001Welcome everyone. I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. Welcome and thank you everyone for attending tonight's board meeting. We're going to go ahead and get started. Uh Wendy, would you please do us the pleasure of taking the role? >> Miss Chappie, >> present. >> Martinez, >> present. Thanks. >> Yes. Thank you. We're going to move to the pledge of allegiance. And I'm going to ask uh Miss Jones if she would do us the honor of leading us in the >> pledge. To the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you, Kim. We do not have any items to report report from our uh close session of earlier today. So, we will
002move uh is there a motion to adopt the agenda for tonight? >> So, moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All those in favor? >> I I >> Thank you. Motion carries 40. Um, next we will move on to section five which is comments from the public. And we do and this is on items not on the agenda. And we do have uh one well we have one card with two speakers, Miss uh Angela Jessen and Liz Calli. Did you each want to address the board three minutes each or together? You can have three minutes each if separate or together. >> Okay. >> However, you'd like to come up. >> Yeah, sure. >> And the topic uh you filled out, we would like to discuss the wise sports complex.
003Welcome. >> Hi. Thank you. so efficient. >> Thanks for getting right to us. Oh, it's on. >> So, we've been uh we're we're neighbors of the Weisburn Sports Complex. We've been listening and shaking and etc. as it's being built. We're we're I've been in um Weisburn for 40 plus years. Um all my kids grew up here. I'm excited that there is a complex coming. Um I was part of the first bond issues. I was out there polling and calling all the people. So it's great to see it come to fruition. Um having said that, our backyards line up to that the baseball fields and our yard is all three of our yards. There's three main and maybe three I think they're about three feet lower. They're graded three feet lower than um your property, the
004Weisburn property. So basically everything that goes on over there, they people can just stand there because the fence comes up to about here and then it's uh chain link fence you could see right in. And so we have been working with Dr. Silvers. We've had meetings and he's been really good to us uh trying asking for helps what we can do to minimize it because this we've had we've just only had the maintenance yard over there. It's been kind of sleepy and and your school district and now we have this huge complex coming that's going to affect our personal lives. And so um you want to step in and talk about the >> Well, uh like Angela said, Dr. Silvers has been so great. It team Sean and and others came to look at the
005property. We had a meeting. I'm not sure if you've heard of that or um and so they proposed adding some fences because our main concerns are security as Angela said to have strangers looking in. It's just been your staff and for we've trusted everyone and I've been there 10 years, Angela's neighbor for for 10 years. I'm coming on to 11. It's such a great place to live and I too am thrilled that the kids will have a place to play, but certainly want to make sure that my backyard and and and my property and my property value, frankly, um retains the effort and the love I've put into it. Um, so, uh, the the crew that was there, we met, um, September 15th, maybe that I might be making that date up, uh, suggested some
006chain link fence with complete, um, you know, barriers that you can't see through that would be added on your side of the property that would be 10 ft tall and that would go over our fence is about 3 ft. So, that would give us some pretty good safety that way. Another suggestion was that there would be a chainlink fence. There used to be a closure. So unless it was your crew coming in, there was no one coming back there. And adding a chain link fence uh onto the driveway that comes off aviation. So that spillover parking lot, which is where our um properties back up onto, would only be open during game times and only under the supervision of your staff who could unlock that lot in some way. And that felt like really great
007progress and and I know that um Dr. Silvers and his team have to bring that to the board. And so Engle and I thought it would be important for you to hear from us and and say thank you for the consideration of our properties and our enjoyment livability frankly of our properties and to also let you know that part of the agreement which is has to be proposed to you to be approved from what I understand. um it it would only come after the park was open and that would be about 3 months after the park was open. And so that feels like a a time period that is a little um unfair maybe to have some so much insecurity and and visibility into our properties. And so if it if it is approved that
008you add this into the the plan if if there's anything we can do about adding it into the plan sooner so that at least that that fence to be closed until something could be added to our properties so that we could still enjoy our homes the way we have been. Does anybody have any questions for us? >> So thank you for your comments uh in the public session portion. Unfortunately we cannot comment. we can only receive the input just based on the brown processing. So, but thank you for your comments and I'm sure we'll be having our conversations with Dr. Silvers as well, getting some more information regarding your petition, your your request. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. >> Thank you again. >> Thank you. We're going on to section six of our agenda.
