VCUSD Board Of Education - Regular Meeting 4/23/2025

001Good evening everyone. Welcome to our regular, you can stay standing. Our regularly scheduled uh board meeting on today, April 23rd, 2025. It is 6 PM. And real quick, we'll do roll call and we'll then we'll start. Trusty Hodes, present. Trusty Flores, present. Trusty Young, present. Vice President Hamboy, present. President Fox, present. Trustee Morales present. Trustee Simmons present. We have a quorum. And now with that, let's A special thank you to Jesse Bethl High School NJOTC. Do I have a motion for the adoption of our agenda? Trusty Flores, make a motion to adopt our agenda. Trusty Hodgees. Second. Roll call, please. Trusty Hodes. I. Trusty Flores. I. Trusty Young. Hi. Vice President Amboy. Hi. President Fox. Hi. Trusty Morales. Hi. Trusty Simmons. I. We are now our unanimously board approval for the agenda. Now we are

002down to agenda item two, board presentations. So, good evening trustees. This we have three presentations. Um, Grace Patterson Elementary, Federal Terrace Elementary, and Jesse Bethil High School. Um, we will go in that order. So, Grace Patterson, uh, team, if you can make your way up to the podium, we will begin. Thank you all for being here. proud, principal of Patterson Elementary. Um, and I have a few of my staff members behind me. They're just hanging out for moral support. So, um, we're going to go over a couple of different things, initiatives that we really focused on this year, including our attendance, our PBIS, the academic piece, and our expanded learning. And then we had a really large focus on our community- based um, education this year. So, our current attendance rate, we're looking about the

003same as we did last year. We're hanging in at that 90 to 91% average daily um attendance, which is an improve uh improvement from my first year of 2023, but we'd like to see it um improve more. Um we have done a lot of incentives. Go ahead and flip. Um and we're hanging tight in our 34% uh chronically absent. What I've noticed within our chronic is that we're no longer having those severely chronic kids. It's more we're hanging in that 80 to 90%. So we have our target few that are severely chronic, but it's a larger in that 80 90. They're just constantly getting sick and we're um battling uh still the relevance of staying home for 5 days when they have COVID. So to combat that, we have done a lot of activities. One

004of the things you saw was our show up video and we got to hang in the movie theaters for quite a while with our um work from Karen Shawl who put that together and the fifth and sixth graders who really uh showed out for us. Um with my CWA we were able to arrange a Zumba party. So someone came in and led a Zumba class for my primary kids and my upper grade kids who have 95 and above attendance. Um, we do gl we've done glow parties. That's a hit for my TKers and my little kids. I've learned my fifth and sixth graders are not into it anymore. I got to find something new for them. Um, we did a Christmas bingo activity where every day they came, they marked a letter off and then

005we raffled off movie tickets. We had um various donations of prizes and so about 10 kids took home prizes for that for making sure that they stayed every day in December because that's a big drop off for us. And then our March Madness um incentive, we opened our Paw Bucks store and I paid them a hundred Pabuks. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Another thing that my CWA Dedra Carter and I came up with is we need to celebrate our parents. So we have 18 students who have perfect attendance from August 18th through March 18th. And we wanted to celebrate them. And so we brought them in and we had lunch with um them. them. They had a certificate and they got to just hang out with their kiddo

006and have lunch at Patterson. Um, and this is some of our families. And then our Paw Buck store is a weekly positive uh behavior support store and the kids get to go shopping. So, we have prizes ranging from the little squish balls to dolls to puzzles. Um, the one that I'm hearing they want the most is lunch with Miss Martinez, and Miss Martinez has to go to McDonald's and get them their lunch. They're asking for um fire wings and all kinds of craziness. Um, they haven't gotten there yet, so I haven't had to uh pay out too much. Uh, the other one, I have a class that's plotting against me, and they're going to raise $5,000 to pie me in the face. So, um I've got some sixth graders who are out to get me.

007But you can see my TKers waiting very patiently to get into the store to do their shopping. So, that's our Friday activity. And then I have my um counseling and rich class. One of the ways we mainstream them is they come and help me run the store. So, my site safety runs it. I support her and then they are out there monitoring the line and they're engaging with the class. And if you've seen any of the um the stories of Patterson from the beginning of the year, we've come a long way. Um, we have really focused our core time this year around instructor student talk and the do questions. My teachers are amazing at the sixstep phonics. You can walk in any room in K2 and you're going to see it. It's going to be

008stellar. Um, so this year we really wanted to uplift the do level questioning and partner it to writing. So, Leva worked with us around some writing strategies and ask planning for the DK two and three questions and that has been our um focus for this year. Moving into next year, we'll continue that and then really supporting the UFly adoption. But in addition to that, we have our hay tutors who are supporting our second through sixth graders with a focus on SIPs. I have a Cal Maritime student who comes in um weekly. He's bilingual, so he supports my first through sixth graders in small groups or one-on-one in our um pods to make sure that they are getting the support they need. Um I had before and after school interventions in K 1st, 3rd, fourth, and

009sixth from January through May. So they are still going. Um and that's targeted to the individual needs in their classrooms. And of course, we have small group instruction. And so that's a glance into what it looks like here at Patterson. Go ahead. It's okay. Um we started a new program in our expanded learning program and you can see examples of it. It's called Booknook. You guys approved that contract for us right around um January. So we have a one to4 ratio. So one tutor to four students. The kids are sitting in their grade levels but they're working on anything from grade level appropriate to significantly below. I have a fourth grader. My daughter is a fourth grade student at Patterson. she's probably working on first grade curriculum because of her um diagnosis of discalcula. So,

010she sits with her fourth grade peers. No one knows anything different, but she's working on what she needs. And that's happening across the room. And what we're finding is that they're highly engaged because they're not hearing me. They're not hearing their current teachers. They're hearing a new voice. Um and so the kids come out of that tutoring time really excited. I learned this today. I did that. Um and so they're really showing. Um it's increased our expanded learning attendance to 96% of the kids are showing up for this three times a week tutoring. Um and we will run that through the end of May. So I'm looking forward to seeing how it impacts our NWA. We have um our soccer tournament and our kids just won their soccer second game. So I left there and

011came here. So they're doing an amazing job of that. Um and it's really one of those things that encourages our kids to come to school. If there's nothing else at Patterson, soccer is life. So, this is encouraging not only school attendance, it's encouraging after school attendance because they know if they're not in the classroom, Miss Miss Diaz is not taking them on Wednesday. So, this has really been helpful um in in uh increasing that attendance as well. And they're really excited about the uniforms and getting to share all those things. Um and like I said, our community centered education, um Patterson is in the midst of a really solid community. Um even though it had not doesn't always have the best reputation. Um one of the things that we did is the Ruby Bridges Walk

012to School Day with Dr. Patrick and her sorority and they we started at the Norman King Center um and we walked up uh Porter Street and then many of the uh sisters came and read to the students and they purchased a Ruby Bridge book various various versions for the grade levels and um it's one of the things that kids still are talking about and so hopefully we can continue next year. Um another one is our partnership with Cal Maritime. So, our fifth and sixth grade classes took a walking field trip to a college campus. Many of them didn't even realize that that college was right there. Um, and some of our parents didn't even realize that that college was right there. So, they got to go and check out the um campus. I think they

013had lunch in the dining hall. Um, really got to experience what it looks like to be a student at Cal Maritime. In addition, we recently did our junior explorer program where the students um on a Saturday with Mr. Reid and other staff members go out and work with the cadetses on the boats and they do hands-on science experiments. Um I talked to one of the students today and she said that without the the program because she's done it twice now, she wouldn't realize the career options that Calamaritan offers. And so now she's looking at what coming to school at maritime looking at careers in oceanography and whatnot. So it's exciting to see the impact it's having on their planning for the future. In addition, Joel Ellen takes really good care of my students. She's bringing

014um snacks for our testers next week. She brought a welcome back to school kits for every kid. So, they got school supply kits in addition to what we already supply, but they got to take home crayons, paper, pencils, um you name it, they pretty much gathered it for us. And then this year, she added the kits for the teachers. She says, "The kids always get something. We got to take care of the teachers, too." Um so, they every teacher got a tote bag full of goodies to make sure that they were taken care of as well. Um and then if you want to come hang with us on Friday 12:15, Mrs. Reed Drop egg drop on Friday. We are doing our drop into testing and we are do they are creating egg the egg carriers

015and we have borrowed the maintenance departments boom truck. They're going to come put a maintenance worker up there and we're going to drop some eggs. So if you want to do our drop into testing with us that's going to be Friday at 11:15 and thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much, Trusty Flores. Want to thank you for your presentation. Um, I just had a few questions. What What grades are you seeing the most issues with attendance-wise? Is there a specific age range or or grade? We often see it in our TK2. Okay. And can you tell us a little more of the importance of why? I think that's an issue. I think part of it is for TK and K, it's their first time in the school setting and so parents don't realize the

016importance. They think kindergarten is not required. TK is not required. So if they don't come, it doesn't matter. Um, also their immune systems are not used to being around everybody and so they get taken out harder than some of our uh kiddos who are there more often or have been there longer and have built their immune system up. So we're seeing a lot of issues in our TK and K especially, but it's TK2 mostly. So wi with that feel that there's support or or the the attendance programs that have been rolled out from the district. Are they helping you? Do you feel supported? Are are they lacking anywhere or what's your experience with them? I think that the addition of the CWA, the child welfare liaison, has been vital in addressing our chronics because she's

017building those strong relationships with families. Um, oftent times when I reach out or my office staff reach out, they won't answer our calls, but as soon as she picks up the phone or she sends that text, they're communicating with her. Um, so that has been beneficial to us. I think the other thing is she sits down and really explains the impact and even though I might have said it, their teacher said it, hearing it from somebody in the community who doesn't necessarily have that principal title behind her, I think they're listening to her a little differently. She often comes across as I'm from South Valo. I I raised my boys in this neighborhood and so she comes from that lens and it helps them break down those barriers. One more followup kind of regarding attendance.

018So knowing that the December has a big drop off, have have you prepared or have you guys made contingencies on how to address that so far as independent studies or or you know I mean is do you guys prepare for that? Yeah. So we really targeted we uh Dedra and I looked back to see who had the uh extended vacations in years past and she reached out to all those families. Are you going to travel? We know that oftentimes they're heading to Mexico. So, are you planning to travel for the holidays? Are you going to be gone for more than one day? Let's get you an independent study package. And she was making those personal calls. Um, we also put out flyers right away saying, "Okay, if you think you're going to be out, um,

019come in and see us, we'll get you the packets together." Um, the other one we looked at, we weren't ready really prepared for was Easter and the Monday after Easter. We didn't have enough data to say, "Was it going to impact?" And now we know for next year I need to advocate more for um the Friday and the Monday of the Easter week. More questions for you. Um in your presentation I heard you say D. Depth of knowledge. Can you explain what that is and the importance of it and why why you're focused on it? Yep. So DK is the depth of knowledge. Um we want our kids to not only get the basics but to push them into that higher level thinking. Um, one example I can think of today from a classroom I

020was in, they were doing area and perimeter. And the teacher very easily could have just said, "You're going to multiply length times width, but instead he's pushing them to explain it themselves. What do you need to do? And why how are you going to do it?" And he's asking them to draw pictures and whatnot. Um, and he's not giving them that area is length times width. even though that's how we taught it and we we learned it, he's forcing them to figure it out on their own. So So for a parent that just doesn't get it, what does that mean? That to for for our community members, it's th it's those opportunities to really dive in and show their understanding. So we don't want just the who, what, the who, and the why, the I

021can I can look right here and say, "Okay, the sky is blue." We would like you to know why the sky is blue or what? Um to be able to explain how you came to the answer. Last question, I promise. Flavor. What flavor pie are they planning on hitting you with? White whipped cream. Thank you. Trusty Simmons or Trusty Morales. Trusty Simmons, please. Um, thank you for your presentation. Um, I want to say that I actually passed your soccer game on the way here when we were dropping my sister off. She was like, "Oh, is that my school playing?" Because she goes to Federal Terrace and I guess their uniforms are also red. And I'm like, "Nope, that's not your school." But um, I have a question. And so about the expanded expanded learning program,

022is that after school or do you have like specific slots during the school day for the expanded learning program? So the expanded learning is the after school program. So the booknook is taking place three days a week, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for about 40 minutes. My turn. Okay. Um I love that you were talking about the do the depths of knowledge the um and that you're focusing on two and three the higher levels of questioning not the lower levels. Um so that was awesome to hear. Also the culture in your school the different things you talked about motivation and just the things it sounds like it's more student centered because the prizes like the pie or the McDonald's or such it's what the students would pick not what an adult would say your prize should

023be. So, I like that that's more student um driven. Um in my school, our principal just did the pie, but the kids didn't know it was shaving cream. It just in the tin with he was wearing glass. Anyway, so it was anyway it was a mess, but um it's a good thing the kids love it and it's a nice way to build um the rapport and to win something. He also got dunked once, so maybe you'll have a dunk take too. No. No. Okay. All right. I was told no, not allowed. No dunk. Oh, well, it was just it actually was just buckets of water and just on a chair. Don't give them ideas. It was just buckets of water. So, don't give them ideas. I got staff members over there. It was actually the

024PTA. We don't want the liability. Buckets of water. Anyways, um uh it's nice also how much they earn for their paw bucks and what they can motivational. We heard about the attendance. Um, I really liked what's the program you said even your daughter's doing where they're all at their own level, but no one knows because it's all individually based. What was that called? It's called BookNook. Okay. And that's just something newer. It's something we're piloting here at Patterson. Can't wait to hear how it's going and what results or what you're seeing with results um for the coding comprehension and so forth, how it's helping the students. So, that'll be exciting to hear how that's going for you. Um, and I think that was everything. Thank you very much for your presentation and for all of

025you being here today. Thank you. And I'll be there tomorrow morning for learning walks. I'll see you tomorrow. All right. [Applause] Next we have Next we have the team from Federal Terrace. Got it. So um good evening. My name is Marissa Carbanell. I'm the proud principal at Federal Terrace. I'm also tired and I'm also old, so hang in there with me. Um, about three years ago, we started a revolution at Federal Terrace, right? We started a revolution where our school became a professional learning community, a PLC. And we became PLC when we the professional educators started and became engaged in ongoing neverending cycles of collective inquiry where we where we met every Wednesday and about twice a month for four hours at a time to discuss who got it and who didn't. And then we

026planned and we took action because at federal terrorists we no longer hope for change, we plan for change. So can we go to the first slide please? So we started an intensive support assistance model project with solution tree about three years ago. Um the purpose was to establish a solution tree prof in the design of solution tree a professional learning community. This was in cooperation with CCE. Um, and basically the solution tree approach is this. There's three big ideas, right? I'm not going to read this to you. Um, three big ideas, right? And within these three big ideas, there are four questions. Everything in the PLC is led with those four questions. But in but what feeds the four questions and what sustains the three big ideas is the the cultural characteristics of we the

