001yes have they thought about like all right they're going to begin okay Rosie roll call vote trustee Anderson here Jesse crane here trustee weigan here trustee Pearson here Christy Murphy here trustee or soyloo trustee Bartow here Dr Smith here thank you uh adoption of the agenda so moved second moved by trustee weigan seconded by trustee crane roll call though Christy Anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee wagon yes trustee Pearson yes trustee Murphy yes trustee or soylu trustee Bartow yes do we have any Community input on closed session no we will now move to closed session the items are 4A conference with legal counsel potential litigation one case for B conference with legal counsel potential litigation one case 4C conference with labor negotiator or D employee Public Employee discipline dismissal release employment and 4E student discipline
002two cases we will return to open session at 6 pm okay we will call our meeting to order at 602 and we have a readout from closed session in closed session the board took action to release and non-reelect 187 temporary certificated employees pursuant to educational Education Code section 44954 effective at the end of the 2022-23 school year and directed the superintendent or designee to send out appropriate legal notices the roll call vote was as follows six eyes zero knows and one absent and we will now have our opening ceremony and moment of reflection led by our student board member case foreign please now we will have the introduction of new staff we are very excited to introduce tonight to you the Newport Coast Elementary School principal Miss Heather Darrow we're excited from our experiences with
003her as a collaborative relations centered leader who's strong in curriculum teaching and learning expertise and so without further Ado Heather welcome thank you good evening board president Anderson board members Dr Smith members of cabinet and members of the community I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the educational partners of Newport Coast Elementary and Newport Mesa Unified School District throughout my career I have been a lead learner and have saw opportunities to learn and grow both professionally and personally as I joined Newport Mesa I see this as an opportunity um to help others continue to learn and grow I tend to focus on strengths and I enjoy building the strengths of individuals and teams and I look forward to developing trusting and collaborative relationships exactly what you said um with this District I want
004to thank my colleagues and my family my husband and my one of my daughters for their support as well as Newport Mesa leadership team for trusting me with the honor of serving the students of Newport Coast I'm looking forward to starting pretty soon thank you [Applause] next we have recognition of our winter athletic sports champions new stores Dr Shaka well thank you president Anderson members of the board Dr Smith executive cabinet and all of our guests here tonight Newport Mesa students compete in a variety of CIF Sports as we know throughout the year we are up here yet again to recognize some more Excellence tonight we would like to recognize another outstanding CIF winner our Costa Mesa High School varsity cheer team is CIF state champions to elaborate on this accomplishment and introduce her team
005and staff I'd like to call up Dr Nepali patnis principal of Costa Mesa [Applause] hi everybody um so members of the board superintendent Smith executive cabinet and the members of the community I'd like to call up Coach Corey Johnson and coach Tony and all of our incredible cheerleaders so this year I had the opportunity to get out to our cheer competition in Manhattan Beach and watch how Fierce and strong our ladies are winning CIF state champions is no small accomplishment it takes time commitment and Trust in the team I'd like to congratulate the team and share how incredibly inspired I am by all of the ladies thank you Dr Smith and esteem Ford we appreciate you taking the time to recognize us and this team it was a little bit of a rough year this
006year but they pulled it through and adversity always makes you stronger and that's always what I want to teach my athletes and I'm so incredibly proud of them for taking the CIF state championship this year thank you [Applause] you're a cheer all right the short ones let's talk do they know how to do it coach [Music] I'll even know and take a couple one two three one two three thank you any parents want to come up you're welcome oh my God away um [Laughter] the board also gave you guys certificates so I'm going to call you out one at a time to get them Dolce Haley Angelina Rachel [Applause] great Desiree left hey Lonnie fade [Applause] Melania destiny Kennedy [Applause] um [Applause] that's a lot of rings they are a lot of rings so in
007my 20 years coaching at Costa Mesa High School we have won Nationals in Florida three times that's what you see when you watch ESPN that's us we've won three times and five CIF championships so foreign we're very excited to celebrate um our amazing cheerleaders and so we skipped over adoption of the minute so we're gonna go back do I have a motion so moved second moved by trustee crane seconded by trustee weigand Christy Anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee weigand yes trustee Pearson yes trustee Murphy yes trustee or soyloo justy Bartow yes student board member reports trustee crane yes uh tonight's topic is how are seniors preparing for the next Endeavor after graduating nmusd um also they're going to share two campus highlights and tonight Kate Cherry of Newport Harbor High School will be on
008the Dias as a voting member and we have Isabella Mills from Costa Mesa High School TJ rocas from CDM high school and Fernando Brandon from Estancia High School that will be making reports as well so Kate do you want to start yeah um good evening superintendent Smith president Anderson and members of the board this evening we were asked to report on how seniors are preparing for their next Neighbors after graduation and to share two campus highlights currently seniors are making visits to colleges if that is their plan after graduation and our touring campuses so that they'll be able to make their decision by May 1st and commit to a college of their choosing personally I just committed to the University of Maryland and was able to go visit [Applause] and I was able to go
009visit the campus during spring break which is what a lot of other seniors did um and so currently seniors who have committed are going through the process of applying for housing and looking for roommates which can be definitely daunting and a little bit uh difficult um students who are planning on attending OCC in the fall are meeting with reps from the school to learn about how to register for classes and how to be prepared for the incoming fall many seniors are also starting to study for AP tests which begin in May in the hopes of gaining credits for college two campus highlights currently are that yesterday and today we had welcome aboard in which the freshmen and their families were able to come visit Newport Harbor and we were able to share with them our
010Traditions our school culture and how to teach them about transitioning into high school and the many different ways that they can get involved with our school also next week we'll have our academic rally in which we'll highlight students academic achievements rather than athletic achievements which we typically do in our other rallies so we'll recognize students of the year in all departments as well as our valedictorians so thank you for your time thank you Kate all right [Applause] Isabella would you like to go next foreign superintendent Smith president Anderson respective board and cabinet my name is Isabella Mills and I'm the cmhs student representative on campus this month we have a couple of exciting opportunities for students for example I'm excited to announce that ASB has organized quadcella on Friday April 28th with live music and
011the much beloved taco and ice cream trucks that we enjoyed last homecoming one of our own teachers is performing with her band so don't miss out currently both class and ASB elections are being held and it is wonderful seeing all the creative posters and campaigning taking place across campus tomorrow the Costa Mesa High School chapter the National Honor Society is holding an induction ceremony and as an NHS officer I'm very thrilled to see so many dedicated individuals recognized for their individual contributions to both the cmhs student body and the surrounding Newport Mesa Community as for athletics I would like to congratulate boys volleyball girls beach volleyball baseball and boys tennis as they are all headed to CIF additionally boys and girls swim are blowing everyone out of the water as they are not only headed
012to CIF but are first in league and again congratulations to the cheer team a CIF state champions um now in response to the first question as we move on to the next chapter of Our Lives I watch as the senior class prepares to engage in various opportunities from serving in Armed Forces attending colleges spanning the nation and serving our community here in Costa Mesa and so much more like Kate mentioned those students attending universities are visiting campuses and making their decisions and personally I just committed to UC Berkeley today so I would like to thank the College and Career Center on campus for all the guidance I've received received while exploring opportunities past graduation as well as the support in applying to universities and scholarships these past few months something I will miss after graduating
013is the immense support that Costa Mesa High School offers to its students academically socially or athletically I've watched my peers succeed in athletics the Performing Arts maths and Sciences and a plethora of extra extra extracurriculars on campus and the senior class is absolutely modeled what it is to be a Mesa student modeling Integrity engaging respectfully showing compassion and achieving excellence and I'm so excited to see what we all do after graduation thank you [Applause] thank you TJ next all right good evening Mr superintendent Madam president members of the board and guests this week we were asked to share the ways in which seniors are preparing for our next Endeavor after graduation what a Bittersweet time this is I first enrolled at musd in September of 2010 as a kindergartner at Harborview Elementary the Terminator was
014governor Miss matoya was principal Mrs Borg was my teacher what a time it was to be alive I have loved every moment since the district has shaped me into the man I am today and I think all the staff that have worked to keep City or to keep Newport Mesa Gray let me tell you one thing about the graduating class of 2023 at CDM we are not preparing for our next Endeavor we are prepared we have succeeded in the best elementary schools the best middle schools and the best high school all of whom have equipped us with the ability to Chase and achieve the American dream the best advice I can give to my fellow seniors is to enjoy while also staying engaged in the community ASB is planning events to do just that as
015an attempt to combat senioritis which is a very deadly disease that spreads rapidly after spring break speaking for a friend [Laughter] one of those events we just had was quadcella uh you may view quad shell as a Coachella knockoff Bravia Coachella as a quad show in Naco this event featured student singers and musicians performing in our quad after school mimicking the music festival in the desert there's so much talent that it wouldn't surprise me if some of them go on to perform at the real deal the event was a tremendous success thanks to Sophia Rabin in the Visual and Performing Arts committee within ASB although I was prepared to sing New York State of Mind by Billy Joel nobody would let me up on the stage just kidding all types of students have ended attended
016the event even if they were just there to enjoy and watch like me that's because quad cell was an event tailored to students current interest and that's why it worked out so well for those that don't know there's always a challenge amongst amongst the seniors at CDM in the month of April um that is that's what we call the Triple Crown so I'll lay it out for you second this means Cabo San Lucas and spring break Coachella the following weekend and his Stage Coach the weekend after that now yeah sounds fun right now with student body president I felt obligated to participate in this challenge uh to represent my peers at least that's the excuse I get my parents uh see when when we line up school events with current events students are into it
017another campus highlight was a week-long event called shims Olympics every day at break for five straight days our senior class president Mac shim hosted an eating competition featuring seven senior boys in front of the whole school in the quota break and yes I was one of the seven senior boys Monday was two dozen donuts then we had a five foot long bag out of bread then a chocolate milk jug then hot dogs and finally Chick-fil-A nuggets and no I didn't have to go to the hospital I proudly came in third place as silly as this event seems for five straight days there were no Clicks in the quota break nobody had their heads glued in their phones which by the way it makes out may sound I may sound old but the phones are just
018I'm over it I have to go with school and then thirdly no one went and sat in their cars um in my book any event that achieves those three major things is a success we need to make our kids social again as our time here winds down our seniors are looking forward to presenting their senior projects all year long our seniors have been shadowing a mentor and a field that they may be interested in pursuing as a career we develop a thesis that is backed up from experience and research which we then outline in a nine page essay and then a slide slideshow presentation standing before a panel CM students were mentees to doctors lawyers teachers fashion experts much more I personally study Municipal Finance with mayor pro tempore will O'Neill so many lessons were
019taught during this project that really can't be achieved in the classroom then we conclude with grad week which entails a senior Sunset Disneyland trip senior lunch parties and many other celebrations one last shout out that I added late Charlie Allen a good buddy of mine just committed to the United States Air Force Academy uh it was a post on on um our on the district website and I just wanted to give him a shout out because I think I talked about that in our last speech so ladies and gentlemen boys and girls as always thank you for the opportunity to serve and God bless you Fernando you're next I see a college sweatshirt yeah okay good evening superintendent Smith president Anderson and vice president Karine and fellow Board of Trustees seniors at Estancia High School
020are preparing for the next Endeavors after graduating from nmusd by connecting with our college and career counselor through one-on-one interactions students are able to gain more information on about college potential job opportunities and have deeper discussions on what their plans are in order to make decisions that will better support students in the future Estancia PTA is working hard to have seniors purchase or tickets for Grant night which will be held at Universal Studios in terms of the student body ASB is working hard to make blood drive posters and or in in our upcoming blood drive event that is towards the end of April and we're also working on uh Commitment Day posters for the seniors that are planning to commit to a four-year university community college or join the Navy and um and other jobs
021a campus highlight that I did want to mention was that um we had our yearly morph dance event with which was teamed Noches de Rodeo earlier in the fall ASB sound a survey for the student body to fill out in order to create suggestions for themes for Morp uh the results proved that students were interested in having a more western themed dance and and it turned out to be a success and starting fresh off of spring break students relocated their parking spots elsewhere due to the constructions of the new theater so far it has been going well since it since we came back on Monday um I did want to mention that um since since uh students were relocating uh parents and students had to adjust and I would like if the school district would
022encourage and promote more about the new school theater because while students and parents are adjusting to the change some aren't taking it that well and so it'd be great for there to be more of a vision so more students can see the effort and work that is being put in and lastly I did want to mention that um I just committed to University of San Diego and I'm like really excited thank you Fernando congratulations to all of you okay next up is our Harbor Council PTA report Lisa Buller good evening Dr Smith president Anderson trustees cabinet and guests Cynthia sends her regards from Portugal so you're stuck with me tonight and um she's having a wonderful time we um recently attended the fourth district PTA annual admin dinner we were sorry you guys couldn't attend
023but they put it on a different night out of our hands but we were well represented by the Pres the president and principals from Newport Harbor High School and Back Bay Monte Vista High School and we had the president from Davis and we had someone I apologize for not catching his name from The District who joined us to represent you guys which was very nice but I really am sorry I can't remember his name and um we were all on hand when um fourth district PTA um presented us with the outstanding Council award for the year which was [Applause] so when you get hear from your peers that you're doing a good job it's very nice and Cynthia was um very thrilled to accept and we went up there so it was good our membership
024is at 6448. it's never too late to join the PTA so for those of you who haven't send it in joint totem.com you can pick your school and lastly I want to make sure that all of you have received your invitations to the honorary Service Awards luncheon which is on Monday May 8th um if you haven't let us know we'll make sure that you get one three of you have rsvp'd so far so hopefully the rest will be able to attend and it's going to be held at the Mormon Church behind Newport Harbor High School so it's kind of centrally located with hopefully good parking and good food so we're we will be honoring all of the volunteers from our Newport Mesa PTA school so we hope to see you there and thank you very
025much [Applause] thank you next up we'll have our csca representative Amy chan oh or Stu we're having students foreign I did not president Anderson trustees uh superintendent Smith cabinet and uh esteemed guests and I mean that in his team's fashion um I just want to say thank you I looked at the Personnel commission um report and we have a lot of instructional AIDs that are looking to work for our district which is super important because I get quite a few phone calls from the ones that are in place now about how stressed out they are and they don't feel like they're performing to their to their uh normal standard because they're they're shorthanded and they're really starting to feel the pinch on it so I really did draw a lot of encouragement from that report
026we have a bunch of stuff coming up next month which is uh very exciting it's classified employees month in CSEA and we will be hosting a uh an ace day which we've invited some of you to to Shadow some of our folks and then report back on how wonderful we are in doing what we do and we also have our celebration for our members which is going to be at a local restaurant that is owned by somebody in the district so we're going to celebrate All 1100 of our folks at one time if you can believe that told me so we don't have enough room to pack those folks in nor do we have the budget however I wanted to stress that we are celebrating them because they are important uh they perform critical functions
027in our district and without them we really couldn't get this work done in fact we are going to be celebrating one on the 29th it's uh Eleanor reebart who is our unsung hero and as you can tell she does not like the spotlight [Applause] functions that she performs as Treasurer and also as the chapter mom really does help keep us focused and she really is a vital part of not only my chapter eboard and our chapter in general but as the of the district as a whole with the job she does in maintenance she really does a fine job and everyone respects the work she does and the best part is she respects them and that's what's important so I'd like to thank you for your time and enjoy the rest of your evening thank
028you [Applause] thank you next up nmft president Rhonda Reed good evening president Anderson trustees Dr Smith cabinet and guests here tonight um I will second that thank you with the AIDS um that really impacts our certificated teachers preschool all the way up um much needed so I appreciate Leona and her team and reaching out and really recruiting um I also want to thank Dr Smith and Leona as well for that LMI training I think last time I was here we talked about we were heading into our second training that's with CSC CSEA um and mft members management and really just intentionally working together how we can build trust and learn to collaborate in a really meaningful way so I also just want to thank our teachers you may have a week off to rest and
