001e e e ask one two three e e e good evening welcome to the August 7th meeting of the of the Berkeley school board if you want to follow along our online agenda the agenda is posted on the district website I am now calling this meeting to order at 7:13 p.m. before we begin I'm very excited to welcome our student director WN Clark to the dice if you can help me given today's histor announcement about vote 16 our student directors will now sit at the dice next to the board president with that Miss chidas please call the official role for this evening's meeting student director Samara win Clark presid director Jennifer shinoski here vice president Kadija Brown present and president anas directors Chang and babit are excused this evening for the record thank you Miss
002chus we'll now approve the agenda for this evening's meeting at staff's request the following consent items will be pulled all together items 12.7 approval of amended bylaw 9323 meeting conduct agenda item 12.8 approval of amended BP 6146 point1 High School graduation requirements and agenda item 12.9 approval of adoption of BP 6146 um 0.11 alternative credits towards graduation and is there a motion colleagues to approve the agenda and second the agenda as amended I move that we approve this evening's agenda with the pulling of item 12.7 12.8 and 12.9 was appr second and motion was moved by vice president Brown second by director shinoski um Miss tus I think because we're uh not all directors are here right you have to call the you have to we can okay all in favor say I I I
003any knows or extensions see amen the motion passes and we will now report from our closed session vice president Brown please report out on this evening's Clos session we'll do thank you good evening everyone oh you can give me a little more energy than that good evening everyone good evening Welcome to our first board meeting of the year so happy to see you all and as I get my notes together and we will go into the report from close session for uh close session began at 6:09 this evening with Vice with President bab with president basudev vice president Brown and director shinoski present with director babbit and director Chang excused for item 3.1.1 it was moved by director shinoski seconded by President vasudev and the motion passed with all present directors in favor for item
0043.2 the board heard an update and gave direction for item 3.3.1 it was moved by director shinoski seconded by President basudev and the motion passed with all directors in favor for item 3.3.2 it was moved by director shinoski seconded by President vasudev and the motion passed with all directors in favor for item 3.3.3 it was moved by director shinoski seconded by President vasudev and the motion passed with all directors in favor for item 3.3.4 it was moved by director shinoski seconded by President vasudev and the motion passed with all directors in favor for item 3.3.5 you guessed it it was moved by director shinoski seconded by President vasudev and the motion passed with all directors in favor for item 3.4.1 the board heard an update and provided Direction This Ends the reading of the Clos
005session notes president vasu devil pass it over back pass it back over to you thank you so much uh vice president Brown next we'll hear from our superintendent in for marel good after no what time is it good evening BD family and welcome to the 2425 School Year and welcome to the first board meeting of the Year y'all missed us huh look at this um I'm actually really happy to see you all so glad that you're here and you know I'm going to ask that you stay for the duration of this evening's meeting um I know that we still have a few more days before we officially come back to school on Wednesday August 14th um but I want to let you know that even though our babies are not back yet our Educators and
006our staff have been back and are super excited to welcome you all back to our campuses I also want to make sure that you know that our Opie staff in partnership with Berkeley School funds Supply bank.org Covenant Church City Center Church and city of Berkeley want to make sure that the babies are ready for day one and Beyond and are hosting our annual B USD backpack and supplies giveaway this Saturday August 10th at San Pablo Park from 10:00 a to 2 PM the backpack Supply giveaway is just one part of Saturday's um Extravaganza so please make sure you spread the word and we hope to see you there by now you should have all received Communications from your respective School site leaders um with important information about the beginning of the school year inclusive of
007uh billc schedule drop off pickup and other logistics to make sure that we kick off the school year right and you feel ready and inform I also want to remind you all that again this year B USD will be providing free breakfast and lunch to all of our students tk12 that's not exciting okay I that's a big deal because lunch is expensive free breakfast and lunch to all of our babies and our lunch is pretty good and our breakfast is pretty good too and we actually have a presentation this evening about our nutrition services so you get to see and hear about the um amazing folks who make sure our babies are eating well and are healthy and get nutritious meals I would also like to welcome uh our new student board member WIA Clark
008WN H is a senior at Berkeley High School and she's in the academic Choice small school please give WI a big round of applause cuz like I said school doesn't start till next week and win is already working and she's super excited to be here and we're excited to have her and looking forward to seeing all the ways that you uh help us improve our system and move us closer to our mission statement here in Berkeley UniFi I also want to Welcome to the day is John kaliss our assistant superintendent of facilities Mr Kalise right there as you know has been the executive director of facilities for quite some time now and he's been a member of my executive cabinet and so he is now just joining us on the day with his new title
009of assistant superintendent facilities so please welcome John kise than capacity new title um this evening actually we're going to make sure he earns that seat at the day is by making him do a presentation uh to really explain to you all and to engage our board in a discussion about the move of the Longfellow campus um many of you may or may not know that we um had got some news uh right two days or so after school was over this past spring um that said that we need to actually relocate our middle schoolers at Long Fellow luckily the long fellow community and we know that a school is not the building itself but the people and the community who make the school and so uh the Longfellow community and our principal sitaa Mitchell has
010assured that we are going to keep calm and tiger on and so we know there's um a lot of work ahead but we're excited to move that campus Dr I'm sorry Dr assistant superintendent kis facilitated that move you are 5,000 Plus hours of people power um to move not just along fellow uh campus to Berkeley Adult School but to move the Berkeley Adult School right next door to our uh district office here in Bonar and to our one of our early childhood education centers so there been a lot of things happening this summer here in Berkeley there always are but a big move and he's going to share information about that this evening in addition to that we will have as I said a presentation um about our nutrition services uh team and the work
011that they do um but I want to call out and note that that presentation is actually going to be made by uh Bonnie Christensen who's our director of nutrition Serv serves what you need to know about Bonnie is that she's leaving us no what you need to know about Bonnie is that she has contributed um and uh given so much of her time and talent and love to the babies of Berkeley by making sure that they are fed really well your babies know about kale in part because of Bonnie Christensen um and so she has dedicated um over 17 years of her life to Berkeley to Berkeley unified babies to our staff and to our families and actually we we just were able to eat some of the amazing food that her and her team
012prepare at our Leadership Retreat just last week um she uh had read about our nutrition services department in the New Yorker actually that's what Drew Bonnie to be USD and she soon Rose to be the executive chef and then director of nutrition services in 2018 Miss Christensen has done so much for the district these past 17 years most notably serving hundreds and thousands of fresh healthy nutritious and delicious meals to our students she has worked to answer our community calls for sustainability including eliminating plastic bags and single use paper products working with local and state advocacy groups to Lobby California to support our goals and food programs Miss christon and her team were on the front lines of the covid-19 pandemic ensuring that our students had healthy breakfasts and lunch meals even when school buildings
013were closed and so she's going to present tonight um we wanted to make sure to take out this time to say thank you Bonnie for your for your service and your dedic to our district and so since I told you that she's leaving you probably want to know who's coming and so I'm excited to introduce uh to many of you rich Hannon and he's going to be the director of nutrition services in Bonnie's Place and Rich has been the executive chef for the last two years and has the culinary background the management foundation and Food Service experience necessary to lead this department and take it to the next level welcome rich my final announcement is tonight is special for many reasons not just because you're here uh but because it is the birthday of our
014board director Jennifer shinoski now we're not going to embarrass her and sing or do anything like that or ask for speeches but what we are going to do um as our gift to her and quite honestly the gift to us and you as well is to try to get this meeting done um at a reasonable time so because of that and in your honor I'm going to end my comments now and say again welcome y'all I'm ready for the 2425 school year thank you superintendent for your wonderful comments excited to welcome new people to the dies to celebrate my colleagues birthday and dedication to our work by being here on her special day thank you and um to meet all the new people that are coming in and again to thank Bonnie for your many
