January 13, 2016 Berkeley Unified Board Meeting

001Board policy 4020. Board policy 4020 was established according to government code 8355, Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. Compliance with this act requires the district to follow six steps. One, it must publish it and give a policy statement. Two, establish a drug-free awareness program. Three, notify employees that as a condition of employment on a federal contractor grant, the employee must, A, abide by the terms of the policy statement. B, notify the employer. No, let me go back. A, B, notify the employer within five calendar days if he or she is convicted of a criminal drug violation. in the workplace. Four, notify the contracting or granting agency within 10 days after receiving notice that a covered employee has been convicted of a criminal drug violation in the workplace. Five, impose a penalty on or require satisfactory participation

002in a drug abuse assistance or rehabilitation program by any employee who is convicted of a report of a workplace drug conviction. And six, make an ongoing good faith effort to maintain a drug-free workplace by meeting the requirements of the Act. It should be noted that if a grantee fails to carry out the requirements of this Act, it can be penalized in one or more of the following ways. Payments for contractor grant activities may be suspended. Contractor grant may be suspended or terminated. Contractor or grantee may be prohibited from receiving or participating in any future contracts or grants awarded by any federal agency for a specified period not to exceed five years. I raise this issue because on several occasions I have come to you while representing our members to inform you that your board policy

003doesn't comply with the act. Yet you continue to cite violations. of a board policy that is not even complying with the act itself. Delia Ruiz has cited numerous occasions of these violations in employee disciplinary letters. Your supervisors are citing violations in disciplinary letters. This has to stop. You must either Not charge us with an act or with a violation of a policy that doesn't exist or establish the policy and make sure that employees are aware of it, which includes employee education, which is nonexistent about the awareness program. The only time we're notified is when we're newly hired and we sign a paper saying that the district, that we agree to comply with the drug awareness program, but yet one does not exist. So I'm asking you to take this seriously. I'm asking you to do

004this because otherwise you're subject to putting yourself in jeopardy of, if you do have federal contracts, those contracts being suspended and penalties being imposed upon the district. I've talked two, three times, and normally after I've talked and I've come to the board, I'm done talking and it's time for me to go to an outside agency. And that's the next step, is to go to the Department of Labor. to inform them that the district does not have a drug awareness program according to the act. Thank you. Is there any other union representative from our local 20FT? Hold on. I realize I skipped a whole bunch of stuff, didn't I? That's okay. Now there's an opportunity to hear comments from our district committees that include members of the public. We'll follow the order in the agenda. We

005have our BSEP. We don't have it. I think the only person we have tonight is Laura Babbitt from the PAC. Good evening. I greet you on behalf of the... Parents Advisory Committee. And tonight, I specifically address you on behalf of its newly elected officers. As co-chairs and the recording secretary, we are amongst the very few BUSD parents who have been involved in the LCAP planning since year one. We are deeply invested in giving Berkeley's Parent Advisory Committee our best so that it can be meaningful and the LCAP plan can meet its objectives for its underserved students. Last year the PAC, with your support, accomplished two significant things. First, we revised the PAC bylaws to ensure that the PAC can have parent-led agendas and meetings so we can get the information needed to adequately evaluate the

006LCAP programs. We were also specific in making sure that our bylaws require a two-week turnaround on PAC comments. However, we submitted our comments last year on June 7 and got the district's response in October. Second, we aggregated plan information into templates, which enabled us to assess the initiatives and provide program-specific feedback. We're here today to solicit your support in ensuring that the staff adhere to the PAC bylaws. It was quite surprising to have the PAC plan for the year provided to us instead of developed with us. As such, the district calendar for the LCAP programs does not reflect the PAC's expressed priorities and concerns, and we've already had presentations which did not specifically answer the questions we need to ensure these initiatives are reaching and meeting the needs of our targeted students. As such, as

007chairs and the recording secretary, we have met to devise a plan to ensure we are no longer presented information that does not meet our needs, a meeting format which does not allow time for new members to benefit from a knowledge transfer or give us time to collaborate and prepare our preliminary or final advisory comments. We have prepared guiding questions that we want to ensure all preparers use. And I think at this time it gives... It's a good moment to thank Pat because she saw this coming and she became proactive about making sure that our future presentations would incorporate some of these questions. So I appreciate that. But our questions are, what is the overall goal and the value of this program? What are the expected outcomes? How many unduplicated students are benefiting? How many non-targeted

008students are benefiting? What is working well? What is not working well? What would you do to improve the issues that are not working well? What would your recommendations be to district leaders which would help you better meet the goal and outcomes of this desired program? Additionally, we have prepared a topics calendar for PAC meetings for the next five months, which differs from the district calendar, but reflects the PAC's oversight priorities and initiatives, which have larger supplemental funds attached to them. Meanwhile, our recording secretary is compiling program descriptions for new PAC members and is collaborative with the district resources to develop a clear and concise program. These templates should have the relevant actions, the budgets, and outcomes we know will help guide our ability to provide effective advisory comments. As PAC leaders, we have identified a

009process for the PAC, one that transfers knowledge to new members, streamlines content, and ensures that coherent information is presented, a process that we hope will empower new PAC members to be and stay engaged throughout the entire LCAP process for this and future terms. We ask that the board support our efforts to do this by again ensuring staff adhere to the bylaws of the PAC, change the course of the plan presentations to meet our needs, and make sure that the superintendent's response to PAC comments are received timely. Finally, as this is the district's third year in the LCAP plan, and many of these initiatives were in place before the LCAP plan, we would also like you to direct staff to be thinking about the Plan B. That really is what our questions are getting to. What's

010working and what's not? And if it's not, what are the barriers that you can identify? How can we overcome them? And then if we can't overcome them, we need to be analyzing other alternatives so that our LCAP plan doesn't just look good on paper, but it looks good with results. As this plan is also an accountability measure for you as elected board members, we need you to develop a process within this system so that BUSD is ready to respond to initiatives that are paying back the education debt BUSD owes its underserved population. Thank you. Thank you. There's no other committee members. So now we will hear comments from the board members and superintendent, and we'll hold to three minutes we give our public by putting our timer on for our board members. Our office hours

011are on our website, but you can also use your three minutes to announce your office hours. Thank you. Board member Daniels? No, we can change. Let's see. All right, my office hours oftentimes change around these months. So they're going to be Saturday January 30th 1 30 to 3 p.m 31 30 Sacramento Street take 5 cafe. I know that it's oftentimes difficult to Watch, sort of talk at the board during public comment. Watch us discuss it. Hear the presentation and have no back and forth. So if there are, I would encourage all of you and invite all of you to come if you're able. Anyone watching? I don't want to hear again Saturday January 30th 1 30 to 3 p.m. 31 30 Sacramento Street take 5 cafe also want to announce there's going to be a

012BSEP event Thursday February 25th at 7 p.m. Right here in this room We'll be re-upping BSEP hopefully in November. It's 20% of our budget. So hopefully you all can attend that If you care about how we spend our money, whether we're spending it well or not, you want to come to that. So please mark your calendars. Elementary and middle school enrollment deadline is Friday, February 5th. And to all of the high school students, good luck with finals next week. My office hours are on the website. You know I want to thank everybody and welcome everybody for the new year Also, my apologies as I stumble along the first time as in a while as president in facilitating the meeting We're working towards being much more efficient and effective in our in our meeting structure So

013I apologize if I stumbled through my script here, but I'll get it so thank you very much my This Thursday from 4.30 to 6 o'clock at Casa Latina 1801. The public is welcome. I have one person who called me up to visit at 4.30, so you're welcome to come. Thank you. My office hours on the last Saturday of the month and so this month it'll be January 30th is at Cafe Lila and I am there from 10 o'clock to about 1130 but if no one's there by 11 I you know maybe think about going home but so I hope to see you there and Cafe Lila is at 1724 San Paolo Avenue. I also wanted to talk a little bit about the annual Martin Luther King breakfast celebration. This year is the fifth year of

014that celebration. It will be held at his lordship's this coming Monday, January 18th from 8 to 10 o'clock. There are still tickets available, but every year this event does sell out. We will be recognizing student leaders from Berkeley High as well as BTA for their work in student leadership that is celebratory of Martin Luther King's legacy, as well as also will be acknowledging middle school students as well for all of our three middle schools. It also will include some wonderful talent, young, gifted, and black, if you haven't heard their spoken word, as well as the Berklee Jazz Festival will be there. And it's a great opportunity to come celebrate Martin Luther King's legacy and to be part of acknowledging our wonderful students and how they are bringing forward to the next generation his legacy. We'll

015probably be surprised at some of the students that will be recognized this year. Last thing is we'll also be recognizing Weldon and Jeanne Rucker as Life for Lifetime Achievement Awards. Jeanne Rucker was on our school library, sorry, school library, was on the library board. Weldon Rucker was our city manager for many years. And we will also be doing a celebration of the lives of the Browns. Many of you know Stahl. They were main supporters of the NAACP for many, many years. They recently passed away. So hope to see all of you there. Sorry in advance if I look a little bit uninterested. I'm a little sick, and it's finals week. I'm fully invested in everything, but I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately. I'm looking forward to today's meeting especially talking about the Sankofa

016assembly and BSU's request on certain items I'd like to have discussions about Happy New Year everyone first one to say it Yeah, it's about it. Thank you Good evening. Thanks everyone for coming My office hours are the third Saturday. So that's going to be this Saturday. I just realized 16th move things around a little bit but one to three at mojo's which is 2517 Sacramento I wanted to acknowledge and send my Best wishes to one of our teachers who was a victim of gun violence this last week, Claire Dugan, who's a fourth grade teacher up at Craigmont. So I wanted to acknowledge that, but also, and also in the process recognize that many members of our community are victims of gun violence and it has an impact. This, I think, felt very close to the

017school community because she was a teacher. And for many of us, we have family and friends who are. victims of gun violence and so it's always, I really, I kind of. Director Daniels used to always make a point of reminding us and this is, it's a stark reminder to have this so close to our school community. I wanted to also just spend a moment sharing with all of you because I think a lot of folks here are very interested in restorative justice and restorative practices and so one of the highlights of my last couple of weeks was a restorative practices meeting, advisory committee meeting that was held, was it? I think it was last week at Berkeley High. And we have representatives. It's teachers, administrators, counselors, and a couple of board members to talk about

018how to kind of online restorative justice practices in the district. And it's K through 12 representation. So we got together and we talked about what the goals are of the group. And we also had a chance to discuss an article from American Educator, which is the Teachers Association's most recent edition. It's all about restorative justice. So if you're interested in this issue, there's really incredible articles. It's pretty exciting to have that be the theme of one of the national teachers. and we read an article called Where Discipline and Racial Equity Intersect, which brought up some of the points that we've been discussing and are kind of bringing, talking about ways to implement in Berkeley Unified. So a lot of things came up as a part of that, a lot of discussion around personalization, about restorative

019practices as a way to shift climate and culture in the school, and not just as a response to discipline, but a lot of ways that teachers and adults interact with students, having more adults on, particularly at Berkeley High, and many things that actually are very much in line with the recommendations of the that we're gonna hear tonight in response to the town hall. So that was really exciting and I'm looking forward to working the rest of this year so that we can get these programs online and in front of the board. So thank you. Superintendent? Yes, I just wanna just remind everybody again about the Martin Luther King celebration that will be held on Monday and also just happy new year. Thank you, thank you board members if you notice all the board members are

020typing away and Oftentimes we are taking notes when out we're hearing public comments and to making sure that we either redirect some of the questions or comments or concerns that we have to our staff or to the superintendent at a later time so we Will now continue with our agenda we have approved agenda. We have two items I'll make a motion to make a motion to approve the proof of the consent calendar we have Okay, do we have a motion from director appellate to approve the consent calendar with those? We're gonna go we approved it. But now we're going to well we you is the motion approved there when you approve so I'm To approve the consent calendar, but those two items now item 13 and I believe 19. Do we have a second to

021approve the consent calendar? Can we have a second? I'll go ahead and second. We made one change to the minutes for November 18th to reflect the name of the math curriculum that we adopted. So if we could approve the consent calendar with that revision to the November 18th minutes, I would like to do that. Okay. So you'll make that notation to? Right, the secretary has already changed the minutes. All right, so item 11.21 has that notation of the change naming the curriculum. And so do we have a motion by Director Appel? Do we have a second by Director Paraiso-Arroyo? And do we all in favor to approve the consent? All in favor. Aye. So do we want to direct ourselves first to the consent items that have been pulled, 11.13? Typically that's how it will

022be done, but I think given that this is a more important item, we can deal with the more important items first. Okay, so we'll go start with our action item, 12.1, African American Town Hall Meeting. And yes, we're putting some time on ourselves to be concise and also thorough at the same time. So we have a 10-minute presentation that we followed by we have three speakers afterwards, and then the board will continue with questions. And I'm going to... I'm going to actually ask the board and the superintendent to... So why don't I just kind of take it from here. So I'm actually going to go down and present with the staff. Okay. And then I'm going to frame the discussion, and then after I frame it, then we can have questions. Okay. Open it up

