001good evening and welcome everyone I would like to provide a brief overview of tonight's meeting after a few procedural items the board will hear approximately 30 minutes of public comment at the end of the meeting which usually ends around 10 pm there will be another opportunity for additional public comment so if you do not get to speak at the beginning of the meeting you can stay and speak at the end of the meeting if you wish to address the board please fill out a green card green speaker card speaker cards are located in the back of the room speaker cards will be organized by agenda item and the board president will prioritize in-person comments and take online comments if time permits the agenda item in order to hear from at least one person on each
002agenda item please note that if there are a lot of cards not everyone who turned in a card will get to speak if your name is called and you wish to cede your time to another speaker you may do so by standing up stating your name and the name of the person to whom you wish to seize your time please note you may only see your time to a speaker who is addressing the same topic you have written down on your card by seeding your time you give up your opportunity to speak on that topic and no one can later speak on their on their time to to you to speak on that topic we do not allow a speaker to combine speaking time for multiple people the board president will determine whether to set
003tonight's speaking time at one two or three minutes per speaker on an individual basis the board President also has a discretion to allow for extra time for those who need translation or have other speech needs while you are still speak why while you are speaking please note that the light at the lectern will turn yellow when there is one minute left when your time has elapsed elapsed the the light up the electron will turn red and you'll hear beeping if you are still speaking when your time is up you are allowed to finish your sentence but please try not to speak beyond our time we understand that there are really important issues that many people feel very passionate about however in order to be fair to all speakers and so we can hear as many
004speakers as possible the board president will ask you to stop once your time has elapsed and will ask that the mic be turned off if it is necessary opportunity de la Henda president Associates posted orador [Music] muchas gracias thank you thank you I will officially call the meeting to order at 7 30 pm um Miss Barros can you call the roll oh and can someone promote director Brown uh president Babbitt I don't see um you know director Brown on line at the moment uh maybe if she can raise her hand if she's using a different name okay you can call the roll and we will try and find it okay director Mike Chang here director Jennifer schanowski here Anna vice president Anna basudev presented uh president uh Laura Babbitt here um and now I'd like
005to ask for a motion to approve the agenda with the omission of the discussion item 13.1 this was actually placed on the agenda and error we are not discussing that tonight and we also need to pull the Longfellow resolution which is 11 point 19. okay thank you is there a motion to approve the agenda with those amendments I'll move to do so is there a second I'll second it's been moved by uh director Chang's it's so weird all these empty seats Now seconded by vice president ambassadors can you close call the road director Chang yes director shanowski yes vice president basudev yes president Babbitt yes okay we will have our report out from closed session great a closed session was call to order at 5 46 PM all directors were present for agenda item 3.1
006existing litigation 3.1.1 there was a motion to approve the recommendation by director Brown seconded by vice president vasudev all directors voted in favor agenda item 3.1.2 for existing litigation there's a motion to approve by vice president vasudev second by director shanosky all directors voted in favor progender item 3.2 Public Employee appointment there was a motion to approve the appointments by vice president vasudev seconded by director Chang all directors voted in favor origin item 3.2.2 there was a the appointment of the literacy coordinator there's a motion to approve by director shanovsky seconded by director Chang all directors voted in favor and for superintendent's evaluation the board discussed in provided Direction and that concludes a report from closed session thank you thank you so much we will now move to our first opportunity for public comment if
007oh Dr Brown is on now with her hand raised if you can promote her and then we can have her in attendance um if but otherwise if you were online and you would like to give public comment please raise your hand at this moment I only see uh one hand online which is very good one two three four five so I still have enough cards here that I could probably give everybody one and a half minute each um so that we could hear from everyone and we will start with uh Debbie Taylor um oh you want to sleep during the hearing oh for pack s they don't actually have a five minute committee time period laughs hello um hi my name is Debbie Taylor and uh I have the pleasure of serving as the coke
008chair of the Berkeley High School site Council and I want to start by thanking all of you really for your work um I know that you spend many many hours working to improve student achievement um and uh that is as true for the administrators here as for the board so thank you um I'm here to speak tonight to ask you to revise the lcat plan before approving it the um the lcat plan uh doesn't have specific goals and strategies addressing the high school and there are many many high school students in this District there is a goal a second a second thing I'd like you to address when you're revising it is we list uh goals for student achievement in math and English language arts those goals are by subgroup which is great but there's
009no goal for white Caucasian students there's no goal for any students who don't fall into a special category such a student with disabilities or students who are economically disadvantaged so for the big hunk of students who don't fall into the subgroups there are no achievement goals in the lcap um and I think that's an oversight we have a responsibility as a district thank you you can always email us your comments so that we can read them in full um next we will hear from Mara Greenway followed by Gary Reyes uh if I've called your name if you could line up and then followed after Gaddy Reyes nimota oh okay hi um long time listener first time caller I appreciate you all so much um I'm just here to um uh speak out for the Longfellow
010grass and turf situation that's going on um I'm the parent of a upcoming Longfellow student and we're super super excited to attend and yeah I I am I brought this petition that's been sent around right now it's got 141 signatures from parents and students and other community members and it's I'm adding it to the teachers um sorry I'm super nervous to the um petition that the teachers have already sent in and I think in addition to the grass issue um I just want to ask that in future Construction work around the district that teachers and students as stakeholders are listen to and that there's transparency um yeah so that's it thank you thank you foreign and I am here to discuss the Longfellow remodel um as you guys have heard for many weeks now from
011a teacher for a story that there's a huge concern about the artificial graphs the turf um and the transparency on the whole remodel project um I know that there was steering committees and other committees that were held during covid and um it feels like the district has been very disingenuous in this process and I say that because I spoke to different parents that were around in the last five years and different parents from Longfellow and many people feel like they can't speak to you to the district to the board that they won't be listened to and um I watched the May 10th meeting and I could see kind of why when um our Educators were um bringing up items that they thought were a concern and they also didn't know some of them didn't know
012that they were gonna move classrooms anyway I'm excited to be there and going over my time um we're excited my son is excited please reconsider the artificial grass he was at one of the campuses this weekend and and he kept telling me that he kept getting shocked that his feet were burning because he sometimes takes off his shoes on the artificial grass thank you thank you so much we will now hear from Ben shifler followed by Javier roblear and Andrea Betty hello uh my name is Ben Schleicher I work for the center for environmental health we get toxic chemicals out of the lived environment you all need to be aware of a California State Assembly Bill 1423 that will be banning pfas per and polyfluorinated alkaline substances from artificial turf it is moving to the
