001You open on this. See this now? All right. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the >> [clears throat] >> But before we do, we're here to listen to table participate in this. One of the introduce it to foreign space. Um, do you use it for other answers. I didn't >> claim claim number 662136. I'm looking for you. Is there any public comments on those? >> Yes, we have environmental their timer. I'm just uh moments away from the Michigan Superior Court where I spent all day with teaching educators that were driving me to take a ride. It was deprived from them um last summer 2024 and destroyed direction of the superintendent in the summer 2025. The interend services showed up unprepared. Our next public comment is Francisco Ortiz. Please unmute yourself. >> Hello. Can you hear me?
002>> Yes, we can. So, just for the record, I just want to sh uh share that as soon as Mr. Mitchell began talking and expressing what was happening to SH, his audio went out mysteriously or possibly coincidentally. Uh, I just spent the entire afternoon at the Richmond Superior Court and I was absolutely shocked to hear that a a representative that um is supposed to uh have our students best interest at heart compulsively lied and engaged in sociopathic tendencies throughout that entire process. I am very dismayed that our current CBO has handling a half a billion dollar budget for our entire district and threw our board under the bus under oath. It was absolutely disgusting to witness to hear that, you know, we believe our teachers say that in court, but continuously fought every step of
003the way since uh every claim was made by these teachers. It was absolutely disheartening to witness such a repeated pattern of dishonest behavior in front of the teachers who have been wronged, in front of a of a judge, and just continuously disregard the people who show up for our students every single day. and to actually even uh mention labor negotiations and a possible strike as a motive for the STE seizures to rightfully claim what is theirs and what was lost and what was smashed by um you know mechanical uh machines at the direction of Dr. Moses. And our last public comment is Gina McClean. Please, please stop. You're not um you're not miked. Please start her time again. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for having me and thank you for allowing me to speak
004to you. My name is Gina McClean and I am the president of Contraosta County Schools Education Association and I work under Contraosta County Office of Education who is currently directing you to do whatever you're trying to vote in terms of your budget. And I just wanted to give you my experience as an employee, as a former bargaining unit team member and now president. Uh let you know the county office of ed has run is not doing a good job with in terms of even our union and I'm I'm shocked that you guys are listening to them because they are not the expertise nor the mathematicians and the fact of the matter is we are having the same issues and problems. They are giving themselves lots of great raises. Lyn Mackey gave herself, I believe, a
00512% raise. And then she goes on and starts, you know, telling us that we're uh losing some class. I mean, it's just been a mess. And then we went into factf finding. And um oh, actually, we went into mediation and then it's just been a mess. And I just want you guys to do your own math. You're you're elected for a reason. And if you are just going to follow what they say, why even why even have an election? Just follow what they say. make up your own mind. Hire your own mathematicians and figure out the math. It's not good. And finally, I really do believe that it should be that you guys think, oh, we work for the district or you know you guys that we should all work for you, but really you
006work for the students and this is not working for students and then like I really believe in a a backwards model where students are your bosses and then your teachers and then mid-management and then you know whatever top management you have but it needs to be where every decision you make you should think of your students. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Okay. Thank you to everybody who gave public comment. I'm re I'm recessing the board to close session at 512. We will be back at 6:30. Thank you. voluntary fatherless people. school with anti-racism schoolism challenges by additional systems and institutions and community racism and conflict to the fundamental principles of WCC education every WCC education into the future we recogize teaching you unjust bias and policies and racial produc society. We strive to uncover
007as much biases and practice anti individual workers. We challenge ourselves to persist necessary to deepen our standression and to feel understanding of how personal experiences and feelings is to a large antal oppression. Each member of our schoolboard individually and collectively is responsible for creating and nurturing an anti-racist environment which students staff member and community is a respected and valued member of the WCC. We're uniquely positioned in its own responsibility to identify and dismantle racist ideas and equitable policies in our zones across the district. Therefore, we commit to support and anti-raism program. We also hold staff meeting and our response order for the week March 21, 2024. Superintendent, would you please state? Yes. Trusty Gonzalez. Good evening. Trustee Clark. Good evening everyone. Board President Good evening [clears throat] to you. Student trustee miles. Good evening. Student
008trustee. >> Good evening. >> Thank you. Number six, reporting education on the close session. Superintendent Cotton, is there anything to report on session this day? >> Yes, there are two items to report. Regarding agenda item A21, the board voted unanimously to reject claim number related to an alleged personal injury. Also, regarding agenda item A24, the board took action to terminate certificate employee ID 154415. The board approved the statement of charges and determined that cause exists to suspend without pay immediately and to dismiss a permanent certificate of employee. The board will further direct the superintendent or design all necessary actions that are consistent with this decision. This action was unanimously approved. Thank you. Moving now to student performance. We have Robert for one high school introduction president and community. Um we are thrilled to have both
009Richmond High School's robotics team 841 here with us tonight. And to introduce them, we welcome Principal Reyes to the podium. We have a test. >> We have a test soon. Sounds perfect. >> Thank you very much. Good evening, President Remler, board members, and Superintendent Hunt. It is my pleasure to be back here to introduce our world famous robotics team. They are in the top 4% of the world, not California robotics competition team. They were first founded in 2002 and they're made up of students from diverse backgrounds that focus on building technical leadership and teamwork skills for the future. I just want to share a few of their accomplishments. Um in 2025 they won the champions at new champs and WRF cow games which are the two most competitive offseason robotics tournaments in California. They are
010consistently top performing teams in Northern California and they've earned multiple regional awards over the years that have innovation control engineering inspiration and team spirit and today you'll see why they've earned those awards. But before I hand it over to the students and Luciano, I want to introduce Luciano. He is an alumni of our 25 school um 24 years before he joined the team. Two of those years as a student and 22 years as a robotics needs mentor. He is a district employee that works with the CT department as the industrial technology vapor space manager and he works with our engineering programs at both Richmond High School and middle and he's developed one of the most advanced lab in our district and he brings industrial tools to the classroom to help impact positive career and he
011is to me personally one of the most positive driven persons at Richmond High School. He is extremely helpful and he is he is general of our understand high school. So we are so happy to have him. Um I'm gonna introduce him. Luciano I'd also like to bring in to my admins because I'd like to have our sweet actually talk about the program and what we do. Uh the one of the things is being a byproduct of the Westchester 85 school district is something that I'm very proud of. Being a rich man and also being able to help continue that uh with our current students and our former students that have gone off to do amazing things whether it's go directly into careers or directly into college by participating in our program and being able to
012mentor them to basically show how they can succeed after they graduate from high school. Because the goal is doesn't matter whatever you do. The biggest thing I I hope for my students and work towards is for you to be successful no matter what you do. And that's my biggest driving with our students. How can I make lasting impression for them? And I have talent uh our Richmond High School robotics program uh president this year and then Mason who is one of our administr. So for those who don't know, First Robotics is a international competition. We've competed with uh teams from all over the world. Some who come over here in California because it is a highly competitive state. Um to compete in California means more than just building a robot. Building a very competitive one
013and competing against some of the best things in the world. Uh teams who consistently go to world championships. We ourselves have established ourselves as um a team that can go far and par with these types of teams. Uh we each year we need a new grow new robot to build for our new game and we build it in six weeks compete in six weeks and then we go along with our offseason event that we haven't won recently. Um I'm pass it off to Mason who work on >> Hi I'm Mason. I'm a sophomore. I'm a secretary. I'm a robotic student this year. Uh me myself I actually go to Elseno High School. So, one of the amazing parts of the Enrichment High Robotics team is that they open their horizons. They open their borders to
014anyone who wants to join and really learn from this incredible experience um and gain all this knowledge that's available for us. So, I am extremely grateful for that. I want to touch on some of the things that individual students might learn in this program. So, for example, last year I was very organically focused. Uh, I learned how to use lots of CAD program so that digitally designing the whole robot in face We learned our programs in a lot of basis robot that we >> have our human operator who will start to demonstrate ate uh couple of things. Uh and do you want me to describe or shall you all describe? >> Let me >> Yeah. Okay. So, so our robot is designed to pick up these game pieces that look like PVC pipes. Their name
015is Coral. And so it's a a sea theme. Uh where we have this purple pipe that's >> Stop you just for a second. Can we come down? >> Yeah. Come. Okay. You want you want to come down? Come on. You do you want to? No. You know, if you want. >> So, this year's game is called Reefscape. It is a water themed game for robots made out of, you know, wires and electricity. Uh something that the F FRC community has been yearning for for uh its uh years in running. Uh we went through a couple different iterations to get to this finalized product here. Uh this is our baby our um our robot that we have spent um many many days and nights on. Um it has taken us very far as we can see
016with our recent accomplishments. Um it feeds in through the intake um and then scores onto the reef which has four different levels. Um the highest level being the one with the highest points where we score and we get uh five points per coral. One thing I always stress to our members is that this robot was not built just mechanically. We had to design it. We had to go through the processes of drawing it um integrating more uh more than just putting things together. We are building um a robot that's intricate um using math and other complex um designs to build something that's more than just um two pieces of metal um more than just robots. We're building up our students so that they can be able to be more in life and um surpass what
017expectations were put upon them um in a STEM uh deserted uh area that we are in. >> So a couple of things that you may notice it actually moves rather quickly. Uh we designed it for the intentions of competing and playing in the finals. Uh things that are very apparent is you see the yellow on the robot. That's actually a powder coating uh process that our students can do on site at Richmond High School. So they can actually not only design, fabricate, and build the parts, but we also have now the capabilities of being able to paint the parts. Uh so other things that you see, Mason was talking about the programming and software. So everything you see is um in order to make this mechanical hardware move is all the programming that happens behind
018the scenes. That's hard to see, but the lights that are flashing indicating what status the robot is is in. And then of course uh the color that's showcasing, how high it's elevating. Uh there's a lot of behind the uh behind the hood things that you don't see. Uh but it's all the programming software that our students do and applied to be able to do this. Um other things that are really interesting about our program, last year we held our first event at Richmond High School. So we invited 32 other schools to compete. Uh we'd like to continue that process so that we can bring and continue to be a staple of STEM education and a leadership uh leader STEM leaders within our community. And that's something that we're working towards as our future plan so
019that we can we don't have to travel to Silicon Valley to demonstrate engineering uh when it's right here in our own backyard. And so that's one of the things that we're working towards so that we can have more events where we host the robotics competitions at Richmond High School. Uh, another caveat, we also started the Penol Valley High School robotics team last year and so they were able to win the rookie all-star award um in their first year and this year we're also working with them to help mentor them, train. So if there's interest and and uh students willing to learn, there's going to be there's no reason why we shouldn't give them the opportunities and tools to be able to succeed and learn to be able to do amazing things like what you see
020in front. Other things too is we have a lot of partners and with companies and corporations that we connect with. You'll see the logo sponsor plate on the front. uh Chevron being one of our main sponsors along with other sponsors that we connect and our students with so that they can connect to the industries available so that they can then also figure out the pipeline from education college and then connect them with companies mentors who work at these different fields so that they can have a pathway to the careers that they're interested in uh and also creating partnerships and mentors that actually come and work technically with the students. So there's a lot of layers that we don't talk about, but there's a lot of things that happen behind the scenes to help give our
021students those opportunities so that they can do some amazing work, go and showcase it and demonstrate that they can be the next future leaders in whatever they do. Thank you so much. If there's any questions, we have a full array of yellow shirts for you to talk to. to engage with. All right. Thank you so much for having us and recognizing our students hard work. >> Thank you. Oh, one last thing. We are competing at our next event this weekend. We will be competing at Pleasant Grove High School with about uh 36 teams and going after hopefully our third win this year. I don't care. One more time. Ready? I got Dang, it's moving, man. Think trash how to go do grocery shopping. Go do grocery shopping. All right, thank you once again to Richmond
022Robotics. We're moving on now to number eight, which is public comment. Members of the public are invited to speak to the board on any matter that is not otherwise on the agenda, but is in but but is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the West Contraosta Unified School District. Public comment will last approximately 1 hour and the time allotted to each speaker is two minutes. Should additional speakers remain at the conclusion of one hour. Public comment may be extended. The time allotted per speaker beyond the first hour is generally one minute. Individuals wishing to speak, please submit a WCCUSD public comment card or if participating by Zoom, individuals need to raise their hand in the Zoom app prior to the beginning of this item on the agenda. If you're calling in by phone, press star
0239. Speaking time should not be transferred from one person to another. There is no substitution of speakers. Speakers can also make public comment again for each discussion and action item on the agenda after staff presentations. The public will have 10 minutes per item and one minute per speaker. The same protocols recited above apply. The public comment period is a safe space where diverse viewpoints may be expressed civily without interruption or intimidation. Please listen attentively to each speaker's comment and respect their time at the podium as if it were your own. Be open to a different point of view if one is offered. Due to the Brown Act, board members cannot discuss items that are not on the agenda and do not usually respond to items presented in public comment. May I ask how much how
024much public comment is there tonight? There's 25. Okay. Okay. Go ahead and call the speakers. Thank you. >> Our first public comment is Kantika Sasano. >> Good evening board. I'm Kika Sasono, a 9th grade algebra 1 teacher at Richmond High. I'm increasingly upset about the lack of adequate staffing and the overcrowdedness of our classrooms. My colleagues and I are burnt out and overworked, struggling to teach grade level content while differentiating for the diverse needs of many students. We also feel like we don't have enough time to complete all of our responsibilities, teach, prep, grade, analyze data, provide meaningful feedback, engage with families, go to meetings. As a bargaining unit member of UTR, I witnessed the months of intentional delays, lack of organization, preparation, and frankly, the level of learned helplessness from the board throughout our
025negotiations. It's an insult to see how quickly you move to approve pay for subs and consultants in the event of a strike. We're angry working without a fair contract, and we can't wait. Our next public comment is Maisha Harris Gash. Please unmute yourself. Good evening. Um each board meeting so far this academic school year. I have said I have talked about I have mentioned about um the microaggressions in this district and I am sick and tired of having to say I am more than my employee number. Now granted I will stand up. I will advocate for myself. I love me. I value me. And if I have to say that to people I will. But I should not have to. And so once again, I'm saying, where is the training on anti-racism? Where is the
026training on racialized racism, discrimination, and bias that goes on in this district? Where is it? Now, I'm going to move on to my students. And that we are coming to the end of quarter 1. And I just I I love my kids. I'm 10 toes down for my kids. Um, and that we're coming to the end of quarter 1. my baby girl who is on the autism spectrum and she's going to graduate this year, but I am a little sad because she is experiencing being unhoused at this time. So, she's missed a lot of school and it breaks my heart. And so, when I talk about how I come to work and I love what I do, I and many, many, many of my colleagues, we carry the weight, the emotions, the sadness of some