009I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for textbooks and instructional materials compliance for at 610 p.m. Right, Blake? I'm going to turn it over to you if there's any comments or any comments from the public. Wendy, do we have anybody that online that may have comments on this specific item? >> Megan, you want to just >> Yeah, this is just a process we do each and every school year just to ensure that our students have access to all the adopted materials that you've been through years of of approving and we just wanted everyone in the community to be aware that we have met that compliance. >> Thank you. >> And do all of our students have textbooks? Please do. >> Excellent. That's the key question, right? >> The key question. Yeah. All
010all our principles are reported back. >> Perfect. Okay. Um or any if the board has any questions? If not, I'm going to go ahead and close the close the public hearing at 611. Thank you. Moving on to section seven, board member reports. I'm going to start to my left with Rebecca. >> Um thanks, Roger. Um, see, I attended a few things this past week. Um, I got a chance to go to the success Learning Cent's uh, back to school night the other night and see them in their temporary home at um, at Weiseburg Middle School. Um, it I'm really um, they seemed very happy with the way that, you know, the the temporary arrangements that were made and that there was a still had their garden area and um, and all of that. Um and
011I was also pleased to hear that we were getting a more students from outside of the district to participate um in that program. So it was uh you know thanks to um the administrators over there and the staff um for letting me come and hang out for a bit. Um and I got to meet a couple of the students that were there as well. So um you know really nice uh to add that to the back to school nights um that we all attended over the last few weeks. Um, and then, um, I also went to the, uh, WE meeting, uh, this past, what was it, Tuesday night. Um, and so, um, always good to be back in my old stomping grounds. Um, with the with the wonderful board um, over at at the Wise
012Education Foundation. So much good stuff coming up. Parent party, tickets are available. Um, I don't have the details in front of me, but check their social media page. um uh Wise Bird Ed Foundation um yeah um on Instagram and you can get tickets um for that. Looks like it's going to be a fun um fun event um and we're grateful to them for all of their support for um various projects and the collaboration um helping us uh understand issues that are coming to them um and continuing to support um both our arts education and um music all of that. Um, and then lastly, thanks to Michelle uh for hosting the uh LA County Schools Trustees Association uh social at 5.5 Brewing. Um, Tracy, whose last name is escaping me right now, who is the uh
013board pre the last uh president is actually a school board member over in Elsa Gundo. So, it was nice to be in the South Bay, have a South Bay person um as our um as our board uh president over there um and then to bring all of those folks and there were folks from all over uh you know um they had been quite a ways uh some of them um to come uh and it was a good turnout. Uh it's always nice to meet other people who are doing this work um in Los Angeles County and to hear about some of the same issues that we face and different ones and um and be able to share um that information um in a in a relaxed place with folks. So thanks Michelle for hosting it
014and um thanks to Tracy for bringing it back to the South Bay. Um those are that's what I've got for you tonight, Roger. >> Great. >> Thank you Rebecca. I'm going to go over to my right Nelson. I think Rebecca covered it well. You stole my thunder, so by all means, Michelle, go ahead. >> Hasn't been that long since we last met. Just to kind of piggy back a little bit, um some of the West um events, I did actually pull the dates up. The two coming up would be the trivia night um that's uh benefiting music instruction uh or uh and then the parents night out, which is the annual fundraiser. So, please make sure that you keep um October 9th and uh November 15th. Um looks like a lot of fun things and
015these people, they work so hard for the benefit of of of our children. And um I've seen the same group with with new faces. Um and but they just work tirelessly because they're really volunteerism in general is down. Um, and so this core group of people just do so much and they have so much passion and I um completely just amount of the amount that they are able to accomplish with such a a small group. So um thank you Rebecca for taking for going to that. I had a a whole like oh I can't do everything and uh moment in my life and so thank you for stepping in and making sure that they are uh represented um that that we the board represents at their meeting and we can bring back information. Um yes
016and as far as the lacks the meeting that was so fun and so interesting to be able to be with like-minded people and um I had a lot of conversations but really what came out was this idea of collaboration and this idea of um having these really important conversations across um schoolboard members uh because we are facing some of the sim similar issues and um being able to um kind of pull pull resources together to kind of see what we what what amazing conversations can come out of Um, so yeah, thank you so much, >> Roger. You got your trivia team. >> Really good at trivia. >> What expectations are set by other people >> they did on purpose because they're worried about the can be formed here. >> Thank you, Michelle. Um, I have
017a few comments tonight and I'd like to start with I'd like to recognize Miss Dena Stern, our fifth grade aviation teacher. I had the privilege of attending the Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year uh, awards lunchon in Universal City. Here's a copy of the wonderful program with an excerpt of all of the teachers that were nominated. and I had a chance to sit at the same table with our district staff and leadership uh at the event and get to know Dena a little bit more. Um, and it's it's easy to like underestimate what people do, especially if if you don't know what they go through day in and day out, but I would really like to recognize her. I had a really wonderful time at the table with everyone and recognizing that achievement. It's
018not something obviously that happens by itself, but know that great things are happening here in Weisburn. And it is an absolute privilege to sit at the table and have her be actually a a semi finalist. And I'm going to get my numbers wrong entirely, but I think Nisha is going to cover me here as they go through the numbers, but there's over 80 school I think there's 80 school districts in LA County and then 54 teachers got recognized by Leo. So not everyone in the district was in the LA county got recognized and from there they short list down to 25 to make us a semi finalist and then there's a sweet 16 right version that goes up and competes at a higher level for the entire state. But just to be in that group
019or in that cohort, what an accomplishment. So I wanted to recognize her and spend my time today just recognizing one of our own in terms of her accomplishments. Um and say thank you. Thank you for all the energy that she want and take please take a look at that. Um my last item is I'm really looking forward to attending um this Wednesday we have um Wiseurn USD Elementary math night. So it might be a little bit of an update but definitely look forward to attending that. As everybody knows math is a passion for me. There's a lot of topics. Sometimes we pick one, right? And math is one that I truly enjoy and focus on. So, I'm really looking forward to attending that on Wednesday at aviation, right? Aviation NPR and it's at five o'clock.