015years of service to the district and we will now move on to the public comments component of our agenda before we begin I'd like to remind you of our decorum expectations during this in all parts of tonight's meeting no person shall disturb the order of this meeting such Behavior includes but is not limited to booing hissing creating or participating in any physical disturbance speaking out of turn in violation of applicable rules preventing or attempting to prevent others who have the floor from speaking preventing others from observing the meeting entering into or remaining in the area of the meeting room that is not open to the public public or approaching the dice without permission as Miss chis already explained there are two opportunities for public comments at each meeting now and at the end of the
016meeting if you do not get to speak at the beginning of the meeting we encourage you to stay and speak at the end of the meeting you may also email us your comments at Bard ofed berkeley.net the board does not respond directly to comments or questions being made during the public comment board members the superintendent and staff do take notes during the public comment and may follow up with the speaker after the meeting meeting these are hybrid meetings so we have public commenters in the boardroom and online we've designated 20 minutes to our in-person speakers this will be followed by 10 minutes of online speakers anyone online who wishes to meet public comments should raise a virtual hand now so miss chidas can organize one important thing if you're a student and you're online please
017indicate student after your name so we can call on you first as is the board's general practice each public commenter will have one minute to speak to depending on the amount of speakers please note that the microphone will shut off at the end of each speaker's allotted time so time your comments accordingly I will call your name in the order of speakers prayer agenda item to keep things moving I would like to ask the speaker who is next in line to come forward and wait near the mic I apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name and please correct me if I do we will now begin our public comments with those that are here in person and PR PR practice we're going to start with our students first so I would like to call
018j marie Howard and um delisha McDonald do I start yeah let Miss Char's gonna put the clock on and then you can start greetings Miss superintended and Schoolboard meeting a members my name is j marie Howard and I'm here to talk about how the system fails youth who come from out of a different District to come for a better education and um one of my good friends Del McDonald who is an indiction who has an IND transfer has been revoked over the years I have this has happened to many around me for years as a Long Fellow alone in an Alum of the no longer program umoja I learned that system dictates people people's futures and whose in people's futures who it dictates the most are people of color and by her getting kicked out
019the district she has to start over and she won't be able to get the help she needs as a special needed special need students anywhere else so we want the system to change and yeah thank you next I'd like to call Dela McDonald h um good evening Miss superintendent and School Board my name is Delia McDonald I'm in 11th grade and I did go to Berkeley High School until I got kicked out I can admit and take accountability for my actions but I feel like I asked for help and I was constantly being denied I really want to say stay at BHS I'm in fact a pure mental health educator at BHS I work this summer for the city of Berkeley which helped me improve my punctuality I also play basketball at BHS I also
020had a few Scouts from a couple of colleges be interested in working with me but I never had good enough grades for it I've been in B USD since preschool I went to John Mir Long Fellow and now hoping to finish my last two years at BHS if I had an IP my grades will improve this is the help that I need thank you thank you next we have Kaa Carter Miss Carter are you here followed by nimora abina and then uh Penny Rowan was Miss Saina hi um my name is Nina I'm speaking to you tonight as a parent of a rising seventh grader at Longfellow um I just wanted to talk to the board about concerns that parents have been talking to me about all summer and that is transportation for those who
021live directly around Longfellow and um how they're getting to the new Long Fellow at Bas at the brookley adult school um I know that you guys are working to try and figure that out but it is definitely an equity issue um and there's a lot of families that can't um afford to take off to drive their kids to the new Long Fellow the second thing I wanted to do was or to say was to thank all of the staff and administration at Longfellow um anyway thank you thank you Miss minina if you we not able to finish your comments please do email the Board of Education next I'd like to call Penny Ro Rosen rer followed by Alex day I'm Dr Penny Rosen waser and I'm a Jewish educator and I've been teaching about anti-Semitism
022at the city college col of San Francisco for 15 years I'm also a racial Justice leader at kahila synagogue in Oakland and I worked in Berkeley for 32 years I treasure my jewishness and I care deeply about what our kids are taught and I strongly support renewing the contract with the liberated ethnic studies model curriculum Continuum I teach my students that it's no more anti-semitic to criticize Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza or to talk about Palestine then it is anti-American to criticize US policies the danger to us Jews comes from White nationalists that's who we need to mobilize against I want all of our students to be safe whether Jewish Muslim Christian of color transgender disabled or white please let's recommit to Berkeley's history of radical Progressive values thank you thank you next we
023have Alex followed by Arden hello everybody uh my name is Alex day I teach at Berkeley High School I teach ethnic studies and social living in the Universal 9th grade program uh I'm here to once again um voice my strong support for uh USD renew and liberated ethnic studies contract with the district uh for another year uh and more if necessary um so uh though many of you probably know for those of you that don't know liberated ethnic studies is a group of literally experts and Originators of the field of ethnic studies um and uh bring that expertise to bear with our District staff in a collaborative process so um last year at five different grade levels there were pilot projects how that worked in the ninth grade was two of our seven teachers two
024of my colleagues would meet periodically and say here's what we have Department want to have here are some units that you develop and what do you like from that um uh liberary does rightly include teaching Palestine as part of ethnic studies um and we need to reew the cont thank you next we have ardan followed by Carol Perez hello good evening uh welcome director winter Clark and happy birthday director shinoski um so one of the first things I read this morning was that Utah is Banning books by 12 women authors including Judy Bloom and that these books have to be legally disposed of um which means they can't be redistributed and it made me think of three things the first is that there the coming down the coming trickle down chill effects uh on our
025district of California state bills that are policing language like genocide and settler colonialism as a continuation of anti Palestinian activism in schools the the second thing it made me think of was the incredible ethnic study showcase last spring that many of you attended that was developed as a collaboration between our teachers and the liberated ethnic studies uh professionals and I'm so grateful to have my kids be in a district where that gets to be something that's here the third thing that it made me think about was the incredible opportunity we have in BD to show not just our children but the country what it means to defend hard-earned wins and equity and academic freedom the liberated ethnic studies contract is one way we can continue to build on this Legacy thank you next we have
026Carol Perez followed by Evan B good evening directors administrators and community members my name is Carol Perez I'm a Berkeley resident at Berkeley parent and member of the ethnic studies advisory committee I'm here to call upon you to continue investing in our ethnic studies curriculum through liberated ethnic studies I recently heard someone quote George Orwell who said the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history liberated ethnic studies is dedicated to a curriculum in which bip people tell their own stories not whitewashed courses meant to uphold and maintain the myth of white supremacy ethnic studies is our country's history Berkeley students should not be denied the truth about the history of people of color in order to allow racist actors to create a story of the
027past and present that suits their purposes thank you and next we have Evan B followed by Ellen bratsky then we have Ellen brosy followed by Lisa hon hi happy birthday Jennifer and first I just want to say thank you board and superintendent for all the hard work over the past year and wish you the best in the upcoming year we really appreciate all that you do for the kids of Berkeley schools I'm also a member have been a member for two years of the ethnic studies advisory committee and I'm here because I'm hoping that you will definitely extend the contract with liberated ethnic studies I was at the Showcase I saw the incredible lessons that combined local history with overall history of um bipac folks and I our kids deserve the kind of ethnic studies
028education that was presented in that showcase um as a Jewish parent I know that Palestine is part of that the history of Palestinians here in the United States thank you thank you missy next we have Lisa hon followed by Russell bits welcome back school board members um and superintendent I hope the summer break was restorative happy birthday too my name is Lisa hon I am a parent of a BHS sophomore I am also a member of the ethnic studies advisory Council I am here to Strong L encourage you to renew our liberated ethnic studies model curriculum Consortium contract tonight through a transparent and rigorous process we the esac made up of students teachers parents staff and administrators thoughtfully vetted the partnership with lmcc the lmcc is a leader in the field of ethnic studies the