027of our kids. And so I am being challenged right now because of this in particular student. She has come a long long way from a freshman being stuck in a corner because of all the noise and not knowing how to navigate Kennedy High School. But now she has done a 180. But unfortunately at this time her family is um experiencing being unhoused. So I know we have many students across this district who experience being unhoused. So when you're talking about teachers and thinking about teachers and how you value us, remember the things that we carry with us day in and day out in the trenches with our kids. Things that y'all don't see, but the things that we see and the things that we carry. And through all the things that we're going through, make
028decisions that say you value us, you appreciate us, and that you need us. Thank you. Our next public comment is Ivonne Pierce. I am Ivon K. Pierce. I serve as secretary on the executive board for Richmond Steelers youth football and cheer. Who knew permits would be this hard? When I received my master of education degree 20 years ago, I knew there would be struggles working as a public servant and serving students. However, no one warned me enough that the struggles and barriers to serve the children in the community would be from the very ones who are charged to educate and protect them. The strategic plan and goals of the mentorship and athletic training program for the Steelers was reimagined and redeveloped by the executive board. We are a group of college educated professionals who have
029a passion for serving our community and providing mentorship and leadership development initiatives. On the surface, we provide athletic training through youth football and cheer. However, the primary goal of our program is prepare leadership-minded student athletes for secondary school and life after high school. We worked as a group to make the vision of the Richmond Steelers clear for the needs of the 21st century student. We are the longest serving program for young people in the city of Richmond. We come from various professional backgrounds and volunteer our time to do this hard work. Amongst our board members are skilled professionals with various experience with de developing curricula for out of school time programs teaching elementary and middle grades, developing social emotional develop skills and administering mentorship programs. Unfortunately, due to implicit bias, we are judged before anyone
030even takes a look at what we do, how we serve our children and families, and who we are as people. When we engage employees of the school district, we are often not met with professional courtesy and respect. The very tone in which cond correspondence and communication is often handled gives us a feeling that we are not an entity that belongs here. There's a constant push to get us off of the fields of the schools that our own children attend. The fields that our property taxs and the property taxiles of their grandparents pay to maintain and renovate. Thank you. Our next public comment is Samantha Taylor. Please unmute yourself. Next public comment is Francisco Ortiz. Please unmute yourself. >> Good evening board. uh Francis Gortiz, president of United Teachers of Richmond. And firstly, I'd like to
031stand in support with all the community members in attendance advocating for fair facilities youth for sports leagues. As a homegrown educator and former student in our district, I would be disheartened um if I was in this district and saw that other uh more privileged families and students had access to our fields um when our students and families could not. as uh also as a former community schools uh uh lead for United Teachers of Richmond, I worked hard with supervisor Joey and uh former superintendent Hurst to established the West County Place program so that our students, our families could get subsidized use to our facilities, not so that other students from more affluent neighborhoods could get access to those facilities for longer periods of time. This afternoon, I spent uh an insurmountable amount of time at
032the Superior Court of Richmond supporting our siege teachers um so that they would be getting some reprieve from the injustice that was imparted on them by the district. Um, we had a representative for our district continuously engage and showcase pathological lying and sociopathic tendencies that really put the district and the board under shame. Just to remind everyone in this audience, only 22 out of 1,500 members voted to not strike. That means that we had 99% participation and 98.4 for approval for a strike because this district's leadership is managing us into the ground and we cannot continue to cut ourselves to the bottom. We will continue to fight for the schools that our students deserve because they are worth it. Good night. See you next time when I have more time. Next public comment is Krice
033West. I'm not me Pierce is going to speak on my behalf. I guess after school activities are encouraged only as long as they are the ones that the school district offers and sees as worthwhile. We offer the training students will need to play sports in high school. Just about all of the state playoff games and various victories at the high school level in WCCUSD are won because the roster has students who came from the Richmond Steelers. The cheerleaders are so skilled and dedicated because many many of them cheered as Richmond Steelers. Yet, we are looked at as not being a necessary part of the community. Programs are supposed to be offered that meet the needs and interests of the students in the demographic that they serve. It is not up to elitist adults to decide
034which programs they like and don't like based on personal feelings about the sport or personnel. My child's father recently passed away and he was a beloved high school principal in this district. As parents, having our child in this school district has been a struggle to get basic needs met. We've had to have countless meeting and constant pleas for our child to get his needs met in this school district. As parents, we are frustrated each year with how he was treated as a student. Now the struggle continues with both day school and for finding a field for him to practice and play a sport that he loves. A few years ago, my child's father allowed the Steelers to have a permit at his school site because as educators, we both observed the Steelers and believed in
035the program they offered. He understood that modern athletes need actual turf and safe facilities on which to practice. Cheerleaders need access to an actual gym to do their studs and prepare for national competitions. We compete regionally and nationally. So the work that we do for our kids is not small. It is not done without long range planning and organizational structure. That is the only reason my child plays with this organization. They offer far far better comprehensive program than every other sport that my son plays and he plays four sports in constant rotation. However, even though a school principal attended practice daily to observe the program, district employees fabricated information to try to get us off of the school site because they did not want to share space with our children. >> Thank you. Just a
036reminder, we don't accept a substitution of speakers. I've allowed it this time, but for next time, it's one comment for each person. Thank you very much. Our next public comment is Mary and Chris. Please unmute yourself. >> Good evening board members. My name is Maria Kintana and I am a proud Richmond parent and part of the Richmond Quakes family. Over the years, Richmond Quakes has provided our children's with opportunities to learn, teamwork, build character, and represent our community with pride. For several years, Richmond Quakes operated under the Albany Berkeley Soccer Club, and we are grateful for that collaboration. It gave our kids a chance to stay active and develop their love for soccer. But it's important to recognize that our families are Richmond families. We live, work, and raise our children's here. Our goal now
037is to continue serving our own community directly as an independent club in Richmond. Since the displacement, many families have struggled to access fields and practices. Some children have even stopped playing because transportation and distance have become too difficult. This has deeply affected our youth and their sense of belonging. We're here tonight to ask for your support to allow Richmond Quakes to return home and continue providing a safe, inclusive, and community-based soccer program for Richmond youth. Thank you. Our next public comment is Don Gosny. >> Good evening. You know, the WCCUSD has more than a dozen committees made up of volunteers willing to give of their time, their effort, and their money to benefit the district. And then they have the many dozens of volunteers giving of themselves in the classrooms and playfields. But what happens
038when these volunteers feel unvalued, feel disrespected, feel invisible, feel silenced? Kind of like a lot of the district employees feel. Since 1998, I've been with the district's bond program, helping to pass more than $2.2 billion in bond measures to rebuild or rehabilitate the 53 schools in West County. I've been with the citizens bond oversight committee since it started close to 22 years ago. I've served on the CBOC longer than any other person. I've served as the chairman of the bond oversight committee longer than any other person. Two weeks ago, at 11:16 p.m., where I was the only member of the public left in the building, the consent calendar item reappointing me to another term on the CBOC was brought up. That was when three of the board members voted me off the island. There was
039no public discussion. When it came time for public comment, even though I had signed up to speak more than 6 hours earlier, there was no call to hear anything from the public. Truth be told, though, my fate was sealed before these public these three trustees left their houses. From calling the item to restating the vote, it only took 47 seconds to throw me away. I was told later by one trustee that I shouldn't take that this personal. This was extremely personal. It couldn't be more personal. It had little to do with what I have given back to the district these past 57 years. This was just because one trustee can't stand to even be in the same room with me and the other two have unknown re issues with me. I say they are unknown
040because at no time has any of these three trustees or senior staff reached out to tell me that they have a problem with what I say. what I do or how I say or do it. Absolutely zero effort was made to remedy the problem. Is that how they deal with teachers, admin staff, and students see a problem and then throw them away? As someone who has been in senior management for 55 years on major projects costing more than a billion dollars, I can assure you that this is an extremely bad management style. When the public sees how I was treated in this manner, why would anyone want to Our next public comment is Elsie. Please unmute yourself. >> Good evening board members. My name is Elsie Duran and I am here representing the Richmond Quake
041Soccer Club. Our mission has always been to create opportunities for Richmond youth to give them access to quality coaching, mentorship, and the sense of belonging through the game of soccer. For several years, Richmond Quakes operated under the Albany Berkeley Soccer Club and we truly value that collaboration. It allowed many of our Richmond families to participate and stay engaged in the sport. However, as our program has grown, it's become clear that our community our community needs a club that is rooted from here serving Richmond families and Richmond fields. Unfortunately, since the displacement, many families have faced barriers that partic um to participation practices have moved farther away, costs have increased and some childrens have lost the chance to play altogether. We are asking for your support to recognize Richmond Quakes as a local independent club and
042to help us regain the field within our city. Our goal is simply to continue building a safe, inclusive, and communitydriven program that gives Richmond youth a place to thrive. Thank you for your time and support. >> Our next public comment is Chris Pierce. My name is Christian Pierce. I play on the tenu team for the Richmond Steelers. I've been playing since I was 6 years old. Football is something I love to play. I do very well in school. I'm an Africanamean student of honor. Sports have help sports sports has helped me to deal with the death of my father. I did not miss any time from athletics. It keeps me going. It makes me upset that the Richmond Steelers have to fight just for a place to practice. I I attend a public school in
043WCCUSD. Why can't my team and I practice on the field like the high school players? I don't understand why the grown-ups in my school district are against me sometimes. I meant against some things that mean so much to our coaches and parents care about us. They help us through the hard times and they encourage us and help us to be good students. Please don't lock us out. Our next public comment is iPad. Please unmute yourself. Good evening everyone. My name is Off Gutierrez and I have the honor of serving the president of the Richmond Quake Soccer Club. Today I stand here not only as a club representative but as a proud member of the Richmond community, a community that believes opportunity, growth, and unity through the game of soccer. Kennedy School has been more than
044just a field for us. It's been more than home. is where players [clears throat] learn discipline, teamwork, and respect. It's where families come together, cheer, support, and celebrate and their children's success. Unfortunately, we have now faced a challenge that deeply impact our families due to recent decisions and allegations. Suggestions that players are not Richmond residents. We have been forced to move our practices outside of our city. The decision has created [clears throat] a huge burner for many of our families parents having to drive further players adjusting to new fields. And now sense of community being disrupted. But let me be very clear. Every single player in our Richmond soccer club trains at Kennedy are Richmond residents. These are our kids. They go to school here. They live here. Their parents work here. They represent the
045city pride both and off the field. Our goal has never been about soccer. It's been keeping about engaged, giving them safe and positive environment and building community pride. Taking away from the kids away more than a field. >> [clears throat] >> It takes more in part on their identity and sense of belonging. I urge everyone in our community leaders, school officials, and city representatives to come together and recognize the value of the Richmond Quakes being in the city. Let's make decisions that support our kids, not separate them. Let's open doors. Again, Richmond Quake kids play in their own city. On behalf of the family, coaches, and players, thank you listening and thank you for understanding and keeping opportunities alive. All the youth here in soccer enrichment. Thank you. Our next public comment is Eugene Teasley.
046Eugene Teasley. Edith Johnson. Okay. The outcome of Coach Pier's support was for him to be disciplined and reprimanded by telling him he could no longer have he no longer had the right to grant permits on his own school. We readjusted and practiced elsewhere for a few years. When we returned to W CCUSD, we bent over backwards to make sure we went over and above and beyond to cross every tea and dot every eye. We had consistent meetings with our parents about parking and space sharing. Most of our parents drop off and pick up their kid um pick up their kids to prevent too many people in ve vehicles occupying the school site at once. We serve 170 kids daily. We bought trash bags, bins, gloves, portable lights. We consistently had to track down the custodians
047to pick up our trash and our trash bags and discard them. We found a bin for our We bought a a bin for our field. We bought gloves, trash bags of our own to take out trash every night. Volunteers and former Richmond Steelers attend practice daily just to pick up trash and make the make sure the site stays clean. We pay for the pay for school custodial services for weekday practices and for game days. Yet we consistently have to we have to beg to get bagged trash gathered and taken to the dumpsters. Our staff picks up trash and any and all trash off the field every day. Yet we get stories fabricated about us not cleaning up when we go out of our way to do so every night and every event. We even get
048accused of being at the school site on days which we do not practice. Our Stiller staff is full of people who work, so we do not have the time to be on site on days outside of our scheduled practices. >> Our next public comment is Santiago. Please unmute yourself. >> Hello. Good a uh good evening. Uh, pretty much my comment is that uh we the community since since I was in high school, Richmond Steelers always had Kennedy High, Richmond United, we always had Kennedy, you know, both clubs. We used to practice back back I'm talking about back in 94, 98, 2000 when there was a lot of violence, a lot of shootings. We would still be out there practicing with the kids even though sometimes it was kind of dangerous, but we were there for
049the kids to keep them out of the violence. And all of a sudden, now that Richmond is considered a a good community, good fields, we're not able to use those fields. I think that's is not fair for the community, especially that we're paying tax money. You know, I would love to be there today, but I had to work night shift, but I'm taking my time to be able to talk to you guys to please help out the community. You know, we're the ones that paying tax money. Imagine you guys, the board, the school board members, you pay for something, they take tax money to build a park around your community and you're not able to use it. How would you feel about that when you have another county club coming and using that feel and
050our kids are just looking at that? I just feel that that's not fair for our community and you guys got to step it up. You know, like we are stepping it up for our community. We're all volunteer coaches and we do a lot for these kids and we care because we don't want them to go through what we went through. I've been living there in Richmond for over 30 years. and and it's been a real positive now. I wish I had that when I was young. Thank you for your time. >> Our next public comment is Mark Crawford. >> Good evening. I'd like to call for equity on and off the field. Just a few minutes ago, we heard the pledge. We stood for the pledge of allegiance and we heard the district's anti-racism statement.
051Both reminders of of what we what we stand for, unity, fairness, and opportunity for all. But this evening, I want to talk about what it means to live those values here in the West Contraosta School District. Many of you have seen the story on the local news about the Richmond Steelers football team. A proud symbol of discipline, teamwork, and community pride. Yet, these young athletes have been playing on the field covered in potholes, dirt patches, and uneven ground with no proper lighting. Parents and coaches have had to hold up construction lights just so the boys could see where to run, play, and where to envision their dreams. The image says so much because this isn't about a football field. It's about equity. It's about whether our actions truly reflect the words that we just recited.
