Board of Education Meeting | May 28, 2025

001Okay, good evening everyone. Welcome to the May of the West Coast Unified. The meeting is called to order. Please click on the globe icon. Hold for just one second. We're going to clear up translation. Okay, I think we're back and we're good. To access translation and Zoom, please please click on the globe icon at the bottom of the screen. And if you're here in Djon, you may pick up a headset for translation at the back of the auditorium. The board is about to go into close session. But before we do, we're here to listen to public comment on close session items. Individuals wishing to speak on the close session items listed. If you're here in the auditorium and you haven't done so yet, please submit a WCCUSD public comment card which you can find on

002the entryway table or if you're participating via Zoom. Individuals will need need to raise their Zoom hand raise their hand in the Zoom app. If you're accessing the meeting by phone, press star9. The time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes. The total time allotted is 1 hour. Speaking time shall not be transferred from one person to another. There's also no substitution of speakers. We alternate between a Zoom comment and an inerson comment. Public comment is a safe period space where diverse viewpoints may be expressed civily without interruption or intimidation. Please listen attentively to each speaker's comment and respect the time as if they it were your own. Please 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

003the agenda and do not usually respond to items presented in public comment. The items listed on the close session agenda tonight are conference with legal counsel pending litigation two cases regarding compromise and release agreement pending litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9. KD case number SE2 and case number SE3 conference with labor negotiators, public employee appointment, secondary principal and superintendent, public employee performance evaluation and public employee discipline dismissal release. Is there any public comment on the items? Yes, we have one public comment. Jean Kinster, please unmute yourself. And Miss Kster will have two minutes. Please unmute yourself. Hello board. I'm just commenting on labor negotiations with um the union. I'm very disappointed and appalled that at our very last labor negotiation with the district, they told our union that they had no intention of settling

004our contract or trying to settle our contract. They had every intention in letting it expire. I don't understand why that would be and how are we negotiating in good faith if we were told this. So hopefully maybe the board can direct the uh bargaining people to do better and if there is a good reason maybe they can make it clearer to the union bargaining chair and people. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for everyone who gave public comment. Uh we are going to recess to close session and be back uh hopefully at 6:30. Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone and thank you for your patience. I am calling open session of the May 28th meeting to order. The time is 7:14. To access translation in Zoom, please click

005on the globe icon at the bottom of the screen. And if you're here in the auditorium and need translation, you may pick up a headset in the back corner of the auditorium. We are going to delay public comment. Just so that you know, we are going to reorder the agenda. But if you want to make public comment, please uh you're invited to speak to the board. Please prepare and hand in a public comment card. You will find the table in the entryway. And if you're participating via Zoom, you'll have to raise your hand in the Zoom app prior to the beginning of the item on the agenda. If you're participating by phone, press star 9. After your comment card has been turned in, the cards are placed in the order received and we'll call speakers

006one at a time, alternating alternating between a public comment here in Dejon and one on Zoom. Public comment generally lasts for an hour. The time allotted to each speaker is 2 minutes. And in the meantime, we're going to move on to our the rest of our opening procedures. So, we're moving to B2 and that is the pledge of allegiance. If you are willing or able, please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. B3 land, labor and body acknowledgement. We recognize that we are presently on the lands of the Chuchcheno, Moikma, Karkin, Aloney peoples, and acknowledge them as the first inhabitants of the land we currently occupy. Labor

007and body recognition. Acknowledgement. I acknowledge that the burden of environmental exploitation and systemic injustice falls upon the labor of black and brown bodies in the building of this country and its institutions. I remember black and brown people were born and died working this land against their will for generations. I also acknowledge the continued contribution of the labor of survivors over the centuries to today of all immigrant labor, including voluntary, involuntary, trafficked, forced, and undocumented peoples in the building of what we refer to as the United States. Author Dr. Michelle Rogers Ard B4 West Contraosta Unified School District Board anti-racism statement. The West Contraostus District Board of Education is committed to the work of anti-racism, the conscious and active effort to identify, challenge, and correct racial inequities in the systems and institutions within our schools and

008community. Racism, explicit or implicit, stands in direct conflict to the fundamental principles of WCCUSD education. To carry WC education into the future, we recognize that we must continually renew and reflect on the roots of racism and develop new ideas to meet the times. Unjust ideas and policies and the racial inequity they produce have shaped us, our schools, and our society. We strive to uncover unconscious biases and practice anti-racism as individuals and as board members. We challenge ourselves to persist through the discomfort necessary for growth and learning, to deepen our listening and our examination of racis racism and oppression, and to develop a strong understanding of how our personal experiences and feelings fit into a larger picture of continual oppression. Each member of our school board individually and collectively is responsible for creating and nurturing an

009anti-racist learning environment where each student, staff member, and community partner is respected and valued member of the WCCUSD community. We are uniquely positioned and it is our responsibility to identify and dismantle racist ideas and equitable policies in ourselves and across the district. Therefore, we commit to supporting anti-racist policies, programs, and practices for our children's education and well-being while building strong and inclusive school communities. We commit to holding each board member accountable to these goals and moving the work of anti-racism forward. We also commit to holding West Contraosta Unified School District staff, students, and community to living these standards of anti-racism in our schools. Board approved March 20th, 2024. B5 roll call. Dr. Moses, would you please take role? Good evening, clerk. Inana. Good evening, everyone. Present. Trusty Hernandez. Good evening. Present. President Reckler. Good evening.

010I'm present. Trustee Smith Folds. Good evening everyone. Present. Student trustee Baron. Good evening. President and student trustee Espinosa Jr. Good evening. President and trustee Gonzalez Hoy is absent this evening. That concludes the roll call. Thank you so much. We are now moving up item 10 which is the agenda review and adoption. And we are reordering the agenda. I would like to suggest that we immediately move to student performance Washington Elementary School. We then move to the Dcap presentation of parents and the community schools collaborative. We remove charter annual update from the agenda. Can we do that? Okay, Mr. Hart, perhaps um do we have a deadline for the charter renewal, the charter annual update or could we table that till next week? To the best of my knowledge, it can be tabled. I think you

011can move with unanimous consent then. I think you can move with unanimous consent with the agenda changes. Okay. I'm sorry, I can't hear you. Yes. So, oh sorry. Oh, okay. No, just it's just a discussion item. The entire agenda. I think you can move to unanous consent. With the entire agenda changes, I think you can move. Okay. Okay. So, we have it. Thank you. We're move we're tableabling charter presentation moving up the performance dealcap presentation of parents community schools. After that we're moving back to close session for an hour. And with that our next item is going to be student performance Washington Elementary School. Amazing. Thank you so much. Good evening, President [Music] Reckler and community. We're delighted to have Washington Elementary here to perform for us. And I would love to welcome for to

012introduce her students pres principal Sabata. I'm worried that if I turn this on it's going to give a bunch. Hello. Okay. Um noes is Karen Sapata director in Washington. Um my name is Karen Sapata. I'm the principal at Washington Elementary. First, I want to start off with a huge recognition to our families who have been here for an hour um preparing and so thank you all. We are so excited to perform and um and honored to be here tonight. And so, thank you all for everything you've done. The board, thank you for coming out to to take part in the performance. Um these are our fourth, fifth and sixth grade students at Washington where our Washington is a um DLI a dual language school where we celebrate bilingualism. We are all proud to speak Spanish