013Senate as we speak once Newsome signs it and we expect him to do it will be one year before that ban is in place which means if we put in artificial turf in Longfellow it is very most likely to have this chemical this is a chemical a class of 15 000 different chemicals it's known as an endocrine disrupting chemical so it messes with students hormones we have seen correlation studies between AstroTurf and um cancer particularly a Hodgkin's lymphoma in soccer goalies it's just the study we have out there this chemical is terrible for the environment is dubbed the forever chemical which means it will not break down in the environment it's also a super pollutant so if Berkeley is actually serious about being true to its climate literacy plans AstroTurf is something that you all
014should not consider for Longfellow or in the future all Astro turfs we looked at have been tested high for pfas this also creates um microplastics in the environment it is bad for the students health and well-being it's bad for the environmental health of Berkeley and Berkeley's campuses so I strongly oppose 1119 and I think you all should do the same thank you hi good evening my name is Javier I stand before you not only as a rice case manager but also as a former right student who has witnessed firsthand the incredible impact this program has had on our students this program holds a special place in my heart as it has been instrumental in shaping my journey and providing me with opportunities I never thought possible rice and myself would like to thank the superintendent
015and the school board for supporting our community as an immigrant I arrive in this country with a dream of a better future but also with a sense of uncertainty it was around this critical time that Rice reached out and offered a helping hand the this program recognized unique struggles faced by immigrant students like me and understood the transformative power education has in shaping Our Lives my then case manager came to my house and talked to me and my mom about rice he did all of this in our native language having someone who spoke my language and looked like me offering support gave me the confidence to overcome uncertainty and take on challenges head on I now use my experiences to work with the newcomer families and welcome them give them support and show them that
016they have an advocate I draw up from my experiences with the U.S immigration system to also support families with the immigration endeavors thanks to the initiative of the superintendent and the budget advisory committee and the school board we are able to expand our programs and services to more students and their families rice looks forward to furthering support the district commit commitment to African-American success programs the latinx initiative newcomers special ed programs around 40 of our students have IEPs your support means that we can continue to advise students and clubs like the Hispanic engineering and Science and National Society of black Engineers thank you for your support thank you the rise Community wants to thank the superintendent and the school board rise has been working with Berkeley High students since 1976. superintendent board members you are
017the first in our 47 years of History to meet with us and immediately see the value of our work with students families schools and the busd community superintendent inikia it is because of you that we are here you are the first superintendent to see our value at our first meeting all of our staff present in your office you immediately added us to the budget which I don't know if you know we fell on our face but that was a shock to see people recognize us and recognize our work and and possibly talk about even supporting it we would not be able to continue our work without the support of the superintendent the budget advisory committee the school board you are not only supporting students of color but you're supporting stem educators of color myself a
018former math teacher here in the district UC Berkeley Wardell electrical engineering UC Berkeley Javier urban planning and architecture San Francisco State I want you to see what you are supporting now our native youth group founded in 1994 while I was a math teacher at King Middle School the groupiani wants to say which means thank you thank you for preserving their existence on campus can I just finish introducing them and that's it next we have our rise leadership team which is researching black and brown success accessing the needs of rice students assessing the needs of our students and currently being trained for classroom observations in the fall we also have our rise graduates we continue to serve them and advise them while they're in college on financial aid Mental Health social what classes to take and
019lastly of course we have all of our current students and parents that want to express their gratitude you so thank you so very very much thank you now we will hear from Peggy New Garden Eileen Kilroy and lastly Gail Lake for in person good evening and thank you for your service I'm Peggy newgarden and I'm here to talk about the Surplus property that Oxford school has now been declared as we've made several calls and we continue to work on getting that property secured there were four Bill three bill three doors unlocked for several weeks we called people eventually we got those they didn't bother to check all the doors the one door by the cafeteria at the bottom of the driveway the the lock could be broken very very quickly and very easily and allow
020people to make home in the Oxford school facility we'd like you to join us in trying to get a lock similar to the metal plate on the principal's door which they must have had trouble with that lock so that nobody can break in uh we'd appreciate your attention to this matter thank you thank you hello I'm Eileen collory I'm speaking for both Shattuck neighbors and Walnut Street neighbors and this relates to the disposition of the Oxford School site I realize that it's not open for discussion at this at this meeting but in the future meeting I'm wondering if you can expand the PowerPoint to include whatever actions might be moving forward on the five pathways that have been outlined secondly four of the pathways show that sequa will have an impact upon them but it
021does not seem to be included in what could be the potential disposition sale of the property which seems unusual since it affects Redevelopment we don't understand why it wouldn't affect development prospects and hence the sale and the price and the third action is is we're particularly concerned about the lack of information particularly when it comes to those actions leasing sale listing of the property we feel like we have to just keep track of when an agenda opens up on the school board meeting and when it might be pulled instantaneously so we'd like more information coming our Direction and if Mr khalis could expand upon his PowerPoint we would greatly appreciate having a fuller discussion on August 14th or the August meeting thank you thank you hi I'm Gail Lake I happen to live on Oxford
022Street and we have all sort of tolerated the school loved the school my kids went to the school and are quite Disturbed at how the lack of transparency and what we're being told is going to happen to the school uh you sort of feel like we had a meeting two days ago we were told there was no meeting we were not on the agenda yesterday we were told late last night that we were on the meeting and it just feels like you know we just wanted people want to slap us around and not tell us what's going on selling the property we were told it was worth two million dollars to a developer yes two million dollars is useful for the school district but it doesn't seem like a lot of money and if some
023developer is going to go in and just put in as many possible houses as possible you wonder why wasn't this property used for teachers teachers were the ones that we were supposed to be looking to put housing for and whether they're going to put it down on San Pablo Avenue where they actually need their parking and we're being told the teachers are going to get small housing there is the Oxford school is it possible for teachers to live in that building it may not be seismically correct for six-year-olds but is it possible since we all live on the Block and we had problems getting mortgages to begin with we all got mortgages and we're still there my house was built in 1913 you know and it's still there I thank you and I hope that