020So, if you're there, look forward to seeing you. Great. All right. That those are all the comments I had. >> I add one thing. >> Sure. >> Um I see Miss Bennett here and I just wanted to say thank you for letting me come into the classroom last week to do the Constitution in the classroom lesson. It was so much fun um to be with those kids and to just uh see the energy and the excitement that they had um to learn. They were so engaged and uh so it was just a lot of fun. So I just want to say thank you for um letting me come in and do that and I look forward to being able to do it for other folks. >> Excellent. >> All right, Blake, I'm going to turn
021it over to you for our district leadership report. >> All right, we're going to just go around. We're going to start with Kim and we're going to just go straight across to Nisha and then back to me. How about that? We'll start with you, Kim. >> I actually don't have anything tonight, but we will be sending out something soon regarding the Sketchers peer-to-peer walk. Um, so we'll have a blast out for the district with the flyer information. We'd like to create again our own Weisberg team this year that's just going to support directly to the Friendship Foundation um since we're not a part of their consortium of districts at the time at this moment. But our goal is to have a big group and big presence so that we can show that Wiseford wants to
022be a part of it moving forward. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> And as services, lots going on. Mr. Benuel, thank you so much about giving our props to aviation math family night. So all three of our elementary schools will be hosting a math family night. Um so aviation is our first to kick off. This is different than ones that we've seen with coats and it's more carnivalally and going to give parents some good tools of just everyday math using dice, cards, and just fun conversations that you can have with your children and really, you know, being able to use that at home. It's so easy as a parent to say, "Let's sit down and read." It's really hard to say, "Let's sit down and do math." And so, some fun happened at my house. >>
023I agree. My house was covered in butcher paper, but we raised two teachers raised kids. Um and so um these are things that our teachers do do every day, you know, in the different number sense and reasoning routine. So kind of giving those over to our parents to utilize those as well just to practice those math facts and um you know even some beyond fraction conversations and place value conversations. So I'm excited to have everyone be there and our our math coach Holly Compton lead that evening and we've partnered with Da Vinci. So all of the volunteers are Vivia our former our former students who are going to be um each student's going to get a math passport. So they're going to be running the stations and and stamping out their passports. So thank you
024to Da Vinci for really helping us organize that which is great to see. So that is happening on Wednesday. And then I am excited to announce that we've actually we have met one of our priority and two three measures already this school year in our first beginning of the year I Ready Diagnostic. Again, our staff is amazing. We've onboarded a new program and we had all of our students. So, our teachers just went with our new program and 90 we've met our threshold of 95% completion rate within our testing range. And so, both in the math and the reading assessment. So, you do have to close the window. Everyone will take the assessment, but what we were saying is as of Friday, anyone that started an assessment today, like they're going to be a little
025bit off, like they're going to be three weeks behind more or less in that assessment. So, it's not a fair measure in value. And so, they'll be added in in the middle of the year data. So I just want to thank our staff who is all at each of our elementary and our middle school this week going through a training with like what now with the data that they've received that we'll be sharing with you very soon and then learning about the my path. So that personalized path that I provides for each and every student. So we're we're moving ahead with Ready, which is just great to see. And then if you haven't been on Instagram lately, I'm going to say this and I have to look at my notes, but you're going to notice
026that a lot of WMS students are getting very revoling. And so we had a big reveal last week from our directors, Miss England and director Blue on our Matilda Jr. being the spring musical. So our our musical is moved up. It is going to be in March. We wanted to make sure all our big productions were done before our assessments and before spring break. So, thank you to them for their flexibility, but they hosted our our first parent night and um our student night just to inform them about. And then today, they've already started these like mini rehearsals before the triyouts next week. So, we're getting revolting with all of our um I like the kids that are going to revolt against the adults. So, I can't wait to see what they ask Dr. Silvers
027to be in this play. >> I heard he loves to participate in musicals. >> Only if I can. Exactly. You can say >> only. >> And then on Tuesday, September 30th, our design, our WUSD design team is meeting for the first time this school year, but third time together. And we're really, you know, continuing that partnership with Learner Center Collaborative that we um met in our last board meeting. And so we're making some pretty big decisions to move forward as a team with on our proficiency levels, recommendations, our recommendations for success indicators, and just having some really good conversation around like our north star of our our phil our assessment philosophy as a district. And this team, thank you for the four times they're going to be out of the classroom this school year, the
