1/12/2021 - NMUSD Board of Education Meeting

001in compliance with governor newsom's executive order n2920 in response to the ongoing covitt 19 outbreak the district will conduct the board of education's meeting as a teleconference given the health risk associated with coping 19 the newport mesa unified school district has decided not to open the boardroom to the public spanish interpretation will be available via the zoom link roll call rosie trustee yelsey here trustee barto here trustee montoya here trustee anderson here here kristy weigand here trustee or soilu here mr lee sung here community input on closed session agenda items uh trustee mattoya would you read the statement this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the closed session agenda via electronically submitted comments each speaker has three minutes of comment read time and per board by laws 9323

002there is a maximum of 20 minutes of comments per topic board consent the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comments depending on the topic and the number of persons submitting topic comments all comments are recorded in full on the media meeting video record okay we've received 73 comments for our meeting today for closed session we have nine comments we also have on community input on non-agenda items 58 comments some of those are related to items we may be talking about in closed session but because people put them in as community input on non-agendized items we'll leave them there and read them at that time so we will begin with the closed session items and we have nine comments trustee anderson yes the first comment is from catherine anderson please open the

003district pools now swimming and other aquatic activities are safe as per the cdc and critical for the physical mental and emotional health of our students there are no staffing issues regarding the pools and the protocols in place all fall works beautifully open the pools immediately to prevent more harm to our kids thank you my comment is from stephanie harrington it is important for the students to continue practicing with their teams for both mental and physical well-being the students school coaches have all taken the required steps to medicate covered spread through tech checks students calling out or not feeling well with no repercussions from coach wearing masks and practicing social distancing in the water and on land promote learning all day and no practice with the team is creating anxiety and depression in so many of

004our students my comment is from masha swart the nmusd has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th this appears to be due to staffing issues due to coved the coaches of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facil facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore nbwp has been following and will continue to follow an approved covet 19 safety protocol it is in the best interest of our athletes to continue their training for the physical mental and social benefits the students use of the pool should be reinstated as soon as possible this is from maurice mendel nmusd closed all secondary campuses with the new spike including all athletic facilities due to staffing concerns we are members of nbs the

005swim team that uses the pool after school the pool is open and closed by the swim polo coaches not school staff it causes an unnecessary interruption in training for athletes that prepare to compete in regional national competitions it hurts the program because we stop paying for the program when the program stops but the program staff still eats during that time and pays other bills the pool should remain open as long as protocols are followed i support a closure when there is evidence of increased risk to students there are no alternate pool facilities to maintain training for these student athletes jamie mclellan states i am writing to provide my input on the opening of district pools my kids both swim and i as well swim on the masters team since the pools have been closed we

006have had limited to no opportunities to continue with training taking away access to the pools is not benefiting the children students or the community please open the pools my comment is from kelly cabal please reopen the high school pools as soon as possible even if high schools don't reopen to students on january 25th i'm a parent of a student member of cmac costa mesa aquatics club and having the high school pools open is critical to giving our kids exercise in their mental health their year has been disrupted so much already at least with an activity they love that helps their physical and mental health they are allowed to keep some sense of enjoyment and normalcy cmak has been incredible with keeping their policies of mass wearing temperature checks and social distancing my comment is from

007stacy euler the nmusd has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th not out of concern that the students and staff are contracting cobit on campus but due to staffing issues due to coving the coaches of newport beach swimming water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore mpwp nbs have been following and will continue to follow and approve covid19 safety protocol open the pools the next comment is from kimberly rickerson please allow the kids to exercise and practice in the cmac pools it helps their mental health and their bodies please consider the chlorine kills germs and outdoor always helps just like parks and recreation thank you my comment is from tammy l cavathon the district

008being open during the worst numbers in the pandemic seems like a liability i work as a health assistant for nmusd i am seeing firsthand what it is taking to follow protocols for safety during the pandemic i will say that i think my co-workers are for the most part being just as cautious as i am the issue i have with being open has been the same since day one parents are not all compliant with the protocols for students being on campus first of all students are not physically screened no temperatures are being taken for students as it was decided to be a hinder to educational learning but so is getting sick with covet and closing down classrooms large walk-through thermometers are made for the exact purpose of screening everyone who enters a facility parents are not

009doing their due diligence of screening students at home currently at my location we have a class closed the principal and the nurse are both out and will be until the 15th through 19th as expected return dates today my backup nurse had no health assistance i truly think the systems are not going to hold up for much longer at this rate the stress is going to cause the rest of to run down and require time off soon i know that today there was no coverage i used to love my job i referred to it as a ray of sunshine in my life i loved helping kids who did not feel well had a boo-boo or were my regulars to take medication this year i spent 75 of my day on the phone talking with parents about

010their kids absence i have had parents lie to me today about why their student was home it is just a stomachache i ask have you been exposed to anyone with covet well actually yes and we are waiting for test results i have families calling to tell me that they're friends with x y and z and x has coven they told me when i called the family to verify the absence i have literally been told that they do not want to tell me if they have been exposed or might have been exposed i had a family today say they did not want to give me their test results they would prefer to quarantine for 14 days with privacy laws hipaa and ferpa are not helping keep the public safe i am a parent in the district

011i understand the policy can be tedious it is a privilege to be on campus right now health and safety need to be prioritized for everyone including staff there is nothing safe about how parents are sending kids to school i have teachers reporting kids are telling them they just took cough medicine to come to school i sent a boy home today who told me his dad said do not go to the health office today parents are not supporting us i do not have my nurse or principal to back me up something needs to happen before someone dies okay that's the end of our public comments for closed session um but again i want to reiterate that we have all the board members have received all the comments earlier today we've read them all so we will

012take into consideration anything that will be presented later when we are in closed session so thank you very much um we will be moving out a closed session the items are 4a conference with legal counsel one case 4b threat to public services or facility 4c conference with legal counsel two cases 4d conference with labor negotiation negotiator nmusd representative 4e public employee discipline dismissal release employment and 4f student discipline one case so all board members will now log out in a closed session and we will return at six o'clock to our open session thank you it is down good evening everyone in compliance with governor newsom's executive order n2920 in response to the ongoing covet 19 outbreak the district will conduct the board of education's meeting as a teleconference given the health risk associated with covet

01319 the newport mesa unified school district has decided to the public spanish interpretation will be available via the zoom link and before i get to opening ceremonies i just wanted to thank our own bob cuba um who is our av technician who has created the atmosphere that we are now in we no longer are wearing our headsets but we do have people on zoom on a big screen and we have a total view of the boardroom so bob on behalf of the entire board thank you very much we'll now have our opening ceremonies moment of reflection and pledge to the flag and trustee crane would you like to lead us in the pledge to the flag please rise i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for

014which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all adoption of the agenda and we have two public comments on that so um we will read those before we make a motion to approve the agenda trustee crane this is from wendy lease as a member of the public i respectfully request the board vote to move agenda item 17 community input on non-agenda items to the beginning of the meeting i hold dear my first amendment right to speak to this tax supported school district with kovid and not being present to speak directly to the board a hardship is created you cannot hear the passion in my words and i cannot look at you by putting the comments at the end of the meeting you are disenfranchising the public of course you have

015important business and a meeting may last a long time been there done that but listening to your constituents is an important part of your job waiting to the end of the meeting to find out if my comment was read and addressed by the board creates an unnecessary hardship besides the meetings should allow for us to call in with live comments in the first place i asked the new board vote to allow live comments as well this comment is from a concerned elementary staff member as stated in the board meeting agenda for tonight in compliance with governor newsom's executive order n2920 and in response to the ongoing kova 19 outbreak the district will conduct the board of education's meeting as a teleconference given the health risks associated with covid19 the newport mesa unified school district has

016decided not to open up the boardroom to the public if more than approximately seven adults should not meet in the boardroom which is about three times the size of a classroom then it is not safe for elementary certified and classified staff or students to be in classrooms in the hybrid model comparatively elementary classrooms are occupied by 15 students and one or two adults in the morning and a different group of 15 students in the afternoon why is it only safe for elementary staff and students as stated on the oc health covid board between august 2020 and january 1st there was 949 covet positive tests among elementary and middle school students whereas there were 429 coveted positive tests among secondary students slow the spread and keep the health care system from the brink of collapse return

017elementary to distance learning for the duration of the surge your salute um before i ask for an adoption of the agenda i just wanted to go over the public comments today we had 73 public comments we had nine before we went into closed session which we read adoption of the agenda we had two comments and then we have one on our wellness video three on the consent calendar and 58 on community input on non-agendized items some of the comment first of all all of the board members received all of these comments earlier today we have all read all of the comments and some of the comments have content that had to do with items in closed session but because they were labeled as for community input on non-agenda items we left them where the person

018writing in submitted it so we hopefully will get through most of those so is there a motion to approve the agenda adoption of the agenda i move to adopt the agenda second trustee bartow moved trustee matoya seconded roll call vote trustee elsie yes trustee bartow yes trustee montoya yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane yes christy weigan yes just your soy loop yes adoption of the minutes from 12 15 20 and 12 17 20. their motion i moved to the adopt the minutes from 12 15 20 and 12 17 20. second move by trustee bartow second ebay trustee crane roll call vote trustee elsie yes christy bartow yes yes christy anderson yes trusty cream yes jesse wagon yes yes trustee you're sorry yes thank you item number 10 student board member reports the topic given tonight

019to the student board members was to report on their experiences attending the csba conference this was in december and we did not have a time any time in december to talk about this but this was their first experience so um we'd like to hear from them what they learned their impressions and if they felt it was useful and also to amend that we asked them as well about their experience with finals prior to the end of the semester they attended time okay all right so we'll start with brittany bergini hello um so talking about my csba um experience i really liked it because it brought forth a lot of new ideas and engaging conversations something that i was particularly interested in was student perspective and hearing how other students were running their student board members

020and how they were putting in those new ideas and those new thoughts so i got to meet students like micah who were just as like-minded and who really fought for change in their student in their districts which i really enjoyed something that i wanted to talk about from the csba meeting was how i learned to better represent the student population from my school they gave me a lot of tips and tricks and websites to look at to really look at the student demographics which i really appreciated because that's something that we could always improve on in terms of the break um to everyone i talked to they really enjoyed having finals before the break because they felt that it was a lot less stressful you know taking that time for the finals to really focus

021in on that to really focus in on their families and take the time to just rest thank you uh maddie mcnamara hi um so for the cs uh csba meeting i was it was a while ago but there were some things that did stand out to me one of those things that stood out to me was the impact that we bring as student board members for not only our school before our district i realized our job as board members is pretty important because it doesn't just help our district but also helps our students get their thoughts out i've always felt like students felt more inclined to talk to other students because we are all going through the same thing so being a student board member is pretty important because we can actually get how students

