Special Board Meeting January 4, 2024

001I knew that at this time I would going to call the Paris Union High School District special board meeting to order at 9:45 a.m. and I'm going to ask for a roll call to to determine a quorum trusty Nelson here trusty vjo here trusty Stafford here trusty compos here and myself here we have established a quorum item 3.1 let me click on that invitation to address the Board of Trustees close session items only no no cards today okay thank you item 4.1 adjourn to close session do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second Mr Nelson and Mr compos sorry please vote there is a 5- z vote to close session at 9:46 a.m. I'd like to call the special board meeting Paris Union High School District to reconvene at 11:03 a.m. please stand

002for the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America stands na indivisible andice item 6.1 revision adop I'm sorry is that better item 6.1 revision adoption ordering of agenda January 4th 2024 is there a motion so moved Mr Nelson is there a second Mr Stafford oh I'm sorry for EX two okay we're back go ahead and please vote item 7.1 report out of closed session no report out of closed session this evening this morning do I go to 8.1 because on the computer it's 9.1 okay 8.1 invitation to address Board of Trustees non- agendized items no takers today all right thank you you item 9.1 study session the Board of Trustees will conduct a study session regarding novels all right well I want to thank you all for being here especially when um

003you know we're still students aren't back in session know many of you are still on vacation or break uh but it was nice of you to give up some time the board and Mr Bennett and all the folks behind me um this is not the end but a very important juncture in a process that was starting Ed a long long time ago um about a year and a half ago miss zerd our previous director of um curriculum instruction um came to me and said hey we have a few dollars and um I'm going to order new novels I'm going to ask the department chairs what novels they would like ordered and I said you know I'd really like you to hold off and I I think we need to do something a little bit more

004sophisticated um I know that in the past maybe that's how books were ordered but we really need I think more voices and more eyes and to develop a process and we began um at that point we H we did have an equity team in place it was much smaller it was a group of teachers and uh we began looking at novels that we would eventually be bringing to the board um and and not getting rid of any novels but novels to augment and add to the collection and we've done a little bit of presentation with you PRI prior to that um we had the Good Fortune um as we be and that process we had some uh two teachers who are amazing and that was Matt Thomas and Julie Harris who are our academic coaches

005um and they began looking at through a a long list of of novels that could be potentially um you know interesting and beneficial and great learning opportunities for our kids um eventually we added um Dr McNair's position and she as I think you're aware expanded the equity team out quite a bit and added um some classified folks and additional teachers and people throughout um the different employees throughout the entire district and that really added a richness to the equity team and they began looking at this list of books and then as you know we've we've hired a new director of curriculum instruction Miss kahoun um so they have begun picked up kind of we began and today is really them taking you through the process some of the things that were proposed obviously you're not

006voting to approve these today it's a study session for an opportunity for you to ask questions know what the process was what's being proposed and in addition to the novels of course we had the approval of ab 101 asking districts to Pilot and ultimately present uh it's a a graduation requirement um and you're aware of those timelines uh an ethnic studies course course and while the state mandated that we have to provide we being districts an ethnic studies course it's pretty loose on how that ethnic studies course that's largely left up to District so again a similar process ensued um if I go to the next slide um this has been put through a lot of different folks and a lot of different lenses to to have a a lot of Vantage points um again

007the curriculum committee um we had some amazing teachers you'll see a list there from Miss Rizzo Miss Alvarado miss good who's here today uh who else is here Mr Salo is here today I want to thank him so several of the teachers on this committee um because you never want a top- down decision you always want the people you're leading to be a part of the process so they will they're going to present to you today um we also had a parent committee um we thought you know we're we're serving our our parents and they should have some input so they're going to to talk to you about what the parent input was today and ultimately a student committee um one of the things that um there had previously been a student listening um sessions

008but um Dr McNair really you know took those to a whole new level I think Mr Bennett has shared with you that the listening sessions we've had over the last year have been much richer much nuanced much more focused and um we had I want to thank Mr Thomas and Julie Harris Dr cahun and um Dr McNair who put together an amazing listening session uh I think it was a month ago was it a month ago November where November where we um brought the books to the students we asked the parents if they could take a look at these books and they said yes and it was really insightful to hear their input on on what books they would like to see brought to them and their peers so that's kind of an overview um

009and an introduction um and I'm going to turn it over to the two directors who are really guiding and leading this work and I want to thank them again that's um um Dr McNair and soon to be Doctor Who's completed everything and well that's what I was told this morning so I'm going to turn it over to the Two Doctors Two Doctors um I think it's official next month but she's she's defended and she is you know their so I have two doctors to present to you I'm going hand it over to much more capable people than I good morning Happy New Year all right so I'm going to start a little bit with how we got to the place that we're currently going on on the road here um and what's important to understand

010is all of this work that was completed was done so um rooted in the mission and the vision of Paris Union High School District um today we have representatives from the various committees sitting um and you're going to hear uh not a lot from Dr McNair nor myself but a lot from those that are boots on the ground closest to the work and really were the ones that um developed some amazing um curriculum to bring forward to our students and help to orchestrate the identification of novels to um invigorate the curriculum and make it more 21st century for our students um the student voice was very important in all of this um listening to what students had to say um and they were a significant factor in the development of what you're going to see

011today and then it's important to also remember that the teachers were the ones that really created what you're going to see um and what they put together is based upon their expertise on classroom Educators um and um what is best for kids because they're the ones that are working every day hand toand with our students um the other piece to keep in mind as we move forward today is that this is a Wei initiative this is all of us together doing what is best for our students um I mentioned that this was all rooted in our vision and mission statement as you look at our vision and mission statement one of the words or common themes that you'll see come up as caring and Care um it's a lot to say a word um but

012what's important are actions and so through that Equity is carrying an action um this is how we visibly see what we're doing to support our students and show them that we care about them and their Futures finally um I'm going to end my section uh right now on our enrollment if you look up at our enrollment you'll see that we do have representation from a diverse group of student populations and one of the things that's come out um when talking to students across the board is that they really desire to see themselves represented and so it's important to have curriculum that represents all of our student populations because they all have something important to contribute and it helps them identify all right so the next three slides slides are basically um our nine strategies for

013Equity diversity and inclusion um that we've reviewed over the last couple of years here um with the Paris Union High School District and so today we are focusing primarily on strategy number five um and so the the three slides are here just for your reference so you know where they're coming from um but we're focusing on strategy number five that says that we are adopting curriculum and instructional materials that accurately reflect the diversity amongst our student groups and so we hope that through this presentation today that you will see that we have been extremely intentional um but then also very very thoughtful um very careful um very fair and then also just looking at what are the needs of the students that we serve and how could we best um put those needs into practice

014um as we say that we're a district that is about equity and E Equity being carrying in action so what that action actually looks like I'm now going to introduce um to you all um our one of our instructional coaches Mr Matt Thomas who has been boots on the ground from the very beginning he's been a teacher at Paloma Valley High School for a very long time um but he's been an instructional coach who has been vital to the novel committee um process Miss Julie Harris was unable to be here today if you're a football fan um I can't remember the college that her husband um just got a job at but he's now a head football coach at a college I think like Iowa Iowa something like that and so uh she is getting

015him settled so she was unable to be here today um but you will see uh her stamp all over this presentation uh so Mr Thomas thank you Dr re esteemed school board members um my name is Matt Thomas I'm an instructional coach of the district uh I've been a teacher for almost 20 years here in uh the district and I work with my great instructional coach partner Julie Harris um when we were brought to the district a year and a half ago uh one of the priorities of the previous director was we need to adopt new novels we haven't had novels adopted since 2015 and we had two main points in line one is we had to make sure that the novels that we adopted reflected our St student population and we wanted to make

016sure that the teachers had voices on which novels we should adopt and so we established the novel adoption committee we had our first meeting um we invited all the English teachers of the district we knew all couldn't attend of course so the ones that were able to attend they would bring the information back and share it with the teachers to get all the teachers voices at the individual sites um and so we had our first meeting uh teachers submitted novel ideas we had 55 novels at the end of that meeting and we said okay we know we need to pair this down so what we did was we looked at it from the teacher's perspective we said okay um where can we put these novels right we can't teach novels in isolation we need to

017have a purpose and value with it so we looked at the adopted curriculum and we said okay this novel can fit this theme this novel can fit that theme and we wanted a diverse collection of novels because we didn't want multiple novels teaching the same thing and again we wanted novels that were represent our student body and so once we did that we looked at all 55 novels we knew we had to pair it down a little bit and so we we ran it through the lens of diversity and Equity we wanted to make sure that our students are represented we want to make sure um that um excuse me that all themes are represented we get diverse collection we ran it through our our novel scorecard and that paired down the novels quite a

018bit we took that collection of novels back to the individual sites the teachers took them back there presented the novels through plc's voted the teachers voted on which novels they supported they brought it back to us we did a vote we went back to the site again ran it through a second round for teachers we had our final vote for the novels and that brought us to the 23 novels um that that you've seen in the past there um and then just a reminder uh last June you got a folder that uh um collected all this information showed you specifically the whole timeline of that thank you very much perfect okay so when uh before we go on so I'd like us to introduce her to meet some of these authors we have four authors

019here is it all good oh perfect thank you this first one was from the novel Sanctuary uh so let's hear from the author's voice on purpose and and and what she was thinking when she was writing this novel thanks we you know we have we've been talking to some uh some middle schools and high schools now which has been really really fun so we're talking to students who are this age and um it's fascinating to see like Valley doesn't want to be an activist Valley doesn't want to be a revolutionary she doesn't want to be in the Limelight she doesn't want you know she's not like someone who's even going to go try out for the spring play She's a Very a thoughtful um a thoughtful teenager she wants you know I mean she's concerned

020about friends and lip gloss and like things that we all are concerned about there's no part of her that's like I'm going to change the world when we start the book and she's forced into this role and I think that's how a lot of us learn our our skills you know is that we're forced into it I didn't want the circumstances I was raised in and she certainly does not want the circumstances she's raised in and so it was fun seeing a class the other day be like well like how do you learn how to fend for yourself like that or how do you know that there are they didn't know you know exactly what it meant to be undocumented and Pa is really really great at explaining it to any age um but it

021was really fun to see how a 16-year-old processes that literally like right in front of you all right so that was author of sanctuary um let's go to our next one which is Luis Rodriguez author of always running it's the second one already it's already up there second oh thank you said perfect thank you so much there it is 11 years old I started my first gang around 12 years old I started doing drugs when I was 15 I got kicked out of school that's where I ended up living in the streets and somebody was going to fall through the cracks I ended up being the one that fell through the [Applause] [Music] cracks by the time I was 18 I was facing six-year prison sentence by then I was already hooked on Heroin I

022had lost 25 friends they ended up dying they ended up become heroin addict or they end up in prison there almost a part of me really wanted to die but the the it wasn't in the cards you know the way things fell I got shot at half a dozen times and never got hit including machine gun Fire Point Black Range so I went through all that and I survived it so I was floating in this world of deep intense experiences but I was surviving at all so the world kept saving me in many ways and I didn't know it everything around me was dying until finally I think in my Consciousness I began aware I better think about something else [Music] me being the weird homie with the books was important because when you read

023books Whole World's open up to you even though your world is so limited and you don't think there's no way out of it but I had a world of books which again I didn't know anybody in my neighborhood that did and everybody that I told that I was crazy even my family oh man you were in gangs you were in drugs now you want to be a writer forget it you're lost now that was like the worst thing I could ever want to be but it was something so compelling to me I don't know what it was to tell the story of what I knew and my homies that were dead and I wanted to write about this world Rodriguez it's anian mother Luis Rodriguez and now uh America Ferrera author of American like one

024of my pieces in the book um I I I tried for so long to make sense of my of all the things I cared about I was a passionate performer and I wanted to be a Storyteller but I also you know cared about human rights and and you know wanted to engage in The Wider world around me and I thought for so long that I couldn't be both of those things and that and that I had to pick a box or pick a lane or find a title that made sense to other people and and I and I really like wrecked myself over it and I would say up until about five years ago my second piece is really about um sort of that that growth where I Finally Found the courage um to say

025I am all of these things and and I'm going to choose to to walk into any space as everything that I am and I think that that is such a big uh part that's that's such a big umbrella of what this book is about we all of the people who've written have in some way had to walk into certain spaces understanding that not all of them is welcome you can come in here as the the brooklynite but not as the Palestinian you can come in here as the American but please don't like you know don't make us feel uncomfortable with you know your Spanish speaking or whatever it is and finally uh Westmore let me get the timing on this one 127 okay all right westore deliberate about the expectations that we're setting and and

026honestly I think President Bush said it best when he talked about this idea of this this soft bigotry of low expectations where we just have different expectations for different kids who come up in different communities you know I remember once um I I I wrote I wrote this story called called the other Westmore talking myself and another young man from Baltimore who he's currently uh with the same name from the same area similar family backgrounds he's currently in year 16 of his life sentence in prison for at the same time I had received a road scholarship uh he was convicted for the murder of a police officer and so the story kind of detail the lives of these two kids and what ends up happening that causes the split with the same names and I

027remember once speaking with him and I asked we were talking about Baltimore and I said so do you think that we're products of our environments and he looked back at me and he said actually I think we're products of our expectations and I thought to myself self he is absolutely right we were not products of our environments we are products of our expectations and someone once said to me it's a real shame that you lived up to your expectations and he didn't and I tell him actually the real shame is that we both did we both lived up to our expectations and so when we're talking about things like creating hope and opportunity the very first thing we have got to do is this soft bigotry of low expectations that we have for so many

028kids and so many communities for things that they were born into and for things they should not be ashamed of we have to be able to psychologically change the bars and the barriers you know Booker T Washington once said and he said it best and I'll paraphrase when he said if you break a man's Spirit you do not have to escort him to the back door because he will walk there himself and we have far too many people who are walking there by themselves thank you so those are excerpts from four of the novels each of the novels that we uh looked at and um uh analyze they all have powerful messages and and um our students can relate to them characters that that our students can feel like they're a part of them thank