028the times they were out of the classroom this year. This work is is exciting to do and I'm excited to lead alongside them and in that work. So, lots of things happening in our community. >> Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, >> Maggie Monique. >> Um, good evening. I have an update for you on enrollment. So, I just have slides for that. Bring them up. >> There's one slide that has very tiny writing. So, um, that's what the handout is for. Thanks, >> Wendy. All right. Um, so a few updates about enrollment. Um, I am up here representing our enrollment team, our enrollment, um, outreach coordinator, Iliana Mise, um, our office managers, um, some of our district office staff who all put so much time and effort and care into our enrollment practices. So I just
029want to make sure I acknowledge them as we start talking about um all the wonderful things that have been happening in enrollment. Okay. I waited for the >> Seven times. Okay. Done four. >> It's just a surprise. Okay. Um so before we get into the numbers, I just want to talk a little bit about our enrollment season last year. We made some we made a few changes. One um we refined our residency verification practices. So we tried to do a better job of communicating what the requirements are to our families. So that is a less >> sorry that was okay by accident. Sorry. >> Um so that it's more clear. they understand what documents they need, what we're expecting, and then on our end, um, we also refined the way we review those documents internally
030so that we can ensure that the students that we're enrolling as residents are in fact verified residents of our community. Um, we emphasize the consideration of program impact and available resources. So, we also want to make sure that as we're enrolling residents and our permit students that we're able to provide the resources to them um in the way that we would be supportive, the district would be supportive to them without exhausting all of our resources so that there's a balance there. We opened three new TK classes, so we have nine now, which is really amazing and a lot of little four-year-olds. Um, and we also made adjustments to our tour schedule and the structure of our tours so that they're more engaging, more inviting to our community members and so that we have more of
031them. So, we ran tours at each site um from December through almost the end of the year. So, a big commitment also from our principles um our facilities crew, everyone who just contributed to making sure those tours were successful. And we can see in the number of our registrants um that the community seems to appreciate those opportunities. So we had um 1,400 families register for our tours last year with um almost 800 coming to the tours at the middle school. You can see um the dolphin. So all of the mascots made an appearance to at least one of the tours which the students loved. Families too. Um the middle school had so many families at their tours that they had to split up into three or four groups um during each tour. So this picture
032represents one of those smaller groups hanging out with the dolphin doing some exercises. >> All right. So our current numbers, our current enrollment as of today was 2563. We have 10 pending registrations. So, we expect that number to go up within the next few days to 2573. Um, which is very close to our the number that we budgeted which is 2578. Um, this is um a slight increase from last year's enrollment around this time which was 2538. You can also Oh, >> I was saying that's more than slight. That's actually that's about Yeah, that's >> um and you can see I think what a lot of us already know the greatness of Weisburn and our diversity. Um where we look at this table or this chart that represents the race and ethnicity of our students
033um with about 52% being identifying as Hispanic or Latino. Um and then a great deal of diversity just kind of going down the chart. Just a question about the Hispanic and Latino versus white. Is it nonwhite? Non-Hispanic white. Is that what the second number is phrases? Hispanic and Latino and then non-Hispanic white. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> All right. Here's where your handout might come into play with these tiny numbers. Um I will explain the what the table represents first and then just kind of the bullet points summarize the table. Um so we see in the first column this the name of the school site and in parentheses the number of sections per grade level. The grade level is identified in the column to the right of the school. So for that first row we
034have delair and it has two sections of TK. Um to the right of the grade is the total capacity of those combined sections. So Delair has two sections of TK and the capacity of both of those two TK classes is 40 students total. We have 39 students enrolled in TK at Delair. 27 of those students are residents. Um 12 of those students are on an interd district permit. Um and the and 31% um inner district permit students represent 31% of our TK class at Delair. Um so that's how the how you read the table there. Um again our enrollment current enrollment is 2563. Um 943 of those um enrolled students are on an interd district permit which represents about 30 37% of our student population. Um, grades four, six, and seven are slightly over what
035we expected to be our total capacity. That's okay. We account for that and can and can can accommodate those numbers. Um, and you'll see by looking at the table that most of the other numbers are almost at um the number that we were hoping to reach with capacity with our elementary school permits. Um, we have about 32% of our elementary school students who are on permit with kindergarten representing that highest number of that permit population at 38%, third grade representing the lowest of that permit population among elementary school students at 28% and everyone else falling around um 32 to 33% on average. With the middle school, um 44% of our students represent um the permit students on permit. Um seventh grade has the most permits followed by 8th grade and then sixth grade at 39%.