029relax and we're heading into one of the most busiest time of years uh AP testing State Testing senior projects all the different projects across campus closing up the benchmarks and curriculum goals that our teachers and the district have set I just would hope the district would give Grace to our teachers that in adding any new trainings during this really compressed time for our teachers would be so much appreciated thank you [Applause] next is community input on non-agendized items trustee wagon excuse me this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items not on the regular meeting agenda comments on non-agendized topics are limited to three minutes per topic up to 20 or three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes per topic and today we actually have 10 plus speakers so we're
030going to shorten that to two minutes so that everyone can have an opportunity to speak today one topic so two minutes on the Newport Harbor High School baseball um field since that is our most of our speakers so you get two minutes so we can get everyone in a speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person by order of the brown acts section 54954.2 the board will take no action nor have any discussion on non-agendized items the superintendent May provide clarification during superintendent's comments first up is Terry Lee and after Terry Lee will be Christa Perez hello members of the board thank you for having me um as you're probably aware now the baseball fields at Newport High School Newport Harbor are in a state of serious disrepair my name is Terry
031Lee my son James is a freshman at Harbor and I have another son in fifth grade who's coming up as well both of my sons have dedicated the greater part of their young lives um to outside of school to America's favorite pastime the sport of baseball and it's been 40 years since the last time Newport Harbor had any significant the fields at Harvard had any significant attention that's 40 years in those four decades the fences are now collapsing the grass has been ravaged by wildlife weeds the fields and playing surfaces are uneven and the structures are disintegrating I also understand that there are plans awaiting approval for Corona del Mar to receive to renovate their lower division fields to the tune of five million dollars and how can that be true when um Harbors Varsity
032fields are in such a state of disrepair and we haven't even become to talk about the frosh fields 40 years since the last improvements and I understand that all the other free uh three high schools had significant improvements significant representations in the last five years I have a little illustration of um some of the other fields these are beautiful fields to be proud of um with the exception of Newport Harbor here I think you can see just from the uh picture um the the state that is that it's in um our boosters have been seeking tens of thousands of dollars every year just to try and maintain these skills that are getting worse every year and we're asking for equity um now personally I'm not a huge fan of turf fields but because of the
033resident wildlife and neighboring ENC the turf is the best solution for The Unique leads of this location thank you Terry I'm sorry we only have two minutes thank you Krista Perez is next and following Krista is Mark Hatfield good evening my name is Krista Perez Saved by the Bell I am a parent of a 10th grade student athlete at Newport Harbor High School and I too am here tonight to talk about the Newport Harbor baseball facilities um as a parent I want to make sure that my child is safe while at school whether it's in the classroom or on the field and what we are talking about and what we want to present to the board is that the district and the school have an obligation to make sure that all of our students are
034safe and our concern is is that our boys that are playing on this field in the conditions and in the facilities that they are not safe um I think you'll probably know that I send a very detailed email to the board last night so I will not um repeat all of the details that are set forth in that except to say that we believe that the facilities are not clean safe or maintained in good repair one of the big issues that we deal with which Terry alluded to you is the Environmental Nature Center which is adjacent to our field interestingly enough I believe that the district owns that that property and leases it to the ENC and so we're in an interesting position where the district is responsible on both sides of that equation essentially
035so we are looking for um attention um and something to be done that to ameliorate the the problems that are affecting our field we have rabbits weeds crabgrass drainage issues it's creating safety problems for our players um someone could really be hurt um and unfortunately we are not in the similar position as many of the other schools in the district because they have fields that are not interfered with by the environmental Nature Center and that's why we're proposing and suggesting that a turf field would be a solution that would take care of the issues that we deal with from the ENC and give our players and our kids a safe playing field to play on thank you thank you thank you after Mark is John angle King uh good evening board my name is Mark
036Hatfield and I am a proud father of a current 8th grader at Ensign intermediate who shares the same love for baseball and football as all the other parents sitting here behind me I've had the pleasure to meet with Dr Smith and I know I've communicated to all of you guys via email so I'm going to kind of keep it short since I know you guys probably received my email yesterday with the presentation that we provided to a group of our families in the program we thought it was important that we put together a presentation so uh the other families in our program understand kind of what we're all up against um so given that uh on top of everything you know that that everyone's already said I just we have a poster here of some
037things that we deal with on a daily basis and this is a super unfortunate scenario that was uh was that was discovered on our freshman field last Saturday and that was a used syringe um so we have my son is in the eighth grade anchors program which is the feeder to the high school and he's playing on this field practicing twice a week playing games and he's out there running around with syringes and I I can I can honestly say that that is a big part of that is the security we don't have any closed premises our fields are wide open we don't have Gates we don't have locked access our Fields turn into a dog park kids people come in there and their dogs go to the bathroom our kids stepping it in their
038cleats and then they treat our coaches with disrespect uh telling them that their District employees and it's taxpayer money and they can use the field and all that good stuff here we have a hole with a player obviously this is a huge liability with an ankle break this is what our current uh this is what our field looked like last summer before Coach Lee and the staff did major upgrades rabbit feces holes in the fence and obviously there's just there's a lot of stuff to see here so thank you for your time time and I look forward to working something out thank you [Applause] so John is Richard Morrell thank you uh superintendent Smith president vice Madam vice president and board members my name is John Engel King and my family's lived here for 20
039plus years our kids have gone through the Newport Mason school district and our oldest has recently graduated from Newport Harvard last year our son also plays on the anchors baseball baseball program where the kids share the same baseball field as they play their games and practices on the fields when we first when I first went to one of their practices I was watching their practices and I was watching consider a lot of ground balls being hit and um and taking bad Hops and drilling these kids in the face and in the chest and watching kids run for fly balls and tripping in holes and I thought it was because of those poor maybe poor maintenance that was going on at the fields but what I was shocked to learn it had to do with infestation
040of Furman and and Wildlife and as you've heard our fence we share a fence line with um the environmental Nature Center and this Wildlife comes over to our to our field and they for a source of food they come over to eat the grass and then the grass causes causes the um holes in the ground which is causing um which is causing these these bad hops with these baseballs Newport baseball facilities the only baseball field facility that shares this that shares a fence line with the environmental and um this has led it has also LED um to players coming constant contact with animal feces that is not only unsanitary but is extremely unhealthy additionally crab grass growing from the ENC weeds has made it impossible made it impossible for the coaches to make a safe
041playing Ground for the for the facilities these conditions are unacceptable and and for amount we pay in our property tax bill we do expect better conditions for our kids to play on I'm removing these weeds and crab last crabgrass make it safe would make it safe for our players to start as a good a good start however a grass the grass field needs to be replaced with the turf field you need to get rid of the grass so it can stop the wildlife and from coming over and feeding on on the grass in the infill I appreciate your time and thank you Sir Richard is Lauren conrady Hi how are you my name's Rich uh Morel I have three children that go to Newport Harbor High School I've got a senior a sophomore and freshman
042and with the baseball field I I think I want to share that my oldest played football his entire career and it was a great experience but now my freshman is playing on the high school team which you've heard about all the things going on so I want to hit on two of them won the break-in that happened at the school where we don't know who broke in there we don't know if it was drug addicts we don't know if it was gang bangers but we have a facility where people could come in and steal valuable items from our children and we still don't have any sort of security or camera system to fix that and make parents feel more comfortable about their kids and then the second thing the fields I think you'll see more
043pictures I send my child out there every single day he plays Outfield it is an accident waiting to happen and as a parent my job is to keep them safe and as a school board I'm hoping that you will listen to these parents and make this field safe for our children in a timely fashion [Applause] after Lauren is Stephen Whitaker good evening superintendent Smith president Anderson vice president Crane and trustees my name is Lauren conrady and I'm here to share my concerns for the Safety and Security of Newport Harbor's baseball field to start off it has not been had had any facilities Renovations in over 40 years the field is is such bad conditions due to the rabbits from ENC eating away on it it causes the field to be unleveled so ground balls tend
044to pop up at the Players causing injury just last night at practice my seventh grade son at Ensign who also plays on the anchors the theater team for the high school took a pop-up ball in his wrist it was swollen when I picked him up so we had to ice it again he's only in seventh grade so the force is much less than that of a high schooler so the injury that would definitely be greater for Harbor players from all those ground balls on top of that the rabbit's chewing away at the fencing that's supposed to stop foul balls is Into The Stand zip ties are being used to secure the holes so Spectators don't get hit by the foul balls another concern is the feces and urines left on the field from Vermin since
045we are attached to the ENC our players are exposed to it daily and it can also lead to HPS antivirus pulmonary syndrome since the players are constantly running through sliding and touching the field with their gloves the feces can be stirred up in the air which releases the virus when breathing through Airborne transmission symptoms are fever fatigue muscle aches and headaches which sounds like a typical cold to me so I'm sure our players have been exposed to it in regards to security issues the player's weight room is also in poor condition the whole thing is so old that the door was easily broken into and the place had over twenty thousand dollars worth of gear stolen when reported it took the district over six weeks to somewhat fix the door we also need lighting and
046security cameras because the lighting over the Baseball Field parking lot is close to non-existent I am asking that all of our concerns are taken to heart and solutions are made to keep our players soon safe sooner rather than later thank you for your time thank you after Stephen Tim pinkert thank you hello everyone my name is Stephen Whitaker and I was born and raised in Costa Mesa and both me and my wife attended Newport Mesa schools we now have four children that are doing or have done the same I'm here today to talk about the state of the baseball facilities at Newport Harbor High School the condition of the fields and the facility at Newport Harbor is unacceptable especially when you compare them to the other high schools in the district these issues include a
047Vermin and Wildlife infestation drainage and flooding issues in the right field unlevel and sloped Outfield and infield surfaces fencing sinkage and multiple security issues my son will be a freshman at Newport next year and he plays Outfield I've raised him to work hard and always give maximum effort I have seen him put his body on the line diving for a Fly ball and even leaping into a fence in an attempt to rob a home run this type of effort from my son makes me proud of the way he plays the game but I am concerned for him playing at Newport Harbor if things do not change I don't want him to change the way he plays but when you look at things like uneven playing fields and exposed concrete Footers along the fence it's hard
048not to want him to take it easy the risk of injury is just too high I also want to address the importance this has for the student athletes themselves as a parent who had a child transfer schools because she wanted a better experience in the sport she was so passionate about I feel I have an understanding on how important these type of things are to the student athletes these boys and young men love the sport they play and they want to be proud of the field and Facilities they use the impact on this has on them is priceless when a student athlete feels proud of their home they are so much more likely to thrive they want to put in the extra work they're excited to go to practicing games and they take pride in
049the school they play for I urge you to take action for the safety and the experience of not only the current baseball players at Newport Harbor but for those in the future generations to come thank you thank you after Tim is Edward Wellborn good evening superintendent members of the board my name is Tim pinkert I am the Newport Harbor baseball booster president um I'm going to talk a little bit economics a little bit about the field I could stand here for 30 minutes and talk about the field and I think we're getting the point here but um there's economics associated with this as well um I have a junior uh second year Varsity player um playing baseball at the Newport Beach or Newport Harbor and um our Outfield fence is falling down uh and again
050what we're saying is 40 Years of major maintenance that has not been done to this facility it's been put together with Band-Aids with boards with parents um it's all been money donated by the parents and here we are with a dilapidated facility that the things that need to be fixed are so major we can't raise enough money we raise seventy five thousand dollars that's a lot for 50 families uh in the baseball community in every dollar of that goes to maintaining that facility um defense is falling down so what happens is the concrete Rises off and the Footers come up my son six stitches last year because he he ran into the fence trying to catch a ball and here we are uh you know six stitches later uh when I came in this year
051uh the dugouts are unbelievably dangerously close to the field we put up fences so the kids wouldn't get hit uh we had a kid that that had that got a concussion last year he got hit in the temple uh we had a kid that was hit in the face with an opposing team if I was in a an opponent playing uh Newport Harbor I would not play on this field and I again every dollar that we make or we that is donated to us is spent on that field what does that mean we don't get to go to Hawaii we don't get to do that thank you after Edward as John Danish good evening board and we thank you for your time we need your help that's what this boils down to you've been educated
052this evening I know you received emails yesterday but we need your help my name is Edward Welborn I'm also a board member my son is a junior at Newport Harbor loves baseball and every word that these parents are telling you is 100 true my perspective is a little different because not only is my son a player but I'm a board member which means that we put in a lot of work and you just heard from Mr pinkert and I it things that we've done for example uh the rabbit issue not only have I had my own shopback out there cleaning the field not only the field but also The Spectator area and why that's important is because frankly it's disgusting and it's unhealthy and we're out there for hours and we're done we're spraying it
053off we're trying to make it a uh as playable as possible for these kids which frankly we've done I think a good a job as we can but we need help our coach spends many hours day and night trying to make the field playable and he has we have these safety issues which we can't overcome now we spend over half of the money that we raise from parents on the field just to try to maintain this 40 year old field that is really unmanageable I know as soon as we get it playable two weeks later it's not playable the rabbit issue for example that became a weekly thing where on Fridays before the games on Saturdays parents including myself are out there cleaning this up we have players that have been injured and what we've
054done as a board is try to step in to make things safe if possible for example we put netting up because that kid got hit in the face and we all saw and thought this is a problem we need to do something and we did but again the money that we're using comes directly from the families that are here today talking about this your constituents these are serious issues and again we're here to ask for your help thank you thank you [Applause] next is John damish good evening board members thank you very much for the time to address you tonight I grew up in New Jersey I did not grow up here I aspired to live here um I'm very proud of that consider that a success right what got me here was baseball I
055I played in high school I played for UC Irvine and I decided to stay in in Newport Beach right one of the things that baseball taught me and no other sport teaches you better than baseball because what other sport do you fail seven out of 10 times and you're considered an All-Star it teaches you how to fail it teaches you how to get up and teach you how to recover right these are important life skills right we learn things through failure we learn how to ride bikes by Falling we learned material by getting answers wrong we learned to build companies by trying something new and iterating until something works we learn to play a sport by practicing and competing but for this to work two important elements must be present Safety and Security Maslow identified
056these two things right these are right above basic physiological needs of eating and breathing Safety and Security my son will hopefully play baseball at Newport Harbor he's in the anchors program I want him to have the freedom that I did to learn to play this game I want him to experience personal growth through hard work failure adaptation and the reward that comes with it I want him to climb that pyramid to earn the love and respect of his peers as players as coaches and other parents I know these things will produce a resilient motivated and compelled person to be successful in life and contribute to society I expect him to make the appropriate investment in time energy and hard work you've seen tonight the status and the current state of our facilities at Newport Harbor
057now it's time that we make the investment for our kids so they can try they can learn they can fail and they can succeed so thank you very much for the time I appreciate it nice [Applause] thank you next up is Keon momini and following that will be Sharon McDougall thank you superintendo Smith president Anderson and members of the board my name is and I'm a current senior at Costa Mesa High School books are one of our greatest Joys both the students and as common people they provide countless amounts of information and allow us to look into Worlds we once deemed unimaginable what concerns me and a lot of my peers especially now is the board prepares to reevaluate and adjust the school curriculum toward the end of the year our comments previous previously made
