that's the page that you go to and I think uh is a nice summary as well it's required by government auditing standards to include it and uh is a final um
100sort of result summarizing so I would say that um again this is a clean audit this year we've had some challenges in years past um you know with uh with regard to uh compliance areas and whatnot and I think you know it was a significant achievement to be able to get the audit done on time and um which I didn't mention before that's due to the state of California based on Education Code by December 15 of each year following the fiscal year so we were able to submit that prior to that uh deadline and had a nice relaxing holiday for all of us as a result so I appreciate that um I'd welcome any questions that you may have over the results of the audit over um you know the process that we go through
101for the audit uh or if you want me to expand on anything thank you so much uh the board will just received this as a presentation tonight and so there won't be any questions uh that you will be able to take uh from the board of education but if there's anything else that you would leave us with we'll receive it at this time I have nothing else to add so I appreciate your time very much and appreciate management being able to um do what they did to provide us what we did so that we could provide this clean audit for you all this evening so thank you so much it has uh been wonderful to uh partner with you all we appreciate uh the findings of our audit this is definitely something uh that we
102should celebrate as a board and so again to assistant superintendent Fallin B and to your staff thank you so much for um all of your hard work thank you for uh 17 years of successful uh work and for hard work uh and for a phenomenal audit and so we appreciate you and we appreciate our auditor thank you very much uh at this time we will move to uh action item 14.1 uh which is to approve our board designes to uh our board committees and so um I will read out our board committee assignments for uh this year this calendar year so for a 2 by two committee it will be supported by uh president Brown as well as director shinoski our board policy committee will be supported by President Brown and vice president changen facilities
103will be supported by director vasudev and director shinoski cboc will be supported by directors uh vas director Korn excuse me and director shinoski and um FSM MO will be supported by direct vice president Chang and director vasudev the audit committee will be supported by President Brown and director shinoski G Shack will be supported by director Chang and director Korn um the African-American success advisory uh Council will be supported by director Brown uh BP and Bara pno will be supported by director vasu Dev and director Korn uh deac will be supported by director changen and director porn Pac will be supported by director vasu Dev and director Chang um ctac will be supported by director shinoski uh PTA will be supported by President Brown our Safety Committee will be supported by director Chang and director shinoski
104um and the deac committee will be supported by director vasudev and director Jin Kor and finally our sback committee will be uh done rotation style and so that every single board member will get the opportunity to participate um on all of our committees are critical and important but every single board member will get to participate um on the esbat committee rotation style um at this time I'd like to entertain a motion from the board to approve our committee assignments so moved moved by director shinoski is there a second second seconded by director Chang all those in favor please signify with the sign of I opposers exstension the eyes have it the motion carries and our committees our are approved we will take a five minute break before we um come back for item 15 which
105will be our discussion items thank you with item uh 15.1 which will be our monitoring report on our literacy action plan Mr Ellis welcome we are so happy to uh see you and receive you at this time thank you thank you I'm excited to be here and thank you for moving the item to discussion so I'm going to try to make the formal presentation about 12 minutes to leave a good chunk of time for you all to ask questions and dig deeper into some of the actions uh because these reports as you're noticing now look very similar um and so hopefully we can have most of the time spared for you all to ask questions of me so let's uh Jump Right In and looking AT progress to date of the different actions if you'll
106recall there are 37 actions that are part of literacy Improvement program and I've separated those into five different crosscutting themes if you look where we are currently December 2024 you can compare where we've been in the past uh semesters and uh we want to be seeing any of the action items in the dark brown which has subst cial progress um or in the tan which is adequate progress and then wherever there is minimal progress in the yellow or progress not evident which we don't have at this time uh that's where I have some recommendations for next steps so uh we continue to move forward in the progress uh and in this report I'll talk specifically about those four actions and also how as we move into the final phase of the literacy Improvement program some
107of those actions where there is Ade progress uh the anti has been upped for this final semester so uh those may be sliding backwards a bit since we're expecting um a more targeted level of implementation with some of those actions so the First theme is in accountability and what you'll notice here as before is adequate progress substantial progress with the majority of the actions uh the one action item that has minimal progress I'll talk about um in a minute so recommendations here specifically uh for that action item is to begin providing me with evidence of sight level implementation of priority actions here so one major theme of the report uh for this semester is the shift from collecting evidence at a district level to collecting evidence per each individual site up till now the monitoring
108plan that you've been following has been collecting and tracking progress across the 3 actions from a district perspective so moving forward uh what I'd like to see is collection of data particularly around uh priority actions at the individual site level so one of the themes you'll notice is there there is inconsistency and implementation um of some of the action items of the literacy Improvement program across individual School sites it's also clear that some school sites have implemented almost all of the action items and then there's other school sites that are on the other end of the spectrum that have partially implemented some of these actions so it's difficult for me to quantify where the district is as a whole if I'm not receiving that data at this point in time by site level so uh
109the district's working on figuring out what that might look like and we'll talk about some specific actions and examples where you could begin to see um how it's hard to evaluate where the district is without individual site level data so when we move forward into the questioning uh piece feel free to ask questions about specific recommendations or actions uh as I'm moving forward through these uh the second piece here is just um a technicality here one of the things the district committed to doing was surveying staff at the beginning um and throughout the process on their perceptions about this change initiative there was a lot of data collected at the beginning uh and so we need to compare the data with what teachers principles and staff members now see as their perceptions of the change
110initiative moving forward so a minor technicality of a survey there so in the area of assessment you notice there's also adequate and substantial progress when it comes to assessment it makes sense because this is the area that b USD tackled first by uh implementing the dibles and star assessment systems the recommendations here have to do with increasing the intensity with which assessment data is set forth to the district from the school sites so what you have here is a recommendation that came from your literacy consultant Dr Gibbons uh from the University of Minnesota that when it comes to tier 2 reading interventions progress monitoring and data collections happen every two to three weeks and I can expand on that in the questioning section if you'd like and then when it comes to tier three more
111targeted and specific intervention that that happens every 1 to two weeks um the evidence the district has shown me is that the sites have been trained and that this is happening at the sites but I have not received data for each individual site when I have visited the sites and then I've looked into edge of climber for myself I've seen huge discrepancies I've seen teachers that uh for example your reading Specialists that are doing two to three week progress monitoring for all their students and then I've seen some that have done it for one or two students um so if I have more solid data here that's collected it'll be easier for me to monitor but also if principles are seeing the site data then there's some accountability from the instructional leadership perspective as well
112and they can check in with uh where the progress monitoring is not happening at their sites too the third area we have is instruction and instruction the progress has uh been all over the place really when we think about it part the reason why we have two actions that are in the minimal band uh is the nature of how these actions were written so I'm going to go back and break down the two actions that are in the minimal band and show why it's there and how complicated those two actions are and then the recommendations you'll see here uh will make a bit more sense uh after these next three slides so the first is that there is evidence EV submitted to me of observations of kindergarten through second grade uh tier one explicit phonex
113instruction when it comes to Third and fifth grade um also evidence that uh principles are observing fluency instruction and then moving on to grades 6 through eight a similar recommendation however the tool hasn't been developed yet what you'll see in the next two slides is that the tool has been developed and submitted it has evidence for K2 a separate tool has been submitted for 3-5 and the district is still working on a tool for 6 through 8 um so here's how the action looks I'll give you some time just to read through that action by yourselves and then I'll break down the four subcomponents of the two actions that are in the minimal band so part of the work I've done with the implementation team at the district is helping deconstruct some of these more
