001Good morning everyone and welcome to the May 4th Bates special Board of Education meeting this morning. Uh I now call the meeting to order at 12:03 a.m. >> Yeah. >> p.m. Sorry. Yeah. Uh and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance. Wait a minute. >> Yeah, there's people >> Okay. Uh we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Here you go. Now we'll move on to our land and labor acknowledgement. We recognize that we are presently on the lands of the Chochenyo Muwekma Ohlone people that acknowledge them as the first inhabitants of the land we currently occupy. I acknowledge that the burden of environmental
002exploitation and injustice falls upon the labor of black and brown bodies in the building of this country and its institutions. I remember that the black and brown bodies were born and died working this land against the will for generations. I also acknowledge the continued contribution um of the labor labor of survivors over the centuries today of all immigrant labor including voluntary and involuntary forced and documented peoples in the building of what we refer to as the United States. Author, Dr. Rochelle Rogers-Ard. Uh the governing board is committed to the work of anti-racism, the conscious and active effort to identify, challenge, and correct racial inequities in the system and institution without our schools and community. Racism, explicit or implicit, stands in direct conflict to the fundamental principles of district education to carry district education complete into
003the future. We recognize that we must continually renew and reflect on the roots of racism and develop new ideas to meet the time. Our just ideas and policies and the racial inequities that they produce have shaped us, our schools, and society. The board strives to uncover unconscious biases and practice anti-racism as individuals and as a board members. We challenge ourselves to persist through the discovery necessary for growth and learning, to deepen our listening and examination of racism and oppression, and to develop a strong understanding of how our personal experiences and feelings fit into the larger picture of continued oppression. Each member of the governing board, individually and collectively, is responsible for creating and nurturing an anti-racism learning environment where each student, staff member, and community partner is respected and valued member of the district community.
004The governing board is uniquely positioned, and it is our responsibility to identify and dismantle racist ideas and inequities, policies, in ourselves, and across the district. Therefore, we commit to supporting anti-racist policies, programs, and practices for our children's education and well-being, while building strong and inclusive school communities. The board commits to holding each board member accountable towards these goals, and will move the work of anti-racism forward. We also commit to holding West Contra Costa Unified School District staff, students, and community to living these standards of anti-racism in our school. Board approved March 20, 2024. Um can I get a roll call for tenant Connor? >> Yes. Um Trustee Hernandez? >> Present. >> Trustee Reckler? >> Present. >> Trustee Simbol? >> Good afternoon, everyone. >> Trustee Gonzalez-Herrera? >> Good afternoon, cousin. >> Board President Niana? >> Good
005afternoon. I'm present. Um now we'll move on to agenda review and adoption. Does anyone have anything they want to move? Okay, so now we'll move on to item B, action items. Um we have one item and that's school calendars for 2027-28 and 2028-29. Um Okay, so um So, do we have any questions on this? Um Trustee Reckler? >> Attention teachers. Just wanted to let you know that they're Okay, I do have a question. On the 28-29 calendar, I only see two reserved days. It's my recollection that there's usually three, and I see that on 27-28. So, I'm wondering just am I something or was there an adjustment? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay, I'm just double-checking and want to make sure. >> Um due to the fact that we do not have um the 27-28 calendar
006has the dates still on there for in case we needed it for fire days in in October, March, and in uh May. In reality, those are prayer days for honestly for all of us to be able to use that October date because there is a resolution from the school board that that is Indigenous Persons Day now. And in May, it is uh the reserve day is for um the teachers' contract, the UTL contract. They get to work on that day remotely according to their contract. So, we are not able to use that without renegotiating that contract and then it become on that day. We have it specifically for the state that if we need to, we would have those two days and we would have to negotiate contracts to have people work on those days.
