Board Meeting - April 4, 2023

001good afternoon I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Elk Grove unified school district for April 4th 2023 at this time the board will go into closed session to address items one through four on the closed session portion of the agenda I'd like to call for public comment on the closed session items Mr superintendent do I have any blue cards we do not thank you at this time I'm going to close public comment and recess into closed session thank you thank you oh yeah welcome everyone I would like to uh well good evening I'd like to announce that the Board of Education met in closed session and no action was taken the uh let's see we have resumed in person full in-person board meetings unless remote attendance is permitted pursuant to the

002California Brown act live streaming of full interest in board meetings will be available to the public via the zoom platform today's meeting is being video recorded and will be available on the district's YouTube channel now I get to read you a little bit of information about public comment individual speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on each agenda item the total amount of time allocated to public comments by the board will be limited with a total of 30 minutes designated for public comment on an item time limitations are at the discretion of the president of the board public comments may be made about items not on the agenda but within the school district's jurisdiction please note that if public comments are about items not appearing on the posted agenda the

003board cannot take action or discuss the public comment other than to briefly acknowledge the comment uh public comment may be made on all items that are on the board agenda and will be heard when the selected item comes up please note that the board May comment and ask clarifying questions uh on board agenda items individuals may not defer their time to another individual speaker to increase their individual total time Beyond three minutes the guidelines for in-person public comment and participation can be found on the table outside of the boardroom and on the district's website please be mindful that students may be watching or in fact be present you are encouraged to address the board and the public in a respectful manner such that all of those observing from children to adults are made to feel

004welcome safe and valued pursuant to government code section 549-57.9 the board shall not permit any disturbance or willful Interruption 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 the board president may call a recess at any point during the meeting first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance which um will be led by Miss Michael and Uribe and please come on up Miss Uribe and Miss Petrina badgett principal while Mr Vargas Reese reads some nice things about you excellent so as always we've got some comments to read before we get started um David Reese Elementary School is honored to recognize Miss Michael and Uribe as our education partner Michelin and

005her family have been members of our school Community since 2010. four of the five Uribe children attended both David Reese Elementary and James Rutter Middle School the youngest is currently is a current Reese eagle um proud products of our region Miss uribe's children have always been honor students and athletes Helena 18 graduated from egusd and is now a student at CSUS Gabriella 16 plays volleyball and soccer at Sheldon High Nevaeh 15 is part of Sheldon's Academy Pathways for coding Leslie 13 and Jordan 10 are both on the honor roll and participate in sports Miss Uribe stated that she and her husband chose Rhys recognizing that our teachers have shown incredible commitment to her children in her words the bond that they create with their students is just amazing dedicated parents Michael and her husband Mr

006Leslie Uribe Jr have spent many years supporting our school by volunteering for field trips academic events and in the classroom Michelin has also Michelin also has other ties to our school Community as she continued to volunteer throughout the years she became a beloved member of our staff when she was selected as our school librarian in 2022 she changed roles and joined our office team as one of our amazing school office assistants sharing her smile and laughter daily with students parents and staff for these reasons and more we at David Reese Elementary celebrate the Uribe family and Miss Uribe as our awesome partner in education and if you'll please just stay down there one second friends family you're welcome to come up to take a picture thank you again congratulations foreign next we'll be moving on

007to our presentations and recognitions first item is our student Regional report from the Florin region which includes Florence High School James Rutter Middle School Florin Elementary Isabel Jackson Elementary Samuel Kennedy Elementary Anna Kirchgater Elementary and David Reese Elementary come on down foreign Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos my name is Diane long Huang my name is Hal Lam and we proudly represent the Florin region we're excited to let you know about the many great things that have been happening in our schools we have compiled a video to shine light on how our foreign region schools have helped students along their path of Education here you'll see the different aspects of our five elementary schools James Rutter middle school and Florin high school that make the student experience truly special please enjoy

008skater which is more than just a student community I believe that education is about more than just academics it's about Offspring relationships building character and creating a safe and supportive environment where everyone can Thrive whether it's through one of our many extracy of clubs that are always ongoing sports teams from parents student lunch days or any of the other student-run awareness we're always working together to make sure that everyone feels connected and valued foreign do something I love at the same time [Music] because we are in the library right now and encouragement yeah AKA boss shooting Rich Gator is filled with students teachers and families from so many different backgrounds and cultures and every single day it's an opportunity to learn something new from each other um we need that we had a survey for

009students to recommend peer leaders people that they would listen to knowing that I was elected by my peers and my teachers I didn't realize people actually listen to me they are taught here to intervene if they see mistreatment of a student put Downs gossiping things like that we learned uh they had to come to a two-day very long intensive training even if they were off track which they did I learned how to be an ambassador and I've learned that it was okay for you to speak up and speak your minds these students are trained and they are in touch with what's going on much more so much more so than we are as teachers I'm going to notice it and I gotta I think what I'm gonna do about it and then people just say

010things to for another person if you're specifically hurting that one person why let's learn about how to be the best I can be can we have some cool activities for example um how many of you have a um someone you love who's incarcerated or someone you love who's been a victim of violence and you would step across the line if that applied to you nothing was spoken it empowers them um and it provides an opportunity for the climate of the school to be so much better I think it will help them and their families a lot of them talked about you know sibling interactions and we talked about how to look at those interactions and be much more proactive and positive and you know controlling your feelings and responding appropriately yes foreign sixth graders think

011about us what do you enjoy most about our schools enjoy all the tiny teachers I enjoy all the nice teachers and all the nice uh um our school friends most of the teachers are really friendly and help us along foreign Jackson we started a black student union Club students from all different backgrounds gathered a few times a month to learn more about black history our lead Miss Hunter has been teaching them a lot about Black Culture and so far it's going great now we've heard from the older kids so now let's go to the first and third graders what do you like most about our school I like my teacher and all of the kids how we can do math and play I like taking over them kindergarten is where most of all this started

012so let's go see what they have to say about our school what is your favorite thing to do at the school um the worst shot my favorite thing well I like fun Friday Isabelle Jackson also has a gay class so let's go check that out about um things like um vending machines they have much more things that you know you like hate so far we have a lot of things here thank you for watching this presentation and I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget today we're going to highlight some of the reviews and make some Academy Elementary School special this is going to be a challenge because we have one minute and 30 seconds for this presentation and we're already 20 seconds in let's get started many of our students are involved in the

013steam after school program yeah that students go on a field trip to Starbase every year we also have our own garden where we grow fruits and vegetables we have a basketball team we won three games this year we have a band and they make beautiful music together our student leadership team has put together several fundraisers and spirit days remember the spirit wear fashion show how could I forget that was so much fun this year with the help of the Sacramento tree Foundation we planted several treatment on campus let's not forget about Google kids TV at Corpus TV we built several episodes a year about what is going on around campus we have coverage segments of the construction project that went over in the bathroom lights we have functioning School teachers this year we did an

014episode of a recent visits out you can see all of our episodes on our YouTube channel like And subscribe well we're almost out of time we only gave you a small taste of all the things you're most proud of here at Samuel Kenny Elementary School yeah we will not tell you about what we're most part of here at canopy there's no other images in our district that is more diverse than ours our friends and their families represent cultures unfortunately include 21 different languages we all know that it's always a great day today right now foreign [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] just change that say something um [Music] as you can see in the video our flooring region scores have been bursting with activities and opportunities for students to succeed our school Community has been immensely

015supportive allowing us to pay our own paths to success both Liang long and I are proud alumni of semi Kennedy as well as James Rutter Middle School we're deeply grateful for the people culture and support of our schools that shaped our educational experience as young students we were shown the different routes in life that we were able to take and in class we were allowed to express ourselves and develop compassion for our peers for example in our sixth grade year we got the chance to write letters of gratitude and appreciation to one of our classmates every week not only did this experience help our writing and communication skills it allowed us to foster a deeper understanding of how to be a better friend and a more supportive individual organizations like the associated student body or

016student leadership has given us the opportunity to directly contribute to our school community in the process we gain valuable experiences of leadership develop key relationships with other students and were exposed to countless valuable opportunities that allowed us to build on our interests and Passions seeing the assemblies competition lunchtime activities as well as other special events we put together as well as even more applied for reaffirming to us the core values of our schools embracing diversity has always been a key focus of our academic Journey we've long been introduced the different cultures and heritages of our fellow students learning that our differences are what make us stronger sharing our experiences as part of our learning and we're able to see it firsthand with the numerous Multicultural events that take place throughout the year this past week

017Warren High School celebrated our annual Multicultural week seeing a variety of activities organized by our cultural clubs we also witnessed our yearly presentation of flags where students parade around campus in traditional attire furthermore the entire school got to see The long-awaited Return of our Kaleidoscope assembly the celebration about differences does not just take place within Florence High School as you can see here today our region beams with diversity a couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to visit salmon Kennedy for their first annual Multicultural show and got to witness a sense of Pride these students have in their culture and The Bravery they had to step on stage and share with their peers the tradition continues over at James Rutter Middle School where for over 30 years they have celebrated the diversity of their students

018to an annual Showcase of social dancers and singing Acts throughout our years of school we have witnessed firsthand the incredible achievements of our peers who have embraced the principle of hard work and being compassionate to others how and I have seen what our fellow students have been able to achieve in this type of environment needless to say we are glad to have been we're glad to have experienced the love and care of this region and are Beyond proud to represent it foreign we'd like to now leave you with a performance by students at James Rutter middle school thank you this is respect myself thank you for having us wow that was outstanding I feel like uh every region is just throwing down the gauntlet and making it harder for the next one but that was

019fan fantastic the students won't be able to hear me now but I hope their families and principals will please share our appreciation for their fantastic performances and reports before I let everyone go I'd like to recognize the principles of these fantastic schools Mr Rudy Ortega Jr from Florin High School Mr Andrew Johnson James Rutter Middle School Wilbur bialta Florence Elementary School Scott Hadley Isabelle Jackson Elementary School Sandra Brown Samuel Kennedy Elementary School Sherry Sanchez Anna Kirchgater Elementary School Katrina Baggett David Reese Elementary School students are dismissed as are the rest of you thank you so much foreign we're going to move on to our next item we have more Excellence to recognize today just going to give folks a couple of minutes so that we don't have some circulation issues the next item is going

