001good evening everyone I would like to welcome all of you to our board meeting tonight to access translation please click on the glove icon below or at the John you can go to the corner of the room to get translation foreign we're heading into our closed session for tonight before we do we're here to listen to the public to any public comment there might be about our closed session items the public has two minutes for public comment per speaker the closed session items that we'll be discussing are Public Employee discipline dismissal release complaint we have two appeals appeal number 2223-175 and appeal number 2223507 and we also have employee reassignment do we have any public comment no problem thank you so much okay everybody we will be out for Open session at 6 30. good
002evening I would like to welcome all of you to our board meeting tonight to access translation please click on the glove icon on soon below or at dijon you can go to the corner of the room to get translation we are returning from closed session after our opening procedures the public will have an opportunity to make public comment I would like to take just one second and thank clerk Smith folds and the board for leading us through the last two meetings while I was getting through pneumonia the board recently voted to change the public comment format we have opportunities on non-agenda items in person through Zoom app and by telephone at the beginning of the meeting public comment will last now one hour the time allowed for each speaker is two minutes if you are
003attending the meeting in person you will need to submit a request to address the board form to indicate your desire to speak on an agenda item after it's been turned into staff they are placed in order of when they are turned in we also call on speakers one at a time and switching between public comment at dijon and one on Zoom if participating via Zoom you will need to raise your hand by clicking on the appropriate icon in the Zoom app or by pressing star 9 if accessing the meeting by phone no yielding of time or substitution of speakers is permitted the public will also have an opportunity to make public comment on not on excuse me make public comment on agenda items after the staff presentation for each discussion and action item the public
004will have 10 minutes per item and one minute per speaker 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 now we are going to be moving to our opening procedures first we have the Pledge of Allegiance everybody please rise Dr Hurst could you please lead us through the pledge absolutely ready begin 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 thank you Dr Hurst now we will move to our land acknowledgment we recognize that we are presently on the lands of the chicheno muakma Clark and aloni peoples and acknowledge them as the first inhabitants of
005the land we currently occupy Dr Hurst can you please do rock call absolutely president good evening president trustee Clark smithfolds good evening everyone present trustee reckler good evening I'm president trusty Christian uh good evening president trustee Phillips he did contact me and shared with me that he will not be here this evening he's at a conference trustee Santos good evening president trustee Baron good evening president thank you thank you Dr Hurst Dr Hurst do we have anything to report from closed session no sir thank you so much people in the public we are not going to move to public comment as I mentioned you have a chance to uh do public comment and zoom or in person if you are speaking we have heard that there's a few speakers that I want to talk about
006and one of the resolutions that we're approving tonight uh the one honoring lgbtq plus pride month the opportunity for public comment is now because we're not going to have public comment for each resolution so if you want to speak on that one you uh please do so at this moment staff do we have public comment we have one public comment do we have any in person not in person one online thank you we can start if you could please put up the uh timer Rios family please unmute yourself and state your name for the record hi my name is Jennifer Rios thank you you may begin hi my name is Jennifer Rios and my daughter is a junior in the ESN program at De Anza High School I'm certain that more often than not you
007hear a lot of comments and complaints from parents like me I'd like to bring up the district-wide prom that was offered to the juniors seniors and transitional students this past weekend two minutes is just inadequate for me to express my feelings but I'll do my best I would imagine most of the sped students would not have attended the general prom for various reasons so I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of those who approve the funding for this weekend's event it went beyond all my expectations from the offering of support and accommodations via bussing and AIDS to the food that was more than enough for everyone for fighting time away from your loved ones to plan and execute so that our children my child would have a teenager's
008memory of a prom with her peers and her friends without fear without anxiety and without question I have never seen so many teenagers having so much fun with each other in a safe environment that catered only to them and I truly believe it was a perfect evening but I'd like to emphasize my gratitude in allowing families to attend as our children get older opportunities to be involved in the classroom lessons and we rarely see our children socialize with their peers outside of a controlled classroom environment this was one of the very few times when I felt that as a family with a child with special needs that we her her support structure weren't marginalized or forgotten rather we were included and allowed to participate and witness her pure joy I felt like we went to
009the prom too I hope this will be a regular occurrence because I believe that events like this are good reminders for all of us that indeed it takes a village of dedicated officials Educators teachers aides parents siblings and even strangers with shared value goals to allow good things like this to happen thank you again for your time and your consideration thank you so much okay uh board now we're moving to agenda review and adoption if there are no objections we will approve the agenda okay so approved thank you uh now we have something very exciting the motel events school is doing a performance for all of us uh in celebration of Cinco de Mayo I want to just very quickly thank uh principal acrossberg I'm sorry I can never say your last name principal Acosta
