Special Board Meeting - March 10, 2026

001Okay, I'd like to call the meeting to order.  Announce that it is 9:01. Good morning and welcome   to the Elk Grove Unified School District special  board meeting. Live streaming of full in-person   board meetings is available to the public by  using the link located on the district's website.   Today's meeting is being video recorded and will  be available on the district's YouTube channel.   All right. During special board meetings, the  public may make public comments on items that   are on the agenda. Individuals with comments on  general school district issues may address those   at the next regularly scheduled board meeting.  Requests to make public comment will be accepted   for an item up until the board president  introduces the item. Generally, members of   the public will be given three minutes to address  the board. If there are 15 or more

002comments on a   specific item, the board will reduce individual  comment time to 2 minutes each. If there are 30 or   more comments on a specific item, the board will  reduce individual comments to one minute each.   Individuals may not defer their time to  another individual speaker to increase   their total speaking time. Please be mindful  that district students may be watching. You   are encouraged to address the board and the  public in a respectful manner such that all   those observing from children to adults are made  to feel welcome, safe and valued. The board shall   not permit any disturbance or willful disruption  will willful interruption sorry of board meetings.   Persistent disruption by an individual or  group shall be grounds for the board president   to provide a warning and then to terminate the  individual's privilege of addressing the board. All

003right. Did we choose somebody  for the land acknowledgement? Okay, we acknowledge that the Elkrove Unified School  District administrative facilities and schools   occupy the unsucceeded territory of the  Miwok, the original people of the skies,   land, and waters where we work and learn. The  Miwok have cared for these lands since time   immemorial. They continue to teach their  traditional knowledge that comes from and   responds to the needs of the land and people who  share it. May our daily lives and work, teaching,   learning, leadership, and community engagement  support the evolving mission of the Miwok for   their community and these lands. May we strive  to acknowledge the past for the betterment of   our future generations. May we look to our tribal  partners, the Wilton Rancheria, the descendants of   the original people of this land to assist with  the su successful

004education of our community. Okay. And you know, I think I'd like to  call on Mark Vieira to lead us in the   pledge if that's okay. It's his first  big one here. We got you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um we'll start with our  superintendent with an overview of the day.   Good morning everyone and uh welcome to our  special board meeting here on March 10th. Uh   very excited for today's topics. Uh we're going to  start the day uh with a little workshop activity   with from the board um involving the board. And  I'm particularly excited about this because it's   um sort of a reconfirming of our core values  as a as a district and board members today are   going to be given an opportunity to engage um with  one another about the core values and help

005staff   get a better understanding of our collective  understanding of what the core values mean,   how they materialize, and how we measure  success of them. So, um we're very excited   um about today's activity and we hope um you  find it valuable as well. And then later today   um we will get our third spotlight on  the multi-tiered system of supports and   uh again excited to focus on tier 2  and tier three interventions and how   we serve and intervene with students who are  experiencing challenges. And I think it'll also   illuminate um the mechanics of that system,  how it works, um how it intervenes and such.   So hopefully every every day everyone will walk  away from today with a a clear understanding of   our core values and also the systems by which  we support our students. Thank you. Thank

006you.   So our board workshop activity uh Kristen Coats  and Mark Serudi will introduce the item. Dr. Coz, good morning and thank you um President  Alviani. Good morning members of the board,   Superintendent Hoffman and my good friend Miss  Avalos. Um, we'll jump we'll jump right in this   morning. And I do want to mention um I'll  provide a bit of some history and turn it   over to to Kristen and she'll uh get you going  and set up and facilitate the uh the activity   that you'll be engaged in. I will duck out for  a little bit. We have some visiting educators,   professors from Japan. They were here a couple of  years ago looking at what we're doing in math and   uh and ELA and this time they're here  looking at how we develop and structure   our LCAP processes

007both both at the district  and the site level. So I'll be stepping out   to meet with them for a little bit and then be  back in here uh during the MTSS presentation.   So I'll duck out for just a short period  of time. And with that, let's jump into what we intend to our intended outcomes. Um,  as Superintendent Riley mentioned, we'll engage   with our core values. Thank you, Todd. ID. We'll  identify how each core value uh materializes for   each of you and we'll explain what that means  and what what you'll be doing. And then we'll   look at success metrics. Um, and those could be  existing metrics that we have as a district or   it may be metrics that you're thinking about when  you look at these and you think about some metrics   that perhaps we haven't.

008And so we want to take a  look at our EGUSD learning vision and uh strategic   goal evolution. And so this explains uh a bit of  where these came from. In actually 2012 and 2013,   uh I was an associate superintendent of educa  of education services at the time. And we were   structured with an associate superintendent of  of elementary ed secondary ed services. And I   had the good fortune of working with those two  uh wonderful ladies and educators. And what we   were really talking about is how we can best um  support one another. And so we engaged in some   work and did a a real system analysis of what  Elkrove School District is. And what we didn't   do is talk about org structures. We talked about  what it is. What is the work that we do? Because  

009depending upon how you look at what we do, a  teacher could break down the steps that they   do in a given day into a thousand different steps.  And it's actually extremely complex. And so what   we're trying to do is create some simplicity and  coherence and cohesion within that complexity. And   so when we began doing that, we identified what  it was that we were really looking at in terms of   doing. And we first pulled it all the way back to  its studs. Literally pulled it back either that or   at the foundation level and what we were asked the  question that I was posing to the group. I believe   I may have mentioned this to the board previously  which is um because you can see where it mentions   learning vision that didn't happen by accident. Uh  what

010we were talking about is what is the system?   So we can talk about a school system but that  becomes more structural. So what is it that we   do? So then we got down to it's our kids and what  is it? What's the bottom line outcome? The bottom   line outcome is learning. Whether that's academic,  behavioral, social, emotional, whether they're in   clubs, whatever it is that they're doing, they're  learning and developing. That's what it is. It's a   learning system. So that's how we defined it. And  the primary output is teaching. And that can be   any variety of folks. It could be you. If you're  walking in sitting down next to kids and you're v   visiting classes and you're bending down talking  to a student and asking them what they're doing,   you're now engaged in teaching. And so

011it's  happening all day long. So we looked at what   we did as a learning system. And that's why what  we did is develop that learning vision. So that   provides the context for some of the work that we  did and in 2013 we developed that learning vision   and I will always remember the date because 2014  or the year 2014 is when the LCAP started. So we   had done this work and some of the key areas that  we identified when we were doing the work you're   going to see in just a moment and then that became  the structure for our LCAP. So the strategic   goals, and that's what they were referred  to, were integrated into the district's LCAP,   and you're going to see them in just a second.  And then in 2022, we added a fifth targeted  

012um goal for targeted supports. And again, you're  going to see the various series of these. And then   in 2025, student program uh student and program  evaluation statement were they were integrated.   So then we went back to four goals. And it  can seems like we're getting schizophrenic,   but you'll see where we're really not. And now  in 2026, you're going to see where we've added   fiscal stewardship and operational excellence.  You're also going to see where these shifted from   strategic goals to core values. And I'll explain  why. So here was the very first strategic goals   that we had. This was it. So in 2024, this is  how our LCAP was structured. And you can see   high quality curriculum and instruction. And  I'll point where some of these the evolution   that starts to take place and why. So this 

013shouldn't look that unfamiliar to anyone. I   do want to point out if you read any one of those,  they actually aren't goal statements. It's not how   they were written. So one could say, well, why did  we call them strategic goals? Kind of happened by   accident because the LCAP is framed up by goals  and measures. And so we have all kinds of actions   under them. And so they were termed strategic  goals, but in in actuality they aren't written   as goals. So I just wanted to point that out. So  then what happened? You may recall where we kept   the same four and we added targeted supports. That  was the next phase. That was the next evolution.   Part of that became as a result of looking  at student subgroups beyond the unduplicated   subgroups that were in need. And

014we particularly  wanted to focus our attention on those student   subgroups. And then we went back to four. And it's  because if you look at and see the red student   assessment and program evaluation, we felt like  we had evolved as a system. So that if you look,   see where you see high quality curriculum,  instruction, and assessment. Assessment became   embedded within that first area of focus. Why  wasn't it before? It's because we needed to   focus significant attention on how we approached  student assessment. So when we went and bought   Synergy or um Synergy, no illuminate um and um  we began using our benchmark assessments. The   other thing was it was the development of our  programmatic implement programmatic evaluation   and that's now woven into our continuous  improvement practices. So it's an evolution sorry it's an evolution a system evolution

015and  then the last iteration is this our learning   vision remains and we now have five core values  our LCAP our LCAP will remain structured along   the lines of the second third fourth and fifth  So it doesn't shift the structure of our LCAP   albeit we can adjust the structure but otherwise  this is now so this is what you'll see at the   beginning of presentations and this is what we'll  be anchoring our work on and the question could be   asked why didn't we involve uh fiscal stewardship  and operational excellence years ago back in 20134   quite frankly the work was being done we weren't  necessarily looking on the operational side of   the fence. Um, and we had to get certain things in  order in both on both sides in both divisions. And   we're there now. And Dr. Coats

016and myself and  Superintendent Riley are spending considerable   time together looking at how all of this is  integrated. With that, I'm going to turn it   over to my colleague, Dr. Coats, and I'm going to  step away for a little bit, and then I'll be back.   I do wanted to provide this information. You've  seen this be you've seen this before. These are   and this can help because when you're going to  be engaged in your activity in just a couple of   minutes. One of the questions is what sort  of success metrics you'll be able to use   this. That's why you have a hard copy of the  presentation because you can reference these.   So these are all the LCAP metrics that we have are  in the first four columns left to right and on the   far right hand column

017that's how we're going to  be structuring the areas of focus in our site   LC caps lots of met metrics and again just as a  reminder many of those are in those first four   columns left to right most of those frankly are  state ident state identified and some are our own   and we develop those and we'll be bringing those  um to you in a couple of months when we talk about   finalizing our LCAP. And then last, how does  this all align? So, actually what we didn't get   um and this can fall on me, those arrows  should be going in both directions. So,   we'll get that cleaned up. is this it doesn't just  go in one direction. We talked yesterday and said   is it a circle? How do we make this look? Because  it's all all interconnected.

018But we'll get that   um so that they go in those arrows go in both  directions because the learning vision, our core   values, site goals and metrics, department goals  and metrics, that's an area that actually is we're   having increased focus on. Superintendent Riley,  it's a priority of his. And so all of cabinet has   a been working on developing department goals. And  then we have our LCAP goals and metrics. Coherence   and alignment. That's what we're doing. And this  is this confirms what I've mentioned previously,   which it's my opinion. And that is I don't believe  we need to do five different things. I think we're   doing the right things. We just need to do them  better. And approaching it this way will enable   us to do that. Now, I believe it's time for me to  turn it over

019to my partner. Thank you. Thank you,   Mark. All right. Well, good morning everyone. Mark  and David got you all warmed up and we're about   to have some fun. Okay, so um we're also going  to put you to work a little bit. So hopefully   you've had your coffee or maybe some juice and  I am dusting off my old teacher skills and we're   going to try this out. So what you should  have in front of you, just as Mark has said,   is your presentation. So you you you're going to  want that for a reference because you're going   to want to look back in particular to this slide  right here, the the five core values. In addition,   you should have a writing utensil and sticky  notes. Got everyone good on that? Perfect.   Thank you. Thanks for the thumbs

020up. Okay,  so we're gonna we're going to take it one   core value at a time and it's more for me.  Um, get at least three sticky notes. Have   them ready to go. And in the top left corner,  small, write a one on one, a two on another,   and a three. Okay? So, for each core value,  you're going to have at least three sticky notes. Okay? Good. So, what we're going to do, I'm going to  tell you what we're going to do before we start.   I We're going to reflect on each core value at  a time. You're going to have about three minutes   to reflect, but I'll gauge on time. It's a very  advanced group, so it might just need a a minute   and a half. And then each of our facilitators  are going to come

021and um grab your stickies and   put them on our whiteboard, and we'll go on to  the next core value. Okay? So, core value number   one. So, I'm gonna again ask you to go to your  slide deck. I'm going to read the core value and   you're gonna we're asking you on sticky note one.  It looks like they all became ones, but on sticky   note one, what does this core value mean to you?  So, fiscal stewardship and operational excellence.   All students will benefit from an innovative  school system that ensures fiscal stability,   self and well-maintained facilities, and a high  quality workforce. So on sticky note number one,   take a few minutes and reflect. What  does this core value mean to you? When you're ready, you can move to  sticky note number two and capture   what does success or

022the realization  of this core value look like to you? Can you repeat that? I can. What  does success or the realization   of this core value look like to you? And  that one is on your screen for reference. All right. And even if you're not quite ready,  we'll move to the third prompt. Your third   sticky. Are there any specific metrics  you reference to measure the success? Are there any specific metrics you  referenced to measure the success? All right, I'm going to give you about 20 more  seconds. It doesn't have to be perfect because   there's more activity. And I'm going to ask  Mark is going to come around and pick up all   of your stickies and place them on the board.  This is just the start of the conversation. You don't have to. That's up to you.