029work that's produced um uh out of lmcc is reflective of the students of color like my child and their class room there's zero evidence of hateful or discriminatory content in the lmcc or any of the materials being created um in BD with lmcc i p thank you thank you missman next we have Russell Bates and our last in-person comment will be Stephen finum hi everybody good evening to you um I wish that when I was a young person I'm 77 now when I was 18 I wish I had to teach Vietnam which would have prevented the murder of two to three million Vietnamese people and uh I would not have nightmar bad dreams PTSD that I've had since then um I'm wearing a t-shirt of ish hania thetical leader of M who was murdered by
030the Zionist Israel couple less than two weeks ago became interested in him when he was in Qatar going for working peace and a ceasefire when he received words his three sons and four granddaughters had been murdered by an Israeli missile uh they asked him if he wanted to cease and take time to he said no we got to go forward we got to go forward thank you for your comments next we have Stephen finom and that will conclude our iners and comments good evening board members uh so I'm a neighbor of Sylvia Mendez school um and I'm coming with a request or perhaps a plea so three months ago construction started on the Sylvia Mendes campus and it's continued non-stop 7even days a week starting often before 7 a.m. um and there's been no communication
031uh with the surrounding neighborhood about what the project plans are what's going on uh what comes next um they're probably probably 40 residential buildings right across from the school or adjacent to it and no word from anybody and we have tried to contact people and there's just a wall that goes up um so uh this is a request that US USD be a good neighbor as we've been good neighbors to the school for many years and talk to us about what's going on and just communicate as the project continues um and so we need a contact point and we need we need somebody who is willing to talk to us so thank you thank you for the in-person comments now we will move on to our public online comments there are one two three seven
032hands raised online we have 10 minutes for online public comments um Miss chus um why don't we just go via the order and we'll start with Emily Han followed by Gladis oampo and our last online comment will be namita um do de okay hi good evening superintendent and board and happy birthday Jennifer schanowski my name is Emily Han and I'm the parent of two children at Rosa Parks and the president of the Rosa Parks PTA I'm here this evening to make what feels like my annual plea that the district invest more energy into adequately resourcing and Staffing the buusd after school programs year after year families do not find out if their children have spots and learns and bears until days before or day even days after the school year start this year due to
033Staffing challenges there are many returning learns families families whose children have been in learns for the last year or for many years prior who do not have a spot this year this continues to be incredibly challenging anxiety-provoking and stressful for Working Families in our district and cannot keep going on like this I urge you please make this the year that you find a solution to this problem thank you thank you next we have glus oampo Stout followed by Christina's iPhone you're on mute missed out sorry okay there um thank you everybody and welcome back from the um summer break and thank you school board members and superintendent Brown happy birthday Janowski um I'm here today as a as not only a buusd parent but also on behalf of Latinos zos of Berkeley in the B
034USD ethnic studies advisory committee to request that the board renew the contract for liberated ethnic studies for the 2425 Academic Year and more the committee which is formed by students parents teachers and community members went through a long and transparent process in selecting liberated ethnic studies liberated ethic studies is collaborative and culturally responsive and there is zero evidence of hateful or discriminatory content in any of the created materials there have been years of work much of it voluntary by our community and the positions and work funded by the district please don't let pressure from organizations with no understanding or commitment to ethnic studies and or anti-racist education Den students access to the authentic ethnic studies curriculum thank you thank you next we have Christina's iPhone and that will be followed by Aaron fower good evening
035everyone um I hope you all had a restful summer happy birthday director chanowski I'm Christina harb I'm a teach newcomer teacher at King and I'm here to support the renew of the liberated ethnic studies contract um I think you know it's more important now than ever before to make sure that we're staying true to our anti-racist values teaching authentic histories of people of color in this country especially as we witness book Banning and and uh rising islamophobia and racism of all kinds I also just want to say thank you for um I see that there's a a newcomer therapist that's going to be provided finally at King which I'm really excited about and um most of I have many kids in my class who are actually um kids who have escaped genocides political persecution and
036starvation not unlike what we are seeing happen in Gaza so I hope that the board continues to invest in um our students who are more refugees and likewise so thank you thank you next we have aarin fower followed by garene V Willis hi can everyone hear me yes okay um hi my name is Aaron fower and I'm a sixth grade teacher at Willard and I'm also the parent of two kids who are at bu USD I just want to acknowledge and thank the Longfellow and Berkeley Adult School staff for the way they're rolling up their sleeves and making the best of this difficult situation with the evacuation of their campus and moving to Bass um I know the whole Community really needs to wrap around them and support them um and I think one way
037to really show our deep respect for the amount of work that they're doing right now is to pay them for these hours that they are taking to move into their new campus um I know they're receiving 12 hours but that's the same amount that a Berkeley High School teacher would receive for just moving classroom to classroom on the same campus and we all know that they are there right now Monday through Friday getting ready to open in warm inviting classrooms so I ask the school board to consider offering them some compensation for the hours that they're putting in thanks so much next we have darling Willis followed by namita DOA hi can you hear me yes we can okay great good evening uh my name is Dr Dar the co-founder and executive director of concern
038parent Alliance College Bound Academy programs uh hello to everyone and happy birthday to the director appreciate you all letting me come on just wanted to say I'm excited about this new school year I am a proud uh well concerned parent Alliance College Bound Academy programs is a product of the black lives matters resolution and the African-American success framework I really appreciate having that opportunity and just wanted to invite you all out as we start the new year on September 21st which is our first college Mound Berkeley Academy program of course you have an open invitation but would love to see you there from 9: to noon uh at 2020 B at the district office in Oxford theater so thank you looking forward to a great year uh you all have a great year as well
039and we are going to do some great things this year with Berkeley Unified School District God bless you take care thank you so much and then our last online public comment will be by namita DOA hello can you hear me yes hi um I'm Nita dja uh thanks for the opportunity to speak tonight I am a brand new parent to BU USD um I have a kindergarten starting next week so this whole thing is really new to me um I wanted to join tonight basically to Echo Emily's earlier comments regarding after school care um so I understand you know as a new parent there's a lot to navigate and sort out um but it has been extremely challenging and stressful um not to have any insight into what's happening with after care um you know
040as Emily mentioned many of the families in the district have you know dual parent working households and particularly with the with a kindergarten you know they come home early every afternoon and um just not knowing what to do with that uh or for how long the after care dust takes to settle um is is a really challenging and stressful situation um definitely understand that hiring uh for child care is a delicate process and a very very challenging space to hire into so I know this is not an easy problem to solve um but you know if if there is anything we can do to better support that or to better resource that thank you so much n if you could email the rest of your comments to the Board of Education that be appreciated this
041now concludes the public comment period thanks to everyone who came to speak and was here joining us tonight if you didn't get to speak please remember there's always an extended public comment period at the end of the meeting Additionally you can always email the board directly at board ofed berkeley.net or you can contact us individually our individual emails are located online on the board of education website now we will move on to committee comments Miss chidas do we have any Union comments or committee comments all right I'm seeing none we will move on to board member comments and so do we have anyone who wants to start all right birthday girl we're going to start with director shanoski but I'm gonna be fast because in case you didn't know it's my birthday um I've never
042had so many happy birthdays ever in my life okay just a few quick updates from the summer first I also want to welcome our newest um student board member I'm really excited to work with you on a number of things and excited to share the dis with you um I'm also super excited that we have a green light for vote 16 this fall uh after eight years um it looks like it actually is going to be implemented and students will have a chance not to vote for our very own um vice president Harris yet but to vote for for student directors or for board directors um I really want to thank the registar voters I want to thank our own pass board director Josh Daniels and everyone else who worked tirelessly especially over the last
