001good evening everyone I'm now calling this meeting to order at 7:22 p.m. Miss Tyrus can you please call the official role for this evening's meeting director Jennifer shinoski here here director Caitlyn Le here director Mike Chang here uh VI director um Laura babbit here vice president Kadija Brown pres president Anna thank you Miss chares now we will approve the agenda for this evening's meeting are there any requested changes colleagues seeing no changes is there a motion and a second to approve the agenda to approve I second thank you it was removed by vice president Brown seconded by director babit all those in favor say I I I I before moving forward with this evening's order of business it's my honor to introduce a special student presentation featuring Young gifted in Black ygb this presentation is
002in honor of Black History Month good evening [Music] everyone my name Isa Davis I'm the director of this group of [Music] children uh we work in partnership with the Afric africanamerican success framework that's part of the USC uh initiatives um so we are working with black students teaching them black history teaching them performance arts and that's what they show to different audiences just like yourself um we are hoping to find performance or rehearsal space at a SCH school and we're also hoping to accept new birthday High School District students into our program so I'm going to show youall what they got and if you're interested please go to Proud the number2 be.org um and you can join us us figure out what's up so ladies and gentlemen without further Ado this is the African flag
003the African we are [Music] people and suffering of our ancestors of our ancest honor we hon the struggle theg of our mother of our we will we will bring new vales to our people to our people we will have peace we will have peace Harmony we will be loving we will beting struggle [Music] [Applause] strre provide the direction for our people for our people be I bow down to [Music] I'm [Music] I'm all we people [Music] believe br leave call oh chrating with KN with power with the sound about [Music] I'm what we need more of that kind of energy in our meeting thank you so much to our beautiful students who came and kicked off our meeting today in the spirit of Black History Month we are proud of you today and every day
004thank you so much another hand for our amazing students now we'll continue with our meeting and we'll have our report out from Clos session I'm waiting for advice president Brown if not I'm happy to report out on the Clos session minutes one second oh I see vice president Brown coming so I'm going to open up our close session it's do you want to do the report out yes thank you all for your patience I had to excitingly go tell those phenomenal students how amazing they were please give it up one more time for and now the report out from close session close session began today at 5:05 p.m. with all directors present for item 3.1 the board heard an update and provided direction for item 3.2.1 there was a motion to reject the proposed settlement
005was made by director babbit seconded by director shinoski and all directors voted in favor for item 3.2.2 the board heard an update and provided direction for item 3.2.3 was moved by director babbit seconded by President basudev and all directors voted in favor for item 3.2.4 it was moved by director babbit seconded by vice president Brown directors babbit Chang and shinoski voted in favor and president basudev voted in opposition for item 3.2.5 was moved by director babbit seconded by president basudev and all directors voted in favor item 3.2.6 will be tabled to the next meeting along with item 3.3 and item 3.4 those items will be discussed at a later time by the board and will be reported out at the next open public session of the Board of Education this ends the reading of the
006report of close session thank you president basudev thank you so so much vice president Brown and now we will hear from our superintendent Ena Ford Morel thank you president vasu and good evening everyone and happy Black History Month I have so much appreciated the many okay happy Black History Month I have so much appreciated the many ways that our Educators students and school communities have recognized the contributions of black culture and black people to our past and present and our future um this day every day and especially over the last several weeks of Black History Month this month's theme is African-Americans and the Arts from plays and performances to thoughtful class discussions class projects and curriculum to the Fantastic Black History Month competition that I attended this weekend we have seen so many ways that
007our babies have showcased their talents and all of their amazing and we all just experience together the amazing of the babies representing young gifted and black it has been so inspiring for me to be a part of the Berkeley community and the many ways in which we again lift the Heritage and the history of black folks here and how we have really made this theme of African-Americans and the Arts come to life in our schools in our classrooms and in our Berkeley Community speaking of community I I wrote this down I knew y'all were gonna be here I am so happy to see so many people here this evening sometimes it gets kind of lonely though I do appreciate being up here with these folks um but I'm also happy to see you here because
008on tonight's agenda there are a number of topics that I think will be um of interest to you all and I wanted to highlight just a couple of them um there are both topics that are important and critical topics that highlight our work but also topics that folks have been asking questions about so um you likely have lots of things to do but I hope that you will stay uh for the duration of the meeting to hear about um the amazing work that's happening in our district um amongst the things that we're going to be sharing with our board and with you this evening is our um B USD reusable food wear implementation plan right um and I mean this is a big deal this is not just about like plastic forks and me like
009this is big the way that we're really thinking about sustainability in our district the way that our babies are championing this work um and really want to be able to share with you are where we are in the implementation um of our reusable food wear and where we're going next um ultimately with the goal of um eliminating disposable packaging in our lunch program at all of our school sites you will also hear a midyear update on our local control and accountability plan also known as the lcap the purpose of the El cup is to support a cycle of continuous Improvement in the district to improve outcomes for our students especially our students who have been historically and continue to be underserved and underresourced tonight in the presentation we will hear about the available midyear outcome
010data um related to the metrics that are identified in our lcap you'll also hear about our expenditures and our implementation data on actions that are called out in our current lpac and you will hear how you can be a part of our upcoming lcap so we're going to be talking about the current lcap but at the same time we as B USD are drafting a new local control and accountability plan and we want to make sure you're a part of it so we're going to be sharing with you how you can if you haven't already engaged um in that really important effort I'm not done I told you I hope y'all get brought popcorn everything it's going to be a long night but we got good stuff the other thing I want to highlight is
011um on this evening's agenda we'll also be sharing our literacy work um # Berkeley reads you're going to hear an update on how we are operationalizing our commitment to continue building a comprehensive literacy program that is aligned with researched informed by data and will support every student in reaching great level proficiency and developing a love of reading the presentation will highlight the work that started last year and continues this year to build infrastructure expand our Collective understanding of what good reading instruction looks like and build our capacity to facilitate this instruction in all of our classrooms you will also again hear how you can be involved and be a part of the curriculum adoption that the staff will also preview um this evening I also want to call attention to that particular um engagement session
012um on um Wednesday February 28th at Rosa Parks Elementary School our staff will be opening up the doors to engage you in a more detailed conversation about our literacy effort specifically what we're looking for we look for a rigorous engaging and responsive literacy curriculum and again to get your thoughts and inputs and to share the implementation and piloting program we are also excited to share um a lot about the work that we're doing for PD Etc around literacy and again our curriculum adoption but I also want to make sure I point out to the fact that I've gotten several emails regarding um our ethnic studies curriculum at this point on our agenda we do not have ethnic studies on the agenda we're not going to be talking about ethnic studies um our board did hear
013an update on our ethnic studies earlier this fall and we are working together to figure out how we can bring that information not only to the board again but to you as our larger Berkeley unified Community what I will um say before I stop saying anything is that we in BD are really proud to have been and to be the first school district to implement an ethnic studies um requirement in 1990 y'all feel old and for us to have the first High School to establish an African-American studies department at Berkeley High in 1968 I am personally appreciative of the many community members students Educators and staff with a special shout out to our ethnic studies advisory committee um that continues this work and builds on our District's Legacy and commitment to diversity unlike the literacy
014adoption that you're going to hear about this evening our ethnic studies curriculum again will not be on tonight's agenda um but we are going to again find Space to make sure that we share with you what we're doing and how we're doing it what I can also say to you is that unlike the literacy adoption where we're going to pick and buy a curriculum we are not doing that with ethnic studies our ethnic studies um curriculum is going to be and is being developed by our Educators here in Berkeley Unified School District in partnership with community members in Partnership um and hearing the voices of you and yes in partnership with our collaborators at liberated ethnic studies um model curriculum Consortium liberated ethnic studies model curriculum Consortium is um our experts and Educators in the
015field of ethnic studies but again we're doing this work in consultation with them I am really proud to say that BD will continue to build on its Legacy of diversity and its commitment to ethnic studies because it our Educators and you all members of our community who are actually designing the program and the curriculum that our babies will receive in ethnic studies I did have a whole lot more to say but again we have a pretty meaty agenda this evening and I want to make sure you stay so I'm going to make sure we get to all of it sooner than later and I also think it's just fair to make sure that my board directors are left with something to say so with that thank you president BASF and thank you all again for
016being here thank thank you so much superintendent Ford Morell and now we will move on to public comments uh before we begin I'd like to remind you of our decorum expectations during this and 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 or 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 or approaching the dice without permission as Miss chyra already explained there are two opportunities for public comments at each meeting now and at the end of the
017meeting 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 can also email us your comments at board ofed berkeley.net there's a lot of student speakers here today so um just to let you know we will be prioritizing student speakers the board does not directly resp respond to comments or questions made during public comment board members the superintendent and staff do take notes during public comment and may follow up with the speaker after the meeting these are hybrid meetings so we'll have public commenters in the boardroom and online we've designated 20 minutes to in-person speakers this will be followed by 10 minutes of online speakers and so the speaking time tonight will be one minute per speaker um
018please note that the microphone will shut off at the end of each speaker's allotted time so please time your comments appr appropriately and with that I'm going to call on our students first in in order that the cards were given to me so we'll start with Iris bade Sage dala uh C Nelson Keno Nelson Kenji Nelson thank you and Lexi mck so if you could approach the dice that'd be great we'll start with Iris followed by sage and Kenji good evening sorry is it on yes good evening my name is Iris bade and I have come here to speak about the proposed budget cuts related to the the removal of a counselor at BTA or bis um I actually have had the pleasure of um being supported by both Ms Jones and Miss leay um
019um as some of us may know Miss lay was added to the uh support team at bis this year and I was at Berkeley High last year and bis the year before so I have experience with both um I've come here to say that the the two counselors at BTA and bis both have provided an amazing amount of support support for all of the students in both schools and while they may share the same campus both schools have their own needs that need to be attended to I have I have noticed that there is a great Rapport between both Miss Jones and Miss lay and the students at BTA and bis thank you so much if you didn't get to finish your comment please email for ofed at berkeley.net next we have SA followed by
020Kenji oh my bad I can move the mic closer to you yeah hi my name is Sage dala I'm a current Junior at Berkeley Independent Study and dual enrolled with Berkeley Community College I'm here today to advocate for the need for a counselor at independent study almost all of us here have been teenagers and know the not only academic but social pressure we are facing in this crucial period of our life High School is our final transition before adulthood we all need someone that we can go to for specialized support and guidance when we're feeling lost or we don't know how to take that next step here at independent study we are lucky enough to have Miss Lyn leay I like many other independent study students transferred to Alternative Learning because I was struggling in
021high school which which means I need specialized support and so do my peers um navigating through the change of the routine structure of high school to Independent work to upcoming yeah thank you so much Sage next we'll move on to Kenji followed by Lexi Min and I'm so sorry if I mispronouncing your but we'll start with Kenji Nelson hello oh uh I'm also here to talk about the uh teacher cuts happening at bis I you can move the mic up closer okay um I've had the the joy of working with uh both Miss Jones and Miss uh Lei and they've helped me both as a student but also as a person when it comes to like looking onward to to my future and planning ahead and also working on my past mistakes can I end
022it there or okay thank you for your comment next we'll move on to Lexi Min Minik and I'm a senior at Berkeley Independent Study um I've been at Berkeley Independent Study since I was in 8th grade and uh there have been a lot of issues with counselors in the past just because it's sometimes difficult to work with counselors when you have mental health issues and while I've been in independent study I have had to rely mostly on myself for a lot of work but when Miss lay came this year uh she was able to greatly help with um applying for college getting my transcripts in and I feel like if she wasn't here I wouldn't have had that opportunity um and I've seen the amount she's been able to do just in the short time
023she's had and I feel like it's been a really great support to the community to have two counselors on campus thank you so much next I'm going to call on Ida Marshall lap Amaya Dorman McKenzie and Adam mafal kelman actually I'm sorry Adam that's a parent not a student you're put in the student pile so we'll call idida Marshall Le and am dor McKenzie hello my name is Ida Marshall pay I'm a freshman at Berkeley High and I'm currently taking an ethnic studies class I have loved being in this class and find what we learned to be extremely relevant and it has helped me understand my community and the world around me it's concerning that my teacher can talk to us about the war in Ukraine or Mexican immigration and yet she can't teach us
024about this important Global event that is directly relevant to the ethnic studies curriculum without having to be worried for her job our government is playing a huge role in what is happening in Gaza right now so why are we not being educated on it I believe the district should be protecting my teacher and other teachers ability to educate me and my peers about what is happening in the world and not have to be censored and scared for their jobs while doing it I also support gender nutal bathrooms at hi thank you thank you for your comments next we'll move on to Amaya Dorman McKenzie and Then followed by Sali another student okay so we just wanted to take one minute for both of us because there's a lot of people all right um my name
025is Amilia mono Olsen and this is Amaya Dorman McKenzie we are representatives from Sunrise Berkeley High um we just want to say thank you so much for working with us to agree New Deal for school's res solution pass especially Jennifer for working with us behind the scenes uh just to recap a green New Deal for schools means free healthy school lunches climate disaster Readiness plans Pathways to Green jobs and climate curriculum and safe clean buildings so um I just want to add that um be a dream to for schools in BD means more gender friendly bathrooms and more bathrooms period so trans kids need to Peete um now to talk about curriculum Politics the controversy which surrounds the Palestine Israeli conflict reminds me of how is never taught that war emits more greenhouse gases than
026Mo both shipping and Aviation combined as stated by The Guardian newspaper what is climate curriculum if not a resource to help young people understand the state of the world a green New Deal for schools is not a complete answer to all the problems that our district is facing however it does connect to thank thank you for your comments we're now moving on to sonali followed by Taylor reenal my name is Sali muscadinia Swan and I have attended BD for 11 years until I had the experience to learn the ethnic studies curriculum the majority of the history that I had Learned was told from a settler Colonial perspective at the age of 10 I had already been taught who the heroes were they were those who came to California from somewhere else and had worked hard
027to make this a land of opportunity when we visited the missions in San Francisco and pan for gold the stories of the indigenous people whose land was stolen were never told the aloney people were never human ized in the way that settlers were the Palestinian poet mared baruti writes that if you want to dispossess a people the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with secondly in these recent months as a genocide and mass displacement in Gaza has played out I have been appalled that there um has been a failure to hear the stories of Palestinians in my classes as a b USD student I urge you to renew the liberated ethnic studies contract support Arab Muslim and swana youth protect trans students rights to gender neutral bathrooms and
028fork for your thank you so much for your comment next we have Taylor renal followed by Nia Santana hi my name is Taylor Rau and I'm currently a freshman at Berkeley High I am enrolled in an ethnic studies class and I love it it's so refreshing for me and my peers to have the opportunity to learn about real life topics as well as see myself represented I know that things I know that the things that I've learned in my ethic studies class will stay with me for the rest of my life I believe students should be allowed to become educated on the Gaza conflict this war is apparent and is affecting people all over the world we cannot pretend that it isn't happening the school board should not be able to restrict my peers and
029your students education this is why we have ethnic studies so we can learn and grow more knowledgeable about the history from all walks of life denying education on topics though they may be difficult goes against the sole purpose of this program I'm also in support of the implementation of gender neutral bathrooms thank you thank you and now I'll call Nia Santana followed by vieta Hoffman Gutierrez followed by Julio either of those three students are here Nia Santana vieta Hoffman Gutierrez or Julio does this work my name is Julio Gonzalez and I'm a high school student at Berkeley High when I showed up to school wearing this cafia I was surprised by the amount of support that I received from students and teachers alike but I was also absolutely shocked when many students many of them