022are feeling unlike some of the adults i also learned that student board members can make an impact and help make a change to our district and the schools this isn't just about our input and how we feel about our school but this is about how the students feel about our school we are just relying the messages and making sure that our students are heard i also learned that i need to start asking a lot more questions because that will ultimately benefit me and my school on being a better student board member ultimately the csba helped me get a better understanding of what it really means to be a student board member thank you thank you maddie elizabeth levy hi i'm elizabeth lieby from cloud campus tonight i'll discuss the csba conference and the results of

023the survey regarding final exams and the conclusion of the first semester prior to winter break first the cs the csba conference was helpful it gave me insight on how to best represent my campus i enjoyed the small breakout rooms where we discussed concerns about our school we discussed mental health and after the conference i discussed the topic with my asb team and since then we have been collaborating with our counselors to create events about mental health regarding the survey i received 120 responses from secondary students 89 percent of the students ranked the new schedule 3 or above on a scale from 1 to 5 of the satisfaction scale here are a few comments that i feel that summarize most students responses a seventh grader stated before break because usually i forget information during break it's

024less stressful as i don't have to think about studying during break an 11th grader stated knowing the material earlier will help those taking ap exams another 11th grader stated completing finals after just learning the material made it easier to remember another 11th grader stated it felt really rushed and we did not have enough time to prepare yet another 11th grader stated a very interesting point about how an assignment or project could easily test the students on their understanding and a final only encourages stress and short-term memorization of information which was a very interesting point of view because we only had a couple students that said that so overall the students at cloud campus like the new schedule while it felt a few felt rushed thank you so much hey liz troy sabota hello um my

025name is troy i'm here to represent tdm um so with regards to finals i mean i'm not gonna i don't want to repeat what everybody else said but definitely think if we are in hybrid um toward the end sorry i think that there's like a lot of feedback okay um i think having a more streamlined process just for um like all the teachers and having a unified way that all the teachers are on board with the same thing for finals i think it got a little um hard with all the teachers doing different things for finals week with the hybrid setting um so with csva conference i thought is pretty insightful um in addition to the student student board member session i also went to the session on climate change and ways that the district

026can help address that and um there's actually a lot of cool things and i don't want to go too much into depth but some districts have passed board resolutions on curbing some emissions and also converting our district to more electric um like vehicles and stuff and i know we've done a lot with solar already but we can definitely go further and a lot of that will end up saving us money in the long run so i think it's something we shouldn't be seriously pursuing that's all i got thank you thank you troy luca gore gorgeous philly could you hear me okay hello president you'll see superintendent and board trustees concerning the csba conference so we had in december i think there are a few takeaways that me and other student board members obviously took from

027it and i for one learned a few possible solutions to some student concerns one solution that stood out the most to me was starting a sort of college club at schools at all of our schools actually so the lack of sufficient timely college consulting to students is an issue at many schools throughout the nation and by discussing with student board members from other states i was exposed to the idea of starting a college club as an extracurricular that students all over the school can participate in regardless of their school of their grade level i shared this idea with my school's principal and hopefully can get somewhere with it as i believe such a club would have a great benefit for the students and possibly reduce stress on counselors during the senior year and as for

028the regular school report for costa mesa high school i conducted a short survey and received a few positive results regarding the first week of school after winter break everyone seems to be lying so far as there aren't finals that they have to worry about and they were able everyone was able to rest over break without having to study much and catching up on sleep that concludes my report thank you luca paulina vasquez hello everyone um if i glitch out i'm really sorry my internet connection just got switched so it's a little iffy um because the echs has always had finals before break i will only be speaking briefly on something i learned about from other student board members during the csva event to equity in riverside univer unified school district student board members enacted something

029called the student voice series in these series riverside students have the opportunity to share stories about their backgrounds and any issues they've had at school revolving around race gender socioeconomic status sexuality mental health or disabilities it is a way to instill the feeling of understanding among students and staff the student voice series also paves the way for more representation in the school district which calls for which calls cause for a need for equity district-wide i believe this impacted me a lot because right now there's there have been a lot of issues that uh throughout the year as you see i i'm sorry as you saw during the black lives matter i'm so sorry um the black lives matter protest and even now with the capital uh storming of the capital and so it's very important

030to address these issues and instill more equity and begin with equity in the school districts thank you thank you paulina bailey bogard hello i am bailey bogard representing newport harbor high school so in regards to ending finals uh before break i personally really enjoyed that and i'm glad that it is able to continue this year and throughout the next years and then regarding the conference that we had and the leadership summit it was honestly refreshing to hear back from a lot of different kids from all over california and how they represent their schools their districts and sometimes even their counties i learned one main or i can take one main takeaway from that conference and that would be to look back on our on our motivations as school board reps our motivation is to better

031represent our students and we do it in order to make change within our district and so that was a big takeaway for me is how can i do my job better and then look looking back on why i initially started in the first place so thank you and as always we want to thank all the board members for their diligent work and keeping us informed and really taking their position seriously item 11 harbor council do we have lisa bowler here i'm here can you hear me um good evening everyone um and happy new year superintendent lee stung gorman board members cabinet and guests um last week we had our first pta meeting of the new year and we had a presentation from john drake and kurt bowermeister on the health and safety component of the

032law regarding sex ed they informed us that no elementary students would be participating at the junior high middle school level there will be ten one hour classes and at the high school level there'd be a one semester class regarding this parents are able to view the material and have the option to opt their child out of the class if needed and um kurt was very um informative john also in describing what was going to be going on and he said that they were more than happy to speak to any parents who had issues with this and it was going to be basically facts and not not a lot of other stuff that people worry about and then um superintendent lee sung gave us a covet 19 update and explained the reasons behind the extended distance

033learning at the secondary level and so that put parents minds at ease also and then at the pta level we're working with our units to get them all um working on their mid-year audits which are the time period from july 1st through december 31st and also this month our workman's compensation reports are due to our insurance company and this year it's being done differently everything pta wise always goes through channels the school to the council to the district onto state and then on to national and this year with our new insurance company they have put the whole thing online and our units are able to just go online fill in the blanks and submit their workman's comp if they owe any money it'll tell them exactly how much they owe and they'll pay it directly

034to the insurance company which is really a time saver for us and we're working now with the new system on making sure that all of our schools are getting it done so that's my report for now thanks very much thank you lisa and now i'd like to ask our association federation presidents to make a brief comment to highlight their activities i see tamara so we'll start with you tonight hey good evening for trustees honored guests our teachers have been working harder than ever before between teaching in person shifting from one tier to the other writing engagement logs and recreating curriculum our teachers have gone over and beyond their duty to do their work for our students they do this knowing that there is no guaranteed protections for them at the school site they do this

035knowing that some school board members and community members dismiss their stories on social media however these are the stories and this is the reality that is going on a teacher who already had a close con call with positive cases in her classroom discovered on social media that there was an unmatched party with several students at the school site at the party there were kids who were known to have been previously exposed to covid in attendance that teacher not only had anxiety working in the classroom afterwards wondering if they would bring home covet to their family but felt the value when there was no follow-up or guidance for reporting an issue which could affect their life or their students lives another story is the amount of sdc classrooms that have been left without proper support teachers

036are not notified of instructional aids in quarantine and are left on their own sometimes they are sub sometimes co-workers and principals are recruited last minute to help them with the groups of students who are medically fragile and without masks not only does this place us in a situation of non-compliance for federal obligations but it puts our children at risk teachers face feelings of uncertainty about how and if they will get through the day safely examples like these used to occur once a week or once every two weeks now they are happening on a daily basis school board trustees i urge you to look more carefully at the local infection rate data and go further lengths to protect these employees who have been dedicating their lives on behalf of their children since november 30th costa mesa

037had a 143 increase in cases from 2658 cases to 6453 cases as of today newport beach had an 82 increase from to 2714 cases on those same dates not only are our icus full but the ages in icu are increasing with younger patients i am asking you explicitly to please seek and inquire about what is going on at all of our school sites we want to teach an environment that is safe we want to teach knowing that our families are protected we want to teach without fear we don't want our students to sacrifice themselves attending school and jeopardize their family's livelihood if they bring an infection home we want to teach knowing that we can complete iep goals without infection we need to work remotely until we get past the surge so we can focus

038on teaching and not have to work and not have to worry about the possibility and not even receiving the needed medical care to in the dwindling hospital capacity we want our employer and you to be more responsive and proactive in this current surge we need you to listen to our stories and make the decision for us to work remotely on behalf of the families who need us the most thank you pam saunders csea good evening president lc superintendent lisan cabinet and guest thank you for this opportunity from csea first and foremost we'd like to thank all our classified employees throughout our district we are very grateful to every classified employee for doing their part and all their hard work we are still very concerned about the safety of our students and staff at schools and

039work site as a number of cases continues to rise it is more important than ever that we also transition our elementary schools to distant learning for everyone's safety the significant increases continue to impact our district workforce this means there is less staff available to perform the essential duties this creates an unsafe environment for students as the remaining staff is overworked stressed and scared we are happy to report that we are now meeting with leona olson every week to discuss our concerns for safety of our staff we appreciate her time and the improvement in our communication with the district unfortunately the summer assistant program application window has now closed for the school year we are hopeful that the district will apply next year vaccines are beginning to be distributed and there is a light at the

040end of the tunnel we'd like to remind everyone to wear a mask and social distance during the holiday weekend as coven numbers continue to rise your actions impact everyone around you again thank you again for this opportunity cse chapter 18. thank you pam and next we have a report on nmusd wellness a video which we are excited about seeing none of us have seen it but we also have one public comment on that so trustee mattoya would you like to read that sure this is from concerned elementary teachers as per the agenda the following item will be discussed this video highlights newport mesa unified school district's commitment to the mental health and wellness of students district staff share about positive behavior interventions and support restorative practices community alliance collaborative mental health task force and the

041parent education series let's discuss mental health until you come to our classrooms talk to students and employees about our feelings about being in live teaching you do not understand our mental health until you listen to the grim daily covet 19 updates knowing you will be leaving your home to go to a classroom of students from mixed households you do not understand our mental health until you walk into our classrooms and look at the brave faces we are forced to wear you do not understand our mental health until a 10 year old looks at you with tears in their eyes asking why is my sister safe at home in distance learning and i'm not you do not understand our mental health until your own family is scared for you to leave for work for fear you