052Despite these obstacles, the Richmond Steelers have continued to build an exceptional and enduring program, a legacy that spans generations and uplifts the this community year after year. So tonight I want to personally thank the players, the parents, the co and the coaches who have carried this program forward without uh with dedication and unwavering spirit. And I call on the district tonight to match that commitment by ensuring that the Steelers have a safe, well-lit, properly maintained field worthy of their dedication. Let's make sure that when we pledge liberty and justice for all and when we speak about equal our next public comment is Jeffrey Bean. Please unmute yourself. >> Please unmute yourself. >> There we go. Now I can unmute. Hello, I'm Jeffrey Bean. I teach uh fifth grade and fourth grade at Shannon Elementary where
053I've taught for the last 11 years. I want to talk to you about field trips. My class yesterday took our second field trip of the year. We went to the panel police department and also the pen the Kagosta County Fire Department for tours. We walked along the Bay Trail. A lot of tired kids, a lot of fun. Um, field trips happen because teachers choose to make them happen. Um, field trips are enormous paperwork burden, a lot of paperwork to be filled out. And if I do a field trip, I'm not paid extra for that work. Um, one of the important parts of field trip is chaperrons, parent chaprons, grandparents, aunts and uncles. And for my classes, I try to encourage parents to chaperone, even if they don't usually do so. Um, if I have a
054parent conference, I I encourage people to sign up. Maybe you can chaperone one time this year. And recently I was disappointed by the district's deci decision to change the rules for midyear change the rules midy year for parent volunteers. So they have to now reapply on bicotta every year and also get a TB test. Um please understand that if you make these requirements the people having to do these things are us teachers and office staff who are not paid extra for this. Now I have to go track down parents, encourage them to get a TB test. And I don't I don't want to just have parents chaperone who are the ones who always chaperone. I want to find new people. [snorts] And the state law allows the district to exempt parents from TB tests if
055they were born in certain countries or if they are only occasionally volunteering. So [snorts] please keep the old rules. It was working fine. It was working great with the new Vicotta system. And we don't need extra hoops to jump through. It's not fair to parents. Thanks. Appreciate it. Our next public comment is Sky Nelson. Good evening board. I'm Sky Nelson, parent and teacher at Elsto High School. I want to talk about the meeting we had October 13th I believe Monday. It was a special board meeting and I want to state the position that I think was landed at and and claim that which is that we are working together to face any inequities that this this district faces together. We're turning towards the county and the state and the federal government to say we need
056to protect our own. When we look at the amount of money we're fighting for each year in the budget negotiations, we know it's very small compared to some of the other things we're dealing with. So $7 million compared to the that we cut last year compared to the 7 million we need to fund 70 positions compared to the 9.8 we're trying to raise with measure T compared to the the um number of things that I put forth for folks on the board to to read and is on my website uh for community building group. I want to say that my understanding from speaking with community members about this issue, the soccer the field issue is that it's also possibly a money issue. We make money off of renting the field. I don't know that that's
057the case, but that's what I've understood. If that's the case, uh we got to understand that that's the same money that we're talking about with the budget cuts. The same money we're talking about with the the funding we're not getting from local charters and equity uh for our special ed students. And uh the important thing is that we work together, all of us together to solve these problems. Uh we are a big family. I'm discouraged that Mr. Gazny was uh not voted onto the board. I don't know Mr. Gosny that well. I don't know any of us that well, but I know that we're a family. We work out our differences. And Mr. Gazny has been at every single board meeting I've been at, and I've been at a lot. So, he's someone we cannot
058afford to lose. Measure T is we cannot afford to lose Measure T. I don't think we we'll pass Measure T without Mr. Gazny in our community. So if he gets frustrated with our politics, that's going to be a big loss. So let's treat each other well, figure out our differences, and work together to make feeling things available for our community. Thank you. >> Our next public comment is Eduardo Diaz. Please unmute yourself. >> Um, good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the of the council. Uh, my name is Eduardo Diaz. I'm a lifetime resident of Richmond. Born and born and raised. Um, I got to go to school here from elementary all the way to high school. I'm still a resident of my community. Um, my son plays for the Richmond Quakes, has played for the
059Richmond Quakes since 2018. He's he's going on six, seven years. Um, we're here. Uh, it's a big family. It's it's um, how can I say? It's [snorts] we're we're we're we're a community. We're we're are all of the kids from the Richmond Quakes are Richmond Quakes residents. No matter what everybody says, the Richmond Quakes are Richmond residents. Yes, we're affiliated with ABSC, but that doesn't take away from the fact that we are Richmond residents. Every single kid. So, everybody's saying, "No, this kid coming from other communities." No, that no from other out of out of town. No, we are Richmond residents. So it the same right that everybody else has for all the other all the other all the other sports and everywhere else. We have the same ones. We're all rich. We all pay
060taxes into our communities. We all live here. We work here. So, um, thank you very much. >> Next public comment is Alamo Brown. Like to say good afternoon, board, and Rodney Alamo Brown, a community advocate here in the city of Richmond, California. I want to send a special shout out, a happy birthday to the chairman of the Black Panther Party for self-defense, Mr. Bobby Seal. There's a few things I want to address this evening that's very alarming, and I hope you all take this to heart. On behalf of Dr. Cotton, we appreciate you coming up with a policy to enact a policy that we can have fair and equitable uh procedures moving forward. However, I think we shouldn't even have to been here and it's nothing to do with you because you weren't even on
061the board or wasn't a member as a superintendent here on the board. Therefore, when we talk about this young man right here with the blue shirt on, his father was a beloved servant of this district. and to hear his heartfelt cries about the vicarious traumas that's going through his life. He just buried his father merely four months ago and now he got to deal with these stressful events that take place and he doesn't have a correct field to even practice on. This is the longest withstanding youth organization in the history of Richmond, California since 1907 since it's been incorporated. And this is the way we do in children. Come on y'all. We got to do better than this. Every child that's in this building that's a member of Richmond Soul, Richmond United, and the Richmond
062Steelers, this is a slap in the face. We have a pristine field at Kennedy High School, and they can't even use it. Now, there's no disrespect to you, Miss Moses. You were once a former chili of the Richmond Steelers. With that being said, at least show these folks some grace. This beautiful woman right here, I've talked to her for every day for the past two weeks. I've heard her cries. I'll be in disrepute if I did not adhere to the whims and the cries of these. Our next public comment is Eric. Please unmute yourself. >> Good evening, Bo. How you doing? My name is Eric Linares. I am a board member for the Richmond United. Um I feel like the I stand behind the Richmond Steelers, Richmond Soul, Richmond Rayados, and Richmond United. I feel
063like these kids deserve to be on that field. It's a shame how our situation really has to deal with that. Um, the company I work for, Rubenstein Supply, it's a a sponsor for the Richmond United some Pablo Little League and I will be talking to the Richmond Steelers if we we can become sponsors as a exAc coach. the way they used to talk to us was come to our club. Um, we have better feel. So, to me, it's a slap on the face like the gentleman just said that now they're trying to come here because Kennedy has a great feel. Mr. Eduardo hit something on the on the the nail on the head saying, "Yes, you guys are Richmond residents, but you guys are choosing to play for a club in Albany, Berkeley, which has
064no jurisdiction. That's Alam Alama County and I think the prioritize should be with the West Contracasta kids. Um I really hope that you guys can make this happen. Um again is a shame what we have to go through. We are a proud community everywhere we go. We represent Richmond some Pablo Elan and I'm just asking you guys to reconsider and give a priority. We are all willing to share fields and it's unfair for a club that charges $4,000 a year to come here and just because they have money to throw away, it's kind of slap in the face to us, the Richmond community. So again, I stand behind all the Richmond based clubs for fuel usage. Thank you. Our next public comment is Samantha Torres. Good evening. My name is Samantha Torres. I am commissioner
065for the Richmond Recreation and Parks Commission and president of the Richmond United Soccer Club. We are a 501c3 nonprofit, fully volunteer-run organization that has served Richmond for 30 years. None of our coaches or administrators are compensated. I'm here to address the ongoing inequities and access to Kennedy High. While Richmond United and Richmond Steelers have been denied in violation of district policy, a new facilities allocation policy means little if the same individuals who allow these inequities to persist for years remain in those positions. For two years, our community's concerns have been ignored. Today will be no different unless there's real accountability. Consider the data. Richmond's high school graduation rate is 82% and only 33% of adults hold college degrees. In Albany and Berkeley, those numbers are 97% and 67%. Richmond's population is 47 Hispan% Hispanic and
06617% black compared to 13% Hispanic and 3% black in Albany and Berkeley. Disparities like lack of access to Kennedy High are not random. They reflect decades of systemic neglect and inequitable access to public resources in vulnerable communities like those in Richmond. So when outside organizations claim to serve Richmond while excluding our homegrown clubs from our own fields, that's not service, that's exploitation. Unlike newer soccer groups that expect equal regard without equal investment, we are not a charity case. We didn't just appear when a new field was built. We've been here all along. We don't ask for shortcuts. We do the heavy lifting ourselves. What we ask for is fairness, transparency, and rightful access for our Richmond youth. So, let me be clear. Richmond residents, we are informed and engaged. Voter turnout in Contra Costa County
067reached 84% higher than Alama County's 81%. So, we are paying attention. We will hold our leaders accountable and we will remember this come election time. We will not support Measure K or any future bond measures. Our next public comment is Andrea Martinez. >> My crush here. Right here. >> As a seventh grader at West County Mandarin School, soccer practice is the best part of my week. I'm Andrea Martinez and I play for Richmond United Soccer Club. However, the joy of practice is often mixed with frustration. My teammates and I are constantly battling for space on the field, which we share with one other team, Storm. In the total, with my team, Fire and Storm, together, we are around 20 girls trying to get quality practice time in such a crowded and limited space. It is
068a huge challenge and it is holding us back from being our best. It's so crowded right now, like way too many teams are trying to use the same fields. My coach says it's super hard to even get enough time to practice. If we had more fields, tons more kids could join and we would all get way more playing time. Plus, we wouldn't have to practice on bumpy old fields anymore, which would be awesome. That would help us all individually get better at soccer, and it would be a really good thing for everyone in our community. Also, we had to cancel a bunch of practices because of the rain. We had to use lights that would stop working if they got wet, so we just had to go home. We missed a bunch of practice days
069because of that. So, we lost a lot of con conditioning and it showed in our games. Our next public comment is Genesis Martinez. Hello, my name is Genesis. I'm 14 years old. I go to Leadership Public Schools Richmond. I played for Richmond United for three years. Um, soccer is really important to me because it gives me a sense of purpose, teamwork, and community. It motivates me to grow and not only as a player, but as a person. But not having access to proper facilities in my community affects me and my teammates a lot. We don't always have the safe and reliable places to practice. Our fields has no lights. There are mosquitoes everywhere. and it's small that two teams have to share in a small quarter field. It's hard to fully enjoy and focus on
070the sport we love in those conditions. I'm here today as one of three team captains to represent my team and a younger girls team in our club. My parents have lived in Richmond for over 20 years and many of our families has been here just as long. So, it's really disappointing to see that some fields in Richmond aren't accessible to Richmond kids, but instead used by teams outside the city. Because of that, we are limited to where and when we can play. We deal with uneven fields, no lighting, and tons of mosquitoes, which leads to early ending practices, injuries, and lots of mosquito bites by the end of the night. That's the worst part, honestly. Because of that, uh, yeah, I'm not here to complain. I'm here to speak up for the kids in our
071community who deserve better. We just want the same chance as any other kid to play to play the sport we love in a safe, fair, and supportive environment right here in our in Richmond. Thank you. >> Our next public comment is Marie Anam. Thank you to the district reps that toured STE with me. Five of the nine concerns are now resolved. The playyards have water fountains. TK has appropriate recess stations, but they shouldn't have taken over a year to bring it. I hope that my other four legit concerns will be resolved. The follow-up letter that the district sent to me was insensitive and unequitable TO TELL ME THAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO PROVIDE SHAME ON THE BIG YARD. AND THE SOLUTION is to have the principal HAVE THE RECESS THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE AND UNETHICAL. Would
072never FLY IN HERCULES, PANOA OR ELSERTOS. THE STUDENTS HEALTH AND WELLNESS IS A TOP PRIORITY. RECENTLY, IT WAS PROPOSED that subteers be paid UP TO 750 A DAY. I'M SIMPLY ASKING FOR $500 to be spent on a penalty. Again, the children are the victim. Lydia, HER PEERS, CLASSMATES. The October 3rd incident in Dejon's lawn was very sensitive and traumatic for students, staff, and families. Everyone saw THE INCIDENT WHILE DROPPING OFF STUDENTS and even at TK pickup at 1:30 p.m. Please help shield these incidents by having some kind of tall barrier set up. Yes, both sites were affected BY THE TRAGEDY. PLEASE LOOK INTO APPROPRIATE AMOUNTS of security cameras and security officers at both sites. LYDIA IS ONE OF THE YOUNGEST STUDENTS AT STE. SHE'S ONLY FOUR. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE IT IS SAFE IN
073A SECURE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. I WANT TO GIVE THANKS TO THE SPED department who has been continuing to work on resolving the transportation and placement concerns. Lydia's class is very busy. THE SECOND SPED PARAH is much appreciated. I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE FIRST all app to be shared. LYDIA'S DRIVER IS EXCELLENT using a functioning car seat. This is my fifth meeting IN A ROW AND MY kids Our next public comment is Alona Torres. [clears throat] Good evening. My name is Alonso and I'm from Richmond United Soccer Club. Um, I'm just going to point out Richmond Quakes, you're not displaced. You have access to Kennedy High School right now. Let's just put it that out there. Um, yesterday, however, at the governance meeting, between being accidentally on mute for a good amount of time and having discussions
074on anti-racism and bullying, uh, Dr. Kim Moses, you you said something that really stood out to me. You said, "Harm can't be proven. It's felt." Think about that. Let Let it simmer. I'm tired of being treat of us being treated like we're morons or lowerass citizens. People with money or power want to and have kicked out our children off fields that don't belong to them. They don't belong to us either, but we have used them and pay taxes for them for decades. When it comes to Kennedy High School, ABSC continues to use it for weekday practices and they are holding on to the permit without using it on the weekends. This is spiteful and disrespectful to taxpayers and most importantly our children. Ask yourself, if ABSC has been around for 50 years, why haven't they
075successfully advocated for more Richmond fields instead of coming to take them? The goalpost always moves for us. Reena Prasad is the person that connects the schools and the reservation system. First, Reena Prasad told us, "You just don't understand our policies. Like, we don't know how to read." Then, Dr. Moses said, "They probably beat you to put in the application in the reservation system. I asked for these timestamps and never received them." Then, Reena says, "You are putting the applications in too early." A partial public records request confirmed that that wasn't the case. And Dr. Moses, you confirmed that as well in person. Our next public comment is Bernette Buckner. Good evening, school board. My name is Vernetta Buckner. I'm a 55-y year resident of Richmond, California. I am shocked and appalled that our children's facilities
076such as parks and recreations and school property is being leased out to another county. I'm I have four daughters that went through the West Contraosti school district. I've never seen this type of thing go on before. I'm asking you to please change the policies. Give the children and the residents of Richmond's as we are taxpayers and we support our children. We need our schools to be able to to provide safe environments. I found out with my little guy being a Steeler, his first year, and he's so excited. But then I found out in talking to him, he's 6 years old, there's no facilities for them to use the bathroom. What are we teaching our children? Where do they relieve themselves? We as adults know we going to find the first bathroom every time we enter
077a building. So I'm asking why is this not why are they not able to use public restrooms or even a portaotty something? They have no choice along with the poor conditions of the fields. There's no lighting out there and it's it could be an ADA issue with people that are limited. You don't have easy access to that. no lighting, no safe areas to relieve yourself, and even get water, hydrate yourself. So, I'm asking that you please consider all those that spoke before me and validate our concerns as taxpayers, parents, grandparents, and a product of Richmond Unified School District and sports teaches team and we keep these kids safe off the streets and away from drugs and violence. So, please take all these considerations at hand and to heart. I thank you for your time. Our
078next public comment is Alain Harrison. Please unmute yourself. So Lon Harrison, please unmute yourself. Good evening, boy. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. I had to make sure y'all can hear me. Um, [gasps] I know we have these policies around um, using the N-word, but I've received two incidents from community people and in our in our ASAP meeting around the word being used. And it's I feel that we should be further along than than a policy that mentions the n-word. I think we should have clear consequences about how that's going to be addressed so that our students can feel a sense of belonging and connection in this district. I I have asked tirelessly brought youth to the board all that and you all have not ever seemed to come up with something
079how we can address our children not to be called monkeys and nwords. And I want to [clears throat] use the actual word so everybody that they can get uncomfortable like our children feel. They feel very misplaced and not a sense of belonging in our district when other their peers are allowed to call them that with no consequence. I'm asking the board to do something about it. I want a policy in place. Parents want a policy in place where there are consequences for any student or any adult that uses that word on our campus. There needs some be there needs to be some restorative justice so other cultures can understand how that word is harmed and children that use it fluently can understand that we don't do that at on West Contracasta school district campuses. There's
080something that need to be done and this will no longer sit in silence. So this is the opportunity I'm giving the board and the cabinet level to address this because it's no longer a silent issue. We want our kids to not be called that anymore on any campuses. I'm complete. >> Our next public comment is Lola Fielder. Hi, my name is Lola Fielder and I'm a sixth grader at Washington Elementary and I have played um with soccer in Richmond for 5 years and since I've played we had no practice on we have practice on different fields with no lights and no bathrooms. We can't have proper practice and it's scary with no lights. Please help us and open up our Richmond field to our Richmond clubs. Oh. >> Oh, thank you. And our last public
081comment is Aminata Fielder. >> Hi there, Amy. >> Perfect. >> Let's go. Hi, my name is Amanatada and I'm a parent of Lola Fielder. Um, she's in the sixth grade at Washington and she's a member of a Richmond United uh soccer club, Storm. So, us the people in Richmond, um, a lot of us don't have a lot, but we pay taxes because we have to, and our tax money built that field. And so, it is a little disrespectful and disheartening that a field that we paid for isn't provided to our children. There's safety issues on these other they're not even fields that we play on. We play at parks. We play on patches of grass. Anywhere that we can find that we can kick a soccer ball around and put up a goal, we practice.