013and English all of us at the site including these children and their brilliant teacher um Miss Paola who teaches kindergarten and in her free time runs the choir. So this is the kind of dedication that exists day in and day out at Washington. We're so proud. Today they'll be singing a song called Senas by um a group called Laa de Vango and um we're so excited for for you all to hear it. So let's hear it for the Washington Choir. [Applause] [Music] N La [Music] [Applause] [Music] n Lord. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] us. Come on. [Music] This looks [Music] so important. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] This [Music] is what [Applause] December [Music] It [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] my Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music]

014[Applause] Yes. Are we coming out? That's one song. Okay. Yeah. [Music] [Applause] Thank you everyone. May we ask you to have your conversations outside so that we may continue so we get out of here before midnight. [Music] Okay, can we ask you to quiet down, please? We're going to move to the next item, please. Uh we're moving now to item nine, request to address the board district local accountability plan, DLCAP's committee. DLCAP parent advisory group will be addressing the board to present their LCAP recommendations. The group will be allotted 15 minutes to speak. May I have 15 minutes on the please? And can you would you be able to bring up their Zoom participant? I just wanted to clarify too before we get going. Um, Yolanda here is also from a from ASAT as well

015and they thought that they had additional time to speak. If if we need to squeeze them into our 15 minutes, we can do that as well. Happy to give you more more time. would you plea would you please be able to do it in the 15 minutes of both groups? Yes. What can we go full screen with the uh presentation there please? Thank you very much. So, um, good evening, uh, board of trustees as well as district staff. Uh, thank you for giving us the time to come speak to you tonight about our DLCAPS monitoring process for this year. Uh, my name is Lucas Manix. I am the chair this year of the DLCAPS. I also have with me uh committee member uh Joey Knap and then also uh Crystal Banigan is uh will be

016joining us on Zoom as well. So first I kind of want to just go over a review and a summary if you go to the next page please um of a summary of the monitoring process for this year. So I want to first off saying thank you to district staff for their collaboration this year in particular. Miss Sigler and Miss Blake have been have been amazing in working with us, listening to us, and really evolving the process for this year. And of course, Miss Aosta for Prozz for picking up the at the end there uh when Miss Sigler went on maternity leave. Um really appreciate the the partnership there throughout the year. So this year we made made progress across some key areas. One was like I mentioned improving and having uh frequent communication between

017us as an executive committee as well as the district staff. Next, we've had a great increase in attendance in our DLCAPS committee membership. Um and that's represented here tonight as well. Next, um engaging earlier. So, we really started earlier this year in the process of going deep on each of the programs so that we as parents and community members could really understand the details of those programs. and that has really helped us here as we are being able to craft these recommendations that you'll see tonight. Uh next, we've seen a good amount of improvement in the rigor of program evaluation, bringing us data and making sure it's clearly explained to us. Um and last really just accelerating the timeline. The reason why we're here tonight is because we actually moved up, added more meetings, and

018actually had uh more dialogue along the way so that we could create these recommendations for you tonight. Um areas that we we would like to see continuing improvement on are continuing to leak link program efficacy with data and specifically trends, right? So think looking at the the past trends and to explain current outcomes and and and also explaining how we expect to see improvements in the future. Um, next is is making a clearer framework when we're talking about program implementation, a from to type of framework to explain how we're making changes to the LCAP. less um and I think uh a lot of us parents uh have this sentiment when we're coming into DL caps for the first time. There's a lot of edspe and I know everybody knows this uh in this room but

019continuing to kind of break that down as much as possible so that uh you know first year parents can still come in and engage with the information um and be able to provide that voice and that feedback because that's what we're all all here for is to work together uh to make improvements for our students. So alongside these kind of process recommendations, we've also provided 23 recommendations this year by goal for the LCAP to ensure that these funds are continuing continuing to be used most efficiently to improve the outcomes for our most atrisisk students, our African-American black students, our foster students, our uh free and reduced price meal students, as well as our English learners. So tonight we'll go over um in detail some of our highest priority recommendations. We won't go through all 23.

020Um and and we would like to um kind of reply to some of the feedback we got from the district uh in our last meeting. Um and tonight we're really advocating for the board to work with district staff to fully implement all of these recommendations. So if you go to the next page, please. Goal one is authentic engagement. Our first recommendation is to increase site funds to expand access to interventions like wellness centers, school counseling and teacher intervention hours. So the district responded with implementing part of this with modifications. Um our response to that is this is still insufficient for the needs that we have identified at the different sites. So specifically this does not address the need for more site level services. We saw feedback from our our principles and our site leaders that

021across a lot of the LCAP areas they were not feeling the impact at the school site and we as community members and parents also agree with that sentiment as well. Um so we would like to see more funding to go to the sites so we have those site level services. Um this this will address some of those critical needs like teacher intervention hours um uh counseling as well as um as making sure that we're serving serving the students that are are at at highest risk. Additionally, we are adding additional recommendations specifically to fund school counselors for every elementary school. Um elementary schools are lacking that type of service right now. um it's being provided minimally by by different uh means but having that presence as a consistent school counselor for those students uh will greatly

022increase their their outcomes improve their outcomes. The next recommendation we have we um is funding a district grant writer to improve the access to sustainable social, emotional and academic interventions for our most high need students and families. um this is not being implemented and we are going to continue to advocate that this this um type of role is added to the district as we continue to talk about our insufficient funds that we have. We believe this is a a great way to get more revenue into the district. I'm going to skip down um given the short amount of time we have here to um the the fourth one on this list. um ensuring a data system ensure a data system is provided to staff to monitor attendance and outreach to family and students as well

023as identify root causes for chronic absenteeism and monitor interventions that students are assigned to. So we re our recommendation here is to bring back the A2A system. We've heard a great um we've had great feedback from site leaders and from folks who have been in the district um when that system was implemented that that's had that had a a major impact on attendance and we our recommendation is to bring that back. The last one here is addressing over overindidentification in suspensions and expulsions of black students through ensuring adherence to policies and targeted intervention. Um the the district um implemented this, but we still believe it's insufficient. Um until the the WCCCUSD is actively anti-racist through ensuring all staff receive compulsory anti-racism and explicit and implicit bias professional development, African-American students will continue to be disproportionately

024suspended. Um, so we're going to continue to advocate for this um to ensure that we see a decrease in that in that suspension rate for for the for our black students. I'm going to put pass it over to Joey Nap for the um other two uh for the next two goals. Good evening. Um Joey Knap, parent of two girls at Highland Elementary. So, under goal two, if you go to the next page, please, the committee um recommended that the district promote teacher pathways for black educators through targeted outreach to black students, staff, and alumni for educator and credentiing programs. The district responded that this is already in place, and the committee suggests that this needs improvement. So our recommendation is to improve the metrics and information used to ensure this is effective. For example, including

025or collecting reporting the number of black educators that uh the district has gained in the last three years as a result of these strategies. How and whom in ASAT did the district partner with and uh reporting out the data to show that our staff is more diverse as a result of these strategies. The committee also included a recommendation to provide in-house teacher credentiing programs in partnership with universities. The district responded that this is already in place, but the committee has uh said that that needs improvement and the committee's recommendation is to improve the metrics being used to ensure that this is effective. Um we recommend creating a multimedia campaign to advertise the 50 plus partnerships and their offerings. The district might create a teacher assistant program for students to increase their interest and commitment to

026the teaching profession. Goal three. Next slide, please. Thank you. So, the committee recommends that the LCAP include a um a commitment for every student to have access to instructional materials at home to support academic growth, homework completion, etc. The district has responded that this is already in place, but the committee uh thinks that the plan needs to be improved. The district's plan involved uh having school community outreach workers uh train up parents on how to use that. But the committee recommends that uh that there are there are more strategies and metrics to ensure that implementation of uh textbook sufficiency isn't are in place. So with the disruption to the scout staffing relying on them to implement might not have intended impact as most of our sites will not have the capacity to to do this.