029you so what you've seen so far was just a preview um we took our students through a many of to meet the authors um and as Mr Bru mentioned um they did have parent permission slips to attend this session with us um and so what we wanted to do is see if you all would like a break to kind of take some time to flip through um the packet that has the novel summaries um just because we knew that for the sake of today um we could probably spend the full day going through each novel um to see if you wanted to go through the novel summaries and then because this is a study session we open it up for question for the novels um so would you like a break Mr President okay so

030we'll put 10 minutes and we'll um come back in 10 minutes thank you I need a a clock it's on my call yes t let I I just found it yeah and in review the one keeps coming up six spe e um it's the board it's the BP and AR 13 12.2 that me see what's our time 3:30 okay we have a about three and a half minutes let us know if you need more time three and a half you're welcome okay no problem are there any questions that we can answer right now or would you like to wait till the end Mr President okay perfect thank you your wait okay dep M okay thank you yeah especially I was totally like okay we're done okay five more minutes please yes ma'am thank you has

031spoken perfect want ch as that's expect very Trust have we have about a minute and 13 seconds more time what's that oh yeah you guys have it up here do you want to display it yeah how much more time do we have just less than a minute okay we've got about one more minute and then we'll be reconvening 64 what's that I just want to make sure we have the right one you want the AR yeah can we go I think it's more helpful than because it outlines how to handle rather than right thank you language the beginning all right thank you okay we're coming back in the break I believe there was a question from the board president asked of Mr Williams so I heard it secondhand or Mr compost and I think I

032want to make sure we had the question right is there board current board policy on um appropriate language the close we do not have board language that or ARS um that speak to that the closest would be uh 6144 which is controversial issues and we've displayed that here for you and it covers the gamut of a lot of things but it's really related to issues related to the course of study it provides opportunities for critical thinking that controversial issues of any kind um have to meet the this criteria that the issue has a meaningful relationship to matters that concern the students that has to be available information of about it sufficient to allow alternative points of view all sides of issues are given um the if you jump down to number six the teachers does

033not use his or her personal positions um whether they be religious political economic or some kind of social bias so that board policy we could take you through that if you'd like is probably the catchall that whenever something controversial comes up it would be put through this lens gu we that we do have I don't use that kind of language with my students I don't get explicit about things at home it's a reflection of I don't live a double life the way I live my personal life is the way I live my professional life I don't I won't use language here that I don't Lang atever say my spoke a certain and V they could if they asked them hey do you speak like that at home their answer would be no they might have

034learn places and so here's my concern that being I hope that's the stand for professionals students I know the separ was a coup books that I and ATM concerns this one obviously concern I'm GNA go here we got the breakdown here really there's NOS ofit seual cont language and so you know us in reading this it's kind of like oh that seems like a very wholesome book which Which novel are you referring to I'm on the same guide you are I'm not your okay yep written by author Sanchez yes and I will I will say this before I read a coule I will say this I thought this story was very good was a very interesting complex obviously a Mexican family living in Chicago I had a simar growing up in La of a similar

035thing were immigrants I was I was born here so different experiences even within our own home we had we're all me right all the same blood but we had different experiences growing up because they grew up different tradition com would iwe that's there a lot of the character said to the I just want to make sure you're speaking to his or her brother that you're being well these are justun dialog with says how can you hate nature I iow more exasperated by him by the she's met and he just like I just do it's boring so what do you like to do for fun what is your idea of beauty his response shopping partying and E and I'm not going to say the word because and I just don't know me seeing it is bad

036enough I don't want to say it out of respect for all of you and so so that to me is kind of concerning over here I read a little so on this page well this is Page 193 it says white people are different gu and they're having obviously there's you can read the whole thing to understand kind where the chapters are going it says white people are different guess Nancy from algebra went out with a white guy from Park and she said that his parents let sleep over you understand the Contex of's going this isical one she's Los her virginity to a young man wife in a particular he's from Chicago Subs he's wealthy she's not and so they're kind of talking about that and then it goes I have that's I get inside myet

037and close the door I barely fit with all thees useless but it's the most private place in the House Lena says I have to shave my before I go and then they they go on to discuss kind of how that's going to happen now and there's there's more here long story short if I were to approve this with this kind of summary without it clearly stting sexual there's other sexual cont cont that's in there that I just don't think is appropriate for a public school situation now again and and I don't I don't call us you to me the author it's actually a really really good story it really is there's a lot of things there that H home for me which that's why I think you know what she's expressing a very good story

038did it really me the explicit content the language the vulgarities and many of the times I felt it was kind of like didn't to yeah I it's like you didn't need to do that and and so as an educational institution I these are concerns that I have now didn't I did also go over again I that was very was a good story you know but too many times also I think that were and I know that this was in part of the book when I looked at the about some of the content they didn't want stereotypical for example the gentl know always so and this was kind of culture or my environment you know I did have family members who were game members and and that was kind of like they saw like well that's

039kind of who we are like well we're not all like that they are and and so for me and this this is where it becomes very difficult because I had a very mild um upbring Prett conserva have too much cash for me Sports was my kind out um and I did it you know I made a lot of very poor decisions based on the culture that was out there always going against what my andad told and raised me to do and through that you kind of end in situations like mentioned situ I could lost my life were we thinking were doing things this book promotes a lot of so for example if you read more about the book you know she talks about would have she knows immediately what she would have done she would

040have Abed child now that goes into the controversial topics and that can go both ways because in this particular situation she's kind of painting it like you know what I made a mistake I can get rid of it very quickly but a lot of the Hispanic culture Mexican culture Latino culture a lot of it is that's very big it's a big topic and life is important um but there's both sides there's both sides to look at that and I understand that and so in dealing with it to me a lot of The Vibes that this book gave were stuff that completely goes against a lot of my values I understand the story line I understand the context of what it's doing at the end of the day I would be uncomfortable approving this book as

041something that I would want because you know what I'm afraid of that young lady and maybe there similari she talk about her and her sister sister like I said St very good it was just like that was I just felt like there was so much unnecessary stuff and then I'm concerned about the the work policies and you know now when a parent says hey you know what my my daughter was you know supposed to read this book of my son and and you kind of get yeah where I'm going and I just wish that Le in because now I haven't read all the books I did actually I took the bo I give it to people who are readers I kind of told me concerns concerns and so I'll bring that back and I'll have

042more information all know that I want to of these get atast online search language because this right here it doesn't tell me about all the warnings and us as elected officials sure who do you think ends up getting know I voted for that guy thaty approve that you know I mean and and that that for me is a great concern and and unless it's presented where it's like if I underst that that summ and says I understand okay want to that a little bit more see what's in there but not knowing it it's a but of books I just now I am very hesitant to approve anything on and I know that initially when I had um when we had talked about this and I Carson I don't see Thomas Soul people who are great

043contributors I don't see Dennis in there obviously because people CES people would put them as controversial well yeah but you're putting other people who are the similar races um but they represent a political ideology which I think a lot of this book ends up having it and so for me it's like I said I would like to see balance we're going to bring forward books and I would like to see balance on both sides I just think sometimes that the conservative is know maybe I want tot something has been conserved in my family and and you know that's the way that we do it and a lot of these topics that are in this book you know they go against what but I'm not the end all sale that's why I said the book's a

044good book because it hits on a lot of different things and and so to me it's kind like and is it a result of you know what can be out there absolutely you know um at the same time you know it almost seems like almost imp's a lot of successful families that are people of color who have been brought up in a completely different environment with the environment this is kind of like the H and St like you you have people who like they were professionals they were raised a certain way and they had those expectations which a lot of times they kind of mention in this book they say oh you're being white that's taking that term as offensive personally as as a of as so are you saying that because we're pursuing excellence

045and educ pursuing different stereotypes other people have that like they own against all that means that priorities I guess what people think their priorities are priorities that other cultures don't have and I don't agree absolutely it doesn't matter your your socioeconomic status there are families that are impoverished whoc theyear ability someone that is a powerful force America you know to me that's I just think a lot of this a lot of that can Beed with a lot of these texts and I don't want to anybody a I know it's hard to because every culture is have everything everybody can be successful and I think message would like to just positive hey you know what doesn't matter where is you do kind a recipe for sucess I cane you made so many good Salient points there

046that I'm not sure which one to respond to and I want to make sure if there's a question that you have of me or the team as you're presenting so I I think there were several and then you made several points I think the key one is just to make sure that following our guidelines if we have guidelines toit content and allowing it a to stud read teachers use it in a classroom set no all of these where books that could be and will should be will be used in a classroom setting no am yeah yeah but what I'm saying me as as a y all of them so I I think you hit on a couple of really Salient points if we look at literature historically it's always going to be dealing with controversial

047issues if we go back to Uncle Tom's Cabin or the narrative Life of Frederick Douglas or Huckleberry Finn or Up To Kill a Mockingbird now I've kind of I was an ex- English teacher um I I guess once English teacher I was English teacher I've kind of traced a trajectory there of you know the books that confront racism in the American Canon so those at each of their times when they were presented as books to be read in public education were very controversial books so I think there was a balance struck here that was tried to be struck in that when they look at kids what are the books or the issues or the concerns that kids are wrestling with in their lifetimes today and those are things like getting out of poverty those are

048things like the um immigrant experience or in in one book's case the um um being an illegal immigrant experience um the the one author was the author you know two kids one ends up being on the route to prison the other the point I'm making here is any of these issues if we're going to K pick character who are dealing with a modernday concern they're going to speak and talk like characters would the book always running deals with that author's Journey out of a life of gangs and finding as you said education and find his way out so you always have this controversy of characters who speak like people would in the modern day world um what should be and your question I really think is how do youw draw the line between okay we

049want realistic speaking characters um you know huckin wouldn't have been written like hey my black friend Jim why don't you come get on a raft with me there were other inappropriate words that I won't say and never Ed the word that that book has in it and a lot has been written in education about should that book be read not read but it does beg the question I'm not going to get down that lane with you but what are the moris or the Norms that make that are beyond words that shouldn't be books that kids read and yet what stories are realistic and deal with issues that characters would really be dealing with and ask and asking our students to wrestle with those big issues that is a huge question you're asking the very right

050question my initial response is that's why this is a study session I want to thank you for getting in and reading some of them um it'd be easy to turn it over to Matt and say hey but I don't want to put him on the spot you know all 23 three books because they started with a long list got down teachers have read all of these books um we could certainly go back and look for I don't know is it possible do word counts of or search fors of we talked about doing some a revised novel summary yeah and and how many are there curse words are there words of sexual content I don't I we could certainly come back and that's the purpose of this as a study session to answer these very questions

051but it is a very challenging thing to bring works that are meaningful and present with characters who I think we struggle with this as parents now with modern-day movies right I mean my kids probably wouldn't watch Leave it to Beaver if I put it on they'd be like kids don't talk that way or Happy Days even or I don't know even the Huges um they would want characters who were more modern and speak and deal with and wrestle with the issues that kids are wrestling with today so I have a question how would we address this to the parents to the public because in the Latino culture my mom would flip out forbid me forbid me to even consider it that type of language the sexual graph graphic nature of that that's a no no

052that doesn't belong in public school any novel that is being presented to kids parents do have the right to opt out that's one thing that so they have an option they have an option an alternative assignment what's that would this be like a generic gen ed class like basic uh English or I'm sorry English 10ish so you're saying when they enroll the parents would get a heads up hey this is the curriculum that's being taught and there's an option A for to opt in or opt out is that what we're saying we are but that that option always exists for anything any parent has a right in the state of California to come look at any textbook any book that's being presented and if they have an objection we make an effort to give them

053but you see what's going on in California right like with other school districts parents are trying to protect their kids and they have that right absolutely just like I have the right to protect my kids and I would absolutely do that but I'm telling you as a parent I don't want my kids talking like that it's not allowed in my household it's not allowed in schools we hold Prof we hold teachers and and staff at this expect level of expectation which is a higher level of expectation but right and and it seems like we're softening that rule to allow the younger generation to be however they want regardless and and and what bothers me is it's like we're throwing away structure you know where where's the morale the morale or not morale excuse me the

054um morals thank you you know I I have mixed feelings just by seeing that you know that that's like lead on you know we have a a chart here of a summary but doesn't give us a heads up you know like on CDs they say explicit content so you know what you're getting into there's no warning label absolutely so how do we address that well I I think you're giving us a task we can go back to the lists of books and we could bet um and present to you again any language that's of sexual nature or any um I don't know if that was done as part of the initial read that when teachers vetted it I don't want to put Matt on the spot um you guys are making a valid point that

055I know that they use the evaluative tool in order to measure the the novels themselves but I'm thinking as a recovering aage teacher as well when you do a synopsis or summary you're giving an overview of the novel right you don't go into the details about figurative language or you know diction or theme um you just kind of give an overview but that is something that we could go back and we could add um like you would see almost on an album um warning over um may contain some you know explicit language or sexually suggest the content um there's definitely a means of doing that that is is there no other options obvious of BS presented and who's the one and I say this from the lens on the side I've well and I believe

056that was the starting point of all these they work from approve I can I can speak a little bit please continue your thought no no I but I think you're speaking to what I'm talking about that initially these were not just books randomly picked out they were books from recommended reading lists from various you know libraries of America or um I think you're going to so yeah so I was there from the beginning and every concern that you say and bring up is a great concern and it was brought up and and talked about a lot and so I'll tell you from a teacher perspective because I'm I'm a teacher I support other teachers now and yes I my office is at student services but I'm I'm a teacher at student services so as an