058before this day is by a few who look to take this experience away from students through a proposed Mass removal of books from their hands throughout this past year attempts to ban books reach a record high those who advocate for such action claim they want to protect children from difficult ideas and different and information and to avoid radical messages to put things in retrospect this is the same rational foreign countries use to suppress free speech and freedom of the press I myself being of Iranian Heritage have witnessed this firsthand we citizens of the United States are granted the right to free speech freedom of the press freedom of religion and the right to petition the government under the First Amendment this proposed Banning of books would do nothing but take away those rights we've fought
059so hard so many years ago as students we understand the importance of learning from just different perspectives and being exposed to diverse ideas is through encountering challenging and new topics that we are able to develop critical thinking skills and become well-informed individuals Banning books that we may not agree with ideal ideologically only limits our ability to learn and grow and does a disservice to the education of the students in our district instead of silencing voices let us strive to engage in respectful discourse and Foster a community of open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity instead of being becoming the book Banning District let us be the district that allows students to discover the right book at just the right time and allows those unimaginable worlds to become a reality thank you for your time [Applause] following Sharon is
060Wendy lease thank you members of the board I'm going to be quickly talking about school choice but I want to start with this question can a child become a member of the opposite sex follow the science it is chromosomally impossible God made us who we are XX or X Y you can't change how beautifully he created all of us in His image last week I had the pleasure to go to the Orange County Board of Education meeting to learn more about the email Revelations that we're showcasing transitioning secrecy and keeping parents out of that decision and there was a in defense Ashley Anderson said that we're not doing that we're simply affirming children's pronouns and really what what I need to shed some light on is is pronouns are just the beginning of the transition
061process the Insidious seed grows from there to take a child down a path that statistics show most children will outgrow as an adult if not transitioned I was surprised by the dramatic drop in Statewide Public School enrollment shown at the Orange County Board of Education last week There's a growing number of parents like myself who have enrolled their children in private schools over the last three years because of plummeting grades and a heightened focus on the lgbtq equity and inclusion ideologies and lack of focus on academics California has the highest tax funding education at nearly 25 000 per child and our schools are ranked 38th in the nation this brings me to some positive news state senator Shannon Grove from Bakersfield recently authored SB to Senate Bill 292 the California education savings account Act of
0622024. this would allow parents to choose the best school that suits their child child's needs and provide a capitalistic approach to education that would improve both public and private schools assure academic focus and in the end teach our kids how to think not what to what to think in closing Ponder the meaning of this Bible scripture Deuteronomy 23 1 he that is wounded he that is wounded in the stones or hath his privy member cut off shall not enter into the kingdom of the Lord thank you [Applause] after Wendy will be Alicia B good evening Madam president members of the board Dr Smith my name is Wendy lease I served on the sport for eight years from 1994 to 2002. I had a little break and then I sort of done the Costa Mesa city
063council for eight years um and I was re-elected both times but we had term limits on the city council um I want to talk to you about a public record request that I made on March 16th to uh last earlier this year uh this is what I asked for after reviewing the Whittier school website I'm unable to find a link or list of current library books as a taxpayer of Newport Mesa for 50 years I'm interested in the books of my local elementary school and schools that West Side students attend where I live to that point I would like the spreadsheets for library books at Wilson Whittier Pomona Ray and San An Estancia in Newport Harbor High School those are all the the schools where West Side kids go Oh I didn't I forgot T1
064called with national controversies over books that see some deem appropriate and some deem inappropriate it is a duty of the Newport Mason Unified School District board to be transparent and allow the community I'm a taxpayer to see the names of the books that we the taxpayers pay for uh in June of 22 following the controversy over the flamer book at Wilson School the public understood that the district would review all library books at all schools and I believe you voted for three book review companies the district has had plenty of time to review the library books it is now time that the taxpayers and community members know the names of all library books in our school libraries there is no legal reason not to be transparent with this information I've received no email regarding a
065delay no commute no communication we are not interested in book Banning I am the mother of five and the grandmother of five we want to re retain the values in our Newport Mesa Community and uh and have our books in the libraries represent those values there are some books that were at one book flamer at Wilson school I don't know if you seen it but it is pornographic and it should never have been there and and I don't think you did a very good job in helping the parent who had the experience of the sun bringing the book to her uh kind of get through that whole thing it was kind of a closed door so please release this list of all the library books we're entitled to it there's no reason not to follow
066through with its public record request thank you yes after Alicia is Haley Jenkins good evening president Anderson superintendent Smith and trustees the seeds of deception that the District administration attempts to plant illustrates deep-rooted abuses of power and the need to orient with truths to parents in the state of objective reality at the most recent nmusd board meeting the district claimed that a gender support plan is not a transition plan assistant superintendent Sarah jockham is quoted as saying we do not transition students to a different gender at the ocbe meeting on April 12th she strengthened this position you can play the problematic language game the flaw gender affirming care movement to obscure reality but the truth is your GSP fits a very definition of gender social transition as the plan literally changes a student's name gender
067and pronoun at the OCB meeting on April 12th Dr jochim stated that every single Elementary and secondary GSP had parent involvement and approval president Anderson alleged that there is not a single student in Newport Mesa who does not have parents involvement and support but the reality is that you do not have parents consent for all students in elementary and or secondary this is a confirmed immoral and ethical and unlawful practice in fact following the leak of emails by the California Alliance For Education superintendent Carrie Torres advised District Personnel to continue to socially transition minors ages 12 and older without parent knowledge or permission verbatim yet she was the one who conducted the investigation and presented falsehoods to the board an internal investigation that consisted of self-report and an honor code no method of verification only
068blind trust though some District Personnel like Torres are known for their deception I refute these lies as a request to trustees to continue to investigate the incongruences presented by Administration the current investigation is invalid if you are truly concerned about the safety of students the district would cease the secrecy and deception with urgency it is evident that the district does not understand best practice is related to gender dysphoria rogd or other related subtype no child is born in the wrong body their bodies are just fine it's their psyches that need healing thank you genuinely thank you trustees Bartow and trustee weigand for being the only two with intellectual curiosity to pose questions following the mental health practices report at the last meeting I requested the district immediately adopt a parental rights policy to include language
069regarding this topic as you stated publicly via social media adopt a parental Bill of Rights similar to the Orange County Board of Education that includes parental notification of their child's transgender ideation such policy is necessary necessary to truly protect our children from serious harm caused by this horrendous gender ideology experiment on our children thank you [Applause] thank you after Haley as Deborah Klein superintendent Smith president Anderson and members of the board prior to your last meeting over three weeks ago trustee Pearson trustee weigand and trustee Bartow you all issued statements on your Instagram so I'm going to read from that right now you guys said it is not the role of schools to hide things from parents particularly those matters which impact their students mental health as the support needed goes beyond what a school
070can provide we are committed to a full investigation of these claims and to make parents aware of what happens in the classroom we will be pushing for a board policy to explicitly address making parental rights and transparency at the Forefront of parent and teacher interactions parents have the expectation as do we board members that our Public Schools will educate our children in a manner that recognizes parents as the first educators of their children we expect nmusd will uphold the standard that parents are the primary decision makers on important matters that relate to their children so that is awesome thank you all for coming out and saying that so why is that not being discussed tonight it's not on the agenda I haven't seen any updates on your social media or in emails to families on
071how you are all pushing for a board policy or any updates on the investigation over the emails about transitioning children remember when last year Wilson librarian Grant Thompson ordered all those pornographic books and then read them to children and then he was just allowed to quit and there was supposed to be an investigation and I asked you all for a library book Review Committee and then instead you hired a library book expert and locked parents out of the online libraries so is that how the investigation is going to go for this too how do families know that the district won't transition their children behind their backs we heard from president Anderson that that doesn't occur but how do we know that do we just trust that after seeing all these emails and hearing stories from
072parents and students I think tonight there are several people here behind me waiting for you to address this it's pretty serious don't you think now I know you are not allowed to respond to me right now but I think by tomorrow at the latest some type of statement with more than an assurance of trust us needs to be made to families and certainly by the next meeting we should hope to see an updated version of your parental rights board policy because I just met several new families at a town hall over the weekend and they were pretty uneasy about a lot of the things happening in this District and then just quickly um we do not want to ban books you can still check them out at the library or order them online we don't
073want porn in schools age-appropriate materials is what we were asking for thank you [Applause] next will be LeeAnn uh canadi Canada good evening president Anderson trustees and superintendent Smith where do I begin parents were locked out of school libraries after pornographic content was found it's been a year now the district allowed the librarian Grant Thompson to resign without an exit interview investigation or discipline he is now free to do the same in another District educational grants from the Newport Mesa Foundation founded in the name of a former Estancia coach who was sentenced to five years in prison for sexual misconduct with minors a registered pedophile who abused children in our district handing out grants gross you hired assistant superintendent Carrie Torres just a few years ago while at Brea Olinda Unified Carrie was filmed on
074camera endorsing the sexual engagement between a grown man and a young boy as a historical sexual preference to be taught in school again gross socially gender transitioning kids Behind parents backs and then continuing to deny it the unanimous vote to spend a hundred thousand dollars on studying the design of commingled restrooms that conveniently conform with the bathroom usage policy and the gender support plan counseling and social emotional Justice activist Curriculum by school counselors without parental consent investing in Yale's ruler curriculum to elicit social justice responses meanwhile teachers need mental health days and are in Breaking Down in class because the district thought it was best to spend one million dollars on restorative practices and will not discipline students unanimously hiring a superintendent who just previously nodded his head in support of defunding the police and
075creating social justice Warriors he then brought in his friends Sakura Shields with a checkered resume after she was fired up north chess scores are down where's the parental rights policy you haven't followed through on that have you we're not in great shape financially John warlock's objective review in key measures of fiscal health for all 995 California school districts ranked Newport Mesa a quote bottom dweller unquote as 26 out of 28 Orange County districts Laguna Beach the only other Orange County District funded by property taxes ranked first for all these reasons and many more not afforded the time to list tonight taxpayers should have a resounding vote of no confidence for trustees Wigan Crane and ursulo in 2024. thank you [Applause] hi I'm Leanne can a day that's the name anyway I also wanted to speak
076about parental rights because it seems odd to me that parents have the right to be obligated for what their kids do right they damage this they they um they did something bad in school we have all the rights for anything bad they do yet we don't have the rights to know what's happening in the school we don't have the rights to know what's being taught where their kids are being transitioned without the rights of the parents to know I just watched some amazing kids speak I mean amazing kids there is no doubt in my mind that their parents weren't involved in everything they did be and they even spoke we spoke about so I don't know your name but but you did a wonderful job about well behind my parents or my parents agreed with
077that or I mean the whole thing was involved with his parents and that where as a school district trying to hide things from the parents I think it's totally wrong and that's all I have to say [Applause] next up is Libby hike hi good evening uh all of you here and I'll be back here um I'm Libby hike and I live in Newark Beach and my daughter's actually 32 years old so I haven't been in a school district meeting in a long time but I have heard a lot about all this gender issues that are happening here in the schools and it concerns me um so I mean I've also seen this one story of Chloe and many others that are very sad just the surgery they went through and their bodies will never be
078the same and they can probably never have kids again so it's it's very alarming that I hear about this gender transitioning that's happening in our schools um so I'm just wondering why are schools uh doing these gender support uh policies um is this about our government taking kids away from our parents from their parents so the government can control our kids is that really what's happening here um is this what you want trustees education should be about teaching the three R's not about mental issues concerning gender dysphoria schools do not own our kids we parents do from California Alliance For Education uh and NMSU nmusd Elementary principal emailed School Employees to socially transition a student and he said we can't change permanent records unless parents consent and there are official protocols followed but this is
079a start so even though the principal knows about required parental consent this principle feels it's okay for the school to begin a few transition steps like pronouns name change in yearbook Awards and that kind of thing that is totally unacceptable especially from a principal also from California Alliance For Education in 2019 nmusd Board of Trustees adopted a parental secrecy policy so in direct violation of the 14th Amendment protecting parents rights the school board willingly at that time approved this policy this is grounds for recall of those trustees let me remind you the 14th amendment protects the fundamental rights of parents to direct the care upbringing and education of their children and there are other laws that specifically protect parents rights trustees who choose to ignore these laws and instead be persuaded by gender identity mental
080health employees should be recalled immediately period so what we need now is we do need a parental policy we need um let's see there's one that the ocboe just approved and it is exactly this it's a parental rights policy and it's a policy developed jointly with and agreed upon by parents guardians of participating students this is a mandate from the 20 U.S code 6318 I'm sure you're all aware of that right thanks to ocboe we now have a comprehensive template for parents rights policy I encourage you to do this immediately foreign next is Adriana foacher president Anderson trustee superintendent in gas um first of all I was going to also say I was so impressed with the high school students that presented today and also the cheerleading squad they represent the values of this district
081and it's obvious that they have had a great upbringing and their parents must be so proud um we've been talking a lot about different meetings one was the Orange County Board of Education meeting that happened on April 12th I don't know if you've listened to him it was like five hours long but at Hour 3 and 52 minutes there's about a 12 minute video I highly recommend um watching that and listening to it and for any parents or people in the back there for to listen to April 12th Orange County Board of Education presentation starting at Hour 3 and 52. that kind of gives you what a lot of the parents are talking about if you're not familiar um the baseball parents were very empathetic and they're basically saying that education and academics is what
082they they feel should be focused and they're asking for your help I'm also one of these people that believes that schools should focus on academics and Excellence um so I'm with them on that what I was gonna um just put for the record was there was something that was disclosed with a public records act acquisition and that should be you know discussed uh at some point there was an email dated April 2nd where a counselor at Newport Mesa responded to the director of student services and the counselor was thank goodness objected to materials that um some staff members provided her or I don't know if it was a her or him with the subject line um the subject line of the email was in honor of trans visibility day so it wasn't a support thing
083it was it was an actual agenda or ideological ideologically bent item the counselor says um said this goes far beyond what our role is as Educators entails while we hold different roles in this world that of an educator is far different from that of a parent our role as Educators is to provide a safe and unbiased environment for students to learn math science English and history the activities presented here far surpassed what is appropriate for educators and the email goes on and ends with um the this is what the counselor said back to the director of student services as a parent I would be appalled if these conversations happened with my kids at school it's an incredible overreach I I'm impressed at this counselor pushed back so my point is or my question is I'm
084hoping that the trustees here will push back as well listen to parents also fulfill your campaign policies those that campaign on parental rights and transparency and curriculum thank you [Applause] before I get into that for our next meeting we're going to be updating the comment cards I think our baseball player parents that came were given two minutes because it was for one topic and I have a wide variety of topics that are essentially one and they didn't get enough time to speak because other people put a variety of things on their card but then spoke on other topics so we'll be updating this card so it's fair for everybody to have their full three minutes or if needed their two minutes thank you the next person up will be Donna um Phoebus and following that