042will contract covet 19 and not receive a bed at the hospital you do not know the colossal levels of fear and anxiety we teachers feel on a daily basis please take time to consider how to support the mental health of teachers and staff so we are better better able to support our students if you talked to elementary teachers and saw the sacrifices we have to make to work these two weeks following winter break then perhaps you might begin to understand staff members are not seeing their families or their children we are staying isolated because we know we will be exposed to covid19 during these two weeks following the break we do not want to infect our loved ones please realize a very small percentage of parents are reporting positive covid19 cases and that is if

043they test it all understand that we are vigilant that students wear masks and socially distance at school but we can only control what happens at school we hear stories of students who meet for masculine play dates after school that they are going on vacations out of state and even out of the country understand the amount of unnecessary fear and anxiety you have placed on the school community listen to the scientists and return elementary classes to distance learning during the peak of post holiday covid 19 spread there is no mental health support for elementary teachers staff or students let's let's do our part to slow the spread thank you and now i will turn it over to sarah jacom hi good evening president yalsey vice president barto trustees superintendent lee sung and members of the community

044we're very excited to present this video that was created to highlight some of the programs and services we offer within the district related to social emotional learning and mental health for students and this is not an exclusive or exhaustive list and but it does give you a little bit of a flavor of what the pro different programs we have going in the district i will say this video was um the idea behind it came from annette franco the public information office and adriana angulo had a huge part in getting this done this was also pre-coveted and a lot of the footage of students in there is all pre-coveted so it's actually a little bit jarring to see it because you're like they're so close but we we are excited to share this with the board

045and then with the community at large just to demonstrate our efforts to try and address all of the mental health needs of our students so thank you [Music] the academic performance of students is a high priority for any school district including newport mesa but we've come to realize unfortunately that there are other challenges that students face not just in the classroom but outside of the classroom as well bullying drugs depression anxiety uncertainty about their home living situation challenges between parents custody issues divorce all of these things play into challenges that keep students from being the most successful that they can be i'm really proud to be working in the newport mesa unified school district because in the office of student services we're very much committed to helping support students and families with those issues a

046key program in all of our schools is pbis which stands for positive behavior interventions and supports pbas matters because we're really focusing on what students are doing well and focusing on their positive behavior and acknowledging that and rewarding that one of the examples would be providing an incentive for that positive behavior and we also have things such as the buddy system at a variety of our elementary schools across the district our focus here is that we want to acknowledge kindness we want to acknowledge the positive things that students are doing and really highlight that in their everyday activities the district also uses restorative practices restorative practices really work to build those relationships and connections amongst our students and our staff but also with our entire community we use things such as community building circles within

047our classrooms our morning meetings but then we also have visual reminders around the campus that emphasize kindness and really help students feel connected to each of their schools in newport mesa we're so fortunate to be located amongst some amazing resources we've developed our community alliance collaborative to really facilitate and develop those resources so that we're aware of everything that they have to offer from housing to nutrition to enrichment activities after school we've been able to partner with our community agencies to really wrap around and cultivate and support the whole child something that's critical to the success of our support to students is simply to listen we've developed our mental health task force to have time to listen to our students and our families and our mental health providers when we connect with them and truly

048listen we're able to respond with meaningful and essential supports here in newport mesa we really value the relationships that we have with our parents we're excited about our partnership with our harbor council pta as well as other parent organizations in the district we continue to provide our parent education series where we give parents valuable suggestions tips and strategies on how to work with their students at home it's easy to feel like the challenges that students and families face today is daunting for any educational professional but i'm proud of the fact that in the newport mesa unified school district we do have programming and personnel that are committed to taking on those challenges head on we're deeply committed to supporting every student and family with agency partners school partners site administrators and most of all parents

049and families and i believe that together we will be successful all of us at newport mesa unified school district are here to support you for resources and support reach out to a teacher principal counselor or other caring staff at your school for more information about our mental health and wellness programs call us or visit our website [Music] thank you very much and thank you to annette and adriana and everybody else involved and it is odd odd to watch this to see normalcy going on in our communities that hasn't happened in 10 months and it gives me hope that sometime soon we can go back to that so thank you so much and i know since this was done we we've added a lot more in our mental health arena which i'm sure we'll be getting

050to it um at some point so thank you very much uh next we'll have superintendent reporting i have a question oh i'm sorry are we i'm going to subtitle or put a spanish translation for this i mean it would be hard to mouth it and it'd be dubbed and it would look really funny but i wonder if we had a uh the potential to be having that on zooms should we go ahead and you can answer that oh yes good evening uh president mattoya sorry president elsie members of the board uh superintendent lee sung and guest we are going to add captions to the video in span in english for ada compliance and we're also going to translate the video post it on youtube and then we're going to send out a communication to all

051of our families informing them that the video is available thank you annette next we will go on to superintendent report all right good evening everybody um yeah i think it's safe to say happy new year even though we're january 12th this is our first meeting of the new year and boy do we need a new year we needed a new year so um i i wish everybody a very happy new year i am pleased to hear from some of our student board members that they actually got some sleep and some rest and i really do hope that everybody had a chance to refresh and enjoy the holidays and of course to do that safely i've got several things that i want to share uh first of all i just feel i want to comment on

052the video and i'm so pleased that our public information officer net franco does videos for us and she and i have talked about how uh videos really are an effective method of communication for our school community and just so you know and i know this is a strong interest of our board is to utilize more video uh communication and so uh annette franco already has uh many detailed plans and that's one of them and with our input we will be doing more videos features such as this as well as information uh that is timely and important to folks now i've done a few this year i've done a few and i don't want to overdo it but collectively as a district as a team we definitely want to do more videos and we hope that

053our parents and our parent community and our students all take a minute two minutes or three minutes to watch those videos and so there's a commitment from us to utilize that method of communication uh more often and this is i think is a great example of something that we can feature in a very short period of time some great information and of course the resources where people can get more uh if they need that okay i do want to talk a little bit about uh the very important decision that we made right before the holiday break and as we all know this was a very difficult decision uh to make any kind of change in this environment uh but i do want to give some updated information in terms of how that decision has impacted

054us first of all starting with the fact that prior to the winter break we were already monitoring very closely and we were seeing an increase of positive cases close contacts which was affecting our workforce and i want to say on behalf of staff we really appreciate the fact that our board of education really listened to the needs of staff and our concern about the ability to provide a workforce for our students and these are tough decisions to to make but i want to tell you that we continue to monitor these cases throughout the holiday while most people were on vacation we had a dedicated group of hr administrators and other staff who were manning the telephones and making sure we were taking those phone calls from employees and tracking the cases and making sure that

055come january 4th that we had a workforce to provide education for and services for our kids and even though the the numbers increase and the volume of calls and tracing that had to be done behind the scenes was just tremendous and people working not only through the holidays but on the weekend weekends in particular the weekend right before january 4th so i really commend liana olsen kristen clark megan brown shoshanna nakano all of those folks who really worked throughout the holiday to make sure we had that workforce ready and then as of january 4th we were able to open school we were able to provide subs we were able to repurpose staffing because secondary was at distance learning and that's a very critical piece that again i so appreciate the board heard that concern and

056it is working it is working because we've been hearing we've been monitoring the fact that you know we've had to move resources and we had to make sure that our elementaries are supported because they're in person but yet we can still provide the distance learning education at our secondary schools now we all know we're tracking the numbers and the numbers continue to increase in our county increase in our cities and it's is impacting staff but again because of the work that's being done we're making sure that we provide uh employees in the key spots we're able to repurpose and reallocate different resources to again make sure that we can maintain our operations here in the district and maintain distance learning at secondary and our hybrid learning at elementary schools the stories that we hear from

057employees we we hear them we don't hear all of them but we hear them and we so appreciate and value the work of our employees the dedication to keep educating our students which is our mission as essential employees and i know our board really has supported in-person learning for all kids but if we had to make an adjustment we wanted to make sure it's our elementary and our youngest kids that stay in person uh the most and that's what we've been able to do we're going to continue to monitor uh the cases we're continuing to talk to employees um address their needs but our mission is to support our instructional program we're going to continue to do that we have committed through this decision that the board made prior to the break to bring back

058our secondary schools back to hybrid in-person learning starting on january 25th but i will commit to you that we will continue to look at this each and every day to make sure that we can provide the workforce to do that the next thing that we have consistently heard comments and requests from our employees to go to full-day elementary learning and i just want to acknowledge that we have some comments that are coming up that will be read later on on the agenda but i do want to comment on that that you know as we all know right now is not the time to do that okay we recognize that in many of the comments i appreciate parents acknowledging that fact but i do want to let everybody know that i have created a committee comprised

059of some district administrators as well as site principals elementary site principals to look at what we can do to increase our instruction at the elementary level when it becomes safe to do so and i've stated this before that you know this isn't something that we can do overnight but we are starting to plan that and look at what we can do here in this district so that when it is safe we can make that uh adjustment the other thing that we are hearing a lot of and there'll be many comments read uh later on on the agenda and we heard some earlier uh before closed session is the opening of the pools and i just want to go back and restate that prior to the winter break we did take action to suspend all student

060activities for this three-week period up until january 25th and again that was anticipation of the surge that we uh expected and now are experiencing so really our our interest our intent here is not to deprive our students of you know activities that are important and for a healthy lifestyle it really is to maintain um a consistent message that right now is the time not to bring individuals onto campus and to do that but i have acknowledged and i've said this before that if there's one activity that uh is probably safer than the rest is to be in a swimming pool and to be distance so we will be looking at uh the possibility of bringing back our uh or reopening our pools to some of our community partners out there but to do that safely

061and to do that as soon as possible but to do that safely so i will be looking at that and we'll be reaching out to those organization when we make that uh confirmation uh date now let me switch to some very very encouraging positive news and we've all been seeing this on the on the news media about the vaccine and the fact that it is now becoming a reality it is a reality so i want to provide some details of that so first of all our county orange county health care agency along with the orange county fire authority have worked together in partnership to create a plan and i'm going to start with this because i was absolutely thrilled when i heard their plan and the plan is to vaccinate all 3.2 million residents here

062in orange county by july 4th by july 4th okay that's a huge monumental uh challenge and task but the fact that that's what they're planning to do and their target was great news for me to hear and something i wanted to share with you and the reason why that was i think such incredible news is because if this is done by july 4th then our chances of opening in the new year in a more normal setting rather than an abnormal setting is much more likely okay i can't guarantee it nobody can guarantee it nobody knows whether they'll meet that target but the fact that they're planning and utilizing all of their resources to reach that target date to me was very very encouraging and i know parents are asking what's it going to look like