030casually said that I looked like a terrorist it is really infuriating to witness the dehumanization and racism against our Arab Muslim and Palestinian communities and it's not just in Berkeley it's all over this country and the only way we can stop this racism and violence is through education Nelson Mandela said it himself people aren't born hating anyone they learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love let let our teachers teach love let us students learn Palestine thank you thank you fulio let make a second call for the students Nia Santana vieta Hoffman Gutierrez followed by Anastasia and Alani hi our names are Nia and vieta we are in fourth grade at Thousand Oaks and Berkeley Arts Magnet B USD students wants to learn the truth about palen
031Stein We Trust our teachers and they want liberated ethn studies our teachers had said nothing about Palestine and we want to learn about it ceasefire now now we have Anastasia followed by Alani right hello my name is elani I'm an eighth grade student student at Willard Middle School when I was thinking about how I was going to spend my Wednesday night I did not think I'd be here fighting for my right to learn as a Chinese Mexican native American my people have been subject to colonization and genocide that's why I think it's important to talk and learn more about Palestine growing up in Berkeley we have lessons on anti-censorship and anti-b book Banning now we have organizations that are trying to prevent us from learning about what's really happening in the world and our role
032in it when I look look around I see a messed up world climate change poverty and War we're the Next Generation and we have to learn about history and be ready to make the world better please do not ban the liberated ethnic studies thank you hi my name it's it working hi my name is Anastasia um and I feel like we should have more learning more about Gaza and our ethnic studies because if we're going to learn about everyone else why like not learn about this group of people what makes it what makes them like not why can't we learn about them if yeah that's it that's all I got thank you and those are all the student cards I have right now next I'm going to call for agenda items Lindy Noel to speak
033on agenda item 14.2 hi my name is Lindsay noeld I'm a member of reading for Berkeley each year more than 200 students graduate from BHS with a diploma yet unable to read proficiently Dr Julie Washington said in 2019 that's five years ago people we are losing generations and generations of kids who aren't learning to read and therefore don't have access or a way to get out of the cycle that they're in and despire to something higher this is why reading for Berkeley is asking the community hello to show up and say the most foundational indicator of lifelong success is the ability to read next week there are are three events to engage in directly with BSD leadership about why how and when we will be improving our flawed foundational reading curriculum none of these are
034listed on the BSD website so in addition to what our superintend oh thank you Miss Nel please email us your comments if you aren't able to get through them next I'll call on you know three speakers from the non-agenda items there's a lot of cards if you don't get a chance to speak now then we can speak you can you can feel free to speak uh during the second time for public comment I'll move on to online comments after the next three speakers so we have Janine Cohen followed by Usama motisi and then Diana soy and those will be the three last public um in person speakers chanine Coen Usama Mai and D so um I'd like to seed my time to Usama sure is Usama here so I want to acknowledge Black History Month
035and um of course I also want to say that all students have a right to learn about Palestinian and arab-american history and culture as an educator myself of over 27 years experience and now a professor at UC Berkeley in the department of history and a father of a Berkeley High Senior I also believe strongly that the best people to educate our children are our teachers not Lobby groups pushing a partisan agenda Palestinian and Arab American culture is beautiful necessary and important to know especially in this moment where so much of the world is fixated on the terrible events taking place in Gaza and on the suffering of Palestinians there Palestinian and Arab Americans live dream Love and Hope like any other people but Palestinian Americans are constant being censored as we heard because they aspire
036to tell their authentic stories and experiences this their history has direct parallels with those of other uh marginalized and oppressed groups such as black Americans indigenous Native Americans asian-americans and latinx Americans Madam president the speaker was only given one minute to speak and has two minutes excuse me if you would allow me to finish he needs one more minute on the on the on his time to speak only given one minute and he needs two thank you yeah hey yes I think the mic's not there history has direct parallels with those of other marginalized in oppress groups such as black Americans indigenous Native Americans asian-americans latinx Americans whom BD has previously honored and cherished as we see the flags there nobody including Palestinian American should be rendered people without history for that reason I strongly
037support the liberated ethnic studies curriculum let teachers teach and let students of all faiths as we just heard and backgrounds learn freely and without intimidation I have never witnessed such incredible thirst for knowledge about Palestine and the history of Palestine nor have I seen such extraordinary levels of censorship in this country that affects all teachers and all students the reality is that students want to as we heard know more about this history they want to know more about the past honesty integrity and opening intellectual and ethical Horizons are fundamental to what education is all about again please please support liberated ethnic studies curriculum Do Not Bow a censorship thank you thank you very much and then we have one more speaker and then I'll move to online comments D soy have one minute tanur hello
038um my name is Janice t and I'm here representing the group BD apis we strongly support the liberated ethnic studies model curriculum Consortium lmcc because they are composed of the most accomplished and respected Scholars and teachers in the field of ethnic studies they provide the highest quality quality curriculum support available written by and for people of color the district's continued collaboration with the LM lmcc will address systemic inequality in our education system by prioritizing the needs and experiences of our students of color the lmcc honors the fact that arab-american history and curriculum is an integral part of Asian-American studies we are bound together by what renowned Palestinian American Scholar Edward S called orientalism we therefore strongly support and advocate for the contract being continued into the next academic year and Beyond and we also support
039our transgender student St in the district to have access to safe and accessible restrooms thank you thank you so much I'm now going to move on to online comments and call on our students who are um who rais their hand to speak online first so the three students that I see are Alisha Thompson Emilio Bell Rogers and student jamaah Harrison Miss chus can you promote aelo cultural Rogers or Alisha [Music] you I can't hear her is she oh do I start now okay good evening to you all my name is alayia Thompson and I am a ninth grader at Berkeley independent studies last night I spoke here in favor of funding Alia we can't hear you just a second okay okay go ahead good evening to you all my name is Alisha Thompson and I
040am a ninth grader who attends Berkeley Independence studies last year I spoke here in favor of funding for a new full-time counselor and we here at B Berkeley Independence study sincerely thank you for the all the resources you provided for giving us a full-time counselor I speaking again tonight to restate the benefits of having a full-time counselor at berklyn pen studies I've had the pleasure of meeting our new full-time counselor Miss lay and she is a very kind-hearted responsive and positive influence on our scho school community and as a student who cares deeply about her education it is a necessity that I have a school counselor who is easily accessible to discuss course and credits to college advice we students depend on our counselor Scholastic guidance and support just as much as we depend on
041our teachers by keeping Miss lay at Burk Independence studies it shows me and my parents how seriously you take our education thank you thank you so much next we have Emilia BR Rogers and then student jamaah Harrison hello my name is amelo Bacha Rogers no you may just give us one minute because we're having technical difficulties Amia do you want to try it now yeah yes I do okay oh it's us one second Amelia we're having Tech come I speaking now Amelia hello there you go hello my name is Amelia I'm a ninth grade student taking ethnic studies I'm here to defend the ethnic studies curriculum ethnic studies was created to shed light on fallacies of inequality and provide context on oppression in a nuanced and thoughtful way because of this program I step into
042my classroom every day with a teacher who provides me with the information I need to find my own voice and opinions as a non-israeli Jew I understand very well that Judaism and Israel are different and we have a responsibility to fight hatred of all kinds including anti-Semitism however the ideas and discussions that we have in class they do include is is a topic but they are in no way anti-semitic the war in Gaza is a sad topic and it's really hard to talk about but we can't allow those feelings to stop us from talking or being allowed to talk the way we change the world is with our voices and if we silence our teachers we silence our students thank you thank you so much emelo and now we will move on to our next
043student speaker um she been promoted already MERS what happened to the third student speaker I was that student logged off okay then I'll I'll call I'll finish the online speakers and then we notice there's two uh we'll call out the student GA group is it the Gia group we'll call you at the end of online comments so we'll move on to Monica is the next speaker that I see Miss chus go ahead Monica High um okay she's going to translate the first part for the board so you can understand the public comment she's a 10th gr parent who is uh in support and appreciative of the bridge program and is requesting that it be expanded in order to accommodate any students that are weight listed um as is her experience she has a student that's
044W white listed so normally for bilingual messages we allow a little extra time so we'll allow miss Monica to finish her comment and then allow miss chares the opportunity to translate for the board [Music] supp again she's um asking the district to consider expanding the program in order to um serve as many students as possible as this program has been very critical and has impacted her students um in a great way and she wants everyone to have the same experience thank you Miss ches now we'll move on to Mike C followed by Carol dorf and then IET farara Mike C Carol dorf and IET farara uh am I on yes you are all right so I have a little difficulty with my uh uh iPad so I'm gonna speak without video uh my name is
045Mike C uh I'm a parent of a student in bis so I think uh by student by Def definition is to learn and Excel both academically and psychologically in school but without good counselor or mentors and teachers in school student can perform well and learn well uh Miss lay is one that uh one excellent counselor and both me and my son like her very much and she gave guidance and benefited us so much so I think we should keep her in bis uh if you lose good counselors and teachers I'm wondering what's next are we closing the school too and leave our kids on the streets I remember one of our ex president said no kids left behind so to keep our kids in school is to have good teachers and counselors so they can
046learn thank you thank you next we have Carol dorf followed by IET farara hi can you guys see okay I can see myself so you must be able to see me um I'm a retired Berkeley High School teacher and I'm a parent of a child who went through the Berkeley schools k12 and I'm a Berkeley resident um I am going to just say I totally agree with Monica about Bridge it was a wonderful program and um I to and I think that um it made a huge difference in student achievement but I'm not actually um talking about that I'm in favor of an ethnic studies curriculum when I was teaching at Berkeley High I witnessed a number of racist and anti-semitic incidents this demonstrates the need for a community building ethnic studies curriculum such as
047that pioneer Ed by Mr mcnight and Mr Collier thus I am opposed to the biased and discriminatory stance and to some extent the Hostile learning environment created by the liberated ethnic studies model curriculum consortion with whom buusd has contracted to create curriculum for our K12 students students need to learn how to think how to consider arguments how to find information they don't necessarily thank you very much for your public comment and if you didn't get to finish your comment please email us at B ofed berkeley.net and there's also a second opportunity for public comment at the end of the meeting that um Miss hares can you promote Evette farara hi can you hear me yes we can hear you great um I'm gonna seed my time to Lisa Sullivan cross who's also online hi can
048I start in yes yes hi Miss Le has been invaluable in her uh and my our daughter succeeding and thriving at bis because of her support knowledge and expertise our daughter will be graduating high school this spring on time with a 3.5 plus GPA and will be heading to a four-year College our daughter's really smart but she struggles with ADHD and dyslexia and there have been times when we thought she would not graduate and certainly not go to college and Miss leay has been directly connected with her succeeding and thriving adding her last year was huge for our daughter giving she's a given she's a senior and would likely not have received the guidance time with just one shared BTA bis counselor that she needed to cross the finish line BD should be proud our
049daughter is ready to Take On The World thanks to the flexibility and quality of the bis program and thanks to miss Le's support please do not cut funding for Miss lay thank you thank you so much now we have one more student who I see with their hands up online and then we'll move to our gaay students that are here in person so for our next on online comment we'll move to student jamah Harrison and then we'll move to the in-person comments and that will conclude public comment hi can you hear me yes we can hear you okay hi hi my name is jamah Harrison I am a senior in Bridge I appreciate and would like to thank you for giving me the time to talk about my bridge program I'm very thankful for the
050daily classes my teachers and the resources that they have given me I have had a bridge class every day after school for four years with the bridge teacher from Berkeley High this has been extremely helpful to me and my peers we have a supportive place to go every day to do our homework and get tutoring done it is also really important that our Bridge teacher is a part of our Berkeley High School and they are familiar with everything that happens here my bridge teacher is able to access resources right away and can walk down the hallway and solve any issues for us they know about all the opportunities available to students at Berkeley High and they help us take advantage of them I'm proud to say I apply to seven UCS and six usus I
051was admitted to all six CSUS and I look forward to hearing back from uc's when they start making their decisions thank you for believing in me and providing the support I need thank you so much and that concludes online comment now we'll we'll call our gaay students up and we'll have three speakers and then uh that will conclude public comment one minute for each speaker on February 7th next Benedict a non-binary student at an Oklahoma school was assaulted and killed in a woman's restroom next died because of an Administration that did too little too late the reality is I see myself at NEX another 16-year-old non-binary person another cook another kid who liked rock music and another Young American who had dreams I ask as a student and GAA asks as an organization that you
052work with us to solve the problems we have at Berkeley High I need the problems with the bathrooms to be fixed before I lose my life or I lose one of my friends to this issue I've had health problems associated with holding it all day I've had other students tell me they feel unsafe walking into restrooms I lead a club that supports trans students and every time I walk into that classroom I see students who are not safe at brookley high we need to pee on February 7th next Benedict was killed they died because their restrooms weren't safe and I'm terrified my friends get harassed and don't drink water in the mornings because the bathrooms at BHS are not safe this isn't fair audience members please stand or raise a fist as able if you
053think trans students deserve to be safe at their schools audience members please stay standing please keep your fists raised if you think this School Board needs to do more to make us safe needs to pass something concrete members of the board we need an accessible plan oh wait sorry we need an actionable plan let us PE make us safe thank you these are three accounts of student experiences with the Berkeley High gender neutral restrooms November 16th 2023 I walked around for 20 minutes today trying to find a bathroom not one that wasn't being used or didn't have a broken sink handle but one that was unlocked after being yelled at twice for being in the wrong building because there wasn't a restroom for me in the building that I was in I gave up and
054used the the sis Jenner bathroom I feel like I gave up my identity February 9th 2024 I don't use the bathrooms anymore because they are always locked February 20th 2024 as a trans guy I can't use the women's bathroom without feeling really dysphoric but I'm super scared of going into the men's would definitely use the gender neutral bathrooms if they were more readily available clean and working thank you and let us pee thank you very much that now concludes the public comment period thank you to everyone who came to speak if you did not get to speak please remember that there's an extended public comment at the end of the meeting Additionally you can always email the board at board ofed berkeley.net or contact us individually now we'll move on to committee comments Miss ches
055do you have uh anyone here for committee comments not is here I think we have an online J Shack okay yeah can you please promote them Rebecca can you please unmute sorry about that good evening Bor can you hear me yes we can hear you good evening board my name is Rebecca levenson I am the coach chair of the G Shack committee and for my friends in the audience who don't know what G Shack stands for um you were all standing for the things that we're working on by the way just a minute ago it stands for gender Equity sexual harassment advisory committee and we're an important committee because there are so many needs that haven't been addressed in these Realms historically and as you saw this evening there is a huge need around having
056additional facilities for students and it's a huge issue and I appreciate every single one of them that came up and shared again what's happening and we look forward to a remedy coming soon but I'm here to talk about the sh part um a little bit more today the sexual harassment harm sexual assault part of the committee and part of what I've been really thinking about for you all as a board members recognizing we're walking into a very difficult budget year is this as you are thinking about Equity because I know that's one of the principles that we hold up as a value as systems I want you to think about some of the data that I've been sharing with you in written comments So for anybody who's at the last board meeting that I spoke
057at you got to hear evidence around the fact that young men who are part of male athletic teams are far more likely to engage in sexual harassment and sexual assault in School than their peers who are not part of those groups and I'm asking you to think about how much money we spend on those sports teams every year how much the athletic club raises for those sports teams every year and how we have not addressed the elephant sitting in the room which is we know there's a correlation here you have cases every single year where an elite male athlete has raped a girl at school either at school or at a party and and I am thinking about okay we're going to really focus on Equity let's think about this for a second let's let's
058look at what we have to focus on prevention as a school district and you know one of the other things that has sort of come up is you know we we we have some great examples of strategies that help grow what's happening and one of them is through um the the work that we're doing with welcoming families right so we have a paid staff person whose job it is to leaz on with teachers and schools to help them realize um a a curriculum that is caring about and for and allowing teachers to discuss issues of non-binary students trans students all of these things and it's exciting it's exciting we do not have anything like that in a coordinated fashion around consent and sexual harm and the other sort of data point that I shared with