010uh I will get it right one of these days uh and especially uh uh Nelda well then who also helped us uh create this special moment uh so thank you uh board if we could actually head down so that we can see it and then we'll come back up after uh so if you could just give us one minute so we can head down to the audience and uh and then we can start after that there we go hello everyone good evening I'm gonna go this way um good evening president Gonzalez Hoy superintendent Dr Hurst trustees and staff my name is Catherine Acosta verpraska I am the proud principal of montalvan Manor K-8 we are delighted and honored to be here this evening to present to you our Scholars are incredibly talented we've got an
011amazing community of montavent families and teachers behind me I am not the Mastermind tonight we have two amazing staff members our unconditional education Coach driel Brown if you'll wave she's going to come and introduce herself who did an incredible job practicing with our students and our clerk extraordinaire and PTSA president Nelda Walton who's also going to come but we want to give them a huge shout out for their work and they're going to introduce our amazing students thank you Miss Acosta we have our lovely Mont Alvin students we have Gabriel Fernandez Mariana Casias Jasmine liberato Paris Acosta Esmeralda Gomez Catherine Gomez and Camacho Victoria Nelson Jackson Acosta verpraska's Brittany Hernandez jeshua Casillas and nathania Rojas thank you they are going to be dancing to LA raspa can we give him one more big round of
012applause and I'd just love to invite Miss neldok to come on up and just say a few words thank you principal Acosta represkas and thank you to president Gonzalez Hoy superintendent Dr Hurst and the board members thank you for having us it's been a pleasure it's a dance that I did when I was a little girl in elementary so thank you for letting me share my little bit of culture into my Calvin Manor and thank my daughter Casey she couldn't be here with us because she was their age when she learned how to dance mama taught her well so and by the way she'll be 22 on Friday Cinco de Mayo but thank you so very very much for having us we're going to take a picture okay foreign thank you so much thank you
013thank you montalvan for coming for the people in the public I heard that uh you cannot hear the music but hopefully you still got the full cuteness that we got uh in in in the audience so thank you again Mont Alvin family for joining us okay we are now moving to the approval of the minutes from April 12 2023 board are there any changes to the minutes no okay if there are no objections we'll approve the minutes so approved thank you so much okay now we have five resolutions no excuse me four resolutions for now five resolutions to go through um so we will start with resolution number 2223-74 day of the teacher which is May 2nd yesterday um Dr Hurst are you gonna be reading the resolutions actually I believe we have Miss Sanders
014online oh wonderful is she a panelist I don't see her well for time oh there she is she's a panelist now Miss Sanders can you hear us nope she's gone now okay I will read this resolution now therefore be a result that the Board of Education of the Wisconsin Unified School District proclaims May 2nd 2023 as the day of the teacher in West Contra Costa County and be it further resolved that the Board of Education urges all citizens to honor our teachers on this and every day of the year board can I have a motion I move resolution 2223-74 day of the teacher May 2nd 2023. thank you Clark Smith Falls there a second Miracle rules second thank you so much any comments collect Smith Falls um we know that the some schools are celebrating
015teacher appreciation week this week some are celebrating it next week the 8th through the 10th um as a teacher I would like to say that we love notes cards gifts we have enough mugs we do not need another mug that says you are my favorite teacher but it would be great to have a gift card so all of you out there please honor your teacher and staff during teacher and staff appreciation week this week and next week I'm complete anybody else okay let's move forward the vote we're going to start tonight with trustee Santos Santos yes thank you trustee Baron yes thank you Clark smithfolds Smith Falls yes thank you trustee Christian yes thank you trustee reckler reckler yes and I'm a yes thank you so much to all of our teachers it passes unanimously
016um we're now going to move to resolution number 223-75 national school nurse day Dr Hurst pass to you absolutely now Dr Hurst I'm sorry I'm available to read if you need I'm so sorry for losing connection before thank you absolutely whereas School nurses understand the link between health and learning and are in a position to make a positive difference for children every day therefore be it resolved that the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education celebrates and acknowledges the accomplishments of School nurses everywhere and their efforts toward meeting the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of Health Care in our schools and offer gratitude for the nation's School nurses and nurses in wccusd who contribute to our communities by helping students stay healthy in school and ready to learn and keeping
017parents and Guardians at work not just on this national school nurse day but at every opportunity throughout the year we have further resolved that the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education proclaims Wednesday May 10 2023 as school nurse day in wccusd and commend its observance to all citizens thank you director Sanders board can I have a motion I would like to move resolution 2-223-75 national school nurse day 2023. thank you is there a second the second thank you so much are there any comments okay uh we'll start the vote trustee Santos uh yes thank you thank you trustee Clark Smith Falls Smith Falls yes thank you trustee Christian Christian yes thank you trustee reckler very clear yes thank you and I'm a yes pass unanimously thank you to our nurses um okay
018now we're moving to resolution number 2223-576 Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023 director Sanders I'll pass it to you thank you whereas encompassing many histories languages and Journeys to help shape our Collective American Experience Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have achieved exceptional success in all aspects of our society including business politics education Community Service Media Arts and Sciences now therefore be it resolved that the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education proclaims May 2023 as Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month to inspire equity and celebrate diversity in our schools and communities throughout the district thank you director Sanders for can I have a motion a move resolution 2223-76 Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month 2023. thank you is there a second second thank you so much are there any comments okay let's
