001I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order at 5 p.m. Can I get approval of the agenda? I move for approval of the agenda. Second. It's been moved by Trustee Rodriguez and seconded by Trustee Richardson-Fowler. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Any abstentions? Approval of the agenda has been passed unanimously by the board. Any public comment on the items on closed session today? No public comment on the items in closed session. We're going to go ahead and proceed to closed session at 5.01 p.m. Thank you very much. And we'll be back at 6 p.m. One more minute. Thank you very much. It is 6 p.m. Thank you to my board colleagues for being here this evening. Thank you for taking time away from your home and your families. Thank
002you to the community, teachers, staff, students, and family for being here this afternoon, this evening, 6 p.m. Muchas gracias a todos nuestros estudiantes, a todos nuestros empleados y a las familias que están aquí hoy con nosotros. Gracias por tomar tiempo de su noche y pasarla aquí con nosotros en nuestra junta de la mesa directiva del Distrito Escolar de Woodland. I wanted to go ahead and let my colleagues know that I'm very appreciative of all of the feedback that I got from my board colleagues. I received only one community email regarding the way that I led the meeting at the last board meeting. So given the feedback that I did receive, majority of it was very good, very positive. So that was very uplifting and I'm very thankful for that. I am going to be making
003some changes. So this evening, I would like for board members to limit their questions to two questions, two comments, and then we will open it up for feedback or comments from the rest of the board and then proceed to the next one. And then we'll continue with the order of the board member to your right. And then we did have sufficient time to take a break prior to coming in here to open session from closed session. So right around the halfway mark, I will be asking if you guys would like to take a five minute break. And if any of you need longer period, please go ahead and raise your hand and ask for a courtesy of 10 minutes. And then we will go ahead and allow for the 10 minute courtesy. If not, we'll
004go ahead and vote to do a five minute break. Okay. Let's go ahead and get started. So reconvening Pledge of Allegiance Thank you very much this evening trustee Rodriguez Mojica will be leading us in our land acknowledgement statement We should take a moment to acknowledge the land on which we are gathered For thousands of years this land has been the home of the Potwin people today. There are three federally recognized Potwin tribes catch all de he band of wind to Indians of the Calusa Indian community Ketzeldihi Winton Nation and Yokadihi Winton Nation. The Patwin people have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries. It has been cherished and protected as elders have instructed the young through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on their traditional lands. Thank
005you very much. And now our equity statement will be read by Trustee Noel Rodriguez. Thank you. Our equity statement reads as follows. All students deserve excellent schools which are culturally responsive and set high expectations, a high quality learning environment and equitable resources to ensure that they are reaching their full potential. WJUSD will be purposeful about providing equitable access to all essential educational opportunities for all Woodland Joint Unified School District students, especially diverse and disadvantaged students who have historically been underserved by educational institutions. Thank you very much. I'm gonna go ahead and make an announcement of any action taken in closed session. Resolution 48-25, non-reelection of probationary certificated employees, was motioned by Trustee Villagrana and seconded by Trustee Rodriguez. The vote was unanimous. All board members present voted yes. Resolution 49-25, non-reelection of temporary long-term substitute
006certificated employees, was motioned by Trustee Villagrana and seconded by Trustee Rodriguez-Molica. The vote was as follows. All trustees present voted yes. Superintendent, do you need me to do the roll call? Do we need to say no? Thank you very much. The next one. The Board of Trustees took action in closed session by unanimous vote of all trustees present to deny the expulsion recommendation and order the notice of expulsion issued to be rescinded for student 25-05. And this is for item D1A. The action passed by a motion by Trustee Villagrana and a second by Trustee Rodriguez. The vote was as follows. All trustees present voted yes. Thank you very much We are now going to public comments on sections G consent calendar consent agenda and community engagement We have we have two public comments Annie Burkholder
007and then Jen drew ik Annie Burkholder or Jen drew ik Good evening, trustees, cabinet, community. I'm Jen Druick. I teach freshman seminar at Woodland High School, and I just want to take the opportunity to thank this board of trustees for continuing to stand up and do the right thing and to continue to extend resolutions to, in some measure, help all of our students feel supported and at home in our schools. It is not insignificant. It is noted. We are noticing and thank you. Monica the other individuals not here. All right. Let's go ahead and move on. Consent agenda. Would anyone like to remove any items off consent. I will be removing item G 1 a purchase I purchase item services in excess of fifteen thousand dollars. Anyone else. Alright, can I get a motion to
008approve the consent agenda without item g1a I make that motion second it's been motioned by trustee Rodriguez and Seconded by trustee Brubaker all those in favor say aye Any abstentions or opposition? It's been approved by all those present approval of the purchase items services in excess of $15,000 any questions on the peel list Can I get a motion for approval? I make the motion to prove It's been motioned by Trustee Rodriguez and seconded by Trustee Richardson-Fowler. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Any abstentions? One abstention, please. Thank you very much. Moving on to community engagement, H1. Information action resolution 51-25, reaffirming support for Woodland Joint Unified School District. LGBTQIA plus community and all Woodland Joint Unified School District community. Thank you. And I'll be reading. the resolution that we are bringing forth
009tonight. Whereas the WJUSD Board of Trustees proclaims its ongoing support of our LGBTQIA plus students and staff that in presenting this resolution we reaffirm the principles of equity, diversity, and commitment to all students to have a quality education. That we strongly reiterate the right for LGBTQIA plus students. including transgender and gender nonconforming youth, all WJUSD students, all WJUSD families, and all WJUSD staff to feel protected and respected in our district. Whereas WJUSD recognizes the rights of all of our students to learn in an environment that feels safe, supported, and affirming for who they are as guaranteed by California law AB1955. and whereas strong state and federal laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation in schools, and in addition, California schools have an affirmative duty to protect LGBTQIA plus students from discrimination
010and harassment to ensure inclusivity for students of all genders and sexual orientation. and to take steps to prevent all forms of discrimination and harassment based on protected characteristics of sexual orientation and gender identity. And whereas California law further prohibits bias in any school instruction or activity on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Whereas provided by California law, all students have equal opportunity to participate in any program or activity offered by the school and cannot be discriminated against based on their race, nationality, gender, religion, or immigration status, among other characteristics. And whereas we recommit to doing all we can to make sure that all youth, including transgender youth, voices are heard and taken seriously. And whereas we recommit to the notion that our district will actively pursue and be purposeful about creating an environment
011that is physically, culturally, and emotionally safe for all youth and staff. And this is the resolution that we are bringing forth today. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments before we take action on this item? Trustee Villagrana. I'll defer. I'll go after. Trustee Brubaker. Sorry. I forgot we were going starting at that end. So apologies. I just want to thank Trustee Rodriguez and Batista Zavala for working with me on my first resolution to make this possible and for the WJSD community who has lived this ethos in the past and has committed yet again to doing so. There's a lot of reasons for people to be fearful in this country, and I do not want any of our students or staff or within community to have that fear in our, at least in our care.
012So thank you for reading that and for helping me bring this. Absolutely. Thank you. Trustee Villagrana. I want to say thank you to my colleagues for putting this forth for us to. Again, reaffirm our support for the young people in our district. It's essential that we continue to restate it over and over because we hear, right, from other perspectives that are not good for our young people to hear. So we need to reinforce it as many times as necessary to make it as clear every time that we hear for all young people. So again, thank you to my colleagues for bringing that forward for us to consider today. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Trustee Rodriguez-Mojica. I want to second the thank you to those of you that worked on it. So thank you so
013much for bringing this forward for us. And I want to say I'm incredibly proud to be a part of a board that really respects all students and wants the best for all students and sees their humanity. So thank you all for this. And I hope that to our community, this also communicates really, really clearly where your board stands on protecting and really seeing every single one of our students in our schools. So thank you. Thank you very much anyone else All right, I move to approve resolution 51-25 reaffirming support for LGBTQ I a plus community and all second it's been motioned by trustee Both these Tessa Vala and seconded by trustee Richardson Fowler all those in favor. Please say aye aye Any opposition or abstentions? All right motion passes UNANIMOUSLY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK
014YOU. MOVING ON TO ITEM H2. THIS IS RECOGNITION OF OUR STUDENT ATTENDANCE CAMPAIGN. THESE ARE OUR POSTER WINNERS. Yes, so trustees at your seats you have a calendar for this year with all our post students who participated in the poster the winners of the students who participated in the poster contest on helping me spread helping us spread the message that every day counts that it's important to come to school every day and I'm going to ask our director of student services Dr. Rishabh Felicia Rodini-Wilson who helped coordinate all this and she has some calendars to give to the families. I think, are they getting two or three? They're getting two so the families can. fight which grandma gets one. So she's gonna go ahead and name the students and the students who are here, we
015are very, very proud of you for helping us spread a very, very important message. So you're helping us make a difference here in Woodland. With that, I'll pass it on to Felicia. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Ortega-Lampkin and Board of Trustees. I'm very proud to... bring forward these calendars to you so you can be reminded all year of not only how important attendance is in our school district, but how talented our students are. We have this, we had this contest last year. We took it up again this year. It's wildly popular. Our schools have an opportunity to send forth to the district office, their top, their, their top choices. And then our superintendent and sits and has to make the very difficult decision with some guidance here and there and some discussion. It takes a
016bit to figure out who from each school is going to have a part of our post of our calendar. So we have invited our students here with their families today to receive, they have not seen these yet and so they'll be getting these today. I will be calling your names up so if you hear your name I need you to come up we'll present you with a certificate and then my colleague over here will be handing out the both the calendars. I'm going to actually be a little rude and turn my back or sideways to you if that's okay. Dr. Wilson, can you also talk a little bit about how the Attendance Every Day Counts campaign has operated in our district and the change and improvement in attendance that we have seen? Sure, absolutely. Thank
017you. So we began the attendance campaign. right after COVID and as it impacted our community and our students. And an incentive to remind us that it's safe to be back at school. We have precautions and such in place and to encourage our students that we are ready for them and to be here. And so... Two, three years ago, we started with a competition between our schools for most improved attendance. And so we would compare month to month where attendance was, average daily attendance. And then each month, our school that had the top improvement percentage would receive a banner to display at their school. And then our superintendent attended and did a congratulations. They held up the banner. They took pictures. And it was. promoted through our social media and then actually in the Woodland Daily
018Democrat as well. So that was the first year. Last year, we increased upon that. We continue with the monthly competition between schools. And then our superintendent then added a little incentive. If you were one of the winning schools, you got a DJ to come and have like a lunchtime. music or something at your school, lunchtime party. So it was just an all-school celebration. In addition, we added the competition with the posters for a message. And then we came out and... As you see, this is our second year doing that. So we are continuing with all of those things this year. And I do believe it has an impact. It's a great reminder from our students to their peers why school is important, why we need to be here every day. And you see those messages
019reiterated through all of their artwork. So that is how this has morphed and developed into what we have today. Okay. All right, students. I'm going to do my best with your name pronunciations. My sincerest apologies ahead of time if it is not completely correct. In no way is this a reflection of you. It's a reflection of me not practicing enough. So here we go. From Cache Creek High School, Arnulfo Amaya Lopez. If you are here, come on up. From Lee Middle School, Savannah Quam. From Douglas Middle School, Kash Karam. From Zamora Elementary School, Layla Sunderland. From Whitehead Elementary School, Marbella Pineda Brambilla. From Dingle Elementary School, Maya Soraya Cortez. Mia or Maya? It's Mia. See, I knew I'd mess up. All right, from Beamer Elementary School, Mia Mora Chavez. From Prairie Elementary School, Mamuna Mustafa.
020From SciTech Academy Elementary School, Madeline Villasenor. From Maxwell Elementary School, Hazel Sendu. From Spring Lake Elementary School, Hawi Muleta. And her mother is picking this up on her behalf. She's at another event tonight. She warned us. From Tafoya Elementary School, Felipe Nolan. From Plainfield Elementary School, Everly Hafner. From Gibson Elementary School, Alexis Mohiniki. And from Freeman Elementary School, Alana Villanueva. Congratulations. Congratulations to all. I know you can't wait to rip them open and see where your page has landed in there. Again, thank you so much. And Superintendent Ortega-Lampkin. And parents, please feel free to come up and take a picture. This is your Kodak moment. I know I just dated myself with that, but this is your Kodak moment. Thank you very much to all of our students and families for being here this evening.
021We're going to go ahead and move on to the next item. This is item H3, and this is a recognition of one of our students, Stephanie Ballesteros, receiving the Every Student Succeeding Award from AXA. Superintendent. So we have our principal from Woodland High School, and we have our student, Stephanie. BEYESTEROS WHO RECEIVED, GERALD, IF YOU CAN COME ON UP, WHO RECEIVED AN AWARD. IT IS A REGIONAL AWARD. SHE WAS NOMINATED BY HER SCHOOL. WE ARE VERY, VERY PROUD BECAUSE THERE WAS SEVERAL STUDENTS FROM AROUND THE SACRAMENTO REGION AND STEPHANIE WAS SELECTED FOR THIS RECOGNITION AND I WANT TO THANK HER FOR BEING WHO YOU ARE. I HEARD WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT YOU BUT I THOUGHT... It would be nice to hear your principal directly about why you were nominated and how you were selected. Thank you,
022Superintendent Ortega-Lanquan. Thank you, Board of Trustees. So part of this is the recognition from AXA and... Nominating a student that overcomes obstacles on a regular basis or overcomes obstacles and has been able to succeed on behalf in spite of that so when talking to the rest of the staff Stephanie was a a no-brainer. She's an amazing student for Woodland High School. We are extremely proud of her. She has been successful during her time there. She's a senior right now, so she has over a 4.3 GPA. She's one of our top students. She's well-rounded. She's in multiple AP classes. She's even part of our theater production, so if you want to check out this spring musical this spring, go check her out. um but she's a well-rounded student and we have no doubt that she's going
023to be successful for many years to come and so we wanted to make sure that we recognize her and because she couldn't attend the awards banquet we do have a plaque that received from them from axa and a nice little uh scholarship check on behalf of access so um so stephanie congratulations we are very proud of you we are proud to call you a woodland high school wolf so and congratulations again I want to thank Mr. Salcedo for granting me the opportunity to receive this award and to stand here today as a role model to other young teens who have or may be currently struggling with challenges. My message to those teens struggling is to keep going and to keep fighting because there is a way out and you are more than capable. Thank you.