027So the committee's recommendation is to train parent leaders to train all the parents uh and utilize our packs to support parents and implement this by back to school night. Uh our final recommendation uh around making systems for staff more efficient and accessible for the procurement of supplies and contracts. Uh the district responded that that will be implemented and that uh the committee is excited for that result. Uh I will pass this off to Crystal. I think she's joining us on Zoom. Crystal Banigan, please unmute yourself. Go ahead, Crystal. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Wonderful. Good evening everyone. My name is Crystal Banigan and I am a parent of three children in the district. I'm also a DLC committee member and a committee member of the district ASAT. So tonight I'll be uh presenting

028goal five which is targeted intervention and support. The committee recommended um that the district provide more literacy coaches, stronger mentoring, expanded tutoring, and parent engagement for reclassification for English learners and newcomers. The district um replied that they would implement this with modifications and the committee said that that needed improvement particularly in um the articulation of how this differs from the current support model and how this will meet the need for more literacy support for EL and newcomers. Um, we also recommended that engagement strategies be revised to ensure better communication between the office of African-American student achievement and the district ASAT to monitor and support the implementation of black student unions and Apex at school sites by creating a toolkit to start BSUs at all secondary schools. Um this has been um implemented or started by

029the district. The committee found that it still needs improvement including metrics of success and the implementation plan for this strategy. So uh again back to data and proving what we say. Um we asked for the increase of outreach to African-American students to improve participation in career pathways. um this has been um sufficient in the committee's evaluation and will continue to be so. We asked to find a full-time counselor in each secondary school to support special education. Um the district wanted to implement this with modifications and we decided that it needed improvement meaning clarification about how much additional support would be provided to secondary schools. Additionally, we recommended providing additional training to school counselors and case managers on graduation requirements and how to better serve students with post-secary planning. Um and then providing English language arts

030curriculum for English language learners um which the district has been implementing sufficiently minutes left. Um so we at this point we'll turn it over to ASAD for the rest of our time. Thank you. Thank you Lucas. Thank you so much everyone WCCC community uh staff here tonight. Uh first of all I just have to give big props to our to your current um administrative team. Um they really have uh been very responsive with us. Miss Katherine, Miss Summer, we miss you. Um thank you so much for your engagement. For the very first time, did we get a response? We sit down together after we presented our recommendation and we had a conversation and we see that conversation reflected in the recommendations that came back. And so I have to really applaud you for that um

031that you heard us and we are looking forward to the changes that these recommendations represent. Let me highlight one thing for you though that is so important. You know, we've been disproportionate in our suspensions for over 5 years of African-American children, especially our young males. For over five years, our boys have been sent to the office time and time and time again for minor infractions, for infractions that we know other students were not sent to the office for. We've been talking about this for over 5 years and we understand that this is all rooted in institutional racism that this is in some cases a personal issue and we have educators that need to sit with themselves and one another and work through this. But for the most part this is not a personal problem. This

032is an institutional problem and the solutions must be addressed institutionally as an an institution that's committed to anti-racism across the board. We need professional development. We need our children to understand that racial slurs hurt. That it's not okay for a bullpen of our best athletes to hurl racial slurs at another team. It's not okay for a teacher to call a student out of their name. These are cultural issues that if we want to change the culture, we have to work together. Students, educators, staff, and families also need to be brought to the table and all learn together. Our students need to see you put this issue forward in order to change not only this disproportionality but the bullying practice, the hatefulness that comes out of people's mouths. We have to where this is not okay

033and not permitted. This is so important and I can't stress it enough. ASAT has been presenting recommendations for several years now about dealing with anti-racism as a community. It is really time past time that we step forward and show the entire community truly committed by our actions and not just our words to being an Okay, here we go. Okay. Excuse me. I apologize. No problem. No problem. Thank you for the time. I really appreciate it. the academic services being given to our kids. The mission critical literacy program is showing some problem, some promise. But at its best, 10 schools with five to seven kids, that's 50 kids. It is not broad enough. We can't keep we say it again and again and again. Even if you increase it to 10 schools, we want this to

034be studentbased based on the data of our school. Our children who have the highest needs, kids who are two or three grades behind support those kids wherever they are. I can't believe that you can't find one educator in every school site who's willing to spend the time with these students so that our children are all reading at grade level. This is too important to to keep peacemealing it here and there. We're not going to have an impact on the literacy rate of our children. We need our children to read and we need it now. We also have to do something across the district with math. We keep ignoring this and not getting it addressed. Thank you for hearing us. Let's redirect Mafanikio so that our children have an opportunity to excel. It is so important.

035Thank you so much for hearing me tonight. I appreciate the time. Thank you. I want to thank all of you for hanging in and waiting for us and for speaking and thank you for your kind words of staff. That that is it's a breakthrough. So thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, we are now moving to F1, West Contraosta Unified School District Community Schools Support Collaborative Discussion. Okay. So, on the community schools collaborative, the presenters are not available at this moment. So, what we're going to do is recess to close session at this time. And I think I think it's going to be an hour which means we will be back at 8:56. I'm calling recess now. Thank you. Are we ready to begin? Okay, we are ready to begin. and we are restarting. All

036right. Well, thank you so much for your patience. We're really excited to be able to finally be here to present um our West Contracasta Community School Support Collaborative presentation. I'd love to welcome uh Director Blake um to introduce and start our presentation. microphone isn't working. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Martine Blake. I'm the director of family and community engagement and I have the pleasure of presenting to you with our community schools support collaborative tonight, of which I am one of four co-chairs. I'm Shakira Reynolds. I'm the senior director of strategic partnerships for the West Contraosta Public Education Fund and I am also a co-chair of the support collaborative. I'm Anita Flores Mahia. I currently teach kindergarten at um Ford, but regularly I teach fifth grade. I'm the treasurer for the United Teachers of

037Richmond and I represent the union in the co-chair position for the collaborative. Um, unfortunately, our parent co-chair could not be with us tonight, so it'll just be the three of us. So, when we think about what is a community school strategy, um, we will be speaking with you all tonight around what is a community school, what does that mean, how has the strategy evolved um, since this initiative was formed by the state 20 years ago. We will be speaking to you about what we've been up to since 2023, the last time that we had the opportunity to present to the board and we will be making recommendations as a support collaborative around how we could sustain this work for the long run. This work is really about culture building. It's about rethinking how we do

038schools in a meaningful way for our entire school community. Um, and it's not relying upon a grant. And so we want to engage the board and our leaders with supporting that level of sustainability. Next slide, please. Thank you. One more. One more slide. Thank you. There we go. Um so the definition of community schools is named here. And this is a pretty generic community schools um definition where we look at community schools as a strategy that transforms a school into a place where educators, local community members, families, and students work together to strengthen conditions for student learning and healthy development. At the heart of this work is strong relationships and ensuring that our staff, our students, and our families have agency and voice to inform and shape um what their school opportunity looks like and

039feels like to them. community school. Um, the transformation piece takes place about really being intentional, about looking at data, about being in conversation, about understanding the needs and the collective vision for what a school should be and what it needs to be for our school and our communities to thrive. Um and so we've been creating the conditions for our community partners and our entire school community um to really organize in and out of school resources and supports in support of our young students thriving. So when we think about this work, this is a paradigm shift. We're going to speak a little bit to you tonight about what community schools meant or what community schools were um when this initiative or this strategy was first developed. Um but what community schools is today, it's a mindset