082There's no lights, no bathrooms. It's overcrowded. And I I can't understand why preferential treatment is given to an area with more resources than what Richmond has. Um, this has been going on for years and what I can't understand is why the people that we vote on the board, the West Contracasta Unified School Board have yet to take action and make a field located at a West Contracasta Unified School District school is made available to Richmond kids. Forcing kids to play in these subpar conditions, it sends a message to them. It sends a message that they're not important, they're not worthy, that they don't deserve better. But these kids get out there and they work their butts off of what they're given. They deserve more. As a proud parent and lifelong resident of Richmond, I ask
083for your support in returning the safe, lighted Richmond field to the kids and the clubs of Richmond. Thank you. >> That concludes public comment. Okay, thank you very much and thank you to everybody who gave public comment. Uh, Superintendent Cotton, let's work together to uh encapsulate the issues as best as you understand them and we'll get them to the rest of the board so we all understand. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Okay, we're moving now to nine, agenda review and adoption. Is there anything from the board on the agenda? Yes. I would like to move F1 before the superintendent's report. >> Moving F1 to before the superintendent's report. Everybody okay with that? >> Okay, great. Okay, so we'll move F1 up and then we'll move now to number 10, approval of minutes September
08424, 2025. Does anybody have any corrections? >> President, would it be okay if we take a three minute recess? Sure. I'm having a hard time. >> Okay. Yeah, we'll do that. Okay. Okay. So, we'll be back at uh 8:03. Thank you. Moving on to 10. Approval of the minutes. Does anybody have any changes to the minutes? Seeing none, we'll accept the minutes as presented. Moving now to see business items. Are there any items that board members would like to pull for further discussion? Seeing none, we'll pass consent as it stands. Moving now to F1. Wait, what is that number? I'm sorry. F1 discussion item. Student achievement data moved up before the superintendent report. So, we'll move to F1 now. Thank you. Who's got F1? Got it. Absolutely. Good evening again, President Reckler, Clerk, and Yana
085Trustees, Superintendent Cotton, and community members. As we pull up the presentation, um we are excited tonight um to have the teaching and learning team to present our 2025 student achievement data. Tonight's presentation is going to give you an overview of our district-wide progress in literacy, mathematics, science, as well as highlight how we're using data to be able to strengthen tier one instruction across all schools. So, I will wait until we get it pulled up. There we go. Thank you. That's actually the correct slide. Next slide. >> Excellent. So, this data framework um popularized by Shane Saphir and Dr. Dila Dugan in street data is the framework that you've seen before probably several times. It's what our district uses to guide how we think about the different levels of data in continuous improvement. Satellite data is
086that top level one data. This is our CASP assessments. for example or ESPback and LPAC and this shows us overall trends and growth yet this data that we get lags and it arrives after so sometimes it's not as actionable as we would like it to be map data level two data is more focused and gives us some direction and the data here is that's included is I ready MClass and MClass dibbles and street data some of the most actionable and powerful really centers student voice, experience and perspectives and it really helps us to understand the why behind the numbers. This includes classroom observations, student work samples, and empathy interviews. And all of them are very important. And really bringing all three levels together gives us a fuller, more human picture of the learning that happens
087at our schools for our students and help us helps us to really lead improvement work. And tonight we're going to be presenting all levels of data. Next slide. So this slide shows our most recent CASP results for all students in English language arts on the left and mathematics on the right. In the center of the circle you can see that 33.39% of our students have met or exceeded standards which represents a 86% increase from our 2024 results. And while this movement is in the right direction, it's not considered to be statistically significant. So we really describe it as we have maintained our performance. On the right hand side for mathematics, you can see that 25.92% of our students met or exceeded standard, which is a 2.58% increase from last year. And this progress is more
088meaningful and points to a more promising progress particularly as we continue to implement our new math curriculum in elementary and in secondary. Next slide. So this slide shows our CASP results over the past three years along with our 2018 2019 prepandemic data for comparison. You can see that ELA continues to be a relative strength as a district. And while we've seen small increases in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standard, the overall trend has maintained status quo and has not returned to the prepandemic levels. In math, we're beginning to see some stronger signs of recovery and growth. We've now surpassed those 18/19 results and we've moved from 23.94% to 25.92% meeting and exceeding. And so this uh improvement signals a renewed focus on math instruction and we hope and expect to see that tier
089one implementation of our new math curricula continue to increase these. Um and we still have a long ways to go for both ELA and for mathematics. Next slide. Next slide. There we go. So now let's take a look a little bit closer. Looking at that same multi-year comparison for CASP, but let's break it down by grade level. You can see that the grades that participate in ESPback here are corresponding to the data level. So we have third grade all the way through 8th grade and then 11th grade. And you can see that for ELA, it remains fairly consistent year-toear, which reflects some stability on the overall performance. What does stand out a bit is our increase in 11th grade results. And early conversations with some site leaders suggest that this may also be connected to
090students motivations to remain competitive for college admissions and scholarship opportunities. Next slide. So, here's that same view by grade level for math. And we actually see a bit of a different pattern for our younger students. We see them actually outperforming their older counterparts in 11th graders actually performing among the lowest. And so as the grades get higher, we see a dip. And again, um, early conversations with our leaders suggest that the rigor of upper level math courses, especially at the high school level, um, and the increase of that complexity is really impacting the overall performance. And so it tells us that while our early uh, initiatives are beginning to take some hold in our younger grades, we really need to ensure that that momentum continues um, through middle school and high school. Next slide. So
091this is again the same data set but now looking at it disagregated for ELA by ethnicity and you can see that most of our student groups have now reached their prepandemic levels including our African-American students which is encouraging. Um however our American Indian and Alaskan Native students have shown some growth rising from 15% last year to 19. However, there's still a really significant gap when compared to prepandemic numbers of 39%. Next slide. Now, we see the same breakdown by ethnicity, but for mathematics, most of our student groups here have surpassed their prepandemic achievement levels with the biggest growth being our black and African-American students, showing a 3% increase from the 2018-19 numbers. Um, and it does, you know, reflect some growth. Uh, and we also see American Indian and Alaskan Native students showing some progress,
092although they're not yet back to the prepandemic numbers. So, again, we're encouraged by the upward trend. However, you can see that we've got a lot of growth to make in mathematics. And so, we need to be really focused on um ensuring that instruction continues to improve for math and students. Next slide. So when we look at our student groups that are really targeted within our LCAP, specifically our English learners, our foster youth, and our students with disabilities, we see very small gains. On the left, you see ELA and on the right you see math progress. And the data makes it really clear for us that we have a long way to go to ensure that all of our students are performing on grade level. And so for us, this really reinforces that our district needs
093to focus on tier one instruction on early intervention and ensuring that we're giving targeted support to our students um across the board, but particularly for these student groups. Next slide. So, while we recognize that there's still a lot of work ahead, we also do have some bright spots that we're learning from to guide the way for our district. And across the district, we saw 15 of our schools that grew more than 3% in ELA, which is significant and it's a really strong indicator. Yeah, we can clap it up. Thank you. Um I brought my posi tonight. So, um and this really indicates that our targeted efforts are making an impact. And so, most notably, um this is for ELA. Richmond High School led the way with 12.7% increase in students meeting and exceeding standards. And
094that level, we can clap for that. Absolutely. And that level of growth really reflects strong site leadership, intentional use of data, and consistent follow-through on instruction. Next slide. So in math, we're seeing even more momentum with 20 schools across the district showing promising growth. Pino Valley High School led the way with an impressive 184 or 18.5% increase followed by Aloney Elementary School. Yeah. Which grew by 10.3%. And they are recognized as a high growth school both in ELA and math. And a bit later tonight, you're going to hear from their amazing principal about what led to those gains. And so these bright spots really remind us that progress is happening across the district and we're really studying these schools and what they're doing and how they're using data, planning collaboratively and really supporting their teachers
095so that we can scale what's working there to continue building the momentum across all of our sites in West Contraosta. And so now I'd love to welcome up to the podium director Esau Rosco to present our latest alpac scores folks. Always a pleasure to serve. Tonight we're really going to look at areas of growth for English learners. This slide really focuses on the LPAC. The LPC is the English learner language assessments of California is also one of four criteria for reclassification. In fact, many say it's the hardest of the four criteria. So that's what we're digging into this particular data set. The following table demonstrates that we have much work to do, especially at level one. Majority of our English learners are scoring at a 40% level one. This includes many newcomers and other groups
096that are English learners as well. A little bit of the glowing silver lining is that we also have folks at level three. This is the largest group in terms of our expectation for reclassification. Ideally, these level three students would score a level four. this particular upcoming year for the summit of Elpac and be reclassified by the latest next year. I'd like to note that there's a negative 3.64 growth rate year. Now, I want to note that all the students who received an LPAC 4 last year are reclassified, therefore are no longer English learners and do not account for this particular measure. No department is also being actionbased. Using this data, we want to dig deeper and be more student responsive off of a peak year in terms of reclassification rate, a 12.5% rate, which is
097a district high since the assumption of ELPAC. We have ways to go in order to meet our goals. Next slide, please. The following slide digs deep into the years each student has been in the US. What is the expectation of an English learner in terms of being reclassified? And there's four key numbers we need to know. ELPAC has four levels. The expectation of an English learner who arrives recently in the United States without knowing any English at all is expected to reclassify in six years. Now, we have to gauge that expectation. That means our English learners can potentially repeat a level. So, we have a four-year level base in LPAC with a six-year expectation growth. I also want to highlight areas of growth. Levels one is in blue and we see they live in every
098single year. We would assume that level one students would be scoring level one maybe the first three years only. This is not the case. We can see level ones exist also in years four, five and six. Some of the glowing points is that at year five we do have a majority now at level twos and threes. Are we meeting the sixyear window in terms of reclassification? Not quite yet. And the answer is yet. We have a goal in terms of using this data and using another strategy beyond the ELPAC which is the interim ELPAC. Next slide. The intramac is a new resource for teachers and educators to use with instruction. Last year was the first year our district implemented the intramal pack and it was actually recommended with conversations with families and voted upon by
099the MDAC which is a parent committee representing English learners. Accepting the recommendation we took the initiative and last year was really dedicated in training teachers to administer the test. This was a new district-wide expectation. We had system sexes last year which means over 80% were able to participate. That means for the first time ever they got to practice the ELPAC. However, we just saw a bunch of slides showing well we didn't grow very much. What needs to shift? The intram is not just a test is an instructional resource. So this year's PDS are focused in using data to respond to student needs specifically in that moment. Our third PD which is round two enhancing English learner with intramac data is actually tomorrow and there'll be one another one in two weeks and our teacher turnout
100has been uh pretty strong this year. We're leaning on the interopac because this allows not only for us to respond to students, it also allows us to increase student engagement through identified goals. Before you have to wait an entire year and we talked about satellite data. We are hiding aid in terms of moving closer with the data that we're using. Before a student wouldn't be able to identify what questions they got wrong. Now a teacher can identify what exact question they received wrong. And for our students who lose engagement because they received one two years in a row, which is normal at times, we can now measure if they grew from five questions to 10 questions because growth matters and we need to track that better when we look at student growth and achievement. So
101that's just around the corner. I believe that's the end of the slides and we look toward increasing our English learner districts wide. Thank you. Next slide. Okay. So now here we have the results of our California Science Test, also known as the CASP. and our fifth graders, eighth graders, and 11th graders do take this assessment across the district to gauge how it is that our students are doing in science. And so you can see um that 21.6% of our students met or exceeded standards in science, which represents a 1.35% increase from the previous year. And while this growth is modest, it is encouraging and showing that we're uh continuing to implement the next generation science standards and expanding on hands-on inquirybased learning uh for our students. And we did adopt a new curriculum in elementary
102to support this. So we do expect that this will continue to grow as that's implemented. Next slide. And so this is again the cast but really showing it by broken down by grade level. And you'll notice that we have a bar for 12th grade students. 75 seniors were reflected in last year's results. And after reviewing the data a bit more closely, we actually learned that those students were not tested during their junior year, which is when CAST is usually um typically administered. And so um those students were tested in their senior year so that the data would be included. And so for us, this brings us to a close around our satellite level data, those state assessments that are currently available. We will be providing another update once the California dashboard is released in November.
103And so now we're going to shift over to our map level two data that represents the data for this year students. Next slide. Okay, so we're starting off with our fall i read reading diagnostic. And so for those who aren't familiar with the assessment, the iReady assessment is an adaptive uh assessment that's provided three times a year to really help teachers differentiate instruction. And students take this assessment on their Chromebooks. And the system actually adjusts the levels of questions. So some get questions both below and above grade level to identify unfinished learning as well as areas of strength for the student. And so here you can see that about 24% of our students in the green are performing at early or above grade level and approximately 56% are in need of targeted support. And it
104really this data helps our teachers to be able to plan for tier one instruction for small groupoup instruction and to provide interventions and monitor student progress throughout the year. Next slide. So when we compare last fall to this fall, we see a slight increase of percentage of students that are performing ear on the green. Uh and so that's showing and signaling to us that some of those gain skills are being retained, but at the same time, we're also seeing a small increase in the number of students that are performing three grade levels and below. So, we're going to be closely monitoring those numbers throughout the year to understand how students are retaining growth made from last year and how summer learning loss may be affecting our overall performance. And so it's really important that we
105compare uh fall to fall as well as winter to winter and spring to spring. Next slide. So for our math results, you can see that this is consistent with CASP math and it really remains our biggest area of need. Currently 17% of students roughly 994 are performing at early or above grade level. On the other end, we see 39% of students performing three grade levels over below. Next slide. And again, when you compare fall to fall, we see a similar pattern to ELA with some gains retained in the green. Um, but overall, we see a bit of an increase by 1% at three grade levels more um has increased. And so this trend really reinforces um what we saw in our state assessments. and it's going to continue to guide us in needing to strengthen
106tier one instruction. Next slide. And so a question that we often get asked is how does I Ready results align to our CASP assessments? And you can actually see here that while there are some differences across grade levels, the overall data suggests that I a pretty reliable predictor of our state performance. So in ELA on the left hand side you can see that I already had 33% of our students performing at or above grade level and that mirrored our CASP results where we were about 33%. And in math we were only off by 3% with I Ready having us a little bit higher. And so this gives us confidence that I Ready is going to help teachers to monitor in real time and make adjustments instructionally before the end of the year summitative um of
107our state assessment. Next slide. Okay. So now we're going to pivot over to Mclass Dibbles. Mclass Dibbles is our new reading difficulties risk screener most recently approved by the board uh last May. And so far we've trained over 200 kinder through 2nd grade teachers and we've successfully assessed 4,641 students. And that's out of 5569, which is a really strong start to a full implementation across the district, especially given that we turned this around very quickly over the summer. And so we're really proud of those numbers. You can see this is our early data and student uh results are coded by color. So you can see that first bar is kindergarten then first grade and then second grade. So students in the blue bar are at above benchmark performing above grade level expectations on those foundational
108skills. Green is at benchmark. Yellow is before uh below benchmark signaling some risk and red is well below benchmark which is at risk. And when you look at our data holistically, you can see that about 40% of our students in kindergarten through 2 grade are performing um in the red. And so they're identified as being at risk. Um, and these results really give us a clear indication and a roadmap for the support that we need to provide our youngest learners through targeted tier one and small group instruction for early intervention to make sure that they're successful in reading. Next slide. So, we're also administering MClass Lectura, which is the Spanish version of our early literacy screener for our dual language immersion students as well as our English learners who need it. This is the first
109time that we've had an assessment that's also provided in Spanish, which is going to give us really valuable data um on the biiteracy path that our students are on in DLI programs. And you can see that our participation numbers are not as high as dibbles. And that's because we began assessing all students in English first and those DLI teachers are now moving into the phase to do lectura. And so we are still administering those assessments in Spanish uh because we want to make sure that we're really capturing a full picture of that literacy development for DLI students in both languages. And so we look forward to sharing our middle of the year results with the communities, with families as they begin to have their uh parent teacher conferences coming up um and really strengthening that
110instruction to make sure that our students and our youngest students are set up to be successful early readers. Next slide. Okay, so this round of data really allows us to begin to reflect on our progress on our LCAP goals too. And so one such goal is increasing English learner progress on the ELPAC that doc uh director Odoskco mentioned. And so one of our goals was to grow um by 9% over three years. And so you can see that beginning from our baseline and I apologize it's really small um and signaling the yellow arrow it shows that um our data dipped and so we are not currently on track to meet our three-year target and we would need to see significant gains in the coming year to be able to reach that goal by our three-year
111LCAP in the gray. Um next slide or next click please. So similarly, we had a goal that really aligns to this LCAP goal or ELPAC goal that was to increase reclassification rates for our students by 9%. And you can see that in the last 2 years, we've increased collectively by 4.5%. And so in order to be on track to meet this goal, we actually need to grow by 4.05%. Director Rosskco tells me it's absolutely possible and we believe it is too. However, we're saying we're not on track yet because we expect it to grow 3% every year and so we really need to make a a concerted push to meet this goal. Next slide or next click. So we also have a goal around increasing the percentage of our 11th graders who exceeded standard in