036>> An interesting point on this slide is our total capacity is 2580 >> and we're looking to be about 2573 which is incredibly close to that absolute capacity. So, we're like right there. Huge kudos to the community for our community for both resident and permanent students and to our staff for getting us close to that capacity number. That's actually a remarkable feat to be so close to it actually and also to our budgeted numbers. So, fantastic. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. So, um, kind of on the other end of the spectrum of students who are residents and those who are asking to be a part of our community, we also have students who want to be released from our district. Um, and so we have those students represented here. We had 66 total
037um, release requests for this school year. You can see there kind of the well, the table represents the breakdown of those um, requests by grade level. Um, and the bullet points also show you the breakdown by district that they're wanting to attend. So, Manhattan Beach and Elsa Gundo being kind of the most common district that families are requesting to to go to and then a sprinkle of applications for several other districts in the um surrounding area. Um, you can see a lot of those students are high school students. So 23 of those requests were 9th through 12th graders, 16 of them were 9th graders. Um, but we see here that most of our our release requests are coming from either high school students or our TK students. If we take out the high school students,
038we can see that the breakdown for um where students are wanting to go still remains pretty much the same. So, it's still Manhattan Beach and Elsa Gundo that they're asking to to go to. Um, which could indicate that um, you know, the early grade families are are wanting to stay nearby. They're wanting those options. And we see that in the reason why they are asking to be released. So, in the application, they're asked like, well, why do you want to to leave? Why do you want to be released? Um, a lot of the answers are child care. So they have carpool already set up with people who are attending these other districts or or daycare situations. Um so that's a common reason. Siblings who are already attending these other districts is also a very common
039reason. Um parent and parent employment. Then we also see um I think which kind of speaks to maybe where we can grow um is this TK families are already looking at the projection through 12th grade. And so they say >> really early. >> Yes. But they're looking for that consistency. They're looking for kind of the programs that that thread through kind of TK through high school. That whole experience. And so um that is also a common reason why families ask to to leave. Me, are you coming across and I don't know if we asked this in our qu in our questionnaire at all. Um, but I know a few families that have moved into our area from Manhattan Beach >> and they actually went to schools in Manhattan Beach and then they want their children
040to go to their schools and so forth. So, are we seeing that too? >> Yes. Like social networks, right? Where they say, "Well, our family and our friends, my child's friends are all in this other district, so we want them to go there, too." Um yes I think and then um you know for in terms of just how the numbers shake out when we pull out the high school students we also see a lot of the other districts outside of man aside from Manhattan Beach Hawthorne um Elsa Gundo um they're no longer kind of factors. So it seems like there are a lot of high school students who are seeking um school in Torrance, Roondo Beach, Sel Valley Union. Um and when we take when we don't factor in the high school students, we don't
041see that as being requested by our students. Also, of that 43, 10 of those families ended up staying. Um so some of them because they couldn't get released from their home district. Um but others the students like changed their minds and decided to stay. So, not everyone who requests to be released ends up. >> Well, that was unclear. Can I just just clarify? So, on that >> Sorry, let me go back. >> I know. Did you click and it takes seconds? >> 17. >> Um, >> yeah. >> So, the 43 is really 33 executed. Is that what you're saying? >> Thank you. >> All right. And lastly, um, moving forward, um, again, we're going to continue to try and improve our enrollment practices for the upcoming year, we have power school enrollment, which is new
042to us, which we plan on using for, um, our enrollment applications this year. Hopefully that brings ease of use to our families, um, and also provides us internally with, um, easier practices as well and, um, methods to collect data. Um, we are going to continue to refine our interd district attendance release and interd district attendance permit application processes so that um we can ensure that anyone who's applying for a release understands all that we have to offer um and and knows what a great place Wise is before we sign off and and um and they head off to a different district. Um, and also we're gearing up for our tours which again will be December through April or May. Any questions? >> Thank you. Thank you for the information. >> Thank you. >> Come on.
043>> So, I have my time in the spotlight in the previous board meeting. So, I will I will go ahead and defer my time to Dr. Doo. >> Are you sure you had enough time at that last board? No. Thank you for your update then as well. Thank you Sean. >> Thanks for giving me your time Sean. >> Um my update is a really quick update on staffing. Um want to first start with the certificated side of staffing. Uh we are um for the first time in a long time fully staffed um with certificated teachers um and with two really difficult to fill positions which is our futures plus and a new special education position in TK to2 um but once again all teachers are fully credentialed. Um we did a a really good job
044of having everyone's um input um early in the spring to get hiring done. And so that's been very very helpful in getting everyone on board. Um also gave most of our teachers the opportunity to be a part of summer professional development and really get ready for the start of the school year. We did have some late hires. Um that was just based on enrollment numbers and such where we had to open up additional classrooms. Um but all in all I can say that we are fully staffed certificated wise which is um a really really good thing for us. Um classified staff uh fully staffed for all of our office staff which um I know last year was a little bit of a struggle with some of our school sites um and having kind of turnover