040shift. Um and it's a shift in how we do school and the practices that we have across every level in our system. It's a shift in the way that we engage our stakeholders in a meaningful way so that collectively we are organizing programs and policies. So when we look at this wheel, we're looking at the ecosystem that we need our schools to be for our staff, our students, and our families to thrive. Um the outer section of the wheel is really around this body, the board and our community wrapping around our schools and ensuring that there are structures for that wraparound and that support and level of engagement to meet the needs of our students. Um for those structures to be in place again, not just for the duration of a grant, but for the

041duration of us doing school. Um, and we are really focused on building our staff capacity around ensuring that these light blue rings are in place. So tiny I can't read it. um ensuring that uh the pillars for community schools are lifted and really again leaning on meaningful collaboration where we are deeply engaging and in community and in conversation and implementing strategies together again for our students, our staff, and our families to thrive within our system. This requires us to allow our entire school community to co-own the work. This means that when families say that they have a need, it means that um we don't just simply go behind closed doors and create a strategy to meet that need. It means that we're in conversation with parents around what's the best way to address that thing.

042Um and how can you support us in implementing that strategy? It's sharing the ownership which as a system um is a paradigm shift and causes us to think differently about engagement. We ground our efforts in real-time data and community wisdom. And this work is about equity. Um, as a district that believes in anti-racism, we believe that this level of collaboration, this level of intention, this level of focus on data and strategizing to meet the needs of all of our students is equity work that will support our district to reduce the disparities that we've seen over a number of years. When this next slide Oh, next. Thank you. When the state looks at this work, they're looking for cohesion of their funding. They're looking to see how all of their different funding priorities are working together

043to support our school communities to thrive. And so, with the Wet here, you see all these different grant opportunities that our district um currently has access to. preschool, positive um and restorative climate funding, funding to build capacity of our teachers, expanded learning. They do not want their funding to be operating in silos or for these programs to be disjointed. They look at community schools as a way and a strategy to align each of these different initiatives so that it feels like we're doing one thing really well as opposed to implementing 20 different programs aimed at the same goals. And we do that through capacity building. So when we think about our grant opportunity, when we think about the work that we'll be presenting to you tonight, there's been a lot of focus on reorming what

044a community school is, what is everyone's role in supporting this work, and how do we each do this work well from our different perspectives. So next slide, please. I should. So, community schools in WCCCSD over time, in 2007, there was high school-based health centers. 2012, um there was a board resolution. 2014, the city of San Pablo um did some community schools collaboration. 2022, the um community schools partnership program got started. In 2023, United Teacher Richmond, we um created the article 53 that um protected the different community schools functions. Um in 2023 we um community schools collaboratives also started um they also um were selected by state transformational assistance center to be a deep dive site for California. And then from 2024 to 2027 moving towards becoming community school district where this approach is integrated across

045all levels of our system whether or not the funding is there or not we supposed to have all the systems in place so the whole district can be running as a community school district. Thank you. So when we think about the evolution of this work, one of the points that we really want to drive home when this initiative first started, this was health centers and that was it. And that's how people have perceived this work for a really long time. This initiative has recognized that in order to meet the needs of the whole child, um there has to be a whole school improvement strategy. Can't just be health. We have to have strong classrooms. We have to have teachers and staff that feel heard. We have to have students and families that feel like we're

046not a system that's just doing school to them, but they have a voice in shaping what this looks like. So from the state's perspective, this is a whole child whole school improvement strategy where again we're working really closely together to deeply understand the needs and to collectively figure out what's the right strategy. When we think about needs, it's not just understanding student and family needs, but a lot of our work this year that we'll be sharing has also been listening to our staff. What capacity do you need? What supports are needed in the classroom for our teachers to feel effective and for our teachers to feel like they have what they need to meet the needs of our students in the classroom where we know is the most critical space to influence. Um, it's important

047to not look at this work as one initiative among many that are being funded throughout California, but really looking at this strategy as the anchor for all of the initiatives to be focused on um achieving equity and aligning our work so that we can have deep coordination um that meets the needs of the the state grant initiatives, our school and our district. And mostly that closes the gap on some of the inequities that we're facing as a system. We have um next slide please. I have to get used to this not moving with with me. Sorry. We as a district have applied for two cohorts of funding um from the state for California Community Schools Partnership Program. We received two both grants that we applied for. Both of the grant funds are over a five-year

048period for our f our first cohort, which is our largest cohort. Um, we received that grant in 2022. We have two more years of implementation for that. I'm going to call it a mega cohort. That cohort bought in over $30 million. So, it's about $6.5 million um per year that we have to really build this ecosystem that we're describing to you. In 2023, we received a grant for four additional sites um totaling 5.7 million. These schools are in their second year of grant implementation. Next slide, please. One more please. Thank you. So community schools today in WCCUSD is not just about what services are being provided but it has to be about a new way to do school. There is money but we also must have a change in mindset and appropriate motivation because in

049two years in four years when this pot of money is gone if we have not change people's mindsets and motivations we'll look back and say oh this is a thing we used to do. It is very important that we seize this moment and really make systematic foundational changes to the way we do school so that these things continue regardless of what happens with the funding. The three pillars that must exist are inclusive and meaningful engagement and shared ownership with students, families, and community partners. It results in better decisions and also everyone feeling like they have a real role and a place in making our schools better. And of course, all of this should point back to student achievement because at the end of the day, that is what that's the reason why we do school.

050Making sure we have data informed decisions and support. Engagement is the engine, but data is the fuel. We cannot continue to do things because it feels good, because it looks good when we cannot prove that it works. So whatever we do, we have to be rooted in data. And finally, a dual capacity building approach to improvement so that change is not done to community but with community. Nothing about us without us. And all of us are a singular us. We make up the system. every single person here joining us on Zoom, every student, every teacher, every parent, every community member, we have to move this system forward together. Next slide, please. Okay, so the supportive structures and shared governance that we have been working on um for the last like two years um are action

051collaboratives and SSC. So those are at at the sites. Um that's where um the teacher leads, the CSDs, the parents, the students, and the admin all meet together to help make those decisions about how community school is going to look at their site based on the needs um that the parents and the students have brought up. So those action collaborives and SS are the sitebased steering committees. The next uh set is the um community school support collaborative. So that's like where we have we are supposed to be advising the board. and this what we're doing here today. We also talk to systems um change and we talk to the other um groups so that we're all making sure we're on the same page and not siloing the work. Um and then the third one is

052the community school system change collaborative where they work with um the district and the cities to see how they can all support each other in making the community schools run more effectively. Okay. So when we talked about when we started off the presentation and when we were talking about this outer blue wheel where we are creating opportunities and spaces for the community to really wrap around our schools the structures that Oneanita just shared that is the infrastructure that we're looking to build. Um the other thing that I will say is we're really looking to have a funnel when we look at these action collaboratives slash I know sorry go back one slide please when we look at these this is when we look at these action collaboratives this is the body at the school site

053that's looking at data to say what is the most important issue for us to address to close the to remove the inequities at our school site and who do we need to engage engage in conversations to figure out how we do that and then that information funnels to the district level and then that information funnels to the city level. So when we're talking about inequities and what our schools need as an entire community, we're really looking to create that funnel from the ground up to wrap around the entire school community to move the needle. So just wanted to reiterate that some of the work that we've done this year. Next slide, please. um include next slide please includes empathy interviews and so at each of our 26 grant-f funed community schools and even the ones

054that are not grant funded and just have health centers each of them conducted empathy interviews these interviews were done with staff they were done with students most sites focused on African-American students and families English language learner and newcomer student and families and really listening to our sped student and families and in terms of engaging our staff, we were really looking to see what did they need to close the gaps for these populations who have persistently had disperate outcomes compared to their peers. And we also engage their peering. Fun fact, some of our sites actually train students to also facilitate these conversations and look at data and come up with questions that they wanted answered so that they as students can come up with solutions. Next, please one more. I'm sorry. Go back one more. There

055we go. So, interviews asked our interviewers asked questions that were designed to get a deeper understanding of people's experience of the site. For instance, for our parents and caregivers, we asked them about a time that they recently visited their school and what did that experience feel like for them. For students, we asked if you could wave a magic wand, what's think one thing you would want to change at your school? And for staff, we wanted to know what are you proud of in your role here? And what's the biggest obstacle for you to thrive? And again, these questions were rooted in closing equity gaps. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. disengagement and then this and then the community never hears anything again. We answer that survey and then what? We answer that survey. What changed?