085would be Dr Donald Wolfe oh distinguished board is very nice to be here especially as a grandmother and a former teacher and a former um instructor of teachers and having my two daughters both attended Newport Mesa schools and now I have four grandkids in Newport Mesa schools so I wanted to congratulate all the parents who have spoken on the same issue because this is the one that concerned me as a teacher who used to teach other teachers to be sure that they respected the parents and always called them in for counsel if there was a situation with with the children so parental rights was my reason for speaking everyone did such a beautiful job of doing the same thing and I would just like to re reiterate I know that there was a bill passed
086or supposedly discussed in the assembly ab1314 which disrespected parents rights and it was not allowed to be read aloud and I went to the Orange County school board meeting they said this sort of thing needs to be referred to each School District to make decisions regarding this so there's a lot that other people have said that I could reiterate but I'm not going to take that time since you're short of time but I just wanted to um first of all thank the people who have come forward here to speak thank the students who have shown the wonderful education that they're getting here and the wonderful opportunities in sports including my children who have excelled in those things and I also wanted to thank you because it's a big job and we appreciate your diligence and
087your communication thank you very much [Music] [Applause] Donald walls superintendent Smith and president Anderson thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight we've had several heavy topics tonight I just want to present one more from a different point of view my topic is wet cement noted author teacher and child psychologist Heim genot has written that a child's brain is like wet cement what Falls onto it leaves an impression each of you here has been voted into the confidence by the grandparents and parents to protect our child's wet cement many of you may know or some of you may not know about how the brain matures what is a child and when is a child no longer a child an adult free to make their own reasoned decisions available on many websites including the National Institutes
088of Health is the definition of the prefrontal cortex which is the executive part of our brains the prefrontal cortex relates to the executive functions and abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts to determine good and bad to determine better and best to determine same and different and to determine future consequences of current activities which are working toward a defined goal it predicts outcomes it has expectations based on actions and social control which is the ability to suppress urges that have not suppressed could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes the prefrontal cortex is the wet cement that we have entrusted you to take care of in our children it's a heavy heavy responsibility we don't take it lightly we trust you to uphold the basic standards of Civility and good behavior and instead teach academics not social behavior
089thank you much [Applause] thank you next to superintendent comments the baseball parents thank you for waiting around and identifying what it was that you wanted to chat about tonight you know some of you said this I think you said safety and security I had health and safety written down I think we agreed that that's what's Paramount here and I had a great chance to meet with some of the folks in the audience and they were kind enough to meet with me right before the break and about the only hour window that I had to hear their concerns about the the safety uh the security and the well-being of their student athletes and nothing is more important to the board than those three things for all of our students I was happy to help them set
090up a meeting with our team and feel bad that you know Lance had an emergency and we had to reschedule but I know that we're on again and that even Jeff is going to attend this meeting with Lance and and walk those fields and see what can be done so I want to thank you for lifting that up it's important that we advocate for those issues the CDM issued just just quickly I just want to correct for the record because that's what I've been asked to do up here there was a plan that would look at Ada accommodations at the site that's all those were drawn to consider there's no plan no plan right now no timeline for doing any improvements at the CDM baseball field just so we can clarify that and work from
091a a place of what we're actually working towards and what the board has been approving and that hasn't been a part of the conversation and isn't agenda is anytime soon the safety issue is is another big one you know when I first got here within weeks started to bring safety experts in to say what can we do within months we started our safety task force they've been meeting since last year looking at these very issues meeting with a kayak here at the county level and they'll be completing that report soon which gives the board some real Direction on where our most vulnerable sites but even without those reports being drawn we knew that there were some areas we had to address soon some things like School cameras right fencing especially in this district is a
092much longer conversation but one that I'm sure we're going to have to have based on the kayak report but cameras are something we could work on and so the first phase of camera implementation is happening this semester and and it just so turns out that Newport Harbor is one of those schools because of some of the Dynamics that you represented and so we hear you we're working in multiple Avenues to to address those issues the break-in was absolutely unfortunate we had approved to repair and fortify what I think you call the clubhouse if I got that wrong I apologize but but to address that and I know we've begun that efforts and then someone came in because as you said they had some unvetted accent or access rather to them that I would say that
093that and I know this doesn't go perhaps far enough it was the first time since I've been here that we've directed staff to work with parents to expedite the insurance claims having had to do paper routes and things like that to pay for my first A2000 and those of you that play baseball you know what I'm talking about um that's a lot it's a lot for kids their bats are astronomically expensive so we've been trying to work with parents on our end to say let's get that money back and I know that may not go far enough but we're going to keep doing our best to help you in that regard again I'm grateful that Lance and Jeff are going out there and I look forward to hearing what what comes out of it and
094what we might do to better protect the safety and health of the students with regard to book Banning I would just say to the student I appreciate all of your comments just that there isn't um a plan for Mass removal of books in The District so if perhaps you gleaned that from hearing maybe public comments or things online that isn't something that this district is discussing we have no interest in the mass removal of books so um that's not happening and Kian brought that up um the public record request item we provide as As a matter of law all the records that we have in our care we work with our attorneys to do so um and and I've said that before I'll continue to to reiterate that for the item of of the Orange
095County board meeting um I'll go back and watch it again but I don't because I did watch uh president Anderson I don't remember her mentioning pronouns at all um so I just want to correct the record I think you know we talk about character and facts and things like that I'll go back and look at it but I don't remember commenting on pronouns I also think that um it concerns me when we misrepresent things I would I would hope it's not intentionally misrepresenting because there's another word for that but the emails confirm or prove uh that no students there's no proof that students were put on a support plan because of those emails they proved nothing with regard to that they do demonstrate um that there were intentions of staff that alarmed the board and
096that's why president Bartow I think her quote was mentioned also and other trustee said we've got to look into this we have we have a third party team investigating uh the participation of our staff that's what those emails show to suggest they prove that x amount of students are on support plans without parental consent it's not accurate um we have looked into it we have found no students on support plans in this District zero without the involvement and consent to parents and if you know of a parent that knows otherwise please bring it to our attention we'll investigate that immediately as we've done every time these things been brought to our attention but to continue to point back to those emails as the proof um to me it's beyond a misrepresentation there we we talked
097about um the district just allowing things to happen we also had attorneys at the last uh board meeting that talked about the rights that students have in California with regard to these support plans and it's pretty clear in law if there are issues with that then then that is certainly a state issue I think as someone mentioned kind of one of the last statements that Orange County said you should go uh you know advocate for these things at the local school district level relative to assembly bills and Senate bills I would say that that's not the jurisdiction of this board they don't get to vote on any one of the assembly bills or Senate bills and we've talked about that here at this day as before there is a place to advocate for that just
098to clarify this isn't that place in ab1266 and other protections provided by the state weren't given by this board but the supports that we provide and here's the good news for those people that really care about the facts um as we've done these investigations is that all of them have been done with the involvement and consent of parents the Wilson Library issue again keeps coming up and um I'll say it again the destiny system has been live for parents and students this District all year so this notion of parents being locked out Destiny has been live um they they can look at that also their board policies in the district they're published where if a parent wants to challenge instruction materials or content there's a process for them to do that and so that's access
099that parents have not only to review the content but to say I take issue with it and I want to address this so those things are already in play and we work through them then I've got to say um you know when when we run for office and I didn't run for office but I certainly applied for this job and I I love serving the students in this district and and working with these families to make this District the best um and and as such people can say whatever they want about us I get that but I think it's I think it's beyond unfortunate I think someone used the word gross I think it's gross that we intentionally misrepresent the character of people on this team that are are protected against defamation claims to to
100take a you know several seconds snippet of Carrie Torres and misrepresent that without the context that's to be gross to only mention the one article about Socorro Shields and not the second and third articles and the investigation that was conducted in that county that exonerated her and said it was the school board that was doing illegal things and she called them I had the courage to do what so many of you would say leaders need to do hold electives accountable she did that and we continue to make these comments months and months into this to me that's gross right we can do better than that in this community thank you next we have Community input on agenda's items trustee weigett thank you this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items
101um on the uh regarding items on the regular meeting agenda comments on agenda items are limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes per topic a speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person speaker cards for items on the discussion action calendar may be held until that item is considered by the board if the speaker prefers okay we have two items for 21c Eliza would you like to go now or would you like to go on the item yes good evening everyone my name is Elisa if you could just wait one moment so we can make sure to hear you can you please exit the room quietly thank you my name is Elisa sakaski and tonight I'm here to comment on the agenda number 21c Human Resources upcoming retirement announcement
102of the well-deserved retirement of 30 years of service cost Mesa middle school and high school music director Mrs Yandy Gilbo I've been on the board for four years and a booster parent for five years uh currently as the auditor and previously as the treasurer and VP over the last four years the band boosters Financial records show a total of donations to Costa Mesa Middle School and High School of over a hundred and twenty thousand dollars for the coaches that support the music director at Christmas Middle School and High School serving grade students grades 7th through 12th grade these are going to be big shoes to fill Mrs Gilbo is supported by these sub these coaches with the support of the band boosters and these uh students grades 7 through 12th are involved in beginning band
103intermediate band Advanced band Muse marching band Orchestra Festival Orchestra Jazz one Jazz two Drumline and Winter Guard all under the direction of one person with the support of the band boosters we fund the our income and I brought a copy of our 2021-2022 profit and loss tax records and we It generally runs between 100 000 dollars to 135 000 a year in support of the music program at Costa Mesa Middle School and High School as a title one school the middle school and high school families cannot afford to contribute they do what they can and we uh as a board we would appreciate the trustees and Newport visa to provide more funds towards these programs the students who participate as members in the teams are supported and accepted and encouraged to become their authentic selves
104as well as gain leadership skills year after year the students are taught personal accountability and the competitive environment Fosters an elite athletic mentality though this program is not supported in similar ways as other athletic programs this year both my students grades 12th and 9th are part of the Color Guard team and the Color Guard team is more than 50 rookies this year they competed locally nationally and internationally this season the Winter Guard team made finals at both National regionals and promoted three levels in their home circuit versus um last year's finish the local circuit thank you thank you if you would like to you can email it to us too yeah you bet um next up is Ren it's difficult to read this shaksheester ah thank you thank you hello my name is Rin Sakowski
105my pronouns are they them and I'm speaking as a student a part of the Costa Mesa High School instrumental program and color guard I've been in this program since eighth grade and I'm now a senior I've done every program available and participating in all of these Performing Arts has been a huge benefit to me in gaining confidence new skills and a community I haven't found comparable to any of the other clubs and activities I've done at Costa Mesa High School I've joined Color Guard last August and it's I've been pushed even further into the world of Performing Arts and it's inspired me to join an independent guard After High School our team plans to attend the WGI World Championships in Dayton Ohio next year and our team plans to attend the WGI World Championships in
106Dayton Ohio next year and it's the next step on their path to representing Costa Mesa High School's greatest attributes and we need financial support to accomplish this as well as another amazing director to support to sustain the level of support Mrs Gilbo has given this instrumental program and color guard for her time being here this program is extremely important to me and I want it to continue to be amazing even as I graduate into June thank you and we also have one for one day lease on item number 22 would you like to do it now or when the item comes up all right good evening um superintendent and president Anderson members of the board my name is Wendy lease I am a credential teacher in the state of California always interested in in this
107case number 22 approve Elementary history social science instructional materials for adoption I am familiar with reading the reports that are attached to the agenda item and in this report it does not say the dates that this material was put on 30-day review so maybe it was maybe it wasn't but that would be useful information to me because if it wasn't then that's kind of something fell through the cracks and if it was it needs to be on there but to that point years ago before Sanborn was remodeled I could go in as a trustee and sit down because it was before the internet and you know in the 90s and I could look at the actual hard copies of books and the wall that faces the parking lot now was like that big and it
108had all of the books that have been approved for by the board for review and so anybody in the public any taxpayer could go and see you know what's what's in our classrooms now but now if you go across there there's a little itty bitty bookcase they're not in order now I it's been a couple months since I've been there but they're not in order and it's just kind of unorganized I'm OCD a little bit so I'd like I wanted to get the history get the health and get the math all in all but but that is an important part of your responsibility to allow the public and now that we are concerned a little bit more about what's being taught in our classrooms it should be easy for a taxpayer or a parent or
109grandparent to go in and say oh I want to look at this or I want to look at that so was this did this have the 30-day approval or not yes next we have Miss Shields and Miss Dale Pash our report on English learners yes good evening and thank you I'd like to um introduce our director of multilingual programs Laura del pasch who has a team with her to share the great work that's been going on and while she gets ready I just want to share that this year we sent a team to kabe which is a large um conference the California Association of bilingual Educators and there were probably over 5 000 Educators um anxious to be together since the last time you know it's been several years and what I'm so proud about
110and I think the community should re be really proud about is that our team was selected our team of tosas and Laura to present to a community of Educators their rooms were sold out if you would there was standing room only people were probably hundreds were turned away and people were engaged and happy with the experience they had in these sessions sharing the expertise of our professionals our teachers and their strategies and skills and what they do in the classroom and our programs so with that I hand it over to Laura to share more about what's happening in our classrooms and in our programs thank you so much I wasn't going to include that thank you we had a great time at cobbing um so superintendent president Anderson trustees and cabinet thank you so much
111for the time to share this evening um I have the great privilege of working with our multilingual Learners and their families we have a lot to share with you so I'm going to do my very best to be brief and I know it's already um late in the evening but we do want to share some of the work that we've done the impact and the services that we provide for our multilingual Learners um it's hard not to give some background but at times I will share a little bit of background and context so you have that as well so we're going to lead with our California English learner roadmap and this is a policy put forth by the California Department of Education it's grounded in four principles and the elements you see here there won't
112be a quiz don't worry um but I just want to bring your attention to this because all of our work with multilingual Learners is grounded in the English learner roadmap and we in all of our trainings and meetings with staff we illuminate this and we ensure that they are aware of the principles in the roadmap and we are always trying to increase our efficiencies with these principles and these elements we have two main overarching goals for our English Learners these also come from the California Department of Education the first one is that our English Learners acquire full proficiency and English as rapidly and effectively as is that our English Learners achieve rigorous grade level academic standards that are expected of all of our students and those two goals lead into reclassification which is our ultimate