023All right. Fantastic. So, once  you've given up your three stickies,   get three new stickies and  label them one, two, three. Two, three. All right. Core value number two, high quality  curriculum, instruction, and assessment.   All students will benefit from highquality  classroom curriculum instruction and   assessment to promote college career and  life readiness and close achievement and   opportunity gaps. So on sticky number one,  what does this core value mean to you? Yeah, absolutely. Yep. What  color of pen do you have? Blue. Are you person you may have already moved on, but if not, I'll  go ahead and read reflection. Question number two,   what does success or realization of  this core value look like to you? And finally, are there specific metrics  you reference to measure this success? And when you're done with all  three, if you just looked

024up,   our facilitators will come pick up your stickies. All right, ready or not, they're going to come   pick up your stickies and we're going  to prepare for core value number three. There's just not nearly enough time to  do this in the time that we have. So, All right, perfect. We're rolling now. So,  grab your three stickies. One, two, three. All right. Core value number three, targeted  supports and interventions. All students will   benefit from targeted programs and  services that leverage their assets,   affirm their identities, and address  their needs to close achievement,   opportunity, and relationship gaps with  a particular emphasis on students who   identify as black African-American,  students with disabilities, students   in foster care or experiencing homelessness,  and students who identify as Native American. All right, same questions. What  does this core value mean to you? Question

025two, what does success or realization  of this core value look like to you? And lastly, are there specific metrics  you reference to measure the success? All right, our facilitators are  starting to approach the dice. There will be more time for  conversation. So don't feel like this is I there's a lot of integration. All right, if you've given up your  stickies, I know some are still working,   but um you can go ahead and get  ready for our fourth core value. He's like a shark. Well, okay. So, core value number four. We're  ready to move on. Uh wellness. All students   will benefit from an equitable, culturally  responsive, physically, and emotionally   healthy and safe environment. Question  one, what does this core value mean to you? Second question, what does success or the  realization of this core value look

026like to you? And finally, are there specific metrics  you reference to measure this success? Once you give the cue, our facilitators  will come pick up your stickies. All right. Gradually move to our fifth for Are you These are all going to be precisely  wrong and kind of right. So, all right. Did it. Please get your last  three stickies for core value number five,   family and community engagement. All students  will benefit from programs and services designed   to inform and engage families and community  partners. What does this core value mean to you? What does success or the realization  of this core value look like to you? And finally, as you're ready, are there specific  metrics you reference to measure this success? All right. And our facilitators are  ready to come when you are ready. Everyone's avoiding eye

027contact with you, Lisa. All right, wrap up your thoughts. And as you're doing that, I'm going to ask  our uh facilitators to go to your easel.   Don't forget your little cheat sheet. The  slide will be up here soon for reference. It's excellent proximity, Mr. Riley. All right, I'll just acknowledge what an  unfair task that was to give you such a   short period of time to reflect on all five. It is all right. As the facilitators get set up, we are  going to um make you move around and talk to each   other. So, we are getting into station rotation.  I'm going to go through the directions and then   we're going to rotate through. So, what you're  going to do when we collect all of the stickies   is we're going to you're going to choose a core 

028value, but we want groups of two or three. So,   there's going to be two empty core values at any  given rotation. And it doesn't matter where you   start. You could choose with anyone, anyone you  sit next to or or someone you don't. We're going   to rotate through each station reflecting on  an emerging theme. So, the facilitators will   be there to help uh decode the stickies. And the  questions that you're going to they're going to   ask you is what do you notice? What resonates  with you? What's missing? and what does success   look like in five years? So, you can answer  some of those, you can answer none of them. Um,   they're going to capture to the best of their  ability what you're saying. They're going to ask,   "Does this is this your intent?" So, it's it's

029not  to be a script. It's to gather that information   and have some discussion about five minutes  per core value. Any questions before we get   started? You they are going to write and chart  if you if you feel like something's missing,   you can take your writing uh your pen and your  sticky and add it as well. Okay. All right.   Find a core value that um you want to start  with. You just can't be at one by yourself. One group, two groups of  two and one group of three. All right. Or you could have two two groups. Okay. Perfect. Excellent. All right, go ahead and start. Put that out of the don't seem Let's see. Is your minute still growing? Excuse me. Amen. We have one more minute. You will have a  chance to do a gallery

030walk at the end. All right. I hate to break up the fun. Facilitators, catch the final thoughts. All right. We're going to rotate. Yep.  We're just going to go right. Facilitators,   please capture on your postit what core  value you're on. Number three on yours. All right. Use my proximity  to move the groups along. Facilitators, thank your participants.  Tell them to have a great day. All right. I I know. All right, this is your twominut. Minute  warning. Two minutes. Facilitators. All right, capture the final  thoughts. Thank your participants and go ahead and rotate to your next station. All right, you should be at your third station. Yes. I love All right. All right. This is your twominut  warning. Two minutes facilitators. Oh. All right, we are rotating to the next  station. Please thank your participants. You

031should be starting your third station. Awesome. Yes. All right. Two minute warning facilitators. All right, facilitators, thank your participants.   And you're moving to your  last station. Last station. All right, this is your friendly  reminder to head to your final station. Hello. I'm good. Sorry. Exactly. Okay. All right. This is your twominut  warning facilitators. Two minutes. All right. Don't go to the DAS yet. We're not  done. Coming soon. As you finish your final   thoughts at your station, we are going to do  a gallery walk. So, if you went to two pages,   facilitators, tear one off and put it on  a wall next to you so everyone can see all   of the notes. Core value one. Perfect. And  what you're going to do is you're going to   look at all the chart paper and the notes  and

032think through where you see alignment,   where you might see tension. And if anything's  missing, this is a time that you can add it now. So, take a few minutes and walk. And once  you've gone through all of the stations,   you can head back up to your seat and  we'll finish with some closing remarks. Sorry. That's kind of the best All right, as you are making your  way back, this is your you could slow   roll it. This is your think time because  we're going to ask for closing remarks. It's a slow roll back. All right. Okay. And as you're thinking about  closing remarks, it's really just your reflection on the process, the goal, the core values, anything that you would like to share. All right,   Miss Ballerini, did you have  anything you want to share? I

033thought this was um a good process for us to  see where we're all coming from that, you know,   there are newer people, people that have been  here longer. I think um we're more alike than   we probably even know. Um and that some good  ideas came out of it. Um I appreciate the   opportunity to work with my fellow board members  on a project like this. Thank you, Mr. Yang. Yeah,   good morning. Um, my thought is that um  what's presented for us to do this morning,   it really reflect on our core value as a school  district as a whole. and uh the board trustees   um had an opportunity to really share their  thoughts and I saw a lot of similarity um which it   makes sense because we are here for our students  uh staff and uh the

034parents and and so looks like   we are um on the same page for the most part and  I'm happy to see that um saw some very good uh   um bullet points and uh you know I saw some really  good uh feedback on uh on the um you know after   we saw the sticky notes. Um so to me that really  align why we do what we do as a um school board   trustees. So I'm really happy uh that we are doing  this uh this morning. Thank you. You miss Davis.   Yeah, it was really interesting to see um  how aligned we were. Um we come from so many   different places, different backgrounds,  different everything. Um and it was also   interesting to see that we all of this leads  to the same place of higher graduation rates,   higher

035attendance rates. Um  everything just gets better.   The one thing on the facilities one though, there  was not a lot mentioned about equity. Um, I I ran   into a parent this week that was grateful for  the paint and everything, trying to make it look   nicer, but was told it's like putting lipstick on  a pig. Um, they don't have the schools that they   feel they can be prideful in. Um, and they always  compare them to the southernmost schools. So,   I do think we need to do more work there. I'm  listening to the families of what what it is   they'd like to see that they could take pride  in. Um, see, safety is all over all of these,   but I don't think we've defined yet what safety  is. We've heard it on surveys. We talk about it   at

036every meeting, but what is it? Um, so I I think  we need to dive deeper into actually understanding   what we all mean when we say safety. Um, other  than that, it was really interesting to see all   the similarities. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yay.  Yeah. um you know being in a area three I could   concur with uh Susan on the the you know fresh  coat of paint and what it could do um to the   eyes but I think um yeah there's a lot of time  that we could do more than that and especially   uh providing the welcomeness of the campus and  I think that that has to be a uh priority uh for   older schools. So I just wanted to reiterate that.  Thank you. Thank you. Right, Miss Ba. Thank you. I   really appreciated um

037kind of digging deeper on  each of the core values with u my colleagues up   here and being able to have conversations about  kind of like specific examples and drilling down   like, oh, this is um what I I connect it  to or what resonates with me specifically.   Um, I love that we're all aligned on the most like  this is how I was going around during Read Across   America trying to explain what a board member  does to first graders and second graders. Um,   and the best way that I could do it really  concisely before I lost their attention was we   get the opportunity and the privilege to make good  choices and decisions for our district. And the   group that we're the most like centered around on  every decision is students. And it's funny because   when you ask

038them who do you think is the most  important to us, they'll say the superintendent,   the principal, the the teachers, the parents,  and they don't say themselves right away.   There not a single class that I went to said  students. That was the first response. And so,   um, I think like that is really powerful that  maybe our kids don't realize it, right? But I   think like all of the adults are aligned on the  fact that if we're making good decisions for kids,   then it's going to resonate with the adults, the  the superintendent, the principles, the teachers,   and so forth. Um I love that we there was a lot  of overlap too in terms of our responses to um   each of the core values because there's these do  have um you know having the the five core values  

039really creates this holistic approach to what we  are doing here and striving to do every day in our   district. Um but they connect. So the alignment of  them is what allows us to do the work that we see   um daily. Our kids get to be a part of and it's  you know being a parent it's a privilege for me.   I feel very honored and um to have my kids going  to a school where like I I I get that I get to see   the behind the scenes and not all our families do.  So you know those were things that we talked about   with the um particularly like with the middle  school and high school. how can we get more   because we know like at that age you're starting  to let go a little more but

040at the same time we   want to see more increased um parent engagement,  community engagement. Um so those are kind of   things that really like I gives me a really clear  picture of how our values um have gotten us to   where we are today and where they're going to  continue to take us. And so I'm really excited for   that. Um, and yeah, I agree. There's a lot of good  things, a lot of um, a lot of great um, insights   that I think we can take from this because that  continuous improvement is not a bad thing. Um,   it it's only going to make us um, better at  what we do and I'm all about working smarter,   not harder. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Moore.  Uh, I agree this is a good exercise and also to   recognize that

041we do have a lot of common as far  as our goals um and that bottom line we all care   about our students. Um, so I I appreciate that and  I'm um really glad that we're adding um the new   core value of fiscal stewardship and operational  success um because I think that's really important   to um help all of our staff feel that they have a  part in our core values and those that core value   um does directly benefit our students as we strive  to um ensure that we are responsible um with our   budget and the operational um success. Um and of  course that includes um safety and well-maintained   facilities. So um so I'm glad that we are doing  that. Um I agree with Susan that I would like to   further hone in what does safety mean?

042Um and  possibly look into that as a future. I I know   we've discussed that um previously on the agenda,  but I think that's important to continually   um assess what is safety and how are we how are  we achieving that? What can we do better? Um and   then I noticed that one at least one person said  um consider a higher reserve for a budget. Um so   I think as we're discussing budget that it's it's  worth looking into. is that it is that something   that we want to do as a board. Um also um you know  what's working, what's not working. I think that   it's important that we assess those things. Um  so if there's opportunities to tighten the budget   that we can um do that in in the future as we have  those discussions. Um academically

043it seemed that   almost everyone agreed that we need to implement  metrics and there were a v variety of metrics   um suggested and I think it's important that we um  start you know measuring those those items that we   decide on and then and then um continually monitor  and measure those over the years because we can't   know if we're improving without um without  implementing those metrics and and continually   um assessing them and measuring them. Um and  then in the targeted supports and interventions,   um something that's really important to me  is I I appreciate that we have the emphasis   on all students who need these interventions.  I know that we have our targeted subgroups,   but ultimately we need to ensure that all students  have access to these interventions as as they need   them so that they can be

044successful. And um I  would like to look into interventions in real   time so we can help our students in real time when  they're struggling academically, whatever supports   they need um and not kind of looking back and  trying to like catch up. So I think it's really   important that we we look at these interventions  for all students in in real time. Um and then   another thing that stuck out to me is um you know  transparency with parents, engaging with parents.   um because as we do that we can um help support  our students better. Um and it's important to me   that we recognize that we do cover 320 uh square  miles of 68 schools in three cities. So um I think   we need to consider that when we're thinking about  in how we're including parents. Um for

045example   with curriculum implementation and and items like  that. Could we maybe look at that more regionally,   providing those opportunities regionally um  instead of just expecting people to come to the   district office? Um because I think if we say we  want to include parents, we need to show that. Um   and then as a discussion that a few board members  and I were having at um I believe it's core value   5 was parent view accessibility. Um I think that  you know not all parents have access to possibly   internet at home but um maybe more so is um the  uh accessibility of laptop or a desktop and that   that limits what they can access um through parent  view. And so I think we need to be mindful of that   when we're telling parents go in parent view  and

046view this. And sometimes parents might not   even know that report cards came out because, you  know, we used to print out report cards. Now we're   um expecting parents to go on a parent view to  to see their students grades and things like   that. So I just think that's important to be  mindful of so that parents can feel involved,   feel engaged, and support their students. So  that's what I would like to say. Thank you, Mr. Vargas. Awesome. Um, yeah, I really enjoyed  this activity. Um, just like everybody else,   I think it is a good illustration, a good  opportunity for us to be reminded why we have a   board of seven. Um, and not just one uh person at  the top is all of us are different. All of us have   different perspectives. All of us see