020to be academic recognition of winter student athletes and coaches I'm going to call on Mr rod edmiston and you will be assisted Mr edmiston by my colleague Mr fortina cool good evening board president Charles Espinoza members of the school board superintendent Hoffman Miss Avalos the CD and I'm honored to present to you the winter team GPA champions of the Elk Grove unified school district these student athletes not only Excel in their athletic activity but they are also outstanding students in the classroom the following teams had the highest grade point average at their school this winter at this time I would like to introduce to coach and the captains of our GPA winter champions consumers Oaks High School women's basketball 3.9 GPA coach Paul Towner captains Nicole Tran and Jasmine ruler Aza Elk Grove High School

021women's soccer 3.78 team GPA coach Dustin Hodge Captain zabella Ayers and Emma Wilson High School women's basketball team GPA 3.27 accepting for Coach John gleeser as coach Tina tavernia team GPA 3.27 captains Jada Milton and esses OG Franklin High School they can they could not attend tonight they had a prior commitment but the team was the girls soccer team with a 3.17 GPA Laguna Creek High School men's soccer 3.8 team GPA coach Jonathan Stein captains Hunter Toki and Owen Duncan foreign level family friends if you want to come up to the front of the room to get a picture you're welcome to all right good all right congratulations Monterey Trail High School women's soccer 3.17 GPA coach David Groves Captain jazlyn Malone and Amanda Doe Pleasant Grove High School women's soccer 3.55 GPA Coach Rick

022Rich Morehouse captains Francesca Han and Hala al-bashidi Sheldon High School men's soccer team GPA 3.46 accepting for Coach John little is marzo alikovic captains Aiden alakovic and Alan Murano Valley High School men's soccer 3.25 team GPA coach Luis Leon and Captain Salvador Solas and Edwin Camacho it's like can family and supporters if you'd like to come up to the front of the room for a picture please feel free thank you congratulations to all of our student athletes foreign next we're going to move to resolutions the first of which is the resolution for school bus drivers day I'm going to call on Miss levasser to see if there are any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam president there are no public comments via Zoom for this item thank you Miss levasse or Miss Jamerson

023do we have any blue cards on this item Madam president there are no blue cards on this item thank you Miss Jamerson can I invite Mr Ken blackup to present foreign good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Hoffman staff and community members thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight to read resolutions 67 regarding school bus drivers day the board of education is asked to adopt resolution 67 2022 2023 designating April 25th 2023 as school bus driver's day school bus drivers Day celebrated annually since 2009 was designated by the State Assembly to recognize and draw attention to school bus drivers for their continued and excellent services to pupils in California annually on the fourth Tuesday of April the people of California officially recognized all school bus drivers for their continued and excellent

024services to the Youth of the state the safety of students rests in the hands of trained school bus drivers for up to six or seven hours each day and as such they expend personal time and energy in their initial training maintaining a current license perfecting their driving skills and accruing added knowledge of school bus laws through continuing education classes school bus drivers also often can face natural and unexpected hazards in the performance of their duties while exhibiting patients and kindness towards pupils parents and School staff in the performance of their duties as such the governing board is asked to adopt a resolution to designate April 25th 2023 as school bus drivers day in Elk Grove unified school district in order to draw special public attention to school bus drivers for their continued and excellent services

025to pupils in Elk Grove unified school district thank you Mr Black I'd like to call for a motion to approve resolution number 67 designating April 25th 2023 as school bus drivers day so moved second moved and uh okay moved and seconded by Mr Yang um all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed measure passes unanimously thank you Mr Black and thank you to our school bus drivers next resolution next item is the resolution for high school voter education weeks plural we do it again in the fall I'm going to call on Miss levasser to ask if there are public comments via Zoom for this item Madam president there are no public comments via zoom on this site thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards for this item yes we

026have one blue card for this item uh we have Dean Dal Ben please come to the podium yes thank you [Music] begin hello uh thank you for allowing me to attend and participate in this issue you might be surprised someone wants to speak I'm on something that should be so neutral and unbiased and welcoming however as written I find this resolution very insufficient and biased because there should be absolutely no bias concerning the right to vote but I find a lot of bias in the way this is written wow one of the things that concerned me is the fourth whereas especially among younger voters in the traditionally underrepresented who bring New Life Energy and perspective to the issues I think that statement is not needed in this resolution because it implies there are restrictions that

027do not exist whatsoever there is no restriction other than citizenship and age and I assume if you're convicted of a felony or things like that but by and large there are none of these type of restrictions so that whole statement could be eliminated from this without harming the intent of this resolution also one of the things on the fifth whereas it refers to traits discernment thoughtful deliberation Etc I didn't see the statement of including independent thought as a vital trait in determining the importance of a voter and the voter's right to vote as they see fit I fear that a mob type of mentality or a willingness to belong is an issue that influences voting far more than it should and I would like that aware as to reject that idea and base to the

028value of discernment and education and doing your vote again in the sixth item to be resolved you're giving two weeks for this I think one day would be more than sufficient to inform students about the right to vote and the importance of vote I don't see the schools throughout the district when we're talking about people who are going to be 18 now or in the near future this could probably be a program restricted to seniors without any harm maybe with an introduction to junior year students regarding this and again it includes the word passionate citizen I'm not sure you know what it means when you say a passionate citizen so I think we should look at this I think it should be a one-day resolution and certainly I think the district must specify the allowed

029material that is allowed in this because we don't want the teachers political views to impact or provide bias to any of the material that is covered regarding telling students the importance of registering to vote exercising their vote knowledgeably without bias with the best needs of themselves in the community thank you very much thank you I'd like to invite Mr one second okay so we have no more blue cards um I'd like to invite Mr Chad Schweitzer up good evening board president Jairus Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss obelis Chad Schweitzer assistant superintendent for secondary education here tonight to share information on our voter education weeks California Education Code actually designates the last two weeks in April as high school voter education weeks voter education weeks provide an opportunity for students become active

030and engage participants in our democracy and to put these students on a path to a lifetime of Civic engagement and voting we strongly encourage our high schools and students to participate in high school voter education weeks and to engage in activities like pre-registration voter registration and mock trial activities monitor tonight to have Bianca Brown and Braden Medlin with us here tonight Bianca and Braden are Commissioners from the Sacramento County Youth commission and we've partnered with them for the past several years as they reach out to us annually to ensure the resolution is in place and to provide us with educational materials and help promote voter registration turn it over to Bianca and Braden hello as he said my name is Bianca Brown and I am the chair of the Sacramento County Youth commission I am

031joined here today by Braden Medlin the commission's secretary as well as an active voter pre-registration subcommittee member within the youth commission as well as in our daily lives we aim to promote Civic engagement for all members of our community especially fellow youth young people are a future yet historically people aged 18 to 21 are grossly underrepresented in elections therefore it is even more important that we all implore high schoolers to become more engaged in their communities and the key to engagement is education it is for that reason that we truly command all of you for your role in introducing this resolution recognizing the Spring High School voter education weeks for many years our commission has collaborated with Mrs Soriano to pass this resolution and thankfully Mr Schweitzer has continued your school district's Legacy of encouraging

032and priority prioritizing voter education this year thank you again I think I'm just going to have you both do this next year for me uh so with that the governing board of Elk Grove unified school district has asked to approve resolution number 69 and to declare April 17 through 28 2023 as our high school voter education weeks and encourage schools throughout the district to participate in programs and activities that help students get registered to vote and become informed and civilly engaged students thank you Mr Schweitzer Thank You Youth Commissioners I'd like to call for a motion to approve resolution number 69 which proclaims the period from April 17th through 28 2023 as high school voter education weeks so moved second moved and seconded all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed none it

033passes unanimously I'm hoping we can get a quick picture with the board colleagues you'll join me down there foreign thank you next item on our agenda will be public comment I'd like to call on Miss levasser to see if there are any public comments via Zoom for items not on the agenda Madam President we have four public comments via Zoom thank you the first uh public comment is Gandhi branches one second when we set up the screen foreign if we can't get that to cooperate we can use the counter the timer in the room as well okay our apologies to folks waiting at home we're just trying to get the technology to cooperate okay there it goes um I think we just switched screens go ahead hi hi are you able to hear me yes

034go right ahead okay hi my name is Gandy wrench I'm a parent of uh two students in the Elk Grove School District with two more to come um last week there was comments about book Banning and I think this follows a nationwide Trend where a lot of people who are requesting for books to be banned are community members stakeholders versus actual parents in the elementary school my concern is what we've seen when people are allowed to start Banning books is what's happened in Florida there are hundreds of books that have been banned now Classics one of the ones that uh touches me personally is fry bread which is a non-offensive book just about Native American Heritage that's been banned we see books that have been banned by LGBT authors and topics books on Race um

035I think the Elk Grove School District is very diverse and we need libraries and elementary teachers that understand that diversity and celebrate that diversity we don't need to be banning books in the state of California it doesn't represent Elk Grove values it doesn't represent California values um there's talk about things being pornography and I really feel like this boils down to a conspiracy theory I worked covid as a registered nurse and dealt with all sorts of conspiracy theories during that we were actually subject to a lot of verbal abuse physical aggression and you know there were so many conspiracy theories we were giving people covid with covid tests etc etc and I see that same kind of conspiracy theory logic coming into this book Banning where people who believe that there are pedophiles in the

036school libraries are trying to turn kids gay that kind of thing has become the next covid conspiracy and I really think the Board needs to determine how they're going to protect teachers how they're going to protect Librarians in the last meeting we had Librarians referred to as groomers insinuating that they were pedophiles I think that's unacceptable Behavior schools for every child um and shouldn't be limited by people who find diversity offensive um there's a difference between free speech and slander when I worked in the hospitals during covid with I think a lot of the same population that's now wanting to ban books creating Havoc with the different covid conspiracy theories our hospitals get a lot to ensure our safety and I just think the Board needs to decide how they're going to move forward what

037stakeholders should be involved in any discussion of book Banning and what protections are going to be in place for our Librarians for our elementary school teachers I really appreciate both of those groups of people and everything that they do for our children and so I just wanted to share my support for them and for their knowledge and curating the wonderful libraries that we have in Elk Grove School District thank you next a public comment Charlotte Furtado yeah um next public comment Dustin Noble thank you can you hear me yes go right ahead sir thank you good evening members of the board of superintendent Hoffman I'm sorry I could not be there in person as I'm under the weather tonight I want to take a moment to encourage members of the special education Community to attend

038the April 18th board meeting I understand there will be a robust presentation on special education I want to say that I'm eager to see this presentation as many parents are as well as the parent workshop on April 12th participation is critical for families wanting to be part of the solution and shaping special education and the Elk Grove unified school district over the last seven months EG speaks has pushed for change Solutions and data collection to help identify campus sites that have been struggling to support students on an IEP and the inclusion program as well as other levels programs board members you have heard us attended our special events and have engaged with our community and I'm thankful for your investment I plan on having an open mind and am hopeful that this presentation on the

