10/26/2021 - NMUSD Board of Education Meeting

001good afternoon welcome to our meeting of october 26 2021 this is our regular meeting roll call please trustee elsie here trustee bartow trustee montoya here trustee wagon here trustee anderson here trustee or soyulu here i heard her i saw her say here she's there dr smith here adoption of the agenda i move to adopt the agenda second moved by trustee weigan seconded by trustee mattoya roll call vote trustee elsie yes trustee bartow trustee montoya yes trustee weiken yes trustee anderson yes trustee or soyulu yeah trustee hey okay community input on closed session items only i see no one in the audience so there will be no need to read we will now move to closed session the items are 5a conference with legal counsel one case 5b conference with labor negotiation negotiator 5c public employee

002discipline dismissal release employment and 5d public employee discipline dismissal release employment number 202 109 hr we will return to open session at 6 pm thank you good evening everyone i'm calling the meeting to order at 6 00 pm we'll have opening ceremonies a moment of reflection and pledge to the flag led by trustee mattoya please rise put your right hand over your heart and join me ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all before we start the meeting i have a readout from closed session in closed session the board of education took action to approve the resignation agreement general release of number 2021 0 9 hr the roll call vote

003was as follows seven eyes zero knows adoption of the minutes so moved second moved by trustee mattoya seconded by trustee bartow roll call vote trustee elsie yes christy bartow yes justine mccoy yes trustee weigand yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane trustee or soyulu and for anybody in the audience we have two of our trustees on zoom tonight and you will see them up on the screen introduction of new staff dr jacob great thank you so much it is my pleasure to announce our new administrative director for student services miss sarah coley and just a little bit of background that you may or may not know about sarah she started her teaching career teaching math at a secondary level at a charter school in south central l.a and so that's kind of where she you know

004got her start uh working with lots of different kids in different abilities and then she went on and taught at a secondary level math and avid and different things for huntington beach union high school district and you know and and worked as a tosa there prior to coming into newport mesa as a coordinator for student services and as the coordinator for student services she was able to bring a lot of work into the district with pbis restorative practices she handled attendance at some point welcome center at some point um so sarb all of those things and really has has shown over the past few years her leadership and her love of systems and organizations and making sure we do some consistent stuff and you know what i really appreciate is that um she really walks

005the talk and she is a true restorative practices person and i've already seen it as we've looked at some student discipline cases and really working with families students themselves and the school sites to look at both the accountability and the support for students and and and helping us to do some restorative stuff so you know when she applied for the admin director position um she wrote that she wants to do whatever she can to support students and families and to give students the opportunity to develop and learn what is essential not only for school but for life and i really see that as she moves forward into her into this position so i'd like to welcome sarah coley [Applause] thank you and dr smith and president elsie and our trustees thank you so much i'm

006so grateful for this opportunity as i was three years ago when i joined newport mesa it truly is an honor to be able to continue to serve our families and our community in this new role and i do want to acknowledge and thank dr jockham as well as leona olson just for the support as i've transitioned into this and and really dr jackham for your leadership and student services i'm grateful for the mentorship and just being able to get to know you and i really believe that we're going in the right direction with how we're supporting students so thank you for that and i also want to introduce my husband he's in the back lorenzo um he without him i wouldn't be able to do this work we have two small boys at home we've

007got a two-year-old and a six-year-old who we chose to leave with grandma and grandpa tonight we played that was in everybody's best interest and so we we really are grateful and i really couldn't do this work without him and our family so thank you all for the support and the encouragement and i'm again truly honored to be in this position thank you and while we've known you we're really pleased that you are in this new position as well and we are all here to support you so thank you very much um next we have our student board members and some of them uh have been here we were fortunate tonight that in between our closed session and our meeting we actually had a dinner with them and their parents so it was really lovely to

008get to talk to them a little more one-on-one than when we just see him at the school board meeting so we have three board members who present at every meeting and one has a provisionary vote and we'll start with him dane dodge from estancia high school [Applause] good evening superintendent board president members and guests um when at when i asked the student population at my school the question of how could they what ways would it benefit them like how could they be helped study for finals the upcoming finals i got three main responses the first was was getting small breaks in class to break up the learning uh into smaller chunks almost like little mental health breaks similar to the masks mask breaks we got last year during the school just like a couple minutes

009outside or just sitting in class closing their eyes resting their heads they felt that could be a good way to help them get some rest and not be so stressed um one way like to actually help study for finals was uh teachers allocating in class time to help prepare for these tests so i know at least i have a history teacher on campus who provides us with study guides that we do in class throughout the year but certain information for that unit is missing and so we fill it out as we go through the unit this helps us to not only have a study guide when we need to study but also internalize the information and one last thing i got brought up it was a common thing with athletes was that athletes asked if

010open periods or times when teachers had open study halls could be later in the day so it could better align with practices uh they said it it doesn't have to be every day but maybe like once a week having a nightly study group so they can help prepare for those thanks so much thank you kate cherry from newport harbor high school [Applause] good evening i'm kate cherry and i'm from newport harbor high school good evening superintendent smith president yelcy and members of the board prior to the meeting tonight the other stu board members and i were asked to report on the resources students are most needed in order to help prepare for finals week that are coming up in december some responses that i got from my peers were to have extra tutoring services offered

011in all subjects in the weeks leading up to finals week having extra mental health support from school psychologists and the promotion of sites that offer meditation or other ways to deal with stress finals week is often a challenging time for all students and by having these resources it would make the time less stressful and fear more feel more manageable the district already has these support systems in place for students but by promoting these resources and expanding them to more than more than normal finals week students will feel better prepared and turned to do well in their exams thank you thank you thank you [Applause] and sophia contania from costa mesa high school [Applause] good evening president elsie members of the board and superintendent i am reporting for costa mesa high school in regards to our

012preparation for finals um i know at costa mesa we have our learning labs which are classrooms that are open most weekdays and which selected students can come in to receive help on classwork and homework while talking to my peers about it many did not know that we had the service available so it might be a good idea to advertise in a school communication that we have access to this as we near final season i have also heard that all students have access to an online 24 7 tutoring program but again many students are not aware of our access to this resource or don't know how to approach getting started i believe more than academic support this year students will be more in need of mental health support students are always stressed and anxious during finals

013and we should do everything possible in order to relieve it there are a lot of online resources we could potentially put out for our students as well as creating our own solutions we could work with our individual schools associated student bodies to host fun events for students to study with their friends and in order to make studying not as stressful or advocating for students to take a breather and realize that sleep and their well-being is more important than staying up until midnight studying for these tests thank you for listening to my report tonight thank you very much [Applause] item 13 harbor council pta report um miss fuller good evening dr smith president yelcy trustees cabinet guests thanks for having me tonight our ptas are working very hard on getting all of our required paperwork done

014we have to get annual financial statements taxes audits budgets um and of course our membership which again i will give you my plug join the pta it doesn't matter which one just join them would you move the microphone closer to you would you move your microphone just just just aim it more towards you there you go that's perfect thank you is that better uh-huh sorry um anyway we have to do all this paperwork and taxes to keep our ptas current with their nonprofit status we don't necessarily hear from the irs or the franchise tax board when schools are behind until they're way behind and so we just keep reminding them and we have a couple right now who have a few things pending so we're working on that but other than that we're all moving

015forward and i want to report that walk to school days the 6th and the 13th were very successful everyone loved it and i had a report from one teacher who was so excited because of our current no parents on campus she was able to meet eight of her families that she had never even seen before and the kids were so excited to have mom or dad or whomever walking with them hopefully we will continue and have even more of our schools do it next year and um the virtual college night and the parent ed a writ the first parent ed meeting on halloween doesn't have to haunt your house was very entertaining i went to that rather than call each night since my four have all been through college and it was it was really

016entertaining and fun i don't know that parents of high school students got quite as much from it but i'm looking forward to the next one which will be the beginning of december and um i'm looking forward to working with dr smith and having a good relationship and having him attend our first harbor council meeting in november so thank you very much thank you [Applause] next we'll have cs csea report and president pam saunders could not be here so eleanor rebar it will be presenting on her behalf good evening president yelcy cabinet dr wesley smith executive cabinet and guests thank you for this opportunity from csca chapter 18. tonight csea would like to welcome superintendent dr wes smith to nmusd we appreciate your positive attitude and focus on communication as part of the foundation for a

017stronger relationship we are concerned about the recent lapse of communication from the district regarding two annual events the great shakeout of october 21st and classified development day which will happen on november 1st we look forward to collaborating with you and the district to enhance communication in these areas csea wants to ensure that classified members needs and concerns will continue to be addressed amid the ever-changing guidelines and following all the rules from all agencies csea is looking forward to ample notification and collaboration regarding any workplace change our members are doing a great job and continue to support students and the district needs no matter the circumstances we would like to give a heartfelt thank you to every classified employee throughout the district for all their hard work again thank you from cse chapter 18. thank you

018[Applause] and president of water from nmft good evening president yelsey board members superintendent smith and cabinet members on behalf of nmft's thousand plus members i want to help give a warm welcome to dr wesley smith we're looking forward to a long and productive relationship that is firmly based on the many things we have in common clearly we believe in the immense importance of public education in our society and providing a great education to all children we know from speaking with you already that we believe in the importance of the balance of the counterparts of a thriving and successful school district the teachers service providers and other staff the administration the cabinet and the school board dr smith is representative of the thousand plus certificated employee members of nmft i'm proud to reiterate what you already

019know that this district is full of the most amazing dedicated and hardworking professional educators and service providers as you'll find anywhere the nmfte board plus the many members who serve on so many different committees and teams and all of us serving the newport mesa community look forward to advancing our school district with you for our common purposes focused on education students and employees and i know that we can thank you in advance for some things that i promise you we you can count on us for as well but to never get jaded at each other sounds simple let's do it let's never forget to listen to each other let's always follow the golden rules of communication assuming positive intentions continuing to work together when we disagree let's keep the channels of communication open and let's

020always appreciate each other's vantage points in summary welcome and we're glad you're here next i'd like to shift to a growing concern and make a request regarding the district-wide math training please remember that when we bring con concerns forward at this level it's due to the number of our members that are being that are bringing the subject forward and due to the impact it's having on a significant number of employees we have received a lar a very large amount of input concern and feedback and overwhelming amounts that teachers are noticing a huge increase in the number and amount of social emotional struggles and challenges among their students for this reason we request that the school board direct a district to conduct a critical review and reduce the scope of this ambitious and robust math training

021it's not that the teachers don't want training it's it's that they are imploring us to rethink the balance and allotment of time distribution for both the math training and the focus and the overarching emerging trends which are manifesting into more time needed to focus on social and emotional challenges impacting in the classroom this in addition to some other factors either needed ones or some outside our control the critical sub shortage the need for a uniform technology platform the continued implementation of state guidance or mandates it all adds up we all agreed in the beginning of the of the year uh the beginning of this school year that part of the covered reality is needing to re-evaluate and adjust for the not fully expected and not fully anticipated balancing the finite amount of time available when

022employees are giving this feedback is not a negative or a failure and doesn't speak to the training in itself it's just it just is it's what's happening right now we really need you to listen to this thank you very much thank you [Applause] okay before we move on to community input i just wanted to say all of the people who so eloquently have come up here and spoken tonight make me feel really remiss by not introducing the superintendent at the end of the meeting i have to say um dr smith and he will be speaking fairly soon but i have to say he started only seven days ago and to us it feels like he's been here a long time because he came in running and we have taken them anywhere that we could think