027professional educators. Um and so off we went three years ago. Step number one was to to rewrite our mission. I'll never forget Dr. Luis Kruz, look him up. Dr. Luis Grus launched us into the project and his first question Sher Summers was in the room. superintendent was in the room. He said, "Marissa, can you please recite your school's mission? I did not know what my school's I wrote it. Did not know the mission." Um, and then Sher Summers, God love her, got up and she said, "Marissa, I don't know the district's mission statement." And so the step number one was rewrite your mission, but not just rewrite principal in your office, in your little computer. I had to rewrite the mission statement with everyone's input. And when I say everyone, I mean our custodian, our

028lunch lady, our yard supervisors. We had just meeting after meeting. Uh we were we were trained uh by solution tree and how to get to consensus, how to build a consensus. And so out of consensus came this mission. Our mission is to ensure high levels of academic achievement for all students, preparing every single one of them for future success. We also rewrote our vision. Our vision is who we want to be right in five years. The plan was Dr. Luis Cruz challenged us that five years from three years ago he's going to read he wants to read a newspaper article about us where they will state our vision right that we're a federal terrorist we take collective responsibility for all students learnings learning uh where we guarantee the essential standards are taught assessed and learned

029that we use formative assessment to inform our practices and guide our instructional decisions and to ensure that every student is learning at high levels But this work, I I can't tell you enough that this work, it was hard. These three years were intense. When this this project was called an intensive project, it was intense. Uh it it felt insurmountable at times. Um but with with the coaching that we received, you know, we we accomplished a lot. And I don't think it would do it any justice if I I principal presented this work because to be honest, I didn't do this work. My teachers did this work. So to do the the project justice and to do the work that we've accomplished over the last three years justice, my teachers will present the bulk of the

030information tonight. Hi, welcome everybody. I'm Katie Voda. I'm a first grade teacher at Federal Terrace. Um, so one of the things like Marissa said, we had to completely revamp everything and there was a lot of breaking down of everything that we thought we knew and felt about what we were really good at and we had to break it down and realize that we had a lot of growing to do and that was very humbling. And so this was our process. We had to take a look at we had to build our leadership team. our leadership team really did needed to be um cohesive and brought together. So then we had to provide that coaching that all of our teachers needed. It wasn't just in one or two of us. It was every single one of

031us with provided within the duty day. So the first question that was always asked is what do we want our students to know? Now we know that the California and the common core standards are about this big and it can be very overwhelming. I believe somebody and I cannot remember off the top of my head who have said it that if we were to teach every single standard it would take 26 years for our students to learn. That's too much. It's overwhelming. So one of the first things we did is that we pulled out what we call the essential standards. These are our guarantees when our kids leave first grade at Federal Terrace. This is what they're going to be able to do. That does not mean that we are forgetting the rest of the

032standards because we know that they have to be taught. However, these are the ones that we are providing intervention around. These are the ones that we are practicing daily using district provided resources and um the staff hey tutor our um inter not that we have an intervention but if we did um we were looking at pacing we were really digging into the standards. What does this standard look like? What does this mean? How are we going to make sure that our kids are getting it? Um the next question is how are we going to know when each student gets it? And so we have our district benchmark assessments. We have our pre-assessments. We have what are we calling commitive form common formative assessments. And since we are what we call singletons, each grade level is

033responsible for teaching and then creating our own common formative assessments. But we come together as vertical teams and we talk about them. So I know exactly what's happening in my kindergarten room. The kinder knows what's happening with me. And the same with second grade. We're a K through team. The 3456 does the exact same thing. These are just some examples of what we have spent a bulk of our time doing. These are our unit plans. The one that's on the left is for kindergarten. And the one that's on the right is for upper grade. And I'm sorry I don't have my glasses on. I can't see exactly what grade level. But it lists out the dates. It lists out the standards. It lists out what we're doing. It lists everything for K through two. We're

034basing everything that we're doing on the district literacy goals. So the core um A through D and then E for kindergarten by the end of the year. Making sure that our kids are able to read that CVC words when they end kindergarten. When they leave first grade at the end of the year, 80% of the kids are going to be reading 60% or 60 correct words or more in a minute. Um the upper grade they have a very specific standard that they are working on for short periods of time and they're very intensive in what they're doing. They've got those common formative assessments and they're doing everything and it's all standardsbased. It's all based within the um district provided resources. So then the next question is well what are we going to do when our

035students don't get it? When they haven't learned it. So we know that we can't just hope that they get it. We have to plan for it. So, we do have our tier one instruction, which is where everybody gets it. Our tier 2 instruction is just digging a little bit deeper for the kids that need that little extra support. And then our tier three instruction where those kids that are really struggling or maybe they're missing foundational skills, they're getting that additional support at that time. And then how are we going to respond to those students that already know it? Sometimes we forget that there are kids that already can do a lot of this stuff and we can't leave them behind. And it's not fair to just give them a bunch of worksheets and say here

036you go. So we are planning above and beyond for those kids that also get it who deserve to have also very rich curriculum. These are just some of our four questions in action. There's a lot of our kinder teacher um took a takes a lot of pictures with her class and shares them. So you'll see that there are little ones writing, there's little ones doing math. Um there's some pictures of my class doing math. There's upper grade teams there with kids working. And so with that, I'm going to turn it over to my teacher leader. Uh good evening. I'm Marie Muscalino Henton. I'm the teacher leader at Federal Terrace. Um so like Katie and Marissa said, the last three years have been a ton of work. I I've shared with people I've talked to. I've

037never worked this hard at work ever. So, um, now we have to sustain everything that we've built. We want this to continue on. Um, and you know, how do we make sure that those foundations are strong, that they've been laid, that they're strong, they're not going to break down come year four. Um, so this is where the PLC at work sustainability reports come in. Um, I'm going to invite you to read along with me. Um, I will read the regular font and I invite you to chime in when the text is in bold. And like Katie, I have trouble seeing, so I need to read from my phone. The PLC at work continuums are based on the premise that it is easier to get from point A to point B if you know where point

038B is and can recognize it when you get there. The sustaining stage of the continuum explains point B in vivid terms. It describes the better future for your school or it describes the better future your school is moving toward on its PLC journey. A journey from A to B, however, also requires some clarity regarding the starting point. The continuum is also a tool to help educators assess the current position of their school or team so that you they can move forward purposely rather than fitfully. So twice a year beginning year one, we checked in with our head coach and we we rated ourselves. Okay. So there are four stages, no five stages on this continuum. So there's pre-initiating, there's initiating. Year one, this is where we were. You know, some things hadn't gotten started yet.

039we had kind of, you know, dipped a toe in here and there. Um, but on year one, we saw what we were doing, but then we also saw what sustaining would look like. So, we knew exactly where we were hoping to go. So, year two, we're implementing, you know, we're making changes at the system level, at the um classroom level. So, that's where we were last year. Um, we just did our second sustainability report with our coach and I'm really proud to say that across the board we're at the developing sometimes, but mostly we're at the sustaining stage. So, we're in a really good place to continue the work that we've really worked hard to achieve over the last three years. So, I'm gonna invite Marissa. So, about halfway through last year, um we, you

040know, we we as a staff consistently ask ourselves, okay, but what are we going to do when the coaches go away? What are we going to do when these nationally known amazing coaches, Janelle Keading, Dr. Luis Grus, you know, when these people go away, um Paula Maker, what are we going to do? You know, they're they're gone. Um and it took a lot of soulsearching for us and really we as a as a guiding coalition we sat and we just this is what we found out right how is the PLC movement going to continue at federal terrorists on our own and these are five I thought there were six there six five so these are five things that we identified right away that makes us believe or no no it doesn't make us believe it

041it it tells us we're going to sustain so first of all so our district supports that we're do the supports the work that we're doing right and there are structures in place that undergur and align with our efforts in the PLC I'm an English language learner and so for I think visually a lot so when I think of federal terrorist as this building the the underneath of our building what undergirds my staff in the building is our is our district you know it's the structures that we already have here that that we can hang our this this thing that we're building on so Number one, I think for me the game changer was uh no, let me wait, let me save game changer. I knew going into this project that our superintendent at the time

042was working on creating this strategic plan with a mission and a vision and the four strategic pillars. So I I knew that that that thing whatever it was going to be uh when it when uh it was started first started rolling out I knew that's what we were going to hang our hat on because the PLC can sustain itself but it needs this undergurting that our district was going to provide for us in the creation of the strategic plan. We also have an amazing district leadership team. Our meetings at the principal level clearly you can see there's a year-long agenda. It communicates a clear and unified message across the district. I too get from my from my team and my leaders that we are not being unintentional. This work is very intentional. I get that

043from Heather. I get that from Julie. I get that from Amy. You know, I get it from my fellow principles. Like we're we're all going somewhere together. Um, the other thing that I love that our district did this year is that we created that uh the district-wide um professional development Wednesday where every teacher, teacher leader, every principal is either delivering the same message or getting the same message. I really appreciated that. Um the district support with the across the board, hey tutors, the ILO and in support of our social emotional program. Some of us have different social emotional programs, but the fact that our district was our district was willing to support that is huge. Um, and also I think for for me and for my team, the game changer, truly the game changer was

044when our district set K2 goals. I mean, talk about being able to hang your hat on something. Our PLC immediately when we saw what the district goals were, K2, we're like, "This is it. this is this is our what you know this is this is what we're going to aim for and then so we had our what and then our district gives us this gift of establishing this relationship with this organization called core uh every single teacher in the district every single principal in the district gets trained on this this thing about the science of reading and the reading rope and for the first time in my career I know the difference from phonics and phmic awareness you know, it took a long time, but it's it was just the complete gamechanging uh for me

045and for our PLC, the work that our district um has done in the last two years, and then our growth as well. That's next. Is this our last slide? Um and so that's that's us. It's been a it's been a I don't want to say rough it's been a tumultuous three years. It was not easy. Um, but this when I saw this quote, it it really thought it really made me think of of us and and our staff. And I'm going to read it to you. So, it says, "One misconception about highly successful cultures is that they are happy and light-hearted places, right? This is mostly not the case. They are energized and engaged, but at their core, their members are orientated less around achieving happiness than they're less orientated around achieving happiness than around

046solving hard problems together. And that's us in a nutshell. We may not be happy, but you know what? Put us in a room and we will solve hard problems. And that's our presentation. Thank you. [Applause] Don't don't go away. Don't go away. Right. I tried. Dr. Young, it's a wonderful program. Um, now let's get down to your um data. When you implemented this program, you had a base line. How has it increased the ability of the children to do math reading? I mean, so so to be honest, we haven't seen the we haven't seen the data isn't showing the growth that we'd like to see yet. Um, but it's going to it's going to take a while, you know. Um, I think the piece that that I'm kind of hopeful is with with the setting

047of the goals, you know, at the K2 level, you know, we are showing our kindergarten, we only have the one class, but, you know, our kindergarten class is on on pace to meet all goals and exceed them. So right now while state test and NWA isn't showing the growth that we'd like to see I'm I'm you know I'm that maybe this is our year feel that there's something else missing process that would some type of um progress bump um you I I can't I can't say um you know we're we're a small school. You there's only one teacher per each grade level. Um I don't know what effect that has on data that we're so small. Um but I'm you know I I all I can do is hope and I don't know that there's

048anything missing. When we started the project, they did tell us bad. I tried I tried to get it without the uh microphone. When we started the project, they did tell us that there will not be a substantial huge growth the first couple of years. They warned us of that because we are rebuilding everything that we have done from kindergarten up. So right now the kids that started in the program are now kindergarten first, second grade. And so they're getting there. I can tell you just from my own class from last year to this year I have seen growth and the amount of kids that are leaving my classroom able to read. So to me that is showing some some substantial numbers. Is it where I hope they are? Absolutely not. But am I seeing that

049light at the end of the tunnel? Am I seeing their growth? Absolutely. Um I guess my concern is that it needs to be different light. Um I mean validate yours but we still need to see it in a different light. Um where it it is validated universal. That's what we live around in the universe. Um but um I validate what what you guys are doing. It's an excellent program, but um the results are not reflecting like you you said like you want it to be and well like we should be able to see it on data. I teach fifth grade at terrace and I'm sorry if I cry that's why I don't speak up here um because this is very personal for me. Um but we are we are see sorry Take a deep breath.

050So, we are really seeing growth. Um, maybe not in the scores like moving kids into the ongrade low into the greens and blues and things like that. Where we're seeing the growth is in the red. We're seeing those kids who NWA says are only going to make six points of growth and they're making 25, sorry, 40 points of growth at a time and still not making it out of the red because it's not possible in one jump. Um, so where we're seeing the most effect is with those kids that need to make up those foundational skills. Um, So it may not show up in the data that you see on your graphs and things like that, but when you look at the individual kids, you see you see their little graphs. You see them and

051then they jump and over these last couple years and you know like the last two years we didn't have fourth grade teacher at all. So those kids were stagnant, but then they come to fifth grade and all of a sudden they were so deep in the red that that jump is insane. They still can't make it out of the red yet because it's just not realistic in that amount of time going from fall vault to winter. Um you can't expect a kid to make entire massive grade levels worth of growth in just a few months. But you do see um growth that NWA doesn't even predict is possible. So you you second I'm sorry fifth. Yeah. Okay. So I guess the marker is when they enter into the second grade are do you improvement in

052their reading ability? That's what we're looking for. Absolutely. So um in in my fifth grade classroom and across all of upper grade we've identified uh the students who have um really deep academic gaps and we have started tier three intervention. We use uh hey tutors to teach phonics to get those kids that are many grade levels below as caught up as possible. um with our students who are closer uh to grade level. We are doing um very specific uh fluency instruction. We are using the uh we're using decoding. We're doing decoding lessons like they are doing in K2, but using the fifth grade curriculum to uh teach phonics and syllification and upper grade, tying that in with fluency. Um, and this is daily practice um to bring everyone up to that fluent reading level with

053all that you're doing. Must be an ingredient somewhere. You guys need to find that ingredient somewhere. Yeah. Not pushing them over. Yeah. I mean, we're definitely a work in progress and, you know, we've really been focused on closing those the deep gaps. And one of the things that we're looking at in the future is how are we going to support the kids that are almost there? How are we going to push them over the line? And if I could interject interject real quick, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but kindergarten and I I don't know is your kinder teacher here. No. Okay. Well, shout out to your kindergarten teacher because in the middle of the year assessment, 92% of those kids in that class knew all their letter names, which is huge because

054that's going to that's starting, right? That's at the beginning levels and we need them if we're going to build them up. So, when they become your fifth graders, they're at that point. And you can verify that for me. That's a number I have. No, that's that's right. And you know the thing about the whole solution tree approach, you have to remember what Katie said was that we took where we were as a site and and remember we we had to build ourselves back, right? Uh the six essential school cultural characteristics. I mean we took time out of what we were doing to build that to build a shared mission, vision, values and goals. We created collaborative teams that are focused on learning. you know, we have a nurturing or orientation on at our site, right?