03918th will yield answers to the questions we have asked solutions to the struggles we have faced and shared with you and a clear path forward for students and families while I am optimistic I will also be viewing this presentation with a critical eye as I expect board members to do as well having heard our voices at every board meeting for seven months now a plan we want a plan specifically I expect a plan with contingencies we all know that changes to sped this year were shaped around Staffing deficits while this district has invested in hiring and bettering wages over the last few months I know that any plan that is proposed for sped will revolve around Staffing if that fails what is the backup plan to ensure all kids on an IEP have their services

040met these are the things we should all be paying attention to to Mr Riley you have had seven months to prepare for this knock it out of the park deliver to families and to your staff deliver to every kid on the IEP out there delivered to my son they all deserve a win thank you thank you okay and the last uh public comment via Zoom Brandon Morgan go ahead Mr Morgan whenever you're ready all right thank you president chariz Espinoza board members and superintendent Hoffman normally I'd get on here to jump into discussion of the ongoing failures of the district after changes to the inclusive Ed program and I'll get back to that next time today though on a national school librarian day I understand that there's people in the room that are looking to

041ban books from our school libraries many of them are probably well-meaning and good-hearted but it's important that we understand book bends through the book bands through the lens of history and where it can lead there's currently a national momentum from conservative religious groups for book bands that is paired with other movements targeted at the lgbtq and black communities this is not dissimilar to what happened in Germany and Italy during the 1930s rise of European fascism when the Nazi party took over power in Germany in January of 1933 one of the first things that the party did was ban books and curriculum from schools in order to align education with party ideology this was followed in May by a national national wide book burning and primarily consisted of books written by Jewish authors but also books

042that contain Concepts that did not align with the party nor the Evangelical and Catholic churches of Germany such as those containing information about sexual and gender identity the party believed that homosexuality was a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the German people and because of that they destroyed the Berlin Institute for sexual research burning its archives and it is presumed that the first transgender woman to receive a successful assignment surgery was killed on site or shortly after a while in prison July of that year laws extended to forcibly sterilize people that were determined by the party to have a disability or disease considered hereditary and therefore they were a life Unworthy of life things continue to get worse and worse until eventually the Jewish disabled and lgbtq communities were exterminated under the under Hitler's Final Solution now

043this may seem like I'm talking extremes and I'm hoping with all my heart that this is just me worrying about a slippery slope that will never happen but fascism is real and Germany isn't the only place where we've seen this happen to those who seek to ban books they may just be thinking they're protecting kids from pornography or obscenity two terms that are clearly defined in U.S laws and have standards in place to protect minors from them but many historians and experts on fascist ideology are seeing a bigger picture come into Focus here book bands are just to start with fascism but when you look at laws being passed in other states the scope is getting wider and wider not only are these laws charting targeting the lgbtq and black communities but States like Georgia

044have used their gender affirming Caravans to link transgenderism and autism painting both as something that needs to be corrected so I hate to even ask how long do they come for my autistic children how soon will they come after the lgbtq community what about the black and Jewish kids in our district or any other community that does not identify as part of the group in power My Hope Is that we look at the bigger picture that our ideologies are feeding into read history books understand the past and avoid failures because if we don't we are designed we are doomed to repeat history's mistakes and embrace fascism draped in a flag on a cross which deserves No Quarters here thank you got the last one miss levasser okay thank you Miss Jamerson do we have blue

045cards for items not on the agenda yes we do uh first up we have Richard Atkins Atkinson followed by Emilia Mendoza my name is Richard Atkinson and I'm very disturbed that you went ahead and had the vote on a Thursday morning at nine o'clock when parents weren't able to attend for the comprehensive sexual education it you know California discrimination laws protect people against being discriminated for their gender for their their religion or their sexual orientation I am a Christian I'm a male I'm heterosexual and so as a Christian you cannot discriminate me or my children who are also Christians because they believe a certain way it says very clearly you know whether you believe it or not God is the creator of the known universe and there will be consequences it says in Matthew chapter

04618. verses 6 if anyone causes one of these little ones those who believe in me to stumble it would be better for them to hang a large millstone around their neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea he doesn't mix words okay no one should teach a child about sex except their parent if you just say it out loud I'm going to let an adult I do not know talk to my child about sex that doesn't sound right any person in any other situation got caught talking to a child about sex that didn't know that child would get beat up it's not right and you know it's not right it's against God you think of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah he burnt that City to the ground and anybody who even so

047much has looked back at that City got turned to salt God is very clear how he feels about this and I have a right if you can't discriminate against religion you can't discriminate against me being a Christian you can't it's California discrimination law you cannot discriminate against me for being a Christian big woman hard about this God this is the red letters this is Jesus Christ himself speaking these words it's a quote in Red Waters God himself said this how did God help you for the consequences coming if you don't pay attention and then you wonder why is there less environment I do not believe you're that ignorant you gotta know what you're doing because we're making mistakes and there's going to be less and less enrollment starting with my three kids Please wrap up

048thank you um emelina Mendoza followed by Nicole strange at the last special board meeting that took place during the day for members of this board approved in haste the seventh the fifth and seventh uh sexual education curriculum despite the fact that the seventh grade curriculum still not available for parents to review the website is working I've been there many times but only an outline of the seventh grade curriculum is available to see not the curriculum parents we need to unite and defend the innocence of our children we must put a stop and speak against the sexualization of our children this curriculum is incentivizing children to Rise Against their parents who do not share or agree with gender ideology this curriculum is anti-christian beliefs and some members of this board wanted to approve it quickly before

049parents became aware of the content of this curriculum since we're not occurred by this board or members of this board because only four voted for this curriculum one was missing at that meeting the student board was absented absent in the afternoon session and two of the board members tried to move the topic to the next regular or meeting but no four members of this board decided that they were going to approve that curriculum right there and then so parents it's up to us we need to speak up if our kids with our kids um I wanted to say that um the way I think that the board will listen to us or the district will listen to us if I keep our kids out of the school during the days that those classes are taking

050place do not send our kids to school and if you're more kids are not in school the school board is going to lose a lot of money and perhaps then they will listen to us we're the people will the taxpayers pay for every salary of every employee of this district and we must have a saying what is being taught to our children in our schools our children are not property of the state and they need to be treated as human beings with dignity therefore their innocence must be protected and should not be violated by inappropriate sexual content that exists in this curriculum yes we must stand up and send a message let's unite and let the bird know how we feel about this curriculum thank you thank you next speaker Nicole strange followed by Amanda

051Conklin good evening board members Nicole strange a member of afscme a data processor at Pleasant Grove High School um today my hope is not to cry I'm kidding um today I'm here to talk about our staff morale um I was in a data processor meeting earlier today and the district is rolling out a new practice to data processors um where it specifically impacts us and our daily job and I'm really here to talk for or with my people um in that through this process of being extremely short staffed and rallying every day to fill all of the empty positions the directive that has come down that we absorb the summer school enrollments whereas in the past it's something that we didn't do it definitely tipped people's cups on that Zoom call this morning I want

052to say every single data processor and registrar was crying because we have a data processor speak up and talk about her plate being over full working set working seven days a week so she does her um 7 45 to 4 15 for the district Monday through Friday and then on the weekends she works a second job just to make sure she can make ends meet and she still has to decide which Bill she pays or if she puts food on the table she spoke up during this meeting and said I like I don't have more to give which all of us are feeling that way the morale is low and it was just one extra hit you know to the data processors who've been the ones covering the SOA positions and the registrar Acquisitions and

053the attendance Tech positions and stuff that we're having a hard time to fill um and it's not so much that we're not willing to work because because this entire year we've shown that we step up and we do the extra work that's not within our job description it's the fact that the summer school people that get to be hired as 10 monthers and they come in and they fill over the summer they're getting a really nice lump of cash during that time period making double you know our monthly salary while we're doing stuff that helps them make their jobs easier as well and that can be hard just a hard pillow to fill to swallow or hard to palette right um and so that's kind of what I would love that's just a part of

054the morale and why almost every person on that call was quite upset um so I would love for a bit of love and support from our board members to show our data processors and registers who are killing it every single day covering those positions thank you so much you guys Amanda Conklin followed by Cecilia Hendon okay hi guys um my name is Amanda Conklin this is my first time speaking at a board I've been to several sitting out in the albanians and watching some board members I do know in person so um I'm the registrar at Elk Grove High School I've been the registrar since uh 2019 when I got in seat came in uh end of April and had graduation thrown on my lap I thrive in chaos luckily um did I get any

055training no uh learned it all myself had to figure it out reaching out to some of the best people ever the other registrars and DPS working it we had the pandemic through another you know mess of everything um Elk Grove High School in particular holds a very strong place in my heart my mother worked there 10 years ago for 10 years um she loved it I loved it because she loved it I get to be part of that Thundering Herd tradition my students are there I have a sophomore and a junior they're part of the award-winning blue and gold regiment it's amazing but I won't be able to continue to work as this keeps going with these rates the wage is too low and I'm not even the bottom of ask me I'm middle I

056work full time I can't take advantage of summer school because I'm a 12 monther but yet of course we work on it as Nicole said um it's really hard because the living wage in Sacramento for a family of four that's two working adults and two Stu and two kids is 27.64 per adult so that means both of you are pulling in that rate with our increase but we still don't even hit that and that's me that's not even the lowest so it makes it even harder because I'm not fighting for me I am but I'm fighting for everyone else too I'm fighting for this single mom who cried in our meeting it's unacceptable um I was hit by a vehicle last week I can't afford the deductible it's 500 that's really sad um and I'm

057not the only one people are deciding to put food on their plates or pay a bill as Nicole said and I just want to know have you ever sat down and tried to figure out how your life would work on our pay what would you give up what could you afford um I just implore you to sit down tonight tomorrow whatever look at the amounts see how you would make it work how would you afford a house because honestly I couldn't I was priced out for years I could only afford I couldn't afford an Elk Grove so of course I had to go further and as it sits now I'm not going to be able to afford to even work at Elk Grove and we're number one in Northern California it's not okay and I