057English teacher for 17 years looking through the text our our goal was to bring curriculum to the students right make it relevant for them make it something they're interested in and if they're if they have interest then they'll they'll dive into it and then you know magic can happen right we can we can create those learning opportunities if they don't see characters that reflect them they they tend to tune out but my role as a teacher is this I look at it like this so I go okay what could will will concern parents okay this will concern parents so I'm not going to teach that so as a teacher I go in with a theme with a per a purpose in mind so if I'm teaching this novel there's a purpose behind it the language

058that I that I don't want to share in class the the parts of the novel I don't want to share I leave out because it doesn't fit my purpose so I looked at it and when we looked at all these novels I looked at it from the teacher's perspective and I don't teach entire novels through I'll look at the theme of what my goal is what's valuable to the students what's purposeful for them what supports their success out of school right that's my goal as a teacher and I look at what I'm going to teach and that's the parts that we that we read everything else we we don't address the things that don't concern me the things that I think would be controversial the things that I don't want to teach the things I

059think parents would have an issue with because as a teacher I need to support the parents as well I'm supporting the students make them successful but I also have to keep the parents in mind as well um and so we looked at that well that that's the goal of the teacher now the the another goal of the teacher to create a great learning environment and create a great connection with our students so as a as a teacher who creates great connections with the students when the students come in they want to be in my class they want to hear what I have to say I have to keep that in mind as well so they understand when I'm telling students hey guys we're not going to read this part if they they happen to see

060a word and there like hey why didn't we read that part I'm like I'm just we're just going to skip that part and my students get it they understand they've been in my class long enough my goal is to do everything I can to support the students instruction they know I'm doing best by them and so addressing your concerns was that that was addressed a lot when we went through these novels what theme can we teach and what parts are controversial we do have that written out when we looked at all 55 novels the teachers did go through write out the great things what we can do with those as teachers what concerns do we have as teachers and so talking about revising the the statements the the summaries we have those documents we can

061put in the concerns in there so that we have those so that teachers can see okay I got to make sure that I don't really address this on page whatever so that you all can see that as well we do have that information well and I think we spoke originally about wanting a lot of lenses on them your lens's board is perhaps the most important like you're saying we've got to prove things so teachers have looked at these students have looked at them with permission by the way that's why we said it was important before the board approves it if we're going to give a student an unapproved book we we wanted um parent permission to say hey your students are going to look at new and possibly alternate books and parents and now the

062board to bring that lens in so this is not a a list to say hey vote on it now it's to have this very discussion as we engage books that will be exciting and interesting and controversial because controversy is what invokes I think this is part of what Matt say thought um whether it is the the um immigration debate or the abortion debate or all the debates you can think of great literature is going to deal with those debates and we want our students wrestling with those ideas but we don't want them being brainwashed or jingoistic convinced or given a particular political perspective or racial perspective or social perspective so it's a tight balance um we can certainly go back and vet each of these books and do is there any lascivious language or any

063inappropriate curse language um You probably with modern novels will have some of that in those novels to a certain extent and I I don't think we're disputing what you said because actually I agree with yeah almost everything I think the fact that as board members we're elected to protect our youth absolutely you know and that's number one and as Mr compos is saying and if I correct me if I'm wrong you're recognizing stuff that we weren't allowed to deal with when we were growing up but here's here's the catch we're talking about being Innovative we're talking about leading the way California is not leading the way we're one of the worst right now academically so how does immigration how does birth control how does abortion how does sexual orientation lead the way I I get

064it I get these are all topics we all want to talk about we want to talk to our youth we want to talk to other other board members every we just want to talk about it because we need to get off our chest I believe regardless educ schools is a safe place for everyone it doesn't matter who what when where and why period but we're supposed to be focused on academics y we're not supposed to be talking about political agendas political views all the time we could have that conversation outside of Education outside of off off the clock per se I don't have a problem with addressing this for the community I believe parents need to know what they're being their kids are being taught there needs to be an opt out form and you

065said we could vet through the books shouldn't that have already been done no the books have been vetted and read they've been all the books have been read by our teachers teacher committee let me ask you the common question and I think the majority of us here are parents would you allow your children to read those books I'll be honest I haven't read that book I have not read all the books on the list um that's that's kind of the point we have to have groups of people that do that i I'm a little uncomfortable with that particular passage myself so well yeah the language was vulgar yeah and some of the things that like and and this is this is this is what gets difficult um you know we try to you know nowadays

066jokes are like you can't say because they have these stereotypes behind them right and so and understood right but when they make you know jokes about you know oh that white person or it could be done about you know those Mexicans or you know the black people or or this or the Asians it could it's if there's any one of those members in that classroom it's going to strike a court now I'm not saying that we don't have that conversation but I know if you're going to be if the kids read this passage and they say oh well you know and in this specific case it's it's white right and so and they paint white people as almost negative because of who they are and what their expectations and what their their values are their

067and and I just I think it it it triggered we're in a lose lose situation and so for me it's it's very difficult to now introduce literature that isn't going to offend someone and either we're okay with it and the other concern too is like are teachers really equipped to deal with some of that because once you start it starts go everywhere and I've seen it in Middle School PE where something you know I might be saying something whatever and a kid will say something that's trying to trigger a response whether it's you know um bra sex whatever it is and I kind of just like whoa you know and obviously I'm P that's we're not going to talk about talk about that at home you know I mean keep that you know somewhere else

068but it can then become an onslaught and it could be it could be very divisive it could it could get very ugly and and I and and and I don't know like what the answer is you know my hope is that you know I would have liked this story to be told because it's a good story you know there's a lot of value to it um but just in a way that that I'll be honest with you this is the kind of stuff that I knew if I knew what's going on my kids would be in public or private schools and that's that's not a good position to be in you know what I mean because I think the public school system is the biggest net out there and it it's we're trying to capture

069everybody and and bring out the best in them now you know I don't know if you know some of these topics are going to it's going to work against us you know um and that I don't know and again that obviously we have a staff of professionals um I just it it's without me knowing how exactly it would be taught I mean I I couldn't approve it you know just just and I'm being honest with you because and that's sad because there's there's so much good content in there and so I'm I'm like torn you know what I mean I think you're wrestling with an age-old question first I want to agree with everything you're saying um if you think back to high school and the texts you might have read as a high school

070student I don't know what they were but as an English teacher I can tell you books like to K A Mockingbird very controversial when it was first adopted by schools um Mice and Men I don't know if you're familiar with the story where a best friend literally shoots his friend in the back of the head as an act of kindness that's one of the great debates in the novel at the end um very controversial there's some there's racial language in there there's sexual language in there um I could take you through some passages in Shakespeare that might curl your toes if you really understood them um Romeo and Juliet is a pretty dicey sexually graphic uh narrative so is Hamlet so is MC Beth so my only point is and I'll turn it right over

071to the question that's the purpose of the study question session here is we're dealing with an age-old question how do we bring modern works that will grapple with controversial issues that is part of Education students grappling with controversial issues and yet what should be approved and what's new and Over The Line and where is that line you said it I'm just agreeing with you it's very hard to find that place which is why this is a study session and as we've listened to teachers the kids are like hey these are really exciting books we want to read these books well you can see if you're young person why some of them might be but now we're hearing from the board well we've got we've got Norms we've got rules we we're our name is going

072to be on these that's the reason for today so we can go back and that's why you were given those books and you read them so we can go back and do further and present richer we didn't we know this is not the end all be all but I'll stop want to make a point I actually like everything that we're talking about right now I think my focal point would be on policies and practices to implement these books the novels you know we're talking about people's life life experiences uh there's a book called the black hand and I know you would know about that right the black the black hand I don't know that book okay well then then how about about this do a little bit of reading you'll find out a lot a

073lot of us have experienc experiences of that in our lives um who wrote the book I should have remember that one too um he's an ex- Mafia member uh okay yeah but the point being is a lot of people have different life experiences but my goal is to find out how do we Implement policies and practices like I was hearing the gentleman talking about I would implement this I would avoid certain chapters or pages of the book but not all teachers will because let's let's face reality there's teachers that say okay go ahead read the book and then they're going to sit back and do whatever they're doing while the kids are quote unquote reading right so how do we protect that so it's not like we're going to tear a page out of the

074book that's a terrific question a lot of this has to go into training and that's training that is super important um I want to give you a quick response um for any of the controversial books I've described that are previously canonized books meaning they're part of almost read in every high school in America right um You you have to do some setup to what my colleague Mr um Thomas was saying you're going to encounter this this is how we if if you're going to teach Hut Finn you've got to address the class you're going to hear that word that is an unspeakable word but yet historically we're dealing with a book on slavery here if you're going to read The Narrative of Frederick Douglas so you have to set that up and frame that what

075he was suggesting I don't want to speak too much for Mr Thomas but if we were reading say a non-fiction magazine article on um immigration debate and then you wanted to read a chapter from a book from a character who was speaking to you'd want to bring inbalance sides to that before you jump into something like that in a social studies class or a literature class you're going to have to do a lot of what we call Framing and say Hey you might were about to enter a topic that you might have different opinions on your parents might have different you have to be respectful there are words we don't use there and teach kids how to engage controversial subjects is a big part of what we have to do now and it's particularly complicated

076I don't want to open it up too broad here we know that kids can go online now and look at anything and everything that none of us would argue isn't obscene I mean they have access to any obscene in the world I'm not suggesting we bring those in the classroom I'm saying that we've got to as Educators teach kids how to have dialogue and debate and kind of what you're saying this is a professional setting it's an academic setting there's a way to talk about controversial issues and their ways not to that is a big part of how we educate our kids today the literature we bring to them is sort of the vehicle to have those lessons but but I think I'm talking more of a bigger picture because right now the focal point

077is is the classroom and and obviously that's a key element but I'm talking about these opt out forms and parent notifications before the kids take the class how do we address that can we do that I know we absolutely can do that one and I think that would be safer for us like I said look what's going on in other school districts you know we got parents protesting if you give them an option that puts us in a safe Zone absolutely so one of the things and it sounds like she might have an answer that is one of the things that might come out of this study session and the board in is whatever novels eventually get adopted by this body not saying it'll be these 23 maybe you remove some maybe we add some

078I don't know um it is possible to come up with a not just novel description but warning these are the ideas or the concepts or some things that your child will be exposed to and you could opt out we could have committees my I would say that isn't going to be done by the assistant superintendent or even the director that would go back to teachers to look at the books and and create an opt out form for each novel um those have not existed historically in education for like if a student reads catcher and the Ry some of you might have read that in high school and some of you might think that's a great book and some of you might think a book that starts out with it's about suicide it's about uh sexuality

079it's about a lot of really controversial things none of you probably an opt out form for that book when you read it or Of Mice and Men when you read it or To Kill a Mockingbird there's a character who's a heroin addict in To Kill a Mockingbird which I understand we're in a different time but another question I have is what about the teachers what if they're uncomfortable with reading that to their students teachers always have a choice absolutely and how they handle and no teacher would be expected to teach a book that they were uncomfortable teaching they the by the way these are books that are added to if you look at the top of that list did they get the preapproved list as well um it was in their their notebooks in it's

080in your notebook so these are not like we're getting rid of to kill Mocking Bird and we're adding this book these are now additional choices that teachers would have if they choose to read those does that make sense what the law I don't I'm not sure are on a state approved list we wouldn't full book yeah all the books that have been presented to you believe it or not are on a state approved list there is no book that isn't on American Library Association or California Department of Education that was the starting point for the books um it's an option it's an option thanks yeah appreciate you helping me it's a good question it's a much larger question than I can even answer that um there is a state Committee of people usually teachers administrators

081parents I wonder if they have students who go through books every year and these are books that are vetted and approved to be taught in and we started with those lists so believe it or not all the books you've been presented 50 something originally read by two of our coaches then they got down to 20s something read by our teachers then it was put through other am I answer any question it's a hard question it's a very because it's a very good question yeah yeah should I read it I don't know um your law enforcement experience oh okay um I want to make sure we're answering your questions I was I just want I was G to show them this this particular slide so for example this is what Mr Bruff was referring to so

082currently for this particular 10th grade unit in essential questions there are two currently adopted novels um KN and Lord of the Flies and so the under review is the Midnight Library and poet X so the teacher would then have four novels to choose from to teach the same unit using the same essential questions so if a parent was challenging say one of those books then they would say well then here are three others that still teach the same thing that you could utilize to teach the same the same topic and you might remember if did anybody read the book Outsiders when they were in or seen the movie Very controversial book when it was originally proposed to be taught in high school boys out drinking boys out fighting um there's a lot of uh class

083war there's race war there's a lot happening in that book um what's the other one that we had here um it's librarys no not the new ones what's the other old one night okay night so you're talking about a book about a concentration camp um Survivor and there's a lot of death there's a lot of um so books traditionally are very controversial and in those cont I'm okay I'm all those I guess it's just being a little old fashion like nowadays I hear sixth graders and when I first years the language from graders wasn't so ASU and that's where I guess for me like the topics are okay I know we've had this conversation about and I think Joe to me helped me a while back when we talked about this about how having all

084language wayt just text you're doing or which text the teacher choos to do so those guess well in this particular unit you would have older novels that have traditionally been taught to teach the the unit um and class sets and then you would have two new novels being proposed and a teacher would have the opportunity to say in this unit I'm going to use the old novel or the other old novel or I do want to use the new novel to teach this concept so we're giving them a more a bigger latitude of choice um some teachers perhaps me I say you know I'm going to stick with the outsiders teach this concept if I was a 24 year old teacher I might say you know what I really gravitate towards the new novel and

085I think I would like to you know have this discussion with my students and then it comes to what it sounds like you've had a conversation with Mr Williams about how do you do that as a teacher teachers have always had to wrestle with this question of how you present a work literature or art or you know most of what you have just said I agree with I look at the TV my children grew up watching it compared to the TV I watched um you know but I think it's always kind of a moving Target too and I don't want to digress too much everybody remember the show MASH I'll connect it my daughter watched an episode of mash and I remember Mash is a very Progressive show speaking out against the Vietnam War and