023to the community, to the CART people who have... put their names to speak in and after that then I'll have Director Hempel facilitate the discussion with the board. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Is it on now? Okay, there we go. So first of all, the board asked staff to come back with a summary. of the town hall meeting and the Berkeley Black Student Union demands and put all that together and to come up with some short-term, mid-term, long-term solutions. So we're here today. I have Director Sadler and Director Riddle. here to come before you to present our summary of what we heard during the town hall meeting as well as taking into account the BSU demands as well. So let me recap some of the things that have happened over the course of the

024last couple of months. So on November the 4th, we had a racial incident that occurred at Berkeley High School. As a result of that incident, there was a walkout that was led by the Black Student Union the day after that. After that, we, at the request of the community and the board decided to have a town hall meeting that was held on December the 7th. and from that day there was a take back day on December the 9th. On December the 9th, the board received a list of demands by the Black Student Union, and so they presented those to the board later that evening. So what I wanted to talk about before I went into some of the short term. solutions. We heard from the community several things that they wanted to see happen at

025the high school and throughout the district. And so we try to summarize some of the things that we heard. So what we heard from the community is that we needed more protocols for communication, safety, as well as police interaction. We also heard from the community that We need to look at our curriculum. There needs to be more African American curriculum. We needed classes. We needed programs. We need a stronger African American studies department and programs for that department. We also heard that we needed to address cultural pedagogy at the high school and throughout the district and also just the entire awareness of cultural competency. We also heard that we needed to address the issue of teachers of color and also sustaining and retaining teachers of color. There was an issue and a lot of concerns

026around special education disproportionality suspensions in our district and Finally we heard parents Talking about what are we doing around restorative practices to reduce? Some of the discipline that we see in our district At the same time, we received a list of requests and demands from our black student union, really kind of repeating some of the things that we had heard from the community, more or revised history curriculum to include more Afrocentric history. full funding for the African American Studies Department, a place where the students could go, a safe space. Also, the retention, hiring and retention of staff and faculty. We also just an awareness, heard about an awareness for racial sensitivity training for all of our staff. And of course, with that, you know, demands wanted to be, these demands be implemented over the next

027three to six months. So as a result, staff took all of these concerns and what we've done is just try to put them into three buckets. they were physical safety and well-being psychological social emotional and well-being in academic and intellectual well-being so with that what I'm asking the the board tonight to do before we even go and go into that is to one to accept this summary of what you've heard from the community as well as the BSU their demands. Also for you to accept the short-term recommendations. We will also be presenting some midterm and long-term solutions, but those require some budgetary considerations, and we're not asking you to approve those tonight. We know that we have to come back for those, and we can look at those in terms of LCAP and our budget

028priorities, so we're not asking for any approval for that. And then the final thing that we're asking the board to do is to APPROVE AN OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE AND WE'RE NOT LOOKING AT THE FORMATION OF THAT TONIGHT AND WE'RE NOT LOOKING AT THE MAKEUP OF THAT TONIGHT AND WHAT THAT INTELS BUT WE'RE JUST LOOKING AT AN OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE TO BE APPROVED AND WE WILL COME BACK TO THE BOARD WITH WHAT THAT SHOULD LOOK LIKE MORE DETAILS OF THAT SO WITH THAT BEING SAID I WANT TO MOVE ON TO THE SHORT TERM PROPOSAL FOR For the for the board to consider for this evening So as Dr. Evans mentioned, we divided our recommendations up into three categories. And so under the first category of physical safety, we have, I believe, six actions that we like to recommend

029immediate action. So action number one is to develop a stronger communications protocol that would inform all stakeholders, the community at large, in the event that there's an incident or an emergency within BUSD. We'd like to work with the board to create a board policy to address hate crimes and racial harassment and define a protocol for addressing those issues as they arise. We'd like to develop an anonymous reporting system. We'd like to establish policy and protocol which outline roles and responsibilities for police interactions with students. We heard the parents very clearly saying that oftentimes when there's an incident at one of our schools and the police are involved, it's done in a very threatening way. And so we hope that we can create a protocol that will make that relationship. lot more positive for students We

030want to work with the city. There's a city grant where we could potentially have another school safety officer and Utilize that safety officer to do training with our safety staff at our schools and to create preventive measures and restorative practices and we'd like to provide a safety officer training and update the expectations and roles and responsibilities for our current safety officers and hopefully that would be supported with the city grant. Under Section 2, Psychological, Social, Emotional, and Well-Being, we had two immediate actions that we wanted to recommend. The first one being develop a robust restorative justice program for implementation next fall. We've started working with SEEDS, and SEEDS is at the middle schools this year and one of our elementary schools in BTA. And Berkeley High recently hired a person to begin the facilitation and

031development of a restorative program, but we'd like to go deeper with that immediately. And additional opportunities for peer-to-peer safe spaces so that the students feel comfortable having and engaging in courageous conversations. These are additional short-term recommendations. We're not asking for immediate action today, but we'd like to come back to the board with recommendations for implementation. So those would be creating a community brochure of initiatives and programs that specifically target African American students in our district. align all of our K-8 libraries and classrooms and intervention materials to reflect Afrocentric culture and as well as history. We'd like to work with the College and Career Center to have an HBCU, sorry that's a mistake there, HBCU College Fair. We'd like to develop an all-site template for by annual state of the school address for implementation in fall

0322016. The reason why we say fall is because we know that at all of our schools the first event back to school night is when the parents are there and present and we feel like that would be a good time for the principals to really address their school communities. And we'd also recommend that we'd like to establish a board policy on suspension and addressing willful defiance. And I think that aligns with the will of the board as well as the state. And so we do have a couple of midterm as well as long-term solutions. And so you want to just go ahead through the physical safety. Okay, so we have communication communicate our safety plans every year school sites are required to create a safety plan and I think that there should be a template

033where it could be streamlined and the key components could be communicated very clearly with the parent communities at all of our schools. We'd like to increase apparent presence on campuses, and we'd also like to work with technology to create an automated notification system that could be implemented immediately when there's a situation of danger. So midterm goals under psychological, social, emotional well-being. We'd like to recommend or develop and implement a robust restorative justice program. We want to update the counseling responsibilities. We'd like to establish culturally relevant programs enrichment activities young gifted and black a step team. These are just examples and diversify our music electives especially at the middle and high school. And we'd like to really focus on hiring and supporting African American teachers of color to go into credential programs. We would like to

034work with Berkeley City College and the local universities to create a pathway for our classified employees so that we can get them through a teacher credential program and get them in our classrooms because we know that they are very valuable adults in the lives of our students at our schools. We'd like to facilitate more workshops to empower parents on how to really deal with the racism and the practices that are impacting their students or their children in the schools. And we'd like to establish a racial discrimination harassment being an ally curriculum. We'd like to restructure the high school counselors responsibilities. We'd like to work on a college and career mentor program similar to one of the action items in LCAP. We'd like to expand the bridge program. We'd like to create an early back program

035for students who are not quite showing or demonstrating proficiency and with a little support could potentially have better outcomes academically. We'd like to differentiate programs for underserved children, Berkeley Scholars, AVID, and Bridge, which are currently funded in LCAP, but we'd like to enhance the funding and provide an opportunity for more students to participate. We'd like to create a TSA or some type of leadership position who could primarily focus on creating academic recommendations and practices through our professional development that would infuse African American and ethnic history, the achievements of many famous African Americans into our K-12 curriculum. We'd like to facilitate more workshops and opportunities to educate and empower our parents. And we'd like to develop an advisory committee on special ed and the disproportionality. And then more long-term, we'd like to infuse African American history,

036culture into all of our curriculum across all of our grade levels and all of our subject areas. We'd like to eliminate barriers to taking African American studies classes. We know that depending on which learning academy you're in or what your course schedule is, for some students there's a barrier and they're not able to access those particular courses. We'd like to work with the Teen Resource Center to support and potentially house more affinity groups. We'd like to re-examine the high school assignment lottery to ensure equitable student choice. We'd like to recommend and continue to work with the team at Berkeley High that's looking at restructuring the learning communities and create a ninth grade universal program. And we'd like to establish a full period leadership class at the high school as well as at the middle school.

037We'd like to expand African American Studies Department and build that into the restructure at Berkeley High. And we'd also like to strengthen our connections with UC Berkeley, with the African American Studies Department, the black student groups for mentoring and also professional development around best practices to educate our students. So when we talked about short term, we were looking at what we could do between now and the end of the year. The midterm is the following year and after that, long term is after that. That would require a lot more discussion and more time for staff to really prepare for the board some suggestions in terms of how we implement some of these suggestions. So we also heard some additional community suggestions in terms of considering options for the possibility of closing the campus. Also mandatory

038teacher staff training on institutional racism and its impact on racism. And establish an oversight task force on African American achievement as a response to racism. So what we're asking right now is, as again, to approve this summary. that we presented from the town hall meeting and the demands as well as some of the short-term suggestions and then an advisor or oversight committee to monitor the progress of this plan. I'm going to turn this over to Director Hempel. Thank you, Dr. Evans and Patton. Sorry, thank you everyone for that summary and I had asked that we were able to have public comment after the presentation because I felt that the to hear the presentation first would make kind of the feedback from the community, you know, based upon what you saw as opposed to what you

039don't know if it's going to be there or not. And so I do have three cards and our president graciously is allowing nine minutes for. community comment and then after that I we want to have a board discussion I know that there's at least one short term that's not mentioned for immediate action that I'm hoping that I can put into the pot but really the idea here is to really focus on what came out of the town meeting and the BSU demands this is not by any means all the initiatives that we are doing to change the educational outcomes of our students of our black of you know when I say our students I meant black students but I was thinking, my kids are black too obviously, so I was thinking R. And you're laughing.

040And so for those of you that can, I really hope that you stay for later in the agenda when we're discussing the update on our LCAP program and specifically the secondary programs such as AVID and Bridge and the BHS intervention coordinator, which are very specifically, were there to address the needs of our African American students primarily. So I don't want people to think that. This whole list is all that the district is doing and there'll be lots of opportunities to hear updates on that particularly as we go through the L cap process as Laura as Miss Babbitt mentioned so on that I will buy it from BSU mention us followed by Sam Frankel Laura Babbitt and Laura Savage My name is Nebiat Sicarius, and I'm the co-president of Berkeley High School's Black Student Union. I'm

041the co-president of Berkeley High School's Black Student Union. So I'm here in response to the response to our demands that we presented on December 9th here at the school board meeting. The original response that we received was similar to the slideshow that we just viewed. We originally thought this was an inadequate response. We felt that very few of our demands were actually addressed in the slideshow. What was sent to us was actually, it seemed more to be a response to the town hall meeting and the needs of all black people can't be grouped together into one slideshow. Ours were very specific to Berkeley High School. what we needed to be seeing, and I don't know if it was appropriate for all of them to be in one place. There was a very high, like, everyone

042seemed very uncomfortable saying the word black going through that slideshow, and I think that really says something about the issues that we have at Berkeley High School regarding black students. If we can't even say the word black, I think maybe we can't be helping the students that are black. Dr. Evans. Donald Evans Superintendent Donald Evans. You sign your emails with the quote by Maya Angelou that says people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel. The way the response made us feel was very small. We felt that we put a lot of work into those demands and into the work that we do for black students at Berkeley High School. And that response was inadequate and very general and did not touch

043on anything that we felt was needed at our school. Can I cede my time to my co-president? Hello? Well, I'm just going to... Can I hold this? Okay. Mic check? Yes? Great. Fantastic. My name's Alicia Harger. I'm the co-president of the Black Student Union with NEBI. I was here on December 9th at the last school board meeting where we presented our demands. And generally, I'd like to echo what NEBI was saying. It's not that these don't address some of our demands, it's that they address them in a way that feels general and kind of like beating around the bush. And I understand that there's a level of bureaucracy that we're going to have to face if we want to make any changes on a district-wide level. But what we were asking for primarily was just

044at Berkeley High. So most of what we were asking for were site-specific and not general to the district. And a lot of what we saw here was a generalization of our demands that would just make it more cumbersome to get them through the system. So we're trying to get these demands done soon so the people who are freshmen now don't have to go through their entire years as black students unsupported and feeling unloved and unwanted at Berkeley High. So when we say the short-term goals are going to be done by the end of the year, I understand that we're going to have to face levels of bureaucracy, but that seems almost long-term to me. If you only spend four years at Berkeley High, that's a really long time. And I just want to finish up