043couple months this summer um to really get that across the line and I want to give a special shout out to Margaret princing who served as the attorney representing B USD in this whole process um Margaret always really um put B USD first while also really working hard to make this a possibility and it seems easy but I now know it is not easy and there is a lot that goes into something like this so just a huge shout out can't wait for um for the election this year um I also want to give a huge shout out to our facilities Department um for the Long Fellow move I think everyone was shocked um and we were shocked everyone was tucked um come June to find out that we had to move an entire School
044in just a couple of months and not just one school but I believe it's five um different three well three schools but many there were many many moves involved um and summer is usually a time when all of us are able to find some rest and relaxation and I know that um vacations were cancelled and plans were moved so that we could ensure that next week everybody's coming back um to school and with their school community so just much gratitude especially to our very own John Kalise um thank you so much for that Monumental task um yes a round of applause I also um want to thank Bonnie we've never met in person but we've exchanged some emails and I want to give a special shout out because I learned this summer um that you
045were instrumental in securing a grant for us that's going to give us the dishwash that we need so that all of our schools will be able to use reusables um in just one more year and that is huge um so thank you to the students that advocated and thank you to you for doing that extra work um lastly oh no I have two more things um lastly second to lastly I want to give a shout out to our Junior jackets um I was at National Night Out last night and I got to see the junior jackets cheer squad um do their routine and give me my first birthday present um so if you don't know the junior jackets um they are fantastic they're um a football and cheerleading squad um for our community and um
046yeah I'm excited to see how we can better integrate um their programming into BD programming and now lastly I'm really um excited that on my birthday I get to vote in favor of continuing the really good work of our Educators in um the many years and the uh true Community engagement in developing our ethnic studies curriculum so thank you for being here and thank you for doing that work I'm done all right and now we'll move on to our student director okay hello everybody and happy Wednesday um I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself so my name is win I am currently a rising senior at Berkley high school and I am extremely honored to be the new student director representing BHS um and so being in this role means not only
047advocating for students but also Bridging the Gap between students and our leaders and so I'm eager to serve as the student director because I deeply believe in the power of students voices and shaping our educational experience um especially in a school of nearly 3,500 students it can be challenging to be heard like many others I have experienced the frustration of uncertainty not knowing where to go not knowing who to talk to when trying to initiate change and so this motivated me to run for a position where I could directly contribute to the decision making um in this school year I aimed to establish a clear pathway for students to voice their opinions and ensure they are represented in the school board's decisions I also wanted to discuss the recent announcement about lowering the voting age
048for School Board elections to 16 17 I think that this is a historic moment for us all reflecting something students have long advocated for and it provides a valuable opportunity for students to engage with politics and increase their political awareness um I think that by involving younger voices in the decision-making process we can ensure that the perspectives and needs of students are more accurately represented I am so proud of the students who work towards making sure measure y1 was implemented and I believe believe this is a significant step forward in creating a more inclusive and particip participatory educational environment overall I am genu genuinely excited about the opportunities this year holds and look forward to working with all of you to bring out the best in B USC thank you thank you so much for
049your great comments and uh colleagues and vice president Brown yes president B Dev we actually were supposed to receive comments tonight from the African-Americans success framework advisory committee and so would you like for me to seed my time would you like for them to go now or after my comment I think we can finish board member comments and then we'll go back I didn't when I asked miss charers it wasn't a committee comment so we'll just invite them back and give them their five minutes after the board comments sound good okay thank you so much and thank you for giving them the opportunity to share uh good evening everyone Welcome to our board meeting thank you to to all of you who came to speak tonight uh in regards to the need for systems change
050system changes for interdistrict transor uh Transportation needs for the new Longfellow site those who make comments tonight in support of the liberated ethnic studies curriculum uh comments around Community impacts and need for communication for uh the Sylvia Mendes beautification process um thank you for to those of you who spoke tonight in appreciation for the faculty staff and students at the Berkeley Adult School in the midst of their move uh as well as those who spoke tonight uh for the need for uh insight and communication around after school care and uh thank you to Dr Willis who spoke tonight uh in regards to College Bound all of your comments are very important and necessary and allow us to do the work that we need to do here on the Das so they do not fall on
051deaf ears and thank you so much for sharing I'm going to uh keep my comments short tonight but at first I would definitely like to say happy birthday to director shinoski wow 24 again so excited it's 29 29 29 again um I hope your birthday is as phenomenal as you are and I also would like to welcome uh student director Clark winter we are so excited to have you here with us on uh the Board of Education we know just by your very first introduction and your first comments that you will be an incredible asset uh and a phenomenal representative for all of our students so thank you for going on this journey with us and we cannot wait to see the amazing things you do here on the Das uh I would like to
052uh take this opportunity to also uh thank uh director Christensen for all of your amazing work here in B USD for the last 17 years the work that you have done will last a lifetime under your leadership we were able to uh have and start our school lunch initiative better known as the SLR and that's L's goals are to serve more nutritious and delicious freshly prepared meals using locally grown food for all of our students and Educators to be able to enjoy um because of you and your team's work we have salad bars in all of our schools hormone free milk fresh fruit and fresh vegetables served daily almost all of our food is made from scratch all of our bread and dinner rolls are either organic or whole grain we have have an efficient
053swipe card systems in all of our almost all of our schools and we offer vegetarian uh options daily and that is no small uh small task and so we really appreciate all of the work that you've done everything uh that our students and our faculty and staff are able to benefit from to help us be um a healthier school district and so you will be missed uh but we thank you and are excited about all the work that you were able to do uh finally a couple more things I'd like to um make note of a h town hall meeting and conversation with the Berkeley faith and Justice Coalition uh the original one happened and we had a director uh babot who was on the Das uh with director shinoski and I in the audience
054and we are gearing up to do it again um that will be held on August 22nd and um the time and the location are to be determined so please make sure that you are um remaining in conversation with us about all the ways that we're trying to impact and improve our school district and our local community um and also if there are any other conversations that you would like for us to be a part of please remember to keep us in the know as well as join our um office hours so that we can connect with you uh in addition to that it is fantastic to be back up here on the dis as we gear up for a new Academic Year I'm EXC excited to be up here with our with my board colleagues
055and my board colleagues who um are uh absent for the night but not absent in their work and service to our students here in Berkeley Unified School District we know that the work we do is really important and uh impactful however we know that we don't do this work alone um so thank you to our superintendent her staff as well as all of the Educators families and community members here in Berkeley Unified School District we know that this year will be the best one yet and it is only because of your um your support your love and because you decide to show up every single day so here's to a wonderful uh and impactful school year and we look forward to walking hand inand with you from now all the way until June this ends
056my public comment director vasudev I will turn it back over to you thank you thank you so much vice president Brown and I also just want to Echo the appreciation for director Christensen and also for director kiss assistant superintendent kiss for your for your work during the the summer um and uh just really appreciate your many years of service to the district and like my colleagues have mentioned I'm thrilled by today's historic announcement that 16 and 17 year olds in Oakland and in Berkeley will be able to vote in their respective Schoolboard elections in November uh Berkeley has been working to bring youth voting for to fruition for many years and we're excited to empower our youth to exercise one of their most important Civic duties this November I also want to thank our previous