086and the political times of the I thought it was a pretty Progressive show my daughter watched it and said so what was this a show about how to sexually harass women and I go huh and she goes yeah all these doctors just sexually harass all the nurses all day and there's all these jokes and I guess they're supposed to be funny guys and I'm like no Mash was a very Progressive show well it's inter then she went and watched an episode of Arie bunker and she watched an episode of cheers and we had an interesting discussion about wow something that was very Progressive at the time now we we bring a different lens to it so my only point is in agreeing with you that it's a constant moving Target and it's the challenge of

087being an educator to navigate that space with our students what we ask of teachers is huge yeah but I I I just I wanted to agree with you and and just use that to give an example of how difficult the teacher job is as they bring in any work to make a point you want me to give my example yeah please so we had talked at one of the campuses about how teachers cover controversial topics and I gave you the example of the English teachers would know there's a novel called the place where the sea remembers and in the place where the SE remembers before we cover that your teachers need to be skillful on addressing controversial topics so one of the things that I always talk about and it's not my saying but it's

088um in literature and I don't know any wise people who don't read by the way so so we we really need to make sure that our students are reading diverse works so uh there's a there's a saying that says um that uh literature is is a rehearsal for life is an imaginative rehearsal for life so through literature students through the mediation of a teacher can entertain these Concepts and topics that they would not otherwise encounter in their daily life but they could do that through literature so so I would tell the students it's imaginative rehearsal for life in this work of fiction there is a character that is contemplating something that probably goes against a lot of your values some of your religions but we're going to have the opportunity in here to talk about

089this in a safe place to do that and you're going to have an opportunity to go back and talk to your parents about this and in the place where this he remembers there was a character that was contemplating abortion um tell told within a story of that she was raped uh told within a story that um she was was going to give up the baby for adoption um but that didn't pan through um she was contemplating it and so while we were working through it and you know I'm not going to reveal the end that she doesn't do it but at the but at the end you know before we got to that the students are are struggling I just spoil alert uh read the story but there's more to the story um that that

090while they were having this imaginative rehearsal of this character who's contemplating something that goes against their values we were able to discuss it I had Parents tell me that's the first time I've ever had a chance to talk about abortion to my child and we're not for abortion but we were able to talk about it so training teachers that way to handle controversial topics because a teacher could totally screw up Puck fin they could cover it in the first week of school and kids are saying the Ed word left and right and then they're in the hallway saying the nword and you're like why did you teach that novel the first week of school like you hadn't even built a relationship with the students and not to Discount all all your valid concerns about vulgarity

091and all that stuff that doesn't discount that at all but there is this realism that allows the students to also work that and it is a safe place to realize like we don't say those words we don't do that so that was the topic that we had about literature is it a imaginative rehearsal for life um and and and and when it comes to you know controversy when it comes to political things like that um we would welcome those conversations because where else are they going to be able to safely entertain those two diverse opinions like where are they going to be able to safely talk about what you mentioned if not mediated through literature or a teacher so that's for the benefit of the board com I truly appreciate you conversations we've had because

092your comment right now just saying that you encourage them to go home and talk to their parents about it because that to me um that's important and and I know when my kids went through the public school system there were topics that they would we had an open communication talk to me about things and oh well you know where did that come up and and so they would explain it and and we had the conversation and they knew that they obviously at some point they have to make their own decisions these are what we felt you know our values but we know that they're individuals and I think that's the key thing and also hopefully that the the person in front giving the instruction is is truly not trying to it's just he let's have

093a conversation this is a crazy world it's a big world we have to we don't agree with and we have to function in theom it's onle field you know in our profession you have to be able to put that step aside and move forward process and obviously their brain is working and they're talking about things they're dealing with their feelings their emotions their experiences they're having conversations different input different view points are being inputed it gives them a tightly position like you said you know at the end of the day they can say I'm still here I'm over here now you know that I think is you know that has to be embod of the work for me it's scary part is do we have and push one way or the other and a lot

094of times you know it's the authoring because I can tell you by reading this it tells me a lot about the author obviously their experience story but I can also tell a lot of their ideology the way issu it's just one of those things where it's kind of like yeah and the these topic these topics are what they will encounter in life they're going to they're going to graduate at 18 years old and they're probably not going to be able to avoid uh depression and suicide and abortion they're not going to be able to avoid that they're going to experience it in what better place than in the comfort and safeness of a classroom could they discuss thise sense depression probably out but where to seek help for that speak to the iMagic rehearsal he's

095talking about um you might think if you read Huf fin in high school that it is and it is a novel of anti-slavery novel but one of the greatest themes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is suicide he says early on in the novel I was so lonesome I wished I could die and he makes several references numerous throughout the novel are being so depressed that he's suicidal it is a very delicate thing to teach kids say wait he he's really contemplating something here when you're the teacher and you have to be prepared to frame that discussion have that discussion do the magic rehearsal Joe's talking about what do you think this character is going through right now what's his conflict why is he so depressed what what are his options how has he gotten

096to this place how does he get out of it um it's we ask very delicate things of our teachers we always have and I want to get back on course here a little not that we're off course I want to applaud you guys this is exactly the reason you have a study session we're like Scholars here and we're having a very sophisticated debate on really challenging issues and the board's opinions matter almost more than anyone ultimately you would be approving books and I took the weight of that decision so this is the very purpose of it these are a starting point was from approved list numerous people have looked about it we're wrestling we've been wrestling with these very questions that you're now wrestling with and we want guidance from the board on what should

097we continue to wrestle with before we bring the final list to you because I guarantee you we are not the first board or Educators to deal with this and I could mention any book that's been a part of American literature taught in high schools um has had this debate should it be taught some point it had to be approved and what's the value in teaching it and having these discussions with kids um I don't know thoughts or other questions or directions so one of the directions I'm getting to go back to the team and rather than just the synopsis do you want a word count or any direct quotes of anything that could be lascivious or sexual nature or um curse words I also heard a request that we pursue um a dedicated opt out

098form there's a lot of steps I can't give you just an inst answer that do if we're going to do that should we also go back and do that with the older novels like if um a book you might have read when you were in high school is um all the boys trapped on the island and uh Lord of the Flies okay right I think I'm not giving anything away they end up hunting each other down Lord of the Flies and you know to it's a Hobs lock debate is man basically good or basically evil they end up killing a boy with a sharp stick it's pretty graphic so are we only going to do forms for new proposed perhaps controversial novel or should we do the back work I have another question all of

099them right yes well you have a list of those because recently I think there was a book founda okay can I speak to that okay I agree with you some of the work correlated this and um about two weeks before Christmas break I set up a meeting with myself and Mr Williams who is involved in libraries Dr hoon is over curriculum and Dr McNair and our head libr because there was a book on the shelves and I when we looked at it we agreed whoa this should not be on the shelves so then it began a debate of well who decides what's removed from shelves we pulled up the board policy it might be a separate presentation different than this one but we could come present to you there is an actual book challenge that

100any Community member parent or teacher anyone can make to say hey this books on the shelves are being taught and it shouldn't be and and there's a process outline in board policy and we could pull that up and show you but the reason I put all those people in a room together was to make this comment to them that if a book is brought forward and somebody has a concern it shouldn't be the assistant soup who reads it and I decide no yes it shouldn't be the director of cric instruction who makes that decision should we give it to the board president say should we pull it or not pull it and then you're the guy because it's your term now or or you prior so what we began doing was the work of putting

101together that Committee of two four five and we one of our notes was to perhaps add a parent and a student and when a book challenge comes forward that committee would come together and read the book and say now the book we were looking at we thought everyone would pretty much say let's get this off the shelves and and we temporarily pulled it um well not tell we have pulled it um but that's the beginning of some work that I thought was important that it should be a committee of people deciding because of the nature of the discussion we're having today it's too weighty a decision to put on any one person but we do want to clarify that that was not a book that was um taught in a classroom not nor a book

102that was in any syllabus and so it's it's kind of like we're answering two questions at once I just want to clarify really quick Mr is that part of the question that you asked Mr compos and Mr Garcia was um how do we decide like what's taught in the classroom and how do the parents know and part of that is every um at the beginning of every school year teachers send home a syllabus to their students I me to their parents and their parents have to sign off on said syllabus and so in the discussions of some of the teachers that I've talked to um English teachers they actually list the the names of the books the titles and the the authors of the books and under the board's direction we could expand that to

103include um the topics that you all have indicated today so that they know exactly what is in said books um right now the the teachers that when the syllabus that they present to this the students and to their parents um is usually just the name of the book and who it's by um the same with film studies the Cinematic classroom um they submit the list of of movies or or clips of the movies that the students would watch and then the parents then approve um the syllabus or not one example from last school year um m Chavez actually handled it over at Heritage um there was a book in the um ERWC class the uh English Reading Writing and let see course course we have so many acronyms so in that ERWC course um there

104was one text that the parent was not okay with the student um reading and so just like we're presenting here there were a number of novels that the student could choose from that would teach the same material the same essential questions the same um the same themes and so um Miss Travis met with a parent they talked they switched out the novel um and then she called and said um this is the process that I followed which was exactly right because that's in our board policy 13 12.2 that talks about if a parent decides to um challenge any of the instructional materials this is the process that they go through and the first step is the informal complaint which goes to the principal and so that's what was followed which is why it didn't come

105to the district level and we were just notified after the fact so that's what is already happening um in our our schools right now based off of the materials that are taught in the particular classroom and what Mr bre is talking about are the library materials which is the separate discussion that we're talking about developing a more robust process for um and we've done research from here all the way to New York looking at different states looking at what their process is we've um even you know seen policies that are upwards to 20 Pages um on this particular topic to detail um what the form says um and how to go about challenging those um Library materials so we do have a set of board policies in board policy 6000 that talks all about about

106all about our instructional materials but then we also have another set of board policies in the 1000s that talks about what we need to do as far as the complaints and the last time that the board Revisited the policy 131 12. to was back in 2006 and so it is something that we have considered and looked at that it is something that we would be bringing to the board once the team meets again and goes through the process to see exactly what direction are you all providing to us that we need to take and revising this policy and we've also looked at what the California school boards association's recommendations were um but we knew that um bringing the information to you today would help us in our discussions when we meet again um we do

107have a meeting already on the calendar for for January that Mr Bruff has set for us um prior to his departure and out of that discussion came some other concepts of you know traditionally Librarians from recommended reading lists libraries of America or californ Prim education would order new books so what's what are the guidelines for ordering new books what are the guidelines if a book is challenged what are the guidelines for coling books and by coling you can imagine going let's use science it's easy your librarian you're going through a a science book from 19 60 on the environment probably needs to be removed and we need to order a new book on environmentalism or something right um you're constantly pulling books that's a big thing especially when you're getting into these controversial issues now

108and so we thought we should get that committee together to look at how are books ordered how is that information presented to you as a governing body how are books reviewed and c and removed and then how our book challenges which is what the originally brought brought it to our attention and we thought well we need a more sophisticated process than the one we currently shouldn't be like head librarian make a decision or director of curriculum You' decide I know I'm being repetitive now or board president or superintendent um we really thought we need a rubric and we're searching for those on how we analyze and answer some of the questions you're bringing to us today like what is the rubric for is a book appropriate or not appropriate and we're we're looking so there's

109a lot of work to answer your questions and were doing that work um does this does that make sense I'm going to stop there yeah yeah uh definitely but I want to clarify I'm not looking for an opt out form I'm looking for an optin form for participation and the reason why I say that is because it gives the parents the authority and the power which should be anyway if they approve it or not you know before um And in regards to us taking a vote in regard to that form pertaining to all the books I would ask the board for direction you know I wouldn't just certainly bring various forms to you opt in opt out and some okay yeah and as we're having this discussion it's a study session I want you to

110know my team is here taking notes and all the homework thinking research we're we're that's the purpose of the study session you're giving us homework we're going to go back and do that homework there may be subsequent study sessions there may be other ways to give you that information that that'll really be under the guidance of our superintendent but we're here as a study to study together and begin answering questions you may have as a board the very purpose of today I'm I'm sorry would you also like to see a copy of like a current English syllabus and how parents sign off on that okay okay we can provide that sure yeah do we have because I think of my view of it is from my of course my experience my sure I can handle

111that part handle this so we do talk about this a little bit in our ethnic studies component there is research out of Stanford University School of Education on the power of students seeing themselves in their curriculum um on on a side note this is actually part of what my dissertation was on um and and getting feedback from teachers um through um on student pieces and one of the biggest feedback pieces that we got from students was them wanting to see themselves more in the curriculum including the novels um it creates a buyin um I know that some of you are in the classroom my husband's currently in the classroom and one of the challenges he's a social science teacher is getting students bought in and seeing themselves um because teaching things the old way we've

112learned coming back from Co doesn't work and they tend to really tune out but when they're able to identify with the characters um they're we got their attention and that's what we really need to do in order to teach the standards we use the novels to teach standards we te then that's what we do we teach standards we use textbooks to teach standards and what we're trying to do as teachers or as Educators is in fact engage our students with that curriculum so that we can teach those standards but overall if you look at a lot of the research coming out time and time again the one strong message from students is they want to see themselves in that curriculum and people that they can identify with and so we do that in terms of

113novels we don't teach full novels we use components of the novel to teach those standards and that's what um U Mr Thomas was referring to previously we don't just go here's a novel go read I think we did that in the 9s that was a shift that happened in common core around 2014 that's how got the callus from dialectical journals um reading all of the full novels over the summer um but we don't do that anymore because there isn't a value of necessarily the full novel but there is value in terms of going deep within the excerpts not to say there's not value in reading novels but that should be something that typically is done on their own time and if a kid is engaged and wants to go check out a book from the