047different  things. Um, and so even as we are, you know,   all putting up the these postits, right? And you  know once we start to examine and think about and   reflect um you know we are benefiting from each  other's uh perspectives um and benefiting from   the things that other people see the holes in in  our services that other people see that we don't.   Um and I think that that is incredibly important.  Um and it's always helpful especially in a world   where we can't talk to each other outside of board  meetings. Um you know it's helpful to have those   opportunities where we can just kind of talk about  education. what does it mean to educate students?   What does it mean to do this work? Um and and you  know benefit from each other's experience. So I   appreciated

048that. Um one of the things as we were  going through that I appreciated for my colleagues   was that everybody at various different points  was trying to tie all of these back to students.   Um because that is ultimately what we do and what  this work is all about is um you know we have safe   schools because we're taking care of students. We  have high quality curriculum because that's how   students learn best, right? We provide um you know  health care services because we need students to   you know be healthy and safe uh and secure and to  feel like they belong in order for them to learn,   right? Because this is the this is the service  we're providing to kids and communities. Um and   so I appreciated that we were always tying these  back to students, right? That's

049why that's why   we do this. That's what this is for. Um and I  think it's important that we were even tying it   back in some of the things like you know fiscal  responsibility right why do we have why are we   fiscally responsible why is that important to us  um the answer is because that's what allows us to   provide students with stability that's what allows  us to provide students with uh the resources   that they need to learn so I think that is again  important um and I I agree with my colleagues um   you know we have it is it is nice to be reminded  that we have some fundament fundamental agreements   um and that we all in some ways speak the same  fundamental language um I don't want to gloss   over the differences in how we

050would implement  these things and how we would do different things   um but it is nice to be reminded that you know  at a core level right we're all sort of in this   for the right reason for the same reason which is  to support kids um and you know one observation I   would make on uh and or a couple of observations  I would make one um I think that as we were doing   this it's also helpful one of the things that  I noticed we had kind of missed in a couple   of places as we were talking and and I think it's  understandable um is we talk a lot about you know   tying it back to students we talk a lot about how  do we like how do we implement certain things and   we tend to think

051of it at the student level and at  the administrative level which is the two levels   at which we sort of operate here right um and  we miss that there is this sort of middle ground   right we don't talk a lot about site leadership,  teachers, staff in a lot of the things that we do   um you know up here and we you can kind of see  in some of the in some of the places where we   had sort of left out that thought process um and  one that I observed was when we were talking about   high quality curriculum uh and things like that  it um I hadn't thought about teachers in that   process in my answer and when one I think it  was only one person who had mentioned it and   as soon as they brought

052it up I was like oh yeah  that makes perfect sense. Um and so I think you   know just something for us to keep in mind is you  know keeping as difficult as it is keeping that   holistic view right that that you know we have  to keep every piece of it in mind even when our   immediate view is on certain things right for  the board our immediate view is administration   right literally all of you in front of us um and  our you know always and we're always focused on   students and so for us it's easy you just sort  of miss that middle. Um so that was something   I observed. The one of the other ones was I um  uh there we always focus so much on the parent   relationship with the district and that that is 

053incredibly important and a hugely important part   of what we do for a variety of different reasons  and the parent relationship with their students,   parent relationship with the teachers,  parent relationship with schools, right?   Um, and there's another piece to family and  community engagement, which is community, right?   What is the broader community? How do they engage  with schools? How do they feel about schools? Um,   and I think uh I know my colleague Miss Albiani um  you know had mentioned in some of her uh answers   as well like that that emphasis on like okay, how  are we engaging with the broader community? How   do we bring them in? How do we push out into the  community and and that relationship? Um, and I   think that's something that is is really important  to what we do and something we

054don't talk about   enough. Um, and then the last thing I I will say  is I appreciate uh the emphasis on metrics. Um,   you know, I bit of a nerd. Uh, and so anytime  we're talking about how do we measure this,   I think it's important because, you know, not only  does that um help us to improve the things that   we're doing, but it gives us that full view of  everything we're doing, um, because it's so easy   for little things to get lost when you're not  measuring them. And so I think that, you know,   having all of that data in front of us, both not  just the numbers, but also people's feedback,   you know, the the qualitative data around  what we're doing, how is it useful to people,   um, I think is incredibly important. So the  more

055that we are including that in everything   that we're doing, I I think the better. But  that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you. Um,   I think it it is it's very affirming to do this  together. I appreciate it. I the opportunity to   even work and and talk to our cabinet so freely  over ideas to get more of a team feeling as our   board working on something. And I think those have  great value and and I do believe um as many of   my people have board members have said we have  we are all here I believe for the right reason   and and though it reflects a little differently  it is the right reason and there's lots of ways   to say the same thing. Um some of the things that  stand out to me and that I

056think are so important   um diversity is our strength as a district. We  are an amazing place to go to school. My kids have   gone off to college in all four different towns  and just the amazing base they come from here and   understanding of other cultures and people. You  just you can't get that everywhere because you   don't have the people to make it. And just to find  our assetbased, our strength-based look at that   is so important. Um we've talked about to make our  schools better, we have to make our adults better,   to make that investment in our teachers,  to make that investment in our staff,   make that investment in in our whole support  system. So, I think the new pillar is very   important because I think it recognizes that need  that we have that will help

057us be better. Um,   I love some of the things I saw. We see a child as  part of a larger family. Like we have the child,   but we have to recognize they come from a larger  family. Okay. So that's why being engaged with   the family is so important because we don't know  how words mean to someone in one family mean very   different than a different family. You you don't  know where that's going to end or what that means   in their head. And you could have parents that had  a horrible experience in school and now they it's   a really big deal to send their kid to our school  because they were not treated well at school. We   are not that past far past where grandma was  treated horribly at school. possibly or or   their parents are

058treated horribly and we need  to convince them that we love their students,   want their students to succeed, we care about  their students and that's done in a classroom   and you can't and that's done in an office and  that's done with a janitor that that notices a   kid or a recess person and and just that feeling  that we are a community and we want what's best   for our kids and and I think we are doing those  things. So, I really appreciate that. Um and then   um Miss Bowwin pointed out, we're very focused on  kids. We're very focused on their mental health.   We're very focused on making they have what they  need to learn to get in their heads that space.   That added layer to our administration on site  is that we need you we need to

059take care of our   teachers in the same way. Our teachers have to  feel they can be themselves. They have to feel   they can teach. They have to to feel they have a  safe place to do to be to be themselves as well.   And that's really important, I think. Um so I love  everybody's different ideas, you always go like,   "Oh, I should have thought of that." But you  just can't think of everything in a minute. So,   it's good. Group think is very helpful.  Um, we'd like to take a 10-minute break and   then we'll come back and we will start with the  multi-tered system of supports. Mr. Caller, Dr. Thank you everyone. All right, multi-tered systems  of supports, Dr. Travis Collier. Morning. It's always this delay on this like  I'm a newscaster on the field. Um just

060really   excited to bring to you spotlight number three  for MTSS. Uh part of what we've been trying to do   uh is demystify uh MTSS because sometimes it's  it's given out there as a concept. Parents uh   even educators ourselves have differing views on  what what is MTSS. So uh today we bring forth uh   spotlight number three and we uh are very excited  what we have to bring forth to you. uh always   looking at the um what we've now are going to be  core values. This we have not changed this as a   system as a whole. So this this our current one  without the the additional operation and budget is   not on there. But we look at what we learned today  as we kind of did the exercise how this overlaps.   And so our high quality instruction,

061targeted  and uh supports and interventions and wellness,   family and community all are part of the MTSS  and the services that we want to provide for   our students and family. Just a quick review. Uh  back in December, that seems uh like it was just   yesterday. It was December. uh December 9th we did  spotlight number two and uh there we just kind of   uh gave you the why and the system and the process  of MTSS. So when you look at the uh pyramid and   you look at the three domains you have your uh  academic, social, emotional and behavior and then   as you uh go up uh you see the process of MTSS. So  tier one is universal where all students receive   those services. uh tier two are strategic services  and then tier three are intensive services. And

062so   uh the the hope the goal is that students will  receive the services and will be able to obtain   whether the acade academic, social, emotional  or behavioral goals or skills in that universal   uh tier and then um if not then we have additional  support intervention to provide for them uh tier   two and tier three. So the strategic and the  intensive uh interventions are what we'll focus   on today. So as we left you off um one of the  processes that we use is the uh the request for   assistance. So this is in our synergy system and  when um schools or or teachers or teams have been   uh trying to work with a student they are gather  gathering data they're gathering information   uh area of cons and so out of that and working  with a student there's

063an area of concern   uh you place the interventions and you upload this  into the uh the RFA into the synergy system and   the tier 2 team will take this information and  uh determine what interventions are appropriate   for the student. Now the key thing in tier  one is the gathering of the data because   uh sometimes what may happen if you don't have  data to present to the tier 2 team, we don't   necessarily know what interventions to provide  for the student. So this is a key element in   um in our in our system that the RFA is completely  filled out. there's a lot of information and   details so that uh the tier 2 team can take  action. Uh so throughout this presentation we   hope to have addressed some of the questions you  had in the past and

064uh give you some really drill   down on some details about tier 2 and tier three.  So with today we want to uh again understand MTSS   as a system. Uh that's us working together and  the system working together. Review available MTSS   tier 2 and tier three student supports. Understand  the process for accessing uh MTSS tier 2 and three   supports. And then we're going to have a highlight  of student and family experiences of tier 2 or   three actual example in our system. So without  further ado, I'll turn it over to Miss Thomas. Thank you, Dr. Collier. Good morning,  everybody. I'm gonna put Nelly up here,   our uh educational equity symbol,  because it's not called out in MTSS,   and for good reason. It's interwoven within  MTSS, the work that our educational equity   department does and restorative practices. And 

065while Mr. Jones says he's perfectly comfortable   not presenting, I want to make sure his  department's work is well represented.   So, I'm going to put her here to  remind us all of that. So, MTS, excuse me, I'm recovering from something. All right. So, the components of the system, uh,  again, as we talked about in the second spotlight,   don't appear as three separate components for our  students. It's one fluid day for them in which we   touch on all three components throughout. So, I'd  like you to picture a class of students. In this   particular example, it's an elementary school, but  these same factors would be in a middle school or   a high school. And our students begin with a warm  welcome. Hopefully, their teacher greets them at   the door, or at least by name when they enter  their

066classroom. And hopefully, they start with   an opportunity to connect with one another because  they need to see each other as human beings first.   Learning is an incredibly vulnerable activity and  if we don't touch points as you and I are equals,   we both have pros and cons, if you will, uh  then we might not be willing to engage in that   vulnerable activity. Once we've connected as  human beings first, then our teacher engages   us in the instructional framework and the  components that lead to that high quality   first instruction. They might engage us through  partner talk. They might engage us through written   reflection because it's important that we balance  our social students with our more interpersonal,   inner reflective students. Our teachers are going  to be assessing us throughout the day to see if   they're if we're learning the

067lesson that they're  intending to teach us. And at the very beginning,   we would have received learning targets so we  know what we're supposed to learn. And then   our teachers might pull us back into small group  instruction if they notice through that formative   assessment that we're not making the progress  that they hoped that we were making. That's all   tier one because it's available to all students  and it's planned in the moment based on immediate   data. Then whether or not it's after first a  second third period or after a morning block in   elementary class, kids are going to go to lunch.  They might have recess or passing period time. And   at that time they may go out to the blacktop,  play on a playground. They might go to quads,   socialize with their friends. or they may choose 

068to go to what most of our schools offer called a   lunch bunch which is a classroom that's open  with any number of adults who might run that   particular experience where students just have  a little bit more structured activities in which   they can engage maybe art maybe games etc. At  the elementary level, that does require parent   consent. So parents can help their children  make that choice. And as kids become older,   they're developmentally capable of making that  choice for themselves. All tier one because it's   available to all students. Same thing in  the afternoon that we had in the morning,   more engaging instruction, maybe different  subjects, um, and maybe different types of   learning activities. Maybe I'm doing more group  work, for example, learning how to collaborate   with my peers. And of course, continued checks for  understanding and differentiating

069as I go so that   if students aren't making the progress I hope they  made, I can fill in some of those gaps right away,   not wait until it's too late. It's never too  late, but not wait until the end of my lesson,   I should say. And then at the very end of the day,  we dismiss our kiddos. Some of them go straight   home, but others engage in the afterchool programs  and expanded learning, or they might go to a club,   etc. Um again all tier one because even though  each student doesn't take advantage of all the   opportunities available to them they could if they  wanted to right and similarly this requires parent   consent at the elementary level um but is open for  student choice at the secondary level. All right. Now some students have a little

070bit added on top  of that tier one supports that they're getting.   Some students might get pulled out of class during  the day and go to a small group instruction where   they receive targeted supports on let's say  a particular academic skill or sometimes a   particular social skill. Other students might  get individualized support one-on-one working   towards a very specific goal that was determined  for them. These are types of tier 2 and tier three   interventions and we determine these uh the  need for these interventions based on data.   So we do a lot of assessments throughout the  year. Like I said, we do formative assessments,   but we also do benchmark assessments at  the beginning of the year, midway through,   etc. And that assessment data might indicate  that a student is um making less and less   progress and the gap

071between them and their peers  is becoming larger and larger. And so that's when   we might pull them into that tier 2 group or even  provide them with the individualized supports. uh other students the assessment data didn't show  anything uh of note if you will but the teacher   observed some data points that were interesting  a teacher noticed maybe the student wasn't making   progress for example I like to use the example  when I was in fifth grade my kids would come back   from the basketball court and be fighting pretty  much every day about what happened at basketball   and who cheated and who didn't call what foul etc  um and for some kids I could pull them aside we   could do a little restorative chat and they are  able to learn the problem solving skills they   might need.