112ELA. This is a required metric um that we have to provide for the state. And you can actually see that on the yellow arrow that we actually saw a bit of a dip. Um and so we're going to need to make a really um concerted effort and learn from those practices that Richmond High is implementing because we saw a very significant growth to make sure that that's happening across our schools. So we need to make an 8% increase to be on track with that goal. Next click. And then finally, we did meet two goals um around our targets for I Ready both in ELA and math. And so you recall that 9% was our goal to grow from fall to spring. We actually really exceeded this goal in both ELA and math and in both
113K8 results as well and through our secondary 9 to 11. Next slide. Okay. So, based on all the data presented for us, the path is really clear. Our team has sat down. We've analyzed the data. We've visited schools. We've had conversations with principles. And we know that we need to continue to focus on tier one instruction. That we need to really build that first time instruction and create multi-tiered system of supports to make sure that every one of our students is receiving the right support and at the right time. And so we believe that MTSS starts with strong high quality grade level teaching for all students that's grounded in rigorous curriculum, formative assessment, and early intervention. Next slide. And so that's exactly what we're going to be focusing on. So when we talk about tier
114one instruction, that green line, we're referring to what all students receive as part of their firsttime core instruction. So, for example, at tier one, we're implementing a new math curriculum adoption. We know this is rigorous. We know that if our teachers implement this curriculum to integrity, our students are going to get access to the skills that they need to be successful. In addition to that, we also have universal assessments that give us the information that our educators need to be able to adapt instruction. So when we do assessments for everybody like I Ready and MClass Dibbles, that gives us that information that our educators need to drive instruction and monitor progress. And so when you look at tier 2, which is that yellow bar, we know that first-time instruction is not going to work for
115all students. And so it is going to be expected that some students are going to need small group instruction and that that needs to happen in our schools inside of the classroom. It needs to happen outside of the classroom with the support of our learning centers as well as push in or pull out supports. It happens sometimes in partnership with our after-school programs as well as with targeted intervention lessons that are provided both with I Ready and Mclass dibbles. And sometimes we also need additional supports because those interventions aren't working. And that's tier three, a more individualized intensive support, which might be, for example, one-on-one tutoring. It might mean more support from the learning center. It also might mean an SST or a care referral. And all of these lay layers really work together to
116make sure that no student is falling through the cracks and that everyone gets their support. And so while this isn't happening yet at every school site, our goal is to make sure that firsttime instruction and MTSS the framework is happening at every school site consistently. Next slide. So we have some next steps for each level of data for our CASP results. This last principles meeting in October, we had a data summit and so we had time to really engage with this data as a community of uh instructional leaders. We examined the trends, the growth and really celebrated the progress. Um our site leaders are also hosting these data conversations at their school sites. We most recently had um lots of opportunities to be able to share the assessment calendar and tips for success with our
117families and that's also um available in our appendix. And then really based on this data we have a path forward for what we need to focus on in um teaching and learning. Our biggest next steps are with our most actionable data. That's I Ready and MClass. And so for I Ready, we've launched data sessions to help our leaders at the school site to be able to analyze these results with their teaching team to guide instruction and really strengthen small groupoup learning. We are selecting focal students districtwide, really emphasizing African-American students because that is a group that has been added to our differentiated assistance and remains as needing focus. And then we want school sites to determine what um their data is suggesting that they need to focus on. And so we have a commitment from
118our superintendent that this is data that we're going to be analyzing at every single principal meeting so that we're really bringing to life student data and vocal students in the conversation when we're discussing growth. We're also kicking off a professional learning community um focusing on I Ready assessments to be able to elevate that um support that is needed for small groupoup instruction. And most recently we also held um some parent sessions so that we can support families in being able to analyze those results and know how to support their child um at home. For Mclass Dibbles, we are continuing to train our educators. We're in the second round part two. So we have some sessions coming up. In fact, one happens tomorrow where we're going to be supporting our teachers in K through 2 grade
119to dig into the data to understand what this means for their students and how to be able to intervene to provide them a toolkit of evidence-based practices that align with the research about how to support these skills. We also have an upcoming parent uh training session before our parent teacher conferences where we expect those conversations to happen so that they can understand early on um what it is that their child um needs support with or is excelling in. And then coming soon, we're collaborating with our director of curriculum and assessment, Sanji Bell, who couldn't be with us here tonight, um, around providing a menu of interventions that are really going to provide that targeted support that we know is needed. And so, we've got a lot of work ahead. Um, and we did save the
120best for last because next up, we are super excited for you to be able to hear from a school leader who is really leading the way around instruction again, seeing growth in both ELA and math. So, please help me give a big warm welcome to Principal Davis. This is what I do at my school every morning. I say good morning Aloney, but I sing it. So, I'm going to sing for you guys. Good evening, WCCUSD. You love that? All right. Okay. >> Thank you guys for this beautiful opportunity. Shout out to my amazing secretary, my right and left hand, Miss Aurelia. She's here. And Miss Relle, the greatest psychologist in the world. Yes. Yes. All right. So, um, again, greetings to the board and the cabinet. I must say that I truly feel supported by
121everyone on the right side of me. Thank you guys for answering my calls, for being there for Aloney, and for me as a I still consider myself a new principal. So, thank you all. Clap for yourselves. Go ahead. Clap all. All right. First, thank you to Miss Aosta Verascus for calling me last week with this opportunity. Of course, I said yes. I have always said that Aloney is the jewel of WCCUSD. I've said that since I've gotten here, and that's how I feel. Also, shout out to everyone at Aloney who is watching. They've been texting me and sending snapshots of us sitting back there. Um, also thank you to Miss Aosta Verrascus for connecting some great connections with Chamberlain Foundation and also instructional partners. Um, now before I get to celebrating, highlighting and bragging on
122Aloney, there are some people in this room that I must elevate and graciously thank because they have been there supporting me as a new leader. And without their support, I know that we would not be as successful as we have been. First, my predecessor, Dr. Moses. I love you in every way. Um, she was the last principal at Aloney. There are so many great things that she implemented that I'm just keeping because if it's, you know, not broken, don't try to fix it. But I also want to tell this story. It's a story of favor, which is not fair. Um, and privilege, black privilege. She would come to Aloney when I first started there. she was um doing cease. She would do her seessay job and then after the school day would end for my
123entire first year she would drive over to Aloney and debrief my days with me. And I'm talking like three four times a week until the night of the day like 8 9:00. That is just what we did. And for me to have that connection and that type of support and foundation I sincerely love you and I appreciate you in every way. Um, next, our former schoolboard president, Miss Jamila Smith Fos. You can always count on her to be there whenever you need her, and you can count on her to be there when you don't. She is just always there. I love you. I love you. You always show up for your community and for your people in love, light, and truth. And I sincerely appreciate that. Miss Sanjie Bell, who is not here, she's amazing
124with uh curriculum and instruction, always grounding me in data. Um, and our new superintendent, Dr. Cotton, what some of you may not know is that before the school year started, she was making her rounds, talking to principles, talking to teams, and she came in while we were planning for the new year, collaborating as a team at Aloney. And she took the time to not only speak, but to listen to my teachers. And so for so many teachers there, they said, "This is the first time like no one, no superintendent has come in to actually hear our feedback." And so, thank you for that. Yes. And now for the magic of Aloney. Um, what is it that gets Aloney where we are? And we are a diverse population. As you can see from the slide, we
125serve so many. It's a a beautiful melting pot. It's like a pot of gumbo from New Orleans. Um, and the magic of Aloney, it is our people. It is our community. And we value our relationships. And I think that's the foundation of any level of greatness. You have to prioritize your relationships with all stakeholders, especially those who don't look or sound like you. Also, our parents are amazing. Um, we invite parents to Aloney on the regular and some parents have said like, "Oh, wow. We're welcomed here." Like, some schools don't necessarily want a strong parent presence. We welcome that. We encourage parents to volunteer in the classrooms, to be there for um lunch and recess. Like, we put them to work. Um, I also talked to my teachers about find something that parents can do
126in the classroom. Um, after the parents, that's that skylight level data. Katherine talked about that. Next is my team. And when I say my team, I mean everyone from my amazing secretary, Miss Aurelia, to Mrs. Standen, our um, resource specialist and our learning center teacher who serves all students. Um, my OT and speech therapist. Sorry y'all. This like the Oscars. There's a bunch of name dropping up in here. Okay. They want to hear their names and they're going to hear from their principal. Um Miss um Gina and Miss um Esma, our cafeteria worker, our new custodian who's been doing amazing by the way. Um just everyone on the team, our pair professionals, everyone is doing amazing. Um because you're only as strong as your weakest link and no position is higher than the other one.
127Everybody needs to feel like they are part of the family. Um, and then next is to my teachers. Those who are the most important. Your teachers are critical in any growth. I call them my front line. They're those who are closest to the students, which that is the needle of the data and some of the things that my teachers do to get those I'm sorry, next slide. I thought I saw it where it shows like our data end result. And I'm going to go over where Aloney was at over our trajectory. And I want to share some numbers with you guys. Um, but I do want to highlight we have some teachers at Aloney that have been in the district almost 30 years. So clearly something's keeping them here. If you ask me, I'll say
128they love it here. And of course they loved their principal. Um, but at Aloney, some have been at Aloney over 20 years. So I want to shout them out. Just bear with me. Miss Christine Moran, this is her 27th year in the district, eight years at Aloney. Miss Heidi Sharpenberg, 29 years in the district, 15 years at Aloney. Miss Kathleen Silva, 19 years in the district, eight years at Aloney. Miss Jane Ye, 23 years in the district, 17 years at Aloney. Miss Susan Gonzalez, 22 years in the district. This is her first year at Aloney. Mr. Joseph Ays, 21 years at Aloney. Miss Mik Miss Mi Misuk Nam 21 years at Aloney. Mr. Tori Cox 20 years at Aloney. Also, Miss Nam was a teacher of uh our former mayor Alexander Walker Griffin. Um Mr.
129Fallon Manuru, 26 years in the district, six years at Aloney. And we have a teacher who was a student there who is now a teacher there, Mr. Alves. And he Mr. Alves speaks on at Aloney. feels like we lift each other up and we push each other up. So with the collective of those teachers some progressive data from year 22 to year 25 for third grade just highlighting a few numbers third grade went in 2022 23 for ESPback they were at 62% then they went up to 70% and then they went up to 80%. Third grade did 80% last year in math for ELA it was 58% then 68% and then 74%. Another few more big gains. Fifth grade went from 55 to 59 to 73. They also went from 35 in um math fifth
130grade to 53. So there have been some big gains and they are extremely um intentional about the work. I think the slide talks about um high quality materials which shout out we're using the Eureka curriculum and partnering with instructional partners. Um, there are classrooms observations. The district has rolled out this IPG tool, the instructional practice guide, which I actually love. A lot of data analysis. Um, and I wish we had more huddles. Uh, we're getting there. My team hates the word huddles, actually. They're like, you came in with this crazy talk. But it's just us coming together. Um, which I sincerely appreciate. Um, the other thing is that Aloney, we have very strong systems of accountability and I, as the leader, I'm very clear on where I want Aloney to go. Like the vision is
131crystal clear and we are not there yet, but we definitely will get there. We will be the number one school in this district and we're on the way. Um, also we look for reasons to bring the joy. Whether you guys know this or not, this is 1/4th of the school year per this headband. Who am I? Ahsoka. Yeah. That 1/4 like the force, you know? You get it? So teachers are walking around in Star Wars gear today and so are students. Like we look for reasons to bring the joy, to be happy, to celebrate each other. Um, and that my teachers have deemed me the DTM principal, meaning do too much, which I love that name because I do. Um, and like I said, there's always a reason to celebrate. In in closing almost, cuz
132y'all going to see this poster board from our PTA. Um, Dr. Moses was the first person to tell me this, but if you know the uh the the Golden Girls, Miss Daddy and Miss Linda Evans, no, no, Linda Jackson and Miss Henry Evans, they constantly keep me in line. And they always remind me that a leader with no one following them is just a person going for a long walk. And I am so grateful and so blessed that Aloney I have a school where none of the teachers look like me. They have allowed me to lead them in partnership and in collaboration. I feel like I've earned their trust and their respect because my talk and my walk do line up with each other. And I'm happy that the district is now rolling out a
133focus on our African-American students. We've already been talking about that and the team is excited to do the work. We definitely have a culture of learning and accountability at Aloney and so hopefully those numbers will also be projected. In closing, this is our PTA board. Miss Vanna, could you get up and show to people? Um, Aloney is not title one, so we do not have a lot of money, but our PTA comes through for us and we appreciate that. They sponsor our field trips, they give the teachers a budget, we have our jogathon, we brought the uh gardening club there. And so honestly, Aloney truly is the jewel of WCCCUSD. And thank you guys for the recognition. I appreciate you all. Have a great evening. >> Hi, husband. Well, thank you, Principal Davis, for doing
134too much. you are clearly very intentional and you're building an amazing datadriven culture and a d a culture of excellence at Aloney. So, we're very grateful and thank you all for being here and we're open to any questions that you might have. >> Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Does anybody from the board have any questions? Go right ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation and thank you to the Aloney team for being here. Um that was wonderful. Um my I have a a couple questions for about uh the ELPAC and uh Mr. Orosco. Um >> that for me >> I'll start with one for you uh Miss Kazquez. So there has been some districts that have seen uh growth or gone back to prepandemic data both on
135ELA and math. Obviously we have not we're not there yet. Uh, some of them are in our own county, Pittsburgh, um, uh, Los Angeles, San Diego. Um, so I was wondering if you could talk about why are they seeing growth and prepandemic data, uh, but we're not on ELA specifically. >> Yeah, thank you for the question. So, you're right. Um, while we are seeing more growth in math, um, pre- pandemic, in ELA, we're not yet seeing that. and we're really exploring um together as a team what we need to do. In fact, I was just having a conversation um about this with our superintendent recently as we talked about our vision of literacy. And so for us, the work is very clear. We have an assessment that we're implementing that's going to give us a
136lot of information about the directionality that we need to go in as a district. We believe that this work needs to start at the foundation to make sure that our students are being set up successfully to decode and comprehend. And so while we are administering the reading difficulties risk screener, we know that it's likely going to show us that some foundational skills um tools that we're using are not working. And so we're grateful um that we do have both an expectation that we're doing that assessment universally um as a district, but we also need to come together as a district to be able to use one tool in literacy. And right now we don't have a consistent curriculum that's being used that is high quality and aligned to the most latest research across the district.
137And so for us, we believe that we need to do two things. We need to build the capacity of our teachers around uh evidence-based research practices around literacy and that's both our lower grade elementary teachers but also our upper grade our principles and our secondary teachers because we're all literacy teachers, right? We also likely need to in the future look to adopt a curriculum that is aligned to evidence-based research and we're excited that that expectation is coming down from the state hopefully with some funding to be able to make that a reality. >> Thank you. That was actually going to be my next question about whether or not we could see a correlation of a bad curriculum. Sorry, bad curriculum is a bad word. a not a good way to describe our current curriculum, but
138a curriculum that is not fully aligned to our expectations of growth. Um, in the meantime, until we're able to adopt a new ALA curriculum, um, apart from looking at the assessment and how we use those tools that we have, what else can we do to support our teachers? Absolutely. >> Knowing that that is their main tool for teaching. >> Yeah. And I want to name that I don't think a curriculum is going to solve it, right? because you can have an amazing curriculum in the hands of a teacher who doesn't know how to use it um or waters down the curriculum and then you're going to see similar results. And so we believe that actually building the capacity of our educators is step one. And so very soon we're going to be rolling out with
139our newly recruited reading teacher leaders um a path forward to building that foundational skills knowledge. And so these reading teacher leaders are actually going to get a lot of knowledge around science-based foundational skills practices with the hope that they along with their principles become experts and then begin that work of building the capacity of their colleagues around these skills. It's actually going to be an expectation that comes down from the state that there's a certain number of hours that's required for professional development. And so we believe that arming our teachers with the best knowledge and professional development to those skills is step one. We can begin that work now. And that's what we're planning to do in the interim. And also giving them those aligned tools so that they don't have to reinvent the wheel
140that's already out there, right, is that second step. And so while we wish we were there already, we actually think in the space of change, a new difficulties risk screener and a new math adoption is probably enough change for one year. And so we welcome the opportunity to be able to focus on Joe's two things this year and then begin that capacity building and possibly exploring adoptions in the coming years. >> Thank you for that. Uh my next question is about the ELPAC. Um I was disappointed to see that we went backwards on alpac data. I was wondering if you could talk about the why you believe Mr. Rosco that we went backwards um on on that data specifically and then I have two more questions after that which if we do a second round
141I would like to do. What about now? Great question. Uh well, there's been a lot of changes in our district the last three years in regards to the ELPAC. Uh two year go two years ago we do see growth. We had a core for the intramac which was a little bit more uh supported at the teacher level in terms of coaching. So implementation of the drive beyond the data last year. We continued that trajectory and changes did occur. Uh our team is expanding uh that support really through PD and COP work. So teachers sharing with each other best practices. However, that tight-knit conversation was the shift. Last year there was no cops as we shifted away from coaching. This year because we do not have that type of support we have coops in session. So
142teachers are welcome to join a coop session four sessions after each of the PDS which would be a total of eight sessions if they went to everything in terms of intramopek which is at least once a month. So that's been our trajectory. And as I mentioned last year, it was the major expansion. Prior to the year before, it was very precise. In fact, we only focused on long-term English learners, that level three and four group. So the reclassification rate did skyrocket, right? However, we didn't see the growth at every single level, which will come back to haunt us when it comes to the leveled expansion. So, as we grow for reclassification, we want to make sure that all students are growing. It's not just a focused cohort from coaching or for coopswide practice and is
143ingrained in tier one designated EL instruction. And in fact, this is the first year we really recommend teachers uh in design time to use the intramal pack non-standardized like that's an item for us to gather data but in an unstandardized manner to play around with it, use the resources, focus on standards, work in teams, have conversations. A reading domain assessment is not only about reading. So that's been the shift in terms of how to grow that capacity and it gives you a little bit maybe insight to why we dipped in terms of performance last year. >> Thank you. Uh president have additional questions if we do a second round. >> Yeah, no problem. I'm only going to have one so you can take mine. Is does anybody else have questions? >> I have a question.