063in the fall well i tell you if it's up to us if it's up to the board we all want it back to normal everybody does but what are the circumstances what are the requirements and guidelines going to be at that time so this vaccine this plan is going to be so critical and the fact that people need to take the vaccine okay and so we really want to encourage people to do that i know our our county health director has been saying that it's very important that we get a very large population i think he stated i'm not a medical expert somewhere around 70 75 to 80 percent of our population to be vaccinated to really reach that that point where we're where we're safe so um very encouraging there's a few details a

064few details they are putting together regional super pods regional super pods that will be providing the vac vaccine and it'll be throughout orange county they're talking about five different locations and the first location that they disclosed publicly was announced today and that's at the happiest place on earth disneyland okay so that's the first one but they will be creating and setting up additional super pods to give the vaccine but they're not announcing those locations and confirming those locations yet the vaccine of course is going to be given by a kind of a tiered system everybody cannot do it at the same time so they're already starting at the highest priority which is tier one a and those are our health care providers so rightly so uh they're getting the vaccine right now we have been

065notified and this is also very encouraging news we were just notified this week that our health care workers who are employed here in the district our nurses our health assistants will be eligible to do the vaccine so we're getting the information out to them and they can go to the supersite and get vaccinated first now the other good news is that shortly after tier 1a i'm sorry phase 1a is 1b and that's where educators are and school employees and there will be a priority and a tier system within the education sector that we will again roll this out and we will start to get our district employees vaccinated and what we're being told is to be ready uh around the beginning of february but i'm going to tell you we're getting ready now we're getting

066ready now so we want to move on that quickly i know that one of their biggest challenges is the fact that uh it takes a lot of people to run these super pods and to give these vaccines so they're looking at county employees state employees and volunteers to really step up to make this happen for us and i will tell you if we can all work together and do what we have to do to meet that july 4th target that will give us the i think a much greater chance to open as normal as possible okay with all of our kids back in the classroom now i can't guarantee that i always have to say that i can't guarantee it but uh but that's encouraging information there okay so um oh and i do want

067to uh add that uh right now uh the vaccines that are approved and are being given are for individuals aged 16 and above so there is no vaccine for kids younger than 16 okay but uh we are aware that there are companies who are currently doing trials uh for these vaccines uh for uh for the children so anyway so so good news you know hopefully will come with that but right now it is uh it is happening it is happening and we're very excited uh about that so anyways a lot of information a lot of things going on uh but i certainly wanted to express some positive hopeful news for all of us okay and that concludes my report for tonight thank you superintendent lisang and that is uh really encouraging news i think we're

068all excited about that and i know you will also be getting out that information via email to the community because not everybody is on our meeting zoom tonight and it is really exciting so um hopefully we'll get back to what we saw in the wellness video where we saw everybody sitting around without masks and being close to each other and enjoying themselves so uh now we will move on to community input on agenda's items uh trustee mattoya would you read yes this is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the regular meeting agenda via electronically submitted comments each speaker has three minutes of comment read time and per board bylaws 9323 there is a maximum of 20 minutes of comments per topic with board consent the president may increase or

069decrease the time allowed for public comments depending on the topic and the number of persons submitting comments all comments are recorded in full on the meeting video record okay and we have three comments on community input um trustee weigan my comment comes from rebecca volk i am in favor of the pool equipment getting replaced as soon as possible once the pool opens again it would be great it would be a great disappointment for it to be closed due to pool equipment malfunction there has been ample time to get this done during prior closures and holidays with zero covered cases linked to pool use i am in favor of the pool opening and remaining open the next comment is from wendy lease reid limburg school and hvac i drive by and walk by whittier school every

070day i witness the hvac equipment on the ground near the classrooms it is mechanical there are levers which which a child unknowingly might pull with the limburg project i request that the board include in the proposal a bid to enclose the hvac equipment it is a safety issue i also request the board and close existing hvac equipment at other schools as in my humble opinion not enclosing the equipment leaves a taxpayer open to significant exposure to litigation if a child is injured or injures others by touching the equipment trustee anderson um this comment is also from wendy lease on 15e2 regarding the governance training for the cs california school boards association here is a sentence from the csba website on board responsibilities the role of the school board is to ensure that school districts are

071responsive to the values beliefs and priorities of their communities boards fulfill this role by performing the five major responsibilities the core functions follow this statement on the website although the board functions as a whole to make policy i encourage all board members to listen to constituents and advocate for our values beliefs and priorities i hope board members especially the three new members freely bring forth all of their ideas and concerns and open board meetings i also encourage the board to be transparent in its actions and make our newport mesa public schools the excellent schools our community deserves thank you trustee anderson okay consent calendar do i have a motion to approve and i know we have i know we have some comments or some either items to be commented on or pulled so uh um

072trustee anderson yeah um i i sent an email but i didn't get a response back um to poll 15 a1 for discussion please as i said in my email each of these were individual contracts and were voted as such originally and i think that the board should be approving or not approving extension amendments individually as well i'm surprised to see them under one agenda item additionally i would like an update on which of these projects are not yet completed and the timeline for completion i would also like to know the dates that the finished products project were completed for instance the the first one that is for donald kroti it says on the agreement there's actually two agreements from february that the project would be completed no later than september of 2020. so if there

073are projects that are still ongoing i want to know why they didn't get completed in time so do you want to pull this to put on discussion action or do you want to have someone comment now i would my preference is to pull it as i requested in my email but i did not get a response okay and then i believe trustee ursolu has a question or yes thank you thank you um president yancey um i have a i don't want to take item 15 d2 regarding the california healthy kids survey i don't necessarily want to pull the item but i do have a probing question because i know it's i don't want to hold up the county contract at all but if it is possible i would love to ask dr agustino if it's

074possible to add the mental health supports module because right now it's really great newport mesa purchases the additional substance abuse social emotional and school climate modules but the mental health supports module is a very particular survey tool that would help us get a sense of our kids utilization of mental health supports and i think given the video we just saw and given everything that's going on that's going to be really critical data and i know that the cost implication is not very high so i just wanted to pose that question but i don't want to hold it up or take it off the agenda to 16 additional questions so it will have a slight impact on the administration time but nothing that should um prohibit us from from moving forward with that we would ask

075though and i think trustee or soyleu kind of mentioned it that you approve the contract tonight so that we can move forward with our contract with west ed and with the orange county department of education and then dr de augustina will investigate the the process and the next steps to get the mental health module and we can bring that one back for approval at the february meeting thank you is that okay with you trustee or solo yes that's incredible thank you i appreciate it i think it's going to be very useful for our students thank you thank you so do i have a motion to approve the consent calendar motion to approve what was that that was leah oh i'm sorry second do i have a second second okay a motion was made by trustee

076and seconded by trustee crane orokovic trustee elsie yes christie bartow i feel like we didn't get one of them answered back on the 15a1 it's been pulled we've been called into discussion action okay thank you then uh yes yes christy anderson yes trustee cream yes yes we're approving the consent calendar trustee or solu yes i couldn't the speaker cut out i couldn't hear that thank you yes this is a work in process we're making progress on this um okay thank you we will move to discussion action 16a approve additions to the high school store high school course of study mr drake good evening president elsie board members superintendent lee sung uh the course of study before you this evening is our avid or is an avid tutorial course the avid tutorial course will provide support

077to estancia high school avid students for the semester that they are not enrolled in the avid elective the estancia high school students it's important that the estancia high school students have opportunity to receive avid support for both of their semesters which is why this course is being submitted to you especially important for our avid seniors who will need assistance with college admissions college applying for scholarships and so forth so before you this evening is this course so that the avid students are able to uh receive avid support for both semesters knowing that the four by four schedule at estancia accounts for an entire year's course in a semester so this is just to make sure that they have that that support so we recommend that you approve uh this avid uh tutorial course uh for

078our 4x4 avid students at estancia high school thank you any question yeah i had a question is this currently in place at um newport harbor as well or is this something we would consider or is it built into their curriculum because so the avid elective course that's part of our course of study is a year-long course which is what most of our avid students and our comprehensive high schools access because it lasts for the year at estancia right if they had the avid elective the first semester that covered the year's course got it thank you for helping me understand the distinction they need a two-year course yeah i think this is fantastic i've talked to a number of avid students who really appreciate that uh senior year help it's a wonderful program any other questions

079i moved to approve the edition of the avid tutorial for estancia high schools second six moved by trustee mutoway seconded by trustee anderson roll call vote student board member brittany edward can you yes trustee berto yes justine montoya yes trustee anderson yes trustee crane yes trustee wagon yes christie airsoylou yes item 15a1 ratify extension of agreements with various consultants for 2019-20 maintenance projects uh which we pulled from consent calendar uh mr lee sung would you like to address this yeah so um i would like uh tim holcomb to provide a little more background about this item i know that lance bidnicks our director of mno submitted this item but mr holcomb i believe can uh answer some of these questions and give a little further background thank you superintendent lee sung yes pardon me um

080as we received the emailed question about this we provided a response to the email to the board but i can elaborate on that tonight but to reiterate what we had also said was these are all maintenance projects the typical routine maintenance projects that the district schedules during our summers and most of that work was done last summer as was expected i can go through each one of the individual projects one of the things that's interesting that this brings up is how sometimes past practices don't align with what really is reality and the best practice past practice in this district often was to put a june 30th end date on everything because that's the end of our fiscal year of course that's at the very very beginning of summer so a summer project is not going

081to be done by the end of june therefore we always end up bringing these to you twice there's nothing in the law that requires that we could put a later end date but now with mr geisler on board as the director purchasing we're working on that to have folks re-understand that that's not a requirement you don't have to put the end of the fiscal year as the end of the period on a contract and then renew it you can just issue the contract for the amount of time that it takes so that's one of the things we're working on with regard to the individual projects um that you see there they were completed in fact as ms anderson mentioned by september it was scheduled to be completed and in fact that project was there are

082two projects on this list that did not get completed in the summer and because this is always the case where and in fact this last year as you know you've seen the projects that got done this last summer even while we're in the middle of covet and everything we bid off a lot this last summer and we got a lot done but there were two projects that because of various reasons that mr bidnick knows better than i do they were put off one is the uh the second item on the list which was the hvac at sims hall at newport harbor and the second one was the replacement of the equipment at the pool at newport harbor both of those we're working on currently to get those scheduled to to complete as soon as we

083can in our schedule so that's the reason why those need to be extended so the question then the other question i asked in my email is just could you keep us apprised of those projects particularly with the effects that they'll have on students and usage of those things i understand how things got delayed we had a lot of delays last summer but um i would be hopeful that we could complete those projects while they aren't currently in use or at least plan for them to be done in the summer that way they don't impact students further yeah as we mentioned mr bidnick and mr resny in both of those two departments that have those types of impacts all of our folks that do work directly with the site administrators at the sites to coordinate it