072They might do Roshambo from there on  out or we might then post the rules a little bit   more clearly. And for a lot of the kids, that was  sufficient. But for other kids, they might have   um fewer skills as it relates to solving problems  or they might have something going on in their   family that just makes it really hard for them to  let go of whatever anger that the is coming from   the basketball game, which really might be rooted  in something more deeply um affecting their life.   And for those kids, the teacher's noticing like,  "Hey, my restorative efforts, my tier one, my tier   uh one interventions aren't sufficient." So, I'm  going to submit, as Dr. Collier alluded to, a   request for assistance or an RFA. And then a group  of multidisciplinary experts. So, our behavior  

073support specialists, our school psychologists,  school social workers, mental health therapists,   school counselors, and an admin team are all going  to take their unique perspectives from the various   trainings they've had, take a look at what's going  on with the student, the data that the teachers   collected based on observations, based on attempts  at tier one interventions, and they're going to   make a decision about what is it that's really  impacting this child's ability to learn. It's   usually more than one thing, I'll tell you that.  Um, but what we're looking for is what is what   is getting in the way the most and we're going to  start there with our intervention. And so they'll   put that um request for intervention through and  they'll decide maybe a small group or individual   as well. And that would be a parent would

074be  called and hopefully not hopefully a parent would   definitely have been called already. The teacher  would have shared these concerns with the parents,   their input being very important to what we  decide. And then once the decision is made, the   parent is then called again to say, "Here's what  we think uh we'd like to offer your kiddo. What   do you think?" And we go from there. So that is a  day in the life of any of the things our students   might be experiencing um at the tier one, two,  and three level. Now, something to keep in mind is   that tier 2, the definition of tier 2 is that it's  usually more strategic in nature. It's typically   provided in a small group and typically provided  by someone with slightly more expertise than the   classroom teacher in a

075specific area. Right? So  even though a teacher is going to pull a small   group to the back of their classroom, we call that  a tier one intervention because it's happening in   the moment based on formative assessment by the  teacher and then that group may or may not ever   meet again. Right? This tier 2 group is something  that is being done more regularly, perhaps on a   weekly basis for a specific period of time with  someone with slightly more intensive training in   let's say teaching the language um the science of  reading for example. Um and then our tier three is   typically more even more intensive than that.  Almost always provided on a one-on-one basis,   right? But we don't want you to get too lost in  exactly where tier one ends and tier two begins,   exactly where tier

076two ends and where tier  three begins because they're really just it's   a continuum of supports. So I like to think of  it as lowlevel intensity at the very bottom of   the period pyramid, high level intensity at the  very top. And I don't get too caught up in exactly   where one um inter one tier ends and the other  begins. So, our academic interventions, you'll see   at the very bottom, our lowest level of intensity  is providing high quality instruction from the   get-go, right in that instructional framework  that we've trained all of our teachers in over   the last couple years and really working on our  core uh common core content standards. Then a   little bit more intense is frequent check-ins with  a student, making sure that they're understanding.   So, there's some students who I might check  in with

077more frequently than others because   the data has shown me in the past that I um want  to pay a little bit more close attention to them.   Right? Still still tier one though. I start to  get a little bit more intense with adjusting some   of my assignments for students. Maybe they do the  odds or the evens instead of the whole assignment.   Um maybe they fill in blanks instead of writing  complete sentence, but I differentiate as I go.   Even more intense becomes that small group pullout  instruction perhaps with an academic intervention   teacher. And then finally, very intensive uh is a  curriculum called Sunday curriculum. For behavior,   similar again increasing from lower intensity to  higher. We start by teaching all of our students   what our expectations are and we positively  acknowledge them for following those expectations.   But some

078of my students in my classroom might  have a specific behavior chart where they get   reinforced more frequently for their positive  behaviors because attention is really important   to them or more important to them than it is  to some other students. And so their rate of   reinforcement is every five minutes instead  of a couple times a day, for example. And   then even more intense than that is a check-in  checkout where a student takes something like a   behavior chart to a mentor at the beginning of  the day. The mentor gives them some coaching,   some cheerleading for here's your goals for the  day. Here's how we're going to know if you're   meeting your goals. I believe in you. And then  they check in with that same person at the end of   the day. How'd you do? You had a

079couple slip-ups.  That's okay. So did I. Adults slip up too, right?   Um how did you handle those slip ups? What do you  think you learned from those slip ups? And then we   send that home and they have similar conversations  with their parents and then we bring it back the   next day and they a crew points towards an even um  even more reinforcement. Not necessarily tangible.   It could be that front of the line pass that we  talked about a couple weeks or a couple months now   ago. Um and then even more intense than that is  a very specific behavior intervention plan for a   student uh with more strategies to use throughout  the day to prevent some behaviors and then how to   respond when the behaviors are occurring. And  then finally, the most intense here is if

080we   need to do a functional behavior assessment with  one of our behavior analysts, really dig deep   into what needs is that student communicating  to us when they're engaging in that behavior.   The continuum of supports for social emotional  learning starts with creating those conditions   for thriving in the classroom. That's defined  by the California Department of Education as the   conditions for which students feel most prepared  to learn. uh going up the chain of interventions,   they might go to lunch bunch, pretty low-level  intervention for students who prefer structured   activities. They might have a restorative circle  for students who need to have some adult support   when it comes to problem solving. They might go  into a counseling group where they need regular   u reinforcement of skills that are necessary  for problem solving or they might even have   individual counseling.

081So again, going from  lowest intensity to highest. Erin's going to   talk to you a little bit about how do uh we  access these particular assessments and then   I'll be back to talk more about students  who have experienced these interventions. All right. Thank you, Katie. Um so we've really  looked at so far the system as a whole and what   we're going to be doing next is going into looking  a little bit more at the process and how students   are moving between these different intervention  levels. Um, this is a really good diagram of   what the system looks like as a whole. And over  on the right, you see more of the process and   where we're moving up and down. Um, as you were  just addressed by Katie and she talked about tier   one and the different things

082you might see  off to the right there. Some of the things   would be teaching whole class SEAL or schoolwide  PBIS expectations, small groupoup instruction.   All of those things are happening for all of our  students. um it's high quality instruction that's   happening in the classroom. Um that middle area  where the tier one review is, that's where we're   collaborating with our peers and trying to see are  we addressing them with all the interventions we   could. And if we are and we've we've had that peer  review with um other colleagues, we might say no,   we need something more. And that's where we would  go and do that RFA, that request for assistance,   where we're submitting something to a group  and giving them as much information as we   can to see what they might recommend for this  student and

083what might help this student. Um,   from there, you get up into that more strategic  area. Check-in, checkout is something that Katie   just mentioned, and it's over there on the  right. Um, that might be a good intervention,   but it's going to be determined based on the  students need. So, it's not just something   we pick out of a a bank and say, "This is what  we're going to give the student." It's figuring   out what the student needs and make sure it's  a strategic intervention for that student. Um,   that may go up to an SST. Uh, we'll talk a  little bit about that more more clearly. Um,   but that SST may result in even more intense or  it could be tier 2 interventions or even tier one   interventions depending on what's determined by  that SST. So getting to

084tier two and tier three   uh services, there's a couple different pathways  to this. One pathway is just through the review of   assessment data. Uh we have interim assessments  that are being given across our district. It   is common assessments that are testing on key  skills and we've identified some of these that   are cut points. So for example at a first grade  class uh they student may not have learned all   of their blending skills and in that case we may  automatically at that point identify them and pull   them with an academic intervention teacher so that  they can work with that student and reinforce that   skill hoping to catch that before it develops into  something more serious. Uh we don't want that gap   to grow. So using that predetermined cut point  we identify the student and this is

085an example   um of our AIT handbook and the different cut  points that we have set and if the student for   example if you look at kindergarten in trimester 2  um by trimester 2 the student should have learned   the letters m and p and if they haven't learned  these letters and they don't know their sounds   we'd want to intervene right away um it could be  any number of reasons uh we don't know if there's   a learning difficulty. It could be they've been  out a lot, but whatever the reason, we want to   make sure we're getting them that skill as soon as  possible. So, that would be a tier 2 intervention. A second way that we might go through  this is through pathway two, and this   is part of that tier one review process.  Working with colleagues,

086working with   uh those that might have some background knowledge  on the students. um you're going to look at all   the different interventions you may have tried  and you're going to see are there things that   you haven't done. Have you contacted the family to  make sure the family is aware and maybe they have   information. So that's just a point of contact.  If you've done all these things and the student   still isn't making progress, the teacher would be  encouraged to fill out the request for assistance,   the RFA. And so that is something that Dr. Collier  referenced at the beginning. They would go online,   they would submit this through synergy. It  requires them to list the interventions that   have been tried and the and verify that they  have contacted the parent. If we look a little   bit deeper

087at this, it also takes a look at  the demographics of the student absences that   may play into a student's uh lack of progress.  um gathering parent contact and communication,   identifying strengths of the students,  identifying those learning gaps,   where is the student struggling. Um all of this  is put into a document so that the tier 2 team   can review it and have as much information  as possible to make that strategic decision. So that tier 2 team, they're going to  look at this and based on the data,   they're going to form a hypothesis. This  is where they're going to look for the most   strategic way to approach the problem. Um,  you know, sometimes the problem may manifest   in several different ways. Student may be showing  behavioral responses at the same time as academic   and we're not sure

088maybe which one is the cause.  So, we look for that strategic approach to make   sure we're addressing what we need to. Um once  we've done that and we've decided on an approach,   uh we an evidence-based intervention is used.  Um these are usually going to be small group.   Um but it's going to be an evidence base that's  really going to help the students need that's   been identified and somebody uh responsible for  this is going to be identified and assigned.   And then we created an intervention plan. This  is a plan that is put into the system because   it's very important we monitor the progress of  the student. We can't just assign something and   say we've done it. We fixed the problem. We have  to go back and see if that worked because as you   you're looking at

089this, it's a hypothesis.  It's us as much data as we can to identify   what we're going to do and we want to make sure  that it actually is working. This is an example   um of an MTSS plan. The plans don't look like  this in synergy. They're a little more bland,   but these are all the elements that are in  included in it. So, you know, for this one,   it's a social emotional area of of concern. Um,  they're being prescribed to have some individual   counseling. So, that's the solution that was  identified. Um, there's a goal. So, it's a   specific goal that is put in place. How much time  they're going to spend per week. All of this is   part of this plan for the student and then we're  tracking it. So over on the right you can

090see   there's a progress monitoring and goal and there's  an end date. So we do have a limited time to look   at this. Now at the end of that time you may say  this is being successful. So we may continue it   or it may be at the end of that you say this isn't  working. We need to try something else. So there's   lots of different touch points on this to make  sure we are reaching the student and helping. If the data does show that you're having the  desired effect, we're going to continue that   intervention. We're going to try to make sure  that the student is doing well and then we're   going to fade that intervention. The idea is  to have them not have to rely on that specific   intervention and be successful. If the data  shows

091that they're not, then we're going to   go back to that team. We're going to talk more  and we're going to make sure that everything has   been implemented with fidelity because that's  huge. If they aren't doing it consistently,   that's going to not cause success. Um, is  it actually addressing the area of need? Um,   we may get additional information and this is  where we lead into the other large uh topic   that we hear about which is that SST. an SST. And  the purpose of an SST is gray to some people. Um,   the purpose of the SST is to find out more  about the student. It is to study the student,   find out as much information as we can. And this  involves a large group of people coming together   and discussing the student very specifically and  looking for

092anything that may have been missed in   the previous data for the tier 2 team. The TR2  team is getting information from the teacher,   from the educators around the student. Um,  but this would be going deeper into what's   going on in the family. What uh possible other  causes could there be? And you saw this earlier,   but there's two paths here. Um, one path would  be the tier 2 team refers the student. So,   they've tried everything. They've gone through,  maybe they've tried some tier 2 interventions,   it's not working. they say we need to get a SST  done. We need to make sure that this student is   really studied so we can make sure we are doing  the best thing. Um the other way it could be an   administrative referral. Maybe something happens  in the student's life. Maybe

093there's a tragedy um   and they need counseling right now. Um maybe they  had a referral from a parent that came and talked   to them and the parent wants the student to be uh  assessed or looked at. So these are different ways   that an SST might be formed. It's not always  the same, but these are the two main paths. So, we're going to identify the student needs.  We're going to obtain any new relevant information   for the student. Uh that could be having  conversations with the family. Um it may   be going into medical history. Maybe there are  things that happen in the student's life that   we aren't aware of in the school community that  we need to uncover. Um the other goal of this is   to identify more interventions that can support  the student success. So what

094is it we're going to   do next? At the end of the SST, there's going  to be a plan. How are we going to monitor the   student's success and how are we going to move  forward with that student? Because that is the   goal. The result is not necessarily the  same every time. Um there seems to be a   uh misunderstanding that an SST results in an  IEP and that is not the case. The SST is going   to come up with some recommendation and plan  that could be an IEP. It could be a 504 or   it could be another path. The SST is attended by  administrators, classroom teachers. At secondary,   this is a little more challenging because you  have a lot more classroom teachers together.   Um, we've been working on streamlining this to  make it more uh consistent

095and standardized across   the district. Um, parent guardian is invited  to be there and is necessary to be present at   the SST. Um, and then there's other people that  may be invited such as the school counselors,   the social workers, uh, PBIS coach. You can see  there's a large group of people listed here. Um,   additionally, instructional coaches might be  invited in if they've been working with the   teacher and the student, case manager, school  nurse. So, it is a community practice. It is   everyone coming together and rallying around  that student to figure out how to best address   their needs. Um, one of the things we've done  is we've we've laid out a meeting agenda for   these SSTs. Um, that is to keep it on track  and focused on the things that we need to do.   um identifying straight

096identifying  black background information uh any   concerns intervention being tried and the goal  that you're going to have for the next steps. We also have developed a standardized note-taking  sheet that's now being used across the district.   This is so that when students move from one site  to another, we're still collecting the similar   information. we're still able to look at all the  things going on with the student and find the best   interventions possible for them. Um, these are  all uploaded into Synergy for use. This slide's   actually taken from a training that we've been  doing across the sites uh at elementary and are   working on for secondary. So, as I said, there are  several different outcomes of an SST. Um, we might   have more tier one, two, or three interventions  put into place. Again, with progress monitoring,   a

097504 plan may be put into place if that's  deemed necessary. Or we may refer them for   special education assessment, um, which is a  very intensive process and takes the student   out of class to go through. So, that is one of  the possibilities, but our goal is to address   the student with as much information we can at  that SST meeting and see how we can move forward.   At this point, we're going to talk a little  bit more about what it looks like for our   students and our parents in the district. Uh,  and Katie is going to come back and talk to you. So, our theories are nice, right? But the student  experience is what really matters in the end. And   so, we're going to walk you through a few real  life students here in Elkrove Unified.