045by saying once again, if you can't say black, you can't support black students. So when things are saying of color or saying African American history when really we're talking about black history and those are two different things like we discussed on December 9th, those are details that have to be finessed if we really want to address these issues comprehensively. Thank you. So Sam Frankel. Good evening. Is this working? Am I being heard? Thank you. I'm here tonight as the chair of the Political Action Committee for the Berkeley chapter of NAACP. And while I want to say that I think there's some very impressive things presented tonight, I still have some concerns. I think the chapter does. You received a letter. from the chapter talking about the feeling of the community and how serious or how

046unserious you seem to take this. And I think part of it, on the very beginning of the handout that was presented, it talks about a racial incident at Berkeley High. Nobody seems to be acknowledging that there was a noose. at Berkeley High last year. It was a hacking into the yearbook. And until we start to see that this is a pattern, not a single incident, I'm concerned, the chapter's concerned, about how serious you actually see this as and whether or not the actions you're taking now are being taken because you have been forced into them, not because you see that there's a problem that exists. I think that... Until we hear something, until the black community hears why you didn't address this seriously last year, why it took a third incident, why you haven't done

047anything until now, until that's responded to, I think there's going to continue to be very serious concern about what the seriousness of implementing any of this is. There's some good stuff here. Your track record has to be addressed. Thank you. Laura Babbitt. Good evening. I'm speaking now on behalf of parents of children of African descent. And first of all, I'd like to say that this program has 30 initiatives in it in which PCAD has been asking for since I've been a member of PCAD and also taken leadership. So for that, I genuinely do thank you. I would like to highlight the Special Ed Advisory Committee. I think that is key in addressing disproportionality and moving this forward, as well as an Oversight Committee to make sure that these short, medium, and long-term goals are actually

048taking place, and that we make sure that they are empowered so that they don't go through the struggles of some of our other advisory committees. or even fall dead in the water, as some of our other African American Initiatives Task Force or committees have done in the past. So let's make sure we get those off on the right foot. And then I like the biannual state. school template accountability template we have been pushing for accountability and accountability measures and so I'm really excited about this as being a way in which we reach the root at the school sites to actually hold them accountable empower parents and make sure that everybody is a part and engaged in the same messaging specifically around equity and our black students Finally, I'd like to admonish you that, yes, you've

049taken a stand. You've taken several stands. We appreciate all the stands. But this is time to deliver. Now we really need you to not only stand, but to stand and deliver. And there's a thing called the five-fold ministry. And in that, the pinky is the teacher. And they are the person that reaches the closest student. They have the most direct impact. A lot of these initiatives around cultural competency and these strategies around restorative practices can really help with that welcoming school climate and the interactions and the academic whole being that our students encounter with our teachers. Then there is the principal. responsible for their whole community, really making sure that they're on target with that accountability template. Then there's the middle finger, which would be like the community. We reach out, we grasp, we empower,

050we work together, we support, we provide the resources that are needed. Then there's the leadership, which I would say is a cabinet member, right? And our cabinet members have to have the vision, they have to have the structure and the process in place to make sure that these things come into life. Finally, I would say that this finger would be you, our elected board of members, because you have the ability to touch each of these segments and to make sure that they produce what needs to be produced. You can touch the teacher. You can put pressure on the administrators. You can make sure that the community is involved in this process and has a say. You can make sure that cabinet delivers your expectations. So be the fist. Be the power. Bring it together. Deliver.

051Thank you. And Laura Savage. Good evening, Directors, Superintendent Evans. I stand before you as the chair of the Education Committee for the Berkeley chapter of NAACP, and I echo my colleague, Mr. Frankel's comments regarding the vagueness, I think, of the presentation, although there are some wonderful things that are included, and I mean that genuinely as a special education administrator in a local district. But I have some concerns. One... the Restorative Justice Committee was mentioned earlier and how I think that's wonderful, but what I didn't hear was a parent representative as a part of that committee. And as a parent of a student at Berkeley High School in special ed who had to go through that experience, I think that's just sad. I think it's ridiculous considering last week. superintendent Evans and I arrived at Berkeley

052high school, he was going to a restorative justice committee meeting, which there was no public announcement about it. I had to ask, well, what's that? Is it open to the public? I think it needs to be opened up to parents because when you have parents buy in around these kinds of initiatives and programs, it will work better. Secondly, I'd like to formally invite superintendent Evans to come and meet with the NAACP. I can say on behalf of the MWACP, we think that three years now in the school district is too long to not have reached out to your African American black stakeholders that are here and willing to work with you. It's too long. Thirdly, I also heard that African American black students are targeted as far as offering programs and supports. Can I remind

053you that the incident was not done by an African American student. So maybe we need to broaden who we're reaching out. Our students, all of our students, African American, students of color, and our Caucasian students and staff need to be made aware of the different cultural, you know, the differences between cultures, ethnicities, whatever, so that it can be a welcoming environment for all. And that starts with educating everybody, not just the students who are having a hard time at the school. Also, the oversight committee that you mentioned. What is that going to look like? Is that going to include parents? When are we going to get more information about it? Because what I heard is Superintendent Evans saying that he's not asking you to approve that now. More information is going to come. If you

054put it in a presentation, why not at least give us a little bit of information so that we can be prepared when you have supporters here waiting for more information? And lastly, you'll be seeing more of me. So I hope that we can get a response to everything that the Berkeley High School students have said, as well as the other community members, because the NAACP stands behind our Berkeley High School students and the Black Student Union completely. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. I would like to start by saying that we don't expect that this is our last conversation with our community, particularly our black community and our black students. This is just what I hope is the beginning of a closer collaboration between the district and our black parents. I think it's something

055that's been long coming for many reasons. and I actually dropped in on Mansoor earlier this week to talk to him about precisely the ways in which we can work closer with our NAACP. One, to be on the same page about what's going on in the district so then we can focus on what needs to happen better. And I think that there's a lot of miscommunication and misunderstandings on both of our parts that we need to overcome. I do think that it would be a good idea as we make our own comments as well as hearing what we just heard that there's again a follow-up to the follow-up just to make sure. I do apologize. I think that some of the information that was received today was a little different than the original PowerPoint that was

056sent out and in hearing some of your comments I think that they were on point for the first PowerPoint. And I hope that in the future we can get more feedback upon the more, I think, specific points that were mentioned today. And I understand what the black student leadership is saying. And I will say that there is a weighing between hearing acknowledging that the specific incense that we've been talking about happened at Berkeley High, but we heard loud and clear from the parents of our wider community that the issue of race and racism isn't just a Berkeley High issue. And so to the extent that you're kind of hearing that kind of, I think it's been a difficulty to phrase things in a way that makes it clear that we understand that Berkeley High needs

057to be a focus, but also to understand that this really is, it's not even just a school community issue, it's really a wider community issue. And so it will be helpful, I think, as we go forward to talk about, you know, how do we make sure that we're being very specific? also that we are making sure that this is an issue that's not just being considered a high school issue. So on that note, the subject of today right now is to discuss, is for the board to be able to make comments and feedback about the presentation that was a summary of what occurred at the town hall meeting as well as the BSU coming to the board on December 9th. as well as any discussion regarding the specific recommendations that staff would like board approval

058to go through. There is a recognition that some of the things that also came out of the community and from the students are extremely important, but they do need to go through a process in terms of budget allocation. And so on a practical note, we can't just you know, we have a budget process that has to go through. It's not, I don't think, something that we're doing to put off. It's something so that we're making sure that there is adequate funding to make sure that these are issues that are addressed with the resources that they need to be successful. So on that note, I can either go down the line or does someone like to start? Okay. Go ahead. Yeah, so addressing BSU and your types of the request that you had for the board

059to address. I'm just going to go down the list. So what we had in it was a type of curriculum like bringing more materials to K through 12 and I think that's important to start because we can either we can one start at Berkeley High and combat it now but it won't get fixed if they're not taught at a younger age in order to combat it so that it doesn't happen again in a later generation. Full funding for the African American Studies Department, it's been a topic that's been brought up before December 9th and it's been in discussion for a while and action should be taken soon. An on-campus black resource center, full-heartedly it's a good idea but it does violate the 14th Amendment which is you can't have segregation which is the separation based

060on race. Unfortunately, it is a good idea and wholeheartedly as a person of color I would love to see a resource center of that caliber implemented but I feel there are alternatives to that than an actual center such as teaching having teachers having teachers be available to students so students can feel that they can approach them in a manner with discussing items that they can't normally discuss with other people or somebody that they feel that they can trust I know that San Francisco schools do a good job of this, but actually reaching out to people in college getting their masters and their teaching credentials, specifically people of color. Now the thing is, teachers of color is a very small pool. There aren't that many. And I'm putting that out there just because that is actually

061a thing. And I know that in some places they are more diverse at schools, but that's because the schools do do a better job than us of actually going out and reaching out to these teachers so they come to their district. And I feel that we can do a better job of that in the future. And the sensitivity training has been addressed in the PowerPoint with how we are going to have staff go through a training in order to be able to comprehend more racial injustices at Berkeley High. Judy? Hi. This must be so frustrating. I just want to acknowledge how frustrating this must be for particularly the students. So I just really want to acknowledge that because what you're really talking about is like this shift in almost like the way school, the experience

062of school at Berkeley High, which is needed. And then we're having this conversation at this very like bureaucratic. I don't know, trying to break it down into these points that don't get to the heart of what you're talking about. So I really want to acknowledge that because I am really trying to think about ways that we could have that, like a real working group at Berkeley High with students and parents and other. teachers and maybe you're all maybe that's already happening and we're just not a part of that but I just wanted to acknowledge that because I would be very frustrated So what I'm a little bit unclear about and we've talked about this. Dr Evans is exactly what we're being asked to approve because And then I do have some comments about the specific

063Points and even the short-term points So if this is if we're at by approving this if that means we're agreeing to do everything in this Because it's saying this is a district recommendation then I do have like that's that concerns me because like it's a lot It's so many different things that I don't it's it's where do we start and how do we focus so that we do it really well? So that's just a question that I have So I do want to get there, but I don't think that's actually the main point I wanted to talk about some of the short-term what you call immediate actions some of them which I think are immediate actions and easy to do which are probably the ones that have like the in some ways almost like the

064least day-to-day impact and least get to some of the BSU demands. But I just want to talk about them. So, A, I think that developing a protocol is I think that's something that we can do that's easy. The board policy to address hate crimes and racial harassment, which would define and reference protocols. I would want to talk about that if we're going to try to monitor. hate crimes, then I think we should monitor hate crimes that are based on, for example, religion. I think that Muslims in this country are really under attack. And so if we're going to develop a policy, then I want to make sure we're developing a policy that's really looking at the animus, not minimizing race-based hate crimes. It's just that as a district, if we're going to talk about that,

065we have to define hate crimes. And we also, I really want to warn us against policies that are zero tolerance policies. I think there's a lot of discussion about restorative justice and if you have restorative justice then you don't have zero tolerance because zero tolerance leads to kids being suspended and expelled. So I'm not saying necessarily that a hate crimes policy would have to be zero tolerance but generally that's what people demand and I just feel like we have to be consistent in our principles and our values. We know that kids are disciplined disproportionately who are black and Latino, but particularly black. And so we have to really, if we're going to have a value that's changing that, then we're moving away from restoring, from. from zero tolerance towards a restorative model where we are

066seeing kids and loving kids and addressing the kids for who they are and then working with them to change their behavior. And so I'm not saying we wouldn't have a hate crimes policy, but if it's linked to discipline, which is generally what those are, then I think we have to worry about a criminalization model. So I'm not saying we wouldn't do that, but that's my input about that. Then I see I don't have anything to say about it. I think the D is extremely important. It is really important that we are clear about police protocols with our students on campus. And that's something that we don't always see. And I think the policy committee is looking at that. And I just want to put a big exclamation point on that. And then I really wanted

067to speak. specifically to ENF, which are about this push that our police department has had for the last year and a half to try to get an extra police officer on our campus. They wrote a grant to do it. They asked for our permission to write the grant. It's going to, it would demand a lot of, it's not free. There's a big offset. It's going to cost us a lot of money. But more importantly, my personal opinion is that I will never support having more police on our campus. until we are working hard to have more adults on our campus that are really reaching out to kids and trying to make contact. We need more Judge Deeps on our campus. We need more Darius. We need more people who are connecting with our students in

068a real way. And that's what this restorative practices group is starting to talk about. I do agree it needs to include more people, but right now we're trying to just... get it started. And so I'm concerned about ENF because these come, I've talked to the police chief and I know he wants to do this. I've talked about this grant. It cannot be used for restorative justice. It can't, they're gonna try it. I just wanna warn you that they're gonna try to dress it up like a restorative practice thing so that they can get that extra cop on campus. And I will tell you, I'm sitting right here and saying that I will never vote to have another police officer on our high school. I'm just not gonna do it. I would need to break these