045in office managers and general clerks. So fully staffed there. Um and we are onboarding two new um IT staff um starting October 1st. So that'll be exciting. Um we do have some vacancies in instructional aid positions and RBTs. We are um constantly recruiting for those positions and so if anybody is interested um please look on Edjoin. We have applications for both instructional aids and RBTs available. Um and these numbers or this staffing pattern is just constantly changing as new students are either qualifying for special ed or qualifying for additional support services. And so it is kind of a moving target for us each time, but we are looking to ensure that we can be staffed. Um we use a multiple things of substitutes, um staffing agencies, um and training folks up who are current instructional
046aids that are working towards say RBT credentials or um certification. And so we are working with our staff to ensure that we are um fully compliant with all the IEPs and such and getting the adult um services but also encouraging our current staff members to continue with their professional growth as well um for other positions in our district. So that is a staffing update. >> Thank you Nisha Dr. Silvers. >> Sure. A few few updates for me. um want to talk a little bit in um instead of a book a book talk in my house. We did have a math talk by the way. I'm just kidding. Um no, but but I I do I I really want to echo um Roger's comments related to the importance of of mathematics um and just just the
047focus on it because we do see this tremendous gap in in learning as it relates to mathematics. we see um you know especially in and you know to be totally frank our our a lot of our black and brown students just aren't performing at the same level u as our white students and I mean I think it just it it speaks to a need to focus on on some of these areas um it's why you know test scores may not be comparable to Elsa Gund Manhattan Beach uh for for other reasons other than just you know I mean teaching is happening learning is happening it's just happening in a different way um and I just want to um in a different pace and also different types of resources. Um so I want to um you
048know I sort of want to want to shed light on the fact that this is something that's going to be multiple year these are multiple year initiatives. Um it takes time um to see these types of changes um especially in math and I for one was a person who like chose to take the least number of math classes possible in my life. you know, it was as soon as I could be done with it. Um, I was and I and I was strategy and well, you know, and and I agree. I actually agree with that and I and I do think it's self-defeating at times. You know, you just feel you do it to yourself and and um I just I do hope that through these conversations and through some of the work that we're
049doing as it relates to math, these math nights, you're building fun in math and kids are less likely to feel like they can't. Um and uh what what I've seen unfortunately in my time in education is um kids say they can't too early. So um you know my hats off to the team, you know, my hats off to our teacher for making math enjoyable, you know, every day. Holly for getting out there and making math enjoyable every day. Maggie for your leadership in this area. Kim for your leadership from a special education standpoint um in this area, I think is just really critical. Um and I just think it's an important um it's an important initiative in our district for so many reasons, reasons of equity and reasons of you know just foundational skills um
050that we want to give to kids. So, um that being said, um also want to um highlight enrollment and I I think you know Mo'Nique um shared this this presentation today um simply, you know, and you see on this this four or five slide deck, you know, numbers and percentages and all of that. And I just want to say how difficult and challenging this process is to get a number um that we got to to budget for 2578. I mean Raj you made a really good point which is you know um we got close to capacity close to budget and um you know unfortunately like every student that's not in our classes or in our schools you know below that 2578 that you budget is going to be a budget adjustment at some point. You
051know either it's going to be a budget adjustment first interim report or second interim report but we're going to see that adjustment to the tune of you know $12,000 plus per kid. And so when you start doing the math, I mean kids aren't math problems, but unfortunately in the business of schools, it is, you know, there is a number associated. And so I don't want to lose sight of the critical nature of this particular initiative of this priority in our district to try and get close to that. Um while also honoring the fact that I know the challenges to sightings you know we've increased now you know you saw today was it 38 students that we've increased and that has an impact on playground spaces on you know faculty lounge you have more people um
052there's more uh more yeah you have um impacts with student students coming in with diverse needs and so forth and so on that impacts our teachers on a daily basis that impacts our support staff on a daily basis that impacts our clerical staff on a on a daily basis. So this is a um a dance that we have to do together, you know, because um it's it's here and it's and it's a difficult challenge. Um so I wanted to share, you know, it's it's it's easy to kind of paint the picture and paint the you know, put the numbers on the screen, but behind every number, there's a whole lot of context, you know, a whole lot of work that went in. Um we deal with a 40% on average, what 38% 36% permit population.
053So, we're filling a large portion of our district with permit students. That requires marketing. It requires engagement with community. Um, you know, requires tours. I mean, I what do we do? I forget if you put the number on there. We probably did 20 tours, if not more than that. Um, and every tour is choreographed. Every tour is is a show. I mean, a lot a good show. I shouldn't say because it's it's true, but I mean it is a it is quite a lift and there's a lot of public facing time information um that that goes out and then obviously it's the it's the followup after. So being close to that number that we saw speaks to every single facet of our district. It speaks to the teachers in the classroom, the parents feel entrusted
054to come and send their kids. speaks to our support staff, to our office clerks that welcome our kids and our families every day and speaks to the district team um that put together this this this jigsaw puzzle of getting kids in the classroom. Um so I wanted to speak more to it because um you know Mo'Nique made it look easy with numbers and in a short presentation probably because I said like keep it to three slides or five slides or something but you know the reality is is that there's so much more to it. So, I want to thank Mo'nique, you know, um, everybody else I've just thanked, you know, throughout that process and and certainly to who's not here today, but just to thank her for her work. Um, you know, this is really