098We have   changed their names and some identifying details  because tier 2 and tier three services tend to be   a little bit more private in nature. We have one  at the very end from a student who was willing to   talk about their experience on video and we're  really excited about that. But we didn't want   to miss out on the breadth of uh opportunities we  provide our students um just because this is being   reported on YouTube and shared with anybody who  would like to watch it. So this student uh we'll   call him Jordan is a student with an IEP, but  that does not mean that he's a tier three student.   In fact, Jordan is in a tier one setting for  the majority of the day, meaning he's in class   with typically developing peers almost all of the 

099time. He does receive pullout services for speech.   It's a small group, so it's tier two. And that is  written specific goals written on his IEP. Now,   when Jordan went from sixth grade to seventh  grade, he started experiencing some behavioral   challenges, as many of our kiddos going from sixth  to seventh grade do. Uh he had some emotional   outbursts. He would bang his fists on the desk,  engage in some profanity, especially when he   felt like the work was quote unquote too hard.  Now, assessment data showed us the work wasn't   too hard. Jordan was capable of engaging in the  work that was being given to him. But the change   in environment, right, lack of relationship  with the new teachers probably uh led him to   feel less willing to engage in that vulnerability  that I talked about earlier to

100try hard things.   And so his teachers tried to dump a bunch of  things. They did a really good job. They'd give   him breaks, let him walk around outside the  classroom. They would use soothing language.   They would um work with him. He'd get fidgets.  Lots of different strategies that they tried   for him in the classroom. And some of them would  just cause more intensive behaviors. Turns out   Jordan didn't want to leave the classroom. He  felt like he was being punished by leaving the   classroom instead of being given a break. Right?  But that wasn't discovered until uh Jordan's   teachers submitted an RFA because they had tried  everything. They talked with his other teachers,   made sure to try all the things that they tried in  their classroom and just none of it was working.   And so the tier

1012 team decided maybe we'll get the  behavior analysts involved. Typically a behavior   analyst has specialized experience in working  with our students with autism. And they created   that person created a behavior intervention  plan specific to Jordan. Got to know Jordan,   learned from his family what Jordan's strengths  and weaknesses are. learned from Jordan himself   because at that age it's really typically I mean  it's developmentally appropriate to include the   student in the intervention planning and they  learned that Jordan is a really good drawer. I   don't know if that's a word. He's a really good  artist and that was one of the things he found   soothing. So instead of being asked to leave the  classroom when it was time for a break when he   needed to emotionally regulate he was allowed a  few minutes to draw. It was also

102really important   to Jordan that he have a strong relationship with  his teachers. And because he was new to seventh   grade, he simply hadn't had the time to develop  those yet. And so these teachers went above and   beyond what they do for every student to build a  relationship with to make a more concerted effort   to building a relationship with Jordan. And  again, all of this was discovered through the   process that the behavior analyst used to create  a behavior intervention plan. I'm excited to   tell you Jordan's now doing well, getting solid  grades, A's and B's, uh, engaging in that tier   one environment again almost all of the time. Now,  every now and then, just like we all do, he's got,   you know, some frustration that happens, but the  teachers know how to manage it. They stay near  

103him, but they don't directly give him eye contact  or too much attention because that causes behavior   escalation. They know now. They make sure he's  safe, and they calmly give him choices for his   break. Would he like to engage in the counting  to 10 strategy that he enjoys or would he like   to draw for a few minutes? And then he's provide  um a to return to the classroom environment. And   when I say return to the classroom environment,  he never actually left, right? He's able to   engage in all those regulation strategies  there in the classroom, not feeling like he   needs to separate himself from that community  to regulate those emotions. So that's one type   of behavior intervention, but obviously very  clearly interwoven with his academics as well,   because when we're becoming frustrated, it's a lot  harder to

104learn. Alex is a student um at the high   school level. uh and Alex um you know was really  becoming very withdrawn in class. teachers were   noticing that there wasn't a lot of engagement  kind of the t not typical I should say but it's   not uncommon for the kid with the hoodie right  head down on their desk and parents were noticing   that too when when teachers would call home they'd  say yeah Alex is that way at home as well actually   um and there was a negative impact on Alex's grade  you could see the decline when you looked at the   data Alex used to be a average performing student  A's B's some C's and then getting into the D's and   Fs and that wasn't that wasn't like Alex and the  teacher teachers again tried a lot of

105different   things. Making sure that Alex knew that they were  there for him. Uh making sure that actually sorry   there for them. Uh making sure that Alex um  knew what strategies were available to them   for regulation, making accommodations to the  workload. None of that was having the effect   that they wanted. And so they gathered more  information and they submitted an RFA as well.   and Alex was um referred to group counseling with  our school social worker at that particular high   school. And this uh group counseling was focused  on coping skills. Stress and anxiety was noted to   be one of the things that Alex was facing as  a lot of our high school students do as they   begin to form their identities more strongly as  they begin to individuate from their previous   um identities or some of their

106family members  beliefs. as they begin to figure out who they   want to be in this world. It's pretty stressful  time. I don't remember because it's been too long,   but that's what I hear. And then uh Alex started  doing better and we actually um are able to have   uh Alex report back to us that they felt  like their teachers really cared about them,   that they were really appreciative of the extra  effort their teacher put into putting in this RFA.   And the parent even said, "I think you might have  saved my child's life." It was really touching to   hear from that parent and that child how this  social worker and the group therapy that they   were offered or group counseling I should say um  made a difference not just to their well-being   but to their academics as

107well. And then last but  not least, Leo is a student who received academic   support. So this is not the RFA pathway. That was  one pathway that Aaron spoke to you about, but   this is more the pathway where they're looking at  assessment data and predetermined cut points. So,   uh, at the elementary school level, teachers  do those beginning of the year assessments,   and the classroom teacher noted that, uh, Leo was  having some difficulty with their foundational   reading skills based on those assessments,  specifically blending sounds and fluency. And so,   Leo was placed into a small group where they went  and met with the AIT for targeted instruction. And   they did more intensive practicing on stretching  th sounds like st and then blending them together   to read the full word stop. And then Alex returned  to class more confidence,

108more willing to engage   in that vulnerable learning thing and then  more willing to apply those no skills to their   work and then shor up if you will so that they  could be back in the tier one environment with   um success. Families are not absent throughout  all of that. That is our hope. That is our goal.   It is our expectation. I think I heard the word  that Erin used which I really appreciate. It is   expected that the teacher communicate with the  home on a regular basis on how their student is   doing. Right now, regular basis means a lot of  different things for a lot of different students   because sometimes more frequent communication is  necessary and sometimes it's okay to have less   frequent and we trust our teachers to make the  choice that that um applies to

109each kiddo. Parents   can also regularly see communication without  even relying on a human being because they   can log into parent view and see that through  synergy. Progress reports, um, behavior data,   MTSS plans, all of that is available in Synergy.  Um, if there's a concern starting to emerge,   that is when we would ramp up our communication.  We'd likely talk to the parents about things we'd   try. We might ask the parents like, "What's been  successful for you in the home?" as it relates,   especially if it's behavior or social emotional  well-being. Um, and then we once we've enrolled   the student in an intervention, we would be  regularly communicating with that parent on   how the student is doing. So, when I was a  mental health therapist, I would often call   the parents not maybe every three or four weeks 

110and say, "Here are the skills we're learning in   session. Here's one way you could reinforce that  at home. What are some things you found that are   working that I can reinforce here at school?" And  have the teacher reinforce here at school as well.   And then um of course before that intervention is  determined our parents are a part of the team who   decides what intervention is most appropriate for  their students. Parents are the experts in their   children right? We spend a few hours a day with  them for a year of their lives at most. Um these   parents spend day in day out with these kids for  uh decades at a time. Right? So we want to hear   from them. What do you think's going on with  your kiddo? What do you think is their biggest   barrier

111to learning and what do you think they  might benefit from? and we capture that on the   RFA if we can. If not, we uh bring it to the  team meeting where we uh include it with the   RFA data or it might be shared during the SST that  Aaron referenced. Again, when students are having   success in interventions or not having success,  we're including the parents in problem solving   that. So, your kid isn't showing the success we  thought he might or she might. What do you think   might be contributing to that? What do you think  we might do differently to ensure that success?   Or, hey, your kiddo's doing great. uh what do you  think about starting to fade this intervention?   Like and that's a hard conversation with a lot  of parents because when a kiddo's doing great,  

112we want to just keep doing what we've always been  doing, right? But it's really important that we   build student independence and less reliance  on the adults in their lives and more ability   to kind of take those strategies and use them  on their own. So, how can we build your child's   independence by slowly fading? Maybe moving from  weekly counseling sessions to every other week   into once a month, then maybe just some brief  check-ins here and there as needed. Right? All   right. All right, here's the student who was  brave enough to share their story with us. This   particular student uh happens to be Oh, I forgot  to remember how to pronounce her name. Can you   help me? Juliana. Thank you. And her parent is  Nina, who is the custodian here in our building.   And we're so grateful

113to them for sharing  their stories uh with us today. Before I begin,   I will tell you Juliana uh received intensive  academic instruction. So data indicated that   a class with other kids who had similar needs  would be appropriate for her and uh they'd use   the SA curriculum that we referenced earlier  which is intensive reading skills. It's not   very loud. Hi. Okay. A mother and I'm here to  share about my up on the keyboard. Thank you. Hi, my name is Nina Salis. I'm Juliana's  uh mother and I'm here to share about my   daughter's intervention program. Hi, my name  is Juliana Durian. I am in the 12th grade. When   she was going uh throughout school, she was having  issues of reading. Um not able to pronounce words,   not understanding what she was reading. She  was struggling really bad.