114complicated actions so what you have written there the first piece is actually implementing a professional development program which the district chose as core so that's the first piece in there uh the second piece was then providing teachers the professional development on how that aligns with their curricular resources so that first you got to figure out what training you're getting which is step one then you got to provide the training and connect it to your curriculum which is step two the third piece in here has to do with coaching because in this action you see uh it's mentioned coaching and after coaching that there's also observations uh by the site level admin and some feedback provided so where we are right here is that the observations uh and feedback provided to teachers is the piece that
115has not happened yet um so that's why this particular action 13A and then the complimentary action 13B for Middle School are still at the minimal band that's a hugely important piece the instructional leadership from the site principles observing teachers in action providing feedback and also being able to quantify where your teachers are at how many teachers are implementing these strategies how many are not and for those who aren't what type of differentiat assistance do we have through coaching through uh the district literacy coordinators to help them be able to implement the district has implemented uh created some tools for principles to use so here's an example of the tool they created to observe kindergarten through second grade so that's been submitted as evidence where principles are at right now is together they're doing instructional rounds
116where they're coming in groups of three or four they're using these tools get together by going to one School site and then collectively getting used to the tool what is not happening and what will happen next hopefully is that the tool is then used once principes have confidence at their individual School sites with individual K through second grade teachers and that there is evidence of not only the observation with the tool but some type of feedback uh to the teachers as well for third through fifth grade the district has uh created another tool for the focus for those grades which is fluency instruction as with K through second grade the instructional rounds are happening where principles collectively are learning how to use the tool what has not happened is that principles are not using it
117consistently with their individual third to fifth grade teachers uh to provide feedback as well so that's one of the recommendations you saw before the sixth through e8th grade tools still being implemented but once uh sorry created once it's created then I would expect the same thing that it' be used and that there be evidence that it's being used at each individual sites and that feedbacks being given to sixth through eth grade uh Humanities teachers as well so a lot of work has been done in the area of instruction but this particular piece of observing teachers providing feedback and really looking for Fidelity at the sites uh is what's missing right now it's not uncommon in the third year of a large change initiative uh for implementation to be spotty across the board this is where
118active instructional leadership is key and principles really taking the lead at this stage is important up till now the district's taken the lead on the literacy Improvement program and uh that's the nature of a large scale initiative they had to have some direction at the district tools needed to be created training had to take place where we are now is the implementation is in the hands of the principles to really hold teachers accountable also to get teachers excited uh and find different ways to have these observations be part of the B USD culture um as opposed to something that happens every other year when it comes to intervention um this is an area where there's been much progress uh particularly in uh the K through five sites the recommendations from the last report were to
119really look at interven in grades 6 through 8 the district spent the whole fall doing that uh they restructured their reading support and reading implementation courses they audited their curriculum and they adopted a new curriculum rewards to be used alongside with Orton Gillingham morphology so there's been a lot there this recommendation was one I had from last semester as well I've been in many of these classrooms and I've seen instruction ac across the Spectrum and I think the teachers would benefit from watching each other at this level and doing some peer observations and learning from the expertise at each one of the sites and going across the three Middle School sites as well uh the final piece here in systems of support there's been adequate progress throughout the final action which is still in the
120minimal band is the most difficult action of all of them to complete the mtss specific learning disability eligibility plan the reason why this is going to stay in the minimal ban for a while is because it's the culmination of all the other actions in order for the district to use mtss as an eligibility criteria for specific learning disability all the other 36 actions have to be in place um and more has to happen with that as well so this is one of the most complicated actions few districts in California have done this so BD is also a Trailblazer in figuring out how to do this and um it's not surprising that this is in the minimal band it also feels a little strange on my end to see it in the minimal band because I
121know how hard the special ed department has worked the past year on this action but given the nature and the complexity of the action uh I couldn't move it forward yet until I see a complete or a completed draft at least it's still in the drafting process this final recomend recommendation uh had to do with the instructional leadership I mentioned earlier principles have received a lot of training so far in literacy and uh I'd like to see a similar training happen with how to manage a change initiative how to lead a change initiative um as I said before this is now a sight level implementation program and some principles are very confident with leading a change management initiative and holding teachers accountable others are not as uncomfortable so leveling the playing field by providing some
122targeted uh professional support for them uh could be really helpful for getting across this final piece here this final slide just talks about considering all of the pieces of a large implementation model where we should be and we should be here in this third phase after implementing the 37 actions really innovating those actions making them part of the school culture at each site uh and also having some type of fidelity with flexibility based on student populations uh teacher populations and the different School demographics as well all right I wanted to save time for questions I went two minutes over what I had planned so apologies there that is quite all right you were quite quick for us so thank you so much um colleagues I have about eight question questions so I'll just ask three
123and then um we can go ahead and go around Robin style my first question um is in regards to the assessment um section and so you know the district provides or doesn't the district provide um a Cadence of assess assessment so either that two to three weeks or the one to two weeks um so if so the data for each individual site um should be the same or the assessment time the times when assessments are happening should be the same for each individual site um and so I'd like to know more and maybe this is a question that um associate superintendent Hogan Dy could help answer but is there an assessment calendar provided and how do how how was that uh calendar being monitored why don't I start you jump in um so there is
124an assessment calendar that's been submitted as evidence it's very clear to uh teachers when their assessment windows are they've received training and there is accountability at the district level looking at who's administered the assessments and who hasn't um that's when in reference to tier one assessments those are assessments for all students so that happens three times a year so about every 10 to 12 weeks the uh recommendations I made here had to do with students who are receiving additional Services based on those uh benchmark assessments that happen three times a year so using those assessments if a student is identified in need of additional reading support then they begin to receive tier 2 services and so the progress monitoring goes from three times a year to every two to three weeks so we have enough
125data to be able to really monitor their progress throughout the year if they're still not making progress they receive tier three instruction and that's where the assessments happen on a weekly or bi-weekly basis what am I missing okay seems as you covered it thank you um I want to move on to the uh instruction section some of the feedback that um I've been receiving and I'm sure my board colleagues as well um is concerns around the progress uh especially for tier one for Middle School um so there um if we could go back to that slide Liz or Mr Ellis if you're able to okay um so in terms of uh grades uh 6 through eight um the the feedback that we're receiving is just that progress has been kind of slow on that and
126so I was wondering if you could um could speak to that um or if you'd like to speak to that as well same thing I'll start and then you jump in um yeah that that is true uh it's also why about a year ago I separated some of the actions for example 9 into 9A and 9B uh to show the progress that was happening at the elementary level which is 9A versus the progress at the middle school which was lagging behind um the district chose to start with Elementary and uh build on all the lessons learned from any of the actions at the elementary before tackling the similar Middle School action so that's why the Middle School actions tend to lag a little bit behind um what else well I will say that one of
127the other uh one of the other things that this board took action on in year one of the settlement was to approve a position of director of curriculum and instruction so part of year one was around um our resource capacity to support this work in uh across all 14 of our schools so we had to identify where we needed to put that priority Focus which felt that we needed to put our resources toward that early intervention and closing the Gap and making sure that our youngest students became readers quickly um we did then focus on the intervention components um based on some of the revisions not revisions the separations that were on that literacy Act ction tracker so U middle school is going to lag um but we have we're putting a lot of resources
128in this year to um complete the uh the pilot for the Elementary grades and then once we move through that um and identify our ongoing resources to support a new curriculum adoption in the elementary group um we will turn our attention to Middle School okay thank you I think for me that helps me understand um why Middle School is moving slow and so I think my better question is um outside of uh curriculum adoption how do we help it move faster y um so what I so I guess it's important to know that um we have been laying the groundwork for our Middle School grades our middle School professional development has been focused on literacy um one of the learnings that came out of conversations with other districts who were ahead of us in this