055We we encourage collective inquiry. So, a lot of the training that we received was around building that cultural building our cultural capacity so that we do move together as a cohesive group with collective commitments. Uh so it's you know it's unfortunate that we are rated and weighted based on our NWA and based on state test because that's not all we are you know it's we are not just a state test that kids take on one independent day in May or April. Uh we're we're more than that you know and what we've built you know is is is huge. It's huge. and the I mean I can't tell you the mind bending uh soul searching that had to happen especially midsecond year um you know when you're being told by outside people that what you're doing

056isn't good enough you know that what your district offering you is not good enough you know the push back that we had to give to these nationally known and recognized coaches you know it was not easy it was not easy and we had to build ourselves back um in the vision of where our district is going because at the end of the death that's who I work for. I make the choice, we make the choice to work for Valo City Unified, you know, because together we're going to make it a magnet district and um one day, you know, the the scores will show it, you know, but it's not it's not it's not for a couple of years. So, hang in there with us. Trusty Flores want to thank you for your presentation and I

057think I understand what you're saying and what the process is. So it'll be interesting to see what the scores for these second graders and third graders will be on this goround and it's exciting to hear the the upper grades because they didn't have any of this prior, right? So they're being caught Mhm. on a much wider ketchup scale, right? So we all want to see those scores go up. And I do want to acknowledge though what what you said. I think it's very important that all our students aren't just a a test score or or what, you know? So that that that hit me right here when you said that. But um couple questions for you. Um the the little bit I know about solution tree and and what I've asked about um a lot

058of it my understanding is like collaboration based and do you feel that it's a little challenging where you're collaborating through multiple grades versus multiple first grade teachers or or second grade teachers? Does does that make it a little more challenging for you? That's a great question. I'm gonna have our teacher leader address that. Um, it is. So, there are kind of two things going on. It's more challenging because through collaboration, you can share the the effort, you can share um you can share the work. So, we don't have four fifth grade teachers. So, you know, it all building the assessments and um making instructional decisions, it falls on one teacher's shoulders. Um but on the other hand, there being collaborating in a vertical team, the the standards build on one another and you can use

059similar instructional strategies across all of the grades. Um, and it's also given our teachers and myself the opportunity to really learn deeply um about the California state standards. So, I was a fourth grade teacher. When I was in the classroom, I looked at the fourth grade standards. That's where I lived. I never went up to fifth grade. I never looked down to third grade. But because our vertical because we collaborate vertically um it it basically forces the teachers at Federal Terrace and myself to look across the grades. So it's been a really um deep learning opportunity. Is this something that you you all can collaborate with on your learning days on your professional days with teachers from other sites? I'm not sure if it is, but you know, is that something that can be done?

060It can be definitely because you know two of the four questions um are around what do we do when students aren't learning it yet and then what do we do to extend learning for students who have so when we have the opp when when we have the opportunity to collaborate across the district that's when those really deep conversations about you know my I'm really struggling with um having, you know, my students just aren't getting adding and subtracting multiple digits. Um, what have you tried? So, that is a really great opportunity to really, you know, to learn from our colleagues across Fileo. Then just one more um question I had. Um, you'd mentioned that you had outside folks kind of giving a little bit of push and you said something and if if I misunderstood um

061I apologize but uh you were saying that they were telling that the district wasn't providing yes enough or what um can you can you clarify for me because if it if it's something that this side is needing to step up more yeah let let us know. So one of the things that solution tree brought to us and it wasn't one coach it was more than one coach was that you don't teach the idea of you don't teach curriculum you teach standards and so you know we have you see you teach essential standards and so the thought was well we must have brought I think the thought of the coaches from solution tree was well the reason we they brought us to federal to Valo is because they don't have adopted curriculum. I don't know what

062it was, but we were told off the bat, go look for your curriculum. You know, create these units, write these standardsbased units, and look for curriculum. Go here, go there. Um, buy this, buy that. Um, and and you know, and and we were given permission to do so. And we kind of started going down that that road of okay, so we're given permission to think outside of the box to um to gather our own curriculum or resources. Um but it beca it was too it was we we're singletons. There's only one teacher in fifth grade and there's only one teacher in third grade and there wasn't a teacher in fourth grade. So it was it was a lot of work attempting to create our own curriculum. um when when as a district we have amazing

063curriculum, right? So the push back that that we gave was no, we are not going to we're not going to do that. We are not going to look for resources when we have amazing district stuff. Um and I and that's that happened middle of second second year where um where we we I I I just completely pushed back and said no we are going to remain faithful to the the curriculum that we have and we know that what we have is amazing. Our math resources especially are amazing. Our ELA is amazing. We had the support of core going on. So, and you know, with the support of district leadership, you know, we we all just kind of pushed back on our solution tree coaches and said, "No, we're going to continue the work." The essential

064standards live in everything that we have as a district. So, it was just dispelling that misnomer amongst um solution tree coaches that Valleo didn't have the resources necessary. We have everything we need in this district. So, that that went away quickly. So there there's we we have everything we need and more. Thank you for clarifying that. Of course, of course. And again, thank you for inspiring. Oh, you Thank you, Vice President Amboy. Again, thank you for your presentation. Um, I've watched Solution Tree um start at Federal Terrace when I first became um a trustee and to see where you're where you were at then and to where you are at now. It's it's I'm enjoying this from from this side of the of the of the DAS. I'm enjoying to see the growth and the

065passion that all your teachers and your staff from from from your custodian to your um to site safety. It's everyone has that one mindset and and I appreciate all your hard work and I would hope and I would like and again we would like to see the data you know in in time and we know the data will will be there. Um be patient. Um whatever we can do on this side to fill in the gaps please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you, Christine Simmons. Um, sorry guys, I'm unwell. Um, most of my questions were um, answered already, so I'll leave with like a statement. Um, I'm really proud of how Federal Terrorist is doing. Um, Miss Deleator, you talked about how the assessment desk only like predicted them jumping six points, but they jumped

06620 to 40 points. That means a lot to me because it shows that the PLC is working. Um, I remember my third grade year at Federal Terrace, I didn't have a teacher for, well, I had a teacher, but he left. Um I didn't have a teacher for a while and going into fourth grade year with Miss Hinton, she really tried um her best to support us in our education learning because we were a little bit behind. I would like to admit that we were a little bit behind, but she really um supported us and I'm glad to hear about your PL PLC and I do see the future of it. I see the future of like federal terrorists being very bright and I look forward to hopefully seeing like in the next year or two

067it's showing up on um the data and um actually I do have a question. What is Alvo? Alo is a sorry hopefully I do it justice but basically it's an organization where they send out these I call them kids but they're coaches. there's young people and uh basically we principles kind of they come educated in uh how to PE and organized sports and uh different seal type um strategies and so for example at Federal Terrace we have two illegal coaches and they're both very young people uh but highly capable uh they lead games during recess um for the upper grade kids that don't want to play games you know they'll lead like circles and they'll just they'll talk and have conversations. Uh they're there really just to engage kids in in physical fitness and just

068mental well-being kind of things. And I mean we had very capable coaches this year, you know, and sometimes and they're young kids, you know, so you know, sometimes it works since and this for us at Federal Terrace, we got super lucky and we had very capable coaches from ELO. Um that's great. Thank you so much. Sure. Of course, Dr. Young, what I'm impressed with the with with this um what most impresses me with this package that um they have a process that you guys are being followed for the last three years, three years years. Um and it's it's cut and dried. I mean, you know, it's it's rocket science right here. The question is, what do we want each student to learn? How will we know each student? And then it tells you takes you

069through the process. My question is this is your third and you considered us still a pilot. It It's not a pilot. No, this is us. This is I think it's it's us. This is us. We built this. I mean, they built it. I just kind of happened to be in the room when they were building it. Um, and when I say they, I mean the teachers. Uh, it's not a pilot. It is it is ours. Um, we have this book. It's called learn by doing. It's kind of the it's the Richard Defor Rebecca Defor book like the Bible. And issues will come up and the way we solve problems, the way we go about doing things. Year one, yes, I was on the phone, you know, Dr. Keing, what do I do now? This is

070happening, right? um year two I was like let me take a let me try to do this on our own and now it's okay let's go to the book open the book what should we do next you know so I don't think it's a pilot I I don't consider it a pilot I really do think it's I know I don't think I know it's it's us we're running the PLC May 2nd is our last last ever coaching visit with uh Janelle Keading and I mean a lot of what we've done this year it's it's us this this this is no longer a pilot this is a PLC see at federal terrace. Okay. In saying that, I guess what I'm saying is when you go take your show on the road to the rest of the

071district. I mean, these are things that teachers need to know how the process works in order for the program to be working in order for these kids to be learning. It's it's plain and simple. It's no rocket science need to be done right there. This needs to be um shared um in a PDC moment, professional development moment um with the rest of the teachers and they also need to buy into it. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Uh you know, I'm going to tell you that it I'm lucky. I I'm a very lucky principal. Uh, I've been around for for forever. Um, and the culture at Federal Terrace is one where this was going to work. Um, every single one of my teachers, let me let me just tell you this. So, when Danell Kitty, our lead coach,

072comes on first day, day one, Marissa, what's the culture like on this st on this staff? I'm like, they're all good kids. They're all they're all good people. Uh, they're all right. Right. Uh but her her number one question to me behind closed doors with just me was what kind of push back are you going to get from which teachers unionwise? And right off the bat I said zero I'm going to get zero push back. Um, and I wish I could report to you that I got zero push back from teachers on the staff union wise, but what can I say? 99.9%. 99.9% of our staff from the custodian to the lunch lady to the yard supervisors to my teachers are on this with me. There is a lot of work that is outside of

073what the contract says a teacher should do that that my these teachers are doing and they're doing it for our students. Um, and each one of them can probably grieve me for maybe a couple of things, you know, but they make the choice not to because they know that in the end they're in this for our students, you know. So, I wish I could tell you I got zero push back, but there was some push back. Um, very little, very minor, and that's not going to stop us. I don't know that the situ I don't know that that situation is present at every site. you know, it could it takes a lot of buyin and it takes a lot of putting our students and your mission ahead of yourself. And so that's that's all I

074have to say about that as Forest said. So, um, Dr. Young, for myself, uh, thank you very much for your presentation and a great learning journey. One of my questions was how much longer, but I think you said May, next month is the end of the coaches. So, um, and then you have it, you've already built it. Like you said, it's you own it, it's yours, and you're just going to keep going forward with what you've learned on your journey. Um, so that was my first question, but it was just answered. The next one, Katie, I really enjoyed when you talked about um the aligned standards at each grade level because when you look at the state standards, especially the key standards, they're so wordy and there's so many multiple tiers just within the standard,

075it's like, okay, am I looking at this? Am I looking at this or or do I expect that? So, it's like, where am I focusing? And when you have for you, you said first grade, correct? Correct. So when you know where the kindergarters what they key standards are and what you're you expect them to come in on and then when your second grade teachers know what they expect you to cover and where they should take off from that is very powerful extremely powerful. Can you tell more about the because to me I wish I had that and I don't have that. Um you know it's it's so embedded in our collaboration like we just kind of and I'm I'm doing a horrible disservice to my team. I'm I am um there's three of us. We

076get together. We're going to talk about this is what it is. So, for example, beginning of the year, we all started with place value. That's just kind of where we chose to start. Um my place value was from up to 100. So, we had the strategies and I knew what I was doing and I've gone through the standards and I've pulled out everything. And we did that with um our math coach, Scott Curran. And kindergarten teacher did the same thing. second grade teacher did the same exact thing. What was the same about it is we were all doing the same thing even though it was just a different numbers and so we were able to talk about well this strategy worked for me and this strategy worked for these kids last year because those second

077graders were mine last year you know I didn't try that strategy maybe you will have better luck with this my kinder teacher was able to tell me hey you know what I was using this language last year you're using this language maybe that's why they're not getting it and I never would have thought about that if I wasn't able to meet up with them. Um, I could tell my second grade teacher that, hey, you know what? My kids did really well when they were working with their 10 frames and they were able to draw them out. Maybe you using blocks is what's confusing them. Think the little things like that that we really kind of take for granted, that's what's making the big difference. And having that time and having my team that just we

078work really well together and it's made a huge difference. And I, like I said, I'm just I'm doing a disservice to them because learning progressions. Thank you. See, that's why we have a team and building our learning progressions. And this is where we're going to start. This is our next step. This is our next step. And we go from the bottom up to the top. And each grade level has that. And we are able to see what the learning progression is from each grade level. And how it is similar. K through two is much similar. 35 3456 very similar. They do have some discrepancies when it gets to like sixth grade math that don't please don't ask me anything about it because I won't be able to do it for you. But um it's it's

079neat to see those progressions and look and able to look ahead and be like, "Oh, you know what? If my this is why I need to make sure that my kids know place value up to 120 because if they don't know it, they're going to have a really hard time talking about numbers up to a thousand in second grade and then they're not going to be able to do their multiplication facts and addition in third grade. And it all see you know and it all just builds on top of one another. And so just having that conversation weekly is a game changer. Last question. Um thank you so much for your explanation. Um, how do you work with the DOK levels within? So, with us, our essential standard is making sure that our kids are

080able to read. So, I'm not going to lie, that's been our focus. It's not that we have forgotten and left behind the DOK, but our major ELA focus this time of year has been making sure that those kids are able to read. So, we've been have relying a lot on the UFly program along with the um sixstep phonics lesson. That's what my kinder teacher this year is using. Now that the end of the year is coming, it's kind of fun to see that the kids are now able to read and so they're able to take that information. They're able to ask those questions and they're not just the surface level questions. They themselves are asking those do and question two and three questions because they don't have to focus on necessarily the reading and the

081sounding out. they're able to get into the content and ask questions like, well, why why are the roots growing down in a tree? Why why why are they doing that? Or why do they grow across? They're able to do that deep thinking on themselves by themselves and we're just able to guide them. Support as needed, but that to me is where that do part is coming in. By the time they get to third and fourth grade, that critical thinking is already set in motion. They already have those skills. Can I add on to that? No. Sorry. Um, one of the kind of shifts in thinking that one of the coaches brought to us, um, our math coach Scott Curran was level up thinking. So, a student solves a problem, they show it, they show it

082to their teacher, and the teacher asks, "Show me another way." And then finally, okay, they show them another way. Why does why do those two um strategies work? So that simple shift in thinking away from explaining to questioning um we're it just automatically addresses the um depth of knowledge the deeper depth of knowledge in math. Um and then in language arts just thinking about do as a teacher leader I'm able to plan with um teachers and guide them. Our our district resources are filled with um DK2 and three questions. So, as the teacher leader, I'm able to support teachers in identifying what questions to ask teacher um to what questions to ask their students that are right there in the district resource. Thank you very much. Thank you, Federal Terrace. We're really appreciate hearing your

083journey and your success. [Applause] I believe we're ready for Jessie Bethl. All right, Jessie Beth, though, who who's coming up? Good afternoon. I'm Christina Carter, one of the vice principles of Jesse at Jesse Bethto, and I want to thank you guys for inviting us here today. Um, I'm going to spend a few minutes talking about our CTE courses and then I am going to turn it over to nine of our students that we have here today to um share a little bit with you guys about their experiences that they've had at Jesse Beth and specifically in the CTE courses that they are currently taking. Okay, speak on this first slide here. Um, one of the reasons why we chose to invite our students here is because we feel like the students that we have here,