114It's hard for me   to do my classwork. I think it was harder  for my my teachers to read my handwriting.   I felt very like anxious. They wouldn't  even read out loud. We just uh tried our   best at the time. Almost giving up, you know,  because there was nothing else I could do. Her first two years she was still struggling.  We found out about a program that she was able   to get into and now she was able to read uh break  down words, comprehend uh what she was reading and   able to u understand more of her work instructions  that were given to her. So she was able to do most   of it on her own without any help. Now she's able  to just grab a book and start reading and on her   own. It feels way

115better. I'm more I want to say  independent. I could do my assignments by myself. A lot of stress is off the plate now.  She's able to answer the questions if   she's called on. Before she was like  shy and didn't want to read in front   of people. I would say I'm more confident  in my classwork and what I'm writing off.   Um, it's important because it's a daily tool that  we use in our everyday life and without that tool,   it's very hard to get jobs that you're going  to need. Excited to go to college to see what I   can learn there. I know you're going to need  a lot of reading, writing, so now it's more   easier for me to do that. I see um growth. I  feel like I came a long way from what I

116was just escape. Yeah. No. Thank you. All right. Just uh kudos to uh uh Nenah and  her and her daughter. We had another video,   but unfortunately the mom in that video had passed  away and so we didn't get a chance to talk to the   family about comfort how comfort comfortable they  would be. But so we got to Nah and her daughter   at the last minute and they were willing to uh  to do the video for us. And it just speaks to   uh how a student and their family are very uh  proud and and when they're successful. And so   that's what it's all about is getting our students  to be successful in in our schools. You know,   we talk about metrics and grades and things like  that. But one of the great things is that if  

117our students have a successful experience going  through our our K through 12 and and and beyond   experience. So um just an important note what we  shared with you today is I the ideal situation   the best case scenario uh we we wish that we can  just go intervention kid is is changed and they're   on their way uh we know that in our own personal  lives with our own children with ourselves it it   takes time and it takes uh you know communication  and uh the system working and really showing that   uh we have a a system to respond when students  need help. And so, uh, best case scenario,   we broke some things up into academic, behavior,  and social emotional. Uh, oftent times it's   all wrapped into one. And so, but we broke it up  just to show

118you just the different systems. And,   uh, at our schools, as we continue to work  with our schools, there's different levels of   implementation. Some some schools have their  systems in place and their their teams in   place. Obviously, the leadership that's been in  place for a number of years uh helps them more,   but there's different levels of implementation and  we continue to work and it's a work in progress   and continuous improvement is always our goal.  Uh we want to create systems that support the   needs of our students and uh we're committed  to doing that and working with with schools.   Uh we're doing ongoing training at the elementary  sites. Uh we have our coordinators Aaron Bishop   and Patty Tong going out and meeting with schools.  Uh this year we're working with the the secondary   schools and we'll soon

119be meeting with uh the  directors and uh and assistant superintendent   Schwitzer to talk more about the MTSS the  secondary sites. Uh we have an MTSS guiding   coalition in which we meet on a regular basis and  we talk about uh what supports we need to give to   schools and to teachers uh and just educating  on what the system is about and even some of   the nomenclature like a SST a student success  team um student study team I messed it up myself   uh but it's often given different different things  but we want to make sure we have the same language   and we're doing the systems maybe different people  but we want to we We want to ensure that if a   student is in need that we are responding to that  need and being able to provide intervention

120for   them. Uh and so analyzing these needs to implement  with uh increased fidelity is our is our goal and   uh we are open to hearing from parents, hearing  from teachers, hearing from uh administrators,   hearing from anyone in the system that that lets  us know how we need to refine and get better.   So, that being said, I hope you uh learned  a lot and enjoyed it and uh what questions   might you have? All right. Thank you so  much all of you. Um we um any comments   people have and we'll start with Mr. Yang. Do  you want me to tell you if there are there any   blue cards on this com on this? There are no  blue cards on this item. Thank you, Mr. Yang. Yeah, it's almost afternoon, right? Thank you for   um the presentation uh

121to everyone that presented.  So, this is a uh a very good uh system, programs,   and intervention. Um all of the above. It's  really designed to uh help out our students   and I really appreciate of it. Um you know I've  been here for 5 years and this is um this is present. This is a presentation that uh gives us  a chance to really deep dive into uh some of the   very uh meaningful and much needed um intervention  that we as board members working with our   uh staff to really um give credit, give feedback  to um change some of the process so that we could   help the students uh all together um to better  them. Right? So, I'm just want to say thank you   for all the effort uh over the years I've been  involved and yeah,

122I've been here this this is   my fifth year. So, I know there's a lot of u work  that goes into it. So, I just want to acknowledge   that and give the kudos to uh folks that uh been  on this and working on this to improve um each and   every day to help our students um that are much  needed especially um for all tiers but especially   tier 2 and tier three specifically. Right. So,  um I myself u is a parent for four students in   our school district um for the last four years  and my oldest just um just went in college. So,   um, you know, I currently have three  students in our school district and I, uh, said that my kids, um, all of them were in  slide 35, which is student with behavioral   needs. Slide

12336, student with social emotional  needs. Slide 37, student with academic needs. And   uh I would say that's pretty accurate in in  my reality, in our experience. um my my wife   and I as parents to four students in our school  district and you know I got to say there's so much   um great thing that this school district provide  um seeing it firsthand and of course it's it's   never 100% perfect right and that just you  know um the reality of things but I see the   the progress of providing uh intervention um help  from day one. Uh because we we we had our kids   uh attending our school district since their um  prek and so forth all the way to graduation. And   I I just want to again give the give kudos to  our school district um because

124it's it's it's   um it's real and you know I I got to witness that  firsthand. So with all of that, um I would say um   some of the um feedback that I will give is that  um you know when you look at this presentation   um there's a lot that goes into it more than just  the display on each slide, right? And and that   u you know came from um the presenters. So, one  thing I would like to see uh going forward is   um put maybe a uh few slides that shows more  data on there and you don't have to touch up on   it because I know that on different presentation  we do touch up on the data um very um much so in   details. I get that right. But the with with  this kind of

125uh presentation your mind just   wander straight to the data right that backs it  up. So if you guys could going forward put that   in there and could just say hey you know for  your reference um if you want to refer to it   this is it right? So it could be um the reference  slides maybe at the end you know if you want that   that would be I think very appropriate right.  Um so with that said um I would also say that um we sometimes and this is not to uh you know knock  down anybody. We we sometime have to um alert our   staff um and do a better job as far as um when we  have a red flag of students uh who have legislate   uh been continuously get bad grades. Uh I  think that

126we have to have a team to really   um sit with the students and really figure it out  what um what their lack of that is um I would say   make them get bad grades. Right? So I think that  that uh process itself I think we we have to   refine it. We have to refine it. I know I talked  to uh our superintendent David um before but this   is a public uh meeting and this is uh with our  executive team here so I want to talk uh candidly   that to me yeah uh to Mark's point we doing a lot  of great things and sometime we just have to do a   little bit more of it right so I know that we  deep dive on um tier 2 and tier tier three um   already but specifically to

127the kids are getting  bad grades. I think that we we have to give more   into it, right? So, what that mean is instead of  letting the teachers just communicating with the   parents, um maybe let's create, you know, a a team  that really tackles it, right? So, that to me what   that shows is that we care. Two, it shows to the  students that we care as well. And then and then   um as a team when we have you know different  expertise in that ta on that table I think that   we're going to be able to hear the information and  each individual is going to be able to dissect it   maybe a little bit different and and brainstorm  it to really how to help that student on those   students. So this is to me is really um

128deep  diving or really helping these students because   um I see that there are students that um they  are it it's not that they don't want to get the   good grades but they just kind of lost right and  they don't have the support from their household   um their their surrounding you know family friends  because they just don't have that um need uh   needed uh resources is. So for me, we we we need  to um really create a team that could really   um emphasize how do we going to help those much  needed students because at the end of the day,   you know, we want our kids to be um getting good  grades so that they could go to um you know uh   better college or good college and and pursue  higher education, right? or or rather they

129go   to uh you know CTE. Uh but I think good grades is  just not to show that hey they are good at school   but it shows that hey they are disciplined right  uh with what's giving to them. So for me, I think   that that over all of this stuff, there's a lot of  great stuff here. The the only thing is to what I   already said, it just, you know, really refining  our team to really how to tackle our kids that are   struggling, right? And um that really goes to our  disadvantaged uh community students, right? like   the, you know, the black students, the English  learners, immigrants, you know, homelessness, you   know, those are the kids that we know that, hey,  they need helps the most. And disability students,   right, that they need um help the most.

130And if we  could really help them improve their performance,   um I think that we could really really uh close  that achieing gap and the relationship gap. So,   I look forward to working with you guys  uh and and ladies uh going forward with   uh our new superintendent. And I'm really uh uh  positive that we could really uh improve on this   um area that I think is much needed um to improve.  But with that said, thank you so much for all the   hard work that we have continued to do to help our  students. I see so many student including my kids   have improved uh from this uh program the NTSS. So  thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for your   feedback. All right, Miss Davis. Well, thank  you for the presentation. Um I really respect   all

131the thought and pro that you've put into this  process and involving the child and their feelings   um into it. I I was a student who didn't learn to  write cursive till my 12th grade year and all the   adults solution was to go to the elementary school  for an hour every day to learn. So you can imagine   how that went over as a 17-year-old. Um but it  worked. But um I had a question on your lunch   bunch. Are the students able to bring a friend  with them that doesn't need those supports so   that they can be building relationships  and kind of dstigmatizing that issue. So lunch bunch is a self- selected one. They don't  need to go through the RFA process. So anyone's   welcome to attend. Again, at the elementary  level, they have to have that

132consent form signed,   but absolutely anybody's welcome. Every now  and then in a social skills group, which is   more intensive, regular skills instruction, we  might bring in a peer for um practice, you know,   those skills that we're learning because if  the entire group is practicing the same skills,   they might not have a typically developing peer  to practice with. But if we did that, we would   call the parent. We would make sure that it was  okay with them that their child was being brought   in for that experience as a peer role model.  Okay. Thank you. Um have we provided the Sunday   curriculum for all schools? because I know at  one point schools were buying it themselves. Yes,   we have the Sunday curriculum for all schools.  Okay. Okay. Um would a student who has high   absences but no

133other disability or um learning  impairments still qualify for interventions? How would we Yes. So, I'm just thinking how  we pick that up in the process if there if   that would that go through a RFA if a student has  Yeah. serious attendance issues. Okay. Thank you.   Um on page 25, it said the goal is created by  the student. What if they're too young? Who who   sets the goal then at that point? uh in the goal  would be created um if they're developmentally   inappropriate for them to create the goals  based on the data and the team's decision around   remember we said there's a hypothesis as to what's  the biggest barrier to their success they the team   would create a goal together around that um we'd  want to make sure the student was aware of that   goal in

134studentfriendly language okay and at what  point of the MTSS would parents become involved   ult because I noticed that it didn't look  like they become included in the process until   you got to the behavior intervention plan. Not  necessarily. So, um I think that was on page 26.   Awesome. Thank you. Oh, so in that particular um  example, this this page here, right? Right. Okay.   So that's if this uh intervention is not having  the desired effect or if it is having the desired   effect. So that's well after the intervention  is underway. But if we go back to slide   um well 23 for example, slide 23 is the request  for assistance before an intervention even begins.   We require that the person submitting that has  already contacted the parent uh to talk about the   concerns that they have to talk

135about the things  they've already tried. But hopefully this is not   the first time the teacher's reached out to the  parent. hopefully they've called and introduced   themselves and gave some positive feedback and  and that kind of thing. So, but at the very least,   we would expect when emerging concerns come  about that they would loop the parent in very   early on to hear that parents expertise maybe  not needing an RFA. Maybe there's some insight   the parent has that we can address the concerns  in the classroom. Yeah. And almost done. uh do we   include the check-in checkout person in any of the  discussions as they have a relationship with the   child and do we provide check-in checkout  people with any kind of training? Yeah,   great question. So check-in checkout does require  that the mentor be trained in addition

136to the   team assigning that as the intervention.  It's nothing incredibly intensive training,   maybe 15, 20 minutes of an orientation, if you  will, and they may help set this the student,   they may help the student set the goal um that  so a student in check-in checkout has, you know,   each of the schoolwide rules, they have a specific  goal within those. So, what is what does be safe   look like for me? What am I particularly having  trouble with? And so, that could be a conversation   between the mentor and the child. Absolutely. Um  it could be that the the multid-disciplinary team   has um worked with the kiddo to develop those  goals because the mentor is busy teaching. Um   it just kind of depends but the mentor would be  very involved. Um for sure. Okay. And last one. Um  

137does synergy come into any different languages so  that all parents can engage at that level? Gosh,   that's a good question, Lisa. Synergy is only  translated into Spanish. Thank you. That's   something we could look at because it is a huge  platform that gives parents a lot of information   and if they can't access it, it kind of takes them  out of that. Absolutely. Yeah. I will acknowledge   though we do have all of our consent forms are  translated into a wide variety of languages.   Our multilingual education department has been  incredibly helpful with that and any one of our   providers who's about to start an intervention  would do um you know schedule a phone call with   the multilingual department and one of their  translators to review the intervention with   the family. But it would be very helpful if  they

138could see that progress monitoring and   synergy too. Yeah. Right. Grades and progress and  everything. Absolutely agree. Okay. Thank you. You   guys are doing great work. Thank you, Miss B.  Thank you. I love when we talk about MTSS. No,   this is Yeah. No, it's great because I think it's  really gives us an opportunity to look at how we   can be strategic around um our kids' needs. Every  kid's different. Um and um yeah, I just really   love to have this conversation because we can see  that, you know, we're working smarter. You know,   we're we're trying to leverage resources and be  smart about um our approaches and thoughtful to   look at a child and say, "Okay, like this is  who you are and we're going to meet you where   you're at and we have to figure out what's

139in  our arsenal to make sure that we can um ensure   you access your education." So, thank you so  much for this presentation. Um, a few questions   uh with one I do want to give you kudos because I  don't want to forget. I love that you use the the   case studies in there to show us like these are  different instances of how this the multi-tered   system of support works when you're looking at  academic intervention. You're looking at um you   know students just like not their usual self at  school and somebody a caring adult has recognized   that and we're taking the initiative to address  that. and then looking at okay maybe we might be   looking at um a student needs um individualized um  education plan. So uh I don't think it's it's um   news that my multiple

140of my children access their  education through a variety of these pathways and   um I think that's how we should start to  recognize this is that this is your pathway.   um this is how we're going to ensure that we're  meeting your needs and that you're, you know,   able to succeed and thrive at school because  that's what every child learning every day in   every classroom looks like. I did want to go to  slide 29 where we look at the student study team.   I really appreciated how in the example of um the  MTSS plan that there's a projected end date. So,   can you maybe speak a little bit more about when  we get to an SS SST process? um what does that   timeline look like so that we know okay we're  going to give this amount of time