056We asked for this. Why? Why didn't we get it? And so we recognize that we need to close a loop when we're engaging with our community so that they know that they're heard and they have context um for things that they may have asked for that didn't go forward, but they also have that bigger picture around beyond just your voice. here's what we heard as a community. And so SC were responsible for sharing the themes from their empathy interviews with their action collaboratives and their grant funds for community schools and in many instances even their SPSAs are aligned to addressing the inequities and the experiences that our community shared. Um, we actually did budget planning with state and federal this year to ensure that level of alignment across the board. So, each site is looking

057at their own findings based on the questions and the focus that they had that were most important to their site. These next few slides provide a snapshot of some of the themes that we heard. Next slide, please. So for the qualitative staff data there was we said strong culture impact staff retention for better and for worse relationships with others and the welcoming environment is why I stayed. I love the community aspect feels very family oriented. I feel respected and valued with administration. It's the lack of communication and accountability with them. They say my bad but do not change. And staff had mixed experiences of empowerment. Staff meetings are great because mostly everyone is invited. I feel decisions that impact my wellness as a whole are made by people who work outside of the classroom. So

058these are some of the different experiences that people had and ultimately we want to make more positive experiences. Next slide. Do you want to do families at this next slide? Um some more data was that many families appreciate welcoming environments. I'm always welcome whenever I come whenever I want to hop in on my daughter. Her counselor admin and CSDs are always very kind and helpful. My experience has been has been great. I appreciate that both my daughter and I have adults on campus that we trust and can call in anytime. Um however they experience barriers to participation. I don't have a very reliable car. So when I come in when I can work and transportation are often issues. I work late hours and I have to sleep during the day or work and having multiple

059kids at every school level makes it hard to be involved as well as just being tired. Not wanting to commit to being involved in school activities because I'm not sure if I can do it consistently. So, we take that information, we bring it to our groups and we try to see how we can like align it so that the parents the barriers they're experiencing are less and we can find ways to solve them. Um, next slide. So students advocate for culturally with relevant instruction and activities. They said things like, "I would like to have a dance and music and Spanish, celebrating our countries more. We're not all Mexican." Um, more education about black history and black figures. Um, so those are some of the things the students were coming up with. And then they can

060take that data to their the the group, the action collaborative to see how they can support and um provide um experiences for them so that all kids feel welcome and and seen. Um staff staff sees the need as well. We don't have enough bilingual staff. We are only two Spanish speakers. Others rely on us too much with m which makes it difficult to focus on our own work. Need critical race critical uh cultural proficiency training. Include assignments where students can draw from their own background experiences and culture. Provide opportunities for students to share their own culture. So these were some of the things that are still um works in progress that need to be you know addressed and um find ways creative ways to use the community schools platform and systems to meet those needs.

061Okay. So based on like all the data that we have been getting so far, next slide please. Uh here's some of the successes. So this was the average rating of the school culture and climate from 0 to 5. Um, it says the school promotes personal personnel participation in decision-making that affects school practices and policies. It went from a 3.2 to a 4.0 on a scale of 0 to 5. Adults who work at the school feel a responsibility to improve the school from a 3.84 to a 4.16. Adults who work at the school have professional relationships with one another. Went from a 3.92 to a 4.12. These show that averages. And I think one of the things that I feel like supported and helped that a lot is we started having meetings with um uh PDS

062for the CSDs and CSLs and the scouts and they would meet once a month and they were starting to address those needs because like last year it's like people were like we would go like hey how's community schools working for you and they're like I didn't even know my school was a community school. It's like well you should know that. So now having this, you know, action collaborives in place and having them meeting once a month, they're able to get that information everyone and everyone is all on board now because now they really understand what's going on. So I feel like those those shifts are happening because of more education, more information, and everyone um sharing the data in a way that's more accessible for everyone including the parents and including the students. Um some

063more successes are um shared commitment, understanding um it oh so it starts from visioning to engaging to transforming. So initially a lot of schools start off in visioning um as we're in like the second for some sec second year for some groups and third year for other groups. Most people are moving into the enga oh that's it's the next slide. Most groups have moved into engaging and now we're we're starting to get some into the transforming um uh stage for um shared commitment understanding. For centering community- based learning, we still have a bunch in visioning, but some are still moving over to engaging. And again, we have a few in transforming. Um for sustaining staff and resources, visioning is a pretty big group kind of um equal to engaging, but we're starting to get even

064more in transforming. And then for strategic community partners, uh we have a small group that's still envisioning. The majority of the groups have moved into engaging and there's a lot more in um transforming for that. So eventually want everyone to be in transforming because that means that they've made that progress to where they're all like really changing the whole school system to a community school system. Okay. So the next slide, please. So now we get to the fun part. the recommendations that have come from the support collaborative. Um, whenever I can talk about what a wonderful space the support collaborative is, there are not a lot of places in the district where people at all levels of the system are coming together and having conversations with the power dynamics removed and really just talking about

065what our ideas are um for moving the work forward. And so together um with CSDs, our community school directors for folks who don't necessarily know all the the acronyms. Um so all of the members of the support collaborative came up with a set of recommendations. One of the things we'd like to do is clarify and align governance governance and structures. Um, we really want from the boardroom to the classroom for us to be clear about how people are communicating and working together and real consistency amongst decisions at the site level, central office, support from the board, from cabinet. There are a lot of great conversations and great things happening that do not trickle up. Um and there are things of course that are not best practices are not able to be shared when things are

066not adopted systemwide. Um we'd like to remove barriers to partnerships and engagement as a partner. Um the contracting process can be quite difficult and there are lots of people who would love to partner with this district and find that to be a barrier sometimes too too um hard to get over. And so we lose a lot of great partners for our families and schools because of um because of the contract process. And shout out to business services though because they work their behinds off and we really really appreciate them. Um but it it's a lot and so if we could get some help that would be fabulous. um really wanting clarity around the connection between the different central packs and groups and how they are brought together from the district. A lot of the groups

067get together and form their own um their collaboratives on their own, but that really should be something that is happening from within the system. Um and a lot of our perspectives are often perceived to represent the staff instead of parents and students. So just making sure that we make space for um for all voices. Systemwide alignment means that we don't have a community schools over here and anti-racism doing this over here and math adoption or whatever is going on. We don't have all these things in silo. Community schools is the umbrella under which everything can and should be happening because that's what community is. And so, how are we aligning all of these different initiatives in the district and making sure that families and students and staff and community understand um the alignment and of