058know you guys appreciate us and I want to see it thank you guys Cecilia Hendon followed by Teresa Stein um good evening um um beforehand I'm gonna apologize my acts and get worse when I get nervous I have been working with the district since 1999 when I came to the district I was working at the private sector uh minimum wage was five dollars an hour then when I was working I was making double that private sector District offered me 13 an hour but and that was the beginning I started working that was the best decision I love it my kid I live in Alcove my kids went to Elk Grove so it was one of the best decisions but lately I decided that's my first time in this meeting I had been thinking about it

059for a while and the reason it is because I don't feel appreciated before I used to when I started I was making more than double the minimum wage now 23 years later I made what six eight dollars more minimum wage I feel that I you know my my bottle has been depreciated I have been working so hard for this District I love it also we are under staff even though they don't recognized it as an example my school I'm coming from Las Flores high school that registrar from last year's high school left the district in 2021 because now they don't have it register we get staffs they live but for Las Flores we haven't get a register the register for a dealer because that's two schools are combined she left in 2020 maternity leave never

060returned we had a stop for a register up until November of last year that we get the registrar from another school that she moved to our school that was great but she realized how hard it was the job because she decided to go somewhere else then we have to hire somebody from outside the district with no experience at all and we have to train it while she's learning and everything we have well I'm say we but we have to pick up this block you know for a bit of time when they combine the two schools and and mainly it's four schools that is Virtual Academy that is hey great and Las Flores high school and Baylor High School I was doing all the enrollments all the data processor and I was doing great on top

061of that because there was no registers and at the salary and like they could say the last year the race that we have it was super thin first timer was laughing you know because one percent of that has to be paid to um do you need that will be one percent has to go to the benefits that we have to pay for it now I don't know how people survive well I know how fairly when I started working at the district my ring was 150 Please wrap up okay now it is 2 000. crazy thank you Teresa Stein followed by Daniel Kane good evening board members and superintendent Hoffman my name is Teresa Stein I've been working with the school district for 20 years after leaving A Private Industry to come work for the district

062to be closer to my boys um I started at calvine in September of 2019 as the registrar I did come from Pleasant Grove High School which I was there for 13 years as the registrar at that time I even felt like I didn't I wasn't appreciated and I wasn't heard very good but I worked so hard at Pleasant Grove High School and they loved me I loved working there um when I came to calvine we were already short staffed um there should be three people the secretary the registrar and the data processor when I first started there there was only two of us so I was doing the registrar data process or attendance Tech attendance phone calls student contact log um grades entering new enrollments going ahead and doing an orientation with my vice principal

063and looking over all the paperwork for the new enrollments to make sure that um the parents have every single document they need to enroll in our school I do like working for calvine it's a great school I love the students the staff they appreciate me I appreciate them so very much um I just want to say and also covet hit which meant that not only did we have to answer phones and deal with the parents and everything else and all the phone calls and questions we didn't have a health Tech so we had to try to figure out what to do what to say what guidelines there were for the covid um all the schools have been short staffed yes they have we all deserve so so much more so I stand in solitude with

064my fellow registrars and data processors please take care of your dedicated hard-working employees thank you Daniel Kane followed by Dean dalbin oh man it's freezing in here that's all I'm going to tell you well it wakes us up right so uh let's get this clock oh my God already jeez yes there you go thank you Hallelujah good evening board members I want to remind you that you were chosen by the people of Elk Grove because you want to make a difference in this world and especially in this District many classified staffs in the districts are struggling because of the inflation many of them have two to three jobs just to survive this world and many of them get their checks and about a thousand two thousand because half the money goes in their benefits and

065their package it's not fair I was in education for about 10 years and then I'm seeing me as one of these amazing people making a difference in the school as I work at Sheldon High remember why you became part of the school board and superintendent you were raised in Elk Grove you were a teacher and an educator and you made a difference but now as a superintendent you make more as a difference for this world and the community we're asking you as the board members to really look in your hearts and see why you're up there many people are struggling with their Finance we are 1.15 billion dollar School District where is the money going we have many people are struggling and it stinks when they see that check and they're crying you are the

066people that are making a difference and the people in velcro voted for you guys to make that difference because when you go home definitely pray definitely see what is your mission and your vision of this District because we're here because of our students I made way more money at a different sector now I'm making less but it's not about that it's about me making a difference with my staff and colleagues to really teach our students about the vision of this world we promised them many changes our District's supposed to be a family and we need to be that family again we used to be a number one District I've heard many good stories about Elk Grove now we're not that great we need to make us great again and show all these other districts we

067can kick butt and we're better than you let's take care of our staff take care of our people and trust me more people are going to come here and work for you and make this place better that's all I can tell you make a difference make an impact because the futures of your kids will probably stand right here where I am you are where you're supposed to be make that difference and not only that be you always be you and don't be afraid to speak your mind we're not a politician world we are here for the kids the family and these people here thank you for your time have a blessed day and have a great day being Dao Ben followed by Heidi Moore thank you again members my name is Dean dalb and I

068have came to Elk Grove in 1991 and one of the reasons I picked Elk Grove was because of this school district I'm very proud of my children who have graduated from this District I'm proud of my grandchildren who are about to graduate well one has and another is about to and my younger grandchildren who are attending the elementary school thank you for that but what I can't thank you for is the direction the district seems to be taken I want to point out an important thing I contacted the district office around mid-march concerning uh issue that happened at Pleasant Grove High School regarding their Multicultural uh assembly that occurred on March 3rd I had some questions about that and I want to recognize the Florin region and the diversity shown in that region and I

069would put it to you that the diversity shown in that region doesn't really reflect all the diversity that we see in the Elk Grove School District it focuses a little bit more in some areas a little bit less than other altogether where one big happy family but I think we're retrained to redefine what Multicultural means it's not just a race an ethnic group it's not a word that means a nation it's far more than that but what I see that word Multicultural expanded to is shown basically with what happened at Pleasant Grove High School when they had a multicultural assembly that was mandatory that included a group that I would say emphasizes uh the transgender uh persona I don't know what nation what ethnic group what race what culture transgenders come from I suppose transgenders

070come from every part of the world but to identify them as a specific Multicultural group I think we're taking that word and turning it into nothing it was mandatory again the performance included political things disregarding the unifying need and calling out certain States the district was called on this parents were outraged the district doubled down as hell that was a fair thing to do I see that the district has a gender support plan I would like the district to really clearly identify what gender is what Multicultural is and realize we need to watch out as another person said about the innocence of our children are we going to protect that and and so far as the issue of books I think we're the people who spoke today they're going to the most extreme arguments about

071that but I think all of you would say there are books that should not be in school libraries and you don't want to burn let me wrap up please we don't want to burn all books but I think we could all trust our Librarians and you to make sure the right books are in the library not to damage innocent children thank you Heidi Moore followed by Marissa Bitcoin good evening um I'm still waiting for any kind of response from Mark curetty about the most recent pornographic books I found in District Libraries that have been brought to his attention I found a new book today that is available in my children's library at Catherine albiani middle school and pghs yes that means this is available to children as young as 12. I would advise all parents

072to check your child's Library please be advised the following content is explicit and unbearable to read the book is titled identical I found more than 50 pages containing sexual content many of those pages contain explicit detail of a father molesting his 10 year old daughter these are excerpts from Rage 150 and it depicts the following a girl witnesses her father molest her sister in graphic detail the father tells his daughter to climb on his lap unbuttons his pants to expose his penis that is described as being as stiff as a stalagmite he says quote see how much Daddy loves you show me you love me too he then tells her to touch his penis to close her fingers around it and then rocks his body when her dad is finished it says quote confused at

073the tears and the sticky stuff icing her hands still Kaylee pleaded don't cry daddy didn't I love you good enough yes you loved me good enough so very good but it's our secret okay it's okay to have secrets between daddy and his girl I was so sick when I discovered this book I hope it disgusts everyone in this room sadly there are individuals in this District likely in this room that are choosing to provide this material to our children I would like to know who chooses this disgusting material the district refuses to tell me who that is if I cannot my child out of sex ed how can you not notify me that these materials are available to my kids I found topics such as molestation pedophilia oral sex anal sex rape of a minor

074prostitution of a minor Dental damning porn animal molestation masturbation and more I'm asking the board to implement an approval process before books are placed in libraries and classrooms there needs to be checks and balances implementing a board policy for approval of new books would also provide transparency to parents and the community which the district clearly does not want to provide this is about sexualizing our kids you can call it what you want but it's absolutely about sexualizing our kids um and I will say this every time if you have nothing to hide then don't hide it and I believe that everyone would want an approval process and transparency because parents deserve that um that's what we want is transparency no one has told me about these books I found them um we should be aware

075that this is available to our kids um I will continue to find books and I will continue to expose them I will not stop until I receive answers thank you all right so Bitcoin followed by Moises Garcia good evening I have a statement from a parent tonight that was not able to attend egusd board we moved to egusd because of the reputation of special education it has been a process to learn all the complexities of special education for many years I have been disputing the progression of academics in my son's education when the model of levels was implemented academic stunted and my my concerns grew even greater I would ask myself why is my son continually two to three years behind with every grade level and I not trust what the IEP team says why

076do I feel like they don't know my son as a human being with talent and always given the runaround what do they mean by frustration level in his goals and living skills why is my son not learning grade level social studies science geography Etc why is level one to be determined why do I feel discriminated as a Latina and as a family with disabilities why is a child with autism automatically labeled moderate severe level when autism is a spectrum why doesn't my child get report cards and taking the alternative state test when he is capable of the regular I approached the IEP team with my questions and I would be given a convenient excuse or just silent blank stares I have never truly felt part of the IEP team with no communication transparency I learned

077that if the IEP the IEP says frustration level in the goal it means that the district stops further grade level progression of that goal for example third grade frustration level means that with all the support the district can provide to the child the district deems the child cannot learn Beyond third grade at that time my son is now in fifth grade and middle school is approaching and speaking with Melissa Stoneman the special education coordinator who has taken over my son's education her heavy presence in the IEP blocks communication directly with the IEP staff every communication must include her the staff looks emotionally threatened this is not an education she called my son a legal case not by name you would think Melissa created these levels the way her logic refuses to understand a different perspective

078Melissa has pushed my son out of the district I intended to stay in for a long time I've asked the district to create a cross-categorical curriculum for my son for least restrictive environment the district has refused to do so second or third grade is too early to make a major academic decisions about her kids lives its high school diploma track or certificate of completion um Elk Grove unified has a huge gap it's either general education with pretend inclusion with removal of inclusion Specialists or level 2 self-contained special day class other districts in California have placements in between or where children can cross categories I urge any parent with the same concerns not to sign IEP and contact EG speaks for support within their Network backup District to provide more inclusive opportunities for our children from