059all of you this week I believe is that one and three um adolescence who are in a dating relationship will experience violence at the hands of a partner sexual violence at the hands of a partner um stalking at the hands of a partner online abuse from a partner so it's one in three and again I'm thinking about Equity here and the impact that these experiences have on our young people and we have choices to make right you have choices to make around what what are our values and what do we want to be funding and so my question to all of you is if we haven't had it right all along and as you're going into a difficult budget year I want you to rethink the way we're holding this we spend so much money
060on the after effects of sexual harm you know this you get to see the settlements you get to make those calls every year and it's been going on for the last 10 years that I've been tracking it it's it's it's regular experience and we've done some really good things in this District jazdeep Molly is running Green Dot and it is an extraordinary program the gack got to hear um all about what what Green Dot is about and it's a it's an upstander um curricula that is teaching young people how to intervene specifically around issues of bullying and harm and she shared a story that I can't quite get out of my head and it was story of a young man who has some political cache has some Capital Social Capital at a party who' learned
061through Green Dot to be an upstander and there was a girl passed out or essentially passed out and he sees one of his friends or one of his acquaintances hauling her off to a bedroom and he saysa whoaa whoaa what are you what are you doing right and and the P thank you so much Miss levenson if you could send us the rest of your comments via email that would be great and Miss chus I just want to confirm we don't have any Union comments tonight no Union comments okay we'll move on to board member comments and before we start board member comments I just wanted to remind our colleagues to review our governance team commitments our full list of governance team commitments for the members of the public can be found on our board
062meeting agendas and with that I'll turn it over to my colleagues who would like to go first all right director babit good evening everyone I want to start by thanking our Educators who attended the African-American Regional Educators Alliance conference on Saturday February 3rd it was great to see bosd represent with such a meaningful Presence at this conference and I want to thank the African-American success manager for facilitating signups and the professional learning circles that occur within our teams the workshop ask was not what can we do longterm but what can each person represented do starting Monday February 5th to change the racially predictable outcomes for black students in B USD to name a couple we had Parents offered to help Educators as cultural Navigators after school staff dedicate themselves to more public ways to encourage
063and celebrate students and program leaders commit to ensuring the enrollment of black students were increased people were able to share their personal challenges in a safe space and received encouragement and strength to overcome as we close black history month but never the process of learning one educator shared their commitment to learn more black history as they cannot teach what they them elves do not know the importance of black history for me has always been to say yes I can if my ancestors and recent Elders were able to do it under the most atrocious circumstances surely I can persevere thank you to the kids of young gifted and black for coming today as Educators they educate not only by what they share but by raising the expectations in adult especially adult Educators about what they can
064do years ago teachers at a school site admitted they had no idea their student could learn so much that was a low to no expectation conversation and research has repeatedly pointed to this mindset as the main driver for poor outcomes for black kids since then WB kids seem to have been treated as exceptions somehow they just have something different in them that makes them able to do what most black kids would not be able to do I hear other kids have zero faith in their ability to do what they've seen these kids do this evening even worse I do not see many adults redirecting them to say yes you can they learn it because they practice it together the same Way kids learn sports or any other activity they learn it because people take them
065to practice and pick them up they get joy from the performances their parents and Community Express expresses pride in them and they carry that self-esteem into the classrooms and that boldness into saying yes to other opportunities BD has so many opportunities available to us students including those that are afforded by the BP or measure 8 which is on the ballot this March 5th I want to thank the community for continuing to prioritize support for struggling students Music Arts counseling and libraries as important values needed to educate the whole child in closing I want to address the many letters and various petitions the board continues to receive around ethnic studies islamophobia anti-Semitism and express my desire for bosd to communicate more around the happenings within B USD to address these needs as director Brown voiced her
066support for a town hall last board meeting I've had separate conversations with the superintendent about having Town Halls forums and sending more statements to improve transparency around what is and is not happening within our schools I believe the tener of the community has cmed to a point in which we can have meaningful conversation about these issues isues understand that while we will not solve the issues of the Middle East we can ensure that we maintain an atmosphere of inclusion within B USD for those most impacted by this crisis to our Educators and administrators please know that I am in full support of BD's policies on teaching controversial subjects that means if the policy has been violated the district is required to enforce it the same goes for hate motivated behavior and any other policy that
067the district sets they have been set to protect students and Educators and they must be followed no matter where you work you do take your opinions with you this is why most organizations state and federal laws have been established as guard rails if you will so that the negative parts of History the lived experience of discrimination cultural racial isolation do not repeat themselves so I will again say free speech in a public school setting is not the same as free speech on your own dime or private time from the information shared with me thus far there are a handful of Educators whose actions based on our policy determine the course of administrative followup to the community the same guard rails that protect your privacy at work if you are queried for potential policy violation exists
068for B usd's employees the same opportunity for correction that should exist for you exists for them while there is more I would like to say in the interest of time I will save my Pac committee updates for the elcap presentation and I look forward to the reading and literacy climate presentations my office hours through June 2024 have been posted on our website uh my next one will be March 9th 2024 from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. at RT's coffee on 4th Street and the upcoming two events on literacy they're both virtual one on Monday February 26 from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M the northern Sela region uh CAC literacy Roundtable hosts five districts who will answer questions on how students are taught to read and from 7:30 to 9 9 p.m the Berkeley Council PTA will host
069curriculum and learning Q&A please I please ask that these be posted on our website that those in our community may attend thank you thank you director fabbit any other directors ready to give director Jan like to go for student director or our student director is ready first all right let's go thank you for all joining us uh thank you all for joining us tonight and happy Black History Month I would like to start by acknowledging a tragic event that took place recently in Oklahoma it breaks my heart to hear about the violent death of NEX Benedict a victim of horrendous transphobic hate crime this incident really shines a light on the necessity of creating a safe and inclusive School environment for Trans and non-b binary students in our own School Community therefore I would like
070to extend my utmost appre appreciation towards the students who have come out to every single meeting to speak up for themselves and other students in our community please know that your voices and experiences have not gone gone unheard they are extremely valued and I have faith that the BHS Administration is working to come up with long awaited Solutions and I will do everything in my power to make sure that we Foster the safe School culture that each and every one of our students deserve additionally I thank gack for the work and discussion that they have been having as that um they are also so crucial to um fostering this culture that I'm speaking about next I would also like i' like to acknowledge the great work of the sunrise Club at Berkeley High and I'm
071excited that this sustainability ability update is on our agenda tonight lastly I want to thank all the students that are here tonight we are taught in Berkeley to speak up for what we believe in and you are all doing just that with passion and Care thank you for sharing the voices of Our Generation I offer my support again to all students at Berkeley High and highly encourage you all to email me about any concerns or suggestions thank you thank you student director next we have a director Chen thank you so much president basad Dev um wow look at this amazing crowd today uh the one-third that's left for those on TV Land um so hello Shiny Happy People First of all um happy Black History Month uh thank you to each of you for bringing
072your energy to the school board it is so exciting to see local power in action um it's not just your energy but your Berkeley values that make this District special um keep on coming to the board and speaking your hearts and Minds um I want to give a shout out to ethnic studies as core to Berkeley values of inclusivity and critical knowledge thank you ethnic stud students parents and teachers for sharing your experiences about the important pedagogical value of being exposed to history and learning from different view points also thank you ybg students for your rousing performance God to love your energy and your talent thank you BTA students for your words of support for counselors they play such a critical role in student engagement and access to programs and services thank you counselors for
073your work thank you sunrise for green deal new schools ra for schools raising the intersectionality which by the way is an ethic studies concept between climate and War thank you Gaia and students for their reminders for bathroom access and safety thank you students and parents for your support of the bridge program and thank you committees for your work and sharing um thank you those parents who have met with board directors and the administration including myself recently to share your viewpoints and concerns on District climate if you have concerns about islamophobia or anti-Semitism please engage with the district's office for civil rights compliance of course please continue to email me to set up office hours I've met a number of you and continue to be willing to do so just email me and may not have
074specific times posted but just send me an email and thank you for joining us tonight and joy the sun tomorrow thank you director Ching do you have any other colleagues that would like to speak tonight director shinoski hi good evening um I want to give a few comments on some things that I've been working on um first I attended the citizens Bond oversite committee last night uh where we got a presentation on some Renovations upcoming renovations to the BHS Little Theater um so I'm excited to see that um it includes two seven stall all gender bathrooms one for teachers and one for students so I'm really grateful that in the facilities Department we're really being mindful about um moving forward I've been working with the sunrise movement members to collaborate on a green New Deal
075resolution and it's really been a a privilege to work with that uh group of students um these are issues that are going to disproportionately affect them more than all of us up here except Caitlyn and um I hope that the community will support the resolution as well as the implications that will it will inevitably have on our budget um I was a privileged to be on the youth and government panel um to hear students present bills uh mandating bike lanes and teachers under investigation for sexual assault and I was just so impressed by the bill authors as well as speakers in favor and against the bills and I can't wait to see some of those young people running for and holding office in an attempt to make the world a better place was really inspiring
076I want to thank uh Berkeley High Principal Juan Regza executive director of facilities John C superintendent Ford Morell and Title 9 coordinator and compliance officer yasmina vites did I do it right yes um the four of them took time out of their busy schedules to meet and brainstorm ways to solve um the issue of twoo few bathrooms accessible for our trans kids uh last week I think it was uh Berkeley has more allender gender bathrooms than what's required by law but we know that that's not enough and so we've been working closely with school administrators students gack and even Statewide lawmakers we have been and remain committed to finding a solution to the problem and we will not stop until everybody can pee I've also spent a lot of time over the last couple weeks
077learning more about students teacher and community experiences including what is and what is not part of the ethnic studies curriculum within be USD I appreciate the learning and want to reiterate superintendent Ford morell's commitment to relying on our teachers administrators and advisory groups to ensure that we have a robust and challenging curriculum I finally want to remind voters that the Berkeley school's Excellence program also known as Bap renewal is on the ballot on measure h BP funds things like small class classes libraries music programs supports for struggling students and so much more and I want to thank Berkeley for always supporting up in the past thanks thank you director Shas now I'm going to move on to vice president Brown good evening everyone okay I'm a teacher so you got to talk back to me
078when I say good evening everyone just say good evening back good evening everyone good evening you all get a a thank you so much for coming out tonight um and especially to those who had the opportunity to speak to the Board of Education regarding issues around the ongoing need for an independent studies counselor uh who spoke out tonight in support of ethnic studies and liberated ethnic studies thank you to those who spoke out in support of green new deals for schools uh protected restroom rights for our gender neutral students and for those who spoke on Adida item 14.2 teaching and learning uh our District's focus on literacy as always we appreciate your comments to the board uh both both here publicly tonight and the comments that we receive via email I would like to give
079one more huge appreciation to Young gifted in Black better known as ygb for this evening's uplifting enlightening and electrifying presentation the inspiration that you all ygb provided tonight will help curate a sense of pride in today's generation and in future generations to come and allow them to say just like you I'm proud to be black y'all and that's a fact y'all and another fact is that we are exceptionally proud of you and what you do for years at for years and years and years ygb has come to the Board of Education especially during Black History Month and has made this phenomenal presentation and every single year I can't I get prouder I I think to myself how is it that I you can be so proud of children that you didn't birth but tonight I
080found out that it is because of the work of ygb there's a sense of Pride that will be instilled in each and every one of us so thank you ygb for the work that you have done and for the ways in which you support our community hello happy Black History Month everyone Black History Month is a time to celebrate the many accomplishments of black and African American people and recognize their Central role in history both here in the United States and throughout the world while February is the month that we celebrate we know that black history is much more than a once per year event here in Berkeley Unified School District we honor the contributions of black and African-American people through culturally relevant teaching learning and activities in our schools that benefit not just black
081and African-American students but it's for the benefit of all of our students in B USD it it's for the the benefit of all of our faculty and staff and it is for the benefit of our Berkeley Community our history in B USD is Rich our black history in B USD and is Rich and the work that we've done is meritorious so let's take a trip down memory lane Berkeley Unified School District was the first district to desegregate without a court order the first school district to have a world-renowned African-American studies Department that still stands to today and remains phenomenal and because of the black lives matter resolution that I humbly sponsored we have so many more first we are the first school district to change the name of school of a school that bears the
082name of in for of former enslavers and change it to the name of our first African-American teacher in B USD none other than Miss Ruth actd we are the first school district to adopt a full African-American success framework and we Remain the only School District with a framework and an intervention of this amazingness I am proud to be a part of a school district like Berkeley Unified School District a district that is not afraid to be first a district that is not afraid to support all students and a district that is not afraid to Center the students who need our support the most as we continue that's it's a good place to collapse so thank you for the collapse in the audience as we continue to make strides and continue to be first we must
083remember why we are centered and grounded in the work that we do and remember that the work is not yet done I'm proud to be a part of a governance team a proud to be a part of a district led by a superintendent who believes in this work and who is working the work that's what my pastor says who is working the work so thank you for the work that we will continue to do together hand inand in support of our black and African-American students and in support of all of our students this almost ends our comments tonight but I would just like to give a special shout out to speaker Miss mascarena Swan and ask her to please tell your sister that we hope she is doing well in college we miss her on
084the dis but we're proud of the work that she is doing uh president vasu Dev this ends my comments for tonight and thank you for the opportunity to speak thank you so much vice president round it's um you know it it can be a challenge to be board president but it can also be really easy to speak last because your colleagues all speak so well so you can keep your comments short um I also want to just echo my appreciation to everyone for the public comments tonight and also wish everyone a Happy Black History Month I I have the opportunity and it really the privilege to volunteer every Friday in one of our middle schools in our stem classrooms and one of the things um that I got to witness recently was the work of
085our students as they were celebrating Black History Month making uh three like 3D stamp print outs of black leaders so it was really beautiful uh for me to be there and then to watch the little boy said you know the teacher proposed why don't we do something you know try to it's it's the first assignment that we're doing and let's choose something a little bit simple and this little boy came up to me and he he said I'm going to do a stamp of uh President Obama giving a speech and I said well that sounds very challenging but let's do it and he did it and he did an amazing job so I love the fact that not only do we celebrate black history in our in our classes but that we look for a
086way to celebrate black history in our stem activities and the different activities um that we do with our students so I'm really just impressed by the work that's happening at the sites um to make sure that we're uplifting black leaders I also want to give a shout out to a couple of important things that I got to see uh this month first I'm to give a shout out to the Willard math counts team know how how many of you know about math counts but uh math counts is a competition um that provides engaging uh opportunities for middle schoolers of all abil ability levels to build confidence and improve attitudes about math and problem solving so Willard sent a team over and we had a BHS Mentor helping the students so it was really beautiful just