007The only true one anymore is the March one. So, that is why that looks that way. >> So, >> I don't know why they took off in uh the uh 28-29 the word reserve day in October, but I will find out and have it adjusted to say that, but in reality, we can't use that. I mean, it's a huge negotiation they might use for for the teachers contract for both those days, the October and the May. >> Okay. >> Um, the October one would have to come back to you as a board to adjust that day for us to go to school because it is Indigenous Peoples Day. And we have done that in the past, just be aware of that when we had it as the other person's day. >> Okay. >> Well, do
008we have any further questions from the board? Do we have any public comment on this item? >> Yes, I have a comment. >> No, I'll make a motion on that. >> Motion by Ms. Natalie. >> We have public comment. >> no public comment. >> Okay, do we have a motion? >> Okay, I'm sorry, I have a question. Did we add what you wanted to add or we didn't add what you wanted? >> Yeah, so they did So, I was going to say that in my comments. So, it was adjusted and then my comments, you know, I want to say thank you and I have a couple of other things to say. >> So, then I have a question before comments. >> How are we looking at not only including moving the calendar to to recognize
009that we're adding kind of the buffer of the Jewish holiday, how are we looking at the calendar to to adjust it to other holidays, other religions, other celebrations, other whatever we have that we would consider to add or move around that that three-day holiday or that third-day weekend or whatever it is. For example, are we looking at the calendar to adjust any reserve days that we may or may not have around Ramadan when we're having these discussions and negotiations with our labor partners? Are we making it a part of the conversation when we're creating and building out these calendars? Hey, let's take into account Ramadan, let's take into account Rosh Hashanah, let's take into account Chinese New Year, let's take into account Are we creating a system to go okay, but because we can't we
010only have a limited amount of reserve days, are we putting in something on a rotation or we asking our community what's the most important holidays for them that they would like to see us add to the reserve days. What are we doing to increase the visibility of belonging and acceptance with all the cultures and climates that we have within our school district. That's my question. >> Um I was going to make a comment that tried to I was going to put a motion on the floor and a comment that tried to address that. So, maybe what I'll I'll make a motion and then we can talk about it in comments. >> Yeah, yeah. As long as we can have that discussion, I'm fine. >> So, I want to put a motion on the floor to
011accept the 27-28, 28-29 academic calendars as presented. Direct the superintendent to go back and look at 26-27 calendar because then this constituent pointed out to me that there's a conflict in this calendar with open house. And then, um commence a discussion with labor partners and parents to create a sample calendar that reflects other important holidays events to see what they would look like. Not to adopt it, but just to see what it would look like. So, that would be my motion. And then I have some comments. >> I'll second the motion so we can make sure we have a discussion. I'll second the motion. >> Um so, the comments are that um this district does really a a really good job at being multicultural, and we celebrate lots of things, and I'm really proud of
012it. One place where it does or it doesn't show up is in the academic calendar. And I think that we're at a point where it would be a good idea just to take a look at it and see what that looks like if you were to include other things in the calendar. Just personally, I feel like my whole life on somebody else's calendar. And what you guys take for granted, your Christmas is always off, and Easter is always off, and they're baked into the federal holidays. And when you don't operate on that calendar, you're constantly juggling your life to make it fit. And I know other people do it, too. So, I know it's complicated, and I know that it's extra work, and it's a pain, and it may not work out, but I'd like
013to see the district explore it or encourage the district to explore it. Um New York City is doing it. That's a massive system, and they're looking at their calendar and how they can adjust it to be more inclusive. And if they're doing it, you know, I think that we could take a look at it. And I'm just looking to see if we can begin the conversation and see where it takes the district. And that's my comments. >> Jessie Hernandez. Um adding all of these other holidays and time off, are we meeting our instructional minutes that we are required per year? >> It's It's instructional days that we would have to meet 180 instructional days in the year, and we would um when we previously were requested to look at it, it would have started us
014at the beginning of August and ended us in July. So, there would not be an appropriate time for extended learning for um students to recover. Um that that is a challenge at that point in time, um but we could revisit it again. That's not a problem. Um I'm not sure who will take on that task. These two calendars are would be my last two calendars in the district, so I'll be retiring in 2 years, so these are my last two calendars in the district. So, I'm not sure how that's going to be looked from there. Um at that point, I just know that that would be more than appropriate for that to revisit those again. Um the spring break calendar was a community request. And that request was to have a set week rather than
015go back and forth. The PTAs, the the L cap, we went through everybody and had that conversation and it's 6 weeks after the February break and 6 weeks before the Memorial Day weekend break. >> Yeah, I'm just my my only concern is like those instructional minutes and the time off for summer bracket. Um if that's just my concern, right? Um I get it we want to honor and celebrate everyone. But it's how are we making sure we're meeting our annual minutes and days required as well as giving families that opportunity cuz a lot of people plan vacations during the summer. So now it's that's just going to push everything off and then I don't think kids are going to want to go to school all the way to July. They might as well be a
016year-round school district instead of 180 days. >> I I understand what you're asking. Yeah. Um we have found with ADA and minutes, if the students end anywhere after the 12th in reality, we we're losing a lot of ADA minutes after that first week in June. Families are taking off, they're going to Europe, they're going to >> I don't know. >> East everywhere they can go to because that's where their family is. Um And that is where they're they get the least expensive flights right around Memorial Day weekend and then they travel and they don't come back until about the second, third week in August. And so that's where we have a challenge. Um so having more days off would challenge those families at that point. So, yes, you are correct. Meeting the 180 days is