129work in year one was the importance of attending to that professional learning so we have been doing that with both our general education teachers and our um intervention teachers at the middle grade so in fact Monday is a PD day and our Middle grades will also be participating in professional development aligned with um that literacy work um we want to make sure that they have a strong foundation in that as we think about any potential shifts um and then looking at and analyzing that curriculum to see if there are any changes that we need to be made um there were primary concerns about curriculum as I understand it coming out of that settlement agreement um it was not here at the time of the settlement agreement but there was a a large focus and concern
130on on uh the tcrwp program in the Elementary grades y another Nuance I would add is that the settlement agreement specifically called out a review of the K through 5 Core reading program it did not call out a review of the 6 through eight uh what it did call for was supports to tier one curriculum for grades 4 through eight so the 6 through eight curricular review was never part of the settlement agreement and that Mak sense for our our settle settlement agreement as I think about um just the overall support needed in our district the reason why asked that question about Middle School is because if our students went through K through five with uh the challenges that they experienced from the curriculum and that was a level of concern how do we then
131support them where they are in middle school is my My overall question and so I do have another question so I don't want to stay here but I think it is important for us to think about that um from a curriculum instruction perspective um my next question is in regards to um uh the instructional observation tool so um glad we have the tool however um you know it's been stated that feedback um has not yet been provided to our teachers as it relates to this observation tool and so um what does our report identify in terms of timeline for this um to happen I know that just you know as a uh K through2 classroom teacher I know that um observation and feedback is really really um pivotal to the work that I do and
132to the work that all of our phenomenal Educators do in the classroom every day and want and want to receive um want to receive that feedback and so um I also want to know can this be included uh during the time of General instructional observations or must this um stand alone by itself because I know that for um our principles for um you know management level for our principles this could be something that they could kill two birds with one stone doing and so does the um report provide the opportunity for that so I'm just reporting on the evidence I've received and I've received no evidence of an observation feedback system uh at the school sites although meeting with individual principles there are some principles who've been doing this for years um however I have
133not received uh evidence that shows it's happening across School sites I've just seen that through informal conversations with principles and um so your recommendation would be that we need to see it across as you mentioned across all of our um all of our school sites and so um although it is something that we said we're going to do as a district we need to see the evidence of that at our school sites and so it would be the responsibility for us as a district to provide um the necessary tools to our really phenomenal principles to be able to give our great teachers the opportunity to receive that necessary feedback yes and I will say that that's work that we have started so similarly um there has been uh so one thing that we launched this
134year were instructional rounds so we have teams of teachers who are meeting um with meeting at school sites so that they can practice using the observation tools and work to calibrate on any responses that they might provide for a teacher we feel like this is really important because we want to make sure that we've got alignment on what do these instructional practices look like what types of feedback might we give um to these teachers and then more importantly how are we collecting that information because it will be important for us as a syst to understand uh where we have strengths and where we have areas to improve so that we can Target our professional development um in more strategic ways so that's work that's underway thank you director shinoski yeah I'd like to ask something
135directly related to that so when I was listening to you speak what I understood was that the tool was the evaluation tool was used by principles but now I'm understanding that there's a pool of evaluators and I'm just that yeah I'm not quite sure I understand the evaluation like timeline or process or how it's connected with like I would imagine that it's also contractual in some way so I'm just I don't really understand the evaluation tool implementation so maybe you could explain it a little bit to me I wouldn't call it an evaluation tool I would call it an obser ation tool so we um you will recall director albec um had shared we've got a little Mantra about learning it ex supporting it and then expecting it um so what we need to know
136is that if we have trained and provided professional learning opportunities for people to orient to key practices that are necessary for children to learn how to read and if we are going to be adopting new curriculum materials and processes and then providing professional development time for them to understand how to use those materials then we also have to understand whether or not they're implementing it so it's an observation tool right now we have been collaborating with our labor partners because we do you know we want um in this context of our emerging theory of change or Improvement ideal results require ideal behaviors and if want people to be using new strategies um one shared agreement this year for example is that phonic is going to happen every day in the Elementary grades um then what
137are the things that we're doing to support those behaviors and then uh supporting a system um that enables us to understand what's happening and um again if there are areas that need additional support in training that goes to the coaching and feedback components that Mr Ellis is is pointing out it is still going to be a shift for us because many of our um site based Specialists um that have coach and their title have been spending a a lot of their time serving as interventionists and pulling small groups um and that has implications for how schedules and things like that have been set up so there's all all sorts of things that we're attending to in the system but if we want to calibrate on specific practices it's important for us to have these observation
138tools so we know you know whether or not these practices are happening in in classrooms and then we can move into how well they are happening so we want to be mindful that that that in and of itself is a process okay um thank you I'm really glad to hear that about the coaching issue because I had talked to that I talked to Mr Alis about that before and so that's really exciting to me I think it's a really good opportunity for teachers to teach teachers and learn from teachers um and really get that uh practice going at at school sites and I hope that we also are considering Cross School sites with some of those um coaching um the other thing that was pointed out in this report that I'm excited about is the
139how to lead a change initiative I think that's really important so that all the work that's being done this three years on literacy we can gear up and do a lot of this work with our math and we can continue to improve and assess and change um and I think that that can be really hard in education um and so it yeah we can be really sticky as teachers so um I'm just really excited to see that called out and that's it thanks director V yeah I just wanted um to thank you for your thorough presentation and I was uh also just wanted to give the District staff a shout out because I do see improvements in terms of accountability on how um case managers are writing um IEP reading goals and so I just
140wanted to um give that a shout out and thank you for your hard work and a lot of um professional development goes into that so thank you and I have a question I'm just curious Mr Ellis at sites where there's a high number of English language Learners like a king Sylvia Mendes and Longfellow um how are we doing in terms of uh implementation is there anything that You' noticed that you would want to flag for the board and I know that's not specific very specifically called out in this report but I'm just wondering if you if you have anything for us that you'd want us to consider not specifically for those schools partially because I haven't received evidence that is site specific um I have also not received evidence specific to certain student populations um
141so I can't really speak uh to that but hopefully when I do start receiving more specific implementation uh data then I I can speak a bit more to that ask the associate superintendent so what I what I will say is we have been looking at data across program groups and sharing that with the board um you saw that in our October data presentation um and we will be coming back to you for our midyear data presentation in February um what we have been including in the quart in the quarterly reports and so the quarter 10 literacy action plan report is on this agenda um are our star and Dibbles data so you will see um window one which was the fall administration of star and Dibbles so back to the screening assessment three times a
142year um uh assessment windows that Mr Ellis was referring to so um in the appendix of that quarter 10 report you we do have um grade level data by ethnicity Mite program for the star and Dibbles reports um K through 8 great thank you and I take it that the on the accountability summary that was presented in terms of our progress like when we talk about like special education and how case managers are writing improving the literacy goals that happens for students that are dually identified right that are like English Learners and sped students so they are also receiving um those improved um reading goals great thank you I mean your Point's well taken though once we have data that's broken down by site level and ethnicity and program I mean that's the kind of