023of that might be helpful for him to see he's been out in the community already i know many of you have met him if you haven't you will be meeting him at some point soon so i do want to welcome you excuse me i know you'll have more to say later but we are so excited to have dr smith in our district and we we are really off and uh running it he did not miss a beat in coming in here and working with the board with cabinet and starting to get out in the community so thank you very much and i know you will not be silent okay community input and non-agenda items trustee mattoya this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items not on the regular meeting agenda

024comments on non-agenda topics are limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes a speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person oh he's putting okay um okay for any of you who have not been here and you heard trustee mattoya we a lot we a lot 20 minutes per topic so we have some topics that they're just piecemeal and then we have on the vaccine mandate we have many more we will not get to all of them but i i will say now we will reduce the time to two minutes so we can get to more as possible as many as we can in the 20-minute period so we'll start with lanai smith [Applause] hi can you guys hear me okay yes thank you um my uh comment is regarding

025the volunteer policy i am the pta treasurer for victoria elementary um i've served on the pta board for the last five years between victoria elementary and t-winkle middle school and i am here to just make a comment about the new policy that says you have to be fully vaccinated there are a lot of volunteers that are not planning on getting vaccinated i personally know now the number is up to 10 fully vaccinated people that have gotten coveted and have spread it and so i'm just curious how i'm more of a threat than a vaccinated person um and then what about the unvaccinated people that have already had covid so they have natural immunity why are they not allowed on campus if masks work why isn't it just a requirement for us volunteers to wear a

026mask so i would like you to just reconsider that volunteer policy thank you thank you [Applause] if i get this name [Applause] uh robert cowan that some of these i'm if i mispronounce it it's i cannot make out some letters good evening thank you for allowing me to talk tonight my name is robert cowan i'm the president owner of marina landscape company we are a landscape contractor under the contract of tel acute community construction management for installation of landscape and irrigation at the security fence in ensign and corona del mar our original contract was for three hundred and ten thousand dollars it was done at two schools inside middle school in corona del mar throughout the course of the project we were asked by the school district to perform additional work above and beyond our

027contract work we performed this work in good faith along with completing our work this extra work came up to a total of 432 thousand dollars or a hundred and forty percent of our original contract to date we have only been paid three hundred forty two thousand dollars or forty six percent of this money leaving a balance of four hundred thousand dollars due to the marina as you can imagine with the covet issues we've had a hard time keeping the business ongoing and up and running we have paid all of our men we've paid all of our material suppliers we have performed the work and lived up to our end of the bargain despite numerous requests to meet with the school district personnel and your construction manager pinner construction we have been unsuccessful at getting any

028type of a meeting therefore i'm coming to ask you to do two things if you would please number one instruct your staff to please meet with marina landscape and explain to us if there is a dispute between the school district and telecue and if any of that dispute has anything to do with marina landscape so we can get paid from either telecue the school district or telecue's bonding company we need that information to pursue that and number two if you could please instruct the staff to pay any undisputed amounts to telecuse so they can in essence pay us we'd greatly appreciate it thank you sophia cordozza and then john levere will be after that sophia cordoza i'm here for this could you put the mic down a little bit more there you go i'm here

029for the third time to ask you again for the transportation of whittier elementary school that's not fair that you take away the transportation most when we most need it can you can you please superintendent um sorry we're here for the third time asking for um the transportation school of the warrior so we didn't receive any answer so um we have a lot of complaints i cannot bring the the whole school because the room is small right so they have a signatures and cell phone numbers from the parents and then um i hope i received an answer for because i didn't receive any answer for that so do you have something you would like to give to us oh yeah thank you thank you and is your daughter so are you sophie or your daughter sophia

030thank you for coming up and speaking i have a feeling you will be one of our [Applause] well good [Music] afternoon good afternoon my name is john levier and i've been living on and working on the west side of costa mesa for 40 years 40 plus years and i i think for the families that live a christina and her daughter that came up here to speak i know that it was hard because she came and she says john look i'm scared i sound more scared than she does but the the families have a fear and one was kobet came there was a meeting zoom meeting and we were on there and they said transportation was not part of the meeting it's not part of covet but pre-covet those buses ran those families had those stops

031whittier had two bus full of kids dropped off at at chalimar and all of a sudden those buses aren't there and i heard in the meeting pre before summer that it was about money we had to cut money so when they had that the hybrid program the kids had come back all those kids that were at my program wanted to go back those parents wanted to go back they were with us because essential parents essential workers they could not put their children back to school because they couldn't drive pick up and drop off so we opened up our program and we did it school started and they asked they said john you know what are we going to do we can't pick up and drop off those kids oh it's going to work out well

032it didn't work out and we had to come up with alternative solutions and what i'm coming back here this is a cobit issue because the transportation was taken away precove it and never brought back and if i could have just thank you 20 seconds more now um the rain came and that was a big eye-opener i think all those families that live on chalimar that have to walk i think that's not fair for those families they have to walk to come and pick up their kids like they don't work they do work they're scared to come here tonight because they feel intimidated they feel that they're not given a due okay i your your time is up but just so you know we don't respond to comments on non-agendized items but the superintendent will address

033in in some way the comments after we hear them okay thank you okay the next one the next group of comments i have are on the vaccine mandate so i encourage you if you are speaking if someone said what you were going to say yield your time to somebody else and i'll get through as many as i can we will not get through all of them those who we don't hear from tonight please email us with your comments to board of education at nmusd.us we read every comment we get so we'll move on i will call four people at a time so if you can be ready patrice murray kelly foley henry abraham and maddie adler hi my name is patrice murray and i am single i have no kids so i am here to

034fight for all of the kids and all of these brave parents who take time out of their busy lives to come and fight and one of the things i want to say to each of you is first of all thank you for serving but you serving in in your agenda and not for what we did at the um pledge of allegiance for liberty and justice is all that matters so i want to give you a charge to every single one in this room and especially these four kids here the healthiest in this room have masks and we don't have masks as adults there is something gravely wrong with that and that is not liberty or justice and so to me these [Music] oh um these th this is a sign right here that something is

035gravely wrong we are fighting for the flag and for liberty and justice i have five points the five points are this is not about a vax it is about a satanic poisonous agenda and we know that because it's global you see what's happening in france you see what's happening in italy i'm a financial advisor to wealthy people in orange county and the economy is tanking because people are not standing up to an evil agenda you have a choice and you are responsible for our kids safety and health the fact that these four kids stood up and said that they're asking for mental health resources when we went to school we didn't have to worry about mental health resources before we took finals second point is this is about science and each of you cannot sit

036here and tell me that you've watched dr salenco you've watched all the science that this is not a vaccine it is poisonous and masks aren't working and oh i'm already out oh my gosh okay the last point is you will stand before god one day and you will answer to him and so i prayed to god that the holy spirit would fall upon your hearts and your spirits you were yielding you couldn't you are taking time away from other people who are up here [Applause] [Music] good evening i'm a mother of two school children here at newport mesa unified school district and i really would like you to listen to the definition of a few words drug dealer someone who encourages or coerces others to take illegal drugs of who make and who makes money

037from the sale or coercion of an illegal drug illegal drugs drugs whose production distribution and use is only allowed by a medical doctor's prescription medical doctor an authorized practitioner of medicine who graduated from a college of medicine and licensed by the appropriate board one who plans and provides the comprehensive health care of a continuous basis coerce to pressure intimidate threat force someone into doing something segregation to separate or set apart from others or from the general mass to isolate regarding the governor's vaccine mandate newport mesa unified school district should never pretend to be health care providers nor act as drug dealers instead lead by example and help provide our kids with high level education they deserve education with instruction in the fundamental skills including reading writing math social studies crafts music science and pe doctors

038in california has stated that writing a medical exemption may not be possible because currently the california health department has threatened those doctors if they write an exemption they will pull their medical license and cancel their malpractice insurance if mandated the board of education will unfairly segregate unvaccinated kids into distance learning while vaccinated kids will be allowed to attend in person learning have you heard of board versus brown versus board of education segregation the public schools was considered unconstitutional look it up may 14 1952 for justice of the supreme court delivered the opinion of the court stating we conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate by equal has no place separate education facilities are inherently unequal i need you all to take that into consideration thank you henry abraham [Applause] hi

039henry abraham oh penny it's okay president yeltsin superintendent smith welcome to newport mesa as you can see we are passionate group of people um many of the trustees have already known me i have been here many times and i will come because i appreciate everything that you guys do you are our representatives for each of one of our areas all of your constituents most of them that are sitting here right now at some point voted for you as someone who's running for public office myself i just want a reminder this job is public service and that includes everybody i appreciate you to given everybody a chance to speak and hear their opinions even if you don't agree with each other this amazing lady right here said something about the golden rule of communication to be

040open to hearing differences and even though you don't agree with them do not mock them because at some point we are all i'm a mom a lot of people who are not parents and they're here i appreciate you for being here four months ago when i stood here and i spoke about crt i said it breaks my heart if i have to take my son out of public school well last month i did my son no longer goes to woodland the reason why we moved to eastside costa mesa was because of the great public school programs all i'm asking it's not to go one way or another is to be open and to let parents the option to choose when it comes your turn to vote on these mandates that's all we're asking that's what

041the majority of us are here for we are asking to let the parents be the first line of defense for their kids because it is our job to make sure our kids are taken care of and we trust you to take care of them so please reassure us that we are trusting the right people to take care of our kids and we would love to see our public school flourishes but the way we're going it's not going to happen and i know that our funding doesn't come from attendance but don't let that be the reason why this nobody cares that our kids are being pulled out of schools thank you so much for your time [Applause] hello my name is maddie and i am 10 years old in fifth grade i'm here tonight because today

042the fda approved the kova 19 vaccine for kids 5 to 11. it has stated that once coveted vaccine is approved for my age group i will then be required to get this vaccine in order to continue to attend in-person school unlike all of you this potential mandate directly impact impacts me and my body as a student who enjoys learning and being with my friends i do not want to be forced to get the coven 19 vaccine to continue in person school i'm not against vaccines but i'm concerned that this vaccine has not been thoroughly tested for children and we truly do not yet understand what the long-term effects may be please consider how you would feel if someone forced you to put something into your body that you did not know you feel that you

043feel did you did not know enough about the chances of a healthy child like myself becoming seriously ill hospitalized or dying from cover 19 is very slim however the immediate side effects or unknown long-term effects on my body could be far worse i do not want to have to decide between being forced to put a new vaccine in my body to be or in order to continue in person school or having to stay home i support any child or adult who wants to get the kova 19 vaccine but the choice of getting the vaccine should be up to each individual based on their medical history and risk factors your job is to protect kids just like me and tonight i ask you to please allow parents children and doc and their doctors to make whatever

044decision is best for their families and not make this a requirement to continue to attend in-person school thank you for all your time tonight and i truly hope you vote no to any vaccine mandates to allow all children to continue in person school thank you thank you maddie [Applause] thank you maddie and while we appreciate while we appreciate everyone speaking tonight we especially appreciate when students come and speak for themselves and well done thank you um i'm going to call for more danielle mills kim ippen that okay nicole pearson and kristen k so danielle hi danielle mills i'm actually going to take my two minutes to quickly say a prayer over our board who seems to need it father in heaven you are god of strength and forgiveness justice and mercy wisdom and power thank

045you for all you have blessed us with both individually and as a nation we are grateful to be an america where your blessings of freedom and liberty have been so abundant we are here today god at this meeting to be advocates for our children all of us as parents and as board members i pray father that you would strengthen and give encouragement to all here today equip these board members and give them the courage to do what is right by the children of our district and by the parents that voted them into these seats i pray that you would impart wisdom to them to know that our children have a 1 in 3.3 million chance of dying of covid to realize that the risk benefit ratio for 70 percent of parents is not sufficient to