057board members which director shoski alluded to to um director former director Josh Daniels judia Appel Ty Alper Julie Sinai Beth Lea Cutler and the late Karen hempell who paved the way for this to happen this year director shinoski has been our board's liaison to the county for this important work and I'm really proud of her leadership and making sure that we got through the Finish Line after many many years of pushing for this so thank you so much hope that's a good birthday gift birthday gift to the community and um with that I also just wanted to you know let the public know and my colleagues know that the summer it was also a busy time for us directors um I attended the clsba unity conference worked really closely at the state Lev level board
058called the California Latino Schoolboard Association that represents the needs of over 50% of the students in California's Public Schools who identify as Latin X so it's an organization uh with membership of from Schoolboard directors throughout the state in California and our Unity conference is where we partner not only to talk about the opportunity gaps in the latinx community but to really work closely with the California Association of black school Educators capsi and aesma the Asian Pacific Islander school board members Association all three organizations have been partnering more closely on the unity conference and on and on an event that I hosted in May in partnership with the Exploratorium to close the opportunity Gap in stem education during our conference which took place last week uh the unity conference I was able to participate on many
059panels many panel discussions but the one that really stood out to me in the conversation that I um you know learned probably the most from there was The Californians togethers presentation on the state of English Learners and making sure that our school boards even though we've already approved our three-year LC caps that we um are truly looking at our goals on an annual basis and making sure um that we're monitoring them well and so they they put together a guide that includes best practices for Schoolboard directors that I'll share with my colleagues um that was really informative and just how we look at data for English language Learners as we're reviewing our elap goals on an annual basis um I look forward to this upcoming year being a fantastic year as vice president Brown said
060I think part of that includes making sure that we're serving the community in the best way that we can that we're a strong governance team and anchoring our work in upcoming governance training so I'm excited that in September we'll be having a governance training with the California School Board Association and with that um I will go back to the previous part of our agenda which was committee comments and invite our African-American advisory committee to present to the board uh for five minutes um good evening um happy birthday Jack teski and good evening School Board welcome director Clark um superintendent thank you so much my name is Spencer pitchard I'm one of the co-leads of the African-American studies department at Berkley High hi I'm Nicole Harris I'm a bsud key parent of riseon 7eventh grader and
061also a parent of a a Berkeley High alumni so um we're excited to briefly int reintroduce the African-American success advisory committee as the African African-American success framework strategic action 4.01 the ASAC focuses on review Monitor and evaluate the district's implementation of the African-American success framework and consider other possible strategic areas as appropriate advise the board and superintendent and relevant District Department designes regarding accountability of services programs policies and resources that directly impact the district school culture and climate of our classrooms and the academic social emotional and personal outcomes for all black African-American students we would like to invite each AAC member present to share their name in connection to bsud hi my name is Karina Thomas and I'm a student at Berkeley High hi my name is parar Fisher and I am a mother of
062a rising um sophomore at Berkeley High and a rising seventh grader at um Longfellow the gasin that was no school Mota Bina a mother of a rising seventh grader at Longfellow and an alumni good evening Casey Robinson mother of a Berkeley High student and Longfellow student good evening Kamika Goodwin grandparent of parent children at Craigmont Longfellow and a community activist good evening my name is Willamina Wilson I'm the executive director at healthy black families and we look forward to collaborating with log fellow en school do the village cultural Academy this year and one more thing we invite everyone to the September 14th black to school cookout taking place at Wet Middle School from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. the theme of this year's black to school is strong start this will be an opportunity to
063connect B USD families with a range of buusd and the City of Berkeley resources to ensure a strong start to the school year plus lunch thank you for your time and attention thank you so much it's great to meet all the committee members and I will say that there's one Committee Member Miss line who forgot to mention that every day she has kept our students safe on their way to and from school she's one of our most spectacular crossing guards so thank you Miss line for your service all right and next uh we will move on to the approval of our consent calendar can I have a motion directors um motion to approve in a second the consent calendar without items 12.7 to 129 is it 12.17 to 1219 I move that we uh approve
064this evening's consent calendar remembering that we took out took off item 12.7 12.8 and 12.9 thank you vice president get a second second second by director shinoski all directors in favor say I I I any need or exensions motion passes and now uh we will move on to our first item this evening which is our much awaited presentation from nutrition services and superintendent who will be introducing this item Miss Christenson thank you thank you so much for having me here this evening it's an honor to be here and to speak with you and to tell you what we've been doing in nutrition services it's on okay let's go back yes very good just and the big white okay we're g to get started it's not working oh okay the first slide is an overview of
065what we have done since I started as director so um I became director in October 2018 um our participation rate while enrollment has decreased we see that the rate of participation has risen this is due in large part to all meals being free breakfast is not included in this data because breakfast has been free for all students since 2008 and participation remains steady our open positions in 2017 and 2018 we had open positions as well as unfillable positions where staff were on leave over the last couple of years nutrition services has been able to add seven new positions this year we have all staff returning no one is on leave with only two open positions including the executive chef and the cook this has a significant impact on our ability to provide fresh meals and
066good service total revenue includes breakfast lunch the snack program and child care programs as well as summer programming increases reflect the reimbursement rates we are receiving from California as a result of universal free meals Grant Awards and federal benefits total expenditures also includes expenditures from Grants meals for needy money is based on participation of free and reduced students Berkeley may elect to give nutrition services These funds now included in our Ada rates but because nutrition services budget is so flush These funds are no longer needed for nutrition services to operate the benef to the benefit of the general fund we are no longer receiving meals for needy money we haven't been taking meals for needy money for the last three years our fund balance is flush it looks quite good and I continue to Advocate
067to increase nutrition for Advocate to increase for nutrition employees to increase their wages my staff are the lowest paid employees in the district and it is appropriate that they should see the benefit of their hard work we go Universal femails is a California program that provides additional reimbursement to the federal reimbursement rates for free reduc and paid students so that the school food service programs receive state and federal combined reimbursement that exceeds the federal reimbursement rate for all students Universal free meals eliminates unpaid meal charges at a cost savings to the general fund of some 20 to $30,000 a year Universal free meals ensures access to meals to all students regardless of their eligibility status removing the stigma associated with School meals and closing the gap for those students who are unable to qualify but
068who households cannot afford to pay for these healthy and nutritious meals paid students who did not have money for food yet took meals anyway ACR debt in 2018 2019 we accured $2,955 in unpaid meal meal charges that had to be zeroed out by the general fund when you combine the meals for needy money with the elimination of uncollected debt the general fund is saving roughly $900,000 a year our some of our funding is coming from Grants we've received five separate rounds of supply chain assistance this pays for unprocessed or minimally processed domestic food we've received three rounds of kitchen infrastructure funds or kit funds for equipment and and infrastructure local food for school is for locally grown minimally processed items from small or historically underserved producers School food best practices money comes from local producers
069is for local producers of fruit vegetables pasta grains meat meat Alternatives cheese yogurt and fish we'll be purchasing organic Mary's chicken this year to serve on our menu grass-fed beef hamburgers and local uh fish we also received a commercial dishwashers grant for five schools that was the maximum $40,000 per school to purchase and install and purchase the ancillary equipment for dishwashers it costs roughly $63,000 so while we'll have 40,000 per School our cafeteria fund is healthy enough to provide the rest some examples of what we're doing with our kit funds are on this slide we were focused on energy efficient equipment water saving equipment our dishwashers we've switched from gas to electric equipment we're getting equipment for that keep employees safer less heavy lifting less bending faster and more efficient equipment promotes safer food handling