079Anna Soriano level 2 parent and Multicultural change agent thank you Moises Garcia followed by Leonard Camaro good evening as a father I'm trying to wrap my mind around this and just feeling a ball to find books like this that are really disturbing that I cannot understand how as board members you're up here and are elected by the people to protect the children to look for their well-being and that's not the case because if that was the case we would be teaching them what they need in order for them to be successful to be successful you don't need to be taught sexuality you need to be taught how a father can molest his daughter and a daughter be confused and not knowing if it's right or wrong how is that that we're not trying to protect

080them like they should I have a seven-year-old daughter I'm trembling just to even read this this is disgusting that is being allowed I I don't care what you guys do in your private bedroom that is your decision that is your uh right to do whatever you want but with our children you don't have that right if you were put up here was for a reason to be protective of them if kids don't have somebody to protect them because she is saying here I don't have I don't know who to go to because this is something that feels wrong but if I uh who who can I go tell who's going to defend me if an adult my father is the one that's doing this to me and then the district the school the teachers are

081not doing nothing about it I can't even confide in them because obviously they're the ones that promoting this I rely on this to be in my school how is that possible I'm not saying that every single one of them is but there's agenda again on this there's people that are wanting to for this to be there because if not it wouldn't be written it wouldn't be putting into the to the um libraries if this wasn't the case so how can you sit there and and say that you're for protecting the children when you're not doing that it doesn't it seems like you're more interested in your salaries you're more interested in what you're getting put and staying positive because if not They're Gonna Let You Go how can you sleep at night how can you

082go and see family members and other kids running around and saying that you're doing what's best for them you're not you're here to protect them the people that you're up there the people can take you out they can remove you you need to understand that the best interest for the kids is why you're up here you will be judged and judgment comes to everybody the way you act the way you do the way you think the things that you do you will be judged especially against the kids really think about that Leonard Camaro last one and then I have one son hi mom um first of all I want to agree to apply that uh good night to you all school board members president and uh uh uh parents and everybody here in the room

083I'm Filipino and I will contribute what I doing in this country I'm glad to invite me here to talk about to share my ability and my talent so mom uh I'm built a community of service in Good Deed in the Philippines like doing good to the community like serving others like who need most especially those people no need they have enough to make them like good better life in this I'm Filipino we seeking a good heart like God knows I am I speak today um I built a community like donating blood feeding program plantry donating school supply and help those homeless people and clean great clean area not only your your side corner or your house do also your heart and mind because the people of hit of our heart be truth the way the

084truth and the life that's what I am and I am graduated in the Philippines aircraft technician course and license uh civil aviation Authority and I am a preacher also and I read too many bibles so many religion and too many voices so when the choices every color every few but I represented me and you but I'm doing good peacefully and came here um I learned music I learn martial arts and I do and I share for all that they need guitar or something that parents and teachers together to help each other that I believe that we have we're seeking um we the suburbs of Filipino people exploring the aid of almighty God in order to build a human society and establish the government that shall embody our ideas and aspiration promote the common good conserve

085and develop our patrimony and posterity the blessing of Independence democracy under the role of law regime the truth justice Freedom quality and peace and sharing God um thank you for all and you can read my voice I'm uh they call me scientist in the Philippines medicine and I have a cure for flu and maybe in the future please make um uh maybe uh you came in your mind your comments please yeah and I share my knowledge about that uh maybe in the future HIV made me because I had the people thank you thank you thank you thank you I love you that is the end of the uh public comment for items not on the agenda thank you Miss Jamerson that concludes public comment next item on our agenda is come on no we'll get

086closer next item on our agenda is consent Miss levasser do we have any Zoom comments for items on consent Madam President we have no public comment via Zoom for this item thank you Miss Jamerson do we have blue cards on consent yes we have blue cards for item number 31 on the consent Mr Dow Mr Dean Del Ben up sir well again board members thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity I did not originally plan to speak on any other items so at the ones that I've already mentioned to you but when I got the agenda here and I saw these consent items I probably predict that we have no idea what the total sum of money is going to be authorized by these 36 items when I looked at this one caught

087my eye that I thought I'd take some time to look at item 31 instructional materials adoption it lists 14 texts and none of this shows how many books are going to be purchased what the subtotal is for each separate item for the cost what number of books are needed for what number of students I looked at some of the titles of these and uh you're adopting all these instructional materials that were reviewed and approved by the appropriate committees and the principles but before I continue I want to make sure you understand one important fact I am not a fascist okay please take me at that word what I'm doing when I give my statements to you is trying to be as objective and clear and rational as I can one of the things I look

088at this is I pick item number eight ideas in argument I was wondering what is the content of that book and surprisingly I see that you could buy it on Amazon for I think around ninety dollars uh or more and I don't know what the price is that the school is going to be getting the district's going to be getting in this but I would have liked to see that information included with this because if all these 14 books I have no idea the total budget for getting all those things now in ideas of argument it promotes diverse voices of examples such names as Trevor Noah Edward Snowden Brian Stevenson who's a social justice lawyer mainly Colleen if you watch the office you know her Kamala Harris Kareem Abdul-Jabbar JD Vance a republican conservative Senator

089Harvey Milk uh a personal mispronounced Tynisha Coates who is a writer on blacks and the issues of white supremacy and more this is hardly a diverse group but we're going to be giving this as a a textbook for students in the district I think you should look more carefully see what the recommendations are how many different books they looked at for each of the type of topics that are designed for these books American government stories comparative government stories authoritarian States I don't think you really know what is the content of those books but because a committee and principals who did not take the time to look at all the choices they they're recommending this you're going to give them a blank check so please be careful thank you that is the end of public comment

090for uh consent agenda wonderful thank you uh I just want to clarify um for those uh on the board and anyone watching that the reason that the dollar amounts associated with those instructional purchase instructional material purchases are not included here is because that is not what we are being asked to approve here we're not being asked to allocate funds we're being asked to approve these specific instructional materials and to adopt them so um in in other items whenever that comes before us that's when that information will be included that said of course if anyone ever has any questions about that that just um please uh give Miss Avalos or Mr superintendent your contact information and we can be sure to answer any specific questions about cost of any of these items um with that I

091would like to uh call for a motion to approve items 1-36 on the consent agenda of approval of items one through uh 36 uh with the exception of item number 32 which I request to an opportunity to speak to second thank you moved and seconded all in favor of approving items one through thirty six on consent with the exception of item number 32 please signify by saying aye aye opposed none those items are approved unanimously Mr Fortuna can you speak to item 32 please yes item 32 is the state uh excuse me it's the Head Start Grant application for 23.24. uh Iris received communication uh raising a number of questions about contents of the Grant application and I spend time um asking questions uh and I can say that from a structural standpoint there I

092there's nothing there's nothing inherently wrong with the Grant application the problem with the Grant application is one I will speak to later on tonight and that has to do with the issue of communication um it's it's incumbent upon uh this board to have a at least cursory knowledge when changes are going to be made such that when we are contacted uh we're not embarrassed by not knowing what the individual is talking about and I will address the issue of communication later on so with that I'll move approval item number 32. do we have a second moved and seconded all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed that is approved unanimously folks let's take a uh 10 minute Comfort break and come back at 8 pm thank you welcome back everyone we're going

093to proceed with the meeting next item on the agenda is bargaining units are there any bargaining units who wish to address the board come on up thanks yeah good evening we had some great news to share with you um last night our unit came together to vote on our tentative agreement and we're happy to report that it passed um we're very pleased we appreciate your support David amrick we appreciate your guys's support Shannon and Kristen who's not here and also Karen we know that they sat with us they listened you guys listened and we were able to take something back to the unit that they were pleased with and passed so thank you congratulations we appreciate your partnership thank you thank you our next item is the homeless education program update Miss levasser do we

094have any comments on this item via Zoom Madam President we have no public comments via zoom on this item thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards on this item no we do not have any blue cards on this item thank you Mr Ross please come on up and commence the presentation all right good evening uh president Cyrus Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss abelos um I'm Don Ross director for student support and Health Services and with me tonight is Tammy Severa our program specialist for our homeless education program and we're very excited tonight uh to give you an update information about the homeless education program and the supports and services it provides to our students and their families so the work that goes into supporting our students who are

095experiencing homelessness very much aligns with our egusd learning vision and the belief that every student learning in every classroom and every subject every day to our College and Career life ready graduates it also aligns very closely with our strategic goals it does touch on all of the Strategic goals but tonight we really are going to focus in on wellness and how we support our students in that area our connection with our family and Community engagement office and the work that we do also with our homeless families as well as the students and then how we target those supports for our students the presentation tonight uh is going to focus in on four areas first we're going to look at the definition of homelessness so we all are operating off the same definition we'll spend a

096little bit of time on the mckinney-vento ACT that's that legislation that helps Define a lot and guide a lot of the work that the homeless education uh folks do and supporting our students and then we'll delve into some key data points uh look at the students who are impacted how they're impacted and also look at where they reside throughout our district and then finally um we'll spend uh the most of our time with the homeless education program and detail out the supports and services that are provided to them so at this point I'm going to turn it over Miss Tammy Silvera thank you Don all right we are going to begin by defining homelessness as it is in education as compared to what you may see as a traditional definition of homelessness that comes out

097of other agencies or that we see when when in the media which is somebody who is completely unsheltered in education homelessness is defined as individuals that lack a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residents and there's as I said a common misconception that homelessness is only applied to those who live on the streets um it looks like this we have families in our school district who sometimes are living in hotels and motels and they may receive vouchers to to have a place to stay for a short window of time they may be staying at friends and relatives to homes and that is actually the most common category um in in the way we report the data that's called doubled up but we actually have families sometimes that are tripled up and quadrupled up depending on what

098they need to do to make ends meet they may be staying with someone but they have no legal rights they're not the lease holder they're not the owner of that home where that relationship to sour were something to happen they would have no other resources nowhere to go some of our families are unsheltered they are living in cars they are living in tents they are out on the streets they're going from place to place just to attempt to have some place for their kids to land we do have families that are in shelters in transitional housing and that would also include anyone that's in a domestic violence shelter those resources are extremely limited in our community in Sacramento we only have one Youth Shelter in the entire area and it is often very full and