024Thank you very much. All right, that one got me a little teary-eyed you guys Moving on to our next item item h4 presentation of resolution 44-25 black history month trustee Richardson feller Not like to read the resolutions Instead I like to have folks have the platform to talk I really if you I know we're gonna talk about can we also talk about the emoji? Okay, perfect All right, ready? Oh, I got the floor. Well, I know what to do with the floor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, trustees, for having us in with you this evening to celebrate Black History Month. You know, I said I wasn't doing any more resolutions, but because of what's going on in the national landscape with education, I wanted to be with you and let you know
025that we are with you and that we appreciate everything that you do. Black History Month is American history. It's about American history. Every one of us in this room can trace our roots back to Africa. So I love to see my brothers and sisters from another in the room. So I'm not going to hold you up. I wanted to very quickly over to introduce you to just, this is just one of my members of our Emoja group. Emoja, which stands for unity, is the Health and Human Services Cultural Competence African Diaspora Work Group. So I do work at HHSA as does my friend here, Charisse. And part of our work group is to keep the black community supported and encouraged. And we had an event. I'm going to talk about Kwanzaa for a minute. I'm
026going to talk about Kwanzaa and our Black History Month kickoff with YCOE. It was amazing in the room, the spirit that was in the room at Kwanzaa, which is the celebration that we hold at the end of December. Excuse me. Well, we held it on December 16th, but Kwanzaa is actually later in the month. People were amazed. They were almost to tears because we don't get to see ourselves around Woodland too much. You know, I think when I first moved to Woodland, I thought it was my family and then one other black family, and they were always in trouble, so we couldn't even talk to them. So we were just amazed to be in such company and to see the number of black people that do actually live and work and contribute to the betterment
027of Woodland. It was a beautiful, beautiful night, which was a lovely way to work our way right through to the kickoff. partnership with the YCOE. If you haven't had a chance to see the amazing quilts that are hanging all throughout Woodland, I think at the library they have some, at the administration building they have some as well. Umoja has been taking part in partnering with many different groups around Yellow County. I get around and so every place I go I take my Umoja stuff with me. So we've partnered with the library on Juneteenth. We're moving and doing it in West Sac. with the city of West Sacramento this year. It's always been at the Davis Library. So we've done that. We've given out books. We've held a lot of different events and prefer to partner
028versus, you know, look at me, look at, you know, at our group. So we prefer to do our work in partnership with other groups. And so with that, I'll let it go right now. I'll just say that about that. Can I talk about Brenda Jones right now? Thank you. I gave you a surprise away. Go ahead. Yes, please. Yes. Yeah, and then you can just show it. So speaking of not ever getting to see yourselves, speaking of Emoja, Emoja resolved to give you a gift, and this is a picture of Brenda Jones-Smith. Does anybody know who Brenda Jones-Smith is? You don't? Well, let me just tell you a little bit of something. Okay, Brenda Jones became the first black woman to win an election in Woodland to the school board. Ms. Jones was a lifelong
029advocate for students and children at the state and local level. She served on the California School Board Association in leadership roles, also the coalition of black school board members. She worked more than three decades in state government. Part of what she did in state government, she worked on the Senate Commission on Teacher Quality. She worked on a legislative task force on the abuse of children and students. She was a lifelong resident of Woodland, and she served on this very school board from 1977 to 1993. in my strolls around the school district, because I used to be over here a little bit, I don't think I ever saw a picture of Brenda Jones. So we kind of resolved, let us help you with that, because we love you. And we want you to have this picture
030from our cultural competence work group to you. And so this is the picture of Brenda Jones. Oh, and the other thing we'll do is we'll host a little small reception, small now. reception when you get ready to hang her picture. All right, so just let us know when. All right, thank you very much. If I can just piggyback on, I failed to introduce Ms. Tessa Smith. She is the DEI coordinator for Yolo County. And I feel like I've seen you all over the county. Black folks are less than 3% of Yolo County. We have 144. self-identified black students in Woodland Joint Unified. We're barely 1% of Woodland Joint Unified. So it's so lovely to have the Umoja group, to have a sense of community. I've been saying this repeatedly. Oftentimes I have to leave my
031community to find my community. And it's so wonderful to have leaders. Doing what you guys do and to have the symbol the first time I did this resolution. We gave it to Miss Brenda Johnson's family. So I'm just wanted to let you guys know that and Come up and give you the resolution and take a picture. All right. Thank you Okay Sure Thank you very much. Thank you very much trustee Richardson Fowler for that Moving on to item h5 recognition of gifts to the district This evening. I will list off the February 20th gifts as of February 20th Donation received on January 11th to Freeman Elementary from Sprout supermarkets They received $2,000. It was a monetary donation towards their school garden and then January 13th ed services received $4,800 monetary donation was this monetary donation
032is to be split evenly amongst all 12 elementary schools and the donors were the Woodland Elks Lodge the Woodland Revealed Lions Club the Woodland Host Lions Club and the Yellow Sunset Lions Club January 13th, 2025, Prairie Elementary School received a $2,000 donation from Sprouts Healthy Community Foundation, and that's a monetary donation towards their school garden as well. On January 17th, Freeman Elementary received $45 from CAF America, aka Target, and this was a monetary donation towards their school. On January 17th, 2025, Freeman Elementary received a donation for $48.36 from Nugget Markets. and was a monetary donation towards their school as well. At the end of the month, on January 30th, Pioneer High School received a $478 monetary donation towards art supplies, their art class, from the Yolo County Heritage Foundation Friends of Art. The total for
033this report and donations is $7,571.36. Can I please ask our Board of Trustees, my colleagues, to please give these donors a round of applause this evening. Thank you very much for these generous donations Now moving on to student reports from Cache Creek High School this evening. I welcome student Jaden Gortares Good evening board president Bautista Zavala and trustees super to Ortega Lampkin Executive Cabinet and community, my name is Jaden Cortares and I am a senior at Cache Creek High School. My report tonight is the following. Beginning this month, we welcome Mr. Hector Molina as our new intern principal. Many students have known him for his schooling at Lee Middle School. Cache Creek High School has celebrated 15 graduates so far this year. Councilor Martin and RTI Grody have been meeting with all 12th grade students
034and parents to review progress towards graduation. With each graduate, this allows additional space for new students to enter. Ten students just completed the after-school program All Leaders Must Serve that teaches student skills for employment. Students earned a financial incentive. and are paired with a community mentor to support them in finding and keeping a job. In the program, we will begin a new group of students in the coming weeks. Yesterday, seniors attended a field trip to Willing Community College to hear about the programs they offer and steps to attending. I was one of the students who went and saw all the classes they have. Brown issue students are working on 2d and 3d arts for the art show at the non in April as Well as designing two new murals on campus. There is a sneak
035peek of the lowrider model car display a collaboration with mr. Cornettos art and culture class This is currently up at Yolo library and we'll have more updates on the date for the art show and upcoming events at the next for me Thank you. Have a good night Thank you very much Jaden Next, we have Pioneer High School, Leila Lavarico. Good evening, Board President, Bautista Zavala, trustees, Superintendent Ortega-Lampkin, Executive Cabinet, and community. My name is Leila Lavarico, and I represent Pioneer High School, and my report tonight is the following. Tonight we're holding our art show in our library and students have submitted their work and it will be showcased for viewers to vote on. The top three winners will receive cash prizes. And also tonight our Women in Stub Club is holding an elementary school math
036competition in our cafeteria. So it's fun to see kids express their love for math. Today, ASB and Link held a freshman rally so we can help them get comfortable with high school participation and spirit. They definitely still need some work, but it was an improvement. This week, we've been holding ASB interviews, and we've had more applicants this year than the past couple of years, so we really enjoyed meeting with everyone, and we're hoping to find our new members. Next Monday is our winter sports night where we recognize our athletes awards and achievements and the upcoming month of March will be very busy for us as we're holding a staff basketball game against Woodland, a spring rally and a vendor day. So those are fun events to look forward to. And yesterday our activities committee and
037ASB held bracelet making during lunch. It was a nice turnout. So we're looking forward to holding more fun activities. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you very much, Leila. Next is up Woodland High School, Metzi Solorio-Vasquez, please. Good evening, everyone. My name is Metisorio Vasquez, and I'm excited to share some of the exciting things happening at Woodland High School. First, our Associated Student Body application closes today. It was available on our school website and our Instagram page. And we're almost done with FFA week, and they held a lot of activities during the week, and their most popular was yesterday, and we had all the livestock animals like cows, pigs, and sheeps for everyone to pet. And tomorrow during lunch, we're inviting all students to come join us in the cafeteria for a fun
038cookie decorating activity while supplies last. And looking ahead, Mecha Dance is scheduled for Friday, March 14th, and tickets are on sale now for just $10. And February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. La Semilla is hosting meetings every Thursday after school to discuss how to recognize and prevent teen dating violence, and there's free pizza for everyone who attends. And last but not least, our boys soccer team is playing their match currently for the CIF Division IV semifinals tonight. That's it. Thank you. Thank you so much, Metzi. I sometimes look forward to the matcha dance. Thank you very much to our students for being here and giving us your great reports. We all very much look forward to them. We're going to go ahead and move on. You guys are welcome to excuse yourselves. You don't
039have to stay, but you are welcome to stay. Item J, public comment for items on the agenda only. None. All right, we can go ahead and move on. All right, item K, reports. K-1, superintendent. Okay, good evening. I want to next life been really busy since last time we met Are we had a room full of our office staff here? The district office on February 5th doing the de-escalation training with our Behaviors from the district this was a training to help our staff because our office staff receives the first of everything right people calls upset students or angry parents or people who are frustrated and they're the first ones to receive folks in the office so we wanted to give them the training on how to de-escalate and support people through that so it was
040really nice to see them all here. It was on a Wednesday afternoon and we felt how important they are because we were getting all kinds of calls at the district office because they were not in the office so that was a little challenging but I went in to appreciate them and let them know. You are definitely really important because of pulling to a ringing up like here that this is office next slide On February 6 we are continuing with our data analysis sessions with our our schools and we had teams of schools Coming and reviewing and going through some training and that analysis has been an ongoing training that we've had with the our PLC work and here's just an example of Some teachers here meeting and they continue to meet a matter of fact
041yesterday I ran into a team of teachers from Dingell Elementary doing a specific site level data analysis so that's moving towards the improving on our data-driven decision-making and the teachers digging in into what does the data mean? What does it mean for a school? What does it mean for my classroom? What does it mean for each individual student that they serve? Next slide. We also had a group of parents and paraeducators who attended the CAVE Regional Conference. This is a conference up in Northern California. We had about... Don't know we were that heard we were the biggest crowd from the districts in Northern, California So very proud of that about 40 or so para educators literacy para educators and we have about 10 parents who were able to attend that took a bus down to
042Sacramento and spent the day there we got heard a lot of good positive reviews of the quality of professional development opportunities at WC next We also continue with the promesa training the promesa Training is from a grant partnership with the California Association of bilingual education Kaveh There's only two districts in the in the state that are participating in that training That's us and then another District of Southern California. I think is nor I forget the name of the right name. I forget the name right now. Anyway, so this has been a five-year grant. We are in year four, and this is where teachers meet to specifically training on dual immersion, language acquisition. On this particular day, yesterday when I popped in, they were working on bridging, which is a way to learn language transitions between
043English and Spanish. There was a very complex type of training on that. Reviewing the trainings are conducted in Spanish to help our teachers practice or academic Spanish And it's really nice to see how much we've grown with our bilingual programs in the district next night So we also have the media lots of media attention. I was in high school because there's a woody closet I don't know what a woody closet was but what's happening is our students are really into preserving and reusing things and so they have developed a woody closet where kids can come and have people share prom dresses or shoes or other clothing is a big hit nowadays with vintage and reusing and being more considerate of the environment so we got attention from CBS News so they came out and Telemundo
044also wanted to come out as well when they heard the news so it's awesome that our students are participating in that and having fun because that's what our young our young Adults do now is their rental into business and vintage and using reusing clothes and and it's pretty and it's a way to Also be conscientious about you know monies and and doing it in a way safe way And promote the community as well. So very proud of one will in Woody's closet. I'll have to go shopping Okay next light Also at Woodland High School, there was a mock trial. And also, again, the media got whiff of that. So they came out to find out what was going on. And so it was a partnership with the Woodland High School staff and the DA's office.
045It was very powerful because it felt real. When I walked in, I was afraid. I was looking for the detective. Where is the... You know what they do the electrical thing where they check make sure you're walking in walking anything dangerous But it had a very real feel they really a real mock trial They had a jury selection whole process and they had a case They had attorneys present the case the defendants and all those things the judge was amazing The students were very respectful they dressed for the role that they were playing and they went in and deliberated and you know made the trial it was very awesome at the end of the whole event each of the Partners are the judge and the attorneys shared their stories about why they chose that career
046and some talk with the staff the students about choosing a career and their pathways so very powerful experience and I'm very happy with that that This mock trial and we're hoping that pioneer high school follows the same opportunity for those students as well next Wouldn't wouldn't how can I gotta read this because it's confusing so we have wooden high school boys and the girls soccer team Made to made it to the playoffs And both of them made it to the playoffs the wooden high school girls teams lost her first round though But that's okay, there's always next year. The Woodland High School Boy teams are at home tonight in the division four semi-finals. If they win tonight, they go to the championship game on Saturday. So send them best wishes. Next slide. This is for
047the Pioneer High School varsity boys and girls soccer teams. They also made it to the playoffs. The Pioneer girls teams are playing tonight in Roseville, and I understand that Trustee Sawala has her daughter playing right now, and thank you for your commitment in being here tonight. So if they win tonight, you get to go watch them, the playoffs next week. And then the Pioneer High School teams play tomorrow night at Los Banos in the second round of Division III playoffs. If they win, they play in the semifinals next week. So not only are students engaged in academic successful events, they're also competing with sports. Next slide. And then we have the Pioneer High School Girls Varsity Basketball Team. They made it to the playoffs as well. Pioneer High School Varsity Girls Basketball Team made it
048to the playoffs, but they lost their first round. But again, it's always next year. So congratulations to all our athletic students and their achievements. Thank you, and yeah, and then just a few more things pioneer high school held their freshman link rally today There's something they do all year with the upper classmates support the freshmen to build to build a Spirit and to build school culture so they have that too today next life Also, if you have a chance this Saturday the pioneer high school is gonna have a car show I mean is to support their music program So if you have chance to go out there there's gonna have music and food and things that and some cars to show next light We also just wanted to list the names and congratulate all the
049students who participated in the SkillsUSA Region 4 Leadership. And so we'll have to bring them up some other day to recognize them here at the board meeting. But again, another example of our students competing and being successful, not only in sports, academically and being involved. Next. Also, okay, yesterday I went to career day at Spring Lake Elementary. I have to share. It was a lot of fun. They wanted to know about what it's like to be a superintendent. So I shared what you need to do to be a superintendent and the challenges. Of course, they asked the typical questions like, how much do you make and what does your day look like? But I never have had anybody ask me if I wear open-toe shoes. Somebody thought that was very important because you know kids
050can't wear the open-toed shoes because of pee so they wanted to know if the superintendent can wear the open-toed shoes. So that was a lot of fun. Next slide. I said I told them sometimes I wear like business shoes but they'll never see me at a school wearing flip-flops or anything. They might run into me in town but they might not recognize me because I'll have a ponytail on too. So last night was Freeman Elementary Science Night. That was a lot of fun. Trustee Brubaker was there, joined us in the fun. And I think I was the most curious person in the room learning this along with the students. So that was a lot of fun. And then I think lastly. TWO MORE THINGS. I ATTENDED THE YOLO COUNTY MUSLIM AMERICAN COMMUNITY DINNER AND TRUSTEE
051ROLLETA WAS THERE AS WELL, TOO. IT WAS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CULTURE AND TO INTERACT AND UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE NEEDS AND THE HISTORY. SO IT WAS A VERY NICE EVENT. NEXT SLIDE. AND THEN FINALLY, WE PUT OUT A VIDEO THAT I THINK HAS ENDED UP BEING MORE More impactful than I imagined for families with the police chief just to hear directly from me along with the police chief About what we're doing in our schools to help kids our families feel safe what the current law is and and here directly also from our police chief and That a video has been shared all over the place. A matter of fact. We also had the news Telemundo, Telemundo reached out, they wanna interview us tonight, but we were in the board meeting,
052I think they interviewed the police department. So this is something that I think has been unique, and it was just really great. I wanna thank our chief for his willingness to do this alongside with me, and to work in partnership with us to make sure that we're communicating and that families are informed of what. their rights are and what the law currently is and what we're doing to work together to keep everyone safe and feel comfortable coming to our schools. And with that, I conclude my report. Thank you very much, Superintendent. Excellent report. Now we're gonna hear from CSEA. Good evening, Superintendent Ortega-Lampkin, President Batista-Zavala, Board of Trustees, Cabinet, and Community. My name is Rebecca Rossiter, and I proudly serve as a library technician at Douglas Middle School, as well as the president of Chapter
053118 of the Classified School Employee Association. Our negotiation team will meet with the district's team tomorrow to begin the process of bargaining the effects of the layoffs. I believe we will also be discussing the last phases of the classification study. I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that the California school boards possess the authority to rescind layoff notices after voting on layoff resolutions. In the last board meeting, Mrs. Ortega-Lampkin made a statement that has led many to believe that there's nothing the school board can do at this point in time. However, I personally was told by a school board member that they are able to bring this item back to the table with enough support, but that it needs to be done quickly. We are hearing some concerns regarding the fence projects that
054will be happening this summer at some of our schools. These concerns have been brought to M&O as well as the superintendent. We are being told that they wish these concerns were brought up last spring and that the plans cannot be changed. But guess what? Nobody asked. Nobody asked the front office staff what issues they could foresee by having the front door outside the fenced area. One of those issues is that the office is inaccessible from inside the fenced area unless students travel through other classrooms or staff rooms Nobody asked the teachers on campus how this will affect their day is Anyone keeping track of how many times you were told that the staff that is affected by the decisions made here are not being included Thank you for your time Thank you very much Moving
055on to report from a provided clarification. Yes, ma'am. Just so Make sure that I'm clear Just clarifies or clarifying any misunderstandings the board can we send any any decision? But I my intention was to explain that that board had just approved the resolution So that had just happened at that at that moment it had just approved I was want to make sure that the board understood what had actually had happened prior But the board could bring it back if there is enough support. Thank you very much superintendent any other clarifications Seeing none report from we a Good evening, Superintendent Ortega-Lampkin, President Bautista Zavala, Board of Trustees, Cabinet, and members of our community. Thank you for this opportunity to address you. My name is Becca Bernard. I'm a science teacher at Douglas Middle School and the
056proud president representing over 500 educators in the Woodland Education Association. We are in February, the month that somehow feels six months long despite being the shortest of the year. We are at that point in the school year where exhaustion is high, patience is low, and spring break is a mirage in the distance. Over the past two weeks, I have had back-to-back phone calls with members, many lasting over an hour, each one dealing with emergencies, probationary concerns, and general burnout. I imagine I'm not the only one feeling that February weight. Before I dive in, I want to acknowledge the changes to the board meeting structure, which now places a five-minute time guideline on reports. We understand and respect the need for efficiency, and I appreciate the transparent conversations I had with President Bautista Zavala, Superintendent Artika
057Lampkin, and CSA President Rebecca Roster about this change. That being said, summarizing the realities of over 500 educators in just five minutes is no small feat. This raises an important question. How do we ensure trustees remain informed about the needs of our educators beyond these brief reports? After brainstorming some solutions, I'd like to extend an open invitation. Trustees, please join me for a site visit at the school or schools of your choosing during my release time after 11 a.m. Give me about a week's notice and I will set up a visit, donuts and coffee included. After school, at lunch, or even just for 10 or 15 minutes, whatever time you have to spare. I know you all are very busy people. But nothing replaces hearing directly from teachers. And trust me, our members want to
058be heard. They want to sit across from decision makers, share their reality, and know that their concerns aren't just words on a paper, but lived experiences that matter. It's one thing to hear statistics, and it's another to sit with the 15-year veteran whose $2,000 monthly health insurance deduction for her family of four leaves her taking less take-home pay than a first-year teacher. This brings me to bargaining. At our first session on January 30th, we appreciated the district coming prepared with MOUs for a student-teacher incentive and a $3,000 early resignation and retirement bonus. More recently, a $10,000 hiring bonus for hard-to-fill positions was also introduced. While we recognize the intent behind these MOUs, to fill vacancies as quickly as possible, it is not being perceived that way by teachers. They are asking us, why is the
059district willing to pay people to leave and pay new people to come in but not invest in the people who have stayed? Parent advocate and fellow scientist with a passion for data, Annie, recently analyzed Woodland's SARC data and found a troubling trend. Entry-level and retirement-level teacher salaries are 9 and 13 percent below California average. while mid-year, mid-career teachers are the backbone of our schools, earning 21% less than the California state average. This discrepancy in Woodland is also part of a larger statewide crisis. A recent study found that 4 in 10 teachers are considering leaving the profession, citing low wages, rising health care costs, and unsustainable workloads. This is the heart of our retention problem. Mid-career teachers carry the weight of our district on their shoulders. They lead clubs, coach sports, organize field trips, pilot new
060curriculum, mentor new teachers, and create the stability our schools desperately need. But when they leave, they take with them the years of institutional knowledge, leadership, and relationships that keep students grounded. The question becomes, do you drive 20 minutes in another direction for $10,000 to $15,000 more, fully covered benefits, and to significantly improve your quality of life, or stay in Woodland for the students you love? Every teacher I've spoken to wants to stay in Woodland, but they're being forced to make excruciating decisions about what's best for their families and their future. And they're not alone. Teachers across California are facing the same impossible choices. That's why I'm excited to share that after the February 4th statewide kickoff, WEA has officially joined the We Can't Wait campaign. This coalition of 77,000 educators across 32 California school districts
061serves 1 million students and is advocating for three main areas. One, fully staffed schools. Two, safe and stable schools. And three, competitive wages and benefits. And the reality is, we can't wait any longer. So I leave you with this. What are we willing to do to ask our teachers to stay? Recruitment is only half the battle. We cannot build a thriving, sustainable district if we are constantly patching holes instead of strengthening our foundation. Our bargaining team looks forward to hearing the district's proposal on salary and benefits as soon as possible so that we can break this cycle of turnover and build the stability our students deserve. Thank you, and this concludes my report. Thank you very much. All right item k4 reports from board members anybody would like to go first All right. Does anyone
062have a report this evening trustee Brubaker? So I have been waiting on pins and needles for two months to share this with my colleagues So one of the sections I went to at the CSB conference that early December was about proposition 28 Which is something that's going to be discussed later tonight and among many insightful things I learned there was a trustee from San Gabriel Unified School District who shared about a program they instituted in their district several years ago that they called Music Immersion, which I thought was a pretty unique way to frame what they do. So what they did is they picked their lowest performing elementary school and since the implementation of this program it has become the best performing elementary school in their district. They went from 210 disciplinary issues to three.