055their first year of of of navigating this and and it's it's quite a quite a quite a a deal. Um, and I mean, look how close we are. It's just pretty incredible after all of this work that we're landing where we're landing this year. um when at times we didn't think we would you know just to be frank there was just a few weeks ago we were concerned you know and and the conversation today may have been different so just want to say that want to highlight that you know that good work that's happening um next I want to talk about the sports complex u obviously you heard uh from from two community members Sean myself uh no her team we had some uh representation from Ericson Hall the construction you know company um and
056also O from our architect from LPA I'm sorry EBK sorry >> uh from PBK u it's an acronym and uh sorry it's one of the many there's a lot of them >> there's a lot of them um but I you know I do want to share there was we did have an opportunity to walk in backyards to take a look at the site to also look from the from the district site um and we are putting together a plan uh to to provide some sort of privacy there we think this would be a really really good outreach opportunity it's kind of twofold. So you have the fence that would be it's about from aviation basically to where the the new entrance to the shop will be. Right now it's on aviation basically but it's going
057to be moving down further because it's going to account for the parking lot. Right. So you're going to have entrance parking lot fence to the maintenance yard. Um there's about three homes that are impacted there that run that are on um Judah Judah. Uh and and it's and and we're trying to deal with some of the privacy concerns that they have there. So um what Liz was sharing is putting up about a 10-ft chain link fence, 1 in mesh, 1-in uh links in the mesh uh with a a dark basically a blackout uh privacy screen just to keep some of that that privacy between the school facility and them. There's also the concern with um you know the level of use that that parking lot may get um and if it's never flipped that it's
058just opening up a pretty high visible traffic written street called you know aviation there um to just people to be able to pull in at any time of day night all of those things. So we want to um so we are actually also in this process looking at some sort of control um you know a chain link gate with a lock at the very simplest form or maybe something a little bit more um more automated if if we need to but so we're still looking at some of those options just not prepared to bring that back to the board with an actual recommendation yet. Um but just think that's my thought process on this. Um, and I think uh a real easy solution for us and I think we have some pretty viable solutions that
059are the right solution. So, we'll uh we'll we'll definitely be bringing this back in probably the next month or so back to this board for some review. Um, okay. Also wanted to uh share back to school nights. Obvious share about I think a couple of them at the last meeting. Had a chance since our last board meeting to go to Holly Glenn's um which is amazing. I mean, I'll tell you, it's like um the the babies are are so much fun. I've been able to go and see some of our TK students. Um I know that's not back to school night, but I just had to say that. Um I was at a chamber meeting this morning and I said if anybody wants to brighten your day, go see a TK student pretty much anytime.
060Um and there's a lot of students that do that, but just saying they're pretty awesome. Um but T Holly Glenn, amazing. Just the culture, the you know, the teachers were awesome. parents, it's just such a such a a buzz because it's, you know, for a lot of these parents, it's like their first, you know, introduction to that type of interaction with the school. Um, and and and the teachers just do a wonderful job of making that a special time for them. And so, you know, really my hats off um to them for that. Um, and and I want to Oh, and I should have followed up by saying SLC, which I had a chance to go see the SLC and talk about making an interim location feel comfortable and nice. Um, you know, thank you
061to Noami and Tariq for their help there, but more importantly, thank you to the team there, to Sarah, um, and Stacy for for really trying to uh, make that place, you know, look like it's not an internal place. We know it is, and we we can't wait to get the SLC to their to their new home, but right now they're not. And so, we're we're just uh we're just just thankful uh for that. Um I had shared with the board that last the 17th, so last Wednesday, uh the League of Innovative Schools uh released their public uh release that Wise was uh selected as one of the newest 35 school districts in the country to be part of the League of Innovative Schools. Um really looking at forwardinking work um more so than what we've
062done to get into the league, which actually was was quite a lot. like there was a lot of breath and depth that went into the application into the interview and to all of that but it's more our ability to collaborate forward thinking right I think part of why this innovate this league is so important is that it gets like-minded educators in a room to talk about education in the future but not at a not at such a level that it can't work in classrooms and it's really looking at I mean there's a lot of people that could talk good things at a very high level of policy and and thought about education But this is to get into the ground into the classrooms to go see schools and really see what's working out there because
063education could be so insular, you know, and and I think it's really important for us to see outside of just our world. I think it's important to see outside of Weisburn. I think it's important to see outside of the South Bay. I think it's important to see outside LA County. And I really think it's important to see outside of California. there's just a lot of really really good educators out there that are doing amazing things for kids um in the areas of math, in the areas of robotics, in the areas of of wellness. Um so really excited about this opportunity um to do that. Also, Rebecca shared uh we had an opportunity to uh go to the Wiseman Education Foundation meeting. Um and you know, I'm thankful to our volunteers. I think Michelle also, you
064know, really hit it. It's a group of volunteers that are there and um you know they have uh they have a charge of trying to to bring money in to support our schools and and gosh they do it every year. You know they're so supportive of our schools, so supportive of our teachers, so supportive of our programs. Um and also gives them an opportunity to share, as Rebecca said, share some some concerns with us as a district. You know, we get to hear from the family side of things. And so I do want to share that one of the I'm going to share a couple of the highlights from that that I took away. One is um there were some conversations at the end of last year related to some of the culture issues uh