024we will get more transparency and know what's going on appreciate it thank you now we've moved to our online commenter uh Wade we will receive you now once you are promoted hello can you hear me yes we can okay great thank you my name is Wade skills and I am the current Secretary of the citizens Bond oversight committee for busd um Can the California Education Code requires the governing board of a school of District to establish and appoint persons within the district to an independent citizens oversight committee the cboc if a bond measure is authorized the purpose of the cboc is to inform the public concerning the expenditure of bond revenues and to actively review and report on the proper expenditure of taxpayer money for school Construction the voters of the city of Berkeley approved
025Bond measure I in November 2010 and measure G in March 2020 in order to modernize improve and construct school facilities at certain district schools and facility sites the committee has received and reviewed the 2021-2022 annual B USD independent Financial audit report and performance audit report prepared by Crow LLP and has had the opportunity to review and ask questions of the district's independent auditor who performed the audit and on June 13th that was yesterday we voted unanimously to accept the findings of the audit further the committee has met through the year to receive updates from the bond program manager executive director of facilities and staff regarding the district's implementation and progress of the measure I and measure G Bond program based upon all the information provided to the committee and discussions held no information came to
026our committee's attention that would indicate that Bond revenues were spent for reasons other than those authorized by the 2010 measure eye and the 2020 measure G bonds therefore our committee commends the bond program management team and staff members for their continued and significant efforts in implementing the measure I and measure G facility Bond programs not all districts are so fortunate the citizens Bond oversight committee also thanks the citizens of Berkeley for recognizing the critical importance of maintaining the high level of public school facilities in our community so I wanted to share that and uh congratulations to uh busd and and thank you again to all the citizens of Berkeley thank you thank you um so he was representing our construction Bond oversight committee is there any other committee here um do you receive you know
027oh okay so that would be like the parent advisory committee aspect committee beats that piano or um PTA Council okay no other committee members here uh we will move to Union comments are there any union members here and I didn't see a video no video okay we will move to board member and superintendent comments is there anyone who would like to start okay before the Oxford folks leave well they're gonna leave anyway well but but I wanted to acknowledge and apologize because it I was the one that said it would be on tonight's agenda and that was obviously my mistake I didn't realize it was getting pulled so it's not an intentional trying to jerk anyone around it was an honest mistake of my own so I apologize for that most sincerely I think we
028all are trying our best to be transparent and communicative about the Oxford site the Longfellow Turf the Sylvia Mendez modernization all issues that we've heard a lot from um community members over the last couple of weeks and I know for me at least it's really important to engage in those conversations I'm I'm proud of Berkeley's Community for being so organized and for really engaging with us as board members and the rest of the community so I encourage you to keep doing that and my door well at least my in my email inbox is always open and I'm I'm really more than happy to have those kind conversations with the community and I think others are as well um it is it is a challenge right and and that's not an excuse um I think that
029obviously if people are feeling like there's not transparency there's a need to do better and to improve on it but please know that it's not intentional and um there is definitely effort from the superintendent from facilities from the board members um from the entire busd community so thank you for coming back for a second um yes of course um we're not allowed to go back and I I think I'm sorry we no no um so a couple of other comments that I have um I was happy to attend the citizens Bond oversight committee meeting yesterday you just heard from that committee um so um they just reported out I'm really grateful to all the members of the oversight committee for volunteering their time and really spending a lot of energy doing their best to ensure
030that our bond dollars are spent appropriately um I want to thank the Rye students for showing up again and again and again it's really um heartwarming to me to see the students and hear their stories and lastly it's my daughter's 11th birthday and so I told her I'd say happy birthday so happy Birthday Sophie and that's it thanks oh I don't have uh many comments tonight just to thank all the Oxford neighbors that came out to give your comments I know that I was able to attend the community meeting with council member Han did talk to our facilities director afterwards and I know that he has thought of all sorts of creative ways to make sure that the community is informed and so I just wanted to know to Echo what Dorchester shanovsky said uh
031the way you know I understand the discussion is coming forward so not at this board meeting but please know that we have been talking internally about making sure that communication gets to the community members so that's a commitment from us and if you have any questions please follow up in the fall um just wanted to thank again the rise students for coming out and all the families that wrote to us and I know that there's some members that are still here that wrote to us about the turf the issue of the artificial turf that Long Fellow what I know about that issue is that they're still wiggle room in the design and that that's not supposed to happen now that that's something that's going to happen next summer so um just wanted to make sure
032the community knows that this those specific design elements are not set in stone yet but do appreciate and you know support your calls for making sure that we're consistent in our sustainability goals so thank you so much for your advocacy and I look forward to the discussion tonight thank you thank you Chang yes thank you um I also want to uh thanks thanks to all the folks who've come on out and advocated um I do want to really quickly note um you know this is lgbtq month and uh you guys ready for a very brief 14th Amendment lesson a resounding cheer all right so the you guys know that it's lgbtq month is also on Monday it was loving day which is a very important Supreme Court president where Mildred and Richard loving um and
033African-American woman and a white man married in Virginia in 1958 and were arrested for it uh almost nine years later in 1967 they went up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court agreed with them that Virginia's uh state law against mixed marriages which is called miscegenation was unconstitutional in violation of the 14th amendment's due process clause the due process clause as many of you know is where privacy rights are interpreted uh it's very influential for both Roe v Wade and also obergefield the Hodges in 2015 which um is the Constitutional finding at the Supreme Court protecting same-sex marriage as well so lots of intersections here between anti-racism racism and lgbtq rights through the 14th amendment that I just want to remind folks of in this important weekend month um okay so moving on um
034this week I met with the district's lead team on Mental Health wellness and mental health um uh yasmina and the VP of VHS Doreen bracamonte this Regina Karen the coordinator of Mental Health Services they provided me with an excellent overview with lots of data and um uh we had really good conversations about you know where the current Mental Health and Wellness Center uh programming is at in the district there's going to be a um VHS some folks have asked me about this the BHS Wellness Center there's Furniture going in they had really um great flexible uh layout plans for the uh for that space as well um but also there are plans moving forward and um programming that I think will be really important for this District to consider uh particularly when um miss Karen
035produces the assessment of mental health for the district um so uh that's a really critical area to me as a as a board member but also as a parent in the district where there's a close integration of both mental health and health issues as well as culturally responsive um spaces for students again thank you Rise um you guys do a great job of coming out here and advocating and ensuring that your voices are heard also the construction bonds committee which I'm on I was not able to make the last meeting they worked very hard Oxford neighbors appreciate all your advocacy around your concerns and raising the question about what is the value of a space in Brooklyn unified of sale versus potential other options we don't have a lot of property in busd that's empty