019move to the vote trustee Santos Santos yes thank you thank you trustee clerk Smith Falls Smith Falls yes trustee Christian Christian yes trustee reckler reckler yes and I'm a yes best unanimously now we're going to move to resolution number 223-77 classified school employee week director Sanders pastille thank you whereas the essential work performed by classified staff is often invisible and accomplished with little recognition or appreciation and whereas like the certificated counterparts District classified staff respond routinely to the increasing intellectual and emotional needs of students and families and whereas classified employees through the quality of their work serve as adult role models for our students now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby declares May 21st through 27 2023 has classified school employee week in the West Contra Costa Unified School District in
020recognition of and appreciation for all classified employees and their dedication to our students thank you board gonna have a motion a move resolution 2-2 23-77 classified school employee week thank you is there a second second thank you so much sport is are there any comments Clark smithfolds I really appreciate this resolution these employees are literally the salt of the earth and the glue that keeps it all together I just want to make sure that when we are giving recognition we recognize these employees who are non-stop 24 7 365 in our schools so thank you classified employees I'm complete thank you clerk Smith bolts are there any other comments okay let's move to our vote trustee Santos Santos yes thank you trustee Baron yes thank you trustee Clark smithfolds Smith Falls yes trusty Christian yes trustee
021reckler reckler yes and I'm a yes pass unanimously thank you to our classified staff and our last resolution tonight is resolution number 2223-7-8 honoring lgbtq plus pride month for June 2023 director Sanders can I pass to you yes now therefore be it resolved that the West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education declares the month of June as pride month and directs the superintendent and all District staff to support lessons and activities that engage students in meaningful learning research and writing about our lgbtq plus students and families be it further resolved that consistent with board policy and administrative regulations 6115 the West Contra Costa Unified School District and its schools will display the progress pride flag during the month of June 2023 on Harvey Milk Day celebrated on May 22nd 2023 and on National
022Coming Out Day celebrated on October 11 2023 the progress pride flag depicts the traditional rainbow Stripes associated with the lgbtq communities on the right side and includes in a Chevron on the left Stripes of white light pink and light blue to represent the transgender and non-binary communities as well as brown and black stripes to represent persons of color with the Chevron serving as an arrow point to the right to symbolize forward progress and inclusivity thank you so much director Sanders board is there a motion to approve this resolution I move resolution number 2223-78 honoring lgbtq plus pride month June 2023 thank you click Smith Falls there a second reckler will second thank you so much support are there any comments collect Smith folks uh love is action inclusion is action so I appreciate the board
023moving this forward I'm complete thank you are there any other comments okay I do have a comment I just want to thank the board for moving this resolution forward tonight is the first time we're actually doing this resolution which is uh really important for us um and it really symbolizes a lot for a lot of people just in the last few days since we published the agenda people have been reaching out to me and staff Thanking us for the recognition of people who have equal value as everybody else in our community um and I agree with everything Clark Smith's old said I agree with everything in our resolution and I'm thankful um that we're able to do this tonight um I want to thank all the community members as well who uh came out in
024support of this resolution and um everything that the lgbtq community plus continues to endure day by day not just in our system but nationally and internationally I see there's one more comment trustee Baron apostille yeah um I just want to say in these latest times um Across the Nation in States like Florida um something like this would not have even been thought of being passed to begin with so it really is a great and amazing thing that uh the board is doing this and that we're recognizing this month and recognizing our lgbtq plus students and acknowledging that they are here we see them we hear them and that they are valid um and yeah if you're interested in seeing an lgbtq plus play um Richmond Height is having one about um that such topic so
025if you're interested in that you should see it and you know maybe have a good time because it is a great subject and it is a very empowering thing so thank you Dr Hurst if you could send us information about the play I think all of us would actually would love to go so if we could follow up on that that would be amazing thank you um okay board if there are no more comments let's vote trusty Santos Santos yes thank you trustee Baron yes thank you trustee Clarkson folds Smith Falls yes thank you trustee Christian Christian yes thank you trustee reckler regular yes thank you and I'm a yes to pass you unanimously thank you everyone okay we are now moving to our consent items or are there any consent items that anyone would
026like to pull okay without objection we will approve the consent calendar so approved Dr Hurst will pass to you for superintendent report communication thank you so much sir well we wanted to pause before we go into our superintendent report you can go ahead and bring it up but I've been told at the very beginning of the board meeting that we have two board trustees and that have announced their schools so we're going to just call them out and just honor them um if trustee Baron if you can unmute and share with us where will you be attending thank you so much for that um yeah this fall I will be attending UC Berkeley and majoring in legal settings thank you and then trustee Santos what will you be attending I'll be attending UCLA majoring in