063They had increased attendance and parents who had never attended parent-teacher conferences, started attending the conferences because they were just as passionate about the school program as their students were. So the way their program works, they have a website which I encourage people to check out. There's some really insightful videos on there. But at the end of the academic day, each student gets one hour or more of music lessons. The students pick the instruments that they want to do. So it's not built around, like, we want to have an orchestra or mariachi. It turned out that the kinds of instruments the students were drawn to ended up working really well for mariachi. But that, like... They don't have three on this and three on this to craft a balanced thing. Their goal is to have kids
064excited to go to school and learn and get all of the enrichment that the music program offers them. So I just thought that that was a really interesting approach to sort of reinvigorate some schools that might need some extra help. The other thing I wanted to highlight is something that's happening at the federal level that we might actually have a chance of having some input in. So there is a current pending federal lawsuit called Texas v. Baccarat. probably pronounced that incorrectly. Seventeen states have signed on to this lawsuit with the stated goal of declaring Section 504 unconstitutional. This among many other things, but I want to highlight this specific factor of Section 504, ensures that public education have an obligation to educate disabled students and this is key, provide accommodations to make sure that they
065are able to adequately access that education. California is not one of those 17 states, but I want to encourage people to reach out to our Attorney General because there is time to file a, let me make sure I say this correctly. brief an amicus brief to object to 504 the lawsuit against 504 just for context for people unfamiliar with 504 I actually had a 504 in one of the states that is part of this lawsuit which is a little extra disappointing I had a physical I have a physical disability that I would have failed my physical education classes if I did not have accommodations through my 504. I was a very well-performing student and failing those classes would have had a dramatic impact on my GPA, which could have affected college applications and the rest
066of my life. So I'm grateful for that protection for myself and I'm sure that many people in our community have students in our district that also have that. So I just wanted to highlight that. Thank you. Thank you very much, Trustee Brubaker. Trustee Rodriguez. I just wanted to share that I also attended the Muslim American community dinner along with Superintendent Olivia, Olivia Lamkin, Ortega Lamkin. And it was a really great event. It really shared a lot of information about understanding, reflection, and community building in the Muslim American community. They had a keynote speaker, Iman A. Aziz, who talked about the rich history of Muslims and not just within the Muslim community, but that, in fact, words are associated with Muslim and religion are incorporated into our everyday language and into the very mathematics that we
067use. But I wanted to share with you just some statistics because you don't really hear this, and it's in line with our resolutions, which... you know, we stand behind in terms of taking care of making sure our students are taken care of and that we understand the challenges of our students. In 2021, there was a survey conducted called Examining Islamophobia in California Schools. 890 Muslim youth ages 11 to 18 participated. And the report, the reports found that 40%, 47% of youth reported being bullied for being Muslim pre-pandemic. 56% of youth reported feeling unsafe, unwelcome, or uncomfortable at school because of their Muslim identity. 20% of respondents reported missing school because of those feelings. One in every three female youths who wear a hijab reported that the hijab was tugged, pulled, or offensively touched. 30% of
068youth reported that a student at school made offensive... comments or posts about Islam or Muslims directly to them on social media. And one in four youths reported that a teacher, administrator, or other adults at their school made offensive comments about Islam or Muslims. And I share these, the result of these surveys, you know, just to reiterate that. when we pass resolutions about making sure everyone feels safe, we can't just be something on words. We all have to do our part as we connect with our district family to make sure all our students feel safe, no matter who they are, where they come from. Thank you. Thank you very much, Trustee Rodriguez. Trustee Villagrana, going down in order? We're not. No report from no report from me sir So no no report. I just want to
069again read restate my my objection. I did at the at the last meeting about Bargaining or influencing the bargaining process and in this case the word bargaining was used investing in people who are here again low wages health care costs fully COVERED BENEFITS AND THEN EMPHASIZING THE WE CAN'T WAIT CAMPAIGN. AGAIN, TO ME, THESE ARE ALL I'M ASSUMING IT'S INTENDED TO INFLUENCE US TO DIRECT OUR NEGOTIATING TEAM TO MAYBE TAKE A SPECIFIC ACTION OR NOT. AND AGAIN, JUST STAYING MY OBJECTION, I DON'T THINK THAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING DURING THE REPORT. PUBLIC COMMENT, DEFINITELY A SPACE FOR THAT TO HAPPEN. OR EMAILING US DIRECTLY OR HAVING CONVERSATIONS WITH US DIRECTLY BUT NOT DURING OUR MEETING. SO THAT'S IT FOR ME. THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. TRUSTEE RODRIGUEZ-MOJICA. No report. Thank you trustee Richardson Fowler trustee
070Garcia. Yes. Thank you. So nothing to report but I just want to mention Something from the January 25th meeting that time I sent out Jello cheat asking for a Jenna item about a plan to improve academic performance in low-performance schools Which the superintendent I mentioned as he was working in it and so I'm excited that what we discussed Agenda item L2. Thank you for your request this topic to be included in today's meeting. So that's conclude my report. Thank you very much any Board committee updates? Tracy Garcia. Yes. Yes. My report is on the safety committee meeting. So We discussed the process for implementing the cell phone policy AB 3216 which must be in place by July 2026 and the meeting was focused on starting the planning process for the policies implementation. That's confirmed by
071report. Anyone else? Anyone would like to share anything from the Coalition for Woodland Youth? There's really not. Yeah. I can share some information. There was some information shared about an upcoming Yolo County elected leaders and officials forum, which is happening Monday, March 17th from nine to 11 a.m. at the Yolo County Office of Education Conference Center. And then there is also a community conversation. Which Rotary clubs are hosting? I believe he's at the Community College Performing Arts Center about foster youth Is that correct and it happened on on February 22nd? I'm looking for a time. I don't have it And let's see. I have one more Yeah, February 22nd and then on March 8th 830 to 230 for parents of seventh through 11th graders. There'll be a parent university. Parents and guardians are invited for
072a day of engaging and learning from EAOP outreach engagement team about college knowledge. And that is also happening at the Yolo County Office of Education. And that's the information I have. If anybody else wants to fill in. Yeah, just a few more things. So the community college, made us aware of the Reconnect initiative that they're starting. And so they're going to be reaching out to former students who have some credits and encouraging them to return back to the learning process so they can complete degrees or certifications. And so I thought it was a really good idea. And then we brought up, and this is related to the Woodland Promise, that it was not really being maximized by our graduates because that's limited. So they're going to look into removing the requirement of having had graduated
073within, I think it was the past two years. And then I brought up the fact that maybe removing the credit requirement even, just allow anything that can be promoted to any adults that might be interested in going into Woodland Community College and getting, or at least moving on in the process, even if it's part-time. So, again, I was very happy to hear that that's a conversation that we're having or that they're, again, they're moving forward on that initiative. And then the other one was our superintendent shared a partnership to bring some of the elected officials. state level officials to our school sites to do a tour or tours similar to what was done previously with the community so they can see firsthand what the needs are. You know like I said earlier it's one thing
074to see words on paper but it's it's different to to see the schools in person and see the needs. And again even a pitcher doesn't do justice right versus being in that space. So that I'm also glad that they were moving forward on that. And then there's going to be a Castro College workshop on the 22nd of February at Woodland Community College as well for any students that need help with their applications. That's all I have. I'll just add that the tours to the different facilities, Woodland Community College and the Woodland Joint Unified School District campuses and perhaps Yolo County Office of Ed, if they have any campuses that they would like their elected officials to visit, those tours would happen after we conduct a lobby day at the Capitol. I'm still waiting to hear.
075We're going to be having a meeting to start planning all of that. I'm going to be a part of the committee with Elodia. the Woodland Community College president, so we can put that all together. And then I will be submitting a yellow sheet in regards to SB 226. This is the Senator Cabaldon bill that would create a framework on how a rural community college could become a part of another community college district. So I will be bringing that forward and submitting a yellow sheet, so please stay tuned to that. But that legislation was talked about during the... Coalition for Woodland use and I can add just a reminder that that is part of an initiative that we took up as a board to to support the notion of Woodland Community College being a part of
076Los Rios Community College. And it has made its way through different negotiations and trying to figure out how that would happen in the SB 226 is where it made its way and how it will move its way forward. So this district was one of the first to support that notion. So I think and this is a notion that will help all our students especially those that go to Woodland Community College, so, you know, I think it's a good job by this board to to be a trendsetter in that way and be in front of that battle Thank you very much. This concludes our board committee updates All right moving to item L and just letting everyone know that it is 7 20 And we have one public comment for item L1, information update on visual
077and performing arts proposition 28 funding. Becca Bernard. Hello again. Firstly, I just want to appreciate Christina Lambie and all of the work you've been doing on VAPA. I know that's a lot. And I know you also wear five other hats. So thank you for that. I wanted to share from our site visits some of the kind of things I'm hearing and questions that are coming up, especially about the 80% of the funding having to go towards staffing and recognizing that that could be certificated or classified and recognizing that that could happen during the workday or after the workday. Some questions about equity are coming up, wondering if we offer these VAPA programs after school, if that's removing the access from students who are only able to access it during the school day. So those are
078some questions that are coming up. Other creative solutions that teachers are throwing out is how could we maybe use this funding to have an art teacher at elementary sites that could provide release time for prep time for teachers who then can give their students their their gen ed students to this art teacher similar to how a PE teacher works or the music teacher works that could then build into the workday more access for teachers. So that came up from actually multiple elementary sites that we've been visiting. They were very interested to hear how that could be used in a creative way. But overall, there's just been a lot of excitement about getting started using these funds. I know that Davis already has started using their funds, I believe, two school years ago. So it's kind
079of like our members have been just like waiting, ready to go. But they're all very excited that we're going to be able to fund some visual and performing arts. So thank you. Thank you very much. I've go ahead and estimated about 60 minutes for this item Presentation, so I'm gonna call our executive director Christina Lambie Christina has been working on the VAPA committee and just a few things Is that This fund these funds is something else passed by the voters So there's guaranteed funds that will be coming to us every year unless legislation changes And it is connected to proposition nine eight funds of those receive less funds I mean the monies will be a little less will monitoring that very closely Another thing is that some districts including la unified and other districts as
080soon as this law this past proposition passed started making plans and expending the monies but the money said not we did not receive the monies until last spring around this time last year in addition to that there were no regulations or guidelines on how you can spend the money so I made the decision on waiting until regulations came out and I'm happy that I made that decision because many of the districts had to are now into being audited and having to return those funds Because you know the funds were used in ways that were did not meet the regulation So it was kind of we received the money both that regulations But we were still held accountable for something you didn't know was coming So so the good thing about it is though is that
081every allocation that you receive you have three years to expect? expend the money which gives us some flexibility if we if we have a year that comes with less funding, it gives us some time to adjust if needed. So I think we're in a good position. So Christina, I asked Christina to develop a committee to start getting input and start working with the principals on developing a plan. The plans have to be at the site level. And they do not need to be approved by the board. However, we are going to be inserting those plans into the school plan so that eventually you will be approving it and seeing how the monies are being spent at the school level. So with that, Christina, I know you're going to probably say some of that stuff, but
082I just wanted to give you a big overview so that she can describe her process. Thank you Good evening superintendent Ortega Lampkin board cabinet so I'm happy to bring this report to you as Someone who benefited from a k-12 music education. I was in orchestra and band and drumline For many years. I do know the impact that a quality visual and performing arts program can provide for students and what we're gonna share with you tonight is really I think really hopeful, a source of funding to help our schools expand and enrich the visual and performing arts programs that we currently have. Here's our goals. The visual and performing arts programs, they show up in our LCAP in Goal 1. We actually added an action in our current LCAP, it's Action 6, I think, in Goal
0831 for VAPA, knowing that we would need to be bringing this funding into place once it was beginning to be used. As our superintendent said, the schools will be doing a similar thing in their school plans. They'll have an action that will report on their funding and what their plans are for this work. So I'm just going to skip over this. These are some resources that I just wanted to highlight that we've been using to provide guidance throughout this process. I want to start with just an overview of the VAPA committee and the work that the committee has been doing. As our superintendent said, we have a VAPA committee. We began a couple years ago as a way to connect teachers and organizations in the community to bring people together to talk about. the visual
084and performing arts and what we have available in our area, which is actually there's quite a, there's a number of really amazing arts organizations in this town. And so connecting teachers with those folks has been, it's been a really good opportunity. Last year, with this new funding source, the committee really started to build an identity and a purpose, just thinking about what is the vision for the visual and performing arts in Woodland, what's our future goals, and what do we want to see. And so to that end, this year we added a number of classroom teachers, so non-VAPA educators to the committee and a couple of administrators just to round out the group. Oh, and we have a couple of students on the committee as well. And actually they're amazing and we love to have
085them and their voices. So the committee this year in thinking about what that vision is, so we really we started looking at the graduate profile. Actually, there's one of the competencies, which is creative. And so here it is listed here. Students explore multiple possibilities and use originality of thought to produce or express themselves through different modalities and discussion. And so through one of the VAPA committee meetings, really thinking about what that looks like and what it sounds like now, and then what we want. And so what they developed was some kind of thoughts about how we get there, how we get to a place where our graduating students are creative, meet that goal. And so they're listed here. We've been digging into these these thoughts and and and thinking about how the the VAPA funding
086can really help to build this this vision so Thinking about specifically prop 28 which is why we're here arts and music in schools was the name of the proposition I'm not going to read everything that's on the slide. It's very wordy, but the things I will highlight is this is ongoing funding as our superintendents shared. It's supplemental. So it needs to be over and above what we are currently doing. And it's for arts education programs, which is that list in that final bullet. All of those pieces are considered arts education programs. Okay. Some of the guidelines and There are some very restrictive pieces to this the main one Is that 80% of the funding minimum Must be used towards FTE so full-time employees so district employees. That's not contractors. It's not consultants It's not folks
087in the community Coming in which not to say anything about Those are going to be necessary in some cases to supplement, but the requirement is that 80% is either certificated or classified district employees. If you wanted to spend 100% of your funding on staffing, you definitely could do that, but schools are definitely going to have needs in other areas, professional development for both the VAPA teachers and the classroom teachers, perhaps technology facilities improvements, et cetera. There's a few types of other things that may be needed as programs get built. Schools can put their funding together. Some of the elementary schools, they don't necessarily have enough to pay for a full FTE. And so we do have elementary principals that are having conversations about coming together to make a plan to kind of pool their resources.