069down one by one because if they're together as they are right now, I just can't vote for it because I can't support that. Thank you. Oh, I'm so sorry. One other question. So some of these other things, are we, so if you can respond to that original question, because there's a lot in here, and by voting on this summary, are we agreeing to do all of this? Are we saying that all of these things are a good idea? We actually can pull some of these out if this is a major concern for everyone on the board. So we can agree on the ones that, if there's an agreement on, let's say, A, B, C, and D, let's go with those, and maybe we can come back. you know, as some type of alternate. But is

070the summary asking for the whole thing or just the immediate action? It doesn't have to be all or nothing. The board is only being asked on the short term. Because it says approved summary. It's just saying that you accepted the report. It doesn't mean that you are approving the actions. It's just that the report, I mean, one of the things that was requested at the town hall meeting was that there was a summary of what was said presented to the board. And so staff has now presented that summary and is asking the board just to accept the summary. In terms of actions, in terms of what will happen, the focus right now is on the short-term steps so we can start right now. recognized that there are other steps that came out of both what

071the Black Student Union said and what the community said at the town hall meeting that will require budgetary allocations. And so those are the ones that we're saying we refer to the LCAP process. We are expecting to get additional funding from the state based upon the governor's January budget. And so there should be... opportunity to be able to actually have the money to do some of these processes and there are some for example I will say when it comes to some of the I would say structural changes such as the way we can tear down the barriers for African American Studies some are simple some are counselors letting students know that in fact you don't have to take the electives in your small learning community you can take an African American Studies class and I

072know that students aren't necessarily told that and I know that because that happened with my own son and we said he's not taking this elective. He doesn't want to take computer arts. He doesn't need to take computer arts and instead he took African American history and economics that year his freshman year. So there are those things that can be done immediately. But if we're talking about really expanding the department the current structure of our high school makes that really extremely difficult the way the master schedule is. We cannot change a master schedule this semester. We can't change a master And even changing it by the fall is just not possible because it's not just a matter of freeing up one period. It's really looking at how the entire high school is structured. So in those

073cases, it's not that it's less important. It's just things that will take, that it's a complex issue to be able to do. So so for tonight it really is focusing on those actions that the staff is recommending for immediate action Okay Does that answer your question? That does answer my question and I just wanted to acknowledge that there were two other immediate actions I didn't address I'm hoping somebody else will because I talked for a long time I'll I do concur with director Appel in terms of the school safety officer and additional officers on campus. I definitely agree. We definitely need more people who will be engaging with our students. and also our own students and our own staff being trained on how to respond to hate, bias, and bigotry. I think everybody has, this

074is a life skill now these days in terms of how to respond both in the workplace, in the school, in college. So I think this is something that's definitely necessary. I agree, I think in many ways, this... No school, I asked recently, I went to the CSBA and we had a meeting with all the, there were several board members from different school districts in our county. And I specifically asked, do any of you have a policy on hate, bias and bigotry? Nobody has it. Nobody has it. So we would be one of the very few school districts that actually have developed something to address this. and a protocol, not just on how do we interact with the police, but how do we support our students, how do we inform our parents, how do we inform

075our students, what do we do the day after this, and how do we just follow through on when things happen. And they have been unfortunate that we haven't had this and we haven't responded as quickly as we should. So for me this the policy within the protocol becomes very important because that's what frames the kind of work that we need that education needs to happen and I feel that our schools need to have positive messages about How we do not tolerate this hate and bias and actions that we've experienced. I definitely agree it needs to be more linked to restorative justice, anything that we do, because we're looking towards a restorative. So I won't, let me see. I would like to see how it's possible from the short term to how we can roll this

076out starting with Berkeley High School and BTA. How can we start this education process with all of our students, not just focus on our black students, but all of our communities in our schools. I think it's very important that we all have the tools for this from the board down to our students. So I hope that we can focus first on the physical safety and well-being of our students. I think that's primary, and what frames it is the protocol and policies for me. There's much more, but I don't, you know, I think a lot of our board members will cover most of it. I would recommend also the advisory committee. I think the advisory committee can definitely, made up of, and the composition is going to be very critical to us, to all of us,

077that we have broad representation of both our parents and our staff and other communities also that need to be informed on how we respond to bias and how do we support our African American black students, Latino students also, because it concerns me when, It just concerns me that Black Lives Matter has been hijacked by many groups. I support immigrant rights, but immigrant matters. Everybody matters. Right now, today, what we've been experiencing is that our black students have been suffering and hurting in our black community also. This is a great focus that we need to have, and it is long overdue. And I appreciate that many have come together to work really hard to develop this. And if we focus on some of those short terms, then I think we'll start making progress. So if I

078understand what we're being asked to do, there are eight items plus the direction to consider an oversight committee. I appreciate Director Appel's comments about the school safety officer and President Leyva-Cutler's as well. And I think that given their views and mine, I think we can take those off the table almost permanently. I feel and think you said it very well, very strongly, that I too will never support. Not only no resources for additional police officers in our schools But no more police officers in our schools, even if it was not a resource question for us I don't think that's the right way to to address any of our problems so so I don't I Would not support those items a I think is a good idea I have questions about the hate crimes policy. Director

079Daniels and I are on the policy committee, and we have, at the superintendent's request, added that to our list of priorities to address, so we'll be looking into that. I also share Director Appel's concerns about... over criminalization and I think that in the criminal law context hate crimes laws have had unintended consequences that have been used against people of color and at times criminalize behavior that's already criminalized by other aspects of the criminal code so I think if it's more along the lines of what President Leyva Cutler described in terms of protocols to follow when students engage in conduct that does violate our policies That might be a place for us to focus more, but I don't oppose and support looking into that as a policy. I have a question about C, so I'll come

080back to that in a second. D, the protocols for interactions with police I think is critical, and I definitely support that, and it's on our list on the policy committee. There are a lot of good models out there, including our very close neighbors in terms of other districts that have policies and MOUs with their local police departments. We don't have good guidance for our administrators or staff with respect to interactions with our police department, and I think that's a pretty critical area. I don't... The second B, additional opportunities for peer-to-peer safe spaces. I guess I would have a question about whether that requires more resources or what exactly we're being asked about that. I would like to hear a little more about what an anonymous reporting system is. And then the one... The one that

081doesn't seem right for immediate action is develop a robust restorative justice program, or at least I just have a question about it. I mean, we've allocated significant funding for restorative justice. It's a priority of, I think, every member of the board. And so I'm not sure what that means, to develop it. We have a... that I know we'll be hearing a report on in a month or two, and I know we all want it to be successful. So could I hear a little bit more about that in particular, and then also what an anonymous reporting system is? Do you want me to speak right now? I also want to say that we have a committee that's meeting regularly that's looking at updating what we're doing, looking at strategies as Director Appel said earlier. And so

082we also have hired a person at the high school to come along and help us with our restorative practice, our program at the high school. And so we also sent out an outline of what some of the responsibilities of that person will do. But that's in conjunction with the committee and so forth that we have established already to really look at what some of those practices should be at the high school. Okay, but so we're already doing it. So we have some things already in place. And we also have a committee that's also looking at what we can do more at the high school to address restorative practices at the school. Okay. So there's no... That's why I said as we're developing. Okay. Okay. And the anonymous reporting system, what is that? I'm sorry, I

083didn't hear you. The anonymous reporting system, number C? So what we're talking about is... We want a system where people can come. They don't have to identify who they are as they're reporting things to us and where can they go to do this. So these are our students coming to us and say these things are happening at the school or happening to them. Where can they go? We don't have an anonymous reporting system already in place. And so we want to develop one of those. Okay, I understand. And it's more of an online system. Director Daniels. So much to say. Where to begin? I guess I first want to echo what Chair Hemphill, since you're chairing this item, said and sort of expand on that. You know, the public meeting format makes it very hard

084for us to engage in a meaningful dialogue to really understand what we say when, for example, you come and you sit. You've talked to us about how your experience of the response is inadequate. That's very important to us as a board. We want to understand that better and have a better sense of what that means. It's very difficult to do that in this situation. We want to be able to respond in a meaningful way to show, to demonstrate with our words, our expressions, our voices that this is important to us. But again, we're up here on a dais sort of talking at and down in some sense. And that's very hard. So I think we all would... if I may be so bold to encourage everyone here in the thousands who are watching to come

085to our office hours. And if you have a new idea or a suggestion or something you didn't understand, email us, come to our office hours because we want to engage. in this conversation on an ongoing basis. This is not going to be the beginning or the end. And if something that I am going to say is amazing, I'd love to hear about that. Probably not. But if something I say is upsetting, we want to know and have that dialogue. So I'll start out with that. The second thing is I know that with a break in between there was not a lot of time to sort of get all this stuff together. There's a lot of items on this list. I think there may be a couple others we may want to consider that I'll get

086to. But with everything else going on, I think we, you know, I just want to acknowledge the staff work to put this together. In terms of what the board is being asked to do tonight, I really, well, let me take even a step back further. I've now been on the board five years, and one of the things that I've learned is that as much as I want to do everything, when we try to do everything, nothing gets done. And this list is too long. I would love to do everything on this list, and if we were willing to put in the money to do everything on this list, maybe we could do everything, but I, given, Given the reality of how this district is right now. I don't foresee our ability to really accomplish everything

087on this list that's not because we don't want to but because experience has informed me that trying to do so, at least in an unprioritized way, will lead to failure and in fact nothing will get accomplished. So I want to encourage us not to just prioritize things in terms of time, short, medium, long, but moving forward with this, whatever list we come up with, prioritizing things in terms of what we want to accomplish first or what three things or five things or so that we can really do it and make it happen in a consistent and structured way. Many of you here, I don't know whether you were in the audience, what is it now, four years ago when former board member Leo Wilson pushed forward and the board supported a plan to accelerate the

088achievement of African American, the plan to accelerate the achievement of African American students. And, you know, anyone, There were a number of concerns, some valid, some not about that plan at the time. But one of the things we've seen is that very little action that we adopted has actually occurred. And not because there wasn't a desire to do it, but because of how it was structured, set up, financed or not financed. And I want us to avoid repeating that. So we're not here in two or three years or four years, perhaps after I'm off the board. you know hearing about it and reading about it or you know having my own uh you know child experience it in one way or another um so that sort of is the basis for for where i'm at

089so i want to go through if it's okay chair hemp hill just to say that there are certain things on the immediate action list that we don't need to approve staff can just do it or the board policy committee can just take it up and so i think i want to focus what the board is approving on those things that we really have to approve and want to approve because I think that will focus staff's energy and the board's time. We have about 10 minutes left on this item, so if you want to take a couple minutes, I think that would be fine. Okay. So, A, communications protocol does not need board approval. Staff can do that on their own. B, Director, Vice President Alper and I, we will add that to our list and

090we will discuss it and bring something back to the board. Again, none of these need board approval. C, it would seem like it would require some sort of financial allocation perhaps. and maybe some discussion for the public. So that would seem to be something that we as a board would want to adopt. It seems like there's support. B, to the extent that this is like, sorry, D, D is like B, the board policies committee can take it on. It's on our list. We can do it. C has been nixed by a majority. So E has been nixed by a majority. F, I wasn't sure whether as a separate item alone, but even then staff can do that unless you're asking. for additional funds from the board. But I would say that, at least thinking for

091myself, that would seem to be something that would be worthwhile investing some funds in. Our school safety officers are the first point of contact for a number of our students, and making sure that they are prepared and able to handle that complex relationship is important. Going over to A, we're already doing this. I don't know what approving or not approving this would mean. So I don't think we should approve it or not approve. Just it's happening. It'll come back. And B, I don't know what that means in terms of what, if we would approve it, what would that look like? Or would it come back to us? So I'll stop there and ask a response on what, if we approve B, what does that mean that then staff will do in response? I'm going to

092get to that in a second. So when we're talking about peer-to-peer. I understand the general, but we say, yes, do this. What is then the staff's next step if we say, yes, please do this? So when we're looking at this is how do we build out what they've already started? There's a link group that exists at the high school. How do we build that out so we're reaching all of our students? Okay. Would that then come back to us or is that something that the site would then adopt? We actually could do it ourselves. That does not need a board approval. Okay. So I would just say on this one. So for example, the kinds of activities that happened on December 9th, we heard, I think, some of what we heard from the BSU was

093that there's additional opportunities for black students to be able to talk comfortably among themselves and for there to be conversations that. the communities that aren't black do. I mean, I think it was definitely said here. I mean, this is not just a black community issue. And so when we talk, I mean, unusually the buzzwords is courageous conversations because that means that it's for those that these are courageous conversations for us, for black folks, it's our everyday conversation. It's not courageous at all. So, you know, so that's really what we're saying is that there's the opportunity for both to occur. You know, so that black students have times and places in addition to just December 7th. And that's something that we, when I was discussing this with staff, there's at least one more opportunity this semester.