027English and music industry outstanding so we just want to say that we're so excited and so proud for both of you congratulations so for our superintendent report if we can go to our next slide we wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge our AXA region 6 honorees and uh just starting in the center you can see Lori Roberts our own uh technology administrator region six winner so we wanted to say congratulations to her then also we have Patricia Crespo Patty Crespo who is our secondary principal region six winner and then we also had a classified leader region six winner Barbara Jellison and then we had some administrators of the year so we have Matt Burnham administrator of the year Claudia bellez Patrick Martin John Hillier so we want to congratulate them and then also we
028have administrators of the Year Ruby Gonzalez Ariel cushion bomb Rosalind Brown Dr chiokot and Doris Holland Dottie Holland congratulations to all of our winners for region 6 Access and then next slide please we wanted to make sure that we informed the board and the public of our graduation ceremonies I know this is a request of our board president to make sure we brought this to the board and to the public as well so we can be very attentive to our graduation ceremonies for this year we're really excited for our seniors and their next step and if we can go to the next slide I think there's another slide of graduation ceremonies so if we can just be very attentive to this public community board members again really excited about this season for graduation and then
029next slide we wanted to um just take this opportunity to highlight some classes um I have uh had opted to opportunity to visit several classrooms uh this one was Grant Elementary School and if you have been there and if you've seen their school yard wrap it's really really exciting before we play the video I just want to share with you schoolyard rap is a black owned company it was established in 2015 which specializes in creating educational content and curriculum through the lens of History so everything that's happening in schoolyard rap is history lessons and they're really highlighting latinx leaders inventors and African-American leaders and inventors as well really really powerful schoolyard rap mission is to drastically improve the educational experience of Learners of all ages by providing curriculum content music and professional development that uplifts
030the narratives of minorities they work to build awareness knowledge and competencies for excellence and equity in schools and companies and again during my visit of Grant Elementary School they were highlighting the achievements of latinx and African-American inventors and leaders I wanted to share my appreciation for principal farnaz for her leadership and for engaging her students in this manner and I just wanted to give you a little taste of what the students were doing and how excited they were as well during the schoolyard rap so we can just play the video briefly foreign [Music] hey hey hey hey hey [Music] the students had an amazing amazing time so I wanted to just share that with you and then again thank you principal farnaz for your leadership and bring that to your community next slide so here
031we wanted to highlight um Hercules high school and I've been there many times I've also have a standing invitation from Miss Wong to go there as well this is the Hercules high school Advanced Orchestra led by Miss Wong they were selected to perform at the Sonoma State University will Hall on April 28th for the state California music educators Educators Association band and Orchestra Festival um next slide so I wanted to just take a moment this is about four minutes but it's worth it I'm just listening to the Excellence so if you can just share this as well thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we have so many talented teachers and so many excellent students so miss Wong if you're listening thank you so much for
032the open invitation and thank your students as well next slide and then before we play this video we wanted a spotlight um Miss Layman's uh Michelle Layman's is um Radford is a hearing American Sign Language an English teacher at Pinole Valley High School in our district she's been a high school teacher for the past 20 years as well as an adjunct instructor at Solona Community College for the past 15 years she has her ba and M.A in English from Cal State University Sacramento and teaching credentials in English and American sign language from Cal State University East Bay and we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight this one individual in our class her name is Zaria Mariano and this is Pinole Valley High School's American sign language for honors senior senior final presentations and we
033wanted to just share this with you it is a little long but it's certainly worth it to see what they're doing in her class let's go ahead and play that hello my name is Maria Morano and I'm an ASL for honors and my topic will be on deaf healthcare workers and so um one of the reasons why I chose this topic was because never really heard of deaf people working within the health field or will I have but it wasn't like it's not like as much as I hear about like as opposed to like a hearing person and so I'm in my school South Academy as well as ASL program and so there is a connection and so while doing research what pushed me like forward into like this topic was like hearing about their
034inspiring stories of how they got to where they were now or how they got to where they are now and so it's also interesting learning about like the accommodations that they use um and how they interact with their patients and so this is Philip Savo and so he became deaf and he was four years old and um he's he um going up it was hard for him because he was bullied and was met with limitations from other people I remember reading about how um because he knew how to lip read kids would like cover their mouth so he couldn't understand what they were saying and he was so like the best that he could do when he if he were to get a job was being anti editor and while there isn't anything wrong with
035being a janitor it's just like the fact that he was being met with like limitations and the fact that he wasn't even like being capable of being seen as like anything else such as like an engineer electrician things like that It's upsetting and so um once again enrolled into Northwestern University during his stay there he applied for a scholarship and promised that if he were to become a um a physician he would learn ASL and so that's how he knows ASL and so he applied to multiple medical schools during his senior year he applied to 12 but only got interviews from at least two and was denied from like the rest and so even though um his exam scores were better than his peers who did get accepted into like the other schools he applied