141to collect   enough information to know what our next steps are  because that information would then based on you   know the presentation it's going to inform how we  uh structure the supports needed for tier two and   three or potentially looking at uh moving towards  um you know further evaluation for a potential 504   IEP key. Sure. I I'll let Katie do I know the rule  of thumb is four to six weeks, but she can give   you some more details. Okay. Yeah, it's definitely  um four to six weeks is a great start and it's   really dependent on the specific intervention  that we've selected. So, some interventions are   designed to be longer in nature than others. Um  but I would think that um quarterly at the very   least just because like even a student on an  IEP who's we've

142decided that that's their plan   for the year. We still have those benchmarks that  we're working towards. And one thing we talk with   our teams about a lot is the longer we wait um  the less likely we are to fix what's not working   right. We don't want to waste anyone's time.  We don't have time or resources to waste. So,   if it's not working and we don't notice that for  four to six weeks, that's already kind of a lot   of time while also balancing the fact that our  staff have incredibly um diverse responsibilities   and full full plates. So, I would say four to six  weeks is a great uh start, but some interventions   are designed to be a little bit longer. For  example, individual counseling, it might take four   weeks before that student trusts me enough to

143even  start talking with me. I did have a teacher tell   me once like I don't understand the kids met with  your you know the social worker you provided three   times and nothing's changed and I was like yeah  you know some habits take a long time to change   and a high school student you know it's just their  willingness to open up to the provider is going to   take three to four weeks so it it really depends  but I hope that answers your question as clearly   as we can. Yeah, that trust is so important.  Um, especially too I think with families and   care providers to, you know, because sometimes  I think uh we families will go into, okay, like   we're having this conversation and you're going  to tell me four to six weeks, but then I'm want  

144like I want an end product, right? Like I want to  know. And um I think that that's kind of the value   that I I would hope parents would and families,  caregivers would um really kind of gather from   this is that this is allowing us the opportunity  to dig deeper and to really know, okay,   this is how we can really learn more about who  our student is that we're working with and how we   can best meet their needs. And it does take time.  So I thank you for that. Um I'm just going to add   real quickly. Sorry to interrupt you. Although  the formal check-in is four to six weeksish,   uh we do expect our interventions providers to be  regularly monitoring progress at the very least   every two weeks. So they might not check in with  the

145whole team, including the parents for four   to six weeks just to give them time to make that  growth, but they're not not checking in with the   student to see if progress is being made of that.  Thank you for that. I think that definitely helps   kind of get the full picture. Um so now to my  other questions. Um I know Dr. Kier you you   mentioned in the last few slides that we um are  you know working to ensure that we're implementing   MTSS across our district and it sounds like maybe  we're not quite fully implemented everywhere. Um   but could you talk a little bit more about how  are we providing regular professional development   to ensure teachers and staff are equipped to  implement tier 2 and three? Sure. Uh so in   terms of the different implementation it it

146could  be just uh different personnel at different sites   do different things and so we we may not be on  the same page of what uh counselors um behavioral   specialists psych school psychologists do. They  may do different things at at different sites. So   just trying to get on the same page of what the  roles and responsibilities are at those schools.   Um in terms in terms of training. So I I believe  prior to me being here I think with the um I can't   think of the name the um the the DI that we did  the training MTS was was in that training um but   I I can't think of if we provided specifically  MTSS as a training lately but there's always   parts of it if we're doing restorative practices  if we're if we're doing deescalation you know  

147there's always some part of MTSS because we're  trained mean in an academic area or a behavior and then um how are we safeguarding for  tier 2 and three and the SST for biases   um that can be harmful to the fidelity of  implementing the supports and the process because   oftentimes I think um that's where we might be  falling short with our subgroups and um there's   a lot value in kind of checking where we're at  in in the process or particularly when it's the   maladaptive behaviors, right? Those can definitely  be triggering to adults and um it's really   valuable that we have appropriate safeguards  and the support to the adults that are trying   to like you know engage in those deescalations  or really focusing on okay the big picture. What   what's the next step here? Sure. I'm I'm

148going  to answer and I'll let my team back me up. I   think one of the things we have to be we have  to focus on the data because sometimes it well   a lot of times particularly if it's behaviors it  can be very emotional and you you may just write   what you feel as a result of that experience.  But we really need to know uh what exactly did   that student do? What what may have triggered that  reaction? And so focusing on the data and trying   to gather that data is is the best way to kind of  safeguard against bias because we're just looking   at the behavior or we looking at the uh the what  a a student is demonstrating and to focus on that   rather than get into anything where uh that a  bias may enter

149in. That's that's what you know   the data is is the is the thing that can kind of  ground that and prevent bias as much as possible. Um, I'm going to continue on with  that. Data is really important. Um,   one of the things we've been working on across our  district is really standardizing the process. Um,   one of the ways that that gap happens is if  we aren't following consistent practices.   uh going back to that tier one review, making sure  that we are actually trying to engage in those   best tier one practices before we're moving on to  looking for other solutions because sometimes the   solution is just better interaction at that tier  one level. Maybe it's behavior per support. Maybe   it's getting to know your students and having that  SEAL connection going on, but that's where that's  

150going to start. Um and we have been doing quite a  bit of training on MTSS. Um the focus for our last   pre-ervices have all been around the instructional  framework, but that engages in the practices that   are involved in the MTSS process. Uh this year  we're focusing specifically on tier one with our   teachers to make sure there is that clarity and to  build out more of that understanding of what they   can do in their classroom. Um and that's something  that we mentioned going into secondary and working   with secondary right now. Really making sure  that we have that foundational understanding   of what can do. We've recently heard from some  teachers that they're concerned about whether   or not they can do certain practices affecting a  tog status. So, we need to make sure we're clear   on all of

151these with the teachers so they know how  to best support their students. I just make sure   that Nelly gets spoken for. Um because that is all  absolutely true and the work that Dr. Mr. Jones's   department is doing helps us as team members call  each other out when bias comes to play. And that's   not a bad thing. I mean, it's not a great thing,  but I say call each other out as if it's like   mean, but what I mean is we all show up with some  bias, right? And we've learned to trust each other   through those community circles that we're being  engaged in, through frameworks like the RIIR. Um,   I can't remember the first R, interrupt,  repair, recognize. Thank you. Gosh, brain U, but   recognize, interrupt, and repair, right? We can  do that when the bias

152arrives uh because of the   skills we're being given through those practices.  Thank you. I really appreciate that. I mean, this   is such a great like connection between our values  and a big piece that stood out was that community.   Like it's really important for the adults who  are implementing this to have strong support and   community because this is hard work and sometimes,  you know, we get exposed to the things that, oh,   I didn't realize that I had that in me and  I need to check it. So, I appreciate that.   Um I do I and I do appreciate the transparency  around um you mentioned in the presentation u   fidelity breaks down um and what do we do because  oftent times I mean I have witnessed firsthand   this year um you know going into a classroom that  you

153have a certain expectation like okay this is   a level two class so I'm going to anticipate that  I'm going to see level two delivery three, right?   And it looks like level four and and um and you're  not seeing a lot of change or um progress, right?   And what are we doing? How are we safeguarding  the MTSS process? Because it sounds like we   have a really great process and it's the fidelity  piece that we need to work on and we need to work   on implementation. How are we making sure that  we can get back on track um when that is getting   when the fidelity breaks down um and you know the  environment is not what we need it to be in order   for the process to work and for our students to  receive the support that

154they require. You know,   you know, I think the thing uh the continual  training is one and then the emphasis on a   system. Uh I I think we we definitely break down  when someone feels that they're by themselves,   that I have a problem in my class. It's a behavior  problem and I don't know how to deal with it and   they need to know where they can get help. And so  uh the training for our teachers, the training for   our administrators, uh for our classified staff,  and then just really oper working with the schools   to ask them how are they working with their  system because if the system breaks down, then   individuals get worn out. And so as we continue  to work with schools, we want to make sure that   their system is working and they have

155a way to  react when a student is is having a problem or a   family is having a problem. So we continue to work  with that communication and continue to work with   uh uh you know putting systems in place that  they are repetitive and consistent and that and   that that's a const that's a consistent thing a  constant thing because of so many schools so many   different cultures and different things like that  but I think the um bringing that to the surface   and working with schools and it's not a slap  anyone on the hand it's just like how can we get   better at serving our students because if we, you  know, we always are learning. So if we if there's   something that we missed or uh something that we,  you know, the young lady in in the

156video caught   that in high school, we hope we would keep catch  catch that much earlier. But consistent learning   uh training around what what the needs are and  just working together as a system are some of   the things that we consistently um want to do.  And just uh you know, thank you to the board   and to our superintendent for just this being  a big uh initiative for us to to do MTSS and   and work with our schools to uh better serve  students. I appreciate that. And then uh last   uh you probably don't have a an answer  for this, but um you had mentioned um   getting back to the levels of implementation. I  I think it would be really helpful um Mr. Riley,   if we could get maybe some more information in a  BC regarding like um

157by region where our schools   are at with full implementation. Um and then I  think that can kind of give us an idea, you know,   of what what we should be setting our expectations  at when when we become aware of um things that   are happening at the school or concerns um and  things like that. And and just to piggy back,   we do have a MTSS uh program implementation.  Uh so we can I can work with Jeremy on because   we are we are doing some refinements to that.  So we can work with that to to get that out to   the the board and everyone to see how we measure  MTSS implementation. Sounds great, Miss Moore. Thank you. In line with what was just said  regarding implementation um on page 42,   um I I also have an interest

158in learning more  about where we are with because for example,   you say solidifying the MTSS process at secondary  sites. So what does that mean? Are have you know   like what stage are we are we um in that process  for our secondary schools? Um you know have we   started are we in the middle of it? um like what  is what does that mean? What does solidifying   that process mean? And then um what what stage are  we in for our elementary sites if we say ongoing   training? And then um how what does it mean to um  implement and assess the fidelity of this process?   So I would like to know that as well because um  you know you presented a lot of great things today   but if we're not implementing those um the process  of those things

159then we're not you know we're not   helping any students. So I would just love to  have more information about that. Um and uh Miss   Davis um mentioned um synergy barriers, another  synergy barrier um potentially with the language   um you know parents may may not be able to access  that um because of language barriers and then I I   mentioned a barrier earlier. So, I just think  that's important to be mindful if if we want   our parents to be able to help their students,  you know, if they can't even access their grades   um easily, then that's a barrier for them to help  their students. So um and I would just I would   like to focus a little my comments a little bit on  academic interventions not to minimize the other   uh interventions but spec uh I was

160really um  intrigued by Juliana and Nah's um you know their   story and as you mentioned Juliana's intervention  came very late in her education and which I mean   I'm I'm glad we were able to help her but at the  same time I think that's unfortunate that it came   so late. And so that's why I want to um kind of  talk about academic interventions and and you you   know we talked about the metrics that you have um  for to make sure that students aren't getting lost   or behind. And if if a student gets um for example  is behind in reading that impacts their education   um you know as we saw with Juliana into their high  school years and and you know their success beyond   high school. Um so and then same with math. Math  is cumulative. If

161a child gets behind in math,   they're just going to keep getting further behind  me because they're not going to understand those   concepts. And so that's why I'm definitely  interested in knowing what our level of   implementation is. Um, and you know, because  I think if we if we really look into this and   fully implement it, we can we can really look at  um we can see that our students are improving.   And I think Mr. Yang mentioned, you know, having  um how are we going to measure this? What are the   metrics? And we discussed that earlier today  as well. So if we're I think that will help us   understand better um the level of implementation  see that implementation um you know in our metrics   and because if our students if we're intervening  in real time um then

162that's going to show in in   the metrics that we decide to measure. So  um I think that's really important. Um, let's see. I I appreciate that we talked about the  homeschool communication and including   parents and decisions and problem solving. I  think that's so important um because you know then   um parents are part of the team and they want to  be involved and they need to be involved and um I think that's about it um for what I had to  say but I I do again I would appreciate more   information on the the level of implementation  um how are we ensuring that um that teachers   are implementing this so that our kids can be  successful and how are we going to measure that?   So that's what I'd like to say. Thanks. Thank you.  Thank you, Mr.