087to watch them prepare and uh and really appreciate all the math teachers that helped the students that brought them food and and were with them during the weekend so I wanted to give a shout out to that so want to give a couple shout outs to our Yellow Jackets we have Shaya pares akimoto who will be who will represent BHS wrestling at the state level and also the boys soccer team that will be playing in the NCS semi-final so super proud of our Yellow Jackets today that's today tonight and I know that our student director is happy to be here and not there um I also wanted to pass along some feedback to my colleagues that I heard from uh very vocal seventh and eighth graders in Miss Claire stem class that bagels are okay
088for breakfast but would be much better if we figured out a way to toast them and so I'm passing on that feedback the students wanted me to pass it along superintendent I told them I didn't think we had a toaster that would work for 100 Bagels I don't know how to do that yet but that I would pass it along we and we'll see what we could do I also want to take this time to congratulate all of our middle school jazz band players last night I don't know if if any of you in the audience were there but there was a phenomenal performance at Freight and Salvage with all our middle schools and I'm just you know as we talk about BP and what that funds I I can't stress enough how important our
089Universal Music program is and just being able to talk to our families last night and just proudly watch our students that went from you know playing uh just learning how to read notes in fourth grade to now being just amazing musician so last night was really beautiful and I want to thank all the music teachers who taught zero period and then stayed super late um and fed our students uh before they played so um big shout out to our teachers and and our music and our vapa teachers for making that happen uh and just in from our associate superintendent the boys uh did the boys soccer team just one so I also wanted to thank the parents that met with me recently to talk about ethnic studies and parents who emailed me um from the
090BHS Safety Committee and met with me recently um to to give me feedback about that so you can contact me my information is on the board website I'm happy to set up meetings Fridays are usually my more flexible workday so I'm very happy to meet with any parent groups that would like to on Fridays I'm also looking forward to our elap update the spring is a very busy time for the board is when we have to make important budget decisions and so uh tonight will be an important meeting where we get to a little preview of some some of the important decisions that are coming our way so I just want to thank staff uh ahead of time for your presentations tonight and that concludes my public comment and now it's time it's that time
091in our agenda to approve our consent calendar so colleagues can I have a motion in a second to approve the consent calendar moved a second thank you was moved by vice president Brown seconded by director shinoski all in favor please say I I I I I I all right and we've approved the consent calendar and now uh superent we get set up for uh our first item of discussion item 14.1 the elcap midor update all right uh good evening board directors um we are excited tonight to uh present to you uh our B USD mid year update um with me I have director uh Lisa Esten who's our director of categorical programs and special projects and Ruth steel Brown who is our director of uh the Brea team the three of us are going to
092share the presentation today but we have other members of the ed services team here to answer questions so we want to make sure that we can get through the presentation and then have enough time to do that um all right as always we start with our district Mission um that we enable an Inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world um and the lcap is really the context where we outline goals and actions to achieve this mission for the purposes of tonight's presentation we're going to share an overview of BD's midyear lcap update we are going to highlight some midyear lcap upd uh metrics we are going to review the uh lcap expenditures to date or as of January 31st um and then we also want to
093share uh an information about our current engagement efforts because this is a big year for the lcap as we will be developing our next three-year elcap plan um one thing uh that is new this year there is recent uh legislation at the state level that now requires districts to provide midyear updates to the board no later than February 28th BD is ahead of the game because we have been present we presented a midyear update last year uh at this time um and the requirements are that we share measures and expenditure information which we will do tonight uh just an overview um for members of the public who may not be aware of what the lcap is we use that acronym uh pretty frequently lcap stands for the local control accountability plan um and our goals
094in this plan really serve as a framework for improving in outcomes for all students while allowing us to use limited resources to prioritize actions services and expenditures that will be most effective in serving our students with a particular focus on our students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch meals our English language Learners and our foster youth BD's lcap um is grounded in the five goals that you see here and for members of the public there's a hyperlink um to the cbd's lcap plan at there at the top one thing that's important to note is these five goals also comprise the goals of our schools site plans or otherwise known as the sipsas uh we have goal one around providing high quality classroom instruction and curriculum uh goal two to provide the necessary and
095timely academic interventions goal three to ensure schools have safe welcoming and inclusive climates goal four to use local and state measures to assess student progress and goal five is around supporting our students experiencing housing in security our mission and our District's four ease of Excellence Equity engagement enrichment tell us what we want our students to achieve and experience and our lcap lays out our best thinking about how we might do that okay um across our five district goals we have articulated 63 actions and 56 metrics that is a lot of numbers to track um there is a status update on these actions posted on the board agenda and for tonight's purposes and presentation we will be focusing on brief highlights of the metrics and current expenditures last year from the listening and learning report um
096superintendent Ford Morell called out a focus on organizational Clarity including a need to focus on infrastructure and in particular to develop an ecosystem of data and evidence with attention to improved data and consistent reporting progress monitoring to study and adjust our our course of action in buusd we've been working to establish stronger routines of sharing data and strengthening our own internal data review Cycles in the fall we launched the district data newsletter which are new this year these insight-based newsletters are posted on the district website and provide summary data across a number of measures including academics and attendance this fall at the October 18th board meeting we shared end of the year data for the 2223 school year and we aim for this to be an annual routine to share publicly the data from the
097prior year once those data are released from the state um and to preview coming attractions will be sharing midyear Benchmark assessment data for ELA and math at our next board meeting so please come back members of the audience uh Baseline uh and desired outcome data for our metrics in the lcap were set in 2021 with a three-year lcap plan that started uh in the 2122 school year it's important to note while the actions might change across the lifespan of an lcap the metrics stay the same so once decide on them we're married to them for the next three years um and this is important because we are in the process of developing the next threeyear lcap plan um as and as we continue to build our own data muscles we're looking more closely at the
098existing measures and recognize that while some of them are required and many are aligned with goals and actions some are not on the following slides we're going to use the key here to call out required metrics and where we're making progress and we will be highlighting a few metrics that are out of sync with our actions and as we review feedback from our engagement sessions last month and the lcap survey that's currently open we're going to turn our attention to writing the next threeyear lcap and we be looking uh very carefully at the metric alignment with our goals all right starting with Goal one which is providing highquality instruction um and curriculum there are there are 20 metrics um in this goal about half of them you see here and there is a full list
099of all the metrics in the appendix attached to this PowerPoint presentation we acknowledge that while we're seeing progress in these overall categories we still have gaps in student subgroup data you'll see a few measures where we're making progress toward or exceeding the desired outcome for example the four-year cohort graduation rate and percentage of redes ation rates for our multilingual language Learners um but there are others where we've not yet met the desired outcome and you can see that in for example the CTE pathway completion and uh multilingual Learners making progress on the English learner progress indicator which is um based on their lcap um results or their lpac results so we want to share a couple of highlights here um for the current school year just in the in the context of CTE we have
10048.8% of our BHS students who take a CTE course that's over, 1500 students CTE completion rate data looks at seniors who've completed the course series which was 43% for us at the end of the school year and while that number is below the target of desired outcome of 60% we're seeing the enrollment and CTE pathways uh that are now more closely reflecting the overall demographics of the group of of the student body um so hats off to win skills and our CTE uh department for doing that one of the shifts that have been we have been making over the last several years is really to build a Continuum of program and support that start in the sixth grade that it's really important for students to see themselves in these programs um so that they will
101choose those courses um as they enter High School um that idea uh is that you know ultimately they'll finish um the CTE pathway but what we've learned is that we allow our BHS students a lot of flexibility to move across plat Pathways um and with a limited number of space in courses in a year um that is preventing some students for for completing a CTE course pathway which is often at least two courses um support for our multilingual Learners um has and will continue to be a priority Focus as the demographic is one of our focal student groups in the elcap um as part of our multilingual learner master plan and needs assessment and based on feedback from deac Members we've had an intentional Focus this year on improving the delivery of designated and integrated
102ELD we have increased FTE for a ELD tsas at all our school sites and uh in professional development for our teachers um and we've also recognized that many of our long-term Els are duly identified in special education and our ELD TSA Miss Kathleen Marte has been meeting regularly with the sped case managers this year to understand the current barriers to redesignation and we're starting to see some jumps in redesignation for our middle school students with IEPs so good progress there and with that I'm going to turn it over to Miss Lisa for goal number two good evening board um so I'm going to start with Goal two which is which is provide necessary and timely academic interventions to eliminate barriers to Student Success so on slide you can see basically um this slide for goal
103two all the metrics are seen here um under goal two the only thing that I want to note is the cast Ela and math is not um designated by demographic this is just the percentage of overall um but the um other the demographic breakdown can be found want to highlight is the way that we collected data when the lcap cycle was adopted is different than the way that we um track data today the Baseline data for the number of students participating in intervention programs was self-reported there now we use edge of climber to report this data as of today as a result you will see that the number has increased significantly and this is due to the fact that we are able to track this data now more thoroughly this is something that we will
104follow closely now that we are able to use edge of climber um also for this measure um the desired outcome shows that we the expectation is to increase 3% annually in intervent but partic for students participating in intervention ideally though we would want to decrease the need for students to need intervention programs so now that we are building better processes for more consistent document ation of data and tracking our students that are um receiving intervention services we can revisit um and intervention measures for the next ELC cap um another metric that I want to highlight here is the one in well it's it's green on the bottom is a percent of students enrolled before their senior year who earned additional credits for attending summer school for this metric we are on track okay so some
105highlights for goal two um for summer school we increase programming for our multilingual language Learners this past summer previously we're offering programming for students in grade 6 through 8 this past summer we added programming for students in grades three through five um and also at Berkeley High this past summer there were 131 students enrolled and receive credits toward either graduation or toward College eligibility um second highlight that I want to do is um for the middle the lcap math supports this is our first year that we have had a math TSA in place to together with our district our director of curriculum and instruction and his team and staff at the middle school they've been able to work on math intervention inventory this will allow us to make more informed decisions about support and resources
106necessary for our students in intervention classes I'm going to pass it over to Ruth good evening board um so I have goals three and four the first two that um J and Lisa talked about were about high academic outcomes and about interventions for students goal three is about how we get kids to school and keep them in school so that they can be successful so on slide 12 you have an assortment of metrics which were designed to measure engagement and how children feel about attending school so there are actually 19 metrics alog together the rest of them are in the appendix and you'll notice on here that it's things like attendance rate suspension rate and a lot of data about how families or students feel about their time spent at school you'll notice for most
107of these metrics that we are trending in the right direction in that the Baseline is either increasing toward the goal or decreasing toward the goal there are a couple on here where we are showing increasing rates for example suspension which we would obviously prefer not to have increasing each year and then you can see some really standout data points like the number of family connections made by family engagement layers on have skyrocketed from 200 when the Baseline was set to well over, 1300 now so there's um a lot of progress being made and a lot of space for celebration as well as space for for growth the next slide shows you attendance rates which is one of the metrics used to um assess how regularly students attend school there's actually two um separate types of
108attendance data on this slide you've got the overall attendance rates in the grid that show you by grade level and race or ethnicity the attendance rates which are almost all over 90% with a couple of exceptions and then within the yellow box you've got chronic ABS andm rates for some of our more vulnerable student populations so you can see that by and large Berkeley students come to school they like being in school and they stay in school and are successful but there are definitely Trends between different groups where there's some work and some growth that could happen oops so Dr Shelly and his students Services team are largely responsible for all of the intervention work and he's here tonight if you have questions but I will talk a little bit about this slide um everyday
109Labs is a new um contract that has been purchased to really help with messaging to families so they um send out text messages and nudges to remind families if their students are missing school and you can see that thousands of those messages have already gone out to families to remind them to get their kids to school on time or to remind them that maybe they've missed a few too many days days and there are some um engagement celebrations that have already been happening the 100th day of school was really cute at the elementary schools in particular we've got to see kids celebrating um counting to 100 and enjoying their 100th day of school and then there's a March Madness competition bracket coming up where schools will be competing against each other to see who can
110have the best attendance during that week so Dr Shel is running a whole um host of different engagement campaigns to really help ensure that kids enjoy and focus on attending regularly at school there are also some highlights in here for family engagement um which I believe is largely Dr Espinosa Department with the office of um Family engagement so you can see that there have been a lot of workshops some different Partnerships being built or enhanced um and a lot of Outreach that's been happening is to try and ensure that we're reaching families and helping them engage with all of our schools so goal four is a bit of a strange one um you'll notice there are only two goals and that's one of the things that I certainly notied in looking at the lcap we've
111got almost 20 metrics for goals 1 and three and then a handful for two and four and five this one is um a datadriven metric but it does the metrics don't really talk about data the actual goal for is about using local and state measures to assess student progress resulting from District programs in order to evaluate and improve planned actions and services so these two metrics don't really add address that goal and the nice thing is we have an opportunity now to really redvine some of these and look at how we're measuring success and our progress because most of this metric really focuses um on what my team does with data with um building data visibility with helping ensure that site teams have data can use data so you'll notice on the go four highlights
112that there are a list of different actions that could potentially form some of those new metrics as we redesign the lcap because we're really interested in helping to ensure that our systems and programs are data driven that as much as possible um staff and students and families have access to data we so we can really see how students are doing both academically or with attendance or with behavior or withal support and so on so there are some highlights in there from the the work the Breer team has been doing and we've really focused this year on getting out to school sites and helping them look at data helping them to use that data and um we're in the process of really working with the RTI coaches and the site teams to look at intervention programs
113and cost team work and there'll be new tools within Ed Climer we can use to really highlight and help support that work being done consistently so we're very excited and looking forward to helping to do some redesign and some upgrades for our LC cap as we go am I handing this back yep thank you rotating around uh all right and finally to wrap up the goal highlights um oops back one uh goal five is focused on uh supports uh for our students experiencing housing and security this was a goal that was added midcycle in the lcap because BD was identified for differentiated assistance as part of the state's monitoring and accountability process and um over the course of the last at least the last year and a half that I've been here we have been
114getting a lot of feedback from folks that uh we would want to write a more assets based goal um for our students experiencing housing in security um we see here with the measures while we don't have midor uh metrics um we don't see those positive Trends um for this particular subgroup and know um that it is a focal student population where we need to pay uh very uh clear attention there are a number of supports um that we do have in place um for this particular student group um are uh our uh the work of Dr Shelly and his office um Provide support in the form of transportation school supplies food vouchers um enrollment assistance uh priority for after school programming um and the like um and one of the things that he and his