094So it's not something that happened once this year and wasn't followed up. Because I think it was on point when it was mentioned that, you know, this is not one isolated incident. And I think for those of you that heard what the board had to say. at our last meeting, we acknowledge that. That not only was this the only incident, but incidents like this do not occur unless there's fertile soil for them to happen. And so, you know, so it's that is the root of the problem. And so what this is saying is that we start having those conversations because the development of curriculum, we can't do that this semester. right but we can start we can have opportunities for those safe spaces and those courageous conversations while we are developing curriculum on how to

095be an ally uh and infusing anti-racism curriculum okay so it sounds like though what you're saying superintendent is that uh the short term to be does not really require this is more of it doesn't really require of board approval for this particular item. Okay. And so what I'm saying is that we do have situational groups that meet, but this is being something that we want to add to it. Okay. Similar to some of the things that we have. Okay. I do think there are other things that could be short term, but again, don't need board approval. I think a spring HCBU college fair, obviously that would be inappropriate for us to say, you know, at that level of detail that we just don't typically get involved at that. That's something that. could be done in

096the spring, we don't need to take action on. So anyways, I guess to sort of, so to summarize in terms of what I think we're at is that the board approves C and F, rejects E, and basically lets staff take care of everything else. on the short term. So that's what I would make. At some point I can come back and make a motion or anyone else can make a motion on that point. I know there's not a lot of time. So the yeah. So What is the answer on F? Can we provide safety officer training completely separate from this school safety officer grant? So just take that part out because that implies that we're taking that money. And I do think, I mean, I don't know whether, Chair Hempel, you want us to go

097into this now, but I do think there are a number of things that we could... look for for the beginning of next fall that we will need to want to take action on. Like for example, I think the idea of a safe space you know, black resource center located at the teen center, at least initially, is a really intriguing idea. It's a nonprofit, so they don't have to deal with our bureaucracy. It's a block from Berkeley High. You know, there's already an existing relationship. Now, it may not satisfy the Black Student Union in the long term. You know, that's part of the difficulty in terms of talking at each other, with each other. But at the very least, we could explore that. And I think there are other things in this, but I'm not sure

098if we're being asked to sort of give direction at tonight's meeting, whether that's going to be a future meeting. I don't want to go down that road unless you want us to. And I've actually already talked to them and they're fine with that as well. Okay. But it might involve resources in terms of can we under Prop 209 allocate resources? Would we have to look for private funding? Could the development group or could the Berkeley Public Schools Fund? Would we want to staff it? I think there's a lot of details that we may want to weigh in on as a board. I think there are a lot of other things on the midterm list. But again, I don't want to... Well, I think what I would suggest is because I think that from what I

099have heard of staff when they were trying to structure this report, there were issues that... probably needed more thought or needed partners to make happen or might need budget allocations. And so that's why most of those were put under midterm for that reason. So it's not that these are so that's why you know so some and if you notice that one of them was as you said it was the thought that maybe if we can't do it for legal reasons on campus, maybe we can find a partner to make it happen in a place where it is right across the street, so to speak. So that's why. So I would say that the midterm issues, the board will see a staff recommendations as we're doing the LCAP through the, so I assume that given what

100the PAC has supported in the past, these are very consistent with. what the PAC will want to see in the LCAP, particularly when it's coming from our black parent and our black community and our black students as priorities. And so that we'll be seeing a lot of them in the budget process. We'll be seeing them coming back as part of the LCAP process. And I also think, and so I was going to use my time to say, is that that that that's part of the oversight process is not just a committee made up of parents and the larger community and I would add students black students that the idea is that the board regularly gets updates or regularly gets it's an agenda item because as some of these more longer-term issues are kind of ready

101for prime time that will that will need specific board approval. And so we can't do that today because we haven't seen the budget. We don't know of all the things that the PAC will be coming forward, the LCAP, many of whom will be the other kinds of programs and initiatives and services that meet the needs of our black kids. We need to have that whole picture. And so those approvals will be coming through that process. All right, so I have two last quick comments then. One is... One of the things I didn't see on here as explicitly as I'm interested in sort of having it as a potential thing to think about is additional mental health counseling really targeted on, for example, students experiencing complex trauma or if you want to use our academic support

102index for a three plus or a four plus. But I mean, as I've mentioned before, you know, deep investments, a surge of resources, you know, overwhelmingly a surge of resources on a very specific issue or student population. So trying to keep to our timeline. Yeah, and then I'll be, my mouth's coming and I'll be quiet. So just to add that to the list is I have some. I have some concerns about creating an oversight committee and whether or not that would actually facilitate these things happening or make it more bureaucratic to make things happening. So I'm open, but I have some concerns whether or not that should be discussed now or later. I just want to make that clear. Okay, so Judy wanted to say something. If I could then just wrap up, I would

103like that opportunity to do so. Yes. So just because I felt so passionate about the police officer issue, I forgot to start where I meant to start, which is to thank... all the people who worked on this, particularly I know that you, Director Hemphill, spent a lot of time working together with the superintendent, with Laura Babbitt, and with others. So I just wanna, I know a lot of work went into this, and it's not like the perfect end. I think it's a process, and I think it's really amazing to capture all of this in one place. So I forgot to start with that, so I wanted to say that. And then... We talked a little bit about the peer-to-peer, the space, the peer support space, but the other piece of that, which almost is a

104separate item, which is the courageous conversations, I'm not sure that it needs the board's approval to do that, but I do want to say that I would frame it more as continuing the courageous conversations that we have begun, because one of the reasons this is so kind of like fits and starts is because we're all so like... messed up around race and addressing it head on. I think like the students were saying, not being able to say black is an indication of having a hard time dealing with it. So I think the courageous conversations, I'm not sure that you need our approval, but I want to say that I think if it's helpful to have it, I certainly think that it's coming up with specific ways to make sure that we're continuing to have the

105courageous conversations that we've... been having is at least on December 9th and since, at least according to my kids at school, I think that's a really great thing. Actually, I'm relieved to see black. All my life I said black, then all of a sudden I felt that I was taught that I was supposed to say African American. So anyway. So I think to wrap this up, I think what you're hearing from the board is that one was that there was a lot of wealth of information and feedback that we got from the community in response to what happened and in recognition that the isolated incidents are just really part of a deeper reality that our black students are facing in terms of racism at school as well as the wider community. And that recognition that

106Many of what is being on this list are things that, at least in the short term, really is for staff to know that they can do with the capacity that they have and so to go forward and do it with the exception of the SRO officer. I would like to focus a little bit of my time on just something that I have been trying to do. For those of you that have not heard this, because I've probably been saying it to everyone with joy in my voice, is that as of January 1st, I'm a retired lady. I no longer have a nine to five, so my ability to do much more work that is my passion, which is around bridging the achievement gap and addressing the needs of our African American. community, our black community,

107something that will have a lot more time. I've already met with Mansour briefly today. We're going to, I think, follow up with lunch. And our discussion really was, you know, how can we work closer with the NAACP, one, to make sure that there is, that we've not done a good job, I don't think, in, in, in in our community knowing what it is that we're doing to address educational opportunities for black students. And without that knowledge, then we aren't getting the right feedback. Because if you don't know what to give feedback on, then the conversation is not as good. Because I think in many cases, we've adopted programs, they're just not happening the way they're supposed to be happening. Or if they're not getting the outcomes, then we need to change what we're doing. So

108I think that that is something that we really need to focus on and I reached out to Mansour. I also would like to reach out to the BSU. I would love to have a sit down and be able to have a dialogue as opposed to as Director Daniels said, this is not conducive to a dialogue. And I think there's a lot of things that you, there's a lot of things that we don't know about each other that I think. Having that kind of time together would probably change some of our opinions about where we each stand and also have a deeper appreciation of where we stand and the fact that we really are not as apart as either one of us sometimes might think that we are. And we can focus on doing things as

109opposed to talking at each other. which would be, I think, a great step. I hope I don't sound patronizing, but I was where you were. I cut my teeth on being a high school activist and then being very active in the anti-apartheid movement. So I look back and I kind of see where I know that... being able to have real dialogue with adults who've been where I've been but don't know where I am now, so to speak, because things do change, I think would be a wonderful thing and it would certainly be something I would appreciate with. So, as I said, my days are pretty free these days, so I have time. So on that note, I think if there's nothing else, I think what I'd like to ask staff is that there is some

110type of summary of this that we get out on our website and maybe through the A-plus news. So not just the folks that were here tonight or the people who might be listening in will understand that there was a significant conversation on how to address racism. not just at Berkeley High but throughout this district, that there are some immediate steps that staff will be taking, and there's a process by which we will be chipping, you know, that we will be also doing more. I would hope that this oversight, that the idea of an oversight committee... This really was born out of that town hall and wanting there being parents and students and others in the black community, whether it's ministers, whether it's NAACP, essentially holding the district accountable for addressing this issue. And so I

111think that's part of the dialogue that we need to happen about what this looks like as opposed to us telling the community this is what it's going to look like. And so I would hope that the staff will be talking with like the NAACP, with PCAD, with the BSU about how to get some consensus on the committee's composition and its charge. I think we certainly have heard that from the PAC that this is something that we are now looking at oversight, not more this is what we should be doing kinds of things. So on that note, I want to thank... We haven't made a motion. So yeah, okay. We'll make them. Okay. Okay. So I'll let the motion, but I also want to just thank Pat and Donald and Maggie for all the hard work

112that they did on this. I know it was the holidays. And so for those of you who aren't part of being the district during the holidays, it is extremely difficult to get people together when they're taking their vacations, no matter how important. And the fact. And I think that it showed how important this issue was, that people did get it accomplished despite the holiday season. So on that note, if there is a motion. Before I make a motion, when is this coming back to the board next? In February. OK. So Black History Month, we will have a update on it. I think that might be appropriate. So for Black History Month. Black future. Right, right. So during February Black History Month, we will have an update about where we are and kind of maybe fleshing

113out the next steps in terms of those midterm and how we're going to wrap our minds around the long term would happen at that point. So for the public, our February meeting dates are February 10th and February 24th. Perhaps at the next board meeting we can announce which of those dates this will be on so that the public is aware. And I think the fact that it will be after our retreat, that would probably help with that as well. And then we can help publicize that so people know that it's happening again. With that, I will make the motion that I made previously. So for our recorder, do you have it down? Can you just repeat it so everyone is aware of what we're doing? Yeah. Motion to approve this item to come back in

114February. No, no the a through F Specific should I say it again? Okay. All right I'm starting on Number one physical safety short term with a a no action be no action see adopt Can we just say rather than no action that it does not require for a No board action required B. No board action required C adopt D. No board action required E reject F Adopt and then going on to number two. Thank you adopt without the parenthetical Number two, psychological, social, emotional, and well-being in the short term. A, no board action required, and B, no board action required. And the oversight committee, I still have questions about... the efficacy of that approach. I understand the desire for it, my experience as a board member, so I'm not going to include that in part

115of my motion. I mean, when it comes back in February, we can discuss an oversight committee at that point, but as part of this motion, I'm not ready to make that as part of my motion. The oversight committee is not being decided upon as part of the motion. Perhaps at this next meeting in February, we can have more details of what that oversight committee would consist of. I'll second Director DeNos' question. Number three. Number three, we're not being asked. There's no request. They're short-term. They're not immediate. There's no request in the item. We went down the row. It stopped at number two. The reason I'm asking is because under number two, B was not immediate either. So that's why I'm just trying to understand what... Which additional opportunities for peer-to-peer safe spaces that says they

116meet at action next to it Oh Old version so, okay. Sorry. Yeah, so that's the only thing we're being asked to take to a pine on and that would be my motion I second the motion all in favor aye Thank you everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you Maggie Please stay. Don't feel like you have to go. There's other important stuff going on. Actually, the next report really will be kind of a continuation of what we're talking about because these are actions that the board has taken that directly impact improving the educational outcomes of black children as well as other children that are underserved by our district. And thank you, Director Lovia Cutler, for handing me the chair for this item. Well, you can do this in February again. Are we going to go back

117to the two items that were pulled? Or are we going to do that at the end? So this is wonderful. We're now warming up. So now we're going to continue on to item 13.1, update on local control accountability plan. Our intervention programs for our secondary students, which includes our AVID, Bridge, BHS intervention coordinator. Are we taking a break? No, okay, well two minutes Okay, we'll wait in for a set up while we're waiting I put the appendix document on your table as well as the presentation I Mean we'll move really fast. I'm I'm sorry. We're gonna we're gonna do point 11.13. We're gonna do the The portables at Thousand Oaks first. We think that that might just go a little bit. Yeah. We're going to do that first. I'm hoping. So Director Daniels pulled that

118item and he'll be ready to. He's coming. Okay. So this, the choice we're faced with this item is the same choice we were faced with. on June 24th and the board on a razor thin three to two vote made the decision to keep Thousand Oaks as an option for portables. We have one more month until we'll have the enrollment numbers and so given that we don't have any new enrollment information and therefore no new information about the demands on our facilities since we just last decided this in June. I was surprised to see this come forward. I mean, I understand the reasons at this point behind it, but I'm not prepared to vote for it, and I'm hoping that a majority of the board feels similarly. So it was that. I would prefer not to.