088So how much funding have we received? Here's this is the table as superintendent shared last year in February we received What was the 23 24 allocation? That's that 1.6 million in the left-hand column Just in the last month we've received the 2425 allocation, which is that 1.5 So you can see it's it's dropped a little bit due to you know enrollment numbers and Although that's not even across the school some schools increased in their 2425 allocation and some schools decreased so So a little bit of fluctuation and we're expecting to receive that similar allocation in around February of each year. And as as superintendent shared, we have three years to spend the funds. So the funds that we currently have from 23-24 need to be spent by June 2026. And those will be the funds
089that we spend first. So schools need to come up with a school site plan and so this was our process this has been our process for Developing these plans one of the key pieces in the legislation was that community feedback is a piece of the plan development that and so we designed a survey actually some members of the vapa committee designed surveys for students and parents and families and so we've done that and currently we're in the school plan creation phase so principals have all of their survey data they're beginning to have conversations with their staff with the school site council youth advisory council um the d-lac or the elac is not listed there but that is also an essential committee that principals are are working with um and so over the next several weeks
090we'll be receiving um plans and um and working with with those and then the final stage you know is just um implementation and progress monitoring. And to the... Some of the concerns that have been expressed, what I would say is that this is the first year. And so what I've shared with principals is you're going to do the best that you can with the information that you have right now and create a plan that's going to address as much as possible the needs of your school community. And as we go, we're going to have to look at what was successful and if there were areas that weren't so successful. And so just because a plan looks the way it does at this moment for next year, we will need to revisit and review and determine
091whether changes are needed. It's not this is it, the plan that you create right in this moment. So in in that feedback collection and the gap analysis that the VAPA committee did which was looking at our current reality Right. What are the strengths? What are our challenges and what are opportunities? So these are just some of the kinds of questions that we that we asked we got a lot of data on the feedback surveys, especially from students. And so that has been really valuable for principals and other folks to look at. And so just some quick bits of data about the surveys. So we had... I'm not sure what the response rate for the students was. I didn't calculate that, but it's a huge number. So we had almost 600 sixth graders respond and over
0922,000 secondary students respond. Not as many parent and family responses, but. but still quite a bit of really good data. And as I shared, principals are now reviewing that information with their site councils and their ELACs and their youth councils. So just some quick highlights from the survey results. We asked elementary students, one of the questions was what they, you know, what they had experienced in their elementary. So we asked sixth graders these questions, what kinds of experiences they had in VAPA during their elementary years. And, you know, many students reported that they'd received art and music instruction, but very few have done theater. or dance. And so there is a, so on other questions where they were asked if they would want that, there was often like, well, I don't really even know what
093that would look like because I haven't, haven't, haven't had that experience. So. But for what they do want, sixth graders want an art course in middle school, overwhelmingly. And actually, L3 on the agenda is an art course for middle school. So we're bringing that forward. Our teachers have worked on that course to expand it and make it. Make it a year-long course and you'll hear about that in in a few minutes, but and then at the secondary level One thing that was a huge surprise. I think to most folks including our art teachers and principals was the top course that Secondary students want is wearable art and fashion Yeah And then followed closely by the sort of media arts type courses of digital illustration, game design, film production. And then at the parent and family
094group, similar in terms of media arts with digital film production, and then arts courses that are career-focused. That was another response that we had a lot of interest in. Okay, so what we're currently in progress doing as I shared we're working on principles are working on their VAPA plans We are continuing to work with the VAPA committee on an arts education plan that is more sort of visionary right big picture and And that's that's what the committee is working on In terms of hiring, because that is, as you heard, the 80% staffing requirement, we do have hiring pools posted for arts, dance, drama, theater, and music, specifically general music, the elementary principals, some of them, that's the area where they want to. expand and so so we do have those those pools posted and we're
095hoping for a good good hiring season so that we can Hire the staff that we need to make this happen Lastly our next steps just finalizing the plans and hiring staff. Professional development is definitely something that will be a part of this, both, as I said, for VAPA teachers, but also for general education teachers. So there are a lot of ways that general education teachers can teach in the visual and performing arts. We won't be able to have... dedicated dance, theater, music, and visual art teachers at every school, at every elementary school, right? But there are areas where general education teachers can contribute to that piece as well. So definitely a lot to come over the next several months. And as our superintendent shared, you'll be seeing the plans when we bring the school plans
096to you in May. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions from the board or comments? Trustee Garcia. Can you repeat how it's going to be? So one question or two? We're going to be running this meeting. Each board member can ask two questions, two comments, and then we'll open it up for anyone else to make any comments or conversation on the items brought up by that given board member, and then we'll move on to the next board member to your right. Okay. So first I want to say thank you, Christina, for all the work you do. This is a very good report. So my question is about, you say the site decides how they will use the money. But my question is, who oversight all the sites, how they use it? So they have
097authority for how they use the money? Well, so so what we have in place right now is that they'll be creating their plans They're gonna turn in their plans in the next week or two weeks and then we'll be reviewing them in in cabinet and And then we'll be in the district office overseeing the implementation. Does that answer your question? Okay, so that So is you yes, I can. Yes. So is you the one you are? So I'm gonna pass this this is my question for now. I'm gonna pass for now. Thank you very much trustee Garcia trustee Brubaker I Mostly want to say how excited I am for this. This is something I didn't even know was in the works. And one of the things I ran on was trying to have more arts
098education in our schools and utilize them to have help our students be more successful. So I'm excited about this. And I'm excited by some of the sort of the framework that was written up because it recognizes the intensive benefits that arts education has on our students, which I think is often underestimated by the by people unfamiliar with how art works. So I appreciate that. I do want to make sure that we are making sure we're spending every bit of that money so we don't have to forfeit any of that because this is such a, I think we're, from what I have observed being in the audience all these years and now being up here, we are used to, especially for something like arts education, operating with it being something that we are trying to scramble
099together as best we can with our limited funding and the fact that this is ongoing funding is really exciting and we can build up a really robust. program over time and so I don't want to risk any of that going away. So that's it. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Any comments or trust you have a comment, Trustee Fowler, before we move on? Yeah. On the items mentioned by Garcia or Brubaker? On the topic we're on right now? Well, when we open it up for comments before your turn, it's anything related to the questions or comments. Oh, no. When she... We're going down in order. Trustee Rodriguez. Sorry about that. Okay. So I just had a question. Thank you for all the work. It is a very exciting
100opportunity. In the survey results, I'm just looking at film production. Students replied film production and parents replied film production, it looks like. So is that something that they suggested themselves or did they pick from a list? It was from a list. There was an opportunity for folks to write in ideas as well, but there was a list of potential courses that they could choose from. Just wondering about that particular item. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. I have voiced my questions in advance, so I just wanted to make sure my colleagues know that. I'm going to kind of go over a little bit of the concerns that I have. My first concern kind of goes along with the point that Trustee Brubaker made. This is something that we spoke about during our agenda review,
101and one of the things that I brought up was that I... Want to make sure that we have the mechanisms in place so that we don't leave any money on the table You know we have had conversations recently on other agenda items where we have seen some money unspent and you know the time The clock is ticking and then we see that these pots of money are not getting spent and there's it really any plan to spend it down wisely or with a really good plan. So that's one of my concerns. The other concern that I have is that I do trust sites implementing their own plans. I do trust them. However, I dislike that a certain school may prioritize certain projects or opportunities for their students that another school site may not. So I'm
102thinking, for example, performing arts, you know, includes music and dance, opera, but it also includes spoken word, you know, and that's something very, not necessarily something that a school site may put into their plans, but it's something that I value. You know, I have a master's degree in bilingual multicultural education, and I studied Ebonics, and I understand the importance of this type of... instruction or curriculum in the classroom and the value that it has, right? So how do we make sure that there's, I don't wanna say fairness, but that there's equity and inclusion in the way that the school sites frame and plan their school site plans. And I don't have any questions, Christina, I'm not putting you in the hot seat, I'm just kinda expressing. where I'm coming from for my board and colleagues
103to understand. What I'm trying to get to is when I was reading the presentation, I read into it as this being an opportunity for us to buy into shaping a plan, shaping a plan for visual and performing arts district-wide so that we actually have a plan in place that's district-wide and we're not necessarily leaving it up to each site council or each site to plan. One of the things that I mentioned during our agenda planning session, agenda review session is that who's gonna be responsible? if a school site doesn't implement and spend down this money and that we don't actually see students taking and taking advantage of these performing arts programs or arts classes or however way shape or form the school site decides to implement it. Like who's gonna oversee this, right? I think
104that this is a huge investment and we only have one shot at carrying this out. But I do think that this is an opportunity for the board to have a little bit more say on how we're going to roll this out. and make sure that it is successful. And I'm not saying that the site councils are not, or that the sites are not gonna develop something that's great. I'm not saying that. But this is work. This is added work to existing job descriptions. So it's like, who's gonna manage this? Who's gonna carry this out? You know, who's going to make sure that our teachers and staff, because it's in there, the teachers and staff have to be existing staff members. Who's going to train them? Because that's going to require money too. Are each site's
105going to have to use their site money to train those teachers? Because the training has to happen before the program even launches. Please excuse me if I sound, you know, like very passionate, but I am super energized by this. I'm excited about it. I just really think that we may need to take a little bit of a step back and really think about this if we're really doing it the right way. If I could just say one to your point about schools developing different plans. Some of it is about resources. So some of our elementary schools have kilns. And so they are talking about finding, building that up because they don't currently have anyone who can do ceramics. Schools that don't have kilns aren't really thinking about that. Because they might have other needs. So
106I think this is a case where at this point, At this moment, schools are looking at their community feedback and principals are thinking about the resources that they currently have and looking to expand opportunities for all of their students. But there are some limitations with facilities and resources that currently exist. I also want to add that one of the requirements is the funding goes directly to the sites. This pot is not at the district office. There's a small portion that says that this stuff is to help with some of the things that you mentioned. So we may have some funds to hire maybe a tow cell or someone to help support the sites. But the intention of this legislation was for the to be funded at the sites and the sites having working with the
107communities to get input and letting them decide the how the board can give us the what. but the sites that the staff decide on the how and what the needs are based on the process that we provide. The board can give us suggestions on the process, some input on some of the guidelines, but the sites get to decide how to spend the money, and that goes into the school. We added, it was not required to go to the school site council, right? It's not required to be approved by the board, but we put that extra layer to provide some oversight. through the school site council some accountability so the school site council parents have a voice and oversight and have discussion and input and making sure that the principals and the staff are considering the
108input from students and the parents and include it in the school plan so that it comes to the board so that you can see how the sites are working with the school site councils on employment. But this is not a pot of money that we can direct the schools on how to use it. We can give guidelines, we can give support, we can require a plan, but the intention of this legislation is to give those funds to the site and having the sites and the communities have a say on how to use and implement the arts. And so just want to clarify that. Can we actually get the language of the legislation that says that? I would like to see that. Sure. As a follow-up. All right. Moving on. Trustee Villagrana. Thank you. First of
109all congratulations on the survey results. That's phenomenal. I mean Wow Impressive and I'm sure there's a rich data in there that you're gonna mind you and Giggle a little bit when you're looking at it So first of all congratulations and great job, you know to whoever was part of making that happen as well I am 100% support of again the school sites developing their own plans Every school has has different needs and or wants and I'm definitely in support of a District-wide plan again every school and if that's the intended legislation after we confirmed even more so but even if it's not I'm still in support of that And next question is Was not aware we had the miss for the superintendent. I was not aware we had unspent funds from previous Allocations, so I
110would like a Friday fact update with a list of those because again I was not aware that we had Situations we had unspent funds and they had to go back to this to the to the funder with whoever that they were Let's see and then the clarification so The the staff person for these roles has to be a current staff member and they cannot be a new member No, it's um, it could be current like an additional assignment but or a new staff person That's we have the hiring pools out to to find new folks to the district But just it has to be a an actual employee Yeah, yeah, but not a current they could be a new doesn't have to be a current. Okay. No And I have two more but it would
111go over four. So I'll wait for the rotation to go again I have a clarification on that question if you can clarify if that staff member has to be a union employee because my Interpretation is that they do have to be a union employee. Yeah certificated or classified. Yes, but not temporary employees, right? There's an additional FTE NOT REPLACING CURRENT FTE. THANK YOU. TRUSTEE RODRIGUEZ-MOJICA. I'M CURIOUS IF THERE'S ANYTHING KIND OF IN THE PLANNING STAGES OR THAT YOU ALL HAVE DISCUSSED ABOUT MAYBE USING SOME OF THAT 80% STAFFING TO RECOMMEND LIKE A VAPA LEAD AT EACH SITE TO KIND OF BE ABLE TO MANAGE ALL THESE THINGS IN I'm thinking about what you were bringing up, President Bautista-Zavala, about just some kind of oversight and not having to just fall on someone else. So maybe
112as an additional special assignment, just a lead like we have in other schools, the secondary schools, the science teacher lead, social studies lead, but something like that where there could be one kind of go-to person at that site that is overseeing the rest. So I don't know if you all have talked about that or if it's something that you all might be open to. There's this line of funding to have a full-time person to do that Oh, I don't mean full-time person. It could be a potential stipend which would have to be negotiated You know someone to be like the liaison to work with us someone to took that would have to be negotiated But that could be covered in the funds right the 80% for art It could be. Okay. Yeah. Or it could
113be like an additional, like a course or something. So it doesn't, I'm not imagining it as, I don't know that we need a full-time person for just to be the VAPA lead. I was thinking as like an additional assignment. So like a point two or a point whatever to their assignment. Potentially. Yes. So, I mean, that's something we would have to look at. It's kind of hard to tell when they're still developing their plans. Sure. And so once we have more information about their plans and the principals have a, ARE SAYING WE HAVE A GREAT PLAN AND I WILL NEED HELP. THEY CAN LOOK AT THAT AND SAY I WILL HAVE CERTAIN MONEY GO TO SUPPORT. POTENTIALLY. BUT EVERY SITE, SOME SCHOOLS HAVE 200,000. SOME SCHOOLS HAVE ONLY 30,000. IT JUST REALLY DEPENDS ON THE
114PLAN AND SITUATION AT EACH SCHOOL. JUST TO CLARIFY, HAVING THAT, LIKE IF WE DO HAVE A LEAD AT A SITE, THE MONEYS COULD COME FROM THESE FUNDS. Yes, okay if the school site decides to do that. Okay. Thank you No more questions. Thank you any comments on on those. All right trustee Richardson Fowler. Thank you for your patience so I I Haven't wrapped my head around the funds going to the sites I completely get why that is from what I research it's to make sure that there's parity and equity based on You know, no school is favored That being said I'm really concerned about the brain drain that we have when we have turnover and when people leave if everything is so site-specific that that one person Potentially becomes very pivotal to the success of
115running the program so my concern is just That it hinges on one person. So if we have more people we have some sort of district connection Outside of just the site plan if we have like a lead who can help coordinate everything that would be tremendous And making sure that we have a program that's sustainable But my question for you is are we doing an audit of supplies and equipment so that we don't end up building a studio and getting all the equipment like at Cache Creek and then we have nothing to do with it? So one of the outcomes of this has been that we've been sort of talking about with the principals, the facilities that they do have, like I mentioned the kiln. So we've been gathering, oh, I didn't realize that, you
116know, this elementary school had had a kiln. So, yeah, we are that is a byproduct of of this work as well. OK, yes, I'll have others, but we can. wrap around thank you so much any comments on trustee fowler's no all right trustee garcia trustee brew baker to clarify are we piggybacking off of trustee fowler's question or can we introduce new questions taking your turn okay um we haven't seen the plans yet so maybe this is in the information you gave us and i just am blanking on it the plan we're expecting um from the school sites is that a one-year plan or a multi-year plan It, um, it is, it has a, it's a one year plan, but it, it does have, it's like an immediate what we need for 25, 26. But then
117there, there is a component that's year one, year two, year three, so that they're starting to think about what, um, the longterm will, will look like. But the immediate focus is, is a one year, but within the plan, it has all three years. Yeah. So at this point, sort of what I'm thinking is I'm thinking out loud, which I. Probably shouldn't do but I'm going to anyway Sort of piggybacking off of trustee Batista Vala and trustee Richardson Fowler's comments I think that sort of waiting and seeing what the school plans are Before sort of digging into yours. I think wanting to have sort of an overall plan would be a benefit and You know having a view of what the longer term plans that maybe if we do have turnover can be continued on. But
118I also think it would be interesting, I guess backing up slightly, I think it would be interesting to see having school sites having different focuses, which it sounds like is probably going to just naturally happen. So I guess I don't view equity as in like each school site has the same curriculum. I think I view it as more, this is what we can offer so that there's a more well-rounded and then maybe... The long term there could be like field trips to see the kiln and the other school site or something like that I think there's ways we can make this Equitable in not straightforward ways. I guess that's the end of my Thought process that I'm verbalizing as I'm having it. So hopefully people followed it trustee Rodriguez. I think You know, just in
119one, I think from a board perspective, we want to make sure that every school has a robust use of the money, right? So is there, I think it would be important to obviously to monitor it, right? We don't want one school spending 10,000 and the rest of the schools are spending 60,000, right? I think. That's that's not there's something unfair there writers, you know, so we want I'm sure they're not all gonna come down to the same amount of money, right? I'll have different ideas, but I think that You know being able to keep an eye on that It would be really important so that all the schools are able to get as much out of this program as possible and then the second question would be how how often do you think you would
120be reporting back to the board in regards to the program development budget. So to your first question, I skipped over this on the slide, but there are some reporting requirements for the district to the state. So we will just be bringing that into our... our sort of fiscal accountability processes. We use a program called Smartsheet for all of our budgets, and so these budgets will be included in that same system and will be a part of the same type of monitoring and accountability processes that we have with school sites now. So we'll just be folding that in to that system that currently exists. And to your second question. Sorry. In regards to how often you'd be reporting. Oh, I suppose it would be at the direction of the board. I'll have to, this is still
121new to us right now. So we're trying to get the plans done. There is some requirements. by the state and so I need to get myself updated on what that is. Definitely, the board will definitely look at least twice because you'll see the school plans and then at least, I'm not sure how many reports from the state, I'm sure there's at least one, maybe possibly two, that will be coming through the budget updates. But I also want to clarify that There's some schools that are only going to receive like 30,000 and some other schools are gonna be like 200,000 so there's their funding is different right so there's gonna be there's so much that you can do with 30,000 versus 200,000 so I just want to be realistic about that and that is how the
122state allocated we didn't get to decide how much amount of money each school gets. That was given to us by the state, by each school, and they said this is how much money each school gets. So I just want to clarify that was not an allocation that we were able to distribute the $1.5 million that came directly from the state. Already that is telling us this is how much each school is going to get. All right. Well, I'm very grateful for all the hard work that's gone into this. I did voice my concerns. I'm not trying to dissuade the process. That is not my intention. It's just my job here as a school board member is to make sure that I identify what I think could be an issue, things that I'm a little worried
123about. So for my new my new board colleagues, that's the way I function I come here and have had identified some Areas that I think that I need to share I do look forward to seeing the site plans. I was talking to our superintendent a couple days ago and I was sharing, I think Trustee Brubaker and Trustee Rodriguez were there. I was sharing about how we have school sites that have dance classes in the after school programs that for so many years have been paid through donations from the local PTA at their school site that can now actually be pay through these funds. So I think that I'm excited. I'm excited to see some movement in that direction where some of these activities that were once optional and created through parent participation can now actually
124be funded and maybe even grown upon. So I'm very excited for that success. Anybody else, any questions or comments? Trustee Villagrana. Definitely agree with the the need for accountability and oversight and to me that person is the principal You know, they're the ones responsible for for the funding for the school for the development of the oversight of the plans you know again, I don't want limited resources at those schools to be going to to a position other than strictly the programming they're supposed to be having happening and again the principles that's you know the question earlier was like who's who's accountable they are who's responsible they are And in regards to equitable, to me, equitable means each school getting what they need, not every school getting the same thing, right? So every school will identify
125their needs and implement the funding to meet those needs. If we as a board dictate, you know, every school will get X, Y, and Z, you have to use your funds, then we're taking away that accountability and the ability for them to identify what their needs are. Then, you know, again, why have a school plan? It would be a district directive to what to do. Regarding the positions, is job description already in place? Are we using the ones in place or are we going to create a new one for these roles? So for the certificated staff, we do not need any additional job descriptions. For the classified role, we will need an additional EVAPA-specific classified job description. And then how will... these individuals be advised or informed that these positions are being funded from a
126proposition and that if legislation changes, the funding will go away and therefore those positions could go away as well just so we don't have a situation where we had before where people were like, oh, what? I wasn't aware of that. So if you haven't had those discussions, I'd be curious to learn later what discussions you all have to. to communicate to these new people that again, it's funded kind of categorical in a sense, right? It's a proposition and I would hate for, you know, like in five years for legislation to change and then people become like, wait, you're like, no, the funding went away. It's not that we are choosing not to, we don't have the money anymore. So again, I just want to bring up that concern because it's been a concern in the
127past. Those are my four. So for one, one thing that, um, Will help us if in that in that scenario is that we are going to make a plan for the first allocation amount So let's say that right now we have to to last year's allocation and this year's application, right? so we will be making a plan for one allocation and if there was to be some kind of Cut we would still have some time to adjust in the communication and and go through that process of that One thing that will help us with waiting until a year until we got regulations and then with the uncertainty going on right now the state and the federal government something were to happen with Proposition 98 and we received less prop prop not 28 funds that we
128would be able to have at least at least a year to make those adjustments and in the community and make the communications Thank you very much anyone else trustee Rodriguez mojica First I want to say thank you. I neglected to say that when I first asked my question. So thank you for all the time you put into this. It's really clear you all have worked really hard and just put in a lot of time into it. So thank you for that. I wanted to respond to what Trustee Villagrana said about the principal's responsibility. And I 100% agree, right, the principal's responsible for the school site. I think my concern is that They're already doing so much and this is a lot of money right depending on that on the size of the school So it
129would be putting something else on on there On their plate right and I would love to see more of our principals being able to be in the classrooms a little bit more working with teachers so I'm just trying to think creatively of ways to where we can have a Small portion of that be allocated to someone else so that they can be working directly with classrooms. So just a thought on that Am curious do you know if we have any teachers or how many roughly right? I don't want to put you on the spot either but I'm duly credential teachers that perhaps have like an English credential and also have like a VAPA credential simply because in the past we haven't had very many positions for VAPA teachers So the number of credentials have gone
130down teacher ed programs haven't been offering VAPA credentials because the jobs aren't there So I'm wondering if maybe we can identify which teachers in our district already have a credential and maybe provide an incentive if they're willing to use it. So I don't know what your thoughts are around that. Yeah, definitely. So we have already worked with our HR department to get that list and have been talking with principals. They are talking with their teachers. It's been a huge surprise that they had an elementary teacher who also has an arts credential. So yes, those conversations are definitely happening as we speak. Great. Yeah. Thank you. Really really cool. Thank you for bringing that up trustee. Anybody else. Trustee Richardson Fowler. OK. So I am a big fan of steam but it seems that we focus
131a lot on STEM because we don't have the components to add in art. I know that Superintendent Ortega Lampkin had mentioned something about TOSAs. So I'm going to try and frame this so I can add as many questions in this one question as possible. Is there any. language that talks about these hires have to have direct contact with kids and in their arts education so what I'm saying is not a Tosa who is going to be coming up with how to incorporate arts and science, technology and mathematics. Because it's a wonderful opportunity if we could have somebody develop those sorts of things. In addition, it would be an amazing... Feather in our cap if we can somehow incorporate ethnic studies into this element as well Because right now there's a void in what we do
132for ethnic studies and our K through and I will just push it up to sixth grade There's no uniformity across our district with how we present those sorts of things. We're very fortunate at some schools to have by the political but it's really not representative of everybody. So it would be really wonderful to see if there was a way to incorporate arts within the science technology and mathematics as well as have an ethnic studies component. I don't know if there's an answer that's necessary for that or if that's more just a wish and a comment. Well, I can say that from the TOSA perspective, yes, that is something that many districts are doing as hiring like a VAPA TOSA to help oversee the program, but also to help with the professional development that's going to
133be needed for all teachers, not just VAPA teachers, but also general ed classroom teachers, especially at the elementary level. So that is something that's totally doable and many districts are doing that. And then to the second question about ethnic studies, yes. So this actually has really opened up. a whole conversation among the arts teachers and like them the teachers and one of them is is here tonight but uh to uh who worked on the middle school art course um and and wanting to to bring ethnic studies into um more of the the art we do have uh two art courses right now that meet the ethnic studies requirement but wanting to expand those opportunities and also into the elementary schools as well. I have more when you come back around. Sounds good. Trustee Garcia. Trustee
134Brubaker. Not so much a question, but I do want to sort of echo something we heard in public comment, which is that I'm hoping that some of the plans or all of the plans will not focus so much on the after-school program. I know for my family, we applied for the after-school program for quite a while before we successfully got in, and so that would be potentially a lot of our students that don't have the benefit of this legislation. So that's just my two cents to borrow a phrase. Trustee Rodriguez. I just kind of wanted to piggyback on Trustee Richardson's father comment about... She said about having ethnic studies incorporated, but in essence, you know, trying to fit the graduate profile. We're civic-minded and culturally aware, trying to make sure that the diversity of our
135school is represented. I think we, do we remember where we just found out about that statistic that, you know, we are one of the most diverse districts in the entire state, and so that spirit of diversity somehow, you know, make its way through. through all the schools that are doing this programming. I think also that trying to understand how this funding works, it will also be really important for our parents to understand, our public to understand, because it sounds like there'll be different amounts as they're already, you know, that's already figured out. by people, I guess, right? How much money you'd get. But I think our parents need to kind of understand that. So some portion of outreach that our parents understand how the funding works would be important. Thank you very much. Trustee Villagrana?