144Um it's more in regards to the also to the LPAC the LPAC and level by years on the graph that you showed us and the significant movements. So I know that the highest bars on the level two and three are with students that have been here for six plus years. that will make um the um the >> yes >> the yeah the >> at risk and long-term English learners are still scoring at levels ones and twos >> and one to two and and and that is my my question around there how how is using now that interimm alpac reading domain which also shows some of that data and are you able to break it down by grade level because are we looking when we're looking at this you're giving us percentages and I'm thinking that's
145going through from 3 to 12 and where is it that we're seeing the highest percentage of of the bars not moving? Is it at our elementary? Is it during our middle school high school level that we're seeing the the numbers not tend to move? I can pull that data for you, but just to not speak and it be not true, let me gather that data for you and I can share with the board. Um, my real last recollection was that our highest peak was at fourth and fifth grade, but let me make sure I gather that data. So, that's data we can definitely pull. Okay. And I and I it goes back to I guess how do how is now using the ELPAC reading domain data going to be aligned because I think that's something
146new that you said you recently started using this last year. So, is there a plan on how to essentially move forward in ensuring that we're reclassifying students are being able to give them the interventions necessary before they reach the middle school high school age that is the goal. So with the intramac, we're able to identify what LPAC test type, what specific ELD standard, what strategy matches with that particular incorrect answer on the assessment. So our training is exactly that practice. So it's easy to just name a practice, but it's now about implementing into your daily instruction. So you gave a an assessment, you notice that the student marked five wrong or 50% of your class marked five wrong. Now that means there's an instructional shift. We have a book but the book does not give
147you that instructional shift. So that data is valuable. Now the big difference is we have it in the moment. If a student is sick, we can retake the test, right? We can sit down and explain it with them, right? We can do a small group uh scenario. In the past, we only used the sumitative. So it was all old data that teachers were working from which made it very difficult to make it meaningful for the teacher and for the student. But what you named right now is is the goal in terms of our implementation plan. >> All right. Thank you. That was my last question. Any other questions? >> Okay. Let me ask mine and then you're asking mine so you can go. [laughter] You can keep going. Um I do have a question about
148attendance correlation between attendance and how kids are doing if you can speak to that and if there's anything from the state is there in terms of their numbers and their attendance. >> Absolutely. Certainly. Um we have to have our students at school to be able to make gains. In fact, um we collaborate across departments um around our differentiated assistant driver diagram and we have a plan that's really focused both on attendance, achievement, and suspension and really building that um culture of belonging for our students. And so that we're really emphasizing our focus with our African-American students on this work. And so with um Summer Sigler's team, we're really coming together with the teaching and learning team to be able to come up with a very targeted plan and change ideas to really um emphasize and
149make intentional changes that are going to shift that. So I don't have the numbers off the top. I can certainly provide them, but there's an absolute alignment between attendance, suspension, feeling like you belong and that you are connected to your teacher. And so we're trying to be really intentional about both studying the data, right? So are the students who are not growing, are they coming to school, are they the students that are being suspended, are they the students that have a permanent, highly qualified teacher in the classroom? And so all of these things are related and certainly at the state level and county level we're seeing a really concerted effort to be able to really focus on attendance and building a strong tier one culture to make sure because we know that that does impact
150student achievement. I don't know if you'd like to add anything to that, Summer. >> Got it. And next is uh the te the team left and I don't blame them but she did say a couple of interesting things to me which is that they have strong systems strong systems of accountability and I'd like to know what that is or what that looks like. I don't know if you can talk to it. >> I certainly can. >> Well I I was lucky enough to be able to be her executive director. So I did a lot of site visits with her. Um and I'm sure Dr. Moses could also speak to them. But um one of the things that I think is really spotlighted by the leadership of Principal Davis is she's in the classroom. She goes,
151she observes, she uses the instructional practice guide and she really has conversations with her teachers about what she's seeing that she wants them to keep doing and some changes that she wants to see happen. And so for example, most recently at our last principal meeting, we elevated data districtwide about what we were seeing in the classroom around math. So we have a tracker that every single um school uses in the district that collects implementation data for us in math as well as data in our um in all of the um indicators that we're using for the instructional practice guide. And so what she did is she asked me for the deck and said, "You know what? I'm gonna be presenting this to my teachers so they see this is the goal. And so those are
152the types of connections that I frequently see her making. She didn't mention the huddles um very specifically, but one change idea that she implemented was in the mornings at Aloney, she would gather the teachers that wanted to come and huddled every morning and said, "All right, this is the game plan, right? This is what we're going to do. We're focusing on this strategy in the classroom." And that's really building this um not a a culture of accountability of you have to, but we want to, right? You heard in her energy that she's all about celebrating both students and teachers because they're doing incredible hard work and she's a partner in that. And so I think that um those are some of the accountability pieces that I see her um implementing and she was an early
153adopter of Eureka Squared. And so I think their gains show show us some promising um hopes that we have around what we expect to see in our district results looking forward. >> Okay, great. Thank you very much. And then yeah, the floor is all yours. >> Thank you. You asked a couple of mine. Um I want to go back to the conversation about the ELP pack. Um, so looking at all the subgroups, the only subgroup that went backwards in ELA data was English language learners. Everybody else did some type of growth in the last two years. And when you we look at this slide 13 on the summitive data for ALPAC and their levels of how long they've been here in the United States, I see growth of level ones, right, over the years, meaning
154that there's less over time. Um but then level twos grow over time. [clears throat] So what's the correlation between the level two English language learners and the ELA data? Uh where we seeing when we're looking at going back where we're seeing a backwards trend instead of a forward trend >> and that's a great point there. uh the I Ready data does parallel the ELPAC data. So when we're looking at those subgroups, uh it's part of the reclassification data, right? So they're relatively pretty close in terms of trends. Uh one of the strengths of intramalac versus the IR is that it really names the EL standards and is able to pinpoint specific EL needs. So that's why we trace it from the IR. Now the I ready portion is also essential because English learners learn in
155all subject matters not only designated EL and the connection connects with all subjects where you would connect an EL standard to an ELA standard which is from that data and now you're able to incorporate an English learner's needs standards needs throughout the entire day which is the larger vision of our work as well. So we're kind of at [clears throat] a crossroads and for that reason even though the data has decreased and student growth is not does not grow in order especially as soon as they reclassify like the entire table kind of shifts because that group of students who succeeded is no longer in that measure. Uh we can definitely succeed. There is a trajectory a larger trajectory of growth. So even though it sounds impossible, it is very attainable if we work and prioritize
156this as a team. >> I think one element I'd love to add here is also that currently the tool that we're using for designated EL in our elementary um schools doesn't match what they're getting in ELA. And we know ELA and EL they should be married, right? They're complenting each other. for EL currently or adopted curriculum teachers are using is benchmark and ELA some people are using teachers college some people are using different tools right and so it's apples and oranges it doesn't align it doesn't complement and so one benefit of looking forward and having a common tool will be that what is presented once we adopt a new curriculum in English language arts will complement what's being presented in ELD because those two should be the same. They should be a higher dosage of
157the same with a built-in vocabulary supports for English learners and right now we don't have that. Thank you. It's like you read my mind because my next question was going to say like we're seeing this growth in math because it's a we're concentrating on math right now. We have a new curriculum, right? But then we just adopted an EL curriculum before the math curriculum. So we should have seen also a growth in English language learners and ELPAC. Right. So then I was shocked to see the backwards trend. >> Yeah. >> But I think that you just answered the question I was going to ask is so so what are we doing then in the meantime? >> Sorry, go keep going in the meantime because I we don't know when we're going to adopt the LA
158curriculum, right? due to financial reasons or whatever. So, in the meantime, how are we going to um close that gap between the ELD curriculum and the and the ELA curriculum because obviously right now what we're doing is not working right. So, how are we closing that gap? >> Absolutely. Thank you for that question. And so, again, it should complement each other, right? The lessons that students are getting during that designated time, which is only about 40 minutes, right? they spend the rest of their day in other classrooms. It needs to be aligned so you're getting more of the same. And so this is why as a department we've really elevated the use of the intermack because that's going to give teachers that information that they need to know exactly what it is in reading, writing,
159speaking or listening that they need to focus on. And you know, this might mean this uncomfortable um acknowledgment that maybe the tool that we're using that was just recently adopted may not be the best tool, right, that students need to um or that teachers need to be able to use to support students. And so, um, SL's team or director Odosco's team is really trying to focus on the use of this assessment that's going to give them real-time data about what their students need. And the lift will be higher for teachers because they're going to have to look at the tools that they have, which is their curriculum, to make instructional decisions about what's best for their student. And that is that special sauce that teachers bring to the equation because they're educated, right? and we're
160building their capacity to make those intentional choices that their students need while we're getting back to that one um curriculum and expectation that we hope to have in the future. >> Thank you so much. >> Anything you want to add to that, Mr. Orosco? No, >> thank you so much. I could probably ask them questions because so interesting, but due to time I will Oh, please go ahead. Um it is a tricky question and actually um Katherine and I had that conversation today, yesterday. We we've had it often, but um we're looking at what are we doing around foundational skills for our students and those are for our English only and our and our English learners. Um in the meantime, right, while we're waiting for a new adoption, what can we do? we can support
161those foundational skills. Um, we've had conversations and we've talked even more about our literacy content blocks and making sure that regardless of the curriculum that you're using that you are using elements of science of reading, you are using elements of um foundational skill building that all of our students need. And so that is kind of the glue that we're working through and having conversations about now. How do we get that piloted? How to get that out into our schools so that people understand it. It's tricky because you know school started. Um but I think that there are enough folks out there who are interested in learning more and trying to to figure out how do we best serve our students. We have some schools um sadly that are in single digits of students that are
162meeting and exceeding standards. That is a challenge. That is a problem both in in in English language arts as well as math. We have work to do. And so I don't want to I don't want to think I don't want you walking away thinking that we're fine because we're not. And there's a lot of work. >> Thank you for adding that. Uh I'm president. Thank you. >> Go right ahead. Um, I appreciate the principal Davis coming in from Maloney talking about the strategies that she uses at her at her school. Correct me if I'm wrong. I remember going to Mont Talvin and you had you had a specialized time built in the day where students would mix grade students would get together by level and they would have some spec uh some specified reading intervention
163times. Is that accurate? And if so, if my memory is correct and that's accurate, could you just take a half a second and just tell me more about that strategy and the gains that you saw using that strategy at your site? >> Absolutely. And you have a very sharp memory. We absolutely do that. Um we are actually using one of our tier 2 curriculums um SIPs um to be able to provide reading intervention. And so what we noticed in our data was that many of our students first grade through third grade were actually not able to decode. They they needed some significant phonics intervention and a teacher a single teacher is only able to pull in small groups so many students, right? However, if you put together our teachers first through third grade, then you
164multiply your teachers. And so it takes a lot of trust and a lot of coordination. And so we said, "All right, we're going to stop everything from 9 to 9:30 every single day. And we're going to regroup students based on what it is that they need." Right? That's that MTSS. Every student gets what they need at the right time. And we did. In fact, we have to give credit where credit is due. This model, the walk to read model is actually from Nestrom. They've done the same where data is really doing the talking. And that's what's driving tier one instruction. And so our data was suggesting that every single student needed phonics and that was going to happen regardless of whether that was part of the curriculum. And so we made those intentional moves to
165make that happen at on and we did see gains and so have other schools implemented that. But ultimately SIPS a tier 2 intervention program that is aligned to the science of reading is available to all of our schools. In fact, we do some have some additional training that's happening for teachers so that if this is what the data is saying at their school, they can utilize this for either tier one or tier 2. >> Thank you very much. I'll just have comments. >> Okay, any other questions? Then we can move to comments. We'll start down at the end. I think one of the things that I want um us to be intentional about is increasing the skill of reading. Reading is a skill. It's it's a >> [snorts] >> layered skill. And we also have
166to focus in on when kids come to teachers at a certain age, we expect them to know how to read because we're not reading teachers. We are English teachers or we are history teachers or we're science teachers. So when we when we talk about reading and that skill that that we are wanting our students to have, it just absolutely breaks my heart that we have students who are at certain ages who are not with IEPs or 504s or anything else, but they are not reading. Our students that are in our general ed classes are not being able to read. our students and I'm trying to figure out what it's going to take for us to kind of move that needle a little bit and we see it at some schools and what it seems to
167be is an intentional focus and culture on making sure that every student has that skill or has the opportunity to gain that skill. And I think that if that's the if that culture spreads throughout the district, we will start to see those gains in our overall data. How are how is each site intentionally focusing on reading or you know ELA, math, what have you? What are you doing? What are the concrete things that you're doing? Is it are you doing huddles? Are you doing the the collaboration method with your students? Like what are people doing? And is what they're doing working? Which I think is something that we also have to be very clear about. We can does Lucy Caukins work? Does the science of reading work? Does this work? And if it doesn't, we
168have to be able to dump it and go to something else. Go to what is actually going to work. And I just and I know that you all feel the same way. It's just that we cannot we cannot have students who cannot read at any level, elementary, middle, and we definitely can't graduate them out if they're not able to read. It is a life skill. I'm complete. >> Anything else? >> Thank you. I want to thank you all for the presentation. Um I do want to acknowledge that there's some growth happening, right, which is great. Uh especially in some subgroups that we've been worried about for a long time, right? So, it was really good to see some uh growth in our African-American students, right? And um our Latino students overall as well. Um it
169was good to see our students with disabilities. Um you know, they didn't see a regression, right? Like that was really great to see. So, there's some and of course in math that we're seeing growth throughout many subgroups. So that was really good to see and I want to thank everybody who's worked for that because we know that one percentage of growth is actually a lot of work in large school districts. Um and um there's some schools like what we heard tonight, right? And there's many more that are doing amazing work. So you know my questions and my next comments are not reflective not of that work, right? But I think that we all know here um that we are in a crisis in certain areas, right? And I think that English language learners for me
170because I was an English language learner that came to this country. She all know um in um later in you know uh ninth grade that um it's it's hard for me to see that four out of a 100 English language learners are reading at grade level right that's four out of a hundred kids. Um I mean that's I think what keeps all of you up at night. I think it's what keeps me up at night. I know our superintendent and our board. Um, and I wish that I could then turn around and say like, but all of our subgroups are doing excellent, right? There's not a single subgroup or ethnicity that is just doing amazing right now in our district. And then we need to change that, right? Um, and I appreciate I think the
171honest answers that I got tonight because if we approach this issue with honesty and directness, right? Expressing like we're not doing well and we need to create change and we need to learn from what's good happening in some of our schools and implement that in in others that are not doing well. Um, and not accept, you know, that there's no growth, right? And that kids are falling through the cracks. I think that's how we're going to get better, right? Um because I always say that I think everybody in this district 95% 98% 99% are choosing to be here because they want to see what's best for kids in West Contraosta because as we hear from our unions, right? Everyone in from the lowest paid employee to the superintendent could be making more five minutes away.