036for he was rejected obviously because he was deaf and so he ended up trying again and he applied to 35 schools but um only heard back from one of them one being Rutgers and so he stayed at Rupert's and then transferred to Washington University St Louis where he pursued his education of being a physician and so um so now he is a deposition or he's a physician at the University of Michigan he's Department of chair Family Medicine at the University as well and now he provides specialized medical care for his deaf and hard of hearing patients because he understands that his community isn't getting like what they need and a way they're being neglected and so not only that but he mentors deaf and hard of hearing upcoming Physicians and so this is another person
037her name is Brittany Benson and so she was born with boy hearing but was diagnosed with um profound hearing loss when she was around three years old and she uses hearing aids and is able to speak well and she learned um how to sign when she was attending gallaudet University similar to his Evo she struggled with getting accepted into medical schools until finally getting accepted to Honduras and when she got there she was given the accommodations that she needed right away and so at the time the article was made she's been a certified medical assistant and family medicine for about five years and she was continuing her education for LPN at the Honduras College of Nursing and so I also read how um whenever um her patients can't understand what she's saying like such as
038like medicine names because sometimes she can't like pronounce like um specific sounds she makes them pronounce the name with her so that they understand what she's saying and so she also has accommodations I hope everything get the best um healthcare provider that she can be to our patients and of them like having a a stethoscope specifically designed for those who are deaf and hard of hearing and so her goal is to be a trustworthy provided to the deaf Community because again like zivo if she understands that um her community isn't getting like the best treatment that they can and so there being like no communication barriers it makes it easier for a deaf person to reach out to her as well so this is another person her name is Oren Soros and so she was
039born deaf and aspires to be a family nurse practitioner and she receives her RNG from John Hopkins and whenever she um has like a has an appointment with her patients she lets them know right away that she has an import has a interpreter with her and yeah and so she can manage without an interpreter but she just prefers having one in the room with her so that she has full access to to everything in terms of like um communication and things like that and so zobo of Benson and swirls are all like um role models to the deaf Community to the deaf Community especially civil because um we see him going up with um we see him have a hard time um he had a hard time growing up but he eventually became a successful
040um doctor and not only that but he became Department of chair and now Mentor is like other deaf people who want to become a physician and so savovan mentioned both phase of many rejections for medical school but that never like stopped them from trying and so it conveys a message of how important it is to never give up because if they were to give up they wouldn't be where they are right now which is obviously like being a healthcare professional and so the point of this presentation was to also emphasize the importance of acknowledging that there are deaf healthcare workers that are out there because it encourages a person or a deaf person who is scared to put themselves out there because of things such as being rejected because they're a deaf person um it
041makes them scared to like actually try and so it kind of makes them stray away from like actually trying and so reading about these um healthcare workers who um probably went through the same road as them or who have one through like a similar path um that never really stopped them from like trying um into going into the medical field and so they serve as Role Models again because it teaches people that um it's important to still try because again their Health Care Professionals now and so these are the resources that I use and I hope you enjoyed my presentation and we wanted um just again thank Miss Layman's for her um intellect for her skill I've been in her class several times as well and she's one of our top-notch teachers as well in
042the district so thank you Miss Layman's and then we again wanted to thank our student Zaria for your awesome presentation if you're listening now before I conclude my report we also want to recognize all of our administrators principals assistant principals any other administrators we have throughout the district this is administrator's day or week so we wanted to make sure that we gave a shout out for all of you we realized that we couldn't do this work without you you are a big reason why we are achieving the success that we're achieving right now I have shared in the principal listening sessions that there's a lot of research around leadership and I've said loud and clear that leadership matters so we wanted to say to you that you do matter and we do appreciate you so
043thank you very much this does conclude my report thank you Dr Hurst uh board we'll move to questions are there any questions from any of the board members Mr President I have no questions but I do have comments okay any questions okay let's move to comments Clerk's been full she'll get you can get it started uh let's put up the timer and we barely have items tonight so I would just say we won't have time limit obviously just don't go 15 minutes but we just won't put a timer actually so you can take it off yeah thank you thank you so much for your uh superintendent's report first uh congratulations to the student trustees again congratulations on um decision day and making your decision the next four five six years are going to be the
044best of your life colleges amazing um Dr Hurst there is a date change the black graduation is on May 19th at craneway same place just different date um I also would like to say that so many studies of music and academics and how they go hand in hand and helps with memorization so having that program at Grant is absolutely amazing um it goes with memorization and comprehension comprehension and the cultural uh the cultural competence strategies of learning with music or not only could be but should be implemented in all of our schools um I'm a I'm a vappa parent I have three students in the district and they all participate in vapa in some way one is in um Orchestra one is in band and one is in art so as evapor parent I know