065or I'm going to say perceived alleged um and probably some truthful with the culture issues at the middle school um particularly related to um how students how some of our younger families feel about going to the middle school because of what may be perceived as as lots of fights um and things of that nature. And so some of these younger families want to start having that dialogue. Now, we just talked about enrollment and how important enrollment is, right? We want to we want to see those numbers of students um exiting our district go down or at least stay the same at the the very best. And so I think having these conversations early with our with our families is very important. Having an opportunity for, you know, third or fourth grade parents to be able
066to talk to middle school administration, etc. counselors, whatever it may be, just to get a broader picture or a more specific picture of what really happens at a middle school because when you go to that middle school, it it's not what it's perceived to be. There's problems. There's going to be issues everywhere, but I mean, you know, there there is a there is such a a connection at that middle school between those students and and adults on that campus. Um, there's tough years, there's tough weeks, uh, but but really, I think that there's a lot of magic going on there and there's lots of things that we need to work on. on it. So, I think it's really important for us to sit down. So, that was one of the issues. I know Alisa is
067working with um her PTA to do what they call principal chats or coffee chats, some kind of thing where they have coffee. Yeah. In the morning. Um I didn't need to clarify in the morning, did I? But not but >> I drink coffee all day. So, >> coffee. But but but with that, I I I do think that those conversations are important to have. Um, I look forward to Lisa having that that conversation. I did share with WE those opportunities that they can have folks go out there and do that. Um, another conversation revolved around cell phones. This is something that continues to come up in in dialogue. I've heard it from families. I heard it from web specifically. I've even heard it from board members um related to what do we do to help
068support um students use or lack of use of of cell phones. Um I think it's primary it's more more evident in our upper elementary school and then certainly going into middle school. Middle school is probably where where the worlds collide a little bit because you're not in a self-contained class anymore. So now you're in, you know, you're moving around. It just you don't have as much control um as you as you may in your upper elementary um even. So I wanted to to continue those conversations. I don't have an answer to you on this. I mean, this isn't something I was sharing with like, hey, and here's the solution. It's more these are conversations that we're having. They're conversations we're entertaining with Lisa. I actually met with her last week. Um so we can start
069looking at um what are some ways that we could do it because you know there's two sides of this coin. You know there's a side that says we want to lock up every phone every morning and and nobody can access their phone and then there's a side that says you can't do that. You know it's not your purview and it's not your right as a district and as a school to do that. And so um as much as we want to do certain things you know I just want to be clear that there's there's there's there's a lot of reasons why um we have to be careful um about that. So anyway, not an easy problem for sure and I and I I just wanted to in all transparency share some of those things with
070you. I'm also in Anna's here. There are some concerns about right at school um in particular related to some discipline. Thank you for being here by the way and I'm don't mean to put you on the spot. Um but um related to to some of the discipline and maybe some exclusionary discipline practices and and just want to share the response that we've received from that school very quick um action planning and all of that. that I want to just ensure that the community knows that we are communicating with Ryan School. Rain of school is communicating with us. We're trying to make these um resolve some of these issues um or perceived issues as as quickly as we can. Um so, thank you Anna for for doing that. Um and sorry I had a lot today.
071Um but I did want to end uh by saying probably one of the best days of the school year celebrating our teacher of the year um at the teacher of the year event. And um you know I just you know I'm so thankful that we got to spend that day with with Dena and just in the time from her getting that award to now having some you know kind of authentic moments to communicate to you know converse with her to kind of learn about you know about her kids and she went to ASU and one of her kids went to ASU which is like the like the arrival of the University of Arizona where my daughter goes but um but it's uh you know it's just really really nice. um had a chance to meet
072her husband um at the event and then of course got to got to be joined by by some wonderful uh educators and colleagues of hers as well. Um, and I, you know, I'll just tell you, it is literally one of the best days of the year to be able to see some of the other teacher. I mean, this is, this is celebrating the work that we do, right? We're all here because of teachers. And so, I just um think that this is just a wonderful recognition. And I figured it should be the last update for me today. >> Well, that is definitely an excellent one to transition from. So, thank you. Thank you, Blake. Okay, we're going to move on uh to section eight um in our agenda for those that are u online and
073following on following along. Uh section 8 is public comments on agenda items. Wendy, do we have any uh public comments on agenda items? >> We do not. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Going to section nine, which are consent items. Is there a motion for item 9.1 which would approve items 9.2 through 9.11? >> You have a motion. >> Second. >> A motion and a second. Any comments, questions, or discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I thank you. Motion carries 4. Action item 10.1 is to adopt resolution number 25/26.03 03 textbook and instructional materials compliance for 202526 which is the public hearing we just had at the beginning of our meeting. Is there a motion? >> Motion. >> A second. >> Second. >> Roger. If I could just clarify and I
074think I was supposed to say this in the public um public hearing. I'm just say it now. I think it's fine. Uh but just to share that writer's workshop which is has been adopted by the middle school by this board and and is used at the middle school um and our elementary schools is not a text it's not on the adopted list of textbooks but it is an instructional program that we've decided to use and so we have that right as well. So I'm just pointing that out. >> Thank you Blake. All those in favor >> I thank you. Motion carries 4. Section 11 action items. U item 11.1 is approve a master contract and individual service agreement with Beacon Day School. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second.