172Like that's just the reality of our system. So people are choosing to be here and because we have an amazing community and amazing schools. But now we got to take it a step further. All of us. It's going to require all of us, right? We heard it and we saw it from Miss Davis that it requires the whole school, every single employee in that school to make progress. Um, so so we have a lot of work to do because it was I'm I'm trying not to cry about some of the data that we saw tonight, but it's really hard for all of us that are in this position, right, to to then leave from here, right? and and be okay with that data. So, I'm feeling hopeful from what I'm hearing. And the reality is
173we can't ignore also some of the things that are stopping us from making progress, right? The lack of curriculum, the lack of supports, like we have to figure it out together. Um, but thank you. >> Go ahead. Okay. Once again, thank you for the presentation. I think you guys covered a lot of information for us tonight. Um I just have I guess a comment especially when it comes down to presenting on specific sites where we can actually narrow down you know really on the numbers you know we tend to do a lot of things and I think I've mentioned it before on percentage basis you know when I'm looking at like the looney student demographics like what does point4 of a student mean to me as a parent re you know right like what does
174two of a person made right so I think really understanding you know the student ratios next to those percentages so that in the parent mind you know I'm able to like look at the hard number versus the percentage that we're looking at um would make more sense to me as a parent especially when we're talking about like really having a consciousness on the data that we're you know really presenting out there. That that was I think my my biggest comment. I think you know it's really is shocking. um not an absolute because you know we are in these school sites right very often we see the hard work that's being done but I think once it comes and it hits us in the face like this with actual percentages it feels even harder you know
175being a parent is this in this district and knowing that you know my child is in that percentage of below grade level or maybe you know getting to grade level because not all of our children are going to be exceeding So, I think that's I think the hardest thing to look when we're looking at um the information presented like you know we're looking at it also from the parents point of view like we are parents here in this district and what can we do and I think we need to be able to like make this of time is of the essence you know the what things can we do now to make sure that we are moving the needle in the right direction like what things could we enforce you know, does it take, you
176know, those conversations because we are looking at the data and the schools that are, you know, falling way behind? Like, how could we have those hard conversations that need to happen at the sites to be able to like get everybody on a safe wavelength and understanding that like yes, it is hard. Yes, you know, it it's always going to be, you know, really time is of the essence and it's going to take everyone doing this together and also looking at the ones that are, you know, moving in the direction we and seeing how we can also support those sites to keep on moving and continue to make those strides. You know, I think it is right now a really hard time where we need to look at, you know, what's going to make the biggest
177difference for our students and what's going to get them to where they need to be because our children are in these percent, you know, tiles that you're giving us. And this information isn't good and it isn't good for a whole future, you know, for a whole community, for, you know, a a whole, you know, a a whole network of leaders to come. So I you know really want to ensure that you know we are looking at that and just the way that we also presenting the information you know is presented on a clear basis so that we as parents could really grasp those numbers and understand them not just as percentages but as actual human beings. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll wrap this up. Thank you everybody for your comments. Thank you for
178the presentation and the hard work. Please thank the team for for being here. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. More over here. Okay. Sorry. >> I So, uh, you said that you had this group of intervention and this process for intervention in English language arts. I'm curious about something similar within math because math becomes extremely cumulative as you get higher into it. if you didn't learn fractions in fourth grade, you're going to get to calculus and and be like, what is going on? And so, I'm curious about what we're doing about that because I see a ton of little gaps that all of us have in my high school math class and we have we struggle finding resources to fill gaps that were left so long ago. Is it okay if I answer? Okay, great. Thank you
179for that question. You're absolutely right. And that same intervention needs to happen in mathematics. In fact, it's it's really really important because you're right, those skills build on each other. And uh when we see that those gaps aren't filled, we see challenges as we move forward. Um so intervention happens in reading, but also it happens in mathematics. It can happen during small groupoup instruction in the classroom, but it can also happen at the secondary level. And so, for example, one of our schools that made the biggest growth was Penol Valley High School. And one thing that they've implemented is actually after school tutoring using the I Ready results. And so their entire teacher team because they don't have the opportunity to do this during the day because they need to teach grade level standards, they're
180meeting with students that need extra support in the library after school. In fact, I got some pictures of it from um Principal Irving. But they're providing that targeted instruction in both ELA and mathematics because you're right, it's super important to get those gaps filled so that you can access grade level math, especially in secondary. >> Thank you. And then I just have a comment. So for the test scores just in general, I know as students I think we think um like the I Ready test is sometimes almost repetitive and sometimes it takes almost 4 hours to complete. So I know a lot of students who just skip through it and don't like take it seriously and so that also can probably like lead to lower test scores and all of this. >> Absolutely. Thanks for
181elevating that, Brooke, because you're totally right and I need you to spread the word that the assessment really matters, right? And we actually had this conversations with our families at the most recent um I Ready um meeting that we just had with families because we want students to be able to take that test very seriously because they give the information to our educators about what it is that they need to address and what they can skip. It is a long assessment. I agree. And it's because it's adaptive and it asks questions below grade level and above grade level. And we've given I ready this feedback time and time again. And they're listening. In fact, very recently they shared that they're working on an edit to be able to reduce the amount of time that it
182takes and they're saying that it's going to be a reduction of by 40%. So, we're incredibly hopeful um that this will impact that um stamina issue that comes up with students because we want them to their very best because we want the best data to be able to inform our instruction. >> I have another question regarding something similar in the I Ready exams. Uh, I ready math only tests up to algebra 2. And I know that at my school the course of the courses goes you'd be done with algebra 2 by sophomore year. And so taking the I Ready during junior and senior year to us seems virtually useless because it's not testing something that's at our level. it's testing significantly below it and I'd like to know a little bit more about something that
183we could do to address that or how we are addressing it now. >> Yeah, thank you for asking that question. So, as a district, we ask schools to assess all the way to 11th grade. And so, some schools have opted to test our seniors. We aren't recommending that as a district. We know that the demands are incredibly high and we really want our seniors to be able to focus on um getting into college. We do have the option to reconsider 11th grade, but we want to name that not all of our students are where we want them to be in 11th grade, right? And so our teachers still need that information to be able to determine whether there's additional gaps that need to be filled like you mentioned in mathematics. And so that data is
184still really valuable for us to be able to make sure that students are set up for success. And so, um, it's really good feedback for us to consider, particularly for our students that are where they need to be, and that's not yet a reality for most of our students based on the data we just saw. >> Thank you. Um, I do have one more question. Do your recommendations also involve uh like what you just told me about um I know my school does test seniors but not testing individuals who are in certain classes that are beyond what the test tests. It's not something we've considered. We've used it as a universal um assessment so that everybody gets it because the concept and the value is that no one's falling through the cracks. But it's definitely
185something that I would be really interesting in having a a further conversation with you or with any other student leaders to um really want to it sounds like honor that instructional time when you demonstrated skills. Um so let's have that conversation. >> Thank you. That's all >> I just have to say that was really great. >> Yeah. >> Like that was >> that was a really good conversation and it was a good I agree with you about having a conversation about test. There doesn't seem to reason be a reason to test a kid in pre-cal calculus AB or CD or statistics on algebra 2 standards. They clearly must have the algebra 2 standards to get into the AB the calculus or the advanced class. Yeah, I'm complete. I just wanted to let you know I
186agree with you. >> Thank you. I was going to say thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the comments. I hope you two could connect. That was great feedback. >> Okay, we're moving now. >> President, I'm sorry. I don't think we did public comment on this item. >> Oh, is there public com Thank you. Is there public comment? >> We do not have public comment. >> Thank you. Okay, so we are 9:37. We do have the chance to get out of here by 10:00. We're efficient. We'll move now to D. Superintendent report. I won't tell you how many slides I have, but I'm going to go as fast as I can. [gasps] And remember, we tabled a lot of our of the information last meeting. So yeah, let's just go uh next slide, please.
187So we'll start with announcements. Um I do want to start us off with information that we learned today um that is very serious for our communities. Um, we have learned that um, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been deployed to the Bay Area. Um, focusing on, I think, a 40 mile radius around San Francisco. Um, and they are targeting sanctuary cities that are inclusive of both Richmond and San Pablo. Uh we are committed to keeping our students safe and keeping our community informed about any district policies, protocols, and also up um up-to-date communication about enforcement activities that are happening near our campuses and and staying in compliance with the law. Um I do want to just lift that up. Additional information and communication will be coming out to families soon. We've talked about this before,
188but I just want to continue to lift this up and ensure that our families feel supported, they feel safe bringing their students to school. And we're looking at what are the other options that we have to support our families to ensure that um student learning continues, but also, you know, mental health and wellness also continued for families who are under a lot of stress and pressure right now. Next slide, please. I also want to lift up that we have put our volunteer badge system in place. We have pushed out the uh deadline to receive our TB tests um for volunteers to November 3rd, but we encourage uh folks to come on out and uh get their volunteer status taken care of as quickly as they can. We have listed uh in this document some opportunities
189for free or lowcost cost clinics that offer TB screening to support that process. Next slide. Here we go. Hit play everybody. Watch. Uh oh. Sound. Hold on. This is going to be really good. This is um clerk andana. This is one of those snazzy videos you asked for. Yes. >> Can we get some assistance, please? >> Everybody know how we do things. Just like we said before, we asking all fans to only >> Can you go back to the beginning, please? Thank you. >> Hey everyone, just a heads up, we're enforcing an important policy at our new game. This isn't new. We just want to make sure everybody know how we do things. >> Just like we said before, we asking all fans to only bring clear bags to the game. It's just like going
190to a concert or an NFL stadium. We want to keep everything safe and smooth. >> We'll also be using handheld wands and metal detectors at the entrance. It's just an extra step to make sure everything is safe and fun so that we'll all have a great time. >> So, let's remember to keep things simple at the gate. Bring clear bags, leave big purses and backpacks at home. >> Thanks for rolling with us and helping to keep our games awesome. >> We're all about making sure our games are fun and safe for everyone. [music] This policy helps us do just that. >> Let's have a fantastic season. >> Go team. >> Let's make it a great season. [cheering] It was good. It was good. It was good. It was good. So, we were going to push
191that out on our social media, push it out everywhere. But, thank you to our communications team, to Michelle Forest um for being able to lift up the fact that we have um a new some new not new policy, but some procedures that we're bringing back to ensure safety at our football games. bringing a clear bag, no backpacks allowed, and we will be doing metal detecting wands at the entrances of each of our our games. So, great job. Next slide, please. Oh, wait. Oh, where where are they? Um, to that point, I do want to say thank you to our campus safety specialists. Thank you to the folks who are here tonight. Please give them a hand clap. um thank you for keeping us safe, keeping us safe, keeping our students safe, keeping our our families
192and and members of the community safe. So, just thank you for all the work that you do. Just wanted to lift that up. Next slide, please. Uh we heard a lot about facilities use this evening and just want to lift up that we do have a new process. So, thank you to our business services team and our facilities use um office. Beginning on October 30th, we are accepting applications for facilities use uh rentals for the time January 1 through June 30 of 2026. Um some changes to the process. This is a centrally focused process. We will be um ensuring that um sorry we will ensure that um if there are questions thank you um student trustee Miles and student trustee Han have a great rest of your week and get some good rest. Um we
193are making sure that um there will be a lottery system. So, we're trying to make the system as again centrally focused as and fair as possible for all of the teams who are interested in using um our facilities. And so, we are there for them, excited about this new process and looking forward to hopefully some some better results from our community. Next slide, please. Our parcel tax survey is coming. Godby research we've been working with um to draft or reddraft our survey questions. So making sure that we are ready and getting to get really good data from our communities um about when we should move forward with our par parcel tax um and some of the the the nuances of that process. So we're really excited about moving forward with our parcel tax survey. Next
194slide. We are in the midst of our negotiations. Um we've talked about negotiations quite a bit. Um we have reached out. I have reached out and really looking to come back to the table. It's it's time for us to come together and figure out how to solve this problem, avoiding a strike, avoiding any work stoppage, avoiding any disruption to our students and their learning. So I just want to just lift that up in in terms of our process right now. Um, next slide, please. Uh, last month we we highlighted all of our specialty days and we miss human resources professionals day. So, September 26th, yay. Thank you to HR. They are the heartbeat of our district. Um, thank you for all the work that you do. We appreciate you, Dr. Greenwood, and your team. Yes.
195Next slide, please. And we want to say happy Diwali. Um this is a we want to extend our warmest wishes to everyone who is celebrating Diwali within our community. Let's honor our students, staff, and families who cherish this tradition. And may this Dwali bring brightness, joy, and prosperity to you and your loved ones. Next slide. And today we're also excited to celebrate unity day here in West Contraosta schools. Thank you. I I see um Trustee Smith Foss wearing her orange. I also saw um Trustee Hernandez wearing her orange. Oh. Oh, I see it. I see it. I see the orange. Uh board president Reckler, excellent job. Um we are just lifting up. This is unity day. This is a a a day to to really focus on a spirit of togetherness and acceptance of each
196other. It's a day when we can come together and stand against bullying and promote kindness, inclusion, and acceptance. So, thank you very much for supporting Unity Day today. And now our spotlight on our students. First off, you met them. Are they amazing? Can we give I know it's just us, but can we give them a hand clap? Um, our Richmond High School robotics team is just amazing. Um, not only did they claim first place in the WRRF Cal Games, they also um also just won gold in the Chzi Champs. So they are just on a roll and they are amazing. Not only are they they winning prizes and and doing all the amazing things with their team, that team also takes time to mentor other teams and support and really help to grow leadership among
197other student groups both within our district and around our area. So this is an amazing group of young people and we just need to continue to lift them up and celebrate their great accomplishments. Next slide. Ella Hurst is out there having a great time. They um just had a spirit week. Finished their Scholastic book fair, their bikes, bubbles, books, and barbecue. Um they had a walk-athon and a STEM night. Just having a great time both learning, experiencing joy in school, and just growing together. So, we are one. Thank you, Ella, for your great work. Next slide, please. I do want to lift up Shariah Sesia um a student at Elsto High School. She is last year's microgravity contest winner. I told you West Contracasta has some amazing people and things that are happening here. Um
198just recently Sharia was able to participate in a microgravity flight experiment with her crochet. This is so interesting because it it could lead to and impact spacecraft textiles and structure design in the future. So just young people in our district are are are planning and making a difference in the our world beyond where we are right now. So really proud of the work of this student. Next slide please. I want to lift up that West County Mandarin Aloney Elementary School who we just heard from as well as Middle College High School have all been named the 2025 educational results partnership honor role. So we are very proud of them. There are only 21% of our schools across our state that qualify for this honor. Um and this is based on their CASP data. So extremely
199proud of of the work of these three schools. Next slide please. Are we okay? Yes. All right. Since we last met, um, our human resources team went Uhuh. Okay, we're okay. Our human resources team visited Lincoln Elementary School. Let me tell you about this. This was amazing. They went and met with the PTA to talk about jobs that are available in West Contraosta. And so trying to build up and they're taking this this work on the road, building up and making sure that people know how to get employed in West Contraosta, what our needs are both for our certificated and classified positions. Just want to lift up and I'll say it one more time later in this in this presentation that our job fair is coming up this Saturday 9 to 12 right here at
200Deon. Um so please spread the word and come on out. We also enjoyed our classified training day. Classified training day happened on October 13th um of this month. Uh it was a full day of training uh workshops and classes that were designed to support all of our classified employees. And so you see CPR um other trainings were available to just enhance and provide professional development for our classified employees. Next slide. We've had a number of community presentations. Um this is not I had I promise you this is not about me. It's not my favorite thing to do, but to go out and rep West Contracasta is actually one of my favorite things to do. And so being able to talk about the great work that we're doing, our vision and our focus um within our
201community, I think is really important. I've had a chance to talk with our San Pablo City Council, our Richmond Neighborhood Coordinating Council, our retired teachers association, as well as Richmond Rotary. So we've been out. Just know West Contracasta is being represented in the community. Next slide, please. And then inside we are out visiting um classrooms. Had a chance to uh enjoy Helms Middle School's back to school night. Uh visited uh Oinda recently with trustee Gonzalez Hoy. Um Levana Dejon. um actually at Olinda had a chance to be a part of a rice party which is an extension of a math program that they're of the Eureka math program that they're doing. Um but just really uh engaged with our educators as well as our students. Um the the young the sorry the young teacher um
202at the bottom second square in that was his very first back to school night you guys. >> That's okay. Next [sighs and gasps] >> huh? >> We thought it was a student. >> No, that was his very first one. That was awesome. Um and so focusing on curriculum and instruction. Um again, thank you. uh Lisa Costa Vasquez for your great presentation on our data. Uh I appreciate your partnership and and the work that we're doing to support our students. Um in addition to that, we have been working with our uh state superintendent of public instruction on the move the needle on test scores. Um I know that myself as well as Mr. Sakasa Verascus and members of her team have been attending these online webinars to continue this work and really learning from each other,