068course continuing to strengthen our both organizational and community capacity. There are always people who want to be involved and it's a steep learning curve to understand budgeting and all of those things but continuing to build the capacity of staff, site leaders, students, parents so that everybody can have at least a base level of understanding and knowledge and can move forward together. Um, and then of course as we are in the middle of this 5-year cycle is how are we going to um how are we going to sustain our resources as this money dwindles and eventually is gone? How are we going to continue the momentum of what we have um we've built together in the community schools movement. Um in the interest of time I believe that um mo each of these additional slides really

069just discuss you um next slide please. I'm sorry. Each of these additional slides discuss in detail the what is on the overall slide. So, is it okay for me to um So, you'll see in bold at the bottom really the the the clear recommendation, but I'm going to slide you can go to the next slide. In fact, you can take us to [Music] slide 29 because you can take us to slide 29 which is the second to last. Um so again if WCCCUSD intends to be a community school district it is not about the extra dollars. It is about the motivation and the mindset and mindset and motivation is free. So every school, every site leader, every principal, every teacher, every student and family member can contribute to being a community schools district. We really

070hope that the next superintendent understands and champions our work. And we would like to ask that the board um commit to a board study session for a deeper discussion and understanding of the strengths and challenges of our community schools implementation. And we would also like to come before the board and give quarterly progress reports. a lot of uh our support collaborative members and families who had great positive things to say about community schools and couldn't be here with us tonight. We would love to bring kids and families so you guys really understand um how folks with boots on the ground are experiencing community schools. Um and outside of this, I am a parent of a child at a community school and it has been an amazing experience. And so I'm I'm so personally appreciative of

071all the hard work of everybody in this system and everything that they have put into the community schools movement. And yet I know it could be better. And so that is the challenge. We are asking each of you all to to commit to making this better. Next slide. Questions. Okay, great. Thank you very much. And are there any board questions on the item? And then we'll go to public comment. Go right ahead. Trusty Smiths, is there any way that we could hear from the students that are in the audience about community schools because they are here. They're just here to listen. Can we ask if they have any comment? I just want to different differentiate a little bit. So Hercules has a wellness center, but they don't have a fully staffed site. Um, but they

072are more than willing to come up and speak about their experience with the wellness center. Even the African-American leadership at Tiara is like, "Yes." Oh, hi everyone. Um, I'm Devon. I go to Hercules High School. I'm a junior and um, community schools is more than just a title. I would say community schools is something that you build and it's something that starts with humans. It's not just a group, which is what it kind of looks and feels like to the outside public. Um, for us, Alandre, Zora, and then Janai, we all work with Miss T, who works with community schools, and she does our mentorship program at Hercules, and she instills a lot of these community schools resources within us. We have planned a recess rewind which is kind of about bringing um elementary school

073back to high school students because high school gets a little serious sometimes. So we brought that back which is part of building community for me. I'm also on climate team which is another part of building community. I fight for kids who when they don't feel like they're being fought for that's my job. That's my purpose. I'm part of the community. I am the community. So I think it's important that we keep community schools around not only to provide the longevity of our school of our schools not just my school but every school but also to provide good and long-term mental health for our students. Thank you. Um another part of our um internship that we're in is also the health clinic which is not only mental health which is the division that both Alundre and

074Devon are in. It's also physical health. So like um a lot of kids tend to not really pay attention to that of course because most of the time um a lot of their physical health is kind of taboo. So us being students, we're able to bring them to the clinic and be able to talk to them about these things that is are totally normal and we're able to bring it to them and talk to them about it and make sure that they I don't know visit, get checked and it's a really good um outreach program in my opinion. Um, from my experience, I've been able to bring people or bring people back to the health clinic because of course it's kind of difficult when an adult is telling you, "Hey, go to the health clinic,

075get checked for this. You can get um health procedures." It's much easier when you see your other fellow students going, then you're more encouraged to go. And I think this program really taught us not just community but also personal independence. Um it's very beneficial to us students because I know I didn't really know LundRa before I joined but it really helps us build community within our internship. So that's mostly what it did for me and I think for many other students that are a part of our internship. I'm Melandra Gonzalez, a senior. I'm part of the health wellness ambassadors and um one of the parts of the program that we do is morning greetings where in the morning we stand in the front of the school where the students are entering and we greet them.

076And we've heard a lot of positive feedback saying that it really does start like it makes a positive starts their day and it makes it like better to go to school and stuff and encourages them. Any other questions? Other questions then? Trusty Hernandez, go right ahead. I have one question. Um, how are the cities where our community schools located such as virt San Pablo and Elserto being engaged in planning and implementation and long-term sust? Are there any formal uh partnerships in place to align uh city resources, services, and initiatives with our district community school strategies? If you guys can elaborate. I know you guys mentioned San Pablo um as one of the partnerships, but how about Elserto and Richmond? Um is there any partnership with the those cities already in place? Yes, we do have

077a systems change collaborative where each of the five cities um in our district each participate. I do think we can strengthen our level of collaboration to be more intentional. So we actually the a very similar presentation to what we presented to you today. The support collaborative also had a similar presentation with the systems change collaborative wanting to re we brought them the needs and asset assessment data that we've done throughout the year and really having a call to action around which one of these needs identified by community do we currently have the capacity to meet so that we can do more of that um uh collective action or collaboration to deepen partnerships. Uh the systems change collaborative is headed by our superintendent and supervisor John Joya. And so we're also looking at how do we

078bring more county resources to the table. We don't have a formal partnership with any other city other than city of San Pablo, but we do h we we often partner with city of Richmond in a number of capacities, particularly through the partners that they bring to the table through their RFCY grant, but it's not as coordinated um as it is with City of San Pablo. And that's really the work that we're looking to get to through our systems change collaborative. Thank you. Um also, um there is a position called the place coordinator that coordinates the use of WCCUSD um playgrounds, tracks and things like that. That is that is paid for through the county supervisor's office through a partnership that came out of the support collaborative. The city of Richmond gave a lot of their

079a lot of their RFCY grantees are partners with community schools. And how that benefits the district is then when partners come to school sites and offer contracts, they're often at reduced or or low cost to the sites because the money comes from the grants because the grants are to be used only for um sites and residents for the city of Richmond. Are there any other questions on this side? Okay, I have a couple of questions. So first thank you for the presentation and the first one is on funding. Where are you on funding generally? Are you you can't hear? Oh, it's e you guys. Seems like there's an echo up here. Is that better? Oh, I hear that. Miss Blake, can you turn your mic off for a minute? There's the little face that looks

080like it's talking on the on the box. Got it. Is this better? Is that better? Okay. So, on funding, would you be able to talk about how you where you are in funding? Are you did you frontload your funding and then are you trailing it off over five years or is it the same amount every year? [Music] Um so that when the state gave us the grant award notification they awarded us they guaranteed the funding year-over-year and in that first year we had actually this might be a better question for business services. I know that we established our budget um when we received the grant, we established our budget at the onset of the year. I don't know if the state reimbursed us or if we had those funds up front, but we were able

081to proceed with spending given the grant award notification. I don't believe that we're reimbursed, but Dr. Moses or somebody from business services, can you speak to that? I can share. So once the grant award notification is issued by the state um we set the budget for what the state has promised and we allow the program to continue with their budgeted expenses as outlined in the grant. It is uh we don't necessarily receive funds upfront but we do allow them to begin to um implement their budgeted plans and expect the money to come um across the the time frame. So it isn't it's complicated but they don't need to wait to spend money. As soon as it's awarded it's loaded for their their ability to spend for the annual yearby-year and that first year that first