099it's also in the city of Sacramento it's not in our area um as the definition also States adequate nighttime residents so any of our families who may be living in a situation that is unsafe or not a residence that provides what we would consider the basic needs for residents Plumbing electricity um it's damaged we had a number of families impacted by the floods in January their homes were damaged due to flooding and the landlords did not make those repairs in those situations that would be considered inaccurate inadequate residents and they would qualify in our program so where does this definition come from it comes from the McKinney ventos homeless assistance act um this was passed Federal legislation that was passed in 1987 and it requires all local education agencies all large school districts Across the

100Nation to remove barriers to these students free appropriate and public education and what does that look like so students who qualify in one of those living categories um they would have these following rights the right to immediate enrollment so that means that they if they show up to enroll in our schools and they're unsheltered or they're staying with someone and they're missing documents maybe they don't have their children's birth certificates they can't provide proof of residence if they're living in a car or going from place to place we are required to um to eliminate those barriers to allow those families to enroll with whatever they have available and then that's where my team activates the student and family empowerment office to help those families find those documents help families make documents needed so that they

101can get a birth certificate connect them to our Immunization Clinics so they can get those shot records in place so that's where we start to come in to help with that enrollment process they have the right to remain in their school of origin and transition and matriculate to their feeder School many of our families become displaced and as I just shared a lot of our shelters are not within our School District boundaries so if they are displaced and they have to move it outside our district boundaries outside the regional boundaries of that feeder pattern they have the right to remain in that that school of origin while they remain homeless additionally if they're matriculating between 6th and seventh grade or 8th and Ninth Grade they have the right to matriculate with their peers even if

102they're not staying in that area once our students are in high school if they become housed they have the right to remain in that High School their home high school until they graduate even if they become housed and they're outside the boundaries of that High School feeder pattern so these are all things that we help our schools understand so that our students can have the most stable educational environment possible they have the right to Transportation support and I'll go into that in a little bit um breakfast lunch and supper programs are available and then advocacy and support as the district's homeless liaison that is my role I do not do that alone I do that with an amazing team of people in my um in the safe office as well as the assistance from numerous

103other departments and agencies around our area but we have a mandate to provide that advocacy and support and I'll go into a little bit about what that looks like and then we also have to make sure that we remove barriers to their full enrollment and participation in school which includes any school-sponsored extracurricular activities so if our families are unable to pay for uniforms for sports unable to provide fees for field trips that we're sponsoring we need to waive those so that these students have full access within the definition of mckinney-vento we have a Target group that we provide additional supports for and these are unaccompanied youth these are children or youth who are not in the physical custody of their parent or guardian and this is regardless of age we have students in this category

104across all grades in our school district it is also regardless of the circumstances that led to their separation from their family um they include youth who've run away from home use who were forced from their home due to some some trauma in their families there's a lot of circumstances that go on these students often need a lot of extra support because they're dealing with some trauma um they have maybe lost connection to the school environment or for some of these students the School site is the one safe place that they have left where they have a roof over their head so in the last few years we've seen an increase in the number of students in our district that we've identified under mckinney-vento as homeless in 2021 you can see there we have 746 students

105that we identified over the course of the school year last year that jumped to 898 students and between July and February of this year we identified a thousand and seven students in our school district experiencing homelessness where we have seen a real dramatic changes also with the identified unaccompanied youth in our school district as you can see by that we jump from 71 students during 2021 to 128 last year and already this year we've eclipsed that number in February we have extra supports like I shared and I'll go into what that looks like in terms of our case management and this is where we look at that nighttime residence our students who are either in a temporary shelter doubled up unsheltered or in a hotel and motel you'll notice the map doesn't always work out

106when you add those numbers up to the grand total and that's because families go between categories um the grand total also includes our students who are in the zero to five category so we have an obligation to do our best to track our students who are zero into 12th grade and we work closely with our preschool programs and we also ask our families to identify any of the children in the home that are not yet school age so that's where you're going to see some of those discrepancies come up can I ask a really quick clarifying question so you had in one of the previous slides you talked about cars um so where would vehicle dwellers fall in this they would fall into unsheltered yes a car is not a adequate residence so that's an

107unshiltered category all right thank you you're welcome so um a little data around our students I've been working really hard to pull more data to look at um what you know what's the picture of our students what supports do they need of course the data drives our decisions in terms of what um who we're partnering with and what added resources we need to bring to our school district as you can see this is 2021 data our students who are experiencing homelessness do struggle to get to school chronic absenteeism is a real problem a lot of this is due to Transportation barriers our families have a hard time getting their kids to school um so as you can see 48.6 of our students in 2021 experienced chronic absenteeism as compared to 9.4 percent of our students

108who are stably housed um additionally our graduation rates for our students in our homicide program um are not um as good as the the students who are stably housed um 64.3 percent of our students in our program in 2021 graduated as compared to 90.2 percent of our students who are stably housed we are putting a lot of effort into developing programs to support our students graduating Nationwide data shows that our students who don't come out of school with a diploma or a GED are four and a half times more likely to continue to experience homelessness into their young adult lives so that diploma that GED really really does matter uh 68 of our students in our program are African-American and Hispanic this is true across the state of California and across our nation so we

109work closely with our programs to make sure that we're addressing um the disparities that exist there um and our data so far this year shows that students with disabilities comprise 18 of our homeless youth population as compared to 12 percent of the total student population and we're pretty on pretty much the same as the district gen Ed population for our students who are English language Learners yeah Tammy do you have the data for the other uh 32 percent 32 of one oh of the the ethnic breakdown of the other I do have it um I can provide it certainly at a later Point sure absolutely yeah absolutely so we have four priority areas in in our program we look at identification and enrollment first and foremost we can provide help if we don't know that

110they're in our school district and they need our help so that is that is key then we move on to case management and advocacy so we kick in with those resources we want to wrap that student and that family around with as much help as we can provide we want to keep them in school then we have academic intervention supports that are new to our program this year which I'll speak to and Outreach and training I do a lot of Outreach and training identification and enrollment um last year the state of California had enacted a new law that required all leas to have in place a housing questionnaire as part of the enrollment process and it's regardless of whether or not you receive funding for homeless education so we do have a housing questionnaire that

111is embedded in our enrollment process we were asking those questions previously but now we have to be very explicit in the way we ask those questions and we have to make sure we're including in that that student and Family's rights under mckinney-vento that housing questionnaire then transfers once it's completed to my office so that we can start services we coordinate referral services with other organizations for our homeless families we're working really closely with a lot of other groups in the area like Elk Grove heart for example when they're helping a family and they're part of our district we're working with them we attend their collaborative meetings and so on that's really important on the work that we do we are required to post public notice of the educational rights of our students and the liaison's

112contact information so that poster you see there is in the front offices of our schools and it's available in multiple languages whenever my staff go out to a campus they're looking around to make sure that that's still hanging up and we'll replace it if needed um we also provide that housing questionnaire annually to our parents and Guardians um and our unaccompanied Youth and the intent of that is to help identify families who may already been enrolled in at one point we're stably housed and now they're not and we want to be able to reach out and connect with them so case management and advocacy first and foremost under mckinney-vento you have to have a homeless liaison but as I said earlier I don't do that job alone I have a whole team of folks that

113I work with and other departments that I that work with very closely and we provide support and advocacy that means that we're helping our families get enrolled and we're doing ongoing case management with those families as as they need us I will add that the services that we provide are voluntary some of our families decline our help there's a lot of stigma there's a lot of fear on the part of parents and sometimes we will reach out and sometimes we need to make multiple attempts to reach out because they're not inclined to talk to us and let us know what's going on in their lives yet we provide basic needs for our families that's a lot of school supplies we give out a lot of backpacks we help our students have everything that they need

114to be successful in class but we are also out there providing clothing connecting them with the area closed closets delivering bags of clothes to their wherever they happen to be staying so that they don't need to come to us food food insecurity is very real right now we actively work with Sacramento Food Bank they deliver 100 food boxes to us a month we put some of those food boxes in the hands of some of our campuses so they can be immediately responsive and then we have food boxes and I maintain a small food pantry within our office so that we can meet those immediate needs um we also do sleeping bags uh we help with shoes that fit jackets in the winter appropriate clothing in the summer when it's hot and lately we've been giving

115out a lot of umbrellas and ponchos um and as I share we provide targeted supports for unaccompanied students I have two social workers on staff and that's their main role is to get out and meet with those kids and meet with their whoever they're staying with again often are unaccompanied homeless youth are staying with somebody but we do also have a subpopulation who are without shelter or who may stay at wind youth services but that's very limited and those students are usually dealing with a great deal of trauma they've been through a lot and they need a lot of extra help and they need to get connected and they really need somebody to walk that Journey with them so that we can keep them engaged and get them the support that that they need uh

116we collaborate with a lot of our school staff and our other District programs I'm real good friends with face and other departments um we will do home visits so we go where they are and if they're in a car we'll meet them in a parking lot if that's what's needed um we do not make them come to us if if it's necessary that we go to them that's what we'll do we'll meet them at their School site we go into the shelters to meet with families we also go out to the hotels and the motels where they're staying and we'll meet them there as well Transportation as I shared earlier we provide bus passes we'll do monthly bus passes for parents so that they can ride the bus the Sac City bus um with their

117little ones if they're worried about them riding the bus on their own we do mileage reimbursement so if they're with um outside a certain radius of the school that they need to get their kiddos to we will do monthly mileage reimbursement and of course we're very closely with our transportation department to try and meet their needs through school buses whenever is possible consultation and training for school sites a lot of consultation with our school sites to help understand and and bring compassion to families when they come into our doors that they're greeted with as much respect as possible um and and I'm always on the phone with our front office staff to help get down into the weeds of those circumstances and see how we can be helpful um we collaborate with the County Office

118of Education and these last couple years we've gotten really much better at collaborating with our other school districts we're trying to do a better job of having warm handoffs between school districts and they leave Elk Grove and they go to Sac City I know who the homeless liaison is there vice versa when they're coming into our district we try to make those connections and lastly as I've shared a lot of resources a lot of referrals bsp vouchers so families can get their kids classes that is one of the number one referral issues that we get is for glasses and second to that is Dental Care so I shared that we have a new academic support uh strategy within our team this past fall we added an academic intervention teacher to the team she's amazing Shelly

119Allen and she launched supports at Valley High School we selected Valley high school because they have one of our highest enrollments of homeless students and she works with our students there at all grade levels with a focus on graduation and college readiness um she supports basically a lot of what she does is so very basic and I'll be very honest about this it's oatmeal in the morning when they're hungry it's check-ins in and out it's it's getting the glue sticks and the construction paper out to help them do a science project because they don't have a place to do that once they leave school so it's the very very best basic um it's listening um it's being somebody compassionate to what's going on in their lives and um and we also have two project implementers