045the benefit of experience and exposure to these fields I can't express how valuable of an experience learning music and participating in art is thank you vapa teachers and students and thank you vapa parents because we are the ones that have been listening to them squeak out Mary had a little lamb since fourth grade and now that I have a senior she can finally play it successfully so thank you everyone finally to Michelle Layman's Rayford she is one of the best teachers that we have in the district her classroom is the definition of inclusion if you haven't been there please go and look in her classroom I can't say enough about this teacher whose inclusion is not only the center of everything but it shows when you walk into her classroom she also has so many
046things that she buys out of pocket and that she solicits through donors shoes and other way to provide for her students in the classroom I am complete thank you for the report Dr Hurst thank you click Smith folds uh trustee Santos great uh thank you uh great everybody really appreciate it a similar thing just congrats to all the other seniors also making their decisions um and then on the topic of graduations and everything I also wanted to add that um a lot of our middle college students are also graduating on the 19th from Contra Costa College um last year I believe it was roughly 80 of our seniors graduating with their AAA degree um so May 19th at 4 pm I believe at CCC you'll also have a couple of other seniors graduating that time
047as well so if anybody's interested in attending that um that's there and we can send you more information on that and then I wanted to highlight again the Hercules Orchestra I actually got the honor to play with them last year for the area festival at Richmond High and they're all very talented um and with that being said I think it's also important to realize how important and these Arts are whether it was like what was going on at Grant or what's going on with Hercules the Arts are something that is very important and I know we recently received an email I want to highlight it from Mr Wilkie um talking about prop 28 funding and the possibilities of that being misused in the district um I don't know if there's any progress being made on
048that concern but I just wanted to highlight that again and highlight that that type of money is what benefits these types of programs um and that we should be aware of what's going on with the Performing Arts yeah thank you Tracy Santos anyone else okay uh thank you Dr Hurst for your report uh we are now going to move to our action items we only have one action item tonight um it is a grievance settlement agreement uh Mr tennis Chuck are you the one presenting this item yes I am president thank you thank you good evening president Gonzalez hoy clerk Smith folds Dr Hurst trustees and community I'm here to present an action item on the grievance settlement agreement between the Teamsters Local 856 and wccusd as it relates to the bilingual interpreters too Teamsters
049had filed a grievance as it relates to making the bilingual interpreters too permanent as of the date in August 2019 when the board had approved a job description for them there were outstanding items associated with seniority vacation sick leave holiday and longevity the parties reached an agreement where all those issues were addressed uh to the satisfaction of both parties included the board is requesting to approve the grievance settlement which is attached the financial impact associated with that is 73 782 dollars thank you so much Mr tennis Chuck public uh sorry Miss Munoz are there any public comment on this item there's no public comment thank you so much uh okay board are there any questions okay um could I have a motion to approve the grieving settlement agreement between Teamsters 856 and the school district
050I move the settlement agreement between teams Teamsters 856 and West Contra Costa Unified School District thank you is there a second second thank you so much are there any comments okay let's move to the vote trustee Santos Santos yes thank you trustee Baron yes thank you trustee clerk smithfolds Smith Falls yes thank you trustee Christians question he asked thank you trustee reckler yes thank you and I'm a yes as well so it passes you anonymously thank you Mr tennis Chuck thank you okay um we are now at the end of our meeting we are now moving to comments from the board board I know we have had some light agendas but get ready because the June June meetings are going to be full so uh it's been nice while it's lasted um but uh why
051don't we move to comments uh I'm a little worried about saying no time limits but let's just not do time limits uh but um we'll start with our student intereste uh trustee Santos do you want to start us if you have any comments and then we'll go down the line um can you come back to me absolutely thank you uh trusty but I don't do you have comments not today thank you thank you so much trustee Clark Smith Falls do you have comments I do but could you come back to me trustee Christian do you have any comments you want me to come back to you president Gonzalez Hoy could we take a five minutes just so we could gather our comments how about I make my comments while you all gather your thoughts oh
052they're ready maybe trusty Reckless oh are you ready okay then we'll go me and then I'll go down the line to see if you are ready go ahead trustee Reckless okay so I want to thank all of our principals and administrators our teachers our nurses and our classified staff for everything that you do you are are that you are education we are nothing without you and so I thank you deeply for your work and your you all should be celebrated every week with a resolution um I also want to thank our ASCO winners ask a six region winners for everything that you do thank you very much that that's great I'm so glad um to our student trustees and to all the seniors that are making their decisions or have made their decisions congratulations this
053is great it's so exciting um and there's only good things that that lie ahead so um Cal and UCLA are terrific places to be and take advantage of everything that they have to offer and I know someone at Cal if you want to talk to them before they graduate or maybe even after they graduate I'm sure that they'd love to give you the lowdown um I also want to congratulate our all of our students that reclassified and were celebrated last night on Zoom it was so sad I'm so sorry about the rain um but I filled about the little survey about whether we should do something in person and the answer was yes and I even sent in some ideas so you're there we'll see how that that goes um I also want to thank