070new equipment means reduced costs on repairs our repair bills have gone down significantly we've also reduced our gas usage by moving to Electric appliances we are by the way um looking into electric refrigerated trucks so up until today they were not available and we just got met word today that we can get electric uh refrigerated trucks so if the price is right uh we will be moving to replace our gas trucks with those electric trucks stay tuned okay specifically with kit spun we're really focused on reusables we are purchasing stainless steel trays to eliminate paper plates reducing the amount of garbage generated at lunch to the benefit of our custodial teams and reducing garbage collection fees we purchased stainless steel cups to eliminate paper cups we have reusable flat wear stainless steel Su cups mesh
071bags instead of plastic bags to eliminate all the plastic that we generate on a daily basis we are also purchasing stainless steel bowls with lids those are being custom made for us these will replace the pre-portioned cereal bowls that we reive that are served in plastic um and they're plastic cereal boxes I think you have all seen huge bags of cial Bowl garbage brought to your board meeting we're also uh moving to larger bowls which will be used for soup and some of our Entre most of that stuff is already here uh some of it is still in process of being ordered uh because of increased participation the revenue generated from that and the reimbursement rates has allowed us to offer all of our staff 1.0 FTE and in many cases an increase of 33
072FTE or more this makes our low-wage jobs more attractive both for Recruitment and for retention we started with 18% open positions and now we're down to 03 with more hours we can manage more at each site we can move from single use items to reusables for example increased participation and re and revenue has enabled us to improve food for example we're purchasing better ingredients Mary's chicken fish more meat Alternatives that tend to be costly different types of cheeses tuna fish on the salad bar greater variety of vegetarian offerings with a larger presence on the menu Staffing shortages in the past were so severe that cooks had to go to sites to to serve leaving us without staff to prepare our fresh meals made from scratch we had to buy ready-made sandwiches on several occasions to
073serve to the entire School District stable Workforce and enough staff makes this a thing of the past additionally staff can do more food preparation at the site level this makes for fresher tastier Foods prepared more sustainably more Staffing means managers are subing less for our employees freeing them up to provide more coaching to our staff oversight as well as Innovation the community eligibility provision is an alternative method for accounting and collecting meal data for reimbursement students do not have to be identified but rather the satellite operator makes a tally of the total number of meals served for each meal period and Records the number in our system for reimbursement this Flex this will enable students to get through the lines faster and will give School sites greater flexibility during lunch service c benefits California as
074it maximizes the federal reimbursement thus reducing the load on California in the past eligibility for C was determined by a threshold of 40% direct certified this year for the first time it's been reduced to 25% and that's why we have all these sites on the C provision nutrition services was able to obtain approval from CDE for a proposal to contribute funds towards Child Nutrition education by paying for .23 FTE of the garden cooking teachers total FTE as well as covering their food budget these instructors will help promote the school Food Service program by coming into the cafeteria at lunch encouraging saladar participation talking to the students about the food and helping them make connections to the items they see on the service line with what they are going growing in the school Gardens this comes
075at a savings of an additional 300,000 to the general fund over the last six years nutrition services has partnered with a number of our departments to more effectively provide for our students with shared goals and knowhow these collaborations have yielded exciting results students of various age groups have communicated the urgency to reduce waste and have made suggestions as to the sorts of solutions they would like to see implemented the city of Berkeley has long advocated for electric appliances versus gas we have tackled this problem and will see dishwashers and reusable service wear at all our schools by January 2026 we are working with garden and cooking to support our shared goals for good health good nutrition food security as well as a profound appreciation for the natural world and the impact it has on on
076our health and well-being we are working with sustainability Sophia pelts who has been instrumental in implementing reusables at school sites and will continue to facilitate this process at each site until we have fully transitioned from single use items to reusables Steve Collins has been instrumental in managing the bidding process and coordinating the installation of dish machine machines as well as working with us to do the requisite electrical work for replacing gas equipment with electric equipment custodians have been receptive to the changes in service Weare with the support of Raymond young we have been able to work through these transitions successfully facilities John C is working with nutrition services on modernization projects ensuring that work includes that the work includes our needs specifically for service and sustain sustainability on the political front annually the state legislature
077evaluates funding to Public Schools School food service and the various food programs are impacted by these measures without nutrition services directors advocating for their programs advocacy groups and representatives have difficulty making their cases I have worked at length over the years to participate in these campaigns to support our students and ensure continued access to healthy nutritious Foods as well as for safe and quality work environments done sustainably finally for the last two years we have partnered with the Berkeley Public Library to extend our food service program beyond our school sites the library reaches many young families during the summer in a safe and enriched learning environment that supports good readers and good food I would also like to add that I'd be remiss if I left out the support of my supervisor Pauline fenby who
078has been a positive sounding board and support for the concerns that have come up for me over the years for our department and the solutions needed for resolution thank you Pauline nutrition services goals continue to be to provide fresh healthy nutritious meals made from scratch sustainably to all our students equitably we will continue to engage with our stakeholders the students Administration and the community at large to work towards our shared goals for excellence Health sustainability and well-being through collaboration and with new ideas I'm confident that the department will succeed in BR bringing greater enrichment to our students and our impressive BD Community I'm grateful to have been a part of this department these 17 years and I've had it's been a privilege for me to have worked with all of you and for all of
079you thank you thank you so much Miss Christenson for that presentation and um you know this was a this is agendized as a present so there's no discussion that follows up but I just want to say I really appreciate all the wisdom that you shared with us in this presentation and you left us thinking of how to improve for the future so thank you so much for sharing that with the board and next we will move on to our single discussion item which is agenda item 14.1 The Long Fellow Middle School update and uh assistant superintendent kis will you be introducing this item good evening board directors that's going to be really hard to top but I'm definitely going to try so we are here tonight uh just to have a quick presentation and then
080a discussion regarding uh Longfellow as well as the districtwide moves that came from that never [Music] works I've never had this thing work yet next slide please oh see I wasn't even pressing it anymore so we always start with our with our mission and really what this is is the mission of the facilities Department to absolutely support the four ease of B USD and really to just afford our students staff and neighbors a community Hub to embrace those ease so tonight we're going to talk about the Longfellow campus and findings uh the steps taken to ensure that students could return on time uh Longfellow at San Pablo and districtwide Building Safety now I did just mention it as Longfellow at San Pablo because for many years you all heard me talk about Oxford at West
081Campus in facilities we still have a project at Longfellow so the names actually become a little bit of an issue for us we talk about Longfellow it's well which Longfellow so facilities you'll often hear to us refer to this now as Longfellow at San Pablo so Longfellow Middle School the curriculum building is the building that we are discussing and this is the building that was found to be problematic the auditorium which is actually in the center of that building was built Circa 1920 and this was prior to the field act or any structural standards within for that was specific to schools in the state of California or the country so in 1935 with the passage of the or the passing of the field act uh that building was actually reconstructed and there was additions added
082on to it which is now made at the curriculum Wing um that brought not only the auditorium up to compliance with California and federal standards but also the new additions that were added in 199 7 uh the district did a volun a limited voluntary seismic upgrade on the building and then we fast forward to 2023 when we began the modernization so the first part is really the construction Discovery um I have two photos here this is the first what's highlighted in green is where not only all of the dry rot R it was found to be but also all the uh the structural deficiencies in the building and what you're seeing there is on the three-story building all of basically the primary structural members that hold up the building that run in between the windows