036that could be utilized for other purposes so that that is interesting to me Long Fellow parents uh uh very important to to raise a cultural you know Norm but also a practice around use of plastics you know it was a little bit alarming to me to hear it on the pfast issue I'll try to look that up and learn more about it going through the state of California's assembly we certainly don't want to put something down on the ground that we then need to pull up soon later thanks again everybody and look forward to our meeting today which will for sure run to 11 o'clock I think thanks just for that I'm definitely going to pass on comments uh director Brown I buy may pass as well uh good evening everyone uh thank you all
037so much for coming out to speak tonight uh in support of Long Fellow in the turf those who spoke in regards to Oxford um and those who spoke tonight in regards to rise we appreciate you um coming to our board meeting and for sharing your um appreciations as well as your concerns and feedback um I am so excited uh it's kind of Bittersweet to say this but I am excited that this is our last meeting um of the year and I am excited because we have so much to reflect on and so much to celebrate um and so much hard work has gone into making sure that this afternoon not only the academic year but this year as a school board has um gone very well so I want to give my Kudos an appreciation
038to president Babbitt for all of her hard work as well as to my board colleagues and superintendent and staff for all of their hard work uh also I look forward to the rest of the discussion and presentation as well as the action items that happen during this evening's board meeting and I will pass it right back on to you uh president Babbitt in addition to that I just wanted to share for you and for the community that my camera will be turned off for this meeting because it will support my internet service at being a lot faster so um I'll ask for your um uh your approval for that President Bap it and I'll turn it back over to you thank you so much yeah she started by saying oh you did such a good
039job president she wants approval for something to go through gotta butter you up no we do appreciate you and of course um we're glad that you were able to attend virtually uh superintendent good evening everyone um I'm gonna start my comments by recognizing and honoring um the life of Reverend Bishop Dr Aaron Ward who is a long time busd staff member who unexpectedly passed away on June 6. Dr Ward worked at busd over a 52-year period talk about commitment and dedication um beginning the 10-year in 1972. having originally worked at Berkeley High School Dr Ward has subsequently worked um at the as a math teacher at the Berkeley adult school for many years um he's remembered by the Berkeley Adult School of principal of Thomas Reed as quote a kind man with a generous Spirit
040who will deeply be missed by many in the school Community Dr Ward's daughter shared with busd her father's deep commitment to teaching with these words his life was educating those willing to learn no one was not worth teaching in his eyes and then finally Mildred sheer who is a long time Berkeley Adult School staff member says that she finally finally recalls that Dr Ward would always say I love you and there's nothing you can do about it um Dr Ward is survived by his wife and fellow educator of 20 years Dorothy Watson Watson sorry and his children we extend our heartfelt condolences to the ward family and friends and the entire busd Community Dr Ward's homegoing service will be on June 29th at 11 A.M at St John's Missionary Baptist Church in Richmond so school
041is out for the summer but our district offices and a few of our school sites that are housing our summer programs are in session however on Monday June 19th all district offices and school sites will be closed in honor of Juneteenth um in June of 2021 President Biden issued a proclamation claiming June 19 2021 as Juneteenth day of observance with this language on June 10th we recommit ourselves to the work of equity equality and justice and we celebrate the centuries of struggle courage and hope that have brought us to this time of progress and possibility that work has been LED throughout our history by abolitionists and Educators civil rights Advocates and lawyers courageous activists and trade unionists public officials and everyday Americans who have helped make real the ideals of our founding our founding documents
042for all and so Berkeley unified will join many across our nation in acknowledging and celebrating Juneteenth to be clear Juneteenth is not new there's many of us who've been celebrating it for generations and it is it is very nice to have it officially recognized and so busd will be recognizing as well and will be closed um you might have seen as you walk around there's tables across many of our sites in our school district with bags and and plastic and fruit because busd is Distributing breakfast and lunch meals to all youth busd youth and otherwise all youth age 18 and younger can get meals from the USD breakfast and lunch we are serving meals at Berkeley Arts Magnet right here at Oxford Rosa Parks Elementary from 9 to 9 30 for breakfast it's actually pretty
043good and for lunch 12 30 to 1 p.m on Mondays but I didn't have it my daughter had it she's under 18. um Monday through Fridays all the way through August 11th and then Berkeley High School was also serving breakfast from 9 to 9 30 and lunch from 12 to 12 30. um and theirs will go into June start to July 12th um finally this is our last board meeting of the year as uh director Brown mentioned I want to thank all of you all 10 of you for your ongoing participation um but honestly for everyone's participation in our board meetings both hybrid or both in person and virtual but I also want to thank Rosalina Barrios because she's the person over there that that makes all of this happen this is our our first
044time as a district doing um hybrid board meetings so she's running the in-person and the virtual um also our director of Technology Max essler who's not here but he's usually behind the scenes making sure the camera isn't up and running and then our our favorite friend from the city Joe who's back there he runs our cameras um and he makes sure that we are all looking good up here on the podium and then Rodney who you don't see but he's our custodian our Oxford custodian who gets everything set up for you to be here to welcome you and stays well after we're all gone to take it all down so I just want to thank those folks for making these great and then finally I wish you all a wonderful and restful summer and we'll
045see you back here not here but back in schools our first day of school is August 16th and if you want to know more important dates for the 23 24 school year you can find them on our busd website thank you thank you no that's for a motion to approve our consent calendar with a reminder that 11.19 has been pulled I moved it's been moved is there a second has been seconded by director Brown all in favor say aye aye still everyone is in favor we will now move towards our first presentation of the evening um item 12.1 gender Equity sexual harassment advisory committee presentation foreign so good evening everyone um I am here with my with my partner and colleague um Rebecca Levinson we are here to share information about a new advisory committee
046here in Berkeley unified called the gender Equity sexual harassment advisory committee also known as g-shack uh and I'm here with my friend because why make her sit up here alone um but also because it's really exciting the work that we're going to share with you so I'm actually really honored to be here uh with you miss Rebecca um nope could you please so we always start at every convening and every presentation with our mission statement um enable and Inspire our diverse student body to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to the world I think I've said in many settings that we have a ways to go to make that real and true for all of our students and to really honor Center and acknowledge what diversity looks like in Berkeley unified and how we
047acknowledge and celebrate our students and all of their many forms of diversity the superintendent's gender equity and sexual harassment advisory committee is really a key role in strategy in helping us do that to really help us support and make our mission Real and True by providing an open forum for discussing issues related to gender Equity that affects students here in busd the committee receives updates on busd programs and initiatives reviews Anonymous data on Equity issues and makes annual recommendations to me the superintendent on areas of growth in the district's ongoing efforts to create an equitable learning environment for all students I said related to gender Equity but I should clarify this gender equity and ways to make sure that our our students feel safe with regard to their bodies sexual harassment identity Etc and so