120on the team that are expanding those supports to our other schools helping our students complete the FAFSA which is really really complicated when you're in this circumstance and when this summer we will be piloting a summer enrichment program for the students in um in our program we have a counselor part-time who determines eligibility for graduation exemption for our students in high school who qualify for grad exemption again really trying to work towards making sure they have access to that education education and get their diploma those are just a couple quotes a student and a counselor at Valley we did a mid-year assessment of our program we asked for specific feedback from the staff that we're working with they have really great things to say about what Shelley's been accomplishing out there and then we do

121a lot of Outreach and training um I I will go anywhere and and present to anyone my goal is to build the compassion and understanding of all of our staff so that these families get the best support that they can and this year we were really fortunate we had the funding that my entire team was able to attend the Nissi conference the National Association for Education homeless children and youth so we all got to be a part of this National Conference with people across the U.S get some fabulous ideas strategize and and commiserate on on the work that we do which can be really really hard and then lastly myself as a member of our team are presenting or participating in local and Statewide collaborative efforts um to improve our services and to support our

122students and families so I'm always looking for an opportunity to collaborate and this is where we live we have an office at David Reese Elementary and they support our students and families on the east side of highway 99 and we have an office at Valley high school and they support our students on the west side of highway 99. and I'm available for any questions thank you very much I'll go down the line for questions and comments I'll start with Mr Yang anything good evening thank you for the presentation um it's uh sad to see that the number of homeless students are increasing um first question saying that your your team um or volunteer doing volunteer work no these are Elk Grove staff right but we do work with we do work with folks in the

123community who do volunteer work as well okay so the the home visit and all the work you guys do is at three hours or you guys volunteer no it's it's these are full-time employees as part of this school district all right okay so part of the case management and advocacy um how do you can you share with me or us um the process of day-to-day as far as following up with students with uh no housing well I could give an example just this week we had a family come in to uh our Valley a referral come in to our Valley office um usually we're going to receive a housing questionnaire that's coming from the school site the first thing our case manager our social worker does is reach out to the family and we do

124what we call it you know we do an intake we we look at what their issues are where are they staying what are their needs and then we we try to gather whatever resources it is it may be putting food boxes together for them it may be contacting The Clothes Closet to try and get bags of clothing for the student it may be contacting me so I can do some advocacy work with the campus to make sure this family has what they need at school so it can go a lot of different directions it's very based on that individual family and then our case management process is ongoing so depending on the level of need of that family we may be working with them weekly monthly it varies depending on the needs of that family

125so what sort of thing do we do that making sure that the student will get to classes because there's a variety of housing based on the data here um do we do any I I heard of you know reimbursement for mileage and so forth but can you kind of describe that a little bit more because it's Imperial for student to get to classes absolutely so that's one of the very first things we do on intake is we're trying to find out if there's any transportation barriers to school um and then we will contact our transportation department to see if there's a bus route available um if that is is not a possibility um then we're going to work with the family to see if we could provide city bus passes for the parents and we

126pay for those on a monthly rotation and then we will also reimburse at the same rate that I'm reimbursed for mileage if I'm traveling for work for the family family to get their children to and from school and um and we look at their attendance so for the days that they attend they get reimbursed so do parents communicate with you guys as far as no housing and and no Transportation yes okay and and what would you guys do to provide that if any if they have no housing and no Transportation we're going to go down that list we're going to see if we can do a school bus we're going to see if city bus might work we're going to see if we can reimburse for mileage we've even we've got a group that we

127work with that gives us uh bikes and helmets so we'll start mapping out if it's safe enough and if they're willing you know if a bike would be helpful so we're looking at all kinds of different opportunity options um and if they could work with somebody else in their neighborhood to carpool things of that nature so what is the John game plan to uh increase the graduation rate from the 60 uh four percent uh compared to the um students with house 92.90.2 is there any specific planning strategies well we've we've launched the program at Valley um and are working on a number of strategies there to see you know we had to start somewhere we started at Valley because the numbers are high there we're seeing good progress so far with our academic intervention teacher

128and we hope to grow those strategies to our other high schools over time so that we can provide that graduation support at all of our high schools in the example yeah the strategy that you guys are implementing uh well our academic intervention teacher the first thing she does when when she identifies the students as part of our program is she looks at what classes are they in what's their credit level what grades do they have she'll meet with their teachers she meets with the school counselors sometimes it's as simple as we have students who come through city bus and they're often late to school because they're at the mercy of city bus system and so we may make a change in their schedule so that their first period class is not a heavy emphasis academic

129class and that that teacher in first period has some flexibility with them if they maybe frequently 10 minutes late so we're looking at all those different things to try and meet that that student's needs and then she's feeding them she's talking to them she's checking in with them she's hassling them to get their homework done um and and she's providing all that direct support and then my whole team is activated for all the other supports that we provide as well okay thank you one last thing I'm sorry Don just reminded me yeah and we assessed to see if the student is eligible for graduation exemption which would allow them to graduate with the state minimum standards they have to have moved after their second year of high school and be credit deficient and so our

130counselor that's part-time is also assessing that to see if that would support them graduating um I I know we've still got other board members so I will leave some for them to ask but I I wanted to get to the um almond that I mentioned about the other percentage uh besides the African-American 36 percent and the Hispanic 32 percent um you know for me you know I I I'm disappointed not to see the other um group of students and and this is the same example as a presentation we had regarding the uh suspended suspension uh category of students that we highlight just the top two and three um to me this is not equity and and we need to see it um in the public setting like uh like this in the in the open

131um session so I I wrote strongly recommend it for you guys to insert that into the presentation going forward yeah thank you appreciate it include that um for you all appreciate it thank you very much you guys do amazing stuff they've done amazing stuff at David Reese for many years and I'm so excited to see it um formalized um a lot of Stories We read and hear in my education reading talks about washing machines showers all those kind of things are we doing those things are those something we should think about putting into new schools we're building or any thoughts sure yes um our families often have barriers to getting bathed um they are unaccompanied youth really have that barrier um they don't have anywhere to take a shower on a daily basis um washing

132clothes is definitely a barrier we'll have schools make referrals to us because the the student comes to school and there's an odor and they need our help with with getting clothes that are clean there are certainly school districts Across the Nation who have opened up full full Resource Centers that have all of those things available um so that families can come in and do laundry so that children can come in and get bathed so that's certainly a direction that many school districts have gone okay and we haven't gone there yet not quite yet yes all right working on it and we might who knows and then um do you think we're getting better at finding these students do you think the words getting better I know the numbers going up and and I know in

133our state our numbers going up as well but do you think part of this is us doing services and word of mouth because I think word of mouth's a big way for in that population correct I I think there's two things one the issue is increasing we see it in our community none of us are immune to the fact that that's happening um and the economic hardships of our families are pretty intense right now uh kovitz certainly really impacted families um and um and so that has you know contributed to that increase but we are also doing a better job of identifying families um and and being a lot more systematic with the housing questionnaire and other strategies that we have in place um so they they're not they're less likely to slip through the

134cracks and I hope we'll continue to see that improve well I'm just going to do a little shout out I spent a lot of time at the food bank and see them make boxes and deliver whole boxes to the different schools for students and such so I know you're in that Community Partnership as well so um thank you for what you're doing amazing thank you thank you so much for the presentation it um you know looking at the amount of work that we do to support these students and their families it just I'm glad to be able to say that I'm part of a district that has such robust services so thank you for that um one of the things that you mentioned in terms of it's hard to get some families just because of

135the stigma and I imagine some of our families that are undocumented families will have that reluctance to come and receive Services what are some ways in which you are doing that Outreach to kind of break down that stigma have you tried different strategies or what is working in that area um I would say just generally some of the Outreach that we're doing in the trainings we're trying to help our front office Personnel develop some skills and how to approach families I use the word homeless all over the place in this presentation I would not say that directly to a family when a family calls me I ask them where are you staying um and or you know what's your living situation right now are you staying with someone because that word in and of itself

136creates stigma and fear I sat down with a mom right after Christmas she got displaced due to the flooding and she fell apart in tears it's hard for me to tell this is not getting emotional because she thought if she told us what was going on we were going to take our kids away and um she fell apart this is embarrassing sorry um but she fell apart and I just had to give her a hug and say we're not taking your kids away um and let me clarify poverty and homelessness are not reasons to contact CBS and take children away from their parents um so yes there is an incredible amount of stigma attached and our job is to make sure they get the best and most welcoming environment here and that's what we're doing

137um to the best of our abilities don't worry Ms Silvera we we cry here all the time this way can you yeah thank you well um I I often cry so I'm not no it's tough stuff and yeah are to speak to your question about our undocumented families yes they're really worried um if they're trying to gain legal status in our country they're worried that if they receive any support from us that will get in the way of them getting that legal status um it will not McKinney dental services does not inhibit their ability to obtain legal status and um but they don't know that so they're really scared all right thank you um oh and then my second question was just um having those two centers is amazing are there I mean I know

138that if we could we would have a site at you know every school but are there plans or discussions or in the future to increase the number of safe sites that we have I'd love to see that happen um we are you know our two offices are located at um in you know in our South Sacramento region I'd love to have more resources that are available closer to to this side of the school district um transportation proximity is really important um the concept of satellite spaces where families can find us and reach out to us would be really helpful um the City of Elk Grove doesn't have the same infrastructure for the uh that it's building I will say the City of Elk Grove is doing a lot um but the same infrastructure isn't in

139place as it is in the city of Sacramento so because certainly um put more space to good use okay for sure thank you so much and thank you to you and your team for the work that you do thank you and the appears it just shows your compassion no don't ever be you know apologetic for um the emotion that we bring to the work that we do thank you good all right thank you for the presentation it's very informative um I just have two questions my first question is um it's mainly like concerning the workload that they have because um now well after covet a lot of the work is getting digitalized and I guess without Wi-Fi um it's really hard to getting the same amount of work as other students are so is there

140like anything we're doing like to combat that like difference with those that have access to the internet and those that don't excellent question um so one of the things we do is we work with our technology services to provide families hot spots for free um so that if they are in a place where they can plug in a hot spot their kids can get online but then we're also working with our teachers we do a lot of Education with our teachers to help them understand how they can adapt their lessons so that our students who can't access a computer outside of school would still have the ability to complete their homework okay and my second question is um I I agree with what you guys are saying about the stigma I think it's um a