046include excuse me giving our children an experimental inoculation i pray that these board members would recall the oath that they each swore to bear true faith and allegiance as well as support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic and while i pray for the unelected group of people making these disturbing decisions for our children i pray for all i pray all the more for our community and leaders who can and should take a stand against these un-american mandates i pray all these things in your sweet son's name amen [Applause] good evening um i'm a high school teacher in costa mesa and i'm quite frankly appalled at the nonsensical rules that we're subjecting our children to children are not at risk

047of getting covered the cdc puts their risk of dying from covid for children under 18 at about zero percent the social emotional psychological damage we are subjecting our children to is unconscionable wearing a mask all day is guaranteed to cause harm we are creating a culture of fear and raising a group of people who will become traumatized adults we simply cannot continue to place the burden of a disease which primarily affects our elderly on the shoulders of our children it's extremely difficult to teach when i cannot see the faces of my students it's difficult to forge a connection and furthermore it's hard to see if they're actually grasping the material we cover in class we are doing our students a really grave disservice by perpetuating the myth that a cloth mask in any way stops

048a virus particle i teach my students to be free thinkers to be problem solvers masks are quite frankly an insult to their intelligence i implore you to vote against any vaccine mandate for our youth this is a nonsensical idea based on risk factors for this age group the benefits do not outweigh the risks our students have been through enough and should be entitled to an education without being coerced into untested and experimental medical protocols please do your job and unmask our students and allow parents to make medical decisions for their children make it a choice not a requirement it's up to you how this is enforced so please do not enforce it at all please thank you [Applause] was that the name yes hi my name is nicole pearson um and i have some good

049news for the previous speaker this this district is actually not allowed to authorize or mandate a shot and as a condition to your constitutional right your child's constitutional right to an in-person education in the state of california so that's the good news i want to thank you guys for your time in exchange for this opportunity to speak with you i would like to drop or give you about 250 350 000 legal truth bomb on you guys because again you do not have the authority to mandate an experimental or an investigational drug as a condition to in-person learning in the state of california california health and safety code section 12335 and 12338 please take notes so that you guys understand require that the california department of public health is the only agency with authority to add

050a shot that requires that to go through the legislative process as we know per gavin newsom's october 1st press conference california department of public health will be doing that in the meantime district schools boards cannot be adding shots again as a condition to in-person learning in the state of california how do i know this i know it's because of case number two one stcp03429 that's the lawsuit that my law firm brought against the la unified school district and each and every single one of its board members to stop the mandate in the la unified school district you should look it up we will not stop we will come after every single district that tries to roll out this mandate the only thing i cannot help you with is criminal law because i'm not a criminal

051attorney we should also look up these laws penal code section 273 a child endangerment penal code section 273 d child abuse and penal code section 192 b that's involuntary manslaughter that's when you do something legal but that is caught that is substantially likely to cause death and if you don't think that these parents aren't ready to bring charges against you they are and we're ready to sign them up thanks guys [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good evening board members i'm a concerned parent and costa mesa resident of 30 years i implore you to push against this to vote against and push against this vaccine coveted mandate healthy children are at zero risk for this virus and we all know that the covet shot does not stop you from spreading or getting this virus so please don't suggest

052that it does i suggest that you all do your homework and research the massive amounts of vaccine adverse reactions that are happening you will not find this on mainstream news but it's not hard to find in pfizer's own vaccine insert it says that those at higher risk highest risk of myocarditis for instance are under the age of 17 particularly in males and in pfizer's own words information is not yet available for potential long-term sequelae basically this means they are experimenting on our children are you willing to take responsibility for this do not allow our children to be politicized also it's worth mentioning that pfizer's revenue this year alone will be over 33 billion dollars i for one have a problem with this and i'm asking you to be part of the solution next putting mask

053on the faces of our youth should only be the parent choice and not the government especially when there's zero risk zero science behind this look to florida's numbers you know for good example of that lastly critical race theory and anti-bias trainings have no place in our schools certainly there's no place for racism and tolerance for all needs to be taught but crt is more indoctrination if you don't take my word for it please take a quick google to hear what condoleezza rice said last week on the view crt creates a victim perpetrator cycle and it is not productive for either please vote against this anti-bias training our children deserve better thank you we are at the end of our 20-minute comments on this topic um but again i encourage anyone who did not get to

054speak and we do have your cards um to email us with with your comments okay we'll move on to superintendent comments uh dr smith yes i know our student board one of our student board members from last year put in a comment and then i have there's i know of at least one other person who wants to make a comment that's not about anti-vaxx so i don't have anything i'm just wondering if things didn't get sorted they didn't put in the car it's 20 minutes for the entire agendas topic is that agendas okay wanted to speak so it's never right i thought that was so that's what i first wanted so what topics are these they're checking hold on for a second there's six on the bus well we had two ones remember i wanted

055to talk and was texting i was like i've been here since six am i not gonna get to talk and i'm like they okay um evidently some people came in late on a different topic um yeah on a different topic that we did have two speakers on which are buses so um so i will um call you up if if they're still here can you let them know if they're out in the lobby are they in the room well they left they left but um if they're in the lobby they didn't leave they might not have gotten into the room okay brittany amber britney every jenny is she okay and then fernando sorella ariselli rodriguez hi brittany hello so good afternoon trustees superintendent members of the public it is so nice to see you guys

056my name is brittany abergenie and as a student as a former student board member myself i know just how important it is to advocate for what i believe in and stand up for the community who has given me so much today i'm here to discuss a major injustice that is taking place in rey and whittier elementary schools charging eighty dollars per student to take the bus to each respective campus here is not only unnecessary but morally unacceptable whittier and ray elementary schools are both at least 90 percent minority and 80 percent low income and charging these children for unnecessary service that was previously free and accessible is both immoral and a bad reflection on our district i know the rationale behind these decisions and i can say that those who advocated to change to charge

057our children a safe bus ride do not truly know and understand what our children's environments are i live in close proximity to ray elementary my siblings at one point going to those schools and i can say for a fact that it is not safe to send these poor children walking alone it is simply dangerous and unfit for these children to walk these streets alone it is grossly inconsiderate and irresponsible because majority of these schools these children come from minority low income families who cannot afford to pay the fee which is what i would call the price of safety something that these children may no longer afford i grew up here these are my neighbors these children do not have the privilege of holding their parents hands across the street who rely on the school's breakfast

058and bus services as parents may be working and paying and going from job to job and paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford the luxury to be there much less pay the fee adding this additional economic burden does nothing and no good for anyone i know there are resources such as the esser fund that are meant to p to provide the money for these sorts of things and the quote and i quote continuous and safe in-person learning which is not amen and i would love for you guys to find it in your hearts to put these children first i know we are better than this thank you thank you fernando fernando here or jorge theodoro araceli rodriguez are you checking to see if any of them are outside in it and beatrice flores is beatrice in

059here they're not out there none of them if not if i may this has happened now two times it i just if there's a way that we can when we know we're having a large group of people if we can have that as one stack and make it real they came in late that's why we didn't get them several of them had been here since before six this happened you just got them but this has happened more than once and it's it's not okay when people are advocating for access to school so we there was at least four people that wanted to speak for three minutes and they're not getting to so is it possible maybe if we can go to rey and whittier those are the two impacted schools i would i would love

060to take dr smith and introduce him to two of the women that have been trying to get this through i i think we can go to where the parents are gonna address that in his comments i'm just saying publicly i we've had this discussion and we keep not getting to hear from parents thank you okay [Applause] i want to thank kcal for showing up tonight to uh welcome me and uh tape tape my introduction and for the crowd at first i thought they were here as a welcoming committee clearly um that's that's not the case um and if any of you are here by the way with regard to the public comments related to the vaccine if you are you could be here for something else but if you're here for that i'm glad you're

061still here because i intended to to make some comments and clarify some things and i understand that there are multiple agendas there are folks who intend to elevate an issue which is an important part of this political work and then there are people who want to have an issue resolved and and i want to talk about that tonight but first let me just say that um i watched board meetings from home via youtube and there was nothing else to stream by the way but i was watching all of you and i thought then and i think even more right now that how blessed we are to have the parents and community members that we do what i've noticed is you've got a passionate group of folks who are willing to fight for the rights and

062needs of their students and i'll tell you america's in trouble and parents and community members don't have the courage to fight for their students and so i i saw that on video i see it here tonight public education has a fighting chance because people like you are willing to give up your evening to come and fight for your students and and that's a wonderful thing and so i thank you for that let me also say this for those of you here to have this issue resolved and i think we had an attorney say they gave us 1.5 or some big number free legal advice i'll give you um priceless mental health advice all right um the school board has not mandated student vaccines this is where you're all supposed to clap and people in the

063in the audience and outside are supposed to clap um not sure where that that got confused but maybe maybe i can help a little bit having spent the last eight years at the state capitol and and seeing what's going on um i will say this though and let me compliment you um all of you folks on camera as well you've had a focus a laser focus on educating almost 19 000 students right and what they've said is we're to keep schools open all day every day all year and anything that threatens those schools being open for in-person instruction we reject flatly i'll tell you what as a parent and having lots of friends who are educating their students at home that's a welcomed direction and that takes courage and and that has been their north

064star with any of these decisions unfortunately there are other entities that have been limiting parental choice that have concerned folks not the school board we've got state elected officials we've got the administration we have cdph california department of public health and we have cal osha keeping on making decisions for parents and as we look at this vaccine potential mandate let's be clear that it was mentioned in a press conference right not an executive order a press conference and where did we first see it in writing and i and i think noel mentioned it in a press release for heaven sakes that it might happen okay and certainly the governor has mentioned since then he's looking at some regulatory process where he looks at health and safety regulations and uses that certainly if that's a process

065it has to be open for public comment and so when folks said we hope the board has the courage to not do this a they're not doing it they've never mentioned it and if you saw them at a coffee shop you might be alarmed at how some of them agree with you right that's neither here nor there who is considering it uh is the administration so are we going to have the courage as a community out there everyone that showed up that left early to go have those voices be heard where they're actually voting on it because this deus isn't voting on right the governor intends to have the ability for folks to opt out for personal belief so that's already there um the thing i tell people is i wouldn't worry too much about

066that process right now other than having your voices be heard in sacramento where they're actually being counted other than watching the legal battles because this is going to be challenged politically and legally and we heard that tonight right all across the state so this this has a long road to go it's certainly not going to happen in january because of this announcement today it's going to take time you have time to have your voices heard where you should be more concerned is there's an actual legislative vehicle in sacramento being rumored that senator pan wants to run a bill that makes this vaccine a part of the vaccine mandates for schools which is legally enforceable right and it wouldn't allow for the exemption based on personal belief so for folks that are here for this topic

067that should concern you senator pan has a phone number he has an office in sacramento he has an email if that's your issue for someone to have the courage not to do this get to the people who are doing it right and if you think that and and i hate to be so blunt that folks in in sacramento care how much pressure you put on local folks i can tell you they don't i can tell you it doesn't register for them right if we think that we're gonna we're gonna come here and and be loud here and not be allowed there and they're gonna hear it uh their speakers are turned off there right for these projected voices so i would just say just to clarify for those of you worried that this school board

068is implementing a vaccine mandate it's never been discussed it's not their role it's not happening here but there's a chance it could happen for next school year and that that decision we made in sacramento so i encourage folks to rip to do whatever they need to do right how are these next door or social media welcoming parties for west smith go use those resources right to amplify your voices for the the folks making the decisions but know this and and uh this will be my advice throughout it's not our job to be politicians here to be educators we're going to focus on keeping schools open we're going to focus on doing those things that are going to benefit the students in 19 000 academically physically emotionally socially and that's a big list right that's going