083from the concrete level all the way to the roof line in 2021 and 2022 as part of the design there was destructive testing done and what that is is where they opened up small portions of the stucco and unfortunately none of this was actually discovered during that time destructive testing is done very strategically and to try to find this without disturbing the entire building and it just wasn't seen by the engineering firm that did this fast forward June 6th of this year um got a phone call from the contractor that they were stripping the stucco and they discovered extensive dry Rod they also discovered structural deficiencies um and we were notified and on-site that day after we found try to get ahead after we found found that and saw it all on June 7th we
084had an on-site meeting with the structural engineer the architect and the contractor um it was about a half a day worth of Investigation of really looking at everything and what we found was that the dry rot and resulting structural deficiencies from that dry Rod it was determined to be extens extensive due to that the structural engineer red tag the building so what is a red tag because I use that term a lot uh in relation to Longfellow so really what it comes down to is when a structural engineer puts a red tag on the building it is dangerous and it is unfit for occupancy legally we cannot occupy it in the instance of Longfellow that red tag is intended for students and staff all non-essential Personnel cannot occupy the building the way that that particular
085red tag is written as non-essential is that it does allow for construction Personnel to still enter the building for the Reconstruction purposes with prescribed and approved safety measures so as a result of the red tag the entire campus was closed for safety concerns due to the close proximity of other buildings and the space constraints so with that what did we do So Long Fellow was relocated to Berkeley Adult School Berkeley adult school was relocated to the king CDC to the Longfellow dining comment and then the district office King CDC was Consolidated into Franklin CDC and Hopkins CDC the district office professional development rooms and some offices from the district office were all relocated to Parker Street and then Parker Street is moving to the new facility on 9th Street so to your question earlier director
086shinoski it was three schools and seven facilities so facilities worked in collaboration with other District leaders as well as site leadership uh and our partners at Van Pelt construction to develop a relocation plan to operate schools and offices safely and effectively two moving companies were contracted to pack in most instances and move all of the contents and Furniture more than 5,000 people hours were expended over the last five weeks uh to complete these moves and as of Friday we were a full week ahead of schedule all of the we we hit substantial completion on all of the moves um and we're done right now we just are wrapping up before I jump to the next slide I will say thank you to all of my colleagues to the board for their support and I will
087I I want to give a particular shout out to Van Pelt and Ashley Del Rio in particular she was our project manager who ran this our program manager and it was just a Herculean effort that we managed to accomplish in such a short period of time so Longfellow at San Pablo what is that going to look like all space needs have been accommodated um it's a closed campus with access control on all of the building entries pedestrian and bike access rolling drop off and pickup location as well as student loading locations have all been coordinated with site leadership and City staff to ensure student and staff safety additional cameras are being installed at the site to align with the needs of a middle school the Curtis Street parking lot the back lot at this time
088is to remain locked this lock this this lot will actually be used for outdoor space as well as outdoor eating areas some basketball Etc uh the facilities at James Kenny Park have been secured for physical education which is about a block and a half away and then programs such as CTE cooking and gardening and PE are all remaining intact so there's been a lot of questions that I know I've seen in my inbox that I really have neglected this summer with all the moves but I believe the board may have seen as well about you know is a full structural assessment of the entire District warranted at this time structural assessments are typically triggered after major seismic events the last major seismic event that we had in California was LMA PR in 1989 all of
089the identified deficiencies were addressed following this assessment those identified deficiencies included some building modernizations as well as two schools complete being completely raised and rebuilt and those were Rosa Parks and Cragmont since that time there's been no major seismic events and also all operational buusd facilities are in compliance with the field act and what that means is that structurally our buildings even older buildings are considerably more sound than any other buildings that you will find in the city this last slide is something that I put in here only to really remind the school communities but also the community at large that Community is the school itself is the community not the building we recognize that change is hard but we want to remind everybody that the community goes with them their teachers their custodians their
090bus drivers their school safety officers they all move with the school site and that stays as part of that community so with that I will open it up to any question thank you so much director police uh colleagues I see director shinoski I see vice president Brown so we'll start with direct we'll start with director shinoski and then we'll turn over to you Vice I'll be really quick um two things one is I would like to know or some reassurance that the plan is for our adult school students to return to the adult school um I think we're really focused on you know our youngest students and you rightfully we're worried about how long fellow middle schoolers are going to be impacted but we're also really impacting our adult Learners and so um I I'd
091like to know the plan for the adult school yeah so great question uh and I did Focus this evening on Long Fellow as that was the request but there we were able to meet all of the needs of the adult school and moving them the adult school was moved to actually three different sites um but we worked really extensively with Tom re the principal with associate superintendent hugen DJ uh and we we were able to make sure that their needs were met it is our plan to absolutely bring the adult school back home to San Pablo upon completion of the Reconstruction of Longfellow um a followup to that and then I have my other question um but just as a followup um can we be sure because I know it's really challenging to do some
092of these things in the summer without the teachers and staff present that are doing the work every day um is is there also the possibility to get feedback this fall and make adjustments as necessary adjustments in what sense I'm sorry um I'm just thinking for myself I can imagine I'm a teacher and that so if somebody puts me in another classroom it may seem like that other classroom will work just fine for the purposes of my class but if you don't know it intimately you wouldn't know that for example I need a bench with water and a hood so that I can do dem chemistry demonstrations so a regular classroom wouldn't work so I'm just do we have the flexibility so that as we get some input in the you know the first few weeks
093of the of classes so can make those adjustments yes and no um we're always looking for the feedback and we will accommodate it as best we can we actually moved with each classroom we moved not only all the contents of the classroom as far as belongings and teaching material but Furniture as well okay that being said once we start looking to add things like sinks and hoods and so on and so forth it actually triggers a need for DSA projects um which quite frankly in the time frame that we anticipate the schools being displaced we would likely be beginning construction around time for them to go back because by the time it takes to spe to spec it out go through a plan process right with an architect and then get a DS say approval
094and put it to public bid so we'll try to accommodate it with temporary facilities as best as we can that's even as an example what we've done for cooking and gardening we were able to buy them a lot of uh fixtures furniture and Equipment mobile syns things like that to move over to the Adult School uh to Long Fellow at San Pablo so that they can continue to operate their program and we'll do our best to do that for uh for the adult school as well great and my other quick question is just it's my understanding that the housing for uh staff will still be on track um that we're building and I wanted to just see if we could have a quick update on that yeah so Workforce housing will remain on schedule there
095was some uh some feedback and requests that we delay that so that uh the long fellow students weren't interrupted by that unfortunately because of the way that that project is being funded any delay that we create would likely cancel that project so understanding that it will be happening in parking lot out towards San Pablo we're scheduled to break ground in 25 we don't have a definitive date yet but right now the schedule shows anywhere between February and July I believe of 2025 we will be breaking ground on that project thank you so much and thank you again for all the work you've done and all the work your staff has done and Van Pelt have have done for us thank you vice president BR hello and congratulations uh assistant superintendent kise um I had a
096couple of questions at first I wanted to make a comment um our community has pretty much been an up upro all summer uh in regards to uh the issues that are happening at Longfellow um and it has really kind of um moved and shaken a lot of folks um and in our communities in our community really from the perspective of is our school safe how do we know um how can we be sure and um earlier in your the beginning of your comments um you mentioned the um 2022 um work that was done at Longfellow and how uh that wasn't the dry rot wasn't wasn't there when they did uh the work at Longfellow and a lot of folks in our community have been asking you know when's the last time our buildings have been