048excited to be um the the superintendent that gets to Usher this new advisory committee in it was approved by the school board and the 21-22 school year but we actually made it happen in Rio this school year so this evening what we want to do is just to basically introduce this advisory committee to you all um to make sure that you understand the purpose and the work that this advisory committee has set out to do and some of the things that we've done together um in this our first year next slide um just to give you an idea of the types of things that the g-shack advises me on we have a lot of discussions about the prevention of sexual harassment and all forms of discrimination based on actual or perceived sex gender gender identity
049and expression and sexual orientation we discuss and they advise on consent sex education and sexual safety for students families and staff restorative practices for students that caused harm issues affecting gender Equity including gender identity and expression issues affecting lbgt I'm sorry lbgtbq plus students and Improvement to the district's responses including supportive measures and investigations that's just some of the big topics that this amazing group of folks have tried to start to tackle in partnership with me um and my partner back there yasmina and with that I'm going to turn it over to Rebecca and say a little bit more about this committee thank you and before I started talking about the composition I want to say it's been an honor this year so our wonderful superintendent showed up to every single meeting um Yasmine has
050showed up to every single meeting um Dr Shelley showed up to a whole lot of meetings um um Doreen bracamontes showed up to a number of meetings too so as somebody who's been working on this issue in the district since my youngest daughter was a freshman at Berkeley High in 2014 and someone who has a daughter who's in high school this year um I can't tell you what it means to have been a part of this journey and you have a lot to be proud of because we were not always in a good place here I think you've all heard the stories and so anyway let me give you a little sense of the g-shack composition so we had four High School level representatives for elementary level Representatives three Middle School level Representatives two community
051members two BHS students and one BHS administrator and then the non-member support included yasmina the Title IX coordinator I'm the director of student services Dr Shelley and um and I also want to say that the g-shack elected a chair that's me and we also elected a vice chair this year to represent um and the representative to the superintendent's budget advisory committee here is our meeting schedule you can see um we we met a number of times and um we also formed two subcommittees so it was clear that our hour-long meetings weren't really getting to the core of some of the things that the the subcommittees wanted to look at and work on so these were subcommittees that were born very organically and populated very organically and um helped very much in the process of informing
052the budget process moving forward um we had a number of program presentations um certainly from the Title IX coordinator we got to hear about the policies around sexual harassment gender identity um and access and transgender and gender non-conforming students we get to hear about the complaint process supportive measures staff training um by the way one thing to be excited about is I know that this this teachers this year for the very first time really felt like you got it in terms of their training on sexual harassment and we want to really thank you for that um director of student services um and TSA on climate and wellness also presented to us talked about busd's gender expansive initiative and support welcoming schools the soji handbooks we actually got to see some of the tools and materials
053being used um and we're able to talk about um bright spots at different sites in our district and then facilities I learned more about rules in California with this committee meeting than I ever thought I would want to I think we have an amazing facilities person because the amount of things that go into what rules and regulations are required by the state of California and then what the hearts and minds of parents and teachers want sometimes in intention with one another and so it was really helpful in the process to see a more transparent sort of understanding of why things maybe can't be exactly what we want them to be and then ideas and strategies for how to address them so we really appreciated that process um and we learned a lot about California plumbing
054code it's true that's very true um so the Committees again from the subcommittee but also from the larger committee it definitely made recommendations um we wanted to see um busd fund and hire an lgbtq plus coordinator we wanted to fund and hire a consent education and prevention staff so someone who's going to fully hold that prevention portfolio for the district and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute fund and staff fund and staff prevention programs like Green Dot which you've heard about like coaching boys into men other kinds of programs identify and train lgbtq plus resource person at each site which very much came up over and over again that there's a need for somebody to be the point person facilities recommendations included ensuring existing gender neutral facilities are unlocked and
055available at all sites and that was a big issue that came up again many times over the importance of adding Ginger Ginger neutral facilities to School site Renovations and you know that's something that we were able to talk with our facilities person about you know moving forward as we make changes when it's possible we can we can be looking to do more intentional planning around that um redesignating existing facilities as gender neutral facilities and then training recommendations I know PD is a precious thing so I want to I want to acknowledge that as I'm writing reading off the list of all staff PD on transgender specific topics all staff PD and gender identity and welcoming Schools parent education and sexual safety and then there was talk of what the teachers need right and so the
056final bullet here is stop training on a psychological first aid kit so how do we help teachers who are holding kids trauma as they share that with them and how do we support them in that so for a full list of g-shack recommendations you can visit the link here and I also wanted to mention one other thing in terms of recommendations and that is that we know that busd owns a lot of curriculum on um teaching kids about consent and we know that that the schools vary in terms of what gets covered and so one of the things that we've talked about is you know doing a full inventory of what's available what do we already own and then really sitting with the experts in the room the teachers who are working kk5 who are
057working six eight and and thinking about well what curriculum should we adopt and then how can we do a better job of making sure that we covered across the board and I think that was also true with our our thinking around that point person who's going to be that lgbtq plus resource person of each site we want someone to hold those portfolios because we know when we we achieved that we were able to have better outcomes okay so bright spots um the fact that we established the G-Shock the fact that we met the fact that we that folks showed up uh was incredibly important in creating a formal space for issues of gender equity and sexual safety to be talked about in the district and again this is something to celebrate because somebody's been doing
058this for nine years um there was some there was some Pete that were Dragon for a long time um G-Shock input into s back gender equity and sexual safety input into the district's budgetary allocations was also really important so that that that voice was heard at the table and those dollars and those requests were were shared there I think was really essential and then the gender equity and sexual safety subcommittees allowed the G-Shock to be more efficient really in in helping advise and this has everything to do with the superintendent who cares enough about this to show up but you know talk about those recommendations and and you know move move the agenda forward recommendation implementations is b-sep funding for consent education and prevention TSA and District funding for prevention programs I'm very excited about