115team have been working on is to build a stronger relationship with the ofie staff members because having that direct connection with families is an important um lever for making sure that we're connecting students and families with those supports and with that I'm going to turn it over to Lisa okay so on this slide here um what we wanted to show with you is um the but the overall 2324 lcff budget overview so some information about where these figures came from this actually came from the budget overview for parents document that was approved by the board on um June 12 2023 and so what this shows you is that all other lcff funds at the district receives um is $107 million and the lcap supplemental funds that the district receives is $5.8 million on this slide
116we broke it down by goal so what you can see here is for example goal one as of January 31st of this year goal one's expenditures have um expenditures are $4.2 million spent to date what's remaining in that goal is $5.1 million to be spent and as you can see that that we did it by goal 1 2 3 4 and 5 goal 5 you can't see too well but goal 5 we spent $69,000 as of January 31st and the remaining is $889,000 on this slide here what you see is the bosd strategic planning and lcap development so again this is just the overview of the planning process that we go through looking at success and progress and identifying needs and then going into um receiving um feedback and engaging and receiving input from our
117educational partners then looking at goals actions and metrics resource allocation and then we move to implementing and monitoring um all for the support and success of our students so on this slide what you see is um what I spoke about in this last slide was the engagement of our educational Partners so this past January um and all through through February we started our lcap and strategic plan engagement sessions um in total we had five engagement sessions two virtual and three in person there was a total of 87 participants present at these engagement sessions we shared 18 data sets seven Focus area themes and we received 395 total poits or notes um of shared reflection and sheets um and going into it so basically at the sessions you know we we shared an overview about what
118the lcap is and what the Strategic plan is and then from there we asked our participants that were present to review data provide feedback ask questions of fac facilitators that were there and then from there we also asked them to also provide some feedback on seven Focus area themes and they were able to ask again questions clarifying questions new questions as well as provide feedback um in conjunction to the engagement sessions um we also do um provided our L BD lcap um and strategic planning annual survey on the left hand column you'll see the survey um respondents from 20 23 we had a total of 484 respondents last year this year the survey has been out um almost two weeks now and as you can see we're now at 927 respondents as of February 15th
119so with that being said the survey is still open um for any for all if you have not already there's a QR code in the link there in the survey we've extended the open date and it's going to close on um March 7th and on this last side um you can see the next steps that we have upcoming um we're going to synthesize the information from El from the lcap and strategic plan engagement sessions as well as the survey once it closes we're going to continue um to collect input from our um parent buiser committee currently is requesting feedback from school site councils in elpac El elac sorry about that um we're going to start developing the draft of the three-year lcap um for review and input we're going to gather recommendations from our package
120deac we're going to monitor implementation in the budget and then we're going to have ongoing meetings with Alam County Office of Ed to support um the compliance and make sure we have everything on target some key dates to keep in mind for the lcap um May 29th is the public hearing for the lcap for the next threeyear lcap and then on June 12th we're going to Hope um present for approval from the board um of the lcap for the next threeyear lcap and that's it [Laughter] so colle putting it back on this slide in case anybody oh I was and making sure our audience members got the QR code colleagues this is a discussion item does anyone have any questions not a question but I will uh give an appreciation thank you all so much
121uh for this presentation I always get especially excited around go four um knowing that our students love to I think that's go four maybe go three but knowing that our students love to come to school and our attendance rate I don't see attendance rates like that in other uh school districts and so I'm really really proud of the spaces that we're creating for our students who want to come to our schools and the work that our teachers and our uh faculty staff and families are doing to ensure that our our students are going to schools going coming to school um I know that this is just I'm I'm sure you probably don't have a lot of questions because I know that this is um just an update and soon we'll get to talk about our
122new lcap and we already gave a little bit of direction about where we would like to see new goals and what we would like to see happening um I know director babbit gave some direction um last time around that so I think for tonight for me just an appreciation for this work um and thank you for taking the time to come and and speak with us on this thank you uh director babbett thank thank you and um thank you all for this summary of our elcap plan I as the um board Pac liaison I do want to um make sure that you all see the email that came from our chairs um which basically again talks about their need for actual information and um their need to really understand these actions deeper within each of
123the goals that have been set and in looking at in being at their meeting and in looking at their requests um our BP pno committee already receives reports on many of these um areas specifically office of family engagement and equity which kind of answers the question right on counseling on many of these actions since they're cross- funded and so I'm curious as to how we're going to um actually provide them with the information they need better are we going to set up a template but what are we going to do to to do differently um as year after year after year we've received this same feedback from our parent advisory committee that's one question so at the last um pack meeting I know one of the questions and I think that you're potentially referring to
124was there was not a differentiation between what was like actual expenses or actions um related to lcap supplemental dollars versus um a document that was shared that basically just had lcff funding and so it is overwhelming and so um One Step that we did and I think it's attached it is attached to the board um agenda for tonight um with the update with every action in the lcap is an update on what is actually an lcap supplement supplemental expense or action as well as what is an lcff or other local funds that we have so that's one step I hope in the in the right direction because that is information I know that Pac was requesting and so um that's one thing I did want to add that to provide a little bit more clarification
125um and then in regards to the reports that's something that um obviously I'll work on with the with the chairs as well as um um leadership to make sure that we get the information that P's asking great because it wasn't just about what source the funding is coming from like literally we were talking about each program and they didn't even know what the programs were you had to go back and say I'll come back and bring you this information and this has been like two meetings in a row in which you had to say I'll bring that information back to you and so it's kind of disingenuous for us to ask them to volunteer their time and not be prepared to actually give them the the same level of information that we already have set
126up to give to our Bap pno committee I do see this as a clear Equity issue I also don't really appreciate the in this presentation that we called out the fact that these funds our lcap supplemental funds are for our socially economic disadvantaged students or our elac students but yet that information was in the appendix even in this presentation we didn't really focus on what we're doing for their kid those kids and showing that to the community and to the board and so if we're serious about equity in these presentations we need to show we're serious about Equity if we're serious about equity in these presentations we need to be talking more specifically about what we are actually doing do not tell me that we are expanding family engagement districtwide workshops and as a parent
127of a black child I have not been invited to one districtwide Workshop that was not sponsored by the African American success framework that is disingenuous information that we are providing I have asked year after year to get at least four districtwide parent engagement parent empowerment workshops sponsored by Opie why because that is what closes the opportunity Gap when parents are involved when parents are empowered and when parents are engaged and we should not have to continue to pay the African-American success framework providers to do this work our budget is actually calling us for us to not be able to pay them anymore right so it is very disingenuous I cannot tell you how many personal relationships that our family engagement people have I'm in the PAC meeting with the parent advisory committee members they represent
128schools and they're like who who is that person we have that at my school this is what I'm saying is disingenuous when we get these bright pretty presentations but when you scratch under the surface we have no idea what impact these programs are actually making to the Next Generation and then you show me overall data I I'm just G to stop there but we've got to be serious and do better than this thank you director babbit board colleagues I just have like a quick question thank you for the information on increasing uh summer programs for alss I thought that was great would just love to dig in a little deeper and see like what are the exact offerings that we're that we're providing to our English Learners over the summer that we've increased and also
129um a question about just uh how for this dual identified students how we're working with our Sala as as well to better support our e students just wondering if you could speak to those two items do you want to talk about summer yep Y and I'll give the it okay so for summer um what we do is we partner with um UC Davis and it's the UC Davis writing um project and so they come in and they facilitate that that that Services those services to support the writing skills of our multilingual language Learners and then um so they just we added another you know level to it and we increased the services to um three through five as well um so for the duly identified students there has been a a lot of work so
130again miss Marte has been working um regularly with case managers to understand uh some of those barriers for reclassification um and working with them to develop a plan for specific support um so what we're seeing there right now there's been a bump in uh our middle school students who are duly identified that have um bump in increase in reclassification um and so we're looking to grow that Trend through the high school right so most of the students um become long-term English language Learners if they've been in our in a US school system for six years so around the middle school age um and I just want to acknowledge uh director babbit your comments about the differentia data um and that is something that we've included in our other data reports but I take that feedback
131and we will do better board colleagues are there any additional questions before we take a short break Dr Ching um yes thank you so much for your work and the presentation um you know I'm I'm very excited to hear that there's a prioritization on interventions um Can Can you you give me some background on what the 3% increase uh Target for intervention for students is based upon so that's a good question because uh we uh we do not have a lot of historical artifacts um or folks who were in those positions currently in place um so we are trying to understand why that was the goal um at a time where um we didn't have a system to accurately capture uh intervention data um I think the intention there was to have a Le have
132a level of understanding of how many students were receiving intervention um but we're what we're noticing is there at least with Eder climber there are many more students than were originally reported for that Baseline thank you and and now that I'm very glad that educ climber is now online apparently as of today um is it possible to get a walkth through of the system in the future yes I actually met with a couple of board members back in the spring when it was first launched so yes I can one of my team members can absolutely do that okay thank you wonderful if there are no additional questions colleagues we can take a 10-minute break thank you so much for the presentation and we'll set up for the next agenda item which is 14.2 and we'll
133see you back in 10 minutes spe okay for those of you who would like to participate in the last uh public comment period Please resubmit a card yeah a new card please hello board directors if we could have you back on the dice that'd be great the next agenda item is agenda item 14.2 teaching and learning Bud's focus on literacy do you have the superintendent would you or associate superintendent like to introduce the next agenda item most certainly I would love to um so uh good evening again welcome back so glad members of the public are still here to uh to receive this information um uh tonight we have a focus on our curriculum and instruction specifically BD's focus on literacy and our K5 language arts work and I'm going to turn it over to
134director albec good evening BD board directors and BD Community I'm excited to be joined by associate superintendent of Educational Services Jill hog andik and prek 12 grade literacy coordinator Rose James to present to you and our community this evening an important update on BD's ongoing literacy Focus as identified in the previous lcap presentation B USD always grounds ourselves in our common purpose and additionally like shared with you previously the newly for formed Department of curriculum and instruction brings our cause to the inde departmental work to ensure that all BD students achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world in tonight's presentation we'll be touching on several components of our cause but most focused on the C which is to select create and Implement curriculum that are guaranteed rigorous and relevant which uplift the
135Brilliance of BD students and BD educators the outcomes of this evening's presentation are to share BD's ongoing work to develop comprehensive literacy program including elements of infrastructure capacity building and instructional resources and secondly to identify where we've been where we are and upcoming milestones in the K5 language arts adoption process before we dive into proudly sharing the work that BD continues to do to build a comprehensive literacy program we want to take a step back and ground ourselves in our literacy why as a district we continue to be unequivocally share that L early literacy is a focus and instructional priority at the same time we recognize that there are different perspectives as to how this Focus has come about and why BD remains completely committed to ensuring that all of our students are reading and
136writing at grade level as you can see before you there have been quite a bit of press on VD and our reading programs in the recent years despite the efforts to represent our work accurately these headlines are not our y instead our Y is grounded in the everyday experiences of teaching and learning in our schools pictured before you is our 11 elementary schools in these schools we are currently using a language arts curriculum that was adopted in the year 2010 as you can imagine a lot has changed in the last 14 years new leaders and Educators have come in and gone and for those that were new training has ebbed and flowed and 14 years later there is a significant variance in the consistency in which instruction is provided from school to school and class
137to class of course we fully recognize that none of this is due to a lack of will or skill Instead This implementation drift as I call it is a normal phenomena after so many years since a curriculum adoption this is problematic because reachers overwhelmingly suggest that a guaranteed and viable curriculum is the most powerful variable related to student achievement at the school level that is one of the most powerful things a school can do to help students improve academic achievement is to guarantee what specific content is taught consistently across courses and across grade levels this is part of our why we recognize the necessity to have a comprehensive curriculum that all of our current educators are familiar with trained on and are implementing ING with accuracy and reliability the second part of our why is
138that a significant amount of new information has been researched and learned in the educational Community within the last 14 years as Educators we know we now know how the brain learns how to read we know the practices that are needed to systematically teach our students to read as my Angelou once said do the best you can until you knew better then when you know better do better this sentiment is the second part of our why we know we can provide a language arts experience for our students that aligns with the most current research as it relates to the science of reading last and most important part of our why is B USD students each and every day our BD Community sends their most prized possessions to us and our schools we take this responsibility fully
139and we are humbled to have such an honor to help raise the Next Generation in community with our students families at the same time we entirely recognize the disproportional outcomes that we continue to see in our data we are proud of all the amazing work that is happening in the USD and we know we can and must do better for our students we know reading is the most foundational academic skill that correlates to all other factors of success and happiness BD students are our why and our motivation to provide a comprehensive literacy program um our our mission and our why Drive our commitment to our literacy work how we establish a strong Foundation to support this work over time requires attention to the system and ensuring conditions necessary for our Educators to do their best
140in delivering instruction and intervention what you see here are key components for literacy literacy system change that provide an overall anchor for how we've been approaching the work first we need to support infrastructure this is inclusive of how we prioritize time and space for Learning and collaboration and implementing an assessment system so that we not only have data that are valid and reliable but we have regular routines and processes to administer the assessments and review and use data in making decisions um and monitoring progress A literacy system also includes capacity building from research and our own experience as Educators it's critical to invest in professional learning of our Educators so that we have a shared understanding of what component of what components are necessary for strong literacy instruction and alignment and what instructional practices need
141to be in place to support students in learning to read and for system change to be successful we need to H we need to ensure shared understanding and foundational knowledge before we ask Educators to make decisions about instructional resources and materials which include not just our curriculum but how we use time and re and resource personnel and before we share about how we've been building and supporting our bosd literacy system I want to acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and dedication of our BD teachers coaches tsas principles and our own districted team um they have really leaned into the learning this over the course of the last two years they've been asking critical questions providing input and feedback for our emerging processes and practices and have demonstrated a continued commitment to our students I'm proud
142of the progress we've made and I look forward to that continued work together we're going to talk first about um the infrastructure components we have focused a lot of attention on building the foundations to support literacy change as a district we've prioritized Personnel Resources both in the site-based literacy coaches and RTI tsas thanks in large part to funding through BP and elu resources um and in the formation of a curriculum and instruction Department which did not exist last year um all of which provide capacity and Leadership to support a focus on literacy we've also worked to maximize existing structures including early release Wednesdays are full day PD days and regular meeting time for shared learning and common planning these times are important for learning together calibrating on practices evaluating interventions and helping us identify the