113goal that our students become English proficient these goals again are reinforced with our staff in all meetings and trainings so that they're aware of these in our work with multilingual Learners we have an asset based approach so again what this means is that we recognize all of our multi-lingual Learners bring assets to their learning and we leverage those assets to advocate for our students this is by no means an exhaustive list but these are some of the assets that our students bring when they enter our schools I want to point out language development in particular we really value language development as an asset our students bring and so we ensure that our students have access to the Core Curriculum regardless of their language level and their language level does not preclude them from involvement in
114any of our programs including being identified as a gifted and talented learners um again we reinforce this asset-based approach in all of our work we share this exact slide with our staff um in any meetings and trainings that we we have so don't want to get too bogged down in numbers but here's some general English learner data our data literally changes every day so this you can see our date was March 17th um and it's changing daily um as our as we gain new students and we're reclassifying students so you can see our number of English Learners there represents about 16 of our overall population uh of that number about a thousand a little over a thousand are long-term English Learners we recognize that number as too high and that is a focus of our
115work to try to give students the supports they need and lower that number and have our long-term English learners reclassified newcomers are a rapidly growing number in our district daily and so at the time of our data pool there were 330 newcomers just to clarify when I use the term newcomer we use the state this rep this number represents the state and federal definition so that students born outside of the U.S and in the U.S U.S schools three years or less so of that number probably uh closer a little you know closer to 200 are actually first year newcomers newcomers in need of service um you'll see we have lots of languages represented in Newport Mesa people are often surprised so our our largest language is Spanish but we do have over 30 languages represented
116as well our most rapidly increasing languages are Ukrainian and Russian so I will share of that newcomer number at this data poll it was about 40 Ukrainian and Russian students and in the last month um with that has grown at least 20 students so you can see how quickly in a month we've and that doesn't include today so I today so that definitely is a population we're addressing and being responsive to and then you see our numbers of current reclassified students and students who were initially English proficient when they entered school with us you know if you want me to pause for questions or if you're just gonna ask when you want to okay just just for any for the interests of the public can you define long-term English learner yes I'm sorry so that's
117our students that have been in our California school six years um or more identified as an English learner thank you so reclassification you'll remember I shared those two goals that we want to achieve that English proficiency and the academic standards and so our goal is to reclassify our students this is a great Visual and it shows you those four criteria we won't go into great depth but those criteria are set forth by Ed code so those come from the state and that first one with English language proficiency the overall level of four on the lpac which is our state language assessment that is mandated by the state that students have an overall for and then we also look at their basic skills some standardized tests there teacher evaluation or report card grades and then also
118parent consultation we ensure that our students have an or excuse me our parents have an opportunity to consult on their students reclassification status uh this is some reclassification data over the last five years so you'll see our number of yells in each year how many students were reclassified and what percent of the El population that represents um this really is where we measure our impact of all of the work we do and all of the professional development and programs to see the impact on our students reclassifying um we also want to appropriately reclassify students so we want to make sure that they meet those measures and they're getting the they get those supports so that they can appropriately reclassify um you will notice that in 2020 2021 we had a little dip you can all
119take a guess something happened in March 2020 um right at the beginning of our elpac window testing window and so I'll pack testing ceased and so our reclassification is based on the year prior so that put a little wrench and we cross vacation processes across the state and so we were able to pick up a little bit the next year some of our students that needed to be reclassified but that that's what accounts for that dip this year you see there's an asterisk because we're still in progress so we're very proud We reclassified 400 students to date um and so we do the bulk of our reclassification in December because we wait for grades and test scores but we continually reclassify as students meet those criteria so hopefully we'll have that number go up a
120bit and you'll see that last data point there our students on IEPs so just about um four years ago we implemented an alternate reclassification process for our students on IEPs and so that's a total number over the last few years we've reclassified over 300 students on IEPs and will continue to engage in that process for our students on IEPs just a general question about whether you have enough Ukrainian and Russian speakers interviewers and teachers that sounds like an awful lot so we uh utilize we contract out with a Agency for interpreters and also to translate our documents um for Russian and Ukrainian so um we're hanging in there it also includes a like on-demand service so we can get someone on the phone within 15 minutes to help us interpret so that's that's nice yeah
121thank you so this is a snapshot of our um intervention Compass or Elmer program so many of you um probably have seen this or heard of this but this is one data wall and we use this reclassification wall as a tool in several ways so this is a example of a true data wall this happens to be an elementary one and so for reclassification uh this filters for all the English Learners at the site and then it has the data that's relevant to reclassification so those four criteria I shared with you this shows that data it's color coded to show if students have met the criteria or if they're in progress and so at each site we have an English learner coordinator that is a teacher that helps support reclassification and progress monitoring so our
122teachers utilize this wall as do our principals and staff to help reclassify students the actual process is done and housed at Elmer for the compliance piece but we also use this wall for Progress monitoring so we're able to look at where students are and maybe there's a criteria or a support they need and so we're able to help use this to move students towards reclassification um as a side note we have other walls we utilize we have a English learner and ltel progress monitoring wall and lpac wall that have some different data points that schools utilize as well okay so again in that Spirit of reclassification thinking about those two goals of English proficiency and grade level standards we have two initiatives that my team has really worked hard to implement at the school sites
123alpaca awareness and goal setting so Alpac awareness is really that motivational piece to really get kids motivated for a standardized test which is often hard and to help them understand the purpose and the impact you'll remember that that first criteria they have to score a four overall and they get one chance per year and that's State mandated so these um sessions are really to help motivate students and and help them to understand the importance of that testing and then uh goal setting our individualized sessions with students to look at criteria a couple times a year we have made it an expectation that students in grades 6 through 12 all engage in goal setting sessions some of our sites choose to have additional grades participate um but all of our sites are implementing that goal setting
124both of these sessions um are conducted based on the context of the school so it might be a classroom teacher it might be the El coordinator at the site it might be my English learner tosas it might be a combination of those so this is an example of some of our goal setting sheets in elementary and a secondary and a great example is um just before break we did some goal setting one of my secondary ptosas was able to go to the T Winkle Avid Excel classes and engage in a full class period of goal setting and empowering students to find their data and see where they fall in reclassification and what strategies they can Empower themselves to um get towards that reclassification criteria okay so here's another um kind of data tool that we
125use in our work for English Learners and so this is a a growth dashboard so it's in Tableau this has been created in collaboration with the assessment team so I thank them for their collaboration with this when we look at second language acquisition it's very important to look at the growth the development and have reasonable expectations for example our students who just came today from Russia it would not be reasonable that they would reclassify by next December okay sometimes they do but that would not be reasonable but we do want to be sure to measure growth and see that they are making adequate progress and so this is another tool that we use so the growth bar that you see includes students in the 2021-22 those are the two alpaca Administration years students that reclassified
126scored a level four and stayed there or grew a level on the lpac so it shows that they've made growth the same bars show students who stayed at the same overall level and drop a students who actually dropped a level the null is students who didn't have two years of growth so they might be a kindergartner they might be a new student and so we utilize this as a tool this has been a great um tool with our principals so we engaged in data chats at the elementary and secondary level when you hover on the bars you actually see individual students and so principals were able to take some of their students in those middle two bars and do case studies and talk about ways to strategize and improve instruction for an individual students so
127it's been really exciting this is the first year we've had this growth tool we recognize that we want that growth bar to be higher and so we're striving towards that we're going to get into some of the elementary and secondary specifics of our work and just to ground that we just want to make sure you have these two terms in your tool belt our approach for designate for ELD includes designated and integrated ELD and essentially what that means is our designated ELD time is driven by our ELD standards um and then taught through content and our integrated time is led by content with st with uh language supports so you're going to hear a little bit about elementary and secondary elementary uh designated time is really a grouping um for students at their proficiency level
128and their integrated time is with their classroom teacher and secondary designated ELD is a course so that's a class they typically take and then they're integrated is in all of their subjects history social studies math and they're receiving their integrated through that model so that will help kind of ground some of our discussion with for elementary secondary Lots we could talk about in both but we'll just give you a couple highlights in elementary um we have uh but really focused our efforts on that designated piece because that's the Intensive language development and so my team really works on the models we have schools remember from everything from three English Learners all the way to 300 English Learners so our context is very different so how we approach a designated ELD with three it's different than
129300. um we've made a strong connection our core Ela program is wonders and our ELD program is wonders so we make that strong connection with the curriculum we've made that connection with early literacy and hegarty this year um and then progress monitoring progress monitoring has been a real Focus over the years especially this year we want our groupings to be fluid and we want to see that students are making progress and that we're able to move them in groupings in real time if they're able to move so that's a little bit from elementary secondary uh I want to acknowledge we have an ELD curriculum committee that is made up of our secondary ELD teachers that teach those courses um some administrators a counselor and myself and through that committee we've been able to do quite
130a bit in helping with the consistency across our program across the district we have a placement criteria for our ELD classes now we engage in placement meetings to ensure that our students are placed appropriately we have a consistent writing prompt we use for placement and then again progress monitoring we've used curricular tools to make sure we're progress monitoring students and moving them in those classes if they can move move the levels um professional development so before I I get into the professional development I do want to acknowledge my six teachers are here um we are fortunate we have four Elementary um eltosas and two secondary in each of those levels we have one focused on newcomers so my six teachers are here they braved it [Applause] I I promised them they wouldn't need to present
131um but they are the heart and soul of all of the professional development that work that happens for our English Learners um our approach in both Elementary and secondary is growth we want to see growth for teachers growth for students it's asset space it's differentiated so you can imagine again working with those varieties of numbers of English Learners at different sites um and then all of our work is research based and it's practical so these ladies don't just do whole staff PDS they are in the classroom every day working with students and teachers sometimes they just jump right in they're co-teaching they're modeling and they're doing all of that work that's the work they shared at kabe which is super exciting that we're at the next level of being able to share our work with
132other professionals across really the nation so um and coaching they do a lot of coaching taking teachers from where they are and helping them move forward so just a couple highlights for our elementary PD we've connected to the thinking maps initiative thinking maps are a great tool for all students but especially English Learners so all of our PD connects there we've done case studies when we go out to a school site we take students at that school and we really make it meaningful for the individual site and lesson Series so we don't do a shot in the arm where we come show up for a minute and leave we do lesson series ongoing coaching ongoing Cycles so that we can really make that impact um I'm going to stop talking and turn it over to
133one of our principals Dr hogard at Ray Elementary they have more than embraced our professional development and a lot of our initiatives and they have the numbers to show that success with reclassification so Dr hogart's going to share some highlights of their program good eve [Applause] good evening president Anderson trustees superintendent Smith cabinet staff and community at Ray Elementary our team is committed to accelerated achievement in all core content areas including English language development our goal is for all of our students currently classified as English Learners to acquire English Proficiency in Reading Writing listening and speaking towards achievement at grade level and Beyond and reclassification to fluent English proficient one of our big picture school-wide achievement targets is that our instruction aimed at students achieving reclassification will be so robust that we will not have
134any students enter middle school as long-term English learners our site work [Applause] is supported by director Dale Pash and the English learner tosa team through professional development classroom coaching and support for parent engagement the El toses have provided professional development to our staff each trimester this year the content of the professional development is based on District priorities the analysis of student data from the lpac and other assessments as well as input from our teaching staff professional development topics this year have included research-based best practices for both designated and integrated ELD instruction and using lpac data to plan for ELD instruction the content and format of the Wednesday professional development time is highly valued by our teaching staff the content is anchored in the data that's specific to our current student progress we spend time at
135the beginning with the presentation of the content altogether followed by breakout groups facilitated by the El tosas in order to more specifically Target standards and skills of each grade level across the TK to sixth grade continuum with every PD session there's an offer for on-site classroom follow-up and the tosas leave with appointments scheduled for follow-up conversations and time in classrooms one of the ways that the El tosas have provided on-site support this year is with goal setting in Reading Writing listening and speaking for our sixth grade students who are currently classified as English learners the tosa team assisted by organizing each student's data into a student-friendly visual format like you saw in the presentation for a goal setting coaching session with each of our students the goal setting included a direct conversation about the criteria
136to reclassify and this provided our older students with feedback based on their recent assessment scores and engage them in a positive conversation about their goals moving forward we are very proud at Ray of the significant number of students who met the goals for reclassification so far this year our number so far is 45 and we look forward to continued focus in this area so that all of our students currently classified as English Learners achieve our Feb status before we promote them into Middle School parent engagement is an important part of our work during our elac meetings we provide parent education on our instructional program ELD instruction and reclassification process at the beginning of the school year our full-time School Community facilitator thank you so much led a multi-week parent orientation session focused on equipping parents
137with knowledge of our school programs after the winter break we offered the Latino family literacy program a six-week series to engage our parents in Reading at home with their students the sessions were led by our site School Community facilitator and the district lead School community facilitators during our during each session parents learn strategies to read aloud to their children and prompt discussion about books to enhance vocabulary and comprehension all of the participants took the same book title home and came back the next week to share Reflections about their home read aloud experiences as part of this program parents were also able to write their own book to share family stories and photos in addition to our robust instructional program during the school day we are committed to engaging our students in meaningful learning after school
138parent input from recent years at our site prompted the addition of the Heritage language program after school to build language and literacy skills in Spanish this after school series was so popular with our families that we filled to capacity of a hundred students within a day of opening the registration process so I would like to thank director del Pash and her team for their ongoing support of our student staffing Community we appreciate their partnership and support to ensure that Ray school is a place where our students who enter as English Learners Thrive as Learners and reclassify as fluent English proficient before moving on to middle school thank you [Applause] and that picture is Dr Hook Garden many of her students set their reclassification celebration very exciting um so moving on to secondary professional development um
139very happy just about two years ago when assistant superintendo super assistant superintendent Torres and Dr Mike Shaka came aboard because as they created a focus for secondary professional development ELD was not a side note it was embedded in that focus and it's embedded in all of the professional development in the last few years that we have engaged in at the secondary sites so Dr Chaka is going to talk about thank you Laura president Anderson Dr Smith members of the board executive cabinet guests thank you for having us tonight I just wanted to speak and elaborate a little bit on what Laura was mentioning in regards to the designated versus integrated focus of of English language I wanted to talk a little bit about the importance of the integrated approach and again integrated means what the