059this because it was funded and there is actually a job announcement out so my teacher friends in Berkeley every single one of you everyone I want that position to be filled by somebody who is sparkly who's ready for something different and this is going to be an incredibly cool job because not only do you get to be looking at the consent education piece the idea behind this particular position is that they also hold the prevention portfolio and maybe some of you had a chance to see that there's real opportunities with high school students going into middle schools and doing consent education there and I want there to be more of that and somebody who's again holding that portfolio additional recommendations staff training on transgender and gender non-conforming topics and parent education on sexual safety District
060publicized groups for families of trans and non-binary kids we know they're suffering we know what's happening in the world is absolutely impacting those families and we want to do more to support um so places to improve and there always are some right one of the things that we can say is that representation within G-Shocks needs to be more diverse and recruitment the recruitment process needs to be more intentional and it was something that came up it was something that was really a bright flag for all of us and we're looking to do it very differently in the coming year and it's an intention and I think we're going to meet it um incorporation of BTA which was nbis which was also sort of missing in this in this makeup and so we're going to change
061that next year as well and then Outreach to G-Shock member communities so each g-shack member represented their school community we want to be gathering feedback from that respective site so that we can make sure that we're fully getting the community as voices as part of what's happening and being looked at is this in this committee um G-Shock documents and calls for input need to be accessible in multiple languages and that is something also that is we're being very intentional about changing moving forward and then lastly I will say we were kind of an excited committee and so the work of the committee needs to be accelerated in the fall semester so that there's more time to kind of chew on and think through things as we get ready to make those budget recommendations um and
062and better accommodate the timeline of us back but I haven't got to sit in front of you very often and say please celebrate but please celebrate this is something to celebrate thank you very much thank you our next presentation will be B step measure planning update testing testing good evening everyone my name is Kathy Fleming and I'm the director of local resources and tonight we're going to hear a measure planning update for bsep and we have a slide deck for you this evening okay so this is the next in a series of updates that we provided this year for the board on our continuing activities around the B set measure renewal and um as as we do for every presentation we ground ourselves in our mission which is to enable and and Inspire our diverse
063student body uh to achieve academic excellence and to make positive contributions to our world through uh addressing our and working on strengthening our fores Excellence Equity engagement and enrichment and the outcomes for tonight is to share an overview of information gathered through our spring engagement activities which include our community conversations our planning an oversight meeting agenda items and the spring voter poll we'll also go over the timeline and next steps and this slide we have an overview a high level overview of the work that's been done this far this spring and the road map that lies ahead uh toward a successful b-set renewal I do want to note I did make one correction uh from the uh deck that's in board docs and that is under the November 2023 section the date is November 1st
064so I updated that uh from the one that's on board docs just to make that note thus far we have collected feedback from our families and internal stakeholders through our community conversations also through our planning and oversight committee and the Berkeley voters through the spring poll in August we will continue to gather input and feedback from the community and the piano and we'll we will send bsep informational mail or mailer to the Berkeley community and then we'll move on to drafting the measure of the ballot language and our goal is to have the board approve that measure language on November 1st um and uh hopefully you know once successful the be set will be on the ballot for in March of 2024. slide please and planning and oversight committees were able to receive information have
065discussion and provide feedback at 10 meetings uh this year for the B set renewal the topics included measure planning timeline the term length of the measure ballot timing measure framework and preliminary discussions with the piano Finance subcommittee around tax rates uh the most commonly highlighted programs of note by the piano members were small class size expanded course offerings and our music and library programs as was shared by the piano co-chair Nicole Chabot at the May 24th board meeting the p o has collectively recommended that we work on defining common goals and develop a strategy to meet those goals and align b-sup accountability with District accountability systems and also map District resources including B7 next slide please and we held as you know two Community conversation events this spring with targeted Outreach to our district-wide committees
066and parent groups and responses that we heard for what's working well and bsep include the opcip oversight small class size RTI teachers expanded course offerings the leap and u9 programs libraries and Librarians and music and included in questions and improvements are how sorry measuring impact of b-sep Investments understanding how b-set funded activities fit within the district overall and the call for more counselors ophi support RTI staff as well as improving professional development and options and strategies and finally evaluating services to our focal populations to understand the level of impact next onto the polling results uh the good news news is that voters still highly rate the district um we're enjoying a high a strong reading 80 percent of uh respondents uh responded positively uh on the jobs the job that the district is doing and
067one area for for improvement or where we need to focus on this spring is be sip awareness because 52 percent of poll respondents hurt have heard of bsep of those 80 who responded that they have heard of bsep 88 percent have a favorable opinion of uh b-sep however this is an area for us to focus on in terms of commitment to the Berkeley Public Schools 81 percent agree that paying extra taxes to support our schools in Berkeley is something to be proud of and 85 percent agree that if continuing these special taxes improves the quality of learning for Berkeley kids then it's worth the cost these responses have been consistent are consistent with previous responses um next slide please um of the programs that have been identified of high value in the survey were small
068class size and programs that attract and retain teachers our Arts music and libraries programs counseling and mental health teaching trainer teacher training and support for struggling students those are just a snapshot of some of the responses there and the next slide one thing we need to be aware of is that we are going to have the cost of continuing our programs will increase due to various factors such as our economic factors including inflation the cost of salaries and benefits program costs and unforeseen events we'll be looking at these factors more closely in the fall next slide and here we have a summary of the items that we've addressed for measure planning including the ballot timing that's the March ballot timeline for the measure renewal process measure term the measure framework is largely unchanged and with
069and uh you know we're still collecting feedback on that of course and what's left to discuss is the tax rate for the next measure so that's where we're going to begin our work on that item in the spring next slide please so um we will be hitting the ground running in August with more engagement opportunities for the community and the planning oversight committee and uh and continue and increase our focus on B step awareness through our community conversations or excuse me through our informational Communications our direct mailer that we'll be sending out in the spring in the fall about b-sep online content and social media and also note that our community conversations are also opportunities for us us to provide bsep information uh to participants to increase bsip awareness and next slide and we have