136Not yet at this point. All right. Trustee Rodriguez-Molica, Trustee Fowler? Is there a showcase component to any of the classes? For example, like there needs to be some sort of culminating event project, whatnot, show. To the classes that we currently have? No, when we use the funding and we've got some sort of proof of, you know, hey, our kids are doing the work. I ask this because I know that we are telling, You guys have to forgive me. I have not been okay since Valentine's Day. I am still like now I'm just exhausted. I don't think I'm sick anymore. I'm just exhausted. So my brain is going super slow. So I apologize. We always like to show off what our kids are doing. Yes. So I don't it's not like necessarily like a Britain in
137there, but it's something definitely we can ask our principals to do to showcase. on open houses, back to school nights. Absolutely. The reason I want to bring this up is because we have a shift in our parenting when they go to middle school. And so a lot of us cut our teeth on PTA and school site council. And then there's really nothing for us when we get to the middle school level unless you're going to do a music booster, something like that. But by the time you get to the high school, you've got Woodland High School, who's the boosters club, is about to die. If the parents aren't pushing these things forward then what's sustaining it. You know what I mean. So I would love to have some sort of component that we add in
138that has some sort of showcase some sort of exhibit. It doesn't even have to be us it can be their PTA who did it. I mean trustee President Bautista Zavala had a brilliant idea. We pulled that together in less than six weeks and we did an art showcase fundraiser pancake breakfast with the Rotary. So it's a wonderful opportunity to highlight what's going on in our schools and and those sorts of things I'm counting that as one And then let's see so that's the parent participation We have long-term funding with this and and I'm I love the fact that we have three years to spend it and we didn't start spending it in year one just for that case because if there's ever a legislation or People pull this from the ballot will have plenty of
139time to try and refocus and redirect but I think because of the long-term funding it is very Imperative that we build a foundation that we can scale and grow with the idea of this is going to be here for quite some time. And you know me, I'm an alumni of Orange County High School of the Arts. If there is ever a Yolo County School of Arts, I want that in Woodland. You know what I mean? We have the great foundation for it. So this gives us an opportunity to really... put our best foot out there both with ethnic studies component with teaching arts in our sciences as well as Showcasing what our kids can do, you know putting them Center So those are my ten cents. I probably do have more so if you want
140to go around Well, Trustee Fowler, you can have two questions, two comments, and it sounded like you had a question and one comment. Perfect. Let's see. I'm still on the fence about the whole TOSA thing. I love the idea of having somebody who can create, who can coordinate and whatnot. What are the other districts doing with their TOSA coordinators? I just really want somebody to be there with the kids doing the work with the kids. But also there's that component of preparing materials and whatnot so that teachers don't have to do an extra prep time and figure out how to get an art degree while teaching. Whatever and if I can also be an advocate making sure our sped kids have this access as well Not just our general ed kids. Yes, and I believe
141that was the intention of the legislation to require 80% to be staffing to require the funding go directly to the school and that the schools have to use 80% of it for staffing to have that direct interaction with students and then the other 20% for material supplies or whatnot. The district only has a small allocation as well to help for the oversight. So and that was you know, we we can't take from the sites or to get a Tosa We have us we have to decide how to use that money to support the sites And so we're considering a Tosa to help the coronation Maybe they can be the ones that do the showcase events coordinate showcase events You know the kids like for example, even just this little project here You saw the excitement
142that they had and how proud they are to be able to come and show and the parents coming. And so this is gonna just bring more opportunities to do more things like that with different kinds of visual and performing arts. I don't think our elementary kids have an opportunity to do theater. I would love to see more theater at the elementary school levels. It's awesome for English language development practicing language This is so much for speech confidence. There's just so many things music dance So, you know, this is gonna be the first time so we're gonna have to give our sites a little grace as they're trying to figure it out The biggest challenge is going to be finding the staffing that we need that's going to be the biggest challenge But even the state
143has given they recognize that because of the comments trustee Mohica made earlier about the credentialing issue. So they're being flexible Also regarding the types of staff that we can hire because the state knows that there is not enough BAPA teachers for us to access and we're all competing for the same people. And I think I get one more. So since it's based on student enrollment what happens with like we've got declining enrollment now and it's based on site Dingle's one of our smallest school sites. So what happens if we have a significant loss of our student population how will that impact. The the funding that we receive for that next year will will be decreased mm-hmm that's so well that yeah, so we will have to We will have to adjust the plans based on
144the the funding changes We're not that wide though. We don't if it's in based on enrollment All of the elementary schools should have some sort of parity. Of course the middle schools with more enrollment should have more funding than the elementary. Yes. Okay. Just want to make sure. Thanks. All right. Any other members have any questions or comments on this item? We are at the 60 minute mark. No pressure. We can continue here if you'd like. Trustee Fowler. All right. Thank you very much Ms. Christina Lambie. Thank you. Can I give an update? Sorry, I've been texting you how our students are doing at the soccer game. Unfortunately, our Pioneer High School girls lost, and our boys, Woodland High School boys soccer team just won by penalty shot. It was a very tight game, but
145they won. Very, very exciting. Those Woodland High School student boys were number one in their seed. So, yeah, let's try to go to that game on Saturday. Alright, we have two public comments, but I think this is about our halfway mark for a bathroom break. Is five minutes okay? Is there anybody that needs ten? Alright, five minutes. Will we turn back here at 8.28? Alright, you guys, thank you so much. It is 5.29 now. Sorry, it is 8.29. We are all a little off, but it is 8.29 and we're going to get back started. on item l2 and this is an informational action item and this is a discussion regarding the potential board study session on data and i believe this is trustee rodriguez mojica's item and there's one public comment so after public comment
146you'll be able to present go ahead i'm not sure if annie is still here but annie burkholder all right no problem if she returns she can have a public comment trustee rodriguez mojica thank you So thank you to all of our trustees up here for agreeing to move this item up and for us to be able to discuss this today. So what I would like to do, as I mentioned at our last session, I would really like us to spend some focused time in the form of study sessions to be able to look at what we are currently doing across our school sites. from the elementary schools, middle schools, and our high schools as well. And I think the study sessions would be the best way to kind of get started, to get a big
147picture understanding. Our last session, I mentioned two study sessions. I think as a minimum, it would be two, but three would be ideal to really look at all of our school sites and see what we're doing. The purpose of this would be to... look at what each of the school sites is doing, what are some potential obstacles that they have been facing, and for us to be able to get a big picture overview across all of our elementary schools and all of our secondary schools as well. I would love for this to be a starting point for us to really gain a better understanding, but from that better understanding is for us to be able to identify what we could do to be able to support our schools a little bit better. with the end
148goal of improving student outcomes. So I would love for us, I mean happy to have discussion, but I would love for us to be able to identify some dates maybe today, and if not, maybe our superintendent's office can help us be able to narrow those down later. But that is what I have to say, so I will stop talking so folks can add their comments or questions. All right, any questions or comments? Trustee Richardson-Fowler. I support the study sessions and I got my calendars ready. Thank you very much Anyone else before I pass it to the superintendent? trustee Villagrana muscle in support of the study session and doing the analysis and yes looking just let's get some dates and then Yeah, let's get it done going down Trustee Garcia, you want to pass you up?
149Yes. So I have a question. So I totally support the study session, but I would like to know if you, as you remember, I sent the yellow item about the plan. So my question is just suggesting to do after that agenda item or before? So how this is going to work? So what is? Do you understand what he said? Are you asking me the question or are you asking the superintendent? Claudia and superintendent as well. Can you clarify a little bit? I'm not sure I understood. Yeah, so my question is how this is going to work. First, you proposed to do first a study session before my agenda item, who is the plan. So your agenda item was to look at tingle right no no no the low scores Schools or the low scoring schools.
150Yes so or So there's two requests so at trustee. Yes, yes, we has her agenda item request was a plant to discuss a plan to support the low performing schools. I see. Originally she had requested for Dingle but she amended her yellow sheet to include all low performing schools. Got it. And so that that and then and then this request came in about reviewing data about reviewing the data. So I guess the question is for the board. What is the end goal for your item because it may be the same that trustee Garcia has and that will help clarify That's why she's asking for clarification about where her her item falls in this. Okay May I take a stab at it? Yes. Can I can I try to answer? Okay. So the way that I'm
151seeing it is what I'd like us to do is look at all of the schools, including the schools that are identified as low performing. So I see that agenda item as fitting in, right? Being able to look at what they're doing. But I would love for us to not, I saw that on the agenda, it actually says data, but that was not my request. I want data to be included, but I would not, I don't want the sole focus to be on data. look at those student test scores and then the end goal would be to once we get a big picture including our lower performing schools and we're able to look at the schools that are actually maybe improving we can look at everything and set up a plan to be able to support
152so it could come up with some um maybe some policy that we end up enacting i don't know what it would be without looking at everything but i do see it as combined Yes, so that's why I would like to have a clarification. Once we decide to go with the student session, or maybe we can, I don't know, superintendent, if we can do first my request for the SOM school and then the study session. If that's, is that okay with you? Are you asking that we do a separate study session for just the low-performing schools? No, okay just a conversation in a board meeting. Yes. Okay. Maybe that's a question for our superintendent. Sorry Superintendent are you understanding what's being? Stated I think so. So let me just share with what? What's happening right now
153our schools right now are reviewing their data They're having and they're having release days They're meeting here. The district office gain support from consultants, the U Met gentlemen. They're doing follow-up meetings with their staff, teacher leadership teams here. They're meeting with some of our services staff to review that. They're going back, working with our school site councils, and they're working on their school plans to address their student achievement. That's what our principals are doing right now. And so I'm trying to so I understand that the board wants to look at all the data to potentially set policy But that's your role the role right now on the how is what the principals are doing with their teachers and their parents in the school site Council and they're gonna bring forward their plans to the school
154plan to What their plans are to address student achievement now if the board wants to consider what additionally we can do on top of what the school sites are doing, what the principals are doing, that's what we hire them for. They're the experts, their teachers are the experts. They know their kids the best. They know down to a single student what those students, if they're on an IEP, you're not going to see that. It's going to be very difficult, what's going on in their family lives, what's going on in different dynamics. And they're looking at additional assessment. They're not just looking at the SBAC that's taken one time a year. Depending on how that student felt that day. You know, it's not a true picture It's important data that we cannot ignore and we have
155to pay attention to it because we're being judged and We're being measured by the state and the public on that one assessment, but it's not a complete true picture of those students abilities So but it is an important thing that we need to look at And so I do appreciate the board wanting to understand it better, and I think that's a good discussion. But I want to be able to have this discussion without getting into the how with our leaders who are working right now to build their school plans and bringing it forward to you that's approved by their school site councils. So I think Trustee Garcia's request. I can see us coming forward and saying this is some things that we can do additionally to support our low-performing schools. So this is what we're
156currently doing additionally, and let's discuss some ideas that we can do even potentially more. Trustee Mojica's question about, you know, where are some positive... highlights here in the district and potentially maybe that coming to some kind of policy or an additional direction about doing something additionally. You know, we can do that. I just caution that every school is different. So what works at one school may not work at another school. So it's very complex, but the whole point is that you are interested in student achievement. That's a positive thing. and to have the discussion in the special board meeting, I think that's a good thing. It's just looking to be a little more complex. So I'm just trying to understand what the end outcome that you want so that I can support my staff to
157provide you the information that you need. Superintendent, are you suggesting that we do Trustee Rodriguez-Mujica's before or after Trustee Garcia's item? Well, Trustee Mojica is asking for a special board meeting. We won't be able to do a special board meeting until May because right now March is already around the corner. One week, all of us are going to be gone to a conference, so we only have three weeks in March, and we already have two board meetings in those three weeks. And we will need time to get direction on what kind of data you would want, so March is not going to work. April we have a spring spring break and we have a board meeting for four board meetings in a row All the way till May 1st. So you're gonna be here for
158more means and we're all the way till April 1st so just want to keep you keep that in mind and There's another special board meeting that I also need us kind of urgent that I'll be talking to the agenda planning committee about scheduling The board's also requested some time with Francisco Rodriguez to speak about prioritizing What you want me to focus on as a superintendent So that's going to be something that we also need to schedule. I think that's also urgent. There's a lot there's a lot of time so I We have you know, we're gonna be realistic about how much you can Absorb Just from last the fourth to now, you know, these are long nights So, you know, we'll do what the board wishes, but I just want to kind of give you
159that what we have scheduled right now so if for the sport for this particular item, I would suggest either the May 13th or May 15th, I Would prefer the 15th because it is a Thursday and I think that's just a easier way to have these because you know we're just used to Thursdays every time we have a different meeting on a different day it kind of throws everybody off and I know most of your schedules are open on Thursdays so May 15th is an option the other open one is May 8th but that's that would mean that we would have four five meetings in a row and I think you're going to be burnt out by then you're going to want a little break May I add something? One of the things I would like