163Vargas. Uh thank you. I appreciate   the presentation. Um I always appreciate uh  having these conversations. Um in particular,   I I think the conversations we had around tier  one are really great because you're talking about   something that every every student is getting. um  sort of sets a foundation not just for the school   day for but for what everything that student is  experiencing. Um and I feel like I like the way   that this is um uh that this is sort of structured  and presented as uh you know something we talked   about as we were doing the activity earlier um is  that every student runs into barriers. This isn't   limited to you know um you know any any one group  of students or anything at all. every student   is going to run into a barrier at some point

164in  their life, in some point in their education. Um,   and this is about getting them through that  and back on course. Um, and it can be academic,   it can be social emotional, it can be behavioral,  whatever it is, right? A student is going to run   into a challenge. And this is really about,  you know, tier 2, tier three is about how do   we get them, you know, back on track. Um and I  I appreciate that it is structured in that way   that it is not and that we the way we talk about  it is about um is not about blaming a student.   it's not that they are you know uh that they  are failing that this is not a punishment that   this is not blaming that this is not you know  this is not a

165bad student right this is not a   um you know this is not a characteristic of them  this is something that they're going through   um and we all have those and reinforcing that I  think is really important um and in part because   as you were talking about during the presentation  right we need parents to be involved in this   process and you know parents are going to be more  resistant if they think that this is a punishment   if this they think that we think their student  is a bad student, right? Then they're going to be   resistant to that. But if we are, you know, um if  we're talking about it in a way where it's like,   no, no, your student's just going through  something and this is how we're going to help   them get through it. Um

166then that's something that  parents see every day, right? They see that with   their kids at home. They know what that's like.  And so, um I think that makes that partnership a   lot easier when we're when we're, you know,  structuring it in a way where it is this is   something that's that's happening that they're  going through. Um, and we're going to get through   it together and we're working on it together.  Uh, I think that's incredibly important. Um, and I think one of the other things that I really  like about this is that it is something that is   very clearly open and available to any student,  right? And any student might go through it. Um,   we obviously recognize through the process, right?  when we talk about our um you know our learning   vision, there are obviously students

167who come  into education um with experiences uh where we   know they're going to need additional support and  we provide that additional support. But there are   also um instances in which we discover a student  needs additional support. Um and that this is for   all of those situations. This is not for any uh  you know any one particular situation but every   student could run into this you know situation at  any time. Um and we have these structures in place   for them. And I think it's important that that  is that that is the mindset that this is this is   for everybody. This is for every student. This is  available to every student. This is something that   we any student might go through. Um this is not  something that one specific group of students is   uh is getting uh

168you know or and others are not.  Um, and I, you know, the last thing that I'll say,   um, is, you know, I, one thing I really like  about the, uh, sort of the vignettes that we went   through is, um, how it illustrates the way that  these different, um, that these are not silos,   right? Academics, behavioral, social, emotional,  these are not silos. They all interact with each   other, right? When a student is experiencing, you  know, stress uh, because of something, right? It   might, you know, appear as a behavioral issue  initially and then it impacts their educational   experience, right? It impacts their academics. It  impacts their relationship to other individuals.   Um, it impacts how they uh view themselves, right?  Their self-esteem. And so all of those things end   up meshing together. And as we start to address, 

169as we start to get down to what the core issue is,   we start to see improvements along the other ones.  Uh, and so, you know, all of these things are   happening at once and it can be hard to pull them  out. And so, one thing I appreciate is this team,   uh, you know, this teamwork and team dynamic in  here where you are working together to pull all   those pieces apart, figure out what is the core  issue that's going on and how are we addressing   it. Um, so that's one of the other things that I  think is important at any time we're talking about   MTSS is that it is tempting to see these things  as silos and to address them as silos, but they're   not. they're all part of one thing and we're  looking at them.

170We're trying to pull them apart,   tease them apart, um, you know, so that we can  examine them, but the impact will, you know, will   be felt across these different things. So anyway,  that's all I have. Thank you very much. Thank you.   All right. I just had a few quick comments. Um,  I love lunch bunch. I had a kid who sat on the   wall and read a book over every recess. So even  just to have him sitting in a room reading a book   with other people around would have been amazing  for him. I'm sorry. You go go first. I'll go and   you can finish. Sounds good. Um I appreciate the  standardization of tracking so we don't lose kids   um as they change our schools. So what's in there  is different, but like that formality that's able  

171for anybody to bring up. I think that's one of  um an excellent so they don't get lost and have a   lot to make up and you don't have to redo all that  work. That's great. Um, I recognize the the double   edge of never too late to help a kid, but how do  we hit this kid so late? Like, how like that's   like a double-edged thing. Um, I want to make sure  we're using our talking points to to communicate   with our parents that can't read synergy. How  are we how can we teach them to get to those   points? And I know it's hard because I know even  at my little school down the street, there's 20   languages spoken and you're going to like fall  over like how how does that happen? the amount   of languages we

172have is always a challenge for  us, but we always want to try to be breaking that   barrier down. Um, I watched PBS grow um since I've  been on the board to like guys remember filling   this whole thing with awards from PBS people. It's  been amazing. So, um, I think there really is when   you're sitting up here, you want to know how it's  going, how we're doing, what the progress is and   and I've seen us successfully build one leg of  this and it's a three-legged stool and we need to   we need to make sure we're doing well on the other  parts as well. And and and what are we missing   like why what are we missing is is an interest I  I I share with the board. So, um, and assessment,   agreeing upon assessments through illumination,

173I  think will help us catch kids before they get to   high school. I I think those benchmarks and  and agreeing that they are districtwide and   that every child at every school in our district  deserves to have the same education and learn as   much as the other children is very important and  we have the same expectations for our children to   graduate knowing those things. So, those were  the things that stood out to me. Thank you   for the work. And Miss Ballerini, just like she  opened the meeting, is going to close this little   conversation part. I have They've all said so many  wonderful things. I just have one question. You   mentioned something called illuminate. I have  no idea what that is. What is it? I'm going   to let Aaron because he does the assessments,  but this is

174just our student assessment system. So um we we still refer to it as illuminate  although it's uh technically data and uh   advice. It's DNA and it's part of Renaissance  now but it is our assessment system. Um and so   we've built assessments across all grade levels.  Uh they are common for all of our students. Um K2   they're tested regularly on core skills. Um the  foundational skills of decoding, blending, all of   the phonics. Um, and at three through six, we have  them tested three times over the course of the   year. Um, and then at high school, middle of term,  end of term for ELA and math. And so those have   been built out and are common. Um, and we have uh  LCAP goals around participation and we're starting   to really look at that data and see where

175students  are placing. Perfect. Thank you for telling me   that. Last question. MTSS guiding coalition. Who  who is on the MTSS guiding coalition? You know,   you put me on the spot to name every person. No,  no, I mean just like who what their jobs are,   that kind of thing, I guess, is what I'm asking.  It you know, it's just a team in which we uh we   look at what training we need to do. We look  at what um you know uh like I said Aaron and   Patty they go out to meet with teams at the  elementary and they're doing this year at   the secondary. Uh we come back and we we see the  needs of the schools and we um put forth plans to   to to increase the fidelity at the schools. So for  example um

176when we when we saw the MTSS uh program   implementation tool that we use we said oh there's  some new measures that we should probably measure.   you know what RFA RFAS are getting followed up  and different things like that. So it's just a   team from the different from equity from CPL from  be a different coalition of us just working on the   systems for the for the district. Perfect. Thank  you so much for that explanation and that's all   I have. Thank you. Great. So um before we Thank  you very much. We're going to move on the consent   agenda. We've had item number five pulled. So, I'd  like to Are there any blue cards on the consent   agenda? Madame President, there are no blue cards  on the consent agenda. So, I'd like to call for a   motion to

177approve items 1 through 4 and 6 through  eight on the consent agenda. I move second. Move   by Mr. Yang, seconded by Mr. Vargas. All in favor?  I opposed. Motion passes. Um, Miss Ballerini,   you wanted to speak to number five. Okay. The  reason I wanted um to pull it is because I just   wanted to quickly kind of just make a point.  Um I saw a post in the other day um that it was   six years ago yesterday that we shut down the  schools with the pandemic and that kind of hit   really hard to me. So I I wanted to to bring that  up and also to say that at that point in time is   when we started doing Chromebooks for everybody.  we had to you guys in technology services did an   amazing job getting them out

178there and you've done  an amazing job since but it has been six years and   I know that we've talked about it a little bit.  Um but I haven't seen anything come forward. What   kind of things are we going to do? Are we going to  um start charging for lost or damaged Chromebooks?   We charge everybody for books and things like  that, textbooks that are lost and stolen. And I   think I think we need to start looking at some  rules that are consistent across the district   because I' I've been out to different schools and  different schools handle things different ways   and that can get pretty messy sometimes. I would  I would prefer if we had a district-wide rules   about how to do it. That's that's the only reason  I wanted to pull it so we could maybe

179have a quick   catch up on that. Sure. Of course. Uh thank you  for the question. Um, so yes, we are developing   some updated guidance on Chromebook replacement,  on expectations for care and long-term management   of our fleet. Um, one solution that we're  working to implement is Ve assessment. Um,   we're collab we've been collaborating with our  developer, the thirdparty vendor that provides our   asset management solution for Chrome OS devices um  to build out a system that will allow school sites   to assess fees for willful damage to devices. Um  we have been partnering with our fiscal services   team to make sure that that fee assessment uh tool  will be in place so that it will leverage existing   systems that we already use to collect fees from  parents and families. Um so that's a collaboration   between EGSD between the

180developer of the asset  management solution and the developer of the   software that we use for fee collection which is  called my school bucks. Um, we need to continue   to partner with our communications team, our  elementary and secondary ed team to kind of get   the word out that this change is coming so that  um information will be available to our parents,   our students and everyone uh involved. Um, we  anticipate having those guidelines on like I   mentioned on replacement expectations for care  uh ready for the start of the 2627 school year.   Um, furthermore, we're partnering with elementary  education to sort of review our onetoone   deployment uh take-home program in our lower  grade levels and looking to see if that's still   appropriate and effective. Like you said, it's  been six years. Um, so those are some that's kind  

181of an update. Any I happy to elaborate on anything  else or partners? Actually, you answered the other   questions I have down here. Exactly. because I  know there's um AB10 is out there that we have   to be able to do go to distance learning within  10 days. So I I know that that is a constraint   that you guys are working within. But yeah, I I I  think it would be awesome. I'm glad we have a date   set that we wanted to do it for next year. I I  think that' be helpful. I've got a lot of friends   in libraries and and they're all asking me when  are you going to make the rules? I don't know.   So, that is why I asked and I appreciate it.  And in case anybody wants to know, um, we are  

182purchasing what was it? 16,000 Chromebooks, $6.5  million. That's $46.25 a piece. Anybody out there   listening, that's a lot of money that we have  going out there. And I'm hoping kids are taking   care of them. And I know that not all of them are.  I just I could spend that $6.5 million elsewhere.   I think we all could. if they could take care of  them. All right. Sure. I appreciate Mr. Barber. I   appreciate of course to just to elaborate on  that a little bit. We are facing some unique   challenges in the industry right now with the um  the in the advent of AI. Um it's driving costs up   um across the board. Storage and RAM is being  devoted to high-end server systems that power   AI behind the scenes. All the AI that everybody's  using day-to-day. And that's

183causing shortages   in the marketplace which is causing increases in  cost. So we actually have an opportunity right now   to acquire some devices to influx them into our  fleet at probably the best cost that we're going   to see for a while probably a couple years before  um this stabilizes this situation stabilizes. So   it's another opportunity that I see for us at this  part at this point in time with this purchase. See   I knew you'd know all that. Thank you. Absolutely.  All righty. You um Miss Moore, did you have   something else you wanted to add? Well, I was just  curious. So, with the 16,000 Chromebooks, is that   to replace Chromebooks that have normal wear and  tear or um or you know that have are do you know   to um not function anymore or Right. Okay. Uh it's 

184it's for for both. It's just it's to influx into   our fleet. It's a a process that we've been doing  over the last several years. We influx every year   with additional Chromebooks. Our initial plans for  Chromebook distribution included um distributing   Chromebooks to first graders, to fifth graders,  and to ninth graders. Um so the expectation is   they would keep them for about four years and  then we would recycle them um through. But what   we found is that through attrition, we we we see  Chromebooks come back to our repair center on a   routine basis for repair. Or maybe sometimes they  just need an update or maybe sometimes they just   haven't been charged appropriately. So we decided  um a couple of years ago to just distribute to   incoming first graders to make sure that they  have a device. Um

185and then through attrition,   we make sure that every school, every student has  access to a device. So there's a pretty extensive   process where our technicians make sure that there  has a pool of devices available for checkout at a   school site. So anytime a student might have a  device that has a problem, they can return that   school site can check out a new device to them and  then that device they return comes back into our   repair center. We do whatever repair is necessary  and then we return it back to the fleet. So,   it's always a kind of a continual um um continual  process that keeps the fleet managed. Influxing   these additional devices will help us with the  devices that eventually reach end of life or   have been damaged to the point where they can no  longer

186be repaired. Okay. And can you just expand   a little bit on you said there's an exploration of  um not the our younger students maybe not taking   their Chromebooks home. Yeah. So we're partnering  with our elementary education team at least at   this point in time to see if you know sending  Chromebooks home in lower grade levels is still   an appropriate course of action. We know that um  some of our lower grade level teachers um have   preference to maybe not send Chromebooks home.  They'd rather have those devices in classrooms.   So, we're exploring that as a particular option.  Um doing so would um change the way that we manage   those devices because they could live in a cart  in the classroom. They wouldn't necessarily go   home. That could eliminate some potential damage.  But like Miss Ballerini alluded to

187earlier, we do   have an instructional continuity plan that we have  to uphold. So we have to have devices available   if we need to switch to distance learning. So all  those are factors that we need to consider. Okay.   Thank you. I look forward to learning more  about what you decide because I think that's   um worth looking into. So thanks. Absolutely.  You have something else. All right. Um,   may I have a motion to pass item number five on  the consent agenda? Moved by Miss Bowwin, seconded   by Mr. Yang. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes.  Okay, we have our lunch break now, you guys. Um,   we're running a little behind. So, if we could  take a break and at 1:15 if we'll start in   close session. And if you need to be finishing up  your lunch, that's great.

188But let's um take a few   minutes to ourselves and then please be back there  for close session by 1:15. Thank you. You say 120. Are there any blue cards on closed  session items? Madame President,   there are no blue cards on closed session items. We are going to reassess for lunch  and close session to address items   one through four on the close session agenda. Thank you for the snake. I'm enjoying it. Are we ready? The board met in close session and no action was   taken. I'm going to adjourn this  meeting at 1:51 p.m. Thank you.