069to be our laser focus and we wish people well and we believe that this demonstrates hope right because you're willing to fight that fight right so that's that one we mentioned too a bit about volunteers and i'll say this again the the goal of this board is to take a finite amount of resources into focus and those aren't just financial resources for those of you that say hey this district has a nice budget anyone that's been at those meetings now there are human resources as well there are physical and human resources they're going to align all of those to make sure students are educated and they're protected here in the educational environment all right and and so what they've said i've heard them i watched it is that all those resources are going to be

070used to make sure that staff and students can be in school right as those resources become more available and they could do more testing for example of of non-essential of volunteers they'll they'll certainly look at that but they're not going to take resources away from that necessary job of keeping classes open i know for for parents that's got to be frustrating right but how much more frustrating would it be if not only can you not volunteer you're educating your students in your home because they've had to close schools that's so their focus is let's keep schools open right and let's see where this goes i've heard rumors that they're looking at softening the mask mandate for students in february so i hear there are rumors about a conversation there and about looking at volunteerism in

071schools and looking at testing overall right so if that's our goal to get back in there make sure the school has the resources it needs the school district to keep classes open let's keep that focus let's advocate let's hope that the data supports that so we can have folks get back to school and i know i'm only talking to elementary parents right now because having been a middle school principal and high school principal and talking to those students they don't want their parents at school very often now someone's shaking their head back there saying no my kid wants me and that's awesome that's beautiful that's not traditionally the case uh in the nation but the point is we hope to get back there um and this board is is paying attention to that and they've

072stated where they are with that um the transportation issue um i heard about it watching um my point there because that's the camera i think i was watching from this is the angle i only saw that's why i keep smiling giving it my pose but but i heard about the issue but i've been here seven days and i've had people bring it up and certainly have to look at historically what happened we also have to look at board policies that would make these kinds of things doable there's a process here what i'd say is this you know we can always visit schools i love the business schools i spend every week and i'm going to visit schools every single week i'm here that's that's a commitment i have to our educators our students and the

073parents who trust us to send their kids there i think that's where i should be i would also say the students right here that we didn't get to are more than welcome to come in and meet with me and tell me why they think this is so they can be heard i'll give them more than three minutes right so i would say we can do something like that um if the issue is be heard i'll listen uh i think the the the issue is they want some action the action for me begins with looking into the issue which i seven days i i know so little i'll i'll get there and then we have to talk about a process here with the board with regard to crt uh and anti-bias training i i've said this

074to parent groups all across the district that i've met with already um sierra and if this isn't what you believe i respect what you believe um i know what i see and as a lifetime educator and traveling the state i know what i know as well crt is not being taught in this district it's not the foundation for any curriculum in this district and i'll say this it won't be taught in this district it is not appropriate in public education folks know that you know that it's not happening anti-bias training to assign race is the only bias demonstrates that folks aren't really thinking about uh implicit bias like we're trying to share in northern california i was a superintendent we we had one race uh quite honestly we didn't have much diversity but we had

075we had great diversity in socioeconomic levels we had middle class we had poor students and we had homeless students and we had folks that believed that some students couldn't learn like other students well guess what that's that's implicit bias it's relative to girls and boys in school and how they do in science and math and i'm not talking about in this district i'm talking about in this country that we have these implicit biases we got to check those because i would put forward the boys and girls can both be successful in middle school science and math and i think there's data to support that and we had to check those biases at the door and so this training isn't about crt but moreover it's not being taught won't be taught as long as i'm here

076and i intend to be here as well i didn't be here for the rest of my career in fact i moved my wife for heaven's sakes i don't want to move again um it's just not going to be here let me say to pta count me in i want to work with parents parents know their students better than anyone we need to listen to those voices to our labor partners absolutely we're going to work together we're going to co-create solutions that support the board's vision and we're going to benefit 19 000 kids right we're going to change the world together and we're going to start here in this district so so count me in some of the other things we couldn't really address because they're personnel issues but those were some of the thoughts i

077had thank you thank you um community input on agendas items do we have okay again this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the regular meeting agenda comments on agenda items are limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes per talk 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 um consent calendar we have some comments i will call four people up one after the other april murray haley jenkins nicole pearson and then bill dunlap april good evening um i was happy to hear you say superintendent that uh crt is not in the district um i know you've

078only been here for seven days and so maybe you haven't been fully caught up on the anti-defamation league trainings that are sent to begin on november the 1st um so currently right now there's a national debate um evolving in america and american schools over the teaching of critical race theory that it's an idea that pits us against each other and holds that white people and america are inherently racist and oppressors some states have outlawed sierra team and crt is not really taught in specific classes it's taught to the teachers who then embed it in every aspect of learning throughout the entire school system um that's why they want to train the teachers right so this anti-bias training goes beyond what the newport mesa community expected to stop any future anti-semitic anti-semitic incidences like what happened

079in 2019 with the red solo cups their focus is now shifted to something much different than that california education code 60002 mandates that teachers parents and other members of the community be involved in the selection of instructional materials however the proposed adl teacher trainings the district tells us it finds itself stuck in a loophole in the adl contract the contract with the adl states that the materials used are proprietary and only used to provide authorized adl training programs and activities thus the adl as a consultant has created a barrier and a foil of what they are teaching to override the california education code and the district's authority and responsibility to make the taxpayer-funded controversial materials public prior to november the first tax dollars are being used to pay the adl the training will be held

080in a tax-supported building audio and visual equipment is paid for by tax dollars for their powerpoint uh presentation slides video viewing crowd control and adequate security are required by the adl yet the tax paying public is not allowed to see the materials or be present in the trainings the board will vote tonight uh to approve another one thousand two hundred and fifteen uh fifty dollars with the adl to hold virtual community training program in support of community learning more about anti-bias trainings however it is after the trainings will be conducted to occur on november the 18th 17 days after all of the teachers are going to begin their training you're going to hold a virtual community program for us to view the materials we want to see them before the teachers who go and teach

081our children we want to see them before that it makes no sense for us to view it two weeks after they've already started their training we've asked you repeatedly since june of 2021 we just want to know we looked at the adl website looks kind of suspect we don't really like what they're putting out there and you can't tell us what they're teaching the teachers it's kind of ridiculous [Applause] hello members of the board wow i can't believe it's been almost five months that me and many other parents have spent our time calling writing emails filing three separate foia requests meeting in person conference calls to the adl speaking at numerous board meetings and still nothing tonight i'm here to make one final attempt to ask you all to present all the materials from the

082adl trainings and the uci racial healing student ambassador program you say it's not crt but there's that word racial so it gives me some clue we do not wish to copy or reproduce the materials we just want to see them all of them it's unbelievable to me that in your minds the way to finally solve this is to spend 1 250 more of our tax dollars to pay the adl to show the community a part of a training not all of it because the student portion is different from the teachers and it's going to take place after the students and teachers have already been trained that makes no sense let's imagine you were to train teachers and students on a sex ed program that could be a pretty controversial topic that parents and taxpayers would

083want to know about let's say you named it health class and told parents in the community they can't see any of it but it's just health class everybody cares about their health right so you got parents to sign a permission slip under the guise of health and you got student leaders to volunteer so they can get healthy and then trained all the teachers and students on this controversial sex ed program that only you and the sex ed company know about and not all of you because some of you voted to approve this program without seeing it yourselves then later to appease the parents pleading to know what this is about you decide maybe we'll show the parents and community a little bit who cares the trainings are already done nothing they can do now your

084anti-bullying program is highly controversial your racial healing program is highly controversial the adl and theresa neighbors company is so off base with what your focus should be on which is education and a positive learning environment you have had much more pushback than you've had support for this in the last few months and it's very suspicious and highly frustrating that you have chose to renew these programs and not present us with any of the materials running these programs once years ago was bad enough but you still have time not november 1st yet you can change this we have a new superintendent you can come in with a fresh start i urge you all to do the research like we have pause the trainings until the community can see all the materials and then have them decide

085what is best after all parents and taxpayers should have a say in deciding which programs will affect the mindset of these students and teachers and while i still have a second i just want to comment that yes it is we an identity molecule where you have to break off into your gender identity sexual orientation ethnic background and then rate it on your privilege or an obstacle it may not be called crt but that is under that umbrella and that is you're right it's not acceptable in our district [Applause] [Music] nicole pearson um good evening i um don't want to add if i just want to echo what um the two previous speakers have already stated um so eloquently i will um say welcome um superintendent um and i don't want to make your first meeting

086here um bitter um we appreciate your help and i do appreciate that and in your comments that we seem to have a lot of common ground that we stand on but i would this is my first meeting attending i would caution you on your tone please um it was a bit condescending and a lot of assumptions were made about what we believe and what we know i'm an attorney um i i don't hold those views um i i'm not ill informed this group is not ill-informed we didn't think there was a mandate coming in here which is off topic but i just would caution you with this new topic 18b1 to please have a bit more of an open mind and to not underestimate what it is that we do and don't know as a

087body thank you [Applause] oh was that were you nicole pearson who just spoke yeah your alter ego there's two people named nicole pearson would you mind stating your name for the record evelyn thank you okay thank you thank you bill dunlap thank you i'll be short as well you've heard the points we've been here a bunch of times regarding the adl issue um i want to tell you uh i really appreciated superintendent smith's opening remarks your credentials are exemplary and i'm really glad you're in the district and i like how candid you were about you don't believe that crt is coming to this district with that being said we are at a loss as to why we can't see the materials educators have seen them some of the board members have seen them the website

088is a little scary and you can look at that i've had conversations with shannon mcgowan i've had conversations with peter levy i just got off the phone with him today uh and he said yeah we'll show it to you it's but it's up to the school district uh i've talked to the principal at newport harbor high uh sean who i've known a long time he says yeah i don't know why you can't see it but he got a i got to call the district he calls the district office and uh kirk bauermaster said well no we can't we can't show it to them so there's this sense that there's something back there now we're all in the education business the three-legged stool right we all know what that is the student the teacher and the

089parent and all of a sudden we got the stool going off to the side because the parents aren't involved in this new stuff that's coming out and we're suspect and and i think it's legit some of you are as well so why can't we just take a look at it and we'll go about our business and let you get back to keeping our schools safe and keeping them open which i appreciate what you've done so uh and back to the cost of this i had a commitment from the adl from peter and you're welcome to call them because i got off the phone with him two hours ago where he said we're gonna do this for free bill for the parents well now it's twelve hundred and sixty dollars not a lot of money in

090the big picture of things but that again raises suspicion about well first it was gonna be free first they were going to show it to us and they can't so we we just want to see it and we'll go about our piece but if we don't get to see it then you know the consequences of that and this is not a threat it's more of a promise is that we'll have to take it to the next level we don't want to do that you don't want to do that you got too much going on uh we just want to go about our business but you know you we don't want this to get any bigger in the paper and we don't want to have to bring in as uh warren zevon said uh you know

091guns and lawyers right so let's let's see if we can solve this among ourselves we just want to see what the material is thank you thank you to all of you um we understand your concern we we appreciate you being here and i am going to give assistant superintendent torres a chance to comment on this but this is our consent calendar so we will we could discuss this i haven't gotten a motion yet for this but i just wanted to reiterate when um the cost of twelve hundred dollars and maybe um rabbi levy will will change that i don't know but the cost of that was to have a program where the public could see this this is not normal curriculum materials where we have on on display for 30 days where anybody can come