084the first objective is to do it when it has no impact the second is to do it when it has the least impact and the third of course is if it must have an impact to make sure that the impact is understood and mitigated to the degree that it can so all of the directors who have projects go through that process with their local site administrator who communicates with everyone who's involved at the site and including with the community oftentimes and once again there's no financial implication of doing this thank you trustee anderson did you have any more questions yes um for the newport harbor hvac for sims hall when is the do what is when is that anticipated to be completed and what is the current work that is being done particularly related to

085what's going on i mean i'm glad we're closed right now um but i'm concerned that that hasn't been completed prior when there were students there so when is the completion date that's anticipated i would have to ask for mr bidnik to be elevated to a panelist so that he can address your question i don't know the the direct answer or i can follow up with you later i think it's important and an important question so if he is available if he's on the call that would be great i believe he is any other questions okay um do i have a motion are we waiting for the answer mr bidnick is being elevated does he get his he on okay i think i have audio now if you can hear me okay i should have audio

086i hope you can hear me hello hello i see him on i see his mute button is off but i don't hear here he comes i see it's on the bottom it looks like oh hey we're trying to make this work i don't know if you can hear me it looks like my videos up maybe with computer audio hello okay all right sorry about that good evening uh thank you uh for the question um the specific question is to the timeline for sims hall we are working with the engineer right now to finalize the bid documents and our plan is to have the project ready for bidding here shortly for completion over the summer we do not want this to impact students here lance could you please get closer to your microphone they're having a

087hard time hearing you i don't think my microphone is setting my volume should be as high as it can go so if you're still having any problems hearing me or i can speak louder my microphone is at full volume i can't get it to go any higher maybe i could hear him okay can you hear me while we're waiting for him to come back one of my follow-up questions for him um is we on consent for tonight is 1582 um which is was approving the agreement with the same firm optimum energy design for hvac needs assessment at lindbergh so if there was a delay that could have been prevented i just want us to specifically uh make sure that that does not happen if they're continuing working on our hvac needs trustee anderson it's hard

088to hear you too i can speak directly into that better um my follow-up question to that when we have him come back is today on the consent calendar 515a2 was approving an agreement with the same firm optimum energy design for hvac needs assessment at limburg so if there is not necessarily a good reason for the delay for the hvac to be con to have been delayed at newport harbor i just want to make sure that we are sending a message to these folks that we need them to complete projects on time on time particularly in the time of covid we need our hvac at optimum performance so while we are hopefully getting mr bidnick for your first question uh a quick up our answer or information regarding your second that item a2 is funded by

089catalyst which is a preschool that is leasing our facilities and it is a project to determine what it would cost and how they might have air conditioning so it is entirely uh for them this is just a pass through for us yeah i just want if we're continuing to have a business relationship with this firm i want us to make sure that um projects are completed on time if there is not a solid reason that's my question is mr mr bidnick it looks like he left and is going to re-enter i can follow up to to get you the answers to your question i believe in in respect to the last part that it's not a matter that the consultant is behind or is not performing up here he is all right is this any

090better i hope i switch devices is this uh can you hear me hello [Music] any luck hearing me do i have any audio we can hear you lance okay great thank you all right switch devices um the hvac project at sims um is we're finalizing the bid documents and we are expecting to release that here shortly the timeline for construction is this summer we do not want to do this while students are present 2021 summer of 2021 was always the plan summer of 2021 is the plan correct do you have a timeline on the newport harbor pool as well uh the newport harbor pool was just bit out um the big challenge that we have right now is the cif calendar uh we were trying to do that and take advantage of the downtime we're

091working with the athletics and the school departments to coordinate the time uh as well as all of the outside user groups to make sure that we have the availability most likely that will be a summer project but we're we're still working on the timeline that project did bid out and i believe we're taking the uh award of contracts to the board uh next month is the pool unusable as it is now no the pool is usable currently as far as the equipment and pool conditions are concerned this is a leak in some of the equipment um old filters and old pipes that we need to redo but it does not hinder the usability of the pool is there is this hvac at newport harbor is that a modification or is it an upgrade or is

092it installing it for the first time what is currently in place for sims hall it's replacing existing equipment that has met its useful life and is ready for replacement thank you are there any more questions that's it thank you thank you thank you mr bidney thank you you're coming on all right sorry about it um this is discussion action to ratify extension of agreements with various consultants for 2019-20 maintenance projects so moved second second that was just right moved by trustee cream oh crain i'm sorry seconded by trustee matoy moved by trustee crane seconded by trustee bartow with me i'm sorry i have the echoes coming from and you can't see mouths moving so you have no clue roll call vote student board member brittany ebergen yes trustee guilty yes christie bartow yes christine montoya

093yes christy anderson yes christy crane yes trustee weigand yes trustee or soyleu yes thank you okay we'll move on now to compute community input on non-agendized items trustee metroid thank you this is an opportunity for the public to address the board of regarding items not on the regular meeting agenda via electronically submitted comments each speaker has three minutes of comments read time well for me and perd by laws 93-23 there is a maximum of 20 minutes of comments per topic with board consent the president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comments depending on the topic and the number of persons submitting comments all comments are recorded in full on the meeting video record okay we are going to we are going to give two minutes to try to get through all of

094these comments so the first topic is the pool athletic and facilities we have 38 comments okay my comment is from megan guess please open the pools at newport harbor nmusd has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th not out of concern that the students and staff are contracting covert on campus but due to staffing issues due to covid the coaches of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore newport beach water polo has been following and will continue to follow an approved coven 19 safety protocol my comment is from derbla gaskin open the pools to clubs that have demonstrated safety protocols to protect the health of our children my comment is from

095jose de la hara dear trustees and superintendent lee sung irate is a parent of a 16 year old costa mesa school junior he plays water polo and swims for costa mesa high school he has been out of the water since before christmas due to the high school shutting down sports my son was looking forward to being the top shape to try out for the newport beach fire lifeguard department as a trainee well with well will potentially being out of the water for five weeks he is at great disadvantage along many with many kids at newport harbor and cdm ninety percent of the local recruits are from the city of newport beach and huntington beach lifeguards come from local schools these athletes are the lifeboat of the department and the junior lifeguard departments athletes at all

096the local high schools are not able to train for the tryouts on february 7th as a 29-year veteran of the newport beach lifeguard department i can attest to the impact of these young athletes in the community also let's not forget the 1400 local kids in the newport mesa are looking to train for the coveted newport beach junior program and the vast majority of these kids are not able to train for the very competitive test my fourth grader at davis and eighth grader at cmms are out of the water not being able to train for the test and their zoom pe won't cut it to get their stamina up to passing the test please let the local aquatics clubs operate and support our athletes and community with lifeguard tryouts and junior lifeguard training and normal safe

097active swimming lessons swimming activities my comment is from elizabeth reed the newport mesa school district has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th not out of a concern that students and staff are contracting covent on campus but due to staffing issues due to covid the coaches of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues please reopen the pool my comment is from luke delahara my name is luke de lahar and i am an 8th grader at costa mesa middle school for the last four years i have been playing water polo and swimming at costa mesa aquatics club since march our coaches got creative and we did zoom and beach workouts we were fortunate

098to return in august and it was great to be able to swim again but then bad news as we got shut down at christmas i was looking forward to qualifying for the junior lifeguards in march with a top group time but we have been out of the water for at least three weeks and with the long layoff my training has been off please let the nmusd pools open and let the children train to achieve their goals my older brother was training daily to try out for newport beach lifeguards and follow my mom and dad's footsteps of being a newport beach lifeguard but he has been out of the water by the shutdown of the pools please let my brother train and his teammates train again the next comment is from judd bourgreave the newport mesa

099unified school district has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th not out of concern that the students and staff are contracting covet on campus but due to staffing issues due to covid the coaches of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore mbwp has been following and will continue to follow an approved covit 19 safety protocol the cdm pool is open for lap swimming to the public why is newport pool not open please open the pool for our kids to get exercise our student athletes on swim and polo teams have dedicated coaches ready and willing to work with them please don't give us some bs excuse that we don't have the staffing

100let our kids work out and try to live their dreams you know the ones you keep squashing time to open up teach and let our children live next comment is from lori ann christie dear sarah madam i'm emailing to request that you reconsider your decision to close the poll facilities in the district for the month of january my children play both water polo in the district one at mesa and one at harper the coaches from both the cmac and the newport water polo programs have followed strict distancing mask and illness check protocols since their practices resumed last fall there is little evidence i believe that points to swim polo practices being a significant source of transmission emotional physical and social well-being benefits for the kids when they are allowed to practice far outweigh the risks

101of potential spread thank you for your consideration i understand there are no easy choices for our community right now and i appreciate your hard work to keep our kids safe my comment is from tyler parks the district and the board have repeatedly expressed their concerns about the students mental health and wellness over the course of the pandemic but voted to shut down all athletic facilities and programs as part of the temporary closure of secondary schools through january 25th the district's high school pools are significant community assets that host youth swimming water polo clubs and junior lifeguard training serving hundreds of kids in costa mesa and newport beach please take immediate action to reopen the district pools for these youth groups secondary schools were closed for staffing reasons the pools and the youth operations do not

102impose a staffing burden the groups are run by outside coaches who have incorporated all coveted safety measures and health protocols and will continue to do so the mental physical and social health benefits that these programs provide are so important to the district students and hosts a wholesale shutdown of these programs is a misguided and lazy response by the district with one simple vote the district at no cost or additional burden can ensure the hundreds of kids get back to a little normal normalcy and a whole lot of wellness this is from yakov vlog the newport beach water polo program is a non-profit entity and are not affiliated with any schools why do you have the pools closed the coaches and players are responsible for opening closing and maintaining the pool area during their use this

103should be opened immediately this is from keith ryan newport musd closing at the campus for athletics for reasons outside of covid maintenance is detrimental to both the immediate school communities student athletes and outside user groups that feed directly into the community and schools in nmusd other local schools are continuing to practice lending nmusd student athletes a stark disadvantage to an already challenging athletic year how can they be effective in their sports and demonstrate excellence needed to pursue collegiate athletics if they cannot train and reach their potential how can they retain their mental and physical health with without safe healthy outlets outside user groups of nearly 500 student athletes in the district are also being unfairly put on pause for reasons that have no relationship to the continued safety measures they have operated with for over

104four months with zero issues related to covet these groups pay upward of ten thousand each month in renting facilities and newport and nmusd is without these funds for seemingly no rational reason related to their operation please follow the course of other local districts that have continued to allow athletics to move forward safely at a minimum with the practice that will give them all the best chance for future success in their lives as student athletes they have already been stripped of so much there is no reason to deny them a safe healthy outlet right now karen kelly says nmusd has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th not out of concern that the students and staff are contracting covet on campus or in the pool but due to staffing issues because of covid the coaches