084as well as many of our other students on our campus, exemplify where we want our students to be upon graduation from VCUSD. Um, these students are learners. They are engaged. They are great communicators. Um, and we want them to be able to show you guys that rather than us telling you, show you for themselves. Um, I do have a video embedded here. Um, and so you guys have that. I'm going to leave that for you guys to to take a look at. Um, it is talking overall about a student's experience um, experiences and how she feels that she's developing, but we also have her here in person to speak. So, I'm not going to play the video. I'm going to let the video speak for itself. Um, and then she can speak to you guys

085directly. So, but that video is in there for you guys. um law academy we have at Jesse Bethl uh was started in 2013. Um it is still going strong and we are um looking to continue with that program far into the future. Um it is an opportunity for students to learn about law um learn about career pathways in law um in the program. Um I will actually leave a lot of it to you guys to talk about. Um but they do expose the students. They have activities for them. They take them on field trips. Um, all to get them just engaged around exploring law as a career. Um, again, I have a video here. If we have time at the end, and you know, you guys want me to play it, I will. But these

086videos are for you guys to take a look at. And again, I think the students are going to speak to what's in the video. So, we'll let them speak to that. U we also have um junior ROC and we have representatives here. You guys saw some example of these wonderful students coming in and presenting the flags and presenting the colors. And I will say to you guys, it is not a show just for you guys. They are like this every single time you see them. They are on point. They know exactly what they're doing and they are studentled. the events that they have um their instructors tell them what they need to do but allow them to run their own events and they do a fantastic job with that. So what you see is the

087program is the program every time you see them. Um so but the purpose is to build character uh to build their leadership skills uh to give them the opportunity to explore um career um physical I know there's tests and things like that that they do um that's all part of the fra the framework of the program and again they will speak on on that biomed um we do have a biomed uh department um it's small department um we have it. We're hoping to grow it. Um it's a very popular course at the school. Um students really enjoy the class. They really enjoy the instructor that we have. Um again, they're learning about career career pathways. Um they learn about the human body, body functions. Um it's a hands-on course. They do a lot of um

088projects, a lot of experiments. Um it's not a lecture take notes type of class. students are engaged in hands-on learning and collaborating um as they learn um through this program. Um and I think this is the last slide that I have. Um uh Jesse Beth had recently last week, last week they had uh SAT school day, which is really just the SAT but held during the school day. Um which is important because we did not have that. We didn't have it last year for sure. Um, but it's an important opportunity for us to be able to really encourage our students to take the SAT um, test. It's an opportunity for us to show um, that we feel it's important and that we can support students in this important step as they're looking towards moving towards

089um, applying for colleges. Um, so that's all that I have here and again I have the students here. So, I'm going to let the students come up and talk and then um then I can come back up if you guys have any questions for me. Um I think we're starting with we're starting with Okay, we're starting with uh JJ RLTC. So, you guys come on up. Good evening everyone. Um, bear with me. This is my first time speaking in anything like this. Um, I'm Leah Seville. I'm a student at Jesse Beta High School and I'm a platoon commander and the armed drill commander in the Navy junior ROC program. And before high school, I was that kid that was shy, scared to make friends, and ironically speak in front of a lot of people. But

090after three years in the program, um I learned how to branch out of my comfort zone. And without this program, I don't think I would have been able to participate in the things that I have in this program. We go to field trips and with the guidance of our instructors, they help us explore careers outside of the military. Um they help us explore colleges, um scholarships, what kind of scholarships and how to apply for them and just other jobs outside of high school and college. Um, to a lot of people outside of this program, it seems scary or intimidating and they think that we're all robots when we're around school, but and to me and to a lot of the students and cadets in this program, it means a lot to us because it really

091helped us guide um each other through high school. And without this program, I wouldn't have the courage to be up here and talk to all of you guys. So, thank you. If you don't have any questions, I would like to pass it on to the next student. You're done? Yes. Okay. Okay. Um, good evening. Um, I am cadet petty officer, third class sergeant. Um, I'm a junior at Jesse Bethl High School and a naval science 3 cadet. Um, so, um, Jerry C has taught me a bunch of skills that are very important, um, to the real world. Um, attention to detail. Um, what else do I have written down? um disciplined. Um I hold myself to a higher standard. You know, wearing the uniform, I have to hold myself to this high standard in order

092to ensure that the standard is met. Um I um am interested in pursuing the military career field afterwards. Um I went I attended Griffin Academy um for my middle school and for a long time I knew I wanted to commission into the Navy as an officer. Um I had no idea how to do it, no one to really mentor me or guide me. Um until chief one day kind of just you know recruited me into the program and now I have a very strong idea of what to do. Um in fact um leading my aspirations high enough for me to want to attend the United States Navville Academy um which is apparently a really prestigious um institution. Um and um this has actually been working out for me. Um, I have been accepted um this

093year to the Naval Academy summer seminar where I'll be able to attend Naval Academy for a week and get a feel for the academic rigors and the physical rigors that are included at the Naval Academy. So, thank you. Thank you for your time everybody and I'm going to pass it on to the next cadet. Um, good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Galani Pavo. I'm the cadet lieutenant commander of Jaguar Company at Jesse Bethl. Um, I just want to say really quick before I get started, let's give these cadets a round of applause for coming up and speaking. Um, and that's really what NJC is about. Uh, building cadets up, building, you know, taking freshmen or really any grade that they come in, you know, building a better person. Uh, citizenship, citizenship development is our

094main goal in ROC. We really want to build good people. um you know develop them in their academics and um you know make sure that they're prepared for life after high school. Um ROC is specifically important to me um similar to like one of my fellow cadets. Uh I've wanted to always enlist in the United States Navy um which I'm pursuing to pursuing to do next year um as a aviation boatman's mate uh handling aircraft on a aircraft carrier. Um, sorry. Um, that's the the gist of our program is to build cadetses up to um that next level. Um, and just continuing on why why it's important to me. I was, you know, offered a lot of opportunities through ROTC. I got my first job through ROC. I'm a lifeguard at Calmeritime. And, uh, I

095was or introduced to that job through a field trip that we do that we did. um we weren't able to go on that field trip this year, but uh it's something that we look forward to doing each year and uh part of the some of the activities that we do. Um another reason ROC is important to me is because it, you know, like my other cadets built me up into, you know, a strong person doing stuff like this. I know I'm a little nervous right now, but um you know, it really builds people up. Uh one impactful thing that happened to me in ROC was uh last year actually we had a incident in which uh a cadet had uh fallen ill and we had to um resuscitate that cadet and I was you know

096a part of that being a lifeguard and uh doing that I was able to earn the meritorious achievement ribbon which is the highest ribbon that you're able to achieve in your OTC and just you know being in that situation and being able to handle myself really shows how injury OTC can build someone up do, you know, to that level. Um, I want to speak just to some of the specifics of our program and, uh, what we do, not necessarily on a day-to-day, but what our goal is for, um, the entire school year. Uh, like the, uh, previous cadet's mission, we're very heavy on scholarships. uh Captain Ordalano, uh he's really hard on us for, you know, applying to those scholarships, making sure that we meet those deadlines, take the SAT, take the ACT, all those

097very important things in our high school career that, you know, a lot of, you know, normal students might overlook. I know Principal Carter or Vice Principal Carter, excuse me, um told you guys that we had our first SAT day. Um in my four years of being at BETHL, there was no uh preac, PSAT, no SAT, anything like that. And um ROC was actually able to help me prepare to take my ACT. Um we have an entire library of you know prep materials, test materials, whether it's the ACT, um SAT, ASVAB, students have those resources available to prepare themselves and make sure that they're ready to pass those tests and apply to scholarships and get into the colleges that they um want to get into. Uh we have a lot of career pathways and community service

098opportunities. Um, ROC is not just a, you know, a flow into the military. We're not, you know, getting you ready to go into the military where there's that option. Um, there's a lot of other career pathways, whether that's, you know, getting your merchant marine credential, uh, trade opportunities, working in healthcare. Um, there's a lot of different ways that you're able to advance yourself and succeed after high school. Um, another core part of our program is our special teams. outside of our normal um platoon day, our one we have four platoon uh throughout the six periods throughout the day, but there's also our afterchool program and that's where you know our top cadetses can really excel in different teams that we have. We have a color guard team. Our former cadet over there, she's our drill

099team commander. We have academic team. We have multiple STEM teams um who work with uh coding, blender, different, you know, softwares like that to really advance their uh experience as a student at Jesse Bethl. And it's not really offered um anywhere else any sort of after school program like that that really enriches cadetses and brings them to that next level. Um moving on to some of the events that we were able to do this year, events and field trips. Uh we have our annual cruise on the USS Battoic and we visit the uh coast coast guard base in Alama. Uh that um vessel used to be President Roosevelt's former uh yacht and each year we um students have the opportunity to ride out on that. We go out through the bay and they're able to,

100you know, if they've never been on a boat before have that opportunity as well as earn their sea cruise ribbon. Uh we also for the first time in I believe four year or five years since uh COVID we went to basic leadership training and uh we're very thankful for that uh the uh school board and our uh school administrators for allowing us to go on that overnight field trip. Um it's very you know an essential thing that cadets have that training and are able to participate in those overnight field trips. It's a really crucial part to NGOTC. Um, and another thing that sets us apart from other programs within NGOTC is that we have a lot of summer programs. Uh, we have our leadership academy which is similar to BLT where cadets, you know, go

101out and they really advance their leadership skills. It's actually out of state and um it's a really big uh ontaking one of our color guard cadets. She's not here tonight, but she went to that and u I can just see her growth from that program. We also have uh Thousand Oaks and Boys and Girls State which are more citizenship development. Thousand Oaks is in uh Southern California. Um it's a leadership academy where cadets work with uh other NJRC units to really just build their leadership skills, communication, all those key points to being a good leader. uh boys and girls state is similar to that but rather than you know just learning leadership they actually play roles within like a city government whether it's mayor council members uh district attorney you know different things like that

102to advance their worldly knowledge and their um leadership we also have um through the United States Naval Corps of Engineering there's a science and engineering program uh myself I did apply to that I unfortunately didn't get in but it's a program where you know, high school students have the opportunity to work in labs all across the United States in different um biotechnical um fields, whether it's chemistry, bioengineering, um aviation, different stuff like that. Um it's just a summer program that we have available that uh a lot of students apply to. We also have our flight academy, which is again through the Navy where students have the opportunity to actually earn their private pilots's license over the summer. It's an eight uh 8week course and uh again it takes place at multiple different uh campuses around

103the United States. Uh we also have career technical educational uh certifications. Myself and my executive officer are currently pursuing our FAA drone license. Um you know with that we would be able to get jobs at PG& or other various companies that use uh drones for like aerial um mapping and whatnot. Uh we also have our merchant marine credential which cadets are able to earn through either going through calm maritime or the Kings Point merchant mariner um academy but we have a lot of different u career opportunities that uh students are able to take advantage of. [Music] Um, I believe currently Jesse Bethl is going through like a big facilities overhaul with the uh building of a track and multiple different like um PE facilities. We'd also like to see that for the injur side as

104well, not just within the sports department or you know other departments with this within the school, but right now in our classroom it's it's pretty packed and these cadetses can speak to it and agree that um we have a pretty packed classroom. other ROC's or the way our classroom is laid out I guess I should start with is we have our main classroom learning area we have a supply room where we keep all of our uniforms and uh we have other we have our changing room and we have a back staff room and it's just really cramped in there and what a lot of schools have is their supply room is actually up on a loft um which is something that we'd like to see in the future of course with the board and the

105district's help but as well as fundraising we'd like to add a second story to our classroom um we'd also like to see uh lockers uh within our uh classroom just so that that's another incentive for cadetses to join. You know, you get a locker. Uh I'm not sure when it happened, but uh Jesse Bethl used to have lockers, but then they were removed for um lunch pavilions. And um you know, talking to a lot of my peers, I know that's something that they wish they had a place to keep their stuff. Um something else that we're also looking for is weightlifting equipment. Um, we're currently restricted to what was left from the sports department, the stuff that they didn't want. And it's somewhat adequate, but you know, it's stuff that we also or there's other

106things like bench presses and, you know, proper working ellipticals or uh treadmills, for example, um that we need to truly advance u our cadets physical standards. Um as well as going back to our changing rooms. Currently our changing rooms are sort of makeshift. I know cadet sergeant um being um another male cadet here with me. Our male changing room is uh made up of uh partitions. It's not permanent. Our female changing room is a little bit better. Um a former cadet's family actually and uh donated that to us. But, you know, that's a facility that we're is almost, you know, necessary for cadets to have the proper privacy when changing into their uniforms or their PT uniforms um when needed. And that's uh another thing that we're looking for. And uh my final thing that

107I have here is an indoor air rifle range. Um I forgot to mention it, but one of our um special teams is a marksmanship team. And, you know, beyond all the rest of our teams, that team, you know, really excels and really pushes themselves to be the best, you know, make those uh standards and and be the best shot. Um, one of our cadetses, our our captain actually is a second national ranked shooter for his uh age group. Um, so, and I also have a marksmanship cadet here with me. She um won a medal at a competition for best freshman shooter. She was the best shot in the entire competition. And um you know we just we these cadets take the that activity really really seriously and we're looking for a more permanent solution to

108when we want to shoot because currently cadets have to take all the equipment to our bike rack. That's what we're using for our shooting facility. Right now we're asking for a proper shooting facility and there are grants available from the NRA. And I know that might sound a little, you know, uneasy, a school grant from the NRA, but this is something that cadets really, really take seriously. And it's more than just, you know, shooting guns. It's it's, you know, trigger control, your breathing, muscle control. It's really something that cadets could take into a collegiate sport or into the uh Olympics. Um, and some of the risk management concerns that we have is transportation. Um, currently I'm not sure I'm not too clear on the exact policies of VCSD transportation, but I know that we're limited

109to specific hours within the day for uh pickup and drop off. And if we want to go outside of those hours, we're uh we have to rent a charter bus, which costs $3,000. Um, and that's a big expenditure for us in DC. Um, so if there's any way like with the district that we're able to work out um something that can solve that issue so that we're not having to spend that big sum of money whenever we want to whenever we want to do something outside of those operating hours of uh the VCSD buses. And then also vans. Um a lot of other school districts have vans that uh students are able to use. I know we have a big bus fleet but um vans for like small groups like this. Uh color guards. We

110have a color guard events all over the county, whether it's for Six Flags or up at the county building. Um, and cadets can't always rely on their parents because they're at work. So, you know, small vans like that, so where they're not having to rent out an entire bus for those sorts of activities. And, um, with that, I just want to say thank you for your time and, uh, thank you for hearing my presentation. If there's any questions, Dr. Young, you for your presentation. I mean, I got lost somewhere along the line. you have so much to offer in your program. It's just amazing. Um, how many seniors do you have graduating this year? Um, currently we have eight. Eight seniors. Yeah. Next year we're planning or we're projected to have 18. 18. Yeah. Okay.