160us to consider in selecting these dates is perhaps doing a Saturday session. If not the full day, maybe in the morning on a Saturday and then breaking at lunchtime or something. Simply because I know for me, sometimes it... We want to be really focused and be making sure that we're taking all the information in. And for if any of you are like me after a long workday, it's a little hard sometimes, especially when it goes a little later. And so I'd like to kind of put on the table whether you all would be open to doing a Saturday session if Thursdays are a little trickier. So pretend to just say those data for the study section? Yes, a study session for Mrs. Mojica's request. She would cut to the study session. I'm in support of
161Saturday. How do the other folks feel about Saturdays? Are you still talking about potentially doing three? I'm like, I'm not opposed to that. I just want to make sure I yeah Okay, and if we don't need the third we don't need the third but I really think we will One idea I have and I don't know if this is worth considering but it's just Would it be worth if we are gonna? Potentially do three or maybe two doing elementary school and secondary just because they're very different POPULATIONS. SUPERINTENDENT AND I TALKED ABOUT THAT AND WE THOUGHT THAT WAS A REALLY GOOD IDEA TOO. SO DEFINITELY DO ELEMENTARIES. WE HAVE SO MANY ELEMENTARIES THAT WILL BE SPLIT UP INTO TWO DIFFERENT SESSIONS. BUT DEFINITELY DIVIDING THEM UP LIKE THAT. ABSOLUTELY. SUPERINTENDENT? I'M HERE AT YOUR DISPOSAL
162IF YOU NEED ME ON A SATURDAY. THREE SATURDAYS IS A LOT TO ASK FOR. BUT I WILL DO THE WARD DIRECTS. I MEAN, THAT IS A LOT OF That's a lot of meeting time and I don't You know, I'm willing to meet on Saturdays no no question about it, but just as a practical Understanding of this packed April that we have that we're going to be meeting every week You know, that's it's gonna be a lot. I think for me I think trying to address Trustee Garcia's TOPIC IN TERMS OF THE LOWEST PERFORMING SCHOOLS. IT'S ACTUALLY SOMETHING THAT I THINK BEFORE WE EVER GET TO MEETING WITH THE BIG GENERAL PICTURE, I THINK THIS IS WHY I SUGGESTED HAVING A COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE, LOOKING SPECIFICALLY FOCUSING ON LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS AND TRYING TO IDENTIFY
163you know, better questions, you know, in terms of who are the students, what are the populations, using the data that we already have, that already exists, and being able to flesh out some questions that we can either work with the superintendent to try and get answers for, or to try and already have a base of information or better questions for whenever we meet, generally speaking. I'm not sure. is to create a committee, do I need to submit a yellow sheet for that? Is that something that we could do as part of this conversation? And the reason why you would have a committee is because besides a larger session, you're gonna need somebody to continuously work on it. Whatever, we decide staff. work on but also just as a board to kind of take up the
164questions that we have, build better questions, right? I take the time to look at the data we already have. So I can tell you already that it's not just about schools, it's about the particular groups in the schools, right? It's about grade levels where you can see certain things happening in grade levels. And I think a committee could go a long way in helping flush out those better questions, you know, that we can take on in the bigger dynamic. But I don't know and just in terms of a committee is that something that we could Try and form now or that needs to have be a yellow sheet. What's on the agenda? It's on the agenda could be something you can come back I said I was just an ad hoc committee ad hoc committee
165of the board So that you know if that's what the board wishes Well, this is an informational action item And as to discuss this is us our potential board study session on date data So I guess the question is, do you guys really want to have three sessions on Saturdays? Not for me. Can we start? I'm okay with them not all being Saturdays. I just wanted to put Saturdays on the table. So if you all prefer like two Saturdays and one Thursday, whatever, you know, works. I do really want us to put these on the calendar, though. I think all of these ideas are really, really great. And we have the same end goal in mind. So I'd hate for us to keep pushing it out. So it doesn't have to be all Saturdays. I
166do think three would be ideal. So you all if you're not open to all all Saturdays can we do two Saturdays or one full day Saturday. I open to do Saturday but we can start with one Saturday and after that we can we can see the progress because yeah there's a lot of meetings already. So I have a question if I. Remember correctly we have a two session for financers. Did you ask him so we have to write? Yes, that's why do you think we can change one just one for finance and put out? I know it's a lot of meetings. I know but I do think I just want to this is huge like improving student outcomes Totally support, but I think we have already a lot of meetings For me, I would like
167to start with one two, maybe but three things I think yeah, I'm gonna stick with the three I just want to remind the board one time is being here at the meeting spending time There's preparation before each meeting. So I just want you to understand the other impacts that each meeting, you know the you come but this preparation information Data collection presentation that happens before each meeting And so I just want you to keep that in mind. And we need to take into consideration May is almost at the end of the year. And we start, as a mom, my kids have to start to do presentations and the sport, a lot of more things is involved. And also the district, the schools, there's a lot more graduations and I think more close to May. or
168for someone would take vacation as well. So I'm open to do Saturday for me and I would like to start. I didn't say no treat for now, just start with one. I open to do on May on Saturday. I prefer Saturday too. But before we continue with this, I would like to again clarify about my topic is gonna be before superintendent. I don't know that we could actually talk about this specific topic within this agenda item because we only are limited to talking about this agenda item. So my question is this. So it's supposed to be, I sent my gelitude before. So it's supposed to be first come, first serve. So that's why my question. No, it's not. No, it's not. I'm going to ask that we stick to this agenda item because I feel
169like it's getting. No, it's not getting back and forth because so this, so at the end, we're going to make a policy or we ask her for a plan for those schools. So my topic is really connected with this. That's why I would like to have clarification. That's why it is connected. I think what you need to do is you need to work with Trustee Rodriguez-Mojica to see if your topic is really connected to her yellow sheet. I think you're asking me a question when I'm not the author of this yellow sheet. No, no, just question just for you. Yeah, if I can assist. It would also be helpful to me to understand what the end goal is that will determine how we prepare for this. Okay. Then that will help me address other agenda
170items and work with staff If it's just going to be a data review to get more information Is there a goal to set policy is there a goal to? Make decisions because the principals are working on their school plans right now What I want to avoid is for them to come doing all the work that they're doing now and have to send them back and then delay I'M NOT SURE WHERE THIS IS GOING. THAT WILL HELP ME SO I CAN PREPARE STAFF AND GIVE YOU SOME ADVICE ON HOW TO MOVE FORWARD. I THINK IT'S GOING TO BE VALUABLE IF TRUSTEE RODRIGUEZ MOJICA CLARIFIES WHAT THIS TOPIC IS. I WOULD LOVE TO. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO SHARE WITH THE BOARD WHAT IT IS THAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR, WHAT EXACTLY YOU WANT TO BE
171INCLUDED. and then we could have the discussion. So let's kind of start all over again. Okay. So I'll start first with our superintendent's request to gain clarity of what we want by the end of the study session. I was talking about it as bigger because I see these study sessions as the beginning of something more, but I will bring it down just to the study sessions now. And I'll do it in my teacher way with a learning objective, right? So by the end of those study sessions. all three of them, the board will have a better understanding of what is going well across school sites in our district and identify obstacles for improved student outcomes. So that's one that we'll be able to do that. And if we can even, we'll be able to describe
172it if we want to put more action words on there. My second objective with this is based on that understanding, the board will be able to develop plan I'm not saying a full-blown plan but we should by the end of that have an idea of these are the things that we want to target and then move forward to try to solve them it could be a policy it could be several policies it could be increased communication across school sites I don't know what that solution is going to be because I don't know what's going to come from that information in those sessions Does that help a little bit superintendent or can I add more information to clarify the purpose or the end goal of the study sessions? I think in the big picture piece that
173it's possible. I think it's gonna be very difficult for the board to identify obstacles because the people working at the school directly with the students directly implementing what they're doing are going to be the best people to know those obstacles. And that's why they will be there, right? We talked about this, that the principals would be there and help us understand that. That was an idea I threw, but now with the Saturdays, I don't know. You know, I have to. Think about I need to get more from any type of understanding so that I don't want to put my so I know what I'm telling the principal That's why I want to understand. I also want to avoid I must be very honest My my role as a superintendent is to remind us of our
174roles And there is a stain in the in the what and not again into the how So these sessions can easily get into the how and directing, that's a caution. Because the ones who develop the plan on the how is our site principals. If the board wants, for example, we're seeing a trend in math scores, concerns about math scores, we're noticing that these subgroups at these sites are having some concerns. The appropriate... Our board action would be we want the sites to come back with a plan on how to address that For the board to try to develop a plan themselves that would but not not that's not something that your role is And that's why we have the principal So I'm just trying to understand what that is and that that we don't fall
175into that Because each time you know, I'm gonna have to step in because a healthy board stays with policy and a healthy district leaves it to the professionals, to teachers and the staff to get into the house. So I'm just trying to be very clear about that from the beginning before we go too far. And when I had suggested about the principals being part of that, I wasn't thinking it was three sessions and three Saturdays and all that. So I have to... I WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE REST AND ARE READY TO COME BACK. I CAN DIRECT STAFF TO DO WHATEVER THE BOARD WANTS. JUST CAUTIONARY ABOUT THEIR TIME. THIS IS A VERY BUSY TIME IN MAY. IT'S SO BUSY FOR THE PRINCIPALS. THEY'RE DOING TESTING, CARNIVALS, GRADUATIONS, END OF THE YEAR CEREMONIES. I
176ALSO WANT TO BE MINDFUL OF THE PRESSURE THAT IS PUTTING their time as well. I'd like to respond. So when I said a plan, I meant a plan for the board. I did not mean us making a plan for Zamora Elementary or Plainfield or any of those. I understand that that is at the school site level, but we need to understand what is happening at the school so that we can make a plan on, what is it that you said that we do the what, not the how? So I completely understand that. I'm not trying to get in and develop the school site plans for the schools themselves, but we need to make sure that we know our next steps so that we can act on them. And that's why I mentioned identify obstacles. And
177I also want to clarify, I see this as a good thing that we're trying to do. I see this as us wanting to understand so we can support the schools and our principals and our students and our families and our teachers. So I just want to reiterate that. We're on the same page right we're all trying to do the same thing This is in support of teachers in support of families in support of administrators And I feel like that's getting a little lost like this isn't us. This isn't me trying to tell Principals what to do this isn't me trying to tell teachers what to do This is me as a trustee and hopefully as a board trying to understand what is happening across our sites, learning from each other. We get the school plans
178and we get the SARCs, but we look at them one by one and it's hard to be able to see the big picture. So I would love the opportunity for principals, as we had talked about before, and if Saturdays are an issue, we can go back to Thursdays. That's not something I'm going to die on. But I do think it's important for us to have time to be able to have each of the principals share with us what they see as their highlights, what do they see as their obstacles. And when we hear all of this, I think we can develop a plan as a team. What can we help with? Right, not what obstacles can we throw? How can we make their job harder? What can we help with with that what we have
179and under your guidance? So I really want to make that clear because I don't think maybe I misspoke earlier But I feel like that may have not come across clearly Thank You trustee Rodriguez-Molica going down trustee I know we kind of got off track. Let's try to get on track We're gonna start with trustee Villagrana and then make our way towards me So again, I'm 100% in support of this deep dive analysis and you know, definitely hearing from the principals and Again for me as a board will create the policy or direction, right? We see an issue and then we tell staff create a plan like Trustee Cachal was saying to address this issue but we would not create a plan right we would direct the superintendent to direct staff to address that issue come
180back with recommendations right and then we would decide where we're going to put funding from right again because it's funding to address that issue right so if we're moving that direction yes 100% behind that um you know regarding Trustee Garcia's uh conversation about her item I agree with 100% that, again, the Agenda Planning Committee needs to identify a date for her item way before May because her item has been there for a while. It's not up to her to talk to. TRUSTEE RODRIGUEZ-MOJICA ABOUT WHETHER THE ITEM FITS WITH HER OR NOT. AND WE'RE NOT DELIBERATING THE ITEM. SO TO ME, NOT AN ISSUE OF BROWN ACT. IT'S PART OF THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS AS TO WHETHER THERE'S GOING TO BE SUPPORT FOR THIS ITEM. AND FOR ME AS WELL. BECAUSE, AGAIN, SHE'S BEEN WAITING FOR A
181LONG TIME. AND IT'S AN ITEM THAT'S BEEN REQUESTED TO BE ON A MEETING. AND AGAIN, THAT'S FOR THE AGENDA PLANNING TO IDENTIFY THAT DATE. AND FOR IT TO BE AFTER MAY, THAT TO ME IS NOT A GOOD THING. So but again I'm support moving forward. I support you know you started with one Saturday and then identifying whether I mean the time is going to be the time whether it's Thursdays or Saturdays. Right. The only difference is Saturdays you know people make plans and that's a big difference. But as far as preparation it doesn't matter when it lands in the week the preparation is going to happen from staff. That's that's not going to change more again the impact on people's lives which is important. But it's also this is also I agree it's super important.
182Student achievement is important and it needs to be addressed, right? I mean we can't just continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome is not going to change So again with those things in mind, yes, you know again 100% Support of this but also again we do need to our agenda planning committee or again, maybe the board directs The fourth item will come back at a later time. So, all right, so I am gonna respond to that before we move on because we do have the chance to respond. I did not state that her item was not gonna come up until May. I did not state that, so I am clarifying that. I wanted to make sure that if Trustee Garcia, you wanted your item to work in connection
183or tandem with Trustee Rodriguez-Molica's item, that you guys work that out, okay? The agenda planning committee has been working directly with our superintendent to try to get every item, not only yours, but every item that comes forward. And she makes the recommendation as to when her team has the capacity to agendize it and work on it. You know, given all of the overlapping deadlines, it's no different than we've been working on it before, Trustee Villagrana. So I am not saying that I'm objecting to agendizing your item. That is not the case. The superintendent stated right now earlier that they have the capacity of doing it in May. So now I understand you guys want this agendized earlier. All we can do is work with our superintendent. Did you state that you wanted it agendized earlier?