114library well that just makes me happy as a former English teacher did we answer your question sorry you did I thought she did much better than I would have and she's done like I said Doctor work on this yeah yeah con that I see you know that glorify right don't all and that you're refering to the Sherman Alexi novel I think that's in there he's he's the famous Native American Author yeah the true diary well bring out a little old English teacher explanation um stories are characters in Conflict seeking resolution so whenever you read a novel you're going to have characters and they're wrestling with some conflict and the novels that tend to Peak kids interest in elicit dialogue and debate and thought are the ones that are engaging conflict that either your countryes dealt

115with or people deal with or um so you're going to have some element of violence or some element of decision making these are the things that literature wrestles with we could any novel that you read back in high school you could think what was the conflict was it a racial conflict was it a class societal conflict was it a conflict dealing with mistreatment of you know an under class I could keep going think of all the conflicts um we're doing in this study session the very hard work of this is the hard question novels and the conflicts which ones do we bring to kids and approve and which ones do we shy away from ultimately we as a body are going to have to approve something and then train teachers to go out and do

116this Del you're just I just honor you you're asking all the hard questions and we're Gathering homework to come back and do some of that thinking and present you ask this here's our response you ask this here's our response I like so please know as you express these thoughts they are writing down notes of work that we need to do to come back to you or answer the thoughts or questions or queries or struggles you might be having as a board this is not a list of hey today this is what we're proposing you approve them it's a study session to do exactly what we're doing and that's i s a little broken record down because I want to just honor the process so keep asking the hard questions we're going to keep writing down

117our homework and we're going to come dig and come back do you mind address something gent Mr Thomas said wanted to address I just you bring up a great point was so our our our thinking when starting this whole process was diversity and inclusion and so we were looking at the authors that are on our current novel adoption list and a very high percentage fit a specific um um demographic thank you um and so we looked at like what Native American Authors are out there what Latino authors like how can we represent our our you know our students um and and what challenges can we bring in to be able to have these great discussions and also what can we as teachers do with the curriculum and one of the most powerful teaching tools is

118cross-curricular instruction and so with bringing in historical novels like being able to have those great conversations with the history teachers allowing to connect with those classes and allow me as an English teacher to to to bring up these ideas in class and then allow the students to go into their history class and have those same conversations and really get that that powerful instruction um and for me as a teacher to be able to to look at what themes I want to teach you know within those novels and connect with the history classes and allow that history teacher to continue that theme as well so that was one of our thinkings as well I I just think well that's the problem yeah so think about what he just said and I'm combining what you're saying what

119he's saying think about a unit we might have had way back in the day where in a history class they were teaching Jim Crow in Your literature class you might teach the play raising in in the sun you might remember the great Sydney poier movie right um very topical at the time very controversial at the time in social studies you might be teaching Jim Crow in literature you'd be teaching uh either the whole play or a passage from that play and then maybe kids are doing writing thinking and and argumentation about that concept what are the concepts today that our students are going to be wrestling with what is it that should be taught in a social studies class augmented by a piece of literature in the literature class and then how back to your

120point I'm cing together everything now do we trust teachers to delicately lead that discussion and and that thinking not not tell them what to think but how and then bring in the internet and wow this is tough stuffing how do know wanted to read about greatest baseballers never looked at race I just looked at like the best hitter ever you know I mean um in terms of baseball players who were humanitarians Roberto the basketball I I would agree with you we're about the same ageed byci perspective now was gooder that Ace soed into and now when that grp I can give you a very Standard English answer we when you become an English teacher and study literature in college you wrestle with this when we look at British literature it tends to have debates about

121class people with land and people who were peasants Hales and hav Nots American literature has traditionally dealt with race as a a constraint question because it's so much a part of the American experience and I I could draw a line for with 100 novels that have moved that racial discussion in America um because we're not a country based on landed gentry and peasants our history is a little different so our literature deals with our history it dealt with it in terms of slavery you could AR from Fredick Douglas to BU Finn to some those others I talked about to to kill MO and now modern books um it also more and more deals with the immigration experience a lot of our literature is about the Immigrant experience of coming from one country to another and

122becoming American that's another constant theme in American literature so it's hard to get away from how you your question was how do these get picked even baseball if we were going to bring pick a book now say you tassis why don't you do a book on great baseball players well how would you address do you not talk about Jackie Robinson do you not talk about Roberto Clemente do you not talk about people who broke the color barrier in baseball I don't know maybe you don't maybe you just talk about batting averages and who had the most hits but I think if we were if you Tas us now with pick a book on baseball a literature book at baseball would probably deal with the race issue in some it's complicated is all question okay there

123you go but see if we were going to what were we proposing to you we're going to read have our kids read the autobiography of Jackie Robinson or the biography of Jackie Robinson I don't think too many people in this room or out in the community or anybody sitting up there would be too terrified of Jackie Robinson let's go back in time and it's 1962 and the assistant superintendent of education is before you as a board saying we're going to we're going to have our students read the biography of Jackie Robinson what do you think of that the people sitting up there would be wrestling with a few things it's kind of the moment we're always in in America in American Education you're wrestling we're wrestling together with you with these questions what do we

124approve what do we not approve it's hard we're asking for your guidance and we're happy to go back and do more homework for you today that's the purpose of the day so keep throwing questions at us and homework at us we will do it and come back sir do you mind if I sure address it so from from a teacher's perspective um and I'll just I'm going to use um the uh the example that's on here and you asked a great question how how do we decide like as teachers what are we going to teach right um and so ultimately I'm just to use this example because it's the first thing so from a teacher's perspective my the way I I frame lessons is I look at what's valuable for the students to learn inside

125and outside the class right so what's valuable for them um and then what you know what do I have uh uh what assets do I have to share with the students and so I looked at the you know unit two for uh chapter 10 from our our adopted textbook um do people need to belong okay so what's my theme of that unit it's going to be belonging identity you know culture and so on um and I'm looking through and okay cool poet X if it becomes adopted poet X is one of our our novels it's a new novel it's relevant and I go okay as a teacher I think all right I now I can type poetry with this okay cool and and believe it or not not all nth graders like poetry so I

126think okay how can I connect poetry to get him to like it okay songs music right songs songs are the most popular form of poetry awesome now I got them connected when I teach poetry with music and then I go to poet X and we don't read the whole novel we don't need to right that's not the purpose of of this um and so I pull out exerpts of poet X and that leads me to Poetry Slams performances okay cool now I can talk about speeches now I can get the students up in front of a class so now I can do an in-class poetry slam and allow so going back to poetry allowing students to be able to voice what they want to talk about right through their poetry which could be uh uh

127it could be uh um uh race issues it could be uh it could be whatever issues they're feeling right so as a teacher I'm facilitating what what my students need but I'm doing it in a way that that you know is accessible for all students and allowing the students to voice guiding them not what I want to hear from them but what the students want to say and so then we do our class poetry slam right for the students who want to do it volunteer only of course right and give them huge rounds of Applause so now I started with okay what do I think is valuable for my students to learn the way to be able to share their ideas right and then it leads to poetry performance going to the different various text

128whatever we need to choose getting the experience of reviewing the novel allowing the students to be able to share what they feel they need to get out of the curriculum not just me presenting what I feel um thank you yeah sure yeah so question part of when you plan a lesson and this is almost a lesson a study session with you all is you don't always know where that lesson's going that was the reason for the break and us come back and answer questions we can return to sort of the presentation mode or we gave the break so you could list and now you're giving us some homework and asking great questions do you want us to get back to presenting do you have further questions or want to be cognizant of the time but

129also respectful of your wishes and does that make sense so I'm trying to think where we would be so we're going to um we're going to skip over the theme statements because we talked a lot about the novels and the theme statements and the carousel um in your packet there was an activity that we did with the students um the beginning part of that activity so we're going to skip through this part where um we actually took some quotes from the books um that were the themes we had the students get into group groups that were not with um teams from their schools um and we had them look at the theme statement so we're going to skip this particular activity but what I do want to go to is just kind of where we've

130been on this journey and then kind of H what the students say so you know what these Legos are over here in the corner and then our teachers behind us that are going to share a little bit more so um with the novels we have previewed them um over the summer with our leadership team um because again as Mr Thomas was talking about um we did not include administrators in this process of choosing novels um I think I attended two of the novel committee meetings maybe for about 15 minutes each because we wanted to ensure that it was teacher voice and teacher driven um and so um director zald um oversaw most of those meetings um with the the teachers on special assignment but it was driven directly um by our teachers and we did

131have the board presid ations um in May and in June just kind of get letting you know that it was coming um we then presented it to the principles because our principles they were like everyone's knows about these novels well what about us and so we presented it to the principles and then at October professional development um a part of the equi carrying action session um we had all of the novels out on display um so that everyone could kind of take a look at what we were considering um so that they knew that they were coming um another component of this journey that was very very important was the parent Journey um when we presented uh director zald and I to you all in June we talked about putting together a committee that would

132um allow allow us um to have some additional information we do have you know under elcap goal number three um that talks about parent and Community engagement we talk a lot about our P program um that is led by um director Martin um we have our elac we have our daac we have our apacks we have our day packs um so we have a variety of parent committees but many of those committees don't talk about some of these issues that you all are bringing up today and so when we presented in June we said that we would put together um a committee that would be primarily to talk about these controversial issues and the things that are really concerning our schools like why aren't our students coming to school um looking at our mtss program

133and just providing us with some on the ground feedback from the parents and so we sent out a letter um and we can provide you with a copy of that if you haven't seen it yet we put it out on Peach jar we put it on social media it was on our school meage message boards like Blackboard um and then the committee submitted applications via this um interest form it was in English and Spanish um and so then um as Mr Bruff talked about at the very beginning of this presentation is that we broke the equity team into three subcommittees and in that parent subcommittees they reviewed thec ation of the parents who said they wanted to be a part and so as you can see these are the demographics of the parents that responded

134to um the call for being a part of this committee um as you can see the committee decided that they were going to accept up to five parents per school and we thought it was just like crazy that Liberty High School submitted exactly those five applications um we probably would have accepted Liberty if they would have um if there were more parents parents that applied from that school only because as you can see from the other schools some of the representation wasn't as high we did extend the application process a little longer just because we wanted to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to be aart um we even did a call you know at some of the parent meetings that were happening saying hey there's this new committee that's forming that's going to talk

135about these issues and review the novels and review ethnic studies and review um our mtss program and we want your feedback and so we also asked them in that same um application um or interest form what other committees have they served in in the past and so as you can see um there were nine parents in this committee that have also served in our um on our parent engagement leadership um initiative um as well as School site Council some have had no involvement some were community members and so it was just a like a a broad like fishing of just wanting parents to come um together to review the information so what you've seen so far today with the novels and the introduce the authors um that is what our parents have seen already um

136they've seen the the list of novels um they have also been able to request a copy of the novels um provided by the school district at our meeting in December um they were also provided with the information that you will see in the second part of our meeting today on ethnic studies um but the parents were provided with everything that you've seen today um just so that they could see um and have a voice and our next meeting um is coming up with the parents on January the 9th um the meetings are held via Zoom um this is by the parents preference um we ask them do you want to meet in person do you want to meet online do you want a hybrid um almost unanimously they were saying can we do it on

137zoom and so we did it on Zoom so that it's accessible to the parents um the meetings were also translated um the parent engag engagement Specialists were involved in the process as well so that's what we did on the parent side as it relates to these novels as well as ethnic studies um also with our students on the students Journey um we've had three um superintendent listening sessions so far um these are the topics that our students have reviewed and again um in May it was a very um broad overview in May um and so we didn't um consider we needed parent permission slips because at the time we weren't talking about novels and we weren't really getting into the nitty-gritty of ethnic studies um of course they had to have a field trip permission

138slip but as far as the detailed topics um we did not send that in May however U Mr Bennett and Mr Bruff and I um as we were asking questions that were really General our students began bringing up topics that we looked at each other and and we said we didn't ask those questions um we we were they were giving us information that we had no idea that they would bring up especially as it related to the accountability matrix which is our um it's what we used to call the discipline Matrix back in the day um and so when we brought them the accountability matrix they were bringing up topics of things that were happening um on their campuses that we said oh we probably need to go and ensure that our parents know what

139our students are bringing up because we weren't prepared at the time um we were asking very general questions about their school experience um as it relates to discipline and as it relates to we have all of these new people coming on for our new mtss program what do you think about it and then they created public service announcements as it related to how they would want it rolled out on their campuses and the like so that was the activity of the first day we then came back and not only with the filter permission slip but we included an additional permission slip that had the topics of the novels and had the topics of the ethnic studies and sort of where the equity team was going with these particular topics we ended that second day with

140an attendance challenge by asking our students why do students come to school why don't they come to school and what can we do to ensure that they come to school and so we did that in September and with director Marvin Atkins we wanted to ensure that we heard from the students not only like let's talk about novels and ethnic but what is making you engage um in the academic tasks that you're presented with you know what is what is your experience like on your campuses and so we did that as a team in September in November by the way can I one of the overwhelming responses was can you bring us some books that we can relate to uh yeah but that's hard process we're engaged in total process and so because they asked that

141when we just introduced the top the names of the books at the September meeting um our two uh teachers on special assignment um Mr Thomas and Miss Harris they put together a full like immersive experience for our students with novels um they chose I believe it was nine novels Mr Thomas eight eight novels where the students were partnered in groups um and they went through eight of the novels that are on the um novels under review list um and they um started engaging in the themes they started engaging in the summaries they started having conversations what was really interesting is that some of the students were saying oh I've read this book before Oh my sister read this book and so then the conversation um became a little richer and so what you'll see in