140kids are getting in their normal core classes every day what sort of strategies do we use to promote language development not just in their ELD class but in English Math Science History PE all the classes the students will take so what we had was our focus on eliciting and responding to student thinking if you haven't heard that phrase yet get ready because you're going to hear it a lot um that has been our Focus that is our focus and that will continue to be our Focus moving forward a listening responding student thinking really is our way of saying we want kids to think and we want kids to share their thinking all the time in class and can you imagine how well you would develop in in your English language if you were spending all
141day every day all of your classes sharing your thinking both orally and in writing pretty fast and I think the data that we that we have seen and that we will see moving forward is gonna is gonna play that out um so listening responding to student thinking is our focus and what we've done is we've really picked a few strategies that happen to be ELD strategies but are also really good teaching strategies like stronger clear and uh critique clarify connect those have been strategies that we've been focused on all year in all of our classrooms that are high leverage English language development skills but it's also fantastic high level learning for all of our students so the more we can integrate those two things and make valuable learning experiences for all of our students it's
142a win-win how we've done that is focusing through our instructional coaches thank you for your support with our instructional coaches they are invaluable and they are listening thank you our instructional coaches are our coaches at each site we have a number of them at each of our secondary schools and their charge is to design and Implement high-level professional development focused on our instructional strategies then to support the implementation of that professional development through feedback conversations and support with their fellow staff members that's been a model that's been effective that we want to continue to highlight and move forward and finally data how do we know that it's working how do we know that this is effective we've been spending a lot of time looking at data data Laura showed some of the reclassification data it
143is still early in the game to look at some of that but we are very very optimistic that it's going to yield some positive results all of our predictive indicators are showing a very positive trend so we continue to monitor data assess the direction and then make adjustments as we go so that's just a quick glimpse into what's happening in the world of secondary ELD thank you Laura thank you thank you so again we could probably do a whole another hour on newcomer supports we won't do that um but this is uh just a general list um newcomers are a growing population and we do provide specific supports for our newcomers and we're being very responsive especially as our languages are changing um I did mention that we last year we were able to add
144two toses to our team that are funded through title III and they are focused on newcomer supports and so that has made a huge difference in the impact that we can make for our students we have a specialized curriculum we provide professional development in the format of a whole staff PD say for East Bluff that had a great increase so we did a whole staff PD there it could be individualized coaching for teachers pushing into the classroom for integrated support we have a student intake where we meet individually these two doses have been able to meet individually with students especially at the secondary level to learn their story learn what their family's needs might be and so that's been exciting we have an Adaptive online program that we really vetted and piloted last year that
145we're specifically using for newcomers in the elementary level especially at home so imagine learning as a program that our elementary students can use at home for added English practice um parent engagement of our newcomer parents is really important to us again just did a session um at East Bluff for some of our Russian parents and then many of you know our summer Language Academy um I think we're going on our seventh year um and we received an award for that through Cal State Fullerton so exciting that focuses for our secondary newcomers on community and their culture as well as language support so that's very exciting um parent engagement uh also could be a whole other topic but our presentation but engagement of our English learner parents is very important to us and um we do
146that in a variety of ways I have the pleasure of coordinating our school Community facilitators we are up to 22 facilitators which is very exciting and so we utilize them for that engagement as well as our elac committees and our d-lac and our parent education series that student services helps support so you are going to hear um from our d-lac chair persons in June when they come back with a full report um but we did want to invite one of our parents up um our elacs um I'll send a representative to our dlac committee and it's a great way for our English learner parents to engage we do have required topics for medcode so we try to make them exciting but we also uh generate topics our first meeting we always elicit topics and then
147our dlac board decides which topics we're going to move forward with so we try to do that balance in our meetings but we have Mrs Ramirez she is going to come up and share a little bit about her experience with D Lock [Applause] e Ramirez is going to share in Spanish and then Jaclyn will translate for us we'll give Javier a break president foreign [Music] sanes foreign gracias [Applause] good evening president Anderson Dr Smith and board members my name is Jacqueline Gaitan and I am a school Community facilitator and today I will read Mrs Carmen Ramirez presentation in English hello good evening president Anderson Superintendent at Smith and all the members of the school board I will introduce myself my name is Carmen Ramirez I have four children three happy and reclassified two college graduates
148a senior at Costa Mesa High School in a fifth grade boy at paularino elementary school I have volunteered for the Newport Mesa Unified School District Community for more than 22 years I have participated in different School committees and I am the third person of Delux in a representative and chairperson of elac for my Children's Schools I have also participated in PTA School site console meetings with a superintendent soccer boosters and volunteer in different school activities I will talk about tilak a committee that has been very helpful to many parents we feel at home since we have interpretation in different languages and apart from the required topics they also bring other exciting topics such as a resource Fair where various organizations come also we have participated in workshops such Grupo criser cave they have they have
149help or students feel proud they feel they are part of English learners and they are no barriers to go to college most of our school community facilitators support their school Representatives during the tilak meetings or the school community facilitators are a viral piece in each school for both students and parents they are the link between the school and the community and they keep us informed of all the resources thank you very much for all your support thank you president Anderson for attending every d-lac meeting if one of you of you would like to attend one day you are all welcome to do so thank you so much Mrs Ramirez thank you so much for your kind words thank you [Applause] thank you Jacqueline and Mrs Ramirez she will be back in June as I said
150um so we're coming to a close um again dual immersion whole other presentation but we just want to illuminate that as part of our multilingual programs we have our Spanish and Mandarin programs at the schools listed we are up through seventh grade and we'll continue eighth grade next year and then on to high school we have just under 450 students currently participating in both programs so that's very exciting um as we we close out um always uh we're going to continue all of this great work and impact for our students but just to highlight three areas that we are really focusing on um areas of continued growth are ltls and supports and services for them to get them to reclassification as we've mentioned several times our newcomers and families from non-spanish-speaking families as that is
151um our numbers are growing and then progress monitoring we want our students to move we want them to show growth and so we want to move them in real time we're not waiting till the end of the year so all of our progress monitoring tools are an area of continued growth for us so question trustee crane so uh I know that East Love Elementary which is one of my my schools has been affected by newcomers and I know that the district has been very supportive in you mentioned a full-time resource teacher or support I think you sent over there for to help the teachers um my question is so um you said they're mostly from Russia Ukraine Kazakhstan well I knew that part you didn't mention it but so um aside from the academic assessment
152that you make when you onboard them do you also do a social emotional assessment because they're coming from a traumatic uh you know situation yes so we have an intake that we do um for elementary and secondary it's obviously looks a little different in those um grade levels but it does account for some academics as well as social emotional um some some different types of questioning to just have our teacher get to know the student get to know their story um sometimes the questions Go in different ways based on what they share and then that's a supportive additional support of adults that they connect with but we do have a tool that we use and we're constantly refining to to get some of that information about our newcomers thank you I really enjoyed the report
153yeah thank you thank you team any other questions always get confused can you um give me a little bit more detail on the summer Language Academy that sounded really um interesting I know we've done it for seven years but I think it's the first time I've seen it presented to us so it is a partnership in collaboration with Cal State Fullerton they help us with our curriculum and the professional development it is for our newcomer secondary students incoming grades 8 through 12. um it's three weeks it's evolved a little bit over the years and we were able to continue during covid so we moved online during covid we didn't cancel and then we've kind of evolved but we have team teachers secondary teachers of all content areas so we have science teacher um I think
154I have a history social studies teacher so they're not necessarily ELD teachers and they receive some intense professional development and we co-teach the classes and they're really unique learning experiences kind of project-based learning incorporating the Arts so that students can really Express themselves and explore their culture in a multilingual setting so it's it's very exciting and then teachers receive like debrief and coaching after each day in the summer so it'll be three weeks in the summer about four hours a day Dr shock has been great about coordinating so that it will be a different time frame than our regular summer school so students can participate if they need to make up credits and the regular summer school and then also participate in summer Language Academy we provide transportation it's for all students it will be
155at Estancia um but it it we provide transportation for students that want to come as well we invite you to come visit this summer it's great that'd be cool yeah trustee Bartow thank you and I was going to say I have visited the summer Language Academy before covet you would love it it's really really cool um thank you for the robust report and I just wanted to say a special thanks for all the focus on the ltel because I know that's been uh an area of focus for a long time and it's great to see the progress that we are making trustee Murphy um yes I wanted to congratulate you and thank you for all of your hard work um the the stats were are looking Obviously good and going in the right direction so
156thank you I know it's a lot of work I also wanted to thank Carmen who is a custom mesa's own mom and is a huge asset to our community thank you for being here tonight thank you for all you've done for our students for our kids and all these years um I hope you even even when your kids are finally gone out of report Mesa Mesa you you stick around with us um there's such an asset to our community it's a delight and we appreciate you very very much everything that you've done for our students and to make this community a better place so thank you foreign I just wanted to ask one question I was wondering um about the updates for Costa Mesa Middle School and Benson for the current enrollment for the jewel
157program the numbers of students um I'd have to get back to you exactly on the exact numbers for each of those classes I could give you a Paul Park but don't quote me um I want to say Mandarin is about 14. and I believe Ensign is about 30 in that seventh grade class those seventh grade classes I wanted to say thank you thank you focus on Outback I know it was something that was brought up several times in dwac and the parent training and videos and ability for parents to now know how they can help their children um really Advanced I think has been instrumental this year and we're seeing the results of that and thank you Dr hograd as always for the amazing progress that you um and the commitment that you show at
158every single school that you are a part of and involving the parents and everything so thank you very much um I do just hope I could close with a couple thank yous um it does take a lot of advocacy for this work to happen and I really want to acknowledge assistant superintendent Torres and assistant superintendo assistant superintendent Shields um they really support all of our work and advocate for our students um and so I appreciate that as well as I want to acknowledge um director Vanessa galey until just about a year ago until a year ago English learner programs was was on her docket and so a lot of what you saw tonight um was part of her her Foundation Building and so we appreciate all of her efforts as well and she continues to
159advocate for our students as well so thank you [Applause] 19 update on integrated Pest Management Mr s so we have a pesky topic for you tonight we have Lance bidnik who is our director of Maintenance and operations he's also our designated integrated pest uh integrated Pest Management plan coordinator Mr bitney all right good evening president Anderson trustees Dr Smith cabinet and guests thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to present this uh as said my name is Lance bidnick director of Maintenance and operations and I am the district's IPM coordinator um I prepare to slide down and I don't know where it is or how to get it up [Laughter] one of these do you know which one it is one of those two and you know just thank you very much okay
160um prepared a slide deck for you and this is just an outline of where our board policy is and how our integrative Pest Management program aligns to this policy um some of the key points in our policy and our program uh really it's it's for the long-term control of pests and that ranges from anything from cockroaches and ants rats mice uh rabbits and weeds um so some of the key points here we really focus on the long-term Pest Control using the least toxic methods as our Primary Response um but before I begin with the rest of the slide deck what I really want to understand is do you have any specific questions that I could tailor this presentation to when I come to a certain slide if I understand what you're looking for out of
161this a little bit better I'll pause on that slide and I'll try to address those questions when those come up so I guess is is there anything that I can help clarify or do you have any questions that I can make sure to highlight I I guess I don't know a lot about Pest Management so I am handling what we've heard a little bit today but also on you know toxic versus non-toxic and those kinds of things and the cost to the district for utilizing all or different different non-toxic and toxic okay some more trusty parts I mine's similar um but more related to um how we stage that so if Elementary for example if we know that students are going to be present is there some kind of requirement as to how far out
162we do that or um you know what the rate of decay of those chemicals is that before we get students back great question okay do you have a question trustee crane well my question is um I know parents well this may not be fitting in this one but maybe if it is please feel free to answer or get back to me um parents were suggesting Turf for the baseball field can varmens chew through the turf generally not really um especially if it's an athletic truth okay the the system was built up from the ground up no the uh it would be like trying to chew through concrete coming up for gophers or anything like that and going down it would be similar plus uh they'd get a mouthful of stuff that they don't really enjoy
163eating okay and so they they would probably move away from that right okay um my question trustee Murphy where I'm giving him ideas of things we might have questions on if you wanted to have one um my question is on the change between what it sounded like was a change to a more organic approach to what we're doing now which seems to be less in that lane but our policy language uses things like the least harmful so just kind of some most of us I don't think any of us were on the board I think in 2016 when some of that happened so just maybe a little of the history would be helpful thank you um and trustee Bartow you you asked like re-entry um would we want to like specifically for weeds because that's
164usually what what we look for is the re-entry interval or when it's safe to come back into a treated area yes exactly yeah perfect okay trustee Murphy so sorry if I missed this before but um so I guess my question would be I know Costa Mesa passed its own ordinance regarding Pest Management organic Pest Management do are we in compliance with that okay um that's one that I didn't address specifically in the slide so I'll answer that question now um we are under the purview of the California Department of Education actually oversees the healthy schools Act and the IPM programs for schools in addition we also have to fall into the regulations of the structural pest control board uh consumer product safety commission and the department of pesticide regulations as well as the Orange County
165Department of Agriculture one of the things that is not in our hierarchy of overview is the city so oftentimes schools are located directly adjacent to a pocket park the city's Pest Management policies might be different from the schools requirements for instance we fall under the uh in the year 2000s the state passed the healthy schools act which requires posting a notification prior to any treatments the city is not required to follow those same guidelines so imagine Mariners for example we have no fence between the city property and ours so if the city goes to spray a pesticide or an herbicide in the field as long as they're on their property they don't have to follow the same rules that we do so we we don't fall under the city's um uh policies or plants how
166does that work when we share fields we play nice together so we do have good relationships with both cities management we do have Partnerships there uh the city of Costa Mesa especially through the maintenance of Lincoln we share responsibility for that field as well we do have good relationships with the cities it's okay to that kind of answer your question and maybe um I do have one more it's a little off topic but um but sort of on topic um so to address the Newport um the Newport Harbor baseball field would putting Turf in address the Vermin issue I mean sort of off topic that kind of related yes and no so there might be other things that we could do for exclusion or keeping the pests off the field rather than changing the turf
167artificial turf on a ball field would be a tremendous amount of Maintenance and the tremendous effort if there are other ways that we can keep the Vermin off um we might want to explore those before is this anything we can involve ENC with yes yes we can absolutely have the discussions I'm not as intimately familiar with the uh arrangements with ENC so I caution against uh or I wouldn't want to uh speak out of turn on what those possibilities might be like sure okay all right uh with that I'll pause on a couple of the slides and highlight some of these areas where you have questions please feel free to follow up with any of the uh as you as you hear more about the program if you have any further questions um we do
168utilize uh industry best practices so our IPM plan and our board policy is inclusive remember of all pests this is little things that crawl around or weeds that grow up through uh cracks and up through the soils and in our turf and our grasses you heard a lot of comments from the baseball teams about invasive weeds in the ball field and hazardous conditions these are part of the things that we we want to try to address um in the least toxic methods possible uh our best management practices suggest exhausting all non-toxic methods before we go into chemical treatments or the use of pesticides this is not only for the safety of our staff and our students but it's also for the long-term control of pests we want to get to the underlying reason why the