092into the district this is not a course being taught in our schools this is professional development and we have professional development quite often in our district and we never share what's being presented at a specific professional development with the public so this is new what assistant superintendent torres is recommending that we do this for people for the public because they do have concerns about this issue so i will let i'll let you address it thank you president yelcy and um at this point in time we are unaware as a district as to whether or not the adl would um offer a free training that had not been presented as of this afternoon so that would be something that i would have to have a discussion with the adl uh in the future because that um

093was not shared with us um but i do agree with president yelcy that this is not following the traditional instructional materials adoption process that many may be familiar with because this is not instructional materials in the hands of students and so um you know i have opened our doors to anybody who's interested in coming in to see what we do have that is available and we're also willing to share our instructional materials process with anyone who is interested i've had the pleasure of meeting several of our community members that are present tonight and have been very transparent with what we currently have we are excited to be able to provide to the community a presentation you know with the adl to be able to demonstrate what the teachers will also be seeing and so and

094again at this time we have provided all the information to again community members either through personal meetings here at the district office or through public records requests act documentation of what we currently possess when we have our teacher training on the 11th excuse me on not the 11th the 1st of november if there are any other materials that are shared with it at that time meaning if we actually have tangible handouts at that time we would be happy to provide those to the public as well and so i just encourage you to keep that in mind for our guest speakers this evening who came and spoke on the item if we do have um handouts that are given to us during that presentation on the first that we will be able to hand those over

095to the public at that time thank you and that's all i have for this evening at this moment thank you very much okay so we're back to the consent calendar um do i have a motion i move to adopt the consent calendar second i'll second the consent calendar i'm trying not to hog it so i have a motion by trustee a second by trustee weigan uh bartow um any other comments or on consent calendar that anybody has okay roll call vote trustee elsie yes trustee bartow yes josie matoya yes trustee wagon yes trustee anderson yes trustee cream trustee crane yes trustee or sorry lou she said yes they're thumbing up for us okay we'll move on to discussion action approval of elementary and secondary school emergency relief the sr3 funds expended your plan uh assistant

096superintendent torres and is miss gayley here too yes um yes president elsie oh you can make it from your seat or you can for for 19 you can stand at the front if you wish or you can make it by your seat i have three people for 19 but i was going to have her introduce it first we're just processed dane wanted to vote so he wanted to know whether he was standing up here or or he can you sit up here do you want to you why don't you come up here but we haven't gotten to vote yet right okay i've got it okay all right so uh new pokemon new postcode processor stop getting the kinks out all right well i'd like to welcome up um vanessa galey who will be presenting tonight

097our proposed um sr-3 expenditure plan she's going to give us a little background on the history of some of the dollars that have come into the district um to provide coveted support learning loss mitigation and future relief vanessa great thank you welcome dr smith and president elsie members of the board cabinet and community members we're pleased tonight to give you an initial overview of the coveted funding so that we can explain the context of the sr3 expenditure plan so first and foremost we want to lead with the the idea that we are about the whole child here in newport mesa and if you saw our presentation of our local control and accountability plan you heard this you will hear this often and over and over we believe in the multi-tiered systems of support where we're

098looking not only in academics but at the behavioral support and social emotional and mental well-being of our children you've heard that this evening and we want to make sure that we're leading with that so that you know that that's our priority as we consider the many funds that we're blessed with in our district the kovid 19 funding was really designed to address the impact of covet 19 and to really align with the student needs as well as the board of education vision you'll notice that there are different funds listed up here and as we think about their different purposes and intents we also need to plan for long-term financial and employment impacts we are careful to evaluate the successes of our programs and services and to look at things over time and understand that this

099money is temporary so we have to consider which things that we will maintain which things that we will stop and which things we will continue to cultivate we also have to ensure compliance there are rules around the funding but ultimately we want to ensure that we have a comprehensive systematic plan that effectively meets the needs of our students so the funding is a little bit complicated we're trying to show you a simplified version here the funding on the left in blue is state funding and the flint funding on the right and green is uh federal funding and so you can see different dollar amount this is not an exhaustive list but this gives you the the different um flavors of how we've addressed the the funding so the in-person instruction grants were really trying to

100keep the doors open and keep kids safe and healthy and our adults as well and so that that grant was primarily devoted to that the expanded learning opportunities grant presented in may encompassed a lot of the the visions that we had been on planning and we were fortunate that these funds allowed us to take what was going to be a phased-in approach and really be able to immediately bring on 11 elementary school counselors to bring in a robust summer program tutoring and support for reading homeless and health supports so those things that we began you're going to see a theme this evening these federal funds will allow us to continue so a lot of the federal funds that we'll address tonight are not about bringing in new things but really trying to sustain and cultivate

101uh through the 23-24 school year again you see other the funding sources the learning loss mitigation fund that's what it was called by the the feds and so you see that a lot of that was really devoted to computers and hot ware hotspots ppe et cetera and then finally again you see all the way over to the elementary and secondary school emergency relief and what we want to show you here is a little bit of a different approach just to see that there are the different boxes of funds but also to highlight that there were different deadlines for expenditure and so um that you know makes sense as you're thinking about trying to do something to do a one-time addressing the needs but then also to over time continue to support the remaining impacts as

102for the state funds again as we said uh the expanded learning opportunities grant was presented in may and we were so pleased to be able to launch a number of initiatives immediately we had a summer program that was largest that we've ever seen especially at the elementary level we're so proud that it encompassed again academics as well as social emotional and enrichment and it was provided far and wide and not only at the elementary but at the secondary level and because of the expanded learning money we'll be able to offer that not one but two summers and with the ester funds you'll see that we'll be able to offer that three summers so we're really excited about on that again also knowing that we're going to be evaluating successes and challenges in the programs and

103that we will adapt and adjust over time as president elwater mentioned in our planning processes so you'll see esther 1 esther 2 and sr3 all came at different times different amounts and ended with different deadlines and tonight's the remainder of the presentation is really about sr3 that's the expenditure plan that will be before you this evening so elementary and secondary school emergency relief we conducted community engagement and again we harken back to the the development of our local control and accountability plan and the expanded learning opportunities grant the the input that we gathered there and in prior years led us to making some decisions about things that we wanted to bring on board we held public forums staff forums a thought exchange we had district advisory committee meetings and we leaned into all of those

104things as we also created our expanded learning grant and then the lcap that was approved well heard in on june 15th but approved to the subsequent week and now again in the expenditure plan we're building on all of the input that we got throughout those activities as well as the two public forums we held um unfortunately the evening one was the same night as a dodger game so we didn't have the the attendance that we would have liked to have seen um but we did have um strong but mighty little group we also conducted a thought exchange and um again even though we didn't have maybe the numbers that we would have preferred we are committed to to getting meaningful engagement over time and so as we move forward we will continue to look at

105the expenditure plan as part of our lcap process and really consider comments that are coming in throughout the spring and throughout the planning and again over time because the l cap never goes away and it's an annual process it's a living plan so the input did influence our plan a lot of the input showed us that the things that we were we were planning are right on people appreciated the focus on health and wellness and the social emotional support for our kids they also recognized we needed to have additional staff to be able to intervene and address some of the lost learning instructional time they appreciated the after school programs and the the enhancements on looking at support for kids as well as again the broad reach of our summer programs and then the support

106in our health offices has been so well regarded and recognized and of course we're going to continue over the course of three years this elementary counseling support that's the intention we might tweak it a little bit as we learn over time but we really intend to provide these resources as well as that ongoing monitoring necessary as kids evolve over time and we still see that they may not address all of that lost learning time in just one year and again thinking about our credit recovery so our students graduate on time on the increased technology support we went to a one-to-one model for our schools and so we needed to maintain that support and of course we need clean air so the next component of the plan there are three categories that are dictated to us

107in the template this first one is about safe and continuous in-person instruction this is the dollar amount that will be seen in the expenditure plan but i can assure you this is not the sum total of all that our district invests in safe and continuous in-person instruction the items called out here are included in the sr-3 plan but that is not again all of the things on general fund or some of the various other funding sources so you'll notice that we have a devoted attention to custodial support to providing some health assistant covers as well as extra time in the health assistant realm on the equipment and developing the uh some systems to really make sure that we are prepared over time i do want to point out that at this year not only have

108we gone from a five to six hour position but a six to seven hour position with the health assistants and we are just so thankful for the work that they're doing um as they're keeping our kids safe and they're helping um our our contact tracing and every other bit of communication with our families the second category is addressing addressing the impact of lost instructional time you'll notice that some of these pieces here include years and again trying to show you that we're building on things over time so some things i'm in 22 23 um that will be for that that particular year the elementary program expansion 2122 all the way through 2224. so some of these items we are committed to um with this funding source in this particular time frame and others were able

109to commit to throughout a three-year cycle so all of these things are things currently underway and in place and we're really excited about being able to continue them forward in the out years then there's this use of remaining funds which is about the social emotional mental health needs as well as also addressing the opportunity gaps and of course it has to follow the rules and so this is again where we're looking at counselor time and behavior specialist social workers special education tosa that we were able to add in at the secondary level so this is rounding out again staffing that has already been in place we did have amazing behavior specialists already this gives us more and targeted we had wonderful social workers before this gives us one that's focused on homeless students as well

110as an additional position because we have we have more need and then additionally we opened cloud campus which we are so proud of and we are maintaining that investment in an option for our families um elementary we have some additional support at special special programs that are sometimes hard to staff in a pandemic and of course we recognize the value that instructional assistants bring to our campuses and we've invested additional positions and we want to make sure that we're supporting our schools in that regard as well as at the secondary level thinking about systems to organize and corral the data and the information and looking at the caseload of students who need additional support and some of the other classes that we've mentioned before and then lastly information technology technicians we have all this tech

111we need to support it so lastly a lot of the things that i mentioned here tonight are in this esser plan they are not in the current local control and accountability plan because that preceded this but this will become part of our annual planning process it will be seen in our lcap and then additionally we have a really amazing resource in our 509 page fiscal budget book our fiscal services department does an amazing job showing graphs and tables and presenting that information and so even though you won't see these funds in the current budget you will see it in the next book and that's it thank you anybody have any questions yes i just had one i noticed that on one of the pages you had the gear funds and it was gear three it

112was tbd just because we don't know what it's but we've been told this is coming but we don't know what it is correct the state has not released that funding yet perfect thank you okay we do have three community input comments so maybe stay close by in case we need some more verification chris jones good evening hi welcome uh yes my name is chris jones i have uh four children three of which attend with school within newport mesa i along with many other parents are concerned regarding agenda item 19a the esser funds and how those funds will be utilized i hear many parents on a daily basis in disbelief of how we've gotten to this point how our children with a 99.99 survival rate have been forced over the past 20 months to mask social

113distance be discouraged from hugging and sharing their smiles with friends and at one point being forced to remain stationary at their desks sitting behind plastic barricades are now potentially going to be subjected to cova testing at school contact tracing and as mentioned but hopefully we won't get to that point with the mandatory vaccinations um with minimal testing or proof of the benefit for this demographic i can't help but wonder myself how we got to this point but it becomes more clear when we follow the money and the strings attached with it as a member of this community i am speaking on behalf of all the mothers and fathers who feel strongly and feel the same way as evidence on the slides it seems amazing funding and support and emotional help and well-being for our children

114there's nothing we want more the strings attached the things we quickly skim over that's where the concerns come in we don't want these funds and those strengths that come attached so closely with them if health pods start showing up at our schools and our children are being pulled into those pods there's a lot of concerns regarding what that will entail i feel like there's a lot of parents i know there are a lot of parents who will no longer be having their children attend school i thank you for your time i thank you for hearing us um i hope we can find another way to support our children possibly have parents who very eagerly want to be back in the classrooms and helping out we will do anything that we can we don't want these