141really troubling issue um I was just wondering if there were I guess any solutions that um have been in it solutions that have been like brought up to help fight the stigma well I think good education is part of it for our staff I think so that our our students and our families feel as welcome as they can and they don't feel at least in our environment stigmatized um and um and being really open and honest and doing what we can to help them um and making sure that those students have a safe space on campus when they need to talk to someone which is why we partner a lot with our our support team our counselors our social workers our other academic intervention teachers all that's helping to reduce that stigma thank you you're

142very welcome great uh thank you for the presentation um uh my colleagues have all elevated uh particularly vulnerable communities and I want to uh do so as well um one of the communities I think particularly when you're talking about homelessness um that is especially vulnerable is our LGBT students um our LGBT students are not uh just overwhelmingly or you know over represented in the homeless population particularly unaccompanied youth um you know for for obvious reasons um you know but they're also especially vulnerable uh you know with everything that's going on but also on campuses when it comes to bullying and things like that and so um how do how do you address some of those sort of intersecting vulnerabilities um we we talk about it I mean openly um yes our lgbtq community is is

143more impacted we have students that are kicked out of their homes for that reason um and so we're we're my staff is real comfortable um in in working with students around those issues uh we're building capacity with our School site Personnel um to have that same capacity uh partnering with our other departments um so that we're talking about intersectionality um and and how that layers on uh the trauma that these kiddos are dealing with and then we're also partnering with uh with our community agencies like the sac LGBT Center which does also have a support for young people who are unhoused so we're trying to bring all those puzzle pieces together yeah actually that's a good segue into another question I have um which is around stable housing um because obviously we know that one

144of the biggest indicators of whether a homeless student is going to be able to continue and um doing what you know being on campus and learning is a stable housing situation and it seems like as a school district we have somewhat limited abilities in that particular area and so how are we working with the city and the county who have more capacity to do those things to provide stable housing in order to ensure that students have access to it so full honesty housing resources for families in this situation are extremely limited right now I was at a community meeting where they had shared that there were 40 low-income units that came available in an apartment complex and over a thousand people apply um so the need far outweighs the availability uh we have a direct

145line of contact with numerous people in DHA um so that we can help families get straight to someone if they need emergency hotel vouchers and things of that nature so that they can get qualified for Section 8 housing we participate in the community meetings with Elk Grove heart and within that is the City of Elk Grove and their homeless Services Program the housing Navigator that's part of the city Elk Grove and also into the city of Sacramento because we cross boundaries and then all that work that we're doing you know across our districts with the county-wide collaboratives related to those issues there's also some new funding that came into Sacramento for youth housing and there's some some work going on to bring some key stakeholders together to discuss youth homelessness and I sit in on

146that group as well to provide voice to what's going on in in our community but the the need outweighs the the availability it's it's very real um rent is too high for so many of our families and many of our families are also asked to provide first and last and deposit or demonstrate they have three times the income of the rent and they're simply unable to do so so they they can't qualify if they have an eviction notice they also end up very that much more difficult for them to qualify for housing Yeah you mentioned earlier in the presentation that we help students to collect information and documentation and various things in order to get access to Education Services do we extend any of those services to families to help them yes with any you

147know documentation collection that they might need absolutely and I should have said student and send families so families are missing birth certificates we're going to help them get connected to find out how they could get a free birth certificate so that's one thing you can get through the state of California IDs how to get a California ID you know all those types of things that they may need to gather up um I was you know I will call I called Washington State one time to track down a homeless liaison to try and get Student Records so that's what we're doing to try and help families get those records sometimes it's really difficult and it can be very very time consuming and then we work closely you know for immunizations with our health services department so

148they can get squeezed in and get their shots cool and then just last question um is around vehicle dollars um so has the district ever participated I know Elk Grove used to have a safe parking program I know they don't uh anymore and they're thinking about bringing it back um has the district ever participated in something like that because we have a lot of parking lots is that something we've considered is that something we've done in the past when those programs existed I am not aware of our district ever participating I have to admit I took over this uh position about two two years ago uh right out of covid and um so I but I don't believe because I've worked in this department for years that we've ever had that um I know some

149districts Across the Nation um will do that um it it you do have to provide additional security and safety um and that's certainly consideration um and and you are correct there are very limited safe parking places for families who are living in cars um especially if you're a single mom it could be really worrisome and we do help them try to navigate to the safest places they can to park their cars great thank you all right Tammy hi Carmen uh I just have a couple questions but before I do that uh I'm gonna take Liberty to embarrass Tammy oh God because I could do that I already tried isn't that bad enough to say that that all of you don't know Tammy real well brand new almost new brand new I'm familiar with her successes

150in her previous position as well but nobody absolutely nobody networks with resource providers like Tammy does no one and and the and the importance of that is is is um is seen in in the coordination of services the availability of services and our families are in our children benefit from from Tammy's work and she's she's done that for a long time in this office in different positions so thanks Tammy you're very welcome um Tammy what is your source of funding for your programs I received Title One funds um I also received the um not I our district receives Title One funding we also have the education for homeless children and youth Grant we have positions that are funded through Esser and we also have some additional funding that the state provided through the American Rescue

151plan specific to homeless education so you do not receive general fund money there's a two position uh two of the rtpts are funded through the general funding but the program has a program is not a line item in the general fund budget no it's it's thank you that's I knew you were going to say no um I've heard a lot of comments from the board about could we do this do we do this do we do that when it comes to the homeless program in as much as it does also with our foster youth program if we believe that what is currently done has value and we believe that that more could be done then there is nothing that prevents us from putting general fund money on the table during budget discussion and this is

152a program that I believe is deserving and uh is worth the discussion so that we can do the kind of Outreach that needs to happen is I talk to teachers as I talk to principals Vice principals mental health people it I I can I can say that Tammy's tears are shared with by lots of people when they talk about their interactions with the kids and Families would we like better outcomes sure but the complexities are are just unbelievable what the families have to go through could we reach more kids and families without a doubt but not the current structure there's only so many hours in the day so I would say to my colleagues that if what you have heard has touched you and you believe in it that when we have our budget discussions

153that there's a place for discussion of using general fund money on the homeless program thanks Tammy thank you Miss Silvera excellent presentation my colleagues have asked also some great questions um it's a very sobering conversation um the work that you do is you and your team do is so incredibly important helping our most vulnerable students and it is greatly appreciated and I have just a couple of questions I wanted to ask about um language barriers does the intake form that you receive indicate whether or not a parent needs translation or is not comfortable speaking in English so the housing questionnaire we've actually kind of translated into I think 10 languages um so a school usually when they're sending that to us is going to alert us to that we've made that available so they can

154provide that to to families in all those languages and then we'll work with our translation services department if needed I do have a number of languages represented on my team so we have a number of people who speak Spanish Farsi Punjabi and so I work hard to make sure that our team is diverse and representative of the the families that we support but our translation department is also really helpful good to hear thank you um I also wanted to ask about another thing that we are not yet doing one of our neighboring districts has a mobile resource center and I was wondering if if we were to have something like that is that something that would be of use to you in serving this population I think whenever we can bring the resources to families

155where they are we are being a resource to them um and if we could be Mobile in in that capacity I don't really want to volunteer to drive the bus but um that would be something I think that would be amazingly helpful and I do know a number of districts who have those those mobile programs and then they partner with Community folks who who come with them out to those mobile events so the family is getting that One-Stop opportunity to receive multiple resources good to know those were all of my questions so yes go ahead Oliver has one more um so you mentioned the well I guess this goes for like most of the general like um support programs you have I was just wondering um how I guess you communicate most of these with

156um the homeless population because I feel like it would be hard to communicate with them since they don't a lot of them don't have like access to the same kind of technology that everyone else has so I was just wondering how I guess you get word out about the support programs well we've been working on that um so those posters up in the front offices is really helpful um our school counselors our front office staff knowing who we are and how to help a family connect with us is is part of how they find out um we also for those families who do have internet access our information is is online um and then we're working to improve those strategies we're using um talking points with our families to communicate and we're also involved in

157the community events that our schools host so that we have a table there at those events when and they can come and find out a little bit more about our program as well as other broader community events so we're continuing to grow that effort the other piece I think that's most helpful is when we have those collaborations with our Community Partners like like the housing Navigator in the City of Elk Grove she knows us we know her and when we work together often so when the families accessing resources elsewhere they know to connect them back to the school district awesome thank you you're welcome good through Michael I've been on the board um two and a half years and I'm trying to think hard remembering the last time you presented to us so do you

158do this annually well I've I've been in this per this program overseeing homeless education for two years yeah previously I was in a different role so I have presented to the board but this is my first opportunity to present to you in the last two years okay is this something that you plan going forward to presented to us um annually if if invited I'll be here yeah definitely yeah I just I I just don't remember we have this uh homelessness presentation and uh Carmine was alluded to your credibility and that was very kind but I just don't recall so just want to clarify that thank you you again miss Silvera Mr Ross and please extend our appreciation to the rest of your team for the very important work that they do we look forward to

159continuing the conversation all right thank you all thank you our next item is board member and superintendent reports this is for organization and committee meetings relative to the district and its operation Mr fortino do you have anything uh no I have no reports uh I've had three meetings canceled in the last week and a half uh so uh no report lucky you Mr Vargas anything okay Mr track no okay Miss Jamerson miss albiani Mr yang okay well I'll go um the csba legislative advisory committee met on March 24th we had a day-long very robust discussions about legislation currently being considered um the next one is actually coming up April 14th so before our next meeting the partners in education group the pi group also met and we discussed the comparison study which is the district

160trying to make sure that we are a competitive employer so the first of a series of meetings to discuss that looking forward to continuing that conversation as well next one um on the same topic is April 13th also on April 13th we Mr Fortuna and I have the board architect committee meeting to talk about improvements to the trig Center I mean who knew I I thought they were never going to get to us don't look at the carpet here folks um and I think one of the meetings Mr fortino was referring to uh was the board finance committee which was uh also canceled in the process of being rescheduled so hopefully we'll get that done sometime soon anything Mr Hoffman I do not okay good stuff next item is consideration of future agenda items do

161we have anything um I alluded earlier that I would be uh discussing at least one item and for the purpose of clarification so such that there's no misunderstanding that I had forgotten what it is that I said um I have two agenda items that I am very interested in and we'll be having discussions within the next two weeks and depending on those discussions they may be brought back at the 18th thank you Mr fucina looking forward to those conversations we have nothing else I'm going to adjourn tonight's meeting at exactly 9 00 PM everybody have a good night