143areas of strength and where we need additional support shared practices have also included strengthening our ass assessment system which has included not just the administration of the star and Dibbles assessments but establishing data routines for reviewing assessment results and goal setting we are now a year into implementing a new data platform through Edge climber which has been a foundational component of our literacy infrastructure so that we have so that we have access to a realtime access to student data and are able to document student interventions to track and monitor progress these components of infrastructure have positioned us to support capacity building which rose is going to share more about good evening uh my name is Rose James I'm the prek-12 literacy coordinator here in Berkeley um and I'm going to share a little bit more
144about the capacity building work that we've done as well as our move toward a new set of instructional resources um so as we are moving into thank you a new chapter wrong way there we go um as we are moving into a new chapter for BD in literacy instruction um and in service of Equity across our schools we want to make sure that our practitioners are well-versed in the same body of research and that we are building that shared expertise um which we can then bring with us into the room um as we do a curricular adoption and it will result in stronger implementation in the long run um and with more Fidelity to create that guaranteed and viable curriculum that Mr albec just spoke about and we knew that moving toward any big instructional
145shift when it came to lit especially in a district where tcrwp has been in our classrooms for um the better part of 15 years would require really building some common understanding of the practices that we would want to be moving toward those best practices the practices we want to be moving away from and leave behind and most importantly the why um and so through that book study that we did um last year as well as moving this year into the reading Academy with core we we have engaged staff in curriculum agnostic training as a way to define and understand what the research tells us together and create a set of best practices in literacy that we know are important and would look for in our next adoption um we are also very fortunate um that
146beup helps fund our site-based literacy coaches um and they are very important players in this work because they hold a lot of expertise and they do direct service to students um but they also coach into tier one and so we knew that we wanted to really train them up and make sure we were investing in their capacity and so we did a 30-hour Orton Gillingham training with them as well as um our RTI leads and our special education case managers and we are now going on our third round of OG training um as we speak um we also knew we also know that these roles these site-based roles are going to be really important when it comes to um supplementing our core instruction in the next year and then an ongoing implementation the year following
147um so I'm going to talk also about our site leaders who this year they have been going through their own core training which has really been focused on um aligning what they're what the teachers are learning but also with the lens of instructional leadership and thinking about how they as site leaders can create the conditions for those effective best prct practices in literacy um we've been engaging them in deeping their deepening their understandings around those essential elements of core um and thinking about how they can create those conditions and also set expectations for seeing those practices in the classroom um going to go to the next slide here so we're going to talk about instructional resources so um throughout the year as we've been engaging staff in these core trainings we have been linking um
148the core learning that they're going to be doing with the curriculum review that we conducted last spring um where we reviewed tcrwp as well as well as FastTrack and so making those connections explicit for teachers of where our curriculum is strong and aligned with the research and the places where it is not and we need to be supplementing and so what you see here um is a snapshot from the kindergarten curriculum review with the scores at the bottom and and I believe this review is is going to be posted on our website um for folks to check out um and so looking at these criteria has really helped us as a district as we go through this core learning toine those areas that we really want to look for in our next chapter and with
149that I'm going to pass it off to Chris albeck so as you have heard so far BD has continued to build out all the puzzle pieces of a comprehensive literacy system that provides the infrastructure capacity building and instructional resources needed to ensure that all of our students are reading and writing at grade level to put it all together we will briefly review where we have been and then where we are going so to review in 2010 Teachers College reading and writing program was adopted in 2016 BD began to supplement the phonics with FastTrack phonics in 2020 we began to implement our un IAL screeners of star and Dibbles moving into 20 should be 21 um BSD conduct conducted our curriculum review while in investing in tier 2 instructional practices aligned with Orton Gillingham we also
150de invested in capacity building through instructional coaching and are shifting the balance afterwards we began our MTS platform through educ climber we con contined to invest in literacy Personnel by creating a department of curriculum and instruction this year we have continued to invest in capacity building with our five-day core reading Academy and all of that has situated us for formally launching our K5 language arts adoption process despite all these pieces we want to say that none of this is a finished product our systems continue to develop and like all good reading teachers do we will continue to progress monitor to ensure that we we know what is doing is in the best interest of USD students that being said we are proud that aligned to research and best practice we have built an entire system
151to support our current and future literacy work rather than moving quickly and solely straight into a curriculum adoption process rather than the meor metaphorically building a car while simultaneously trying to drive it we are untroubled by the route that we have taken and we are confident that we have the puzzle pieces in the right place to move into the next phase of our language arts adoption process and with that I would like to share with you what that process will look like before doing so I think it is important to recognize that curriculum adoptions sit in the context of other curriculum adoptions as you all have heard in years past USD currently is in year one of a science adoption for third grade and we'll be moving into first and second grade the following year
152we are also in the new K5 curriculum adoption process for social studies I share this with you because we must be mindful about the time and attention we need to ensure that each adoption is appropriately supported and that our Educators have the time resources and capacity to learn and Implement new curriculums further it is also important to remember that any adoption must be situated within the context of a budget development cycle for our literacy adoption this will be a significant investment of resources both in terms of dollars and time for the adoption and pilot process and for the adoption itself that being said the process for our K5 language arts adoption will look like So currently last week we engaged our site leaders this week we are engaging you all in our community and like
153superintendent Ford Morel mentioned earlier next Wednesday at Rosa Parks we will be engaging our larger Community with our first Community listening session in March we will assemble our adoption committee composed of a diverse stakeholders including teachers special education Specialists School leaders and other Representatives who will work through the process with District leadership and we will prepare our budget anal analysis for curriculum adoption Committee in April we will examine and analyze our local buusd data in order to establish priorities and review current practice curriculum reviews and supporting reports before leaving for the summer we will establish a BD specific instructional vision for tk5 literacy and we will identify BD's priorities using our instructional vision and we will have our second Community listening session when we come back from summer in August we will review the curriculum
154options conduct curriculum presentations finalize our evaluation tool and rubric and have another listening session with the curriculums that we are considering over the next several months these will all pop up at once we will go through an iter iterative process of training piloting and evaluating the different curriculums that our teachers and stakeholders are putting into action coming into Fe this is all uh indicative on how many curriculums we choose to move forward so it could be as many as five but it doesn't mean it has to be up to five after the piloting process and into the spring of next year we will decide on a recommendation we will prepare a budget analysis provide the recommendation for you all as the board directors plan implementation order materials and prepare for educator educator training that is
155the process that we have laid out and we would love feedback on that and we would also love uh to share this process more next week uh this is our community listening session again 5:30 at Rosa Parks we want as many folks to come out as possible all of our school sites have flyers and have posted it on their e trees and have sent out the message to their teachers and their communities and all of this information can be found on # Berkeley re s our literacy website where you can find um information from tonight's presentation information from previous monitoring reports and anything else as it relates to our literacy work we thank you very much for your time and we appreciate any questions that you have thank you directors I is your hand up
156vice president all right make sure uh vice president Brown uh thank you so much much for uh the presentation if you don't mind just going back to the timeline page I'm sure we're going to spend a lot of our time uh tonight talking about that and so if we could just pull up the timeline page uh so that folks can know uh specifically what I'm referencing um can you first be a little bit I'm excited to hear about the engagement sessions uh but can you be specific about what engagement will actually look like and what information you're seeking to gain uh from community members who attend these informational sessions that's question number one would you like me to ask the rest of my questions or do you want to answer that and come back we'll
157try to get that one first if that's okay okay so specifically for for next week right um we have an idea of what or we don't have an idea we have the the knowledge of what best practice in Reading instruction should look like um from the educator perspective but we also know that there's a family perspective that um what do they want their students to experience when they walk into BD classrooms and that could be more than just phonics or phony M awareness or comprehension there there's there's feelings to that and there's um the types of uh text that their students potentially will be engaging in so for for the focus of next Wednesday it's really we want to share this information in a more intimate setting than than this um and we want to
158hear from our families like what are what are sort of some of their hopes and dreams as a relates to early literacy and we did a similar activity with some other stakeholders so then we could take when we put our adoption committee together we could say well here's some priorities for the adoption committee but here's the priority some of the priorities for our families and community members here's some priorities for our for our site leaders here's potentially some priorities for our Board of board of directors and how then can we sort of think about this and how does that align with whatever tool or evaluation rubric we look at when we're piloting these curriculums that's something that comes to the top of my mind open up anybody else want to share anything thank you that
159thank you that's helpful to know um and speaking that brings me perfect segue to my next question around priorities um and so what are our priorities going to be outside of the boxes that you gave us around phic awareness around phonics um what are our priorities specifically around um culturally relevant uh curriculum what are our and and you mentioned priorities for the board is this our time as a board to weigh in on what we want those priorities to look like um I I'm excited about what will feel good to our families and to our community but I would like for us to go into these conversations I'm sorry it's a little difficult um to engage thank you community members if you could keep your comments down in back thank you so much I appreciate
160it um and so you know so that we are not just shooting in the dark I think that we have to have a a set of priorities uh that we have and I'm sure that you all have been already thinking about those and so it would be great to hear so that's my second question and um and then I'll get to my third one after that so um the curriculum review tool that we used in collaboration with um Dr Gibbons who is our consultant um also pulled from a tool out of the NYU um Metro Center which is called NYU lessons in in equity um and so all the criteria that we pulled around cultural relevance or cultural responsiveness were pulled from that um and they have are having to do with authorship and representation
161in texts um as well as other ways that the curriculum is guiding teachers to address issues of bias um and racism in the classroom and through like integrated into literacy instruction so we did um that was part of the review we conducted and it would definitely be I think Berkeley when we have our own process um that would be definitely a consideration that we would continue with and we would have our own sort of local criteria around cultural responsiveness as well yeah and the local criteria is what I most interested thank you thank you for that um but the local criteria is what I'm most interested in knowing that we have the ability to kind of create our own and um knowing that we are looking for a curriculum that's specific to uh support our
162Berkeley students so I I think creating our own local criteria would be helpful not just around culturally relevant um curriculum but also around um curriculum that honors the science of reading right and how important that is because we know that that will really make the difference we've seen it in neighboring districts and their curriculum adoption and so I just want to ensure that we're on the right path so thank you for listening to that and then my final question um is around just the timeline so uh I'm a little concerned um and really interested to learn more about how we think that we will be able to review options in August and then turn around in September and begin to Pilot am I um misinterpreting that or um is that a big hairy audacious goal
163of ours and um is there room to think about um a review that happens before August um and a possibility of the pilot happening in August or starting in August I could share a little bit so again with our work with Dr Gibbons um we are very fortunate to have uh her organization to have recently conducted a National Review of all of the science of reading curriculums so when it says you know review curriculum options a lot of that work at the national level at least we will be pulling from you from from her work right so we're not going to be going into it being like okay going to the CD uh website and looking at the framework and identifying all the curriculums and be like okay now we need to apply this to
164each and every single one of them I think we have an entry point using the work that Dr Gibbons has already done um and then from there I think it's really taking the local context that that you were referring to and thinking about it because they've done all of it from like the morphology to the vocabulary to the comprehension to the phonics they've reviewed many of them um that are both on on California's list and not on California's list and provided a much more thorough review than a 10,000 student District could ever have um so I think it's really pulling from that and then also taking our contextual factors and then adding it to whatever ones that they've already gone through that analysis so I would agree that thinking about doing that in one month
165seems like a a giant task and it I would say it is a giant task if we didn't already have a whole body of work to from from Dr Dr gibons and her National Organization and about how many curriculums are represented in that body of work uh so Dr gimons works out of the University of Minnesota and the the carry Department um took on a state project so they reviewed 42 curriculum against the rubric that is the third iteration of what bu USD used in their curriculum review last spring um so those key components that Rose had on the instructional material slide um there are priority components in each of those areas and then red flags so from that list of 402 curriculum um I think uh right now there's a short list of five
166curriculum of the 42 National curriculum that met at least 70% of those priority areas and had no red flags um but they're going through a an appeal process with curriculum that did not meet those cut points so that we're anticipating that list will be refreshed in the next couple of weeks refreshed and potentially grow so all the point of we maybe need more than a month to be able to to review those options especially if we're going to test them above test them against our own local um standards that we'll create so my recommendation would just be that we think about more than a month um to review and my recommendation is that when we get to August we will have already reviewed um so thank you for listening directors director shinoski I have a
167question and then a comment so when I'm looking at this timeline and and forgive my ignorance but I'm looking at August right reviewing the curriculum and then September training on curriculum number one and piloting it what's happening in classroom rooms around the district while some teachers are piloting curriculum one like and then transitioning to curriculum 2 are people keeping curriculum one and then it's a different group what how does that look if I have a kid in you know first grade what does that look like to me yeah I could speak to that and it this also came up in last week's site leadership and literacy um team meeting around this so there'll be a certain amount of teachers throughout the district District that are on our adoption committee and these are the teachers and
168staff that will be responsible for the teachers for for piloting the curriculums and the staff for monitoring and doing the training and being aware and providing feedback um but for those specific teachers and for the kids in those classes next year they will have a different experience than the rest of us usds um then still they'll still be doing tcrwp so for us and it's if each month is going to be a pilot of a different curriculum we still need to ensure that for those classes for those teachers with those students that the state standards for the year are still getting covered so they can't repeat the same unit like on month one just with a different curriculum the scope and sequence we're still going to map out to ensure that all the standards are
169covered for the year but it's just going to be different that each unit's going to be of a different type of curriculum um to ensure that there's no repetitive nature does that answer that y that answers it and I also want to just make a comment because I I know that we get a lot of public comments about about literacy and it seems slow and I think that I just want to appreciate that we're doing this in a very deliberate measured way I think that adopting a new curriculum a fundamental new curriculum like literacy requires us to be really really intentional with the proc process that we use and as a teacher I I know that curriculum is much more than just you know a stack of worksheets that we're handing over to teachers to
170use in the classroom so I'm really grateful that we're doing something deliberate that will Outlast you know um that will Outlast a certain um just a certain movement right that will be lasting change for our kids so I'm really grateful to that and I know it seems slow um and so I want to also ackn knowledge the reason why it seems slow and why it is deliberately a little bit slow so thanks thank you I I just have a quick question and was your hand up director B okay I'll ask my question and I'll go to you um just also wanted to Echo what director shinoski says this seems really ambitious but in a good way I'm very excited for all the different feedback loops that are included in this adoption timeline my question was