142your um novel summary um packet is the activity that we took the students through as it relates to novels we then had them do one of the performance perance task in ethnic studies and when we get to the ethnic studies portion of the meeting um we'll talk about what those performance tasks look like um and you'll see a sample video Tik Tok video from Heritage High School students um but we also had the students do a building block activity with their reactions from the um from the book so now I will have U Miss Wakefield who's a teacher at um CMI and also Mr Thomas I'll call them back up so at the end of our uh superintendent lisening session we had we had done throughout this session a theme activity um where students were

143able to read themes from the books um and then give their thoughts and perspectives of it from their from their personal perspective right and then we had all 23 novels around the room and one sentence theme statements that were either directly from the novel or represent the theme of the novel throughout so students were able to look at each 23 novels look at a statement that represents the novel or take directly from the novel and and decide like would find one that connects with them really well and so what they did was at the end of the session they took a block a Lego block there wrote down the theme that connected with the students really well the one that was like this is me like that the book was written for me wrote that

144down I would perfect thank you and then no that's thank you all I saw was everywhere and then um the they wrote down the theme and then the students had the option to choose if they wanted to write down why connected to them or not because we wanted to give them the choice so sometimes things connect to us and we're just not ready to talk about them yet we're not ready to talk about why so they wrote that down you'll see some have it some don't and then we connected it bringing them closer no that's perfect thank you what good teachers we have on and you'll see that you know the the the as an English teacher I love metaphors and so we have our metaphors of you know the different bricks the different colors

145the different sizes the different backgrounds yet they all get put together in unity right representing our students in our district so that's our our student block activity the students really enjoyed that a lot Miss wait yeah and I'll just say speaking to some of the conversation we've already had some of the motifs that students brought forth as you can see there are self-doubt um learning from past experiences and those things exist within the novels we've currently adopted but there is such a distance in terms of historical relevancy that as teachers we have to spend so much time front loading and giving them that historical context giving them um definitions for somewhat Obsolete and esoteric language and addiction and syntax so by using these new novels as a parallel it just allows us to hit those

146you know more indepth of Knowledge Questions and conversations that um allow them to build those synopses in their brain and realize that those books that we are reading such as Lord of the Flies and night paired with the poet X um they have these underlying motifs and so um again just speaking to those are parallels these are extensions of what we're already doing just to Foster those um learning experiences so as you can see these are stud says connect with that's all we started with and then they could choose whatever text that they connected in but pict probably not asart begin not would you like us would you like us to type each of those up and give you in like a really readable font we can do that work for you what's that yeah

147do that um just for the sake of time um and I'm not rushing you past this either but we can certainly type them up and and provide them maybe the weekly summary I can attach that list that work okay we'll do that up of students that um are just all of our a students this this group is a group of students where the administrators were able to choose a special education student um a student that's gotten into trouble um at some time a English learner um an ASB student an athlete and then also Al a student that participates in some of our special programming like our advanced placement programming or a student that has like really really um good grades Mr Bennett and this the student one student from Paris Lake High School she she

148was just amazing she was so well spoken was a leader in the group but had come from Paris Lake and I said to her how did you end up at Paris Lake because she was just so vibrant and and she said I'm I messed up and I'm having to fix it but but she was like a the biggest leader in the group I think she was her name is Olivia and Olivia is um she is super sweet and she talks about her experience at Heritage High School and how she you know messed up her experience there but how she is doing everything that she can do to overcome um all of the barriers and how the people at Paris like the staff the students the um just anyone on campus is just such a listening

149ear for her um and so it provides us with like a a both and experience where we're not able we're not only presenting information to them but we're learning from them so much um because they're really talking about the true experiences of what's happening on the campuses and when I visit Paris Lake um Olivia is like Dr McNair look what we've done and so they're bringing back their experiences and they're telling their friends about that they do listen to us is what they've said is we do have a voice at the table and and they are taking notes when we talk and and then also you know Olivia's experience is talking to the other students in the room and she's quick to say don't do what I did like let's make sure you keep you

150know keep it together so that you can stay at your school and so it's just a really good um group of students and so um if you're available if you want to like pop in um our next superintendent listening session is coming up in March um I believe and so we would love to um to have you stop by just to see these amazing students that are are participating sure thank you Anna um we would love to to have you because it's just it's such a unique experience that we're able to take the initiatives of the district and have them talk to us about what their real experiences are um that's different from a classroom setting but also still structured um to give them that academic rigor um that we would want to see they

151do right for sure and it's really just nice to hear from them um and the other cool thing about this group is that we just don't focus on our 12th graders um we have all the grades there because it's important for them to hear from the experiences of their fellow classmen at the different levels so that we can again Inspire them and the reason why Mr Bennett and Mr BR and I wanted to ensure that the group wasn't just um like the high- Performing students was because that's not the voice of all of our students um when we talk about like diversity we also look at the diversity of experience it's not just about race or or gender but it's like what are our students experiencing and how can we get all the grade levels

152involved our pinotti students come for a little bit um they don't have the opportunity to stay the whole day um because of their school day um starting earlier and ending earlier and so it's nice for them also to hear um about the different experiences that are of course age appropriate but at the same time give them the opportunity to hear like oh I'm going to this high school and this is a a friend or a connection that I can have at the high school that I'm going to any questions about the superintendent's listening session and how we engaged our or how we engaged our parents or our students you're welcome okay perfect thank you we have two more left this year um and it is it's probably like the highlight of my month I can

153tell you the truth like it's it's just that like the day you don't want to miss ever and so that kind of concludes the novel portion I think it was like 9.1 um and so if we're going to transition into 9.2 um which is our um ethnic studies and so you have a separate packet on ethnic studies may ask one question before you do that um that was a lot which is because you guys are really asking a hard question and I again want to reiterate we've gathered some homework to do at some point we'll be doing other updates or bringing you a list to approve or deny um is there any last bit of homework that you would like us to do is there any um and then secondly it's a big pivot now

154to that studies class do you want to take a 10-minute break or so um before we jump into that next topic you want to continue okay so are we going to take a break or just one board M step out okay we'll go okay okay any last questions or informational things you want us to pursue as we continue down this journey no this has been really really informative for us because we we've had a list and I can you know show you the extensive uh Drive shared drive that we've created for novels it probably has upwards to 20 something documents that the teachers have worked on um and that they've archived well before my arrival here um and so the team has worked really really hard um with the novels and so we wanted to

155ensure that um the information that you're requesting most of it thankfully we already have but it's always that dance of like so how much information is too much information and so we will definitely add that um information that you've requested to those forms and get them back to youif a lot atast it there was a lot of things that was okay yes you're welcome we're probably about 18 months in into the process of both novels and ethnic studies to give you the timeline of kind of where we've been with um getting both of these two things together okay all right so we're going to switch gears to ethnic studies curriculum and I'm going to um call up Dr tomasian okay good morning everybody no afternoon it's now afternoon good afternoon everyone um so like Dr

156mcir said we're pivoting now to talk about the ethnic studies course um so I'm going to be introducing kind of the process that our team looked at when we created the the curriculum um how it really is teacher driven and teacher created um and then at the end of this session you'll hear more about how it aligns to um the state Civic seal of Engagement there we go um so assembly Bill 101 was passed in October of 2021 um it was actually authored by assemblyman Jose Medina uh right here from Riverside County so there's a local connection there there um and this assembly Bill modified the state requirement for graduation standards um and so it in you know imp Parts on all districts across the state that in order to graduate with a high school

157from the state of California students need to have at least one semester of a course in ethnic studies um that requirement goes into effect for the class of 2023 um and so you want to like oh 2023 or sorry 2030 that's a long way out why are we here in 2023 talking about a class of 2030 the assembly Bill also states that it has to be implemented in high schools at least by the year 2526 um you know kind of in some forethought we would like an opportunity to have a pilot all good things are piloted and then adjusted right um and so that's why we're here now in 20 start of 2024 um to talk about this course um the assembly bill goes into legislation that the course and the curriculum should draw attention

158to what are traditionally four ethnic and racial groups whose histories have been traditionally overlooked uh that being African-American Latino Native American and Asian-American um the interesting thing about the assembly bill is that it also calls on districts to really look at their own local context and encourages districts to include that local context that local Heritage the local ethnicities the local stories from within our own Community um assembly Bill 101 talks a lot and is all about ethnic studies nowhere in the assembly Bill does it mention the term critical race Theory and so I really think it's important that we stay focused on the ethnic studies curriculum it is not critical race Theory um the state gives a model curricular framework there's a link on it there which I think you have it is hundreds of

159pages long the interesting thing about it is that it does not provide any approved instructional materials it really tasks us as a as a as a district to create those instructional materials and you hear my my colleagues behind me kind of Snicker because that's what they've been doing for the past you know 18 months is really looking into what are the lesson plans that we are going to include in our course as a district um what's important for our students here what are our teachers wanting is um you know instructional tools and materials to really delve into the topic of ethnic studies um so I'm going to kick it off to my colleague Dr cahon to take us from there all right so the question came up of what will ethnic studies do and what

160will it not do ethnic studies is meant to engage students in critical thinking and Analysis um and create an environment of inclusivity and identifying commonalities between groups it's it's meant to build up the community it's meant to affirm students it's not meant to be decis divisive it's not meant to place blame it's not um teaching children or students what to think but it's providing with the tools on how to engage in those critical thinking strategies and um um when we're presented with information so if you think about current contexts it's it's being able to engage in civil discourse um using academics um as their Foundation component um the course implementation this kind of gives you a guid line of where it started this started be before I arrived in the district um I was this

161looks a little familiar B your ha you you saw this way back before fall of 22 and now you're seeing it again we're we're moving up the ladder here yes we're in yellow right now um right now um the idea is to keep in mind is that the um way that this was developed is was divided into three groups we had the parent group the student group and then the curriculum which was based off of the staff and the teachers this was teacher developed um and it was uh taking in all voices there was a lot of detailed um research that went into creating the units that my colleagues are going to share with you um a lot of local connections were made um a lot of professional development was had um and what it

162did is it kept um it heard the needs and the desires of all educational Partners when putting together um the units that you're going to be prived to um there's input here um on the curriculum development and design it's also been tested as Dr mcir um talked uh to you about um through some of the um some of the the um performance tasks we we went through with students as well um the way that the the content itself was developed is that there the team sat according to to the pillars and um one of my colleagues is introduce how those pillars worked but they spent full days putting together what would be taught how this could be taught and making sure that it was relevant to uh for the 21st century for our students me

163I'm filling in for Mr Alfred he had another um obligation um and so Mr Alfred um has been a part of the equity team um for the last six years um and so about six years ago the team went through a navigating differences training um under the leadership of Dr Charles Newman who was the assistant superintendent at the time um and so under his Direction the it was a team of teachers between six and eight um they started on this journey of just building capacity um within the the leadership of the district the teacher leadership um following that um at the beginning beginning of last school year um Dr White who is the former county superintendent of schools for Riverside um came in and did a training on the third option and so she spent

164time prior to my arrival um here to focus on similarities when talking about race and really really focusing on the message oops of the message of unity um from then um in January when I arrived in 2023 um we started talking about culturally relevant pedagogy and just cultural relevance as it relates to um what do our students and our teachers need to know before um approaching a topic like this we've talked about this earlier today that um you can't um present a topic without the proper framing the proper structure the proper information and so we spent about six months just talking about what are the things that teachers need to know prior to having this conversation because at the time we weren't sure which grade level or which subject matter credential area that is teacher

165would teach this course right now there currently isn't a ethnic studies um credential um there is talks of an ethnic studies credential um but right now one doesn't exist um then we also expanded the team to include all of the divisions in the organization because we felt as if um if it was only teachers at the table then um everyone doesn't take ownership of the information and so that's when all of the divisions got involved um with the committee so the committee grew from about 8 to 12 um till a little over 30 people and those meetings are monthly um which we developed the subcommittees which you saw on the second slide that has a list of all of the people um in on each of the subcommittees um last year a few of the

166members went to their footsteps of Freedom study tour um just to provide some additional historical context um we will have an um an additional tour upcoming in June for some of the pilot teachers again to build additional capacity um a few of our teachers have been meeting with historians from the Western history Association um just to provide us with some feedback of just kind of where we were thinking because one of the things we didn't want to do is present something that lacked historical um accuracy and so um we also had um I think one of you um I think believe it was you Mr compos mentioned you know going to an Indian reservation and so there are Mr staford thank you there was the talk of you know going to visit the Sherman Indian

167School and what does that look like and so some of our teachers actually we we paid for them to go to the Sherman Indian school we paid for them to go to the teach Museum in in Riverside the CI Civil Rights Museum in Riverside just to see in our local context what do we have with to with at our disposal but then how can we align what we want to do with the state's requirements again an unfunded mandate from the state of California without um any approved instructional materials because there is not a ethnic studies book textbook that has been vetted by the state there are sources that we've picked from like um Dr kahoun um and the toas and I we've been reading a book called rethinking ethnic studies and it contains you know

168articles and artifacts of things that people have done over the over the years of ethnic studies and so um one of our teachers Miss um Alvarado Kelly Alvarado from Paloma she actually presented our uh portions of our course to some his hisian at the Western history Association in October to get feedback on um from those um historians and they were completely impressed with some of the things that our teachers came up with um we also had some a group of teachers with Dr kahoun go to a creating civically engaged students aligning ethnic studies in the Civic steel of seal of Engagement oh that should say seal not steel um just caught that typo um and so in that way um we found out how to ensure that our students were able to to um obtain

169a seal in the way that we set it up um the last thing that our team has done is a few of us have been a part of the 21st century School Leadership Academy um which is run by um the Los Angeles um educational partnership the LA where again it's a capacity building um Consortium that allows us to come back to those monthly committee meetings so all of these little things like the last four bullet points are smaller groups of teachers but their responsibility is to go to to um like the conferences like the rcoe Excellence through Equity the San Diego County Equity conference and really bring that information back to the team to infuse that information so as we were building um the training for our teachers and our and um a lot of