115state or federal funds thank you thank you nancy warzo brady hello good evening nice to meet you dr smith your first meeting president yelsey i've met several of you over the years my name is nancy warzo brady and i'm coming to you here with several hats one as a parent of a student who's graduated from newport mesa and also as a community advocate a community advocate for the arts i'm also the education and engagement community engagement director for back house dance which is a contemporary dance company which at in your april meeting we were on the consent calendar and you approved a program a residency that we have going on now a dance residency called dance expressions creativity and community it's with corona del mar students and also back bay continuation high school i wanted

116to speak with you about your the expenditure plan for use of esser funds and also just also thank you in the district for your huge support of the arts the arts are really all i know i've worked in all of these organizations the segregation center for the arts at bowers museum uci philharmonic society and more and now i'm with backhouse dance the arts are all about social and emotional learning i i mental health issues the arts are the glue that are going to help students continue to learn safe learning to make up for the loss of learning and also just to connect with community to connect with each other and to heal from what we've all been through you have a wonderful an art strategic plan in place that i decades ago it feels like

117a million years i don't know i helped implement as a community partner the arts organizations are here to work hand in hand with your teachers we want to help see this district this whole community heal and we know that the arts are the way to do it i'm talking right now we're developing a program it's called dance for kindness and starting to work with adams elementary school for something of residency and performance in the spring fingers crossed we'll be able to find some funding for it to work with the whole entire school and community to connect with your let's be kind district day and to make this program sustainable and to be something permanent for the whole community to enjoy i've worked in in my background as a visual artist and also music i know

118that the arts saved me and the arts are saving our students today when i was at in the classroom seeing those students dance all with masks on it was just a joy and i think we need a little bit more joy and happiness to recover from what we've been through thank you thank you very much robert dickson thank you very much board i'm first meeting here i'm glad to be here and i wanted to comment more about the public process i didn't actually participate in the thought exchange and i looked at the materials that were available including the powerpoint and the 500 page document and i wanted to share my concerns with sort of an ongoing theme with communication from the district i'm a parent of two kids at victoria elementary and i have to

119say communication is phenomenal victoria is my happy place kids love it the pta that's involved is great dr peralta is great the staff are great i'm on the school site council and we are over informed however from the district level we're dramatically underinformed and i'm just going to have to say i had a speaker card in for earlier not on the vaccines i was disregarded i chaired public meetings i sat on a public body for six years the brownnet compliance is embarrassing you guys should be ashamed i hope that superintendent smith welcome hope we can change that in the future so the thought exchange i'm not sure what it was designed to do i think maybe it was designed to comply with federal requirements for the use of the money i don't think it was

120required designed to actually get feedback and i'd like somebody on the board to ask the staff how many people actually participated in the forums and how many people participated in the thought exchange we had 150 words to share our thoughts on this massive and impactful plan and then we go through this exercise of facebook which is commenting on other people's thoughts but we don't get to see everybody's thoughts we're presented some curated collection of thoughts which were frankly alarming there were it seemed to be finding the extremes of the various political and partisan sides of these various issues comments like you know i don't even want to repeat them here but they were they were offensive and i don't want to comment on those i'm not interested in commenting those this isn't facebook it's the

121school board and i'm interested in providing my informed comments as a parent to the board so i would encourage folks not to if you can if if you're allowed to by the time limits available to seek additional public comment in a more meaningful format and if not that's fine i understand this is a it looks like there's a very well thought out plan looks like staff has done a phenomenal job but let's try to involve the parents more i think that what the presenter was saying about the low turnout is indicative of the state of parent involvement and in sitting on a board and getting yelled at for six years i was on a planning commission it's not the same you guys are elected i was not so you know some people you don't want

122to hear from i get it and you don't want to hear the same comment for three hours i get it but let's do a better job of making sure that everybody who wants to speak is given the opportunity if appropriate so thank you very much i appreciate everything you do i know how hard it is i know you're away from your families and welcome superintendent smith i'm very encouraged to work in the future thank you [Applause] okay um do i have a motion on 19a so moved and the move the motion is to approve the elementary and secondary school emergency relief sr3 funds expenditure exactly moved by trustee mattoya yes second seconded by trustee anderson roll call vote student board member dane dodge yes trustee elsie yes christy bartow yes trustee mattoya yes trustee wagon

123yes trustee anderson yes and i have a comment after thanks trustee crane trustee or soyleu trustee anderson thank you um i am looking at this report because we have two um and one of the options on here um was about expanded learning opportunities grant and it looked like it um it's for almost 13 million dollars and i was just wondering um what we specifically have in mind for that and when we can have a discussion about where that money would be going um and then i also too um just want to echo on the comments that mr dixon said and i actually had many comments about this from this other document the our expenditure plan and on page 17 it talks about community engagement and it uses the word meaningful consultation about 48 times and

124i think one of the things for me that is most important is it specifically calls out groups individuals or advocates that represent the children um largely in the district that i represent um and so i think yes there was a dodger game the night that um the meeting happened but i know in my small group that was for elementary there were two parents they were pre-k parents they didn't speak and there were staff members that were in there and they spoke and to me that was not authentic community engagement and that's no fault of our staff it's we need to be doing more to go out to where the parents are we cannot just rely on parents to come to us it says specifically and these are vanessa's amazing words as always meaningful consultation with

125community includes considering the perspectives and insights of each of the required community members and identifying the unique needs specifically related to the effects of covid comprehensive strategic planning will utilize these perspectives and insights to determine the most effective strategies and interventions to address these needs through the programs and services we would implement with these funds that the local educational agency us must engage in meaningful consultations specifically around individuals and advocates who represent children with disabilities english learners homeless students foster youth migratory students children who are incarcerated and other underserved students it then goes on to expand on underserved students so it also talks about engaging with community partners expanded learning providers and community organizations we had one such person come tonight who runs a child care center who's been asking for transportation for a year

126so i just i would like for us to go out into our community this is what our task is we are being told by the state to do this i'm really excited that we have a high communication value superintendent i'm this is this is our mandate there's not a vaccine mandate but our mandate is to do comprehensive meaningful community engagement and i would really like for us to start doing that better thank you trustee or solo my hmm oh try again um is hold on okay we're back we're back okay thank you and we can talk to oh trusty wagon yes um so i have a quick question either it's for miss gayley or uh our superintendent i have heard from the community and i think um chris jones asked today something about um strings

127that are attached to these funds um i think there is a question out there of hey if we don't accept this money do then we have to adhere to say mask mandates or any other kind of mandates out there and i just wanted to um have for the record to clear that up to see if there is any anything that's attached to these funds that we can say no to and then not have to do but i just i mean i think i know the answer but i want to i want to clear that up just so everyone is aware dr smith did you want to address that or would you like me to or vanessa who's speaking i hear it coming from somewhere so no no these funds aren't you know requirement the mass

128mandate we have to remember as we talked about earlier is a state mandate we're talking about federal funds here um so so no no those strings aren't there but uh it's a great question and various duke community what i would also add is it dixon dixon uh and but to both trustees i think the good news is we had a meeting today with staff and this was the question right not even knowing that you're going to be here glad you are not knowing that you would be we we asked the question how can we more meaningfully engage all corners of our community and i can tell you that the staff were leaning into that conversation so that's the good news people are interested in that and i'll tell you it's a it's a problem statewide

129that the folks might be asked but not meaningfully engaged which is as you pointed out trustee anderson the criteria so you've got a team here interested in revisiting that figuring out how we can do it better differently and and to pta i know this is a statewide issue for you sherry tells me all the time um so count on us to do more of that sir thank you um my comment was more just how i was thankful that we are using the esser funds towards student supports i know one of the questions that i have seen heard from the community and have seen in other districts is that that those districts are choosing to use their funds for testing on um campus for their students and that's not what we're using our funds for it

130so i'm really happy to see the plan the details however funding student supports for all that learning that they need help catching up on okay i'm sorry i should have asked for comments before we voted but i thought someone would apparently it's a button i was gonna say apparently it's a day for doing things a little bit out of order once in a while 19b approve agreement with orange county department of education to encourage civic engagement opportunities for secondary students assistant superintendent torres thank you yes we're excited to bring forward tonight a agreement with the orange county department of education to help us engage in this civic seal of engagement i got that correctly the seal of civic engagement what that is is a program that allows students to meaningfully engage with their community throughout

131high school and at the end of their high school years they can earn a seal saying that they participated in a meaningful process within their community one of the things we're interested in is tying the seal of civic engagement to our experiential learning project that we have to really help students learn how to make an impact on their community so this contract tonight represents just a partnership with ocde to help ed services specifically my my work our director of teaching learning mike shaka and our high school principals to come in and facilitate a discussion over what that could look like in our district and how will those students be chosen it'll actually be open to everyone um and then depending on their level of participation over the course of the four years they will kind

132of i don't want to say earn points but they'll work towards the seal all students will participate but only those that complete the program would actually get that seal much like we have the sela by literacy which is for foreign language students take all these courses in foreign language and they get a seal it's a similar concept the department orange county department of education are setting the criteria but not the specifics so x number of hours at something like this yeah so we set all the specifics they're really just helping us think through they're kind of a facility facilitator to help us just think through all the different types of options opportunities that are out there that lie within our communities let's see in our 27 districts in orange county anaheim union is a seal

133of civic engagement district excuse me they've been doing that the longest and so part of the partnership helps me go and dive into some of the winning concepts that um mike matsuda and anaheim has been able to accomplish through the same program i've always felt it's better to edit it's easier to edit than create so we can take nuggets from and make like knowledge and as we all know newport mesa will do it best um thank you would you be able to add bringing it home for our student board member who's very civically engaged congratulations how how that can apply to our student board members oh absolutely and so um it's kind of a shoe-in for our student board members in the sense that kind of your your work that you're doing currently right now

134would kind of encapsulate that project because you were learning how to meaningfully meaningfully bring um items and thoughts from your campus to this governing board and then you're weighing in on actual items and voting and giving your opinion based upon that so i mean it's a really rich opportunity and experience for students so you're one step ahead if we move forward with it so it's exciting but we look to doing to do things similarly with other students and um it's a big undertaking in the sense that it's going to take some planning and that's why we just want a thought partner in this process trustee crane um we will get on zumba oops so right now [Music] it always makes me feel like i'm in a spaceship or something so right now the long-term plan

135is it would be something students would participate in over the course of four years um and so we as a district would establish the amount of hours that would be required um and so that's something that's part of the planning process um if we were to go ahead and start it in the 2022-23 school year we would have to phase that in so obviously our seniors would have a lesser amount with our freshmen having more just because we'd have to grandfather and then catch them up but that's part of the facilitation just and part of having a thought partner is to be able to identify what exactly we want to achieve and what's doable and you know there are some districts within the state that have identified coursework and so students sit for a course

136in that that's not necessarily where we're headed we're looking at this as kind of a meaningful project for students to own and learn how to participate in their community and that's been i mean that is so important if we just look at what happened tonight with our groups of people coming forward and speaking on the multitude of items that they presented tonight we want our students to learn how to have a voice as such and that's really what the goal of this program is well i know there are many people out in our community who would encourage more civic engagement among our young people so i think this is a terrific program i could see eventually more than 80 students wanting to participate in it so hopefully it will have room to grow absolutely any