184I'm sorry, what? She said May was fine for her item. She didn't say her item. Okay. I'm confused. I thought you said. Trustee Garcia's you I thought you stated right now that you were not okay that it's not okay for trustee Garcia's item to wait until May is that what I heard I did say that okay and just occur but I didn't say that you said that you were not gonna put it in May I did not say that okay I'm just letting you know what I'm what I'm understanding of what you're putting down okay and I would like to clarify because I don't want anything to be missed there I don't want any misconceptions or misunderstandings walking away from here so The agenda planning process has not changed. We are working diligently with our
185superintendent to try to make sure that our staffing capacity is able to hold these items and prepare for them for the agenda. I will take this back to the agenda planning committee. We will have a conversation with the superintendent, but I can't make any promises, okay? If... You are changing your agenda item make sure that you're speaking with the superintendent so that you know All of this can kind of get flushed out prior, but that's it for me moving down trustee I still have comments go for it So again to clarify I never said and by you saying that I said it also makes an implication when I didn't say anything the The request by trustee Garcia is for the item to come before the board to determine Whether to give direction to those to
186pretend to do something with that item So again that that should not take a lot of time from staff It just comes before the board just like now and then the board's gonna decide yes or no the board could decide No, it's not gonna move forward. That's what we're asking just the way to come before the board in the same way A statement is made as to what should happen. And then the board decides, yes, we're going to do it now or no, we're going to do it in August, right? Or in September. But it has not come before the board to have even a conversation about whether the item happens or not and when it happens. That's what I'm talking about. Not the whole item comes together because the board hasn't approved for it
187to come together. So that just to clarify as to what I was talking about. Thank you, Trustee Villagrana. I want to make sure that you understand that there has been conversations regarding your item, Trustee Garcia. But there has been some work that has been done on the inside. All right. And now I don't have control over that. Our superintendent was supposed to have a conversation with you about some ideas. I don't know whether it happened or not, but go ahead. Okay. Okay. First of all. I DID SAY EARLIER THAT THIS WAS A POSITIVE THING FOR THE BOARD. I WANT TO CLARIFY THAT IF THERE'S ANY MISUNDERSTANDING. I'M JUST TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE BOARD RIGHT NOW, THERE'S A LOT OF THINGS ON THE PLATE AND I AS A SUPERINTENDENT TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW ARE WE
188GOING TO FIT IT IN TO MEET ALL OF YOUR NEEDS. THAT'S ALL I'M COMING FROM. AND ALSO TO REMIND THE BOARD OF THE ROLE. THAT'S MY RESPONSIBILITY. THERE'S SEVERAL, I LIKE TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK WITH THE AGENDA PLANNING COMMITTEE. where we can look at all the months together and consider all these places and see what Saturdays or other special board meetings and maybe kind of look at, you know, when you look at the calendar and you see four, five board meetings, one after another, you know, and you're... THE AGENDA IS HAPPENING FRIDAY, FRIDAY, THERE'S IMPLICATIONS BEHIND THE SCENES. AND THEN, YOU KNOW, I NEED SOME CLARIFICATION ALSO LIKE THESE SATURDAYS, WHEN IS THE TIMELINE, WHAT IS THE WINDOW OF TIME THAT THIS WORK, YOU'RE ENVISIONING THIS WORK? IS IT BETWEEN NOW AND JUNE,
189NOW IN THE FALL? WHAT IS THE TIMELINE? BECAUSE IF IT'S ALL BETWEEN NOW AND JUNE, THAT'S A DIFFERENT Challenge you know what that would be helpful as well so that I can work with the agenda planning committee and suggest dates Well, all of that could be put into the motion because this is an actionable item. So I would like to respond But it's about my yeah, so you go fuck you go back with that trustee Villagran I said what they were you're talking about. So I would like to Clarify hold on one second. Let's be respectful. Okay, we're all trying to figure out where we're all coming from and trying to work together Collaboratively I'm being respectful. All right, so let's try to hold hold to our board norms We're trying our best to try
190to get your agenda item on there. All right, I'm not working against you If that's your feeling. So I don't have time to respond what you say and what did it. Yes, you may. It's about me. It's about my topic. Okay. You can go ahead and respond. Absolutely. This is your moment. So now. Okay. Excuse me. So now or after both followers. This is your moment. You are welcome to speak. Okay. So. I would like to clarify. Yeah, I'm totally agree with the trustee, Rodríguez Mojita, say about we're the same page. Absolutely, I agree. So I just want to clarify the outcome I would like for my item. So I asking to the superintendent for a plan. She mentioned it in that meeting about low scores schools. She mentioning she has a plan already working
191on a plan already. So my item is to have Bring them to the board the plan because I think this item from trustee Rodriguez is absolutely absolutely great, but I think those schools They we need to work with them now we can wait more time for them We ask questions to the principals to say what do they need from us, and we just ask them, and we don't give them a solution. So that's, and I want to stop here. I don't want to say more about the process. What Trustee Bautista-Zavala say about the agenda, how could I put the agendas, items? I understand you say the process is not working first come, first serve. So that's what I understand. Thank you to Trustee Villagrana to clarify my point. And I think everybody has the right
192to put items on the table. And I think you... the agenda planning committee, they had to work with the superintendents. We have a lot of conversation about this, and I have a conversation about this for a long time with Trustee Rodriguez as well. So that's my response. I hope this clears my item with this. All right, does anybody have anything else to state about this? All right, if we continue going this way, it's Trustee Rodriguez. So I think that you know, I think I think that your your item I think should be on the next Agenda, I think one that one some of the well, I think was not necessarily understood was What would your need fit into? To trustee Rodriguez mojica's NEED FOR WANTING HER SUBJECT? WOULD THEY BE ABLE TO CONNECT? AND I
193THINK FOR ME, THEY DO IN THE LARGER THING, BUT NOT NOW. TRYING TO GET A SATURDAY DATE TO DO A MEETING IS ONE THING. THAT'S KIND OF LIKE A BIGGER PLAN, RIGHT? THE OVERVIEW. BUT WHAT YOU'RE ASKING FOR, TRUSTEE GARCIA, IS SOMETHING MORE IMMEDIATE TO TAKE ON THAT ISSUE, RIGHT? AND SO I THINK And so now we kind of see that they're not quite compatible. So I think it should be right for exactly the agenda item that you're asked for to come on the next agenda item. And then we can have discussions because to me, my issue about having a committee that can work on these types of issues, right? That fits more in line, I think, with what you. ARE LOOKING FOR. SOMETHING MORE IMMEDIATE THAT BOARD MEMBERS CAN START WORKING ON. BY WORKING
194ON, WHAT WE MEAN IS INFORMATIONAL. STARTING TO DIG INTO THE INFORMATION. I KNOW WHERE TO LOOK. I'VE BEEN LOOKING AT THIS FOR A LONG TIME. THERE'S A LOT OF QUESTIONS WE NEED TO ASK IN ORDER TO TEASE OUT WHAT IT MEANS WHEN WE'RE LOOKING AT THE DATA. you know, what, look at the different groups that are affected, right? It's not just schools, it's the groups in the schools, it's the grade levels. And you can see that when you look at all the data that we have to look at. And that's something that might fit in closer to what you're saying. So I just think we should, I think everybody's in agreement that we should do the larger sessions. I think we should just agree to do the first one. Let's see. where that leads us
195to and then from that one we can agree. I think it should be ongoing, right? For sure. No question. That's been a long time coming, right? You know and so I but I think it's an informational process that we're doing right we're seeking information By being able to do these large group studies right and that that information as we tease it out Will lead to better questioning in regards to what is happening right how we relate to the data Which is really hard to do in the way we get it now right and so once we are able to EXTRACT THE BEST INFORMATION WE CAN OUT OF OUR QUESTIONS, WE'LL BE IN A BETTER PLACE TO POSSIBLY MAKE SOME POLICY DECISIONS OR POSSIBLY MAKE A REALLOCATION OF RESOURCES. BUT WHAT WE'RE ASKING FOR, I THINK,
196ALL OF US IS ROOTED IN SIMPLY BEING INFORMATIONAL. GATHERING INFORMATION, ASKING BETTER QUESTIONS AND GETTING MORE INFORMATION SO WE CAN HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF, FOR US, FOR ME AND BABY AT LEAST, THOSE ARE FOLKS THAT ARE NOT DOING WELL, RIGHT? EMPHASIS ON THAT, BUT ALSO THE LARGER PICTURE. So I think we can move I think we should move forward and voting on on one date we can do that and then we can bring Trustee Garcia's item on the next agenda and and have that conversation a more specific and current conversation I like to suggest that we start with May 15th As the first session and then I can work with the agenda planning committee regarding trustee Garcia's agenda item before that But I do want to clarify for those of you who have not
197been on the agenda planning committee how it works behind So there's no misunderstanding with all of you here There's there's there's two documents that we use to prepare the agenda that I draft for the agenda planning committee One of them is the governance the governance of calendar that you approve Every December that has a list of all the required reports budget timelines for the budget things for HR your resolutions and your reports with the LCAP It goes month by month and it's a list of all the items that I have to schedule Determine when to schedule it within that month. So I use that document first my staff to say okay in the month of February there's a list of things that we must based on our calendar that we need to figure out is
198it the first meeting of the month or the second meeting of the month. That's the first thing that we do. Because those things have to happen in order to run the district. They're operational. They have to happen because there's compliance, there's timelines for the budget, there's timelines with HR, there's timelines with the LCAP. That's the first thing. So that's the first draft. And that is the governance calendar that you approve as a board in December. So that's my first guiding guide. After we do that, then I look to see, okay, let's look at all the requests by trustees. Some requests are immediate, like a resolution, because of the timing, like you did tonight, right? Like we did with the immigration resolution. Some things are immediate that we need to jump over. So the yellow sheets
199don't necessarily go in order of when they're turned in. Right. Sometimes a board member makes a request like Trustee Mojica did that she wanted to, and you all agreed that you wanted to bring this discussion and talk about it to do it at her item sooner. That was something that she brought forward. You all agreed and that's why we're having a discussion tonight. Some items take a little longer to place together or there's priority things that are happening. Some things are unexpected things that come up so we take that all into consideration and try to pace it out so that we also meet you know are here at a decent time and that you are able to Think thoroughly through these important discussions Tonight was it looked like a light agenda, but I anticipated that
200the first item and this item was going to be lengthy I THINK I GOT THAT ONE, YOU KNOW, BECAUSE IT LOOKED LIGHT. BUT I ANTICIPATED THAT THE BOARD WAS GOING TO, I KNOW THAT VAPA IS VERY IMPORTANT. I KNOW THAT THIS OTHER TOPIC WAS GOING TO BE A DISCUSSION. I NEEDED TO HEAR SOME CLARITY AS WELL. SO THAT'S HOW THAT WORKS. THERE'S SOME FOLLOW-UP SOMETIMES. I'LL GIVE YOU THE EXAMPLE OF TRUSTEE FOWLER'S ITEM THAT SHE REQUESTED REGARDING, STARTED ABROAD. THAT HAS TO COME BACK TOO. I NEED TO BRING THAT BACK. Matter of fact, I was talking to her earlier saying aids some you're gonna have some some items coming up that she's been waiting for for a while and and also That trustee saw what I've been waiting for So I just want what you
201know that behind the scenes That's kind of how I work with the agenda planning committee to try to figure how he pays all that out and the only thing I was trying to tell to express tonight because you because I'm looking closely at the Dates and the times to remind you like hey we have like four or five back-to-back and we also have some other items that I need to talk to the to the trust the agenda planning committee that we need to schedule and also I have I also know that the board wants to work with with a consultant to set priorities and so you know so so there's a lot so that's that was my my intention I just want to make sure that all of you know that you know all of
202your items are definitely being All of them are important. It's just sometimes the timing, the level of information that needs to be happening depending on what's on that governance calendar. And then trying to spread out like looking at the time of the agenda how long it's gonna take so that You have time to think thoroughly through through this process So but it for today for today so we can help us move forward I'd like to recommend that the board consider the 15th and then give me an opportunity to work with the agenda planning to discuss everything else that was Adjusted tonight. All right going back around you guys don't have any All right trusty. I don't know you're good No, but trustee has not spoken yet. So I get my first time to talk. Yeah
203Thank You trustee Richardson Fowler. I apologize. Yeah, this is just frustrating Trustee Garcia just so you know I submitted my yellow sheet April 25th to talk about exchange programs and we just talked about that in January. So I guess the agenda planning does what they need to do to get it on the schedule. I would really like to see us do more than one session so I'm good with putting the 15th on my calendar but I also do want a Saturday day to go over it. I do know that a lot of other school boards have maybe one or two meetings a month, but they also have executive sessions every month and workshops every month where they're able to go into deep dives on material. And I just feel like this is the most beneficial
204way to get a great perspective on what's going on. Hopefully after we do this. We can use this as a template for how we do our school safety plans or school site plans and have a workshop or executive session where we do a deep dive into what's going on at the school sites before we just approve a document. But not to belabor the topic any further, I would love to see three study sessions, three workshops, so that we can do a deep dive into this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much trustee Richardson Fowler and I apologize you did not get your turn. All right going down to the right Trustee Garcia trustee Brubaker I am curious if you are opposed to doing three study sessions spread out over a longer period of time
205so it might be easier for people to schedule. I'm concerned if we only schedule one, we'll try and cram too much into that and it will not be useful. And so maybe doing May, June, July would be a good option. I'm still on board for Saturdays personally, but I can't speak for other people's schedules. Trustee Rodriguez. All right, myself. I'm okay with doing as many study sessions as you need. I know that this is a very important topic, just like any other topic that may be pending or has already been touched on. I think we just need to align our calendars. If we do the three study sessions, I would suggest that we stick to no more than three hours at a time. Then we alleviate, you know, the meals and the breaks and all
206of that. Because that is you know a cost factor I'm okay with the May 15th start date Okay, we're doing it on Saturdays I'm okay with doing the May June July If you notice our calendar, we don't have that many board meetings in July. So maybe that's a good time for some of us Yes, it's great if we could all be here, but it's completely understandable if we can't. And it's the same situation we had when we were setting the dates for the finance special sessions. So, I mean, we could only do as much as we possibly can with the majority of us. Trustee Villagrana. Thank you. Again, just running around in support of the three sessions. Again, if we want to start on a Thursday, that's fine. I don't know if three hours is
207enough for all the data that we need to look at. I'd rather schedule four. And if we don't need it, then we get done earlier, instead of scheduling three and then having to end it after three. And I'm definitely supportive of the one a month for, I guess, Trustee Rodriguez-Muica said, retention purposes. The more we spread out, the less we're going to retain. If we spread out over a period of six months or nine months, it's just not as effective. But yeah, even on a Saturday again, four hours would be I think a good amount. We don't have to have lunch. We can and then go home and eat lunch if cost is an issue. All right. Trustee Rodriguez-Mohica, do you want to make a motion? And if you could please state it. If you're
208ready to make a motion, I just ask that you state it the way you want it, not necessarily how it's on the agenda. Okay. I want to check in. So I definitely want to schedule the first one, but I don't want to just leave it at that. So I'm sticking with the three sessions. I really do think those are necessary, and I just worry that the longer we wait, it might get bumped by something else that comes up. I don't want to spread them out across six months for sure. My preference would be if we start with 515. And I also agree, I think four hours would be better. I'm assuming we wouldn't have a closed session because it's a study session. So we would start at five. So maybe just go five to nine,
209taking a break in there. I think that would be ideal. So starting with 515, if we then look at 529, which is a Thursday as well. And then if we look at Saturday, 614. So again, that's 515, 529, which is also a Thursday. It's two weeks after. And then the last one would be on 614, a Saturday. Sixth grader? On which day? 529? Okay, so maybe we don't want... Ideally, the suggestion about one in May and June and July. I think we can figure a date out. I can pull the board and look at staff and avoid some of these things and work with the agenda planning committee. I think that's doable versus trying to have, again, remember that you're going to have five, four. And to get all the way from April to May
2101st, you're going to have back to back to back meetings. And then if you do two meetings in May, you're going to have only one week without a board meeting in May. That's a really tough time of the year for our principals. So it's doable if we do May, something in June and something in July. And I would ask that the board give me some flexibility to work with the agenda planning committee and my staff to figure out when in June and when in July. I'm open to that if we could try to do it earlier in the month again I just don't want too much time to lag between each of the sessions. Yeah. It'll be a little difficult in June because of the graduations. It's OK. Yeah we can do what we can.
211Friendly if we also because it looks like on our calendar July June is pretty open at the end after school gets out. So if. THIS IS ME BEING PURELY SELFISH. IF WE COULD POSSIBLY DO TWO IN JUNE, IF THAT WORKS OUT SCHEDULING WISE, THAT WOULD BE AMAZING. IF NOT, AGAIN, NOT THE HILL I WANT TO DIE ON. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I'M PARTICIPATING IN THIS DEEP DIVE SINCE IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING. YOU WANT TO DO A MOTION? YES. I MIGHT NEED SOME HELP. THIS IS MY FIRST MOTION. WHAT DO I DO, Y'ALL? I MAKE A MOTION TO HAVE three study sessions of four hours each the first one to be scheduled on Thursday May 15th and Then our superintendent will help us schedule the other two ideally in June and then state what you
212what they're regarding and These study sessions would be focused on a deep dive to look at all of our schools elementary middle and high to improve academic performance Thank you very much. I second that It's been motioned by trustee Rodriguez mojica and seconded by trustee about these two savannah all those in favor say aye aye any opposition any abstentions Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much for working on that collaboratively. Thank you Moving on to the next item any public comment money Monica. All right, we're moving on to item l2 I had estimated that we get to this one at 10 p.m. It is 9.26. For this item, I have estimated about five or 10 minutes. It's an informational action item. This is to review the secondary course revision proposal for college and career articulation
213team, CCAT, and the course is Intro to Art, a middle school course. Thank you, Lori. Good evening. I am here. Superintendent and board president trustees. I'm here to answer any questions. Should you have them? Yes Trustee Richardson fellers. So it says dual enrollment How is that going to work if it's going to be at? Douglas middle school and Lee it should not say dual enrollment. It should be that it should be next to revision Okay, so is that a separate line it says replace courses and title and then it's got the semicolon and underneath it It says dual enrollment. I just wanted to make sure that's one of the options, but if there's not an X next to it, that's not I thought that was gonna be so cool though, but thank you. We can't
214do dual enrollment for middle school They're too young. She wants to start she wants to start them at 14 They actually can start at 14. Thank you very much anyone else questions or comments on this item? Are you going down? Yes. Yeah. Coming around my way. Nothing here. Trustee Villagrana. So I had spoken to the superintendent about, I'm not going to go into detail, but my concerns around the survey specifically for this. And so she's aware of those concerns. I'm glad to see this course coming through, you know, for students to have a whole year in middle school. It's great. Opportunity to hopefully instill and plant that seed so as they go into high school they continue that that pathway You know in high school it'll help meet a 3g requirements for college admissions, which
215is good You know the more they take the better So I'm happy to see the course. He's had those concerns which and I already expressed to the superintendent. So with that I'm in support Thank you very much, sir. Trustee Rodriguez-Molica, no questions, no comments. Trustee Richardson-Fowler, Trustee Garcia, Trustee Brubaker, Trustee Rodriguez. None for myself. Motion to approve, please. It's been motioned by Trustee Bautista-Zavala, seconded by Trustee Richardson-Fowler. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Any abstentions? Seeing none, motion passes unanimously by all board members. Thank you. Moving on. Thank you very much, Lori. Ms. Carrillo. Moving on to item M, information item on average daily attendance and enrollment report for the 24-25 school year. And this is a written report. Do any of you have any questions? Seeing none, any comments? Seeing none,
216moving to the next item, item N, human resources. This is an action item. Ms. Benson will be approaching the mic. This item is to approve resolution 54-25 to reduce, eliminate particular kinds of certificated service employees. AND SENIOR TIE BREAKER CRITERIA. YES, MA'AM. THANK YOU. Board of Trustees Superintendent, thank you. I'm here on resolution 52 25 as you will note we have are asking for a reduction in services 2.0 FTE and title 1 in the state of California We have to notify by March 15th And so that's why this is in front of you because at this time the funding is uncertain So with that, I am requesting approval to move forward with this resolution to notice the layoff in the positions. We will work with our partners in the union leadership on the effects. Move
217for approval. Second. It's been motioned by Trustee Villagrana and seconded by Trustee Garcia. Any comments or questions? Trustee Brubaker. I just wanted to point out for the public's knowledge the reason this agenda item is before us. This is a direct result of some of the chaos at the federal level. There is now uncertainty on the future of Title I funding nationally. Many of our schools in Woodland benefit from Title I funding, which is to benefit students who are low income. Because of a executive order signed by our president last month that calls into question federal funding which is still very up in the air and repeated threats to the US Department of Education which Disperses title one funding we have to be financially responsible and make these cuts now because we have no idea if
218we will have a way to pay these teachers And I just want to make sure our community is aware of why this is happening. Thank you Thank You trustee Brubaker any more questions or comments off the table. All right. We have a motion all those in favor aye aye aye any opposition or abstentions Seeing none motion passes unanimously by our board members present All right. It is item n to action Item to approve resolution 53-25 elimination and or reduction of classified employee services due to lack of work lack of funds Miss Benson. Thank you We do have the March 15th deadline where we must notify if we are looking at a lack of funding or a lack of work and I've been asked several times about that question and so I kind of want to
219clarify it under California Ed code we have a responsibility to only utilize layoff for the purposes of lack of work or lack of funding. Any other reason cannot be used for this purpose. And our union partners, we work with them on the effects of it. And so the reason we have to put lack of work or lack of funding is because it is in California Ed Code. And we want to notice the public that those are the only two reasons we're utilizing the term layoff. We're recommending and requesting the layoff of these positions, and we will be negotiating the effects with our CSCA leadership. So I'm requesting approval of this resolution. Move for approval. Second. It's been motioned by Trustee Villagrana and seconded by Trustee Garcia, correct? Yes. All right, all those in favor? Aye.
220Any opposition or abstentions? Seeing none, motion passes unanimously by all present. Thank you very much, Ms. Benson. Removing the item O, public comments for items not on the agenda this evening. Monica, please. First speaker is Teresa Robinson and then Robert Newcomb. Thank you very much for your patience this evening. Okay. Great, thanks. Good evening, trustees and superintendent. My name is Teresa Robinson, and I'm a registered nurse here at WJUSD for the past 12 years. The nursing team is still in great concern and disagreement of the plan proposed and voted on in November to cut health techs and attempt to replace them with LVNs. The plan for replacement with LVNs will leave our school offices with more holes, cost more money, and create more work for the RNs to train them, hence creating more liability for
221the safety and health of our students. The other proposed plan to keep the health techs would make less holes of health staff in the health office and cost less, while performing essentially the same duties as the LVN. To get rid of our dedicated health techs who have already demonstrated professionalism in their job and proven to be such valuable needed staff in the school makes no sense. Hiring four more competent LVNs is an unrealistic expectation as the nursing team and district has already experienced. Furthermore, there has been no mention of a contingency plan for if we cannot fill the needed positions. The reason that... Has been given to implement this plan is that we need to try it the RNs understand that the intention of replacing the health techs with LVNs was to have licensed staff
222in the health offices if That is what the district is determined to hire the nursing team would like to propose a smoother transition plan To replace health techs with LVNs as they resign rather than cutting them all at once We understand needing to make budget cuts and would like to revisit the plan for the cuts with nursing input and to work together to have a plan that accommodates needed cuts while maintaining safety for our students. The school nursing team of RNs who are leaders of the health team responsible for overseeing LVNs and health techs in the school setting fervently requests to reconsider how to implement the changes from health techs to LVNs and put this on the agenda for the next board meeting. Thank you. Thank you very much. Robert Newcomb and then Jen Drewick.