111Okay. And um, as far as building a loft? Yes. Oh, that's that's a vision. Yes. Thank you very much. It is. That's a vision. Um, I'm not sure. I know there's other injury units that do have that in their um within their uh building and with the size of our our classroom I do believe that it would be something that we could I can't see building the loft maybe giving you some additional space. Yes. Yes. It's something whatever we can take. Whatever we can take I'm sure the additional space could be invited but the loft. Thank you so much. Of course. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Young. I thought it was interesting both of you apologized for not being for your speaking, but yet you both did to me an exceptional job and once you

112relaxed, you did you did wonderful and you you just you you the what you explained everything was very clear, very precise. And um I also liked how you advocated for things that you need. That is important because if we we would we wouldn't know and the community also there's ways not through the community or others. So advocating for your needs to be more successful within your program. I think that's incredible and I I really I like that and through your life you're going to need to do that wherever you go. So I'm glad you're doing it now and that will help for the future generations for the students that are coming up next. Absolutely. Um so thank you so much for being here and just giving the examples like I wouldn't have thought about I

113know we have transportation but when you gave the specific examples then it's more tangible. Oh that need could probably be met or maybe not a loft but an extra room um because there's extra space something. So, there's ways to meet needs, maybe not exactly the way another facility does it, but yet to find the way to address them. Thank you. Um, you have a wonderful program. I'm excited for all of you and I loved hearing about the different awards all of you get for helping and throughout the community and how you go throughout the Bay Area and even the United States to learn skills and like you said it's not maybe going into the Navy but you have all these other options. Absolutely. Having options is so important because you don't know where life's going

114to direct you or guide you. Yes. So, I really appreciate you're all here and I want to hear your voice and hopefully you'll come back. We'll hear your voice again through this incredible program. Thank you. [Applause] Our next speakers, is it the law academy or bio? Which re real quick? Hey, uh, President President Fox, I'm sorry. I just wanted to trust I'm sorry, trustee Flores. No worries. Thank you for your presentation. Um, it definitely shows what what your program is doing, but I think this is more of a comment geared towards uh, Superintendent Reio. I I think um, if I heard correctly, that they're changing facilities are are subpar at best. And I think that's something if nothing else, that's something that needs to be addressed ASAP because there's so many liability issues. Yeah, that

115that if nothing else that that needs to be addressed ASAP. So, thank you for bringing that to our attention. Thank you, board. And I hope you guys learned a lot. Biome. Biamemed. Thank you. Um hello, I'm Isaiah Jones with the um biomed department. I'm just here to share my experiences in the program with the rest of y'all. So for biomemed, I really personally I really struggle with just u someone telling me what to do and how to do it. I'm more of a really hands-on kind of person when it comes to learning. And I feel like the biomed um program has helped me a lot as we do a lot of activities and have a lot of field trips where we actually do the things that we're learning about and we're exposed to the things

116that we might want to do or like pursue in the future. So, um, yeah, I'm just gonna pass it on. Um, good evening everyone. I'm Priscilla Williams. I'm a senior at Jessica Beth at the High School. And yeah, just to piggy back off of what Isaiah said, biomemed is a really hands-on um, class. I want to pursue a career in the medical field. And so, I'm going to UCLA to major in human biology. And I thank it all to this class. Thank you. It's um, it really taught me just different pathways I can take. like you don't have to go straight to just becoming a doctor, becoming a nurse. There's so many other things that um the medical field has to offer. And just for a specific example, I have an internship right now at

117Tory University where I get to um shadow different health professionals. And when I go there and I get to see what the the medical professionals are teaching their college students, it's actual real life stuff that we've already learned in class like um the ear test, testing your air conduction versus your bone conduction or how to um properly um apply an IV or how to take a person's blood pressure or even how to talk to patients when you know you have to do a formal presentation, you have to explain to them um step by step on what you're doing. Biomet has already prepared that for us. So, it's kind of just given like kids an insight into what careers in the medical field look like and if they can handle it, if they have the patience

118for it and just our teacher, he's Mr. Risto, he can be here today, but he's really, really, really patient with us. And we just can dissect um the topic we're learning on day by day. And I think all the kids, since it's a three-year program, we've all become like a family. And it makes it really easier for the labs and stuff that we do because everyone is so comfortable with each other and our teacher is um really prominent on making us all comfortable with the stuff that we're doing. And I think it just really helped me become confident that I want to pursue um biology and I want to become a pediatrician in the future. So yeah, we just really love the Bowman program. I can't stress it enough. I um am going to Six

119Flags next weekend to talk with the eighth graders and try to um persuade them to join biomed when they come to BETO next year. It's just an amazing program and I owe my thanks to Mr. Esto and this department. Thank you. If you have any questions, that insight. Thank you. Thank you for that insight. the program. Now my question is um in the program do you have any partnerships like Kaiser set that you um experience from? So the Toro um Torah University actually comes to our class every Monday and we have this thing called the peer health promoter program. I've been a part of it since I was a sophomore. But they basically come in and we work on um I guess community issues. So right now we're doing we're going to hold a symposium

120at school and it's it's held by Toro and each group is broken up and then the Toro they're actual students from Toro University. They come and they help us with their problems. So my group is um focusing on domestic violence in Solano County and we get to like look at real data, real statistics, make um make a presentation on it and then we get to um present at the symposium which is coming up next month. But um Tor University, they actually come in and they do a lot of presentation on internships. That's how I got mine um through Kaiser 2 and through a lot of scholarships. I think Toro is one of our most prominent partners, but throughout my experience, I don't think any other companies have come in to speak to us. It's usually

121Toro or Salana Community College. Just a lot of colleges to get kids to know that there's other resources like available around Slana County. Are you a senior? Yes. What is your vision? My vision for me, myself, um so in the fall I'm going to go to UCLA. I'm going to major in human biology and then I hope to um go to medical school at Duke. That's my dream. We'll see what how it goes. But I hope to become a pediatrician or a neonatlogist to work with the kids at the NICU. Yeah. And young man. Uh for me, I'm going to San Jose and my dream is to become a chiologist mostly because um back in the uh I used to play basketball and then um I hurt myself. Let me move this mic up a

122little bit. Sorry about that. But I hurt myself and um it seemed like a really good job and a really fun job and I can't imagine myself doing anything else. So that's what I want to do or that's what I envision for myself. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much for talking about the program and we're very excited for both of you for your future. Thank you. Come back to Valo. Okay, I will. We are next going to hear from the law academy. Is that correct? All right. Hi, my name is Dominic and I'm part of the Jesse Beth at the Law Academy. And one thing that I experienced in law academy was I got to like speak with a lot of people in the law academy and it helped

123me because I couldn't really like talk with people a lot because I was like nervous and stuff like that. And uh like it motivated me to like make more friends and I have more classes with people in it and so we get to talk a lot in the same classes and experience a lot together. And an impact it did for me was uh like have a lot of like uh communications with people and uh talk along some people. That's it. Oh, let me let me move this back down. Hi. Um I'm Malia Li from Jesse Bethl Law Academy. Um we're here to talk about um the my experiences in Law Academy. And I think one of the most important things in Law Academy is the teachers. They're really supportive and um if any questions um

124sorry I'm really nervous um with any questions to help you. Um I've had a lot of support. I I didn't when I transferred um uh when I was a sophomore to law academy, I didn't know anything and uh this has been a good experience. Um, it made me take interest in um the the um the in the way with law and um what kind of um different law enforcement um roles that you can um have interest in. I'm sorry. Um but that's all. Hi, I'm I'm Lily. I'm a junior and I'm in the law academy at Jesse Bethl, I think. Um, well, I've known about the law academy since I was a freshman. I joined as a sophomore. A lot of my sisters like participated in a lot of it, so I got to like

125see them and what they did with it and they didn't really take it like serious at first. And I think for me something that like really brought to my attention from it was the um the mentor sessions that we just had. So it was like a whole bunch of different people. A law isn't just you don't just have to go into like be a lawyer or it will like prepare you for other paths too. Like you could go and be a police officer or go into like the firefighter academy. It's all offered actually in the front of it like when we were getting the packets as like described what we could do from here. Um uh One of my mentors actually went out of his way and got me a card from I forgot his

126name. I'm not going to remember his name off the top of my head, but um because I want to I want to go into family law when I'm older and I might possibly be able to intern with the person that um was at the mentor sessions with this, I guess. But I think something also about the law academy that uh is probably one of another one of another really good things is the Um it's it's got to be our restorative justice too. And that's something that a lot of the law teachers have worked on with um Miss AA and Miss Chang. Uh it's like if um on campus if there's like issues with students, we can kind of use that to like help students instead of them just focusing on it with uh staff. It's

127it's more of a studentled group, but it also prepares us for many other things. And Miss Chang actually is um she helps us out a lot with that, but I'm gonna pass it on to um uh kind of to add a little bit more information with Lily and the mentor sessions we've had. I my mentor was um um a dispatcher and a police officer in Vallejo, Mr. Sergeant Hollis. Um he's taught me a lot and shared a lot of his experiences and like um it showed me and made me realize what kind of different jobs and experiences people have with um and made me kind of take interest in law law enforcement. But yeah, that's all I kind of had to say. Oh. Hello, my name is Shiloh. I am a junior at Jessto High

128School. Some things about me are I'm also part of the Gerotc and I'm also a tennis player. Um I think the law academy is important because even though a person may not specifically want to go into that career, it's definitely a good program because it offers so many different things um for so many different careers. Also because picking back off what they said, we have mentors who come from different professions before the legal career and some of those professions may interest people. Particularly for me, uh like my friend said, Sergeant Hollis, uh used to be in the Air Force. So, um it's him being in the Air Force did, uh motivate me to switch mentors and have him as a mentor and dive more into his experiences and what made him go from being in

129the Air Force to now being in the legal career as an officer. Um it's also really important to me because it expands from not only just the law academy, but it gives you different experiences um on different cases. um you get the opportunity to go into different courtrooms and sit while they do presentations. Um, and we also, like she said, we have the youth injustice, which we basically uh or restorative justice where we basically get to help kids um who are having more troubling times and uh maybe fitting in, getting along with other people, uh teachers, and we try to talk to them um as students normally because we've noticed that they have a different reaction to when an adult is speaking to them than a student. Um, so yeah, and then um, sorry, lastly,

130um, I'd say it had a huge impact on my life, uh, the law academy because it's expanded my, um, my thoughts on careers. um just knowing that there's many different things that you can do, you can pursue um many different ways that you can go and also the uh resources that it has helped given me for different careers as well. Um and yeah, it's just impacted me really well. So, thank you. Okay, I'm sorry. I have one more thing to add. uh when we're talking about students and staff, I want to say my freshman year my mom got sick and had cancer, you know, and she ended up passing away, but because of my teachers and my peers that I have met through the law academy, it made like uh it made a huge difference

131like in my life. Like I didn't really believe that I actually had people that I could lean on like at school until I came to like Miss Cheng or Miss Johnson, one of my favorite teachers on campus. No offense to anybody, but she's uh she's our forensics teacher. I've actually had her since my freshman year, biology, and that's another that's another path that, you know, she kind of walks us through is forensics. But I want to say that the support from them is what makes me want to get up and come to school every day. And it also not only just from them, but from Miss uh Miss Carter and the principal and all the other vice principles, too. They make a big difference in our like in our wanting to learn for them, I

132guess. Thank you very much for sharing that. Uh go ahead. Can I add one more? I'm sorry. We're keep going back and forth. Don't be sorry. It's okay. Um, I had another thing to add about our field trips. Our field trips are very educational. We have actually went to many different colleges like UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and we've also um went to Sacramento State Capital and we did a tour. where we made we we met uh one of the state senators and I just thought it was like a really interesting time. I also shared with my teacher Miss Chang that um I think it's like a really beautiful like pathway. Uh thank you. Thank you. I'm glad you mentioned about the mentors and the field trips and how you get connected through community and helps

133you see other way other avenues or other things maybe you didn't see before to reconnect or be in another area two areas that actually have connections. So thank you for sharing that. We have a light um Dr. Young um the law academy is it's very dear to my heart. I happen to sit on the board. But the bottom line is um you guys are having a law academy symposium June 21 at um it's it's going to be held at the Santa Clair uh University of Law. And I I it's a news flash that I just got that I'd like to share with her. It says the annual California Law Academy symposium. It's June 21st. Uh Santa Clara University School of Law and um and at this particular symposium, Jesse Bethl has the Jesse Bethl Law

134Academy will be receiving the Premier Law Academy Award. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. That's actually um a news flash to us also. But um I think we've had like a lot on our plate. We're focusing on mock trials. We're doing pre-run mock trials right now as of this week, actually. And if you guys have any further questions, how are the mock trials going? Oh, they're going they're going really good. Um, I'm actually one of my roles is a lead attorney and uh it's I wouldn't say it's like it's something I've never experienced before, but uh something I've definitely learned from. Uh yeah, thank you. We have Oh, go ahead. I'm thinking about mock trials. I will say it's uh completely different from the one that we did last year. That good or bad? Uh, it's in

135between. Kind of in between. Just different. Okay. One of your peers would like to ask you a question or say something. Trusty Simmons. Hi y'all. Um, good evening. I'm sick. I'm so sorry, guys. Um, thank you for all of your presentations. I did have questions, but I wanted to wait until all the presentations were over to ask them. But man, go Jags. Am I right? No. Jaguars beat Bluebirds or Red Hawks. Okay. Um before I um ask my questions, I already thanked you, but I want to thank you guys again so much for speaking in front of all of us. um when you guys all started it was a really crowded room and I know how hard it can be to um speak in front of a lot of people. Um it was so interesting

136to hear about all the pathways like law academy and in OTC that I'm not in because I take biomemed but um I want everyone to know that Jesse Belto really is a community like um law academy talked about the restorative justice program. I didn't know about it until maybe two weeks ago and it really does help people that are not in the program. It's a really good program. Um, and as you heard, we have so many great opportunities at Jesse Belto and in our programs. I'm glad we were able to come here and express the needs within the programs as in OC um expressed. And to my questions now, I hope all themies is here. Biomemed and Jody DC law. Biomemed's gone. Oh, I'll answer the questions then. Um, my first question was for all

137of the programs was one, what's your favorite thing about the program you're in? And two, what's one thing you've learned in your program that you don't think you could have learned anywhere else? I'll answer first since I have the mic. Thank you. Um, in biomed since No, I'm sorry. in biomemed. Um I want to go and become a neuroscientist. And um in biomed I've learned a lot about what Priscilla said, um how to talk to patients. I've had lots of opportunities with the pure health program. No, the public health program at Troy University to meet with people in the career path. Well, not necessarily neuroscience. I haven't met any neuroscientists yet, but in like different medical positions that I could possibly be in. And I think that is really cool. And I don't think I

138would have learned how to do well, I don't know what other ummies do, but I don't think I would have learned how to like draw blood or like do blood pressure and almost get my veins pop off at other um programs. Yeah. Thank you, Oh, sorry guys. My questions were one, what's your favorite thing about the program you're in? And two, what's one thing you've learned in your program that you don't think you could have learned in any other program? Um, one of my favorite things is that we can all come together and communicate. Um this actually this law academy has improved my communication skills like this right now my public speaking it's uh been a very big improvement actually and um one thing uh that I've learned if I wouldn't have been in this