170uh Bas workk for our our students that it's not just what we think or what we heard but it's actually true historical fact based off of our particular area um I remember being on a zoom with one of the historians from the Western history Association and he said did you all know about the Tula Massacre and then he provided us all of this information about the Tula Massacre back in the 1800s that many of us on the call had never heard of and so that's the kind of context that the historians are bringing in of what has happened in the neighborhoods that our students currently live in now that they should know about their neighborhoods and so that's just been something that's really been vital to to our success in the in the program U

171Mr Salo I'm calling him up he is a social science teacher at Paris High School who also teaches a Latin American history class good afternoon everybody um long process right um a little background about myself um I was born and raised in Paris um I've been here all my life my parents came here in ' 62 um all my parents which are all my brothers and siblings out of 10 of us um graduate from Paris High School so um as grew up in Paris uh we didn't have anything like this and um I wish we did because I would um taken a lot of better steps in my life similar to the board member here Mr St Gul um some of the overview ethnic studies uh we have modules here is identify selfawareness and um

172module two history movements and Community module three systems of power and injustices and module four social movements um equity and action uh module one I'm going to get to that in the next slide but module one teaching Latin American American studies Latin American Studies classes um we deal with all four of these pillars in a sense one one way or another for example uh Native Americans African-Americans Latinos or Latinos asian-americans Pacific honors and middle easterners for example segregation we think of segregation only as African American um experience as a historian but segregation goes way back there if you guys know M's case West Minister Minister West Minister case this was a little Latina girl in Orange County who was prevented to go to an Orange County School uh because she because of her race and

173segregation prevented her to get that higher education or that education her parents uh fought pretty hard for that um so segregation is has overlapping of the four pillars for example asian-americans what does that have to do with segregation well there's a family um basically who helped who were put in concentration camp Holocaust sorry um there one okay oh thank you I didn't change that um the Mendes family um basically they were put in these camps and during World War II uh because they're putting camps um they didn't have the opportunity to use their lands so the Menda family use those lands and what with the bigger picture is that helped the Brown versus Board education to end segregation in all through all throughout the United States so these things build on upon each other and

174it's not just Latinos or Native Americans or just Africans it's all interwine because segregation has hit almost all four major of these groups does that make sense kind of I'm going to go down to the next um click this here because I don't present too much here um the next one we have here is module one module one will have all three these components essential questions learning objectives performance tasks for example if you go into uh I'm going just click on this one because I thought it was very interesting I don't know okay so this one here if you look at it and you guys can look at it um your own time go ahead okay um assignments and you have objectives and to encourage students to explore reflect their own culture backgrounds and Traditional

175Values and share the understandings of their peers I'm going to stop there I have a young lady who I took my class nobody in her family has been educated her grandparents don't know much about you know writing their first name um similar to a lot of Latino families for example my dad went to one grade my mom one grade um I don't come from a background of educated people I don't have that um opportunity but because she found herself she found herself this identity she found herself in this um Traditional Values and she found her culture she bought into education and I remember talking to her after class she came to me all excited say I think I know what I want to do I understand who I am and never before I found myself

176now I want to go to college and these experiences um teaching classes like this it's to me it's worth it it's worth um basically helping kids out and it's worth um being a teacher because it's not about the money it's about that experience when a kid finds themselves and they know they want to go to school so this is just a one module that they H we have um my peer Donna will basically Donna good will talk some more about the next uh module so I believe I'm finished okay thank you Mr on Miss good is a Spanish teacher as well as um Avid teacher at Paris High School there you go okay I'll be your assistant so good afternoon once again my name is Donna good I teach Spanish and Avid at Paris High

177School and um just to um make some additional references to how we built this curriculum one of the things that we really wanted to do is we wanted to make this curriculum to be not static but evolving so one of of the um collaborations we've made is with the Civil Rights Institute in Riverside 10 minutes from my house and they give us each time they have a new presentation they have resources and documents that they can they give us that we can use in the class so if you when you guys look over the curriculum the last one they did were africanamerican um icons and Trailblazers in Riverside when we went to see this I was like I know you I know you I went to church with you I know you little Richard used

178to live down the street for me come talk to me and my mom I mean literally it was my life story and that hit me so hard because it was the first time in my life I saw my life story valued like that and I said imagine what happens with our kids the next presentation that's going to be open is uh next week and it's going to be the story of Farm Workers and and Coachella so every time they have a new exhibit because they had based on an educational grant they're going to work with us so every year our curriculum will continue to grow it won't be one set stories but will be the ongoing story of the history and the unwritten and unacknowledged accomplishments and challenges that our communities have faced throughout the

179years through ethnic studies uh the other thing is we didn't want to just make this an essay written class right you got English for essays you got science for essays we wanted this to be Project based learning so the students are interacting but we also wanted the kids to learn soft skills like empathy like communication like problem solving without having to go fist to cuffs learning how to reflect learning how to accept a different opinion those are the type of things we wanted to do so we really have pushed away from that and made it Project based so with this land acknowledgement we have a couple videos to show you what is land acknowledgement and examples of it that I'll have for you to look at and the important thing about this is as an

180avid teacher each year we take students freshmen and seniors mostly to caly sanino and before they start the tour they always do a land acknowledgement and outside the Civil Rights Institute is a plaque of a of a land acknowledgement so this is real to understand that America wasn't discovered because someone doesn't Discover my house I'm there and now to give that acknowledgement that that Enlightenment to our kids and to give that restoration for those who have felt ignored is part of the power what we want to bring to this class so here's our first video before I begin this morning I'd like to recognize the alanan nation on Whose traditional territory we are gathering we acknowledge them as the past present and future caretakers of this [Music] land wherever I I go on God's green

181earth I do the Lota tradition of acknowledging fore directions the land and the people living there unim Maka as I call Grandmother Earth the land I view her as a a sacred you know living entity and that's why we acknowledge it in you know Lakota thought and philosophy as a native person I'm ready for any kind of Confrontation that might come up or I'm preparing myself to remind people of all those things that they forget about we are still here I was at a meeting in Minneapolis and the room was primarily non-native people I was in a non-native organization but this executive director got up and said okay we're going to get started so everybody you know was sitting down and getting quiet and she said I'd like to get started by acknowledging the indigenous

182culture of this of Minnesota and I was like for I was like Wow and it just made everything like Fall Away a little bit from me my guard went down I was more relaxed because by saying that like that means she understands something that is just like you can't talk about right there's just it just relaxed me as a minority as a woman and as a native person like it just like like pulled away this layer that's always there you know it was super cool we're at a we're at a time where um non-native cultures are understanding the traditions of indigenous peoples for for probably the first time in our histories so like when I go to New Zealand the protocol is to acknowledge each other's ancestors and your mountains and your rivers and and

183and that's such a beautiful tradition when people are in that space and say we acknowledge who you are this land the where your people come from they're saying we acknowledge a relationship but we're also creating that relationship this is a good thing the important thing would be that folks would then sit with that like what does it mean that our settlement is occupying this space and what responsibility do I have considering that Legacy to these contemporary things right and how do I stop distancing myself from that ideally that would be for me the impact that this has if you start acknowledging that the land that you're standing on in the space that you are in belong to people that are still here like Mak so much more room for understanding of all these other issues

184it's one of those little things that like if it could just tip a little bit all the like dominoes that could fall from it I think are important I'm like imagining it and like wanting to live in that like the thing that I'm imagining like yeah that's actually really beautiful it's just being a genuine human being to acknowledge each other's histories um the good and the [Music] bad okay and then what we are going to do is present for you an um example of what a landing knowledgement looks like as well as examples of what we did as a curriculum committee of creating ethnic uh excuse me Landing knowledgement statements for us here in the district Danford sits on on the ancestral lands of the MMA alone tribe this land was and continues to be

185of great importance to the aloney people consistent with our values of community and inclusion we have a responsibility to acknowledge honor and make visible the University's relationship to native peoples so that example was from Stanford University and the examples that we have from our committee is we acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the COA people I want to respectfully acknowledge the COA people who have been guardians of this land and we would like to respectfully acknowledge the native people who have stewarded this land so with these acknowledgements what we are trying to get students to do is to really learn to be Civic citizens that this class will help them become members of their Community who will take action to change and improve the community around them and when you feel like

186you belong when you recognize yourself and see yourself it inspires you to become involved and inspires you to participate so I'm allow you to see these examples and in your packets you have the um information so that you can do a land recognition statement for yourselves where you were born where you live wherever you choose to do as we're passing that out I want to tie together a few things if you think about where Dr tomason began that the state didn't give any parameters for how this course should be taught there are a lot of fears that this is CRT and it's not this is an example of a choice where you're honoring people making them appreciate their history where they're from there is nothing in this lesson criticizing white settlers or white people or

187they came and stole the land that's not the language here it's acknowledging people's values where they come from who they are you might wonder why did we slow down on this particular assignment it's emblematic of the approach that the teachers took in this course that they're not coming at any of these assignments or these units from a place of criticism or Division I know Dr uh kahoun mentioned that it's really about honoring our students and the diversity they bring and it's really trying to be positive as they discuss diversity through this course does that sense why I stopped and said that here you might wonder why so much time on the landing on it's an example of the kind of lesson that would happen but it's not about being divisive or historical guilt or there

188are bad people and good people it's just honoring a historical fact and trying to welcome people and recognize the diversity that that's present does that make sense all right for the sake of time we w we will not do this in entire activity and so you have the packet that has all the information and so the next person that I'm going to call to um the podium is U Miss Wakefield to come back up um because she was again very very instrumental in helping the teachers put the modules together yes one question so is that be um it's a possible lesson so um you will have the opportunity to review the full course it's probably about 40 something Pages because the teachers have spent time um breaking down the modules into some of the lessons

189what we've listed here under performance tasks are some of the final activities that the teachers could utilize in order to teach the essential questions so kind of going back to how the novels are structured we teach standards um and we utilize novels to teach the standards it's the same thing is that we're using these performance task to help us to achieve the learning objectives as well as answer the essential questions for each of the um of the modules um and so to answer your question more specifically to the land acknowledgement it is one of the performance test that is listed um inside of the lessons but it is not anything that we're asking the board to do as a governing body no you're welcome um and I would say one more thing about the culture

190box activity that Mr um saso was talking about um have you ever did that um that uh uh identity project at the beginning of the school year where you're like who's your mom who's your dad um and who are your grandparents and you're listing like your family tree and you're writing things about your your family um well the culture box is different in that we know that our students come from different family um structures and so like for example my particular family I was married before um my current husband that I'm married to and so my kids always have to draw another line to draw to write my hus my current husband in um with their dad and we are a blended family that works together um to raise our kids and so part of

191the culture box is really ensuring that um as students experience that life in a different way that they're able to bring their s and it doesn't look like they are so different if their family structure um say for example is different or their upbringing is different but it gives them the ability to examine where they are um especially because we do have a large um homeless and Foster population that they may not know the the history of their their birth family and so they can bring in you know their current situation and bring in what they feel comfortable sharing because some of those things they don't feel comfortable sharing and so we just want to make it it relevant for our students um so that's a part of one of the activities so I'm going

192to go to module number two um and again as Mr Salo stated um we're bringing in the requirements of the state but then also looking at our local history so miss Wakefield I will be brief just speaking to the remaining three modules they take take us through similar essential questions learning objectives performance tasks and as we've stated a few times that it's deeply rooted in our local history so one example you can see with the history movement in community we would of course talk about the Sherman Indian school because that is so instrumental in Riverside County's history for module three with the systems of power and Injustice um we would also be following some literacy practices and those soft skills like a structured Socratic seminar so in that sense Socratic seminars are not debates they're

193specifically structured to be an open questioning Forum to better understand a topic and it's not teacher um driven in the sense where teachers are giving the questions it's students creating questions and trying to just grapple with those essential questions that um they're dealing with and looking at our local history history in order to have some basis of evidence to discuss those questions but they're really just bringing in their own experiences as well so that would be an example of a performance task for module three and then for module four when we look at the social movements equity and actions um as mentioned earlier there's a Heritage Tik Tok video that's a sample I think in sake of time maybe you guys can look at it at your own Leisure okay um but just to to

194reiterate these are all ways for students to engage with one another um to learn more about our local history in addition to um really just finding unity and connection and and getting that sense of confidence um across those four pillars you all right um one of the um com professional developments that was up there um is a team um we attended the LA County Office of Education um professional development of aligning our ethnic studies to the Seal of Civic engagement for students and so um in developing the course of study um they um identified an a culminating project uh that would count towards um the Civic seal of Engagement and that is an ethnography um so in in order to complete theography um students would work through these seven questions what they're going to study

195what they already know or at least they think they know that does require them to I have fieldwork um community service fieldwork is a requirement um for the Civic seal of Engagement and the Civic seal of Engagement is interesting because like ethnic studies the state um has identified that we have the Civic seal of Engagement however they have left it to the local education agencies to identify the criteria specifically to that um agency um and reviewing um they would review their field notes they get informed they look for meeting they expect um reflect on the experience and so they can use the ethnography to study um local community subcultures religious ceremonies traditional events holidays sporting events if they're pertinent to the community culture um and so this opens up an opportunity for them to tie

196in what they're learning from the course and what is happening in the world around them um this assignment stat satisfies some of the six um proven practices for the effective um Civ Civic learning that are outlined by the California Department of Education and are required to be incorporated into the Civic seala of Engagement um certification that students would receive these are the requirements set forth by the state how we do this is left up to the local Education Agency they recommend that um leas determine the um the how basically do this in consult with uh diverse um credential teachers Cur and current teachers who are teaching history social science and our government so at this point we don't have those specifics that would be something that um once we're we've adopted then our our team