070on the next slide for you the third in the series of our b-sep supports video um presentation so uh Rosalina will start it for us please coming and climbing boys [Music] the reader can imagine we have a 22 kids in the classroom able to give the students more more attention I'm able to have a group in the back that I could give some more intervention time to and then the rest of the kids could work independently and we can kind of rotate and have a nice healthy rotation you got a lot more attention since I'm able to give kids the attention they need and we can build stronger relationships and I can get a better understanding who they are and they get a better understanding of who I am he makes it easy for us
071to make friends but then over the year I made lots of new friends on Valentine's Day um we have more of a personal connection uh if there's too many kids in the room it's very hard to get that ready come on okay thanks Rosalina and that is one of our teachers at Thousand Oaks Mr Kamal Stewart and that's highlighting our small class size which represents the majority or about half of the B set funding currently and so with that I will end the presentation and say thank you for all of the time that we've spent on this this year and I look forward to coming back to you first thing in August to provide more information so thank you and thank you now we move towards our first action item item 14.1 foreign this is
072the approval of the 2324 local control accountability plan or lcap and the requested action this evening is to approve the 2324 update for the 2021-24 local control accountability plan and we have 20 minutes for this item is there a presentation or no okay any questions or concerns board members no okay um a hearing none I will ask for a motion to approve the 23 24 lcat plan go ahead sorry I guess um since we had a comment on this very issue I think it's important to ask the question about the goals and the specific goals and how we determined which goals were important to include in the Yellow Cap so the The Districts The lcap has five goals that were written and constructed in the 2021 school year and at the time we established the
073Baseline measure for those goals so um they're actually all correct there were four goals originally written uh about a year and a half ago we were required to include a fifth gold that is specific for our students experiencing housing insecurity and that was included as a component of our District's identification and differentiated assistance based on the California dashboard and because we had high rates of chronic absenteeism for that particular student population there are a number of actions so of the comment that was made earlier that are inclusive of support across all of our grade spans PK through 12. so I didn't I didn't have a chance to pull all of those up specific to high school but we fund many positions across all of the schools the one that's coming to mind that was included
074as part of the d-lac recommendations and the pack recommendations was the increase in FTE support for our ELD tsas which include specifically an additional 0.4 FTE for the high school as an example thank you and I'd also just like to point out that the lcap plan drives funding based on three criteria and it is with that criteria that we are supposed to really direct our services for the supplemental funds um one is low-income students so that's why they are a major focus on of the socioeconomically disadvantaged students which are primarily students of color in our district the second is Foster Youth and homeless Youth and the third is our English language learners so um while all students do definitely benefit from our overall strategic plan and goals which supports many of our coaches which really
075a lot of the work that it does often improves first level instruction and there's nothing in this in this plan that precludes us from making other targets and other investments in areas at the high school such as math which we know we have a real challenge which I'm looking forward to our new director of curriculum instruction to help us address um does anyone else have any other comments or concerns just a quick comment um just and I and I thank you director should ask for a question just clarifying what who are our priority populations that we serve through our all-cut plan um and for the member of the public that came to give comment it's important to to just underscore right when our vulnerable students rise we all rise and so the lcap is to
076help all of our students so thank you associate superintendent Hogan Dyke for for this information is there a motion to approve the 2324 lcat plan uh it's been moved by vice president ambassadev and I will second it I guess by director Khadija Brown all in favor hi hi okay the eyes have it so now we will move towards our approval of the 2324 budget um estimated actuals for 22.23 and our budget priorities so good evening everyone um I've been presenting the the um 2324 budget for adoption including our priorities and as a reminder the budget also includes our um our estimated actress of the prior year so um on the first slide we are presenting the budget grounded in our um in our mission and as we work on strengthening all four e's our Excellence
077Equity engagement and so that's my enrichment so our objectives tonight I want you to review the revisions to the budget priorities um and that was from this the June 7th meeting um approved the revised budget priorities as you approve the final budget and the final budget as I mentioned earlier will include the estimated actuals and it will also have a brief discussion on the reserve disclosure next slide and again um as with every um presentation in terms of our resources and our budget we are grounded again in our core values of resource allocation which is listed on this slide next slide and this is just a reminder in terms of what is our budget looking like and kind of setting our framework and reiterating our framework we do have a balance it's a very tight
078budget it is balanced and we are realizing the impact of reduced um enrollment the the days of um unprecedented cost of living colas those are over is coming to an end where now our call is at eight percent and going down to this standard three percent in the out years um other things that I really want you to be um aware of the May revision obviously impacts our budget right now as I'm presenting to you but more importantly the governors enacted budget which is going to be presented before the end of June that's going to inform our final budget um for Berkeley unified so if there are significant changes um or if significant reductions in the governor's budget um highlighted at the bottom of this um slide is a key takeaway we will have to
079revisit and reduce budget priorities in the fall and that will be based on the 45-day revise so what I'm presenting tonight for approval is based on the main revised but if there are significant changes or reductions in the budget we would have to revisit the priorities that you're voting on tonight as well um next slide so um at the seventh as a reminder um you approve the budget and you directed staff to make one change in the budget priorities and that was to increase the funding for The Rise program to 216 000 and we were directed to identify other funding source or make reductions um for two areas the cameras on the bus and or the administrative assistant for the for the um Equity program that I called it my student visa.org anyway um so
080again then on the next slide this was the slide that I presented at last week's meeting in terms of um where we had no alignment and where there were um additional asks so you can see in this slide we had the Step Up Academy and we had Transportation funded um in tier one and the area that we were actually looking at was the rights program we were asked to actually fund that at 216 so what this slide looks like now on the next slide um you can see that staff has recommended funding um The Rise program as a tier one with ongoing general fund um General funds is no longer one-time on ongoing and then for the transportation we decided to to um to fund that from carryover when we actually close the books so
081this is the revised recommendation that I'm sharing with you again um asking the board to approve the 23 24 budget with a revised designations for board approved priorities I'm asking you to revive to approve the priorities as well and then a note on our resume on our reserve requirements um from our previous meeting we had as the next steps to determine if a public um hearing was it was necessary and based on conversations with our County office they have determined that the public hearing that we had with the preliminary budget meets a requirement for a public hearing for the reserves so I will um take questions or any discussions at this point thank you any questions colleagues Dr shanowski I'm trying to get the slide up so that I can go to it thanks the