054Miss Rios for calling in about the special needs prom and I want to thank edsource for covering it um and I uh it's the brainchild of Miss Neely Johnson and her staff and she's so proud of it and I spent today with her up in Sacramento and she had all the pictures I couldn't go but she's she's very proud um and it's an event that she believes strongly in and so I'm glad people had a great time that is um that's just wonderful thank you um and then I also want to give thanks and thank the board as well for celebrating pride month and lgbtqia um uh students and um you know just a reminder that love is love and that's what it is and I'm I'm proud to have those flags up and to
055support uh those students uh finally uh I went to Sacramento today with uh for the selpa uh uh legislation day and sopa for those of you who don't know is special education local plan Association and it's your special ed operation um and Miss Neely Johnson runs our particular operation they have a legislation day and Miss Bishop Salon Harrison myself and Miss Neely Johnson were up there today there was an excellent presentation very short on Universal Design for Learning and all about tier one instruction which is actually terrific for everyone it wasn't just about special needs students it was for everyone and then we went we met with our legislators and we also uh got Kevin Gordon from Capital Advisors and took him with us and we did that with um the gang from San Ramon
056and we made friends with them and it was really a terrific uh little uh session today and so we're in support of four bills um I am not gonna go into them in depth but the most important one is SB 354 which is about Universal Design for Learning we're in a support position and um it's all about inclusion and it was a great day and I'm also exhausted because I got up at like 4 30. that's it thank you thank you so much uh trustee reckler uh I also have a lot of thank yous to do uh but first I also want to congratulate our student trustees uh I mean what an incredible accomplishment uh my wife went to UC Berkeley so uh you know it's no Sac State but you know uh uh I
057know you're gonna have a wonderful time uh I'm just messing with you uh she loved it and I know it's an amazing School UCLA of course as well right so congratulations to you both wishing you the best in that Journey um although just to have fewer meetings so you know we'll continue to give you accolades at every meeting um I also want to uh join the accolades to all of our stuff I want to thank our teachers our classified staff our principals our nurses you all are amazing you hold our district together um and I I thank you for everything you do every single day for our students for our community I also want to give a special shout out to uh our support staff for the board Rosa and Genesis uh which they also
058had their day I think last month so I want to thank you both for everything you do for us and with us um of course our superintendent in our cabinet who are always amazing but you know you have your day another day uh but but of course thank you as well um I wanted to invite everybody to the Cinco de Mayo parade which is this Saturday uh we're gonna have a little float if we want to call it that uh in which we're gonna be following I think Dr Hurst car so you're welcome to join us at 9am in downtown Richmond and San Pablo it's gonna be amazing um I also want to thank everybody who attended their classification ceremony all of our students for that incredible accomplishment I was never able to reclassify myself
059uh but one day I will I'm just gonna take the test and just do it um and and to all those students who would learn a second third or fourth language I just want to uh thank you and uh say that you have an incredible superpower of learning a new language um or learning English right which is incredible uh I also want to thank director anily Johnson and your staff for this sped prom I heard it was incredible uh and you did a really amazing job and I want to thank you for that um I also want to thank Clark smithfolds for running the last two meetings like I mentioned I was getting through pneumonia and my family was getting through through sickness um you did an incredible job I watched the board meetings and
060everybody on the board said you did great in community so uh thank you for for doing that um and I think I had one more thing oh yes I did want to give an update which Clarkston tells you were welcome to add the contract Review Committee is ongoing we're we're reviewing all the what we call the four and the five thousands which are all of our contracts and services practically everything that we pay that is not staffed uh in our budget we are currently reviewing as you all know we have a deficit of 19.5 million dollars next year so we're trying to find areas to cut that does not mean cutting teachers or classified staff or administrators so we're going through that exercise at the moment with our labor Partners anyone's welcome to join the
061meetings uh make comment provide us with with thoughts uh we just finished special education we are finishing uh Educational Services uh I'll tell you all it has been an eye-opening experience again uh and unfortunately we're not finding the areas of cut that that we should uh so I do want to just share with the board I have concerns uh about next year because we have this hope of finding 20 million dollars to cut in those areas and it doesn't look like we will we're going to continue to move in that direction and try to find as much as we can uh but we're not finding the as much as we as we should so I invited the public to come and continue to push us on where to find but every contract that we cut
062of course is one less service and one way to either schools or students or staff but um I am of the belief we should cut that first before Direct Services which are or those staff so join us um okay that's it thank you so much everybody um and who's ready on this side you do have comments go ahead sorry uh yeah I just want to get of some events coming up and some things so thanks for all the resolutions we passed today they're all equally and very important to have in our district and throughout um the world frankly so yeah thanks for passing those resolutions today board um just a reminder that our Julia takes a breath play at Richmond High will be on May 12th and 13th uh no sorry May 11th and 12th
063um at 7 pm curtains will open so come and see it it'll be really cool um our marching band is also getting ready to do our Disneyland trip um coming up on the week of May 23rd uh we'll be going to Anaheim at Disneyland to perform there and have a good time so that's very exciting and um I'm very proud of the band for that um congrats to all seniors who decided yes um not yesterday on Monday where they're going for college um whether you're going to a very uh High institution or a UC Community College a CSU IV wherever you're going be proud of your choices be proud of your hard work because it takes a lot to get there and it takes a lot to ensure you attend higher education and make that