143data we want to be looking at uh but I haven't received that data yet Dr coin thank you um thank you so much for your report um I really appreciate the emphasis at this stage in the in the process on sustainability and on the the change management challenges and how accountability and professional learning and Leadership and program supports are so critical for sustaining all the work um I think I understood from your exchange with um president Brown that there is quite a bit of consistency and Fidelity in our tier one assessments but not so much in tier two and tier three correct yes I'm curious from a change management perspective if there's something we can learn from those from that consistency and our tier one assessments that can inform how we improve the consistency in
144our tier 2 and tier three assessments great I I think it's accountability when it comes to tier one assessments uh the district literacy coordinators have been checking to see who's submitted their data when it comes to tier two and tier three there's not been one point person looking at each site and then providing specific feedback to for example interventionist providing tier two intervention who are not progress monitoring every two to three weeks um so one question I did have was who is supervising the collection of data for the tier 2 uh assessment screening but also for the tier three great that's really helpful um I guess my other I I'm I love change management so my my other change management question is really thinking about principles as instructional leaders and the ones who need to
145lead the next phase of this change um I guess I'm just I'm I'm curious if you see any particular challenges or barriers that you want to name in that Ral yes I I would love to I've met with principles multiple times and this is a literacy initiative and uh many times the principles who feel the most confident leading through this instructional change have some type of a literacy background a special LED background uh however that's not all your principles we always have principles who might have taught math at the middle school and are now in charge of an elementary school so what I found is the principles who have a strong literacy background from their teaching um have been leaders when it comes to accountability however some of the principles who may not feel asess
146confident and their leadership skills around literacy uh maybe lagging a bit uh due to their lack of confidence in the subject matter that's such an interesting reflection because I heard you saying that up to this point a lot of the training for principles has been in content in literacy and you're suggesting that now the training should shift to more about leading change rather than the literacy content but it sounds like they still need literacy content support as well in relation to change right but it's all some of those principal meetings there's a lot of uh content knowledge however there's not a lot of follow through with next steps was one of my noticings um so that's kind of the change management piece connected to the content learning thank you yeah thank you so much just
147want to say thank you to you for bringing this uh thorough presentation and also for the team here at The District in putting this in place um just a couple of um uh references to to U items that my colleagues I think I've already raised it's the coaching and the team based learning um for efficacious implementation across the district um there's been concerns raised um about um uh track at the different schools and as you pointed out um it's common at this phase to often have uh lots of opportunity for traction Improvement across the schools and it sounds like this is what we're really emphasizing but this observation feedback aspect but team based learning or coach what we're calling coaching with principles involved um is really important and I and I support uh the other
148reflection upon that and also disaggregated data of course to make sure that um our targeting is is and our data is appropriately um granular depending on the student populations that we have here in brookley which are quite diverse and finally is there um is there any observations on a notion of like monitoring extension gu up be my only question um in terms of time frames for your ability to continue to do what you're doing thank you in terms of monitoring extensions that would be when we get to that which is the final report that would be based more around specific actions where there is still minimal progress um so that's a possibility uh monitoring for the whole literacy Improvement program extending that would not make much sense since um it wouldn't be a good use
149of time but targeted monitoring of specific actions uh might be needed but we'll know more there's still a few months and uh the sight level evidence will be really helpful in determining uh if needs to be some type of extension on specific actions or not thank you that's helpful uh Mr Ellis I I think we've reached the end of our presentation and our questions from the board so thank you so much uh for your ongoing U monitoring support that you provide to the district and for uh your partnership I think it's so meaningful that you are not just monitoring us but really partnering with us to make sure that this literacy action plan is one that benefits all of our students so thank you very much we appreciate your time at next we will move
150to item 15.2 our special education midyear summary I'd like to invite uh associate superintendent hogen dij as well as a special education director Sean massinger to present at this time good evening board and colleagues Liz are you controlling the slides or am I I see it just want to make sure okay got it okay uh we're gonna go ahead and get started um so good evening board members of the public superintendent and staff um we're here to present a midyear summary on uh uh special education uh work um this summary had been has been traditionally or at least I say traditionally this is my year two and a half uh in the spring um but we wanted to align this presentation uh two fronts one is uh January is disability awareness month um and we
151wanted to be able to sync this presentation to highlight um some of the activities that are happening there and also because we know that this there um are we are headed into a new budget balancing season um and we it is important as part of this presentation to understand um the fiscal landscape um for the work that we do to serve our students with IEPs um this all sits in the context of our district mission to enable and Inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world so tonight we are going to uh we're going to give a little information about the students we serve in this area of work the cost drivers for special education services and some of the work um that our executive director Sean
152maninger here and his team have been doing um to work on Cost Containment um it's related to our district Mission um we have a special special education Mission um and we are sorry put some notes there um just uh making sure that the special education department is is aligned to create and sustain an educational Community where students with exceptionalities are welcomed valued and appropriately supported in ways that enable them to learn and Achieve um we have articulated commitments to partner and engage our I AP teams which is inclusive of our school staff our families and our students to support the inclusion of students in IEPs in our classroom every day um and we also want to ackn knowled that the work of our special education department to support our students with IEPs is aligned to
153our strategic plan pillars which you see there on the right and our elcap goals that are on the left and other B USD initiatives that aim to strengthen inclusion and inclusive practices and to build toward Independence tonight um we will be touching on a number of our Focus areas including the ways that we support students toward academic excellence and wellness and belonging and we'll share the current fiscal landscape and work that we're doing toward managing costs responsibly and with that uh we'll turn it over to Sean Jill uh so the first thing uh we want to do is just get a bearing of who our students are um and the most important thing to remember is that up here are just numbers um percentages each one of those uh those numbers up there is an
154individual student with a uh complex uh uh relationship with the education system and um are each unique um which is um is the challenge with um all of our students as each IEP is individual uh so uh we have uh roughly you know depending on when um this data was pulled a few days ago we could have other kids that have joined um in special education but we have 100 uh 1,158 students in special education um there's about 9,200 students total in our district which makes us at 13% so we have seen an increase from uh last year which was about 12% um our state average is 14% and our federal average is 15% um so we have seen um an increase in the rise of uh special education percentages across um in our own
155District across the county as well as across our nation um down below here you'll see uh uh the breakout of our dis different disability categories um the numbers by race um of course the x is there if there's any student that's under 10 we typically uh do not report out those numbers um just for confidentiality reasons um so it's important um for us to um um just get a uh a glimpse into uh the world we're kind of dealing with now where we have a drop in numbers um overall for students but we have an increase in special education numbers which has impacts um on us fiscally um as as well as our um ability uh to serve students well next slide all right so this just highlights a little bit more about the um
156students with disabilities numbers uh it's rising at a faster Pace than enrollment U really across our County but also across our state and across um and across uh really um our nation as well um so you could just see the different numbers um of uh percentages for uh uh uh different districts across um our uh across our landscape and you can see that some are up to almost 20% Which is uh quite a uh huge number for a district to be um dealing with okay uh so it's [Music] it's important to understand uh where our most common referrals are coming for special education um one is our reading skill challenges two our behavioral challenges and three our soci emotional challenges um so it's also important to understand in the context that uh that uh special
157education does not operate in its own little bubble we uh are a service that we provide that are additional to what students should be getting at tier one you know we've said this many times general education student first and then they have an IEP um so uh our Cal we even have this codified in our California code that people shall be referred for special education instruction and services only after the resources of the regular education program been considered and where appropriate utilized um I also want to make sure that we understand that special education is a service it is not a place it's not a separate school um it's not a separate subject um and students with IEPs are not those kids they are our kids all of our kids um so uh these are