082revisions I just want to make sure I understand so first I I want to really thank you for doing the work that you had to do this last week to make the changes per our board request and I know that it was probably stressful and um yeah not not the best situation um okay so on that slide can you go back once I think it's seven we revised recommendation yeah but it's right there nope that one that's fine so when you see partnership full funding so this just looking at this 98 943 I just want to make sure I understand that's in addition to what was in the original to get up to the 216. okay thank you sure director Brown thank you president Babbitt um I just I don't have any uh questions but
083an appreciation um to you all for making uh it all happen everything that you all have been saying over and over again we can't do we can do anything but we can't do everything um so thank you for the priorities that you have placed uh in our budgeting process thank you for the resource allocation structure that you've provided and thank you for essentially making everything um happen for us I'm very appreciative about how smoothly um this budget process has gone and super happy that we um are actually putting our money where our mouth is and funding um our programs that support all of our Learners and so thank you so much associate superintendent volinsby for all your work year long year round but definitely for your work uh right now and I'd also like to
084thank publicly um the S back committee for their support and for the guidance and recommendations that they've provided uh to the board to help us to get to this moment and president Babbitt whenever you are ready to call for the question um I would like to move through this one vice president ambassador yeah I also just wanted to Echo my appreciation and thank the aspect committee for all your hard work I have a question about the G-Shock recommendations and because they you know they have different budgetary recommendations that came for the board this question is really for the superintendent associate superintendent um I know those recommendations came before us today and we've already made our key budgeting decisions not trying to rock the boat here but for some of the PD recommendations that were made
085where in the can we fund those and you know we heard a lot from our um non-binary students and trans students about the need for additional pde for you know restrooms oh I see yes we're not coming so um and I just want to well you know as one of the districts that was instrumental in pioneering at the welcome schools curriculum I want to make sure that they're in our budget for next year that there is wiggle room to be able to do all of the PD that is coming or recommended from this committee so I just want to make sure that that's accounted for somewhere in the budget before you start yesterday I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say director of acidif the gsac knows we can do anything we can't do everything and
086so we did engage in some robust conversations and yasmina is going to share where those recommendations come up um in our in our budget both our general funds and understand General funds and our B sub and there are some things that they requested for PD that we're ready to go with next year but we also had this conversation around what can we do next year and then what are some of some of the professional development and ways we can integrate it um in the years to come so she's going to give you an answer but everything's not going to be seen for this next year's budget and the in the committee um grapple with that and understands that thank you is yeah um so as far as a community as you know Katie days are
087very hot okay so it is very frightening to sit here actually um so as far as professional development as you know PD days are very limited within the District of how they are organized and they're also organized with site-specific oops they're site-specific um so what we decided to go forward with next year is to have all of our staff attend um trainings that are online that are not required to be for them to be in person um and that's going to be a jump start that's going to be across the board for all of our staff and then each site of course will do their own Berkeley High has a lot of extensive PD around um are for transgender and non-conforming students so that's the PD part as far as the uh the kind of
088budget requests for Staffing some of that has been covered by bsip thank you Kathy um and other requests uh we have some positions within the district that kind of need to be revived a little bit um so that's on us over the summer to kind of work on Reviving them and making sure that everything from the G-Shock recommendation is at least addressed um if not put on a higher priority for next year thank you thank you and can I ask the superintendent a quick follow-up question in the fall superintendent in the early fall um from those summer deliberations can the board get an update on how we're addressing the g-shack's recommendations in the upcoming school year and what's being differed to the following school year once most definitely thank you Dr Chang thank you president
089Babbitt um yes I want to say thank you uh as the other folks have have referenced as well um and for doing so on short notice and listening to the board and having an open conversation about um the uh the trade-offs that have to be made so that's all I have to say but thanks again and thanks for doing an answer sure noise appreciate it thank you I have another follow-up question for Jasmina or uh just wondering how our Equity uh teacher leaders are involved in participating in this G-Shock recommendations can you hear me okay yes um so basically the when we first organized G-Shock last year we did a call to all staff and parents um that our interests and community members um that are interested in joining G-Shock and so they had to
090uh kind of Express their interest to the principles and the principles selected and forwarded candidates this was kind of what we a lesson learned um as far as it didn't really ensure a lot of diverse input within the G-Shock communities or committee so we don't really have specific engagement from our Equity leaders but all of our teachers were able to be part of the committee if they wanted to so we do have some staff members specifically teachers that are on the g-shack committee and our Equity teacher leaders meet I'll just confirm with our social suit monthly and as we think about uh getting more clear on their work and their role but also what the focus is for their work in the year to come things that we're going to talk to Dr Espinosa about
091who leads that group or who's a big leader that group is thinking about how we incorporate that and then also in communication with Dr Shelley um his department is the well welcoming schools coordinator and so she's been a part of our conversations too to think about how to get it out so it is another opportunity for us to do cross-departmental and cross teamwork but that work hasn't started yet okay great um Dr Brown would you like to move this item at this time yes I would thank you okay there's a conception to approve the 23 24 budget and the 22-23 actuals and budget priorities it's been moved by director Brown seconded by director shanowski Ms bios can you call the road yes yes of course um director Chang yes director shanowski yes vice president basudev
092yes president Babin yes and director Brown I'm sorry yes uh make an official director Brown yes and thank you yeah the budget has been approved good job colleagues and guess what time it is 8 53 we have two information items please read them uh and there's no one here left for a second comment oh we got a hand online I'm just kidding we want to hear from you we want to hear from you Lindsey novel we will receive you now yes good evening um I am my name is Lindsay nofeldt I'm speaking as the co-chair of the parents advisory committee I just want to um appreciate everybody for passing the lcap on time as required and also to um say that next year we'll be building our new three-year plan and so it's an opportunity
093for those who are interested to come to their principles and ask and express their interest in joining the parent advisory committee as we build this really important document that will serve our community for the next three years thank you so much thank you and thank you for hanging with us all year into the last minute am I the only one excited here I need a gamble meeting adjourned you didn't go to the second opportunity for Board conference clear on mute bye everybody [Music]