105of both of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facilities during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore newport beach water polo has been following and will continue to follow an approved covid safety protocol please open the newport harbor pool to newport beach water polo as soon as possible so the kids can practice and play according to all kovid 19 safety protocols thank you for your consideration my comment is from blair dickerson we live in the school district and our two children participate in newport beach swimming with coach kevin potter he took over the program a couple years ago and it greatly improved its organizational and professional standard when he was able to open he runs it by the book temperature

106checks before entry inc and keep kids appropriately separated in studies across the country there have been shown that swimming is not a transmitter of cobit kids need these programs for their physical and mental health please consider reconsider your pool closure and base decision on science and proven facts it's shown to not be a risk so please open the pool thank you for your considerate neighbor and taxpayer blair dickerson the next comment is from cindy luckett please reopen the swimming pools chlorine is proven to kill the virus allowing our students to access to exercise ensures their bodies and minds remain strong and healthy during the pandemic we urge you to open the pools again immediately the next comment is from jill hunt please open the pools the swimmers and water polo players are suffering and being

107kept from training for their sports swimmers need a pool this is different than other sports students can swim safely without contact keeping some off campus because everyone cannot be on campus is not serving our students well newport mesa is falling behind many other districts have open pools this is an activity that can be handled safely make it happen my comment is from mason hunt please open the pool if you can't do it for the high school kids then open the facility for use for the club that you do not oversee i am a high school junior and i'm looking to go play water polo in college swimming is different than other sports each day that i am out of the pool slows my progress it is not like running where you can take a day

108off and hope back in and be in the same physical shape each day i get more out of slimming shape and so does my team she we are able to play again not being in slim shape will hurt us as a team and hurt my shot at a college spot please open the pool cif rules prohibit me from going to play at another school i am stuck all the shutdowns are causing lasting damage if you can't let the high school player play open the facility for the club to remove any of your perceived liability risks katie kosov says the coaches of cdm girls and boys water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore cdm girls

109and boys water polo has been following and will continue to follow an approved covet 19 safety protocol this is from heather burton superintendent and trustees my children attend davis magnet in costa mesa middle school they are in dire need to be active and be outside for the last four months they have been actively swimming with costa mesa aquatics club and they are seeing their friends even with a mask on swimming is a great exercise that has been proven to be safe during covet times we understand that newport mesa has closed down due to staffing shortages in the teacher ranks but all the pools are self-sustaining and the coaches do a great job following all the covet protocols please let the kids of the community get back to swimming safely tori rimlinger says i would like

110to request that our water polo and swim athletes are allowed to practice and use the pool once again the players and coaches had no covet outbreaks when they were allowed to use the pool and facility previously our children need to be able to exercise and practice their sport they need this opportunity both for their physical health and their mental health other schools are practicing without problems it just doesn't make sense to restrict the use of the newport harbor high school pool please allow them to practice and use the facility today please support our athletes and allow them back in the pool thank you for your consideration my comments from tara d'ambrosia i hope this email finds you all in good health to begin i want to thank you all for the tireless hours of work

111you have put in balancing safety academics health fitness and the overall mental health of our kids i can't even begin to imagine how difficult this has been on all of you like many other parents i am writing to urge you to please open newport mesa unified school district pools irvine foothill tustin huntington beach they are all open i truly do not understand how basketball is still playing in various gyms all over orange county swimmers need a pool other sports have several other options our athletes do not at the very least please consider releasing the facilities for outside use additionally the coaches and our student athletes are the only ones permitted on the pool deck and in the water there are no showers or locker rooms open there is nothing to clean up therefore eliminating the

112need for custodial there is no loitering temperatures are taken and mass are warm and worn until the student athletes enter the water where they remain six feet apart at all times the same protocol applies after practice the biggest concern i share with many others is the risk of injury when our season does begin there are so many teams that are practicing and getting stronger our kids will be at a disadvantage when they are finally allowed to train again two days out of the water is equivalent to one week these kids do not take time off it is imperative that they train daily to keep their bodies strong it is an intense sport and there is a serious risk of injury if they are not in proper shape we have witnessed firsthand a decline in our

113children's mental health and a rise in anxiety due to no social interactions and no outlet to practice what they love thank you for your time and consideration the next comment is from jamie horton please open the nmusd pools backup asap for youth sports cmac has been using the pool and following and will continue to follow and approve covid19 safety protocol it's imperative that we get our youth back participating in physical activity for the health and wellness of our children we have been using the pool since september with strict protocols in place even when school was not in session with no covenant related issues or outbreaks swimming is one of the safest activities youth can be participating in during this pandemic thank you for your consideration in opening back up the pools as soon as possible

114next comment is from amy aloof the newport newport mesa has closed the campuses and pools through january 25th not out of concern that the students and staff are contracting covet on campus but due to staffing issues due to covid the coaches of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the district's staffing issues furthermore newport water polo has been following and will continue to follow an approved coven 19 safety protocol my comment is from elise hardesty three out of four of my children participate in water-based sports soccer football baseball and hockey are just a few sports that i am able to list where kids still get to practice it is not fair that our kids are at the

115mercy of the school district they are already unable to be at school and play with their friends for their mental health give them the pools back also junior guards is right of passage kids need to train for swim tests the kids need this this is from dr kimberly jank please open the newport harbor pool for the mental and physical health of our students there is not a staffing issue for the pool because the coaches manage the pool area it has no impact on district staffing issues it is a safe environment for our students where covid protocol is being followed this is from julie castillo please reconsider the closure of the nhhs and cdm pool facilities these are amazing outlets for the student-athlete population especially the water polo and swimming athletes as well as general community

116members to exercise while managing to operate under strict cova guidelines exercise is critical to maintaining a healthy immune system which is key to fighting off disease and illness also the coaching staff of newport beach water polo are the ones who open maintain and close the pool facility during our use of it therefore having no impact on the different district staffing issues thank you for your time and concern michael lasser i am repeatedly asking that the board of education allow the pool at newport harbor high school to immediately reopen for use by the newport beach water polo club while i understand and support your reasons for returning high school students to remote remote learning the corresponding pool closure is a classic example of the kind of overreach and one-size-fits-all regulation that inevitably creates unforeseen collateral damage

117the stated need for the district's closing of high school campuses and pools through at a minimum january 25th was the staffing issues related to the recent surge in covet cases unfortunate but understood with teachers unavailable or unwilling to teach in person and a shortage of qualified substitutes it makes it very difficult to continue in-person instruction however the resulting blanket mandate from the district which simultaneously shut down the use of the newport harbor pool completely missed the mark unlike the high school faculty there are no staffing issues related to newport beach water polo club whose coaches open maintain and close the pool facility while rigorously following the most up-to-date coveted 19 safety protocols when the pool is in use furthermore while i do not doubt the best intentions driving the return of newport mesa high schools

118to remote learning as always there are unintended consequences and in this case the sweeping shutdown has deprived newport beach water polo members of a positive and healthy outlet that has only become more vital to their physical and social development in this unprecedented time of isolation and inactivity with its strict following of the most rigorous guidelines the success of newport beach water polo's coveted safety protocol is undeniable there have been zero incidents of covet amongst the players or coaches related to the club's use of the pool there is simply no empirical reason why the club should not be allowed to resume its activities at newport harbor the welfare of our children's physical and mental health must be a primary concern to the board of education two minutes and a 20-minute time period can i finish the

119sentence okay okay and with that in mind i implore you to reconsider the it's a long sentence sorry the overreaching shutdown and once again allow the newport beach water polo club to use the newport harbor pool it's the end of the 20-minute period oh that's the end of 20 minutes yes okay before we move on to the next topic uh superintendent lisan would you like to comment on any yes thank you president elsie i just wanted to repeat what i shared in my superintendent's report earlier in the meeting that i do acknowledge the interest of our board to get our pools reopened as soon as possible but of course always safely so we as staff will be looking at when we can do that it will be before the 25th but we will be looking

120at a date and we'll be communicating that to these organizations i also want to just clarify for uh any member of the public that this is a non-agendized item so the board cannot go into discussion and cannot take action on it but for this uh particular topic board action is not needed to make that uh change so uh we don't have to wait till the next board meeting to uh make that decision and that announcement okay so just want to clarify that thank you for that clarification our next topic is reopening of schools we have 10 comments and let's see if we can get them all in and okay i needed it thank you two minutes two minutes two minutes tiffany joe i urge the newport mesa school board to create a committee to design

121a plan to increase the elementary level from hybrid to a full agent of instruction while i know our teachers are working harder than ever the current hybrid plan simply does not provide enough time for rich instruction that is so needed during these formative educational years as a parent to a third and fifth grader i can see significant learning gaps starting to develop my family has been fortunate to be able to hire tutors to assist my children but i have deep concerns for families who are not able to do this and believe the learning gaps for our kids will continue to grow if we cannot get full-time instruction i am a high school teacher currently teaching under the secondary hybrid model in irvine unified and i feel confident that schools have plans in place to keep

122everyone safe safe irvine unified has been able to develop a plan to have elementary students spend half the day with their teacher and the other half of the day with instructional aides to further learning these cohorts are capped at 14 students and then switch between their teacher and 1a in cohorts a and b irvine unified elementary schools have also not seen significant coveted numbers under this plan please consider having a team of teachers explore some of these options to allow our kids to learn full day before the end of the 2021 school year closes as a high school teacher sadly i see the impact of educational deficits when students reach high school and i would be saddened to see many of our students suffering educationally for years to come i'm writing to request that new

123promesa open school pools to re to youth community programs even though the secondary schools are closed for in-person learning due to staffing concerns my children ages 8 and 10 have been swimming with newport beach swimming and are currently unable to swim at newport harbor high school as a result of this closure i can attest to the safety protocols of coach kevin and newport beach swimming the number of participants is kept low and every child is screened before entry of the swimming staff my comment is from sonia hello and hope all is well to begin we'd like to uh we'd like again to express our sincere appreciation for all of the continued hard work that the district schools and staff have done to successfully meet these challenging times we've become aware of an unofficial solicitation push

124within the parent community to voice support for a return to full day given the current intensity of cobia 19 in our local community we are quite shocked to learn of this push rather we would like to voice our opinion to suggest a temporary return to distance learning for the reasons below orange county seven day average positivity rate is at 17.1 percent with the last five days exceeding 19 local rates are similar with 9267 at 16.9 percent 92663 at 10.3 percent weekly zip code level data to be updated again tomorrow orange county and southern california hospitalizations are at record highs icu hospital capacity is at 0 and only 5.9 percent adjusted at the macro level the us in the midst of a significant third wave with record numbers of cases and deaths similar figures reported in