169pest is coming into our campus before we just go out and start investing everything poison um all pesticide herbicide applications are taken very seriously um they're only made when certain conditions are met for limiting potential exposure to staff and students um we look at the habitat what conducive conditions are are encouraging the pests to be there if we are going to do a treatment that's not a non-toxic treatment for example what's the potential for exposure to staff and students what is the potential for environmental hazards so if it's near a body of water for example and then do we have other pest sensitive areas kindergartens for example special ed classrooms areas where we have a little bit more of a delicate student population we want to take that into consideration as well before we we
170select or recommend a pest treatment method um we have Action level thresholds for in its individual per Pest and what this States would be if we have a low pre threat or pressure from a pest we're not going to jump and use the most toxic pest control method available um we're going to look at this on a case-by-case basis and Elevate the treatment as necessary if we have a heavy infestation of cockroaches for example we might go to a less toxic chemical to knock down the population before we move into um more toxic methods that have a greater risk um weeds this is a good question when do we just determine that it's best practice to treat weeds with chemicals and we are at the school sites on a weekly basis we do manual mechanical
171methods while we're there we're really trying to increase our efforts for weed prevention preventing over watering replacing Mulch and planter beds we have a day of service coming up necessary Lee Stevens is working with us her group often brings mulch to our schools and helps us out and I think that's a great partnership with our communities but we really Elevate the the treatment methods to address the the threat pressure that we get from The Pest and then what do we need to do to control that um ask a quick question yep um at the Newport Harbor baseball field there's the bunnies have been a problem for a long time um what what are we doing now to kind of mitigate that I know that there's obviously a lot more we need to do but what
172have we done so far so the biggest thing that we've done is trapping and so we're trying to remove the population from the school site we remove some of the storage containers where they're living under uh we've done some fence modifications to keep them from climbing around the the gates uh unfortunately it's springtime and so rabbits are tend to increase in population as as time comes around um so it's just going to be added pressure um so it's it's going to be at its peak right now it's it's we're coming up to that very quickly yes we have tried to do some exclusion and we have done some trapping and then we've done some habitat modification by removing some of the structures that they were living under thank you um selection of pesticides and herbicides
173so when we opt to use a pesticider to control a pest we look at first what is exempt so the there is something called the defra B 25b exempt pesticides and these are products that typically use Botanical or natural based products and extracts um these do not have an EPA number they've been deemed by the EPA as safe to use and they are exempt from all the posting and notification requirements of the healthy schools act they are often very selective in their applications in use um weeds for example there are no FIFA 25b exempt weed killers that I'm aware of approved for use in schools so we would look for after an exempt product we'd look for reduced risk applications so we might apply a gel or some kind of a treatment in a cracker
174crevice where students can't get to it again that's healthy schools act exempt they're typically very low on the toxicity level and then we move up from there to low toxicity and I want to spend a little bit more time here because there were a couple questions on toxicity um there is a distinction between synthetic and organic and toxic and less toxic organic does not necessarily mean less toxic and a lot of organic products that are available are actually more acutely toxic than the synthetic Alternatives so when we want to see or select a product that we want to use we look at the overall toxicity and that could include risk factors such as skin contact skin burns causing blindness inhalation injuries environmental impacts whether or not it has a potential for groundwater pollution or contamination
175or or runoff and then also the mix ratio and the effectiveness of the product so to give a an example 40 percent of the school districts in the state of California still use Roundup or glyphosate product of the remaining almost everyone uses another product called bluefossinate which is um similar in in the effect or in the sense that it's another synthetic herbicide um the mixed ratio for that is two ounces per gallon of water the mixed ratio for a lot of the organic products is one gallon to four gallons of water so we we would be applying tremendously larger amount of product with each application the other problem and this will kind of address the question with the organic program at other school districts or the city of Costa Mesa we spoke with a number
176of grounds managers and grounds departments and the frustration is most of these organic products do not work they require frequent re-applications so rather than spring two to four times a year they're spraying every other week or every three to four weeks to try to maintain control so not only are you applying more chemical product to each application you're also increasing the application frequency and so both of those are considerations that we want to keep under control chemicals or chemicals and when used according to the product label we can mitigate some of the risks so um did that answer the question on toxicity or would you like a little bit more specificity uh you mentioned costs I think it I mean I think you kind of answered it with the amount that we would have to
177use of the organic or toxic it's but you just have to buy even more of that and use it up more often and it's it's not insignificant the increase in cost when we talk about the safety of children I I would have a hard time arguing that the safety of our children is is probably a better higher priority than cost right um but it still is a prohibiting Factor right um plans yep there was also a question about the rate of decay yes I'm trying to remember where I got to that point in the presentation um let me check this next one there we go re-enter interval um so like I said we we determine the toxicity of the products and the potentials for exposure um the signal word caution warning danger in that order
178from from least to most toxic uh acute toxicity is anything that is immediately hazardous like skin burns or blindness chronic toxicity would be anything that's a mutagenic effects birth defects or potentially carcinogenic environmental we want to make sure that anything we're applying isn't getting into the groundwater or uh protected environmental property and then the mixed ratio re-entry interval and other factors so re-entry interval specifically for most of the products that we use and a non-agricultural setting is as soon as the product is dry it's safe for re-entry the other thing that we do is we have administrative controls and so we look at the overall toxicity and the likelihood of exposure as that goes up the toxicity of the products that we would choose goes down to the point where we would elect not to
179apply certain products in in areas like for example kindergarten grass area where students are going to be running around and playing we are not going to treat that certainly not while students are present or would be interacting with that at any time soon after the application the three routes for entry for any pesticide or product inhalation absorption through the skin or the eyes and ingestion and so we want to take that into consideration and not apply any product where students are going to be playing or rolling around in it and could it absorb it through their skin um for most of the products that we would apply the re-entry interval is when the product is dry in a non-agricultural setting um if we want to if we have a special circumstance and we need to
180be careful about the selection of our products or we need to know what's available we do reach out to registered and licensed Pest Control advisors we do have licensed and qualified staff on hand um we reach out to experts to help us better understand as well also the administrative controls we elect to do applications when students and staff are not present all of our employees are trained annually as required we do get visits regularly from the Department Orange County Department of Agriculture we have had no issues with the inspections either how we store dispose of or apply products we do follow all the requirements so the healthy schools act including prior posting and notification and record keeping for all pesticide applications um president Anderson your question about changes in practices um I think uh you
181have a little bit more tenure here than I do but I wasn't here in 2016 either um I am not aware of and I've asked our staff if they are aware of any organic policies or programs that we have ever done for weed control we did purchase a weed steaming machine um the problem is we didn't dedicate staff to it and so we've tried to do steaming of weeds it's very labor intensive again it requires frequent reapplications and without having the dedicated staff to operate it it becomes really tedious um we have not enacted any kind of an organic Pest Management program we did make the decision to remove synthetic products from our pesticide list we also had a transitioned to some of the organic problem products and all of the issues that I had
182mentioned before generally the ineffectiveness of the products the need for constant reapplications and then also the the potential exposure for our staff and our employees who are applying the products we actually had a chemical burn on an injury and these factors combined kind of led us to the decision that this is not a great practice for us at this time since Roundup specifically was in um uh trial court from Monsanto the company that makes Roundup um wasn't a good idea to add glyphosate or uh to our product list so we looked at if is there any similar product that would have similar effects with the low toxicity and glufosinate is what most school districts and municipalities are using as an alternative that's how we we transition from our Organics or Botanical products to reintroducing synthetics
183student board member question and we have Lisa Buller who actually may have been on the PTA when some of this discussions were happening because it was before me as well so maybe Lisa might know um okay um these efforts directed at certain schools or is this kind of just like a cautionary thing for all schools um the healthy schools Act is all schools and daycare facilities in the state of California so we're required to identify an IPM coordinator develop an IPM plan our plan is available on our website ipm.nmusd.us you can get detailed information there's including which products that we may use throughout the school year for control of pests but this is a state directive that possible districts must follow thank you okay trustee Murphy Pearson oh did I push the wrong one okay
184have we had um any students or teachers sick from these toxins or from from our products besides the chemical burn I don't have any reports of any issues with exposure um one thing I kind of relate to is when I was going to school these laws weren't in place and school districts did probably horrible things that we were exposed to as well and we probably never even knew it and hence in 2000 the state passed the healthy schools act to try to bring attention to pesticide applications was on grass so um okay uh trustee Murphy well I guess my question would be because it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot we can do differently that's not what I'm hearing anyways um if you had a magic wand and could do something differently you know
185regardless of anything else what would you want to do so I've talked with a lot of grounds managers in in local schools and um municipalities and the ones that have tried to lean towards adopting an organic program typically rely on contractors because they don't have the staff to do it internally so if we wanted to do something to reduce the amount of pesticides that we use even further we would increase our Reliance on manual labor to do the removal to put it in context though we we manage about seven and a half million square feet of landscaped areas uh every week and we apply a couple thousand ounces of chemical products each year over two to four applications so when we look at how much product are we actually applying to the schools over seven
186and a half million square feet it's very minimal but if we were to do more and to answer your question if we wanted to decrease our Reliance on chemicals we would increase our labor efforts and then increase our efforts in prevention and it would involve some work re-landscaping some of the planners some of our local districts have actually gotten away from bare dirt and they've either placed concrete or artificial turf to cover those areas and now they're starting to realize that the areas take place the artificial turf they're having to replace it much sooner than they had anticipated at a pretty great cost so I would concentrate more of our efforts on weed prevention adding mulch to planter beds and then more we would need more labor yeah any other questions and trustee Ursula is
187not here I know she had several questions as well email her questions in thank you oh yes yes we'll perhaps have Chester ursulu come in and have a meeting about them thank you so much this is very informative and very timely thank you very much next we have um number 20 informational items legislative and state budget update trustee uh Bartow and trustee Murphy would you like to start Jesse Bartow would you would you like to go first um no I I just have ab370 okay all right um all right so a few things um the csba legislative committee has two bills that they took a position on uh a b 247 which would place the kindergarten through community college's public education facilities Bond Act of 2024 on the ballot to provide unspecified funding to construct
188and modernize education facilities it's been about 50 years since we've had a similar budget Bill appropriation anything like that for our schools so this one is awaiting consideration by the assembly education committee um additionally there is Senate Bill 28 which would place a 15.5 billion bond for the construction and modernization of public preschool K-12 Community College UC and CSU facilities on the March 2024 Statewide ballot it was passed by the Senate education committee and awaiting consideration by the Senate governance finance committee so um what we've been saying for a long time is that our facilities Statewide are in need of update has been at least heard by these legislators and we'll see where those where those bills go um let's see additionally csba took a support position on SB 234 which would require schools to
189maintain unexpired doses of naloxone hydrochloride or another opioid opioid antagonist on site this was passed by the Senate education committee and is awaiting consideration by the Senate health committee this is another one that they are hoping by putting this bill in place that state funding will come to support this for every uh School Statewide um let's see additionally csba voted to oppose ab1699 which would apply a one-size-fits-all approach to District administration and Personnel decision making by requiring local educational agencies to offer open classified staff positions to existing staff first it would include a requirement to provide on-the-job training if an interested existing classified staff person is unqualified for the position before making the position open to the general public this is awaiting consideration by the assembly public employment and retirement committee additionally today they um
190if this is an additional post position of SB 433 which would delete a school district's authority to take disciplinary action against the classified staff person by placing it into the hands of an impressional third party hearing officer and required districts to fund the associated costs of obtaining that ruling this is awaiting consideration by the Senate labor Public Employee and retirement committee and then um I have to look up the exact ACA but there is a bill that um I came recently um which would be an executive order or Ace well it's hard to explain but long story short it's I want to take an opposed position because it would create the superintendent of Public Instruction Statewide as a appoint Governor's appointed position instead of its currently elected Statewide I think it's in our interest to
191keep that bit of local control as we can um so csba asked for an opposed position and for um lobbying on school board members behalfs to to make that known that that's something that school board members oppose in the interest of protecting our local control at our voters rights and that's all I had for now um thank you and I uh just have a little update on um uh president Anderson's request that we follow a b 370 um or 3720 the bilingual inclusion act uh passed out of the assembly education committee on March 29th the bill allows for more students to qualify and this is a timely discussion um the bill allows for more students to qualify for the state seal of biliteracy by expanding the options to demonstrate Proficiency in English in another language
192um it's been a unanimously passed out of the assembly education committee it's now been re-referred to the committee on Appropriations it's unclear whether there is a cost Associated to it so um I think most of what I could tell they're pretty hopeful that without a cost Associated to it it should be able to get out of Appropriations um the author of the bill states that it uh that this is important because obtaining the state seal of biliteracy should be achievable for multilingual student from all primary language backgrounds AB 370 oh I can't read my handwriting ab370 addresses this Equity issue by updating the criteria required to obtain the state seal while creating a clear path for all leas to implement balancing this Benchmark is a step in the right direction where it comes to Equitable
193education and so we will continue to follow that President Anderson and hopefully it sails through and what what I looked it up what would a b 3370 30 right 37 20. I it might not can I not read I've looked it up and wrote it down no you said it you said 37 20 yeah 37 yeah because there's a 37 times the older one so yeah thank you 30 seconds I want to make sure that I got back to the cspa people with that one too yeah sorry I was spreading fast oh yeah I I said that the ACA number was incorrectly I mean it's getting kind of late for us it is getting a little late yeah um okay we are now on item 21 the consent calendar I'd like to move you ready
194I'm so ready I'd like to move um to approve the consent calendar as stated a second moved by a trusty crane seconded by trusty person without any questions or discussion okay um I just had one note under a one for the Estancia outdoor um concept for the football weight room there was just an item of clarification for those of us who attended Estancia it mentions in the item something about the Estancia black box theater and we are not redoing or removing or touching that space specifically it's where the old film and radio station was so that is now going to be where the coaches are so the drawings and everything that are attached are accurate but just a point of clarification so that one that says proposed reuse of the old theater Black Box yes
195okay in case anyone had any questions yes alrighty uh roll call vote trustee Anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee weigandt yes trustee Pearson yes trustee Murphy yes trustee or soylu trustee Bartow yes foreign next item 22 22A approve Elementary history social studies instructional materials for adoption Ms Shields and Miss Hernandez yes I want to thank Miss Hernandez for the work Dr Hernandez for the work she put into this presentation and I really want to give a shout out to the teachers who are here to support the process and speak about it we will readjust the schedule next time but thank you for everyone who participated in those who hung out tonight to make sure we understood the process thank you is it up there okay hold on sorry it's getting late all right um good