119I'd prefer to wait a month, and so I'd prefer not to do this right now. Go ahead. And so I appreciate that. The reason why, the reason to make the decision now, I mean, I know that President Leyva-Cutler and I were the two who voted to do this earlier. What we now know is that we will be, we knew that we were going to be spending money to keep the option open until February. We now have an understanding of. how much more money we will spend even between now and February 10th when we will have absolutely concrete numbers from Mr. Martinez. But given the given his comfort and he is here, but given his comfort with the Projections that we will not need the portables at Thousand Oaks And then even and maybe you can

120just address this very briefly. Mr. Martinez the Flexibility that we had that you've built into your estimate so that even if you your estimates are off We will still be okay I would rather not spend any more money, especially when we're talking about real money, upwards of $30,000, $50,000 for portables that in three weeks we'll know absolutely sure we don't need, but right now we know with almost certainty that we don't need. So could you say a little bit about what your thoughts are? Can you hear me now? Okay, sorry. I always use... In order to make the projections for the following year, I use enrollment numbers from October, and that's the data points that we use all the time. Sometimes we've been accurate in the projections that we have made over the years, so

121I am confident in that regard. But even if... there is flexibility within the projections for kindergarten, and that's a number that we are normally talking about, to accept an additional 20 students within the projections and still be a 20 to 1 in the classrooms at our school. So there's some flexibility in there built into the projection for kindergarten. I mean, I guess the only other point I'll make, and then I will do my best to not be quiet on this, is by taking TO portables off the table, we are making, basically we are deciding to consolidate TK at a preschool site. There's no other way, really, if the numbers come in as we think they probably will, to do it. So without actually deciding it, we're deciding it because it's the only option we have.

122Or we take flex spaces, I guess. But even that, I'm not sure it could fit. So I just want to be clear that we're making a decision. even though we're not really making a decision. And I would much prefer to wait and spend $30,000 to keep all of our options open. And, you know, the arguments have been made. Everyone sort of knows them. And so, you know. Well, I think that one thing that is different, and maybe, Tim, you can speak to this, Director White, is one thing that's different is that we just approved, and maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but we just... There have been some developments with this building which I do feel like open up space sooner or at least at a time certain And that there's also I think we

123know a little bit more about some of the challenges of having a Portable at Thousand Oaks, so I don't know if you want to speak to any of the reasons why you're bringing this forward now instead of waiting until after the you know, I think the You know, the thought process among the board and staff is similar. We were really trying to look at what the need was in terms of accommodating the enrollment for 16-17 and ultimately the fluctuation between the number of portables that might be necessary to accommodate it. And as you know, publicly, we've had discussions of four. all the way down to two. We kind of landed on two. And as you said, we know a lot more now about the exploration of looking at the Thousand Oaks site, the exploration of

124looking at LeConte and also TO, as we just mentioned. And the way it... shaped up in terms of the recommendation is that we have about a hundred thousand dollars left to spend prior to the actual construction uh beginning on a thousand oaks in itself The belief is that out of that hundred will probably spend close to as director Daniel said close to 50 Or more thousand in the next month but the the thinking is that ultimately if we don't install the if we're not going to put the portable there a thousand oaks and that's a 50,000 or a hundred thousand that we could say as well given we may elect Not install a portable at thousand oaks. Even if we do go another month Okay, I'll move to adopt the staff recommendation Do you have

125a second? I will second it So do we want to go down in terms of what the vote is? No Yes, president Lava Cutler yes director hemp Hill yes director No Director Appel. Yes. So we have a vote. Okay. So it passes. So we have a vote. Thank you. Thank you. So now we'll go to, we're going to hop around. We're hopping around to 13.1. Oh, that's the update. The update. Yes, there is. We'll do that. Let's get through it. Yeah. So are you ready? So this next item is just so the next item and as you noticed in the last couple of board meeting meetings we've been presenting many of our items that are largely funded with LCAP funds so tonight we're going to present an overview of five of our programs our five

126our intervention programs and that is of course our middle school Abbott High School AVID, our Middle and High School Bridge Program, and our counseling program, intervention counseling program at the high school. So staff is going to provide overview and update on these programs and some of the next steps that came out of the evaluation of the LCAP supplemental funding last year. And we also provided the board with quite a bit of information, background information on all of these programs. And so the data is to give you some type of perspective, additional perspective as we move forward in terms of making some decisions on these programs. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to our... I'm going to start. Pastor Gaudary, Assistant Superintendent of Ed Services. Okay, thank you, Superintendent Evans. I will be

127very brief. Tonight we're going to look at our secondary intervention programs. I will very briefly go through a developing framework that we're using for analyzing our intervention programs. And in the interest of full disclosure, I won't be talking much after I do that because the person I'm married to. is the coordinator of the high school bridge program. So full disclosure, conflict of interest. I'll be limited in my comments after the introduction. Why do we have these intervention programs? To help students and families navigate school systems, the college admissions process, particularly for families who may not have transgenerational experience with that process, among other things. The how, how do we do this? Increasingly we want to look at programs from the Ed Services side that support kids that meet what a lot of the research says,

128which is light touch interventions at best have moderate short-term effects. And what does work if you look at student support programs in the research, whether it be high school, community college, places where students are struggling, is intensive multiple semester approaches. Kids have a lot of challenges along the way in their academic trajectory, and so for the kids who are are struggling the most, who have the potential to struggle even more, quick interventions like orientations at the beginning of the year, two or three meetings a semester have modest effects at best. Another way of saying that is that these programs should be sustained. And I want to reiterate that these qualities are the things that in ed services we're going to constantly use to sort of filter requests for program, development of program, et cetera. Again,

129a one-time inoculation for student support is not enough because students are going to encounter challenges all along the way. And those challenges could be cultural. They could be economic. We've talked a lot about that stuff tonight, so I won't belabor the point. An odd word that's used in some of the research around these systems is intrusive, that some of these systems need to be intrusive, as well as being integrated. And by that, required participation in some of these success courses, things like AVID, things like our support programs at our school. Often, you need to make some sort of advising mandatory for kids. Kids get the help whether they know they need to know it or not. whether they know they need it or not at the time. And also proactively contacting students with some, the

130help of an early alert system or systems. They need to be integrated. A lot of times we have disconnects between people who are supporting our kids with non-academic struggles and academic struggles. And when you look at the potential in our RTI system, in the way we're case managing with the Berkeley High Intervention Team, we're building the potential to do that in a way that successful programs have demonstrated through research that they've had impact on kids. And personalized. Quite simply, I won't read the whole slide, your ability to differentiate, which is critical for kids who are struggling, increases mightily when the system is personalized because kids are not just complicated, they're very complex. And so when your system is personalized, you're monitoring them, you're taking them through it, and you're able to be more responsive and

131customized in what you do. So what we're going to be talking about. We're going to be talking about the five programs that are listed above in your packet We really tried to format this in in the same spirit of the LCAP evaluation. I put a hard copy for everybody because it was an attachment as well. So if you, the hard copy is there and you just follow through the hard copy, page two is starting with AVID. We give a brief overview, enrollment and basically the baseline data for the students because they just are starting the program. We have their, we have last year's GPAs and then key components and some findings. And so with that said, we're going to start with AVID. So we are really excited because our first group of AVID students will

132graduate this year. Our first group is finally in 12th grade, and actually the high school is planning a celebration, so I'll keep you abreast of that. But we wanted to just remind you of the critical components of AVID. AVID is Advancement Via Individual Determination. It focuses on student engagement. developing the capacity for students to have effective organizational skills as well as good time management. It's also a structure to have common professional development for the teachers at the secondary level across the core classes as well as for the avid elective teachers. Those teachers, at least in my experience, have been pretty much hand selected. They're folks that are able to build positive relationships with students and they are resourceful. people meaning that they have been able to be creative and plan field trips where students actually

133had a chance to go out and visit our local colleges and universities. They've also been able to bring in pretty exciting guest speakers about various career opportunities that will be obtainable for the students moving forward. We have a negotiated MOU with BFT. This was done when AVID was first adopted in our district where all AVID teachers get an additional 69 extra hours per year which allows them or affords them the opportunity to meet with parents, to meet with students before or after school, to possibly take students on field trips or provide opportunities for students to go in and work on their college essays or whatever it takes to support the students and to make sure that they're on the path towards college and career. The one thing we struggle with, and we've struggled with this

134for the last seven years, is really finding good tutors. And the tutorial is a very critical piece of this program. And it's not tutoring in the way that we think of for interventions. This particular type of tutoring model is a model in which students are grouped into groups of four or five, and there's usually a college student or a responsible adult that kind of helps facilitate a student actually bringing a problem or a challenge problem. And actually the AVID students guide the process of investigation around that problem with the support of this college student. So at the high school, we find that there are some challenges depending on which learning academy a student is assigned to may or may not allow them to access AVID during the school day. AVID is a program that should

135work or be aligned with rigorous coursework. And so not just at the high school, but even at the middle school level, the model traditionally is that a student that's in AVID should be on an AP or pre-AP or honors path. The research says that if a student is in Abbott, they're getting the support and the skills to be successful in a more rigorous program. There's a school that we saw at the national convention where the students in sixth grade Abbott were taking one seventh grade class and the students in seventh grade were taking an eighth grade class. The eighth graders were taking a class at the high school and it just traveled up through pre-AP and then the students that were in 12th grade were taking a class at the local college. And I think

136That's obtainable for us once we figure out the access issue at Berkeley High School. So next steps we'd like to. Increase the number of students at the middle school level that are trained in AVID. Currently we have the elective teachers trained and some of the core teachers are trained, but we'd like to move the AVID strategies across all of our curricular areas at the middle school. We'd also like to incorporate sixth grade into our AVID model. Currently at our three middle schools, our students apply to be in an elective class beginning in seventh grade. but we don't offer the sixth grade school-wide model. If we did the sixth grade school-wide model, we'd begin developing the strategies and the skills with the students as they transition into secondary schools. And the research with AVID shows that

137if the students obtain those skills early, it helps them on the path to success through high school. Second program, Middle School Bridge. So bridge was a program that was designed by the plan to accelerate African American students, I guess Five or six years maybe four years ago because we have our first cohort of bridge students that are now in eighth grade and what we found with bridge is That we identified African American students primarily out of fifth grade coming into sixth grade We use the variety of data points to kind of identify those students There's been some debate over whether they're the students that show great academic performance or or there are students that tend to struggle and they would benefit from having the support of an after school Bridge class. And so we've had

138a mixture of students in the Bridge program. I know that many of the students in Bridge have also had opportunities to also be an Abbott, so they can take Abbott during the day and Bridge after school. But what we found is that the students that commit to Bridge and the families that commit to Bridge, those students build a strong relationship with an adult. a teacher who helps them build self-advocacy skills, teaches them how to check PowerSchool, how to check their grades, how to monitor their progress, but most importantly, build the capacity in them to be comfortable to go and talk with their teachers. And so for instance, if a student gets a poor grade on a math test, We try to empower them with the communication skills to be able to go and talk to

139their math teacher. Sometimes it's modeled, the bridge teacher will go with them to say, hey, what can I do to improve my grade? Could I take the test again? Is there another assignment that I could do? Is there a way that I could get extra help? And so those relationships with the bridge teachers has been really powerful. This past week we had the bridge teachers here at the district office, all of the middle school bridge teachers. They've done two technology trainings, how to incorporate technology into the classrooms. And this particular week what they focused on is typing skills and keyboarding skills and speed because that was something that the students really. felt they were not prepared for last year when they did SBAC and they also do a lot of their assignments electronically. So we

140felt like if we could get the bridge teachers trained on how to do more of that development with the students, they have a prime opportunity to do it when they have them after school. So my recommendations would be that we continue to build our capacity around professional development and interventions with our bridge teachers, equip them with avid strategies at both Longfellow and at King, several of the Bridge teachers are avid teachers or they've been avid teachers, so they're able to embed those strategies into their work with the Bridge students. We need to work closer with our local organizations to really try to bring in mentors for Bridge. That's something that we did not do successfully. We were supposed to pair each Bridge student up with a mentor and we face great challenges really trying to

141find the mentors in the community We have partnered with Stiles Hall Stiles Hall has given us 12 mentors at King and 12 mentors at Longfellow and Willard was able to work with another service organization at UC Berkeley to get mentors, but that's an area that we struggle And the last thing I think I should be transparent about is there was a misconception when Bridge first started that the students in the now eighth grade cohort were going to be given a technology device. And no one seems to own where that rumor came from or if it was really true, but I did not find that in the plan and there was no resource to do it. But I think we should think about that. And if we are preparing our students to be 21st century learners

142and we want them to really be able to access and we want them to narrow the technology divide, I think that that's something that we should think about moving forward with that particular population of students. So I have the wonderful opportunity to talk a little bit about the Berkeley High Bridge program Which is a different program than the middle school program in the sense that it moved from a summer enrichment class and large number of years ago about six years ago to a four-year academic skill development class and I believe that you've heard about the Berkeley High Bridge program a number of times But there are some key themes throughout the four years the students are in the high school bridge program, there's student support, monitoring, case management, and family communications. And the key piece

143about the high school bridge program as well as the middle school and AVID is those relationships. But the program really emphasizes that the areas of each grade level as the student is moving along. The target population is not the avid population, but a different population of students, those students that really need that connection in high school and that need to move on within that transition. So they are now in cohort six, so the ninth graders are the cohort six. They become part of the Bridge Program usually from eighth to ninth grade, although some are selected in 10th and 11th grade. And that first year is really about the transition. 10th grade is really beginning to look at colleges, visit colleges, do the prep classes, learn about eligibility. 11th grade is really learning the AP skills.