158different areas that we are always uh looking at to improve our services to ensure that we have strong tier uh one and two and three services before we um before referrals come for uh reading or behavioral social emotional challenges uh this is uh important to understand um this uh particular table is it shows that percentage of total special education expenditure supported by state federal and local funds and you can see from uh the uh right hand side from 2014 to 2015 all the way up to 2122 that uh the brunt of uh of of what's being uh special education support is coming from local um tax dollars um which means that if we have less coming from state and federal uh we are we are bearing the Brent of those costs um which uh you
159know can get very challenging especially when our state re revenue is insufficient to meet those growing costs um down below I put a little link um that you might be interested in that really goes it a little bit deeper into um the cost uh cost information um but as you can see uh the federal government um in 20145 was given 11% at 20 21 22 it's 8% um and if we go back to uh Ida when it started in 1975 the federal government had uh promised much more than that and we still have not received it no matter uh if it's a Democrat or Republican in office all right so this particular table is showing um our actuals from the last four years 2021 I put a little red box around it um so that
160you could um um differentiate that from um 2024 25 where they have the adopted budget um as well as the first interim budget and uh one thing to um notice is that our increase of the general fund contribution um had already uh was already had already increased if you look from general fund contribution line across the board there um we started out of 28 million um 98 4 4,000 um and within the first interm we um added an additional 1 Point uh 4 million and some of these cost drivers which I'll talk a little bit more are uh one to one services from non-public agencies um and also an increase in nonpublic school placements over this last year we did have a decrease uh last year in our nonpublic school placements but this year we've
161seen a bit of an increase um we also saw uh uh we also saw cost increase at our non-public agencies and non-public schools um they actually had a higher Cola than we had they got 8% Cola um while we got a three I think per Cola what is it now it changed yeah s so uh so I did do a lot of uh hustling out there and asking npas and NPS is like hey I noticed you did an 8% you think you can decrease that and and some some a couple did um so um but that was also a part of the increase in in prices uh this this particular uh table is just um essentially the previous table and it's put in graph form so you can see uh one of our um this
162purple line that's going up there is showing uh our uh number of FTE that has grown over the years part of that is um due to we have capped case loads a capped assessment so we've had to hire additional case managers last year we hired uh 4.0 additional case managers to help keep um case loads low to U meet our contract obligations with our unions um in addition some of these are replacing contractor positions that we never had uh uh internal positions or so we basically created those positions in order for that increase and some of it also is our addition of uh instructional AIDs that we've had to add over time um especially um after covid um due to increased uh uh increased behavioral needs or um or health needs uh so uh you
163can see again um if you look here the blue line going up um those are employee costs um contractual costs that go up um and you can see uh the orange line here that went from MPA cost we had a a a dip well we had a bit of a raise uh for mpa costs and then as you can see from adopted budget the first interm we've had that increase um in non-public schools is the next one and you see that we've um kind of done a little up and down pattern over the years depending on um the students that we get in our district um and there has been a slight increase um over this last U first interm so so you know I I think it it behooves us to always bring this
164up because it's very easy for us um as uh individuals as well as a system to say well why is special education costing so much why does it keep on going up um but it's really important to understand that a special education department does not control all the costs associated with operating programs for students with disabilities and all the evidence shows that the best way that we lower costs and Cost Containment is through really strong multi-tiered systems of support which we obviously are working on with the literacy action plan um and we work very closely with our partners and student services to ensure that there's good social emotional programs I mean one thing we did is we brought all of our uh our uh counseling in house we used to depend when I came here
165we depended 100% on outside uh counselors to come in and now all of our school psychologists are doing all of our um counseling and and therapy services within our own District which is great because it creates a more of a cohesive team um um at our school sites um because they're not just Outsiders coming in and dropping by and leaving they're embedded at the sites and working closely and making sure that all of these services are connected together um so this is uh this is work that we continue to do as a whole team and under our amazing leadership I think we've uh made some good Headway over the years um and we have a lot more work to do uh continuous Improvement as you see um this on every slide and every presentation we
166do um this is especially true for special education um and all of our IEPs as well as any of the professional development we are delivering what are we trying to improve what changes might we make um and why and how will we know if those changes led to Improvement um so we are always constantly um in a continuous model for improvement so some of our uh big cost drivers for uh special education are of course non-public school placements um our use of non-public agency folks um our legal settlements um as well as later labor costs and additional FTE um there are many more other costs um in special education um including technology um for not only for our uh our school psychologists and our our speech and language therapists they they have to have apples
167they can't have uh just your typical uh regular commu or whatever you call those the uh what our kids have thank you um is so and there's also assessment protocols we need to buy um so there are a lot of costs that come with special education um but these are four of our biggest drivers so I wanted to do um go over some of the strategies that we're doing for Cost Containment I won't go over them all but maybe you'll pinpoint one that you want to ask questions about so one I already mentioned was our tiered counseling support by school psychologist so we're also serving general education students in order to help avoid them from um possibly needing an I uh we have done a tendous tremendous amount of work in getting all of our
168case managers Trent Orton Gillingham um as well as doing dibles and progress monitoring and the next level we're moving to now is actually doing that tracking of tier three services in educ climber and actually at that site level to ensure all of our case managers are delivering those tier three or tier two Services either on a two to three week basis or a weekly basis uh we developed a special day class for uh 3 through five students which has saved us approximately $700,000 um we have seven students in there and if all those students were go to go to a non-public school um that would be around $700,000 for each of those students um um and we're hoping um in this next year I'm writing up a proposal for potential TK through 2 SDC um
169so that we have a pathway um for our St students from the lower grades uh we also have uh lots of trainings from our behaviorists uh and our uh augmented alternative communication team and our assist of Technology team and these are all proactive measures we do to ensure that our our student with more severe disabilities are able to communicate well and that there's understanding at the behavior is always communication um and that the better that we learn that the better the EAS the better we'll deal with our our students keep them in class uh non-public agency one of the big areas we did this year is we did I um did an i audit at each of the sites and what that looked like was essentially um listing all the students at the site that
170are receiving um any instructional Aid support um and putting like what what amount of SII um specialized AC of instruction they're getting um and um also looking at other things um like what level of trainings on building Independence have you done at your sites so one thing we've seen this year is a huge increase and amount of professional development at the site level um for our team so we have our um speech and language therapists our bcbas or behaviorists um as well as our uh our uh other specialized occupational therapies all delivering different instructional um um instructional professional development at each of the site level um and this is all in the uh and the larger umbrella of how do we build Independence for our children because we know that instructional AIDS if we're not
171careful can can actually build dependence um so we um we want to make sure that um our AIDS um are also receiving professional development which they are and this coming U professional development day we'll have all of our instructional AIDS our our um our mod severe teachers as well as our M mod teachers all in the same room for that morning which has happened for quite a while so that there's relationship building and then also how do we work um how do you all work and pivot as a team to work with uh each other in delivering um specialized academic instruction in the future we'd love to see our general education teachers also in that room um but for the last uh few trainings we have had our special education teachers at the um at
172the table with our general education teachers but we also want the instructional AIDS um built in there as well uh so uh other stuff we're going through through non-public agency is professional uh or development of internal positions versus contractors uh which I mentioned earlier as well as utilizing shared IAS versus is one to one so if there's an instructional a in the classroom they can support two or three students um depending on their level of disability legal settlements uh of course one of the big things is working with families closely um our disability equity and special education advis committee that was kicked off um we're having our uh second meeting uh tomorrow um we had a little postponement in December but we're back on track uh regular PD and coaching from our tsas and our