125europe and abroad the current level 2 hybrid model is very effective as was the formal level 3 distance learning model like others we can't wait to return to our usual activities to get our children back to school full-time but only when it is safe to do so for staff students and families thank you again for all your efforts and in advance for your consideration of our concerns for reference the who suggests less than 5 percent for at least 14 days for schools to remain open a rate also echoed echoed by dr burks this comment is from lisa brennan i'd like to know what the plan is to bring our kids back to school full time i recently withdrew my kids from newport heights elementary for a full-time program at a learning center this is a

126very expensive option for our family but the district has left us no choice i would like to send my kids back to nhes in the fall but private schools and learning centers are asking for commitments for the 2021-20 school 22 school year now this uncertainty isn't good for our kids or for our family finances a plan in going back to school should be a top priority and i'd like it to be only be added to the agenda the next comment is from michelle kincaid why are schools not open to full-time in-person instruction when other districts are making it work per the district dashboard the radio transmission at our schools is close to zero i have no faith in newport mesa at this point i have already pulled my fourth grader as i watched his confidence

127completely depleted due to failing grades and lack of support from the school system he is and has always been an excellent student but two hours a day of instruction was not working for him and he vocalized his frustration regarding it daily the mental health of our kids is at risk and should be a high priority as we are approaching this the one year mark into this pandemic as a registered nurse working on the front lines i fully support the opening of our schools to full-time instruction the learning opportunities and the mental health of our students are at stake here please do the right thing for these kids and open our schools to full-time in-person instruction my comment is from aj linardi this letter contains links to aid with you understanding and resource hello i hope

128this email finds you well the mid-march goal of opening is ambitious and it is commendable to find the effort and work towards getting us back to normal however i don't think it will be possible or safe to do so until commonly spread outside of classrooms is halted with safety measures or vaccines this is the uk right now where the b117 strain has taken root it has a few mutations that make it more contagious how did this happen the uk kept their schools open during lockdowns they noticed the strain was higher in percentages among people under 18. it is capable of very efficient spread the us might lag one to two months behind the uk putting this sort of rise right around march look below it the strain is higher in the kids this can mean

129one of two things one it's a new strain and since there are schools open they are more likely to spread a new strain meaning kids spread the new strain and school has helped that or the new strain is better at infecting kids or both the virus is not benign for kids we don't know the long-term effects yet but these are the other viruses that have a super antigen like sars kobe 2 has there are two links one to the national institute of health government publication 27525406 and a link to pnas.org content slash one one seven slash four one slash two five two five four this super antigen is believed to be causing the syndrome in kids http so this is a link to www.biorxiv.org content slash 10. 100 1101 twenty twenty point one one plus

130point zero nine point three seven two three one six nine v one amber science says what is our full time plan for elementary schools to resume full session we are eager to resume school full-time becky bethel says i was disappointed to read through the school board's agenda for tonight and not see any mention of what our school district is doing to get our kids back to school full-time this should be your number one priority it has been 10 months since our public school children have been able to attend school full-time yet we have not heard of any type of plan to get our students and in particular are elementary students back full time we have watched many of our friends and former classmates going back full time in september and even more leave our schools

131to transfer to these full-day private options through the year due to this lack of action and planning from our district this has created a huge divide of disparity between private school families and public school families in our community and could cause irreparable harm for many students in the long term i'm saddened that our schools and district has become a shadow of its former self and since no plan has been dispersed dispersed by our district leadership for even getting back full time in the fall many of these families feel forced to commit to another year of private school options in the next two weeks we need a plan of action now how do we get back full time what do you need and when will it happen teachers should be getting the vaccination in the next

132few weeks based on governor newsome's latest plan and his desire to see all students back full time how will this new information and additional state funding be utilized by our school district to get us back full time as quick as possible lindsay anderson says elementary schools need to be on a full-time schedule this is from p simon as an advocate for public health i would like the following two letters to be read for the record i as a physician urge you to reconsider the opening of schools as the coronavirus epidemic is now surging once again the current caseload is surging exponentially and without much tighter measures a tragic sequence of events is inevitably going to take place a recent study from morgan kelly of the princeton environmental institute has found that super spreader events are

133the rule not the exception most super spreaders are young adults or children and opening of schools will result in a catastrophic rise in cases in the state of california a massive rise in cases in israel was pr predicated on the israel israel israel's government decision to open schools without preconditions causing a an unprecedented spike in preventable deaths and tragedy we can prevent tragedy and we can prevent further death of innocent americans and californians by continuing to adhere to online learning and home schooled learning to help augment the education of our children a vaccine will be available as well via moderna and pfizer likely in weeks it is my great hope that if we can hang on just a month or two that we will find resolution and avoid catastrophic consequences by avoiding opening schools too

134early i also recognize the political difficulty you are in but sometimes the right thing to do contradicts the popular opinion of the day i appreciate your time and attention to this matter sincerely dr david lar due to the due to the impairment coveted infections cause it causes having kids in schools at risk of the virus may be counterintuitive to academic pursuits the website www.thetimes.co.uk forward slash article forward slash coronavirus the next comment is from amanda kilpatrick i would like to know when our students will be allowed to go back full time to school for the elementary school level private elementary schools have been in session this year full time and it is frustrating that the nmusd is still a short two and a half hours okay the next topic is diversity and inclusion in school

135curriculum trustee anderson yes the comment is from juliette zavez uh requesting that the district require and support a well-rounded history and social studies curriculum my comment is from dina lazarova i'm ready to ask the board to reevaluate newport mesa's history and social studies curriculums to be more diverse and inclusive in elementary school and to tell the total historical truth in junior high and high school as a former newport mesa student grades 2 through 12 i can certainly speak to the deficiencies in my own education deficiencies i didn't fully grasp until my freshman year at stanford university had i been better prepared i would have been able to more effectively navigate the social intricacies of the global society i was now part of but beyond that i would have been closer to finding compassion and fostering

136the perspective strength and sensitivity to become a strong informed individual woman citizen parent teacher and community leader if we don't properly inform our kids they can't be the generation to enact the change acceptance and stability our generation can only hope the future holds in light of the present day assault on democracy and social inclusivity this review can't wait as a former middle school educator in corona del mar i felt the urgency for said curriculum changes even a decade ago now as the parent of a fourth grader at lincoln elementary that urgency has become immediate thank you in advance for your consideration sincerely dina lazarova stephanie robson says i'm a parent of two nmusd students with another starting kindergarten next year the events of last week including the assault on the capitol building on january 6

137as well as the racial inequity protests over the summer have reminded us all that we must own the education of our children to overcome hate violence and racial and gender inequity i would like to request that the nmusd board take a proactive stance to update curriculum starting with kindergarten all the way through 12th grade in order to ensure that history and social studies are being taught with a focus on diversity and inclusion we must not teach textbooks that exclusively focus on the experience of one group of people to the exclusion of others we must make sure that the history and perspective of black latinx native american asian americans and all races as well as all genders are included in our approach history and social studies must play a vital role in helping our students understand

138how historical inequity still creates a racial and gender imbalance of power and resources this should be taught in an age-appropriate way focusing on diversity and inclusion in the elementary school age group in junior high and high school students should be able to understand the brutal reality of history from many perspectives there should not be a rose-colored teaching of our history only learning from the truth of what has happened in the past can we begin to understand where we find ourselves today it is my belief that our history curriculum is not fulfilling this essential need our pfo board at woodland and kaiser elementary has created a diversity diversity and inclusion council who is working directly with the schools we need the nmusd board to meet us and take up this important work as a parent i

139am not aware of what is currently happening with the human relations task force and have yet to see changes in my children's curriculum this next comment is from chelsea lubandi dear nmusd superintendent and board of trustees i am writing to ask that students be taught a well-rounded history and social studies curriculum including everyone's perspective please consider a review of all curriculum in terms of inclusion and diversity as well as how you are preparing students to build on racial and gender equality and set a goal for the district to identify and require the use of certain supplementary materials for each grade level in time for the start of the next school year sincerely chelsea lubandi fifth grade sarah mooney sent a letter on january 11th dear newport mesa superintendent and board of trustees i am writing

140to ask that the district use all resources at its disposal to teach students a well-rounded history and social studies curriculum the curriculum should include numerous perspectives to avoid giving students the impression that one's perspective is true and the others are inconsequential such a curriculum should be coupled with many discussions about the distinction between fact and opinion how to engage critical thinking the importance of seeking out different perspectives and how to have civil debates the insurrection at the capitol the events leading up to the black lives matter protests and the responses to those protests are all examples of why we need to ensure that all perspectives are taken into account they are also examples of why our students need to learn critical thinking skills and know how to differentiate between facts and opinions i would like

141to join the calls of other parents in requesting that the newport mesa board take a proactive stance to update the curriculum starting with kindergarten all the way through 12th grade in order to ensure that history and social studies are being taught with a focus on diversity and inclusion we must not teach textbooks that exclusively focus on the experience of one group of people to the exclusion of others we must make sure that the history and perspectives of black latinx native american asian americans and all others as well as women are included in our approach starting at kindergarten history and social studies must be an ongoing way to help our students understand how historical inequity still creates a racial and gender imbalance of power and resources this should be taught in age-appropriate in an age-appropriate way

142focusing on diversity and inclusion in the elementary school age group in junior high and high school students should be able to understand the brutal reality of global and american history from many perspectives there should not my comment is from jude lubondi january 2021 dear nmusd superintendent and board of trustees i am writing to ask you that the district used all resources as disposal to teach students a well-rounded history and social studies curriculum the curriculum should include numerous perspectives to avoid giving students the impression that one perspective is true and the others are inconsequential such a curriculum curriculum should be coupled with many discussions about the distinction between fact and opinion how to engage critical thinking the importance of seeking out differing perspectives and how to have civil debates the insurrection at the capitol the events

143leading up to the black lives matter protests and the responses to those protests are all examples of why we need to ensure that all perspectives are taken into account they are also examples of why our students need to learn critical thinking skills to know how to different differentiate between facts and opinions i would like to join the calls of other parents in requesting that nmusd board takes a proactive stance to update the curriculum starting with kindergarten all the way through 12th grade in order to ensure that history and social studies are being taught with a focus on diversity and inclusion we must not teach textbooks that exclusively focus on on the experience of one group of people to the exclusion of others we must make sure that the history and perspective of black latinx native