144On the Smarter Balanced Assessment now, they used to have to take a test to get into the CSUs. Now all they need to do is check a box and try really hard on the Smarter Balanced Assessment and they could be considered ready. or conditionally ready for college and not have to take those beginning level classes at the CSUs. In 12th grade, it's really about the college application, the personal statements. And then continuing with the students and connecting with them. So Bridge is multi-funded. It's funded not only from LCAP, but from site funds, from the city of Berkeley, and that partnership is really how they're connecting with and that key communication. There's phone calls. Students talk about being text three or four times a day from Jesse. I was in the classroom just the other day

145and they're just constantly asking about different things, how they can connect. There's other students dropping in, but it's that key relationship that's so important in the Berkeley High Bridge program. But what's next about that program is as these cohorts are now graduating and moving to college, there's more resources needed to provide that extended ongoing support. Most of the students are first generation. They're families. That's another key connection of the high school bridge program is the family connection. I think all of you have attended at least one Berkeley High Bridge graduation. They talk about that. The families are always thanking the teachers, thanking the mentors. But really, that extended support for the students, once they go on to college, they have that, they've built that relationship, and they want to continue that relationship. So the city

146of Berkeley does provide some support for the teachers, but that needed, that support to provide those ongoing resources as our cohorts move on. almost 100% of the students are attending some type of college program or career building program. Building that college mentoring program to build the Bridge High School graduates with newer cohorts. So again, when I was visiting the classroom, there was a Berkeley High Bridge graduate mentoring a Berkeley High School student. And that's so important because they become mentors or role models for the students that are involved. Another piece when we talk about the intervention program at Berkeley High is the studies. There's a survey that has been given to all of the ninth grade students and really replicating bridge or bridge-like programs and content courses in English, language arts, math to make a

147greater impact for the students so that they have a screen and they have a way of supporting that specific class. So using that screening process to pair that. And then also having scheduling. drop in during breaks, lunch, and after school. Students drop in, but really knowing that there's gonna be someone there and that that's scheduled. So those are the next steps. There's many more in the document itself and in the appendix. I'm gonna move on to the Berkeley High Intervention Counseling and Team. The high school intervention program has been in place for a number of years, but it was informal. It was an early identification process and intervention strategy that now pre-identified students that may struggle academically or socially and provide the necessary supports for them. Prior to the LCAP, it was an informal process.

148There was ideas, what can we do to provide interventions ahead of time? How can we catch the students before they... have a lower grade or before they have an incident report. And so with the LCAP funding, you'll see in the back or the appendix, you'll see a transition rubric and every eighth grade student through their counselors, the counselors complete this screening process and the intervention team looks at that screen and looks at the students that would most benefit in a ninth grade focal student program. So that high school intervention counselor funded through LCAP is really funded for that ninth grade focal student piece. There is also a 10th through 12th grade cohort for prioritized intervention that I put the acronym CPI before I realized that was another acronym. But it's supported through the on-campus intervention

149program, the specific learning community staff, and the funding for restorative. justice that's just coming in to play now at Berkeley High. So those are the two different programs at the high school. Really going into the next steps for the Berkeley High Intervention Program is really, it's working. Looking at the data, surveying the students both formally and informally, there's a need for more resources because as those ninth grade focal students move on, they're still tracked, but really having that connection. There's students continually in Jasdeep's office checking in, what's happening, really having that connectiveness, not only in ninth grade, but as they move on. A college counselor is really needed to partner and support the students in grades 9 through 12 for all the students identified through that screening process. Also something that was found and really

150was interesting to me because of the beginning of the LCAP is really revising the LCAP and the program goals to align because the students not only need the academic supports but the non-academic supports because that screening shows not only students that need academic help but health screenings. student learning center. And then really the data showing that the specific programs are needed to interrupt that pattern and this is what was shared prior to this report is really interrupting that pattern of low academic and high disciplinary incidences for African American students, specifically those students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. So what's happening? How can we interrupt that pattern? What do we need to do as far as professional development? All the recommendations that were made. So those were the next steps for the Berkeley High intervention and I'm

151going to turn it back over to Assistant Superintendent Scuderi for the last slide. So some of the considerations that we're looking at in the future as we talk about what the potential for, you know, improving programs, repurposing programs are the potential for school-wide AVID, TK through 8. The idea that we would have a distinct skill set that all kids would get the opportunity to learn and apply is very intriguing to us. Also that avid skill set factoring into the discussions around a potentially redesigned ninth grade program at BHS. Adopting a strong English language arts curriculum that embeds English language development in daily instruction. We're talking about interventions here, but, you know, as we talk about RTI, it's important to not forget the critical importance of tier one instruction and the role that that plays. the

152consideration of consolidating resources to concentrate efforts in alignment with the coordination of services plan. So when we look at some of the resources that are out there in little pieces and we've had discussions with principals and we've had discussions with the players that are actually working those systems, are there opportunities for us to maybe, you know, concentrate resources and rethink our programs in a way that we can really, really focus on a certain area with kids or specific areas with kids. And also we've heard the need to expand intervention services at BHS to serve more than not just ninth grade and actually to look at who we're serving in ninth grade too. Right now our ability to identify is outpacing our ability to serve. And so how we can reorganize resources to remedy that is

153a big consideration as we move forward. And so one of our prompts was really asking the board questions. So the two key questions that flow through all the five different areas is how do the needs of the students in the different programs inform the future allocation of resources to interrupt those academic and social patterns of failure? What does different look like? And then two is the qualitative data indicates, and you heard it throughout each one of these, that relationships play a key role in a student's academic and social success. And in talking to teachers in different interviews, how can staff continue to build those authentic relationships with their students? So those are our two key questions. So as we look at those two key questions, so for tonight as we frame our discussion around these

154questions, I want to go back to the slide that has next steps. So as we're looking at LCAP, well, we will be looking at LCAP funding and some of the programs, and these are programs that we'll be considering in terms of replicating or scaling up. I really want to look at these programs, and I'd like the board to weigh in in terms of what they've heard, what they'd like to see, or what we can do to better serve our kids. So we will open up the questions. It doesn't have to go down the line. It could be just popcorn. So board members, who would like to go first? I'll be brief. So I was fortunate enough to, with Director Sadler and Dr. Evans, attend the AVID National Conference a couple weeks ago or months ago.

155And I'm just a huge believer in AVID and have been impressed ever since Pat introduced me to AVID as a member of the Longfellow SGC. And then going to this conference and seeing... seeing the effects of true school-wide and district-wide implementation in so many schools across the country was really eye-opening and inspiring. And particularly just given its long track record and all the research behind it. But I do remember even back from just when... Pat, you were the principal at Longfellow, and I was on this. You see the conversation about the logistics at Berkeley High and how difficult it is for students to take AVID at Berkeley High. And it sounds like those logistical problems that were there three or four years ago are the exact same problems that are there now. So I just

156wanted to put my two cents in favor of the factoring in of AVID. into the redesign and the restructuring discussions that are happening at Berkeley High to really prioritize figuring out how to include AVID in that process. And the potential to have it district-wide, TK through eight, I think is also very exciting. But because we've got a really strong middle school program, to not have it just end because the kids can't do it in high school is just really frustrating. So I hope we can figure that out. One of the things that was in our packet but just because we do have people in the audience that stayed to hear about this if you could say a little bit about what the results what the outcomes have been because you talked you know like what

157are some of the data that you alluded to so we can just hear that so um Do you want me to ask or answer? Okay So first of all, what we presented tonight or in the packet is the enrollment for this year. And what was presented in the fall was the findings from last year and really looking at Abbott and Bridge specifically. And what we saw in both is the theme of that students that had a GPA or grade average in semester one really showed an increase in that grade average to semester two. What we also... see is that students that are of the screen students or students that are in the AVID Bridge rise. or the AVID or Bridge program in the middle school have a higher GPA or a higher attendance rate or

158coming to school more often when they are involved or in those programs versus those students that maybe are screened and are not in those programs. So again, it's a resource thing. We wish that every child would be or every student would be in one of the programs. But what, I mean, the data is really showing that those interventions are making a difference for the students. I just wanted to add that 100% of students graduated from Berkeley High and 80% went on to college. Yes, 80% are in college. 100% of the students applied and were accepted. There's 80% that a year later are still in college and I think this is something that I think that is something so people understand why it is that we are so high on this program. It's a program that

159we know works. And so then our challenge of the board is going to be finding the resources to make sure that every student that can benefit from this program or this type of program have those resources. And as an example of what I've been saying is the district has been putting in resources. Some programs we maybe need to take a re-look at because either it's not the right program or it might be that's not being implemented with fidelity. But we do have programs that we know that are working and so to me this is where we need to make those heavy investments. I'm going to shout that out to our parent advisory committee president who's sitting in the audience today. And I just want to thank you for this. I know that, you know, we

160are beginning to see some of these bright lights in our district but we need it to be not just lights. but an inferno that swept through our district and changed it. And so I appreciate what's happened to date and I am looking forward to having a discussion which we have these kinds of outcomes throughout the district for our black students and other students that we've been underserving. And through Friday notes or another method, I will update you after semester one is. But I just wanted to finish this. Our community needs to hear this. We need a way of pushing this out to our community because this is part of the frustration is that people don't hear about the successes. They don't hear about our initiatives to either know that, to say, well, I know about

161that initiative. It's not worth a you-know-what, or it's not happening at my school, or you-know-what, this is a great initiative. It's a great thing that the district is doing, and we need more. These are the kinds of things that we need to find a way to be able to push out into our community. Director Pell. So thank you. This is a huge amount of information. And for those of you who are here who, if you want, there's a lot of data and information in our packet. So if you haven't had a chance to look at it, for those of you watching and in the audience. Pardon me? And so I had a couple of questions. So you were saying that the first class in the high school, the first class that has been able to

162access, the first AVID class is going to be graduating. So we'll be able to look at their grades but also look at their college. their success in getting into four-year colleges and then I guess ultimately attending because I think it's interesting to me if you look at this chart on page I mean there's so many charts so much information but I'm page 16 at the top on table four I guess that's just the ninth grade cohort, is that right? Come on, Debbie, I know you have those charts memorized. The one that compares bridge screened, avid screened, yeah. Yeah, that's just the ninth grade focal students. So, I mean, that's pretty incredible that there's 98% attendance for those students. That's a pretty high attendance rate when the average non-bridge. AVID or RISE screen students is only

16394%, so that's a pretty incredible piece of data. And then the RISE students seem to do a little bit, I guess their average ASI is higher. So I don't know what the, because I know that's not one of our programs. It's just interesting to look at that chart and kind of look at, I know this is very preliminary because we don't even have the semester grades, which I could speak for my own kids' report cards. a lot of times you see a little bump towards the end of the semester. So anyway, I think that I'm looking forward to learning more about how the AVID kids do because we know Bridge is really successful and I do have questions about having a lot of different programs and kind of comparing the efficacy of different programs for

164different kids when we're deciding where to invest our money. But this is really encouraging, so thank you. Thank you. Oh, one other question I had, Pat, was the middle school bridge program. The last time that we had a presentation, we've now had two presentations, I think, on that. And the first one, it seemed like they were very different programs. It seemed like they were getting a little bit more aligned last year, or a lot more aligned. I don't know. Maybe if you could speak to that, the alignment and the kind of... Fidelity of components between the three bridge programs at our middle schools and what the plans are for so yeah that that's why we Institute the professional development and the meetings with them so that we could kind of calibrate the program and make