203learning from LA Unified, learning from San Diego Unified, learning from other places across the state that are doing good work. And so this best sharing of best practices is outstanding. also African-American student success. We are moving towards um building a connection with our Oasis um office. And so really looking looking at the ways in which this organization that works through both CCE as well as CASA, the California Association of African-American Superintendent and Administrators um is working with districts in Pittsburgh, Robla, Glendale, um and really focusing in on culturally responsive teaching, freedom schools, and expanded student learning. We're also working closely with our county office of education, educational services, um, gaining some support around professional development, around literacy instruction, and universal screener things that we were talking about tonight. So, extending that work. Next slide. I
204had a wonderful welcome from WCCA and the RASA team. We went to Trader Vix in Emeryville and just had a great time. really fun, delicious food, but really good company. Also, just to let the board know, we have initiated our principal leadership cabinet. That was something that was in my um 100 day plan and we have had a couple of meetings so far. They are providing great input input um and direction as we and advice as we look at how are we reshaping our principal learning community. So really excited about that work with about eight principles who volunteered to be part of the conversation. Next slide. College and career night. I believe we talked about college and career night. It was and I I have to tell you that night October 9th was jumping. It
205was hopping. It was popping. I guess that's what the kids say. Um they had college and they don't say that anymore. Oh, well, when I was a kid, that's what we would say. We would say juiced and molded and all those things, but you know, that's I'm moving on. Um, college and career night was happening at the ANZA. It was an amazing event, packed packed across our district. Folks learning about college opportunities. Um, just very proud of the Oh, Gina, I don't remember her last name, who led that event with us. Miss Sigler name. What's her name? >> Gina Sachchow. A proud Richmond High alumni, former Dansza High School counselor, current regional advisor for EAOP for West Contraosta. Yes, very proud of of that work that she was doing. But that same night, they had
206carb night. They were getting ready for uh homecoming. I didn't know carb night existed, but they they filled the football players up with tons and tons and tons of carbs. Yeah. CB was really interesting. They also had a volleyball game happening that night. It was popping. I'm sorry. I was just going to stick to that one. I'm I'm hold on to that. Had a great time. >> Sorry. Let me uh give you a quick break, a breather. We do need to extend. Uh we're almost like it's 9:56. I'm sorry because I know we have five items that we have to vote on. So, can I just make a motion that we extend until 10:30? >> I'll sec I'll second it. Any discussion? Oh, what is that? >> It's awful. I'll second discussion on that. We'll
207go the vote. Trusty Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Right at the halfway. >> Yes. >> Trusty Smith votes. >> Smith votes. Yes. >> And I'm a yes. Okay. Go ahead. All right, continuing on high school fall festivities. We've had a had an opportunity to Oh, there's carb night with our football players from Danza High School. Also, Penol Valley High School um homecoming game we able to attend last Friday as well as Elsto High School football games. I have to send a shout out to uh Summerland Sigler who I think has showed up at every game. So, I'm just I really appreciate your commitment to being there and supporting our students. Next slide, please. So, what's coming up? Parent teacher conferences are coming up. They're coming up the first week starting on November 3rd, first week of
208November going through the 13th, I believe. I wanted just to lift up and thank you um Trustee Smith Folds. This actually came from uh Ella Hurst, our principal, John Hillier, um provided some questions that parents can ask during conferences. So any ways that we can support our students and our parents in better understanding and how to support our students, we are there. And so I just really appreciate um that work, but wanted to share some of those questions with the community as well. Next slide, please. And our job fair is coming up this Saturday, 9:00 a.m. here at Dejon Elementary School, Middle School. Please make sure to tell a friend, tell everybody to come on out. Next slide. There is also a virtual scholarship scholarship session, secure the bag. Um, and this is being put
209on by the ladies of the Contraosta. Oh, I can't see. It's so small. Contraosta chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. And this is happening on Sunday. It is virtual. So, please get the word out to support um our students can learn more about how to uh search for, apply for, and get scholarships. All students are welcome to participate and attend. Also, all student congress is coming, so applications have closed, but all student congress will be meeting on October 28th. Looking forward to their focus on student voice and agency development this year. They've got trainings coming up in November, January, and March. Uh we look forward to and I look forward to working with this group. Next slide. We also have been moving on our budget and finance meetings. We are moving into session three
210uh beginning on October 23rd, 27th and November 3rd at Helms Elserto and Hercules High. There's always a virtual option. Please consider joining um these meetings as well as consider um working with us with our DLCAP. They're meeting again on November 11th. Next slide. I do want to lift up for our educators that national board applications are now open. They will be open until January, I believe. Um so please get certified. Think about how you can advance. I do want to lift up that those folks who are nationally board certified uh have an opportunity to earn up to $5,000 a year if they're uh certified and working in our high priority schools. Also, there is a $2,500 subsidy to support teachers who are interested in becoming nationally board certified. Next slide. Don't forget election day is
211coming up on November 4th. Yay. Okay. Any words on that trustee? I'm sorry. President Reckler vote. >> There you go. Love it. And for your awareness, don't forget emergency cards, parent square, powers school. We do have policies in place that are supporting both our um dignity and belonging of our students. Anti-slur anti-racism policy, our cell phone policy, our immigration policy. Um, we want to make sure our students are safe, too. So, make sure that you are following our visitor signin policy. And please take care of your Chromebooks. Uh, don't forget about fiscal Fridays. That information is coming out every Friday. Check it out. You can learn something new. Join us in this journey as we work towards fiscal solveny. So, just walk with us and learn with us as well. Finally, don't forget preschool is
212open. Preschool enrollment is open. Please sign up today. Well, tomorrow the office is closed today. And there are many ways that you can get involved and I just want to keep lifting that up. Um had a great ASAT meeting yesterday. Uh DLCAP is on the move. MDAC is on the I mean all of our groups. Um, uh, CAC, we're we're doing great in terms of coming together and really serving and supporting our community and understanding how this district is run and allowing folks to help make some recommendations and input, provide input with that. Done. Any questions? >> Does anybody have any questions for the superintendent over the end? >> Thank you. I'm sorry. I just had a quick question um about our volunteer process. We did hear one public comment. I just want to make
213sure that you have a second to address this. Um asking parents to be TB tested now. Um do we have to do that legally? Legally, there needs to be some sort of um process to ensure that our students are safe and that we have um addressed TB testing within our schools and having volunteers. It could take the shape of lots of different things. It could look like TB tests is what we're asking for. Or it could be the waiver process where folks are are able to um attest that they have not been in any conditions that would have uh put them at risk for tuberculosis. Um my understanding is that this board has decided that we were moving forward in this way. If I'm incorrect, let me know. But that is the direction that we're
214taking right now. >> Thank you for that. Um and then secondly, um do we have um our immigration enforcement processes updated in all of our school sites? Procedures, I'm sorry, not pro procedures at all of our school sites. >> Yes. >> Short answer, yes. Okay, great. >> Um broader, we need to continue to lift that up. We need to make sure that our our community is aware of our immigration policy, that they're aware of the resources that are available throughout our communities, um, and that they're aware of the the policies and procedures and protocols that we have in place at our sites to make sure that our students are safe and our our communities are well informed. >> Thank you. And I know that you're sending a communication to the community in the next few
215days as well. And you sent one today, actually. Uh, thank you for doing that. Are you also sending one to all principles in the next couple days with a reminder of our procedures? >> Absolutely. Yes. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Okay, great. That was incredibly thorough. It was great report. Anything over here? Okay. All right. Great. Wow. So much going on. Okay. We'll move now to E action items. E1 board policies 6141.2 6142.1 6142.5 6142.8 and 6144. Uh these are all second readings related to uh Mahmud and Taylor and uh environmental education. Who who has this one? >> Yeah, that captures it all. This is like second reading and there were no comments or edits made since the first reading. Uh, does the board have any questions on the
216items? Is there public comment on any of the policies? >> We have no public comment. >> Okay. Any further comments? >> President, I move that we approve board policies 6141.2 6142.1 6142.5 42.8 and 6144. Is there a second on the item? >> I second. >> Okay. So, Gonzalez Hoy is the motion and the second is Hernandez. Anything further? No. Good. We'll go to the vote. Uh, Trusty Gonzalezy, >> yes. >> Trusty Smith folds. >> Smith folds. Yes. >> Trusty Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Clerkana. >> Yes. >> And I'm yes. Motion passes unanimously. Moving now to title one E2. Title one LEA level parent and family engagement policy. And if you were like the governance committee, we were like, we thought we already did this and we did. So, if you would briefly update the board
217on what this particular document is. >> Yes. Thank you, President Reckler, and good evening, board. Um, thank you for your approval of board policy 6020 around family engagement. Uh, this policy is parentf facing. So, it's the same or very similar language to the board policy, but it's in a CDE required parent-f facing template. We ask for your approval as this your approval is a CDE requirement. And then what we will do is distribute to all parents at title one schools. >> Thank you. Does anybody on the board have questions on this item? Okay, good. Um, does anybody and we have to move it. We have to actually action it. Okay. Does anyone anybody want to move um this parentf facing engagement policy? >> I do want to see public comment first. >> Oh. Oh, I'm
218sorry. Um, >> no, it's okay. >> We're at the time of the night. We're >> Jean Kinster, please unmute yourself. >> Hey, good evening board. I'm wondering, hoping asking how many languages will this go out in. Thank you. Thank you. Good question for followup. Um, okay. So, so we'll ask, um, can there be a plan to send it out in different languages? >> Um, yes. And actually part of the policy is that that our policies go out in a minimum of English and Spanish. Um we can work with the team and look at the next most spoken languages. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Uh any other >> There's one more public comment. Oh. >> Oh, there's one more. Okay. Salon Harrison, can you please unmute yourself? Yes. I just wanted to say thank you all
219for putting the work together and ensuring that um parents um all the parents that are have students enrolled in our school district, our guardians, our community members get this um policy once it's rolled out. and I appreciate y'all work and I do see the um you know y'all effort to engage parents more still a lot of work but I do see the effort so thank you I'm complete >> thank you very thank you very much for the comments um does anybody want to put a motion on the floor we're done now okay does anybody want to put the motion on the floor >> president I move that we approve the title one LEA level parent and family engagement policy >> is Is there a second on the item? >> Second. >> Okay. So, it'll be
220Gonzalez Hoy and Clerk Hinyana as the motion and the second. Are there any additional comments on the item? >> We will go to the vote. Trusty Gonzalez. >> Yes. >> Trusty Smith Wols. >> Smith WS. Yes. >> Trusty Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Clerko, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. Motion passes unanimously. We are now up to E3, provisional internship permit. Dr. Greenwood, I believe this is you. >> Yes, we are um requesting approval for provisional intern permits. Um the PIP, better known as PIP, allows the districts to hire individuals who have not yet met the subject matter competence requirements needed to enter into an internship program, provided that the district has made a diligent effort to recruit fully credentialed teachers and none were available. Thank you very much. Does anybody from the board have
221questions on the item? Is there public comment on the item? >> There's no public comment. >> Okay, I'll accept a motion on the item. I'll make the motion to um approve the provisional internship um permit. Second. >> Okay. So, it's it's moved by clerk, second by trustee Gonzalez Hoy. Um, any other comments from the board on the item? Okay. Trustee Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Trusty Smiths. >> Smith Folds. Yes. >> Uh, Trusty Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Clerkyana. >> Yes. >> And I'm a yes. Motion passes unanimously. Moving now to E4 education code 44258.3 variable term waiver. Dr. Greenwood, I believe this is your item as well. >> Yes, it is. and variable term waiverss allows districts uh to either grant applicants more time to complete credential requirements or to provide district addition additional time to
222hire an appropriately credentialed individual and also may apply while awaiting fingerprint clearance. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any questions from the board? Is there any public comment on the item? >> We have no public comment. I'll accept a motion on the item. >> I'll make a motion to approve the education code 4425 8.3 variable term waiver. >> Second. >> Okay. It's moved by um clerkana, second by Gonzalez Hoy. Any further question uh comments on the item? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. Uh Trusty Gonzalez Hoy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Smith Folds. Smith Falls. Yes. >> Trusty Hernandez, >> yes. >> Clerk Nana, >> yes. >> And Amy, yes. Motion passes unanimously. E5, approve resolution 2526-41 declaring an emergency and the futility of public bidding for the provision of assets generator and fueling
223and security services due to power outage at Richmond High School. [sighs] Miss Pan, your item. >> Good evening, superintendent, board, and community. Tonight, we ask the board to approve resolution 252641 declaring an emergency and futility of bidding um for Richmond High School and the authority to enter into contracts with BHM and American Global Security um until we can resolve the breaker issue at Richmond High School and restore the permanent power. Happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Are there are there any questions on this item? >> Can you let us know exactly happened? >> Absolutely. So on Monday we had a planned outage so that we could connect the trailers for the Kennedy or excuse me for the Richmond modernization project. And so it was planned shutdown and we planned it on a day
224that we didn't have school. Well, the power equipment um that's out at Richmond High School is almost 60 years old. And so when we went to turn the power back on, we found that the breaker was not working, which is not something that we could see. Um and so when we tried to turn the power back on, then we did a little bit more troubleshooting, opened up the equipment, found that it was a failure with a breaker. um because of the age of the system, this isn't something that we can just buy. And so, uh what we're hoping is that it's something that we can refurbish so that we can replace the breaker and then restore the power. Anytime something like this happens though, we have to work really, really closely with PG&E. So the
225good news was that it was on a day that we didn't have school. We were able to secure the generator which is secured within the construction fencing and we were able to restore the power so that we were able to hold school on Tuesday and that this resulted in no disruption to school operations. Um the challenge is that we now have to replace this breaker and it's not something that we can just go and buy. So, we have um found some expertise in Sacramento and we're hoping to be able to refurbish it, but we're now working through a scope and sequence with PG&E to be able to do that. Do we have an ETA? Um when might this be done? roughly >> the current um the item that's before you tonight anticipates one month giving
226us the extended weekend of Veterans Day to make sure that we complete it. We try to do a lot of this work on the weekends so that we don't disrupt school operations in any way. Um we have just one generator there. Um and we'll continue to bring updates as we have them. So, as soon as we have any type of update, we'll provide it in the Friday memo, make sure that everybody knows right away, and continue to work really closely with the school site um with the clear goals of safety and not disrupting school operations. >> Thank you. >> Quick question. You said one generator and I know at Elserto we heard generators. So this um outage only affected affected a certain um area of the school site or one of the buildings to the
227school site. So it has to do with capacity and I appreciate you mentioning that. Um so at Elserto there are two. At Richmond High there is just one um but everything is fully operational um at both sites. So, it's a matter of capacity of the sites, but yes, at Richmond High, we just have one generator and that is powering the full campus. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on the item? Not again. Um, okay. If if there are no more questions, is there any public comment on the item? We have no public comment. >> Okay. Great. I'll I'll accept a motion on the resolution. President, I move that we approve resolution number 2526-41 declaring an emergency and the f futility of public bidding for the provisional assess of assessment
228generator and fueling and security services due to power outage at Richmond High School and delegation authority to enter into contract with BHM construction LLC and American Global Security for the work. >> I second. >> Okay, so it's moved by Gonzalez. So I we're we're going to run over time just from that [laughter] title. Uh second is R Hernandez. Any f final questions from the board? >> Seeing none. >> Yes, I have one final question. >> I'm sorry. I just seen that here on the on what was just read, it said generator fueling and security services due to power outage. What do we mean by security services? that wasn't included in the prior construction contract. >> It's the firewatch services that are provided by an unarmed security guard company. Um, similar to what we have at
229Elserto High School out of an abundance and caution and safety and in alignment with fire agency's requirement. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And we will go to the vote. Trusty Gonzalez. Yes. >> Trusty Smith Falls. >> Smith Falls. Yes. >> Trusty Hernandez. >> Yes. >> Clerkiano. >> Yes. >> And I'm Yes. Motion passes unanimously. >> Okay. So, we're up to comments of the from the board. I have some housekeeping. It's about the CBOC meeting. Uh the first is there was a recommendation to hold the meeting at Lake on November 12th, right? Uh I think we got four answers. I think we're missing one person to respond. Um, so if you would respond to Rosa, that would be great. Um, we do not know if the CBOC can make that date. If the
230CBOC cannot, we would go back to October 29th, which we think is kind of okay or do people want to do that? We don't. We won't have everybody there, though. That's the issue. So, you're in you're in a you're in a >> No, my son's getting surgery that day, so I'm not available. Can we meet without you or do you want us to wait for you? >> You guys can go ahead if the rest of the board can meet. >> Okay. Any other? So, if November 12th does not work out, is everybody okay with the 29th? But we're going to aim for the 12 that lake in the new facility. Okay. All right. So, we'll try and match it with the CBOC. Any other comments from the board tonight? I do I have a comment.
231Um I just want to thank everyone for tonight. I want to thank for the um superintendent presentation. I glad to see that you took the whole initiative on the video and really included the students I think in their um production you know in place. So I I am really excited to see them, you know, wanting wanting to in in such short moments notice, you know, really participate and I think take the initiative to lead, you know, some of this work. So I thank you for that. Um, also thank you for the presentation on the data. It was really informative and hopefully you take some of our our comments back and, you know, really implement some of that. Um, I just that was it. Good night everyone. It was a good meeting. We're out of here
232early by 10:30, but that's okay. Is there anything else? I have one more housekeeping thing for the board. Do we want to put registered vote cards in our lobby? Yeah. Okay. Right. And anything else? >> Sorry. I did want to just uh I want to thank um uh Superintendent Cotton and uh Trustee Hernandez Hernandez and Mr. Booker, his team because I know that right now with the immigration situation, all of you have been on top of it. Um every time I reached out to you, Superintendent Con, you're like already doing something about it. So, thank you. Um this is something that I think we are all really worried about. Um, so I asked staff just to keep us informed. Um, as things come up right in the next few days. Um, and and as you
233know, we anticipate whatever's coming. Um, I know that our leaders are ready to respond if they need to. Um, but whatever you need from the board, just want to say that we're here to support you, too. So, um, just let us know. Thank you. And with that, we will move to item H, which is the next scheduled meeting, which is November 5th right here in Levana Dean Middle School. And I will adjourn us at 10:22 p.m. Thank you everyone. Have a nice evening. Thank you for all the work tonight. And we'll g us out at 10:22. Thank you. Mic test. One, two. Mic