017difficult. Maybe at some point we could start earlier this school year so that families could do that. >> I'm trustee of that aside. >> Thank you. Yeah, I mean I think that the the request is that we explore it, right? If it's if it doesn't work out then it doesn't work out, but at least we can show like, you know, we tried and look and we might learn quite a few things through that process, right? And obviously it needs to be done with a lot of players in that you know, in that room with all the unions and you know, hopefully also with a way to incorporate parent perspective and feedback. So, you know, it gives us two years to explore it and you know, maybe a good will come out of it and if
018not then maybe again there can be some introduction, not the whole calendar affected, but um you know, let's let's explore it and go from there. >> So, you'll have to have a calendar prepared before the end of the 27-28 um 2029 for the next three years to make sure that those three years are available. CDE in the county office of Ed, that is their requirement so that they can prep and make sure that we're meeting financial minutes and days. Um and can I ask a request to make sure that I can give the next person cuz I'm training up the next people um the appropriate days that you're looking to have looked at for holidays or um votes. >> Who put that to the calendar? Yeah. >> That was I have two questions. One of
019them was we're talking about inclusivity. And who are we including? Because somebody is always going to be left out of that. And so, if we are including Ramadan, if we're including um you know, Passover and Rosh Hashanah, other other there there are I don't know how many languages are spoken in West Side of Boston alone and how many cultures are represented here. Something that is our strength, our superpower, but it's also thinking and deciding whose holiday is uh valuable and whose are not. I think that's the work that I think that's the work that needs to be done before we actually touch the calendar. So, what I would look for is so, on a small lift, low-hanging fruit, don't have testing during Ramadan. We know students fast. That's a low-hanging fruit. Just move it. Because
020we have a testing window, we can easily shift that around. We can ask for a waiver. We can do whatever we want to say that when students are testing during Ramadan, we know they fast. So, anything that impacts student academic success, we low-hanging fruit. We deal with that first. The thing about family vacations and things of that sort, they goes down the list. But things about where we know that they are praying at night, so they stay up late, that they're not doing So, things that we know that impact the students the next day, that's something I think that should be higher on the priority list of what we're doing because our goal is to ensure that all of our students have the appropriate sleep, rest, food, whatever to increase their academic achievement during the
021day. We know that religious holidays and celebrations impact that. So, we know that when our and we can I think we should go out and ask our community if we're not clear about what happens in the celebration. I know what happens during Ramadan, but I don't exactly know what happens during Diwali, right? But I do know what happens during Chinese New Year, but I don't know what happens during Rosh Hashanah. I don't exactly know what happens and if Hanukkah is lined up with that or not. I know Kwanzaa is always cool cuz we right after Christmas. So, there's things that I know and there's things that I don't know, but I think the value of the value of our district is we can pick up the phone and ask our greed. We can pick up
022the phone and ask going so we can pick up the phone and ask MS. aside we can pick up the phone and ask you can say hey can you give me a little insight to this we're just trying to put some stuff down because we're working on a calendar for its student success and we know that that includes their home life which includes their holidays and religions and celebrations. So [clears throat] that's the pre-work that I would like to see done before we go into this next three-year cycle. And in it I know we can't mess with minutes but we can move the furlough days around or whatever they're called I don't know what they're called. We can move those days around. That's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. Not that mess messes
023with the structure that's going to get us FBMD dude CD and but things that are within our control and moving those dates with when we talk to our unions are within our control and we can say this is why we're moving it this year. We can like kind of uh narrate that to our community. This is how we are moving towards anti-racism this is moving how we are moving towards belonging. This is one of the actual steps that you can see. So that's how I looked at this whole thing. I'm complete. >> The other question that I had is like the full calendar it says Indigenous Day. If we wanted to if we're about to adopt this current calendar and we want to change it to Indigenous Peoples Day which is what I'm naturally going
024to >> But we had already passed a resolution to do that didn't we? >> We did that a long time ago. >> Yeah. >> So it should be Indigenous Peoples >> Yeah. >> I think we did that. >> I think we did. >> Maybe it just didn't fit personal line with small >> I can't fit it in the little line. >> But that's what it's intended to be. >> Yes it's intended to be that day but I can't fit it in you can read it actually into that day. I mean I can put it in there but but it it it legible it'll be hard to see. >> You can't. I I I can't I tell all the way down to a four in order to get it all in there. But I love that's
025how they follow and I want to put it in there. >> And I would also say that look at what New York City is doing because they've got the biggest school system in the country with the most diverse population and everyone just see what they're uh uh it wasn't easy and I know there was lots of you know yeah anytime you change something somebody mad but I know you will definitely push back but it'd be interesting to see what they've done and where I don't even know what I'm going to say. And they did 180 days too so same county and the same county did. >> Okay that's helpful. >> Yeah. Do we have Do we have any further comment? Okay so we have a motion on the table by Trustee Regler second by Smith-Foltz
026uh this meets to go back and look at and come up with I think uh calendar or look at dates that could potentially be added or moved around. Uh so with that that was the motion. Uh so now we'll move on to the vote. Uh Trustee Hernandez >> Yes. >> Trustee Regler >> Yes. >> Trustee Gonzalez-Hoy >> Yes. >> Trustee Smith-Foltz >> Yes. >> Trustee Andino's a yes. Uh so motion passes unanimously. And now we'll adjourn this meeting. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. >> Goodbye everyone. >> Thank you everyone. >> Is working again? >> Yes.