171around uh just the community listening sessions and if we're going to have targeted Outreach to our English language Learners to get their their views on the on the adoption of the new curriculum what does that mean for their child and specifically what does that mean for El's in our districts and I think this is a a big consideration for us um specific as it relies relates to the pilot as well to ensure that our ELD standards um are are integrated into best case scenario and we we recently met with a district who has been doing some work uh they recently did an adoption and then they were par paralleling it with their ELD standards to make sure that their two these experiences between when the students are in their literacy block and then their students
172when when they're with their with their ELD teacher that it felt very aligned um and I think so that's going to be something that we're really going to have to be cognizant of and be purposeful with in in the folks that are in this room and really ensuring that these two things are aligned because currently with systematic ELD and tcrwp tcrwp at times it can feel very separated um and I think this is a big opportunity for Bud to build some alignment and coherence as it relates to that and on that note will there be specific Outreach to our elpac to our D committees just to make sure that they understand that and what we're doing and how we're learning from best practices at other districts I think that narrative is super important to share
173yeah thanks Anna great and then director babbit thank you and thank you for that um present presentation my question is around how the cost teams and mtss teams are going to uh really engage and be a part of this conversation and a part of the next level adoption um I know a lot of this looks like it's around first level instruction um so I'm just wondering what are we going to do also for that uh next here and then I have one more question um so I had mentioned the Orton Gillingham methodology training that many of our our folks went through who are supporting students in tier 2 and three and that's been that's been hugely influential just this year I think we have over 200 students um who are being served in tier 2
174and three um with Orton Gillingham I also think that whatever adoption whatever curriculum we adopt is going to be aligned with the science of reading as is Orton Gillingham and that will that will result in a more aligned and coherent experience for kids who are moving between the tiers throughout the day um so I think that I hopefully that answers your question a little bit I just add to the like the our cost team our literacy tsas are RTI um tsas are members of those cost teams um so they have been you know heavily involved in analyzing the assessment data particularly coming out of star and Dibbles and for students who have been identified for additional reading support they've been instrumental in progress monitoring those students so all of that information is getting uh entered
175into Edge climber so that we can track these intervention groups so they've played a heavy role as part of that process we've um continued to refine you know again all of these processes um while not new in theory um we are having people use a new assessment we're having people use a new data platform and so we've been taking opportunities um as we have as we have our regular meetings with them to understand and get feedback about what's working and what's not working so that we can provide the appropriate uh support and coaching and I think an appreciation towards the question because This lends itself to a larger piece around through an improved tier one curriculum we're always going to have students in tier two and tier three where our cost teams and our literacy
176coaches um will need to be providing additional services but we know based on the curriculum review that many of these main pillars of in of of a literacy program aren't being provided in our current curriculum and that's what sometimes lends students to end up in tier two in tier three not to anything they just didn't get certain pieces that our curriculum didn't have right so we know that students need um systematic teaching and we know that whatever curriculum that we bring in is going to be science of reading backed therefore we'll be providing all of BSD students what they need um to get that the accurate literacy programs and hope that less students are in tier two and tier three great thank you and then um just want to also highlight um The Hope bille
177movie I thought it was um very good and very um informative around why the science of reading is where we need to move to and wondering what is the uh buyin with our first level instructors as as you mentioned it's mostly been kind of the tier 2 supporters who've been looking at it thus far um do we feel like we have the support of our um first level instructions to actually move from um this curriculum that we're currently using to a science of reading curriculum yes I think we really emphasize on the feeling of this not being done to us rather than this being done with us right so last week we met with our site leaders our site leaders and our literacy coaches and to share all this with them first um and to
178share with them what is what is our why and ask them like what is their why because we need them to bring that back to their school sites and instill that same that confidence that energy that um that feeling of you know this is going to be challenging this is going to be a big shift for us in our district but it's time and we have what we need to carry it out and we've also asked our site leaders to go back to their school sites and to begin doing so and we've already heard back from several viite leaders who have done so who have shared the information who have shared this timeline who have shared the why with their teams and we're getting some feedback but um I feel very confident especially with a
179department solely focused on curriculum instruction that we can assure that whatever we move for toward that it is implemented in BSD classes I I think the other evidence point to that is um we're getting um positive response um in our end of PD uh feedback surveys so we had the January 29th PD day um and it was over 75 if not 85 per positive but that the the sessions were supportive of their learning I'm trying to remember those summary questions um but those would be responses that uh include our general education teachers both t t uh both pk5 um and uh for our Middle School 68 they've received two days of to the core of core training so we're we're attending to that through the eth grade great and and last comment is I do
180want to um acknowledge that it has felt very slow mainly because our data has been telling us since at least 2011 2012 that there is a significant problem with our first level instruction and especially when it comes to to reading and so I'm glad we're finally um getting to the point where we're moving away from it but during that time um back in 2012 um Berkeley Technology Academy actually adopted a curriculum by uh Rosa higs who is a Berkeley member reading in 40 hours or less and it is heavily phic awareness based and as a parent uh on the parent advisory committee at that time it was apparent that it was the data at Berkeley Technology Academy that moved the data for all the black students really in BD and so when I went to
181uh to btech to find out how did that happen what was going on they said that that actually was the curriculum that they were using with those students at that time um since then I've met Miss higs and I've also gotten that curriculum and I gave it to my sister who teaches in um ousd special education and she's had students who were deemed auditory only like that they had fully written them off as they would only have to get hearing they would not be able to read they are now reading and reading quite well using that fmic based curriculum so I would ask that you look at that um even if it's not the tier one need um I do think it works better at eighth and eighth grades and up higher level education system
182or teered to but I would ask that we um consider that and and really look at the results that it has proven thank you thank you any additional comments directors before we move on to our last agenda item uh director Chang just uh thank you for the presentation I appreciate the update and vice president Brown last question yes more questions for me um I did going back to the timeline again um I see that there is uh a recommendation for establishment of a BD uh specific instructional vision for TK through five literacy and I do see that that's noted there before the community listing sessions uh can finalize right and so I'm just I I have a wondering there um if the focus of these listening sessions is to get all of the information that
183we need to get not just for curriculum adoption but I'm sure for an instructional Vision how do we do that before hearing all of our listening sessions so that's question number one and then um the my final question is around uh the budget analysis for curriculum adoption I'm nervous that March may be too a little too late in the uh game or too late in the year um to do that and wondering if that could also be um be thought about earlier especially as we know that um our superintendent will engage with the um espc committee giving them more of an opportunity to kind of like bite that off earlier than March and then chew on that information for a while I think would be really important and helpful so I don't know if their
184questions more than they are suggestions or places of Direction but just a nod head nod will tell me that you hear me great actually can I ask a clarifying question vice president can you say that again about March um and what you're looking for given that today is February 21st I'm I'm actually speaking about March 20 202 as the timeline reads February March April May that's why I question I thought you were saying that this Mar no no no absolutely not this March I'm talking about March of next year to get ready for our a budget for that year y we um so the good news is we do have um we do have budget projections to help support the curriculum adoption process um because this this will require extra hours for our teachers who
185are participating in that pilot process who will then need to convene um as we process that information so Mr alback already has that number for us oh great for the adoption process okay thank you thank you great thank you very much for your presentation and for your time all right colleagues now we will move on to our final discussion item of the evening uh where we'll look at the sustainability work happening in B USD superintendent will you be introducing this item or will our facilities and maintenance manager Steve Collins be introducing this Steve Collins will do a brief introduction as I've already kind of given a preliminary introduction of my superintendent comments great good evening board members good evening so I'm Steve Collins I'm the manager of buildings grounds and sustainability and I'm Sophia Peltz
186the sustainability program coordinator for the district and we're here tonight to talk about give you a presentation on the reusable foodware uh project that we're working on so um since November of 2018 when the school board passed the district sustain stability plan waste reduction has been a major focus of the sustainability department and um the single use uh food wear items in our cafeteria program is a really big piece of that so we've been working for about the last two years um to try to get uh get some traction on this and and planning and and getting some grant money and all that kind of stuff and so tonight we are going to give you guys an update of where we're at there we go so in the fall of 23 we uh rolled out
187our first two schools for reusables so King Middle School in Craigmont um very exciting the kids are very excited um Sophia has spent tons of time working to train um cafeteria staff and custodians and everybody's very excited it's a lot of fun um we are targeting uh this spring to do four more sites Berkeley technology Willard Longfellow and John Mir we are choosing those sites because they have dishwashers or at Berkeley Tech they uh serve so few meals that they're going to handwash the dishes actually and then we we are targeting fall of 24 to do four additional schools Malcolm X Ruth acti to and Oxford and those ones will require some minor uh kitchen modifications which we are planning to do this summer so on phase one project implementation um craigm and King so
188this is benefiting 680 students that's how many meals are served every day um we expect to eliminate nearly 160,000 disposable uh items annually from the landfill and compost and save about $122,000 yeah so phase two will include Berkley Technology Academy John Mir Willard and Long Fellow and this additional this will add um this will benefit 3 63 students um and in total this four School roll out will divert nearly 85,000 disposables annually from the landfill which is pretty significant for the first phase and currently nutrition services is working on purchasing program materials such as plates bowls cups um and next slide on the next yeah yep okay um and we are currently in the planning process of phase three of this project which will include Malcolm X Ruth Acy Thousand Oaks and Oxford Elementary as
189Steve mentioned and this includes visiting each School site to identify an appropriate space for a dishwasher and other program materials in additional 720 students will benefit benefit from this program bringing the total number of students participating in this tremendous waste reduction plan to 1,763 stud students and phase three will divert nearly 170,000 additional disposables annually from going to the landfill for a total of 414,000 and that'll really help increase our uh the total diversion rate for the school district and it's estimate it's estimated that we'll say have a total Savings of $35,000 and I'd like to take a moment to share some of the quotes that we've GA gathered from students from Craigmont and King and these quotes really demonstrate how excited students are to have reusables in their cafeteras for the first time um
190so fifth grader at Craigmont Elementary said it feels like a very special day a fourth grader at Craigmont said reusables are great because we get to reuse stuff seventh grader at King said today I ate school lunch because it's on a reusable tray and I think that just shows like the Med reaction students have which is pretty exciting and we've also so while we've maintained communication and feedback with students we've also done so with custodial staff who report a significant reduction in waste generated thus far um because lunch is typically staggered by grade level custodians are often switching out the bags after each lunch um and we have been told that this transition has reduced that amount of waste that they're disposing of so much of the success of this project um and the phases
191to come are due to the Champions that are actually on the ground doing the work um and while there are champions throughout the school district um in the interest of time we really want to highlight two um at Craigmont Elementary Bonita everfield is the cafeteria supervisor at Craigmont and Jackie Ray Jr is the school's head custodian and this dynamic duo has worked together for over 15 years and this fall they began implementing reusables and agree that quote students love them they have also seen an increase in student participation in school lunch and a couple months ago I went on campus to have a conversation with them and I captured that conversation in an interview which is really exciting um and there's a link in the slides that you can check out on your own time
192if you want to um better understand their dedication to Craigmont and reusables I think this so um we are continuously and uh continuously assessing our program Effectiveness and our efficiency our cost savings and CO2 emissions prevented or avoided and um the reusables the durability the wear and the loss this is all part of our program it's an ongoing thing um we will learn about our loss there's an expected loss just from damage or kids throwing things in the garbage with that they shouldn't throw um so we'll we'll track that data and get a clear understanding of how much extra dishes we need to buy every year and things like that um and also ongoing education with students we're um going to tie this in with the ed services department with the um uh ecoliteracy TSA
193as far as um using was reduction as a potential ecoliteracy item so we've had you know lots of hard work and lots of successes and we've had our challenges um these are things that we're facing head on and um you know working to uh get through in the future culture change you know it change is always hard for people the students and the adults uh changing how they're eating and how they're disposing of things the up front and ongoing cost of the transition um retention of change and practices over time changing the habits over time and then modifying kitchens to accommodate dishwashing we wanted to call out the the Dream Team here um so uh it it wasn't just it hasn't been just us doing all this work the nutrition services department has put in
194a ton of work on this on this item the operations Department the custodians and the manager supporting them our amazing sustainability program coordinator and then the maintenance department yeah now we'd like to open it up to any questions you might have for us I know that was brief but in the interest of time we wanted to make it kind of sweet and short so if you have any questions we'd be happy to answer yeah colleagues any questions um vice president Brown thank you all so much uh for this exciting presentation I remember one of uh the most um heart-wrenching stories that I heard when I first became a member of the board in 2018 was when our students used to come to the board meeting and show us all of the trash that their uh
195School site had um you know gathered in in in the time that they took to to gather the trash but um it was really interesting inter in to me um that it really took the advocacy of our young people um to teach us how to to be um a better world and to reduce reuse and recycle um and so I'm grateful for the advocacy uh that moved my heart I'm sure moved you alls uh as well so I just wanted to start with that and then secondly this is so exciting especially the part around the increas of our students eating school lunch how many students do you know that are just like lining up to have school lunch well now we know a lot at least at Craigmont so thank you um for that and
196for the information I am I do have one question around um budget and ongoing cost um so I know that there is definitely a cost for purchase of items but have we thought about um what uh impacts to the budget or what ongoing costs will have around um maintenance of uh the dispos the reusable trays rather and doing anticipate uh that we will need to purchase um you know more for specific School sites are we thinking about like an extra 50 every year extra like what what are we thinking about for the future yeah so so there's a couple things in there so the um so budget this is nutrition services budget that it's um that that is actually paying for all the supplies including the new dishwashers um the nutrition service department has a
197lot of one-time money right now for this for this type of stuff um and um they also have a higher uh reimbursement rate um and so their ongoing budget is looking much better than than it has one of the things that had to be done to make this all happen is the nutrition services department had to increase the FTE for some of the employees um so that they had time to wash the dishes and so and she has that money it's sustainable she has it in her budget long term um yeah what was the last part of your question sorry just in terms of if we would have to purchase more of the uh reusable lunch trays or do we did we budget for that or do we think that we would purchase more we
198allowing this year to go by and then collecting afterwards and then pivoting from there or I'm just interested to know what your thoughts were yeah so we're um they're purchasing a large quantity UPF front 3,000 um and then uh we will learn how how many we do expect that there will be the need to purchase so many every year to keep up with loss um we don't know that number yet um but there will be something um but if it's 50 or 100 that's sustainable within their budget sounds can can I just say something um in terms of the budget the nutrition services budget is actually one of our best performing budgets right now and that has to do with the fact that our meals are free um so we have a higher participation and
199we have a higher reimbursement rate so I meet with Bonnie on a regular basis and um we go through her budget and this is a a thing that she has in fact accounted for so we have no problem actually paying for these um expenses going forward awesome that's fabulous to hear thank you associate superintendent Fallen B um and then my second question was really just around how this roll out happened for our students how the training and education and the pr preparation happened for them um I know that they were really really excited and I know that you all were thoughtful about how they would use them um and so I'm interested to know what that looked like yeah yeah so we did site visits um prior and we really have we have a whole