173supervisors at sites uh monthly principal super supervisor case management discussions to be proactive about what are the families we're struggling with um and also let's look a little closer at some of the uh at our case managers um and and how they're serving um students um and then of course we do a lot of alternative dispute resolution with families to avoid those legal costs and try to keep lawyers out of the um out of the picture as long as we can and and lastly for uh um additional FTE um you know labor costs you know one thing that BD has been um really uh put a lot of emphasis on is creating lower case loads we're very lucky to have our BP funds um as as well as our bar funds that we can have
174um instructional um coaches that work with our um teams and also help do assessments and also do coaching at the sites um all right so additional highlights I'd like to um keep on for I got two but here uh additional highlights um definitely want to highlight our disability awareness month and if you click on that link of course it'll take you to our website with all the different um resources and activities um but one uh big area that I want to highlight is that we're having a student L round table on inclusion and experience this Monday coming up so I'm extremely excited about that I want to give a little shout out to uh our BHA uh Berkeley High School senior Andrew uh Regan um and his mother Nicole shabo who have really LED this
175process and helped organize and um and I'm I'm very excited to uh be a listener and learn from our students and staff um who have disabilities that are willing to get up in in front of a uh um the community and talk about how their disabilities have um and their experiences and how they navigate this world um we also have our lifting up B staff voices um posters that we've posted around um which I also want to give a huge shout out because I don't think it's easy for um for folks to come out and say hey I have a disability um so and um that's a you know that's a that's a it's a big thing to put out there so uh every school has activities planned um for disability awareness month I've collected
176a lot of um that data from them and or anything from read alouds presentations a Long Fellow recently had an alumni uh with dyslexia that came back um and gave a talk to our students um and how she's persevered um through um her career I think she's a lawyer um uh I also want to really highlight our um expansion or our implementation of our alternative uh Pathway to the lioma with access to our our homebased students our extensive support needs extensive support needs is the new language for moderate sever mod severe you'll hear me say mod severe just because that's I'm used to it but technically it's extensive support needs now um and these students are it's all the way from 9 through 12 it's based on IEP team decisions which includes the parent recommendation
177um and we actually have five students on track um for path for this diploma pathway for 2024-25 which is a year ahead of um what were required from the state so I'm very happy and very and been very proud of that team for the work they've done and improving and recently we there was a a meeting with our home base and the parents and about uh 20 parents showed up so um we've done that two or three times now so we've we found that they didn't feel like they had a strong Community together to support each other and having these meetings um has helped bring those families together uh I also want to highlight uh the expansion of the transition support services and if you link on um click on that link you'll see a
178PowerPoint that they um did for um for our uh our Department of Rehabilitation and the Department of Rehabilitation said that we got an A+ um and they also said uh our BD's uh transitions support services and this is especially this is like helping students figure out their college pathway find uh positions um work positions within our community in order to prepare themselves um for um careers they want to go into um but they said uh it's a Shining Light and exemplary program in the state of California um so we're very happy and very proud of um our um transition teacher uh and lastly uh I want to uh talk about the counseling Rich program I think you all know that we had senica leading this program in the past and we made the big leap
179um after many years of having them there to basically hire our own internal staff our own social workers which is another reason why our FTE increased as well because we hired two internal um social workers and what we've seen overall is we've had a large increase in attendance from our students we've also seen a a large increase behaviors um and pending learning um so we're uh we got lots of work still to do but I'm very happy with the um the work that our teams have been doing at the sites with the teachers questions from you but I do want to highlight uh oh what happened to oh you're cut off that's right I can read it off the thing uh so essentially I just want to you know Ed Roberts father of Independent Living
180movement here in Berkeley uh his mother uh just passed as well who was also huge advocate for um uh Independent Living movement U but he says disabilities is strength our number one issue is still old attitudes towards us and these old attitudes sees us as helpless and unable and disability can make you very strong and very able um so that's certainly our Mantra as we move forward and do this work questions thank you uh so much for your present ation uh we have about 4 minutes and 52 seconds left for questions so I'll begin with director vasudev and then move to director shinoski thank you so much um for your presentation I especially like that you give a shout out to the disability equity and special education advisory committee and their work I think um
181it's really important that we continue to have these proactive Partnerships with our families and ending it on the fact that you know students with uh disabilities um are amazing and there are strength and they make me a better board member and they make us better Educators so thank you so much for fing that I wanted to chat about just one how we're taking input from this committee and I know we've only had one meeting but something that was brought up at that meeting from our Educators that I thought was um really Innovative was the use of student L IEPs in other districts in the Bay Area and how we can move towards that model and um one of our BHS Educators mentioned that's something that she's seen be very successful and also like reducing um
182uh you know kind of IEP conflicts because we better when you Empower students to speak about their disability and their specific needs it does bring you know both the district and the parents um closer together in that process so one our attraction around that and movement towards that that came from the committee and two I would love to see numbers for the use of alternative dispute resolution I think that's wonderful that you highlighted that as a goal of the sped Department would love to see numbers and the um practical work that we're doing to move there in terms of professional development for our case managers and making sure that that's offered as part of the IEP process because I think that's really important and would definitely help reduce some of the legal costs that we're
183seeing so those are my two questions thank you uh so the first as far as uh student L IEPs certainly that happens on our district we actually have a PowerPoint template that we've given all our case managers to do that um has there been a concerted effort across the board to do that um no but now that you're bringing it up I'll start talking to my supervisors about it um we have done an incredible amount of work um for our literacy action plan um so you know we have to be careful about how many things we lay upon our our case managers as PD but um I think that's uh it it's it's not even if you have a a student come lower grade student or something come for five minutes to talk about their
184strengths um it can be quite powerful and I know that it does happen on an occasion but it's not something we're seeing across the board and um and certainly I can I'll raise that with case managers and our supervisors and our and and just to add to that um director badf um you asked about how are we kind of collecting input from that committee as you mentioned that was the only the first meeting just happened a while ago we have our second meeting tomorrow but one of the things that the committee uh started to engage in the first meeting was really starting to align around what they want the priorities or the folky to be for the committee for this school year um we haven't landed there were a lot of great ideas but we
185we want to kind of um find to that at the next meeting in the third meeting because we are really trying to push all of our committees to be really clear about their priorities and folky so that there actually can be more momentum in movement and really focused approach to the changes that we're trying to make um so I haven't personally heard that one but we will definitely as uh executive director uh maner said take that into account but definitely come back to the board um with with the recommendations and the the priorities at the very least of that committee soon yeah and I I'm sorry what was your second question alternative dispute resolution love to have seen that as a cost mitigation strategy and wanted to know how we're increasing and if we have
186statistics on that uh yes our our uh our Sela director collects that regularly so I can provide that data welcome yeah first I want to correct an um oversight of mine so I did not give you or your um special ed team a shout out on the literacy action plan work and so I would like to um correct that thank you for all the heavy lifting you've done with that work as well um and then I have two quick questions one is on slide eight um there was a big jump from 2021 to 2122 a 99.44% increase in the cost and we had that listing of like various things that cause a General increase but I'm wondering that one was particularly sharp and is there a particular reason that it was so high from I'm
187sorry the cost from 2021 to 2022 from 2021 right to 21 so that was after covid and that was basically coming back after those years was it more students uh not necessarily more students but more intense uh needs so there was a sharp increase in the number of instructional aids to support um students because they were you know out for an entire year I mean some as much as we tried we are obviously doing a lot of virtual um but we also know there were certain students who had troubles accessing that and then also um the increase in the um non-public agency placements so do you know why that's happening and what specifically we can we're doing to yeah so minimize that part of is it is that we don't like other districts we don't