165sure that the same Types of activities were happening at all three of the sites we I would say at two of the three middle schools, we have really highly skilled teachers working in the bridge program. One of the schools has struggled a little bit finding staff to actually be a teacher, and we allowed a counselor to be one of the cohort kind of case managers, and actually she's been extremely effective. So I think it was good to be flexible, but I think the three programs are meeting, the teachers are sharing information. They're doing a lot of similar things like the Bridge Program at the high school where they're doing a lot of parent contacts. They have web pages. They send emails. I'm on the email list for two of the teachers, and so I get

166quite a few emails late at night just reminding the parents it's almost the end of the quarter. Make sure your kid takes their AR test or make sure your kid turns in all of their assignments. So I think we've made a lot of progress over three years. That's great. A couple of just... data interpretation question so on table four if you compare the the two first lines for the bridge screen students and the avid screen students you see that the cumulative GPA is higher for the avid students but the average D and F numbers are also higher so that would indicate to me that there is sort of a That's much broader, but there's a group. So in AVID, there are the groups that work really, really well for, and then a smaller group that

167it's not working for. And for Bridge, it's more sort of the distribution is more centered in the middle. Is that, based upon your knowledge of those programs, an accurate sort of analysis of what the data says? So first of all, it's a very small, the N is very small in these groups. So I would, this is a chart that... That one of the intervention folks had put together which I think is very interesting because it does give us a little bit more data than we had but I did I do think that I Would be curious to see in this ninth grade focal group to really look at that over time because I had the same question I think it is very true that there's certain classes where there's There's courses that the AVID students

168are taking that there's more Ds and Fs in those particular courses. And some of the BRIT students are not enrolled in those same courses. And then the other thing, but the cumulative GPA is overall higher because of that same. I mean, of the courses over. Gotcha, okay. But I would also, can I just dovetail on that? I would also say that oftentimes we've had students in the middle school AVID program who really haven't met the mark academically, but they've responded really, really well to being part of a cohort of scholarly students with teachers with really positive impact, with a positive impact on the students. And so we do something called AVID probation. And so oftentimes students are put on probation because they're not meeting the grade level GPA requirement to stay in AVID. And oftentimes

169we have erred on the side of let the students stay in. And so that could also be the reason for discrepancy with the GPA. Do you have, off the top of your head, do you have to know how many students are excused from the AVID program in a given year from one year to the next? I mean, I guess I would worry that the numbers then on what Abbott's doing is... You're only then tracking the kids who are doing well in the program and not the kids who are not doing well. So this particular chart represents the end of ninth grade and any student that was involved over that. I mean, that was tagged as an AVID student in that first year. So this is only ninth graders and it's only one year's worth of

170data. I would say that there's not that many students. I mean, there's a smaller number of students in AVID. Okay. This particular chart is last year's because we don't have a GPA for this year yet. So that's where it gets confusing on which year is which. The other data point that I think would be interesting, and I know the N's small, but if we're really going to compare Bridge to Avid to Rise, and there's a different student population based upon ASI. it's difficult to know, for example, whether the attendance rate in RISE versus AVID and Bridge is due to the difference in ASI or whether it's due to the difference in the program. And related to that is the middle school Bridge program, this is the first year it's been in place? Third year. Third

171year. First year is in eighth grade. Okay. Bridge? Yes. Okay. So the numbers, at least the GPA numbers on the Bridge program, are not particularly impressive. And when we compare that to the high school bridge program where the numbers are quite impressive, the statistics that Director Hempel mentioned are very compelling. And we are asked as a board to make difficult decisions at what to fund. I'm not going down that road yet, but... When we hear loud and clear that we are identifying students who are coming into Berkeley High, we know they need resources. We know, we can tell you that student right there has a 90 something percent chance of bad outcomes, name your outcome, right? And yet we don't have, we've not allocated the resources to do everything we can do to interrupt that

172predictability. And we're funding programs while fine that don't lead to great outcomes that Makes me think that maybe there's a better allocation of our existing resources. I Take the heart the comment What was it on page? 11 recommendations and next steps need for sufficient resources as focused students need continued support after ninth grade. And from talking to other staff members of Berkeley High, my sense is that we know these students are coming in. We know they're gonna hit this outcome. And staff does not have the resources to do much about it. Not at least some, yes, but other. And these are our most at risk students in terms of all the the outcomes we can present for school the prison pipeline all that sort of stuff so anyways this is all a long-winded way of

173just saying it's not that i don't think that bridge middle is a is a valuable program to the extent that it is But when there are other needs and other programs that are being highly successful, I do think we should at least consider the possibility of redirecting some funds. Now, maybe there are other outcomes that will change our collective minds about the impact of Middle School Bridge, but at least based upon GPA numbers alone, GPA numbers alone, which is all I looked at, it's not that compelling. I wanted to comment on the GPA itself. So just a caution. The middle school GPA is a one to four grade. It's not equal to the high school GPA, just to be. No, no, I'm comparing, sorry, just not to interrupt, just to be clear. So on page

174six, top of page six, middle school, cumulative grades, students of African-American descent, for example. Basically, if you're in Bridge or you're not in Bridge, it don't matter. It's fun, I mean, it's, Statistically, it's basically the same thing. Now, that's not the only focus of Bridge, obviously. There are other cohorts we care about. But in terms of that particular population, it's not having the impact that the high school Bridge program is having or the average Bridge program on the difference in GPA. So not to say it's a bad program. I'm not criticizing. I'm not saying it's a waste of money. I'm saying in terms of the most effective use of our funds, this does not... is not a compelling evidence to me that these funds wouldn't be better spent at the high school on those focused

175students or expanding high school bridge or expanding avid middle or take your pick because those are programs that we see much better outcomes from and we're hearing from you that we need resources to expand those programs. Josh, one of the questions I had asked Debbie as a follow-up, it wasn't clear to me if that we are talking about students that we're comparing students that are in Bridge because they were identified as being at risk and then the students that are not in Bridge because they're not at risk. And so if that's the case, then we're taking students that would have had much lower GPAs if we had not made that intervention, right, and making them the same as students that didn't need the intervention. So that's my question. Is that it? At high school, you're

176seeing a much higher GPA in bridge. But then that was screened. I believe. So my question is are we comparing apples to apples or not? Very valid point. And I'm saying if it's what you said, it's a problem. If it's what I'm not sure about, that it's really talking about students that weren't identified because they weren't at risk, we're comparing them to students at risk, then it's a different outcome. So I just, I would be, maybe in Friday notes we can clarify that so then we can... So just a clarity in all these charts, it's only students in the program. The only chart where you're looking at students not in the program is the non-bridge AVID screened students. So those are apples to apples. Those are students screened but not in the program. So that's

177apples to apples. I don't believe when you're looking at any of these, this isn't all students in the school. This is all students in the program. So top of page four. Any page. Middle school cumulative grades average as of June 2015. The line that says students of African American descent. Right. My interpretation is that students in MS Bridge have a 2.95 cumulative GPA. Middle school students who are African American with ASIs of three plus that are in Bridge have a 2.9 something GPA and that's African Americans who are not in Bridge have a 2.92 GPA. So if you're comparing... Yes, that's correct. So basically they're the same numbers. Yes, that's correct. But what's the answer to Karen's question? When it says not in middle school Bridge, are they because they weren't eligible for middle school

178Bridge because they weren't at risk? So in the case of middle school Bridge... they were most likely invited, but they're not in Middle School Bridge, in that particular data set. So you're saying that that last one is those that were eligible for Bridge, but weren't in Bridge, or were they not eligible for Bridge, so that's why they weren't in Bridge? So in that particular question, in that particular subgroup, the students of African American descent, the majority of students of African American descent were invited to participate in Middle School Bridge. Any of those other ones are all students. So what I will do in Friday notes is compare, I mean, it's hard to compare students that were not eligible because they, it's, I mean, pulling out the same student group, it's going to be hard to

179find. I thought that was one of the questions about Bridges, that we had a limited number of spots in each school in each year. And so that would mean that everybody isn't. that they are screened. So they are screened and there are students that... But you said every African American. So every African American student is screened in? So there are students that are screened. There's very few. The total group is a very small group. The total group of students in that particular case, in this subgroup. It's just a smaller group. So yes, there are students that are not invited because they have a higher GPA or there's other screening pieces and they're counted and then not a middle school bridge, but it's a very small N. So, I mean, I think this is an offline

180clarity that I can give on Friday in more specifics. I would rather do this offline. to be honest. It just will help us with our future decisions to know that. I think it's a better way to do it. But I think that Josh is getting to the ultimate question that I was trying to get at less succinctly, which is we're trying to figure out if this program, which we instituted as a part of this working group several years ago, is in fact... where we will want to invest. Not just this program, but where do we want to invest our funds? And this was a good start, but I still don't know. It's definitely a discussion we're having now and looking that over, not only in terms of expanding some of the services that we know

181are working, but possibly concentrating resources in an area like you mentioned, you know, mental health. We're hearing from principals that I just, I have a lot of almost positions out there. I think our instructional leadership would be willing to see some consolidation. So yes, all of these discussions are taking place. And Ed Services staff is going to be together on the 2nd of February and we hope to give the superintendent and the cabinet some preliminary recommendations for how to handle that. And the middle school bridge discussion is happening. And I would just be an advocate of the screening, the transition screen, because we are able to look really deeply at the students that have the variety of different pieces to be able to measure. Because you're asking about a control group, basically. Yes. As the

182president's timekeeper, I just want to note we're out of time. We're out of time, except the president has made two comments. The RISE staff are not trained in AVID, and the students, they're not. Are students doing RISE and AVID or are the students in RISE and are the staff training? So on the very last page, or page 17, we had a wonderful question about that. So there are less than five students that are in AVID and RISE, zero students in Bridge and RISE, and 17 students in the screened. OF THE SCREENED KIDS, THERE WERE 17 THAT WERE SCREENED AND IN RISE. AND ONE OF THE PLACES THAT ALSO THAT WE SEE A DROP IS IN THE SUMMERTIME. YOU KNOW, YOU HAVE OUR STUDENTS. AND SO IS THERE A REASON WHY WE DROP THE SUMMER BRIDGE

183AND, YOU KNOW, I KNOW IT'S SOMETHING THAT WHERE WE DO SEE THAT'S WHERE WE, YOU KNOW, WE LOSE SOME OF OUR STUDENTS AND THEN THEY FALL BEHIND. The summer sessions are still very much a part of the high school program. For the high school, for the ninth graders? For the ninth graders. So it would be every summer each cohort has. For the new incoming bridge students? Yes, before ninth, before tenth, before eleventh. It's not mentioned here. And that's another piece that City of Berkeley helps to fund. And then again, it's also the students that drop out of bridge and AVID. Are we following them and what happens with them too? So do we have any questions, comments? Thank you very much. I would like that information also if we could have some information if there's

184any differences between the middle schools to help me understand it as a program as a whole or it might be more of an implementation issue if for example one school is having results that other schools are not. So so just to clarify on Friday, I will be sending if possible results of a control group like students compared to the subgroups of students if that's possible a second one would be students that have is there a difference between the three middle schools and performance or those pieces and then We can do by Friday. And then I'm going to do some attendance rates, some other questions that I had already answered offline. Madam President. Can we get the, I just was wondering if it's okay with you, Madam President, if once the semester grades are in, if

185we can now just ask for that in Friday notes, that's going to be in about a month when the final grades are coming. for the semester come in so we don't lose sight of that so we can get a current. So comparative of quarter one to semester one or just semester grades? Or just the chart about the GPA at the semester. I just want to add one final thing. I know we're out of time. Just to put it out there, one of the things we really need to work on, particularly on that ninth grade transition, is the fact that Berkeley High School gets a significant chunk of kids in the ninth grade that don't come in through BUSD schools. In some years it's been a third. And so one of the things we really need

186to sort of equip. and task our intervention folks with depending on their capacity is being able to work on that because we talk about the ASI a lot, but it's really just one of the screens we're using and staff is really finding valuable what we're calling the transition rubric from middle school to high school where the middle school counselors are directly providing information to the BHS intervention team. So somehow that. type of service needs to be able to happen as kids walk in the door in ninth grade that are coming to us from other districts because they are contributing to gaps and missing these services in many cases. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. So now we're going to go back to our consent item that was pulled by Director Pell on 11.19. I

187just wanted to say that I'm participating. There's one committee on the chart, just to be accurate, the BSEP Renewal Planning Group, which is actually now meeting weekly, is, I'm on that. So Director Powell and Director Daniels. And Director Daniels, yeah. And not you. And not me. So are we? With that, I'll make a motion to adopt it. We'll make a motion. Second. Second by Director. I forgot. All in favor? All right. So now we have our second opportunity for public testimony. Do we have any cards? No? All right. Thank you very much, everyone. And move to adjourn. Adjourn. Well done. Thank you.