097looked at how we didn't catch this sooner and the truth of the matter is that dry Rock can spread incredibly fast um in a day or even in a couple of months and so um if you could take some time to kind of explain a little bit about um how that happened um and I think it will help to assure folks that we are uh checking on our schools we are um this board and many boards ahead of us um have approved maintenance um measures with the community support to be able to ensure that we are um taking care of our buildings and looking after them um so a little bit of insight there um and also um I understand that we don't typically assess our buildings until after there has been a major um
098like an earthquake or um whatever major uh things that could impact our buildings but how else can we assure that our communities that our buildings are safe not just knowing that they are older buildings and those older buildings um will were built to last but how else can we assure them that regularly checking on our sites so that's my first question and then um I'll go into two so a few things one uh dry rot can happen very fast but I will not say that this level of dry rot occurred since 21 since the destructive testing when the destructive testing was done it's very strategic and it's small areas of Stucco that they open and this was not detected what we found there is definitely older than that and I just want to be very
099transparent about that um why it is that we don't and I'm going to try to remember all your questions but why it is that we don't go around and actually check every school about something like this now is one there's absolutely a tremendous cost implication to start stripping all of the stucco and all of the siding off of our schools so that we can look at it because that has been suggested but it's also a tremendous disturbance to do that to teaching and learning the amount of noise and disruption that would occur every day is is tremendous understanding that it rolls into the question about maintenance typically our maintenance we have a very comprehensive preventative maintenance program and between the preventative maintenance as well as the reactive maintenance that we do when we get calls
100for leaks and things anything like this is usually identified this is a little bit unique because where the majority of the damage was found was actually on sheer walls those sheer walls had been added on top of existing sheer walls during the 1997 seismic so what that what that means is there was existing Shear walls of 1x4 that were up on the wall and you can sort of see it on the pictures and then what they did in 1997 was they added another layer of plywood on top of it and then from there then they stuccoed everything that had rotted out was that exterior sheer wall that could not be seen from inside so even when they got calls four leaks and went out to look and they would open up the walls there was
101no way to see that damage and that's partially why the destructive testing didn't catch it um it is it it's very unfortunate in the sense of that it couldn't be detected sooner but the reality is is this Le this this does seem to be a oneoff when we understand how that building is constructed there's there's been some questions of like who is at fault and there's also the question of how did this happen and truthfully there's there's no one person that we could point the finger back to how this happened though is what the engineers have found and the waterproofing consultants and so on and so forth is the way that the gutters were actually originally installed on this building when it was built all those years ago was a really intricate system on the
102Eve where they notched every Eve to accept the the rain gutters the problem is is in doing that the back of those gutters were actually slightly lower than the front so when those gutters would fill up just because of large amounts of rain and the down spouts couldn't keep up with it instead of the water spilling over the front it ran down the back and it ran behind the stuck out so it's it's very rare to see something like this even when we started to pull the gutters and we were looking at the investigation everybody on the scaffolding myself the engineers The Architects all sort of scratched our heads because we had never seen a system designed like this um it's a one-off it's a very old school unfortunately like most of our schools but
103we don't have reason to believe that we have any type of extensive damage like this elsewhere now is that to say that it doesn't exist I can't say that I don't have X-ray vision but I do feel confident right in our maintenance program that looks at all of these things thank you uh John for associate superintended kise for taking the time to explain that to our community um the followup and to the board a while ago but to our community uh the followup that I would have uh to that is to really um ask uh the facility subcommittee um to take some time to look at um other factors that could lead to that happening in other schools so if it was a gutter issue U maybe we are not doing an entire um assessment
104of all of our buildings but maybe if that is something we know we need to look for maybe uh we're looking for that and other factors that could lead to to challenges without taking the time to do an entire assessment and so I like to give the direction to the facilities committee which hey I happen to be on great and so we'll take we'll hopefully take care of that uh in the future um I know that you all are also um working hard to address the needs for transportation um for Longfellow and we are not I'm not asking you to uh make a comment on this tonight or prepare or to expect that you are prepared um to give us an answer but um just to address the public comment that was made earlier uh
105to know that there is a need for the community and the need uh the need is around transportation and so the other direction I would give is that you continue to uh have those conversations and update the community as soon as we uh we know uh and then finally not a question or comment for you but I would really just like to elevate the um diligence and the um resilience of our community during this time um and that includes of course all of our Longfellow staff and principal Selita Mitchell uh for really just being flexible this is not um an easy task and it's not just about moving but it's also about reassuring people that they are safe and that learning uh will continue to happen and so I'm very grateful uh to the community
106at Longfellow uh as well as the adult school for offering um their space and then uh finally a group who we have not mentioned tonight uh is our District staff who have given up their office is um to house uh The Adult School staff and so thank you to our superintendent who uh you know gets down and does the work with us who has given up her space um as well as our uh board secretary and um uh secretary to our superintendent on all of those who I've forgotten to mention please forgive me but thank you for um really embodying what the the word community means and making it happen for us thank you that's thank you assistant superintendent clis for your presentation uh vice president Brown us sto my two questions we just had
107make sure this doesn't happen in other buildings and if you could talk about the transportation issues um I just wanted to acknowledge that those are you know really real concerns from our parent community and I understand and I thank you for saying that this is a unique situation um but I also understand the parents in the district who want to be sure that we're doing our due diligence and understand there's a lot being thrown at facilities at this time but do you want to thank vice president Brown for taking this on on facilities I know you guys have a lot on your plate and director shinoski um because those concerns are real I'm I always tell people I'm a parent first before I'm a board director and those concerns are are really real so just
108want to acknowledge that and on the transportation side I know the answer to this question but I think it's good for the public to know director kiss uh assistant superintendent kiss that you are working with the city of Berkeley to make sure that um the traffic flow issues are addressed preemptively I've seen all of your hard work during the summer uh to coordinate with with our city leaders um to make sure that we're protecting our bikers and rulers to school that we are being good neighbors to our community I know there was a comment earlier about Sylvia Mendes but maybe you could talk just briefly about the kind of conversations that you have pending with with District officials on top of all of the tremendous work that you've done this summer yeah so with the
109city it's really just been a collaboration of what showing them what our plans were we met with the schools leadership over at Longfellow at San Pablo uh with principal Mitch Mitchell as well as the vice principal enie whose last name I can never pronounce so I'm not going to try um but we did meet with them we worked out a plan uh we met with the city officials and we we reviewed that they had some concerns they asked us to make a few modifications and we've done those things we know that we will likely have to re-engage that conversation as we look towards uh the construction of Workforce housing but that's a conversation to have once the dust settles thank thank you so much assistant superintendent CL and for my board colleagues just want you
110to know there's an email out there to AC Transit and those conversations are also happening uh with our local bus service because we know that many of our middle school students do use AC transit to get to and from school so we want to make sure that their service needs are also met so thank you to the staff for having those important conversations and with that um if there are no more questions or comments colleagues uh and you have any questions okay we don't want to put you on the spot wait um we will move on to Extended public comments thank you thank you and let me look online to see is there anyone here in person for extended public comments Miss chis okay let me see online um I don't see any raise hands
111online Okay um there's no online so I will move on to see no public comments we'll move on to Extended board member comments colleagues does anyone have extended board member comments no all right seeing no extended board member comments I want to thank you all for coming to our first school board meeting of this Academic Year it's going to be a wonderful year and hereby we ad join the meeting at 8:50 in time for the birthday girl to get to her festivities thank you e