188have a um a Continuum of services as we've focused on inclusion so we don't have what other districts have like special day classes um and multiple schools uh and we don't have a mild mod special day class we only have one three through five um special day class so that's part of it so we don't have a u a landing spot for students who are struggling within our general education environments um so that's one area so that's why we developed the 3 through five um stdc um special day class at um at uh Malcolm X and we're hoping um I'm hoping and we'll be proposing it to um to my team of trying to develop a TK through 2 for next year um to help for those students that um are struggling with um being
189inclusive in our in our G Leed classrooms and the idea is always to go back to the least restrictive envir environments possible uh most of our um non-public um School placements are at the high school level um and there's a lot of um different things that help that are um a challenge one is um space we only have one large um well we have two we have our alternative schools well um but we have basically a school with 3 3500 students at Berkeley High School so um some of our students have a a hard time especially our internalizers um of being able to um operate in an environment like that um I think we've also seen seen a sharp increase in um uh mental health and um and um from our our our older students
190so we're seeing a rise in you know residental treatment centers and and in non-public agencies um so there are uh many many factors um but we're always looking to to um to bring those students back as soon as possible when we have that opportunity um my questions are kind of similar to uh Jennifer's and so I'll jump uh right in first of all thank you for your presentation I especially really appreciated um hearing the highlights and hearing all of the um upcoming events and the great things that are happening coming out of our um special education department and so thank you for taking the time um to highlight those and the various members of our communities who are helping uh to make those things happen you already know that my question is around budget um
191and specifically uh you know I just want to identify that we are not alone I say this all the time but we are not the only District who uh is seeing just challenging cost um as it relates uh to keeping up with our special education Services a lot of which um you already identified um has to do with the placement of uh students in NPS and npas um and I do know I I want to appreciate um the hiring of uh two uh new um two new um members of our community and wonder if um is it that we need to focus on um continuing to build our staff in the special education department um not just bu because we talk a lot about building um the capacity of our staff who's already there and
192we know that our staff members have gone through so many professional development trainings that they are uh well-versed that they have the the mindset to serve our students well um but is that we need to increase our staff so that we um can minimize um the placements of our students going to npas and nps's now I want to be honest and identify that there are some circumstances um to which we cannot um you know provide services within our our school district however do we see ourselves um moving to a place where if we increase our staff increase uh the specific staff that we have we could um you know keep some of our students in our school district yeah I think it's beyond staff it's about building a program that will serve particular students so
193for example if we wanted to build a program for um our older students that have more internalized um um behaviors um depression sual ideation then we'd want to create a program that um is that has a space for them where they um could potentially um yes they can attend classes but when they're feeling that anxiety they' be able to go back to their particular class with their teacher to be able and and uh therap or social worker to help them um navigate those situations um we do have as you know space issues in in in Berkeley Unified School District so it's hard to to find Space to build certain programs out um we do try to place students within our Sela as much as possible but since all of our other SAS are going through
194the same experience right now where they have increased costs um challenges with hiring um folks um and also increased um behaviors and and supports needed for students um we're all kind of working on this together um so yes I think building our own programs will help um with not having as many students go to non-public schools um as far as nonpublic agencies remember those are people that were hiring to come into our school district so um we've we've done a pretty good job with um retaining our um special education Staff last year was a little challenging we had quite a few teachers that we had to hire um but this year feels like we're we're doing much better um as you know there were some challenges at Berkeley High School last year but um things
195have really um mellowed and strengthened there um over this year um so there's definitely room for growing our own staff internally there's still some positions that I would like to build out that don't have match ing FTE um due to uh they're just hard to hard to staff positions so we typically contract out um but I would like to see us build our own our own staff here and every year we add a few FTE to do that um so I'm hearing that the answer uh to one of the parts of the answers to my question uh could be potentially that we do build out um our own staff with our FTE even though knowing that those are hard to fill positions um I am interested Ed uh in your idea of building out um
196our program the last time we had a presentation um I asked a very um a specific question about rethinking and reimagining um our special education department specifically thinking about programs and so it is so interesting to hear um that response from you today uh which was a little different than um than uh the last presentation and so I'm really delighted to hear that and would love to um kind of know a little bit more about uh what you were thinking or envisioning in terms of uh programs I heard you you make mention of how it could support our older students and so you don't have to go there but maybe our students on the middle school and Elementary School level yeah well like I said earlier I'd like to build out a um TK through
1972 um special day class um for um so that we have a pathway going up uh one thing to also recognize that um at the uh Middle School level what we did this year is we actually have core classes that we we've we've modeled it much like Berkeley High School where we have a home base so they spend um up to three classes um with um with their um special education teachers getting more and core instruction that they need um and then of course still go out and into general education classrooms that they U that they take um so that's a big change that we made from last year and we're um we don't have um all day you know special day classes um at the middle and high school level um which um know
198is a has its positives of course um but there are definitely students that we still struggle um being able to spend time in general education classrooms due to the severity of their disability thank you director Corin I was going to ask some of the same questions um I'm also really interested in your IDE is around developing new programs to serve students who were not currently serving well and sending to nps's um I'm really excited about what you're saying about high school students who are struggling with depression and mental health issues and internalized um challenges and finding some different ways to serve those kids um I hope that you can make that happen um On a related note a question that came up for me is around attendance um related because many of those students struggle
199with attendance um I was looking at some of our attendance data and it looks like students with disabilities is one of our groups that has some pretty low um attendance rates I'm wondering if you have any work that you're doing to try to improve attendance for our students with IEPs yeah we work very closely with um Dr Shelly from student services um he had some initiatives last year around um um getting more students um to school and doing trophies and whatnot at sites um so that work is continuing and of course um at all of our IEPs any student that is not um attending on a regular basis we hold IEP meetings with the family to talk about you know how can we support how can we we work with our family Liaisons at the
200site um there's a what particular case we're working on right now a student that's been out for over a year and um we've had a hard time finding placement for him and now we're actually working with the family we've found a place that we think we're going to bail place and the family Lon has taken the lead because they have the best relationship with that particular family member um so uh it's was there a second question okay no I think that's it just yeah it's late you captured it uh director Chang vice president Chang please forgive me okay thank you so much president um uh I I appreciate the um the amount of effort that's gone into U building capacity you're working in a complex environment sped is always a complex environment um in the
201um context of capacity building um I also uh appreciate and we've talked about this here previously I believe with um adding additional staff the 4.0 additional case managers last year which you point out replaced contractors is an important Direction um you know uh of course can I just making a correction so the four the 4.0 additional FTE was not replacing contractors that 4.0 additional FTE was because we had sites that were going over so our mild mod um our mild moderate case loads are at 21 um and our moderate severe case loads are at 10 or 11 so we were having sites that are going we we had a little bubble in the lower grades y so due to that we had to bring on additional ft to be able to meet those contract obligations
202so that our case managers didn't have like 35 kids on their case load thank you to address the contract obligations so I guess associated with that question um in terms of um capacity building uh in a context of uh challenging budget environments y um what are some of the challenges in 20 25 that you've see in terms of um hiring sped employees um in particular in a context where sometimes it can be uh more available to hire contract employees yeah uh well we work very closely with human resources um we visited last year actually went myself to a couple job fairs to help drum up some folks um one thing that I found is the best way is really Word of Mouth um when you have case manager that are happy they talk to their
203friends um the reason why we don't have trouble getting any school psychologists in our district is because we've created such a a a fantastic team led by uh one of our supervisors Shaya stum fig that um they've they've basically people are clamoring to come here now School psychologists because they like the model that we're using um so that's one area um we certainly reach out to universities um programs Sam do you want to add uh I just wanted to add um that the acoe the um Alam County Office of Ed is just launched um a par Institute um which is to help prepare par professionals like our special ed assistants um and we actually have five people who've already expressed interest in joining our district um and so our Personnel commission is reaching out to