200checklist about kind of the different things that we go through um which accounts for talking to the administration at the school site the custodial and also students so we've done waste reduction presentations um that have actually collaborated with Ellen the climate literacy teacher on special assignment um and we've also included parents in that communication as well and so we've had uh parent volunteers and community volunteers for the first week of the roll out because we really just need all hands on deck at that time and it takes a little bit of time for students to really understand what goes where and that it's not something that you just throw away at the end of the day um after lunch um and so it's been a little bit of a transition but yeah we are supporting
201the students in that as well as the staff at the site thank you I appreciate that I think my question wasn't really more so around um supporting students and teaching them how to recycle and what goes where but really about the the actual use of the the trays like safety around those this is what this is used for don't lick the trays even though the ketchup May taste really great to you like has that happened for our students so we were kind of evaluating that as we go and you'd be surprised um by how um appropriately the students use them I mean when you think about when you eat at home and you think about how you teach your students to eat at home it's kind of something they're used to is taking a fork
202and taking a plate and drinking from a a cup that's not plastic um that's what they're used to doing at home and so it's actually hasn't we haven't encountered that many situations really at all where students are using um the uh the materials inappropriately or they need training on it we've we've been there to supervise it um but we've been delighted to see that they seem to know how to how to use them appropriately I'm sure thank you director babit thank you and thank you for this presentation uh president vasad Dev and I had uh the opportunity to hear more about this during our tenure on the 2 by two committee um so thank you for um I don't know some of the abuse you took there as well as we pushed to make this
203more a reality for our for our kids um and thank you for bringing this to the to the larger board um I would like um an update overall um not tonight but at at another meeting or in some kind of communication around where we are in general with our sustainability plan um for all of the other measures and actions within our sustainability plan and reaching those goals um during the 2 by okay another question before that um when I saw the trash cans um and how we're teaching kids to sort I'm wondering what are we doing to make sure that our maintenance staff is also taking that um and putting it in the right re reciprocals um it has been stated that the kids sort but it does it really matter because the maintenance Personnel
204aren't actually sorting it once they pick it up um is there any truth in that or how can we um validate and redirect if that is happening and then my last question I'll just say is during the 2 by two meeting we talked a lot about creative ideas for for the dishwashing to happen um recognizing that labor was a challenge we talked about potentially um finding out if we could partner with universities that you know do dishwashing our hospitals that do dishwashing and um even if we could use our site at M maybe in the evenings as a a dishwasher site and maybe we could have we could do dishes for other entities restaurants because this this really is a big initiative of the entire city at this point um and so maybe we could
205uh either Outsource or insource right and and gain some extra revenues uh if we really think about using our own kitchen at MLK more creatively um so just wondering um is there an update on that no oh maybe I'll take question one and then you take question too um so there is quite a bit of preparation that happens with the staff um we I coordinate with Steve so that I can present during his professional development days um and that's all about climate change and how um the role of Maintenance staff interacts with climate at climate Solutions and how their job um is impacted and also I work with custodial services and do a PD with them it's a quite a hefty presentation and they also interact with me and interact with waste and so they're
206all trained on what goes where and you know we have constant Communications um with each of the custodial heads at each site so we're pretty good on making sure that everyone's on the same page I think um pretty good communication so that's how I would say they're prepared what one of the challenges is um so I the custodians so there's all the big at a school site that people are throwing things in and if people are putting things in the wrong bins custodians don't really like go shuffle through the trash and and sort right that's not really they don't really have the time to do that and it's not really um something that we want them to be doing so um so what you may be referring to is some people yeah I've seen the
207big bins and they walk by and see it and there's cardboard in the trash and things like that so that that kind of stuff does happen but we feel and our hopeful that this initiative with the kitchen will really get into people's minds because they one of the things we're doing with this is really focusing on the Sorting green bin blue bin you know you put this here put that there because they want to put we you know so that's we're hoping that that gets it in everybody's head more so that put the thing put their piece in the right place in the first place right and then the custodians take it you know take the bag and dump it into the big bin that it belongs in right so um um can you repeat
208the second part of your question around the dishwashing and the labor Outsourcing versus insourcing yeah so we we had um as part of our conversation Outsourcing was an option when um um when we uh did not feel that we had the Staffing uh Outsourcing has actually been an option that we've considered for about two years um we had a nonprofit organization that was trying to help us and there's there's a couple different contractors that do dishwashing and um at one point they considered using king um they would have to sign you know anou or something like that but they backed out and so that all didn't work out hasn't worked out but we're actually with the additional um funding that the nutrition services has the Staffing is much better um because she was able to
209increase their FDA FTE she being the nutrition services director um and so it's not as big of an issue so we are confident that the dishwashing can be done inhouse um on on a regular basis yeah and like I mentioned just to add to that that we are installing industrial dishwashers at the sites that don't have them right now so it's not as much of an issue as it used to be yeah I I agree but I also think that the time it's taking to install those industrial um dishwashers is time where other schools aren't able to use reusables and so that's why I'm trying to figure out how we can do more now with our centralized kitchen or with Community Partners so that we can actually um improve on um what we're doing faster
210I know they hate me I'm always talking about faster but you know it's just dishwashers and dishes so if we could actually you know use our kitchen more I I still would like to push and to hear more creative um actions so that we're not waiting for every school to get their own dishwasher uh for example the same food that's being brought to our schools why can't it go with dishes why can't the dishes be picked up the next day and taken back to the Central Kitchen like like where is the creative thinking there or if you've done it I just haven't heard how it flushed out right as being a a something that's doable or not doable um and then um lastly just uh really thinking about if we are making an industrial kitchen
211right and we know that we are in a city that's requiring multiple restaurants to you know not have disposables that that's an opportunity for us right um number one and number two could we do at least silverware at more of our schools that don't have the whole plates and Trays right we could at least start by not having uh um disposable forks and uh plastic forks and knives um I know that to be beneficial because at most of our elementary schools well I don't know about most but some of our elementary schools the ptas themselves have already bought silverware so that at evening events you know they're not that that's at least one thing we're not throwing away so just another suggestion thank you thank you thank you thank you very much for your presentation
212really appreciate it and this concludes our discussion items for this evening uh colleagues please look at the informational items uh 15.1 and 15.2 two important first interim reports that have been included in our agenda tonight before we move on to Extended comments we're going to have to uh extend the meeting I'd like to move that we extend the meeting to 11:20 is there a second I'll second oh directors all in favor un Readiness um extending the meeting by 11:20 would have us go over our time period for second public comment so can we think about extended 10 minutes to 1110 that would give us 12 minutes yeah all right colleagues uh 1110 it is is there what are we doing I'm sorry I miss we're extending the meeting to 1110 11:10 so she made a
213motion to extend to 11:20 it was seconded I I had unreadiness she called for my unreadiness I offered a a friendly amendment to her motion from 11 from making it to go to 11:20 to make it go to 11:10 she accepted the amendment for 11:10 11 by I know extended it to 1110 and so the second motion still carries and so now she's calling for the vote okay my my un Readiness was that I thought our meeting was was already scheduled till 11:30 tonight because we knew it was a heavy agenda so it's 11 on my calendar our board our board meetings always go till 11:00 and then if we go past then then we ask for um an extension to the meeting but all of our board meetings go to 11: so the motion
214still on the floor 11:10 call all right I'm gonna call for the vote to extend it till 11:10 can I get a second all right 11:20 like they've been here w no say I mean I just feel like 10 minutes is not enough time for the number of people yeah yeah why don't we [Music] that's not it went out it screwed up yeah [Music] sorry I support continuing to teach ethnic studies in Berkeley schools I implore you not to use Lees MCC to develop that curriculum for Berkeley youth they are part of the limited ethnic studies Coalition that celebrated the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7th and Justified the murder rape and kidnapping of civilians including women children and the elderly they cannot be trusted with Berkeley's children because they support hate and they
215teach hate they refuse to include Jews and several other minorities in their curricula I support curriculum including state approved curricula that teaches about Palestinians and Jews I support accurate honest and balanced teaching of history and facts-based narratives of all ethnic minorities including the Jewish people and Palestinians please do not renew The Bu USD contract time do I have wa a minute thank you good evening um and thank you all for the opportunity to speak tonight I imagine you guys are all very tired you had a long day and been for a board board meeting for over six hours now um I'm uh I'm a new member of the Berkeley unified uh Community I have a kindergartner at Sylvia Mendes um I'm here tonight to express my appreciation for the crucial role that the transportation department
216plays in our daily lives both in our children's and our own um allowing for Working Families allowing Working Families access to the high quality education at Berkeley unified um the B uh Berkeley Transportation Department's commitment to providing reliable and Safe Transportation doesn't go unnoticed it's not just the rides but also the trust and comfort that their hard work and service brings to the community um I'd like to ask for the board's continued support of the transportation department to ensure that they have the resources to maintain this high level of service providing safe and reliable transportation um in uh investment in the transportation department provides safe and reliable and accessible transportation to to Working Families um students and the Berkeley community at large thank thank you Mr Alice if you could uh send us for any
217speakers if you have additional comments please email the board so we can read the rest of your comments we're back on Zoom all right and can you take time now m chares Are you able all right so we have a one minute per speaker and next speaker is Hillary hi I'm a b USD mom and I just handed over a petition with over 2,200 signatures of Berkeley parents students teachers staff residents and supporters who strongly oppose renewal of the contract with the liberated ethnic studies curriculum Consortium we do not oppose the teaching of ethnic studies we do not oppose the unbiased teaching of both Israel and Palestine we believe that learning should bring people together and build bridges of understanding this is what creates community in our schools growth in our kids and love and
218peace in our world the liberated approach to ethnic studies is about division and exclusion it's about one-sided biased unbalanced revisionist history that twists facts and takes them out of context to create an extreme binary that demonizes and dehumanizes whole groups of people this creates an atmosphere of hate anger and victimhood where no one wins these liberated activists were so radical and divisive thank you thank you for your comment next comment we have Deb fin followed by Eileen Lee I'm here tonight to State my strong opposition to extending the contract with liberated ethnic studies model curriculum Consortium due to its bias and divisiveness understand I support the teaching of ethnic studies in BSD I believe it can be important part of combating racism and fostering respect and empathy however the current curriculum whom BSD whom BD
219has contracted with indoctrinates students with a one-sided biased narrow agenda it's in direct violation with BD's own policies in California education codee teachers may not use their classrooms to promote their personal biases especially when these biases demonize members of our community yet this is happening on a daily basis specifically as relates to Israel Palestine and the war in Gaza this is not to say we shouldn't be teaching about it we should be teaching about it in an unbiased and factual way that should not be controversial when our students are told that Israel's colonial state as a matter of fact not only is this factually incorrect this erases my kids history it erases my kids person personal and historical connection to Israel we need an inclusive balanced ethnic thank you for your comment next we have
220E Lee followed by Lucia thank you so much for staying awake in the beautiful work you do I'm Eileen Lee a Berkeley voter a grandmother of two bu USD elementary school children my PhD is in education with a focus on family studies so I understand the power and importance of ethnic studies and I applaud you for making this a priority in Berkeley but I wonder why you need to pay over $100,000 to the liberated studies organization they um I support ethnic studies but I oppose your work with this organization liberal studies they're racist they have an anti-zionism mandate Central to their Mission they perpetuate anti-semitic historical distortions their curriculum actually erases the Jewish people's 3,000-year presence in Israel and it makes thank you for your comment next we have Lucia followed by Nish oop sorry
221I would like to voice my support for the ethnic studies with the curriculum of the I not remember the acronym the LD um I think it's funny that people who have phds were able to acquire those um we know that children as young as six years old are able to tell racial differences by two years old they're able to uh show their preferences for people by they understand cultural and racial differences I think it's a disingenuous and intellectually and morally disingenuous argument to have that not talking about Palestine is okay when I I am black and Palestinian and I came to understand how my struggle here is related to my family struggle in Palestine through my teachers through my education not just through my personal life we heard from incredible students tonight who talked so
222eloquently about empowering them and how they should be able thank you for your comment next we have Nish followed by Andy and that will be our last inperson comment and then we'll move to online comments uh hi I'm Nish I'm here to speak in support of continuing the liberated ethnic studies um contract I personally work as an educator with middle school students um and I see just how important ethnic studies is to them um most of my students are people of color and for them having the opportunity to actually understand their own history and to have that that lens and many of my students are also Arab Muslim and to actually get to understand their history without it being biased without it being only the white Zionist Colonial history is so crucial for them and
223is so empowering for them and I think that we really need to think about the fact that there were so many youth here today that were speaking so passionately about why it's important to them and I think that there there's a lot of older people who have a lot of feelings they're not the ones who are actually being educated we see what our educators are asking for we see what our students are asking for and we need to just deliver what y'all are here to be supporting and that is your students and your teachers thank you thanks and the final public comment for inperson comment will be Andy uh pardon me for the mispronunciation uh Souza Andy suus is that name ring a bell did Andy leave um then I'll call Leila Mera and that
224will be the last iners comment hi my name is Lila and I'm a former educator turned PhD candidate at Cal where I focus on the Middle East during my time as an educator I worked hard to ensure that the racism that I experienced was not something that my students would ever have to endure um and in a mass genocide that uses religion as a weapon apoliticism is anything but a political schools can't cater to making oppressors comfortable at the cost of those most marginalized many of our educators are being courageous and they're putting themselves on the line to protect their teachers um I'm hearing about it every day from them and I know the dangers of special interest groups impending on Justice in the education system so please continue to continue doing the work in
225preventing that uh for their Futures and for ours an educator in a system of Oppression is either a revolutionary or an oppressor the choice is yours but the history books will remember thanks thank you so much we'll take two online comments I'll start with Esther brass chorin followed by Elana thank you for staying so late to listen to us um I'm a Berkeley resident supporter and fan of Berkeley Public School fund and aie I'm Jewish part Mexican we need good ethnic studies and that's why I'm against B USD renewing with liberated ethnic studies curriculum Consortium whose approach indoctrinates rather than teach critical thinking it's full of the kind of polarized thinking that's polarizing our country Dr Clarence Jones close adviser to Dr Martin Luther King Jr wrote that the basis of Lees is quote a
226perversion of History that's being perpetrated it will inflict great harm on students end quote quot Lees also tries to erase Jewish history culture and contributions we need to teach kids ethnic studies about systemic racism implicit bias and how to challenge them we must not let our schools explicitly nor implicitly teach Israel hate and anti-Semitism that's systemic bigotry please don't allow it student oh thank you very much actually um I was just notified that the next comment will be for student Sahan salari Namen did not see that student thank you m haris Sahan salari Nam hi uh yeah I'm Sahand uh I was a former student at Berkeley High School uh and I graduated in 2018 um and now I'm a PhD candidate at a major ro1 university uh I would just like to say that
227as somebody who actually took part in the ethnic studies uh curriculum it was um very informative and I think it is actually one of the things that sets Berkeley apart from many other um school districts across the country that we have a space where students are provided with primary sources they can bring their own primary sources and are provided with a platform where they can discuss these issues uh and growing up that was very critical to allowing everybody to formulate their own ideas um regarding uh World matters and of course this conflict um and now turned into a genocide um in Palestine uh and as for um I guess that's all I can say in this time thank you thank you I know that there are a number of people with their hands raised there's
228seven additional speakers um we will not be able to get to the online public the rest of the online public comments please email us your comments ments tonight we' only extended the meeting to 11:15 so I have one minute to wrap up colleagues does anyone have extended board comments no I do no I'm kidding I want to thank everyone for coming out and staying late uh the meeting of the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education is hereby adjourned at 11:14 with one minute to spare thank you