082grant is about 5 million a year across the 20 how many schools? 19 schools in the first grant. 19 22 22 5 million to be shared across 22 schools each year. Okay. Thank you. And did everybody get the same amount? Is that I mean like I guess when I'm trying to everybody got the I'm just trying to figure out like you're you're kicking off a program. So did you frontload and have to spend a lot to get up to get moving to get staff to get the programs going and then does it trickle down over time and you know then then you're implemented and then does it matter at the end of the five years or Yeah. So when when a grant is applied for you actually have to propose a budget for every dollar

083before the money is given. So, the plan for spending the grant is created before we ever see a grant award notice. And I know through the community grant applications that they've invested in several um strategies of providing mental health support, providing support to sites. All of those things are outlined in their five-year grant plan and every year has a separate budget to spend the entire allocated amount. Okay. Thank you. And then I want to talk about attendance. Um, first we heard from the DLCAPS um committee that A2A, which was a program that or some software, I'm not 100% sure exactly what it is, um, was helpful. Um, I wanted to know if A2 if a if at your level it might actually be further down like more at the site level. Is that uh is

084at A2A something that you'd like to see again or you think would work? And then in general on attendance strategies, I'm wondering uh if you could touch on some of the things that the community schools do to boost attendance. Thank you. So your first question is around the effectiveness of A2A. I do think that A2A was an effective platform. Um there was a lot of training that happened across roles in terms of A2A. So our principles were really they really knew how to use the platform and because we had it for a number of years, not just our principles but our community school directors, our school community outreach workers, our attendance clerks could drill down in a way that takes a lot of time or manpower to drill down to find those students that are

085needed and then to communicate to them and then let the sites know that they've been communicated with. that entire ecosystem of managing chronic absenteeism and the level of outreach that's been conducted and then even monitoring the needs that came up kind of like a case management kind of platform. We don't have that capacity currently and so there's a lot of information that's lost given that in terms of how community school supports that effort is really through those engagement pieces. Um each of our community school directors, they do know how to use Edu Climber to triage the list of chronically absent students. So every care team, they're bringing forward those highest need students so that they're triaged with all of the additional providers that are out of sight. Our school community outreach workers, they support with

086outreach to our families. um they're oftentimes in the office and they know who those students are because they participate on care team and so they're immediately able to have those live conversations on the spot when they see a family show up that's been missing and because they're part of care team they know who and how to connect them when an additional support quickly a number of our school sites in terms of doing empathy interviews also conducted um Lincoln for example conducted a town hall where they invited all of their chronically ally absent families that they had a harder time getting in touch with and the messaging that they gave was very different. It was how can we help you? What do we need to change so that we can help you sooner? But their outreach

087was really around the messaging was intentional around seeking to understand. And they saw a lot of families come to that town hall that may not pick up a phone when the school calls them because of the perception of that phone call that are not responding to a start letter because of the perception in the language in the letter feeling like they're being punished. But they got a lot of information from families. And part of what they heard is that the system to get the support was not it was hard to understand with the language that we put out there and our blanket messaging. So it really goes back to the need to have these relationships and to have the data to be intentional about how many folks need to wrap around little Martine to make

088sure that somebody can catch her when Shakira's off work or whatever, right? But those relationships are really critical to the work. And it's not something that um it's it's something where systems have to be built to be intentional about making that level of connection with our families and students as opposed to checking a box and doing business as usual. I sent the letter, I made a phone call, I'm moving on to the next. So the the ecosystem that we have has really been critical um to move the needle and more deeply understand what what needs are related to attendance. And they're strategizing. They're talking about attendance at SART meetings and strategizing collectively. They're bringing families to that table. They're bringing students to the table. um so that the strategy isn't just coming from the system

089because again without that perspective from a parent and from a student who's been through the struggles of chronic absenteeism we're missing the mark. So we have to figure out how to engage differently to to understand the need. Okay. Thank you. And then finally on your support collaborative recommendations, are your suggestions listed in order? Like if I were to go when I go back through and I look at those, is is it the most important to the least important listed? No, Trusty Reckler. We want it all. We did not list them in order of importance because they're all important. But if we had to choose one, our most important recommendation is that we have more alignment from all levels of the system. We would love to have board members at our support collaborative. Um, shout out

090to Summer who was coming until, you know, the whole little baby thing happened. um she was coming consistently to the meetings and really um re contributing and also but in a way of be being very mindful that she was in a space where it was really about the the power of the community members. So she listened more than she spoke and that's super important. But that's what's most important is that everybody at all levels of the system really understand what this what community schools is about and can speak to it and then help move it forward. So if you had to pick one, we would go with that one, but I want to reiterate, we would like it all. Okay. Thank you. Uh any other questions on the item? Public comment on this item? Yes.

091Uh, our first public comment is Jane Kinster. Please unmute yourself. I'm sorry. I'm waiting for the other public comment, but you guys are kind of out of order tonight. Okay. Thank you. Next public comment is Joyce Scott. Please unmute yourself. Hi. Um, my name is Joyce Sinnet and I'm one of two community school managers with the ACR. We place and support community school coordinators in 19 and soon to be 20 district schools. I'm zooming in tonight from the National Community School Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which I'm attending with our industry director and three of our coordinators from San Pablo schools. One of the things our coordinators have said since coming here is, "I wish my principal was here. I wish my office manager or scout or teacher lead. Um, I wish we were hearing this

092and learning this together. And that would make a difference. Having a shared understanding of community school strategy is one of the four enabling conditions. One of the foundational pieces that makes it effective. The whole school or better yet the whole district had an understanding of how the strategy can transform schools. There would be greater fidelity to the model and greater impact. We know this to be true because we've seen sites like Deon which I spoke of last time where the conditions are in place and positive changes are happening. Please reach out to us to learn more. That concludes public. Okay. So with that I want to thank you very much for the presentation. I want to thank the students for your uh ad hoc presentation. Great job. Very well spoken. really appreciated it and I

093feel there's some followup that uh yeah oh yes one more thing go ahead I would love for us as a board to add community schools collaborative as a member of our standing reports that way we will get them more regularly when we do our other standing reports I'm completed yes that's exactly what I was thinking so thank Okay, great. So, with that, I think we're back to close session. Uh, well, we got to be out at 10 to extend the meeting. So, we'll see you. I'm calling recess uh to close session until uh 9:54. Thank you. Good evening. We're back. We're back to extend the meeting until 11:30. I'm putting a motion on the floor to extend the meeting until 11:30. After that, we're going back into close session. Um hopefully we'll be out at

094like 11:10 so we can finish up the rest of the agenda. Uh so I have a motion on the floor to extend the meeting until 11:30. Is there a second? I'll second it. Okay. So Reckler is the motion maker and Jana is the second. Uh any questions or comments from the board? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. Student trustee Espinosa Jr. Yes. Trusty Hernandez. No. Clerkana, yes. Trusty Smith BS. Smiths. Yes. And yes. Motion carries with three yes, one no. Okay. Okay, I'm recessing us to close session. My hope is that we'll be back at 11:10. Thank you. Okay, thank you everybody. We're back from close session. Uh I'm I'm going to skip report out of close session just for a second until you get powered up. I am going to move to approval