204those five people to get them on board um but that's also one of the um aspects of working um both um uh uh associate superintendent henik and myself have worked very closely with acoe and about expressing what our needs are as a district so that they can help support those things we also have our own internal program and I just learned from Kitty McCarthy yesterday that we have a graduate I think in the pipeline who was a parah for a very long time and is now becoming credential to be a special education teacher so it's really exciting yeah our bpack program has been very um um beneficial um it's Berkeley packed it's the um a grant we get from the state um to help our classified employees become teachers and um we've hired six of
205our graduates um and every year we look to see if we have new graduates that we can hire um so that's great thank you so much that uh those pathways are so important and it it does sound like based upon prior conversations over the last two years that year and a half that have been on the board that there's some uh uh capacity building here and opportunities and and improvements um I guess one more question uh you know in terms of U building that capacity you know they could it could always be a multifactorial type of approach not just one solution of course and you've raised programmatic based approaches including like a wish list of a um special day class um which is interesting I'd like to hear more about that in in continuing in
206the future as well um but in terms of of um programmatic um options we have already with regard to mental health issues which as you noted with our more mature students older students in the high school in particular that there's a lot of internalized type of sped issues um how have um how has your your program engaged with the wellness center at BHS and has that been a useful space for that kind of programmatic absolutely building yeah we've uh had tours our home base have done tours there to prepare them to you know how do you use this space in a responsible in a manner in a way that is can actually um help you um so yes we've worked very closely with them um we've also uh you know as as we've said we
207have a a team of uh School psychologists and social workers there that are providing um tiered supports um to students and also to our general education students as well they'll do like maybe a six seven week cycle um in order to support them and help them so that um you know it it would be nice to see um increased mental health support services on the general education side at Berkeley High School as well and I know that's in the works and there's um Dr Shelly and his team is working on that um but uh it's uh even before covid we saw from the research there was there was spiked increases and um in students with suicidal ideation and depression um part L um I think that's due to our social media world that they're living
208in and um so um it's we're continue to work on that we've seen um we've seen a marked improvement this year from our teams uh one of the big areas that we really worked on was getting our general education and our special education administrators to work more closely at not uh not um departmentalize um our our special education program um which can be very easy to do and um if you're not careful about that um so we've um you know I meet with Wan Ray goza once a month with our our two supervisors there um to ensure that we're addressing the needs of um students there and we've also built out a um a cost team a model there at the high school that um darene uh braam mantis has led the effort on that
209so that we can um ensure that we're um looking at data and keeping track of students who might be um their grades dipping or um or their having um social emotional issues in class or or maybe not attendance and not showing up um so it's a team effort and the more Collective and and approach we take with a multi-tiered system support lens I think we're going to see um a lot more hopefully happy children that are enjoying learning yeah I think so it's really exciting uh development with the wellness center on one follow quick followup last question um and with our prior conversations regarding you know within the literacy context around like coaching and peer-based learning um the folks who are doing such a great job at the wellness center did they also engage in
210with other schools to pull them in to some form of Wellness model on their campuses in the district do you mean from like Berkeley High School to the middle schools things like that um I'm not I'm not aware of of that right now um I know that uh Rosa Parks has uh Wellness Center there that they contract with um but otherwise um every site um working through Dr Shelly has um uh has supports I believe every site has mental health supports um for both general education at special education students um but one area that we're always building is how do we ensure that those teams are working together so that we can provide those tiered support to students um what we don't want is well they're they have an IEP so they always have to
211go to a um a school psychologist you know sure we should and and also if this general education students needs a short cycle of um intervention our school psychologists are at the site and willing to do and support that too so we're not creating that bifurcation that happens between just because somebody has an IP suddenly they're labeled and oh they're only getting Services over here and same with general education students or we should be capitalizing on the strength that our special education teachers and school psychologists and occupational therapists have so that they're working with um the whole population and we especially see that with our um our uh assist of Technology access um we wrote uh we worked with a technology department and we had a slew of um iPads that were brought to the
212sites that general education and special education students can utilize in order to um um improve their you know reading and and build those out that they need thank you so much just we are almost done president sorry just wanted to clarify uh vice vice president Chang um just to not cause confusion for the public uh there's a ton of resources that we have at our school sites both in our Wellness Center and outside the wellness center the scho the school sites are not typically in the wellness center as a service and so I just want didn't want folks to walk away and hear that um and we're happy to come back um and bring staff to talk to you about the services that are provided in that Center and how they're in support but also
213how they're very distinct thank you thanks for the clarification thank you thank you so much for uh your presentation and for your ongoing work we appreciate you we are happy to have your support in our district and happy to see our special education department thriving so thank you for your presentation uh at this time we will move to Extended public comment I do have one a card that is screen for um Extended public comment but I no longer see the commenter uh in the the audience and so miss shus do we have anyone who is online we have two people who are online we'll give each of those public commenters one minute uh to speak at this time and so uh if you could please promote them my computer has dyed so I'm not able
214to do so I'm sorry I apologize did I set the original uh public comment Time online for online speakers for 2 minutes I believe earlier so let's keep that please forgive me 2 minutes for each speaker hi can I speak now yes hi welcome hi um my name is Eliza no I'm commenting on the literacy action plan first agenda item 16.2 is supposed to be the lap 10th quarter report instead you posted the October 202 four quarter 9 report please post the 10th quarter lap report second I urge BD to extend monitoring of the lip Beyond this year this is necessary to sustain the changes put into place but more importantly this is necessary to implement required changes in the first place at many school sites the court monitor report stated quote it is clear
215that a handful of Berkeley schools have fully embraced the spirit of the settlement agreement and it is also clear that there are School sites that have not yet implemented many of the changes detailed in the lip end quote a handful of Berkeley schools means five or fewer School sites have fully embraced the settlement agreement School sites that have not yet implemented many of the changes means that implementation of lip requirements is not happening somewhere there are only four months remaining in this Li year if BD is not already implementing many of the required changes then it is doubtful the district will complete them this Academic Year to sustain change bosd must consistently institutionalize the ntss model across all tiers in the monitor report it is clear that special education and reading support teachers are still
216primarily responsible for screening monitoring and supporting struggling readers Humanities teachers need more than diagnostic plans and merely four sessions of communities of practice to engage in authentic cross tier collaboration in the middle schools for example the sped present presentation tonight also informed us of the importance of an effective mtss sped correctly asserted that quote the degree to to which an Lea implements and mtss with Fidelity plays a key role in the outcomes for students the rate of referrals to special education and ultimately comments this evening I apologize for cutting you off I'm so sorry our two minutes has H gone up but please feel free to email the rest of your comments to the board of education and thank you for taking the time to stay for the meeting to make those comments uh we
217will go to the next public commenter again uh as you are on Zoom if you would like you'll see that our video shows the timer in the background and so if you would just like to glance over and look at that to know how much more time you have hi I don't know if you can hear me this is a nimota yes nimota we can hear you welcome um hi um first I just wanna um thank superintendent um and um Jennifer for um sorry anyway you know who you are um just thank you for your um dedication to answering um fames questions at Longfellow um I did want to speak to the board tonight about um an issue with the um scoreboard at the um West Campus um gym um for Long Fellow games if
218the if the scoreboard is not fixed then our basketball cannot have host home home games there so we're asking that um the the the scoreboard be fixed that's it thank you thank you as well uh are there any extended board member comments this evening hearing none I will um call for an adjournment at 10:33 pm. thank you all we'll see you again on February 5th