139academy is how um interrogations work how uh your Miranda rightites and um learning about um um all that. Um, I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question one more time? I'm sorry. What's your favorite thing about the program you're in? And Oh, okay. Well, my favorite thing about the program, I'd say, well, because I'm in between both, I'd say it's the skills that you acquire in both. um they're very very useful especially in real life um not just in the classroom uh with other people um with officers and whoever you come in encounter with and then I'd say something I think I couldn't have learned in anywhere else is probably the leadership that you build because I've made such a deep connection with also my commanding officer and the people in law academy it was very

140easy for me to uh find a place where I could, you know, reflect what they were teaching me and uh take all the advantages that they offered. So, um as for my favorite thing about ROC, it just absolutely has to be the cadetses. you know, from a more senior standpoint, being able to, you know, manage a 100 cadets and know a different hund know different people and their story while they're in interc. That's just my favorite thing, you know, getting to interact with the cadets, lead the cadetses, and ultimately built them to be better students. So, yeah. Oh, yeah. What's one thing you learned in your program that you don't think you could have learned anywhere else? Um, I'd have to say probably commanding 100 100 people at once. You know, I think that's something

141not most people have the opportunity to do at the age of 17. Um, being in charge of 100 different people and all their different departments and jobs. I think it's, you know, something that I wouldn't have been able to gain anywhere else. Thank you. Thank you, Goss, man. Thank you. Thank you to all of our student presenters. You guys did a great job. Thank you. Thank you, Jessie. Absolutely. Absolutely. Do you guys have anything else? Okay. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you. We are now down to our forum. Do we have any inter agencies reports? I believe we have soul trans. Yes. Good evening. My name is BC Abraham. I am the innovation and technology manager at Soulrren. Thank you for that. If you could all take out your phones, scan that QR

142code, and I'll tell you why. We are in the midst of a complete system redesign, which we more formally refer to as a comprehensive operational analysis or COA. We are in the phase of the COA where we are requesting and actively receiving public feedback comments and anything at all that you want to tell us about the draft designs. It is crucial that we hear from the key demographics like all of you. That's why I am here tonight instead of at home with my dog on my couch. But that's okay. And we want all kinds of feedback. I want to be very very clear. We hear this all the time. You only want to do this performatively. That is not true. We actively want your feedback. Good back and be ugly. We hear it all. I

143have flyers available as well. I can pass them out in the back or leave them there for you. Um, it will summarize what we're looking at doing for the draft changes. In addition, I wanted to provide a brief synopsis of the key details of the COA. The primary objective of the COA is to improve transit service for the community. Specifically, the goal is to make the system faster. People want to get to where they're going and they don't want to have the inefficiencies that come with public transportation. We understand that. They also want it to be more reliable, more efficient, and to maximize, well, at least we want it to maximize our existing resources. Secondly, Soul Trans has no new funding. That should not shock anybody. everyone's tightening their purse strings and as a result

144um we are not able to do some of the things we wish we could with the post-pandemic travel demands that we're seeing in a perfect world the one where money grows on trees we would to that end this redesign is however going to have a netneutral budget in mind and so when you're looking at these concepts understand that we had to plan with what we have and we are going to have to reallocate existing resources. Third, you will see seven key elements amongst the system draft designs on the local side. So local talking about our local routes within the cities. Um you will see an improvement in frequency. you will see uh a reduction in waiting times for our busiest routes. You will see that folks are able to make their trips faster and and

145more conveniently so you don't have to have the decision fatigue of having to plan ahead and and you just kind of know that the next bus is coming and you just go outside. We will also have better timing at the Valo Transit Center so that there isn't wait times there as well. Right now, we're seeing folks waiting anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes on our good days just waiting for their next bus because they have to take more than one bus to get to where they're going. You will also see enhanced weekend service and operating hours throughout the week. So, you'll see earlier start of service on Saturdays, later evening service throughout the entire week, and Sunday service on all routes. If any of you are familiar with the current Soul Trans system, that is

146huge. Our Monday through Sunday does not look like that right now. And so effectively, the bus service would become a consistent service you can depend on Monday through Sunday. On the express side of the house, you will see elements. So express being those bigger buses that you see on the highways going outside of the county. You will see an investment in high demand routes, improvement in travel within the county to other cities within the county, not just the Leo Benishia that we primarily serve. And it will also address reliability and connectivity concerns. Now, I did say seven elements, and for those of you that were counting, that's only six. I know I got you. Um, and the seventh element that is probably the biggest element that you will see in both draft designs is tradeoff.

147I mentioned the net neutral budget. So for all six elements, all those good things I talked about and made you really happy and excited about. Yeah. Well, there's a trade-off. We have to take resources that we have, buses, operators, hours, costs, and take them from elsewhere in the system and apply them to these elements to make them happen. This means merging routes, discontinuing service in certain low usage corridors. And regardless, we want to hear from everyone on these draft designs to help us feel better that, you know, it's a hard decision, but you have our backs or you don't have our backs. Mind you, we've already had significant feedback in certain areas that um we've already made revisions and we will bring back draft concepts to the public. Um for all the revisions that we're

148going to receive based on the comments, we will adjust accordingly essentially. We are taking feedback until May 15th. That is our May board meeting. All are welcome to come. It's a public open forum. Even if you do not scan the QR code or do not talk to me personally or anyone you see at Sultrans, um that public hearing is a great forum to you to uh verbally provide feedback as well. You are more than welcome to submit feedback as many times as you would like. We don't limit people to one. Um and we will then um close our public comment period at that board meeting. So with that I will stop and take any questions that you have. Thank you for being here. of course, but uh I I know you're looking for feedback from

149the community and whatnot, but what priority does Soul Trans have in regards to routes that are going to service our schools, our students, you know, is that always a priority in mind or or where where does that fit? Serving the schools is always a priority. Uh particularly the school tripper for Vallejo the 38 is likely not changing. We our bread and butter for the school trippers is making sure that the kids get to school on time. Period. There is no ifs, ands or buts about that. Should there be any realignment, should there be any changes to bus schedules, we will we always have come to the to the schools to discuss it with them to make sure that we are doing exactly as I said. In terms of the more general uh public routes in

150the local area that also serve the schools, um there are some areas where we will realign it, but as it is right now, every school is going to be served. Every school that exists. My understanding also is that students right now can ride free. Is that is correct. All you ride feed regardless of where they're going. They could be going to the mall, they could be going to jobs, they could be going to internships. That pilot is uh scheduled to technically end. Um but we're going to our board to extend it even further. We have seen a 601% increase in youth wrership just March over March. Not to talk about the entire youth wrership over the course of the year. So we started the pilot last April. Thank you. You're welcome. Simmons. Good evening. Good

151evening. Thank you for your presentation. Sorry again, I keep saying this, but I'm sick. Um, so I'm going to be talking a little lower than I usually do during the meetings. Um, Soul Trans is really helpful for um, the students. Louder for my boss. For the students in Valo, I know lots of my peers take the bus and we take advantage of the free um, students ride free. Um, Soul Trans is also really good at communicating. I know when I used to live in South Valo around Lemon Street, there was an issue when when the pilot, the free um student ride pilot came, they didn't really come to my bus stop. And so I called I was like, "Hey guys, I'm sitting here, but like the bus isn't coming." You guys were like, "Oh my

152god, what?" And you guys sent a bus here and you guys even put like a bus stop, like an actual bus stop with the chairs and the trash can there. And um I really like how you guys I don't know if you're necessarily partnered with them, but the app called Transit, that app has saved me so much. And I just want to let you know that we do appreciate like as students, we do appreciate Soul Trans and what they do for us. You're very welcome. That would be part of the innovation and technology management department. You're welcome. Um, is it true that route 8 might be discontinued? Yes. And the portions of the route 8 as it is aligned right now. So within the survey, you'll see the actual layout of the map, it's going

153to be assigned to other routes. So that while we are discontinuing it, you really should think of it as a merger, if you will. Um the only portions of the route 8 that we will no longer serve is a southern um Glen Cove community. We are looking at other ways to provide service to the southern Glen Cove community, but providing a full 40ft bus for an average of less than two people isn't really cost effective. What about the stop by Safeway? Well, that one instead of the whole route up the that area, just just the Safeway route, the stop. I mean, you know what's really funny? I work in transit, but I am directionally challenged. It's at Robos and um Yes, I know it's at Rob and Safeway, but I actually have to pull them.

154I didn't know if that part would be continued and the rest of it would be discontinued or not. So at least people can walk to that area and still get Yeah, the new route three will stop at the corner of Falton and Old Glen Cove and so it just passes that Safeway. So yes, it'll still So people still could the ones from upper farther up can walk down and still catch. They just have to walk some. Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Can I add one one thing? I was at a session at Jesse Beth with the mayor. Mayor was there listening to our our seniors and I do recall hearing when they were asking about things that needed improvement in Vallejo city is frequency of buses especially during the mornings when our kids are

155commuting to school and getting up there. So that might be something I know our students do appreciate the buses but sometimes the cadence and frequency. Yes. And this um in the transit world, we we tend to think about what is the optimal number that is most frequent that gets people not considering how early they have to plan ahead. And a and on average that's about 15 minutes. Um if you know that in 15 minutes another bus is coming, you go about your day. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you being here. Thank you so I'm going drop these in the back. Thank you guys. Have a good evening. Have a good evening. Now we are down to um Is BEA here for a report? I don't see BEA for report. CSEA. Yes. Good evening

156everybody. Um board members, EC members, community members. My name is Elizabeth C. I belong to CSEA. Um I know our one of our members was here last week giving you all the updates. So I don't really have much um to say because it's only a week, right? But um I know they give you a save the day for our retirees. Uh now we have the actual invitation. Well, I will pass out. I hope to see some of you um in that event to support um you know the people that are being putting a lot of hours for our students in the district. last year, uh, Trustee Flores was, um, one of our, um, guest and and I hope to see more of you there. Also, I just want to see how refreshing it is to

157hear our students coming to the podium and speaking. Um, the eloquence that they have, the valor to stand over here in this microphone, it's it's nerve-racking sometimes. So, I am very impressed and very happy as a as a mother of former students of the district. Um with that being said, I want to give a quick update in the scholarship that we are giving to our students. So the deadline closed on Friday. Uh we have 12 participants. So we will be giving the names um in May. Um, seeing all the students in here, it's uh, like I said, very refreshing and we are going to work harder as as a CSEA hopefully to bring more scholarships for next year and hopefully we'll give more advanced notice to the parents also because I think that's important for

158us to know so we can pressure our kids to get those scholarships. Well, that's all I have. Thank you very much for your time. I'm gonna pass this up. Yes, please. about the scholarships coming. Please relay that to your your board. We appreciate you being here. Is VSMA here. Okay. No report. Uh district advisory committee. Uh no reports for district advisory committee members. Yes, we do have a community member, Miss Hazel Wilson. Please come to the podium. Good evening. As the city talks um about um the ship building coming back, I hope that um the district might um find a relationship between the engineering academy at Valo High School um with ship the ship building industry. Um uh the engineering academy has completed a project that I'm very very impressed with. So um I think

159that whenever our students can have an opportunity to join in with something with this with the uh city, it's very good. So thank you very much. Thank you. and trustee will take that back. Right. All right. Any other committee members? Okay. Reports Morales. Okay. So, for my student report, good evening everyone. So I just want to start off by talking about a an event we had in March called the generational wealth event by Tra Travis credit union. And basically over um to summarize what this event was about it was about educating the students on the four pillars of financial wellness providing an immersive experience that gives teens and young adults a practical financial reality check. So in our workshop we participated on assigned an assigned in occupations and salary student loan debt and credit score.

160They navigated through the simulation making budgets decisions about wants, needs and responsibilities, learning valuable financial tips along the way. So next I just want to talk about start um Valo High School started doing morning announcements. Um after coming back from spring break I came up with the idea of starting to do morning announcements and we have three students doing that including myself from the leadership class. And um I think these I think the announcements are going smoothly. Um since we've started building up we've only done three a week. So we don't do it daily. We do it we try to do at least three a week. And um since we just started we don't have much information to go on. So we try to balance the information that we get in the in the beginning

161like to the end. So we do um Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. So we just try to balance out the information we got through those days. And what what we would like to see is like um an intercom/microphone such like such as like this because right now when we do the pres or the intercom presentations or um announcements we use a telephone as the microphone and um I sometimes I believe or today I wasn't the one doing the the announcements. It was my um my um leadership friends that were doing it and it it sounded a little um quiet and a little raspy when they were speaking and um it was the speaker I believe and I just feel like the um like a good a good microphone such as this one would be a better

162idea for that. And also by doing this, I spoke to a teacher that um that um helped me do a one-on-one on how to be a little slower when I talk on the intercom announcements, and it helped a lot. She to she talked to me about how to just be confident in everything I say, go a little slower and um pour some Ricardo in it. Okay. Um next one is visit. Next one I want to talk about is the visit from the medical ambulance from the medical careers class. So on April 9th, we had the Solano County Medical Ambulance present to students what they do on a daily basis and how to how to do CPR and also how to use an AED when um they showed us how to put a patient on the

163gurnie as well. We also met Molly. They're a therapy dog that helps those who may feel anxiety and stress in an emergency. In some of these pictures, I was able to demonstrate how to perform CPR on a patient who is unconscious and not breathing while my uh while my best friend puts the AED pads on the patient's chest. Overall, it was a great experience and potentially my job for a year or two to have a step into the medical pathway. Next thing was um mayor source visiting Jesse Bethl to speak to the seniors. So on Monday, I was able to visit Jesse Bethl High School to meet and hear Mayor Source speak to seniors about who is she and what her visions are for the city of Valo. First, we spoke about what we were

164like, what we like about Valo and what we don't like about Valo. Next, we spoke about what the mayor does for the city of Valo, like what's her role and what's her job. And we also talked about the Valo representatives such as the congressman John Gari and Christopher Kundan, member of the California State Senate. Students were also given a chance to ask questions or were given answers by the mayor. And after the presentation, I spoke to the mayor's source about what I want for the people of Valo, which is to help those students who feel like they do not have a voice. Um those do those who don't feel confident in themselves and also about med and also about the medical pathway. I also met the president of um NAACP, Miss Hunter and Miss Mrs.