144america native american asian americans and all others as well as women are included in our approach starting at kindergarten history and social studies must be an ongoing way to help our students understand how historical inequity still creates a racial and gender imbalance of power and resources this should be taught in an age-appropriate way focusing on diversity and inclusion in the elementary school age group in junior high in high school students should be able to understand the brutal reality of global and american history from many perspectives the next comment is from andrea heslington i'm a parent of two nmusd students in this year join the kaiser woodland pfo diversity and inclusion council that is working to ensure an inclusive community and help prepare students to thrive in a multicultural world i feel very strongly that nmusd

145can re-examine the curriculum starting with kindergarten through 12th grade to help ensure that history and social science studies are being taught in an age-appropriate way focusing on diversity and inclusion i've been pointing out the incomplete presentation of historical events to my children since they began their career at nmusd for example this fall my children came home with an abundance of materials reflecting pilgrims and native americans living in harmony the way american history is taught the particular this particularly particularly alienates students of color and emits significant events from the american past feel good history for some inevitably amounts to feel bad history for everyone else we must make special efforts and take time to teach effectively against these arch types american history as currently taught has the potential to offer many students to be to offend

146many students and their families our district and teachers have the opportunity to more accurately present historical facts nmusd can play a role in changing how history is taught by supporting teachers who put innovative approaches into practice we need to produce americans of all social classes racial backgrounds and all genders who command the power of history we should show our students that race gender and identity are not taboo classroom subjects they are important elements of the human experience we have an institutional racism problem in this country and we've been in denial the idea that ugly historical events must be forgotten distorted or skimmed over and simply remember the things we regard as credible and inspiring creates a history that loses its value it paints perfect men in noble nations but it does not tell the truth

147surely it is possible to teach accurate history the next comment is from amy oliver i have a son at newport coast elementary and i support the teaching of a well-rounded history and social studies curriculum that is being presented by a group of of concerned parents i have been concerned that current textbooks seems outdated and doesn't support the current ways in which we teach our children about their community and the world around them please consider supplemental materials for each grade level by the start of next school year and current texts that have been published and updated recently on the next section so we're on the next section topic um concerned with school requirements uh this comment is from maurice mandel i raised an issue last november with a cloud campus pe instructor by conferring with the

148teacher emailing the principal and by emailing mr bauermeister after he had contacted me on a prior similar occasion and said that waiting six weeks for a response was unacceptable the issue was that after the assignment was completed the instructor evaluated the activity log based on criteria not previously designated or requested in other words the standard was changed after the assignment was completed this is a great concern students cannot excel when the instruction changes the requirements after the assignment or tests are complete to date and despite emailing reminders i have not received any further response from mr shaka or mr bauermeister about this topic the quarter semester has now closed this is unacceptable this next comment is from martha o'meara i'm hoping that putting public comments on non-agenda items at the end of the meeting is

149a clerical clerical error i realized that sometimes there's a large number of public comments but those are the people you represent start the new year right and return all comments to the beginning of your meetings okay we'll move on to informal reports superintendent lee sung would you like to say anything else actually i would um first of all i do want to make a comment um and provide just a little bit information on uh some of the public comments related to the social uh studies curriculum and uh i i this is not agenda so we can't go deep in this but i would like mr drake to come up and uh just just share a little bit about the work we have done with the social studies curriculum here in the district mr drake yes

150uh thank you uh superintendent lee sung so uh with history and social studies as in any of our content areas areas you know that the content uh the curriculum uh and and the frameworks are all driven by state guidelines state standards and state frameworks um so we're teaching based off of those you will also recall that i believe last spring uh you all approved a new textbook adoptions for our 7th through 12th grade history social studies classes those adoptions were state approved prior to coming and going through our process which does include making sure that there's representation of different uh peoples and times and and of course our history social studies teachers are also given the opportunity to supplement those we do recognize and and had plans um that have been postponed due to the

151pandemic that we need to update our k-6 materials um and we do plan to do that as soon as um you know we are in a in a better state uh to to go through our process to analyze those materials thank you thank you mr drake okay and i i gave most of my report earlier uh but i do want to make just two statements here first of all i want to thank bob cuba myself because i know the work that he had done behind the scenes to make all of this technology work so bob thank you very much i know you're back in the booth not only preparing but you're also pulling switches and levers and and doing a lot of amazing things back there i also don't uh enough recognize uh rosie mesquite

152who's over here doing her job and i don't know if you realize she is multitasking oh it's amazing uh to the highest level here and uh just does amazing work and takes care of all the details for all of us to make sure our meeting goes very smoothly so rosie on behalf of all of us i can say thank you for your work there okay and and the last thing is as we approach informal reports i just want to say to staff to keep it brief because we do plan to adjourn back to closed session at the end of the open session so if you have comments uh by all means please share if you don't and it's not urgent um feel free that you can pass this this time this time okay so i'm

153just gonna go around the room and we will start with assistant superintendent jacom good place to start uh assistant superintendent leona olson tim no report did you scare them i don't know do you have traitor no report mr drake mr dr baumeister dr sir wow that's a theme okay do we have any board member reports i had a couple things um i had a we had our first meeting with the coastline rop on december 16th uh it was exciting to see the work that they're doing and that newport mesa has directly contributed to so that was a nice moment um they have their accreditation typically it was planned for the spring but it's been postponed to april of 20th so i would have been giving you a report on how that coastline rop accreditation went

154but probably next year you'll get that from me and then just wanted to remind board members because i almost forgot that we've got our budget review the governor's budget review on friday with the school's first sound finance which is one of i think the most important meetings for me every year because they do a really good job of talking about how basic aid districts like ours fit into the governor's budget that's all thank you anyone else trustee crane yeah i i wanted just to thank all those who wrote in to the district and gave us your comments because i know it takes a lot of time and and effort and you know we we need to hear from you so i i and i know we cannot read all of them in public but we

155are reading them privately and listening so i would like to thank our constituents for um you know giving us feedbacks thank you um i also want to thank gosh our district staff um our teachers our nurses our healthcare workers and just our cabinet you know it's we're not we're in very singular times right now and i know that many of us are sacrificing a lot of our time our personal time um so i i again want to acknowledge our amazing district staff from the school sites all the way to the district office and um uh well let's see onboarding him has been wonderful um it's been the staff had been welcoming and accommodating we basically are the new trustees hit the ground running pretty much and we've made a lot of important decisions ones that

156are challenging but we are thoughtful in our process so um coming up is our i'm one of the liaisons for the newport mesa foundation so looking forward for our meeting on thursday with trustee anderson and trustee weigand we're representatives and so we look forward to meeting our newport mesa foundation members thank you anybody else trustee anderson yeah um i just wanted to start off um i'm i'm sure people might be aware but um on january 18th next monday is martin luther king jr day and it's actually a national day of service so it would be amazing there's actually a website for um for this specific time serving in a time of covid so there's resources and ideas it's nationalservice.org and it's slash serve our community and there are also resources on the city of costa

157mesa website so students or anyone in our community can serve um i think particularly as a result of some of the things you know that we've seen in our country one of the quotes that for me is really important and is why i even thought about being on a school board is for martin luther king everybody can be great because anyone can serve you don't have to have a college degree to serve you don't have to have you don't have to make your subject and your verb agree you only need a heart full of grace and generated by love life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing to serve others so i would love if we can share particularly with our principals that is an option for students to do next monday

158um and then i also just wanted to know a little bit more about the human relations task force there was a subcommittee that was for curriculum and so i was wondering i would like to get an update on how their discussions have been going um we get an update on that and we can provide an update uh to the entire board this week at the end of this week that would be great as i think um as several people mention in their public comments it often talks about diversity and inclusion and also nationally you know it's dei it's diversity equity and inclusion and i think um that a lot of great work started you know over a year ago but i would like to see that continue um and really have some practical steps for

159us to be able to implement things for next fall and i also would like an update on um if and when in the timeline for hiring a curriculum director coordinator my understanding that that is an open position currently or we are in need of one and i think that's really important as we're looking into social studies curriculum and then my last thing is i would love i just wanted to say thank you for the postings for the school facilitators um and today for additional school nurses i think those are really important in this time so thank you for doing that trustee wagon yes um we are we're all so excited to hear about this vaccine and i was um attending some pta meetings this week and they definitely said volunteers let us know so um

160if there is some way that we can try to as we're rolling out vaccines try to see how we can mobilize some of our great parent groups or any other kind of voluntary groups to help with that roll out a vaccine because i think we're all eager after seeing that video in the beginning to get back to that type of school again so let us know how we can help we'll be here trustee or solo oh sure thank you um i just wanted to um commend the the team under dr deagostino i had the opportunity to attend the mental health task force meeting last week and um i just want to let all the parents out there know that there is some phenomenal work going on regarding mental health in the district that as an

161outsider parent i had no idea and there are some diamonds working in that department and i'm hoping that in the next year we'll hear more and more of the great work that they're doing and parent resources will get spread not only for the kids but also for the parents in terms of mindfulness and mental health support so that was really exciting to see that we have so much going on there and i just want to echo what trustee anderson was saying about um the human relations task force having been a parent member of that um for for a while um i got to see that it was heavily driven by the more upper grades the high school parents so i'm really excited tonight to see so many elementary parents speak up about the need for

162curricular curriculum reform to get these diversity equity and inclusion issues out and talked about from kindergarten on so i'm really looking forward to that update and how we can get more of the elementary parents involved in that process because in the past it was heavily secondary driven thank you thank you anyone else okay before we adjourn i also just want to take the time to thank everyone not only superintendent lee sung and cabinet and directors and everybody who are here but our teachers our staff everybody who's working so hard we're sitting up here but it's everybody else who is doing all the work and we so appreciate it it is not an easy time for anybody and i think we've also we appreciate the comments from the public as anyone can see in listening to

163them you'll hear one comment with one point of view one comment with the opposite point of view and we listen to that all the time so none of these decisions are easy and we've got to keep that in mind we're looking at the overall picture of keeping everyone safe but making sure we give a good education to all our children and we have it's a it's a tough balancing act and as i've said to people i know that i can't make anybody happy that's the only truth i know because even if you agree with one point that we're making you're probably not happy about something else but hopefully we'll get through this we're getting to the point where we're going to have a vaccine and it would be great to be back to some type

164of normalcy in the not too distant future so with that just one quick comment parents if you really want us to get back to full time please mask up stay safe stay home social distance when we get those numbers down it's way easier for our board to get on board with being at school all day so parents help us out yes important point and if you're sick or you have any symptoms or you're near someone who's sick please stay home do not come to school and go the so the the distance learning route for that time anyway we will be adjourning our meeting but going back into closed session and there will be no report out from that so good night and thank you