197would come together of history and social science teachers and we would work through that criteria and that in that criteria would would move forward um so that students can earn that and basically what it is is a seal that goes on on their their diplomas um similar to the Seal of um biliteracy or multiliteracy you go through the California Department of Education to order those seals to put them on there um one of the learnings we had from LA county is to be careful when you're ordering the seal because the diplomas are running out of room for all the stickers that go on there so we have to be careful just a minor detail there but this goes through what they need to have um being engaged in a productive way they need to demonstrate

198understanding they do this typically through their successful completion of US History government and economics classes um while they're in high school um completion of the um the ethnic studies class and then that ethnography component um is what would satisfy some of the other um uh criteria that are are up there um the other piece of it is that we acknowledge that not every U parent may want their student to participate in achieving the Seal of Engagement even though the course of ethnic studies is a required graduation course so there would be an alternative assignment or an opt out for those that did not want their parent or their student at the end of the year to complete that portion and there would be no penalty to the student right at that point I'm going to

199turn us over to our esteemed counselor Mr Ivan lumba how's everyone doing all right so I've been fortunate enough to be a part of this committee since the navigational differences so I've been here for like the we call it the BC era which is before Co era right so so the idea is is that when we're developing a lot of these things we want to have multiple lenses in regards to how these things are written especially when you're looking at the counseling perspective Administration teaching and everything uh that that encompasses all of the Educational Systems that we have here um with counseling not only are we looking at the 25 uh 225 requirement or the 185 requirement we're also making sure that each student has the quality education that that is duly deserved for the

200students um with this being a state requirement we want to have that flexibility so not only is this curriculum based on a g requirement through the a through G CSUS or CAL States but it's also encompassing a merit of the seal I know a lot of the times these seals don't really mean much a lot of the kids are always getting them and things like that but our kids work hard and a lot of our kids do a lot of Civic engagements with that Civic engagements a lot of them use it as Merit to get an extra five credits of electives anything like that but now they're actually going to get a seal that could be posted in their college resume can be posted in their field of study resume if they were going to

201go to the workforce and said hey I did things for my community I worked on this thing this is why I want to do this course work um I think it's very instrumental where the process have been from our inceptions of the BC era to where it is now where multiple lenses are being looked at and I I think uh for counselors it gives us the opportunity to be flexible flexible in our in where we put kids in flexible with parents flexible in a merit where we could say you know this class is important and it could fulfill these college preparatory requirements that could be G guided towards the CSU or Cal State system so I think that for for for the most part with the seal and the the letter requirements it it does

202encompass a a full lens and this full spectrum of support for the students well good afternoon it is my pleasure to come up and just talk to you just really briefly about some of the benefits I want to thank the committee for all of their hard work with ethnic studies and it does benefit um on the pupil Services side of the house as well uh Studies have shown that we have an increase of 5 year graduation rate by 15% we have a reduced unexcused absences by 5 to 7% um which really is uh all about pupil services and making sure our students are coming to scho school when they have a reason when they are engaged in some way or another with school that we do see an increase in attendance and increase in grades

203and achievement so uh increase in credits as we the slideshows and postsecondary enrollment by 13.4 and 14.9 percentage points so all of those are great benefits um that has been researched and is a plus on the people's Services side of the house thank you oh yes adust is there any dep only because obviously the benefits are great but I'm just curious for sure that's thank you so much for your question it actually was something I was going to go over on our last slide um because many of the districts do it a little differently um many were early adopters um so for example valbert unified um School District utilizes as their 10th grade English course so they have taken out 10th grade English and they have dropped in ethnic studies meeting the 10th grade standards

204but teaching it through ethnic studies um our team did extensive research across the state um and even though the country of how people are utilizing um ethnic studies some do it through film um some do it through social science um some take out uh like a US history and they have US History through ethnic studies um but that is something that our team you know really really grappled with at the very very beginning and so um that's why we settled on the G requirement because we are not taking out any of our Standard English or our standard social science but we're adding an additional course um because because we felt that it would be great for our students to you know have the opportunity to have all of their standard courses um but then also

205have the opportunity to take this as well so along the state around the state it's it's the same concept where um school districts are deciding different things um which is again why we've brought it to the study session because this is how we've designed it for now however if you provide us with direction that you would like us to see it through an English course or through US History then we would make those adjustments um but one of the conversations that the team had um actually at the last meeting was how much richer would the content be for students to have ethnic studies after they take world history um but before they take us history so they have this background of their local context and then they find out what was happening in the United

206States all around the same time and what a richer discussion it could be and so that's something that hasn't been decided yet of which order it could come in um but we just talk about how much richer those discussions in those social science classes could be if the students understand themselves um as a person first but then also what has happened in their local context in their neighborhoods and then connect that as a whole with the context of the the United States history the format is there a c imp to that well right now we've looked at the sections that would be required um because right now it is a social science credential um what what we are like hoping is that you know as the state realizes that this is an unfunded you know

207they the state didn't provide us with additional money to implement ethnic studies um they provided us with a one-time Grant um that was you know just enough money for us to pull teachers out and you know send them to a few experiences so that they could build capacity um but it's not ongoing money um and so go ahead go ahead I'm sorry no go ahead I just gonna We also we uh mandate two 225 credits to graduate 55 of those are are elective credits but if a kid go we have seven period day if a kid goes four years 7even period day they turn up to 280 credits so we can we have options available there if we want to make it just drop 10 credits of elective or do we want to add 10

208more credits on the graduation requirements but that's something they can talk about and get a recommendation from our committee for sure the committee also has gone back and forth with the grade span um we did believe that the n9th grade would not be appropriate um for students because they're just entering high school and they're still kind of learning about themselves and in the new space and as we talked about the novels of like the the maturity level of students you know when they're first entering high school and so the team has discussed it being a 10th grade um class or above um so part of the the the support for teachers in this process um is that we've been having the collaborative workdays um at the monthly um Equity committee meetings where the teachers are

209able to collaborate with each other we also have offered additional pullout days um we have offered um peer observation site visits because we have pockets in our district that um for example Mr Sao teaches the Latin American studies class at um Paris High School so we've offered if teachers want to see what that looks like in action go visit Mr sedo and see what a best practice classroom looks like at age appropriate level with materials um and students engaged in that way um we've also encouraged our teachers to um attend the different conferences and our classified staff you all two of you were with us when we went to the rco um Excellence through Equity we have another team going to the San Diego Equity conference in Janu later in January um and then other

210experiences as they come up like they went to the Los Angeles County Office of Education presentation and so we're just looking for the different ways that are going on along the state just to ensure that we're doing our due diligence um and not just saying okay this is what valie did so we want to do it too or this is what um Min did so let's do it too but we're just looking to see what fits our context and what direction um do you all have for us that we can ensure that we are meeting the state requirements but that we're also being very very thoughtful and engaging our current demographic and then once we know that once the pilot begins there will need to be some ongoing collaboration um because you know you all

211know as teachers you get in the classroom and you think you have like the best lesson plan and then you get in front of the students and you're like uhoh not really sure we need to make some adjustments and so we would have some ongoing collaboration via Google meets of some of our teachers that do the pilot and then also some um pullout days as well so that's the plan to support the teachers um and so some next uh no go ahead so uh when you do the pilot program when that time comes is it only going to be on like one specific Civic school or like one teacher for every school or how does that pilot program go so we haven't decided it's really just based off of the direction that you all provide

212us with um what you would like to see and then going back to the Committees to see what is feasible and then also ultimately looking at the fiscal impact of um how many sections we could add um that would not put a burden on our schools and then once be to do it at each school if that's feasible for sure at least one section at each School how much like of like how much is the grant that they gave us that that one time Grant I would have to get the exact um number for you um but it was not even enough to fund one position yes it was very very small um just ideally though in order to get this um pilot going for next school year which was the goal um weart our

213B schedule now for next year and counselors are going to be working to get um class um registration from our students so we we want to start getting that process going sooner rather than later and if we're able to to ideally I'd like to see two sections on each campus if it's if it's possible and with two different teachers so we get different perspectives and different lenses I know that's idealistic but I like to shoot high and see how it goes um um in terms of getting the biggest feedback before we make decision on what this is going to look like for the mandate I think beneficial to try both and then to say hey what did we learn you know because again you know there's different things that are going on but I think

214it give us a different perspective as to you know at the end do they have a love for our country for our country I me obviously our country is but we're in the and so then how do we shap the fure you know I me with this however we do it model I want to make sure I understand the question um probably do um we could offer it as a 10th grade class next year and a junior class next year as the pilot that's what I thought and we get feedback from the study to get the results which was the most effective that's what you're proposing I don't know she didn't men so let me give a brief um so typically 10th grade is world history 11th grade is US History 12th grade is government

215and econ and I think there's a conversation to bring the expert of social studies in um uh being married to a social science teacher they are very married to the grade level of which their content area is in and I think that that needs to be a larger conversation with the people that are going to be doing the job so the only place you have space in a four-year student schedule is the freshman year but our teachers had a lot of dialogue about the the nature of talking about Race and History is going to require a little sophistication and maybe an older student so you're now battling what we're battling with we're colleagues here what is the place now the first year as a pilot it's kind of easy because we're offering it as an

216option maybe a 10th grader or two has a hole in their schedule could take it as the pilot or a junior next year could take it but once you move to a required class head services and you as a body are going to have to improve this is where we're anchoring the class it will be at this year or you could make an approval that it floats the student has to just complete it in either the 10th 11th and we have to be very cognizant one more thing tracking everything because in order for a student to be eligible for the sea Civic engagement they have to be an 11th or 12th grader yes you cannot earn it as a nth or 10th gr we can create Pathways for it but we just have to make

217sure internally we're tracking those because we wouldn't want a kid to lose out so like the earlier discussion you're asking the really hard sophisticated questions that there aren't easy answers for um schedule wise PL at 9th grade works right but sophistication of students the conversations that have been around just in my colleagues just not in the county but across the state we anticipate that we're going to get something in the spring from the state um because that's what typically happens with everybody's wrestling with this question is that they let you wrestle with it and go through the productive struggle and then they come out with the information at the end we agree I agree and to link that with the point Dr um Kon made um we've got to if we're going to offer this

218to kids those offerings happen in April February February Yeah March April is when we're building Master schedules so we really need to get the approval for the pilot out of you relatively quickly so that can be a choice that they have next month and and we could then get the data back to report back to we also um no added pressure um but have to get it to um the cour uh UC doorways to get it that a through G approval and we're un limit for that as well so no pressure and so this is what the proposed this is what the proposed timeline looks like um if we were to um continue uh taking your feedback from today um is that um you know of course today is our study session um the parents

219would continue to meet um as we indicated those dates um the ethnic studies Equity team would continue to meet um and then we would have our first read at the January 17th board meeting where you would have the full course so that in February um we would have the ability to have the second read and you say yes go ahead with the pilot but you wouldn't do that until the February meeting so so you would have time to to to let us know um and then if the novels um are you know we bring back the information to you this month in January um which is again a separate they're two separate items um but we would bring the novels for a vote sometime in February um or March depending on whatever you all decide

220when you want it to come back um but then we would look at beginning purchasing the novels in time to begin training teachers um purchasing the novels that the teachers would want to utilize um and then go through the pilot season of of training them so that when we get to next school year that they would have enough time for training um and fully understand what that framing looks like because we wouldn't want to just hand this curriculum or this book to these books to anyone and say okay have fun and teach it but we want to be really really intentional just how how we've been with this process of being intentional with training with training our teachers given the homework you gave us earlier I'm looking at this and I'm wondering is and we

221already have to post the the agenda for the January board meeting um does that need to be pushed back one month but if you do that be cognizant of what she's outlined for you we could take and really slow down and do a lot of question and debate and other study sessions but you're going to miss your window to order train and get it rolled out by next fall so we're we we need a time for teachers to do this work then we've got to present it to you and then we've got a finite window to get it and stack those other things down the road it's it's it's a delicate balance so they the board would have the option to wave one of the readings especially since it's a pilot so if they don't

222have it done by next week when it has to go for January bring it to the February meeting as a single read and and then we would have more time to to um have it ready to go and we can start putting kids in the the class that makes sense it does yeah that kind of thank you for that Grant because that keeps us on track but also allows us time to answer the to do the homework you've given us today so we're we're trying to be really responsive and also keep the district on track for the timelines it's hard um not questions just um I give you guys so much props because this is a lot of research on just the framework on how to do the ethnic studies and um and the novels

223as well um just seeing all the modules they're all really great uh performance tasks I know for module 3 you guys put Socratic seminar actually had one of those in high school at Paris High it it really did help me a lot to learn the experiences from different students to understand where where they came from I know ours was like a bit emotional cuz because students actually at that time they were they really opened up on very personal issues and it's a Memory that I still remember where I'm just like wow these students were very uh open with what they had so I think uh all the modules that you guys provided I believe would really helped students to become more engaging cuz that's all what students really want I know some are a a

224little bit more push back but the more we have that open uh open communication that that is where students are really going to push and they are really going to take initiative to be open and I just really appreciate the the committee and everyone on how this this is like a very sensitive topic and I really appreciate how you guys were so professional with it and you guys are so open to feedback cuz this is very important and I'm very happy that you guys handled it so well so I really appreciate you guys all thank you appreciate that app youl there's only one to this is work driven by teachers it wasn't that the director of crypto instruction decided this is what we're going to do or the assistant super the superintendent that we had

225to Cobble together research and information throughout the state and to really put teachers who looking work in charge and it's been a long ly process we' got some timelines and some decision time is coming it's that concludes unless you have any further questions for us or comments like us resp all right item 10.1 is adjournment do I have a motion to adjourn the special board meeting of Trustees so moved Mr Nelson and Mr compos and when it pops up please vote oh wait wait wait wait wait is that right Anna because it's showing 9.1 okay okay there we go all right we have a - vote the time is 2:33 and this meeting is adjourned I