223Thank you to the members of the Board of Trustees as well as the superintendent This comment is based on a conversation. I had recently with a woodland public school teacher And she informed me that presently Using Aries there is no way for teachers to track incidents of hate speech and hate crimes that take place in woodland public schools I think that as a general principle, given the current political climate, it's important that school districts have the ability to track this data. First of all, given the alarming increase in incidents of hate speech and hate crimes impacting various communities over the past decade or so. And second, because by collecting data like this, educators, schools, boards of trustees, community stakeholders, and so on can design interventions. that are targeted toward addressing this problem in a productive
224way. As I said earlier, I spoke with a public school teacher here in Woodland, and I apologize if my comments are based on inaccurate information, but I was, I became concerned when I learned that, according to this teacher, when an incident of hate speech takes place, it has to be coded. as some other sort of maybe more generic disciplinary violation. And this makes parsing the data very difficult. So my questions are, first of all, is this accurate? And second, if hate speech cannot be registered using the ARIES system, do schools track this data in another way? And is this data publicly available and usable? Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much Comment if you can send an email to the superintendent with your questions if she can have staff respond to them. Thank
225you Jen drewick and then Christina Venucci Hi, good evening, trustees, cabinet, community. Still some of us left. My name's Jen Druick. I teach freshman seminar at Woodland High School, and I'm here to speak on some things that are not on the agenda. This district has a long history of accumulation of large funding reserves. This district also has a long history of delaying the bargaining calendar. And I just want to share a reminder that it is the obligation of this school district to invest the public funds it receives in service of our students. And that happens through our staff at our schools. We are, as I mentioned when I was earlier at the podium, doing the right thing from a social justice perspective. But we have a lot of work to do in other areas. This
226district has the highest percentage of reserves in the county. This district has the lowest average teacher salaries in the region. Public funds do not belong to the district. They belong to our students. And so the time is now. We cannot wait to fully staff our schools. I work at a school that is not fully staffed. The time is now to establish safe and stable schools. We all know that the turnover that we've experienced with staff has been a problem. It remains a problem. It continues to be a problem. And all of this is tied to establishing competitive wages and benefits. If we cannot contribute more to our health insurance policy as an employer, as those premiums do go up every year, if we do not match it, we are going to continue to lose our
227good people. We do not want to be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to hiring staff to work with our students. Our students don't deserve that. Our students deserve more. And so the time is now to invest these public funds in fully staffing our schools, establishing safe and stable schools through competitive wages and benefits. This bargaining season now. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Jen. Next. Question? Chris. I have a question. The superintendent. Can the reserves one-time funding be used for salaries or ongoing benefit costs? We can't we shouldn't be using them for any ongoing costs. Okay, that would be a mistake for the district. Thank you Monica Christina Vinucci I came here tonight to talk about sports, but I had about four hours They felt like sitting back there
228since we decided to move public comment From your constituents to the end of the agenda. So I felt like you really needed to hear from me Building on what Jen Druick said in Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel, let me give you an example of the bottom of the barrel. I sat at my son's band concert in December, and the audience clapped for those kids, fifth and sixth graders, who played. And the band teacher tutored around, grabbed his mic and said, Oh, you think that's good? They still have work to do. I wouldn't be applauding. Bottom of the barrel. Another one decided that my daughter, who had her palate split open, needed to suck it up and figure out how to play her French horn. Needless to say, music is not on her course request
229for high school. Bottom of the barrel. With regards to sports, I have sent all of you an email about the fabulous sportsmanship that parents and fans have exhibited between Lee and Douglas. It goes between all schools. You guys, coaches are being told that the board is telling coaches that all coaches need to take the CIF course. I stand to argue that administration needs to take the CIF course, and maybe even all administrators, so that you can understand that CIF does not condone taunting of players. And yet this past weekend, I sat at the Wyck House, in which Lee and Douglas, both boys and girls, played each other, and parents heckled the players. Who in their right mind would stand before a band concert or a choir performance or a mariachi or a dance competition and
230stomp their feet and scream so loudly you can no longer hear what's being done or taunt the players and be like break a leg and yet that's the stuff we do to our athletes. Nothing says come out and show your your Love of the game and the school like the asinine way our parents behave and The way our administrators allow them to behave Create a policy that keeps that from happening So that we're not continuing to scrape the bottom of the barrel Thank you very much Monica anymore no more public comment this evening. Thank you very much for all those that participated and Stayed till the end of the board meeting. I appreciate it. This is the first time that we conduct this Moving forward item P information requests for future agenda items from the
231board trustee Richardson Fowler I submitted a couple of yellow sheets. My yellow sheets are to go over the governor's budget at a board meeting to discuss the house resolution. and the executive order to eliminate the Department of Education and what ramifications that will have on our school district. And then my third one is to look at, and this can be a Friday facts or the right person, healthcare options. I would like to look into our options for healthcare exchange companies that provide better benefits at a lower cost. Thank you very much. Ms. Richardson-Fowler, moving to the right. Trustee Garcia. Trustee Brubaker. Wanted to thank the superintendent for clarifying her comments from the meeting last time in light of that clarification I would like to bring back my yellow sheet that I submitted to revisit the
232health tax with accurate information. Excuse me and if we still decide to move towards LVNs discuss a potential smoother transition to as so to as have this Limited impact on our students. Is that something I need a head shake for do I need to make it still? Sorry still on the list right pending items I would like I would like to get it on the next agenda because if we decide not to fully move into LVNs Which that's up to the all of us I would like to not risk losing members of our staff who have been committed staff members So you're asking for this to be on the next agenda item? I am. So this is an info request for future agenda items, non-actionable. It's my understanding that items to be put on the
233next agenda item have to be on an action item. Am I correct? No. If I have enough head nods. I'm not. Are you asking for? I'm asking for guidance. Yeah, no. She can request for it to be. All right next and if there's four trustees that support it then it'll be all right raise your hand if four people are in favor of getting her I done on the next agenda It's a courtesy. I'm not saying that I'm in favor of the item. Okay understand. Thank you very much. Thank you All right moving down question Yes, ma'am. So I need to ask the same question about my item Can she do that at this item if she or because they're yes she did Just again. There's already items on the next agenda So, you know, it
234just depends on how much time we can spend on all these so Yes She can just like miss Baker's just did okay Yes, so I would like to ask to us we'll come back to you trustee Garcia. It's his turn Okay, the only caution I give the board when these things happen is The board item now is due next Friday So just the impact on staff with already other items so You know, so I if it's a if you feel it's an urgent item The board wants it approved as an urgent item like a resolution that urgent because the timing just take that into consideration But considering everything that we already have in the governance account booked and all the other pending items that we just that are on there so we're kind of jumping
235other people's items and Just the timing of the agenda and the timing for staff to prepare All right trustee Rodriguez. I just to So what are the the agenda item the agenda item committee has at its discretion when The planning committee I don't can come on. Yeah, the agenda planning committee does that but if we get Right. We did like what just happened right now. Yeah, they are that when that happens right now that overrides the genoponic, you know for for points and so again When we're not looking at the big picture of all the items that are coming up I'm gonna have to pull some items that I was planning to bring up off and so as you just in keeping in mind on everything that's happening and and Things that need to get
236done And some other items that were already been waiting Yeah, I mean, I just want to make a comment that you know to to go back and put an agenda item on that we have already deliberated on, spent many hours on, met with the community, and made a final decision. I'm not sure why we're bringing that back as an agenda item. I think it sends a really dangerous precedent. about, you know, especially if it's an item which we spent a lot of time deliberating on. I know that there's an issue about some miscommunication or information that wasn't accurate, but... If you look at why the board made that decision, it was based on the board wanting something different, wanting licensed individuals, right? Irregardless of what information was shared about scheduling or what have you. The
237decision was based purely on wanting to give our families licensed individuals. So I'm not sure I'm not sure what what's gonna be you know, I I'm not sure unless we're gonna have a whole other reason for Overturning that type of decision. I'm not sure why we're bringing that forward and I and I would caution that Whenever we spend our time, a lot of time on an issue, and we've discussed it thoroughly, we even talked to our community members, whatever issue it may be. It could be issues having to do with the food, with our food services, which you have spent a lot of time on. It could be LGTBQ issues, right? And we deliberate it. and we spent a lot of time talking about it and then we've made a decision, you know, and then
238once we move forward, now suddenly we want to kind of relitigate it on a basis which doesn't seem to connect with why the board decided in the first place. I just think that's a very, that's not a present, that's not effective governance, I don't think, you know. So I just. Don't know I don't think that's a good decision Thank you very much trustee Garcia. I just want to reiterate that I'm sorry trustee Rodriguez Thank you very much Trustee Rodriguez, I just want to reiterate that I gave the courtesy of giving the item on the agenda because the new board members didn't deliberate on it. And as a courtesy, I believe that it is an opportunity for them to get to know the item a little bit better and feel more comfortable with the decision, should
239they. But I will reiterate, having given the courtesy does not mean that I am supportive of this, but I am giving the courtesy to revisit. and get it on the agenda for you guys to learn a little bit more and hopefully feel comfortable with the decision made and get any questions that you guys might have answered. Okay. Any other future agenda items? Trustee, oh wait, I have one. I would like the courtesy of four votes to get SB 226 for consideration. of support on the next agenda because the time is ticking and the bill is getting to Senate Ed Committee Can I get for can I clarify? That's the this is the Christopher Cabot senator Christopher Cabaldon proposal that would assist Woodland Community College in transferring over to Los Rios Community College. All right for
240thank you very much trustee Villagran a Just really what trustee Rodriguez said about the president and they were setting So I can bring back any item that the two trustees here were not present that I didn't agree with now right because they weren't here to deliberate and how far do we go back we go one month we go a year we go two years you know when we all join the board you know could we have brought items back that we didn't agree with the previous board like again that just is making way more work for staff. I mean the vote was the last vote reaffirmed right. It was one one no one abstention and the rest were yes. So I don't see how That's going to change and I understand the courtesy but it's
241creating more work for staff and taking more time if the votes going to be the same then why bring it back and rehash it when we already made a decision so that I'm not happy with that. And again it's opening the door for any of us now when we don't agree to bring an agenda item back because we agree for various reasons. With that said I motion that we bring Trustee Garcia's item at the next meeting. Second. Second. Call the question. Can we please state the item title? Trustee Garcia what's the title? So the title is to get back a plan for low scores performance schools. And again the motion is to bring it here for the conversation the board to decide what we're gonna move forward with it or not. So staff doesn't have
242to do any work. Trustee Garcia is gonna tell us what she wants and we'll decide if we're gonna move forward with it or not. All right we just need more forehands. I made a motion actually there's a second and I called the question. All right so it's been motioned by Trustee Villagrana it's been seconded by Trustee Garcia. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. All right any opposition or abstentions? All right, it's been passed unanimously. Trustee Rodriguez-Molica. I JUST WANTED TO ADD TO THE HEALTH TEC DISCUSSION ITEM. I WANT TO MAKE CLEAR THAT I AM BRINGING IT AS A COURTESY. I AM OPEN TO HAVING A DISCUSSION, BUT ME BRINGING IT BACK DOES NOT MEAN I AM IN SUPPORT OF IT, BUT I DO THINK IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO HAVE A DISCUSSION. I UNDERSTAND
243WHAT MY COLLEAGUES ARE SAYING ABOUT SETTING A PRESIDENT. But at the same time, I think also we should be able to recognize if we're having a discussion, if we made a mistake or if we changed our mind and be open to doing that. I'm not saying any of you will do that, but I think that to me that is good governance. So I just wanted to make that clear that I am bringing it back as a courtesy as well. It does not mean that I am ready to vote to keep the health text or anything like that, but I am open to a discussion. Thank you very much. Do you want to respond to that? I just want to make something really clear This is not something me bringing this back because I disagreed with
244the decision I also don't feel like I can explain myself without getting into the risk of deliberating something not on the agenda I will happily do so at the next meeting and I hear what my fellow trustees are saying, but I would never presume to Bring back something purely because I disagree with the decision. Thank you Thank you very much to clarify. So is this an information item? I'm sorry. Here. Is this an information item then? Oh Yeah, did you request it as information item was an action item yours yours? I would request an action item, please. All right trustee, so the deus mojica trustee Fowler so I kind of feel like when we did vote on this we voted to Expand without any further information. So we made a decision to increase LVNs based
245on something that a previous board wanted with no information on how to get these LVNs or what the real classification difference between what a health tech can do and an LVN. I honestly don't believe that the intent of parents saying that they wanted a health care professional. was about the licensing versus having an actual body there to take care of kids and not having the holes that we will have when the LVNs show up or if they do. So yeah, I'm in complete support of bringing this one back regardless of what my vote is going to be, whether supporting them or not. I still feel that that vote was. Not with comprehensive information and we are only as good as people who present to us their job is to get us to say yes. Our
246job is to be able to justify the decisions we make because we have the best information possible. And I don't feel like I made well I voted no on that anyway. So thank you. Trustee Richardson Fowler. Trustee Garcia. Trustee Brubaker. Trustee Rodriguez. All right. Moving on. I had a comment. Go for it. So I definitely agree with being able to revisit something when there's new information or other cases. But in this case at the last meeting there was a vote to reaffirm the decision that was previously done. Right. And even the one no vote or two no votes initially and then one no vote turn to abstention and there was only one no vote. So the board reaffirmed this board reaffirmed this board decided already. Right not a previous board this board decided to move
247forward with that resolution and so that's what I'm talking about So again, if it was like let's revisit this because I recently absolutely and that's not what this is again I'll say it again this board voted to approve those resolutions not a previous board. Thank you Thank you very much trustee Villagrana trustee Rodriguez IF THIS DECISION WOULD SOMEHOW BE OVERTURNED, THIS DECISION WAS MADE IN REGARDS TO BUDGET CUTS AND BUDGETING. SO IF IT WERE TO BE OVERTURNED, WOULDN'T THAT IN EFFECT KIND OF CREATE A DOMINO EFFECT IN THE the cuts that we already made. We didn't have much savings with this. It was basically at the point of discussion during the budget cuts, it was very evident that the board wanted some support for health at every school. That was what I was hearing from
248the board and I was hearing from families. I asked the board at that time. To you know at that point I knew that we were not gonna be able to save budget on reductions in that in that area So at that point I just wanted to to make sure that the board understood what they thought they had less the contour that is the difference of opinion that you have within the are some of our staff and So I asked my questions on the board was what is it if you want a health official or licensed person? if we're gonna spend this money anyway, and That's what you want then having health text is not is not the solution If you want health license folks, then the LVN is the solution. So which direction do you
249want to go so that when you made a decision that we were very clear, and I'll say this, I've said this so many times, very clear and transparent to our families to know what they expect. Some of these, our families think that they have licensed people at the schools. Now if the board wants to overturn this at the next meeting discuss this and go back to the health text I am going to strongly recommend that we change the titles in that case So that is very clear that our families know what they're having and to protect the district from any liability That someone gets treated for some emergency and the parents think that there was treated by a licensed professional There's a job description so we based our Outlined but it's based on our job
250description because that is what we Have authorized to up those jobs to do Well job description says versus what the nurses feel that they have they want they have asked those people to do are two different things That was a misunderstanding came came from and so we can revisit that I'M GOING TO STILL ASK THE BOARD TO DO WHAT THE BOARD WANTS. BUT MY ONLY THING, MY ONLY RECOMMENDATION IS WE NEED TO BE TRANSPARENT TO OUR COMMUNITY. WE CAN'T SAY WE HAVE HEALTH TECHS AND LET FAMILIES THINK OR STAFF THINK THAT THEY ARE OFFICIALLY LICENSED STAFF. We have not Certified or I'm not even I can't even tell you that they all receive the same training because none of that training has been approved by my staff or we're so overseen by our staff and
251So, you know, we can if you want to have that discussion and open, you know, we can But I still stand by asking the board What is it? What is it that you want and then I'll make it happen And I think it was very clear. It came out of my mouth. So what do we want to offer our families? Do we want to offer our families this choice of LVN that would be licensed? Or did we want to go with the other plan? And that's what the basis of that vote came down to after a lot of deliberation, after a lot of work, a very difficult work, because it was revolved inside budget cutting. And I think at some point. Whether you agree with the decision or not you have to respect the process
252of the board because we're gonna go through processes after process right on all kinds of topics and You know I can I could see if there was an issue where You know, we didn't spend much time on it. There was really Some sort of factual large factual error which would tilt but in terms of why the decision was made there would There wasn't a missing information that would somehow swayed the argument the other way because that wasn't what it was about. It was about offering our families a licensed position, person that was licensed. That's it, it was clear. And so I just think whether we're not, it was made by the old board, but that old board is just a month or two away. It wasn't like a couple of years ago. And you have
253to respect the time. and the questioning and the effort we put in to try and make very difficult decisions. And not everybody's gonna agree with them. But this board did our best and gave a lot of work to try to come up with the best decision. That's what we did. And we're gonna do that time after time. And I think, again, the precedent, we should be very careful of it. All right, there was already a motion made. We're moving forward. Are there any other yellow sheets that anybody would like to announce about? All right, closing comments. Item Q. All right, I will do my closing comments. I want to say thank you to my board colleagues for being here. I know that this wasn't a very easy meeting. We've had some challenging conversations, but I
254hope that you guys are able to leave everything here and move on together amicably and respectfully. I ask that you, if you have any, you know, further feedback that you reach out to me on a one-on-one basis, but that you also come to the next board meeting ready to be respectful with one another. I think ultimately that's the most important part to be able to work collegially. If you have any items, please try to work collaboratively with one another so that we don't get here and have unexpected surprises. Thank you very much. We are adjourning this meeting at 10.06.