165Wilson whom I spoke to asking about learning about what they can what they do and as an organization and how I want to contribute to the community in a positive way. Next would be um meeting with Miss Dilly for the student council which will be happening tomorrow. Tomorrow on Thursday the student with student trustee Allesia I and I are going to have a meeting with the other students who went to Washington DC with us about the first ideas and plans for the student council we want to happen. We are also going to attend the 2 by two meeting tomorrow. Right after that meeting, next um senior decision decision day by our counselors. It's an event that's happening on May 1st. We are going to have um our seniors decisions where seniors will be presenting which

166university, college or community college they're going to in August, I believe. Um Justin's organizations brought the caps and gowns for all seniors which um they started on Monday. We had the Justin organization um start selling the caps and gowns for I believe $45. So um it's a great price in my opinion and they're coming they came Monday and they're coming back on Friday and we oh we had a twoe block schedule for 11th graders doing their CASP testing and um we are on our second week. So after this week, we're going back to regular schedule. And on April 16th, we had our annual armed force day where every branch of the military came to the school and did activities in the quad during lunch with students who are interested in the military. And um last

167thing, I just want to let everyone know that Valo High School had its prom event for juniors and seniors. The prom king and queen um was me and my girlfriend. And um I just want to say overall the night was amazing. And um that's my report. Go Ricardo. Do you have pictures? Okay, we have to see pictures. I'll I'll tape this off after Trusty Alia's presentation. Simmons. Is that payback because I dissed your school? Okay. Um, good evening everyone. Here is um some updates from from my school and just the community in general. Um, as Trusty Morales has mentioned, we did have the mayor source come to my school and talk to our seniors. Um, the mayor also came to Valo High campus, but um, Trusty Morales kind of missed that one, so he invaded

168my school. Um, it was a really exciting opportunity for our seniors to engage with Mayor Source though, um, and discuss issu discuss issues important to our community. Um, we also had prom this weekend. I didn't go. Um, it took place last Saturday and it was a really great success. Um there our leadership team spent a lot a lot of weeks and months organizing this prom. So I'm really glad that it went well. Um as Trusty Morales said, tomorrow we do have an official No, no, no. We have a meeting with Miss Dilly to talk about the Valo Youth City Council that we are creating. Um I'm excited to finally begin working on this council and creating a vision of it because that's what the meeting is for. We want to plan out step by step

169like, okay, how is this going to be run? Um, who do we want to be? Not like who do we want to be on the council, but like just our vision for the Valo City Youth Council. And I think this will end up being a great opportunity for students to be involved in in the future. I think it'll be a really great opportunity. Speaking of um programs, another good program that is emerging is I've spoke about it before. I wanted to create a arts program in Valo. Um, I have to email Mr. Orlando who came and spoke with me. He also came to my school last week and I spoke with him more about it. But I'm finally moving forward in my plans of starting a like mental health arts program. And what I mean

170by arts isn't just painting. I mean like script writing, like playwriting, um, music. I want I've heard so much um about Valo used to have a good history of being like a great arts city and community and I don't see that anymore. And the mental health aspect of it is um I asked some students at my school like why don't you go to the wellness room when you have issues um or like why don't you use some of the resources we have at school and some of them are just like there's a bad stigma against it. Um, like I've heard things like, "Oh, well, they're mandated reporters. I can't trust them." Or, etc., etc. I'd rather for it to be like anonymous or things like that. And I want to incorporate um like or partner

171with mental health like providers or mental health resources that students would want to take without the stigma that I've heard. So, I've been talking a lot with a lot of students in my school about how like how they would want their mental health to be addressed and so I can incorporate it within my program. Okay. Oh, I'm hot, guys. Um, at my school, we have auditions. We have an alma moater song and there's auditions for people to sing it and represent our school. and I'm not auditioning for that because I can't sing, guys. I'm just an actor. I can't sing. Um, track team update. Um, I'm proud to say that our track team now has access, regular access to um the Corbus facility. Before the track team could only go um once a week, but

172now the track team can go four days or five days out of the week. So, I'm really proud to say that. Um although I do wish I don't know how it would happen but I do wish that we had our own track or like base uh football field. Um AP exams are coming up really soon. The AP teachers have began having like mock exams. I recently took my AP chemistry 1 hour 30 minute long fulllength mock exam today. Um, but they've started doing after school and during lunch um, exams and just review for students who are preparing to take the AP exam starting May, the first week of May. Um, Jesse Bethl, our band has been achieving a lot and you know, congratulations to them. They've been winning impressive awards at recent competitions and continue

173to make our school proud with their hard work and talent. Um, also in OTC, they're not here anymore, but their color guard have been winning lots of awards and going to lots of competitions. Really proud of them, too. Okay, I wrote so much, guys. Um, I want to bring attention to something called tutor.com. Um, so if you have a library card, you can go on tutor.com, put in your library information and they have different like you can talk to a live tutor or you can um watch fulllength videos on whatever subject from kindergarten to college. They have calculus, they have math, they have AP chemistry. This is a really good resource that um I don't think most people know about that I've been using for AP chemistry. So it's umtutor.com and just put in your

174library card information. It's completely free and um this the tutor sessions are virtual and I think they can go from like 30 minutes to 2 hours which really helpful. Also um I'm unsure if you heard but a thing called the ice bucket challenge is back. It's an um awareness trend that originally started to shed light on lupus, which used to be a non-curable disease, but now it's curable. And it came back um to bring awareness to mental health because there was a tragedy at USC. So, lots of students are nominating each other for the ice bucket challenge to um spread awareness. I'll be doing mine tomorrow because I got nominated unfortunately. Well, not unfortunately because I love spreading awareness on topics like this, but I'm feeling unwell and I don't feel like having a bucket

175of ice dumped on me at whatever time I get home. Um I'm sure my little sister will be happy to do that though. Yeah, that um concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you both. I have a question for both of you. Um, Trusty Morales, you talked about on the intercom that because we're in the midst of cast testing and you said there's a block schedule. Can you tell me is there been any announcements or um what kind of encouragement or good attendance or participation or do your best or sleep, eat, whatever? What kind of things have you heard from your school um in regards to cast testing for both schools? Um well so when we do the announcements we first start off by saying this um like you know just hello this is my name

176stuff like that but when we do the announcements all we just talk about is how we're on block schedule um we say good luck to all the juniors who are doing them to who are doing the CASP testing but um other than that we just that's that's about it nothing about attendance please be here try your best get a good night's sleep something No, but um thank you for that. We'll start doing that. I think it's so important because it just helps. So, especially the participation, making sure people taking the test and that they're actually trying the best they can to show their knowledge. Yeah. Thank you. Whatever motivational things, I think that's a good avenue through the morning announcements. There anything happening to promote or for cast testing? Um, at my school it's pretty

177much the same as Trusty Morales. I know. Um, when we were mentioning SATs and CASP during our morning announcement, we do say good luck and we do say like um, what did they say? They were like kind of cheering on the students that did were taking their SATs or their CAST, but we don't have like any other messages like that. But it might be individual because um I know teachers at my school um they do like tell us at least they do tell us like oh drink water do your best um but that I've only seen that for like AP exams AP teachers and I don't know if it's all the teachers on campus but I know some teachers do like individually not on the announcements say things like that happened to both of you

178to help with that motivational piece the really try Thank you. All right, with that we are now down to our consent items. We have consent 4 A through um S. Do I have a motion? Trustee Flores. A motion to accept uh consent items for A through S. Second. Trust uh Vice President Amboy. I second. Roll call, please. Trusty Hodes is absent. Trustee Flores. Hi. Trusty Young. Hi. Vice President Amboy. Hi. President Fox. Hi. Trustee Morales. I. Trusty Simmons. I. Our consent items are all approved. Five Z or seven. Thank you. Unanimously. We are now down to information. Agenda item five. a presentation and public hearing of the charter school renewal petition for Valo charter school. Do we first hear the card or do I introduce or what's the format? So we we're going to introduce

179assistant superintendent. She'll introduce sort of the format and then because it's a public going to lead to a public hearing and then you'll have the public hearing script. Right. So good evening uh trustees, president Fox, vice president Amboy, student trustees and superintendent. Um we are bringing before you information item for the uho charter school renewal petition. Um and this is a public hearing. So thank you. We will now move into our 5A which is our we are here to did that. This item is for information only and will be introduced by the petitioners following by the public hearing. The petition for renewal was submitted just continue with okay was submitted to the district on February 20th 2025 and in accordance with California Educational Code. The board holding the presentation and public hearing within the legal

180required time frame. If you wish to speak during the public hearing, please submit a yellow card, which we have one um before the end of the presentation by Princ uh uh Principal Luben. I will now turn over to uh Principal Janice Luben who will introduce the petition. So, the public hearing is now started and principal join me and speak to their petition. So, thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you for taking the time to respectfully um, receive and complete the first reading of our charter petition renewal. Um, submitting this petition is a significant step and for our school and we are very very grateful for the chance to share our vision for the future. Although this petition is only for the petition is a two-year renewal, we believe that it lays out a solid plan

181for success for Valo Charter. Um, we have worked hard to design a petition that builds upon our successes, but it also addresses the areas that we need to work on. We've worked hard with our families, with our teachers, with district leaders, and myself to design this petition that we think will outline our goals, our strategies, and how we plan to measure um the success of uh of our school over time. Um I look forward to the second reading at the next board meeting and actually defending and addressing some of the things that are in our petition. Um and I thank you for your time um for the first read of the petition. Thank you. This time we will open the public hearing for any comments related to renewal of the petition for Le Valo Charter

182School. And we have we have one card I think PJ Gonzalez. Good evening, trustees. President Fox, uh, Vice President Amboy, Dr. Young, and Trusty Flores, and our superintendent, uh, Aurelio, and the rest of the district uh, leader. Um, my name is PJ Gonzalez. I am the president of the Valoa Charter Council. I am here to represent our school crew. I'm also a parent of two students that promoted out of VCS and a guardian of numerous former students that attended Valleo Charter School. I am here tonight to support the renewal of the charter school's petition with collaboration between our crew along with Miss Pasio and her team. We worked many hours and drafted a petition that we are proud to present to the board. Our community strongly support the school's model of expeditionary learning. I have

183witnessed in the past that if the model is used with fidelity, it produces amazing results. It empowers all students to achieve excellent and equitable outcomes. We are aware that we are not where we need to be right now. But with your continued support along with the district, we can bring back the results that we were one we were known for in the past. We need all the support you can provide to our principal during our move to the new site to implement the school's model through EL professional development designed to help our educators create classrooms where students can excel both academically and individually. I urge the board to please renew our charter, allowing our school to continue its important work in our community and to to compete with the other charter schools in our city

184that's not district dependent. I will be sharing with you through email the link to the e uh education website. I encourage you to please read through it and sign up as a member to receive their monthly newsletter and discover about the wonderful collaborative work they do to help improve low performing schools and district throughout the country. One last thing, I advise you to please attend one of our leadership conferences to network with some of the school leaders from around the country and possibly get information on how to improve our schools. Thank you so much for your time. You And I just want to clarify because m principal I have a card for you. Did you want to do a comment or that was part? Okay, perfect. Thank you. Just to clarify. Yeah, I wasn't sure

185if she needed to. That concludes our comments. Thank you so much for those who spoke. Right now, I'm closing the public hearing and as noted, the district is currently reviewing the petition and will return which will return to the board with findings and a recommendation for a future meeting anticipated um next month in May. Concludes this item. Thank you. Now, we're on to um information item B. Mr. Pacio. Uh yes, I bring before the board the um third quarterly report for the Williams settlement and we are submitting the report to Slano County Office of Education with um one uh facilities complaint that is yet unresolved but it is in process of resolution. Thank you. questions and um we're on to um information C. Yes. State required reading um difficulties risk screening instruction. Yes. So for

186this item I have a presentation. Um so it is a requirement of the state of California that for in beginning in the year 2526 that each district implement a uh reading difficulties screener. Um and so Valleo City Unified is no exception. We will be um adopting or implementing a reading difficulty screener starting in in the fall. Um we had opportunity to review four um of the uh state uh provided options and um uh of those we have selected the one entitled multitudes. So it's the the program the tool will help support staff in identifying learning needs at the earliest grades and will be integrated into our current assessment systems. So how we came to this is in the fall and winter members of the ED service instructional team reviewed each of the screeners for accessibility,

187language availability and cost. Uh Solano County Office of Ed sponsored presentations from the eligible publishers and then the team recommended that we move forward with multitudes. Um, this screener is developed by UCSF Dyslexia Center and the screener is available in English and Spanish for students in kindergarten, first and second grades. So, in in terms of implementation, district staff will first undergo a preliminary training this spring um and then students in grades kindergarten through 2 will be screened in 2526. We will utilize both um classroom teaching staff but also supplemental staff including um other members of the team to come and help assist in the screening of all students. We already do a lot of one-on-one assessment with our youngest students. So this will just be an additional layer. Um it will require more staff time.

188uh regarding multitudes and some features of it. It was created by the University of California, San Francisco, UCSF. Um it's a universal screening tool looking to identify learning challenges. As you know, there is no like just test for dyslexia, but we use the screener to identify risks um and to determine interventions that will allow us to um uh get ahead of reading challenges. And um there is no cost to to public schools in California using the UCSF model. Um and that was one of the factors in selection but not the only one. Um as we know we will also have to be um selecting a new ELA adoption at some point. So using the multitudes at this juncture makes the most sense given that at some point down the line the screeners may be um

189uh folded into um the next ELA adoption that we do. So we don't want to make a double investment um and this program meet does meet all of our needs. So, it does have a digital platform um and is currently in validation assessments with validation tests with over 12,000 kindergarten, first and second graders across the state. Um again, as I mentioned, it is in English and Spanish and is cultural linguist linguistically responsive. And just as an overview, I'm just providing some of the um assessment um uh mechanisms um in language u funological awareness, phonics and my eyes and processing speed. Um these are all key indicators for reading difficulty. Um and and so these are the elements that multitude applies at each grade levels and I'll take any questions you have. I'll start from someone

190who is dyslexic. Um I know there was a vision test also that would help identify eyes that were not converging and diverging properly. They were working independently. there was so I don't know if that's still available or so through the science of reading we learned that um that dyslexia is a processing yes um disorder and not necessarily a vision disorder vision but just to how the message are sent to the brains if the eyes are diverging and converging properly and sending if they're sending two messages instead of one message slowing down the the person um I know there was a test to see if the eyes were working independent or converging properly. That would not be part of this. That's a different approach. That's it's it's yeah, that's a that's a um probably more of

191a medical diagnostic. Know that UC Berkeley when they would come to the second graders at the school um in my district that that would be part of the program and that they would identify and be able to see right there with the second graders if there was something else going on that the parents in the school then would be notified. Um, so that was very powerful with them for this program. How long does it take and how does it how the teachers what support or like how much is how long does each assessment take and what support do the teachers need? Um well they will be provided support additional um district level staff, teacher leaders, other other staff will make sure that we get support teachers in getting this done. teachers already do some um

192their their one-on-one assessments with each student, which can take a few minutes to, you know, up anywhere from a few minutes to 10 minutes per kid. So, this will add on to that. Um, and we couldn't do it all in the same setting, right? So, it's it's an it's a little bit of an extra round and it doesn't exactly test the same components as our core reading inventory that we do with each child. um and and not it doesn't assess them in the same way. So, we do have to do both. Um but because the students will do it in kinder first and second um we're hoping to um just ensure that we've identified any child at risk. It does not does not mean that they automatically have dyslexia. It doesn't mean any of that,

193but it might rise a few kids to the top of the list for additional diagnostic and additional um support preventative and tear checking. Yeah. Um do we have in our with our resource um teachers, do we have intervention that uses the dyslexi that helps um childrens who do have dyslexia? Yes. So that's for students who are who if if students receive special education services, right? But dyslexia is not a qualifier for special education. No, I know that. I mean I I know that different just in the last year or two that there's been programs and with resource teachers that have been using that been really helping students access curriculum better or help them with their reading or their spelling or their word identification. Right. So a lot of the work that we're doing through the

194science of reading um while it's not a cure you know it it it does support students with dyslexia um it's that time on um funological awareness um practicing with um sound symbol um connection um would is going to support many students right um and yes um our resource teachers do have some specialized um uh curriculum that they use with students as well. Christy Young, what is the track record of this? Do we have any statistical data that makes that makes this better than any other one other than it's they're all new? No, that's not the only reason, but they're it it is the one backed by the state of California. it the the state of California um invested in in this tool um to in the development of this tool um and so it wasn't

195just that it was that's just an added bonus but this is the one that we did like the best um especially given where we are in our adoption cycle um the this tool has as I mentioned has um gone through validation with over 12,000 students in the state of California they've been repeatedly testing the tool um and All of the tools are brand new, so none of them have a track record yet. None of them are vetted. What specific um is it administered to all the students from K second? K first and second will all receive all receive it. Okay. Every child in VCUSD and K1 and two will receive the screening. Okay. Beginning in the fall. someone transfers in, they would still in any time of the year, they'd still be on the list.