137other questions or comments yes trustee crane has one more comment trustee ash anderson cranes oh [Laughter] ask somebody who studied political science and have a certificate in civics i love that we're doing this um i think some of the language that i love is that it's preparing all students with an empath empathetic concern for others a deep understanding of democracy and that civic engagements and the civic engagement skills needed to contribute to the welfare of their local communities the state and the country so it's also bringing in the empathy that we have been wanting but also i think just you know public education is to have an educated electorate and i i'm just so excited that we are taking part in this um and hopefully seventh to twelfth graders will continue just like the bilingual

138all seal so thank you very much thank you so does trustee crane also have to take me a second okay um do i have a motion moved by trustee anderson seconded by trustee bartow a proof agreement with orange county department of ed to encourage civic engagement opportunities for secondary students we'll call both student board member dane dodge yes trustee elsie yes trustee bartow yes trustee montoya yes trustee wagon yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane trustee or soyu thank you 19c approved fee for the specific site services office offered through one at back bay monte vista high school corona del mar high school costa mesa high school and estancia high school for the 2021-2022 school year superintendent jacom yes thank you this uh the title doesn't do it justice it's kind of a long uh title

139but really this is for us the opportunity uh to put the spotlight on one of our non-profit community partners that we as a district are fortunate to have in our community and working with our students and we have had a relationship with one um i think since 1617 that they started over at corona del mar high school providing support for students with lots of issues and they needed a friendly face and a place to go and somebody to listen to them and it's blossomed and now that support is at most of our high schools i don't i think early college is the only one who who doesn't have a specific program but there's also a district-wide program one night that any students can go to so for us it's it's a nice way to highlight

140um just the the work that we do with our community partners and being able to do that and i wanted to see if a little bit more about that program now that now that she's got promoted i can bring her up right i can you can tell me what to do i appreciate it um so as dr jacob mentioned you know we really appreciate all of our community partners and one has been with us for a long time and we've invited lynn to be here this evening so that she can share a little bit about the impact that her program has on our students and as dr jacka mentioned we did start our partnership with one in the 2016-17 school year at cdm with our individual support sessions weekly parent support groups and other interventions

141and really the core of the program is to build relationships and connections on the campus in september of 2019 we did enter into an agreement really where we have this district-wide opportunity for students to attend at the secondary level a suspension or detention exchange so if a student has done something that could constitute a suspension through ed code then a student could be referred to the one program to exchange that suspension so instead of having them be out of school they could attend these monday night sessions to exchange that suspension as another means of correction which is something that we truly believe in student services is what's best for for our kids if the opportunity is there and the situation kind of constitutes that type of response and we do support through student services that

142program and then we've also entered into a partnership with all of our high schools where they're paying a portion and we're paying a portion for one to have a presence on that campus specifically so cdm was our kind of our flagship school and then we extended the opportunity they were at newport harbor as well as estancia and back bay and then this year we're looking to have them over at costa mesa high school as well so they would be at all of our comprehensive high schools as well as back bay and as it was mentioned early college doesn't have a space for one at the moment but they will be taking advantage of the district opportunity to send students there so additionally you know we were working closely with the one team to collect data

143that shows the impact that one is having on our students and our families as well as developing additional metrics to demonstrate how they're meeting the needs of our students and families as well so we're excited about that and to be able to have that exchange of information we appreciate the partnership that we have with one as well as all of our community partners and look forward to working together to support our students and families and we respectfully recommend that the board approve this item tonight thank you and we lin did put in a comment card but lynn you didn't even need to do that because that would limit you to three minutes and you never speak three minutes so i i think that uh miss coley is going to invite you up to speak you

144should really start that time should we put the timer on it dangerous nice to meet you superintendent welcome president elsie all the board the student services i um you know i came to the campuses actually kind of snuck in with permission i'm in 2015-16 and people were wondering what one was and who i was to show up on the campus i want you to know when i walked on your campuses i had 30 years of experience in adolescent mental health i was integral in the build of two of the largest residential treatment programs in the nation when i was there i should have been really happy about that because i was integral in the build but we had wait lists and i'm like what are we doing why are the kids why why are we

145waiting for the crisis to act where's that space that family could have their child go where a parent could show up where they don't have to identify by a diagnosis where it's not crisis driven the kids give us smoke signals that they're having problems we just don't often have a place to put them parents don't want to send their kids to alcoholics anonymous or reach out to that therapist first or something because then they're gonna have to label their child and sometimes i just want to say this this is only my opinion which i have many of um that just because an adolescent has a mood swing it doesn't mean they're bipolar doesn't mean they're not just because somebody i used to say a boy and then i realized i can't say it anymore but

146let's say a boy or a girl gets angry and punches a wall they're not oppositionally defiant this is what adolescence was this is what it is i just want to remind everybody it's a space where they get to make mistakes that they're trying to regulate their emotions and it's our job to create space for them to do that but i didn't see a space for them to do that so that's what one is and was and i want to say this that this district is the first district to open the door and say let's try it let's try this true form of restorative practices because in my opinion it's not a restorative practice to send a kid home again in my opinion all right um on suspension if they got caught getting high what are

147they going to do when those five days are going to get high and then they're gonna come back farther behind and angry and get a case of the um i don't know the clinical term but like i give up i already screwed up if they're bullying right they go home they fester oh i'll take a bully i'll take anyone you know through our one exchange what we do is we put them in a room on monday nights where they connect with one another we have one another where we have kids who come in that are voluntary because they want to come they want to connect it's a group of inspiration and connection but we also have that one exchange and that's the lifeblood where kids get to come in and and they're not in trouble

148they'll come in we're having pizza we're doing an art thing and they're like wait no i'm supposed to be in the room where i'm in trouble because i did something and i'm like no you're in the room to rise to consider things differently we can't control what you do you may go out and do the same things but we're going to give you an opportunity to consider things differently and to know that everyone has a chance in this world and that's what we tell them you know what the kids at estancia back bay it may be harder okay i tell them so what now what so it's harder it's just going to be sweeter let's do it what do you want to be i have a card in my thing dallas who's here who's one

149of our coordinators we're in back bay we're doing a group and i want to tell you this like what do you want to be what do you want to do one of the kids has a card and he wrote a wrapper then he crossed it out and then he put doctor and then he crossed it out and then he put wrapper again and then we said you know what be a rapping doctor we don't care like you know and so what i want you to know is that because this district said yes i can't measure for you what early intervention through human connection is dead it does or has done excuse me i can't measure what we prevented through prevention because it didn't happen but i can guarantee you kids are alive today that wouldn't

150have been we did over 275 online experiences during the pandemic we pivoted one has three distinct lines of support i didn't have online but i did it on march 20th we have online in the community thursday night jody barber is going to speak at the newport beach civic center about for red ribbon and we're doing it with cdm pals and it's for accidental overdose to raise awareness we have a panel of experts it's open to the community it's free that's what we do online in the community and on campuses where we create drop-in centers where they come in and they grab a free snack and they go about their way and then they may show up to the monday night meeting we may do special things on campus because i really actually think the kids

151should be kind every day right try something different every day so i just want you to know it's important that you hear from me to you that you have a boy sitting in loyola that he got popped for something off campus that could have number one maybe i mean he would have been in really big trouble just put it that way and he came back he was brought back to campus they ditched it was a group of them they brought back to campus and given the alternative to come to one and they did one of those boys is sitting in loyola another boy's in vanderbilt berkeley these suspensions didn't sit on the record we also have kids at occ we have kids that are in internships i want you to know that i've met board

152members carol out in the community there's engagement out there this is where i've met you all karen i didn't know you before i've seen almost every single one of you right charlene on campus because you are engaged and you do try things and i want to say this like districts wouldn't even open their doors you did it because you put the students first and i know it's not always easy because i sat through this whole entire meeting okay but i want you guys to know i appreciate it and i wanted to just give you this piece to know that you have made a difference in the lives of your students and i am grateful and honored to be a part of this so thank you thank you lynn and i have to say i am

153so proud of what you've done in this district i remember when you started in 2015 in your little cubby over at cdm and at that time it was one recovery and people thought that that was a stigma of only people who were recovering could be there and you changed the name to one because it really encompasses all people not just those i know did let me clarify that oops sorry tell kids just try it they'll kick you out just try it but i just want you know one recovery is the overarching non-profit and what it means is one recovery from all doesn't matter the struggle but we found out that people got really stuck on recovery and thought that meant actually there was a pta meeting to vote to change my name and i was

154like okay mr wells fargo i mean do i want to change your name but at first i was offended and then i thought step back listen to what they're saying there is no stigma it means we're all recovering from something but we do have three distinct lines of support so one on campus is our supports we're not 12-step we're not therapy we're about human connection and inspiration and with that anything is possible so i just wanted to clarify that okay and she won't come back and she provides the best snacks i really do we have talkies and all sorts of stuff one i'm just so glad that you're across the district now because i remember when you were only at cdm and i was like but come to costa mesa so this is exciting thank

155you trustee crane has a comment me foreign trustee or solo dr jockum will comment on that yes i can i can comment on that and i think um in the past one of the things with that we've relied on and and um as lynn kind of said you don't know what you prevent right so it's some of it is hard to quantify and we've really relied on a lot of the qualitative information that we've heard from students in that but one of the things that sarah's working on is what other metrics can we use you know to kind of look at the program further so between sarah and lynn they'll be able to have those conversations and see what works that's not necessarily an extra burden oh you need to everybody has to do this

156and check off this but we do want to have a little bit more quantifiable data and you know to to be able to move forward with this so that's a great question don't be shy i mean i'm really nervous anybody how's my hair like no i'm kidding um we do have data we do x we do surveys with the kids who come through the exchange all the kids who come not to drop in we leave drop in where it's just connection they come in we're not we just get numbers but the kids sign in so we do have data we used to um give that to phil and so now we do have the data and dr matthew policek who is on our board is building a new survey and we're going to work with

157the team to grab data pieces that you all want to support the initiatives that you have so we do have that and it's a great question so and i'm really proud of our numbers so thank you yes um i would like to move that we approve the fee for specific site services offered through one at back bay monte vista high school corona del mar high school costa mesa high school and estancia high school for the 2021 school year trustee crane would like to second seconded by trustee crane roll callville student board member dane dodge yes trustee elsie yes trustee bartow yes christie matoya yes trustee wyken yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane trustee or soilu thank you very much resolution consent resolution adoption calendar uh item 28 adopt resolution 9 10 21 authorizing approval of

158signatures on electronically printed checks produced by the orange county superintendent of schools mr holcomb both this item and the next item are to add our new superintendent uh to our checks our bank accounts should be fairly easy i would be happy to make another may i make both motions i adopt to adopt resolution i guess we have to do it separately 9 10 21 authorizing the approval of signatures on electronically printed checks produced by the orange county superintendent of schools second who's said moved by trustee mattoya is seconded by trustee weigan roll calvo trustee elsie yes christie bartow yes trustee montoya yes trustee wagon yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee or soyleu and item 20b i move to uh adopt item 20b adopt resolution 10-10-21 selection of farmers and merchants bank as depository

159for various accounts of district and authorizations therewith second moved by trustee weigan seconded by trustee mattoya roll call voting trustee elsie yes christy bartow yes trustee montoya yes christy weigand yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane trustee or soy lou okay informal reports i will go back to the superintendent trustee montoya just laughed about all the things we've uh been out of order on or mixed up and it made me think of uh puck in mid-summer's night at the end uh if we shadows have offended think but this and all is mended it's the new superintendent's fault i know that does it that doesn't rhyme but i would just encourage anybody that has any uh concern about tonight's meeting it's the new superintendent's fault um let me in all seriousness thank all of you thank this