064effort and go on to do better and greater things so be proud no matter where you go um and yeah that's all for me today thank you thank you so much Santos [Music] same note of band and marching band we're also going to be performing um Cinco de Mayo so we will be marching the parade as well um Haley will be doing the marching band I'm on the auxiliary we're both um for Richmond High um and then on that same Saturday so there's a lot of things happening on that Saturday um but I wanted to highlight that East Bay Center for the Performing Arts is also having a lot of their Ensemble performances on that Saturday um I believe it starts at five o'clock if not 5 30. um so if any of you are
065interested in attending that a lot of that is made up by our district students um especially the high school students but uh they we worked really hard to like record that I'm personally performing for the chamber Ensemble um so if you're interested in attending that we could always give you more information on that and then um I just wanted to provide a little update from um last week when we kind of talked about some other events ends and I wanted to highlight middle college and say that our culture day our sophomore's culture day went really well um a lot of coaches are represented and everything uh went smoothly I sadly was not able to attend just because I had to do some stuff for ASC um but from every report back that I heard it
066all went really well and I just wanted to bring that back to the board so thank you thank you so much Rusty Santos Clark Smith Falls uh thank you so much thank you board for allowing me the opportunity to be your board president for two meetings it was an absolute honor thank you president Gonzalez Hoy for the guidance and the trust I'm glad you and your family are both feeling better we only have a couple of days left 25-ish days left to graduation and I want everyone to be gentle to those parents who are going to the next phase as a senior parent it is emotional it is absolutely uh gut-wrenching to know that one of my children will be graduating high school and turning 18. as a parent if if you're a kindergarten parent
067or a TK parent and your your baby's graduating it is emotional or promoting if you are a fifth grade parent and they're going to middle school it is emotional and it is hard so be gentle with all those parents out there who are crying and who are you trying just to hold on um there are not enough thank yous for our teachers staff and students it is never and easy 180 days and this year is no exception to that we have come through so much and it is because of really good board leadership that we can say that we haven't went over the cliff so thank you again president Gonzalez Hoy thank you superintendent Hurst I had the pleasure of attending Kennedy's reclassification ceremony today it was absolutely a great celebration I also had the
068pleasure of attending the reclassification ceremony yesterday via Zoom English is I'm an English teacher English is one of the hardest language to learn because who needs two two and two we have three of them we literally have three ways of saying two right and that's just one of the examples so for the fact that we have children in this District who are bilingual trilingual and more we need to take a minute and say wow and that means that they are really really superheroes because they're able to move into two or three different worlds and we don't honor that enough it is not a bad thing it is an excellent thing and all of our students should have a seal of by literacy when they leave this District if we're doing what we're supposed to do
069um I had a chance to attend this bad pump the sped prom it was a room full of so much love and free of judgment the Rios family said it best and her words should be really taken to heart but if you ever if you have ever been a parent and didn't think that you were going to get that experience and get that memory but it was given to you it's something that you just can't put into words that you get to see something that you thought you were never gonna see get to experience something that you thought that you were never going to experience and more importantly you didn't think your child was ever going to experience seeing those students do the conga line every adult was in tears seeing those students do the
070limbo every adult was in tears and the slow dance friend it was absolutely amazing so thank you to all the staffs uh director Johnson for working on that and making it not only a one-time but an annual thing I would love to push us to continue to see ourselves as those a board of inclusion and putting policy behind the value of inclusion it's not enough to say we're an inclusive District but it has to have policy on paper to prove it tonight was a great leap in that direction again thank you president Gonzalez Hoy May 18th there will be the African-American student of honors award held at the craneway Pavilion I encourage everyone to come out um and see the board come out and see those students being honored May 19th is the black graduation
071uh oh I mute it myself sorry um we as a board uh board president Gonzalez Hoy said We are continuing to work on the budget contract committee our next meeting is May 9th at Pinole Valley High School from five o'clock to eight o'clock please come out or watch via zoom and we do have public comment during those meetings and they're all recorded and it's uploaded so you can go back and watch that would be our fifth meeting that we have president Gonzalez soy once again thank you for getting us out of here at 7 47 ish we still have another comment but that's absolutely amazing we are absolutely doing a fantastic job thank you board I'm complete thank you so much clerk Smithfield's trustee Christian yes um we get it out here early I see
072I feel good um I just want to thank uh student trustees um you got keep moving you know keep doing what you're doing uh and I like those ideas from the last meeting um that you you guys are working on uh how to improve um the connecting piece uh yeah uh then also I want to say to our uh congratulations to our graduates uh uh this school year to all of our graduates um you worked hard he made it you got to keep moving and thank you to all of our staff our teachers um in the classified staff everybody that who worked hard and play a role in in educating and helping that young young people to go to the next level um we're getting out of here early all right thank you thank you
073so much trustee Christian um okay public our next Board of Education meeting is on May 17th here at lavanya De John or in Zoom um I wish everybody a good night I had joined us at 7 49