196Wonder or even someone older, a different grade level, I would hope they would still be if they never had the screening. Hopefully, that'll be a red flag, too, to check, right, new new people that come in. and in May I I I uh we haven't gotten that that far into the flowchart as far as when a new student who who maybe arrives in third grade um because we have other diagnostic tools that we use right when we're doing our reading inventories with kids if we start at a fluency and they're not proficient then we come down to uh another level of assessment to figure out where the gaps are. So, it it may I I'll leave it to um the instructional team as they test this tool to see what are the limits of it,

197whether or not it should go up to a higher grade or not. Interesting to hear how it's going as it's implemented. Yes. Um and I I'm really appreciative of our governor Gavin Newsome. He is very he talks about it with others and I'm glad that our state has put awareness to it the last few years. Yes. To help with it. Yes. And um it's it's come out of some probably hard-fought battles uh around um you know really coming to terms with the the needs of our early readers, right? Um uh and it's part of you know I think it also comes out of the um the work around again really pushing forward the science of reading and how children really do learn to read um has been um critical and this is one piece that

198had yet to be addressed. Yes. And the last thing I would say is for a lot of students that have some type of either dyslexia or something with a learning disability, sometimes their peaks and valleys are so great that the peaks their survival on whatever areas those are. At least I know for myself that's just it's interesting when you find out for a student at those peaks and valleys how they are able to adapt or survive without the help and then when they get the help you see how things change with um with instruction or with help. So it's just it's fascinating uh fascinating to watch the progression with help and where they are and where they go. And um one of the things I'm I'm I'm happy to say is I've been in the

199trainings when we've when it's been discussed is that while um uh while you know all our teachers have you know a long way to go and all of us have a long way to go in understanding dyslexia part of the professional learning we've been doing with core um has in the science of reading has had um a lot of education around how to serve kids with dyslexia um and and what is it what is it and what isn't it right. Um and and so our teachers will have some basis um to to look at this data and decide how to serve their students. Very much. Thank you. We're down now to action item um agenda item six, action items. A Dr. Patrick Good evening trustees. Um, Superintendent Aurelio, staff and community. I have our annual

200two annual items before you that um allow the business the district to do business with regards to hiring teachers. And I'll start with the first which is um item 6A declaration of need for qualified teachers administrative code title 5 section 8 0026 subsection E specifies that school districts must certify if there is a need for fully qualified educators in specific subject areas. There are insufficient numbers of certificated persons who meets the district's spec specified employment criteria for positions listed below. And for the past several years, the Bal City Unified School District has had a need for fully qualified educators. The declaration of need allows the district to employ individuals on provisional interm permits, short-term staff permits until fully credentialed teachers can be hired for the 2526 school year. The district is anticipating a possible shortages

201in the following areas of special education. foreign language, which would include Filipino, Spanish and French, math, English, science, elementary school, TK8, middle school 6 through 8, and high school 9 through 12. The declaration of need for for fully qualified educators must be filed with the commission on teacher credentiing prior to the start of the 25 26 school year. And this is an action item. Vice President Lamboy. I'd like to make a motion to approve action item 6A. Dr. Young. Second. Roll call, please. Trusty Hodgeges is absent. Trustee Flores. I. Trustee Young. Hi. Vice President Amboy. Hi. President Fox. Hi. Trustee Morales. I trusty Simmons. I wait. Thank you. This unanimously. Thank you. We are now on action item 6B. Dr. Young, did you have something before we get to 6B? I have a question. Where

202does it come into play when um we start hiring [Music] um intern teachers? Yes. Where where does the credentiing come into play there? So typically in order to meet intern um status, most of our teachers will start off at the pre-inter level. You have to get into a program. You have to complete your specific uh subject matter classes and then you have to pass your C sets or RA to be in intern um compliant. Once that happens, then you qualify as as an intern. But with this the the uh prior action that you just took, it allows for us to hire those folks and train them to prepare them to become interns. Yeah, that's what I wanted. Where where is it? Okay, I got it. Thank you. You're welcome, Dr. Patrick. Now we're on item

203B. Thank you. Yes. Um, okay. So, this is authorization to teach departmentalized classes. And what this essentially allows us to do is um I'm going to share the background information. So, it allows um this resolution allows us to have a um teacher teach on a yearly basis in a departmentalized class if the teacher has completed 18 semester units credits of coursework or nine semester units of upper or graduate division coursework in the subject except special education. So this this this allows us that as well as it this resolution also allows on the on consent of a yearly basis a holder of a single subject or standard secondary teaching credential to teach classes um in grades 5 through 8 in middle school provided that the teacher has completed 12 minimum semester units or six upper division

204um or graduate division units of coursework at an accredited institution in the subject to be taught. And lastly, um this also allows a holder of a multiple subject or standard elementary teaching credential to teach in the subject of in departmentalized classes um below grade nine with 12 semester units of coursework or six upper division or graduate semester units in the subject to be taught. So it gives us flexibility um when we're working with uh a need for single subject classes or if we have to do um departmentalize with our sixth grade teachers to teach two core classes. It gives us flexibility. 6P. Dr. Young, I sec. Um, I move that we accept the the mot. Vice President Amboy. I second. Roll call, please. Trusty Hodes is absent. Trustee Flores. I. Trusty Young. Hi. Vice President

205Amboy. Hi. President Fox. Hi. Trustee Morales. Hi. Trustee Simmons. Hi. Oh, Dr. Young has a question. Yes. Where does the special ed hiring come in with the specific categories that are needed? I didn't see it in either one of these. Yeah, it's not listed here. Um, you are you have to have specific classes uh mult in a a specific area like multiple subject. It doesn't fall here. It had it's it's a its own body which is not required by this process probably due to the s shortage of special education teachers. Yeah, it's it's it's a separate it's a it's a different entity. So my next question I guess is uh how are we going to address the issue of not having special ed teachers? Um well what we're doing I don't know in specific areas

206but we have a yeah we we negative flow of that. We do um well one of the things that we're really working hard to do um I know with our new executive director is determine if we are actually structuring those classes in the right way. Um, for example, do we have, you know, too many mild moderate classes when we're seeing a an increase in mild mod severe, right? Um, more students who are identified with um autism, which may require a different credential. So maybe our focus is shifted. So we may have some teachers already that we need to shift in a different direction and work with them to get credentialed in those other areas. That may be an area that could help us as well as some restructuring. We may not have the same needs.

207It the programmatic uh design may be different so that we're still able to serve students but not requiring those same course the same um sub the same credentials. if that makes sense. So, redistributing and looking at our current resources and making some adjustments and then feeling those needs that are actually aligned to our new programmatic shifts. So, that's some of the work that's happening behind the scenes that could help this challenge. All right. Thank you, Dr. Patrick. Thank you. We're down to reports. I know we were just here last Wednesday and last night, so this might be grateful. See, uh, Superintendent, I'm gonna make it really long. No, I'm just kidding. So, good evening, trustees, staff, and members of the Vallejo City Unified community. So, I'd like to begin tonight's report by extending my sincere

208appreciation to the African-American Parent Network for hosting their Real Talk event last Thursday evening at Valo High School. I was honored to join trustees Flores and trustee Hajes along with assistant superintendent Heather Topasio and director Dr. Edison Kelly for an evening of honest dialogue with our community. Together we responded to thoughtful questions regarding the district's recent school closures and our roadmap for future school consolidation. Events like these are vital to maintaining transparency, fostering trust, and keeping our community engaged as we navigate this important work together. As we continue to strengthen our leadership across the district, I want to share that we are currently in the process of scheduling interviews for several key open positions. These include principal roles at Jesse Belto High School, Valo High School, Penny Cookook Elementary, and Highland Elementary. In addition, we

209are conducting a national search for our next assistant superintendent of human resources. They have big shoes to fill. Each of these leadership positions are critical to ensuring that our schools are guided by visionary student centered leaders who will help move our district forward. We are going to include our two student trustees in the process as well, but they won't be able to talk as much during the process. No, you guys can't fight. Lastly, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary work of our district teams who have remained focused on strengthening our internal systems and procedures. Thanks to their dedication, we are optimistic that within the next two months, we will receive confirmation of full release from state and county receiverhip. This would mark a significant milestone for the Valo City Unified School District, affirming our collective

210efforts and demonstrating our readiness to stand independently. It also signals the beginning of a new chapter, one where we continue building on our momentum and driving toward a future of excellence for all students. So before I close though, I want to extend a warm invitation to our Spanishspeaking community. Latinas, Latinas. inqua the VJO charter. So I'll say it in English. Please join us on May 28th for Uniting Voices, Empowering Latino Families in Education, an event dedicated to uplifting and informing Latino families about educational opportunities and district resources. This event will be conducted in Spanish with English interpretation available to ensure all are welcome. It takes place from 5:30 to 7:00 at the Valo Charter School campus. I believe we also plan on having a student performance attached to this as well. Thank you. And that's

211my report. Um start with our board member reports if we have any since just been a week. Uh, Trusty Flores report. I haven't had a busy week. Anyhow, um, I also, like, uh, Superintendent Reel said, I attended the AAPN's real talk. Um, some of the things that were brought up were, like you said, school closures, uh, past and future, also issues of transportation. That's why when Soul Trans was here, I asked a little bit about that. Um, since it's real talk, right? They they brought up issues of racism on on some of the campuses and what the district's addressing it. Uh the lack of leadership uh excuse me, lack of African-Americans in in in leadership positions throughout the district on sites. Um and they had a very poignant question asking, you know, why why did

212we feel our district was where it was at? You know, we all we all had to ask the question. Um, so I think the talk was real. Um, I I think it was informative. Some of the feedback I heard was that uh they they they had clarification on things. They especially on the school closure, the process, the 7-Eleven committees, etc. Uh, the importance of for them to sign up for the upcoming 7-Eleven committees. Uh, I also attended the SULPA CAC, SULPA special education local plan area community advisory committee. Um, you know, some of the stuff I I learned in there I just kind of wanted to share. So, and I share because it was new for me. So, I would assume for a lot of families that don't have children in in special ed or

213IEPs or 504s, etc. or or wondering what what does that even mean? What are all these just letters and numbers and names and and etc. Um, you know, there there are certain processes you you you don't just drop in to um to special ed. you know, that some of the criti criticisms I've heard coming on on on the board and just in general throughout the years in the district that that our school district tends to have a lot of IEP, send our kids to special ed, things like that. And um we talked about this issues of dyslexia um so far as how it's the diagnosis and whatnot. um who the ultimate uh authority is on a school site. When it comes to uh giving the information when when your child when you want have that

214referral for for them to be uh tested for special ed. Uh it my understanding was that the school principal is the ultimate person you give it to because parents that are going through this said that they would get a lot of misinformation or or there would be no clarity. Um even the whole process the uh some of the parents that have been going through it so far as having their kids get an IEP plan the they felt that the whole process getting there was was a little cumbersome sometimes off-putting by staff. Uh so one one recommendation that that I made in this was that how do we as a district include this kind of information just as general information to all families just so that if the time and place comes where where your child

215needs these services an IEP a 504 SST all these acronyms aren't just these foreign things and and where we can give them support because like I said these parents talked about how when they were going through the process, they felt that they couldn't reach out to anybody and and they felt scared and overwhelmed and and it's a very emotional thing when you you're being told that your child has something going on. So, so it was just very eye opening for me in in that. [Music] Um, see anything else that really stood out for me? So the the last thing that that I um participated in which was a whole new concept for me and a whole new experience was um learning walks. I I participated in a learning walk with um with staff and uh

216assistant superintendent uh Topasio yesterday at Cave and I'll be there at Patterson tomorrow morning and it was just a very eyeopening and educational uh experience for for myself coming from outside of education to see what the process are, what what what we're looking for and it gave me a better idea idea now when I'm sitting here and that's one of the reasons why when I was during one of the presentations I was I I specifically asked what a do was because I learned about it yesterday you know and uh so I I think these are things that are important for for families to know about as well to an extent of how are our teachers being evaluated what are they being evaluated on I mean it again it was just a real uh interesting learning

217experience and seeing all the hard work that the teachers put into it. It's it's it's teachers don't just show up and are given something and they just do a bunch of check marks and go down the list of things to do for the day. There there's a lot of work involved and it's and it's sometimes it's just a very little minute things of ensuring that the student paying attention to the d the direction of which way the paper's going to go or or how to put it down or just these these little things that that make huge differences, you know, and that's what we're evaluating on to ensure at the end of the day our our our kids are getting the best possible education. So I look forward to attending tomorrow and um with that

218that's my report. Thank you. Thank you Trusty Flores. Trust uh Dr. Young uh Trusty Forest. Thank you for doing the overview. I was also there uh attending that uh the uh SULPA um community advisory committee. Um I was u very impressed with Christian Christristen Hardy's um the executive director of special ed. Um her ability to deliver information that's very technical. Um so it was broken down so people could understand it. That's the most important part of communication. um you can tell them all you can talk to them all day up here, but if they're not comprehending what you're saying, what use is it to them when they have to go out and um uh actually apply it? So, I was very impressed with that and um we'll keep it moving. Thank you. Thank you, Vice

219President Amboy. My report's the same as yesterday. I have no report. Um, and for me, just working on practice tests and getting ready for CASS for my third graders, take it for the very first time. And that's it for reports. Now, we're on to we don't have um community forum. Close session is not needed. Announcements of upcoming meetings. Tomorrow is the 2 by 2 in the main chambers of the city hall uh at 4:30. And you said both of you will be there to present present tomorrow. Ask a quick Can I ask a quick question about them? Does the pres is the presentation we are going to do will it be about the Washington DC trip? Yes. Um so we presented to them already a few weeks before to city. Yes. This is the 2

220by 2 though. It's not it's not the full city council. It's just it's a different entity then. Yeah. Yeah, we'll present again times a and then next um Wednesday and our May meetings May 7th regularly scheduled meeting and May 21st. That's all for upcoming meetings. Board agenda items. Just want to see um get a followup on where we're at with uh PLTI. Um, I know that I've talked about that in the past. They came and spoke with uh with cabinet members and just kind of see where we're going with that. Thank you. With that out of the order, we are adjourning at 9:16. Thank you. Good night, everyone.