196evening president Anderson board members Dr Smith staff and Community I'm excited to be back tonight as a follow-up to my presentation in March about our tk5 history social science adoption so as a reminder our current adoption is consumable it's a consumable product that's now out of print and so tonight we we present our recommendation to replace our previous program with Studies Weekly for all classrooms tk5 now I would like to introduce one of our outstanding teachers Miss Campbell from East Bluff who is still here hanging in there tonight um yeah [Applause] in less than 12 hours she'll be standing in front of five-year-olds with all her energy so um she's going to share some information she was a member of our committee so she's going to share some information thank you so much for having
197me I was lucky to be on the pilot committee uh led by the amazing Laurie Hernandez the committee began in February of 2022 and ended last month in March all four adopted program Studies Weekly impact world my world and TCI were included in the process the committee decided then to Pilot two programs the first being impact and the second being Studies Weekly this included teaching each curriculum for six weeks and depending on your grade level that meant either one or two units from each of the programs kindergarten we had two typically our attentive span is a little quick so we have more units um so we all gave a lot of input into the programs and as you can imagine we had a very thoughtful and very passionate discussions around all the lessons sends the
198positive and negative aspects of both of the programs there were 38 classroom teachers and an additional eight staff members including special education and tosas and they were all from all the zones and all the grade levels all of which were extremely dedicated and determined to find the best curriculum for our students for our teachers and for our families we really feel like Studies Weekly was the very best out of those four programs so last month you approved the community review of studies weekly on March 7th and so the next day the materials were available we started taking appointments for community members who wanted to see the materials in person but we also had online access for people who wanted to see the materials at home and we had the materials in both English and Spanish
199so on March 13th we started publicizing we sent an email to all of our elementary families with the directions in English and Spanish for how to access also with our contact info if they wanted to come see the materials in person and then we also put information on the district website and on every site website about how to access those materials and so then we closed the review on April 7th so that we could take all of the input that was submitted and prepare it for you to review before tonight's meeting and so we did have or the over 20 community members leave comments we had a forum where after they reviewed the materials they could leave comments and then we also included we got you know a couple of emails here and there so
200with that tonight we asked the board to approve the adoption of studies weekly and then once approved we're going to reconvene as a committee gets some input on teacher professional development and support that would be needed to roll this out to our teachers so at this time I'm happy to answer any questions trustee Bartow so overall I look I looked at a lot of the comments from parents and I really felt like it was a good pilot um study because a lot of the comments um reflected the diversity of um cultures that were taught and a lot of really a lot of really good things um I my I still have the concern with some of the the errors that um a lot of parents found in the text and that we put that we
201would submit that back to the textbook manufacturer and I think that that is great um I just I'm concerned though about rolling out a program that has a lot of easily even even with teacher training I just that's a concern that I have is if there's if there's a fair amount of errors and I know it's a new curriculum and there's probably the best of them but but my concern is when maps are inaccurate and things like that um I want to make sure that our students receive that correct instruction so I think as time goes on it will be addressed but that was just my concern yeah um I the errors that we identified were actually in the online platform and we believe were a result of scanning and text and things to the
202online platform and then some of the pieces that were added they just rolled out a new online platform so we did not find any of those errors in the actual print text that is going to be used by students so okay we are and anytime we get that input we gave it right back to the company and several of those things were already you know corrected as teachers use it anytime you launch a big online platform with that much content there are things so as we've found them and as we've received them from parents we look at what unit that is we look at what it is and um they've been correcting them as we identify them that's great I understand that because I have done massive website rollouts and there's always errors no matter
203how many times you look at it so I'm glad that they addressed it quickly yeah and we didn't find any in the actual the student Tech and that's what we we plan for teachers to actually use the the hard copy student materials primarily and the online is you know kind of a backup for students wonderful thank you yeah any questions trusty person so I think I was on the online last night when I was looking at it um where it was just a short short reading short paragraph with about five questions is that the online part of the what was I what was I looking at you were probably looking at like an online quiz or there's a bunch of different interactive things in there but the actual student texts are based on the standards
204and they have texts around the the topics in history for that grade level and then my question I was I was interested to see the comments I'm glad that we had so many um because I think sometimes we always wonder if we're gonna get comments um and I was interested too that there wasn't a lot of focus on it being a hard book that people I think in the past since some of us have a deep history of loving history books um and so I'm I'm appreciative of the fact that you're going to be using um the the printed version I think for the students but then also too I loved what you shared the one time about um I think when you were initially bringing it up that this is something that you know
205we went a long time last time before updating our curriculum and so you know if in four or five years we decide we want to have a hard textbook if there's one that is around that is approved by the state and all of that that that's an option as well so I am appreciative of that do you have a new question yes trustee Bartow my other question is what kind of training goes along with this with teachers um what does that look like and things like that because I think that it'll be really engaging for students but I'd love to hear how that's how the teachers will be implementing that because it's not a textbook sure yeah they're already used to the consumable format and it basically they use it the same way they would
206use a textbook it's just they can actually write on it teach students how to underline keywords in the younger grades they can cut things out and do different projects with it and so um it would be used really similarly to a text it has a lesson plan that's similar but we we have a couple of different things we'll do with the training one is training them on the program itself like how are the units designed where do you find your resources how is it you know organized and then the second is actually teaching how to read write listen and speak within the content area of History so you know connecting it to those informational reading and writing skills so our plan is to start with the initial training on the program components with the company
207and then connect to other initiatives like thinking maps right from the beginning to our state standards for reading in the content areas thank you that brings up another question for me so then for for Whittier for instance that is usually using history and social studies as one of their content areas for Spanish is it available in English and Spanish or will they be doing a different content area so it is fully available in English and Spanish we they do already have an adoption for history social science they had to adopt because our program was so old it didn't have a Spanish version so they adopted a program that they're using in some grade levels but we are um looking at that and and working out how that's going to work in each grade level for
208the dual immersion classes yeah do I have a motion so moved second he moved by trustee crane seconded by trustee Pearson um student board member Kate cherry Anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee weigand yes trustee Pearson yes trustee Murphy yes trustee your soilu Tristy Bartow yes okay and our next [Applause] thank you very much Dr Hernandez uh 24 and form oh I'm sorry I skipped ahead Okay 23. resolution adoption calendar a adopt resolution 21 40423 Newport Mesa Unified School District authorization of signatures for the Orange County Department of Ed um could we um packages all those together and just approve all of them at once I believe I need a roll call buttons if it's okay all right yes we can do them all as one vote um so then we will also be approving
209um B adopt resolution 220423 recognizing May 10 2023 as national school nurse day and item C adopt resolution 230423 recognizing California day of the teacher May 10 2023 a national teacher appreciation week is May 8 to 12 2023. do I have a motion so moved second okay uh moved by trustee weigon seconded by trustee Murphy roll call though trustee Anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee weigand yes trustee Pearson yes trustee Murphy yes trustee your story Luke trustee Bartow yes informal reports Dr Smith reading the room I'll be brief uh we were asked to uh to start providing child care and tonight was the first time we had Child Care here for any parent or community members that want to participate in this public forum but don't have child care I think we only had one
210student but you know it's there and if people want to bring their their children um we have some dedicated staff providing child care support I did want to say that the LMI that we had was great um I think it was also mentioned here at the Deus but one of the focuses coming out of it is improved Communications in the district communication circles from the employees all the way to the district and back at every level and I'm so excited for us to start that work I think it's really important we're also finishing up our systems awareness work with MIT this week and really really happy to continue that work had a chance to sit on AP research presentations for the Academy of Global Studies they talked about the memorization In classical music and the
211power of memorization they talked about horror films and which are the scariest and in the qualities of a billionaire and I didn't check one box so that's that's how I felt that day anyway thank you um board member reports or committee reports um I'll start at the end trustee Bartow thank you um mine's quick uh I attended the areas dance presentation it's always amazing I brought um my Harbor student and my future Harbor student and they were entertained the entire time so that was great it's a really wonderful performance that with a lot of dance different dance styles and it's always fun to see how the uh dance team brings in a bunch of uh male students who have never danced before and teaches them in the course of a few weeks to do audience
212in the area show that's always entertaining but um lots of just so impressed by all the talent um on that dance team and watching everyone from dance one who maybe had never danced before getting an opportunity to perform um and really go go through that it really speaks to me because um I danced for a long time and it's always something that I felt strongly about people who didn't have the opportunity to take a lot of expensive dance classes to have that opportunity so it's near and dear to my heart that that show um additionally I just wanted to thank superintendent Smith and trustee Anderson for taking seriously uh some concerns I had but especially the concerns that I heard from parents regarding those emails I'm so glad that we have addressed them the way
213we have um and I also want to point out that when I went searching for our parental engagement kind of track record and we do do have a parental engagement policy 50 20. it's last updated in 2009 so I took a look at what other districts are doing um kind of thought of things as how they've changed how we have brought parental engagement into our lcap how we have we highlighted in our reports and I think that it was a good start in 2009 but we've done a lot of work since then highlighting uh that is something I think would be important for us to to update so I did some updates I submitted it to the policy committee and I leave it to the policy committee to um you know take a look at
214it and see if what the suggestions that I made based on feedback from parents and what other school districts have done but more importantly the work that we've done over the last several years can be included in that so thank you trustee Murphy um yes thanks I would just probably I guess remind everyone again that the lcap uh survey is still available for parents to respond to it's open until the 21st everyone got an email please do uh respond and uh and help us move the district forward with parent input so that would be great and um I it was it was not a lot of time between our last meeting uh so not a whole lot going on except for I am going I'm very excited to be attending the coast to coast um
215Washington DC trip with my esteemed colleagues uh trustee Bartow and uh president Anderson so that should be great we will be gone next week very much looking forward to that and um think I think that's it oh it's the it's the almost it's the used to be called pilot cup not pilot cup anymore um I know I know the pilot pilot is because the daily Newport Newport Mesa um soccer tournament yes um is open for registration encouraging all families and students to participate who can um I think it's it's third and fourth and fifth and sixth graders um Go Kaiser they usually win um and uh um that is coming up at the end of May it's a really fun tournament so hope everyone participates um I was able to visit Harborview and I got
216to sit in on the sixth grade Roman showcase uh which was at the end of their History unit um they had groups of kids and every child did a video presented a video and so I got to watch all the sixth grade videos and it was absolutely fantastic and I got to enjoy some popcorn while we did it um I went to the PTA honorary award ceremony at CDM um and got to see got to help celebrate with the many parents um who make CDM a better place for our students and I also got to sit on in on Miss Mayberry's AGS class and was part of the panel to listen to her to the kids AP research um projects which were extremely impressive trust me there are wonderful things going on in the classrooms
217and these kids are getting into amazing amazing colleges and they're doing amazing work um I attended the LMI training um with President Anderson and it was um a great event to just see all of our partners um come together and talk about where we you know we were working uh you know do better and where we um where we strive to go in the future so I thought that was a great um first step I think there's another one in may as well which I mean it's just great I wish that uh more organizations like this had a a really good brainstorming and understanding of who everyone is and who what every um sort of you know person in the in the in the organization does and can come together for a common goal um
218other things that happened are open houses um I've attended a couple and those have been um great to just to see that all the kids work um out and and on um and open and open for prospective new families as well there's been some Kindergarten roundups so we got to see a lot of uh talk about our um what they're going to learn in kindergarten what they're going to learn in TK and hopefully see that enrollment number come in um I also attended the Newport Harbor area it was amazing to watch my daughter loved it my son fell asleep so I thought it was great um and then uh parent-teacher conference so you know at our district we do take uh parental rights uh very seriously and I want to thank all the teachers for
219the conference week that we recently had and for taking the time to put together such detailed information about each each child so that you can really um you know the as the parent being the first educator of your child um really let that parent know what's going on in the classroom so I really appreciate that partnership well it was Open House season I attended the East Bluff Elementary open house and also their spring Gala same as trustee Pearson I attended the H the honorary service award at CDM and our own Jake Haley was recognized and was a was a um an honoree that day so yay go to principal Haley um attended the AGS capstones that Miss Mayberry's um as a panelist and of course attended a bunch of athletic events such as the volleyball
220Bal the bay it's track meet which was great and softball and we played actually we played that day Huntington Beach which actually won the whole league so uh but our our girls they hung in there I went to uh t-winkle for the veterans living history that was wonderful always amazing to to watch and listen to our veterans who dedicate their lives for their country Back Bay Monte Vista recognition awards ceremony again amazing to recognize these students that are were struggling and now are moving in the right direction standing room only once again a lot of parents on hand also attended the inclusion council at Newport Harbor High School which was very eye-opening there's about 50 50 attendees that expand from students faculty counselors principal Bolton was there and the topic was very interesting it was
221a facilitated and it's an interactive session on conflict management so it's really deep and it's just wonderful and just hearing the kids interact and voice their their thoughts was just uh very impressive um Good Luck to our students as they pretty much Start launching their uh AP test season um and state standardized testing a lot of testing going on in in April and May so good luck to all those students I wanted to thank Dr Dr Smith for your superintendent comments I think it's really really important to set the record straight and give the right information when um we are not getting it necessarily in public comments so thank you and I also want to um thank the hard-working assistant superintendents all of them and specifically today tonight um Dr Torres and Dr Shields because
222I admire all the work and the dedication you put forth and you deserve to be recognized for that thank you thank you okay um I just wanted to follow up on the question that Fernando had and I will also let him know but um Anastasia the mock-up and the drawings are coming very soon so everyone will be able to see what the designs are if they haven't seen them online already the um parking lot is already fenced off and I've gotten lots of calls and questions when's the groundbreaking um and what the timeline is so thank you Mr Trader for taking care of that making sure that everyone can see what will be coming um I also just wanted to thank one of our other assistant superintendents Dr Jacob for spending several hours with me
223at the Orange County Board of Ed meeting on Wednesday even though her two minutes were cut off um and explaining what which she had to share which is a little disappointing um because we try and make sure everyone has time to speak here um thank you for being so clear and um for being an advocate for our students um and also abringer of Truth um and as as I stated during that time we we have added this several people on this board added an lcap item around family engagement and Community engagement and so we highly prioritize parents and families and have a lot of board policies around parent notifications parent rights and involvement um shared decision making so we will continue to look at those but we already have several that are already in place
224and have been in existence for most of them over 10 years um I'm also very thankful for our staff for listening for the express need for child care there were some that I shared that with and they weren't able to make it today but they are really excited to know that that is available um so I think that is a really big Improvement particularly for some of our do you like families that need that extra support and I just wanted to say a big thank you to um Sharon Ewell of Costa Mesa Athletics who was at Estancia when I was there and she looks the same she never ages um and so just a congratulations on her retirement and I believe that I brought up Sandy Gordon last time who has also been a long
225time Newport Mesa teacher so um it's just amazing to see some of our really dedicated staff and the incredible dedication they've shown to our students and our school campuses that is all it is 9 30 on the dot we are adjourned