095of the minutes for April 30th, 2025. Can we approve them as presented? Okay, minutes are approved as presented. Resolution number 2425-65AB49, California Safe Haven Schools Act. Can we pass it? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Unanimous with one absent. Um, superintendent search update. The only thing I wanted to say is that somehow somewhere on our district calendar, a meeting for June 11th somehow got calendared, which is how it ended up in the search timeline and how it ended up out in the press. The meeting is June 4th. We expect the contract to come forward on June 4th. That is my update. Okay. Uh consent. Can we adopt consent? Does anybody have anything they want to pull? Seeing none, consent is [Music] adopted. And now we are up to E1 public hearing and adoption, special education annual service

096plan and special education annual budget plan. I am opening the public hearing at 11:20 p.m. Representative from West Contraosta Unified School District will make a presentation. We will take public comment. Board will ask questions. We will close the hearing. Thank you very much. Uh President Reckler, um do we have the slides? Oh, we can pull it. Can we pull this one? I'm sorry. We're going to pull it then. We'll bring it back next week. I'm sorry. I thought it was only the other ones. Okay. So, we're pulling E1. We're pulling E2. Okay, we are pulling E2. And what about E3? The Kennedy. Yes. Okay. E3 is pulled as well. Um E4 resolution number 2425-82 credential assignment options. Can that be pulled or I'm gonna I would like to move forward so we can continue with

097hiring. It will take one minute. Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. Uh whereas the commission on teacher credentiing provides employing districts with assigning options of a temporary nature in which a teacher with an appropriate credential is not available to the school district. Listed below are the summaries of the options that will be required for the consent of the teacher and board approval. This will allow us to assign um teachers to hard to fill positions uh with various credentials. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any board questions on the item? Is there any public comment on the item? We have no public comment. Great. Seeing none, I'll take a motion. I I'll put a motion on the floor to approve resolution 2425-82, credential assignment options. Is there a second? Okay. So, it's Reckler and Hernandez.

098And we'll go to the vote. Espinosa Jr. Yes. Aron, yes. Hernandez, yes. Anya, yes. Smith folds. Smith folds. Yes. Reckler is a yes for a yes with one absence. Point of order. Are we going to do the report out before the time ends? We I think we legally have to do the report out before the time. Back to that. Thank you so much. I just want to make sure that I have everything. Okay, now we are up to B6. Report ratification of close session items. Dr. Moses, is there anything to report out of close session? Yes, thank you. In close session, the board took action to authorize the compromise and release agreement pending litigation pursuant to code section 54956.9, case number SED2. The vote was unanimous. Also in close session agenda item A21, the board

099took action to authorize a second compromise and release agreement pending litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9, case number SED3. The vote was unanimous. Item number A23. The board voted to approve the appointment of Amomar Nalik as the principal of Pol. The vote was unanimous. That concludes the report out. Thank you so much. Okay, board just check me to make sure if there's anything else. Otherwise, we'll move to public comment. Two minutes per person, please. Our first public comment is Betsy Bashure, Don Gazny, Marie Ana, Sky Nelson. Good evening, board. Thank you for the time. I'm committed to helping pass Measure T, the renewal of the parcel tax. I'd like to ask you to think into the future for a minute. This tax pay around $10 million annually that we need uh to succeed again

100in passing the tax. We need everyone involved, district leadership, teachers, union members, and the wider community. We need to demonstrate clearly that the district and the union are aligned and working together. Any delay in signing a fair contract with our teachers risks weakening community support right when we need it most. It's also essential that our campaign is not framed as pass this measure or we'll have to make more cuts. Instead, let's openly invite community members to sh help shape the measures details now when it's in information proactively building trust and collaboration with the community. That trust will pay off next year when we vote for the measure. Thank you. Our next public comment is uh Samantha Torres. Good evening board. My name is Samantha Torres and I'm here representing the broader Richmond youth sports community

101as an appointed commissioner of the recreation and parks commission with the city of Richmond and also as representative of the Richmond United Soccer Club of which I do not receive any compensation. I'm 100% a volunteer. In August 2023, I came before you to highlight the critical need for equitable field access in central Richmond where public school fields fill major gaps in parks access. I presented data, policies, and asked you as fellow public servants to be a partner in keeping our resident youth active, healthy, and safe. Yet, since January 2024, the Kennedy High School field has been allocated almost exclusively 28 hours a week to a Berkeley based soccer organization, while Richmondbased groups, including long-standing legitimate programs like mine, have been denied access. Let's be clear, Measure R funded the Kennedy High Stadium remodel. This was

102the first Measure R money spent from our voter approved 2020 measure. This was not spent on STE. This was not spent on libraries. This wasn't even spent at this school. Local youth groups who relied on Kennedy for decades can't use the new Kennedy field because the district bypassed its own policies to grant priority access to this non-resident group. Richmond United has applied first for field permits. multiple times and yet has been denied nearly each time. The Berkeley group in question never used Kennedy before the remodel and we've provided evidence of misrepresentation, misconduct, and other violations of league rules. After disclosing this to Dr. Moses in January, this group was yet again granted exclusive spring access. We submitted a public records request on January 30th, and as of today, May 28th, it has not been fulfilled.

103Athletic Director Carl Sumler from Kennedy High confirmed that this group has already secured field access for fall 2025 via an application submitted on March 16, March 16th, which in which the system wasn't even open yet. This is a pattern of inequality and favoritism at the expense of Richmond family. Our next public comment is Tony Wright. Good evening. My name is Anthony Wright. I belong to Albony Berkeley Soccer Club. I've lived in Richmond for 30 years and I'm part of the group that pays taxes. Um, currently we have 675 um Richmond uh school wraist district. uh fellow uh student using the field. If you should go on the field tonight or in the night the last 30 days, you'll find that there's about 60 to 70 kids playing it. Yesterday and the last three days, I've

104surveyed it. We only had one kid from Berkeley that's using the field. There are facts out here that is being presented to you that is inaccurate. As a member of the community for the last 30 years, I've always been paying my taxes. We have run a nonprofit that has supported over uh this season 1,800 kids from Richmond, Pinol, Berkeley, Albany, and Oakland. The the members that we support, the Richmond community, we charge no fee or very little. 37% of our members get some kind of scholarship. We offer equal play to girls, female, girls. I'm I'm a little bit nervous. um to uh families regardless of their socioeconomic income. Um by by trade, I'm an analyst, so I run a nonprofit that pays our taxes, file our our 990 every single year and I've been consistent.

105Um we will continue to support the Richmond community because that is where I've lived for 30 years and I have no intention of moving. And so anyone that's from Richmond that want to participate, I will apply my skill, my knowledge, make sure that they get the service that's needed. Thank you very much. And I want to say to you that uh we'll continue to support Richmond community with your help. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Our next public comment is Sarah Sicily. Hi everybody. I'll try and be quick. My name is Sarah Cecile and I'm the mom of a 12-year-old who is on one of um Tony's team. Um I live in Richmond. My son goes to school in Richmond and he spends hours and hours and hours with his fellow teammates who are

106also from Richmond practicing at the Kennedy High and they work really hard and you all would be very proud of them because when they go out to the East Bay to compete in other teams, they are the Richmond Quakes and they represent Richmond. So, I hope you continue to allow the Richmond Quakes to practice on their home field, which is Richmond. Um, thank you very much. Aminata Fielder, Sherry Roberts, Bruce Green Lee. Point of order. We have to stop. It is now 11:32. I don't think that we can legally go past the time that we said that we voted on that we would stop. I think that we have to stop legally. We cannot continue this meeting. Thank you. Okay, I will draw the meeting to a close. Item H. The next scheduled board of

107education meeting is June 4th, 2024. 6:30 is the open session right here in Levana Dean Middle School. Thank you very much and have a nice evening.