160board this has been a dream for my wife and i to work in this community we've waited waited for this job to come open this is where we want to be i wake up every day thinking about how i can do better at my job to improve the outcomes of our students and and lynn i say we don't just provide education we save lives that's what we do in public education and and i take that seriously and love my job so thank you for this opportunity i have to also thank the staff that i've met thus far i've asked them this first week what's your why why are you here um and these were emotional true norse that they shared and i learned right away they're here for the right reason and that's powerful so

161thank you and then i told the board i would be busy i would get out there and right away we we'd start seeing things they took me up on that we we have been all over this community i just wanted to share you know a couple of thoughts and high points uh president elsie took me on a tour of the district and no i couldn't drive uh to any of the locations and get back safely without gps so i'll i'll get there but it was amazing seeing our communities their diversity and the energy in in the district i had a chance to go to the best center and see save our youth one of those first nights i had to tell you how inspired i was and this is a theme by our youth how

162about maddie and sophia tonight i know i'm biased but i thought their two communications to the board were by far the best but our students are amazing these these folks were confidently articulate and passionate about soy and one said of one of the tutors that help students apply for and get into college quote she is an absolute godsend what a kind thing to say um by this young man and that was that was the theme throughout the parents were amazing and supportive i had a chance to go meet with newport harbor pta and i got a gift by the way my my first gift from parents it was a book of student voices and i was very very grateful for that had a chance to talk about you know why i'm here and and answer

163some questions about the district got to go to the newport distinguished citizen meeting and was amazed at how young our distinguished citizens are in this county i used to be the youngest person in a room i was not even close in that room they had some great questions about the work that we're doing and really wanted to support this district and when you have community members like that willing to lean into this work that's encouraging uh that's inspiring had a chance to visit school sites as i told you every week i'm going to be on a school site or two or three and watch what's going on got to tour woodland and kaiser elementaries and see differentiated reading instruction got to see students playing laughing smiling it was so heartwarming to see our students loving

164being on campuses it's undeniable their joy on our campuses and i met this young man ryan olson teacher wanted me to talk to ryan because they have this success award at their school and students get to nominate people he nominated every custodian he said because of their hard work and their friendship right first grader hard work and their friendship every single custodian who said someday i might want to be a custodian and i i got a bit choked up because my biological father started as a custodian ended up being the director of operations at the amphitheater at the orange county fairgrounds and then at the la coliseum and sports center and so if if ryan wants to be a custodian good good luck in that but the kindness again the courage of the student to

165come meet some guy he's never met before in a weird mask wearing a suit he was courageous he was articulate as they have been i've had a chance to be with both the costa mesa city leaders as well as newport and in each one of these conversations they had an interest in more collaboration that's a theme in seven days throughout the community let's collaborate more let's work together more certainly our team's willing to listen more and and lead into that and so it has just been inspiring seeing the uh the willingness to support our work having met with labor groups already once again that willingness is there um and then our students they they keep us going uh lynn said something about human connection and inspiration we can't be inspired by our students we're just

166not paying attention because they're absolutely inspiring let me brag about some of our recognitions and of course i can do this without any um uh like i'm trying to pat myself on the back some of them are seven days so i get credit for none of this admittedly right um but but christy floor is awarded outstanding leader by the the u.s department of education how powerful is that um [Applause] dave dave and we're going to have this at a board meeting soon um and we will celebrate them um appropriately but but davis magnus school getting a national blue ribbon recognition so i'll be flying back to uh dc in a week or so to celebrate with with those folks their amazing accomplishment the us news and world report came out it's amazing how many of

167our schools are in the top two percent in the nation and all of our schools about the top 25 percent that a district this size with this level of diversity uh that's impressive now that doesn't mean we don't have work to do right continuous improvement every day we're going to get better and we get better together but i thought that's pretty amazing what all of you have done community members as well in the newport mesa unified school district to promote student outcomes and success and then we we mentioned the shakeout and certainly we can do better at communicating period but but did want to report that we did the great shakeout everyone shook out um and we got reports back from the sites that things went well but we as a team are going to

168keep looking at how do we improve our safety here on each and every campus and in all of our facilities really when you ask parents around the country what's your number one concern and it's not even close the safety of their young people of their students so it went well we were happy about that and we're going to keep working on how we improve the safety of our young people again thank you thank you thank you for this opportunity i will try not to disrupt you next time so that we don't have uh those hiccups uh and again if you have any complaints uh wes smith uh with an s anyway thank you by the way i didn't want to say it's on the agenda but um to give our public a chance to comment

169on any board conversations or deliberations i've i've presented the board with informal updates from all the staff and then asked them if there's something they'd like to have in front of our public to duly notice that so folks can be here that we're transparent and the folks have a chance to to weigh in on that and so the staff have provided those already and would be happy to share anything at a public meeting if there's something that any of the trustees even on zoom would like to see that concludes my remarks you forgot tossing the coin that's on my list too that's right i tossed the coin expertly by the way someone said i should be a pro coin tosser and yes someone asked on social media will he be at the battle of the

170bell yes i will and so will my wife who's watching tonight honey it's date night friday night um different school different colored uh sweatshirt but yes we will be there and and and you know all kidding aside you and i were sitting there and i said every parent needs to see this right students were having fun watching the game a year ago we couldn't have those games we had to move them people couldn't be there people are dancing and singing and cheering and it was like i gotta knock on wood hold on it was like normal right it was like pre-pandemic students being students celebrating uh just being together it was inspiring i wish all of our community could have seen that um maybe next year get there early and get a seat because again

171it was awesome and they'll have a chance at battle of the bell that's right that's right well you will you'll see it again and again i shouldn't wear red or green is that right to be neutral not red or green not red or green they're red okay you're getting me in trouble you're getting in trouble okay for that we are going to forego the informal comments correct right right um board member reports does anybody have anything they would like to report yes go first i i just have a little report so piggyback piggybacking on what dr smith said i attended the battle of the bay and um it was really great up until halftime and then you know things just went south 1412 we really thought we had it um but everyone played so well

172and it was really really exciting to see all the students and the level of excitement and just observing from the first football game of the season to now and hearing how successful homecoming was which is a dance which has not been well attended in the past um it's really great to see students embracing these activities and getting back to normal and embracing each other and their differences and their similarities it's really beautiful to watch additionally i just wanted to add for career and technical education and for rop i would love to add on a future agenda sort of an update on what rop does and what cte does because we had a great comment one of the things i noticed at our rop meeting was that they talked about how rop had been successful in

173our district in particular in bringing a larger amount of women than ever before to our contracting and construction pathway i have one of our students and um our michael vossen kindly provided me with a um some student reviews as it were but lucia corvara residential and commercial construction pathway said class of 2019 she says she's thankful she enrolled in construction program it taught me the foundational skills i needed to launch my career in the construction industry i thought that was really great if you've done a remodel recently or been around construction it's a area of high demand so it's really wonderful to see that we're giving our students these tools to succeed thank you and and i wanted to report that i was able to attend two artistic interesting artistic performances at costa mesa high

174school on two different weekends but both of them were held outside which is typically held in our beautiful theaters which we love having however the dance performance was held on the football field which gave a huge stage for our dancers to perform and great seats for all the people in the audience because we were looking down on the field the second was the four nights of almost maine which last week was chilly so the student performers wearing coats and if you've ever been on stage the lights pour on you and you want to just melt everybody was happy they had seats the boosters provided the funds to get the lights and the sound but the students ran the lights and the sound and the parents provided hot cocoa and hot cider and it was almost

175better this year because it was a smaller group spread over many nights and the compliment is to the entire staff and the dedication to make sure the students could perform in the most in the least restrictive way they could and the kids were fabulous as always i'm i'm their number one fan anyway at every school performance at everyone in the district but it was so nobody was upset nobody was angry everybody was happy and it was outside in chile it was just perfect so way to go arts in our schools way to adapt high schools and you're right this is you if you can't be inspired you're not going out to schools that's it so that was it i did a bunch of other things everybody else did too okay we have comments by trustee

176crane and trustee or soyleu we'll start with trustee crane and then trustee or sulu go right after so i don't have to interrupt and have okay i was just going to say i attended the newport beach um community liaison meeting where we met with um trustees bartow and elsie and i we met with uh the police chief um a city parks and rec commissioner i'm not commissioner um director and um two councilmen from newport beach and uh traffic city manager exactly and um it was a good meeting um we're going to have these quarterly going forward we had our facilities team there and we expressed uh you know there was some good conversations back and forth about being open with what's going on in our district and construction and keeping everyone abreast with those um

177and then we talked about crossing guards and everything and and the biggest thing i got out of there was that beware parents um you your kids might be getting tickets come january 1st on their e-bikes if they're not following the law so they're just being kind and nice and giving people warnings at this point but they will start ticketing january 1st so all those you know christmas wish lists that require a e-bike let's be safe so but it was a good one think think twice about it but it was a good meeting we're going to continue having these quarterly um and you know just for the community out there we we do talk a lot with the cities um that our schools are in so thank you any other comments sure yeah um yes following

178up on what trustee crane said um for the schools foundation um the estancia um item that was funded was the very first field trip that the school's foundation has ever funded um and it was to the van gogh experience in la for the legacy and students and um mrs i have a hard time she's she's been sending me emails with her first name but she will always be mrs dickey to me oh she's a teacher and she's so youthful um so mary and dickie took the lyceum students and they all just had a wonderful time and so she was very effusive and thankful that the estancia lyceum students were able to go and i just wanted to also thank dr byromeister for all of your work and organizing walk to school day it the pictures

179that we've seen have just been amazing and it was such a powerful experience for a community so i thank you because i know you took a lot of the role in that and i am very much looking forward to the very first dlac meeting of the year on november 17th so it seems like it's been too long so i'm really excited about that okay everyone's pretty much remember i would do too i agree yeah well you know we with our student board members in the past instead of um focused reports we used to do sort of informal reports so do you want to give us just an informal report about what's it what's going on at estancia these don't have to i just put days on the spot i'm sorry no pressure yeah we have

180a lot of big events coming up right now like we have our battle of the bell game obviously on friday and then water polo battle the bells tomorrow so those will both be good games um like you said we're i've heard that there might be more field trips coming up soon especially for lyceum and avid and stuff and i mean overall i think we're having a good spirit week this week um tomorrow's bring anything but a backpack day so yeah things are going great great thank you thank you and thanks for letting me put them on the spot great job dave yes yes um and before we click i everybody's pretty much commented about lots of things that have been going on and that i've even attended but the great american shakeout um i did

181not intend to be the school but inadvertently because i went to the east bluff um book fair which i have to say is is i go every year because i think it's one of the best book fairs that we have at our elementary schools and now that i have grandchildren i support them immensely at this um book fair so it was lots of fun but while i was there they had the great american shakeout and i have to say i was so impressed with both the kids on campus and the teachers the kids just quietly went out on the field they're sitting there probably for a half 20 minutes a half an hour totally quiet i mean just sitting enjoying the outdoors and it was a beautiful day and the teachers did whatever they were

182doing in terms of their storage bins and going out there to make sure they have everything and know how to hunt for people so i would imagine that when we get a report it will be pretty much like that that it was well done on every campus but um yeah it delayed my visit a little bit because i was outside you were shuffling yes you had to go back in time and obviously just everybody getting back to their sports and and performances is just wonderful and it's just so nice to see back to normal again uh some of our trustees have never been on the board because we had normal periods so um i think everybody just appreciates that that's a fun part of our job is to be in those places anyway with that

183um i think unless we have any other comments i will ask for a motion to adjourn so moved second moved by trustee mattoya seconded by trustee wygan all in favor aye opposed good night everybody thank you you